In 1961, Brian Wilson formed the Beach Boys with his brothers Carl and Dennis, their cousin Mike Love, and school friend Al Jardine. Brian, the eldest Wilson brother, quickly emerged as the group’s musical center of gravity. The family story would later carry deep shadows: Dennis drowned in 1983, and Carl died of cancer in 1998. But in the early 1960s, the band’s rise was swift and bright.
Chart Breakthrough and an American Peak
By December 1963, the Beach Boys had reached a national summit with “Surfin’ U.S.A.”, the number‑one song in America. Their sound—sun‑drenched, harmony‑driven, and unmistakably Californian—seemed to define the country’s musical mood. Brian’s melodic instincts and arranging talent were already pushing the group beyond surf‑rock formulas toward something more ambitious.
The British Invasion Arrives
Everything changed two months later. On February 9, 1964, the Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show before an audience of 73 million Americans (see – https://www.edsullivan.com/the-beatles-on-the-ed-sullivan-show-on-february-9-1964/ – retrieved June 11, 2025). Overnight, the British Invasion reshaped the pop landscape. For Brian Wilson, the moment landed like a challenge. The Beach Boys—still riding high—suddenly found themselves in an informal, transatlantic competition with the Fab Four, especially Paul McCartney, for the artistic future of 1960s pop.
Brian Wilson’s Creative Response
Rather than retreat, Brian accelerated. He began writing more original material, experimenting with new arrangements, unusual instrumentation, and increasingly sophisticated harmonic structures. His goal was not imitation but innovation—a new sound that could stand beside the Beatles’ evolving artistry and, at times, even inspire it.
A Remarkable Run of Hits
The result was one of the most productive bursts in American pop history. Between “Surfin’ U.S.A.” (1963) and “God Only Knows” (1966), the Beach Boys scored 15 top‑20 hits, including two number‑ones that held the top spot for multiple weeks. Brian’s studio experiments—lush textures, emotional directness, and fluid four‑part harmonies—reshaped what pop music could be and earned the admiration of McCartney himself.
A New Era of Studio Experimentation
Pet Sounds marked a turning point for rock and pop bands, ushering in an era of studio experimentation. It predated—and directly inspired—the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967, one of pop’s first concept albums and a catalyst for the psychedelic imagery that shaped mainstream culture into the mid‑1970s.
For God Only Knows, the Beach Boys assembled a 15‑piece orchestra alongside a rock band of top Los Angeles session players to realize Brian Wilson’s “sophisticated soundscape.” The group’s 11th studio album represented a clear break from their earlier catalog—described not as rock and roll but as “futuristic, progressive and experimental.” (Stebbins, The Beach Boys FAQ, p. 74)
Writing a Song of Faith and Vulnerability
According to Brian Wilson, God Only Knows was written in about 45 minutes. For many listeners, it stands as the greatest Beach Boys song—and, for some, the greatest song of its era or perhaps of all time. Its lyrics revolve around faith, emotion, and the fear of losing a deep personal connection. The stakes are high throughout.
Carl Wilson’s Defining Vocal
Brian gave the lead vocal to his brother Carl, believing Carl could deliver the words with clarity and meaning—without the self‑consciousness Brian feared in his own voice. Carl’s performance became one of the defining moments of the Beach Boys’ recorded legacy.
A Private Vision of the Divine and Message of Feeling and Eternity
Wilson’s use of the word “God” was unusual in a pop context. But it was not the public God of church or country. For him, God was a private force who “helps a person control their hopes and doubts.” (I Am Brian Wilson, p. 180). Brian Wilson remained most proud of God Only Knows because he believed it carried a genuine message—one rooted in feeling, vulnerability, and a sense of eternity.
When Pet Sounds was released in May 1966, reviews In America were largely tepid and sales did not match previous albums. The album—featuring Brian Wilson and Tony Asher’s God Only Knows—would not be certified Gold for 30 years. At the time, critics were praising Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde, the Rolling Stones’ Aftermath, and the Beatles’ Revolver, artists whose roles as rock’s new masters were already clear. Brian Wilson, still reinventing himself, was instead seen as a poignant and possibly troubled pop figure. Later reevaluations of Pet Sounds, including God Only Knows, now regard the album as the trendsetting work of a genius.
Carl Wilson’s Voice and the Song’s Reception
Mike Love agreed that God Only Knows “became one of the album’s most celebrated numbers,” noting that Carl Wilson’s “dulcet voice” actually heightened the song’s “spiritual dimensions.” Love also believed it marked a moment when Carl—four and a half years younger than Brian—emerged as a talented leader within the Beach Boys. (Love, Good Vibrations, pp. 130–131)
Brian Wilson’s Studio Authority
During the Pet Sounds sessions, Brian acted as a virtual dictator in the studio, prompting Love to nickname him “General Patton,” a reference to the four‑star American general of World War II. Other nicknames were less patriotic. Love also confirmed Brian’s reluctance to use the word “God” in the song and, by inference, the courage and honesty required to include it.
A Narrative of Devotion
With Carl Wilson on lead vocals, the lyrics of God Only Knows speak from the perspective of someone who believes that life without his lover can only be fathomed by God. Brian Wilson was married to Marilyn Rovell at the time, though in a 1976 radio interview he said the song was not written for anyone in particular, even if he had written other songs with specific girls in mind. Wilson and Rovell divorced amicably in 1979.
Brian Wilson on Love and Meaning
In 2016, Brian Wilson reflected on the emotional core that shaped so much of his writing: “I wasn’t in love often. I thought about girls, but if they didn’t think about me, how was that love? …When friends would tell me that they were seeing a new girl, I would ask them if they were really in love. That was important to me. It seemed like a real thing. Were they in love? Did something happen inside them that made them feel closer to that other person and closer to themselves? It’s why I wrote so many love songs, because it’s the real thing.” (I Am Brian Wilson, p. 124)
God Only Knows was issued in the United States in July 1966 as the B‑side to “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” peaking at no. 39 on the Billboard Hot 100. Abroad, the song fared far better, reaching no. 2 in the United Kingdom and entering the top ten in Canada and across Europe.
Bruce Johnston remembered squeezing into the tiny studio one Wednesday night as Brian Wilson recorded “God Only Knows” with a full ensemble jammed shoulder‑to‑shoulder — violinists practically perched on the French horn players, Carl playing his guitar from the booth, and the room overflowing with sound and bodies. It was, he said, incredible.
A Shared Session and a Distinctive Sound
Both God Only Knows and “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” were recorded during the same session on April 11, 1966. Brian Wilson worked on an 8‑track recorder at Columbia, and Terry Melcher—California producer and singer‑songwriter—was present to provide backup vocals for “God Only Knows.” The session reflected Wilson’s increasingly intricate studio methods during the Pet Sounds period.
A Song Written for Carl
Carl Wilson later said that Brian told him he had written God Only Knows for him to sing as recognition of his “beautiful spirit” (Badman, The Beach Boys: The Definitive Diary, Backbeat Books, 2004, p. 126). Carl’s vocal would become one of the defining performances in the Beach Boys’ catalog, carrying the emotional clarity Brian believed the song required.
A Closing Perspective
Taken together—the modest U.S. chart showing, the strong international reception, the shared April 11 session, Melcher’s presence, and Brian’s intention for Carl’s voice—God Only Knows stands as a carefully crafted work whose meaning was shaped as much by the people in the room as by the song on the page. It remains one of the most personal statements in Brian Wilson’s body of work, anchored in the bond between two brothers and the evolving artistry of the Beach Boys at their creative peak.
God Only Knows LYRICS I may not always love you But long as there are stars above you You never need to doubt it I’ll make you so sure about it God only knows what I’d be without you If you should ever leave me Though life would still go on, believe me The world could show nothing to me So what good would living do me? God only knows what I’d be without you God only knows what I’d be without you If you should ever leave me Though life would still go on, believe me The world could show nothing to me So what good would living do me? God only knows what I’d be without you God only knows what I’d be without you (God only knows what I’d be without you) God only knows what I’d be without you (ooh-ooh) (God only knows what I’d be without you) God only knows God only knows what I’d be without you (ooh-ooh) (God only knows what I’d be without you) God only knows God only knows what I’d be without you (ooh-ooh) (God only knows what I’d be without you) God only knows God only knows what I’d be without you (ooh-ooh) (God only knows what I’d be without you) God only knows God only knows what I’d be without you (ooh-ooh) (God only knows what I’d be without you) God only knows
SOURCES:
The Beach Boys: America’s Band, Johnny Morgan, Union Square & Co.; Illustrated edition, 2015, pp. 108-109.
i am Brian Wilson a memoir, Brian Wilson with Ben Greenman, Da Capo Press, Boston, Massachusetts. pp. 124 and 180.
Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy, Penguin Publishing Group, Mike Love, 2016, pp. 130-131.
The Beach Boys FAQ, All That’s Left to Know about America’s Band, Jon Stebbins, Backbeat Books, 2011, p. 74.
The Beach Boys: The Definitive Diary of America’s Greatest Band on Stage and in the Studio, Keith Badman, Backbeat Books; First Edition, 2004, p. 126.
Derek Worlock (February 4, 1920 – February 6, 1996) was an English priest of the Roman Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Liverpool. A leading figure in post‑war British Catholicism, he became known for his pastoral warmth, public presence, and commitment to unity among Christians.
A Ministry Shaped by Collaboration
Worlock devoted his episcopal life to fostering cooperation across Christian traditions. His partnership with Anglican Bishop of Liverpool David Sheppard became one of the most celebrated ecumenical friendships in modern Britain. Together they co‑authored Better Together and With Hope in our Hearts (both 1995), works that embodied their shared vision for a reconciled, outward‑facing Church. His episcopal motto, Caritas Christi eluceat—“For the Shining Light of Christ”—captured the spirit of his ministry.
Honours and Public Recognition
In 1994, Worlock received the Freedom of the City of Liverpool, a civic acknowledgment of his decades of service to the city. Two years later, in 1996, he was appointed a Companion of Honour, one of the United Kingdom’s most distinguished awards.
A Memorial on Hope Street
After his death in 1996, plans began for a public memorial. Commissioned in 2005 and funded through widespread public donations, the sculpture was created by British artist Stephen Broadbent (b. 1961). Placed at the midpoint of Liverpool’s Hope Street, the memorial stands symbolically between the city’s Anglican and Roman Catholic cathedrals—an architectural embodiment of the unity Worlock championed throughout his life.See it here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/newfolder/2535308455
David Sheppard and Derek Worlock memorial, Hope Street, Liverpool.The placement is deliberate: halfway between the two cathedrals, exactly where their work met with space between them for everyone. “DSCF0029” by geraldmurphyx is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.
A Shared Mission of Reconciliation
The statue commemorates the extraordinary partnership between Archbishop Derek Worlock and Bishop David Sheppard, two churchmen who refused to let centuries of division define Liverpool’s Christian life. At a time when Catholic–Anglican relations still could be frosty and suspicious, they pointed to a a different path of public friendship, joint action, and a united moral voice for their city.
Their collaboration was not symbolic but deeply practical. They issued joint pastoral letters, appeared together at civic events, and spoke with one voice during moments of crisis. In a city marked by economic hardship, sectarian memory, and social fragmentation, they insisted that Christian leadership must be shared leadership. Their partnership became a model for ecumenical cooperation across Britain.
Healing Historic Divisions
Worlock and Sheppard understood that Liverpool’s religious landscape had long been shaped by rivalry—Catholic and Anglican identities often hardened by class, migration, and political history. Their work aimed to soften those boundaries. They promoted joint prayer services, encouraged cooperation between parishes, and supported community initiatives that crossed denominational lines.
Their message was simple but radical: unity was not an optional ideal but a pastoral necessity. They believed that reconciliation between churches could help foster reconciliation within the city itself.
A Memorial to Unity
The statue’s purpose was to create a permanent reminder of this shared ministry. It honors not only two individual leaders but the ecumenical vision they embodied. Positioned on Liverpool’s Hope Street—linking the Anglican Cathedral at one end and the Catholic Cathedral at the other—the memorial stands as a physical metaphor for the bridge they built.
Above: Archbishop Derek Worlock London‑born Derek Worlock was ordained a Catholic priest in 1944 and began his ministry as curate at Our Lady of Victories, Kensington, then London’s wartime pro‑cathedral. For nearly two decades he served at the heart of English Catholic leadership as private secretary to three Archbishops of Westminster, a role that shaped his administrative skill and national profile. He later spent a year as Rector and Rural Dean of the Church of SS Mary and Michael—one of London’s historically largest parishes—before being appointed Bishop of Portsmouth, serving the English Channel region for eleven years. In 1976 he became Metropolitan Archbishop of Liverpool, the post that defined his public legacy. “File:Sheppard-Worlock Statue 2017-2.jpg” by Rodhullandemu is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Detail from the Sheppard-Worlock statue Liverpool. Anglican Bishop David Sheppard was Worlock’s closest ecumenical partner and the other half of Liverpool’s most influential Christian alliance. Before Derek Worlock’s appointment as Roman Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool in 1976, the Anglican archbishop of Liverpool, David Sheppard, was consulted over a meal together with Pope Paul VI’s Papal Nuncio in Britain, Archbishop Bruno Heim. Before he became one of Liverpool’s most respected church leaders, David Sheppard was a national sporting hero—a stylish right‑handed batsman whose cricketing career made him a household name across Britain. His cricketing fame gave him a public platform long before he entered the clergy, and he later used that visibility to speak on issues of poverty, racial justice, and urban renewal. Public Domain (Man vyi – Self-photographed. Own work, all rights released).
Coat of Arms, Most Rev. Derek Worlock, Metropolitan Archbishop of Liverpool. It contains Worlock’s motto: Caritas Christi eluceat (“For the Shining Light of Christ”). “Uk rc liverpool worlock” by EborArmorist is licensed under CC BY 3.0.
Archbishop Derek Worlock served as bishop and archbishop from 1965 to 1996—years that spanned the close of the Second Vatican Council and the unfolding of its new teaching on ecumenism. From the beginning of his episcopal ministry, he treated the Council’s call to Christian unity not as an abstract ideal but as a pastoral responsibility.
The Portsmouth Years: Learning to Live Together in Love
As Bishop of Portsmouth, Worlock was already experimenting with practical ways for Catholics and Anglicans to share life, sacraments, and community with greater charity. His most famous initiative, later nicknamed the “Portsmouth solution,” emerged in the early 1970s when the daughter of a local Anglican bishop wished to marry a Catholic.Worlock crafted a pastoral compromise that honored both traditions:
The marriage rite and promises were celebrated first in the Catholic church, fulfilling canonical requirements.
Later that same day, the couple’s marriage was celebrated again in the bride’s Anglican parish, with her father—the Anglican bishop—presiding.
This arrangement was bold for its time. It respected Catholic sacramental discipline while acknowledging the Anglican family’s pastoral and emotional needs. More importantly, it modeled the kind of mutual recognition, goodwill, and shared joy that Worlock believed should characterize Christian life.
A Foreshadowing of His Liverpool Partnership
The Portsmouth solution was not an isolated gesture but an early sign of the ecumenical instincts that would later define his partnership with David Sheppard in Liverpool. It showed Worlock’s willingness to take risks, to trust the good faith of other Christians, and to build unity through concrete acts rather than theoretical statements.
