WHICH VICH IS WHICH?

December 9 in history:

“If Illinois isn’t the most corrupt state in the United States, it’s one hell of a competitor.”  That’s what an FBI special agent said on December 9th, 2008…the day Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested on a charge of trying to “sell” the U.S. Senate seat left vacant when Barack Obama was elected president.  Agents arrested Blagojevich on the day before his 52nd birthday.  The following month, Blagojevich was impeached for misconduct and removed from office by the Illinois legislature.  He was convicted of more than a dozen crimes, and began a 14-year prison term in March of 2012. His sentence was commuted in 2020 by President Donald Trump. Blagojevich had been a contestant on Trump’s reality-television show, “The Celebrity Apprentice”.

Blagojevich represented Chicago in the legislature and Congress.  A team called the Hustle represented Chicago in the Women’s Professional Basketball League, which played its first game on this date in 1978 in Milwaukee.  The Hustle won that inaugural game, 92-87, against the host team, the Milwaukee Does.

A Broadway-bound production of “Death of a Salesman,” about over-the-hill hustling salesman Willy Loman, played in Chicago in 1984.  It starred Dustin Hoffman as Willy, and John Malkovich of Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre as his son Biff.  Malkovich was born December 9th, 1953.  Also in 1984, Malkovich appeared in the movies “Places in the Heart” and “The Killing Fields,” and he later played himself in the comedy “Being John Malkovich.”

Malkovich portrayed Tom Wingfield in a 1987 movie version of the Tennessee Williams play “The Glass Menagerie.” A 1950 film of “Menagerie” featured a young Kirk Douglas as the other male character in the story, Jim O’Connor, the “Gentleman Caller.” Douglas was born Issur Danielovitch on December 9, 1916. His famous movie characters include Vincent Van Gogh in “Lust for Life,” and the title role in “Spartacus.”

LEGENDS OF SPORTS

February 22nd in history:

The very first Daytona 500 auto race was run February 22nd, 1959 at Daytona Beach, Florida. The first champ of Daytona was 44-year-old Lee Petty.

Another legendary sports event happened on this date in 1980: the “Miracle on Ice,” in which the U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team surprised the world by beating the Soviets, 4-3, in the semi-final round of the Winter Games. The Americans went on to win the gold against Finland in the games at Lake Placid, New York.

Actor Kirk Douglas once served as royalty at a winter carnival in Lake Placid.  During the week of the Miracle on Ice game, Douglas was hosting “Saturday Night Live” in New York, featuring NBC announcer Don Pardo, born on this day in 1918. Until his death in 2014, Pardo had been the SNL announcer for most of the show’s run. Pardo also worked on the original versions of “Jeopardy” and “The Price is Right,” and broke the news of President Kennedy’s assassination on WNBC-TV in New York in 1963.

David Letterman was getting ready to move his talk show from NBC to CBS when it was announced on February 22nd, 1993 that CBS had bought the Ed Sullivan Theater, to keep Letterman’s show in New York.

On this day in 1964, the Beatles returned to England after their famous first visit to the U.S., which included three straight appearances on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”  The band had pre-recorded its performance which would be seen on “Sullivan” the next night.