On October 3…

“It felt horrible. It was physically painful. That was not justice. And I thought of Ron and Nicole, and I thought, this is wrong. It’s so wrong. At the end of the day, there was no way to reach that jury. There was no way to make them believe.”
~Marcia Clark
Lead prosecutor, O.J. Simpson Trial

1945 – At the suggestion of Mrs. Grimes (his teacher), 10-year-old Elvis Presley entered a youth talent contest at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show held in Tupelo, MS.
The future “King of Rock ‘n’ Roll” stood on a chair to reach the microphone and sang Red Foley’s ‘Old Shep’. He finished fifth and won five dollars and free admission to all the rides at the fair.

1951 – Third baseman Bobby Thomson hit a one-out, three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning to win the National League pennant for the New York Giants.
Thomson’s homer wrapped up an amazing come-from-behind run for the Giants and knocked the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Giants’ inter-borough rivals, out of their spot in the World Series.
The Giants went on to lose the Series to the Yankees, but Thomson’s miraculous homer – “the shot heard ’round the world” – remains one of the most memorable moments in sports history, complete with announcer Russ Hodges’ iconic call.

1954 – Father Knows Best, starring Robert Young and Jane Wyatt, premiered on CBS, beginning an eight-year run (the final six years were on NBC).
House Factoid: The exterior of the Anderson house depicted in the series’ opening credits was the same structure used as George Wilson’s home in the television series Dennis the Menace and again, in remodeled form, as Major Anthony Nelson’s residence in I Dream of Jeannie.

1955 – It was Bob Keeshan’s first day at work in what became a TV institution via CBS: Captain Kangaroo.
The children’s television milestone featured Mr. Green Jeans, Bunny Rabbit, Grandfather Clock, Mr. Moose and other characters.
It was the beginning of a 30-year run that thrilled millions of children (including me) every weekday morning.
When Keeshan died in 2004, his passing brought these tributes…

1955 – Walt Disney premiered The Mickey Mouse Club on ABC. The original series lasted five years but there were multiple revivals through 1996.

1960 – The Andy Griffith Show, starring Griffith, Don Knotts and an adorable Ron Howard, premiered on CBS.
Sheriff Andy Taylor and the simple way of life in Mayberry kept us entertained until 1968.

1961 – Rob (Dick Van Dyke), Laura (Mary Tyler Moore), Sally (Rose Marie) and Buddy (Morey Amsterdam) debuted in The Dick Van Dyke Show on CBS.
Created by Carl Reiner, the show ran for five years.

1961 – Mister Ed made its premiere on CBS. It was the beginning of a six-year run.
The voice actor for Ed’s spoken lines was Allan “Rocky” Lane, who was alluded to by the producers only as “an actor who prefers to remain nameless.”
After the show became a hit, Lane campaigned the producers for credit but never received it.

1967 – Woody Guthrie, one of the most significant figures in American folk music, died of Huntington’s Chorea at the age of 55.

1970 – Janis Joplin visited Sunset Sound Recorders to listen to the instrumental track of a song her band had recorded one week earlier.
She and producer Paul Rothchild agreed she would record the vocal the following day. The next day, Janis Joplin was dead, killed by an overdose of heroin.
The name of the song Joplin was to record?
‘Buried Alive In The Blues’.

1994 – The film world lost one of its greatest character actors when Walter Clarence “Dub” Taylor died of a heart attack at the age of 87.
His countless television shows and more than 200 movies included Auntie Mame, The Wild Bunch , No Time For Sergeants, Major Dundee and Bonnie and Clyde.

1995 – After an epic 252-day trial, a jury – made up of nine African Americans, two whites, and one Hispanic – took just four hours of deliberation to acquit O.J. Simpson of the brutal 1994 double murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.
An estimated 140 million Americans listened in on radio or watched on television as the verdict was delivered.

2000 – Ben Orr (bass guitar/singer with The Cars – ‘Drive’, ‘Just What I Needed’, ‘Let’s Go’, ‘Moving In Stereo’, ‘It’s All I Can Do’) died at 53 of pancreatic cancer.

2004 – Actress Janet Leigh (Little Women, Angels In The Outfield, The Manchurian Candidate, Bye Bye Birdie, but best remembered for her performance in Psycho) died at the age of 77 after suffering a heart attack.

2008 – Exactly 13 years to the day after he was acquitted of the 1994 murders of Nicole Brown, and Ronald Goldman, O.J. Simpson was found guilty of leading a robbery of two sports-memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a Las Vegas hotel room in 2007.
Simpson was sentenced to nine to 33 years in prison. He served his sentence at the Lovelock Correctional Center near Lovelock, Nevada, and was freed on parole in October 2017.

Compiled by Ray Lemire ©2020 RayLemire.com / Streamingoldies.com. All Rights Reserved.