Bishop Worlock’s mitre, placed at his tomb, recalls a pivotal moment in his early episcopal ministry. In 1973, while serving as Bishop of Portsmouth, Worlock was preparing to attend the upcoming Roman Synod of Bishops. Asked to suggest a theme for the Synod’s work, he proposed “Evangelization”—a choice Pope Paul VI accepted.
Worlock’s proposal did more than set the agenda for a major global gathering. It highlighted two convictions that shaped his entire episcopate:
that evangelization is rooted in the Church’s ancient mission shared by all the baptized, and
that the spirit of Vatican II’s outreach to others—its ecumenical openness, its desire for dialogue, its pastoral warmth—must animate that mission.
In many ways, the theme anticipated the hallmark of Worlock’s later ministry as Archbishop of Liverpool: a commitment to opening outward, building bridges, and embodying the Gospel through collaboration with other Christians, especially his Anglican counterpart David Sheppard.
Archbishop Worlock’s mitre, resting at his tomb, evokes a churchman whose influence extended far beyond Liverpool. Over more than three decades as bishop and archbishop, he became a driving force within the episcopal conference, shaping how the Catholic Church in Britain engaged with the modern world.
He helped lead national initiatives on the media, the laity, and justice and peace, urging the Church to speak with clarity, courage, and compassion. His advocacy for the poor was especially memorable. When drawing attention to Britain’s growing homelessness crisis, he captured the moral urgency in a single, searing line: “I am my brother’s keeper, and he’s sleeping pretty rough these days.” London OBSERVER, December 16, 1990. (on the homeless).
This sentence distills the core of his ministry: the conviction that Christian leadership must be measured by its solidarity with the most vulnerable.
FEATURE Image: February 2018. Village “Art” Theatre, 1548-50 N. Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois 60610. The use of masks had been used in theatre since ancient times. They were usually tied to their dramatic source material and the inherent psychology of the characters. The Landmark Designation Report for the Village Theatre described this polychrome character head with musical instruments as “singing” in honor of the neighboring Germania Club, a German social club with its origins in men’s choral music. The head also wears a Baroque-style “wig” of oak leaves and acorns. In Germany, oak trees are revered, and acorns are a symbol of good luck. A decorative keystone on the theater’s round-arched window also has an acorn ornament. 88% 7.94mb DSC_4799 Author’s photograph.
Designed by architect Adolphe Woerner (born Stuttgart, Germany 1851- 1926), the Village (Art) Theatre opened as the Germania Theatre on July 29, 1916 and closed in its 91st year in March 2007. The building was erected by German-born Frank Schoeninger exclusively as a movie theater for $75,000 (about $2.2 million in 2025) and leased for an annual $7,000 rent (about $205,000 today) to Herman L. Gumbiner (Germany, 1879- 1952, Santa Monica, Calif.) in a 10-year contract with his company, The Villas Amusement Company (later Gumbiner Theatrical Enterprises). By 1910, buildings erected solely for the purpose to showcase motion pictures were becoming increasingly popular as the appetite to consume the latest silent motion pictures out of Hollywood was booming everywhere. These neighborhood movie houses, larger than dingy storefront nickelodeons and yet smaller than flamboyantly ornate vaudeville theatres, had movie “palace” touches while fitted conveniently into Chicago’s many local commercial strips. Nearly all of these first-generation movie theaters in Chicago have been demolished or remodeled for other purposes including those larger-scale theaters developed by major theater operators such as Balaban and Katz, Lubliner and Trinz, and the Marks Brothers. While those palatial theatres could hold between 2,000 and 4,000 movie-goers the Village Theatre, one of the last and best first generation movie houses to survive for so long, originally held 1,000 spectators. Originally named the Germania Theater because it was next door to the Germania Club, it looked to attract affluent club members to its flicks.
The Germania Theatre was built in 1916 on Frank Schoeninger’s open land pictured above between the Germania Club (completed in 1889) and his tavern and hotel on the corner of Clark Street and North Avenue. In 1986 the Germania Club, citing the dwindling numbers of members, finally disbanded. Public Domain.
Herman Gumbinger was a major film exhibitor who was busy in Chicago building his independent theatre chain in the 1910’s, with several new movie house projects and acquisitions throughout the city’s northside primarily. After building Chicago’s first independent movie house chain in the teens, Gumbinger relocated to Los Angeles, California, in 1921 where he built the famous Los Angeles Theatre in the Broadway Historic Theatre District of Downtown L.A. Erected at a cost of over $1.5 million ($31 million today) and designed by renowned movie theatre architect S. Charles Lee (1899-1990) Gumbinger’s theatre premiered Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights. Gumbinger Theatrical Enterprises finally dissolved in 1943.
Herman Gumbinger (1879-1956), c. 1924, built Chicago’s first independent movie chain, including what became the Village Art Theatre. By the end of the 1920s, Chicago had more than thirty of these movie palace theaters. Among its holdings, Herman Gubinger and his brothers operated the New Blaine which was renamed and is today the Music Box Theatre. Public Domain.
The Germania was one of the first-generation movie theatres built at the intersection of three Chicago neighborhoods – Gold Coast to the south and east, Old Town to the north and west and Lincoln Park to the north. An architectural mix of styles including Classical Revival (triangle pediments, pilasters and cornice with dentils fashioned in terra cotta) and Renaissance Revival (rusticated exterior and round-arched windows with keystones), the movie house also incorporated Germanic symbolism in its details reflecting the area’s then prominent ethnic group. During World War One, in a wave of anti-German sentiment, The Germania Club renamed itself the Lincoln Club. It changed its name back in 1921. The Germania Theatre changed its name to the Parkside and never looked back. In 1931 until 1962 it was known as the Gold Coast theatre. Meanwhile, prohibition closed down Frank Schoeninger’s tavern and he left for Wisconsin. In the 1960’s the theatre was updated and renamed the Globe Theatre. In 1967 the building was renamed the Village Theatre after it survived being demolished by the nearby Sandburg Village development.
Sandburg Village is a Chicago urban renewal project consisting of eight high-rise buildings, a mid-rise building and 60 townhomes and artists’ lofts. The development was first occupied In 1963 and completed in 1971. In the early 1960’s the Village Theatre was to be incorporated into the project until its landowner refused to sell. PHOTO: “20190323 08 Carl Sandburg Village (49490506022)” by David Wilson from Oak Park, Illinois, USA is licensed under CC BY 2.0.February 2018. The Village Theatre in the last days before its demolition. Its marquee from the 1960’s has been removed. The Village Theatre sat across the street from Latin School of Chicago at North and Clark Streets in Gold Coast/Old Town. In its Landmark Designation Report, the Village Theatre façade is described as having “a symmetrical arrangement, with a central theater entrance and separate entrances to the upstairs offices at opposite ends of the building. Each upper-story entrance has a deeply-recessed alcove lined with brick and white, carved-wood panels. A limestone slab step, inset with hexagonal tiles, is inside each alcove. Each alcove is framed with white terra cotta and brick pilasters on a base of gray terra cotta, made to imitate granite. The pilasters are topped with a triangular, white terra-cotta pediment.” 70% 7.93 mb DSC_4797. Author’s photograph.
The original two-story façade of red pressed brick and white beige glazed terra cotta decoration competed with a sizeable modern marquee that was removed before its demolition in 2018. Since after college I lived in Chicago for about 15 years, I recall seeing several films here. The ones I can remember seeing at the Village Theatre were Wall Street, House of Games, Fatal Attraction, Russia House, Michael Collins, and The Red Violin, among others of that period. In early 1991 the interior of the theater was divided into four screens and I didn’t stop going to movies there but just not as frequently as I did before. In April 2018, the Village Theatre and neighboring buildings along North Avenue were completely demolished to make way for construction of a condominium building. The ornate Clark Street frontage was stabilized as everything else crumbled to dust around it. The façade was repurposed to serve as the entrance for the new condo development known as Fifteen Fifty on the Park with units priced at opening at $1.625 to $5.85 million.
There had been at least three marquees for the Village Theatre: the original vertical Germania sign that was taken down almost as soon as it went up owing to anti-German sentiment in World War I; a horizontal, awning-style marquee like the one at the Biograph Theater (1914) at 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue in Chicago that was put up in conjunction with its existence as the Gold Coast theatre; and this prow-shaped marquee (pictured above) with steel-and glass doors believed to be part of the mid 1960s modifications when the movie house was the “Globe.” PHOTO: “Germania (Parkside, Gold Coast, Globe, Village) Theatre, Chicago, IL” by BWChicago is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.The Village Theatre took the moniker Village Art Theatre after The Chicago International Film Festival used the Village Theatre as a venue to screen “art house” films starting in 1969. PHOTO: “Village Art Theatre” by BWChicago is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.The rear of the 102-year-old Village Theatre before its impending destruction in 2018. “Germania (Parkside, Gold Coast, Globe, Village) Theatre, Chicago, IL” by BWChicago is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.October 2018. Author’s collection.
This explanatory article may be periodically updated.
PUBLISHED APRIL 19, 2025 7pm CT. Feature image: Lexington Minute Man, 1899, by H. H. Kitson (c.1863-1947) stands in Lexington Green west of Boston, Massachusetts. Although called Minute Man, the statue is meant to represent the local Lexington militiaman, colonists of many ages and backgrounds, who volunteered to be first responders to military and other threats. The actual “minute men” was part of an elite subset of militia who were young and fit and able to respond to the greatest danger and challenge. Author’s photograph, July 1989.
At the foot of the minuteman monument, visitors arrive in a steady flow, drawn to this enduring chapter of early American history. The bronze figure, rifle held in the classic Revolutionary‑era stance, recalls the citizen‑soldiers who first stepped forward to defend their towns. According to the National Park Service, the Minute Man National Historical Park—which includes Battle Road and its surrounding historic sites—welcomes more than 1 million visitors each year. see – Tourism to Minute Man National Historical Park contributes $102 million to local economy – Minute Man National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service) – retrieved April 19, 2025.
H.H. Kitson, sculptor of the famed Lexington Minuteman, was born in England and immigrated to the United States as a teenager. After studying art in Paris, he returned to New York in 1884 and moved to Boston two years later, where he established a studio, taught, married one of his students, and raised three children. The monument was commissioned in 1898 for $10,000 by railroad executive and U.S. Congressman Francis Brown Hayes, erected in 1899 facing the route of the British advance, and formally unveiled on April 19, 1900, for the 125th anniversary of the battle.Public Domain. see – https://monuments.freedomsway.org/monuments/minute-man-statue/ – retrieved April 19, 2025.
On April 19, 1775, local militiamen stepped out from Buckman Tavern beside the Lexington common and formed two lines to face the advancing British troops. Their stand resulted in the first casualties of the American Revolution. During our visit, we also learned that the phrase “sleep tight” comes from the rope‑laced frames that supported Colonial‑era mattresses. Author’s photograph, July 1989.
Author’s wife on Lexington Green where the first shots of the War of American Independence were fired on April 19, 1775. Author’s photograph, July 1989.
Also on April 19, 1775, the British approached the town of Concord where the American colonists sprang into action. After an alarm rider notified minutemen and militia, scouts were sent out to reconnoiter British movements. They heard the cackle of gunfire at Lexington Green and, learning of this martial situation, Concord prepared. The British advanced to Concord and the colonial militia strategically retreated past the North Bridge to watch what the British would do. Meanwhile the colonists were checking on the safety of their own military stores. With Concord effectively in British hands the Regulars moved out to take the town’s two bridges over the Concord River. The South Bridge was taken but the North Bridge proved more problematic. They crossed the bridge but encountered the colonists who had moved past it and into an elevated position. Loyalists in town informed the British where the colonists kept their military stores filled with supplies such as gun powder, cannon, shot, and flour. The colonists had their own intelligence network and had moved these stores to other hidden locations. At a farm where they thought the military supplies to be stored, the British forced a woman who lived there, one Rebecca Barrett, to make them breakfast as they searched the premises. But they found, as the colonists planned, nothing. Although there were kegs of gunpowder stored in the farm next door, the British didn’t go look.
DO NOT FIRE UNLESS FIRED UPON.
Meanwhile, the British held the two Concord bridges and waited for their search party to return. At the same time, the American colonists were getting a better look at their red-coat adversaries. As the Americans held a military council, their growing military presence forced the British who had crossed the bridge to retreat back to it. Armed militiamen were streaming in from several towns and formed a formidable front. As the British were setting fires in downtown Concord, the American colonists could see the flames rising from their position on the high ground. Because of these fires (the British were burning carriages) the Americans decided to march to the North Bridge so to cross into town to prevent the British from burning it down. Fully expecting a confrontation with the British, the militia companies loaded their weapons but were told not to fire unless fired upon. Approximately 400 militia men marched in order by company seniority down towards the North Bridge. There were less than 100 British guarding the bridge. With the coming American militia the British retreated around the bridge and considered this American action as an attack. There were a flurry of orders flying around the field of action to the point of chaos. The British debated marching into the field to meet the approaching Americans. They also debated ripping up the bridge so the Americans could not cross. They finally decided on a firing formation in the street at the base of the bridge.
SHOT HEARD ‘ROUND THE WORLD.
In the chaos the Americans arrived to the bridge. The British fired directly into the group and wounded and killed men. “The balls whistled well,” recalled a militia soldier. One American was shot through the throat. Another under and through the eye. One more through the heart. In a matter of seconds there were six total casualties. The Americans were then ordered: “Fire, for God’s sake fire!” A hail of bullets was shot into the British. Three were killed and nine wounded. Many of the British fled towards town. As the Americans chased the British, one militiaman struck a hatchet blow into the head of a wounded British soldier.
The British were quickly reinforced and ordered to march back to the bridge. But there was no more firing. The militia dispersed from the bridge though there was a huge influx of militia coming into Concord from several towns in all directions. The militiamen knew the terrain and its backroads and could converge quickly, directly and stealthily. Though the British asked for reinforcements (1,000 men) from Boston, nothing happened. The British retreated though Concord Bridge marked the beginning of a massive battle that raged over 16 miles along the Bay Road from Boston to Concord, and included some 1,700 British regulars and over 4,000 Colonial militia. see – https://www.nps.gov/mima/north-bridge-questions.htm – retrieved April 19, 2025.
The Minute Man statue of 1875, created by Daniel Chester French (1850–1931), was unveiled on April 19, 1875, during the centennial commemoration of the battles of Lexington and Concord. Set near the site where the first colonial militiamen fell in Concord, the seven‑foot bronze was cast from old Civil War cannons by the Ames Foundry of Chicopee, Massachusetts. Its stone pedestal bears the opening lines of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Concord Hymn, honoring the “shot heard round the world.” BY THE RUDE BRIDGE THAT ARCHED THE FLOOD, THEIR FLAG TO APRIL’S BREEZE UNFURLED, HERE ONCE THE EMBATTLED FARMERS STOOD, AND FIRED THE SHOT HEARD ROUND THE WORLD. https://www.nps.gov/mima/learn/historyculture/the-minute-man-statue-by-daniel-chester-french.htm – retrieved April 19, 2025. Author’s photograph, July 1989.
Daniel Chester French (1850–1931) was born in New Hampshire and, at seventeen, moved to Concord to be near Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Alcott family, where he received his first art lessons. After further study in Boston, he was only twenty‑one when he received the commission for The Minute Man. The statue was unveiled to critical acclaim in 1875, though French himself was in Europe studying art at the time. Upon returning to the United States, he worked in studios in Washington, Boston, and eventually New York City. In 1897 he purchased the Stockbridge, Massachusetts estate that became Chesterwood, his longtime home and workspace. Over the following decades, French produced major public monuments in Boston, Cambridge, New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., and he is best known today for his Seated Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial. He is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord alongside Emerson, the Alcotts, and Henry David Thoreau. https://www.nps.gov/mima/learn/historyculture/sculptor-daniel-chester-french.htm – retrieved April 19, 2025.
