November 8, 1972: Carly Simon Releases "You're So Vain"

November 8, 1972: Carly Simon releases "You're So Vain," a single from her album No Secrets. She has yet to make an honest woman of herself: Half a century later, she still keeps the big secret, the identity of the man to whom she sang in the chorus, "You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you."

She was born Carly Elisabeth Simon on June 25, 1943 in Manhattan, but she wasn't one of those New York "street kids" like doo-woppers Frankie Lymon and Dion DiMucci who convinced a million teenagers, boys and girls alike, that, "They came from nothing and had a hit record, so if they can do it, I can do it."

The Simons were rich: Her father, Richard L. Simon, was a co-founder of publishing house Simon & Schuster. He raised his 4 children -- daughters Carly, Joanna and Lucy, and son Peter -- in one of the City's wealthiest neighborhoods, the Riverdale section of The Bronx. "You're So Vain" is a song about rich people, with mentions of Summers in Saratoga Springs, in Upstate New York, and a Lear jet.

And they all had classical training. Peter was the only one who didn't go into music, becoming an esteemed photographer. The girls formed a folksinging group, The Simon Sisters, before going their separate ways. Lucy become a composer for Broadway musicals, and Joanna became an opera singer, who appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, since Sullivan liked opera, and was also a friend of the family.

The Ed Sullivan Show was canceled in 1971, just a little too late for Carly to appear on it. It was just as well: Her entire career, she has battled stage fright. One of the few times that Saturday Night Live has aired an on-stage performance (as opposed to one of the short films or fake commercials they make) on tape rather than live (with a 7-second delay, in case somebody lets a naughty word slip) was during Carly's appearance on May 8, 1976.

She sang "Half a Chance" and "You're So Vain." To help keep her calm, Chevy Chase assisted her band, playing the cowbell. (Nobody asked for "more cowbell.") She's never appeared on the show again, and it's not because show boss Lorne Michaels, known to hold grudges, holds one against her.

She's recorded several hit songs, including perhaps the best theme song for a James Bond film, "Nobody Does It Better," for the 1977 film The Spy Who Loved Me. It reached Number 2 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100, and it remains her 2nd-biggest hit, behind "You're So Vain," which hit Number 1 on January 6, 1973.

Carly sang lead and played piano on the song, although she also plays guitar. Playing guitar on the song was Jimmy Ryan, a session legend who had a hit in 1966 as a member of The Critters, "Mr. Dieingly Sad." The bass guitarist was German session legend Klaus Voorman, also a renowned artist who recorded with The Beatles and drew the cover for their 1966 album Revolver. The drummer was Jim Gordon, who had worked with Eric Clapton and Duane Allman in Derek & The Dominos. Richard Perry produced the song, and also played percussion on it. As of November 8, 2022, all are still alive. Paul Buckmaster, who led the orchestra, died in 2017.

And just who was the "You son of a gun" that she was singing about? Most of the speculation has centered around 3 men: Singer James Taylor, then her husband; actor Warren Beatty, an ex-boyfriend who had a reputation as incredibly unfaithful before he married actress Annette Bening many years later; and Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger, who sang backup on the song, but apparently was never a boyfriend, lover, one-night stand, whatever term you want to use.

She has denied that the song is about Taylor or Jagger. But Angela Bowie, wife of David Bowie, about whom Jagger wrote the Stones' 1973 Number 1 hit "Angie," claimed to be the song's "wife of a close friend." Then again, Angela has said a lot of things.

Simon has occasionally dropped clues as to the subject's identity. She has said that the man has the letters A, E and R in his name. But those are incredibly common letters, and could apply to Taylor, Beatty or Jagger.

She was married to Taylor from 1972 to 1983, divorcing him due to his drug problem. He has since gotten clean, but despite this, and despite having 2 children, daughter Sarah and son Ben, they have rarely seen each other since. She was married to writer Jim Hart from 1987 to 2007. Another man with an A, an E (if you count his full name, James) and an R in his name, but it can't be him, since she didn't know him at the time. He says he's sure that the song is not about anyone famous -- which suggests that she's never told him.

