Speaker 1: Pretty much, any obituary with the word first in its
Speaker 1: headline is going to get a lot of cliques. Of
Speaker 1: course it is the human drama is baked right in.
Speaker 1: Someone doing something unprecedented captivates us. We can only imagine
Speaker 1: the courage, the fortitude not to mention the talent of
Speaker 1: Jackie Robinson, the first black player in Major League baseball.
Speaker 1: But what about the black player who joined the major
Speaker 1: leagues just eleven weeks after Robinson. He had the weight
Speaker 1: of an entire raith on his shoulders along with Jackie Robinson.
Speaker 1: Sally Ride's place in history is secure. She was the
Speaker 1: first American woman in space, But what about the woman
Speaker 1: who went into orbit only a year later? She approached
Speaker 1: becoming an astronaut like she did everything, She knew what
Speaker 1: she wanted and went for the same woman who lost
Speaker 1: her life on one of the darkest days in Nassa's history.
Speaker 1: You saw it forty five seconds after liftoff, a huge
Speaker 1: fireball in the sky. And what about the British band
Speaker 1: here they are again? Whatever life who landed on American
Speaker 1: shores only a month after the Beatles and dated day.
Speaker 1: We love firsts so much that we end up ignoring
Speaker 1: the achievements and people that come after, even right after.
Speaker 1: But those people are essential. Without someone coming in second
Speaker 1: and third and fourth, the first person is more of
Speaker 1: an oddity, a one off, instead of the beginning of
Speaker 1: big social change. So today we salute three of histories.
Speaker 1: Silver medallists from CBS Sunday Morning and I Heart I'm
Speaker 1: Morocca and this is mobituarymes this moment. Second place finishers
Speaker 1: Larry Dobie, Judith Resnick, and the Dave Clark Five. I
Speaker 1: love a good musical rivalry Andy Williams versus Perry Como,
Speaker 1: Metallica versus Mega Death. Does anyone else remember that period
Speaker 1: in the early eighties when it was Madonna versus Cindi
Speaker 1: lauper Well for a good stretch of nineteen sixty four,
Speaker 1: you were either a Beatles person or a Dave Clark
Speaker 1: five person. I know you thought I was going to
Speaker 1: mention the Stones, But in nineteen sixty four there were
Speaker 1: magazine covers pitting the Beatles against the Dave Clark Five.
Speaker 1: On one of them, there's a picture of bandleader Dave
Speaker 1: Clark captioned I'll duel with Ringo. And only one month
Speaker 1: after the Fab Four's legendary first appearance on The Ed
Speaker 1: Sullivan Show. Here for all of you youngsters, England's Dave
Speaker 1: Park five, Lad all Over The Dave Clark Five made
Speaker 1: their first appearance on the program. The Dave Clark Five
Speaker 1: had good reason to be feeling glad all over. Their
Speaker 1: hit of the same name had knocked the Beatles I
Speaker 1: want to hold your hand out of the top spot
Speaker 1: on the UK charts. Throughout the sixties, they would land
Speaker 1: fifteen consecutive top twenty US hit singles and sell one
Speaker 1: hundred million records. You want a pounding rocker of a record,
Speaker 1: a rip it up song that will rattle your world
Speaker 1: in the bedroom you share with your dad and your brother.
Speaker 1: Tom Hanks grew up listening to the group and could
Speaker 1: barely contain himself during their induction into the Rock and
Speaker 1: Roll Hall of Fame. You want to hear a song
Speaker 1: that will make you feel glad all Over by the
Speaker 1: Dave Clark Five. After the d C five's breakthrough with
Speaker 1: Glad all Over saw them score top five hits with
Speaker 1: Bits and Pieces and Can't You See That She's Mine?
Speaker 1: And because the following year they went to number one
Speaker 1: with Over and Over, I said over and over and
Speaker 1: over again, The Dead Clock five made a joyful sound.
Speaker 1: Over and over and over again. The Dead Clark five
Speaker 1: made a joyful found. But unlike the Beatles, who were
Speaker 1: determined from their earliest days in Liverpool to make it
Speaker 1: as artists, the Dave Clark five started playing music to
Speaker 1: support their soccer habit. They had a soccer team and
Speaker 1: they wanted to play in a tournament in Holland, but
Speaker 1: they didn't have the money for the passage. This is
Speaker 1: Harold Bronson, co founder of Rhino Records. He wrote a
Speaker 1: book about the British invasion. So they formed a band
Speaker 1: to make money so that they could actually be able
Speaker 1: to go to Holland, which they whish they did. Their
Speaker 1: aspiration was to go to Holland and play soccer, and
Speaker 1: being a band was the way they were going to
Speaker 1: pay for it was basically their survival job, right, So
Speaker 1: it was kind of an accident, you know that they
Speaker 1: evolved into this really good dance band. Who are you
Speaker 1: know making money? Mike Smith played keyboards and sang lead.
Speaker 1: His voice was raw, commanding and he helped write many
Speaker 1: of the group's songs. Lenny Davidson played guitar. Rick Huxley
Speaker 1: was on base and Dennis Peyton the saxophone, a wild
Speaker 1: card that helped give the Dave Clark five a unique sound.
Speaker 1: But what really set the band apart was its drummer,
Speaker 1: Dave Clark, himself a former stunt man. He wasn't just
Speaker 1: the band's leader, a rarity for a drummer, he also
Speaker 1: managed the band with a crystal clear vision of how
Speaker 1: it should sound and look. More than anything, he was
Speaker 1: a showman. The Dave Clark Five probably had the best
Speaker 1: presentation of any of the British Invasion groups when they
Speaker 1: came to America because Dave was thinking more theatrical. They
Speaker 1: looked great. I mean, these guys were snappy dressers, matching suits,
Speaker 1: white turtlenecks, pocket squares. They're perfectly clean cut hair, perfectly quaff.
