OCTOBER 29 — 1997 Anton LaVay, creator of Church of Satan, dies at St. Mary’s Med Center; 1804 William Clark takes notes on the early fire shelter; 1778 Benjamin Tallmadge replaces Gen. Scott in Washington’s Spy Ring; 1974 The Champion takes down Big George in the Rumble In the Jungle
OCTOBER 29
1997 — Anton LaVay, creator of the Church of Satan, dies at St. Mary’s Medical Center, thirteen days after the full moon.
These American horror stories just seem to fall in my lap somehow. When he was born his name was Howard. At least he was smart enough to sell this church of his by changing his name to Anton.
Not much is really known about this fella, even though he’s written five books starting with the Satanic Bible, since he lied about much of his life, like sleeping with Marilyn Monroe, which was very gutsy considering her husband Joe DiMaggio didn’t whack his baseball bat across his head,, d being friends with former president Chester Arthur’s grandson and writing parts of the Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby, which incidentally came out the same year LaVay started his church.
We do know that as a teenager he went to a high school in Mill Valley in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead used to live. I know this because I saw Jerry going to the store when I was with my friends in Mill Valley once in 1990. Anyway! We also know LaVay was very proficient at playing the organ, on which he played really creepy music. What we don’t know for sure is just about everything else. Supposedly he left high school at age 16 to join a circus, but the only circus he probably ever worked at was his so-called church.
LaVay’s message was one of a hybrid belief that gaps religion and psychology Religion was hypocritical, oppressing the very needs of elements of life itself, which is why on Sunday the same people who were on their knees praying, were the same people who went to strip clubs on Friday nights. In other words, the Church of Satan wasn’t weird like those other weird factions that were splintering off his church that were practicing human and goat sacrifices, which apparently never happened in the Church of Satan.
LaVay was married several times and had three children, two girls: Karla Maritza, Zeena Galatea and a son, Satan Xerxes. His oldest He baptized Zeena in his church and detailed in one of his books, Satanic Rituals. These days, I think she’s the lead singer of Cradle of Filth. I’m just kidding Lindsay Schoolcraft! You’re still one of my favorite keyboardists. Zeena these days has denounced her father’s church and religion. Speaking of the Satanic Rituals, it was inspired by the Illuminati, the Knights Templar and the Freemasons.
He would read these over a musical bed on his album Satan’s Mass. For the music bed he used Beethoven and Wagnar, who I’m sure didn’t receive royalties. Whether it was God or Satan that let Anton die on this night in 1997 at St. Mary’s in San Fran remains to be debated, and no doubt it’s been brought up on daughter Karla’s weekly radio show on Satanism.
Ironically, it would appear that Anton would like to rest in peace, instead of hell, after all.
1929 – Black Tuesday.
…16 Million shares traded on the New York Stock exchange. Billions of dollars lost, and signaled the beginning of the Great Depression. Key word there: signaled. Didn’t start it, according to an article in The Economist in 1998. It argues that a very serious Stock Market crash is still incapable of causing such a depression. Economists Joseph Schumpeter, Nikolai Kondratiev, and Charles E. Mitchell state the crash was “merely a historical event in the continuing process known as economic cycles. The impact of the crash was merely to increase the speed at which the cycle proceeded to its next level. ”
In Milton Friedman’s A Monetary History of the United States, he argues that what made the great contraction was so severe was not the downturn in the business cycle, protectionism, or the 1929 stock market crash in themselves, but instead, what plunged the country into a deep depression was the collapse of the banking system during three waves of panics over the 1930-33 period. By 1933, nearly half of America’s banks were out of business and the unemployment rate was about 30%. What finally brought America out of the depression was the massive need for armaments production to feed the war effort for World War 2.
1804– William Clarke notes the first recorded fire shelter.
A fire shelter, a bit like a pup-tent, these days is made out of aluminum, silicon and fiberglass and is used as a last resort with firefighters. When deployed, a fire shelter deflects convective heart and can protect a firefighter and help him or her breathe oxygen for up to an hour.
But William Clarke reported seeing one in his journeys with Meriwether Lewis during a prairie wildfire near Fort Mandan in North Dakota. Clark noted that he saw a Native American mom throw what he called a green buffalo skin over her son to protect him from the flames.
1945–The first ball point pen goes on sale,
57 years after it was patented by John J. Loud. He wanted to make something that could write successfully on leather. It had a small rotating steel ball, held in place by a socket. But the pen didn’t have any other viable uses; it was too much for letter writing as it smudged everywhere, so he couldn’t market it to the masses. The patent eventually lapsed, and would be improved by Hungarian Laszlo Biro.
1872 – J S Risdon patents the metal windmill.
1778– Tallmadge replaced General Scott in Washington’s Spy Ring.