Beatty has said he's sure it's about him. Producer Perry also thinks it's about Beatty. A friend, author Sheila Weller, wrote that she thinks the song is about a pre-Taylor boyfriend, guitarist Dan Armstrong, and both Daniel and his middle name, Kent, would provide the E. Another suggestion has been recording industry executive David Geffen, whose middle name, Lawrence, would provide the R. Simon says it's not Geffen, whom she hadn't met yet. Hart backs this up.

After former FBI executive Mark Felt was revealed as "Deep Throat," Carly suggested he was also the subject of "You're So Vain." That may have been a joke, and I can't even be sure that they knew each other -- but he did have an A, and E and an R in his name!

Both radio host Howard Stern and singer Taylor Swift claim that Simon told them who it's about. Stern said he was surprised when he heard who it was, "because he's not that vain." Saying it in the present tense suggests that he was still alive at the time Stern said it.

In 2015, Simon confirmed that the 2nd verse is about Beatty, but, as of the song's 50th Anniversary, she still refuses to confirm that the 1st and 3rd verses are about him. She has suggested it's three verses, and therefore is about three different men. There's allegedly a 4th verse that didn't make it onto the record, which may have been about a 4th different man.

As of November 8, 2022, Simon, Taylor, Beatty, Jagger, Hart and Geffen are still alive. Armstrong died in 2004, and Felt in 2008.

*

November 8, 1972 was a Wednesday. Actress Gretchen Mol was born on this day.

Baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. There were 5 games played in the NBA:

* The Boston Celtics beat the Golden State Warriors, 128-11 at the Boston Garden. In spite of the defeat, Rick Barry scored 34 points for the Warriors.

* The Baltimore Bullets beat the Buffalo Braves, 126-94 at the Baltimore Civic Center (now the CFG Bank Arena).

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 116-103 at the Milwaukee Arena. In 1974, it was renamed the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.

* The Kansas City-Omaha Kings beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 125-107 at the Civic Auditorium in Omaha, Nebraska. John Block of the Sixers scored 35, but this was just another loss for them in the worst season any NBA team has ever had: They finished the 1972-73 season at 9-73.

* And the Phoenix Suns beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 107-99 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Charlie Scott scored 34 for the Suns.

And there were 4 games in the American Basketball Association:

* The Carolina Cougars beat the Kentucky Colonels, 126-111 at Freedom Hall in Louisville.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Utah Stars, 135-124 at the Indiana State Fair Coliseum (now the Corteva Coliseum) in Indianapolis.

* The Dallas Chaparrals beat the Memphis Tams, 126-118 at the Moody Coliseum in Dallas.

* And the Virginia Squires beat the Denver Rockets, 116-11 at the Denver Auditorium Arena. Julius "Dr. J" Erving led all pro basketball players on the night with 38 points for the Squires.

There were 6 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Vancouver Canucks, 5-2 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New York Islanders lost to the Chicago Black Hawks, 6-1 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat their arch-rivals, the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-2 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat their arch-rivals, the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-2 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Los Angeles Kings and the Atlanta Flames played to a tie, 3-3 at The Omni in Atlanta.

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the California Golden Seals, 5-2 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* And the Boston Bruins, the Detroit Red Wings, the St. Louis Blues and the Buffalo Sabres were not scheduled.

And there were 2 games in the World Hockey Association. The Quebec Nordiques beat the Winnipeg Jets, 3-2 at the Colisée de Québec. And the Los Angeles Sharks beat the New York Raiders, 2-1 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

October 4, 1931: "Dick Tracy" Premieres

October 4, 1931: Chester Gould's comic strip Dick Tracy premieres, in the Detroit Mirror. In a year of gangster culture, which had already seen the premieres of the films Little Caesar with Edward G. Robinson and The Public Enemy with James Cagney, and which would see the real-life Chicago gangster king Al Capone convicted within a few days, Gould's incorruptible detective caught on quickly with the public.

