[…] Steve Jobs, Apple, and TBWA/Chiat/Day created a memorable advertising campaign & enduring set of cultural images with their iPod-attired silhouette dancers… These ads, used to sell digital music players & digital music, appeared in print, TV, and outdoor venues all over the world… The ads had a “pied piper” effect on consumers, transforming Apple into a digital music giant, sending it in into the superstar stratosphere of the world’s most elite and profitable companies […]

[…] There is probably no more soulful a version of “America The Beautiful” than that performed by legendary bluesman Ray Charles… A much-loved song by many Americans, the Ray Charles version has become something of a classic since Charles first recorded it in 1972… This story covers some of that history, as well as Charles’ performance of the song in an emotional closing at the 1984 Republican National Convention […]

[…] A lively and energetic Google TV ad starring pop music star Lady Gaga is featured in this story… The ad & its reception are covered in some detail, but there is also equal time given to the involvement of Google here…. Google’s latest foray into “more human” advertising is covered, as are the entertainment & business implications of the internet search giant hooking up with celebrities & other famous players… New social networking potential and “entertainment networks” seen as emerging opportunities […]

[…] A series of 1950s Saturday Evening Post magazine covers are presented by artist Stevan Dohanos, who offered several Post Office and U.S. mail-related scenes from American communities and everyday life… These serve as indications of the importance of the local post office and U.S. postal system in American culture and local communities for both mid-20th century America and beyond, offering some relevance to the current debate over the proposed closing of some 3,600 post offices across urban and rural America […]

[…] A Brooklyn, NY “baseball sculpture” of Brooklyn Dodger players Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese dedicated in 2005, commemorates Reese’s “arm-around-the-shoulders” support of black player Robinson on the field during racial taunts and fan heckling at a 1947 Cincinnati Reds game….This story covers Robinson’s breaking the color barrier in major league baseball, the sculpture’s genesis, Brooklyn Dodger history, and more […]

[…] In 1968, a hard rock band named Iron Butterfly came out with a 17-minute song that became something of a psychedelic anthem in the Summer of 1968… ”In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.” went on to sell tens of millions of albums worldwide and was also used by Fidelity Investments to pitch Baby Boomers in a 2005 TV ad…Iron Butterfly was an early influence on the heavy metal rock sound that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s[…]

[…] In 2010, luxury bag maker Louis Vuitton had photographer Annie Leibovitz do a photo shoot for advertising featuring three of the world’s most famous soccer stars – Brazil’s Pelé, Argentina’s Diego Maradona, and France’s Zinedine Zidane. A Vuitton magazine ad appeared in June 2010 amid World Cup fever and used the three soccer celebs to help give Vuitton products an “everyman” appeal and also to help spread the Vuitton style globally […]

[…] In 2010, a hit song that was written more than 50 years ago by a rock-n roll legend and convicted murderer Phil Spector, and became a 1958 hit with The Teddy Bears, was used in a sweetly-portrayed TV ad by Humana Health Care…The ad depicts a series of loving scenes between grandchildren and their grandparents… Story covers song, Teddy Bears & Phil Spector history […]

[…] In the mid-1960s, a young actress named Mia Farrow was the TV celebrity de jour starring in a new kind of prime-time soap opera called “Peyton Place”…It now seems light years away from that earlier time, and Ms. Farrow, with an impressive film career behind her, has lived a life full of twists & turns, interesting people, and now international activism… Some of her story is offered here […]

[…] Videos of two 30-second TV ads are shown that film star Dennis Hopper made in 2006- 2008 for the Ameriprise Financial Corp., in which he pitches financial planning to Baby Boomers. Both of these ads use the hard-driving rock `n roll tune, “Gimme Some Lovin” from the 1960s’ Spencer Davis Group, as background music […]

[…] In 1976-1977, Rupert Murdoch, then a little-known Australian newspaper mogul, made a “big news” New York media grab, acquiring two premier New York media companies: the New York Post newspaper and New York Magazine Co., which then held three publications — New York magazine, The Village Voice, and New West… Story, deal history & personalities involved are covered, as well as hints of what followed with the Murdoch global media empire […]

