Big-league baseball had changed a lot when pitcher Cy Young died in 1955. Ballparks were smaller. Home runs were more of an attraction. And players of color had entered the game, in large numbers.
Pitching—throwing the ball fast enough, and with enough movement, to make the batter miss—remained key to winning games. No one in professional baseball did it better. And that’s why, the year after he died, baseball’s highest honor for pitching was named for him.
Schlockmeister director Ed Wood inflicted this turkey in 1955, one of the final films of a screen icon.
by Rich Watson
This post is part of the So Bad It’s Good Blogathon, an event celebrating bad movies. At the end I’ll tell you where you can find more posts like this.
A lot of good movies came out in 1955: Oklahoma! Guys and Dolls. Rebel Without a Cause. Movies fondly remembered, and in some cases, cherished, to this day. Legendary directors like Hitchcock, Wilder, Preminger, and more were active that year, working with stars like Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, and James Dean.
And then there was Ed Wood.
Who made a movie called Bride of the Monster.
Really.
Among the number of black musicians who have changed the sound of American popular music in the twentieth century, one name rarely mentioned is that of Marian Anderson. The classical music singer consorted with First Ladies, sang at the 1963 March on Washington, and was awarded, among her many honors, the first Presidential Medal of Freedom.
In 1955, she added to her achievements by being the first black singer to play New York’s Metropolitan Opera.
