Tina Turner Tribute

During a random check of Twitter on Wednesday, May 24th, I learned the sad news that musical icon Tina Turner had died at the age of 83. She was said to have passed away from an illness, which I assume was either a recurrence of cancer or her kidney disease for which she'd had an organ transplant. As a longtime fan, I create this blog post as my small tribute to her memory.

November 26, 1938: Tina Turner is born. Kurt Loder writes in I, Tina: My Life Story by Tina Turner and Kurt Loder, “The woman who would one day be Tina Turner was born Anna Mae Bullock at the tail end of another age. By 1939, tensions in the world, long building, were yielding to turmoil...

“Such events still seemed safely remote to most Americans, however, and the U.S. remained politically neutral amid the bad news from abroad. There were, after all, more effervescent diversions. This was the year Garbo laughed in Ninotchka, the year of Gone With the Wind and Gunga Din, of Buck Rogers, The Wizard of Oz, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame...On the AM dial, Americans contented themselves with Kate Smith’s ‘God Bless America,’ and hummed just as happily through ‘Over the Rainbow’ or ‘In the Mood’ (it was Glen Miller’s big year) or perhaps ‘South of the Border,’ the latest hit by Gene Autry, the ‘Yodeling Cowboy’ of the silver screen.” 

In short, Tina Turner was born squarely in the Jazz Age, grew up alongside rock n’ roll, and became its queen. 

“These days, I'm very much a child when it comes to my birthday. I get excited as November 26th approaches because I look forward to being with Erwin [her husband] and receiving greetings from all over the world. I love reading the cards, which I display throughout the house. I love picking out the cake from my favorite bakery in Kusnaut. There's nothing I love more than a birthday party, even if it's a small dinner with close friends. One thing I've learned is that the older you get, the more important it is to include young people in the festivities, because everything gets a little bit louder and light-hearted when they're at the table.

“I cherish these celebrations, probably because it wasn't always that way. There were no cakes when I was growing up, no candles, no presents.” - Tina Turner, Tina...That's My Life

January 1, 1970: Tina Turner appears on the cover of German music magazine Bravo.

January 8, 1971: Ike & Tina Turner release their single “Proud Mary,” written by John Fogarty. Its highest-charting position will be #4 on the Billboard Hot 100, which it reaches on March 27th. The B-side, “Funkier Than a Mosquito’s Tweeter,” was written by Tina’s sister Alline Bullock (December 1, 1936 – September 4, 2010) and later covered by Nina Simone. 

March 29, 1978: Ike and Tina Turner’s divorce is finalized.

January 2, 1984: Tina Turner releases her cover of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” as a single.

March 10, 1984: Tina Turner’s single “Let’s Stay Together” hits #1 on the Billboard Club Play chart.

August 28, 1986: Tina Turner gets a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

January 16, 1988: On Lin-Manuel Miranda’s 8th birthday, George Harrison has the #1 song in the U.S., “Got My Mind Set On You.” The same day, Tina Turner sets a concert attendance record when crowd of 180,000 shows up to her show in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

August 1, 1993, South Bend: I went to the Forum and saw What’s Love Got to Do With It, starring Angela Bassett as Tina Turner. While a good movie, it was also hard to watch because of the violence.

December 28, 1993: My mother, brother, and I went to Chicago with our family friends Stephanie and Mark. We went mainly for after-Christmas discount shopping at Marshall Field’s, but we also had lunch at the Hard Rock Café. I ate a turkey burger at the table near Tina Turner’s leather miniskirt from her “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” music video and Andy Taylor of Duran Duran’s guitar.

March 5, 1994, South Bend: I went, all by myself, to the bookshop at North Village Mall. I bought two books: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which I’ll eventually have to read for American Literature class, and I, Tina: My Life Story by Tina Turner and Kurt Loder.

Monday, October 10, 1994, South Bend: After school I picked up Mom from work. She and I went to a college fair at the Century Center. Then she took me to McDonald’s for supper. The restaurant had a cardboard cutout of Tina Turner, and four guys in kilts were there. 

November 3, 1994, South Bend: After school and supper I went to the Main Library and checked out a book and the Ike and Tina Turner CD with the Ikettes song "I'm Blue (The Gong-Gong Song)." It’s the song Salt-N-Pepa is sampling in “Shoop.”

March 1, 1995: After school I went to Tracks and treated myself to the Tina Turner boxed set, Tina Turner: The Collected Recordings Sixties to Nineties (Capitol Records). It comes with a book with tons of pictures, including the covers of most of her records, old and new, plus some quotes and a little info. 

The first CD is the most interesting; it’s all Ike & Tina Turner songs. I had some of them on CD or on tape (copied from library CDs), but six songs were new to me. The second CD has some duets, covers, B-sides, etc. The really good stuff includes the version of “Acid Queen” from the Tommy soundtrack, the cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love,” and the cover of Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love.” The third CD has a lot of material from Private Dancer, plus “The Best” and “Steamy Windows.” 