Speaker 1: I call it Fisher Price hair, like each head of
Speaker 1: hair could snap right on and off. Well, it's time
Speaker 1: to go on in a few seconds, so Mike and
Speaker 1: Rick attend to their head. Nothing fantastic, take no hint
Speaker 1: of Mercy's side, but just the way their fans expect
Speaker 1: to see him on stage. They were all smiles, bobbing
Speaker 1: their heads side to side in unison in sync with
Speaker 1: their leader's drumbeat. Dave was also a producer on the
Speaker 1: group's records, A very hands on producer the drums, for example,
Speaker 1: he made sure they were always mixed loud and Dave
Speaker 1: exhibited a business savvy that's rare among new artists. He
Speaker 1: had paid for studio recordings himself using money from his
Speaker 1: stunt work, so he figured he could ask for more
Speaker 1: than the standard royalty rate, and when he went into negotiation,
Speaker 1: he figured, okay, I'll ask for three times as much,
Speaker 1: and the record company basically said okay. Even more audaciously,
Speaker 1: he asked that the rights to the group's songs be
Speaker 1: returned to him after ten years, which again they said okay,
Speaker 1: because they weren't paying for it. In rock and roll
Speaker 1: wasn't thought to have any longevity. That's right. The company
Speaker 1: didn't see a future for rock and roll, but Dave Clark,
Speaker 1: the stuntman slash soccer enthusiast slash high school dropout, did. Now,
Speaker 1: that's smarts. Once the band topped the charts in the UK,
Speaker 1: it was inevitable that America's most important taste maker would
Speaker 1: come calling. Hell here he is ed Sullivan's Variety Show
Speaker 1: had ruled Sunday nights for decades, and once the Beatles appeared,
Speaker 1: Sullivan's show became the gateway, kind of the Ellis Island
Speaker 1: for British bands who wanted to make it in America.
Speaker 1: All the more remarkable then that when Ed Sullivan first
Speaker 1: invited the Baby Clark Vive on Dave actually said no.
Speaker 1: In today's terms, that's like having a store on Etsy
Speaker 1: and turning down Oprah when she calls to tell you
Speaker 1: you're one of her favorite things. But Harold Bronson says
Speaker 1: Clark had played for Americans on air basis in the UK,
Speaker 1: and well, apparently they were just too American for him.
Speaker 1: He did not have a good impression of Americans and
Speaker 1: didn't want to like put himself in that kind of rowdy,
Speaker 1: uncrewth element. But when it's Sullivan up the anti to
Speaker 1: ten thousand dollars, well, you know that was a lot
Speaker 1: of money and that made all the difference. After Ed
Speaker 1: Sullivan introduced the Dave Clark Five to America, they finally
Speaker 1: quit their day jobs. They ended up going on his
Speaker 1: show twelve times. In November four, the group played Anaheim,
Speaker 1: and The l A Times described the event as a
Speaker 1: riot without violence. The headline Britain's find it Hard to
Speaker 1: Sing to three thousand screaming teenagers. It was Beatlemania level frenzy.
Speaker 1: In fact, just one year after the Beatles charmed audiences
Speaker 1: with their movie A Hard Day's Night, the Dave Clark
Speaker 1: Five start in their own film called Catch Us If
Speaker 1: You Can. The movie marked the debut of British director
Speaker 1: John Boorman went on to make Deliverance and Hope and Glory.
Speaker 1: But even before the film came out, Borman told the
Speaker 1: press it was a dud. The Dave Clark Five, mainly
Speaker 1: Dave himself, just couldn't match the Beatles charisma. Dave may
Speaker 1: have been cruising around in a Jaguar in the movie,
Speaker 1: but the band's joy ride was beginning to sputter. By
Speaker 1: the latter half of the sixties, the Beatles were experimenting
Speaker 1: with new sounds and psychedelic drugs. They went to India
Speaker 1: and studied transcendental meditation. They released groundbreaking albums like Sergeant
Speaker 1: Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Critics began praising their music
Speaker 1: as art. Meanwhile, the Dave Clark Five were relying more
Speaker 1: and more on covers for the record I happen to
Speaker 1: Love their take on put a Little Love in Your Hearts.
Speaker 1: In seventy the Dave Clark Five called it quits, the
Speaker 1: same year that the Beatles broke up. Today, more than
Speaker 1: half a century later, there really is no competition. Culturally.
Speaker 1: The Beatles are still playing the main stage that Dave
Speaker 1: Clark five for a time, we're all but forgotten. That
Speaker 1: was thanks to a very bad business decision by Dave
Speaker 1: himself to sit on those rights that reverted to him
Speaker 1: for decades. He simply refused to re release any of
Speaker 1: the group's music. He thought wrongly that that would make
Speaker 1: the songs more valuable. But none of that changes the
Speaker 1: fact that the Dave Clark Five put out a lot
Speaker 1: of great records, records that made a deep impact in
Speaker 1: this country. I want to go back to those early
Speaker 1: months of nine sixty four when the Beatles in February
Speaker 1: and the Dave Clark Five in March first came to America.
