Gary, Indiana, Mourns Loss Of Famous Duo

The City of Gary, Indiana, lost two of its most famous former residents in the same week recently when Michael Jackson died at the age of 50 on June 25th and Karl Malden passed away on July 1st at the age of 97. Jackson, born August 29, 1958, in Gary as the seventh child of what would eventually become the most successful musical family in history, was memorialized on July 7th at a ceremony held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles that was televised worldwide. Malden, an Academy Award winner who became better known many years after winning his Oscar, will be remembered more for his American Express TV commercials where he delivered the classic lines, "Don't leave home without it."

Both of these men with Gary, Indiana, roots played important roles in my life. Michael Jackson was one year younger than me (his older brother Marlon is the same age as me) and I watched him grow up on television while I bought many of the great songs he and his brothers put on vinyl when I (and the Jacksons) were kids and teenagers. It was surreal being able to sit on my family's living room floor and take in both visibly and audibly a Jackson Five performance on such TV shows of my childhood as The Ed Sullivan Show, The Flip Wilson Show and Soul Train.

Lionel Richie, who cowrote and coproduced the song "We Are The World" with Michael Jacksoon and was one of those entertainers performing at Tuesday's memorial service for Michael at the Staples Center, remarks on his new CD "Live In Paris" that he "doesn't even want to think about how big his hair was" when he and The Commodores recorded some of their great songs that he does on his live album that was released earlier this year. Let me tell you, when it came to Afros in the 1970s, none were bigger than those worn by Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael Jackson. For proof, take a look at the photo of a young Michael Jackson in this blog article that was taken after he had just gotten out of a swimming pool.

Much has been written, both positive and negative, about Michael in recent years when he had found himself spending more time in court rooms than in recording studios. I won't go into any of that because, just like with O.J. Simpson and Robert Blake, I idolized Michael Jackson the entertainer for the majority of my life. I wanted badly to believe in the innocence of all three of these celebrities, even when the bulk of the evidence being presented in the media against each of them was pretty daunting. I had a large poster of O.J. carrying the football in his Buffalo Bills uniform on my bedroom wall when I was a teenager, continue to this day to have an autographed 8-by-10 of Robert Blake on my office wall, and still consider "Thriller" and "Bad" among my favorite albums.

It disturbed me when, on the day of Michael Jackson's death two weeks ago, I drove home from my job that afternoon listening to Michael Barry say on his KTRH radio program that the adulation being directed at the deceased Jackson "makes me sick to my stomach." Barry went on to label Michael Jackson a pedophile who should have died in a prison instead of in his rented mansion in the ritzy Holmby Hills area of L.A. According to Barry, only Jackson's wealth and celebrity status enabled him to buy his way out of being successfully prosecuted for sexual assault of a child on more than one occasion. Chill, Mr. Barry. The man had just died of cardiac arrest a few hours prior to Barry's vitriolic statements being aired on the Houston airwaves.

Whether Robert Blake murdered his wife and got away with it or if he was innocent of that horrific crime as he says he is, I still thought his performance in the 1967 film "In Cold Blood" (ironic, isn't it, that he would star in a film with that name considering the charges against him in his murder trial) was among the best I have ever seen in cinema. If O.J. Simpson did murder his ex-wife and her friend "in cold blood" and got away with it because a Los Angeles jury refused to convict him, that doesn't erase his exploits on the gridiron as a Heisman Trophy-winning running back for the University of Southern California and as a Hall of Famer for the Bills and 49ers. If these two celebrities actually are guilty of the murders they were charged with then my opinion is that both Robert Blake and O.J. Simpson should be executed for their heinous crimes. But I don't know what the actual facts are in these murders. And I don't know what Michael Jackson was guilty of or not guilty of doing with the children he allegedly molested.

It is not for me to say. As a human being I, of course, have opinions on what I think happened in each of these high profile court cases and I agree that this blog was set up so that yours truly could spout my takes on a variety of topics. But, in the aftermath of the recent passing of Michael Jackson, I will abstain and refrain from delving into that forum at this time. Instead I would prefer to dwell on the decades of wonderful music The Jackson Five and the most gifted of their ranks provided for my own personal listening pleasure. The Jackson Five's first four singles all went to No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 charts. "I Want You Back," "ABC," "The Love You Save" and "I'll Be There" are all records I possess in my collection of 45s and I did not know until recently that each of these records were No. 1 singles by Michael and his brothers. I had to wipe away tears on Tuesday when I watched Mariah Carey and Trey Lorenz sing "I'll Be There" at Michael Jackson's televised memorial service. That is one great song!