December 2, 1995, St. Mary’s: I read Jon Pareles’s review on Melissa Etheridge’s album Your Little Secret in today’s newspaper. He described Etheridge as being influenced by Tina Turner. Now, this guy knows what’s he’s talking about.

December 6, 1995, St. Mary’s: In between classes, my mother came to the dorm and gave me candy for St. Nicholas Day. After classes, some of the other girls from my floor and I watched The Year Without a Santa Claus. After that I watched a bit of the Billboard Music Awards and saw Tina Turner singing her James Bond theme song, “Goldeneye.”

Sunday, March 10, 1996, South Bend: I woke up and read the paper. It said Tina Turner would be starring in Hanes ads this fall. My mom said she also has a new album coming out.

December 7, 1996, St. Mary’s: I saw a tape of last night’s pay-per-view Tina Turner concert, Tina Turner’s Wildest Dreams. She did “Proud Mary,” “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” and a few others from the concert I saw on TV a few winter breaks ago, plus her new songs, including “Goldeneye” and “Missing You.” And she did “River Deep, Mountain High;” that was pretty cool.

Saturday, February 22, 1997, St. Mary’s: My family took me to Yesterday’s, a restaurant in Granger. We had a good time. I ate Asian plum chicken and got a slice of key lime pie to go. Later I could be found watching Tina Turner on Saturday Night Live.

March 10, 1997: After dinner, my mom, brother, and I went to Barnes and Noble, where Mom bought me The American Women’s Almanac by Louise Bernikow. This book is fascinating. It has a picture of Janis Joplin and Tina Turner singing together.

March 27, 2021: Tina, a documentary about Tina Turner, premieres on HBO Max.

May your memory be a blessing, queen.

May 18, 1927: The Bath School Disaster

Trigger warning for murder, child death, and terrorism.

As on May the 4th, the following is an episode of Jennifer Matarese's Disaster Area podcast to correspond with the anniversary of a historical disaster. 

On May 18, 1927, local school board treasurer Andrew Kehoe (you may remember him from this book) rigs explosives inside the Bath Township, Michigan elementary school to explode. He murders his wife and sets his house and barn on fire. Kehoe also fills his automobile with nails and explosives, detonating it and killing himself and sending shrapnel flying. The local mail carrier loses a leg when the vehicle explodes and later dies from his injuries.

A plaque commemorating the Bath School disaster, located in Memorial Park, Bath, MI. Image owner: kennethaw88. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

As a result of the school explosion and detonation of the vehicle, 38 children and a total of five adult victims are killed. The exact reason for Kehoe’s rampage is unknown, but he may have been upset about losing a local election and his wife’s increasingly poor health.

Here is the episode:

And now, because I happen to be in between day jobs at the moment, please enjoy the following affiliate audiobook link.

25 Years Ago Today: Frank Sinatra Dies

May 14, 1998: Frank Sinatra dies of a heart attack. He's 82 years old.

Sinatra was born on December 12, 1915, in Hoboken, New Jersey, to parents who were both immigrants from Italy. He got a ukulele for his 15th birthday and taught himself to play it. He made his first record as a singer in 1939. In November of that year, he became the lead singer of the Tommy Dorsey Band. He recorded his first hit song, "Polka Dots and Stardust," in 1940.

On January 19, 1942, Sinatra recorded one of my favorite Cole Porter songs, "Night and Day."

On May 6, 1944, Warner Bros. released a Porky Pig cartoon, "Swooner Crooner," that mocked Sinatra-mania.

In 1947, he recorded the song "Mam'selle" for the soundtrack of The Razor's Edge, based on the 1944 book by W. Somerset Maugham.

On November 7, 1951, he married Ava Gardner.

On March 25, 1954, Sinatra won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for playing Maggio in From Here to Eternity.

His 1954 album Songs for Young Lovers includes Cole Porter's "I Get a Kick Out of You" and the George Gershwin song "They Can't Take That Away From Me."

He recorded Porter's "I've Got You Under My Skin," reportedly in 22 takes, for the 1956 album Songs for Swingin' Lovers.

On July 2, 1966, the #1 song in the U.S. is Sinatra's "Strangers In the Night." The melody was composed by Bert Kaempfert, who's got the mad hits. That same year, 50-year-old Sinatra marries 21-year-old Mia Farrow.

On April 15, 1967, the #1 song in the U.S. is "Something Stupid" by Sinatra and his 26-year-old daughter Nancy. Where did I first hear this song? Performed by Kelsey Grammer and Julie Kavner as Sideshow Bob and Selma Bouvier on Simpsons episode 8F20, “Black Widower,” which originally aired April 9, 1992.

