1954 The Penguins’ classic “Earth Angel” (#1 R&B, #8 pop), was released.
1956 The world premiere of the rhythm and blues film Rockin’ the Blues was held at New York’s Apollo Theater. The cast included the Harptones, the Wanderers, the Hurricanes, and the Miller Sisters. The flick was followed by a stage show featuring the Wheels of “My Heart’s Desire” fame.
1960 The Shirelles appeared on American Bandstand performing what had become their first R&B charter nine days earlier, “Tonight’s the Night.”
1963 Brook Benton began the British tour billed as the Greatest Record Show of 1963 along with Dion, Trini Lopez, Timi Yuro, and Lesley Gore. The tour’s first stop was the Finsbury Park Astoria in London.
1964 Sonny Boy Williamson, Willie Dixon, Howlin’ Wolf, and Lightin’ Hopkins began a five-day concert series at the second American Negro Blues Festival at Fairfield Halls in Surrey, England.
1991 Aaron Neville peaked at #8 pop with a cover of the Main Ingredient’s 1972 hit “Everybody Plays the Fool.” The original reached #3.
1991 The Temptations performed at the Alabama State Fair in Birmingham, AL.
1992 Donna Summer performed at the Palais Omnisports in Paris, France.
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Disarmament Week
24-30 October
The annual observance of Disarmament Week,
which begins on the anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, was
called for in the Final Document of the General Assembly 1978 special session on
disarmament (resolution S-10/2). States were invited to highlight the
danger of the arms race, propagate the need for its cessation and increase
public understanding of the urgent tasks of disarmament.
In 1995, the Assembly invited governments, as well as NGOs, to continue
taking an active part in Disarmament Week (resolution 50/72 B of 12 December). It invited the
Secretary-General to continue using the United Nations information entities as
widely as possible to promote a better understanding among the public of
disarmament problems and the aims of the Week.
The additional
resources links on this page are provided for information purposes only and do
not necessarily represent an endorsement by the United Nations.
The United Nations’ (UN) World Development Information Day falls on October 24 each year.
Local names
Name
Language
World Development Information Day
English
Día Mundial de Información sobre el Desarrollo
Spanish
World Development Information Day 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
World Development Information Day 2011
Monday, October 24, 2011
See list of observations below.
The United Nations’ (UN) World Development Information Day is annually held on October 24 to draw attention of worldwide public opinion to development problems and the need to strengthen international cooperation to solve them.
Many events are organized to focus attention on the work that the UN does, particularly with regard to problems of trade and development. Many of these are aimed at journalists working for a range of media, including television, radio, newspapers, magazines and Internet sites. Direct campaigns may also be organized in some areas. These may use advertisements in newspapers and on radio and television as well as posters in public places.
In South Africa, indabas (gatherings of community representatives with expertise in a particular area) are often held. Representatives of local, national and international bodies are invited to share, discuss and consolidate their ideas around a particular development issue of local or national importance.
Public life
World Development Information Day is a global observance and not a public holiday.
Background
On May 17, 1972, the UN Conference on Trade and Development proposed measures for the information dissemination and the mobilization of public opinion relative to trade and development problems. These became known as resolution 3038 (XXVII), which was passed by the UN General Assembly on December 19, 1972.
This resolution called for introducing World Development Information Day to help draw the attention of people worldwide to development problems. A further aim of the event is to explain to the general public why it is necessary to strengthen international cooperation to find ways to solve these problems. The assembly also decided that the day should coincide with United Nations Day to stress the central role of development in the UN’s work. World Development Information Day was first held on October 24, 1973, and has been held on this date each year since then.
In recent years, many events have interpreted the title of the day slightly differently. These have concentrated on the role that modern information technologies, such as Internet and mobile telephones can play in alerting people and finding solutions to problems of trade and development. One of the specific aims of World Development Information Day was to inform and motivate young people and this change may help to further this aim.
United Nations Day marks the anniversary of the United Nations Charter coming into force in 1945 and celebrates the work of this organization. United Nations Day annually falls on October 24.
Local names
Name
Language
United Nations Day
English
Día de las Naciones Unidas
Spanish
United Nations Day 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
United Nations Day 2011
Monday, October 24, 2011
See list of observations below.
On October 24, 1945, the United Nations (UN) came into force when the five permanent members of the security council ratified the charter that had been drawn up earlier that year. These members were: France, the Republic of China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Since 1948, the event’s anniversary has been known as United Nations Day. It is an occasion to highlight, celebrate and reflect on the work of the United Nations and its family of specialized agencies.
On and around October 24, many activities are organized by all parts of the UN, particularly in the main offices in New York, the Hague (Netherlands), Geneva (Switzerland), Vienna (Austria) and Nairobi (Kenya). These include: concerts; flying the UN flag on important buildings; debates on the relevance of the work of the UN in modern times; and proclamations by state heads and other leaders.
Public life
United Nations Day is a global observance and not a public holiday.
Background
The foundations for a “League of Nations” were laid in the Treaty of Versailles, which was one of the treaties to formally end World War I. The treaty was signed in Versailles, France, on June 28, 1919. The league aimed to encourage disarmament, prevent outbreaks of war, encourage negotiations and diplomatic measures to settle international disputes and to improve the quality of life around the world. However, the outbreak of World War II suggested that the League of Nations needed to take on a different form.
The ideas around the United Nations were developed in the last years of World War II, particularly during the UN Conference on International Organization in San Francisco, the United States, beginning on April 25, 1945. The UN was officially created when a UN charter was ratified on October 24 that year.
United Nations Day was first observed on October 24, 1948. The UN recommended that United Nations Day should be a public holiday in member states since 1971. There were also calls for United Nations Day to be an international public holiday to bring attention to the work, role and achievements of the UN and its family of specialized agencies. These have been spectacular, particularly in the fields of human rights, support in areas of famine, eradication of disease, promotion of health and settlement of refugees.
The UN does not work alone but together with many specialized agencies, including: the World Health Organization (WHO); the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO); the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF); International Labour Organization (ILO); United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); and United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).
