Adam Waller

55 years ago tonight, Rick Nelson was booed at Madison Square Garden and turned the experience into one of the biggest hits of his later career. The audience remembered him as Ricky Nelson, the teenage star of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet who had enjoyed a string of pop hits before Beatlemania. But by 1971, he'd grown his hair and moved into country rock. He played some of his old hits, including “Hello Mary Lou.” When he performed the Rolling Stones' “Country Honk,” boos broke out. That moment inspired Nelson to write “Garden Party,” which reached No. 6 on the pop charts the following year, his first Top 10 hit in nearly a decade. An audience that wanted the old Ricky Nelson helped inspire one of the biggest hits of the new Rick Nelson. Here he is performing that song in 1985, a few months before his death at age 45 on New Year's Eve in a plane crash while traveling to a concert in Dallas.

Happy heavenly birthday to Jonathan Winters, born 101 years ago today in Dayton, Ohio. If there were a Mount Rushmore for improvisational comedy, Winters would be on it. Robin Williams called him his “Comedy Buddha” and pushed to have him join the cast of Mork & Mindy. Winters also created characters like Maude Frickert, the sharp-tongued old lady who inspired Johnny Carson’s Aunt Blabby. Here’s his famous 1964 appearance with Jack Paar, who handed Winters a wooden stick and asked him to do something with it.

Happy heavenly birthday to Bob Gibson, born 91 years ago today in Omaha, Nebraska. He was the most feared pitcher of his generation, famous for throwing inside, refusing to fraternize with opponents, and working at a relentless pace. Vin Scully once said, “Gibson pitches as though he’s double parked.” His longtime catcher, Tim McCarver, recalled being sent to the mound by Cardinals manager Johnny Keane to slow Gibson down. When McCarver explained why he was there, Gibson told him, “Get on back behind the plate. The only thing that you know about pitching is that it’s hard to hit.” No discussion of Gibson is complete without his 1968 season, when he threw 28 complete games, including 13 shutouts, and finished with a 1.12 ERA. He won both the Cy Young and National League MVP that year. The following season, Major League Baseball lowered the pitcher’s mound from 15 inches to 10, partly because of his dominance. Gibson also won seven of his nine World Series starts and was named World Series MVP in both 1964 and 1967. I was lucky enough to meet him and get a photo about 15 years ago. I asked if he would stare me down as if I were in the batter’s box. He obliged. For a moment, I got a glimpse of the snarl that made opposing hitters miserable. But what I remember most is how kind and soft-spoken he was. RIP ⚾️

The late astronomer Carl Sagan was born 92 years ago today in Brooklyn. Perhaps nobody has been as influential in making the mysteries of the cosmos accessible to the public as Sagan. Even before he became a household name, Sagan was making the case for exploring the solar system at a time when that work belonged almost entirely to government agencies and research institutions. He did much of this from his perch as a distinguished professor at Cornell University. The Tonight Show was also enormously important in Sagan’s transformation from a prominent scientist into a national figure. Johnny Carson had a genuine interest in astronomy and understood that Sagan could reach people who might never otherwise have taken an interest in the universe. Sagan appeared with Carson dozens of times. In 1980, he was on the cover of Time magazine, which called him the “Showman of Science.” After one of those appearances, as Sagan was leaving the studio with Carson, a janitor who had been sweeping the floor stopped them both to say how much he had enjoyed the segment and how much he had learned. Carson told Sagan afterward, “That’s why I have you on.” The media landscape has changed enormously since Carson’s day. But the ability to explain complicated subjects in a way that engages ordinary people will remain valuable. Sagan had that ability. He also had something else that transcends eras. He was genuinely likable.

Dorothy Kilgallen, the newspaper columnist and longtime What’s My Line? panelist whose death remains the subject of speculation, died 61 years ago today at age 52. Kilgallen saw herself as a reporter first, which sometimes put her at odds with her fellow panelists. In 1957, Mike Wallace was set to appear as a mystery guest. A week earlier, he had interviewed mobster Mickey Cohen, who made accusations against the Los Angeles police that sparked an uproar and prompted an apology from ABC. Host John Charles Daly objected to Wallace as a guest. Producers replaced him with Sammy Davis Jr. The next day, the story ran on the front page of the New York Journal-American. Daly was furious. Fellow panelist Bennett Cerf later said Kilgallen had given the story to the paper, and that he, Daly and Arlene Francis became more careful about what they said around her. Kilgallen saw it differently. She wasn’t going to let someone else break a story she knew about. At the time of her death, she was investigating the Kennedy assassination and had interviewed Jack Ruby, the man who killed Lee Harvey Oswald. Her final appearance on What’s My Line? was November 7, 1965. The next morning, she was found dead in her Manhattan townhouse. The medical examiner attributed her death to alcohol and barbiturates, but ruled the circumstances undetermined. Her life is the subject of a new Off-Broadway musical called Kilgallen. I’m looking forward to seeing it.

Today in 1979, the program that would become ABC’s Nightline began as a 15-minute late-night report on the Iran hostage crisis. Four days earlier, Iranian students had seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking dozens of Americans hostage. ABC News president Roone Arledge had been looking for a way to launch a news program at 11:30 p.m., directly opposite Johnny Carson. The hostage crisis gave him the opening. The broadcast, called “The Iran Crisis: America Held Hostage,” launched with Frank Reynolds anchoring. Ted Koppel, then ABC’s diplomatic correspondent, eventually took over. The program outdrew CBS’s late-night programming and, on some nights, even beat Carson. In March 1980, it became Nightline, with Koppel as its permanent anchor. By 1990, it was averaging 5 to 6 million households per broadcast and had collected numerous Emmy and Peabody Awards. Koppel stayed until 2005, turning Nightline into an institution and proving that serious journalism could compete, night after night, with entertainment.

Today in 1962, Richard Nixon spoke to reporters at the Beverly Hilton after losing the race for governor of California by a wide margin. He said, “You don’t have Nixon to kick around anymore. Because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference.” Two years earlier, he had carried his home state against JFK in the presidential election. Five days after his defeat in California, ABC aired a half-hour program hosted by Howard K. Smith called “The Political Obituary of Richard M. Nixon.” Nixon moved to New York and returned to private law practice. Six years later, he was elected president. Whatever you think of him, there’s something to be said for not giving up.