Born in Pawnee, Oklahoma in 1900, 7 years before Oklahoma gained Statehood, Gould based on the character of Tracy on Eliot Ness, the Department of the Treasury agent who had gone after Capone. His yellow overcoat and fedora hat made him stand out, even though no real cop would have worn something like that. Tracy was also a precursor to James Bond, with gadgets far ahead of their time, most notably the two-way wrist radio, first used in 1946, and upgraded to a two-way wrist TV in 1964.

Tracy also had what would later be called a "rogues' gallery" before any superhero did -- and before any superhero, as we now understand that term, had been developed. They were gangsters: Flattop, Cueball, Prune Face, The Brain, Mumbles, B.O. Plenty, and the "Mr. Big" of the strip, Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice, obviously named after Capone.

Tracy had a girlfriend, Tess Trueheart, whom he later married. They adopted a character known at first only as "The Kid," but became known as Dick Tracy Jr.

There must have been something about Detroit in the 1930s. In addition to producing a World Series win for the Tigers, an NFL Championship for the Lions, 2 Stanley Cups for the Red Wings, and producing a Heavyweight Champion in Joe Louis, the city produced 3 great fictional characters in the decade: Tracy in 1931, the Lone Ranger on radio station WXYZ in 1933, and the Green Hornet on the same station in 1936.

Chester Gould continued to draw Dick Tracy until 1977, and died in 1985. The strip is still published today, with art by Joe Staton and writing by Mike Curtis. (No relation to the old Baltimore Colts linebacker of the same name.)

From 1937 to 1941, there were 4 serials, starring Ralph Byrd as Tracy. From 1945 to 1947, there were 4 feature films, 2 with Byrd, and 2 with Morgan Conway. Byrd starred on an ABC TV version in 1950-51, but his death in 1952 canceled it. In 1967, William Dozier, creator of the Batman and Green Hornet TV shows on ABC, cast Ray MacDonnell in a Dick Tracy pilot, but it wasn't picked up by any network.

In 1987, Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman starred in Ishtar, a film that became a massive flop. In 1990, Beatty made a live-action Dick Tracy film, which also flopped, partly because he cast Madonna as Breathless Mahoney, a brief femme fatale from the strip. He cast Hoffman as Mumbles, and, at one point, slapped him around. This led me to say, "Oh, sure, blame him for Ishtar!"

There hasn't been a live-action Dick Tracy since, either on TV or on film, because Beatty still owns the rights, and won't let anybody else try it. He should, because Tracy himself could use the redemption.

*

October 4, 1931 was a Sunday. Baseball was between Games 2 and 3 of the World Series, which the St. Louis Cardinals would win over the Philadelphia Athletics in 7 games. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And the NHL season hadn't started yet.

There were 3 NFL games played that day:

* The New York Giants lost to the Green Bay Packers, 27-7 at the Polo Grounds.

* The football version of the Brooklyn Dodgers lost to the 3rd team in New York, the Staten Island Stapletons, 9-7 at Ebbets Field.

* And the Providence Steam Roller and the Frankford Yellow Jackets played to a 0-0 tie at the Cycledrome in Providence, Rhode Island. Both teams went out of business after the season.

August 13, 1967: “Bonnie and Clyde” Premieres

Faye Dunaway (left) and Warren Beatty

August 13, 1967: Bonnie and Clyde premieres, directed by Arthur Penn, and starring Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty. Also starring Gene Hackman, Michael J. Pollard, Estelle Parsons, and, in his 1st film, Gene Wilder.

Unlike the 1920s, and every other decade in the 20th Century from the 1940s onward, there was never really a "nostalgia wave" for the 1930s, because of the Great Depression. The TV version of The Untouchables was more of a "Roaring Twenties" thing, and They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, which came out in 1969, was not exactly a romanticization of the period.

Even the Godfather movies, released a few years later, ignored the 1930s, when, according to Mario Puzo's novel, the Corleone family really became powerful, looking rather at their 1920s origins and their 1940s and '50s difficulties. Nor did Chinatown, released in 1974 but taking place in 1934, try to make the era look glamorous.

Indeed, Bonnie and Clyde might be "the exception that proves the rule": While it understated the reality of the actions of the real Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, and overdid the romance angle -- it was still Hollywood, after all -- Penn refused to shy away from how hard life was, for both the victims and the perpetrators, including the ending.