Symbols
The UN emblem consists of a projection of the globe centered on the North Pole. It depicts all continents except Antarctica and four concentric circles representing degrees of latitude. The projection is surrounded by images of olive branches, representing peace. The emblem is often blue, although it is printed in white on a blue background on the UN flag.
1963 Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, Memphis Slim, and Willie Dixon all performed at the American Negro Blues Festival at Fairfield Halls in Surrey, England.
1966 The Jimi Hendrix Experience made their performance debut in Paris at the Paris Olympia as the opening act for French superstar, Johnny Hallyday.
1967 Chuck Berry, the Platters, the Five Satins, and many others performed at Richard Nader’s First Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival Concert at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The concert ushered in the oldies revival still going on to this day.
1969 Ella Fitzgerald’s album Ella scratched the Top 200 (#196), becoming her last of eleven chart LPs. She went on to become the most honored jazz vocalist in history.
1969 The Jackson 5 performed on ABC-TV’s Hollywood Palace. It was their national debut. The Jackson’s father/manager, Joe Jackson, was a former guitar player for the Falcons of “You’re So Fine” fame.
1986 For the first time in rock history, three females held the top three positions on the Hot 100 singles charts. They were Janet Jackson (“When I Think of You”), Tina Turner (“Typical Male”), and Cyndi Lauper (“True Colors”).
1998 Stop the presses! B.B. King’s famous guitar “Lucille” disappeared as the tour bus it was riding on got lost on its way to a performance in Kingston, New York. The mayor ordered the police to comb the city until the bus, seen leaving town, was headed off and given a full escort to the theater.
Barbara Billingsley, who as June Cleaver on the television series “Leave It to Beaver” personified a Hollywood postwar family ideal of the ever-sweet, ever-helpful suburban stay-at-home mom, died Saturday. She was 94.
October 17, 2010
Associated Press
The Cleaver family on “Leave it to Beaver,” from left: Tony Dow as Wally, Barbara Billingsley as June, Hugh Beaumont as Ward and Jerry Mathers as the Beaver.
October 17, 2010
Damian Dovarganes/Associated Press
Jerry Mathers, Barbara Billingsley and Tony Dow at a a celebration of the 50th anniversary of “Leave It to Beaver” in 2007.
A family spokeswoman, Judy Twersky, said that Ms. Billingsley had died of polymyalgia, a rheumatoid disease, at her home in Santa Monica, Calif.
From 1957 to 1963 and in decades of reruns, the glamorous June, who wore pearls and high heels at home, could be counted on to help her husband, Ward (Hugh Beaumont), get their son Theodore, better known as Beaver (Jerry Mathers), and his older brother, Wally (Tony Dow), out of countless minor jams, whether an alligator in the basement or a horse in the garage.
Baking a steady supply of cookies, she would use motherly intuition to sound the alarm about incipient trouble (“Ward, I’m worried about the Beaver”) in their immaculate, airy house in the fictional town of Mayfield. (The house appeared to have no master bedroom, just a big door from which Ward and June occasionally emerged, tying their bathrobes.)
Along with the mothers played by Harriet Nelson (“The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet”), Donna Reed (“The Donna Reed Show”) and others, Ms. Billingsley’s role became a cultural standard, one that may have been too good to be true but produced fan mail and nostalgia for decades afterward, from the same generation whose counterculture derided the see-no-evil suburbia June’s character represented.
Ms. Billingsley, who had nothing but respect for June Cleaver, was a former model and career actress who was married three times and spent part of her career as a working single mother (of two boys, at that).
Yes, she acknowledged 40 years later, her role was a picture-perfect reflection of the times. “We were the ideal parents because that’s the way he saw it,” she said, describing the show as the world seen through the eyes of a child. (The pearls, incidentally, covered up a hollow in her neck. In the beginning of the show, she wore flats; the heels were an attempt to stay taller than the growing boys.)
June was no pushover; she could be quite a disciplinarian, Ms. Billingsley said in 2000, during an interview for the Archive of American Television. “She was a loving, happy stay-at-home mom, which I think is great,” she said. Ms. Billingsley also said that women who stay at home to care for their children may find in it the best — and most important — job they’ll ever have.
Ms. Billingsley was born Barbara Lillian Combes on Dec. 22, 1915, in Los Angeles, where she attended George Washington High School. She left Los Angeles Junior College to appear in a short-lived Broadway play, “Straw Hat.” She took her stage name from her first husband, Glenn Billingsley, a nephew of Sherman Billingsley, the proprietor of the Stork Club in Manhattan. They had two sons.
After working as a fashion model, Ms. Billingsley returned to Los Angeles, acted in local plays and was signed to a contract by MGM. In the 1940s and early ’50s, her film roles were mostly small. Her movies included “The Bad and the Beautiful” (1952) with Kirk Douglas, “Shadow on the Wall” (1950) with Ann Sothern and “Three Guys Named Mike” (1951) with Jane Wyman.
Of “Leave It to Beaver,” she later recalled, “It was a happy experience for me, and very timely,” adding that there was never a fight on the set in seven years. After the show ended its run in 1963, Ms. Billingsley, by then typecast, saw few acting roles. .
Her show business career was revived in 1980 by the movie comedy “Airplane!” in which she played a sweet passenger who communicates in “jive” with two streetwise black passengers — an ironic comment on her previous incarnation as America’s white-bread mom. After that there were guest appearances on “Mork & Mindy,” “Amazing Stories,” “The Love Boat,” “Murphy Brown,” “Roseanne” and other shows. From 1984 to 1991 Ms. Billingsley was the voice of the nanny in the animated series “Jim Henson’s Muppet Babies.”
In 1983 she reprised her role as June in a television movie, “Still the Beaver,” which reunited her with many members of the original “Leave It to Beaver” cast (but not Hugh Beaumont, who died in 1982). That led to a cable series known first by that name and then as “The New Leave It to Beaver.” She also had a small part in the 1997 feature-film version of “Leave It to Beaver.”
