Category Archives: 60s

Sammie Was Black

Only one black man earned a spot with Sinatra’s Rat Pack in Las Vegas. Sammy Davis Junior. Mister Show Business might have been the token black for the Silent Majority, but Mr. Show Business was well aware of his place in the white world after a stint in the Army. “Overnight the world looked different. […]

JE T’AIME Brigitte Bardot et Serge Gainsbourg

The Americans love to dismiss French music and that’s because they don’t know ‘merde’.

SNOW DAY by Peter Nolan Smith

Several years ago I woke up to a heavy snow falling fast on the Fort Greene Observatory and I asked the head curator AP, if he was sending his two young children to school. “Of course I am.” AP worked from home and his kids like all kids were attention-seekers. “So no snow day?” The […]

THE BIRTH OF THE BOUFFANT by Peter Nolan Smith

In the late-18th Century Marie Antoinette’ coiffeur sought to camouflage the queen’s baldness by upsweeping her thinning tresses to cascade over her ears. The femme fatales of the ancien regime imitated ‘le bouffant, until the royal coif lost its popularity with the Marie’s final haircut by the guillotine. Two centuries later Jackie Kennedy, JFK’s wife, […]

The Dream Is Never Over

After spending a lovely night in Houston, JFK and his wife boarded the presidential jet for a short hop to Dallas. The crowds lining the route applauded the president and his hostess, Mrs. Connolly, commented that Dallas loved him and the president replied, “That’s very obvious.” A second later a single bullet and then another […]