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At 51, Eartha Kitt stepped onto a Broadway stage in one of the most unforgettable roles of her career. In 1978, she starred as Shaleem-La-Lum in the musical *Timbuktu!*, a lavish production set in the legendary West African city and inspired by the earlier musical *Kismet*.
Kitt was already an international star by then, known for her distinctive voice, striking stage presence and fearless personality. She had built a career across music, film, television and theater, but her path had not always been easy. Her outspoken opposition to the Vietnam War had contributed to her being pushed out of mainstream American entertainment for several years after a controversial White House luncheon in 1968.
Rather than disappearing, Kitt continued performing around the world and eventually returned to Broadway. *Timbuktu!* became an important moment in that comeback. The production featured an almost entirely Black cast and incorporated African-inspired elements into its setting, music and visual presentation. Kitt's performance brought her back to one of America's most prestigious theatrical stages at an age when many actresses were already being offered fewer opportunities.
Her performance earned her the 1978 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical, making the achievement even more significant. Kitt was not simply returning to Broadway. She was demonstrating that a woman in her fifties could still command a major musical, win one of theater's highest honors and remain a powerful force in entertainment.
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HBD Erik Spoelstra
1995: Heat Video Coordinator
1997: Assistant Coach
1999: Advance Scout
2001: Director of Scouting
2008: Head Coach
2012: NBA Champion Coach
2013: Back-to-Back Champion
2020: 5th NBA Finals
2022: NBA 75's 15 Greatest Coaches
2023: 6th NBA Finals
2024: Signs record-breaking $120M extension
2026: Longest-tenured active coach in U.S. pro sports
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.@OmarKelly talked about the "tragic" story of #Dolphins RB Jaylen Wright & his lost confidence:
#PhinsUp @PoupartNFL @DouglieDoWrong @TDSportsTalk
FULL SHOW: youtube.com/live/UI3f9qgmWbg…
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Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton had the kind of voice that could fill a room before the audience even realized what had hit them. Born on December 11, 1926, in Alabama, Thornton grew up around music. Her father was a Baptist minister and her mother sang in the church. After her mother died when Thornton was 14, she left home and began building a life as a professional entertainer.
She developed her craft performing throughout the South, becoming a versatile musician who could sing, play drums and harmonica. By 1948, she had moved to Houston, where she entered the Texas blues scene and eventually signed with Peacock Records. Her partnership with the label and producer Johnny Otis helped bring her powerful style to a much wider audience.
In 1952, Thornton recorded “Hound Dog,” written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Released in 1953, her recording became a major R&B success, spending seven weeks at number one on the R&B chart. Thornton's performance was raw, commanding and unmistakably her own. Three years later, Elvis Presley recorded his famous version, transforming the song into a massive rock and roll hit and introducing it to an even larger audience.
Thornton's influence did not end there. She also wrote and recorded “Ball ’n’ Chain,” a blues song that later became closely associated with Janis Joplin after Joplin performed her own version with Big Brother and the Holding Company.
Thornton's story reveals an uncomfortable reality of the music industry. Black blues and R&B artists created many of the sounds that became the foundation of rock and roll, yet the artists who originated those songs did not always receive the recognition or financial rewards that followed when others recorded them.
Big Mama Thornton died in 1984, but her voice and songwriting remain part of the foundation of American popular music. Her legacy belongs to the history of blues, R&B and rock and roll alike.
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1887 photograph of Harriet Tubman, her husband Nelson Davis and adopted daughter Gertie.
This 1887 photograph offers a glimpse of Harriet Tubman that is often missing from the stories told about her: Harriet not as an Underground Railroad conductor or Civil War scout, but as a wife and mother figure surrounded by family.
Standing beside Tubman are her second husband, Nelson Davis, and their adopted daughter, Gertie. Tubman married Nelson in 1869, after her return to Auburn, New York. Their marriage lasted nearly two decades, until Nelson died from tuberculosis on October 14, 1888.
Nelson had his own history of service. During the Civil War, he served as a private in the 8th United States Colored Infantry, one of the Black regiments formed as African American men were finally permitted to serve in the Union Army. Tubman herself also served the Union during the war as a nurse, cook, scout and intelligence operative.
