Guilty pleasures
By NewsPress Now
James Burton, John Anderson and Toby Keith join the Country Music Hall of Fame
NASHVILLE, Tenn. | James Burton, John Anderson and Toby Keith on Monday became the newest members to join the Country Music Hall of Fame.
The Country Music Association announced the 2024 inductees in Nashville, Tennessee, with Burton, a guitarist who was Elvis Presley’s band leader, entering in the recording/touring musician category. Meanwhile, Keith, who passed away just days after voting for inductees concluded, joins as the modern era artist. Anderson, a country star known for his distinctive voice and songwriting, joins as the veteran era artist.
The three will be formally inducted during a ceremony in the fall.
While the celebratory ceremony focused on all three of the artists’ contributions to country music and their influence, the event took a somber tone to reflect the passing of Keith, who died from stomach cancer in February.
“My heart sank that Tuesday afternoon knowing that we missed the chance to inform Toby while he was still with us, but I have no doubt that he’s smiling down on us, knowing that he’ll always be ‘as good as he once was,’” said Sarah Trahern, CEO of the Country Music Association.
Trahern added that Keith’s posthumous induction did not violate the Hall’s rules against inducting an artist in the year of their death because he was selected before he died.
Keith, a hit country crafter of pro-American anthems who both riled up critics and was loved by millions of fans, died Feb. 5. The induction vote was finalized Feb. 2.
The “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” singer-songwriter, broke out in the country boom years of the 1990s and later became known for his overt patriotism on post 9/11 songs like “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue,” and boisterous barroom tunes like “I Love This Bar” and “Red Solo Cup.”
Burton said Monday that he initially thought he was being pranked when he got the call sharing the news that he was being inducted. He hung up the phone and quickly called back just to double check the call was real.
“So much of my career was spent playing for incredible country artists and to now be going up on that wall with all those innovators and industry greats is just incredible,” Burton said.
Along with leading Presley’s “Taking Care of Business” band in Las Vegas, Burton also played in Emmylou Harris’ Hot Band and later joined John Denver’s band after Presley’s death in 1977. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001 and the Musicians Hall of Fame in 2007.
For Anderson, the country icon has enjoyed a sweeping discography spanning more than 40 years — with particular breakout fame in the 1970s and 1990s. This included the career-defining hit “Seminole Wind,” which touched on environmental themes by referencing the development of the Everglades and its diminishing size.
“Florida native John Anderson helped steer Country Music back to its traditions with his bold honky-tonk style,” said Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum CEO Kyle Young in a statement.
“James Burton, who hails from Louisiana, blended Country and blues to create a fiery picking style that distinguished countless hits and has inspired guitarists the world over. Toby Keith from Oklahoma brought a sly swagger and a patriotic passion to songs that made him one of the best-selling Country artists of the past 30 years,” Young said.
Stolen ‘Wizard
of Oz’ ruby slippers will go on an international tour
A pair of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz” were returned to their owner, nearly 20 years after the iconic shoes were stolen from a museum in the late actor’s hometown. But “No place like home?” Not exactly.
The memorabilia collector who owns the iconic footwear immediately turned them over to an auction company, which plans to take them on an international tour before offering them at auction in December, an official with Dallas-based Heritage Auctions said Monday.
The ruby slippers were at the heart of the beloved 1939 musical. Garland’s character, Dorothy, danced down the Yellow Brick Road in her shiny shoes, joined by the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion. To return home to Kansas, she had to click the heels three times and repeat, “There’s no place like home.”
In reality, Garland wore several pairs during filming. Only four remain.
Memorabilia collector Michael Shaw’s ruby slippers were believed to be the highest quality of all of them — they were the ones used in close-ups of Dorothy clicking her heels. Shaw loaned them in 2005 to the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.
That summer, someone smashed through a display case and stole the sequins-and-beads-bedazzled slippers. Their whereabouts remained a mystery until the FBI recovered them in 2018.
The slippers were returned to Shaw in a ceremony in February, but details weren’t disclosed until Monday.
“It’s like welcoming back an old friend I haven’t seen in years,” Shaw said in a news release.
The Dallas-based auction company said the tour of the slippers will include stops in Los Angeles, New York, London and Tokyo. Dates were not announced.
“You cannot overstate the importance of Dorothy’s ruby slippers: They are the most important prop in Hollywood history,” Heritage Auctions Executive Vice President Joe Maddalena said in the news release.
The man who stole the slippers, Terry Jon Martin, 76, pleaded guilty in October to theft of a major artwork, admitting to using a hammer to smash the glass of the museum’s door and display case in what his attorney said was an attempt to pull off “one last score” after turning away from a life of crime. He was sentenced in January to time served because of his poor health.
An indictment made public Sunday showed that a second man, 76-year-old Jerry Hal Saliterman, has been charged with theft of a major artwork and witness tampering. He did not enter a plea when he made his first appearance Friday in U.S. District Court in St. Paul, while in a wheelchair and on supplemental oxygen.
The indictment says that from August 2005 to July 2018 Saliterman “received, concealed, and disposed of an object of cultural heritage” — specifically, “an authentic pair of ‘ruby slippers’ worn by Judy Garland in the 1939 movie ‘The Wizard of Oz.’” The indictment says Saliterman knew they were stolen. It also says that, starting sometime last year, he threatened to release a sex tape of a woman and “take her down with him” if she didn’t stay quiet about the crime.
Saliterman’s attorney, John Brink, on Friday declined to discuss the case in depth but said his client is not guilty.
“He hasn’t done anything wrong,” Brink said.
Court documents do not indicate how Martin and Saliterman may have been connected.