Speaker 1: They were coming to a country at its lowest low,
Speaker 1: still traumatized from what had happened just a few months
Speaker 1: before the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In his
Speaker 1: speech inducting the d C five into the Rock and
Speaker 1: Roll Hall of Fame Tom Hanks remembered how it felt
Speaker 1: in November of nineteen sixty A terrible storm pounded your classroom,
Speaker 1: and your town and your country, and for weeks and
Speaker 1: for months, for the longest time, your heart and your
Speaker 1: world have been wrapped in black, and the head of
Speaker 1: every single person you look up to is still bowed
Speaker 1: in mourning. It was the bleakest winter of your discontent.
Speaker 1: But then morning became morning, as the sun rose in
Speaker 1: the east coming out of England. For many Americans, the
Speaker 1: British invasion was more of an intervention, jolting this country
Speaker 1: from its sad stupor. Music is a kind of therapy,
Speaker 1: scream therapy. The result was more than just audiences filled
Speaker 1: with screaming teenagers and schoolyard arguments over who was better
Speaker 1: this quintet or that quartet from the northern part of
Speaker 1: the Queen's I'll know the true product was joy. The
Speaker 1: Dave Clark five may have been second to the Beatles,
Speaker 1: and only for a short time at that, but both
Speaker 1: groups delivered joy when people really needed it. I'll let
Speaker 1: Tom Hanks, channeling his eight year old self, close out
Speaker 1: this set. Music reaches the soul. The Dave Clark five
Speaker 1: lifted outs with a concussive beat that commanded you to
Speaker 1: lean over from the back seat the moment you heard
Speaker 1: the rumbling percussion of the Dave Clark five on the
Speaker 1: radio and commanded you to yell your dad, turn it out,
Speaker 1: turn it out. That this is my favorite song. And
Speaker 1: this song, this song is going to take our confusion
Speaker 1: and our sadness, our loss and our despair. It's going
Speaker 1: to take all the bleak days we've been through and
Speaker 1: all the heaviness of our hearts. This three minute record
Speaker 1: is taking our joylessness and smashing it to pieces, two
Speaker 1: bits and pieces. So turn out the radio, dad. Now.
Speaker 1: If you heard our season one episode on Forgotten Forerunners,
Speaker 1: you may remember the story of Moses fleetwood Walker, the
Speaker 1: black baseball player who in four joined the lineup of
Speaker 1: the otherwise white Toledo Bluestockings. He taking the field outraged
Speaker 1: enough white players that a color line was soon drawn
Speaker 1: through America's pastime. For the next six decades, there was
Speaker 1: an apartheid in American baseball. Black players had to form
Speaker 1: their own teams and eventually their own leagues, the Negro Leagues.
Speaker 1: Then Jackie Robinson moved from the Negro Leagues to a
Speaker 1: Brooklyn Dodgers farm team, and then in was called up
Speaker 1: to become the first black player in Major League baseball,
Speaker 1: a milestone that was much bigger than baseball. There at
Speaker 1: the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, we make the bold as
Speaker 1: searching that Jackie Robinson's breaking up the color barrier wasn't
Speaker 1: just a part of the civil rights movement, it was
Speaker 1: the beginning of the civil rights movement. That's Bob Kendrick,
Speaker 1: the president of the Negro League's Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.
Speaker 1: This is this is well before round versus the Board
Speaker 1: of Education, right, this is before Rosa Parks refusal to
Speaker 1: move to the back of the bus. Dr Martin Luther
Speaker 1: King Jr. Was merely a sophomore at Morehouse College. In essence,
Speaker 1: this is what started the ball of social progress rotling
Speaker 1: in our country. Baseball and our country literally jumped on
Speaker 1: the coattail of baseball. Kendrick was speaking to CBS for
Speaker 1: a documentary not about Jackie Robinson, but about the second
Speaker 1: black player in the Major leagues. This is the CBS
Speaker 1: New York special presentation. Larry Dobee second to none. My
Speaker 1: colleague sports anchor Otis Livingston hosted that documentary. Otis felt
Speaker 1: it was high time that Larry Dobe got his due
Speaker 1: because he has his own place. Jackie, of course is
Speaker 1: number one, first guy in but just eleven weeks later
Speaker 1: he was brought into this whole situation. DOBIE's journey as
Speaker 1: the second black player in the LB was uniquely challenging.
Speaker 1: Is it fair to say that he suffered the same
Speaker 1: indignities as Jackie Robinson but he didn't get the same accolades. Oh,
Speaker 1: that's fair to say, It's really fair. Larry Adobe was
Speaker 1: born in in Camden, South Carolina. When he was fourteen,
Speaker 1: he moved to Patterson, New Jersey, the place he would
Speaker 1: call home. Adobie had played baseball when he was in
Speaker 1: South Carolina, but in New Jersey he became a star,
Speaker 1: and not just in baseball. He played on East Side
Speaker 1: High School's championship winning football team. He broke a conference
Speaker 1: record in track and field. In fact, while he was
Speaker 1: good at baseball, he'd later tell the Louis B. Nunn
Speaker 1: Center for Oral History that the sport was almost like
Speaker 1: an afterthought. Well, I never thought that much about baseball.
Speaker 1: Even when I was in high school, I played baseball
Speaker 1: because there's nothing else to do. Baseball may not have
Speaker 1: been his passion back then, but he made the All
Speaker 1: state team two years in a oh His high school
Speaker 1: gave him a gold watch, naming him the greatest east
Speaker 1: Side high school athlete of all time, so he was
Speaker 1: used to a relatively supportive atmosphere. Now when Dobie was
Speaker 1: coming up, there was no explicit rule barring black players
Speaker 1: from the major leagues, but there was a tacit understanding
Speaker 1: among team owners. You just didn't sign black players. So
Speaker 1: Dobe joined the Negro Leagues in two while he was
Speaker 1: still in high school, and began playing for the Newark
Speaker 1: Eagles as second baseman. He played under the name Larry
Speaker 1: Walker since high school students weren't technically allowed to play.
