October 19, 1963: "You'll Never Walk Alone" Is First Played at Anfield

October 19, 1963: The Gerry & the Pacemakers version of "You'll Never Walk Alone" is played at Anfield, home stadium of Liverpool Football Club, for the first time. It became a team tradition.

The song, with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, first appeared in 1945, in the Broadway musical Carousel, sung by Christine Johnson as Nettie Fowler, and later by John Raitt (father of rock music legend Bonnie Raitt) as Billy Bigelow, Jan Clayton as his wife Julie, and Bambi Linn as their daughter Louise.

The musical was made into a film in 1956. Gordon MacRae played Billy, Shirley Jones played Julie, Susan Luckey played Louise, Claramae Turner played Nettie, and Gene Lockhart played the Starkeeper and the doctor.

"You'll Never Walk Alone" became a standard. Jerry Lewis would use it to close his annual Labor Day telethon for research into muscular dystrophy and related conditions. Elvis Presley made it a mainstay of his live performances from his Las Vegas debut in 1969 until his death in 1977.

In 1963, Liverpool rock band Gerry & The Pacemakers recorded a version of it. In the 1960s, at Anfield, the home stadium of Liverpool F.C., games would be preceded by the public address system playing the Top 10 songs in the country. "You'll Never Walk Alone" debuted in the Top 10 on October 19, 1963, and so it was played at Anfield for the 1st time. Liverpool beat West Bromwich Albion, of the Birmingham area, 1-0 on a goal by Gordon Milne in the 32nd minute.

A recent photo of Anfield, seriously added-onto

Liverpool's other major team, Everton, who had won the League the previous season, traveled to the East End of London on this day, and lost to West Ham United, 4-2 at Upton Park. Everton fans would become sick of the song, and one of their fans' slogans is "I'd rather walk alone."

The Pacemakers were the 2nd-biggest band in Liverpool at the time, behind The Beatles, but their version of "YNWA" never became a hit in the song's country of origin, not even in the "British Invasion" year of 1964, when The Beatles caught fire in America and pretty much every other British band that was even remotely good followed them. The Pacemakers had a few songs reach the American charts, most notably "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying" and "How Do You Do It" in 1964, and "Ferry Cross the Mersey" (from the film of the same title) in 1965. But not "YNWA."

It did, however, hit Number 1 in Britain. But when it fell out of the Top 10, Liverpool fans demanded that it be played at Anfield, anyway, just before the team walked onto the pitch. This was done, and Liverpool, managed by Bill Shankly, won the Football League in 1964.

After that, in England, the song was considered a good-luck charm by fans of the Mersey Reds, and was irrevocably tied to the team. After the Hillsborough Disaster of 1989, the words of the song gave hope to a grieving city. The words "YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE" are now cast in iron atop the Shankly Gates leading into Anfield.

Most Liverpool fans don't even realize that the song debuted on Broadway, in New York, in America, during the waning days of World War II.

Fans of Celtic Football Club in Glasgow, Scotland also took it up. Like Liverpool fans, they sing it before every game, and after every win. In 2003, the teams faced each other in the UEFA Cup Quarterfinal, and Pacemakers singer Gerry Marsden was invited to sing it on the pitch before the game. He did so, wearing one of those "half scarves" produced before international matches with logos of both teams. Another British rocker, Rod Stewart, also attended, supporting Celtic.

Oscar Hammerstein died in 1960, having never learned of his song's connection with Liverpool. Richard Rodgers lived until 1979, and if he ever knew of the connection, he never made a public statement about it. Gerry Marsden died in 2021.

*

October 19, 1963 was a Saturday. North London team Arsenal traveled to Birmingham, and lost to Aston Villa, 2-1 at Villa Park.

In American football, among the college games played that day were these:

* Number 1 Texas beat Arkansas, 17-13 at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, Arkansas. Texas went on to win the Southwest Conference Championship.

* Number 2 Wisconsin beat Iowa, 10-7 at Iowa Stadium (now Kinnick Stadium) in Iowa City.

