November 14, 1943: Leonard Bernstein, substituting at the last minute for ailing principal conductor Bruno Walter, directs the New York Philharmonic in its regular Sunday afternoon broadcast concert on CBS.
The event receives front-page coverage in The New York Times the following day, and the 25-year-old Bernstein is on his way to becoming a legend.
He was born Louis Bernstein on August 25, 1918, outside Boston in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
His grandmother insisted that his first name be Louis, but his parents always called him "Leonard." He legally changed his name from Louis to Leonard when he was 16. To his friends and many others, Bernstein was simply known as "Lenny." And, as he frequently pointed out, his name was pronounced "BURN-stine," not "BURN-steen." He would say, "You've never played a STEEN-way piano, have you?"
As a composer, Bernstein wrote in many genres, including symphonic and orchestral music, ballet, film and theatre music, choral works, opera, chamber music, and pieces for the piano. His works include the Broadway musicals On the Town, Wonderful Town, Candide, and, most familiarly, West Side Story.
Bernstein was the 1st American-born conductor to lead a major American symphony orchestra, as music director of the New York Philharmonic. He shared and explored classical music on television with a mass audience in national and international broadcasts, including Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic.
He worked in support of civil rights, protested against the Vietnam War, advocated nuclear disarmament, raised money for HIV/AIDS research and awareness, and engaged in multiple international initiatives for human rights and world peace. He conducted Gustav Mahler's Resurrection Symphony to mark the death of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, and Hatikvah on Mt. Scopus, in Israel after the June 1967 Six-Day War.
On Christmas Day 1989, he conducted a performance of Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in Berlin, to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was his last major performance, as he died on October 14, 1990, at the age of 72.
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November 14, 1943 was a Sunday. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was almost killed by his own troops on this day. I have a separate entry for that event.
These games were played in the NFL:
* The New York Giants lost to the Chicago Bears, 56-7 at the Polo Grounds. This was an outlier: Although the Bears did go on to win the NFL Championship, the Giants were not a bad team that season, going 6-3-1. They reached the NFL Championship Game in 1941, 1944 and 1946, losing all 3.
* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the combined Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers team that was known as the "Steagles," 13-7 at Ebbets Field.
* The Washington Redskins beat the Detroit Lions, 42-20 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.
* And the Green Bay Packers beat the Chicago Cardinals, 35-14 at the Dairy Bowl in the Milwaukee suburb of West Allis, Wisconsin. The Dairy Bowl was a football stadium built in the infield of a speedway, now known as the Milwaukee Mile, at the Wisconsin State Fair Park.
Baseball was out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. There were 2 games played in the NHL. The New York Rangers lost to the Chicago Black Hawks, 10-5 at the Chicago Stadium. Bill Gooden scored 2 goals for the Rangers. For the Hawks, Cully Dahlstrom scored 3 goals and 2 assists. And the Montreal Canadiens beat the Detroit Red Wings, 2-0 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit. The Boston Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs were not scheduled.
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