This film was one of the most violent ever released to that point, and was a direct challenge to the longstanding Hays Code. Within a year, the Code was gone, and the MPAA rating system (G, PG, R, X) was put into place.

And the film opened the door to things like "revisionist Westerns" and "anti-heroes." Without Bonnie and Clyde, it would have been a lot harder to make the aforementioned Godfather films (with James Caan's Sonny Corleone taking as many bullets in his ambush as Bonnie and Clyde combined took in theirs), the aforementioned Chinatown, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Easy Rider, Martin Scorcese's Mean Streets and Taxi Driver, vigilante films like Death Wish and Walking Tall, and "blaxploitation films" like Shaft and Coffy, and even comedies like Silver Streak and Smokey and the Bandit.

Bonnie and Clyde was nominated for 9 Academy Awards: Best Picture and Best Actor for Beatty, since he was also the producer, and that's who Best Picture goes to, the winning film's producer (or producers); Best Director for Penn; Best Actress for Dunaway; Best Supporting Actor for Hackman and Pollard; Best Supporting Actress for Parsons; Best Original Screenplay for David Newman and Robert Benton; Best Cinematography for Burnett Guffey; and Best Costume Design, as prominent period pieces usually get nominated for, for Theadora Van Runkle. But only Parsons and Guffey won.

How many people did the real Barrow Gang kill? It's not clear, but at least 9 police officers died as a result of their actions, before the FBI finally ambushed them in Louisiana in 1934.

It was because of his clothes, including fedoras that made them think of Beatty in this film, that made his New York Knick teammates call Walt Frazier "Clyde."

Arthur Penn, and starring Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty. Also starring Gene Hackman, Michael J. Pollard, Estelle Parsons, and, in his 1st film, Gene Wilder.

Penn died in 2010, Wilder in 2016, Pollard in 2019. As of August 13, 2022, Dunaway, Beatty, Hackman and Parsons are still alive. (UPDATE: Hackman died in 2025.)

*

August 13, 1967 was a Sunday. These baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians, 15-11 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Yes, that's a baseball score, not a football score. Fred Talbot only lasted 4 innings, while Sam McDowell lasted under 6. Fritz Peterson ended up as the winning pitcher.

Bob Tillman hit the only Yankee home run, going 2-for-5 with 6 RBIs. Horace Clarke went 4-for-6 with 2 RBIs. Rubén Amaro went 4-for-4 with 2 walks and 2 RBIs. These are not names normally associated with the Yankees. Mickey Mantle, who is, went 1-for-2 with 4 walks. Max Alvis hit 2 homers for the Tribe.

* The New York Mets swept a doubleheader from the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-0 and 11-9. In the opener, rookie Tom Seaver pitched a 4-hit shutout. Roberto Clemente went 1-for-4 in the opener, and drew a walk as a pinch-hitter in the nightcap. Over the 2 games, Willie Stargell went 3-for-8 with a home run, a walk, and 2 RBIs.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Houston Astros, 8-4 at Atlanta Stadium (later Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium). Hank Aaron hit his 471st career home run.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 3-0 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Sammy Ellis pitched a 3-hit shutout, outpitching Don Drysdale. Pete Rose went 2-for-4.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Baltimore Orioles, 3-2 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Al Kaline went 1-for-3 with a walk. Brooks Robinson and Frank Robinson both went 0-for-4.

* The Chicago Cubs swept a doubleheader from the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-2 and 1-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Fergie Jenkins pitched a 4-hit shutout int he 2nd game, outpitching Rick Wise. Over the 2 games, Ernie Banks went 1-for-7.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-2 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Harmon Killebrew went 0-for-3 with a walk. Rookie Rod Carew did not play.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the San Francisco Giants, 2-1 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Willie Mays went 1-for-4.

* The Washington Senators beat the Kansas City Athletics, 2-0 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. Frank Bertaina pitched a 5-hit shutout.

* And the California Angels beat the Boston Red Sox, 3-2 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Carl Yastrzemski went 2-for-4.