[…] In the 1981 stage production, Cats, there is the very poignant song, “Memory,” performed by the aging female feline, Grizabella, who has seen better days. Cats – the famous Andrew Lloyd Webber musical that was originally produced in London – became one of the all-time theater box office successes, with “Memory” as one of its most beloved and signature tunes […]

[…] In the early- and mid-1960s, the Beach Boys became one of America’s hottest and most successful groups, credited with inventing “California rock” and “sunshine pop.” Along with the Beatles, they also pushed out the boundaries of contemporary music on a new and imaginative front of songwriting and pop composition. Their music was happy, fun-loving and filled with beautiful harmonies – and it appealed to millions, then and 50 years later […]

[…] Video clip of a General Electric Co. television ad touting “clean coal” from 2005, one of a series of ads used in the company’s “Ecomagination” corporate campaign. This video links to related short stories about the making the ad – “G.E.’s Hot Coal Ad” – and the history of the music used in the ad – “Sixteen Tons.”[…]

[…] Warren Buffett, the businessman-investor from Omaha, Nebraska, known for his stock picks and investment strategies, is one of the wealthiest persons on the planet. Although famous for years in the investment community, Buffett became more of a mainstream celebrity as his wealth grew and also as stories became known about the millions he made for folks of modest means. …Buffett’s story also shows that once he arrived in the media glare, he moved to use his fame, the media machine, and his philanthropy in ways to benefit society […]

[…] Hollywood imagery sometimes survives long after its initial introduction, moving its characters and message into mainstream culture… Hollywood’s big time deal-maker, Gordon Gekko, played to a tee by Michael Douglas in the 1987 film “Wall Street,” made “greed is good” the catch phrase of the go-go 1980s… Gekko is a character who has stayed with the culture for some years now, and is periodically mentioned whenever Wall Street excesses flow… This piece looks at the film’s history, the Gekko character, & their effect today as a 2010 sequel arrives […]

[…] “Be My Baby” by the Ronettes was one of the defining rock ‘n roll songs of the early 1960s — a song notable for advancing a new sound that changed pop music…“Be My Baby” is also a bigger story — of lives entangled in the business of making music during 1963-66 and the fallout years later, including the demise of the group, ill health for one member, a prominent divorce for another, and a protracted legal battle over royalties and song rights[…]

[…] In the summer of 2009, the Omega watch company, part of the Swatch Group of Switzerland, launched an ad campaign built around the image and words of former U.S. President, John F. Kennedy from the 1960s… The campaign, using the 40th anniversary of the 1969 Moon landing, focused on Kennedy’s initiative with the Apollo space program, using print & TV ads to promote Omega brand Speedmaster watches, which were used in the U.S. space and lunar programs […]

[…] This short video introduces Martin Scorsese’s documentary film on the Rolling Stones, “Shine a Light”. The full two-hour film features Rolling Stones performances that took place during their “Bigger Bang Tour” of 2006…. The video links to another Rolling Stones story at this website regarding their concert touring and business history […]

[…] In 1982, Sylvester Stallone, Hollywood movie star and producer of the Rocky film series, donated a statue of his Rocky Balboa movie character to the City of Philadelphia. It was left near the entrance to the Philadelphia Art Museum, where it touched off a controversy over the appropriateness of its location that would flare up several times over the course of more than 20 years […]

[…] In 1972, John Hall was a founding member of the rock ‘n roll group Orleans. Thirty-four years later he was elected to the United States Congress… This story covers his years with Orleans, some of their music, and Hall’s rise to Congress. […]

[…] In the early 1980s, Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney teamed up for some joint music projects. Their friendship led to Jackson’s discovery of the music publishing business, and ironically, his $47 million acquisition of a large and important Beatles music catalog… That catalog became an important asset for Jackson and a much sought-after prize in the music industry […]

[…] In April 2009, a European entertainment company named Imagem Music, shelled out an estimated $250-to-$300 million to acquire the rights to the Broadway legacy of music legends Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein — plus their New York organization covering some 12,000 songs, 900 concert works, 100 musicals, and 200 writers…This story covers that deal, and also the success, cultural impact, and history of R&H productions in America and elsewhere […]

[…] In 1990, the Irish rock group U2 went looking for their muse, and part of what they found was one of the top songs of the 1990s – “One” […]

