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Composer Jerry Herman

(Composer and lyricist; born July 10, 1931, in New York City)

It only takes a moment to realize that Broadway's Golden Age is alive and well and thriving as long as Jerry Herman's around. "When they passed out talent," the legendary Carol Channing has said, "Jerry stood in line twice." Almost single-handedly, the creator of Milk and Honey, Hello, Dolly!, Mame, La Cage aux Folles and so much more has revitalized and nourished the all-American tradition of great and unstoppable show tunes. His music and lyrics have kept audiences tapping their feet, humming along, and wiping their eyes with tears of joy for generations.

Even as often he's been underrated as being too easy to like in a world of dark and foreboding musicals, too entertaining, too tuneful and much too upbeat, the genius of Herman's deceptively simple songs cuts through any shortsighted criticism. "Jerry has succeeded so well in his mission that people don't give him credit," said Michael Feinstein, "because to be simple without being cliche is nearly impossible."

Herman's genius, in truth, is not so much simple as it is subtle. For all his cock-eyed optimism-and very much in the tradition of his forefathers Rodgers and Hammerstein-a Herman musical always carries a message of timeless values, of humanity's triumph over hatred and ignorance, of happiness over despair. 1983's La Cage aux Folles, a smash hit on Broadway and a Tony Award winner in all three of its Broadway productions-and counting-is not only a bona fide crowd-pleaser but also the most sweetly radical musical of its age.

Here on the Broadway stage, decades before the fight for marriage equality hit the headlines, was a pair of gay dads raising a family, and here was "...a man singing a love song to another man-I don't think that's ever been done in a Broadway musical before." Herman told The Washington Post that during previews in Boston "I didn't know whether or not they'd throw stones. The audience gave it an ovation." "By the time Georges and Albin-having weathered a son's passing ingratitude and a zealot's intolerance-walked hand in hand into the St. Tropez sunset, the audience was on its feet," The Washington Post reported. "What La Cage aux Folles celebrates, after all, is loyalty and love, respect for others and respect for self and, yes, even family. The good old values."

Gerald Herman was born in New York in 1931 and raised in Jersey City. His parents Harry and Ruth ran a children's summer camp in the Catskills, where young Jerry surprised everyone by teaching himself the piano. Once, he recalled years later, "my parents took me at a tender age to see Annie Get Your Gun, and I was absolutely dazzled. I have one of those retentive ears, and when I came home I sat down at the piano and played about five of the songs. My mother was amazed." Many more would be amazed. At 17, he was introduced to Frank Loesser, who encouraged him to continue composing once he heard some of Herman's songs.

He went to the University of Miami, joining its adventurous theater program and himself appearing in undergraduate shows including the musical Finian's Rainbow. His alma mater since then has honored this distinguished alumnus and today boasts the Jerry Herman Ring Theatre at the heart of its drama program. After graduation from Miami, Herman headed back to New York and put together a review of his songs so far: I Feel Wonderful opened at the Theatre de Lys in Greenwich Village October 18, 1954 and ran for 48 performances. He was just getting going. While playing piano in a New York jazz club called the Showplace, Herman brought together his friends Phyllis Newman and Charles Nelson Reilly for another review called Nightcap, which opened in 1958. This one ran for two years. In 1960 came Herman's Broadway debut, alongside material by Fred Ebb and Woody Allen, in the review From A to Z. That same year came Parade, also at the Showplace, starring Reilly and Dody Goodman. A hit, Parade moved to the Players' Theatre and it was during this run that a producer asked Herman if he would be interested in writing a musical about the founding of the state of Israel.

Milk and Honey, starring Molly Picon as the ultimate Hadassah lady, opened in 1961. It earned Herman his first Tony nomination for Best Musical of 1962. He had arrived. It was David Merrick who brought together Herman and the first of his vulnerable but ultimately invincible heroines, Dolly Levi. Hello, Dolly! starring Carol Channing opened in 1964, ran for 2,844 performances, became Broadway's longest-running musical and has been revived often since. It swept the Tony Awards, taking home a then unmatched 10 including Best Musical and becoming one of the happiest episodes in the history of the Broadway musical. Mame followed in 1966, starring Angela Lansbury and teaching the world that in the toughest times "We Need a Little Christmas." What has followed amounts to a life-affirming body of work rivaled by few: Dear World, the underappreciated Mack Mabel, The Grand Tour, Mrs. Santa Claus, Jerry's Girls, and of course La Cage aux Folles.

