Just a few months before, New York real estate mogul Donald Trump had married Marla Maples. Both President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton attended as invited guests. No one thought it odd that Trump had invited them.
The idea that Trump, bodybuilder-turned-actor Arnold Schwarzenegger or "professional wrestler"-turned-actor Jesse Ventura would get elected to any political office was ridiculous.
Hardly anyone outside of the Los Angeles metropolitan area had heard of anyone named Kardashian, but Robert Kardashian, a lawyer who had given up his practice to become a record company executive, and O.J.'s best friend (or so we've been told), was about to become part of O.J.'s "Dream Team."
As it turned out, Al Cowlings -- teammate of O.J.'s in high school and junior college, and with the University of Southern California and the Buffalo Bills -- was the ring bearer at Robert Kardashian's 1978 wedding to Kris Houghton.
And those of us who knew O.J. as a football legend, when we heard the word "Bronco," the colors that came to mind were the orange and blue of the Denver team, not the white of the Ford SUV that Cowlings would drive O.J. in on that weird night (still daylight in California) of June 17, 1994, when NBC went to a split-screen: Game 5 of the NBA Finals, and the police chasing the Bronco.
When I was a kid in the 1970s, the Weekly Reader would poll kids of various ages, boys and girls alike, and ask them who their heroes were. O.J. Simpson, a running back who never appeared in a winning NFL Playoff game, always finished 1st. Finishing 2nd was Neil Armstrong.
The 1st man to walk on the Moon was Number 2.
The 1st man to walk on the Moon was Number 2.
O.J. won a National Championship at USC in 1968, but played 9 seasons with the Bills, and 2 more with his hometown San Francisco 49ers, and played in just 1 Playoff game. But, as with certain other sports legends -- Don Mattingly, Ken Griffey Jr., Anna Kournikova, Michael Jordan until 1991, and O.J.'s contemporary Pete Maravich come to mind -- not winning didn't matter. O.J.'s talent, good looks, and winning personality made him a bigger star than more successful running backs such as the Miami Dolphins' Larry Csonka, the Pittsburgh Steelers' Franco Harris, and the Dallas Cowboys' Tony Dorsett.
He starred in commercials for Hertz Rent-a-Car, and had already acted on episodes of TV shows, including Ironside, a police drama set in his native San Francisco). He was cast in The Towering Inferno (as the tower's chief security officer, he was one of the few big names whose character survived the movie), The Cassandra Crossing, Capricorn One, and, most notably, Roots, as Kadi Touray. He became a sideline reporter for NBC's NFL telecasts, and was very good at it.
He starred on the HBO series 1st & Ten as a star player forced by injury to turn to coaching (with fellow USC Heisman winner Marcus Allen as the player who takes his place), and showed a talent for slapstick as Detective Nordberg in the Naked Gun films. Ironically, the 1st one, in 1988, showed an L.A.-based athlete attempting a murder: Reggie Jackson, wearing his old California Angels uniform, played a player brainwashed to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II of Britain, stopped by Leslie Nielsen's usually-inept Lieutenant Frank Drebin.
In 1983, James Cameron was casting The Terminator. He wanted O.J. to play the seemingly unstoppable cyborg from the future. But focus groups told him that there was no way that O.J. would be taken seriously as a killing machine.
In 1994, O.J. had finished filming Frogmen, an action film about U.S. Navy divers, and had been interviewed on the set for Entertainment Tonight. He seemed enthusiastic about this film.
He was 46 years old, going on 47. He was dating budding actress Paula Barbieri. He was a member of the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame. He had a fabulous house in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles. He walked with kings, presidents and his fellow stars. He was rich, famous and popular beyond most people's wildest dreams.
Like Michael Jackson and Bill Cosby, he had transcended his status as a black man in a white-dominated society, to become one of the biggest celebrities in America, and he remained one even though he hadn't played a down of football in nearly 15 years.
But, as happened to Jackson the year before, and has happened to Cosby since -- and as had recently happened to white celebrities Pete Rose (also an ex-athlete) and Woody Allen (also involved in movies), his image was about to change in ways that we could not have possibly imagined.
Oh yeah: Frogmen has never been released. It remains in someone's vault, never seen by the general public. And O.J. has never been cast in another feature film.
*
When we went to bed on the night of June 12, 1994, we thought of O.J. Simpson as one of the greatest football players ever, a good sideline reporter on NBC's NFL telecasts, and a decent actor. If he had been the one who died that night, by whatever means, it would have been sad -- as far as the public knew at the time.
And, as it turned out, a lot of people would have been better off. Himself included.
We knew he had been married and divorced twice. What most of us did not know was that he had beaten both of his wives. The 2nd wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, had repeatedly called the police about it. One of the times, one of the responding lawmen was a young Detective named Mark Furhman.
Nicole told lots of people that she believed O.J. would kill her one day. On the night of June 12, 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson had dinner with her mother, Juditha Brown, at Mezzaluna Trattoria, an Italian restaurant in the Brentwood section of the Westside (it's always spelled as 1 word) of Los Angeles, where a friend of hers, Ronald Goldman, was a waiter.
Nicole drove her mother home. When she got home to 875 South Bundy Drive, about half a mile southwest of the restaurant, her mother called, saying that she left her sunglasses at the restaurant. Nicole called the restaurant. The glasses were found, and Ron agreed to deliver them.
Both Nicole and Ron were murdered at Nicole's house that night, brutally stabbed to death. She was 35, he was 25.
