Archive for January, 2010

On this day in 1949, Lloyd Mangrum won the Los Angeles Open golf tournament and admitted that he wore a lucky pair of pajamas under his pants. If he hadn’t worked as an assistant to his brother before going pro the guy could have ended up working as a motorcycle accident lawyer. Every good lawyer needs a pair of lucky pajamas under his pants.

Mangrum was born in Trenton, Texas. He became a professional golfer at age fifteen, working as an assistant to his brother Ray, the head professional at Cliff-Dale Country Club in Dallas. He joined the PGA Tour in 1937 and went on to win 36 events on the Tour. He might have won more if his career had not been interrupted by service in World War II. While training for the D-Day landings, Mangrum was offered the professional’s job at the army’s Fort Meade golf course, which would have kept him out of combat, but he declined. He won two Purple Hearts and was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge. His best years on tour came after the war. He led the PGA Tour money list in 1951 and won the Vardon Trophy for the lowest scoring average on the tour in 1951 and 1953.

Mangrum’s only major championship win came at the 1946 U.S. Open, though he was runner-up in four majors and third in five more. He lost in playoffs at the 1940 and 1950 U.S. Opens. He finished in the top ten at The Masters Tournament ten consecutive years. In 1940 he shot a tournament record 64 in the opening round of The Masters, a record that stood for decades until Nick Price shot a 63 in 1986.

On this day in 1972, Howard Hughes denounced Clifford Irving and sued his publisher for claiming to have written an autobiography about Hughes.

By 1958, Howard Hughes had become a recluse who hated any kind of public scrutiny. Whenever he found out that someone was writing an unauthorized biography about him, he bought the writer off. By the 1960s, he even refused to appear in court. According to various rumors, he was either terminally ill, mentally unstable, or even dead and replaced by an impersonator.

In 1970, in Spain, Irving met with an author and old friend, Richard Suskind, and spontaneously created the scheme to write Hughes’s “autobiography.” Irving and Suskind believed that because Hughes had completely withdrawn from public life, he would never want to draw attention to himself by denouncing the book or filing a lawsuit for slander. Suskind would do most of the necessary research in news archives. Irving started by forging letters in Hughes’s own hand, imitating authentic letters he had seen displayed in Newsweek magazine.

Irving contacted his publisher, McGraw-Hill, and claimed that he had corresponded with Hughes because of his book about de Hory and that Hughes had expressed interest in letting him write his autobiography. The McGraw-Hill editors invited him to New York, where he showed them three forged letters, one of which claimed that Hughes wished to have his biography written but that he wanted the project to remain secret for the time being. The autobiography would be based on interviews Hughes was willing to do with Irving.

Howard Hughes was in the Bahamas when he spoke to reporters about the hoax. In a mixup, Irving looked into booking some jamaica vacations just in case.

On this day in 1955, after 130 home basketball wins, Georgia Tech defeated Kentucky 59-58. In a shocking turn of developments, it was the first Kentucky loss at home since January 2, 1943.

Speaking of basketball, have you played basketball on Wii Sports Resort yet? Oh. My. Gosh. If I play against the computer I do pretty decent. If I play against my kids, I lose everytime. I want to get a Wii Fit and some other stuff, but the wife has put a small delay on the wii accessories idea.

No problem. We’ll get it soon enough. Then she’ll be hooked too.

On this day in 1954, the Duoscopic TV receiver was unveiled. The TV set allowed a person or group to watch two different shows at the same time. It was a primitive, picture-in-picture, split-screen that was tested in New York City and Chicago. The set was a product of DuMont Laboratories; which owned the DuMont Television Network.

By this time everyone had a tv stand, but some wondered if they might need two in order to watch both pictures. Just kidding, we all know the tv’s stacked on top of each other.

On this day in 1961, Mr. Ed debuted on television.

From stables to breeches, Mr. Ed was an awesome show (of course I saw it in reruns).

The stars of the show are Mister Ed, an intelligent palomino American Saddlebred who could talk (“played” by gelding Bamboo Harvester and voiced by Allan Lane), and his owner, an eccentric and enormously klutzy architect named Wilbur Post (portrayed by Alan Young). Much of the program’s humor stemmed from the fact Mister Ed would speak only to Wilbur, as well as Ed’s notoriety as a troublemaker. According to the show’s producer, Arthur Lubin, Young was chosen as the lead character because he “just seemed like the sort of guy a horse would talk to.”Lubin, a friend of Mae West, scored a coup by persuading the screen icon to guest star in one episode.

Find out more about Mr. Ed at wikipedia.