The Culper spy Ring, a network of spies in enemy lines, fed critical information to General George Washington during the American Revolution which allowed him to gain the upper hand in critical points of the war, including Trenton, Yorktown, West Point and much more.
Benjamin Tallmadge led the ring and passed information from Caleb Brewster to Washington. Brewster would get his information from Abraham Woodhull, who watched troop movements and other essential details very closely in Long Island. But the real important information came from Robert Townsend in New York City. Austin Roe would deliver goods to the spy network. But in the beginning it he formation of the Culper Ring was rocky.
Nathan Hale had already been caught and executed by the British in New York, and Washington vowed to not let that happen again. Unfortunately, under the command of Brigadier General Charles Scott, it would. Tallmadge and Scott had different methods of handling spies. Tallmadge preferred the communication amongst a reliable network of spies working together. Scott’s method of dispatching spies was to put five of them in Long Island, each on their own separate missions without any knowledge of the other.
In addition to the security of the overall mission should one be captured, he could compare the different stories for accuracy. But Scott wasn’t counting on losing more than one of his spies, and in fact he lost three of them. War is hell, folks, and battles demand sacrifice, but Washington wasn’t willing to sacrifice more innocent lives than he needed to. All of a sudden Tallmadge’s plan started to look pretty good. It would be on this day in 1778 he resigned as chief of intelligence, and Tallmadge took his place.
After a brief furlough, Scott would continue to fight din the southern theater with Benjamin Lincoln. During Henry Clinton’s Siege of Charleston, Scott would be captured and released in 1781. After the Revolution Scott moved to Kentucky where he would lead militia on raids against the Native American, than became governor of Kentucky.
1971 – Slide Guitarist Duane Allman crashes into a truck.
…Duane, who had played guitar for Wilson Picket, Eric Clapton, Aretha franklin, and so many others, formed the Allman Brothers Band with his brother Greg. The Allmans would release three commercially successful albums. Duane used an empty Coricidin glass bottle over his ring finger as a slide. It was pretty cool. On October 29, 1971 while riding his Harley Davidson sportster, he swerved to avoid a turning truck, lost control of his bike, crashed, and died hours later in a hospital.
He only made three albums but they are still famous to this day. I also bring this up because if you’re ever talking to his brother Gregg, remember three things. Don’t bring up Cher, don’t bring up Harleys, and Dear God whatever you do, don’t ever ever EVER accidentally call him Duane. Trust me on this, I’ve seen it happen. The conversation won’t end well. Brad White.
1974– The Champion takes down Big George in the Rumble in the Jungle.
Up until that point in history, quite possible the greatest knockout punch ever recorded. One of the greatest sporting events that went down in the 20th century, it was also a big upset. Big George Foreman, 6’3: and 220 pounds from Houston Texas had 40 wins and zero losses coming into this fight, 37 of them Kos.
Muhammad Ali, The Greatest, the Champion, the Louisville Slugger was also 6’3”, but four sounds lighter than Big George. As far as that nice shiny championship belt around Big George’s waist? That used to be Ali’s, and now he wanted it back, and he would need a strategy against Foreman’s superior strength, using it against him.
Big George had a thought to beat strategy that involved holding out his arms, goading his opponent inward, and then knocking them off balance by pulling their arms down and throwing his punch. But the Greatest was onto this strategy, and when the first bell rang, so was his plan. As Foreman would reach out, Ali would go in for the quick punch in the head. With Ali, Foreman wouldn’t be able to just pull his arms down because Ali saw that coming and yanked his arm away, letting loose another punch to the face.
Foreman also had a proven strategy of knocking his opponents in the shoulder to knock them off balance as he delivered a bigger blow, but that wouldn’t work against Ali since Ali was a master of dodging these punches, again leaving Foreman wide open for the counter. Foreman would get Ali into the corner, and Ali would absorb the punches with his forearms, wearing down Big George. Buy Round 8, ding ding, it was clear Foreman was exhausted Ali landed a few more, the Conn connects with a an angled whipping hook, then a crows, and Big George went down liken faster than a fat kid on a see-saw.
The Champion became the champ once again in one of the greatest bouts between two of the most skilled fighters in American history.
2008 – The Phillies win the World Series, resumed game 5 that begun 2 days earlier.
Making their NBA debuts on October 29, 9-time All Star Dominique Wilkins in 1982, 7-0 time all-star and 3 time champion James Worthy in 1982.
In the NFL, 1995 Jerry Rice becomes NFL career receiving leader with 14,040 yards, and in…
2006 Raiders beats Steelers 20-13 despite only getting 9 1st downs and 98 total yards to 360 for the Steelers. Chris Carr of Oakland had a 100 yard interception for a TD.