Life imitates Art but barely...
The movie came out just 12 days before the worst accident in the history of the U.S. nuclear power industry. "The China Syndrome", a movie about a nuclear meltdown was released March 16, 1979 and at 4 a.m. on March 28th, 1979, a pressure valve in the Unit-2 reactor at Three Mile Island failed to close, flooding cooling but quite contaminated water into adjoining buildings and the core began to dangerously overheat...
"The China Syndrome" starring Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon and producer Michael Douglas, would be nominated for several Academy Awards. It was a well produced, well acted and critically acclaimed movie but it was a movie. Three Mile Island was real and on March 28th art and reality collided head-on...
The concern was great and prompted a visit by President Jimmy Carter on April 1st to inspect the plant. Within days of the incident more than 100,000 fled surrounding towns to escape danger. The reactor would eventually cool as hydrogen was bled from the system and with little or no likelihood of an explosion, life would return to normal. At the height of the crisis, plant workers were exposed to unhealthy levels of radiation but no one outside Three Mile Island had their health adversely affected...
Three Mile Island resumed operation in 1985 and cleanup continued until 1990 but the plant was too damaged to be usable again. In the almost 3 decades since Three Mile Island not a single new nuclear power plant has been ordered in the U.S...
More March 28 Memories...
1797] Nathaniel Briggs of New Hampshire patents a washing machine...
1885] The Salvation Army is officially organized in the U.S...
1922] Bradley A. Fiske patents a microfilm reading device...
1941] Novelist and critic Virginia Woolf drowns herself near her home in England at the age of 59...
1958] Eddie Cochran records "Summertime Blues"...
1963] Sonny Werblin announces that the New York Titans were changing their name to the New York Jets...
1964] The Beatles break Elvis Presley's 7-year record for most hits on the Billboard charts at the same time. In 1956 Elvis had 9 songs on the Hot 100 but on March 28, 1964 the Beatles scored with 10 until April 11 when they would have 14 positions on the charts, an all-time record...
1966] Gary Lewis records "Green Grass"...
1967] Van Morrison records "Brown Eyed Girl" (which has been played 28,522,000,000 times this week)...
1967] Raymond Burr stars in the TV movie "Ironside" which will be turned into a series...
1968] "(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay" goes to #1 three months after Otis Redding's death...
1969] Dwight D. Eisenhower, our 34th President, dies in Washington, D.C. at 78...
1970] Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's "Woodstock" is released...
1971] The Temptations are #1 with "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)"...
1974] A streaker runs onto the set of "The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson" (but Ed McMahon is quickly subdued by an NBC page)...
1979] Eric Clapton marries George Harrison-ex Patti "Layla" Boyd as he starts the 1st leg of a tour in Tucson, Arizona...
1979] A meltdown starts at Three Mile Island (see feature story)...
1986] More than 6,000 radio stations play "We are the World" simultaneously (kinda) at 10:15 a.m...
1986] Falco is #1 with "Rock Me Amadeus" (if Edie Falco married Falco she would be Edie Falco Falco)...
1987] Maria von Trapp, whose life inspired the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "The Sound of Music" dies in Morrisville, VT at the age of 82...
1992] Christian Laettner of Duke hits a 17-foot jumper just before the buzzer, giving the Blue Devils a dramatic 104-103 win over Kentucky to win the NCAA East Regional title. 9 days later Duke becomes the 1st team in 19 years to repeat as national champions with a victory over Michigan...
1995] The bubble bursts for Lyle Lovett as Lyle and Julia Roberts announce their separation (they had been married for 21 months but who's counting Lyle ? Lyle ?)...
[To ensure accuracy of dates and content, multiple reference sources are used in the timeline]...
Happy Birthday To...
1941] Charlie McCoy (see my commentary)...
1944] Ken ("White Shadow") Howard...
1944] Former Nets and NBA star Rick Barry...
1948] Dianne Wiest...
1955] Reba McEntire...
1970] Vince Vaughn...
Commentary...
One of my oldest friends in the radio and record business is Charlie McCoy who celebrates his 65th birthday today. Charlie and I go back to my early radio days in Florida. The friendship continued when I became morning man at WKDA in Nashville when Charlie made it a lot easier for this Brooklyn boy to feel comfortable in "good ole boy" Music City. Charlie was well on his way at the time to becoming one of Nashville's most valued and respected musicians. Charlie's harp playing is so legendary the harmonica he plays should say "McCoy" instead of Hohner. Charlie continues to be active, often performing abroad as he gets set for another tour this spring. To give you an idea of how successful his harmonica playing is, here is just a partial list of the hits he's played on: "The Boxer", "Candy Man", "Blue Bayou", "Take This Job and Shove It", "Delta Dawn", "The Streak". Charlie is also an artist who's had his own hits and has the awards to prove it ( a Grammy in 1973 for "The Real McCoy" LP, "Instrumentalist of the Year" CMA award, 1972-1973 and has won the Academy of Country Music "Instrumentalist of the Year", 1977, '78, '79, '80, '81, '83, '88)...
Charlie has an excellent website that is worth checking out: www.charliemccoy.com
Happy Birthday Charlie and keep that harp going...
(Today is the 87th day of 2006 with 278 days remaining in the year and we're just 5 days away from opening day)...
