I've done a few features over the last couple of years about the rightful ownership of rock and roll group names. The Drifters, Platters and even the Beach Boys are just some of the group names that have been contested. Then you have the legal battle over ownership of estates of the dearly departed. Jimi Hendrix, Abbott and Costello, the Marx Brothers come to mind. Just yesterday the stage name of one of our better singers of the 60s won the right to perform under that name...
Jay Black, former lead singer of Jay and the Americans won a legal battle over name usage despite the lawyers who suggested the name be auctioned off to help pay his creditors the $500,000 he owes for his former gambling addiction. "I'm thrilled to have my name back. I did a show in Westbury and we had to say, 'Jay's Back'. It was rough". If you're wondering about the rights to "Jay and the Americans", original band member Sandy Yaguda owns that since buying the rights to the name with his son and plans to perform under it with former members Howard Kerschenbaum and Marty Coopersmith. "We have a new Jay. It's our third Jay. This has nothing to do with Jay Black. We are Jay and the Americans"...
Sorry Sandy, but the best Jay was the guy who won his stage name back yesterday. Knowing Jay, he would have gladly given up his real name, David Blatt, before he would give up his stage name. A happy ending in this chapter of the "Name Game" comes to a close...
Timeline Memories...
- [1842] The New York Philharmonic opens with a concert at the Apollo Rooms on lower Broadway with a highbrow crowd of 600 applauding politely (some with one hand)...
- [1941] Japan attacks Pearl Harbor which puts us into WWII. Some 2,400 Americans are killed, 200 wounded. Much of our Pacific fleet is destroyed along with more than 200 planes. President Roosevelt calls it "a day of infamy" (Tom Brokaw will speak at today's ceremony at Pearl Harbor in Oahu)...
- [1963] Instant replay is born during CBS-TV coverage of the Army-Navy game as Lindsay Nelson announces: "this is not live ladies and gentlemen. Army did not score again" (curious viewers wonder where in the world Lindsay got his jacket)...
- [1964] Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys stops touring with the group after suffering a nervous breakdown on a flight from L.A. to Houston (Brian was sensational in concert at the Beacon Theater a couple of weeks ago)...
- [1966] Nancy Sinatra joins her daddy, Frank on the CBS-TV special, "Frank Sinatra: A Man & His Music Part II"...
- [1972] Apollo 17 is launched on the final mission to the moon...
- [1987] Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev sets foot on American soil for the 1st time, arriving for a summit meeting with President Reagan...
- [1993] Colin Ferguson murders 6 and injures 19 others on the 5:33 Hicksville Local on the LIRR. Ferguson is currently re papering the wall in his Attica jail cell, something he will do for the next - oh - 200 years or so...
- [2002] Iraq denies it had weapons of mass destruction in a declaration to the U.N. (oops!)...
"The Best Part of Breaking' Up": 1968] Eric Burdon announces the break-up of the Animals (starting Dec. 23rd) after a concert to pursue acting interests (he fails with that but had a nice little career with War)...
Wedding Bells: 1990] Ted Turner and Jane Fonda announce their engagement...
[To ensure accuracy of dates and content, multiple reference sources are used in each timeline]...Commentary...
This item is too good to pass up: An 81-year old woman has been charged with trying to extort $2 million from Hall of Fame QB Bart Starr. Ruby Y. Young mailed a letter to the 72-year old Packers great, alleging a romantic encounter with him in 1960 (as in 1960). Starr denies knowing the woman, according to a criminal complaint affidavit filed against Young in Birmingham (AL). When she finished her letter to Starr, she proceeded to do the Time Warp again...
"Happy Birthday...happy birthday":
Mervin Phillips (30), Terrell Owens (33), Larry Bird (50), Johnny Bench (59), Gerry Cheevers (66), Ellen Burstyn (74) and Eli Wallach (91)...
Timeline Countdown: 8 days until Chanukah, 18 days until Christmas, 24 days until 2007, 30 days until the NFL playoffs, 32 days until BCS Championship game and 59 days until Super Bowl XLI...
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