Nancy Sinatra is like Mary Wollstonecraft in that mother and daughter have the same name. Frank Sinatra's first wife and eldest child are both called Nancy Sinatra.

On November 13, 1967, NBC gives him a TV special with guest star Ella Fitzgerald.

https://www.jazzonthetube.com/john-gennari-flavor-and-soul/

Fitzgerald, Sinatra, Count Basie, and Pat Henry's Orchestra performed a revue together on June 6th through June 18th at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Although allegedly "retired," he recorded two best-selling Duets albums, the first in 1993 and Duets II in 1994. These include the "I've Got You Under My Skin" duet with Bono.

I don't have a source for this, but I remember watching Bono talking on TV about a night of drinking that the two had together. Bono fell asleep with a glass of whiskey in his hand and spilled it on himself in his sleep. He woke up and got terribly embarrassed that the great Frank Sinatra would think he, Bono, had gotten so drunk he pissed himself.

Frank Sinatra had a good, long, musical life. He died in 1998, and his second child Frank Sinatra Jr. died in 2016. Nancy and Tina Sinatra are still with us, as is Ronan Farrow, Mia Farrow's son of whom Sinatra may be the biological father. On paper, the alleged sexual predator Woody Allen is Ronan's father, but Ronan looks a lot more like Sinatra than Allen.

https://amzn.to/3Jo241l - this is an affiliate link

Bummer May 4: The Bazar de la Charité Fire

Happy Star Wars Day; May the 4th be with you. I come to you today to talk about something remarkably much less pleasant than Star Wars. Namely, a historical fire. But really, I just wanted an excuse to highlight an episode from a podcast that I particularly enjoy.

May 4, 1897: On the second day of a charity bazaar set up by Catholic charitable organizations in Paris, aristocratic women shop in a wooden warehouse set up to look like a Medieval market. Decorations of cardboard, cloth, papier-mache, and wood help achieve this effect. As an extra attraction, an early movie projector called a cinematograph is set up with ether lamps as a light source.

The projection equipment catches fire. With flammable materials all around and little to no signage marking the exits, the largely female crowd is trapped inside. 126 people die; 200 more are injured. Many of the dead were so badly burned that they could only be identified by their clothing, jewelry, or expensive dental work. 

Listen to the episode of Jennifer Matarese's Disaster Area podcast:

 

If you enjoy the podcast and want to support Jennifer, the following are some links to her social media accounts. I want her to be able to afford to write her next book, because I really want to read it. Become her patron on Patreon; you'll feel like a Renaissance-era Venetian arts patron, turning your money into art.

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If you don't have money--this is quite understandable--the best free way to support Jennifer and her research, writing, and podcasting is to give Disaster Area a 5-star review on any podcast platform that allows reviews. Especially Apple. Giving a podcaster a 5-star review on Apple increases their podcast's visibility to new potential listeners.

Fire at the Bazar de la Charité (Le Petit Journal). Artist: Osvaldo Tofani. This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer.

Unfortunate (Mostly) Literary Happenings of Past Mays

Blessed Beltane to one and all. May nothing unfortunate happen to you and yours during this entire month of May.

https://ko-fi.com/s/bff65e476b

Here in Indianapolis, we have a saying: This is May. By this we mean, it's May, so it's time to obsess over the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, held every Memorial Day weekend. So I'm going to include some info about the Indy 500. It's not literary. I'm simply an author who lives in Indianapolis.

Trigger warnings: Death, cancer, murder, car accidents, plane crashes, corporal punishment, body horror, mention of Nazi Germany.

ICYMI, this post is the latest in a series highlighting one of my two current books in process, The Almanac of Bad Days (tentative title). Past installments:

April

March

February

January

October

September

May 2, 1981: Antiques dealer Jim Williams shoots 21-year-old Danny Hansford at Williams’s historical home, Mercer House (formerly owned by composer Johnny Mercer), in Savannah, Georgia. The lovers had been in an argument; Williams argued the killing was self-defense. After four trials, Williams was acquitted. The homicide is the basis of John Berendt’s book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. 

May 5, 1994: American Michael Fay, age 18, receives four lashes with a bamboo cane after being convicted of vandalism in Singapore. Fay attended the Singapore American School and lived with his American mother and Singaporean stepfather. This is believed to be the first time an American was sentenced to corporal punishment in another country.

May 7, 1896: Serial killer H.H. Holmes (real name: Herman Webster Mudgett) is executed by hanging at Moyamensing Prison in Philadelphia after his conviction for 27 murders and attempted murder of six other people. His neck does not break when his body is dropped, and it takes over 15 minutes for Holmes to strangle to death. 

Erik Larson wrote the nonfiction book Devil in the White City about Holmes. A fictionalized version of Holmes was played by Evan Peters on American Horror Story: Hotel.

May 8, 2012: Children’s book illustrator and author Maurice Sendak dies in the hospital of complications from a stroke.

