Bobbitt, Menendez & Harding - Oh My! (January 1994)

Some newsworthy events unfold over a course of weeks so they can't be pin downed to one moment in time.  Such was the case of the unrelenting cold and snow of January 1994 and a number of high-profile criminal cases that received considerable attention in the same month. 

 

For much of the nation it was one of the coldest and snowiest Januarys on record.  New York was hit by a lot of sleet and freezing rain; a number of sub-zero mornings caused ice to form on the Hudson and East Rivers (which I could see from my office at ad agency NWAyer on the 34th floor of Worldwide Plaza on West 50th St.), making for slow going for river traffic.  In the middle of the month I tried to escape the brutal cold by flying down to Orlando where I made my first visit to Disney World and Epcot.  Unfortunately the Arctic chill followed me (the same misfortune befell me two years later when I took a vaction in Key West in February).

 

Before the introduction of the "reality" TV format, there was Court TV (now called truTV). During this frigid and inclement month I got into the habit of watching it because of its "gavel to gavel" coverage of a number of headline grabbing cases.  First was the trial of Lorena Bobbitt who cut off her husband's penis while he slept and then tossed it out of her car window.  Less salacious, but equally riveting, was the trial of the Menendez brothers, Lyle and Eric, for the murder of their wealthy parents.  (Even more attention was generated due to the brothers' flamboyant attorney, Leslie Abramson.)  Then feisty figure skater Tonya Harding was added to the mix when she was implicated in the pipe bashing of her rival Nancy Kerrigan a few days before the U.S. Figure Skating Championships and one month before the Winter Olympics. (Besides Court TV these cases received exhaustive coverage from CNN, Nightline and the Big 3's evening news shows.)

 

 

   

These cases also made celebs of legal analysts Jeffrey Toobin and Star "before The View" Jones (who knew she had a law degree?).  I suppose these tawdry cases were a welcome diversion from that winter's onslaught.  Of course, this was all just a prelude to the huge media circus created later in the year as the OJ Simpson murder case unfolded.

 

 

Recalling the Deaths of Three Music Icons

We've just experienced one of those headline grabbing events that years from now people will ask each other "Where were you when ...?"  Of course I'm referring to Michael Jackson's death on June 25, 2009.  When I started my blog at the beginning of this month little did I know that such a major event would occur while I was mining memories of momentous events from years past. What made it memorable for me was the fact that it was the first "oh wow!" event to occur since I joined Facebook (10 days ago).  Immediately upon reading of his death online via a NYTimes News Alert, I checked my Facebook account to read reactions of my roster of "friends" and to contribute a few poignant comments of my own. 

 

As a small tribute to MJ's passing I thought it fitting to write about what I was doing when I heard about the deaths of two other music icons: Elvis Presley and John Lennon.  And although Jackson was taken too soon, he outlived Elvis and Lennon, who were 42 and 40, respectively, at the time of their deaths

 

Death of Elvis (Aug. 16, 1977): I was listening to an afternoon baseball game between the Pirates and Cubs at home ( Pittsburgh) during summer break between my sophomore and junior years at Penn State when the play-by-play announcer reported the news.  (Looking back I'm shocked at how young he was, but at the time I thought of him as a washed-up has-been.) 

 

John Lennon Shot (Dec.8,1980): I was living in Bayonne, NJ where I first lived when I started working at my first job in New York.  I was watching Monday Night Football on my little black & white set when Howard Cosell interrupted the play-by-play with the startling news of John Lennon’s shooting death.  (You can watch the following link to see the video clip of Cosell's announcement: John Lennon)

 

Some Other Notable Singers: I was home sick from school (2nd grade) and playing in the living room while my mother was ironing and watching the 12 o’clock news.  One of the stories was about Nat King Coles’ death on Feb. 15, 1965. (I believe it was the first time I heard the term “lung cancer”.)  I heard the news of Karen Carpenter’s death (Feb. 4, 1983) on the radio in my office (at ad agency Young & Rubicam) which was tuned to oldies station WCBS.  (I had some sentimental attachment to her as my first 45-rpm "single" was by the Carpenters.) News of Marvin Gaye’s shooting death (by his father on April 1, 1984) was heard on the evening news as my boyfriend and I were preparing dinner on Sunday evening. (After the news we watched the ABC mini-series The Last Days of Pompeii.)  I found out about Kurt Cobain’s death (April 5, 1994) from a  co-worker, but it wasn’t that big a deal to me since I didn’t follow his group Nirvana (I was only vaguely familiar with their song Smells Like Teen Spirit); however, my younger staff was more shaken.  Finally, I read of Ella Fitzgerald’s death (June 15, 1996) in the Sunday NY Times while out at Fire Island.  (Ella happens to be the only one of the eight singers discussed here whose life wasn't cut short, as she lived to be 79.)