The author stands at the Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts, a house on Monument Street with the Concord River just behind it and the North Bridge—now part of Minute Man National Historical Park—beside the property. Built in 1770 for Rev. William Emerson (1743–1776), the home later became central to the Emerson family line: William’s son, minister William Emerson, and his grandson, the transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson. The elder Rev. Emerson served as Concord’s minister, chaplain to the Provincial Congress in 1774, and later chaplain to the Continental Army; he watched the fighting at the North Bridge from his fields while his family witnessed it from the upstairs windows. Decades later, Ralph Waldo Emerson drafted his foundational essay Nature here, and during his stay in the mid‑1830s he proposed to Lydia Jackson before the couple moved to what is now known as the Emerson House. Author’s collection, July 1989.
John Hancock, 1770, by John Singleton Copley (1738-1815) in the Massachusetts Historical Society. Public Domain.
Built in 1738, the Hancock–Clarke House at 36 Hancock Street in Lexington, Massachusetts—less than half a mile from Lexington Green—is the historic residence where John Hancock (1737–1793) and Samuel Adams (1722–1803) were staying on the eve of the Battle of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. Author’s photograph, July 1989.
John Hancock and Samuel Adams attended the Massachusetts Provincial Congress in Concord on the evening of April 18, 1775, and spent the night in Lexington as guests of Rev. Jonas Clarke (1730–1805). Clarke, a Harvard graduate and Lexington’s pastor since 1755, feared the two leaders might be seized by the advancing British. In Boston, Joseph Warren (1741–1775) dispatched William Dawes (1745–1799) and Paul Revere (1734–1818) to warn them; arriving separately at the Hancock–Clarke House around midnight, both riders delivered the alarm before continuing on toward Concord. Hancock and Adams then left for Burlington, about a half‑hour away by horseback, to ensure their safety. Author’s photograph, July 1989.
Old North Church, founded in 1723 as Christ Church, is best known for the night of April 18, 1775, when sexton Robert Newman and vestryman Capt. John Pulling Jr. climbed the steeple to display two lanterns. Their signal—alerting Paul Revere’s network that British troops were crossing the Charles River “by sea” toward Lexington and Concord—set in motion the opening moments of the American Revolution. see – https://www.oldnorth.com/ – retrieved April 19, 2025. Author’s photograph, July 1989.
Inside Old North Church, visitors stand only a short walk from Copp’s Hill Burying Ground, where Increase Mather (1639–1723) and his son Cotton Mather (1663–1728) are buried. Both served as Puritan ministers whose era of leadership overlapped with the notorious Salem witch trials. Author’s photograph, July 1989.
Paul Revere, c. 1770, by John Singleton Copley (1738–1815), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Public Domain. Unlike Copley’s formal portraits of Samuel Adams and John Hancock—both displayed in Boston’s Faneuil Hall—Revere’s portrait was long kept in the Revere family attic, disliked for its informality. After Revere’s fame surged with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1861 poem Paul Revere’s Ride, the painting was restored in 1875, though it was not publicly exhibited until 1928. Revere’s descendants donated it to the Museum of Fine Arts in 1930.https://collections.mfa.org/objects/32401/paul-revere?ctx=00d797a8-0c5a-4d78-ba26-db22eb858902&idx=5 – retrieved April 19, 2025.
Author at the Paul Revere House in Boston with a work friend of my dad. March 1976. Author’s collection.
Feature Image: June 2017. 4.37mb DSC_0785. The statue of Ronald Reagan by American sculptor Donald L. Reed in DIxon, Illinois, was dedicated on August 14, 2009. It is based on a photograph of Reagan when he visited Dixon in 1950 and rode a horse through its streets in a parade.The statue itself is nine feet high on its pedestal and called Begins the Trail. It is the first of a series that includes a life-sized statue for the Reagan Foundation at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, called Along the Trail. These artworks capture Reagan’s rugged amiable nature and his natural ability throughout life when riding. see – https://www.cowboysindians.com/2016/02/ronald-reagan-rides-again/ – retrieved April 13, 2025.
All text and photographs (except where noted) by John P. Walsh.
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Considered the heart of Dixon, the memorial arch has been a landmark since the 1920s. The original arch, built in 1919, was made of beaver board and wood. It was built to celebrate the return of Dixon’s soldiers after World War One. In 1949, a new arch was constructed of wood. It was replaced in 1966 when Galena Avenue was widened. In 1985 the arch was replaced with this fiberglass one with the letters from the 1966 arch. In 2024 it went through a major restoration. See – https://www.wifr.com/2024/06/04/dixons-iconic-memorial-arch-facing-repairs/ – retrieved February 28, 2025.
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This helicopter (above and below) wears five Purple Hearts carved from enemy ground fire in Vietnam — battered, scorched, and shot to pieces, yet every time it clawed its way back through the smoke, it delivered its crew home alive. In Dixon’s (Illinois) Veterans Memorial Park founded in 2001 the 1967 AH-1F Cobra Attack Helicopter Gunship (serial #67-15475) was issued to the 7th Squadron of the First Calvary Divisions Aviation Group for its entire tour of duty. This helicopter arrived in Vietnam in March 1967. Following 1142 combat hours flown, the helicopter was damaged on July 27, 1969, because of a weapons malfunction. At 1792 hours flown it was shot down on February 6, 1970, by heavy enemy ground fire while providing armed escort to medivac helicopters with both crewmen wounded. On April 15, 1970, at 1954 hours flown, it was damaged while providing direct fire support to infantry. On July 13, 1970, it was shot down by small arms fire while providing escort at 2092 hours. At 2471 hours, on January 19, 1971, it was severely damaged by gunfire while providing direct escort protection to ground troops. On July 6, 1971, it was damaged by heavy ground fire on an armed escort mission at 2745 hours flown. see – Cobra Attack Helicopter – Veterans Memorial Park & Museum – retrieved April 13, 2025.
June 2017. 6.18mb DSC_0821 (2)June 2017. 3.12mb DSC_0751. Author’s photograph.
On June 5, Ronald Reagan’s death day, Honor Guard gather at the Reagan Boyhood Home in Dixon, Illinois.
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Reagan was a lifeguard at Lowell Park from 1926 to 1932. The original 200-acre public park opened in 1907 and began Dixon’s park system with the objective to preserve scenic beauty and establish civic beautification. From the start, Lowell Park attracted large numbers of people to its location along the Rock River. In this area, the valley of the Rock River contains bluffs and unique rock outcroppings that create a natural beauty. More than 100 years later, Lowell Park has maintained its distinctive scenic and natural recreational resources for free public use.
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Lowell Park predated the development of Illinois state parks in areas of outstanding natural attractions by many years. Lowell Park is the only public place in the Dixon area that preserves remnants of the Boles Trail established in 1826from Peoria, Illinois, to Galena, Illinois. The trail was replaced in popularity by the famous Kellogg Trail established in 1825 east of the Boles Trail route. See – https://historyillinois.org/boles-trail-the/ – retrieved March 3, 2025.
Lowell Park, Dixon’s first recreational park, was gifted in 1906 by Carlotta Lowell who was the niece of James Russell Lowell (1819-1891), a famous Boston (Cambridge) poet. The family came west on the invitation of Alexander Charters, a wealthy New York businessman, who purchased a large, wooded estate overlooking the river north of Dixon in 1837 and named it Hazelwood. His home later became the estate of Mr. & Mrs. Charles R. Walgreen, founder of the drug store chain that bears that name. Charles Lowell. a guest at Hazelwood, purchased the adjacent tract of land to live. Lowell married Josephine Shaw, also originally of Boston, and then of Staten Island in New York. When the Civil War broke out, Charles enlisted and was promoted to the rank of colonel and was killed in 1864 at the Battle of Cedar Creek in northern Virginia. Carlotta never knew her father as she was born after his death and the family never lived on their land in Dixon. In 1874, they moved to New York City and stayed there the rest of their lives. After her mother died, Carlotta offered the property in 1906 to the City of Dixon for a park in memory of her parents.
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40th U.S. president Ronald Reagan visiting the Rock River in Lowell Park where he was an effective and beloved lifeguard for seven consecutive summers. In July 1921 a longer dock had been installed at the beach, extending 75 feet into the river with a springboard platform. The new bathhouse was built in 1922 that accommodated hundreds of bathers. Electricity was installed at the park in 1922 with lighting that allowed the beach to remain open until after dark. Over those summers, Reagan saved 77 swimmers from drowning. Obviously proud of his achievement, President Reagan often showed his Oval Office visitors a picture of the Rock River while telling them that his lifeguarding there was “one of the best jobs I ever had.”
The original 200 acres of Lowell Park opened to the public in 1907. The park was designed by the Olmsted Brothers, a nationally prominent architecture firm headed by the sons of Frederick Law Olmsted. Lowell Park was designed in the American Romantic style which is characterized by its emphasis on natural scenery, native plant materials, native building materials, curvilinear roads, and minimum formality. In 1959 the beach was finally closed after ten years of declining usage due to the opening of Memorial Pool in Vaile Park in the city of Dixon. The Lowell Park bathhouse was used for storage as its concession stand continued to operate until the late 1980s.
June 2017. Lowell Park was designed in the American Romantic style by the Olmsted Brothers. 7.24mb DSC_0916 (1)
Rock River at Lowell Park is still the hub for recreational activities as it has been for over a century.
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President Reagan on his lifeguard years in Dixon: “One of the Best Jobs I Ever Had.”
Ronald Reagan as a lifeguard at Lowell Park in 1927. Public Domain.
June 2017. Lowell Park, Dixon, IL. DSC_0882June 2017. Diving top with changing rooms and concession behind. Lowell Park, Dixon, IL. 5.38mb DSC_0896
Bus service from Dixon city to the park started in 1921. This diving top was anchored to the river bottom during its swimming hole glory days when Reagan was lifeguard. Swimmers teetered, spun and jumped into the water during hot Illinois summers which Reagan knew and loved. The one-story bathhouse behind it was designed and built in 1922. When Reagan was a lifeguard the building served as the concession stand and the check area for clothing baskets. Under a hipped roof, the men’s wing was to the south and women’s wing out of sight to the west. The architect of the bathhouse is unknown. Native stone was used from the ground to the height of the concession building’s serving counters and for the foundations of the two wings. Above that the walls were stucco on the exterior. All stonework was coursed and roughly squared. It was ventilated by raising the hinged board covers of the screened window openings. The steel-supported roof was covered originally with black-blue slate shingles that were replaced in 1934 with asphalt shingles. The overhang is broad with exposed rafters.
June 2017. Lowell Park, Dixon, Illinois. 3.53mb DSC_0877
Ronald Reagan in Dixon, Illinois, in the early 1920’s. Public Domain.
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The Reagans settled in this rented house at 816 S. Hennepin Avenue in Dixon, Illinois, on December 6, 1920. The family of father Jack, mother Nelle, and 12-year-old Neil and 9-year-old Ronald lived here for three years. From 1921 to 1924, Neil and Ron attended South Side/Central School which still stands four blocks north of the house and is now the Dixon Historic Center. Reagan often walked along Hennepin Avenue going downtown to the Dixon Public Library at 221 South Hennepin Avenue and the First Christian Church at 123 South Hennepin Avenue where both Neil and Ron were baptized on June 1, 1922. Nelle taught Sunday school and sang in the church’s choir. Ronald and his mother were members of the Disciples of Christ church until 1937. Between 1924 and 1930, the Reagans lived in a rented house at 338 W. Everett Street in Dixon. Reagan lived in that house in Dixon when he was home from college after he began attending Eureka College in September 1928.
Reagan 1920s with family. Ronald Reagan sitting (hand on chin in front row) posing with other family members, Neil Reagan at far right (front row), Jack Reagan (middle row at left), Nelle Reagan (last row, second from left), Illinois. Public Domain.
Ronald Reagan sitting (hand on chin in front row) with other golf caddies for the Lincoln Highway Ladies Golf Tournament in 1922 in DeKalb, Illinois. Public Domain.
Reagan (second row, left) in 4th grade in Tampico, Illinois. Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois, on February 6, 1911 in a second-floor apartment at 111 Main Street and, until 1914, at 104 W. Glassburn Street. Afterwards the family moved in sequence to Chicago, Galesburg, and Monmouth until they returned to Tampico in 1919-1920 and ultimately to Dixon in early December 1920. Reagan’s father was an alcoholic and they moved around a lot. As a young man Reagan became a lifesaver. Public Domain.
June 2017. Inside the Reagan Boyhood Home, Dixon, Illinois. 4.90mb DSC_0778 (1)
June 2017. Veterans Memorial Park, Dixon, Illinois. 6.41 mb DSC_0827.
The M60 tank is designed as one of the main assault vehicles of an Armor/Mechanized Infantry/ Infantry Division. It weighs about 105,000 pounds unloaded and has a 64,000 pound payload. The tank can travel at top speeds of 30 m.p.h. and can travel nearly 300 miles.
June 2017. Veterans Memorial Park, Dixon, Illinois. 7.05mb DSC_0831.
Republic F-105D Thunderchief (serial #60-455) was a new aircraft that served the U.S. Air Force from 1958 to 1984. This specific aircraft fought in Vietnam between 1968 and 1970. It was stationed at Takhli Airforce Base in Thailand with the 355 Tactical Fighter Wing that was established in April 1962 at George AFB in California and transferred to Thailand in 1965. This F-105D Thunderbird was one of 833 airplanes manufactured by Republic in Farmingdale, New York, with over half the fleet lost in combat or due to mechanical failures. With 610 built, this particular warbird was the definitive production model with all-weather capability because of advanced avionics, including AN/APN-131 navigational (Doppler) radar. This aircraft was retired with almost 6000 flying hours and two men who had flown it receiving the Medal of Honor. The plane’s maximum range is 2390 miles at a maximum ceiling of 48,500 feet and reached speeds of supersonic Mach 2 (1,534 m.p.h.) at over 36,000 feet. In addition to a Vulcan Gatling Gun the plane’s payload includes 750-pound conventional bombs (16 of them) or one nuclear bomb.
Capt. A. Lincoln, 16th president of the U.S., looking onto the Rock River in Dixon, Illinois, This 1930 statue by Leonard Crunelle (1872-1944) Reagan would have seen and known while living in Dixon. Young Lincoln enlisted in the Illinois Volunteers on April 21, 1832 and, following more enlistments, finally mustered out of military service on July 10, 1832. Across the Rock River is the modern Reagan statue.
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Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) lived in Dixon, Illinois from 1920 to 1933. Reagan always referred to Dixon as his “hometown.” Reagan made several visits to Dixon after he lived here, even when he was President of the United States. The statue is on the banks of the Rock River which is the same waterway where Reagan saved 77 lives as a lifeguard upstream at Lowell Park.
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After Reagan’s death in 2004 local donors commissioned this larger-than-life-sized statue of Dutch Reagan on a palomino horse and gifted it to the City of Dixon. It was dedicated to the eradication of Alzheimer’s that was a foe that President Reagan had to battle in last years.
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Reagan in DIxon in the early 1920’s. Public Domain.
In 1982, President Reagan told the Eureka College audience, “Everything that has been good in my life began here.”