Speaker 1: It was his first professional contract. His rising star was
Speaker 1: briefly interrupted by World War Two, when Dobie was drafted
Speaker 1: into the Navy. He wrote a train to Chicago for
Speaker 1: basic training along with some of his former high school teammates,
Speaker 1: but unlike his high school, the Navy was segregated. There's
Speaker 1: budget is that that had played football, met and baseball
Speaker 1: men in high school you're in the same train. When
Speaker 1: we got to Chicago, was in we were separated. I
Speaker 1: went to so called Camp Robert Smallis was a black camp,
Speaker 1: and they went to the white camp. In the Navy,
Speaker 1: there was an all white baseball team called the Blue Jackets,
Speaker 1: but Doobe and other black players could only play for
Speaker 1: the black Blue Jackets. Jobe later said that it was
Speaker 1: the first time he was fully conscious of segregation, and
Speaker 1: it's stunned. After all, he was drafted into the Navy
Speaker 1: to fight for the country. You became a little bit
Speaker 1: frustrated because you didn't know what was going on, and
Speaker 1: you the same kids as you played with in high school.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, you know you're not you're not together.
Speaker 1: But by the time Doobe left the Navy and rejoined
Speaker 1: the Newark Eagles, change was in the wind. Jackie Robinson
Speaker 1: had just joined the farm team for the National League
Speaker 1: Brooklyn Dodgers, the first step in the breaking of the
Speaker 1: color barrier, and some other owners were looking to integrate
Speaker 1: their teams. One of them was Bill vec the owner
Speaker 1: of the American League Cleveland Indians. Bill Veck would later
Speaker 1: be lauded for his early role in bringing black players
Speaker 1: into the majors. He would also end up hiring the
Speaker 1: American league's first black public relations officer, trainer, and scout.
Speaker 1: As Jackie Robinson took the field in Brooklyn, Veck told
Speaker 1: his scouts to look for the Negro League's player with
Speaker 1: the best long term potential, and DOBIE's name kept floating
Speaker 1: to the top, and so Beck made a deal with
Speaker 1: the Newark Eagles to bring Toby to Cleveland. But he
Speaker 1: went about it in a much different way than the
Speaker 1: Brooklyn Dodgers went about bringing Jackie Robinson on. Yeah, because
Speaker 1: they they brought him through the minor league system and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, gave him a little bit of an adjustment period.
Speaker 1: This was more abrupt. In other words, Robinson's introduct to
Speaker 1: the Major's had been carefully orchestrated. Larrydobes was not. On July,
Speaker 1: Adobe played what would be his last game with the
Speaker 1: Negro Leagues, and then he was whisked away on a
Speaker 1: train bow for Chicago to meet his Cleveland Indian teammates
Speaker 1: to play against the Chicago White Sox the next day.
Speaker 1: Because I was leaving a bunch of guys that I
Speaker 1: played with for a long time, so I felt a
Speaker 1: little a little funny about that, But no, those thoughts
Speaker 1: came into my head about the major leagues. I just
Speaker 1: I thought more about what I'm leaving. Adobe was newly married.
Speaker 1: He and his wife, Helen had been looking forward to
Speaker 1: buying a house in New Jersey Whendobe suddenly found himself
Speaker 1: on that train headed to the Midwest. Larrydobe was also young.
Speaker 1: Jackie Robinson was twenty eight when he joined the Dodgers,
Speaker 1: so he was seasoned. He could probably handle a little
Speaker 1: bit different. Adobe's twenty three years old. And let's talk
Speaker 1: about that, because that's an important distinction, and those are
Speaker 1: two very different ages. Yes, definitely. I mean you're a
Speaker 1: pup twenty three. You know, you're experiencing this stuff for
Speaker 1: the first time. Joining the Cleveland Indians would make Adobe
Speaker 1: the first black player in the American League. Not that
Speaker 1: his teammates rolled out the red carpet. What kind of
Speaker 1: a reception did he get in Chicago on July five
Speaker 1: when he shows up there? Okay, so I'm will receptive.
Speaker 1: Some wouldn't shake his hands, some turned their backs. You know,
Speaker 1: there was just a lidney of responses when the team
Speaker 1: took to the field to warm up. No one would
Speaker 1: even play catch with Adobe except for second baseman and
Speaker 1: former American League m v P Joe Gordon. Gordon said, Adobe, Hey, rookie,
Speaker 1: you're gonna just stand there? Or do you want to
Speaker 1: throw a little? Adobe later said it was a moment
Speaker 1: he would never forget. You have to have allies when
Speaker 1: you're doing something like this, when you've taken on an
Speaker 1: endeavor like this, which was difficult for him on and
Speaker 1: off the field, you have to have somebody in your
Speaker 1: corner that's gonna accept you and and and make it
Speaker 1: okay or make it tolerable. Joe Gordon side. Adobe's first
Speaker 1: major league season was rough. He struck out more than
Speaker 1: twice as often as he had playing for the New
Speaker 1: York Eagles. If you asked me as to why I
Speaker 1: wasn't a consistent ballplayer, I couldn't give me an answer. Now,
Speaker 1: he kid had to be something subconsciously that I had
Speaker 1: no control over that. Nothing but his early performance probably
Speaker 1: had something to do with the almost inconceivable pressure he
Speaker 1: and Jackie Robinson were under. Here's Bob Kendrick from the
Speaker 1: Negro Leagues Museum. Again, Jackie Robinson, Larry Adobe. They were
Speaker 1: carrying twenty one million black folks on their back. So
Speaker 1: if they failed, an entire race of people fail. Can
Speaker 1: you imagine carrying that weight in a sport that is
Speaker 1: predicated on failure? Baseball is a game or failure is crooks.