After her divorce from Glenn Billingsley in 1947, Ms. Billingsley married Roy Kellino. After Mr. Kellino’s death in 1956, she married Dr. William Mortenson, a general practitioner. They remained married until Dr. Mortenson died in 1981. “Our family after I married Dr. Bill turned out to be like” the Cleavers, she said in 2000.
She is survived by her two sons, Drew Billingsley of Granada Hills, Calif., and Glenn Billingsley Jr. of Phillips Ranch, Calif.
Many of Ms. Billingsley’s later guest appearances were either as June Cleaver or in roles that made wry references to her. But she said she turned down scripts if they made fun of June.
“She’s been too good to me to play anything like that,” she said
Barbara Billingsley as June Cleaver. Always cool, calm, collected and ever loving with Ward, and the boys—Wally, and the Beav.
June, always so stylish in her dresses and high heels, as she went about her housework wearing those pearls, where she never worked up a sweat washing, cooking, ironing, vacuuming, and dusting.
June, who years later in the movie Airplane would put a jive turkey in his place for spurning her help.
Barbara Billingsley, an actress who was loved and admired by millions of devoted fans. An actress who gave so many memories and joys to those would always picture her as the epitome of elan and sophistication.
Belva Plain, who became a best-selling author at age 59 and whose multigenerational family sagas of Jewish-American life won a loyal readership in the millions, died on Tuesday at her home in Short Hills, N.J. She was 95.
October 18, 2010
New Jersey Star-Ledger
Belva Plain
Her daughter, Barbara Plain, confirmed her death.
Ms. Plain’s first novel, “Evergreen,” published in 1978, spent 41 weeks on The New York Times best-seller list in hardcover and another 20 in paperback, and was made into a miniseries by NBC in 1985.
It follows the story of Anna, a feisty, red-headed Jewish immigrant girl from Poland in turn-of-the-century New York, whose family saga continues through several decades and three more books.
Strong-willed women, many of them Jewish and red-haired as well, appear again and again in Ms. Plain’s fiction. Some of her novels use historical settings — “Crescent City,” published in 1984, was set in the Jewish community of Civil War-era New Orleans. Other books tell stories about contemporary issues, sometimes inspired by the headlines — divorce (“Promises”), adoption (“Blessings”), child sexual abuse (“The Carousel”) or babies accidentally switched at birth (“Daybreak”). All of them are full of passion, but there is very little explicit sex.
According to her publisher, more than 25 million copies of her books are in print, and they have been translated into 22 languages. Twenty of the novels have appeared on The New York Times best-seller list.
The critics were often unimpressed by Ms. Plain’s novels. In a review of “Harvest” in 1990, Webster Schott described Ms. Plain’s books as “easy, consoling works of generous spirit, fat with plot and sentiment, thin in nearly every other way and almost invisible in character development.”
Such opinions did not stop millions from enjoying her books; readers’ comments on Amazon often speak of them as “big, cozy reads.” That would have pleased Ms. Plain, who saw nothing wrong with being entertaining. “Even the real geniuses, like Dostoyevsky, entertained,” she said.
Belva Plain’s own story sounds like something out of a novel. When “Evergreen” became an overnight success, she was a 59-year-old grandmother. But she was not a novice; Ms. Plain had been writing for much of her life.
Born Belva Offenberg in New York City on Oct. 9, 1915, she was a third-generation American of German Jewish descent; her father was a builder. She attended the Fieldston School and graduated from Barnard College in 1939 with a degree in history. She sold her first story to Cosmopolitan (“a very different magazine then,” she told an interviewer) when she was 25, and contributed several dozen to various women’s magazines until she had three children in rapid succession. (“I couldn’t have done both,” she explained.)
She married Dr. Irving Plain, an ophthalmologist, in 1941; he died in 1982. Besides her daughter Barbara, Ms. Plain is survived by another daughter, Nancy Goldfeder; a son, John; six grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
Well groomed and conservatively dressed, she looked far younger than her age. Ladylike was an adjective often applied both to Ms. Plain and her books. (“Oh,” she once responded to an interviewer who had used it, “I certainly hope you don’t mean prissy.”) For her own reading, Ms. Plain preferred the classics, and spoke of rereading the novels of Anthony Trollope. Many modern novels, she thought, were “sleazy trash.”
Ms. Plain’s work routine involved making detailed outlines of her books and then writing them in longhand in spiral notebooks, rarely using a typewriter and never a computer. A disciplined worker, she wrote for several hours in the morning five days a week. She produced a 500- or 600-page novel every year or so.
Ms. Plain was fiercely private about her life, but she spoke about her novels, often to Jewish groups.
“I got sick of reading the same old story, told by Jewish writers, of the same old stereotypes — the possessive mothers, the worn-out fathers, all the rest of the neurotic rebellious unhappy self-hating tribe,” she said. “I wanted to write a different novel about Jews — and a truer one.”
Joan Sutherland, one of the most acclaimed sopranos of the 20th century, a singer of such power and range that she was crowned “La Stupenda,” died on Sunday at her home in Switzerland, near Montreux. She was 83.
B
October 12, 2010
Bob Ganley/NBC
Joan Sutherland in 1965 in her signature role Lucia di Lammermoor. She helped restore bel canto operas to popularity. More Photos »
Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti in “I Puritani” at the Metropolitan Opera in 1976. More Photos »
Her death was confirmed by her close friend the mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne.
It was Italy’s notoriously picky critics who dubbed the Australian-born Ms. Sutherland the Stupendous One after her Italian debut, in Venice in 1960. And for 40 years the name endured with opera lovers around the world. Her 1961 debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, in Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor,” generated so much excitement that standees began lining up at 7:30 that morning. Her singing of the Mad Scene drew a thunderous 12-minute ovation.