[…] Before he became a U.S. Senator in 1978 and a Democratic candidate for President in the year 2000, Bill Bradley was a famous high school, college and pro NBA basketball player who reaped All-American and pro Hall-of-Fame honors. At Princeton, he set the nets on fire, was national College Player of the Year, a Final Four “most outstanding player,” and also became a Rhodes Scholar. With the New York Knicks (1967-77) he would win 2 NBA titles. And for 18 years he served with distinction in the U.S. Senate (1979-1997). His story is told here with lots of photos & links to books he has written on basketball, politics, culture, and economics […]

…Taylor Swift was a freshman sitting in her high school math class in Hendersonville, Tennessee when she began writing her first hit song. She was 14 years old. Within three years of that moment, Taylor Swift’s net worth began building to the tune of tens-of-millions-of-dollars….

…In 1985, British rock star and songwriter, Sting, penned a song about the Cold War’s nuclear rhetoric, which was then running quite hot between the U.S. and Russia. Sting’s song was leveled at both sides — and it got people’s attention, also rising on the pop charts of the day…

Logo for the 2009 NCAA ‘Final Four’ basketball championship, played in Detroit, Michigan.     A front-page story in the Washington Post that ran a few days before the April 2009 “final four” championship NCAA basketball games, focused on the big money that would be flowing into Detroit’s local economy because of the tournament.  And indeed, organizers … Continue reading “Basketball Dollars”
NCAA-History →

Statue of a young Babe Ruth just outside the gates of Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore. Statue by Susan Luery; photo by Leo Cloutier, pbase.com. Click for Babe Ruth books at Amazon.     In Baltimore, Maryland, at the Camden Yards baseball park, home of the Baltimore Orioles professional baseball team, there is a statue of … Continue reading “Ruth at Oriole Park”
1930s-2009 →

Record sleeve for ‘Paint It Black’ single issued in South Africa, 1966. Click for Rolling Stones “Hot Rocks” album.In the spring of 1966, all was not well in the world. The Vietnam War was then raging and American involvement there was escalating. U.S. troop strength had reached 200,000 by then, and draft quotas at home had doubled. Earlier … Continue reading “Paint It Black”
1966-2000s →

…Rocker Tom Petty’s 1989 hit song, “I Won’t Back Down,” has become a popular tune in political campaigns — used by: George W. Bush, Senators Hillary Clinton, Jim Webb, Bob Menendez, and John Edwards, to name a few… And also Eliot Spitzer…

[…]“Rosie the Riveter” is the name of a fictional character who came to symbolize the millions of real women who helped run America’s factories, munitions plants, and shipyards during World War II. In later years, Rosie also became an iconic American image in the fight to broaden women’s civil rights. This story covers those roles and Norman Rockwell’s “Rosie” image on the May 1943 cover of the “Saturday Evening Post” magazine, as well as other Rosie images that have survived to this day, used in popular womens’ & other protests…Also included is the Rosie The Riveter National Historical Park, plus a sidebar on Marilyn Monroe’s stint as a WWII factory “Rosie” & her beginnings as a subject in photographic art. […]

[…] In 1975, former U.S. President Richard Nixon made a business deal with British celebrity talk show host David Frost for a series of “tell us what happened” TV interviews on the Watergate scandal…The interviews aired with much fanfare in May 1977… And over the next 30 years, a small cottage industry grew up around the event, spawning a series of books, VHS tapes, DVDs, stage productions, a Hollywood film, more books, and lots of continuing debate…This piece looks at that Nixon-Frost history, including how Frost landed the deal, the media fanfare then, excerpts from the interviews, and the subsequent “Frost-Nixon biz” that followed […]

October 1989 edition of Forbes business magazine featuring Mick Jagger & Keith Richards among the world’s ‘highest paid entertainers’.     In October 1989, Forbes magazine featured rock ‘n roll stars Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones on its cover. The story’s headline asked: “What’ll They Do With All That Money?” — then referring to … Continue reading “Stones Gather Dollars”
1989-2008 →

[…] In 2005, General Electric, the giant American conglomerate, began running one of its
“Ecomagination” TV ads to tout “clean coal,” employing sexy “model miners” in the spot to deliver its message… Yet the ad found a number of critics, objecting to unrealistic portrayal of coal mining’s dangers and the use of the backing song, “Sixteen Tons,” from the 1950s […]

