Do you remember Gilligan's Island? Remember the Episode about Wrong Way Feldman? It was actually based on a true story, about Irish-American Pilot Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan. Who flew out of a Long Island New York Airfield on a flight to Los Angeles California but ended up in Ireland by "mistake". Or at least that was his story to the US and Irish Governments.
A high-school dropout turned airplane mechanic, Irish-American Douglas Corrigan was just 20 years old when he helped design and build The Spirit of St. Louis, the plane flown across the Atlantic Ocean by wealthy Charles Lindbergh in 1927. Lindbergh left Long Island, New York at 7:52 AM on May 20,1927, he spotted the Irish Coast at 3:00 PM local time, arriving at Le Bourget Field in Paris at 10:22 PM, France the following day. It was the first solo non-stop transatlantic flight, and brought Lindbergh world-wide fame overnight.
Lindbergh was Corrigan’s hero, but he was a corporate success, best, most expensive equipment, sponsors, a rich kid bought his success. Corrigan vowed to someday follow in Lindy’s footsteps by flying solo non-stop from NY to Dublin, Ireland. But it would be different, Doug was a poor kid, who did it on his own, paid his own freight and took all the risks in a plane held together with chewing gum. In 1933, Corrigan spent $310 of his own money, about $6000 in 2019 dollars, on a used 1929 Curtiss Robin OX-5 monoplane in dilapidated condition and began to repair and modify it for a transatlantic flight.
Apparently, you can’t just fly across the Atlantic without getting permission first. Corrigan applied to the Bureau of Air Commerce in 1935, but they only approved his plane for cross-country flights. Corrigan continued to modify his plane, and continued applying to the bureau, but increasing flight regulations meant repeated denials. In fact, the bureau refused to renew his plane’s license in 1937, deeming it un-flightworthy. At one point federal officials even ordered that Corrigan’s Curtiss Robin (named “Sunshine”) be grounded for six months.
By July 1938, Corrigan had invested a total of $900 (approx. $15,000 today) on Sunshine. He secured an experimental license and permission for a transcontinental flight (CA to NY) with conditional consent for a return trip. Following an approved flight plan, Corrigan flew from Long Beach, CA to Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York. Near the end of the 27-hour flight, Sunshine developed a gas leak, filling the cockpit with fumes. When he landed in New York, however, Corrigan was determined to refuel and take off again the same night. Without repairing the gas leak. Hmm. Maybe the fumes had impaired his judgment, he continued his flight.
Corrigan claimed his compass wasn't working and he didn't realize that he had a 180 degree heading error. Instead of flying to California, Corrigan was headed towards Europe. He didn't even appreciate the error after seeing only water beneath him for the next 33 hours. No one knew what to do when he arrived in Ireland. At first, customs thought about baring entry, then a call from Irish President Eamon de Valera, said welcome Irish Douglas Corrigan home to Ireland. And the President made the trip to meet him, himself. Finally, the US asked Corrigan come home, because an investigation had been begun about the wrong way flight. The US Government paid for ship's passage for Corrigan and his plane.
Irish President Eamon da Valera Greets Douglas Corrigan to Ireland.
Wrong Way Corrigan's Parade was larger than Lindbergh's to the surprise of many. Patrician Charles Lindbergh bought his way into the History Books. Wrong Way Corrigan earned it by doing it all on his own, paying his own "freight".
Not once did Corrigan ever waiver from his compass error story. When he got home, no charges were filed, though his flying license was suspended for a few weeks. New York City gave him a heroes welcome, 1,000,000 people turned out to cheer on their errant hero and Don Quixote, Douglas Corrigan built his plane himself.
Wrong Way Corrigan Meets US Ambassador to the UK, Joe Kennedy at the London Embassy. The Kennedy children considered it one of their proudest moments being Irish. The US Government wouldn't let Wrong Way Corrigan fly back to the US, but they punished him with a wink and a nod, His flying license was suspended for the two weeks it took him to sail back to the US.