Ms. Sutherland’s singing was founded on astonishing technique. Her voice was evenly produced throughout an enormous range, from a low G to effortless flights above high C. She could spin lyrical phrases with elegant legato, subtle colorings and expressive nuances. Her sound was warm, vibrant and resonant, without any forcing. Indeed, her voice was so naturally large that at the start of her career Ms. Sutherland seemed destined to become a Wagnerian dramatic soprano.
Following her first professional performances, in 1948, during a decade of steady growth and intensive training, Ms. Sutherland developed incomparable facility for fast runs, elaborate roulades and impeccable trills. She did not compromise the passagework, as many do, by glossing over scurrying runs, but sang almost every note fully.
Her abilities led Richard Bonynge, the Sydney-born conductor and vocal coach whom she married in 1954, to persuade her early on to explore the early-19th-century Italian opera of the bel canto school. She became a major force in its revitalization.
Bel canto (which translates as “beautiful song” or “beautiful singing”) denotes an approach to singing exemplified by evenness through the range and great agility. The term also refers to the early-19th-century Italian operas steeped in bel canto style. Outside of Italy, the repertory had languished for decades when Maria Callas appeared in the early 1950s and demonstrated that operas like “Lucia di Lammermoor” and Bellini’s “Norma” were not just showcases for coloratura virtuosity but musically elegant and dramatically gripping works as well.
Even as a young man, Mr. Bonynge had uncommon knowledge of bel canto repertory and style. Ms. Sutherland and Mr. Bonynge, who is four years younger than she, met in Sydney at a youth concert and became casual friends. They were reacquainted later in London, where Ms. Sutherland settled with her mother in 1951 to attend the Royal College of Music. There Mr. Bonynge became the major influence on her development.
Ms. Sutherland used to say she thought of herself and her husband as a duo and that she didn’t talk of her career, “but of ours.”
In a 1961 profile in The New York Times Magazine she said she initially had “a big rather wild voice” that was not heavy enough for Wagner, although she did not realize this until she heard “Wagner sung as it should be.”
“Richard had decided — long before I agreed with him — that I was a coloratura,” she said.
“We fought like cats and dogs over it,” she said, adding, “It took Richard three years to convince me.”
In her repertory choices Ms. Sutherland ranged widely during the 1950s, singing lighter lyric Mozart roles like the Countess in “Le Nozze di Figaro” and heavier Verdi roles like Amelia in “Un Ballo in Maschera.” Even then, astute listeners realized that she was en route to becoming something extraordinary.
In a glowing and perceptive review of her performance as Desdemona in Verdi’s “Otello” at Covent Garden in London in late 1957, the critic Andrew Porter, writing in The Financial Times, commended her for not “sacrificing purity to power.” This is “not her way,” Mr. Porter wrote, “and five years on we shall bless her for her not endeavoring now to be ‘exciting’ but, instead, lyrical and beautiful.”
She became an international sensation after her career-defining performance in the title role of “Lucia di Lammermoor” at Covent Garden — its first presentation there since 1925 — which opened on Feb. 17, 1959. The production was directed by Franco Zeffirelli and conducted by the Italian maestro Tullio Serafin, a longtime Callas colleague, who elicited from the 32-year-old soprano a vocally resplendent and dramatically affecting portrayal of the trusting, unstable young bride of Lammermoor.
Mr. Porter, reviewing the performance in The Financial Times, wrote that the brilliance of Ms. Sutherland’s singing was to be expected by this point. The surprise, he explained, was the new dramatic presence she brought to bear.
“The traces of self-consciousness, of awkwardness on the stage, had disappeared; and at the same time she sang more freely, more powerfully, more intensely — and also more bewitchingly — than ever before.”
This triumph was followed in 1960 by landmark portrayals in neglected bel canto operas by Bellini: Elvira in “I Puritani” at the Glyndebourne Festival (the first presentation in England since 1887) and “La Sonnambula” at Covent Garden (the company’s first production in half a century).
Ms. Sutherland’s American debut came in November 1960 in the title role of Handel’s “Alcina” at the Dallas Opera, the first American production of this now-popular work. Her distinguished Decca recording of “Lucia di Lammermoor,” with an exceptional cast conducted by John Pritchard, was released in 1961, the year of her enormously anticipated Metropolitan Opera debut in that same work, on Nov. 26.
At Ms. Sutherland’s first appearance, before she had sung a note, there was an enthusiastic ovation. Following the first half of Lucia’s Mad Scene in the final act, which culminated in a glorious high E-flat, the ovation lasted almost 5 minutes. When she finished the scene and her crazed, dying Lucia collapsed to the stage floor, the ovation lasted 12 minutes.
Reviewing the performance in The New York Times, Harold C. Schonberg wrote that other sopranos might have more power or a sweeter tone, but “there is none around who has the combination of technique, vocal security, clarity and finesse that Miss Sutherland can summon.”
Even for some admirers, though, there were limitations to her artistry. Her diction was often indistinct. After receiving steady criticism for this shortcoming, Ms. Sutherland worked to correct it, and sang with crisper enunciation in the 1970s.
She was also sometimes criticized for delivering dramatically bland performances. At 5-foot-9, she was a large woman, with long arms and large hands, and a long, wide face. As her renown increased, she insisted that designers create costumes for her that compensated for her figure, which, as she admitted self-deprecatingly in countless interviews, was somewhat flat in the bust but wide in the rib cage. Certain dresses could make her look like “a large column walking about the stage,” she wrote in “The Autobiography of Joan Sutherland: A Prima Donna’s Progress” (1997).
Paradoxically, Mr. Bonynge contributed to the sometimes dramatically uninvolved quality of her performances. By the mid-1960s he was her conductor of choice, often part of the deal when she signed a contract. Trained as a pianist and vocal coach, he essentially taught himself conducting. Even after extended experience, he was not the maestro opera fans turned to for arresting performances of Verdi’s “Traviata.” But he thoroughly understood the bel canto style and was attuned to every component of his wife’s voice.