Usher leaving the stage and walking down the steps to stand beside Michael's casket while singing "Gone Too Soon" had me reaching for the Kleenex as well. Watching Usher struggle to finish his musical tribute to Jackson while placing his hand on the coffin, standing several feet away from Michael's children, his parents and brothers and sisters, was as touching and moving as anything I have ever seen on television in my 50 years of TV watching. Michael Jackson, inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, was truly "Gone Too Soon!"

As a member of The Jackson Five (inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997) and as a solo artist (inducted into the Hall in 2001), Michael Jackson had 13 No. 1 singles and received 13 Grammy Awards. He was truly a musical icon and, although radio talkshow host Michael Barry disagrees, deserving of the adulation of the world's record buying public.

Equally deserving of being honored by the residents of Gary, Indiana, is the recent passing of Karl Malden. His early acting career was tied closely to that of my favorite actor, Marlon Brando. So I found it odd yet somewhat prophetic that Malden would die on the same day of the year, July 1st, that Marlon Brando died on five years earlier. Karl Malden won his only Oscar for best supporting actor in 1951 for his outstanding performance as Mitch in "A Streetcar Named Desire," which starred Brando and Vivien Leigh. He also appeared in "On The Waterfront" (1954), another movie for which he was nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar for his portrayal of Father Corrigan, and "One-Eyed Jacks" (1961) with Brando. And though Malden was the villain in "One-Eyed Jacks," the actor was always aces with me after having seen him in each of these three Marlon Brando movies.

Among his other memorable movie roles were: "Birdman of Alcatraz" opposite Burt Lancaster; "I Confess" with Montgomery Clift; "How The West Was Won;" "Fear Strikes Out," in which he played the overbearing father of professional baseball player Jimmy Piersall; "Baby Doll;" and "The Cincinnati Kid" with Steve McQueen and Edward G. Robinson.

In 2004, Malden received the Screen Actors Guild's Lifetime Achievement Award, saying "this is the peak for me" in his acceptance speech.

Karl Malden and his wife, Mona, had one of Hollywood's longest marriages, having recently celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary. That accomplishment alone, compared to the multitude of divorces among actors and actresses of Hollywood's past and present, puts Karl Malden in a league where he had few peers.

He was born in Chicago on March 22, 1912, but his family moved to Gary, Indiana, when Malden was a child. Malden died July 1, 2009, at his Brentwood home in the Los Angeles area, not too far from where Michael Jackson died a week earlier. The City of Gary mourns the two deaths along with the rest of the nation.

Karl Malden is pictured in a black-and-white publicity photo from the Academy Award-winning movie "Patton," in which he portrayed General Omar Bradley opposite Oscar winner George C. Scott as the title character, and in a color photo from his days promoting the American Express card in his detective Mike Stone personna from "The Streets of San Francisco," a popular long-running TV show in which he costarred with fellow Oscar winner Michael Douglas. Malden was nominated for five Emmy awards, winning once, for his impressive work on "The Streets of San Francisco.

Gary, Indiana, is the home town of many famous people. The City of Gary can boast a Heisman Trophy winner, an astronaut who flew around the moon, a number of professional athletes, actors and singers, in addition to The King of Pop and his famous family. Tom Harmon, the 1940 Heisman Trophy winner when he was considered the best in college football as a member of the Michigan Wolverines, grew up in Gary. Other outstanding football players from Gary include NFL Hall of Famer Alex Karras and his brothers Lou and Ted Karras who also played in the NFL, a former Miami Dolphins guard named Bob Kuechenberg who should be in the Hall of Fame but has repeatedly been overlooked when voting on new Hall members takes place each year, and one of the most famous players from the days of the old American Football League, defensive back Fred Williamson who played in the first Super Bowl with the Kansas City Chiefs.

"The Hammer" was Williamson's nickname when he played pro football. But more people will attach "The Hammer" with the many blaxploitation movies he made in their memories than will remember him as a football player. His post-AFL acting career made Fred Williamson more famous than did the many years he devoted to defending the elite wide receivers of his day. Alex Karras also parlayed his NFL career as an All-Pro defensive tackle with the Detroit Lions into a very successful career in Hollywood. Making his motion picture debut playing himself in the Alan Alda movie "Paper Lion," Karras would receive rave reviews for his performances in his own TV show, "Webster," as well as movies he appeared in like "Blazing Saddles" and "Victor Victoria."