Wrong Way Corrigan Meets US Ambassador to the UK, Joe Kennedy at the London Embassy. The Kennedy children considered it one of their proudest moments being Irish. The US Government wouldn't let Wrong Way Corrigan fly back to the US, but they punished him with a wink and a nod, His flying license was suspended for the two weeks it took him to sail back to the US.
Wrong Way Corrigan gets a Heroes Welcome in Boston
New York City Mayor LaGuardia invites Wrong Way Corrigan to Gracie Mansion for Dinner.
Gilligan's Island did a homage to our Wrong Way Corrigan in an episode centering on "Wrong Way Feldman".
Kept in his family garage in Orange County California since 1938, shown here being shipped to a museum in 2018, his son Harry said that is where it belongs. Wrong Way Corrigan born January 22, 1907, died December 9th 1995.
Amelia Earhart a Hero for the Ages
Amelia Earhart was the first woman flier, flew solo from California to Hawaii and twice to Europe on her own. On a visit to the White House for dinner, First Lady and Earhart snuck away and flew to Baltimore.
A Flight Pioneer's Last Flight
Admiral Chester Nimitz Chief of US Naval Operations in the Pacific during World War II told his biographer, in the 1960's, that the Navy had confirmation that Amelia and Fred Noonan, her navigator, had been CAPTURED BY THE JAPANESE. This information had not been disclosed at the time because Amelia and Noonan were engaged in reconnaissance for the US Military. Next, artifacts found on Japanese occupied Howland Island add credence to this. Most interesting among the artifacts is a jar, which, though weathered, was still intact. Amelia hid her freckles with skin cream, Dr. Berry's Freckle Ointment, her whole adult life. The jar on the right is the brand she used and the recovered aged jar on the left are matches. A footnote, Nimitz had reports that Amelia had been captured in the Marshal Islands, which were Japanese occupied at the time.
Jar on left was found on Howland Island, identified as Earhart's brand of Freckle Cream
The only inhabitants of Howland Island are coconut crabs which have wiped out the bird and rat population brought by visiting ships. The crabs number in the 1000's and are carnivores. She never stood a chance, having survived the plane crash, with no rescue, she was doomed. In case you look at their huge size and assume they can't climb trees, providing a means of escape, don't. They can climb trees, where they are know to catch birds.
A passing ship photograph, which might show part of Amelia's planes wreckage above the waves.
Wrong Way Corrigan and Amelia Earhart enjoy as much fame and respect today as they did 75 years ago, while Charles Lindbergh has fallen from the pedestal he was once on.
Charles Lindbergh was the first man to fly solo across the Atlantic from Long Island New York to Le Bourget Field Paris France in 1927. For a brief period he was the most famous man in the world, but 1930 saw the rise of Adolf Hitler.
Republican Charles Lindbergh visited Nazi Germany and seemed to be in awe of Hitler and his Third Reich. While careful not to have his photo taken with Hitler himself, at their meeting, photos did leak out from his visit.
In 1939, Lindbergh began a Republican a Pro-Nazi group called America First. This group was against allowing European Refugees and threatened to impeach FDR for allowing in too many Jewish Refugees. In the audience was the Trump family. Churchill counseled FDR, that stopping Germany military was far more important that fighting Republicans over refugees. Win the war as quickly as possible, this would save more lives than any other strategy.
Two of the people who were blocked from entering the US were teenagers Anne Frank and her boyfriend Peter Schiff. Both murdered by the Nazis at age 14-years-old.
After the end of World War II and the defeat of Hitler and the Nazis, Lindbergh, who believed in Nazi Eugenics, breeding blonde, blue eyed Germanic Aryans children, went to Germany and had sex with 18-year-old German girls, fathering over 20 children. This didn't come out until the 60's and 70's. He would publicly acknowledge children with three German women in the 1950's, but not the children he fathered immediately after the war ended in 1945. Records show he made several trips to Germany in 1945, 1946 and 1947. Friends revealed that he called it harem visits. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2005/may/29/20050529-112427-9797r/
14-year-old Werner Franz survived the Hindenburg Disaster
The Hindenburg Air Ship was emblazoned with Nazi Swastikas on her navigation fins. Named for German President and Field Marshal Hindenburg, it was the pride of the German Transatlantic Air Fleet, crossing in 55 hours. When she approached Lake Hurst New Jersey Naval Air Station after docking on the Empire State Building, a series of storms were rolling through the area. From these storms and ions in the atmosphere, the hull of the Hindenburg built up a massive static electric charge, which sparked when the landing lines reached the ground. That spark caused an immediate fire of the doping compounds used to coat the hull.