The theater world knew a good thing when it heard and saw it: Tonys, Drama Desk Awards, Theatre World Awards all followed, as did a 2009 Special Tony Award for Lifetime achievement, and a 2010 Drama Desk Special Award for "enchanting and dazzling audiences with his exuberant music and heartfelt lyrics for more than half a century." Right now in the 21st Century, we can be sure that someone, somewhere is singing a Jerry Herman song. That's one happy way we know the man's been right all along: the best of times is now.

WE LOVE CONSPIRACIES CONSPIRACIES WE LOVE

Conspiracy theories have legitimized violence, impaired public health, and undermined democratic governance. Containing their harms begins with understanding the theorist, not the theory.  CONSPIRACIES THAT TURNED OUT TO BE TRUE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xMGlbFSWWc

THE RISE OF PORTALS & THE PARALELL UNIVERSE

Could 2024 be the year humans open the first portal to a shadowy dimension which mirrors our own world?

Scientists in Oak Ridge National Laboratory in eastern Tennessee hope so, and have completed building equipment they are to test this summer which may allow us the first glimpse of a parallel universe which could be identical in many ways to our own, with mirror particles, mirror planets and possibly even mirror life.

That is according to Leah Broussard, the physicist behind the project, who described the attempt to reveal a hidden shadow world as “pretty wacky” in an interview with NBC last week.

The discovery of a concealed mirror world may sound like science fiction from the Stranger Things series, but it has been repeatedly suggested by physicists as a tempting means of explaining anomalous results. However, as yet, hard evidence such a realm exists has refused to manifest itself.

One set of anomalous results, and the ones which inspired the research, date back to the 1990s, when particle physicists were measuring the time it took for neutron particles to break down into protons once they were removed from an atom’s nucleus. 

Two separate experiments saw the neutrons broke down at differing rates, instead of decaying and becoming protons at exactly the same rate, as was expected.

In one, the free neutrons were captured by magnetic fields and herded into laboratory bottle traps, and in the other they were detected by the subsequent appearance of proton particles from a nuclear reactor stream.

Those particles fired out in the stream from the nuclear reactor lived on average for 14 minutes and 48 seconds – nine seconds longer than those from the bottle traps.

It may sound like a small difference, but it has troubled scientists.

But the existence of a mirror world offers a credible explanation: That there are two separate neutron lifetimes, and it could be that around 1 per cent of neutrons could be crossing the divide between our reality and the mirror world before crossing back and then emitting a detectable proton.

The new experiment will fire a beam of neutrons at an impenetrable wall. On the other side of the wall, a neutron detector will be set up, which normally would expect to detect nothing.

THE CHRIS BENOIT MURDER SUICIDE CASE Another thing that could have had weight in the story and in this tragic ending was the fact that Chris's brain was totally out of shape, had cet after having had constant traumas in his head. Literally, Chris's brain was the same as an 85-year-old elder with Alzheimer. The fault of this is the damn ambition and the little care that the directors of the WWE had for their fighters. Certainly, every fight was a performance and they had a script, but the acrobatics and the use of metal chairs to hit each other put their health and integrity at risk.

Eerie Twist In Wrestler's Murder-Suicide

Investigators are looking into who altered pro wrestler Chris Benoit's Wikipedia entry to mention his wife's death hours before authorities discovered the bodies of the couple and their 7-year-old son.

Benoit's Wikipedia entry was altered early Monday to say that the wrestler had missed a match two days earlier because of his wife's death.

A Wikipedia official, Cary Bass, said Thursday that the entry was made by someone using an Internet protocol address registered in Stamford, Conn., where World Wrestling Entertainment is based.