* Number 3 Pittsburgh beat West Virginia, 13-10 at the old Mountaineer Field in Morgantown, West Virginia. This is a rivalry known as "The Backyard Brawl."

* Number 4 Ohio State were upset by the University of Southern California (USC), 32-3 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. No, this was not the Rose Bowl game. And when that game was played, neither of these teams would be in it.

* Number 5 Mississippi beat Tulane, 21-0 at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans. "Ole Miss" went on to win the Southeastern Conference title.

* Number 6 Oklahoma beat Kansas, 21-18 at Owen Field in Norman, Oklahoma.

* Number 7 Illinois beat Minnesota, 16-6 at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Illinois. With running back Jim Grabowski, and center and linebacker Dick Butkus, Illinois won the Big Ten Conference title.

* Number 8 Georgia Tech were upset by Auburn, 29-21 at Grant Field in Atlanta.

* Number 9 Alabama beat Tennessee, 35-0 at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama. Alabama didn't win the SEC title, but they didn't play Ole Miss. So those teams were matched up in the Sugar Bowl, the traditional home for the season's SEC Champion, and Alabama won. In fiction, that would have been the last game for 'Bama for running back Forrest Gump.

* Number 10 Navy beat the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), 21-12 at Foreman Field in Norfolk, Virginia. This was the annual Oyster Bowl game, which has featured Navy 10 times and VMI 16 times. These days, though, it's a game for FCS (formerly Division I-AA) teams, like the school for which Foreman Field, now named S.B. Ballard Stadium, is the home field, Old Dominion University. Although it was in VMI's home State, Norfolk, is home to America's largest naval base, so it felt more like a home field for Navy.

Navy were quarterbacked by Roger Staubach, who went on to win the Heisman Trophy, and rose to Number 2 in the country. Through the 2021 season, no service academy team has finished in the Top 10 since. They played Number 1 Texas for the National Championship in the Cotton Bowl, but Texas won.

* The University of Washington, then unranked, beat Stanford, 19-11 at Husky Stadium in Seattle. Washington went on to win the title in the American Association of Western Universities (AAWU, a forerunner of what's now the Pac-12), and beat Illinois in the Rose Bowl.

* Army beat Wake Forest, 47-0 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York.

* Notre Dame beat UCLA, 27-12 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana.

* In a rivalry game, North Carolina beat North Carolina State, 31-10 at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

* And among New Jersey teams, Rutgers beat Lehigh, 30-6 at Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway; while Princeton beat Colgate, 42-0 at Palmer Stadium in Princeton.

Neither the NFL nor the AFL played any games that day. But in Middlesex County, New Jersey, East Brunswick High School, which would one day be my Alma Mater, beat Bridgewater-Raritan, 27-21 at home, on a field that had no name, roughly where the school's practice field now is. Its stadium, later named Jay Doyle Field, wouldn't be built until 1965.

Baseball season had ended 13 days earlier, when the Los Angeles Dodgers completed a sweep of the New York Yankees in the World Series. There were 4 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Cincinnati Royals, 121-97 at the Cincinnati Gardens.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 124-121 at the Philadelphia Civic Center. This was only the 2nd regular-season game for the Sixers, and the 1st at home, after moving from being the Syracuse Nationals. I have a separate entry for that event. 

* The San Francisco Warriors beat the Baltimore Bullets, 103-102 at the Baltimore Civic Center (now the CFG Bank Arena). Walt Bellamy scored 36 points and grabbed 17 rebounds for the Bullets, who were played just their 3rd regular-season since moving from being the Chicago Zephyrs, and only their 2nd home game. They would last just 10 years before moving down Interstate 95, becoming the Washington Bullets, and eventually the Washington Wizards.

* And the St. Louis Hawks beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 117-108 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis.

There were 2 games played in the NHL. The Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins, 2-0 at the Montreal Forum. And the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Detroit Red Wings, 2-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. The New York Rangers and the Chicago Black Hawks were not scheduled.

September 4, 1966: The 1st Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon

September 4, 1966: The MDA Labor Day Telethon is held for the 1st time, hosted by singer-comedian Jerry Lewis. 