Recently, NASA investigator Dr. Addison Bain has verified this finding by scientific experiments that duplicated the vigorous ignition by static discharge to the aluminum powder filled covering material. Spectacular colors of this type of combustion were produced from the burning skin of the giant airship. Dr. Bain concluded that the Hindenburg would have burned and crashed even if helium would have been used as the lifting gas. Dr. Bain noted that the particular type of aluminum powder particles, which are flake like in shape, are particularly sensitive to electrical discharge...
Little did 14-year-old cabin boy Werner Franz know his life might have been measured in seconds. As the fire started, spreading along the outside of the blimp's hull which was "doped" with highly inflammable doping compound which contained a cellulose acetate and nitrate (used in gunpowder) and a coating of aluminum powder. 14-year-old Werner thought quickly, and managed to pry open a window on the gondola and jumped just before the ship hit the ground. Surviving the tragedy, he would become an airplane mechanic during WWII and later an Ice Skating Coach.
Dr. Goebbels, Hitler's Propaganda Chief, pressured Dr. Hugo Eckener, Chairman and Chief Engineer of the company, to name the airship after Adolf Hitler. Eckener refused, naming it after German President Hindenburg. Hitler would say, after the disaster, that he was glad it wasn't named after him.
The Navy Commander on site saw the explosion and fire, immediately thinking it was sabotage. Nazis were very unpopular in the US at that point. In fact, the US had embargoed Helium exports to Germany forcing them to use Highly Explosive HYDROGEN in the chambers inside the Zeppelin fabric, aluminum and steel superstructure. Only problem the ship had taken on no passengers or cargo in New York. Any bomb would have had to been planted in Frankfort Germany. The Nazi Gestapo inspected everything involved with the departing 97 passengers, crew and cargo, of whom 62 survived, of the 36 dead, 13 were passengers, 22 members of the crew and one member of the ground crew were killed.
Guidelines had been dropped by the air crew to the sailors on the ground, four minutes later the craft burst into an inferno flame.
Though Hydrogen is explosive and flammable, the Hindenburg had a smoking lounge, which was in a sealed compartment with only outside air ventilation. This like sabotage were soon discounted as a cause of the disaster by German Chief Engineer Eckener.
Very little of the Hindenburg clothe outer skin survived, here is one piece. The coating/dope they treated the cloth with was extremely flammable.
The tragedy unfolds as the ship docks at the mast having let down her rope guide lines.
Dr. Hugo Eckener, former chairman of the Hindenburg Zeppelin Company, Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei, was also its chief engineer. I think his logical conclusions are the only ones which make sense.
Captain Pruss, issued command after command to the crew to correct for the powerful winds which were driving the ships off course and into the docking tower.
First a series of storms were rolling through Lake Hurst as the airship approached the docking tower, winds were tumultuous and coming from several directions. When the ship originally approached, it was blown off course and had to sail past the Naval Air Station and turn around. As it approached for a second time, a strong wind was blowing strongly off course, the Captain Max Pruss ordered a strong right rudder and upward rudder because the front of the ship was rising in the rear and winds were driving it toward the docking tower. The captain ordered 6 of the ship's crew to come forward from the stern to correct the stern sinking and forward aft rising by readjusting the weight inside the ship. https://www.airships.net/hindenburg/flight-operations-procedures/
What Dr. Eckener believed happened: the sharp course corrections put the ship under terrific strain. The aluminum frame and steel structural wires were under terrific strain. One of the wires is believed to have failed and one end ripped into one of the hydrogen gas chambers in the rear of the ship. As the flammable gas escaped, the rear of the ship sank and the front rose.