An IP address, a unique series of numbers carried by every machine connected to the Internet, does not necessarily have to be broadcast from where it is registered. The bodies were found in Benoit's home in suburban Atlanta, and it's not known where the posting was sent from, Bass said.

Benoit allegedly strangled his wife and son during the weekend, placing Bibles next to their bodies, before allegedly hanging himself on the cable of a weight-machine in his home, police said. No motive was offered for the killings, which were discovered Monday.

Over a two-day period from June 22 to June 24, 2007, Chris Benoit, a 40-year-old Canadian professional wrestler employed by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), murdered his wife Nancy and their seven-year-old son, Daniel, before hanging himself at their residence in Fayetteville, Georgia, United States.

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The wrestling world stopped in June of 2007 when a tragedy beyond anything the industry had ever seen occurred over a three day period in Fayetteville, GA. The industry had dealt with a considerable number of younger wrestlers die from a variety of causes. Drug abuse, suicide and freak accidents had hit the industry hard. But this was something different. One of the top performers in the industry, Chris Benoit, who had been heralded for years and was a former world champion had killed his family. The impact on the industry continues to this day as it still remains a tragedy that is seldom talked about in the industry.

Chris Benoit started wrestling in Canada in the mid-1980′s. He started in the wrestling promotion that was started by the famed Hart family. Bret and Owen Hart’s father Stu ran that territory in the area around Calgary. Benoit was known to idolize the “Dynamite Kid (real name Thomas Billington) for his style of wrestling which was really ahead of his time. Benoit was shorter in stature than a lot of wrestlers being under six feet tall and learned to do an intense and brutal style of wrestling that made fans notice him even though he was not as large as many other competitors. Steroids were also rampant in the industry during that decade and Benoit did utilize them to build an incredible amount of muscle.

As the years went by Benoit traveled to Japan and eventually wrestled in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) but he became nationally known when he joined World Championship Wrestling. Benoit was brought into the legendary “Four Horseman” stable led by Ric Flair primarily due to his abilities as a top level performer in the ring.

Nancy Benoit got into the wrestling business a few years after Chris and started as a valet and manager in WCW in the late 1980′s. She was most well known for playing the villainous manager “Woman”. During this time she was married to wrestler Kevin Sullivan who was several years older than her.

During the mid-90′s when Benoit was married, Sullivan booked a wrestling angle with Benoit where in storyline he started an affair with Nancy. But that on-screed romance developed into a real life romance and the two eventually divorced their respective spouses and got together as a couple. Which is ironic being that Nancy Benoit’s ex-husband Sullivan booked that original wrestling angle.

Nancy Benoit eventually left wrestling but Chris continued to make progress in his career. He eventually won a world title in WCW then left for the WWE (then WWF) in 2000. Around that time Nancy and Chris got married and had their son Daniel.

Chris’ career continue to ascend during his time in WWE as he eventually won the world title in the main event of Wrestlemania XX.

June 2007

It was the weekend going into the Monday Night Raw that was slated for June 25th, 2007 and Benoit was slated to appear. But no one had heard from Benoit in the days leading up to the event and missing performance dates was very out of character for him. Wrestler Chavo Guerrero spoke about cryptic voicemails and text messages he received from Benoit and reported it to WWE management. This was spoken about on the “Dark Side Of The Ring” documentary produced by Vice TV. Eventually police went to the Benoit home at the request from WWE to conduct a welfare check. Investigators in Fayetville, GA found the bodies of Benoit, his wife Nancy and his son Daniel. Nancy Benoit was killed by asphyxiation and her hands and feet were bound. His son appeared to have been sedated and was also killed by asphyxiation. Then Benoit eventually took his own life by hanging himself on a weight machine.

