Mooresville "Lovely" on Ed Sullivan Show: This Date in History

[nycfan]

Elvis, My Mother, And Me

“The news of Elvis’s death spread around the neighborhood. It was as if my mother’s sobbing set off some kind of Bat signal, and you could hear wails of anguish coming from housewives all down the block.”

ihavethatonvinyl.com

The Alabama judge mentioned in that headline, Frank Johnson, did not get the FBI job for health reasons, so William Webster was eventually confirmed instead. But Johnson was subsequently appointed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals (which split into the 11th circuit in 1981) a few years later.

 

[nycfan]

I recall it was a Tuesday afternoon, my mom was making dinner, I was setting the table and my dad walks in from work. He usually said hello and went straight to change but he walks in the kitchen and says to my mom, who was chopping onions, did she hear that Elvis died?

She paused a beat or two (she was always bad at getting jokes and worse at telling them) and then, a bit exasperated sounding, said “what’s the punchline?”

My dad said no, he died. Elvis is dead.

My mom returned to preparing the food. She had tears streaming down her cheek. I said are you ok and she said it’s just the strong onions, go tell my brothers to clean up for dinner. Even at that age, I understood she needed some space for a minute. Normally I was to stick close in the kitchen while dinner was being made.

 

[donbosco]

The Queen of Soul also died (2018) on this day.

 

[nycfan]

 

[nycfan]

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[donbosco]

#OTD in 1957 16-year-old Dorothy Brown of Iredell County (Mooresville) appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show.




Aug 20, 1957, page 13 - The Virginian-Pilot at Newspapers.com - Newspapers.com

Quite a story about the fascination with what was identified as Hillbilly Culture -- Iredell isn't in the Appalachians but is close enough. Poverty was also on the minds of Americans in those days and recognized as a national problem. Brown was quickly associated with a spin-off "L'il Abner' Comics figure named "Long Sam" -- a young backwoods beauty whose Ma worked to keep off the boys who flocked around her -- If you know "L'il Abner" then you know...if you don't then you need a deep dive.

What became of her? Read on below.

Read on about Dorothy here: Society of North Carolina Archivists - Dorothy Brown and being “Long Sam”

And a bit more here: Long Sam and Nature Girl: 2 of 2 – Library of American Comics