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Readers!

 

It is now July, time once again to celebrate the start of this webpage in 2010 with my annual July fund-raising campaign.

 

This year I celebrate the fifteenth anniversary since I began Behind the Black. During that time I have done more than 33,000 posts, mostly covering the global space industry and the related planetary and astronomical science that comes from it. Along the way I have also felt compelled as a free American citizen to regularly post my thoughts on the politics and culture of the time, partly because I think it is important for free Americans to do so, and partly because those politics and that culture have a direct impact on the future of our civilization and its on-going efforts to explore and eventually colonize the solar system.

 

You can’t understand one without understanding the other.

 

Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent independent analysis you don’t find elsewhere. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn’t influenced by donations by established companies or political movements. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.

 

You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:

 

1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.

 

2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
 

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:

 

4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
 
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You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.


Ann Miller – I’ve Gotta Hear That Beat

An evening pause: From the 1953 film Small Town Girl. Proves once again that America was not hostile to highlighting women in all things in the past. They simply had to have the talent, skill, and determination to earn that spotlight.

Hat tip Judd Clark.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

4 comments

  • Mark Sizer

    That looks like a very uncomfortable outfit. Notice how the bustier does not move while her bust does.

  • Dancing Gerald

    Wasn’t familiar with Ann Miller until I watched Kiss Me Kate a few weeks ago. I got it because it was a 3D bluray. It was recently restored and looks great. Ann Miller was at lot of fun to watch in it, more so than the lead actress. I enjoyed watching her in this clip

  • Allan

    The talent and creativity of the old big stage musicals always impresses me. Musical instruments held up through holes in the floor! Who would ever think of that?

  • Dick Eagleson

    Dancing Gerald,

    If your acquaintance with Ann Miller is recent, you have much to look forward to. Not only was she one of the great beauties of show business history, Ann Miller was one of the two best female tap dancers of the 30s, 40s and 50s – the other being Eleanor Powell. On “Kiss Me Kate” Ann was responsible, among other contributions, for securing Bob Fosse his first on-screen choreography job for the “From This Moment On” number. Fosse was also one of the male dancers in that number too.

    Allan,

    The production designer and director of the “I’ve Got to Hear that Beat” number was the great Busby Berkeley, an authentic show-biz genius even if also a decidedly problematic human being.

Readers: the rules for commenting!

 

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