Prior to police determining the cause of death and who was responsible WWE was put in a position on how to deal with the news publicly because Raw was about to go live. The “Dark Side Of The Ring” documentary shows Vince McMahon gathered all the performers together to break the horrific news to them. The show was essentially cancelled and turned into a tribute to Chris Benoit and his family. But as the hours went by later in the evening WWE learned the true horror of what had happened in the Georgia home and responded the next night. The following night WWE had the broadcast of their ECW show and at the beginning of the show McMahon gave a statement:

“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Last night on Monday Night Raw, the WWE presented a special tribute show, recognizing the career of Chris Benoit. However, now some 26 hours later, the facts of this horrific tragedy are now apparent. Therefore, other than my comments, there will be no mention of Mr. Benoit’s name tonight. On the contrary, tonight’s show will be dedicated to everyone who has been affected by this terrible incident. This evening marks the first step of the healing process. Tonight, WWE performers will do what they do better than anyone else in the world: entertain you.”

McMahon provided a similar statement later in the week on their episode of Smackdown. That was the last time WWE ever mentioned Chris Benoit. The company went to great lengths to erase him from all WWE material. While there is still Benoit matches in their archives that can be found on Peacock, there has been no content produced by WWE since 2007 where Benoit is included.

Nancy Benoit’s sister Sandra Toffoloni has spoken in depth about her thoughts on the crime and what exactly happened on the “Talk Is Jericho” podcast hosted by wrestling star Chris Jericho who was a longtime friend of Benoit.

The public demands answers.

No other scandal in the history of professional wrestling made mainstream headlines like the Benoit tragedy. Cable news networks led a large number of shows for days analyzing the murder-suicide. A lot of that had to do with beliefs that steroids may have played a role in the tragedy. Benoit’s autopsy report showed he had a considerably high testosterone level in his body at the time of death leading many to speculate that “roid rage” may have caused the murders. Further investigation showed that he had been prescribed testosterone by his doctor. Many of those medications along with other prescription drugs were found in the home. It was later determined the testosterone was prescribed to supplement his levels due to years of past steroid use.

Marc Sotkin - TV Writer/Producer/Show Runner

Marc Sotkin is an award winning writer, producer, and director who has influenced some of Americas most Iconic Television shows.  His Credits Include: Blanskys Beauties- You Wish- First Time Out- Platypus Man - The Sinbad Show - The Golden Palace- The Golden Girls- It's a Living- The Line- Laverne & Shirley- I'm a Big Girl Now- Working Stiffs- The Garry Shandling Show

In 2015 He wrote the award winning short, THE DECISION and is the author of  several books, "With Time Off for Bad Behavior", "The Comatose Adventures Of Lenny Rose" and Kinda Dirty Paris Confessions.

Marc was also the host of his own podcast "Everything About it is Appealing"

Marc is the recipient of the prestigious Writers Guild of America Award for Best Comedy/Variety Series or Special. He is always candid, always informative and is always welcome. Welcome Marc Sotkin.

Our Special Musical Guest is Country Music Hall of Famer Lacy J. Dalton 

The Queen of Country Music

Lacy J. Dalton (born Jill Lynne Byrem on October 13, 1946 in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania), is an American country singer and songwriter with a career that has spanned many decades and touched the hearts of millions of music fans. In March 2017 Lacy J Dalton was inducted into the North American Country Music Association International Hall of Fame, and in 2022 she was awarded a Lifetime Career Achievement Award from the Josie Music Awards, the largest independent music awards show in the country.

She’s one of the most instantly recognizable voices in music – the woman People Magazine called “Country’s Bonnie Raitt.” From the first time Lacy J Dalton caught the public’s ear, that soulful delivery, full of texture and grit, has been a mainstay of Country Music. When you sit to listen to a Lacy J Dalton album, you find yourself pulled in by the very power and heart of this vocalist, because she’s not merely performing a ten-song set, she’s bringing each and every tune to life. It’s as if they were all written especially for her.

Prior to recording with Harbor Records in 1978 as Jill Croston, she like many before her, held many jobs to survive and support her family. As a truck stop waitress and singer, she would wait tables and then take the stage to sing a few songs. In June 1979, Lacy J Dalton was signed by Columbia Records and quickly rose to national prominence with Crazy Blue Eyes, which she wrote with her longest friend, Mary McFadden, and which raced to #7 on the Billboard Country Charts.  Her hard work and dedication paid off in 1979 when she was awarded the Academy of Country Music’s Top New Female Vocalist of the Year.