Martin said at an October hearing that he had hoped to take what he thought were real rubies from the shoes and sell them. But a person who deals in stolen goods informed him the rubies weren’t real, Martin said. So he got rid of the slippers.
Defense attorney Dane DeKrey wrote in a court document that Martin had no idea about the cultural significance of the ruby slippers and had never seen “The Wizard of Oz.”
The FBI said a man approached the insurer in 2017 and claimed he could help recover them but demanded more than the $200,000 reward being offered. The slippers were recovered during an FBI sting in Minneapolis the next year. Federal prosecutors have put the slippers’ market value at about $3.5 million.
The other pairs of slippers are held by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Smithsonian Museum of American History and a private collector.
Garland was born Frances Gumm in 1922. She lived in Grand Rapids until she was 4, when her family moved to Los Angeles. She died in 1969. The Judy Garland Museum, which includes the house where she lived, says it has the world’s largest collection of Garland and “Wizard of Oz” memorabilia.
Sports Illustrated will continue operations after agreement reached
Sports Illustrated will continue operations after the company that owns the brand agreed with a new publisher for its print and digital products.
Minute Media took over on Monday after reaching a licensing agreement with Authentic Brands Group. On Jan. 19, Authentic announced that it was revoking The Arena Group’s publishing license after Arena failed to make a quarterly payment.
Authentic had been in negotiations with Arena, Minute Media and other publishing entities over the past two months.
Authentic will acquire an equity stake in Minute Media, which also publishes the online sites The Players’ Tribune, FanSided and 90min. Other terms, including the length of the deal, were not announced.
“Sports Illustrated is the gold standard for sports journalism and has been for nearly 70 years across both print and digital media. The weight and power of that distinction cannot be understated. At Minute Media, our focus will be to take that legacy into new, emerging channels, enhancing visibility, commercial viability, and sustainable impact, all while ensuring that the SI team is inspired to flourish in this new era of media,” Minute Media founder and CEO Asaf Peled said in a statement.
What this means for the writers and others who produce Sports Illustrated remains to be seen. Minute Media will begin meeting with SI employees over the next couple of weeks as it determines how much of the staff it will retain, according to a person with knowledge of the transition. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak publicly about them.
SI co-Editor in Chief Stephen Cannella told employees in a memo to continue operating as if it were business as usual for now.
“We have said from the start that our top priorities are to keep Sports Illustrated alive, uphold the legacy of the institution and protect our union jobs. We look forward to discussing a future with Minute Media that does that,” said Emma Baccellieri, an SI staff writer and vice chair of the employee union that the NewsGuild represents.
The Arena Group acquired publishing rights from Authentic in 2019 for at least 10 years, but it had many hurdles. In December, it fired chief executive officer Ross Levinsohn when the magazine’s alleged use of AI-generated stories drew public backlash.
Sports Illustrated has had a rough six years. It was acquired by Meredith Publishing in 2018 as part of the purchase of Time Inc., which started the magazine in 1954.
Less than a year later, Meredith sold the magazine’s intellectual property to Authentic for $110 million. Authentic owns the intellectual property of many brands and stars, including Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Muhammad Ali and Reebok.
Once a weekly publication, Sports Illustrated was reduced to biweekly publishing in 2018 and became a monthly in 2020.
“In Minute Media, we have found a partner that will honor SI’s lauded legacy and exceed fan expectations for the future. As Minute Media shepherds the SI brand across a rapidly evolving media landscape, our priority at Authentic is — and has always been — to protect its journalistic integrity and longevity,” Daniel W. Dienst, Authentic’s executive vice chairman, tactical ops, said in a statement. “Minute Media has successfully proven that they are leading the way in a new era of sports storytelling, and we are excited and optimistic about this partnership and the future of Sports Illustrated as the preeminent lens into sport.”
Freddie Mercury’s home is on the market for first time since 1980
LONDON | Freddie Mercury’s sanctuary in London, where he lived the last decade of his life, is on sale for the first time in nearly half a century — minus his “exquisite clutter.”
Garden Lodge, as the neo-Georgian brick home in the posh Kensington neighborhood is known, is for sale by Knight Frank for offers exceeding $38 million. It is not publicly listed.
Mercury, the frontman for Queen, bought the house in 1980 — the year the band’s album “The Game,” with hits “Another One Bites the Dust” and “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” topped the charts. He reportedly paid cash for the property, which was listed for more than 500,000 pounds, according to “Mercury: An Intimate Biography of Freddie Mercury.”
“I saw the house, fell in love with it, and within a half an hour it was mine,” Mercury boasted, according to the book.
Mercury had extensive renovations done to the house and loaded it with precious artwork, including pieces by Picasso, Dalí and Matisse.
“I like to be surrounded by splendid things,” Mercury said. “I want to lead the Victorian life, surrounded by exquisite clutter.”
Mercury died in the house in 1991 of AIDS-related pneumonia at 45.
He left the eight-bedroom villa and all his possessions to his close friend and ex-girlfriend, Mary Austin, who lived there. She has been raking in millions selling his collection of stage costumes, fine art and song lyrics over the past year. The home was put up for sale late last month.
“This house has been the most glorious memory box, because it has such love and warmth in every room,” Austin said in a statement. “It has been a joy to live in and I have many wonderful memories here. Now that it is empty, I’m transported back to the first time we viewed it. Ever since Freddie and I stepped through the fabled green door, it has been a place of peace, a true artist’s house, and now is the time to entrust that sense of peace to the next person.”
The famous gate to the garden, which was inscribed with graffiti and love notes from fans, was one of 59 of Mercury’s most prized possessions that sold for $15.4 million in September. The door brought in $521,000, including a buyer’s premium.
—From AP reports