[…] In December 1964, a song titled “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” began to be heard on the radio – a song about the painful ebbing away of a love relationship. Called “blue-eyed soul” by some critics, and a product of Brill Building songwriting and Phil Spector’s “Wall of Sound” orchestration, the song is powerfully performed – partly in call-and-response delivery – by tenor-baritone duo Bobby Hatfield and Bill Medley. It became a million-selling No. 1 hit and would one day become one of the most played songs on the radio – with more than 8 million plays by 1999 and nearly 15 million by 2011 […]

[…] “Do You Love Me?,” a song by The Contours produced at the Motown music studios, has had several good runs over the last 50 years. In 1962, it hit No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart and No. 3 on the pop chart, becoming a million seller. After the film “Dirty Dancing” used the song in 1987 to back a hot dance scene, the fortunes’s of “Do You Love Me (Now That I Can Dance)” rose again, cracking the Top 20 in 1988. And in recent years it has been used in various promotions and advertising, including a 2016 Super Bowl ad starring Janelle Monáe […]

[…]When the Beatles first came to the U.S. in February 1964, their first-ever live concert performance in Washington, D.C., was filmed by CBS for later use as a “closed-circuit concert” shown in slected U.S. theaters[…]

[…] In 2006-2008, Dennis Hopper – film star of quirky, crazy and/or villainous characters in films such as Easy Rider (1969), Apocalypse Now (1979), Blue Velvet (1986), Speed (1994), Waterworld (1995), and others – did a series of TV ads pitching retirement planning for Ameriprise Financial Corp. Hopper brought an air of Boomer attitude to the spots, though not a Boomer himself, though company surveys found he connected with Boomer viewers[…]

[…] Bobby Darin’s music and film career lasted a short 15 years, ending in his premature death at age 37. But for a time, Bobby Darin set the entertainment world on fire, topping the pop music charts, becoming a successful Las Vegas headliner, Hollywood actor, and film-score writer. Along the way he married actress Sandra Dee, became a social & political activist, and had a change of life after Bobby Kennedy’s assassination […]

[…] He’s been on the run since 1980 when novelist Robert Ludlum first created him for his popular spy thrillers, and he is still on the run today in a series of popular films, played by actor Matt Damon. The Bourne storyline, in fact, has proven to be a gigantic economic success […] and has created a global entertainment empire […]

[…] “American Bandstand” was a TV dance show that began in Philadelphia, PA in the 1950s. It became an important arbiter of rock `n roll in American culture, enabling a giant rock music business to explode nationally with the help of Baby Boomer kids… The show also became synonymous with its principal creator & DJ, Dick Clark, who parlayed the show into other entertainment ventures making him a wealthy man […]

[…]She walked away from her husband and a successful musical career with some loose pocket change, a gasoline credit card, and little else. It was early July 1976… For a time, she relied on friends and food stamps to survive… But Tina Turner never lost her moxie… By 2005, Tina Turner had become one of the most successful female rock artists of all time […]

In early March 1961 in New York, Phil Graham, the 45 year-old publisher of the Washington Post had just written a personal check for $2 million to the Astor Foundation… The Post was then in the process of acquiring one of the nation’s most prominent weekly newsmagazines, “Newsweek”… This piece describes some of the history, background, and characters involved in that deal, and what happened to Newsweek and the Washington Post in the years that followed, including recent events in the 2000s […]

[…] In 1978, an all-sports cable TV network was hardly a “no brainer.” The three major TV networks combined then broadcast only about 20 hours of sports a week […] But Bill Rasmussen, a former sportscaster and recently fired communications man for the New England Whalers ice hockey team, came up with the new concept in sports broadcasting. In a few short years, ESPN was big business […]

[…] “Profiles in Courage” became a best-seller and was ground-breaking in its day, becoming one of the first books used to advance a political career aimed at the White House […] The book gave Kennedy a certain political gravitas and national recognition he did not have before, lifting him from the ranks of unknown senators […]

In 1993, before she graced the cover of Rolling Stone magazine at right, Gisele Bündchen was a skinny 14 year-old kid in southern Brazil who aspired to play professional volleyball […] Photo: Supermodel Gisele Bundchen, on cover of the September 14, 2000 issue of Rolling Stone magazine, then naming her, ‘the most beautiful girl in the world.’