Lewis began hosting telethons to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Associations of America (MDAA) in 1952, after a plea from a staff member who worked with Lewis and Dean Martin on The Colgate Comedy Hour. Lewis had previously taken part in what has been described as the very first telethon, a marathon 1951 broadcast benefiting a cardiac hospital that was organized by Budd Granoff, which featured the Martin and Lewis comedy team, who were his clients at that time.

Until their split in 1956, Martin and Lewis hosted these local telethons from New York together. Lewis then hosted it alone, and was named national chairman of MDAA, doing it on Thanksgiving Day in 1957 and 1959. In 1966, it went national, and was moved to Labor Day, previously one of the few national holidays without a major television connection.

It allowed for a 21 1/2-hour production, which Lewis would begin by singing Charlie Chaplin's theme song, "Smile"; and end with "You'll Never Walk Alone," from the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical Carousel. In between, there would be a constant stream of celebrities: Singers, dancers, comedians, actors performing scenes from Shakespeare's plays and Broadway musicals; and footage of the children the MDA was trying to help, who became known as "Jerry's Kids." Many critics slammed Lewis for appealing to pity, and sometimes the kids' difficulties were hard to watch, but it worked.

Initially, the Telethon was staged at the Americana Hotel, at 811 7th Avenue at 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan. (It's now the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel.) It had the necessary facilities: A ballroom with a stage big enough for a talk show-style desk, a performance area big enough for a 19-piece band, seating space, room for phone banks to take the donation calls, and a tote board to keep track of the donations coming in.

The tote board turned out to be key to the broadcast's success. With each new total coming in, a drumroll would begin, and Lewis would call out, "Tympanies!" and the new total would go up, to a standing ovation. The show's national syndicators were skeptical that it could work, but, at the end of the 1st broadcast, Lewis had to get on a ladder and add a number 1, because they had raised more than $1 million, which was a digit more than the tote board could handle: $1,002,114. (In 2022 money, that works out to a little over $9 million.)

By 1970, the Telethon was shown in 64 cities nationwide on "The Love Network." In 1976, it peaked at 213 stations, making it, if for not quite one full day every year, effectively America's 4th-largest television network behind the old standbys NBC, CBS and ABC. Also in 1976, the show hosted a reunion of, and an end to the 20-year feud between, Lewis and Dean Martin, arranged by their common friend, Frank Sinatra, who usually appeared on the Telethon.

One reason Sinatra appeared is that, in 1973, the broadcast was moved to his favorite city, Las Vegas, Nevada. That year, it broke the $10 million barrier in money raised. The 1976 reunion of Martin & Lewis must have struck a chord with many people, because that show was the first to surpass $20 million in donations.

The Telethon was held at the Sahara, then moved to Caesars Palace in 1982, and to the larger Cashman Center in 1989. In 1990, it moved to the Aquarius Theater in Los Angeles, then back to the Sahara from 1991 to 1995, then to CBS Television City in Los Angeles, and then in 2005 to Beverly Hills, and in 2006 back to Vegas at the South Point Hotel, Casino & Spa until 2011. It was still syndicated to 190 TV stations.

Lewis would always host for 16 of the 21 1/2 hours, taking time out for a nap, with Ed McMahon as his co-host, until 1999. By that point, he was over 70 years old, and had serious health issues, made worse by his obvious weight gain. He began hosting the 1st 5 hours, and the last 5, with McMahon (not exactly young and slim himself) and others filling in the gaps.

As Lewis got older, his health got worse, and his behavior became erratic. In 2011, he was fired as MDA Chairman and host. Starting that year, there were 3 co-hosts, all blonde women: Small Town Big Deal co-host Jann Carl, soap opera (and Hallmark Christmas Movie) actress Alison Sweeney, and Entertainment Tonight co-anchor Nancy O'Dell.

Without Lewis, the show was cut back to 6 hours on the night before Labor Day in 2012, and the last one aired on ABC on August 31, 2014. In 2007, the show topped out at $63,759,478 -- just under $90 million in 2022 money. Even in the last year, 2014, it managed to get a little under $57 million.