Lacy’s success was powered not just by the artist’s recordings, but by a stage show that truly electrified audiences. She quickly became one of the few women who could successfully open a show for the likes of Hank Williams, Jr., Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard or Charlie Daniels. Not only could she do it, but she left audiences across the country hollering for more. Her signature song 16th Avenue, became the Anthem for Nashville songwriters.  Her other hit records are legendary million-airplay cuts and include Crazy Blue Eyes, Takin’ It Easy, Everybody Makes Mistakes, Hillbilly Girl with the Blues, Hard Times, and the worldwide hit Black Coffee.

In addition to her Top New Female Vocalist award, she also brought home numerous Grammy nominations and 3 prestigious, back to back (1979, 1980, 1981) Bay Area Music Awards for Best Country-Folk Recordings. Lacy appeared on those shows with the likes of Neil Young, The Grateful Dead, Grace Slick and the Jefferson Airplane.

Lacy's collaboration with Willie Nelson on his platinum Half Nelson CD was a high spot for her. Lacy is the only woman featured on that recording (which included singing legends Ray Charles, Neil Diamond, Merle Haggard, Julio Iglesias, George Jones, Leon Russell, Carlos Santana, Mel Tillis, Hank Williams Sr., and Neil Young), and was awarded a Platinum Record for it. She also received a Gold Record from Hank Williams Jr. in 1985 for her support performances throughout his Five-0 Tour, where she opened for him at a time when it was unusual for a woman to do so. Her career includes accomplishments in music, film and radio.  In music, they range from her instantly recognizable charted hit songs to her notable duets recorded with George Jones, Willie Nelson, Bobby Bare, Glen Campbell, Eddie Rabbit, David Allen Coe and many others. Her film debut was in the motion picture Take This Job And Shove It, and her acting has also included live stage and theater performances. Until recently, Lacy J Dalton also hosted a weekly radio show called Mustang Matters.  Podcasts of past shows are available to listeners on the internet at www.americamatters.us

Following a successful career in country music, Lacy decided to draw on all her musical experiences including country, rock and folk, and cross over into the Americana genre.  This blend of musical styles allows her to express herself in a way that demonstrates all the facets of who she is as a singer/songwriter.  She became an independent artist and formed her own label called Song Dog Records.  Under this label, she has released three albums to date.  The first was Wild Horse Crossing in 1999, followed by the Last Wild Place Anthology which went #1 on the World Independent Chart, and a year later went #1 on the American Western Music Chart. Then Allison Eastwood, Clint Eastwood's daughter, used the hit song Slip Away from the Anthology CD on the sound track of her independent film, Don't Tell. In 2010 Lacy also released a tribute to Hank Williams Sr. entitled Here's To Hank.

Today, Lacy continues to record new music and perform live shows whenever possible.  She tours mainly west of the Mississippi and loves small boutique venues and old theaters with great sound quality and warm, receptive audiences she can really connect with.  She recently recorded some electrifying new music for an EP that was released in January 2019.  When hearing the signature song Scarecrow, her good friend Reverend Barbara Ann Fletcher remarked “that song makes you a whole new you, and it makes me a whole new me.”  And that’s exactly the response Lacy was hoping for.

In addition to her musical career, Lacy has been involved in various service projects through several charitable organizations – namely, the Let ‘em Run Foundation, William James Associates Arts in Corrections, and Rotary International. 

In 1999, Lacy co-founded the Let ‘em Run Foundation which received its 501(c)3 designation from the IRS in 2004.  The Let 'em Run Foundation is dedicated to rescuing, rehabilitating and re-homing America's wild horses and burros who have no voice.  Let ‘em Run’s mission is to serve as an educational, fund-raising and public relations entity, through its own efforts and in assisting similar non-profit organizations, to promote the appropriate and compassionate management of the wild horse, estray horse, and mustang population of the U.S. and other species of endangered or mistreated animals. 

