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Edgar Bergen died on this day 46 years ago, aged 75. - Bergen learned how to perform ventriloquism when he was 11, and ended up getting the attention of contemporary ventriloquist Harry Lester, who would further teach him how to perfect the act. - In 1919, Bergen had his first original puppet made- Charlie McCarthy, a well-dressed puppet with the personality of a mischievous child. He would soon make appearances on the radio show The Chase and Sanborn Hour, where his performances with Charlie made people think the puppet was another person (as it was on radio, and TV had yet to become nationalized). It is here where he created his second most-notable dummy, Mortimer Snerd: - Bergen had a few notable film and TV roles- these included the live-action part of the "Mickey and the Beanstalk" segment in Disney's Fun and Fancy Free, and in 1978 he would make an endeavor into the new generation of puppetry as a guest star on The Muppet Show (his daughter Candice had previously been a guest star on the show): He also cameoed in The Muppet Movie, posthumously released in 1979 and dedicated in his memory.

Lacey Chabert is 42.

9/29/2024 60 The Waterboys - The Whole of the Moon 60 Erasure — Blue Savannah 56 Roxette - It Must Have Been Love -4 46 Erasure - Chorus -2 43 EMF - Unbelievable 35 MC Hammer - U Can’t Touch This +4

9/29/2024 90 Dean Martin — That’s Amore +1 84 Nat King Cole — Smile 63 Elvis Presley — Heartbreak Hotel 63 Elvis Presley — Hound Dog +3 58 Frank Sinatra — (Love Is) The Tender Trap 14 Nat King Cole — Pretend -4 00 Frankie Laine — Where The Winds Blow -2

Dianne Feinstein died on this day a year ago, aged 90. - Feinstein was first elected to San Francisco's Board of Supervisors in 1969, becoming the board's first female president the following year. During her tenure, she was a known target of the anticapitalist terrorist organization the New World Liberation Front, which failed to bomb her house, and shot at the windows of her beach home. And speaking of assassinations... - Feinstein became the mayor of San Francisco in 1978 after the assassination of then-mayor George Moscone (and Harvey Milk). She was known for revitalizing the city's trolley system and developing high-rise buildings, and was reportedly on Walter Mondale's shortlist for VP choices in the 1984 election. - Feinstein was the Democratic nominee for California's 1990 gubernatorial election, but lost to Pete Wilson by less than 300,000 votes. Wilson resigned from the US Senate to take his new job- and Feinstein would run in the 1992 special election to complete his term, defeating Republican incumbent John Seymour. She would be re-elected five times between 1994 and 2018. - By 2020, Feinstein began experiencing a decline in cognition, with increased calls for her to resign in 2022 after it was reported she was unable to remember things such as the names of her Senate colleagues and the meetings she attended, leading some to believe she had dementia or Alzheimer's. She was hospitalized with shingles in March of 2023 and returned to the Senate 10 weeks later. Feinstein died in office about a month after a fall, but it was unrelated to that- her final act in the Senate was the day before, with her voting to help avoid a government shutdown.

Ian McShane is 82.

Winfield Dunn dead at 97.

9/28/2024 60 The Waterboys - The Whole of the Moon 60 Erasure — Blue Savannah 57 Roxette - It Must Have Been Love 48 MC Hammer - U Can’t Touch This +4 46 EMF - Unbelievable 40 Erasure - Chorus 07 P.M. Dawn - Set Adrift on Memory Bliss -3 00 Madonna - Rescue Me (Nope!) -3

9/28/2024 83 Dean Martin — That’s Amore +1 74 Nat King Cole — Smile 65 Elvis Presley — Heartbreak Hotel 59 Elvis Presley — Hound Dog +3 46 Frank Sinatra — (Love Is) The Tender Trap 23 Frankie Laine — Where The Winds Blow 20 Nat King Cole — Pretend 12 Frankie Vaughan — The Green Door -4 10 Lou Busch — Zambesi 06 Frank Sinatra — Learnin’ The Blues -2

Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor died on this day 827 years ago, aged 31. - Henry was a son of Frederick I Barbarossa, and his father had him crowned as co-king of Germany when he was just 4 years old. He was greatly educated and developed a hobby in poetry, with one of his poems notably describing how his love for one woman was greater than his power and wealth. - In 1184, Henry nearly died in the Erfurt latrine disaster, where at least 60 nobles drowned in feces after the wooden floor above a cesspit broke due to their combined weight. Henry survived because he was seated in a part of the building that had a stone floor. - Henry was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in April of 1191, ten months after the death of his father. In 1193, duke Leopold V of Austria would turn the captured Richard I of England over to him, and Henry set a ransom of 150,000 pieces of silver; Richard was released the following year. - Henry would successfully invade Sicily in 1194 to ensure his wife Constance inherited the throne (as promised by her nephew William II of Sicily); the two would co-rule Sicily for the next three years. - Henry died of what historians believe to have been chronic malaria, and his young son Frederick II succeeded him as king in the territories he controlled.

Brigitte Bardot is 90.

60 The Waterboys - The Whole of the Moon 57 Erasure — Blue Savannah 56 Roxette - It Must Have Been Love 56 MC Hammer - U Can’t Touch This +4 49 EMF - Unbelievable 28 Erasure - Chorus 16 Madonna - Rescue Me  11 Guns N’ Roses - You Could Be Mine 11 P.M. Dawn - Set Adrift on Memory Bliss -6

9/27/2024 74 Dean Martin — That’s Amore +1 70 Nat King Cole — Smile 59 Elvis Presley — Heartbreak Hotel 52 Elvis Presley — Hound Dog +3 47 Frank Sinatra — (Love Is) The Tender Trap 31 Lou Busch — Zambesi 24 Frankie Laine — Where The Winds Blow 24 Frankie Vaughan — The Green Door 20 Nat King Cole — Pretend 14 Frank Sinatra — Learnin’ The Blues 09 Mantovani — Swedish Rhapsody -4 08 Frankie Laine — Cool Water -2

RIP Professor McGonagall. Exactly a year after Michael Gambon (Dumbledore).

Engelbert Humperdinck died on this day 103 years ago, aged 67. - Humperdinck learned to play the piano at a young age, and wrote his first original song at the age of 7, before writing a musical aged 13. His parents disapproved of his career choice, wanting him to become an architect. - Humperdinck was the first recipient of the Mendelssohn Award scholarship in 1879, and used the money to go to Italy. He met Richard Wagner in Naples, and worked with him on his final composition, Parsifal. Wagner would make him the mentor of his son, Siegfried. - In 1890, Humperdinck began work on his magnum opus- Hansel und Gretel. This originated with him writing songs for a puppet show of the fairy tale for his nieces, and spiraled into an entire opera which premiered in 1893: Humperdinck would make songs based on other Brothers Grimm tales, such as The Wolf and Seven Young Kids (1895) and Sleeping Beauty (1902). - Humperdinck had a severe stroke in 1912 which permanently paralyzed his left hand. While attending a performance of Der Freischütz in 1921, Humperdinck suffered a heart attack, and died of a second one the next day. - In 1965, singer Arnold Dorsey would take Humperdinck's name as his own stage name- and was probably who you were thinking of while you read this.

Avril Lavigne is 40.

9/26/2024 61 MC Hammer - U Can’t Touch This +4 58 The Waterboys - The Whole of the Moon 56 Roxette - It Must Have Been Love 54 Erasure — Blue Savannah 50 EMF - Unbelievable 30 Erasure - Chorus 19 Guns N’ Roses - You Could Be Mine 17 P.M. Dawn - Set Adrift on Memory Bliss -3 16 Madonna - Rescue Me  05 East Side Beat - Ride Like The Wind -3

9/26/2024 69 Dean Martin — That’s Amore +1 66 Nat King Cole — Smile 51 Elvis Presley — Heartbreak Hotel 49 Elvis Presley — Hound Dog +3 46 Frank Sinatra — (Love Is) The Tender Trap 29 Frankie Vaughan — The Green Door 28 Frankie Laine — Where The Winds Blow 25 Lou Busch — Zambesi 20 Nat King Cole — Pretend 20 Frank Sinatra — Learnin’ The Blues - 20 Winifred Atwell — Let’s Have A Party 17 Frankie Laine — Cool Water 16 Mantovani — Swedish Rhapsody -4 06 Guy Mitchell — Cloud Lucky Seven -2