September 2016. Eureka College’s Burrus Dickinson Hall built in 1858. 3.87 mb
On campus at Eureka College in Eureka, Illinois, about 90 miles south of Dixon, where Reagan lived. The college, affiliated with the Disciples of Christ of which Ronald Reagan was a member, was founded in 1855. At the time of its founding Eureka was one of a handful of U.S. colleges that was co-ed. In 1856 Abraham Lincoln spoke on campus. After he graduated Reagan returned for campus visits at least a dozen times and served on its board of trustees. Reagan attended Eureka College from 1928 to June 10, 1932, when he graduated as the elected student body president with a degree in economics/sociology. Eureka College is the smallest college or university in American history to graduate a future U.S. president with a bachelor’s degree. The school is in Woodford County in Illinois.
On May 9, 1982, President Reagan announced the START treaty proposal in the Reagan Gym at Eureka’s commencement exercises. It resulted in a bilateral treaty signed in 1991 between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. on the reduction and the limitation of strategic offensive arms including nuclear warheads and intercontinental ballistic missiles and heavy bombers.
Ronald Reagan is the only U.S. president who was born, grew up and received his education in the state of Illinois.
September 2016. Part of the Berlin Wall. Eureka College. 2.40mb DSC_0493 (3)
Of Dixon the Gipper once said: “It was the place I really found myself.”
Portrait of Ronald Reagan in 1934 the year after he left Dixon, Illinois. His career led to Hollywood, California as a film actor and Screen Actors Guild president; to Sacramento, California as 33rd Governor of California (1967-1975); and to Washington, D.C., as 40th President of the United States of America (1981-1989). But it was to Dixon, Illinois, that Reagan always returned with its fond memories. Reagan graduated from Eureka College, a liberal arts school affiliated with the Disciples of Christ, in 1932 where he was active in sports and drama and elected student body president. Reagan’s first job was as a sports radio broadcaster in Davenport, Iowa, for Big Ten football games. Afterwards he was a sports announcer for Chicago Cubs’ baseball games on WHO-AM in Des Moines. Reagan arrived in Hollywood in 1937 and was cast in his first feature film Love is on the Air for Warner Bros. where he gets to play a newscaster. Fair use.
In Love is on the Air (1937) Ronald Reagan made his screen debut as a crusading radio reporter who takes on civic corruption.
This explanatory article may be periodically updated.
Reagan giving a speech in Liberty State Park in Jersey City, NJ on September 1, 1980. On a personal note, I met Ronald Reagan at the Palmer House in Chicago in June 1980 during a press conference. He was gracious and had movie star looks: tall and handsome. Reagan was elected the 40th U.S. president in a landslide over Jimmy Carter in November 1980 and re-elected in 1984. I later met Jimmy Carter in Chicago at a book signing in the 1990’s.
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Author and wife at Reagan Boyhood Home, Dixon, Illinois.
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The Ronald Reagan Trail (IL-26) is a route in Illinois that follows sites of interest associated with the 40th president of the United States who was born in Tampico, Illinois and grew up in Dixon, Illinois. Route 26 originally ran north-to-south for about 25 miles from Freeport, Illinois to Polo, Illinois. In 1937, IL-26 was extended about 15 miles north to the Illinois-Wisconsin state line and about 15 miles south to Dixon, Illinois. In 1969, IL-26 was extended almost 100 miles south from Dixon to East Peoria, Illinois.
June 2017. Rock River at Lowell Park, Dixon, Illinois. 4.93 mb DSC_0865 (1). Author’s photograph.
January 3, 1960 — Announcement: One day after launching his campaign for the Democratic nomination, Kennedy immediately confronted a revived national anxiety: whether a Roman Catholic could serve as president without divided loyalties. As the first Catholic with a viable path to the White House, he faced sharp questioning over whether allegiance to the Pope might compromise his constitutional duties.
Religious Controversy: Kennedy moved quickly to defuse the issue. Kennedy, who happened to be Catholic, argued that religion should neither qualify nor disqualify a candidate. His position was deliberately universal. Though he made no excuses for his Catholic faith, he insisted that the presidency belongs to individuals, not categories. The controversy did not end there. In September 1960, before the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, he faced it down again, declaring that he was not the Catholic candidate for president, but the Democratic Party’s candidate who happened to be Catholic. The speech became the campaign’s clearest statement that personal identity must not become a political litmus test. He pledged to carry out the responsibilities of the presidency independent of any outside religious authority, rejecting both criticism and instruction. He argued for an uncompromising separation of church and state, stating that he would oppose a national church even if “99 percent” of Americans shared his faith.
Electoral Strategy: Beyond addressing religion, Kennedy used the NBC broadcast to outline his broader campaign logic. He rejected identity‑based ticket balancing, insisting that a major party’s presidential ticket should be shaped by geography and political experience rather than religious background.
Vice‑Presidential Speculation: He also dismissed rumors that he might accept the vice‑presidential slot, stating bluntly that he had no interest in “waiting for the president to die.” The unusually candid remark signaled his determination to run on his own terms and set the tone for the rest of his campaign.
September 13, 1962 — News conference:
I think – and I am sure this is the view of the people and the states- the right to vote is very basic. If we are going to neglect that right, then all of our talk about freedom is hollow. And therefore we shall give every protection that we can to anybody who is seeking the vote.
October 26, 1963 — Remarks at Amherst College:
The men who create power make an indispensible contribution to the nation’s greatness. But the men who question power make a contribution just as indispensible for they determine whether we use power or power uses us.
September 13, 1960 — Kennedy-Johnson Joint Campaign Appearance, Grand Prairie, Texas:
Above: One of the rare joint appearances of Senators John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson—the Democratic presidential ticket—in the 1960 campaign, which ultimately defeated the Republican ticket of Nixon–Lodge. During the second day of their Texas tour, the two men spoke to nearly 6,000 people in the parking lot of the Chance Vought Aircraft factory. It was at this stop that Kennedy was famously presented with a western cowboy hat, joking that he “didn’t have the guts to wear it” immediately. They also rode in a motorcade through the intersection of Main and Center streets in downtown Grand Prairie. Neither man was a natural campaigner: Kennedy’s hands often shook beneath a table or podium as he spoke, his voice growing hoarse, while Johnson, uneasy in crowds, frequently pushed himself into sick exhaustion on the trail.
Campaign Dynamics: Although both candidates wanted more joint appearances, their aides agreed such events mostly hurt the ticket’s image—especially Kennedy’s. Johnson was only nine years older, and both were the first U.S. presidents born in the 20th century, yet aides felt that when they stood together Kennedy looked almost like LBJ’s son. Still, the press and Johnson complained for weeks that the two men should campaign together more often, given the offices they sought.
Press Pressure: When reporters began hinting at a rift between the candidates as the reason for their limited joint schedule, the campaign arranged another appearance in November 1960, five days before Election Day. For that final joint even at the Biltmore in Los Angeles, Johnson flew out specifically to join Kennedy. The appearance received strong national print and television coverage, and on that Thursday before Americans went to the polls, both campaigns regarded it as a major success.
February 18, 1958 — Speech at Loyola College Alumni Banquet, Baltimore, Maryland:
Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.
The Cuban Missile Crisis lasted from October 16 to October 28, 1962.Critical Milestones:
October 16: Kennedy was first shown U‑2 photographs revealing Soviet nuclear missile installations in Cuba.
October 22: Kennedy announced a naval “quarantine” of Cuba in a televised address to the nation.
October 24: Soviet ships approached the blockade line but stopped or turned back to avoid confrontation.
October 27 — “Black Saturday”: A U‑2 was shot down over Cuba, and a Soviet submarine was forced to surface by U.S. Navy signaling, marking the peak of the crisis.
October 28: Premier Nikita Khrushchev announced that the Soviet Union would dismantle and remove the missiles, ending the 13‑day standoff.
FROM 13 DAYS (2000). JFK: BOB, IS THERE ANY WAY TO AVOID STOPPING THE SUBMARINE FIRST? MCNAMARA: I’M AFRAID NOT MR. PRESIDENT. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gol-iCLcroY – retrieved April 20, 2026
In response to the rapid buildup of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba, President John F. Kennedy announced that the United States would impose a naval blockade—officially termed a “quarantine”—around the island. It went into effect on the morning of October 24, 1962, when American warships and aircraft tightened a ring around Cuba with orders to intercept any vessel suspected of carrying offensive military equipment.
Tension spiked almost immediately. Roughly 25 Soviet ships, some believed to be transporting nuclear missile components, continued steaming toward the quarantine line. U.S. commanders had standing instructions: any vessel refusing inspection could be stopped, diverted, and, if necessary, sunk. At 10:00 a.m., as the quarantine became active, Kennedy convened ExComm to assess the situation when new intelligence came in that made the situation immediately more precarious. Reports were that the approaching Soviet ships were joined by a Soviet sub armed with nuclear weapons, raising the risk of an existential, catastrophic confrontation. At the same time, aerial reconnaissance showed Soviet crews working feverishly in western Cuba to complete missile sites armed with nuclear warheads pointed at the U.S.—further evidence that the threat to U.S. national security, already considered imminent by the Kennedy Administration, was growing by the minute.
On the diplomatic front, the crisis was unresolved as it was debated by delegates at the U.N. whether Kennedy’s blockade was even legal under international law. Soviet leaders accused the United States of issuing an ultimatum and warned that force would be met with force. Meanwhile protests were organized on each side across the globe as political maneuvering accelerated.
By the end of October 24, 1962, the first signs of restraint appeared: several Soviet ships slowed or halted before reaching the quarantine line, suggesting Moscow might be reconsidering its next move. Even so, the world understood, some for the first time, that it stood on the precipice of nuclear war. The day ended with both superpowers locked in the most dangerous equilibrium of the crisis so far – both armed, alert, and waiting for the next move – with no one knowing whether diplomacy or confrontation would ultimately prevail.
October 31, 1962 — Three Days After the Cuban Missile Crisis, JFK Meets the Archbishop of Canterbury at the White House:
Above: Rev. Dr. Michael Ramsey (1904–1988), Archbishop of Canterbury, meets with President John F. Kennedy on Halloween, 1962—just three days after the Cuban Missile Crisis ended. The world was still exhaling in relief: armed confrontation between the superpowers had been narrowly avoided, and October 27 had been the crisis’s most perilous day. A U‑2 reconnaissance plane was shot down by Soviet‑supplied SAM missiles, killing the USAF pilot. Kennedy’s ExComm urged immediate military retaliation, but he resisted. That same night, Robert Kennedy met secretly with Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin in Washington, where they reached a tentative understanding pending Moscow’s approval. By the next morning, October 28, Radio Moscow announced acceptance of Kennedy’s proposal, ending the 13‑day standoff.
Michael Ramsey had been appointed Archbishop of Canterbury on May 31, 1961, and installed the following month, serving until 1974. In 1962 he was also president of the World Council of Churches (1961–1968). During his archbishopric, the first woman Anglican priest—Chicago‑born high‑altitude balloonist Jeannette Piccard—was ordained in the United States in 1974.
Massachusetts: John F. Kennedy Library, Columbia Point, Boston (June 1989):
July 1989 — The author at the John F. Kennedy Library, Columbia Point, Boston.
Standing near JFK’s iconic sailboat, 1989 marked the Library’s tenth anniversary, a moment when the institution shifted from a young presidential repository into a fully established center of civic education, political legacy, and architectural study. Its most enduring milestone of 1989 was the formal creation of the Profile in Courage Award by members of the Kennedy family. Just five weeks before this photograph, Columbia Point hosted a major family gathering on May 25, 1989, attended by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Senator Ted Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy, and John F. Kennedy Jr., underscoring the Library’s growing national prominence a decade after its opening
John F. Kennedy Family House (1957), 3307 N Street, Georgetown, Washington, D.C. (October 2003):
Author’s photograph.
June 1957 — A Georgetown Purchase In June 1957, Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy bought this three‑story Federal‑style house as a gift for his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy after the birth of their daughter, Caroline. Their son, John Jr., was also born while the family lived here.
Campaign Life at 3307 N Street During JFK’s 1958 Senate re‑election and the 1960 presidential campaign, Jackie hosted teas in the home’s double living room. The front entrance became nationally recognizable when President‑elect Kennedy stepped outside to announce major appointments — including naming his younger brother and campaign manager, Robert F. Kennedy as U.S. Attorney General.
President-Elect John F. Kennedy and Chester Bowles emerge from a breakfast conference at Kennedy’s Georgetown home in Washington, on Nov. 29, 1960. Bowles was appointed Under Secretary of State and later was Kennedy and Johnson’s ambassador to India.
January 20, 1961 — Departure for History On the morning of January 20, 1961, Kennedy famously left from this doorstep to travel to the U.S. Capitol for his swearing‑in as the 35th President of the United States. The house was sold later that year when the family moved into the White House.
Early 19th‑Century Origins Beyond its presidential associations, the home was originally built in 1811–12 for William Marbury (1762–1835), the financier and plaintiff in the landmark 1803 Supreme Court case Marbury v. Madison — the decision that established the foundational principle of judicial review.
The Garden Refuge The Kennedys used the brick‑walled garden at 3307 N Street as a quiet refuge, especially during the 1960 campaign. With JFK traveling constantly, he rarely found time for his painting hobby, though he did spend occasional Sunday afternoons in the garden with Jackie and Caroline, away from the public spotlight.
Aesthetic Balance Inside the home, Jackie’s classical European taste was balanced with historical maritime art and paintings of naval vessels — a nod to Kennedy’s U.S. Navy service and lifelong passion for the sea.
Massachusetts: The John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site (Birthplace, 1917), Brookline, Massachusetts (July 1989) (August 2005):
July 1989 — The John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site at 83 Beals Street preserves the birthplace and early childhood home of the 35th president. The house, built in 1909 by local architect‑builder Robert M. Goode, is a two‑and‑a‑half‑story Colonial Revival structure with a green‑shingled exterior, an asymmetric cross‑gabled roof, prominent dormers, and a front porch topped by an upper balustrade deck. It stands in Brookline’s Coolidge Corner neighborhood, a dense early‑20th‑century streetcar suburb of tree‑lined residential blocks bordering Boston.
Three Kennedy children were born in the second‑floor master bedroom: John F. Kennedy on May 29, 1917; Rosemary Kennedy on September 13, 1918; and Kathleen Kennedy on February 20, 1920. Their older brother, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., was born in Hull, and the later five siblings — including Bobby and Ted — were born around the corner in the larger family home on Abbottsford Road.
August 2005 — The John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site in Brookline, Massachusetts. Author’s photograph.
JFK’s birthplace and childhood home—stands on Beals Street in the Boston suburbs. Joseph Patrick Kennedy purchased the house in August 1914, just ahead of his October marriage to Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald. A driven, opportunistic young bank president and businessman, he began building his fortune during World War I through shipbuilding contracts in the Quincy yards. In Brookline, Joe Kennedy was an affectionate father who fostered a spirited sense of competition among the Kennedy children, shaping the family ethos that would define their later public lives.
August 2005 — The John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site in Brookline, Massachusetts. Author’s photograph.
John F. Kennedy was born in this upstairs master bedroom of this Beals Street home in the mid-afternoon (3 p.m.) on Tuesday, May 29, 1917, an unseasonably cold (44 degrees), overcast, and rainy day. The family lived on Beals Street until 1920, then moved a short walk away to a larger house on Abbottsford Road, where they remained until 1927 before relocating to New York. Rose Fitzgerald—daughter of Boston’s first American‑born Irish mayor—had seven of her nine children in Brookline and was reluctant to leave. John F. Kennedy was her second child and son.