Speaker 1: In other words, in a game where striking out is
Speaker 1: the norm, black players couldn't really afford to strike out
Speaker 1: even under the best of circumstances. You're under extraordinary psychic strain.
Speaker 1: So add to that, some people would come to the
Speaker 1: games for the express purpose of jeering him, of insulting him.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it was a microcosm of the world itself
Speaker 1: or our country itself. I mean that that's what it
Speaker 1: was like at that time. And Otis Livingston says, It's
Speaker 1: not like things were any easier off the field. Couldn't
Speaker 1: stay in the same hotels with his teammates, couldn't needed
Speaker 1: the same restaurants. His family was not there to even
Speaker 1: lean on. DOBIE's second season with the Indians got off
Speaker 1: to an equally rocky start. He worried that if he
Speaker 1: didn't turn things around, he'd be demoted and sent to
Speaker 1: play in the minor leagues. But in he hit his
Speaker 1: stride and by the end of the season, he brought
Speaker 1: his batting average up to three oh one, one of
Speaker 1: the best on the team, and later that year, Dobie
Speaker 1: set another milestone. He and his teammates Satchel Paige, who
Speaker 1: had joined the Indians from the Negro Leagues that July,
Speaker 1: became the first black players to make it to the
Speaker 1: World Series. Game four of that series between Cleveland and
Speaker 1: the Boston Braves would be one of the most important
Speaker 1: of his life, and the third inning, with two outs,
Speaker 1: Adobe stepped up to the plate. First pitch strike, but
Speaker 1: on the second Pitchdobe hit the ball hard. Indiandobe rockets
Speaker 1: stays high, fast pitch for the kipt to mars Abi
Speaker 1: more than four feet into the right seal cloud. DOBIE's
Speaker 1: round trip is the first home run of the series.
Speaker 1: Larry Adobe became the first black player to hit a
Speaker 1: home run in a World Series, a game winning home run,
Speaker 1: But what happened afterward between Doobe and Cleveland pitcher Steve
Speaker 1: Gromick made be even more significant. After the game, they
Speaker 1: rush into the clubhouse jubilant, happy, and a photographer from
Speaker 1: the Associated Press captures the image of Gromic Adobe hugging
Speaker 1: each other with big smiles on their face. It's a
Speaker 1: completely wonderful photograph. If you haven't seen it, I urge
Speaker 1: you to google it. The smiles on their faces, the
Speaker 1: sheer joy. They're like two little boys who just couldn't
Speaker 1: be happier to be playing with each other. Their cheek
Speaker 1: to cheek, but also their arms just there. They're they're intertwine, right,
Speaker 1: is almost symbolic of becoming one against all odds, not
Speaker 1: just the baseball odge, but against this segregation. The photo
Speaker 1: ran in newspapers across the country. Americans everywhere saw a
Speaker 1: black man and a white man embrace in celebration. It
Speaker 1: became a symbol of this great experiment of getting along,
Speaker 1: playing together, accomplishing something, and just loving each other for
Speaker 1: his special Otis asked Adobe's son, Larry Adobe Jr. About
Speaker 1: the picture. When I see it, I just see two
Speaker 1: people who are extremely happy they won, and they don't
Speaker 1: care about what color skin each one is. It's just
Speaker 1: like they love each other for winning. One guy picks great,
Speaker 1: one guy hit great, and they're just overjoyed. Probably my
Speaker 1: father's happiest moment in baseball. The love continued as the
Speaker 1: team went on to win the World Series and the
Speaker 1: nine team forty eight World Series is all over. The
Speaker 1: Cleveland Indians take the series four games to two. After
Speaker 1: the final out of the final game, the players ran
Speaker 1: onto the infield. You could see it in the video.
Speaker 1: Adobe's number four team gets lost in the celebrating swarm.
Speaker 1: Every amount on the team share his credit for the
Speaker 1: clown the weird and about it too was. Years later,
Speaker 1: he would admit that he really didn't think of it
Speaker 1: as a big deal. Bill Veck kept telling him, you're
Speaker 1: gonna make history. You're making history, You're doing this, and
Speaker 1: he didn't really grasp it at the time, you know,
Speaker 1: as he was going through it. Whendobe and Cleveland won
Speaker 1: that World Series, there were just five black players in
Speaker 1: the majors, less than one percent of the league by
Speaker 1: the time Doobe retired from baseball. In nine of major
Speaker 1: league players or black. Three years after the World Series win,
Speaker 1: the people of Patterson, New Jersey, helped pay off the
Speaker 1: rest of their hometown heroes mortgage Jobie burned the mortgage
Speaker 1: paperwork before a game against the New York Yankees. Either way.