Levi Strauss died on this day 122 years ago, aged 73. - Born in Germany, Strauss emigrated to the United States in 1847 with several other family members to join his brothers already there; they ran a dry goods store in New York. He would become a naturalized citizen in 1853. - In 1854, Strauss would move to San Francisco to set up his own store there; he mostly manufactured tents, and would import goods from the New York store to the other side of the country. In 1871 he began working with tailor Jacob Davis, who had came up with a way to reinforce pants with rivets and wished to mass produce this product. The two of them were granted a patent in 1873: While often credited as such, Strauss did not invent blue jeans- his business simply became the biggest blue jean supplier due to the reinforcements they added. - At the time of his death in 1902, Strauss' net worth was $30 million- over $800 million adjusted for inflation. He was a philanthropist who donated to universities and charities.

Serena Williams is 43.

9/25/2024 55 MC Hammer - U Can’t Touch This +4 54 The Waterboys - The Whole of the Moon 54 Erasure — Blue Savanna 52 EMF - Unbelievable 51 Roxette - It Must Have Been Love 26 Erasure - Chorus 25 Guns N’ Roses - You Could Be Mine 20 P.M. Dawn - Set Adrift on Memory Bliss  16 Madonna - Rescue Me  14 East Side Beat - Ride Like The Wind -3 13 Monty Python - Always Look on the Bright Side of Life 06 Oceanic — Insanity -3

9/25/2024 64 Dean Martin — That’s Amore +1 58 Nat King Cole — Smile 45 Elvis Presley — Heartbreak Hotel 44 Frank Sinatra — (Love Is) The Tender Trap 43 Elvis Presley — Hound Dog +3 35 Frankie Vaughan — The Green Door 28 Frankie Laine — Where The Winds Blow 22 Nat King Cole — Pretend 22 Frank Sinatra — Learnin’ The Blues 21 Lou Busch — Zambesi 20 Mantovani — Swedish Rhapsody 20 Winifred Atwell — Let’s Have A Party 20 Guy Mitchell — Cloud Lucky Seven 20 Frankie Laine — Cool Water 12 Al Hibbler — Unchained Melody 10 Frank Chacksfield — Terry’s Theme From ‘Limelight’ -4 06 Frankie Laine — Blowing Wild -2

Billy Carter died on this day 36 years ago, aged 51. - The fourth and youngest child of James and Lillian Carter, Billy would serve as a Marine before joining his family's peanut farming business. By 1970, he became the farm's manager, and would use the profits to buy a gas station, which he would operate it until the 1979 energy crisis. - Carter would run for the mayor of his hometown of Plains, Georgia in 1976- but lost to a local air traffic controller in a vote of 97-71 despite his older brother running and winning a much more notable election that year. - Carter was known to be an alcohol aficionado, and became the spokesman for Peanut Lolita whiskey before becoming the official sponsor of Billy Beer. His drinking would spiral out of control to the point where he peed in public places, and soon sought rehabilitation and became sober. - Carter would accept bribe money from the Libyan government in 1978 and registered as a foreign agent, resulting in a government scandal due to being the brother of the current president at the time- known as "Billygate". He would testify at a Senate hearing that he had no influence on US foreign policy. - In 1987, Carter was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died the following year. His father died from the disease in 1953, and his sisters Ruth and Gloria also died of pancreatic cancer in 1983 and 1990 respectively. On the other hand, his brother Jimmy is still around... set to turn 100 in less than a week (subject to change- I can't see the future).

Michael Douglas is 80.

9/24/2024 51 The Waterboys - The Whole of the Moon 51 Erasure— Blue Savannah 47 EMF - Unbelievable 47 Roxette - It Must Have Been Love 44 MC Hammer - U Can’t Touch This +2 32 Erasure - Chorus 27 Monty Python - Always Look on the Bright Side of Life +2 26 Guns N’ Roses - You Could Be Mine 20 P.M. Dawn - Set Adrift on Memory Bliss  17 East Side Beat - Ride Like The Wind  16 Madonna - Rescue Me  12 C+C Music Factory ft. Freedom Williams - Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now) 12 Oceanic - Insanity 06 The Prodigy - Charly -6