In Brookline, Joe Kennedy, son of a local pol and saloonkeeper, instilled a competitive spirit in his children, while Rose, who had studied in Europe, taught them an appreciation for the arts and history. A devout Catholic, Rose took her children on weekday walks to market and then to church, reinforcing their faith as part of daily life, not just Sundays.
After Joseph P. Kennedy sold the Beals Street house to family friend Edward Moore, the property passed through several owners over the next four decades. Following JFK’s assassination in 1963, thousands of mourners visited the home, turning it into an impromptu pilgrimage site. In 1966, the current owners agreed to sell the house back to the Kennedy family so it could be preserved as a permanent memorial.
Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy then led a full restoration of the interior, working from her own memories and period décor to recreate the exact appearance of the home as it looked on the day John F. Kennedy was born in 1917. When the project was complete, the Kennedy family donated the property to the National Park Service in 1969, establishing what is now the John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site. Rose Kennedy said she gave the house to the American people so that “future generations will be able to visit it and see how people lived in 1917 and thus get a better appreciation of the history of this wonderful country.” see – https://www.nps.gov/jofi/index.htm – retrieved May 29, 2025.
February 26, 1962 — Voice of America speech:
(56 seconds). “We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.” -John F. Kennedy, Voice of America speech, February 26, 1962.
In a 1962 address to the Voice of America, President John F. Kennedy defined the organization’s mission as a duty to champion truth, transparency, and the free flow of information, even when revealing internal “blemishes and warts.” He emphasized that a free nation must not fear truth and that the “burden of truth” serves the cause of freedom.
SPEAKING OF FREEDOM OF INFORMATION IN A FREE COUNTRY TO THE ENTIRE WORLD: “The Voice of America speaks. Today America has been at war for 79 days. Daily at this time we shall speak to you about America and the war, and the news may be good or bad. We shall tell you the truth”… …We seek a free flow of information across national boundaries and oceans, across iron curtains and stone walls. We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people. The Voice of America thus carries a heavy responsibility. Its burden of truth is not easy to bear. …And as you tell it, it spreads. And as it spreads, not only is the security of the United States assisted, but the cause of freedom.” See – https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-the-20th-anniversary-the-voice-america – retrieved May 29, 2025.
November 22, 1963 — Fort Worth Remarks Before the Texas Hotel:
On a rainy morning in front of the Texas Hotel in Fort Worth, President John F. Kennedy delivered brief remarks at a citizen’s rally. He outlined three pillars of national security: military strength, economic prosperity, and superiority in space exploration, noting that Fort Worth would again “play its proper part.”
KENNEDY: “What we are trying to do in this country and what we are trying to do around the world, I believe, is quite simple: and that is to build a military structure which will defend the vital interests of the United States. And in that great cause, Fort Worth, as it did in World War II, as it did in developing the best bomber system in the world, the B‑58, and as it will now do in developing the best fighter system in the world, the TFX, Fort Worth will play its proper part. And that is why we have placed so much emphasis in the last 3 years in building a defense system second to none, until now the United States is stronger than it has ever been in its history. And secondly, we believe that the new environment, space, the new sea, is also an area where the United States should be second to none.”
November 22, 1963 — The Johnsons Telephone Their Condolences to Rose Kennedy in the Immediate Aftermath of the Assassination:
November 22, 1963 — Rose and Joe Kennedy at Hyannis Port
On a clear “bluebird” morning at the Hyannis Port compound, Rose Kennedy followed her usual routine, attending morning Mass before returning home for lunch with Joe, who remained severely impaired from his 1961 stroke. After a short drive together, Rose received a call from her son, Attorney General Robert Kennedy: the President—her son Jack—had been shot in Dallas. A second call soon followed, confirming he was dead.
Rose withdrew to grieve in solitude, walking the beach and sitting quietly in her room, later reflecting that she asked God how decades of preparing her children for service could be undone in seconds. At approximately 4:15 p.m., she took a call from the new president, Lyndon Johnson, speaking from Air Force One shortly after being sworn in and as he returned to Washington with President Kennedy’s body. Composed, Rose addressed him as “Mr. President.”
June 11, 1963 — Oval Office Report to the American People on Civil Rights:
This nation was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.
May 27, 1963 — Supreme Court Signals an End to Evasion of Brown v. Board
On May 27, 1963, the Supreme Court declared that it would no longer tolerate evasions of its 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling. The statement came in another desegregation case involving public parks. When the Court issued Brown in 1954, it could not have foreseen the years of delay and resistance that followed.
June 5–10, 1963 — Federal Orders and Kennedy’s Warning to Wallace
On June 5, a federal court enjoined Alabama Governor George Wallace from obstructing the admission of two qualified Black students to the University of Alabama. President John F. Kennedy reinforced the order on June 10, writing to Wallace and urging him not to interfere.
June 11, 1963 — Wallace “Stands in the Schoolhouse Door”
On June 11, Wallace carried out his pledge to “stand in the schoolhouse door,” physically blocking the students from enrolling. When he refused to yield to federal marshals, Kennedy nationalized the Alabama National Guard. Guard troops arrived, Wallace stepped aside, and the students entered and registered for classes.
June 11, 1963 — Kennedy’s Civil Rights Address from the Oval Office
That evening, Kennedy delivered his “Report to the American People on Civil Rights” from the Oval Office. In a 13‑minute address, he set out the moral and legal issues surrounding civil rights and previewed legislation that would become the Civil Rights Act of 1964. After two cautious years, the speech marked a decisive shift: Kennedy gave a full‑throated endorsement of civil rights and federal action to secure them.
June 12–13, 1963 — The Murder of Medgar Evers and Local Repression
In the early hours of June 12, civil rights leader Medgar Evers, who had listened to Kennedy’s remarks, was assassinated outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi. On June 13, Jackson police arrested 82 Black marchers protesting Evers’s murder. Within a week, a white suspect was arrested and charged.
June 19, 1963 — Kennedy Sends His Civil Rights Bill to Congress
On June 19, Kennedy asked Congress to introduce his civil rights bill, seeking desegregation of public facilities, federal action to end job discrimination, and authority for the Attorney General to initiate desegregation suits.
Summer 1963 — Civil Rights Leaders Reject a Pause in Demonstrations
As Congressional debate and filibuster began, Kennedy asked civil rights leaders to suspend protests and marches. They refused. Instead, they announced a March for Jobs and Freedom in Washington, D.C., to take place in August 1963.
See- Kennedy and the Press, edit. Harold W. Chase and Allen H. Lerman, introduction by Pierre Salinger, Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York, 1965, p. 452.
June 26, 1963 — Berlin speech at Rudolph Wilde Platz November 21, 1963 —Texas motorcade & remarks at the dedication of the Aerospace Medical Health Center, San Antonio August 1, 1963—color recording of remarks for “Seas Around Us” September 12, 1962—Moon speech, Rice University, Houston, Texas
(27 seconds).
April 27, 1961 — Address before the American Newspaper Publishers Association, Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York City:
On April 27, 1961, President John F. Kennedy delivered his 2400-word+ major speech known as “President and the Press” before the American Newspaper Publishers Association at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. In the speech delivered just days after the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion the new president made a plea for responsible journalism in the face of Cold War threats. The remarks remain relevant today on the topics of press freedom, misinformation, and national security.
I am not asking your newspapers to support the Administration, but I am asking your help in the tremendous task of informing and alerting the American people. For I have complete confidence in the response and dedication of our citizens whenever they are fully informed. see – https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-speeches/american-newspaper-publishers-association-19610427#:~:text=This%20Administration%20intends%20to%20be,out%20when%20we%20miss%20them. – retrieved March 25, 2025.It was early in the 17th century that Francis Bacon [1561-1626] remarked on three recent inventions already transforming the world: the compass, gunpowder and the printing press. Now the links between the nations, first forged by THE COMPASS have made us all citizens of the world, the hopes and threats of one becoming the hopes and threats of us all. In that one world’s efforts to live together, the evolution of GUNPOWDER to its ultimate limit has warned mankind of the terrible consequences of failure. And, so, it is to the PRINTING PRESS–to the recorder of man’s deeds, the keeper of his conscience, the courier of his news–that we look for strength and assistance, confident that with your help man will be what he was born to be: free and independent. I not only could not stifle controversy among your readers–I welcome it. This Administration intends to be candid about its errors; for as a wise man once said: “An error does not become a mistake until you refuse to correct it.” We intend to accept full responsibility for our errors; and we expect you to point them out when we miss them.
John F. Kennedy 1960 Campaign Ad For Social Security:
When Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act on August 14, 1935, he called the new federal retirement program a “cornerstone.” It became one of the central pillars of the New Deal and a defining feature of modern American social policy.
A Personal Reflection from 1998
In 1998, at a Chicago book signing for The Virtues of Aging, I met former President Jimmy Carter and asked whether he believed Social Security was destined to disappear. Carter replied that he did not think so, a view reflecting the long‑standing bipartisan commitment to the program’s survival.
Social Security Under Strain in 2026
By 2026, Social Security faces unprecedented pressure. The aging population has surged: 75 million seniors now receive benefits—three times the number in 1975. Meanwhile, a smaller workforce contributes payroll taxes to support a rapidly growing pool of beneficiaries. Trust‑fund reserves are being depleted, and insolvency is projected for the mid‑2030s.
Kennedy’s 1960 Visit to Hyde Park
During the 1960 presidential campaign, Democratic nominee John F. Kennedy visited Hyde Park, New York, the national shrine home of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The occasion marked the 25th anniversary of the Social Security Act. Kennedy addressed 2,000 senior citizens gathered to honor Roosevelt and hear the young senator outline his vision for strengthening the program.
Kennedy’s Proposals for America’s Aging Population
In his remarks, Kennedy advanced a series of proposals aimed at improving the lives of older Americans and modernizing Social Security. Among them:
Federal medical care — a precursor to Medicare, which would be enacted in 1965.
Cost‑of‑living adjustments — automatic increases to keep pace with inflation, implemented in 1975.
Incentives for continued work — allowing older Americans to earn more without losing benefits.
Vocational guidance — support for retirees seeking new roles or training.
Adequate housing — expanding federal efforts to provide safe, affordable homes for seniors.
Medical research — increased study of diseases associated with aging.
Higher survivor benefits — expanded support for spouses caring for under‑age children.
A Continuity of Purpose
Kennedy’s 1960 message echoed Roosevelt’s original vision: Social Security was not merely a retirement program but a national commitment to dignity, security, and opportunity in old age. His proposals anticipated many reforms that would shape the program in the decades to come.
March 29, 1962—News Conference 29:
The Tax Cut Bill Advances in Congress
The press conference occurred the same week the House Ways and Means Committee approved President Kennedy’s tax cut bill. At the same time, Kennedy emphasized the need to close tax loopholes that permitted and encouraged American industries to invest overseas.
Revenue Neutrality as a Central Congressional Concern
Congress was focused on balancing the revenue lost from tax cuts with revenue gained through tax reforms, aiming to produce a revenue‑neutral bill. The effort was conceived as a targeted economic stimulus—not the broad‑brush solution tax cuts later became in national economic debates, nor the inverse approach of sweeping tax hikes.
Balancing Cuts and Reforms in the 1962 Legislation
The 1962 tax bill was modified and passed with this balancing principle in mind. Kennedy proposed significant reductions in tax rates for individuals and corporations, acknowledging that such cuts would initially reduce federal revenue. Broadly pro‑growth, the plan was not a modern‑style tax giveaway; policymakers believed the country could not afford such an approach. Instead, the goal was to offset revenue losses through reforms that generated compensating gains.
Sources of Revenue Gains
Revenue increases for the government came from several reforms, including:
Eliminating the dividend credit and exclusion
Introducing withholding taxes on dividends and interest
Restricting business expense deductions, particularly for entertainment and meals
Adjusting tax treatment for cooperatives and financial institutions
Revising taxation of gains from the sale of depreciable property
Short‑Term Losses and Long‑Term Contrast
Although the final Revenue Act of 1962 resulted in a short‑term net revenue loss, it still reflected Kennedy’s intent to pair tax cuts with offsetting reforms. Later economic approaches—particularly those associated with Reagan‑era tax policy—introduced large tax cuts skewed toward higher‑income earners without corresponding revenue‑generating reforms, relying exclusively on growth‑driven revenue effects to offset massive revenue losses. Combined with increased federal spending, this produced persistent deficit financing that Kennedy could not have imagined.
Kennedy’s Fiscal Aim in 1962
In 1962, Kennedy sought both a tax cut and a balanced budget, a pairing that underscores how different his fiscal strategy was from later eras of tax policy.
March 7, 1962—News Conference 26:
On February 22, 1962, Soviet Premier Khrushchev proposed that at the upcoming U.N.-sponsored Geneva Disarmament Conference on March 14 that the heads of government meet.
Kennedy rejected the offer, though he was afterwards pressured by European allies to reconsider and probed by the U.S. press if he would possibly attend and so backtrack on his statements. He maintained his firm position against attending the opening of the Geneva Disarmament Conference on March 14, 1962. Instead of traveling to Switzerland himself, Kennedy appointed Arthur H. Dean as the Chairman of the U.S. Delegation and sent Secretary of State Dean Rusk to handle the initial high-level negotiations.
Kennedy later outlined the manner of his going to any sort of summit conference in the near future— 1. to ratify an agreement 2. if there was a serious international crisis or the U.S. was on the brink of war 3. To aid the national interest.
The outcome to that spring’s lengthy Geneva talks was announced by Kennedy about 5 weeks after its opening: that negotiators had reached a broad outline for the objectives and principles, basic provisions and timings of a general treaty on nuclear disarmament.
Six months later the Cuban Missile Crisis took place.
April 30, 1963 — April 30, 1963 — Kennedy’s Remarks to Choate Alumni:
On May 4, 1963, President Kennedy broadcast taped remarks to the alumni of his alma mater, The Choate School, commemorating the unveiling of his official portrait on the campus in Wallingford, Connecticut.
The phrase most associated with John F. Kennedy’s 1961 Inaugural Address—“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country”—endured as a defining call to civic action. Delivered by the nation’s first Catholic president, it urged Americans to see national progress as a shared personal duty rather than a service provided by government.
Echoes in Years of Lightning, Day of Drums (1965)
Its resonance appears again in the 1965 documentary Years of Lightning, Day of Drums, one of the earliest films to chronicle Kennedy’s presidency and assassination. Near the conclusion, narrator Gregory Peck reflects, “All this took place in the early 1960s, and someday the early 1960s will be a long time ago.” Hearing that line as a child, I felt its existential reminder: even the most vivid present moments eventually recede into memory and become history.
Possible Origins at Choate
Some historians have suggested that Kennedy’s inaugural exhortation may trace back to his years at Choate, the Connecticut boarding school he entered in 1931 as a ninth‑grade student. In his chapel addresses, headmaster George St. John frequently reminded students: “The youth who loves his alma mater will always ask not ‘what can she do for me?’ but ‘what can I do for her?’” Kennedy would have heard this refrain repeatedly during his formative years.
A Frail Student with a Mischievous Streak
Kennedy arrived at Choate following his older brother, Joe Jr., a standout athlete two years ahead of him. By contrast, Kennedy was frail, thin, and saddled with the nickname “rat face” among classmates. His early years were marked less by distinction than by mischief. He gathered around him a circle of friends he called “The Muckers Club,” a tongue‑in‑cheek embrace of St. John’s term for troublemakers. Their antics were largely harmless—witty pranks and playful irreverence—and the group included Kennedy’s roommate and lifelong friend, Lem Billings.