The aluminum superstructure before its final collapse.
It was believed by Dr. Eckener that the guide lines/ropes dropped to the ground crew were no problem for four minutes because they were dry and poor conductors of electricity. As the rain continued the ropes became wet and perfect static electricity conductors. That is when the static electricity traveled along the outside of the shell of the Hindenburg to the top where the hydrogen was venting, when it arrived a huge explosion and fire erupted causing the ship to crash and explode. The waterproof coating/dope caught fire and spread the fired to the front in seconds.
Silverware from the Hindenburg survived the crash.
Philip McKeon, Tommy on Alice, was a nice guy, the perfect child star and a terrific kid. Modest, polite, a gentle soul and a talented guitarist who was always on time and knew his lines. But most of all, everyone who knew or met him liked him. That is as good an epitaph as anyone could ask.
From the Helen Hayes Theater on Broadway, Medea and Jason (1974)
Sister Nancy starred on "The Facts of Life"
Linda Lavin saw Philip McKeon on Broadway in Medea and Jason in 1974. When he came in to audition for Tommy on "Alice," she immediately recognized him and enlisted Vic Tayback to lobby for him to get the role of Tommy. It worked. Philip McKeon, Tommy on "Alice," was actually a very smart, polite, well educated and gentle boy. He was loved by the entire cast and crew of "Alice," since he was never demanding, never spoiled, never a problem, Philip turned out to be what every producer hoped for and yet rarely found. Vic "Mel" Tayback said Philip was like a second son to him. Linda Lavin told Philip's mom, she had to share custody of him when he was on set, because she felt like he was her son too.
Philip was very popular with people who knew him after he left "Alice" too, though they all had to overcome a certain amount of shyness in the young man. When he went into talk radio when he was in his early 40's, everyone at the stations he worked at considered him their friend. No scandals, no ego, no crimes, no drug problems, he was just a friendly, decent human being.
Hollywood "bad boy" Charlie Sheen became his lifelong friend after appearing in an episode of Amazing Stories/No Day at the Beach (1986) together. Charlie Sheen called him "a perfect gentleman, with an ebullient spirit". Yep, "EBULIENT" was the word that Charlie used to describe his pal. He recognized that Philip wasn't like most of the people he met in Hollywood, he didn't have an angle. He was just who he was. Someone Charlie enjoyed spending time every chance he could. He would call Philip when he was facing a sea of troubles and Philip would cheer him up immediately. Philip excelled at guitar, had a brilliant mind and was a bit of a book worm.
The Irish definition of a friend is someone who will stick their neck out for you and stick by you regardless of what you do and how bad times get. They will always be by your side during the good times, they will give you a hug when you need it, but also a kick in the butt when you need that. Charlie recognized Philip as the Irish friend he needed.
Philip's private life was private. He dated quietly and none of the girls he dated ever wrote about their relationships. None of his friends have written a tell all book either. Which, to me, says that his friends and romantic interests, respected him as much as they liked and loved him. He lived with rumors that he might be gay since he was a teenager, but refused to discuss his private life. Not that it made any difference or that it was any of our business, his life belonged to him and he had a right to choose, what we know, who was a part of part of his life or the relationships he had, unless and until we earned his trust.
Philip died at 55-years-old, regrettably, we always lose the gentlest among us far too early. And we are the less for it.
With so many horror stories, it is nice to know that Nancy and Philip grew up in a happy family and that they were brother and sister, but also best friends.
A fun segment of Bloopers and Practical Jokes with Dick Clark and Ed McMahon with Nancy giving Philip a little surprise, he had one for her too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-kqBckWaYE&t=1s
Philip became a teen sex symbol.
Philip thought it was amusing when all the teen magazines put him on the cover of their magazines saying he was the ultimate heartthrob. The fact that he was 6'4" at 17-years-old didn't hurt either. His sister Nancy laughed, saying he is just my big brother.