Lewis died in 2017, at the age of 91. As with many celebrities, the darker side of his personality came out when he was no longer able to fight back and sue. While he was great with his MDA "Kids," his real children, including rock bandleader Gary Lewis, said he was a rotten father. And many other people mentioned the kind of behavior, much of it misogynistic, that got him fired in 2011.

*

September 4, 1966 was a Sunday. It was a little early for the NFL and AFL seasons to start, and well too early for the NBA and the NHL. But these baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Minnesota Twins, 9-2 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Mickey Mantle did not play. The Yankees' only runs came on solo home runs by Horace Clarke and Lou Clinton. Harmon Killebrew went 3-for-5 with 2 RBIs.

* The New York Mets lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-0 at Shea Stadium. Chris Short allowed 10 hits, but kept his shutout.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Houston Astros, 2-0 at Atlanta Stadium (later renamed Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium). Don Schwall allowed 3 hits over 5 innings, and Jay Ritchie allowed 3 hits over the remaining 4. Hank Aaron went 2-for-4.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs, 8-5 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Roberto Clemente went 1-for-4 with a home run and 2 RBIs. Ernie Banks went 2-for-4 with a home run, a walk, and 3 RBIs.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-3 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Willie Horton won it with a home run in the top of the 12th inning. Al Kaline went 1-for-5 with an RBI.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Cincinnati Reds, 8-6 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Pete Rose went 3-for-5.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Chicago White Sox, 8-5 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Brooks Robinson went 0-for-5, and Frank Robinson went 1-for-5. But Luis Aparicio, once the symbol of Chicago's "Go-Go White Sox," went 5-for-5 with 3 RBIs against his former team.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 9-2 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Willie Mays went 1-for-5. Juan Marichal went the distance, raising his record to 21-5. He would finish 25-6, but Sandy Koufax finished 27-9 to help the Dodgers win the Pennant, and himself win the Cy Young Award.

* A doubleheader was split at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. The Boston Red Sox won the opener, 3-0. Darrell Brandon pitched a 3-hit shutout. The Kansas City Athletics won the nightcap, 7-2. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-5 with an RBI in the 1st game, then appeared only as a pinch-hitter in the 2nd game, and did not reach base.

* The Washington Senators beat the California Angels, 5-3 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).

June 4, 1963: “The Nutty Professor” Premieres

Jerry Lewis as Dr. Julius Kelp

June 4, 1963: The Nutty Professor premieres. Not to be confused with the 1961 film The Absent-Minded Professor, this film is also a screwball comedy, Jerry Lewis' take on the story of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.

The top of the film's poster showed Lewis, as Dr. Julius Kelp, mixing the chemicals that would change him, and asked, "What does he become? What kind of monster?" The bottom of the poster shows a shadow stalking Stella Stevens as Stella Purdy, and makes her look interested in him, and says, "Well, any scientist who makes a girl like this can't be all mad."

Julius is a college chemistry professor (the movie was filmed at Arizona State University), and a stereotypical nerd: He's funny-looking, he has a funny voice, his lab coat has a front pocket full of pens, he's socially awkward, he's accident-prone, and he's physically weak. He's tired of being bullied. So he plays to his strength, science, and when he drinks the formula he's made, he turns into a handsome, suave, confident man. He names himself Buddy Love.

Jerry Lewis as Buddy Love.

Note the Dean Martin-like hair.

As Buddy, he pursues Stella, one of his students -- thus avoiding what would now be considered a conflict of interest. At a students' hangout, he sings and plays piano, and becomes popular. But Buddy is a narcissist, mean and violent to those he considers his inferiors. And the formula starts to wear off at inopportune times: For example, Buddy sings beautifully, and then Julius' nasal whine breaks through, and he knows he has to flee the scene, or else be exposed.

Julius knows that, as Buddy, he becomes a bad person, but he's addicted to the attention he gets. Finally, while performing at the students' annual dance, the formula slowly wears off, and he can't hide it any longer. He admits his mistakes, and that he has to learn to like himself as he is, and everyone else has to like themselves as they are. Stella tells him she prefers his normal self, and kisses him.