Speaker 1: Years after he retired as a player, Larry Adobe went
Speaker 1: on to become the manager of the Chicago White Sox,
Speaker 1: the second black manager in May Your League Baseball. Larry
Speaker 1: Adobe was seventy nine when he died on June two
Speaker 1: thousand three, but he lived to see his number retired
Speaker 1: by Cleveland in four and in in Cooperstown, New York,
Speaker 1: he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1: It's a very tough thing to look back and think
Speaker 1: about things that we're probably negative, because you put those
Speaker 1: things on the back burning you're proud and happy that
Speaker 1: you've been in part of integrating baseball to show people
Speaker 1: that we can live together, we can work together, we
Speaker 1: can play together, and we can be successful together. And
Speaker 1: I'm very happy and proud that I've been a part
Speaker 1: of this baseball and I'm still a part of it. Occasionally,
Speaker 1: during their earliest days in major leagues, Jackie Robinson and
Speaker 1: Larry Dobie would talk over the phone at night after games,
Speaker 1: sharing their experiences. It makes sense these were two men who,
Speaker 1: for a time were the only ones who really understood
Speaker 1: what the other one was going through in a league
Speaker 1: all by themselves, both of them history makers. Jackie Robinson's
Speaker 1: breaking of Major League baseball's calib area carried the same
Speaker 1: level of euphoria that we saw as a nation when
Speaker 1: Neil Armstrong landed on the moon. So for black folks,
Speaker 1: Jackie Robinson was our Neil Armstrong. He was the proverbial
Speaker 1: first man to walk on the moon. Well, Larry Dobee
Speaker 1: is our buzz all. Speaking of astronauts, coming up the
Speaker 1: story of the second American woman in space, May I ask,
Speaker 1: is Dr Judy Resnick nearby? Mr? President Judy? How is
Speaker 1: it your first flight? How's it going? Is it all
Speaker 1: that you hoped it would be? I couldn't have picked
Speaker 1: a better crew to be flying with. That's President Ronald
Speaker 1: Reagan calling the crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery on
Speaker 1: September one, and chatting with Judith Resnick, who a few
Speaker 1: days earlier had become the second American woman to go
Speaker 1: into space. Not that Judy, that's what everyone called her.
Speaker 1: Cared much about the distinction of being first or second.
Speaker 1: It's a profession for me, and the excitement is there
Speaker 1: every day. As she once told her father, she just
Speaker 1: wanted to be known as an astronaut period. In fact,
Speaker 1: she was a lot more than that. Funny, good looking,
Speaker 1: and very sociable. She had just incredible talents in academics.
Speaker 1: She'd sit in class, she would just get it, get
Speaker 1: it all and understand it. This is a woman who
Speaker 1: is brilliant in music. She just loved piano and she
Speaker 1: was an incredible pianist. And in the kitchen, the three
Speaker 1: lessons she taught me about cooking where you know number
Speaker 1: one double the garlic, two half the salt. Uh, and
Speaker 1: then stir with your right hand while you drink with
Speaker 1: your left. That's Mike old Dack. He met Judy in
Speaker 1: college at Carnegie Tech today known as Carnegie Mellon. The
Speaker 1: two would later marry. My roommate introduced us and and
Speaker 1: that was it. And was there an incident chemistry? Uh yeah,
Speaker 1: pretty much get progress pretty quickly. We just sort of
Speaker 1: settled in together. Judy had grown up in Acron, Ohio,
Speaker 1: the daughter of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants. She was close with
Speaker 1: her father, but had a complicated relationship with her mother.
Speaker 1: Life at home wasn't always easy. Her parents would divorce
Speaker 1: when she was a teen, but that didn't seem to
Speaker 1: hold her back. She showed so much promise as a
Speaker 1: musician she considered becoming a concert pianist. She was a
Speaker 1: star student, getting a perfect score on her s A
Speaker 1: T S and graduating as valedictorian of her class. She
Speaker 1: had the quote brain of a scientist and the soul
Speaker 1: of a poet, her father, Marvin Resnick, would later say.
Speaker 1: At Carnegie, Judy started off as a math major, but
Speaker 1: after attending some of Mike's classes, she switched to electrical engineering,
Speaker 1: becoming one of only three women in that field at
Speaker 1: the university. Do you think she was intimidated by being
Speaker 1: one of just three women in the program. I don't
Speaker 1: think she was intimidated. She just took it in stride.
Speaker 1: Her abilities just paved the way. After graduation in Judy
Speaker 1: and Mike tied the knot and both took jobs in
Speaker 1: the Missile and Surface Radar division of our CI. A sidebar.
Speaker 1: I can't be the only one who hears our CIA
Speaker 1: and insidantally thinks of a little dog listening to an
Speaker 1: old timey phonograph. Great logo, right well. Our CIER was
Speaker 1: also a major defense contractor building advanced weapons systems. I
Speaker 1: will admit Judy was paid more than me. It was
Speaker 1: back in seventy We both came on as design engineers,
Speaker 1: and she got more money than I did, and she
Speaker 1: graduated a lot higher than I did. Mike ended up
Speaker 1: switching careers to law, while Judy stayed in engineering while
Speaker 1: also going to school, eventually getting her PhD. She developed
Speaker 1: a few things that our cier patented. This was in
Speaker 1: large scale integration for computers. She was so competent that
Speaker 1: it didn't seem like an effort for her. It was
Speaker 1: a busy and exciting time. But in Judy and Mike
Speaker 1: made the difficult decision to end their marriage. Why didn't
Speaker 1: the marriage work. I've heard it described as a failed marriage,
Speaker 1: and I reject that. I think it's more of Judy
Speaker 1: and I decided that we really wanted different things out
Speaker 1: of our future. I wanted a family, and at that
Speaker 1: point she had changed her mind and decides she did
Speaker 1: not want a family. You know, I always believe that
Speaker 1: not all people in love should be married. And we
Speaker 1: sort of let each other go and do our own things.
