On this day in music history - Earthsongs, by Secret Garden (2005):

The album Earthsongs,

by Secret Garden,

was released on March 8, 2005.

On this day in movie history - Fargo (1996):

Fargo,

directed by Joel Coen,

written by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen,

was released in the United States on March 8, 1996.
Music by Carter Burwell.

Cast:
Frances McDormand, William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare, Harve Presnell, Kristin Rudrüd, Tony Denman, Steve Reevis, Larry Brandenburg, John Carroll Lynch, Steve Park, Bruce Bohne, Larissa Kokernot, David S. Lomax, Melissa Peterman, Michelle Suzanne LeDoux, Bain Boehlke, Warren Keith, James Gaulke, José Feliciano, Michelle Hutchison, Cliff Rakerd, Gary Houston, Steve Edelman, Sally Wingert, Bruce Campbell.

On this day in music history - Out of Time, by R.E.M. (1991):

The album Out of Time,

by R.E.M.,

was released on March 8, 1991.

On this day in music history - Blues, by Lonnie Johnson (1960):

The album Blues,

by Lonnie Johnson,

was recorded on March 8, 1960.

Born on this day – Cyd Charisse:

Cyd Charisse

Actress

Dancer

March 8, 1922 - June 17, 2008

Credits:

Empire State Building Murders (2008); Frasier (1995); Burke's Law (1995); Swimsuit (1989); Crazy Like a Fox (1986); Murder, She Wrote (1985); Glitter (1984); Sentimental Journey (1984); The Fall Guy (1984); Fantasy Island (1978–1983); Portrait of an Escort (1980); The Love Boat (1979); Hawaii Five-O (1978); Warlords of the Deep (1978); Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976); Medical Center (1975); Fol-de-Rol (1972); Maroc 7 (1967); The Silencers (1966); Assassination in Rome (1965); Something's Got to Give (1962); Two Weeks in Another Town (1962); Checkmate (1961); Five Golden Hours (1961); Black Tights (1960); Party Girl (1958); Twilight for the Gods (1958); Silk Stockings (1957); Meet Me in Las Vegas (1956); It's Always Fair Weather (1955); Deep in My Heart (1954); Brigadoon (1954); Easy to Love (1953); The Band Wagon (1953); Sombrero (1953); Singin' in the Rain (1952); The Wild North (1952); The Mark of the Renegade (1951); ast Side, West Side (1949); Tension (1949); Words and Music (1948); The Kissing Bandit (1948); On an Island with You (1948); The Unfinished Dance (1947); Fiesta (1947); Till the Clouds Roll By / Roberta (1946); Three Wise Fools (1946); The Harvey Girls (1946); Ziegfeld Follies (1945); This Love of Mine (1944); In Our Time (1944); Thousands Cheer (1943); Something to Shout About (1943); This Love of Mine (1942); The Gay Parisian (1941); Escort Girl (1941).

Born on this day – Claire Trevor:

Claire Trevor

Actress

March 8, 1910 – April 8, 2000

Credits:

Breaking Home Ties (1987); Murder, She Wrote (1987); The Love Boat (1983); Kiss Me Goodbye (1982); The Cape Town Affair (1967); How to Murder Your Wife (1965); The Stripper (1963); Dr. Kildare (1962); Two Weeks in Another Town (1962); The Investigators (1961); Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1956–1961); Kraft Theatre / The United States Steel Hour (1960); The Untouchables (1959); Wagon Train (1959); Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse (1959); Marjorie Morningstar (1958); Playhouse 90 (1957); The Mountain (1956); Producers' Showcase (1956); Schlitz Playhouse (1956); Climax! (1956); Lucy Gallant (1955); Lux Video Theatre (1954–1955); Man Without a Star (1955); The Ford Television Theatre (1953–1954); The High and the Mighty (1954); General Electric Theater (1954); The Stranger Wore a Gun (1953); Stop, You're Killing Me (1952); My Man and I (1952); Hoodlum Empire (1952); Best of the Badmen (1951); Hard, Fast and Beautiful! (1951); Borderline (1950); The Lucky Stiff (1949); The Babe Ruth Story (1948); Key Largo (1948); The Velvet Touch (1948); Raw Deal (1948); Born to Kill (1947); The Bachelor's Daughters (1946); Crack-Up (1946); Johnny Angel (1945); Murder, My Sweet (1944); The Woman of the Town (1943); Good Luck, Mr. Yates (1943); The Desperadoes (1943); Street of Chance (1942); Crossroads (1942); The Adventures of Martin Eden (1942); Texas (1941); Honky Tonk (1941); Dark Command (1940); Allegheny Uprising (1939); I Stole a Million (1939); Stagecoach (1939); Five of a Kind (1938); Valley of the Giants (1938); The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938); Walking Down Broadway (1938); Big Town Girl (1937); Second Honeymoon (1937); Dead End (1937); One Mile from Heaven (1937); King of Gamblers (1937); Time Out for Romance (1937); Career Woman (1936); 15 Maiden Lane (1936); Star for a Night (1936); To Mary - with Love (1936); Human Cargo (1936); Song and Dance Man (1936); My Marriage (1936); Navy Wife (1935); Dante's Inferno (1935); Spring Tonic (1935); Black Sheep (1935); Elinor Norton (1934); Baby, Take a Bow (1934); Wild Gold (1934); Hold That Girl (1934); Jimmy and Sally (1933); The Mad Game (1933); The Last Trail (1933); Life in the Raw (1933); The Imperfect Lover (1932); The Meal Ticket (1931); Good Times (1931).