Yet if urging her to be sensible added to her longevity, it sometimes resulted in her playing it safe. Other conductors prodded Ms. Sutherland to sing with greater intensity: for example, Georg Solti, in an acclaimed 1967 recording of Verdi’s Requiem with the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna State Opera Chorus, and Zubin Mehta, who enticed Ms. Sutherland into recording the title role in Puccini’s “Turandot,” which she never sang onstage, for a 1972 recording. Both of these projects featured the tenor Luciano Pavarotti, who would become an ideal partner for Ms. Sutherland in the bel canto repertory. Ms. Sutherland’s fiery Turandot suggests she had dramatic abilities that were never tapped.
Joan Alston Sutherland was born on Nov. 7, 1926, in Sydney, where the family lived in a modest house overlooking the harbor. The family garden and the rich array of wildflowers on the hillside near the beach inspired her lifelong love of gardening.
Her mother, Muriel Sutherland, was a fine mezzo-soprano who had studied with Mathilde Marchesi, the teacher of the Australian soprano Nellie Melba. Though too shy for the stage, Ms. Sutherland’s mother did vocal exercises every day and was her daughter’s principal teacher throughout her adolescence.
Ms. Sutherland’s father, William, a Scottish-born tailor, had been married before. His first wife died during the influenza epidemic after World War I, leaving him with three daughters and a son. Ms. Sutherland was the only child of his second marriage. He died on the day of Ms. Sutherland’s sixth birthday. He had just given her a new bathing suit and she wanted to try it out. Though feeling unwell, he climbed down to the beach with her and, upon returning, collapsed in his wife’s arms. Joan, along with her youngest half-sister and their mother, moved into the home of an aunt and uncle, who had sufficient room and a big garden in the Sydney suburb of Woollahra.
It was Italy’s notoriously picky critics who dubbed the Australian-born Ms. Sutherland the Stupendous One after her Italian debut, in Venice in 1960. And for 40 years the name endured with opera lovers around the world. Her 1961 debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, in Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor,” generated so much excitement that standees began lining up at 7:30 that morning. Her singing of the Mad Scene drew a thunderous 12-minute ovation.
Ms. Sutherland’s singing was founded on astonishing technique. Her voice was evenly produced throughout an enormous range, from a low G to effortless flights above high C. She could spin lyrical phrases with elegant legato, subtle colorings and expressive nuances. Her sound was warm, vibrant and resonant, without any forcing. Indeed, her voice was so naturally large that at the start of her career Ms. Sutherland seemed destined to become a Wagnerian dramatic soprano.
Following her first professional performances, in 1948, during a decade of steady growth and intensive training, Ms. Sutherland developed incomparable facility for fast runs, elaborate roulades and impeccable trills. She did not compromise the passagework, as many do, by glossing over scurrying runs, but sang almost every note fully.
Her abilities led Richard Bonynge, the Sydney-born conductor and vocal coach whom she married in 1954, to persuade her early on to explore the early-19th-century Italian opera of the bel canto school. She became a major force in its revitalization.
Bel canto (which translates as “beautiful song” or “beautiful singing”) denotes an approach to singing exemplified by evenness through the range and great agility. The term also refers to the early-19th-century Italian operas steeped in bel canto style. Outside of Italy, the repertory had languished for decades when Maria Callas appeared in the early 1950s and demonstrated that operas like “Lucia di Lammermoor” and Bellini’s “Norma” were not just showcases for coloratura virtuosity but musically elegant and dramatically gripping works as well.
Even as a young man, Mr. Bonynge had uncommon knowledge of bel canto repertory and style. Ms. Sutherland and Mr. Bonynge, who is four years younger than she, met in Sydney at a youth concert and became casual friends. They were reacquainted later in London, where Ms. Sutherland settled with her mother in 1951 to attend the Royal College of Music. There Mr. Bonynge became the major influence on her development.
Ms. Sutherland used to say she thought of herself and her husband as a duo and that she didn’t talk of her career, “but of ours.”
In a 1961 profile in The New York Times Magazine she said she initially had “a big rather wild voice” that was not heavy enough for Wagner, although she did not realize this until she heard “Wagner sung as it should be.”
“Richard had decided — long before I agreed with him — that I was a coloratura,” she said.
“We fought like cats and dogs over it,” she said, adding, “It took Richard three years to convince me.”
In her repertory choices Ms. Sutherland ranged widely during the 1950s, singing lighter lyric Mozart roles like the Countess in “Le Nozze di Figaro” and heavier Verdi roles like Amelia in “Un Ballo in Maschera.” Even then, astute listeners realized that she was en route to becoming something extraordinary.
In a glowing and perceptive review of her performance as Desdemona in Verdi’s “Otello” at Covent Garden in London in late 1957, the critic Andrew Porter, writing in The Financial Times, commended her for not “sacrificing purity to power.” This is “not her way,” Mr. Porter wrote, “and five years on we shall bless her for her not endeavoring now to be ‘exciting’ but, instead, lyrical and beautiful.”
She became an international sensation after her career-defining performance in the title role of “Lucia di Lammermoor” at Covent Garden — its first presentation there since 1925 — which opened on Feb. 17, 1959. The production was directed by Franco Zeffirelli and conducted by the Italian maestro Tullio Serafin, a longtime Callas colleague, who elicited from the 32-year-old soprano a vocally resplendent and dramatically affecting portrayal of the trusting, unstable young bride of Lammermoor.
Mr. Porter, reviewing the performance in The Financial Times, wrote that the brilliance of Ms. Sutherland’s singing was to be expected by this point. The surprise, he explained, was the new dramatic presence she brought to bear.
“The traces of self-consciousness, of awkwardness on the stage, had disappeared; and at the same time she sang more freely, more powerfully, more intensely — and also more bewitchingly — than ever before.”
gifts, she pegged her as a mezzo-soprano. At 16, facing the reality of having to support herself, Ms. Sutherland completed a secretarial course and took office jobs, while keeping up her vocal studies. She began lessons in Sydney with Aida Dickens, who convinced her that she was a soprano, very likely a dramatic soprano. Ms. Sutherland began singing oratorios and radio broadcasts and made a notable debut in 1947 as Purcell’s Dido in Sydney.