On Austin Texas Talk Radio
I disagreed with his politics and TV News choice, I am a liberal Democrat, but, from what I have learned from researching and writing this, I like and respect Philip and would have considered myself lucky to number him among my friends.
Remembering people who are too often forgotten, not for who they pretend to be, but they people they were. What is wonderful is when an actor playing a likeable though CANTANKEROUS AND IRASCIBLE character turns out to be a likeable human being too.
Desilu Studio Millionaire CEO Desi Arnaz said he only hired people, from crew to stars, that he liked for "I Love Lucy" and other shows. Cantankerous William "Bill" Frawley was his friend as well as "Fred Mertz" on "I Love Lucy."
Like Linda Lavin and Vic Tayback in choosing Philip McKeon for the role of "Tommy" on "Alice".
"Bill Frawley loved to make me and my brother laugh by saying outrageous, sometimes quite vulgar things. Since we were eight, nine, ten, eleven or twelve-year-old boys when working with him, Bill must have remembered what it was like when he was a kid and knew how to crack us up." Barry Livingston, who played Ernie on "My Three Sons".
When Barry Livingston was 8, he co-starred with Frawley on "My Three Sons." Barry said Frawley cussed like a sailor and was cantankerous as hell. But the boys all knew it was an act and chuckled when he wasn't looking. Studio Producers appreciated the fact that the relationship and affection between the boys and Frawley was real. So they asked the boys to eat lunch with Bill every day. The restaurant they ate at was called Nickodell's, 50 yards from Desilu Studios front gate. Unfortunately for the show, but perfect for Bill, Nickodell's Restaurant served booze. Frawley would down Cutty Sark after Cutty Sark during lunch like a teenage yuppy trying to impress his buddies. But the boys could get Frawley to leave, when no one else could, by telling him they were going to get in trouble if they weren't back to the set on time.
With a twinkle in his eyes, Bill would say, OK, OK and chuckle. He knew what was going on and knew the boys were doing it for his own good.
Fred was let go by the show in 1965 because he flunked his medical physical exam for studio required insurance. He was replaced by William Demarest, who, Barry said, was an adult actor doing a part, while Bill had been like their fun uncle or granddad.
Barry wasn't an original cast member. He joined his brother Stanley, who played "Chip" on the show, in the 3rd season. Barry played a foster kid living next door to the Douglas family, who was adopted by Steven Douglas/Fred MacMurray.
The last appearance of Bill Frawley on TV, on the Lucy Show, in 1965. In a few months, he would pass away from a heart attack at the age of 79-years-old. He was friends will Desi and Lucy, as much as he was friends with Ricky and Lucy.
Desi Arnaz bought a full page ad in Variety Magazine at the passing of his friend William "Fred Mertz" Frawley on March 3, 1966, captioned "Buenos Noches, Amigo," Desi also served as one of his pall bearers.
Buenos Noches, Philip!
Philip with troubled child stars/kids Dana Plato and Todd Bridges on CHiPs
Actors are people, with human flaws, family and friends
Dana Plato was fired from "Different Strokes" because she developed a drug problem. She got married and had a son, Tyler Lambert. Plato struggled with substance abuse for most of her life. In the early 1990s, she was arrested for robbing a video store in Las Vegas, and again for forging a drug prescription. Eventually she made a couple of X-rated movies then moved to Oklahoma. On May 8, 1999, Plato was found dead in her motor home from an overdose of prescription drugs at the age of 34.
Her son Tyler committed suicide 11 years after the death of his mom.
From People Magazine. In a note she found in his bedroom after his death, Richardson says her grandson wrote, “The only moments of happiness for me are when I’m real high and don’t think about the past or I’m real drunk and not able to.”
“He had his mother’s name Tattooed on his hand on his arm and right across his finger,” she says. “He was putting her ashes in with the ink.”
“He said, ‘Joni, I have to do this,’ ” she continues. “[That way] he could feel that he had part of her with him.” Tyler committed suicide May 6th 2010.
Always remember people are people whatever their path in life.
NEVER have two people been more different.