Born on this day – Maxine Jennings:

Maxine Jennings

Actress

March 8, 1909 – January 11, 1991

Credits:

Hawaii Five-O (1968); My Three Sons (1964); G.I. War Brides (1946); Mr. Wong, Detective (1938); The Dummy Owner (1938); Breakfast for Two (1937); The Big Shot (1937); On Again-Off Again (1937); There Goes My Girl (1937); Wrong Romance (1937); You Can't Buy Luck (1937); The Woman I Love (1937); Sea Devils (1937); We're on the Jury (1937); They Wanted to Marry (1937); Criminal Lawyer (1937); Dog Blight (1936); Make Way for a Lady (1936); Don't Turn 'em Loose (1936); Walking on Air (1936); Mary of Scotland (1936); Bunker Bean (1936); The Last Outlaw (1936); Fight is Right (1936); The Witness Chair (1936); Murder on a Bridle Path (1936); The Farmer in the Dell (1936); Love on a Bet (1936); Follow the Fleet (1936); Radio Barred (1936); Muss 'em Up (1936); Chatterbox (1936); I Dream Too Much (1935); Counselitis (1935); Another Face (1935); Old Man Rhythm (1935); A Night at the Biltmore Bowl (1935); Roberta (1935); Maybe It's Love (1935); Honeymooniacs (1929); The Godless Girl (1928).

Born on this day – Louise Beavers:

Louise Beavers

Actress

March 8, 1902 – October 26, 1962

Credits:

The DuPont Show with June Allyson (1961); The Facts of Life (1960); All the Fine Young Cannibals (1960); The Magical World of Disney (1959–1960); Bourbon Street Beat (1959); Frontier Doctor (1959); The Goddess (1958); Tammy and the Bachelor (1957); Playhouse 90 (1957); Teenage Rebel (1956); You Can't Run Away from It (1956); Good-bye, My Lady (1956); Star Stage (1956); General Electric Theater (1955); The Danny Thomas Show (1953–1954); Stories of the Century (1954); Never Wave at a WAC (1953); Beulah (1952); I Dream of Jeanie (1952); Colorado Sundown (1952); Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok (1951); The Amos 'n Andy Show (1951); My Blue Heaven (1950); The Jackie Robinson Story (1950); Girls' School (1950); Tell It to the Judge (1949); For the Love of Mary (1948); Good Sam (1948); A Southern Yankee (1948); Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948); Banjo (1947); Lover Come Back (1946); Young Widow (1946); Delightfully Dangerous (1945); Barbary Coast Gent (1944); Dixie Jamboree (1944); South of Dixie (1944); Follow the Boys (1944); There's Something About a Soldier (1943); Jack London (1943); Top Man (1943); All by Myself (1943); Du Barry Was a Lady (1943); Good Morning, Judge (1943); Tennessee Johnson (1942); Seven Sweethearts (1942); The Big Street (1942); Holiday Inn (1942); Reap the Wild Wind (1942); Young America (1942); The Vanishing Virginian (1942); Shadow of the Thin Man (1941); Belle Starr (1941); Kisses for Breakfast (1941); Sign of the Wolf (1941); Virginia (1941); I Want a Divorce (1940); No Time for Comedy (1940); Primrose Path (1940); Women Without Names (1940); Parole Fixer (1940); Reform School (1939); The Lady's from Kentucky (1939); Made for Each Other (1939); Peck's Bad Boy with the Circus (1938); The Headleys at Home (1938); Brother Rat (1938); Life Goes On (1938); Scandal Street (1938); The Last Gangster (1937); Love in a Bungalow (1937); Wings Over Honolulu (1937); Make Way for Tomorrow (1937); Rainbow on the River (1936); General Spanky (1936); Wives Never Know (1936); Bullets or Ballots (1936); Annapolis Farewell (1935); Million Dollar Baby (1934); West of the Pecos (1934); Imitation of Life (1934); I Give My Love (1934); Dr. Monica (1934); Beggar's Holiday (1934); The Merry Frinks (1934); Cheaters (1934); Merry Wives of Reno (1934); I Believed in You (1934); Glamour (1934); Registered Nurse (1934); Strictly Fresh Yeggs (1934); The Woman Condemned (1934); A Modern Hero (1934); Gambling Lady (1934); I've Got Your Number (1934); Bedside (1934); Palooka (1934); Grin and Bear It (1933); Jimmy and Sally (1933); In the Money (1933); Only Yesterday (1933); Bombshell (1933); Notorious But Nice (1933); A Shriek in the Night (1933); Her Bodyguard (1933); Midnight Mary (1933); Hold Your Man (1933); What Price Innocence? (1933); The Story of Temple Drake (1933); The Big Cage (1933); Central Airport (1933); Pick-up (1933); The Phantom Broadcast (1933); Girl Missing (1933); 42nd Street (1933); Hunting Trouble (1933); Her Splendid Folly (1933); She Done Him Wrong (1933); Too Busy to Work (1932); Hesitating Love (1932); Wild Girl (1932); Hell's Highway (1932); Divorce in the Family (1932); Doctor X (1932); Unashamed (1932); What Price Hollywood? (1932); The Dark Horse (1932); Street of Women (1932); The Strange Love of Molly Louvain (1932); Night World (1932); Young America (1932); You're Telling Me (1932); It's Tough to Be Famous (1932); The Expert (1932); The Greeks Had a Word for Them (1932); Ladies of the Big House (1931); Good Sport (1931); Girls About Town (1931); Reckless Living (1931); Sundown Trail (1931); Annabelle's Affairs (1931); Party Husband (1931); 6 Cylinder Love (1931); Don't Bet on Women (1931); Millie (1931); Paid (1930); Knights Before Christmas (1930); Bright Lights (1930); Outside the Law (1930); Manslaughter (1930); Our Blushing Brides (1930); Recaptured Love (1930); Back Pay (1930); Safety in Numbers (1930); True to the Navy (1930); Honey (1930); She Couldn't Say No (1930); Wide Open (1930); Second Choice (1930); Nix on Dames (1929); Wall Street (1929); Barnum Was Right (1929); Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929); Thunderbolt (1929); Glad Rag Doll (1929); Coquette (1929); Seeing the World (1927); Oriental Hugs (1928); Uncle Tom's Cabin (1927).