A Shift in Trajectory
Despite his unremarkable start, Kennedy’s trajectory at Choate changed. By the time he graduated in 1935, he was not valedictorian, but his peers voted him “Most Likely to Succeed,” a judgment that reflected what followed.
JFK, May 4, 1963: First, it is to make sure that our private schools are increasingly representative of the diversity of American life. These schools will not survive if they become the exclusive possession of a single class or creed or color. They will enlarge their influence only as they incorporate within themselves the variety which accounts for so much of the drive and the creativity of the American tradition. The second is to make sure that our private schools prepare young men and women for service to the community and to the Nation. The inheritance of wealth creates responsibilities; so does privilege in education.
May 19, 1962 — Birthday Party for President Kennedy at Madison Square Garden:
On May 19, 1962—ten days before President Kennedy turned 45—more than 15,000 people packed Madison Square Garden for his birthday celebration, a star‑studded night of politicians, entertainers, and Hollywood royalty. The evening became legendary when Marilyn Monroe stepped onto the main stage in a sheer, flesh‑colored gown studded with 2,500 rhinestones and delivered her breathy rendition of “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” as a giant cake was brought out.
Kennedy followed her to the microphone and quipped, “I can now retire from politics after having had Happy Birthday sung to me in such a sweet, wholesome way,” a wink at Monroe’s sultry delivery and famously skintight dress.
Monroe had flown to New York with jazz pianist Hank Jones, leaving the troubled production of Something’s Got to Give to make the cross‑country appearance. The decision cost her: 20th Century‑Fox fired her in June 1962 for violating her contract. Kennedy attended the event alone; Jackie Kennedy skipped the celebration entirely, spending the day at the Loudoun Benefit Horse Show in Virginia with Caroline and John Jr.
The Madison Square Garden performance would become one of Monroe’s final public appearances before her death that August.
February 26, 1962 — President John F. Kennedy presented astronaut John Glenn with the NASA Distinguished Service Medal at the White House:
Astronaut John Glenn, born July 18, 1921, was part of NASA’s first astronaut group and became the first American to orbit Earth three times on February 20, 1962. Six days later, on February 26, 1962, President John F. Kennedy presented him with the NASA Distinguished Service Medal at the White House—a ceremony meant both to honor Glenn and to bolster national confidence during the Space Race.
The color footage (no sound) shows Kennedy awarding the medal with Glenn’s wife, Annie, and their children, John David (16) and Carolyn “Lyn” Glenn (14), standing beside him.
Glenn visited the Kennedy White House at least four times. He returned on May 3, 1962, as JFK welcomed Glenn and Soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov to the Oval Office to discuss their historic flights and encourage international space cooperation. About six weeks before Dallas, on October 10, 1963, Kennedy presented Glenn, joined by the rest of the Mercury Seven astronauts, with the National Aeronautic Association’s 1962 Robert J. Collier Trophy for pioneering American manned spaceflight.
Glenn retired from NASA in 1964 and became A US Senator from Ohio for a quarter of a century (1974-1999). As a sitting senator, 77-year-old Glenn returned to space in 1999 on shuttle Discovery. John Glenn died on December 8, 2016, at the age of 95
June 23-July 2, 1963 — President Kennedy’s 1963 European Tour:
In June and July 1963, President John F. Kennedy embarked on a historic ten-day European tour, beginning with a four-day visit to West Germany and West Berlin. During a stop in Hanau on June 25, Kennedy stepped out of his motorcade to personally shake hands with the German police motorcycle escort that had guided him through streets lined with dense cheering crowds. The following day, June 26, he traveled to Berlin to deliver his celebrated “Ich bin ein Berliner” address on the steps of Rathbone Schöneberg that was attended by a crowd of 500,000. The trip continued as a triumphal circuit through Western Europe. In Ireland, Kennedy visited his ancestral homestead in Wexford and addressed the Irish Parliament. Moving on to the United Kingdom, he attended Sunday Mass at a small parish church in East Sussex (“Our Lady, Help of Christians”) before meeting with Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. Finally, Kennedy concluded his journey in Italy on July 2 with a private audience with Pope Paul VI—securing a vital diplomatic meeting while carefully avoiding the new Pope’s formal installation ceremony just days prior.
FEATURE image: Late afternoon at Leon’s Frozen Custard in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. June 2017.Author’s photograph. (4.53mb, DSC_0728).
Leon’s original sign. By victorgrigas – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Leon’s is a family-owned drive-in in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that opened 83 years ago – in 1942. The building was remodeled in the early 50’s and is what is seen today. Leon’s was inspiration for the original Arnold’s Drive-In in the 1970’s ABC television sitcom, Happy Days, that was also set during the 1950’s in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The Happy Days season 2 intro settles into the warm glow of Arnold’s Drive‑In, where the cast dances, jokes, and moves through the set like regulars in a familiar hangout. The sequence plays over a freshly recorded version of “Rock Around the Clock”, a choice that instantly anchors the show in a 1950s jukebox mood. The season 2 also marks a shift in the show’s rising star power: Henry Winkler’s Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli steps into the opening credits beside Ron Howard, reflecting what would be his iconic popularity with viewers.
Although the tune is the same one Bill Haley & His Comets first cut in 1954, the version heard in Happy Days wasn’t that original hit. The song had begun modestly as the B‑side of a single that only reached No. 23, but everything changed when it blasted through the opening credits of Blackboard Jungle in 1955. Practically overnight, it became a cultural earthquake, soaring to No. 1 that July and helping ignite the rock‑and‑roll era.
Nearly twenty years later, in the fall of 1973, ABC asked the band to re‑record the song specifically for the new TV series. When Happy Days became an instant sensation, viewers went hunting for the version they heard each week—only to discover it wasn’t sold in stores. Their search sent them back to the original 1954 single instead, giving that two‑decades‑old record an unexpected second wind and pushing it back into the Top 40 in 1974, a rare encore for a rock‑and‑roll classic.
Fonzi played by Henry Winkler was a new character for the ABC TV series. He had just 6 lines in the first episode of “Happy Days” whose debut broadcast was January 15, 1974. In the series, Fonzie’s full name was Arthur Fonzarelli and called that by Richie’s mom. The original family name of series’ creator Garry Marshall (1923-2016) was Masciarelli and changed before Garry was born by his father, a man of Italian descent.“TV Guide #1189” by trainman74 is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.
At the 2024 Emmy Awards on September 15, Ron Howard and Henry Winkler reunited to mark Happy Days’ 50th anniversary. The longtime friends presented the award for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series from a lovingly recreated Arnold’s Drive‑In set, complete with a vintage jukebox, red‑leather booths, and classic sports pennants.
Leon’s is still owned and operated by the original family. The main focus of the business is, and always has been, to serve the freshest and finest frozen custard available anywhere. The business is open all year round and they have full soda fountain service, a sandwich menu, daily special flavors and take-out service.
June 2017. Late afternoon at Leon’s, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Leon’s was inspiration for Arnold’s on Happy Days, a popular 1970’s TV series set in Milwaukee in the 1950’s. Author’s photograph. 4.53 mb
Arnold’s was the name of the local Milwaukee drive-in hang out for most of the characters in Happy Days. Fair Use.
Ron Howard Signs On (1973)
At just 19 years old, Ron Howard signed a seven‑year contract to star in Happy Days. At the time, he was juggling an unusually heavy load: filming American Graffiti, attending USC, and mapping out an early directing career.
Becoming Richie Cunningham
Cast as Richie Cunningham, Howard earned $3,500 per episode—roughly $25,000 in 2025 dollars. He had already played Richie once before, in the February 1972 Love, American Style segment that inspired the new series, but still had to audition again for the TV version. At the first read‑through, Howard reunited with Anson Williams (“Potsie”) and Marion Ross (Richie’s mother)—both of whom had appeared with him in the Love, American Style pilot. He also met the rest of the soon‑to‑be iconic cast: Tom Bosley (“Richie’s dad”), Donny Most (“Ralph Malph”), and Henry Winkler, a 28‑year‑old Yale School of Drama graduate who would become “Fonzie”
A 1970s TV Powerhouse
Alongside M*A*S*H, All in the Family, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and The Bob Newhart Show, Happy Days became one of the defining sitcoms of the 1970s. It aired for 11 seasons from January 15, 1974, to July 19, 1984 on the ABC network. There was a total of 255 half-hour episodes.
SOURCES:
Ron Howard & Clint Howard , The Boys A Memoir of Hollywood and Family, William Morrow, 2021, pp. 275-277.
Attributed to Michelangelo Buonarotti, 1513, terracotta, Casa Buonarroti, Florence, Italy. The work is a study of a male torso, conceived to be without the head and upper and lower limbs. The work has been identified as a preparatory model for one of the figures of the Prisoners, intended to decorate the tomb of Julius II in Rome. see – https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/torso-virile/zQGx46asE5jBIg?hl=it&ms=%7B%22x%22%3A0.5%2C%22y%22%3A0.5%2C%22z%22%3A9.086882915528859%2C%22size%22%3A%7B%22width%22%3A3.3866676762513332%2C%22height%22%3A1.2375000000000005%7D%7D – retrieved March 6, 2025. Michelangelo Buonarotti, Madonna della Scala, 1490. Casa Buonarroti, Florence, Italy. Though it is small-sized the relief subject of the Madonna and child presents a monumental scope. The female figure fills the entire space. The meaning of the ladder (“scala”) in the title is ambiguous and may have reference to the children playing and holding a drape behind the Madonna. The date of the relief has been much discussed. However, a placement around 1490, before the Battle of the Centaurs, seems to be confirmed.see – https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/madonna-della-scala/xQF2nwLhAXd26w?hl=it – retrieved March 6, 2025. Michelangelo Buonarotti, Nude female, 1533, Casa Buonarroti, Florence, Italy. This figure of a female nude is linked to the New Sacristy in Florence to accompany the marble effigy of Giuliano de’ Medici. It has been linked to the figure of the Earth that, together with the Sky, was to be part of Giuliano’s marble effigy. The project of building a proper Medici family mausoleum was conceived in 1520, when Michelangelo began work on the New Sacristy upon the request of Cardinal Giulio de Medici, the future Pope Clement VII, who expressed a desire to erect the mausoleum for some members of his family including Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano assassinated in Florence’s Duomo in 1478. After completing the architectural works in 1524, Michelangelo worked until 1533 on the sculptures and the sarcophagi that were to be featured on the chapel walls. The only ones actually completed were the statues of Lorenzo, the Duke of Urbino; Giuliano, the Duke of Nemours; the four statues of the allegories of Day and Night, and Dawn and Dusk; and the group representing the Madonna and Child. see – https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/nudo-femminile/xgHfNWIKU6r13g?hl=it – retrieved March 6, 2025 and http://www.museumsinflorence.com/musei/Medici_chapels.html#:~:text=The%20project%20of%20building%20a,the%20Magnificent%20and%20his%20brother – retrieved March 6, 2025. Michelangelo, crucifix, 1493, wood, Santo Spirito, Florence. It was placed by the artist in 1493 above the lunette of the high altar and has been there since.
The Italian Renaissance artist was born in Florentine territory in Caprese in the provinces of Tuscany where his father was a government bureaucrat. The family soon relocated to Florence where Michaelangelo grew up. Becoming friends with Francesco Granacci (1469-1543) who saw Michaelangelo’s drawing talent, at 13 years old Michelangelo announced he wanted to be an artist. Despite his parents objection, they eventually yielded to their son’s aspirations, and he was apprenticed to Domenico Ghirlandaio (1448-1494) for the next three years.
Domenico Ghirlandaio (1448-1494), Expulsion of Joachim From the Temple, fresco (detail), 1486-1490. Santa Maria Novella, Cappella Tornabuoni, Florence. In the background, the mitered high priest receives sacrificial lambs at the altar where a fire burns. Joachim, according to sacred tradition, father of the Virgin Mary and grandfather of Jesus Christ, is sent away at this time since he is childless. He is married to Anne. To the right Ghirlandaio depicts an assembled group of contemporary Florentines including, second from right, Ghirlandaio himself. In 2nd century apocryphal writings, childless Joachim left for the desert where he prayed and fasted for 40 days. Angels appeared to Joachim and his wife Anne, and promised them a child. Joachim then returned to Jerusalem and embraced Anne at the city gate, a scene popularly depicted in medieval and Renaissance art. After this, Anne became pregnant and became the mother of the Virgin Mary and Jesus’s grandmother. This apocryphal relating of Joachim and Anne to Biblical figures Elizabeth and Zechariah and the birth of their son, John the Baptist (Luke 1) and Abraham and Sarah and the birth of their son, Isaac (Genesis 21) was a popular subject depicted in Christian art until the Council of Trent (1545–1563) when the church restricted public displays of these simple stories and events from apocryphal sources in a severe reaction to the Protestant reformation.
Michelangelo’s training was erratic, likely having left Ghirlandaio before his contract was complete, and working under the city’s ruler, Lorenzo de Medici for his contracted master, Bertoldo (1420-1491). Later in life Michelangelo did not advertise his training credentials as he believed art – such as freeing subjects from stone – emerged by the sheer artistic power of the individual. In this period, as a teenager, Michelangelo learned the art of fresco painting and drawing, copying previous masters such as Giotto (1267-1337) and Masaccio (1401-1428). Michelangelo absorbed the artwork of the naturalists, such as Paolo Uccello (1397-1475), whose artwork looked to present subjects with a viewpoint like a scientist interested in objective fact rather than looking to convey some established figural attitude. Where young Michelangelo was materially as great as Giotto and Masaccio, he also possessed a new means undreamt by those previous masters, as he drunk of the art of Donatello (1386-1466), Pollaiuolo (1429-1498), Verrocchio (c.1435-1488) and Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). Further, Michelangelo understood better than these others, that the epitome of these Renaissance artistic studies was to be expressed by one subject above all: the human nude.
Bernard Berenson described Michelangelo as “the pupil of nobody, the heir of everybody, who felt profoundly and powerfully what to his precursors had been vague instinct, who saw and expressed the meaning of it all.”
Giotto, The Arrest of Christ (Kiss of Judas ), 1304, Padua, Scrovegni Chapel.
The Arena, or Scrovegni Chapel, was commissioned by Enrico Scrovegni in 1303. A nobleman of Padua, Enrico dedicated the chapel as an act of atonement for the sins of his father, Reginaldo, a moneylender whom Dante placed among the damned in the Inferno. The exterior of the chapel is austere, but its interior is filled with Giotto’s frescoes, completed by the time of the chapel’s dedication in late March 1305, with remaining work finished by March 1306. By this point, Giotto—then in his late thirties—was already a mature master, and in this cycle he transformed the course of Italian painting.
What had appeared as youthful brittleness and restlessness in his frescoes at Assisi in the late 1290s—works that had secured his fame and led to the Padua commission—has here developed into a fully realized visual language of narrative concision, solemnity, and decisive, almost fatalistic, plastic form. Although the subjects of the Life of the Virgin, the Life and Passion of Christ, and the Last Judgment draw upon a venerable medieval tradition, Giotto renders them with a striking immediacy. Human emotion, individualized gesture, and the presence of everyday life infuse the sacred narratives with a naturalism that conveys profound dignity and emotional gravity rather than rhetorical flourish.