Nicole told lots of people that she believed O.J. would kill her one day. On the night of June 12, 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson had dinner with her mother, Juditha Brown, at Mezzaluna Trattoria, an Italian restaurant in the Brentwood section of the Westside (it's always spelled as 1 word) of Los Angeles, where a friend of hers, Ronald Goldman, was a waiter.
Nicole drove her mother home. When she got home to 875 South Bundy Drive, about half a mile southwest of the restaurant, her mother called, saying that she left her sunglasses at the restaurant. Nicole called the restaurant. The glasses were found, and Ron agreed to deliver them.
Both Nicole and Ron were murdered at Nicole's house that night, brutally stabbed to death. She was 35, he was 25.
The middle of June 1994 was a weird time in America. Republicans were pushing hard against the agenda, and indeed the legitimacy as President, of Democrat Bill Clinton. We were beginning to hear about something called the Internet. Two months earlier, Nirvana bandleader Kurt Cobain committed suicide at age 27. The threat of a baseball strike loomed, a threat that was, unfortunately, realized in August.
And both the teams that played home games at Madison Square Garden, the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers, reached their sport's Finals. (This had previously happened in 1972.) On June 14, the Rangers won the Stanley Cup for the 1st time in 54 years, defeating the Vancouver Canucks in Game 7. By that point, O.J. was already a suspect in the murders.
On June 17, Game 5 of the NBA Finals was played at The Garden. While the Knicks were on their way to beating the Houston Rockets that night (though the Rockets would win the series in Game 7 in Houston on June 22), NBC went to a split screen.
Because Al Cowlings was driving a white 1993 Ford Bronco, California license plate 3DHY503, on Interstate 405, the San Diego Freeway, with O.J. Simpson in the back seat, with a gun to his head, and the police were following it. It was one of the most surreal events in television history.
And both the teams that played home games at Madison Square Garden, the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers, reached their sport's Finals. (This had previously happened in 1972.) On June 14, the Rangers won the Stanley Cup for the 1st time in 54 years, defeating the Vancouver Canucks in Game 7. By that point, O.J. was already a suspect in the murders.
On June 17, Game 5 of the NBA Finals was played at The Garden. While the Knicks were on their way to beating the Houston Rockets that night (though the Rockets would win the series in Game 7 in Houston on June 22), NBC went to a split screen.
Because Al Cowlings was driving a white 1993 Ford Bronco, California license plate 3DHY503, on Interstate 405, the San Diego Freeway, with O.J. Simpson in the back seat, with a gun to his head, and the police were following it. It was one of the most surreal events in television history.
A.C. drove O.J. back to the house, where he was arrested. The ensuing legal process, including the "Trial of the Century," has been blamed for everything from the ruining of the American criminal justice system to the worsening of American race relations, from the dumbing down of American culture through "reality TV" to the rise of the Kardashian family.
Calling Simpson's trial a "circus" would be offensive to circus performers, whose intent is to bring entertainment and joy to "ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages."
I was one of millions of 1970s kids who admired O.J. I didn't want to believe he could have done it. Who among us knew what he was really like?
When O.J. was found not guilty on October 3, 1995, the verdict was legally right, because the prosecution's case was fatally flawed; but morally wrong, because later evidence came forward that made it all but impossible that the killer of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman could have been anyone but O.J. Simpson.
Calling Simpson's trial a "circus" would be offensive to circus performers, whose intent is to bring entertainment and joy to "ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages."
I was one of millions of 1970s kids who admired O.J. I didn't want to believe he could have done it. Who among us knew what he was really like?
When O.J. was found not guilty on October 3, 1995, the verdict was legally right, because the prosecution's case was fatally flawed; but morally wrong, because later evidence came forward that made it all but impossible that the killer of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman could have been anyone but O.J. Simpson.
In many ways, we will never be the same. And few of those ways are for the better.
*
June 12, 1994 was a Sunday. Football was out of season. The Stanley Cup Finals were between Games 6 and 7. Game 3 of the NBA Finals was played: The Houston Rockets beat the New York Knicks, 93-89 at Madison Square Garden.
And these Major League Baseball games were played:
* The New York Yankees lost to the Toronto Blue Jays, 3-1 at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) in Toronto. Pat Hentgen outpitched Scott Kamieniecki. Devon White went 3-for-4 with a home run and 2 RBIs. Don Mattingly went 1-for-3 with a walk.
* The New York Mets beat the Montreal Expos, 5-4 at Shea Stadium.
* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Boston Red Sox, 8-4 at Fenway Park in Boston. The O's got home runs from Cal Ripken, Rafael Palmeiro and Leo Gomez.
* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-2 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.
* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Florida Marlins, 5-1 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.
* The Colorado Rockies beat the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.
* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs, 2-1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.
* The Cleveland Indians beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 12-6 at Milwaukee County Stadium.
* The Minnesota Twins beat the Chicago White Sox, 6-2 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.
* The Kansas City Royals beat the Texas Rangers, 7-2 at The Ballpark (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.
* The Atlanta Braves beat the Houston Astros, 3-1 at the Astrodome in Houston.
* The California Angels beat the Detroit Tigers, 8-6 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).
* The San Diego Padres beat the San Francisco Giants, 5-2 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Tony Gwynn went 1-for-4 with an RBI. Barry Bonds went 2-for-4.
* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Seattle Mariners, 11-2 at the Kingdome in Seattle. Rickey Henderson went 2-for-3 with 2 walks. Ken Griffey Jr. went 1-for-4.
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