America’s 250th birthday is coming up in July, so over the next few months Balladeer’s Blog will take a look at the anniversary years 1826, 1876, 1926 and 1976.
1826
U.S. President: John Quincy Adams Vice President: John C. Calhoun Speaker of the House: John W. Taylor Chief Justice: John Marshall
Number of Senators: 48 Number of House Representatives: 213 Number of Supreme Court Justices: 6
JANUARY
1st – Louis Moreau Gottschalk, famous American composer and pianist, is born.
5th – Maryland makes it law for the state to finance primary education for all, and also grants Jews the right to vote.
18th – In New Orleans, LA the Louisiana State Gazette aka Gazette d’etat begins daily publication.
24th – The Treaty of Washington between the U.S. and the Creek Nation is signed.
26th – Future First Lady Julia Dent Grant is born.
FEBRUARY
4th – James Fenimore Cooper’s novel The Last of the Mohicans, the 2nd book of what is now known as The Leatherstocking Tales, is published.
5th – Future President Millard Fillmore married Abigail Powers. Continue reading
THE CITY OF SPIDERS (1926) – Short story by H. Warner Munn. This quasi-Creature Feature type tale featured biologist Jabez Pentreat. 
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME – Fighting it out for the crown were the PARKLAND COLLEGE COBRAS and the ELLSWORTH COLLEGE PANTHERS. The Cobras had mustered a 35-28 advantage going into the locker room. After the break, Parkland College eked out a bit more separation from the favored Panthers as they won the game 76-68. Jaiden Martin’s THIRTY-FOUR points led the Cobras. 
ELITE EIGHT: FIRST BERTH – The GULF COAST STATE COMMODORES played the INDIAN HILLS COLLEGE WARRIORS in this game. The Commodores put Indian Hills College on Upset Alert at Halftime with their 41-35 lead. From there, the Warriors rallied but fell just short as Gulf Coast State prevailed 72-70. The Commodores were led by Devontes Cobbs with 17 points. 
MAZEPPA – No relation to Tchaikovsky’s opera Mazeppa, this blog post refers to comedian, artist and actor Gailard Sartain, who got his start playing the wizard Mazeppa (center left) while hosting Tulsa, Oklahoma’s late Saturday night Bad Movie show called The Uncanny Film Festival and Camp Meeting. 
In between films came old educational shorts, black & white sci-fi shows, weird cartoons, you name it. It was like a countrified forerunner of Night Flight from later decades. 
And let’s quickly address the nice coincidence of Mazeppa and Busey’s character Teddy Jack Eddy hosting campy rock and roll movies like Don’t Knock the Rock, Untamed Youth or Shake, Rattle and Rock only for Busey to go on to play Buddy Holly and Sartain to play the Big Bopper in The Buddy Holly Story. 
BORDER PATROL (1959) – Based on actual case files of the United States Border Patrol, this half-hour series ran for 39 episodes and starred Richard Webb of Captain Midnight fame. Webb played Don Jagger, Deputy Chief of the Border Patrol, yet oddly he took part in individual cases. Why not just make him an agent or officer? I guess the creative team felt Deputy Chief sounded cooler. 
As the Argo pulled into Colchis, King Aeetes and his family – including his daughter Medea – observed their arrival. The Royal Family was on hand because of a dream that the goddess Hera had sent to Aeetes regarding foreign forces that would take Medea across the seas. 
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME – The NORTHERN ESSEX COLLEGE KNIGHTS did battle with the RICHLAND COLLEGE THUNDERDUCKS for the NJCAA3 crown. At Halftime the underdog Thunderducks clung to a 30-28 edge. The Knights came out of the locker room ready for a comeback and ultimately won the game 68-62. Alejandro Delgado led Northern Essex with 16 points. 
THE BAKARIDJAN KONE EPIC – Djeli, the poet-historians of the Bambara people for over 300 years, would often recite, chant and sing this epic myth while playing their stringed instruments called ngoni. 
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