The dramatic center of the Betrayal fresco is the confrontation between Christ and Judas. Once Christ accepts His fate in the agony of the garden, the world wastes no time in presenting Him with the cross He has embraced. One of His own apostles—an unsettling reminder of the failures of religious leaders across the ages—betrays Him with a kiss. Christ’s body nearly disappears beneath Judas’s enveloping cloak, yet His classical profile remains visible, fixed in a calm, penetrating gaze upon His betrayer. Judas’s pursed lips embody the chilling intimacy of treachery. As John 13 recounts, the devil—whether through possession or the alignment of Judas’s will with Satan’s designs—provides the impetus for the betrayal.
Giotto had previously depicted Judas as youthful and handsome, but here the apostle’s features bear the accumulated marks of moral decay. At the left, Peter lashes out at Malchus, the high priest’s servant, severing his ear; at the right, the high priest himself gestures toward the betrayal, yet his posture suggests a momentary hesitation before the full enormity of the act. Through these figures, Giotto constructs a scene of moral and emotional complexity, capturing the decisive moment when divine purpose and fallen humanity collide.
Michelangelo after Giotto, Drawing from “Ascension of the Evangelist,” 1490-1492. Louvre. see – https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl020001224 – retrieved March 6, 2025. Paolo Uccello, Sacrifice of Noah And Noah’s Drunkenness (detail), 1447-48. Uccello was not interested primarily in conveying in art the possible “artistic” intention of this story’s scene. Instead, as Bernard Berenson described it, the artist produced “nothing but the scientific intention to find out how a man swooping down head-foremost would have looked if at a given instant of his fall he had been suddenly congealed and suspended in space.” These studies of reproducing objects as they really are, in anatomy and perspective, had a great bearing for the art of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. quoted in Berenson, p.54.Masaccio, Distribution of Alms and Death of Ananias (detail), 1425-1427, Brancacci Chapel, Florence. An episode from Acts of the Apostles (4:43-37 and 5: 1-11) depicting Ananias’s wife and child whose husband withheld their tithe from the early church leaders with the outcome being that Ananias dropped dead in divine retribution. When it was painted, viewers in the 1420’s and afterwards, read it as an artistic display of a New Testament endorsement of the equitable redistribution of wealth and the divine punishment of death forthwith for those who falsely withheld their fair share. 67% 7.95mb
When the Medici fell and Florence became a theocracy under Savonarola (1452-1498), 19-year-old Michelangelo decided to leave Florence. He lamented the fall of Lorenzo the Magnificent, his artistic patron, and the young artist lived hand to mouth going to Bologna, then to Venice, and back to Bologna, and finally to Rome in June 1496. The popes’ tremendous influence in capitalist Italy started in the 13th century and augmented into the 17th century, leading to what art critic Bernard Berenson (1865-1959) called an encroachment of “soulless Vaticanism” towards modern art. But clearly Rome had no use for a firebrand friar who refused to support the pope’s troops against the invading French army. As Columbus set out to discover America, It was the unpleasant chapter of the Italian War of the 1490s that helped fill the times with ongoing brutality, duplicity, complicity, intrigue, opportunism and expedience. A looming danger of looting and violence of the invading French army were emphasized by the impassioned sermons of Girolamo Savonarola that frightened the people and led to their heightened resentment against the ruling Medici. Florence was traditionally pro-French, but Piero di Lorenzo de’ Medici (“Piero the Unfortunate”) (1472-1504), son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, had deployed against them to defend Naples. Under pressure from citizens and outside French forces promising church reforms and civic transparency, the Medici was forced to flee and the city was proclaimed a Republic. The Florentines, with Savonarola in the lead, facilitated the invasion of French king Charles VIII (1470-1498) and against the pope which they considered corrupt. Pope Alexander VI (1431-1503), a Borgia and one of the most corrupt popes in history, ascended to the papal throne in 1492 and was immediately condemned in fiery sermons by Savonarola. Yet all was not well between “liberator” Charles VIII and his Florentine supporters. Immediately the French king demanded a huge sum of money, a ransom payment of sorts, from the Florentines in appreciation, as well as to pay for, the pro-French liberation. The Florentine government refused and the king threatened to loot the city. Faced with a backlash and real threat of popular revolt, the French bully relented and continued onto Rome. Charles postured, but was constantly fearful of antagonizing the European powers and announced his decision that he would not depose the corrupt old pope after all. By having kidnapped the pope’s mistress Giulia Farnese, wife of the pope’s military ally Orsino Orsini, who commanded 4,000 Neapolitan soldiers freshly landed to defend papal interests on the peninsula, Charles VIII was able to extract full entry into Rome in exchange for her release. Once in Rome the French troops looted the city. The pope, in a panic, arranged a quick safe passage for Charles VIII out of the Papal States towards Naples during which the king’s army massacred many hundreds of local inhabitants.
Charles VIII, roi de France, anonymous, c. 1550. Entering Florence in a power vacuum the invading French king demanded a huge sum of money from the citizens who refused to pay and leading to a stand-off. Public Domain. Domenico Ghirlandaio’s 15th century portrait of Piero the Unfortunate. Eldest son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, Piero di Lorenzo de’ Medicisucceeded him as ruler of Florence in 1492. When Piero determined in 1494 to stay neutral during French king Charles VIII’s invasion of Italy, effectively defending Naples the object of the king’s campaign, he was challenged. Suffering from an abandonment of the Florentine elite under the spell of Savonarola, Piero totally capitulated to Charles VIIi’s demands. Having succeeded in alienatating everyone in Florence, Piero fled to Venice, aided by a French diplomat, in November 1494. Attempting to make a comeback several times to Florence he was constantly rebuked, Piero drowned in the Garigliano River while attempting to flee the aftermath of the Battle of Garigliano in 1503, Public Domain.Pope Alexander VI Borgia, c.1495, attributed to Spanish painter Pedro Berruguete (c. 1450-1504), Vatican Museums. Alexander Vi was a wily politician from a prominent family who practiced nepotism and sired several children by way of his many mistresses.
Savonarola played an important role in this French infiltration in Italy — and Rome did not forget. Then, in February 1497, during Mardi Gras of that year, Savonarola, whose message was a combination of religious purist and civic republican preached his most dramatic act of cultural desecration by seeking that artworks, books, clothing items and cosmetics were thrown into a bonfire of the vanities as a sign of monied and other social decadence. The flames became his final undoing: Savonarola was excommunicated for heresy and sedition by Pope Alexander VI on May 12, 1497 after the preacher called “the contemporary Church leadership…a pockmarked whore sitting on Solomon’s throne.” The pope also threatened Florence with severe interdictions if they continued to be a sanctuary for Savonarola and his ilk. Savonarola was imprisoned on April 7, 1498 after failing a literal public trial by fire (it rained). Finally, he was dragged from his prison cell and with two other contemptible friars was condemned as a heretic and schismatic and hanged and burned at the stake on May 23, 1498, with the Vatican and the Medici observing it all from a safe distance. Yet the cult of Savonarola, his person as well as his political and religious ideas, did not go quietly up in smoke. Though seen today as a sort of vile figure, his supporters around 1500 and afterwards saw him as a martyr and encouraged his veneration as a saint to which many complied. In Florence Savonarola’s disputed legacy went on until the Medici more or less permanently re-installed themselves in 1530. Yet Protestant reformers in Germany and Switzerland were intrigued and influenced by Savonarola’s ideas and, in 1558, even Pope Paul IV, who was 22 years old when Savonarola was executed, declared him not a heretic and always in communion with the Catholic Church. Saint Philip Neri (1515-1595), a Florentine established in Rome, and regularly characterized as a most relatable prelate of and for the masses, also defended Savonarola’s memory.
Francesco Rosselli (1445-1513), The Execution of Savonarola and Two Companions at Piazza della Signoria, 16th century, oil on canvas, Galeria CorsiniBernard Berenson as a young man, Berenson described Michelangelo as “the pupil of nobody, the heir of everybody, who felt profoundly and powerfully what to his precursors had been vague instinct, who saw and expressed the meaning of it all.” quoted in Berenson p. 72. Public Domain. “Donatello – David – Florença” by original file by Patrick A. Rodgers is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. Verrocchio, Equestrian Statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni, 1480s, Venice. Bartolomeo Colleoni (1400-1475) was an Italian condottiero, who became captain-general of the Republic of Venice. Colleoni gained a reputation as the foremost tactician and disciplinarian of the 15th century. “Bartolomeo Colleoni by Andrea del Verrocchio” by Didier Descouens is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.Antonio del Pollaiuolo, Nude Dancers, 1470s, Fresco Arcetri, Villa La Gallina. A fresco frieze of dancing nude figures, in a villa near Florence, shows the artist’s same interest in extreme body poses. Public Domain.
Meanwhile, in Rome, Michelangelo sculpted his first major marble works. The first, Bacchus, was commissioned by Cardinal Raffaele Riario (1461-1521) in partnership with Jacopo Galli, a Roman collector, that was displayed in Galli’s garden until it was sold in 1572 to the Medici and is today in the Bargello. The second is the sublime Pietà (St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City) that was commissioned by a French cardinal in Rome and placed in the Santa Maria della Febbre. Vasari described the Pietà as “a revelation of all the potentialities and force of the art of sculpture.” Though the Pietà made Michelangelo famous in Rome, he returned to Florence following its installation to work on the David, a commission made by the Florentine republic after the expulsion of the Medici.
Michelangelo, Bacchus, marble. 1497, Bargello, Florence.Michelangelo, Pietà, marble, 1498-1499, St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome. A 24-year-old Michelangelo was all the rage in Rome as an artist in the late 1490’s and wrote his name promonently across the sash of the Blessed Mother. The artist did this after it was completed and heard a group admiring the artwork and attributing it to a different artist. Michelangelo was having none of it and one night whet into the chapel and chiseled his name for none to miss seeing. “Pieta (Michelangelo)” by elixirk is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence, Italy, May 1983. Author’s collection.
Michelangelo’s David, created in c. 1501-1504, has been in the Galleria dell’Accademia since 1873, The biblical figure of David came to symbolize the defense of civil liberties embodied in the 1494 constitution of the Republic of Florence, an independent city-state threatened on all sides by more powerful rival states and by the political aspirations of the Medici family.
This explanatory article may be periodically updated.
SOURCES:
Bernard Berenson, The Italian Painters of the Renaissance, Phaidon, New York, 1959.
Ornella Casazza, Masaccio and the Brancacci Chapel, Scala, 1990.
Enzo Carli, translated by Susan Bellamy, Giotto and His Contemporaries, Crown Publishers, 1958.
Andreas Quermann, Ghirlandaio, Könemann, 1998.
A Dictionary of Art and Artists, Peter and Linda Murray, Penguin Books; Revised,1998.
Giorgio Vasari, trans. George Bull, Lives of the Artists, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England, 1965.
Feature image: The site of the Wilson family home in Hawthorne, California, where Brian Wilson composed Don’t Worry Baby with lyrics by Roger Christian (a DJ at KFWB in L.A.) ver the course of a couple days in late 1963 or early 1964. The family home where Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson grew up with their parents Murray and Audree Wilson is where they honed their musical skills and formed the Beach Boys with cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine in 1961. The house along with much of the neighborhood was lost to development (a new highway) in the 1980’s. Thoogh the Beach Boys had the no. 1 single of 1963 (Surfin’ U.S.A.) they had to rethink the direction of their music literally overnight following the Beatles’ first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964. The broadcast drew an estimated 73 million viewers, around 60% of all television sets in the nation, and ushered in the British Invasion that changed rock and roll and the recording industry with it forever. PHOTO: “Beach Boys Landmark – Plano general I” by tkksummers is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
Beach Boys in 1963. Brian Wilson, Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson, David Marks, Mike Love. Since spring of 1963 they had 3 top-5 hits (and two more top-10 hits). “Surfin’ U.S.A.” peaked at no. 3 in May 1963 and became Billboard’s no.1 song for the year. “Little Saint Nick” released in December 1963 peaked at no. 3 on the Billboard Christmas Singles chart. It was in this time period that Brian Wilson with Roger Christian wrote “Don’t Worry Baby,” one of the Beach Boys’ finest songs pre-British Invasion about a guy who agrees to drag race but regrets it and, confiding his situation to his girlfriend, is tenderly consoled by her with the song’s title phrase. Public Domain. This is a publicity still taken and publicly distributed to promote the subject or a work relating to the subject. As stated by film production expert Eve Light Honathaner in The Complete Film Production Handbook (Focal Press, 2001, p. 211.): “Publicity photos (star headshots) have traditionally not been copyrighted. Since they are disseminated to the public, they are generally considered public domain, and therefore clearance by the studio that produced them is not necessary.” Nancy Wolff, in The Professional Photographer’s Legal Handbook (Allworth Communications, 2007, p. 55.), notes: “There is a vast body of photographs, including but not limited to publicity stills, that have no notice as to who may have created them.” Film industry author Gerald Mast, in Film Study and the Copyright Law (1989, p. 87), writes: “According to the old copyright act, such production stills were not automatically copyrighted as part of the film and required separate copyrights as photographic stills. The new copyright act similarly excludes the production still from automatic copyright but gives the film’s copyright owner a five-year period in which to copyright the stills. Most studios have never bothered to copyright these stills because they were happy to see them pass into the public domain, to be used by as many people in as many publications as possible.” Kristin Thompson, committee chairperson of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies writes in the conclusion of a 1993 conference of cinema scholars and editors[1], that: “[The conference] expressed the opinion that it is not necessary for authors to request permission to reproduce frame enlargements… [and] some trade presses that publish educational and scholarly film books also take the position that permission is not necessary for reproducing frame enlargements and publicity photographs.”
Brian Wilson’s first car was a light burgundy Mercury. It was passed down from his mother and Wilson called it “the Merc.” He failed his first driver’s test and got a reputation for being a bad driver because he was constantly distracted thinking about other things. His father tutored him behind the wheel and Brian started to get the hang of driving when he compared the car’s controls to playing a musical instrument. As the comparison dawned on him, it developed: like a musical instrument a driver had to play the car just right – not to hard or fast – so to get the results desired. But the comparison was also limited: Brian realized you could do a lot more unique things playing a musical instrument than driving a car. After he passed his driving test the second time, he drove “the Merc” for a year until he acquired a used 1957 Ford Fairlane. For Hawthorne, Brian knew it was a great car but he saw there were greater cars driven by other guys. He loved his used ’57 Ford and it was when he was in it that he first heard the Beach Boys’ first single, Surfin‘, playing on the radio in 1962. Brian said he revved and raced his Ford fast – but nobody believed it. (i am Brian Wilson a memoir, pp. 115-116).