Her family life had also been shaped by slavery and separation. Before escaping to freedom, Tubman had married John Tubman in Maryland. When she escaped in 1849, John remained behind. Harriet later returned to Maryland intending to bring him north, but John had remarried and chose not to leave with her. Their marriage was effectively over, and Harriet eventually built a new life with Nelson.
Gertie became part of that new chapter. Tubman never had biological children of her own, but she and Nelson raised Gertie as their daughter. The family lived in Auburn, where Tubman spent her later years helping formerly enslaved people, supporting her community and working toward the establishment of a home for elderly African Americans.
Photographs of Tubman are relatively rare, which makes this image especially meaningful. It captures a woman whose life is often remembered through extraordinary acts of courage, while also showing the quieter family relationships that mattered to her.
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In 1995 his mother called him up and told him that if he did not take his brother in, she was going to lose him.
Her name is Elaine. The brother is Chuckie, the oldest of them.
Here is where Muggsy Bogues was when that phone rang.
He is 5 foot 3, and no shorter man has ever played in the NBA.
He had just had surgery on his left knee and it had cost him most of the season. His marriage was coming apart at the same time. He was 30 years old and nothing in his own life was working.
Chuckie had been using since he was about 15. He got arrested in 1993. By 1995 he was deep into cocaine. Back in the 1980s he had fallen off a wall into Baltimore's Inner Harbor while he was high and nearly did not come back out of the water.
So Bogues brought him to Charlotte and put him in the guest room.
Chuckie would not go to a treatment center. He refused. Which meant the withdrawal happened in his little brother's house, with no staff and no doctors and nobody to call.
The first six months were shaking and vomiting and screaming.
Bogues hid the alcohol in the house. He fed him. He sat with him. He has said there were stretches where he was not sure any of it was doing anything at all.
Here is how he describes that whole year.
"That was my job; that was my brother."
Eventually Chuckie said this to him.
"I ain't gonna mess up on you."
Then Bogues started bringing him along. To practices. To games. Chuckie sat there and watched his brother work.
The next season the Charlotte Hornets won 54 games and lost 28, which is still the best record in the history of that franchise.
Chuckie has not touched a hard drug since. About ten years ago he had a stroke that took some of his short term memory and his balance. He still turns up and yells louder than anybody in the building.
At a night they held for Muggsy in 2018, this is what Chuckie hollered.
"MY BIG LITTLE BROTHER!"
Be straight about two things. Chuckie still drinks some days, so this is not a clean ending anybody should pretend it is. And detoxing a person in a spare bedroom with no medical help is genuinely dangerous and is not a thing to copy, however it turned out here.
On February 11 the Hornets are going to hang his number 1 in the rafters. He is the franchise leader in assists, steals and minutes, and he spent ten of his fourteen seasons there. He was there from the first season the team existed.
Chuckie plans to be in the building. He has been at the rest of them.
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NBA and @HoustonRockets legend Rudy Tomjanovich is making record-setting progress with his health.
We started three months ago, and at 78, he is now chest-pressing 205 pounds, up from 65. He used to struggle to walk a quarter mile at a slow pace without stopping; now he walks two miles at a moderate pace.
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Toddler soccer star Nevada has a new home on the field. Former US Men’s National Team player Eddie Johnson saw the viral video of police being called to Nevada’s youth league game in Winter Park, Florida, and offered the 3 year old a spot in his Orlando training program starting in January. Johnson told Nevada the people who tried to take his dreams away made him the most famous 3 year old in the world instead. The family’s GoFundMe for his training has topped $20,500.
balleralert.com/qjob
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on february 11th, we will honor the one & only muggsy bogues. 🐝
press release: on.nba.com/4zY6fJ3 | @MuggsyBogues
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Brewers relievers spent time after the Game 3 win in Tampa Bay tossing baseballs to the fans who made the trip from Milwaukee
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Miami officially launches its @HeismanTrophy campaign for Darian Mensah and Malachi Toney.
Visit miamihurricanes.com/heismen and vote for Darian and Malachi at hopefuls.heisman.com/ballot.
#GoCanes | @CanesFootball
