Telstar: The Satellite That Inspired a Pop Song

The game-changing satellite lead to a number-one song composed by an innovative producer.

by Rich Watson 

When AT&T created Telstar, the communications satellite, in 1962, it brought the world closer together. After its launch, more people could see images and hear events from across the planet than ever before.

Its manufacturers probably never imagined it would inspire a hit song.

Moms Mabley, In Vaudeville and On Stage

After a difficult childhood, this comedic icon got her start in vaudeville and the stage before TV helped make her a mainstream star.

by Rich Watson 

It has been suggested that Moms Mabley might have been the first successful stand-up comic. Her heyday was the vaudeville era. She achieved her fame by playing in front of live audiences. She also performed in theater.

With television, Mabley was rediscovered. Even today, her memory has been kept alive.

1920s Yankees Era Depicted in Kim Van Alkemade’s ‘Bachelor Girl,’ Inspired By Actual Events

The era of Babe Ruth and the creation of Yankee Stadium is the backdrop for an unconventional love story.

by Rich Watson

The Yankees were not always the perennial powerhouse we think of today. It wasn’t until the acquisition of Babe Ruth in 1920 that their fortunes began to turn around—a deal set in motion by their owner at the time, brewer Jacob Ruppert.

Ruppert is a pivotal character in the historical fiction novel Bachelor Girl by Kim van Alkemade, a book set in the post-World War One period. The Yankees still played in the Polo Grounds, Ruth was a pitcher for the Red Sox, and Prohibition was the new law of the land.

The centerpiece, however, is a fictitious, unusual love story uniting the woman Ruppert would one day name his successor as Yankees owner with a secretary who lives a double life as a gay man.