Born on this day – Mississippi John Hurt:

Mississippi John Hurt

Blues singer

Guitarist

March 8, 1893 – November 2, 1966

Anne McCaffrey, on writing:

That's what writing is all about, after all,

making others see what you have put down on the page

and believing that it does, or could, exist

and you want to go there.

- Anne McCaffrey.

Honoring Sylvia Lawry on International Women’s Day:

On International Women’s Day,

I nominate Sylvia Lawry, who founded the National Multiple Sclerosis Society in 1947.

https://www.nationalmssociety.org/About-the-Society/Leadership/Founder-Sylvia-Lawry

Sylvia Lawry, who single-handedly launched an international war on multiple sclerosis, founding both the National Multiple Sclerosis Society in the United States and the Multiple Sclerosis International Federation abroad, and who profoundly influenced research, disease management, and public policy concerning this complex neurological disease, died February 24, 2001, in New York City. Ms. Lawry was 85 and lived in Manhattan.

“The death of Sylvia Lawry was a tremendous loss to our organization and to the MS movement. Sylvia’s legacy will continue to inspire all of us who knew, or even knew of, her as we move closer each day to a world free of multiple sclerosis,” pledged Joyce Nelson, former President and CEO of the National MS Society.

“Sylvia Lawry was a private no-nonsense person to whom you couldn’t say ‘no,”‘ shares Weyman Johnson, former chairman, National MS Society, board of directors. “She devoted more than 50 years of her life seeking the means to end MS and was a hero to anyone touched by the challenges of the disease.”

Born in Brooklyn in 1915, one of four children of Jacob and Sophie Friedman, Sylvia Lawry was attending Hunter College with the aim of becoming a lawyer when her younger brother Bernard began experiencing visual and balance problems. They proved to be early symptoms of MS, an unpredictable, chronic, and often disabling disease of the central nervous system. For several years, the family pursued cures without success, ultimately leading Ms. Lawry to place a small classified notice in The New York Times in 1945: “Multiple Sclerosis. Will anyone recovered from it please communicate with patient.”

When the more than 50 replies she received were from individuals as desperate as she to find encouraging news about MS, Sylvia Lawry realized the need for an organized effort to stimulate and finance research into the cure, treatment, and cause of multiple sclerosis. The result was that on March 11, 1946, Ms. Lawry, a lone young woman, gathered 20 of the nation’s most prominent research scientists and founded what would become the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. From these humble beginnings, Ms. Lawry devoted the rest of her life to the pursuit of a world free of MS.