Scott Baio wrote this on Twitter about Hillary Clinton. I replied, how can any boy or man with a mother, sister or daughter he loves say that about any woman? He immediately banned me. I wear his ban as a badge of honor.
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24-year-old Scott Baio appeared in the show "Charles in Charge," which ran for five years. The first year was on CBS, then because of good, but not great ratings, the show moved to syndication, when the whole cast was changed except for Scott and Willie Aames. So child stars, Julie Cobb, April Lerman and Jonathan Ward disappeared.
2nd Season through 5th Season Cast:
Scott Baio
Willie Aames
Julie Cobb
James Widdoes
Sandra Kerns
Nicole Eggert
Josie Davis
Alexander Polinsky
It was NOT a happy set, thanks to bully, 24-year-old Scott Baio. He was the star thanks to "Happy Days" and "Joanie Loves Chachi" and knew it, plus he would never let anyone else forget it. He was totally unpleasant to almost everyone on set, but it was far worse than that. He persecuted an 11-year-old boy, who could not understand why earned Scott's venomous hatred.
Alexander Polinsky said Baio would tell him, an 11-year-old boy, that he was unlovable and defective. In one instance, Baio pulled down Alexander's pants in front of more than 100 people visiting the set, Polinsky said. In another instance, Baio cut a hole in the canvas wall of Polinsky's private dressing room on set, and Baio thrust his penis through that hole at him and made a vulgar gay slur/remark, unclear whether it was his "boner" or not. Later he threw a hot drink in Alexander's face and constantly called him a sissy/queer/faggot in front of cast and crew. Alexander would stay in his dressing room or the other kid co-stars of the show Nicole Eggert and Josie Davis' dressing rooms between shots, where he was always welcome, spending as little time with Scott as possible. Alexander got along great with everyone, except Scott.
No 11-year-old boy should have to put up with that treatment from an "adult" 24-year-old man. It shows the power of Scott Baio and other young "hot" stars, that they could do this to a young kid.
Alexander said he would cry in his dressing room and at home, because he couldn't figure out why Scott hated him.
"Mr. Baio repeatedly told me, 11-year-old Alexander Polinsky reported, about gay sex acts that he told me I would grow up to perform," Alexander said. "I would protest and asked him to stop saying these things, but he said he was doing it for my own good." Alexander Polinsky, 11-year-old co-star of "Charles in Charge" told the press in 2020. Scott seemed to enjoy calling Alexander a queer, sissy and faggot.
24-year-old Scott Baio had to face accusations from female co-star Nicole Eggert too. She said everyone was afraid of him, because he was the star and a bully, who could have gotten any of them fired in a heartbeat. And he was petty and vindictive enough to do it too.
A press conference called by Nicole Eggert and Alexander Polinsky to discuss what Scott did to them.
According to Eggert, he also sexually abused her. The sexual abuse started before her 15th birthday when “we were at his house in his car in his garage, and he reached over and penetrated me with his finger.” “I was very young. It was shocking,” Eggert recalled. “He was playing not only on my emotions, but my hormones and all of those things.”
Scott Baio said when the charges hit the press, these quotes are from VARIETY, Scott added, that she, a 14/15-year-old girl seduced him, a 24-year-old man.
Just when you thought Scott couldn't do or say anything as bad as when he bullied 11-year-old Alexander Polinsky and abused Nicole Eggert, Scott proves us wrong again.
In 2017, former child star and Baio/Chachi love interest, Erin Moran, in both "Happy Days" and "Joanie Loves Chachi," died. While the rest of the "Happy Days" cast recalled Erin's memory with fondness and love, Scott chose a different route. Without knowing the facts, Scott Baio told a reporter that is what happens when you are a drug addict. WRONG AGAIN, Erin died of Stage 4 Throat Cancer. The autopsy found NO ILLEGAL DRUGS in Erin's body. Erin's husband was so offended by what Scott Baio said that Baio was BANNED from Erin's funeral.
A little fact for Trivial Pursuit players, Erin Moran's little brother Tony Moran played the serial killer Michael Myers in the original "Halloween" (1978).
