Broadway Joe Namath: The First Rock Star of Sports

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"This man is not a role model." So proclaimed my 5th grade teacher Mr. Kuntz as he held up a 'Life' magazine featuring photos of New York Jets' star quarterback Joe Namath swilling Scotch with adoring groupie dolls and cigar-chomping minions at his Upper East Side Club, Bachelors III. Joe Namath, a media-hungry playboy? I was taken aback by that indictment, at a time when I too young to even understand what 'taken aback' meant! Today is Joe's 72nd birthday, and here's a look back at his groovy unsportsmanlike style.

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The Beatles and The Stones: Beasts of Beard-dom

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"She asks me why I'm just a hairy guy. I'm hairy noon and night. Hair that's a fright. I'm hairy high and low. Don't ask me why. Don't know." Those words from the Broadway musical "Hair" pretty much summed up the "let it all hang out, let it all hang long" philosophy of the '60s. When it came to facial hair, The Beatles were a bit more adventurous than The Rolling Stones. But in the end, Mick proved to be the furriest of them all. Here's a little something for World Beard Day 2105.

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Liberace in Paradise (Nevada, that is)

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Those of us who embrace the adage "vanity trumps sanity" know it's often necessary to suffer for beauty. But who among the world's leading fashionistas would or could endure the discomfort of performing in an outfit that weighs 200 pounds? Flamboyant pianist-showman Władziu Valentino Liberace, of course. His famous, weighty King Neptune ensemble was one of many extravaganzas on display at the now-defunct Liberace Museum in Paradise, Nevada.

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Brian Jones: Wild Clotheshorses Couldn’t Drag Me Away

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Yes, I know that Brian Jones had nothing to do with the recording of the Rolling Stones song "Wild Horses," but I couldn't resist using the pun to get your attention as I introduce my birthday tribute to the band's founder and high priest of psychedelic '60s fashion. I reckon that Brian Jones was the dandiest heterosexual of the 20th century. And one of the randiest, too, having fathered at least five children with five different women by the time he was 23. But there was also real talent behind that foppish Casanova facade. Brian was one of Britain's earliest practitioners of Delta blues. A natural musician, he was arguably the most versatile member of the band he formed and christened The Rollin Stones in 1962. And while he didn't write, sing lead, or play solo on a single song during his career, his prowess as a multi-instrumentalist was unmatched in the rock world. Today would have been his 73rd birthday.

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Private Johnny and the Spectacles of War

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It's ironic that a tireless war protester like John  Lennon would have ever accepted a film role as a soldier. But that's just what he did back in 1966 when he appeared as Private Gripweed in Richard Lester's movie "How I Won the War." The film was an absurd black comedy about the misadventures of an army troop led by…

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