From 2015 through November 2018, Lacy and her partner, Dale Poune, worked with the William James Arts in Corrections program at High Desert State Prison in Susanville, California.  Their work there has been focused on teaching basic song writing skills and techniques, music theory and guitar playing to level 4 inmates.  Through their classes, a select group of inmates got the opportunity to learn the basic principles of guitar playing and song writing which they then used to develop songs and lyrics, both individually and as a group.  The class culminated with the inmates recording those musical compositions and giving a live performance to an audience of prison and non-prison personnel.  In addition, several inmates were able to go on to teach basic guitar to other inmates in the classic “each one teach one” teaching tradition.

Finally, Lacy is an honorary member of the Rotary Club of Reno, and a Paul Harris Fellow.  Lacy has written two songs for Rotary, which she then recorded on a CD to be used as a fundraising opportunity for the Reno club.  Lacy also performed at the Rotary International Convention in New Orleans in 2011, and has been a key note speaker and headline performer at several club meetings and district conferences.

Vincent Kennedy McMahon was the CEO and Chairman of the Board at World Wrestling Entertainment for decades before “voluntarily” stepping down.

McMahon, who was a former wrestler before taking over the WWE business, confirmed in June 2022 that he was resigning from his post while the company investigated misconduct claims against him.

Several hours later, McMahon opened smackdown with great fanfare. “It is a privilege as always to stand before you here tonight, the WWE universe,” he said during the June 17, 2022, broadcast. “I’m here simply to remind you of the four words we just saw in what we call our WWE signature. Those four words are: then, now, forever, and the most important word is together. Welcome to SmackDown!”

Amid McMahon’s exit from the WWE executive suite, federal law enforcement officials have continued investigating the allegations. The former pro athlete has not yet been charged with a crime.

Nearly two years later, McMahon faced a second misconduct scandal when a former WWE employee accused him of sexual assault, trafficking and abuse in a January 2024 lawsuit. He denied all claims before resigning from WWE’s parent company, TKO Group.

THE EPSTEIN EPILOGUES PART II Who did Jeffrey Epstein work for?  What did he do for a living, and on "Who's behalf?  Where did his money come from? And where is it now? What really happened to Jeffrey Epstein? (August 10th 2019)  Found dead in the most secure maximum federal facility in the world, the N.Y Federeal Detention holding Center. Suicide or Murdered? Evidence strongly suggests that he was in fact murdered.  Forensic Pathologist Dr. Michael Baden has suggested that he did not die fri=om suicidal hanging as we are being led to believe.  We will unravel the truth.

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July 2009: Epstein is released from jail. For the next decade, multiple women who say they are Epstein’s victims wage a legal fight to get his federal non-prosecution agreement voided, and hold him and others liable for the abuse. One of Epstein’s accusers, Virginia Giuffre, says in her lawsuits that, starting when she was 17, Epstein and his girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, set up sexual encounters with royalty, politicians, academicians, businessmen and other rich and powerful men, including Britain’s Prince Andrew. All of those men deny the allegations.

November 2018: The Miami Herald revisits the handling of Epstein’s case in a series of stories focusing partly on the role of Acosta — who by this point is President Donald Trump’s labor secretary — in arranging his unusual plea deal. The coverage renews public interest in the case.

July 6, 2019: Epstein is arrested on federal sex trafficking charges after federal prosecutors in New York conclude that they weren’t bound by the terms of the earlier non-prosecution deal. Days later, Acosta resigns as labor secretary amid public outrage over his role in the initial investigation.

Aug. 10, 2019: Guards find Epstein dead in his cell at a federal jail in New York City. Investigators conclude he killed himself.

July 2, 2020: Federal prosecutors in New York charge Ghislaine Maxwell with sex crimes, saying she helped recruit the underage girls that Epstein sexually abused and sometimes participated in the abuse herself.

Dec. 30, 2021: After a monthlong trial, a jury convicts Maxwell of multiple charges, including sex trafficking, conspiracy and transportation of a minor for illegal sexual activity.

June 28, 2022: Maxwell is sentenced to 20 years in prison.