In 1951, with prize money from winning a prestigious vocal competition, she and her mother moved to London, where Ms. Sutherland enrolled at the opera school of the Royal College of Music. The next year, after three previous unsuccessful auditions, she was accepted into the Royal Opera at Covent Garden and made her debut as the First Lady in Mozart’s “Zauberflöte.”
In the company’s landmark 1952 production of Bellini’s “Norma,” starring Maria Callas, Ms. Sutherland sang the small role of Clotilde, Norma’s confidante. “Now look after your voice,” Callas advised her at the time, adding, “We’re going to hear great things of you.”
“I lusted to sing Norma after being in those performances with Callas,” Ms. Sutherland said in a 1998 New York Times interview. “But I knew that I could not sing it the way she did. It was 10 years before I sang the role. During that time I studied it, sang bits of it, and worked with Richard. But I had to evolve my own way to sing it, and I would have wrecked my voice to ribbons had I tried to sing it like her.”
In 1955 she created the lead role of Jenifer in Michael Tippett’s “Midsummer Marriage.”
During this period Ms. Sutherland gave birth to her only child, Adam, who survives her, along with two grandchildren and Mr. Bonynge, her husband of 56 years.
Immediately after her breakthrough performances as Lucia in 1959, Ms. Sutherland underwent sinus surgery to correct persistent problems with nasal passages that were chronically prone to becoming clogged. Though it was a risky operation for a singer, it was deemed successful.
In the early 1960s, using a home in southern Switzerland as a base, Ms. Sutherland made the rounds, singing in international opera houses and forming a close association with the Met, where she ultimately sang 223 performances. These included an acclaimed new production of “Norma” in 1970 with Ms. Horne in her Met debut, singing Adalgisa; Mr. Bonynge conducted. There was also a hugely popular 1972 production of Donizetti’s “Fille du Régiment,” with Pavarotti singing the role of Tonio.
Though never a compelling actress, Ms. Sutherland exuded vocal charisma, a good substitute for dramatic intensity. In the comic role of Marie in “La Fille du Régiment,” she conveyed endearingly awkward girlishness as the orphaned tomboy raised by an army regiment, proudly marching in place in her uniform while tossing off the vocal flourishes.
Ms. Sutherland was plain-spoken and down to earth, someone who enjoyed needlepoint and playing with her grandchildren. Though she knew who she was, she was quick to poke fun at her prima donna persona.
“I love all those demented old dames of the old operas,” she said in a 1961 Times profile. “All right, so they’re loony. The music’s wonderful.”
Queen Elizabeth II made Ms. Sutherland a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1978. Her bluntness sometimes caused her trouble. In 1994, addressing a luncheon organized by a group in favor of retaining the monarchy in Australia, she complained of having to be interviewed by a foreign-born clerk when applying to renew her passport, “a Chinese or an Indian — I’m not particularly racist — but find it ludicrous, when I’ve had a passport for 40 years.” Her remarks were widely reported, and she later apologized.
In retirement she mostly lived quietly at home but was persuaded to sit on juries of vocal competitions and, less often, to present master classes. In 2004 she received a Kennedy Center Honor for outstanding achievement throughout her career. In 2008, while gardening at her home in Switzerland, she fell and broke both legs, which led to a lengthy hospital stay.
Other sopranos may have been more musically probing and dramatically vivid. But few were such glorious vocalists. After hearing her New York debut in “Beatrice di Tenda” at Town Hall, the renowned Brazilian soprano Bidú Sayão, herself beloved for the sheer beauty of her voice, said, “If there is perfection in singing, this is it.”
GENERAL JOHNSON, SINGER AND WRITER OF HIT R&B SONGS
By PETER KEEPNEWS
Published: October 15, 2010
General Johnson, who provided the distinctive lead vocal for the Chairmen of the Board’s 1970 Top 10 hit, “Give Me Just a Little More Time,” and went on to become a successful rhythm-and-blues songwriter, died Wednesday in suburban Atlanta. He was 69 and lived in East Point, Ga.
October 16, 2010
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
General Johnson, about 1970.
His death was announced on the group’s official Web site, chairmenoftheboard.com. The cause was complications of lung cancer, his family said.
Mr. Johnson, whose first name really was General, was best known as a singer but won a Grammy in 1971 for his composition “Patches,” a Top 10 hit for Clarence Carter. He also wrote hits for the Honey Cone (“Want Ads,” “Stick-Up”) and Freda Payne (“Bring the Boys Home”).
He first reached the pop charts in 1961 as the lead singer of the Showmen, whose song “It Will Stand,” which he wrote, was a defiant ode to the power of rock ’n’ roll:
Some folks don’t understand it
That’s why they don’t demand it
They’re out tryin’ to ruin
Forgive them for they know not what they’re doin’.
He moved to Detroit in 1969 to become a member of the Chairmen of the Board, a group being formed by the songwriters and producers Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland, who had recently left Motown to form their own label, Invictus.
The group’s first single, “Give Me Just a Little More Time,” reached No. 3 on the Billboard singles chart, largely on the strength of Mr. Johnson’s plaintive, boisterous vocal. But after a few more hits, the group broke up.
Mr. Johnson had limited success as a solo artist, and the Chairmen of the Board eventually reunited and found an enthusiastic audience in the South, especially in beachfront communities in North Carolina, where the upbeat brand of rhythm and blues for which the group is known is commonly referred to as beach music.
General Norman Johnson was born in Norfolk, Va., on May 23, 1941, and began singing in church as a young boy. He is survived by his wife of 48 years, Julia; two sons, Norman and Antonio; a daughter, Sonya Johnson Payne; his sister, Barbara Lathers; and five grandchildren.
Simon MacCorkindale, the dashing British actor who turned heads in the star-studded 1978 film “Death on the Nile” and went on to play villains and charming Englishmen on numerous television shows in Britain and the United States, died on Thursday in London. He was 58.