Speaker 1: We stayed very close. Judy headed west to California and
Speaker 1: a new adventure. In nine seventy six, NASA announced that
Speaker 1: it was quote committed to an affirmative action program with
Speaker 1: a goal of having qualified minorities and women among the
Speaker 1: newly selected astronaut candidates for its brand new space Shuttle program.
Speaker 1: The celebrity who became a spokesperson for this campaign, I'm
Speaker 1: thinking to the whole family of human kind, of minorities
Speaker 1: and women alive. If you qualify and would like to
Speaker 1: be an astronaut, now is the time. The late great
Speaker 1: Nachelle Nichols, this is your NASA, a space agency embarked
Speaker 1: on a mission to improve the quality of life on
Speaker 1: planet Earth right now, who had famously played Lieutenant Ukura
Speaker 1: on Star Trek Transmission to start complete, Nichols used her
Speaker 1: star power, so to speak, traveling around the country to
Speaker 1: recruit a next generation of astronauts. Among those who answered
Speaker 1: NASA's recruitment call, Judith Resnick, when you're when you're a
Speaker 1: old girl growing up an acron ohio astronauts someday. No.
Speaker 1: I really didn't think about it until when NASA announced
Speaker 1: that they were looking for astronauts who would be uh
Speaker 1: engineers and scientists on Spacehell. And then I just took
Speaker 1: a chance and applies. Making it her goal to be
Speaker 1: the best candidate she could be. Judy got her pilot's
Speaker 1: license and underwent intense training to get into physical shape.
Speaker 1: It worked by she was in. This is Judy Resnick,
Speaker 1: age twenty nine. She has a doctorate and electrical engineering
Speaker 1: and is one of America's first woman astronauts. She in
Speaker 1: thirty four other new astronauts began their training today at
Speaker 1: the Johnson Space Center. In her astronaut class, Judy was
Speaker 1: one of six women, including Sally Ride. Judy threw herself
Speaker 1: into the rigorous, years long Shuttle training, but also knew
Speaker 1: when to have a little fun. She went by the
Speaker 1: nickname j R. Not clear if it had anything to
Speaker 1: do with the TV show Dallas, a huge hit at
Speaker 1: the time. A fellow astronaut would remember Judy as a
Speaker 1: live wire and a star attraction during trips and happy hour.
Speaker 1: If Judy had any desire to become the first American
Speaker 1: woman in space, she didn't say so out loud. What
Speaker 1: kind of mission do you want to fly? Do you know?
Speaker 1: I'd like to fly any mission? Actually, um, the intent
Speaker 1: of a mission specialist is to train us to be generalist,
Speaker 1: since to learn a little bit about every field, and
Speaker 1: that I would be glad to flying anything that they
Speaker 1: let me fly. And when the time came for crew
Speaker 1: assignments in ninety three, it turned out, Judy would have
Speaker 1: to wait some u s space history is to be
Speaker 1: made up there on launch pad thirty nine A well,
Speaker 1: the first time an American woman will be launched into space.
Speaker 1: Her name is Sally Ride. Quick history lesson here. While
Speaker 1: Sally Ride was the first American woman in space, she
Speaker 1: was not the first woman in space. That honor went
Speaker 1: to Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, who had soared into the
Speaker 1: record books back in nineteen sixty three, twenty years before Ride,
Speaker 1: and as the first ever space girl, Valentina teres Cova
Speaker 1: is one of place in history. What a triumph for
Speaker 1: Russian science. Now, Sally Ride's ride was still a very
Speaker 1: big deal, and just one year later it was Judy's turn.
Speaker 1: She was a mission specialist on the base Shuttle Discovery
Speaker 1: that existent and we have lipped off, lipped off and
Speaker 1: missing ploty. One day the first flight of the Abit
Speaker 1: of Discovery and the Shuttle has cleared the power. As
Speaker 1: the Shuttle went into orbit, Judy radioed back to mission
Speaker 1: control that Earth looks great. She had serious work to do,
Speaker 1: but in photos and videos from the mission she looks
Speaker 1: like she's having the time of her life. She holds
Speaker 1: up a sign that reads hi Dad. In the background
Speaker 1: you can see an I heart Tom Selleck sticker slapped
Speaker 1: onto her locker. This was in his magnum p I Heyday.
Speaker 1: At one point she dawns Aviator sunglasses. Now, Judy had
Speaker 1: become the second American woman to go into space, but
Speaker 1: she was also the first Jewish astronaut to go into space.
Speaker 1: It's another distinction she wasn't vocal about. But her former
Speaker 1: husband Mike Oldack says, there's more to the story. I
Speaker 1: think that's misconstrue that she had given up her Judyism,
Speaker 1: and I think anything but Judy did not want to
Speaker 1: be known as the first Jewish astronaut. As she said
Speaker 1: directly to me, I'm an astronaut who happens to be
Speaker 1: a woman who happens to be Jewish, who happens to
Speaker 1: have brown hair. She was very firm in saying that's
Speaker 1: who I am. She didn't want the other labels Jewish woman,
Speaker 1: brown hair. Well. The only issue I have with that,
Speaker 1: if I may, is that she had amazing hair. Yes,
Speaker 1: she really did. Yes, Yeah, that was the first real
Speaker 1: hair in space. I think most of those other astronauts
Speaker 1: were former air Force pilots and had buzz cuts. Discoveries
Speaker 1: mission went off without a hitch. Of course, the first
Speaker 1: landing to Discovery Actor, a maiden flight that's been termed
Speaker 1: a major success. If flying into outer space made Judy nervous,
Speaker 1: she didn't sound like it. As she told one writer,
Speaker 1: it does not enter any of our minds that it
Speaker 1: is dangerous. The world might think it is, we don't.