THE EPSTEIN EPILOGUES Who did Jeffrey Epstein work for?  What did he do for a living, and on "Who's behalf?  Where did his money come from? And where is it now? What really happened to Jeffrey Epstein? (August 10th 2019)  Found dead in the most secure maximum federal facility in the world, the N.Y Federeal Detention holding Center. Suicide or Murdered? Evidence strongly suggests that he was in fact murdered.  Forensic Pathologist Dr. Michael Baden has suggested that he did not die fri=om suicidal hanging as we are being led to believe.  We will unravel the truth.

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July 2009: Epstein is released from jail. For the next decade, multiple women who say they are Epstein’s victims wage a legal fight to get his federal non-prosecution agreement voided, and hold him and others liable for the abuse. One of Epstein’s accusers, Virginia Giuffre, says in her lawsuits that, starting when she was 17, Epstein and his girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, set up sexual encounters with royalty, politicians, academicians, businessmen and other rich and powerful men, including Britain’s Prince Andrew. All of those men deny the allegations.

November 2018: The Miami Herald revisits the handling of Epstein’s case in a series of stories focusing partly on the role of Acosta — who by this point is President Donald Trump’s labor secretary — in arranging his unusual plea deal. The coverage renews public interest in the case.

July 6, 2019: Epstein is arrested on federal sex trafficking charges after federal prosecutors in New York conclude that they weren’t bound by the terms of the earlier non-prosecution deal. Days later, Acosta resigns as labor secretary amid public outrage over his role in the initial investigation.

SUSIE MAE MCC OY (AKA) SWEET GEORGIA BROWN

South Carolina’s Susie Mae McCoy was a bright eyed girl with dreams of becoming a big time wrestling star when the 19-year old started training with The Fabulous Moolah and her then husband Buddy Lee in 1957. Moolah was one of the biggest female stars in America at the time and had started a stranglehold on booking women within the NWA and other territories following the decline of Billy Wolfe‘s monopoly. Renamed as Sweet Georgia Brown, McCoy made her pro wrestling debut a year later, in 1958, at the age of 20. Sweet Georgia Brown was Moolah’s first African-American student in her school and Moolah and Lee had high hopes for the emerging fad in pro wrestling “Negro Women Wrestlers”.

But despite her fame and rise on the women’s wrestling circuit, Sweet Georgia Brown lived in fear for much of career. At first, it was from the rampant racism of the south – at some venues, she was smuggled in in the trunk of a car so that the KKK or other extremists wouldn’t be tipped off to a black women entering the arenas or hotel rooms.

But sadly, the most real terror was the clear and present danger of her trainer and manager, Moolah and Buddy Lee. Moolah and Lee would take a whopping 25% of their booking fees off the top (sometimes even more), often pocketing much more, leaving the wrestlers with barely enough to survive. In order to secure better booking for herself (or her girls to get better pay for herself), she would systematically prostitute her trainees to other promoters or even wrestlers. Sweet Georgia Brown was not immune to these heinous practices.

At only 19-years old, Susie Mae McCoy became South Carolina’s first black female wrestler. In 1957, she went to train under one of wrestling’s biggest names, The Fabulous Moolah and her husband, Buddy Lee. She chose the name “Sweet Georgia Brown” and by the time she was 20, she was one of Moolah’s most successful wrestlers.

Even though she was incredibly talented, she was still taken advantage of due to her age and race. Throughout her career in the deep south, she had to hide in the trunks of cars to avoid the KKK, who would protest the thought of a black woman being allowed in arenas and hotels. On top of that, Moolah and Buddy Lee took 25% of all of her profits, leaving McCoy with little to support herself. In the Vice documentary Dark Side of the Ring, it was finally revealed that Buddy Lee himself was the father of one of McCoy’s children, confirming long held rumors that Lee forced his trainees to sleep with him in exchange for better bookings.

Despite these challenges, McCoy remained strong and by 1963, she was chosen to beat the very white and very blonde Nell Stewart for the NWA Texas Women’s title. This would make her the first black woman to ever win the belt in one of the NWA’s largest territories.

Sweet Georgia Brown retired in 1972. According to her family, she could no longer endure the abuse of Lee and Moolah. She died in 1989 from breast cancer at 51. Her successful 15-year career in one of the most racist, toughest and sexist industries around is truly badass.