Thursday, August 30, 2018

Huey Long 150, Ted Williams 100, R Crumb 75 -- August 30, 2018


Ted Williams, perhaps the greatest hitter in major league history, was born 100 years ago today, on 30-August-1918.  As a Marine, he flew fighters in both World War II and the Korean War.

I was surprised to learn that Ted Williams shared a birthday with the Kingfish, Huey Long and cartoonist/musician R Crumb.

Harris & Ewing, Library of Congress, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons
I read All the King's Men before I read a biography of Louisiana politician Huey Long.  He did a lot for common folks, but seemed dangerous.  His assassination smelled fishy.

www.listal.com
I first learned about underground comix when I took a summer acting class at Lone Mountain College.  I found a counterculture  newspaper, perhaps the Berkeley Barb or a short-lived San Francisco paper, and saw Gilbert Shelton's "I Set My Chickens Free."  I went on to find out about other artists like Spain Rodrigues and R Crumb.  Crumb's comix seemed to have a lot of misogyny, but they could be very funny.  Later I learned about his music.

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