May 9, 1977: American novelist James Jones dies at age 55 from congestive heart failure. 

May 10, 1933: Led by Joseph Goebbels, a crowd of 40,000 Germans gathers at the State Opera building in Berlin to watch the German Student Union burn approximately 25,000 books that they’ve decided are “un-German.”

(Related: PEN America Report Shows ‘Rapid Acceleration’ of Book Bans in Schools. Fight book bans. Protect your intellectual freedom.)

May 10, 1943: Fire destroys the grounds of the National Library of Peru in Lima, taking it with numerous irreplaceable historical artifacts.

May 12, 2010: Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771 leaves Johannesburg, South Africa, bound for Libya. A series of errors by the flight crew causes the aircraft to crash into low terrain, killing 103 of the aircraft’s 104 occupants. Among the dead is novelist Bree O’Mara, an Irish and South African dual citizen. 

The sole survivor is a 9-year-old boy from the Netherlands. Both of his legs are broken, but he sustains no life-threatening injuries. His parents were killed in the crash, so he is adopted by his aunt and uncle. 

May 13, 1988: American jazz musician Chet Baker dies of an apparently accidental fall from a window in Amsterdam, Netherlands. If you're like me, you recently heard this story on the "Sunflowers" episode of Ted Lasso.

May 14, 1998: Frank Sinatra dies of a heart attack. He's 82 years old.

May 15, 1886: Poet Emily Dickinson dies of kidney disease at her home in Amherst, Massachusetts. She’s 55 years old. Dickinson has not left the home since 1865.

May 15, 1953: Chester “Chet” Miller dies in a car crash during practice for the 1953 Indianapolis 500. He is 50 years old. 

May 16, 1940: During World War II, the library of the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, rebuilt after German troops burned it down in the First World War, is shelled by the Nazis. The rebuilt library catches fire again, and approximately one million books and other materials are lost.

May 17, 2012: Singer Donna Summer dies of lung cancer. She's 63 years old.

President (1981-1989 : Reagan). White House Photographic Office. 1981-1989  (Most Recent), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

May 19, 1935: Thomas Edward Lawrence, a.k.a. “Lawrence of Arabia,” dies of his wounds six days after a motorcycle crash. He is 46 years old. 

May 21, 1703: Under the reign of Queen Anne, novelist and political pamphleteer Daniel Defoe is sent to prison for seditious libel on the basis of his satirical writings. He’ll spend six months in prison before the Earl of Oxford helps get him released in exchange for Defoe supplying the Earl with intelligence about his political rivals.

May 21, 1956: Léo Valentin attempts a dive using a wing suit at an air show in Liverpool. Among the 100,000-person crowd that day are George Harrison, Paul McCartney, and 3-year-old Clive Barker. Valentin’s wing suit malfunctions after it makes contact with the plane as he jumps. He attempts to land using a backup parachute, but it fails, and he falls to the ground to his death.

May 25, 1895: Oscar Wilde is convicted of "committing acts of gross indecency with other male persons" and taken to Newgate Prison for processing. He is later transferred to Pentonville Prison, where he is sentenced to hard labor, is malnourished, and is only allowed to read either the Bible or The Pilgrim’s Progress. 

May 25, 1979: American Airlines Flight 19, bound from Chicago to Los Angeles, loses an engine shortly after takeoff due to improper maintenance. It crashes less than a mile from the end of the runway. All 271 people on board are killed, as are two people on the ground. 

Author’s note: My mother’s first cousin, James Zielinski, was one of the passengers killed in this incident.  

May 26, 1991: Lauda Air Flight 004, flying from Bangkok to Vienna, breaks apart mid-flight and crashes into a national park in Thailand. All 223 people on board are killed. The bodies of victims who could be recovered were taken to a hospital in Bangkok, where they were stored without refrigeration; as a result of decomposition, 27 victims were never able to be identified. 

Lauda Air belonged to Austrian Formula One driver Andreas “Niki” Lauda, who himself had suffered severe burn injuries and almost died in a racing accident on August 1, 1976, at the German Grand Prix. 

May 30, 1955: William John Vukovich Sr., who won the 1953 and 1954 Indianapolis 500s, dies in a car crash during the 1955 Indy 500. Vukovich’s car went over a wall, sailed through the air, flipped several times, and struck a low bridge. Vukovich is partially decapitated and dies instantly when his car struck the bridge. His grandson, William Vukovich III, will die during racing practice in 1990. Metal roll bars installed in vehicles and safety-certified driver helmets were mandated starting with the 1956 Indy 500. 

May 30, 1958: Pat O’Connor is killed during the last lap of the Indy 500 amidst a 15-car pile-up. O’Connor’s car strikes Jimmy Reece’s car, sails through the air, lands upside-down, and catches fire. His death is due to head trauma from the car’s upside-down landing.