16, 2010
aramount Pictures, via Everett Collection
Simon MacCorkindale and Lois Chiles in “Death on the Nile” (1978), with stars including Bette Davis, second from right.
The cause was cancer, the BBC reported.
With a dramatic brow, boyish good looks, slick hair combed to one side and an upper-crust British dialect, Mr. MacCorkindale found early success on the London stage after roles in college and regional productions. He made his West End debut in 1974 in a production of “Pygmalion” that starred Diana Rigg and Alec McCowen, which led to several television roles in Britain, including Lucius in the popular mini-series “I, Claudius.”
But his big break came at age 25 when he was cast in “Death on the Nile,” a big-budget screen adaptation of Agatha Christie’s novel, in which he played the trophy husband of the heiress, played by Lois Chiles, who is murdered aboard a Nile River cruiser. His co-stars included Peter Ustinov, Maggie Smith and Bette Davis.
Following that success, Mr. MacCorkindale moved to the United States in 1980 but refused to fake an American accent to land more roles. He was cast in the title role in the NBC drama “Manimal,” playing a doctor who could change himself into various animals to help the police solve crimes. It lasted only eight episodes in the fall of 1983.
He later had a recurring role as the conniving lawyer to Jane Wyman’s equally conniving Angela Channing in the prime-time CBS soap opera “Falcon Crest.” He also appeared on “Dynasty,” “Hart to Hart” and “The Dukes of Hazzard,” on which he played the snobby British cousin to the country bumpkin Duke brothers.
His biggest TV role, however, was in the British hospital drama “Casualty,” from 2002 until he left the show in 2009 because of his cancer. His film career was less consistent: “Jaws 3-D” and “The Sword and the Sorcerer” were among his only commercially successful movies.
He often returned to the theater as actor and director. Most recently he took over the role of Captain von Trapp in the West End revival of “The Sound of Music” in 2008.
Married from 1976 to 1981 to the actress Fiona Fullerton, he is survived by his second wife, the British actress Susan George, whom he married in 1984. Information on other survivors was not available.
Born Feb. 12, 1952, in Ely, England, the son of a rigid Royal Air Force captain father who sent his young son to the prestigious boarding school Haileybury and Imperial Service College, Mr. MacCorkindale rebelled against his military future to become an actor. Years later, while filming “The Quatermass Conclusion,” the young Mr. MacCorkindale introduced his father to his distinguished co-star John Mills.
“Dad said, ‘I’m actually sitting here with someone who has a perfectly normal life,’ ” Mr. MacCorkindale recalled in a 2008 interview. “ ‘I guess it’s perfectly possible for my son to not end up on skid row.’ ”
1909 William Randolph “Cozy” Cole, one of the premier jazz drummers of the ’30s and ’40s, was born today. Though he performed with the bands of Jonah Jones, Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Benny Carter, and Benny Goodman, Cole is best remembered not for jazz but for his rock ‘n’ roll instrumental hit “Topsy Part 2,” which reached #1 R&B and #3 pop for six weeks. He performed in the film Make Mine Music with Benny Goodman, and, in fact, “Topsy” had been a hit for Goodman in 1938 (#14 pop).
1953 The Orioles charted with “In the Mission of St. Augustine,” reaching #7 R&B while becoming the last of eleven hits.
1964 Martha & the Vandellas’ scintillating “Dancing in the Streets” hit #2 pop. The song was written by producer Mickey Stevenson and Marvin Gaye and was originally turned down by Motown artist Mary Wells.
1970 The Jackson 5 reached #1 pop (five weeks) and R&B (six weeks) with “I’ll Be There.” It was their fourth chart topper in a row.
1992 Ike Turner, Lou Rawls, Chaka Khan, Bobby Womack, Earth, Wind & Fire, Al Green, and Bill Withers performed at two concerts in Redondo Beach, CA, as benefits for the family of the deceased former Temptations member Eddie Kendricks.
Here is an update on the case of the two Scott sisters accused of an armed robbery that occurred in MIssissippi in 1994. I previously posted on their case here.
I agree with Mr. Herbert, concerning Gov. Barbour’s actions: Why pass the buck to the Mississippi State Board of Parole? Why not handle this issue himself, as he was the one whom the supporters of the Scott sisters directed their demands.
His delay in pardoning the two sisters most definitely guarantees that not one, but both of the sisters will die in prison if their case is not dealt with soon, especially when the governor’s record has shown where he has pardoned offenders who have murdered wives or ex-girlfriends—murderers who have worked on the governor’s mansion.
Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi has to decide whether to show mercy to two sisters, Jamie and Gladys Scott, who are each serving double consecutive life sentences in state prison for a robbery in which no one was injured and only $11 was taken.
Damon Winter/The New York Times
Bob Herbert
This should be an easy call for a law-and-order governor who has, nevertheless, displayed a willingness to set free individuals convicted of far more serious crimes. Mr. Barbour has already pardoned four killers and suspended the life sentence of a fifth.
The Scott sisters have been in prison for 16 years. Jamie, now 38, is seriously ill. Both of her kidneys have failed. Keeping the two of them locked up any longer is unconscionable, grotesquely inhumane.
The sisters were accused of luring two men to a spot outside the rural town of Forest, Miss., in 1993, where the men were robbed by three teenagers, one of whom had a shotgun. The Scott sisters knew the teens. The evidence of the sisters’ involvement has always been ambiguous, at best. The teenagers pleaded guilty to the crime, served two years in prison and were released. All were obliged by the authorities, as part of their plea deals, to implicate the sisters.
No explanation has ever emerged as to why Jamie and Gladys Scott were treated so severely.
In contrast, Governor Barbour has been quite willing to hand get-out-of-jail-free cards to men who unquestionably committed shockingly brutal crimes. The Jackson Free Press, an alternative weekly, and Slate Magazine have catalogued these interventions by Mr. Barbour. Some Mississippi observers have characterized the governor’s moves as acts of mercy; others have called them dangerous abuses of executive power.