Initially incorporated in 1946 as the Association for Advancement of Research in Multiple Sclerosis with the sole purpose of sponsoring MS research, the organization was renamed as the National Multiple Sclerosis Society in 1947. This was in recognition of the fact that people affected by the disease, both patients and their families, desperately needed information and other service programs to enhance their lives while the cure was being sought. That year also, the first two local chapters of the Society were chartered in California and Connecticut.

Though Bernard’s health continued to weaken, and he ultimately succumbed to MS-related causes in 1973, Sylvia Lawry saw there were millions of others like her brother who needed help. With the assistance of Senator Charles Tobey of New Hampshire, whose daughter had MS, Ms. Lawry personally lobbied Congress and persuaded them to adopt legislation on August 15, 1950, establishing what is now the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). Up to this time, government interest in MS was minimal with research expenditures totaling approximately $14,000. Since then, government appropriations to the Institute have steadily increased, until today they have passed the $1.5 billion mark, approximately $110 million which directly impacts multiple sclerosis.

In the same era, chapters of the Society were established across the country to better serve people with MS and their families. Diverse education, counseling, self-help, equipment loan, advocacy, and referral programs were introduced with the help of dedicated volunteers and grassroots event-based fundraising.

In 1967, spurred by the fact that at that time almost one-third of the Society’s research funds were being awarded to investigators outside the U.S., Ms. Lawry founded the MSIF (Multiple Sclerosis International Federation). The federation helped coordinate fundraising and service efforts of young societies in Canada, Britain, France, Germany, and other European countries, modeled on the American original. The federation became a catalyst for the global MS movement in Latin America, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Africa and Eastern Europe. Today there are 43 member societies around the world. The MSIF is headquartered in London.

Ms. Lawry served as Executive Director of the National MS Society until 1982 and maintained her role as Secretary of the Multiple Sclerosis International Federation until 1997, when she “retired.” She continued to be an officer of the National Board and was a full-time volunteer, devoting her efforts to the Society’s international programs and typically working a 12-hour day. “I’ll retire when MS retires,” she promised just a few months before respiratory illness ended her regular presence at the Society’s home office in Manhattan. She did continue to work from her home with colleagues worldwide and a book on her life and the history of the Society was just completed when she was hospitalized in February 2000.

Sylvia Lawry fiercely pursued her dream of a world free of MS for more than a half century. Though her vision of a cure for MS is not yet a reality, the National MS Society which she founded has devoted more than $600 million to MS research since 1946--playing a seminal part in developing understanding of the central nervous and immune systems, the two most complex systems in the human body.

Ms. Lawry’s commitment to research has also led the Society to become instrumental in the development of many of the FDA-approved medications that can reduce the number of acute MS attacks, protect the central nervous system from damage and delay the onset of more permanent disabilities.

The hard work of one young woman has resulted in an organization that today has a 50-state network of chapters expending nearly $126 million a year to serve over one million people and which devotes more than $46 million each year to support over 440 research projects internationally. The Society’s web site receives nearly two million visitors each month (www.nationalMSsociety.org); provides a toll-free telephone number that connects callers to their nearest local office (1.800.344.4867); and publishes an award-winning quarterly magazine Momentum, which has a readership of over one million. The Society also offers educational programs to health-care professionals and organizes state and national advocacy campaigns to address issues impacting people with disabilities.

Ms. Lawry was a widow and was survived by her two sons Steven and Frank Englander; her sister Lillian Wilson; and her two grandchildren Matthew and Marissa. The biography on Ms. Lawry’s life and its impact on the MS movement, Courage, was published in October 2003 by the firm Ivan R. Dee. Please direct contributions in her memory to the National MS Society or the MS International Federation, 733 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017.

In support of Multiple Sclerosis research:

http://positivelivingwithms.com
http://www.nationalmssociety.org
http://msfocus.org
https://multiplesclerosisnewstoday.com
http://www.momentummagazineonline.com/
http://mymsaa.org
https://mssociety.ca
http://www.msra.org.au/

Twitter hashtags:

#BikeMS #brain #CureMS #demyelination #disease #FightMS #FuckMS #FuckYouMS #FUMS #lesion #MovingMountainsForMS #MS #MSawareness #MSAwarenessMonth #MSeducation #MultipleSclerosis #MSstrong #MSSucks #MSwarrior #MuckFestMS #myelin #mymsme #OMS #stumblingprincess #ThisIsMS #vertigo #WalkMS #WalkTogether #WeAreILLmatic #WeAreStrongerThanMS #WorldMSDay

NEVER GIVE UP!