Another Vicious Bully, the only difference, Kirk "Growing Pains" Cameron blames Jesus for his bullying and viciousness!
When I was in college, someone stole my rent money. I had to work my regular job during the day, I worked in the Georgia State University Mailroom and got off at 3 PM, then went to work day labor until 10 PM trying to come up with my rent in time. I was sent to the Kraft Cheese Plant in Atlanta because their sewer line backed up. For two weeks, I shoveled the sewage into dumpsters in the putrid smelling food plant. I will never forget it and almost never mention it. I did what had to be done to pay my rent.
The Orlando Sentinel Newspaper claimed on E! True Hollywood Story that Kirk Cameron went so far as to accuse ABC, the shows executive producers, were pornographers if they didn't get rid of his romantic interest, Julie McCullough, because she appeared on Playboy Magazine.
Jesus loved wayward Mary Magdalene and considered her his sister. "Christian" Kirk Cameron isn't quite the man Jesus was, despite his bullying protestations. I suspect Jesus is as ashamed of Kirk as I am.
Another young star dies and everyone assumes the worst, he was shooting up heroin and committed suicide because he was bored with his huge success, but the truth is much more complicated. Kurt Cobain died from suicide, but there was a reason he didn't want people to know which was the cause of his drug addiction.
Kurt Cobain had severe scoliosis, curvature of the spine, which caused him constant, horrific pain since he was 12-years-old in Junior High School, severely aggravated when he joined his junior high school wrestling team, probably the worst thing he could have done. But it wouldn't be diagnosed until his late teens. Kurt also had recently developed severe, constant stomach pain, possibly stomach cancer, which when coupled with his scoliosis caused him to be in constant horrific pain. But doctors weren't sure and wanted to to test him to determine whether it was IBS, stomach or colorectal cancer.
Two of Kurt's uncles committed suicide because they had stomach cancer. Kurt was taking several prescriptions for the pain, but they weren't nearly enough. He began self-medicating using heroin and other non-prescription drugs to alleviate his pain.
The True Measure of Success to Kurt and his bandmates was not when Nirvana's song, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" became a huge success, but something which happened immediately after it.
Enter everyone's favorite geek, Weird Al Yankovic
The song Kurt Cobain wrote after repeatedly listening to an album "The Beatles" by the kids from Liverpool.
Paul McCartney says he and the guys used to hang out at the Liverpool St. Peter's Cemetery since they were 10-years-old, but he has no clear recollection of ever seeing "ELEANOR RIGBY'S" grave marker before writing the song.
Unsurprisingly, Yankovic and Cobain’s phone call went smoothly, and it resulted in the Nirvana frontman asking him whether it would be a food-themed track as he had released a myriad of gastronomic songs such as ‘Eat It’ and ‘Lasagna’.
“He was sweet and he got it in like five seconds and said, ‘Of course, you can do a parody,’” Yankovic remembered. “The famous quote from him was, ‘Is it going to be a song about food?’ because at that point that’s primarily what I was known for.”
Yankovic proceeded to explain to Cobain what the idea for his satire was. “I said, ‘Well, no, it’s going to be a song about how nobody can understand your lyrics,’” he continued. “And he said, ‘Oh, sure, of course, that’s funny.’ That’s one of those phone conversations I wish I had recorded. I’d love to hear that myself.”
After ‘Smells Like Nirvana’ was released in April 1992, Yankovic only met Cobain once. “He just happened to be eating at an adjoining table with his friends,” he said. “This was after the parody had come out, so I got to go over and thank him in person. I just profusely thanked him and said, ‘Anything I can do for you, let me know.’ Kurt extended his hand to me and said, ‘Polish my nails.’” https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/kurt-cobain-reacted-weird-al-yankovic-nirvana-parody/
Weird Al heard from a friend who knew them both that Kurt told his friends, now I know Nirvana is a success, Weird Al did a parody of "Smells Like Teen Spirit"!
Kurt's highest complement!
Weird Al Yankovic was Valedictorian of his class at Lynnwood High School in California, graduating a year early at the age of 16.
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