Bill Russell: The Ultimate Superstar
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Ten minutes before the tipoff of Game Seven of the NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers, Coach Red Auerbach suddenly realized he had a problem. He immediately summoned the Celtics off the floor and took them back to the locker room. There had been a breach in pre-game protocol that demanded […]
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Ansel Adams: Photography as a Force of Nature
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Photographer Ansel Adams always looked forward to 5 pm. Two events occurred at that hour: Adams closed down the darkroom for the day, and his wife, Virginia, opened up the family bar at their home in Carmel, California. According to his longtime assistant and biographer, Mary Street-Alinder, it was an open bar for all comers. […]
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Visionary Mike Nichols Beat All the Odds
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“I smell money, Mike. I smell money.” That is what producer Joseph Levine told director Mike Nichols after the two watched the final cut of the movie The Graduate. Levine’s olfactory sense was exceptionally accurate. The Graduate was a box office jackpot. The film cost Levine $3 million to make: it was released in December […]
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Agatha Christie and the Case of the Snazzy Zipper
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It was the zipper on her black handbag that blew Agatha Christie’s cover. Rosie Asher, a chambermaid at the opulent Hydropathic Hotel in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, had only seen zippers on bags in fashion magazines, never one in person. It was just too chic an accessory even for the celebrated clientele at the Hydro. Asher’s […]
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“Regular Guy” Sandy Koufax Honored with Dodger Stadium Statue
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Sandy Koufax, the best left-handed pitcher in major league baseball’s modern era, is a fanatically private man. He has been described as reclusive, guarded, withdrawn behind a wall of amiability. Those descriptions come from the small circle who know him well. In the summer of 1966, his mother, Evelyn, found out Koufax was publishing an […]
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