Among the professional baseball players hailing from Gary, Indiana, are a couple of first rate relief pitchers, current Houston Astros closer LaTroy Hawkins and former great Dan Plesak.

Astronaut Frank Borman, now 81 years old, was the commander of NASA's Apollo 8 mission that circled the moon for the first time. He is from Gary, Indiana, as are actors Morgan Freeman (born in Memphis, Tennessee, but relocating with his family to Gary as a child) and Avery Brooks. Other famous people from Gary are singer Deniece Williams, who I saw in concert at The Summit in Houston as the opening act for Earth, Wind & Fire in the late 1970s, and the late blues great Jimmy Reed, born in Dunleith, Mississippi, but spending a large portion of his younger years in Gary.

It was nearly 31 years ago that the City of Gary, Indiana, was in the news because of one of the most tragic incidents in American sports history. I can still recall my shock when I heard on the TV news that California Angels outfielder Lyman Bostock had been shot and killed in a drive-by incident in Gary. What followed Bostock's death remains one of the lowest and most unbelievable court decisions this former journalist can remember.

Lyman Bostock had a routine two-for-four game in a 5-4 loss to the Chicago White Sox in a day game at Comiskey Park on September 23, 1978. He lined a base hit in his final at bat. Following the game, he got in a car and made the short trip to Gary, Indiana, where he was staying with his uncle as he always did when the team was in Chicago. After eating a meal with a group of people, Bostock got in the back seat of his uncle's car. As the vehicle crossed the intersection of 5th and Jackson streets, a car pulled up alongside them. The driver got out and fired one blast of a 410 gauge shotgun into the back seat where Bostock was sitting. The shooter, Leonard Smith, did not even know Lyman Bostock. His lethal wrath was intended for his estranged wife, Barbara Smith, who was along with the group as a guest of Bostock's uncle, Thomas Turner, who happened to be her godfather. The blast missed the woman but struck Bostock in the left temple. He died two hours later at a Gary hospital. Just like that, a life with so much to live for was snuffed out in a senseless act of violence. It was later discovered that Bostock had known the woman in the car for a total of twenty minutes. News of his death sent shockwaves through the baseball world. Making this story even more bizarre is the fact that Bostock's murderer spent just twenty-one months behind bars! After two trials he was found NOT guilty by reason of insanity. He was sent to a mental hospital where after just a few months of "treatment" he convinced a doctor that he was no longer insane. Leonard Smith has been a free man since 1980.

Lyman Wesley Bostock was born on November 22, 1950, in Birmingham, Alabama. He lived in Gary, Indiana, as a child and went on to star at Los Angeles' Manual Arts High School. After a stellar career at San Fernando Valley State College, now Cal State Northridge University, he signed his first pro contract after being drafted in the 26th round by the Minnesota Twins in 1972.

Bostock had brilliant seasons with the Minnesota Twins in 1976 and 1977, hitting .323 and .336 respectively, but played both seasons in the shadow of future Hall-of-Famer Rod Carew. He was in his first year as a big money free agent acquisition of the California Angels in 1978 when he was murdered with less than one week remaining in the baseball season. Lyman Bostock was definitely a rising star in major league baseball when he met his untimely demise in Gary, Indiana.

He gave of his money and time supporting the baseball program at his college alma mater Cal State Northridge. One of the first things that he did with his newfound wealth after signing with the Angels, was donate ten thousand dollars to rebuild a church that had been destroyed by a fire in his former home town of Birmingham, Alabama.

Carl Patten was a young teenager in September of 1978. He, along with another friend, attended the last game that Lyman Bostock would ever play at Anaheim Stadium. In those days fans could wait just outside the gate leading to the Angels' dressing room until all of the players came out following games. Kids by the dozens would wait in hopes of getting autographs. On this night, Lyman Bostock happened to be the last player to leave the locker room. When he encountered the boys, Bostock expressed concern that they were out so late without adult supervision. Instead of just signing his autograph and leaving, he took them across the street from the stadium to a restaurant and waited with them until Patten's father picked them up. One can only imagine the shock of these young men when they heard just 48 hours later that Lyman Bostock was dead! I shared the feelings of great sadness and shock as a 21-year-old college student on that horrible late-September day in 1978.