Today in History: July 26

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

Iowa’s U.S. Senator Tom Harkin introduced a bill numbered S.933 on May 9, 1988. It was the final version of the bill that became the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, which was signed into law by President George H. W. Bush twenty-six years ago today (photo above).

Back in 1988, Sen. Harkin delivered part of his speech introducing the bill in ASL for his brother, who was deaf. Representative Patricia Schroeder said at the time, “What we did for civil rights in the ’60s, we forgot to do for people with disabilities.”

Advocates for the disabled had started to fight for such legislation several years before. After S.933 was introduced, the Senate took more than a year to consider the legislation; it finally passed the Senate on September 7, 1989 by a 76-8 vote. And then it went to the House. And there it sat.
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Auden at Home

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

In About the House, published in 1965, W. H. Auden gives readers a tour of his home in Kirchstetten, Austria. Each of the twelve poems in the section titled “Thanksgiving for a Habitat,” bears a dedication to an individual, one of Auden’s friends.

(“Down There,” about the cellar, is dedicated to Irving Weiss, and “Up There,” about the attic, is dedicated to Anne Weiss. Irving Weiss taught in the English Department of SUNY New Paltz and retired in 1985, before I was a student in that department, but he was still around when I was there. Anne was his wife. For me, “Auden dedicated a poem to him” may as well have been the caption under his face each time I saw Professor Weiss. He is still alive, 94 years old, and a profile of him in a recent Long Island newspaper does not mention any of the above.)

Back to Auden’s home (pictured in a recent photo at top with a poster bringing the master back to the porch outside his upstairs study):
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Today in History: July 25

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

From July 25, 1946, to July 25, 1956, the two men built one of the hottest acts in show business: Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis became a top nightclub attraction, and the two were television stars, radio stars, and they made 17 movies together in those 10 years.

They started out as show business acquaintances. Seventy years ago tonight, a singer booked to work with Jerry Lewis at the 500 Club in Atlantic City, New Jersey, bailed out, and Lewis suggested Martin as a replacement. Martin was a decade older than Lewis, smooth on stage, a professional who had not yet found his audience. The two tried a standard “comedy and music” formula with no meaningful interaction, and the audience was memorably unmoved. The club owner threatened to fire them.
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