The Mississippi Department of Corrections confirmed Governor Barbour’s role in the five cases, noting that the specific orders were signed July 16, 2008:
• Bobby Hays Clark was pardoned by the governor. He was serving a long sentence for manslaughter and aggravated assault, having shot and killed a former girlfriend and badly beaten her boyfriend.
• Michael David Graham had his life sentence for murder suspended by Governor Barbour. Graham had stalked his ex-wife, Adrienne Klasky, for years before shooting her to death as she waited for a traffic light in downtown Pascagoula.
• Clarence Jones was pardoned by the governor. He had murdered his former girlfriend in 1992, stabbing her 22 times. He had already had his life sentence suspended by a previous governor, Ronnie Musgrove.
• Paul Joseph Warnock was pardoned by Governor Barbour. He was serving life for the murder of his girlfriend in 1989. According to Slate, Warnock shot his girlfriend in the back of the head while she was sleeping.
• William James Kimble was pardoned by Governor Barbour. He was serving life for the murder and robbery of an elderly man in 1991.
Radley Balko, in an article for Slate, noted that none of the five men were given relief because of concerns that they had been unfairly treated by the criminal justice system. There were no questions about their guilt or the fairness of the proceedings against them. But they did have one thing in common. All, as Mr. Balko pointed out, had been enrolled in a special prison program “that had them doing odd jobs around the Mississippi governor’s mansion.”
The idea that those men could be freed from prison and allowed to pursue whatever kind of lives they might wish while the Scott sisters are kept locked up, presumably for the rest of their lives, is beyond disturbing.
Supporters of the Scott sisters, including their attorney, Chokwe Lumumba, and Ben Jealous of the N.A.A.C.P., have asked Governor Barbour to intervene, to use his executive power to free the women from prison.
A spokeswoman for the governor told me he has referred the matter to the state’s parole board. Under Mississippi law, the governor does not have to follow the recommendation of the board. He is free to act on his own. With Jamie Scott seriously ill (her sister and others have offered to donate a kidney for a transplant), the governor should move with dispatch.
The women’s mother, Evelyn Rasco, told The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Miss.: “I wish they would just hurry up and let them out. I hope that is where it is leading to. That would be the only justified thing to do.”
An affidavit submitted to the governor on behalf of the Scott sisters says: “Jamie and Gladys Scott respectfully pray that they each be granted a pardon or clemency of their sentences on the grounds that their sentences were too severe and they have been incarcerated for too long. If not released, Jamie Scott will probably die in prison.”
As they are both serving double life sentences, a refusal by the governor to intervene will most likely mean that both will die in prison.
The United Nations’ (UN) International Day for the Eradication of Poverty is annually observed on October 17 to promote awareness of the need to eradicate poverty worldwide.
Local names
Name
Language
International Day for the Eradication of Poverty
English
Día Internacional para la Erradicación de la Pobreza
Spanish
International Day for the Eradication of Poverty 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
International Day for the Eradication of Poverty 2011
Monday, October 17, 2011
List of dates for other years follows below.
The United Nations’ (UN) International Day for the Eradication of Poverty is observed on October 17 each year since 1993. It promotes people’s awareness of the need to eradicate poverty and destitution worldwide, particularly in developing countries.
Various non-government organizations and community charities support the Day for the Eradication of Poverty by actively calling for country leaders and governments to make the fight against poverty a central part of foreign policy. Other activities may include signing “Call to action” petitions, organizing concerts and cultural events, and holding interfaith gatherings that may include a moment of silence.
Public life
The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty is a global observance and not a public holiday.
Background
The observance of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty can be traced back to October 17, 1987. On that date, more than 100,000 people gathered in Paris, France, to honor the victims of extreme poverty, violence and hunger. Since that moment, individuals and organizations worldwide observed October 17 as a day to renew their commitment in collaborating towards eradicating poverty. In December, 1992, the UN General Assembly officially declared October 17 as the date for the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (resolution 47/196 of December 22, 1992).
In December 1995, the UN General Assembly proclaimed the First United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (1997–2006), following the Copenhagen Social Summit. At the Millennium Summit in 2000, world leaders committed themselves to cutting by half the number of people living in extreme poverty by the year 2015.
Symbols
The United Nations Postal Administration previously issued six commemorative stamps and a souvenir card on the theme “We Can End Poverty”. These stamps and the souvenir card featured drawings or paintings of people, particularly children, working together in the fight against poverty. Many of these images used strong colors and contrasts. These stamps resulted from an art competition where six designs were selected from more than 12,000 children from 124 countries.
Note: Although the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty was first officially celebrated by the UN in 1993, many people around the world celebrated the day annually on October 17 since 1987.
1951 Little Richard made his recordings for RCA Camden in Atlanta. The songs from this and a 1952 session, “Get Rich Quick” and “Every our,” weren’t released until 1956.
1957 The Chantels recorded their now legendary hit “Maybe” (#2 R&B, #15 pop) in a New York studio that was actually a refurbished church.
1962 Mary Wells and the Supremes began a two-month tour in Washington, DC, along with a slew of other Motown acts, including the Miracles, Little Stevie Wonder, and Marvin Gaye.
1986 Chuck Berry celebrated his sixtieth birthday (two days early) by participating in an all-star concert in St. Louis that was filmed as part of the film Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll. Performers included Keith Richards, Julian Lennon, Robert Cray, Linda Ronstadt, and Eric Clapton.
1988 A benefit concert featuring Joan Armatrading called Smile Jamaica was held in London at the Dominion Theater for the victims of a hurricane in the Caribbean.
1990 Bo Diddley appeared on opening night of Guitar Legends, a concert series that was part of Expo ’92 in Seville, Spain. Bo was originally with a band called the Langley Avenue Jive Cats in Chicago and learned to play violin before he mastered the guitar.
1993 Aretha Franklin sang America’s national anthem at the Skydome in Toronto before the first game of the World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Toronto Blue Jays.
Slide Show 
Ann
BEAUTIFUL, ALSO, ARE THE SOULS OF MY BLACK SISTERS 