At an August 1961 audition with Hite Morgan, a L.A. music publisher, Dennis Wilson said that Brian was working on a song about surfing. The truth was that no song existed. But the music publisher was intrigued and told the soon-to-be Beach Boys to come back when they had their new surfing song ready. “Surfin'” was recorded in October 1961 with Mike Love doing lead vocals, Brian on percussion/vocals, Carl Wilson on guitar/vocals, Al Jardine on acoustic bass/vocals and Dennis Wilson doing vocals. It was released in November 1961 on the independent label Candix. Though it peaked at no.75 on the Billboard Hot 100, its lyric which included the line”Surfin’ is the only life, the only way for me” capitivated listeners and was unique on the radio in late 1961. (Beach Boys FAQ, pp.25-26)
LYRICS Surfin’ is the only life, the only way for me Now surf Surf with me I got up this mornin’, turned on my radio (Ooh, surfin’) I was checkin’ out the surfin’ scene to see if I would go (Ooh, surfin’) And when the DJ tells me that the surfin’ is fine (Ooh, surfin’) That’s when I know my baby and I will have a good time We’re goin’ surfin’, surfin’ Surfin’, surfin’, surfin’ Surfin’, surfin’, surfin’ Surfin’ is the only life, the only way for me Now surf Surf with me From the early mornin’ to the middle of the night (Ooh, surfin’) Any time the surf is up, the time is right (Ooh, surfin’) And when the surf is down to take its place (Ooh, surfin’) We’ll do the Surfer’s Stomp, it’s the latest dance craze We’re goin’ surfin’, surfin’ Surfin’, surfin’, surfin’ Surfin’, surfin’, surfin’ Surfin’ is the only life, the only way for me Now surf Surf with me Now the dawn is breaking and we really gotta go (Ooh, surfin’) But we’ll be back here very soon, that you better know (Ooh, surfin’) Yeah, my surfer knots are rising and my board is losing wax (Ooh, surfin’) But that won’t stop me, baby, ’cause you know I’m comin’ back We’re goin’ surfin’, surfin’ Surfin’, surfin’, surfin’ Surfin’, surfin’, surfin’ Surfin’ is the only life, the only way for me Now come on, pretty baby and surf with me, yeah
Brian Wilson soon associated girls and cars. He was also beginning to understand the association of music and emotions after he heard Be My Baby by The Ronettes on the radio. Brian was also impressed by how simple vocal gestures, such as was achieved by Aretha Franklin and Dionne Warwick, could get maximum mileage from a listener’s reaction. (i am Brian Wilson a memoir, pp. 172).
In 1963 Brian Wilson offered Don’t Worry Baby to girl-group The Ronettes after the 21-year-old Wilson had become obsessed with their Be My Baby – a no. 1 hit (Cash Box) in August 1963. But they declined it and the Beach Boys produced it for themselves instead. It became one of the Beach Boys’s classics of the period. Wilson wrote Don’t Worry Baby as a response to Be My Baby and both songs have an affinity in pacing, structure, melodic lilt, and subject matter. Wilson wrote Don’t Worry Baby with lyrics by then-collaborator Roger Christian (1934-1991), a DJ at KFWB in L.A., over the course of a couple days at the Wilson family home in Hawthorne, California. It is ostensibly about a guy’s race car and his caring girlfriend, of which Wilson observed later: “It was a very simple and beautiful song. It’s a really heart and soul song, I really did feel that in my heart.” see – https://americansongwriter.com/brian-wilson-gods-messenger/4/ – retrieved February 24, 2025.
LYRICS Well, its been building up inside of me For, oh, I don’t know how long I don’t know why, but I keep thinking Something’s bound to go wrong But she looks in my eyes And makes me realize And she says (now don’t) (don’t worry, baby) Don’t worry, baby (don’t you worry) (don’t worry, baby) Everything will turn out alright (now don’t) (don’t worry, baby) Don’t worry, baby (don’t you worry) (don’t worry, baby) I guess I should’ve kept my mouth shut When I started to brag about my car But I can’t back down now, because I pushed the other guys too far She makes me come alive And makes me wanna drive When she says (now don’t) (don’t worry, baby) Don’t worry, baby (don’t you worry) (don’t worry, baby) Everything will turn out alright (now don’t) (don’t worry, baby) Don’t worry baby (don’t you worry) (don’t worry, baby) She told me, “Baby, when you race today Just take along my love with you And if you knew how much I loved you Baby, nothing could go wrong with you” Oh, what she does to me When she makes love to me And she says (now don’t) (don’t worry, baby) Don’t worry, baby (don’t you worry) (don’t worry, baby) Everything will turn out alright (now don’t) (don’t worry, baby) Don’t worry, baby (don’t you worry) (don’t worry, baby) Everything will turn out alright (now don’t) (don’t worry, baby) Don’t worry, baby (don’t you worry) (don’t worry, baby)
Feature Image: The Beach Boys in 1964; clockwise from left: Al Jardine, Mike Love, Brian Wilson, Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson. Trade ad for The Beach Boys’s single “California Girls”/”Let Him Run Wild.” Public Domain. Permission details The ad appeared in the 11 September 1965 issue of Billboard and can be dated from that publication; it is pre-1978. There are no copyright markings as can be seen at the full view link. The ad is not covered by any copyrights for Billboard. US Copyright Office page 3-magazines are collective works (PDF) “A notice for the collective work will not serve as the notice for advertisements inserted on behalf of persons other than the copyright owner of the collective work. These advertisements should each bear a separate notice in the name of the copyright owner of the advertisement.”
While the music industry shifted, classic pop masterpieces were born. Recorded over a rapid sprint in early January and mid-February 1964—spanning the exact weeks surrounding the Beatles’ landmark appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show—Shut Down Volume 2 introduced “Don’t Worry Baby.” The track features one of Brian Wilson’s most flawless, vulnerable lead vocals, beautifully countered by Mike Love’s bass and the lush backing harmonies of Al Jardine, Carl Wilson, and Dennis Wilson. Following the massive success of “Surfin’ U.S.A.” in March 1963 (which was ranked Billboard’s No. 1 Year-End song of 1963, while its eponymous album peaked at No. 2), the band released this fifth studio album on March 2, 1964. Though the hot-rod-themed record rose to just No. 13 on the Billboard 200, “Don’t Worry Baby” emerged as its undisputed emotional masterpiece. Rather than stepping back in the face of the sudden British Invasion, Brian Wilson felt a fierce drive for musical supremacy. After “Fun, Fun, Fun” peaked at No. 5 in March 1964, the band released “I Get Around” in May 1964 with “Don’t Worry Baby” on the B-side. By July 4, 1964, “I Get Around” became The Beach Boys’ first No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, while “Don’t Worry Baby” simultaneously charted on its own merits as a Top 30 hit, peaking at No. 24.
With the Beatles in mind Brian Wilson set to work on new material, this time integrating older musical sources into something new, as well as being more open than ever before to experimenting with arrangements and instrumentation so to achieve a new sound. Wilson worked to reinvent the Beach Boys just as he had been succeeding in inventing them. By the end of 1964 it was the Beatles that secured not just the top spot on Billboard’s year-end singles (I Want To Hold Your Hand) but the second spot as well (She Loves You) though the Beach Boys were still in the top 5 with I Get Around.
This Foxes and Fossils rendition of the Beach Boys’ 1964 top‑40 hit “Don’t Worry Baby” is a fine one — faithful yet fresh. The song has been covered countless times, but Brian Wilson would likely appreciate this version: his original was inspired by, and meant for, a girl group. He might also smile because the Beach Boys always loved seeing a new generation discover their music and claim it as their own.
SOURCES:
The Beach Boys: America’s Band, Johnny Morgan, Union Square & Co.; Illustrated edition, 2015, p. 67.
Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy, Penguin Publishing Group, Mike Love, 2016, pp. 64-65, 96-97, and 248.
The Beach Boys FAQ, All That’s Left to Know about America’s Band, Jon Stebbins, Backbeat Books, 2011, pp. 8 and 49.
The Beach Boys: The Definitive Diary of America’s Greatest Band on Stage and in the Studio, Keith Badman, Backbeat Books; First Edition, 2004., p. 53.
Brian Wilson with Ben Greenman, Da Capo Press, Boston, Massachusetts. pp. 115-116
The Battle of Iwo Jima was a nearly 40-day battle campaign fought by the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Navy against the Japanese Imperial Army on the island of Iwo Jima in the Pacific. With 110,000 total battle personnel (over 70,000 troops), the American objective of their invasion (called “Operation Detachment”) was to capture the island and its airfields. Iwo Jima was situated between Japan and the American bomber bases in the Mariana Islands. Since summer 1944 unescorted American B-29 bombers were flying nearly 3000 miles roundtrip to bomb Japan and being lost at sea from entrenched Japanese defenses. With Iwo Jima in American hands U.S. fighter planes could escort the long-range bombers as well as have any damaged aircraft find sanctuary on the island. The American victory after a five week campaign resulted in the capture of Iwo Jima with its immediate benefit that, by war’s end, 2,400 B-29s were able to make safe forced landings on the island.
There were 20,000 or so heavily-fortified Japanese defending the island to the death while U.S. Navy and Marine Corps aircrews had complete air superiority. The U.S. Navy provided heavy artillery gunfire support from the sea. The Battle of Iwo Jima, an American victory, took place from February 19 to March 26, 1945, and was one of the fiercest of World War II. That Americans could take the island was not the question. Its exact cost was. The casualty toll was heavy for both sides. The Japanese had 216 taken prisoner and up to 18,375 killed or missing in action. The American combat toll was also staggering: 6,821 killed in action, 19,217 wounded, and 2,648 experiencing battle trauma.
Joe Rosenthal (1911-2006), with his camera hanging at his side, surveys the landing beaches at Iwo Jima on March 7, 1945. Rosenthal was awarded the U.S. Navy Distinguished Public Service Award, as well as the Marine Corps Distinguished Public Service Award by the Marine Corps, for his war photography. Photo by AP/U.S. Marine Corps. Public Domain.
On Friday, February 23, 1945, Rosenthal landed on the island and heard that they were going to raise a flag on the highest point on the island which was the old volcano at the southwest end called Mount Suribachi. Rosenthal carried a Speed Graphic camera that was press standard issue and joined other photographers ready to ascend to the top. Halfway up they met a marine photographer coming down whose camera was obliterated by an enemy grenade explosion. Rosenthal and the others were told that the marines had already raised the flag. But the views were good from the summit anyway and still worth the climb. Once at the top Rosenthal and the rest saw marines who were working to affix a larger flag to a pipe under orders from a captain who wanted to replace it for the earlier smaller flag just raised. When the six marines started to raise that second larger flag on the heavy pole Rosenthal pushed his camera’s shutter. After taking the flag-raising photo, Rosenthal made his way back down Mount Suribachi to the shoreline. There, he took a transport boat out to the command ship, where he wrote captions for his photos and sent them, sight unseen, with the undeveloped film by seaplane to Guam.
“I took the picture. But the Marines took Iwo Jima.”
In February 1945 Joe Rosenthal was a 33-year-old American photographer for the AP. Rosenthal’s poor eyesight prevented him from fighting in combat though his task as an embedded photographer placed him in Harm’s Way. Before Iwo Jima, Joe Rosenthal had landed with the marines on Guam and Peleliu. His Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of the flag raising on Iwo Jima became a sign of hope for a war-weary American home front that victory in the Pacific would be theirs. It also became the iconic symbol of everything U.S. Marines. Rosenthal was very proud of his photograph of the six marines and the Marines overall, though modest about any accolades that came his way. Rosenthal put his role in perspective, saying: “I took the picture. But the Marines took Iwo Jima.” Yet it is not to be forgotten that Rosenthal was exposing himself to the same dangers as the six marines that day when he took his iconic photograph for history of the flag raising on Iwo Jima on February 23, 1945.
Original photograph by Joe Rosenthal, February 23, 1945. Public Domain.
Iwo Jima Flag Raising 1945 – Rare Color Film by Sgt Genaust [#Upscaled#1080p#60FPS#ww2]. Three feet to Joe Rosenthal’s right, Sgt. Genaust captured the flag-raising from nearly the same angle using color motion picture film.
Unveiled in November 1954, the Marine Corps War Memorial in Washington, D.C. was dedicated to all Marines who have given their lives in the defense of the U.S. since 1775. see – https://www.nps.gov/gwmp/learn/historyculture/usmcwarmemorial.htm – retrieved February 19, 2025. Author’s photograph, October 2003.
US Marine Corps War Memorial, Washington, D.C. The centerpiece of the memorial is a colossal sculpture group by Felix Weihs de Weldon (1907-2003), then on duty with the U.S. Navy, depicting the six Marines who raised the second larger U.S. flag atop Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima on February 23, 1945. The memorial was designed by Horace Whittier Peaslee, Jr. (1884-1959) and dedicated in November 1954 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.Author’s photograph, October 2003.
US Marine Corps War Memorial, Washington, D.C., was based on the iconic AP photograph by Joe Rosenthal taken on February 23, 1945 of the raising of the U.S. flag at the top of Mount Suribachi at the start of the Battle of Iwo Jima (February 19- March 26, 1945). Rosenthal’s photograph was flashed around the world for the first time on Sunday, February 25, 1945, and instantly became a symbol of the American war effort in the Pacific Theatre during World War II. The Marine Corps War Memorial Foundation organized the fundraising and creation of the monument. The complete cost of the memorial was $850,000 (about $10 million in 2025). The 32-foot-high bronze figures are erecting a 60-foot flag pole onto Mount Suribachi. Important dates in the history of the Marine Corps are burnished in gold into the Swedish marble base.The six marines who raised the flag on Iwo Jima have all been identified and include a sergeant, 2 corporals, and 3 privates first class. Unveiled in November 1954, the Marine Corps War Memorial was dedicated to all Marines who have given their lives in the defense of the U.S. since 1775.Author’s photograph, October 2003.
Flags of Our Fathers (2006) is an American war film about the Battle of Iwo Jima (February 19 – March 26, 1945) and its aftermath. The film was directed and co-produced by Clint Eastwood (who also composed the film’s score) and released with his smaller companion film Letters from Iwo Jima about the same battle from the Japanese viewpoint. Distributed by Paramount Pictures (U.S.) and Warner Bros. Pictures internationally, the films basically broke even at the box office as each received favorable critical reviews. Flags of Our Fathers is based on a 2000 book of the same name by James Bradley (with Ron Powers) about Bradley’s Navy corpsman father, John, and the five U.S. Marines who raised the flag at the top of Mount Suribachi on February 23, 1945 and that was made world famous by Joe Rosenthal’s AP photograph. (In 2016 the U.S. Marines announced that Bradley and others originally believed to be in the photograph, in fact, were not). In addition to its fierce battle depictions, Flags of Our Fathers dramatizes the ups and downs of the home front. Though three of the marines in the photograph – a private, corporal and the sergeant – had been killed in action less than a week after the iconic photograph, the photograph’s surviving marines became celebrities who returned stateside to participate in a war bond selling tour. With World War II ending in Europe, the Iwo Jima marines and their photograph came to symbolize American heroism and resolve for victory in the Pacific Theatre. Yet their uplifting mission also called for further individual sacrifice from these dedicated men.
Rosenthal told Collier’s magazine: “The sky was overcast, but just enough sunlight fell from almost directly overhead, because it happened to be about noon, to give the figures a sculptural depth. The 20-foot pipe was heavy, which meant the men had to strain to get it up, imparting that feeling of action. The wind just whipped the flag out over the heads of the group, and at their feet the disrupted terrain and the broken stalks of the shrubbery exemplified the turbulence of war.” Quoted in https://www.usfca.edu/magazine/december-2024/feature/man-behind-the-camera – retrieved Feb. 19, 2025. Wire services flashed Joe Rosenthal’s photograph around the world where it was published on the front pages of more than 200 newspapers on Sunday, February 25, 1945. The photo appeared on magazine covers across the country as well. Following the battle of Iwo Jima, the photo was used for publicity in war bond drives from May 11 to July 4, 1945, which raised an amazing $26.3 billion – by far the biggest haul of any of the seven U.S. war loan drives during World War II.. Rosenthal’s photograph became an enduring icon.