For 10 years, 1946 to 1956, Lewis had teamed in a comedy duo with singer Dean Martin, a man nicknamed "The King of Cool" after his death. But the act broke up because Lewis wanted to do other things. Some people saw the Buddy Love character as a slap at Martin. Even after Frank Sinatra, a friend of both men, got them to reconcile in 1976, Lewis still faced charges that Buddy was based on Dino.

Instead, he insisted the character was based on every obnoxious, self-important, hateful hipster he ever knew, and wished that, instead of simply obnoxious, he'd made the character genuinely evil. As Lewis grew older, he began to care less about his image as a good guy who raised millions for charity, and the dark side of his personality became less a well-kept secret, and more obvious, and people began to see that Buddy Love was the real Jerry Lewis. 

Eddie Murphy remade The Nutty Professor in 1996, as a comedy, though a considerably more lowbrow one, with a sequel in 2000. He altered the good guy's name to Sherman Klump, but kept the bad guy's name as Buddy Love.

Lewis was an executive producer for Murphy's versions, but later expressed regret: "I have such respect for Eddie, but I should not have done it. What I did was perfect the first time around, and all you're going to do is diminish that perfection by letting someone else do it."

*

June 4, 1963 was a Tuesday. This was also the day that Hockey Hall of Fame goaltenders Jacques Plante and Gump Worsley were traded for each other. I have a separate entry for that event.

All-Pro offensive tackle Jim Lachey and NBA All-Star Xavier McDaniel were born. And these baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Baltimore Orioles, 3-1 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Steve Barber -- his arm apparently neither sore nor a little stiff -- outpitched Ralph Terry. John "Boog" Powell hit a home run. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-3. Mickey Mantle had a home run and a single; otherwise, the Yankees got just 3 hits.

* The New York Mets lost to the Milwaukee Braves, 3-2 at the Polo Grounds. Hank Aaron went 1-for-4.

* The Washington Senators beat the Boston Red Sox, 1-0 at District of Columbia Stadium (later Robert F. Kennedy Stadium) in Washington. Tom Cheney pitched a 5-hit shutout to outpitch Earl Wilson. The only run of the game came on a home run by Don Lock in the bottom of the 6th. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-4.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-4 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Al Kaline went 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Ernie Banks went 3-for-3 with a walk and 2 RBIs. Willie Mays went 1-for-4. Willie McCovey appeared as a pinch-hitter, and struck out.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Kansas City Athletics, 5-0 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. Jim Perry pitched a 4-hit shutout. Harmon Killebrew went 1-for-3.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Houston Colt .45s, 2-1 at Colt Stadium in Houston. This was a no-frills temporary facility to be used by the expansion franchise in the 1962, '63 and '64 seasons, after which they moved to the Astrodome for the 1965 season, changing their name to the Houston Astros.

Being completely open to the elements, Colt Stadium had problems with heat, mosquitoes, and even snakes, which became a bigger problem when the Astros kept using it as a practice facility after the Astrodome opened, until it was finally demolished in 1971. Sandy Koufax, who did not appear in this game, remarked on the size of the mosquitoes, calling them "twin-engine jobs."

* And the Los Angeles Angels beat the Chicago White Sox, 1-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, where the Angels were groundsharing while waiting for their stadium in Anaheim to be built. Dan Osinski pitched a 3-hit shutout, outpitching Gary Peters. The only run of the game came in the bottom of the 2nd, when Lee Thomas singled Félix Torres home.

* The Cincinnati Reds and the Pittsburgh Pirates were rained out at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader 2 days later. The Reds swept, 7-5 and 10-5. Over the 2 games, Frank Robinson went 3-for-5 with 2 home runs, 2 walks, and 3 RBIs, rookie Pete Rose went 5-for-9 with a walk, and Roberto Clemente went 2-for-8.

* And the Philadelphia Phillies and the St. Louis Cardinals were not scheduled.