A FINE SADNESS

If you look close it's easy to trace the tracks of her tears.

This unusual photo stars half Japanese half Irish actress and singer Rumi Koyama, who’s shedding a tear for reasons we can’t discern, though possibly because she can’t sing like Smoky Robinson. But even if she never wrote anything as iconic as “Tracks of My Tears,” she’s a very successful singer with numerous hit albums to her credit. But we’re more interested in her cinematic output. That consists of ten motion pictures, among them Yoru no nettaigyo, aka BGS of Ginza, and Zoku onna no keisatsu, aka Women’s Police 2. We may check out her film work. Anything to stop her crying. The photo came from a November 1968 issue of Punch Deluxe.

Japan, Yoru no nettaigyo, BGS of Ginza, Zoku onna no keisatsu, Women's Police 2, Punch Deluxe, Rumi Koyama

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

April 17

1961—Bay of Pigs Invasion Is Launched

A group of CIA financed and trained Cuban refugees lands at the Bay of Pigs in southern Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro. However, the invasion fails badly and the result is embarrassment for U.S. president John F. Kennedy and a major boost in popularity for Fidel Castro, and also has the effect of pushing him toward the Soviet Union for protection.

April 16

1943—First LSD Trip Takes Place

Swiss scientist Albert Hofmann, while working at Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, accidentally absorbs lysergic acid diethylamide, better known as LSD, and thus discovers its psychedelic properties. He had first synthesized the substance five years earlier but hadn’t been aware of its effects. He goes on to write scores of articles and books about his creation.

April 15

1912—The Titanic Sinks

Two and a half hours after striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean on its maiden voyage, the British passenger liner RMS Titanic sinks, dragging 1,517 people to their deaths. The number of dead amount to more than fifty percent of the passengers, due mainly to the fact the liner was not equipped with enough lifeboats.

April 15

1947—Robinson Breaks Color Line

African-American baseball player Jackie Robinson officially breaks Major League Baseball’s color line when he debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Several dark skinned men had played professional baseball around the beginning of the twentieth century, but Robinson was the first to overcome the official segregation policy called—ironically, in retrospect—the “gentleman’s agreement.”

April 14

1935—Dust Storm Strikes U.S.

Exacerbated by a long drought combined with poor conservation techniques that caused excessive soil erosion on farmlands, a huge dust storm known as Black Sunday rages across Texas, Oklahoma, and several other states, literally turning day to night and redistributing an estimated 300,000 tons of topsoil.