Speaker 1: I think something is dangerous only if you're not prepared
Speaker 1: for it, or you don't have control over it. Less
Speaker 1: than two years after Judy's voyage on Discovery came her
Speaker 1: next mission, aboard the Challenger and lift off. Lift off
Speaker 1: the twenty five Space Shuttle mission. And it is clears
Speaker 1: the tower. Where did you watch the launch from? I
Speaker 1: actually was at my office and uh, we didn't really
Speaker 1: have too many TVs there. And I got a call
Speaker 1: from my mother, uh in tears, telling me that the
Speaker 1: shovel blown up. On the morning of January, the Space
Speaker 1: Shuttle Challenger exploded seventy three seconds after liftoff, killing all
Speaker 1: seven crew members a board, including civilian astronaut and teacher
Speaker 1: Kristi McAuliffe and Judith Resnick By controllers here looking very
Speaker 1: carefully in the situation obviously a major malfunction. It happened
Speaker 1: to be my seventeenth birthday. I was a junior in
Speaker 1: high school, and I can still see the student who
Speaker 1: ran into the cafeteria at lunch and told us I
Speaker 1: just remember. I couldn't believe it. The crew of the
Speaker 1: Space Shuttle Challenger honored us with the manner in which
Speaker 1: they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor
Speaker 1: the last time we saw them this morning, as they
Speaker 1: prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and slipped the
Speaker 1: surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God.
Speaker 1: An investigation would later determine that unexpectedly cold temperatures had
Speaker 1: impacted the O ring seals in one of the rocket boosters,
Speaker 1: causing an explosion. I think a lot of us have
Speaker 1: forgotten that space travel could be dangerous. The Shuttle was
Speaker 1: just so sleek on TV. It looked almost like a
Speaker 1: high tech toy. It didn't seem risky at all, but
Speaker 1: of course it was. In the years after the explosion,
Speaker 1: the US government and Morton Thaia call, the manufacturer of
Speaker 1: the rocket boosters, would attempt to settle with the families
Speaker 1: of the Challenger crew. The initial offers were calculated with
Speaker 1: the formula factoring in whether a crew member was survived
Speaker 1: by a spouse and her children. Judy's former husband, Mike Oldak,
Speaker 1: by then a practicing attorney, didn't think this was fair
Speaker 1: and took legal action on behalf of the Resident family.
Speaker 1: Each spouse would get X, each child would get Why, Oh,
Speaker 1: Judy is not married and didn't have many kids. Too bad,
Speaker 1: We'll give her, you know, just a small amount. And
Speaker 1: I said no. Finally, after about a year and a half,
Speaker 1: settled with Martin Ya Cale for exactly what Judie's father
Speaker 1: and brother wanted. What was motivating you when I decided
Speaker 1: that engineering made a better hobby than a profession. Uh,
Speaker 1: And I became a full time law student, and so
Speaker 1: she was a big breadwinner in her family. Judy put
Speaker 1: me in law school. I felt I owed her family
Speaker 1: and I wanted to do it. How will you remember Judy?
Speaker 1: If there's one image that pops into your mind when
Speaker 1: you think of her, what is it? Probably just smiling?
Speaker 1: I mean, she was a very happy person and smiled
Speaker 1: a lot. And uh, I knew what she wanted. Judith
Speaker 1: Resident wasn't the first woman in space She's probably not
Speaker 1: the first name that comes to mind when you think
Speaker 1: about the crew of the Challenger. She probably would be
Speaker 1: fine with that number one, number two. They were just
Speaker 1: numbers to her. She wanted to do something significant, not
Speaker 1: necessarily be someone significant. Judy was an astronaut. She was
Speaker 1: also an exceptional human being who deserved all the recognition
Speaker 1: she never quite received. I certainly hope you enjoyed this mobituary.
Speaker 1: May I ask you to please rate and review our podcast.
Speaker 1: You can also follow Mobituaries on Facebook and Instagram, and
Speaker 1: you can follow me on Twitter at Morocca. Here. All
Speaker 1: new episodes of Mobituaries every Wednesday wherever you get your podcasts,
Speaker 1: and check out Mobituaries. Great Lives Worth Reliving, the New
Speaker 1: York Times best selling book, now available in paperback and audiobook.
Speaker 1: It includes plenty of stories not in the podcast. This
Speaker 1: episode of Mobituaries was produced by Jay Harper, Zoe Marcus Morocca,
Speaker 1: Aaron Shrank, and will Go Martinez Cacero. It was edited
Speaker 1: by Moral Walls and engineered by Josh Hahn, with BacT
Speaker 1: checking by Naomi Barr. Our production company is Neonum Media.
Speaker 1: Our archival producer is Jamie Benson. Our theme music is
Speaker 1: written by Daniel Hart. Indispensable support from Craig Swaggler, Dustin Gervei,
Speaker 1: Alan Pang, Reggie Basil, and everyone at CBS News Radio.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to Alberto Robina. The inestimable. Aaron Shrank is
Speaker 1: our senior producer. Executive producers for Mobituaries include Steve Raises
Speaker 1: and me Morocca. The series is created by Yours truly
Speaker 1: and as always, undying gratitude to Rand Morrison and John
Speaker 1: carp for helping breathe life into Mobituaries