DEATHS ; Notable Passings; The Thread to Pay Last Respects

I just read about this.

Canadian composer Galt MacDermot died in December, aged 89. Did a number of Broadway scores. Possibly best known (if not by name) for the medley below...

https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/galt-macdermot-montreal-born-composer-of-hair-dies-at-89

 

One of the greatest players baseball ever knew has died at the age of 83. Frank Robinson could do it all -- hit, field, run, and most important, bring a team together with the sheer force of his presence. He never played for "my team," but whenever I had the privilege of seeing him play, on TV or in person, I wished he did.



I once had a dream that Frank Robinson was taking batting practice in my office, and I could do nothing but stand respectfully until he was done. I stand respectfully now.

 

Wow, Robinson is a real hero. Hate to see him go.

 

One of 'The Greats' of the game.
Rest in Peace sir.

 

Last ever manager of the Expos, first ever of the Nationals. MVP in both leagues. Hit grand slams in consecutive innings. Only batter to ever hit a home run completely out of Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Five World Series and homered in all of them.

And that was Tuesday...

 

British actor, Albert Finney, has died aged 82.

 

This is a shame, but he seemed like a man who got the most out of life, and then some.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/british-actor-albert-finney-obit-1.5011165

 

Hear, hear. Always a favorite and Cincy made the biggest mistake ever trading him.

Sent directly from my mind to yours.

 

The world of film preservation suffered a monumental loss this week with the passing of Run Hutchinson at the age of 67. Ron was the founder and guiding light of The Vitaphone Project, a global network of collectors, technicians, and experts on the world of early-talkie films, and it was thru his unstinting efforts over the last thirty years that literally hundreds of sound-on-disc features and shorts from the 1926-31 era have been preserved, restored, and made available for viewing -- in many cases for the first time in ninety-odd years. Ron was also a relentless champion of this lost era of moviemaking, and not only presented the films in big-screen showings in and around New York but also worked with Warner Bros. in the preparation of DVD reissues of many, many films that would otherwise remain lost or buried in the back of vaults. Anyone who enjoys the films of this era owes Ron a debt of gratitude.

I never had the chance to meet him in person, but I did do some work for him some years ago, and found him in every way to be a kindred spirit in his unironic appreciation of early talkies. When I didn't get a Christmas card from him this year, I was afraid something was up, and it turns out, sadly, that there was. Ron was a young 67, and cancer took him far too soon.

 

Clive Swift was also in Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy, as our hero's old chum.

 

Airman Richard Churchill has died at the age of 99. He was the last survivor of the 76 men who escaped from Stalag Luft 111, a Nazi POW camp. Hitler personally ordered the execution of 50 of the escapees, however Richard Churchill speculated that the Nazis thought he was related to the British Prime Minister, which is why, in his view, he survived the war.

The escapades of Richard Churchill and his comrades were immortalised in the 1963 movie, The Great Escape.

 

My late uncle, Peter Berkey III, was a POW in Stalag Luft 3. He wasn't involved in the famous escape but a man from his barracks was. At night he would sneak to the British barracks area and a Brit would come over to occupy his bunk for bedcheck. He forged documents for the escapees. The real stalag was much bigger than portrayed in the movie (still one of my favorites). It held thousands of Allied airmen and was relatively humane, for a German prison camp.

 

R.I.P., Bruno Ganz.

 

George Mendonsa, the sailor in the now iconic photo known as "The Kiss/V-J Day in Times Square", has died at the age of 95.



The moment was captured when Mendonsa kissed Greta Zimmer Friedman (whom he had never met), a dental assistant in a nurse's uniform, on August 14, 1945. Friedman died in 2016 at the age of 92.

 

^^^^^
Today that would be called sexual assault.

 

There was a move to publically shame him a few years ago driven by people whose grandparents were at best babies when the picture was taken.
It must be tiring for them spending their entire lives being offended by everything in the history of the human race.

 

Amen. And countless others these days!

We are....who we were and who we will be.
And hopefully as good....
as we should be.
B

 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/sailor-kiss-world-war-two-george-mendosa-1.5023861

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/the-kiss-photo-greta-zimmer-friedman-dies-1.3757002


Mendonsa was shown kissing Greta Zimmer Friedman, a dental assistant in a nurse's uniform, on Aug. 14, 1945, known as VJ-Day, the day Japan surrendered to the Allies. People spilled into the New York City streets to celebrate the news.

Friedman said in a 2005 interview with the Veterans History Project that it wasn't her choice to be kissed.

"The guy just came over and kissed or grabbed," she told the Library of Congress.

She added, "It was just somebody really celebrating. But it wasn't a romantic event."

 

Looking at her 'body language'..I would beg to differ...

 

There is a 26-foot tall statue on the Sarasota, Florida marina named "Unconditional Surrender" modeled after the famous photograph.