Born on this day – St. Louis Jimmy Oden:

St. Louis Jimmy Oden

Blues singer

Pianist

Songwriter

June 26, 1903 – December 30, 1977

Born on this day – Zena Keefe:

Zena Keefe

Actress

June 26, 1896 – November 16, 1977

Credits:

A Bunch of Violets (1912); A Game of Cards (1913); After Midnight (1921); All Is Fair in Love and War (1911); An Amateur Widow (1919); Another Man's Wife (1924); At the Eleventh Hour (1912); Betty, the Boy and the Bird (1916); Caprice of the Mountains (1916); Captain Jenks' Diplomacy (1912); Cutey Plays Detective (1913); Cutey Tries Reporting (1913); Does Advertising Pay? (1913); Enlighten Thy Daughter (1917); Father and Son (1912); Hearts Ablaze (1915); Her Choice (1912); Her Maternal Right (1916); Heroes of the Mutiny (1911); His Wife's Money (1920); In the Furnace Fire (1912); La vie de Bohème (1916); Life's Yesterdays (1915); Little Miss Happiness (1916); Marooned Hearts (1920); None So Blind (1923); Oh Boy! (1919); Omens and Oracles (1913); One Hour (1917); Out of the Snows (1920); Perils of Our Girl Reporters (1916); Piccadilly Jim (1919); Prejudice (1922); Proxies (1921); Putting Pep in Slowtown (1916); Red Foam (1920); Screen Snapshots, Series 2, No. 17-F (1921); Shame (1917); Sisters All (1913); The Autocrat of Flapjack Junction (1913); The Awakening of Bianca (1912); The Black Sheep (1912); The Broken Silence (1922); The Broken Violin (1923); The Cabin Boy (1911); The Carpenter (1913); The Challenge Accepted (1918); The Cross Roads (1912); The Eavesdropper (1912); The Esterbrook Case (1915); The Gamblers (1912); The Hero of Submarine D-2 (1916); The Hieroglyphic (1912); The Hindoo's Curse (1912); The Island of Surprise (1916); The Jade Necklace (1916); The Long Skirt (1911); The Lure of Love (1924); The Man Under the Bed (1912); The Mate of the 'John M' (1911); The Meeting (1917); The Mills of the Gods (1912); The Pink Pajama Girl (1912); The Rail Rider (1916); The Scarlet Runner (1916); The Spider's Web (1912); The Struggle (1912); The Tigress (1915); The Unforgiven (1915); The Woman God Sent (1920); Three Girls and a Man (1912); Tommy's Sister (1912); Trouping with Ellen (1924); When Love Is Young (1922); Who's Cheating? (1924).

Born on this day – Big Bill Broonzy:

Big Bill Broonzy

Blues singer

Songwriter

Guitarist

June 26, 1893 – August 14, 1958

Credits:

Albums:

1937-1940 Part 2: Chicago 1937, 1938 (2005); 1937-1940 Part 2: Chicago 1938, 1939 (2005); 1937-1940 Part 2: Chicago 1939, 1940 (2005); A Retrospective Big Bill Broonzy (2014); Amazing Performance (2013); Amsterdam Concerts 1953 (2006); Barrelhouse of Blues (2015); Beyond Patina Jazz Masters: Big Bill Broonzy (2011); Big Bill Blues (2014); Big Bill Broonzy & Washboard Sam (1962); Big Bill Broonzy Selected Favorites (2006); Big Bill Broonzy Sings (1956); Big Bill Broonzy Sings Country Blues (1957); Big Bill Broonzy Sings Folk Songs (1962); Big Bill Broonzy Vol. 13 (1949-1951) (2013); Big Bill Broonzy Vol. 4 1935 – 1936 (2005); Big Bill Broonzy Vol. 5 1935 – 1936 (2005); Big Bill Broonzy Vol. 6 1937 (2005); Big Bill Broonzy Vol. 7 1937 – 1938 (2005); Big Bill Broonzy's Pig Meat Blues (2006); Big Bill's Blues (1957); Blues and Gospel No. 3: Big Bill Broonzy (Mono Version) (1962); Blues with Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee (1959); C.C.Rider Meets Lonesome Road Blues (2014); Chicago Blues (2013); Classic Box Set: The Bill Broonzy Story (2015); Hey Hey (2012); I Believe I'll Go Back Home (2014); Introducing Big Bill Broonzy (2014); Just a Dream for Big Bill Broonzy (2009); Key to the Highway (2010); Little Bug (2000); On Tour in Britain, 1952 (2002); Recorded In Club Montmartre 1956 Vol. 1 (1993); Recorded In Club Montmartre 1956 Vol. 2 (1993); Rockin' In Chicago 1949-53 (2007); St. Louis Blues (2007); Tell Me Baby (2014); The 1955 London Sessions (1990); The Blues Volume 2 (2008); The Hip Star (2014); The Historic Concert Recordings (2013); The Southern Blues (1996); Trouble In Mind - Previously Unissued Live Concert Recordings (1990); Volume 3: The War And Postwar Years 1940 – 1941 (2007); Volume 3: The War And Postwar Years 1945 – 1949 (2007); What a Wonderful Blues World (2013).

Movies and television:

All You Need Is Love (1977); Arena (1985); Big Bill Blues (1957); Blues Like Showers of Rain / Legends of Country Blues Guitar (1994); Blues Masters (1999); Bluesland: A Portrait in American Music (1993); Cold Case (2006); Deadwood (2005); Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars (2017); Eric Clapton: One More Car, One More Rider - Live on Tour 2001 (2002); Folk Britannia (2006); Frank's Place (1987); Hitsville: The Making of Motown (2019); Holiday (1957); Home Sweet Home (2013); I Go Back Home: Jimmy Scott (2016); I Love You (1986); Intolerable Cruelty (2003); Long John Baldry: In the Shadow of the Blues (2000); Love Hurts (2012); Matlock (1992); Mississippi Grind (2015); Panoptikum (1970); Passage to Mars (2016); Penny Dreadful: City of Angels (2020); Presley (1987); Six-Five Special (1957); Supernatural (2006); The Beatles Anthology (1995–1996); The Big Something (2011); The Blues (2003); The Buttercup Project (2010); The Roaring 20s: Mick Jagger's Glory Years (2011); The Terminal (2004); Toxic Apocalypse (2016); Traveller (1997); Unplugged (1992).

Born on this day – Jeanne Eagels:

Jeanne Eagels

Actress

June 26, 1890 – October 3, 1929

Credits:

A Lesson in Bridge (1914); Hollywood (1980); Jealousy (1929); Man, Woman and Sin (1927); The Ace of Hearts (1913); The Bride of the Sea (1913); The Cross Bearer (1918); The Fires of Youth (1917); The House of Fear (1915); The Letter (1929); The Madonna of the Slums (1919); The World and the Woman (1916); Under False Colors (1917).

Born on this day – Branwell Brontë:

Branwell Brontë

Writer

Painter

June 26, 1817 – September 24, 1848

Credits:

An Angrain Battle Song; An Historical Narrative of the War of Agression; An Historical Narrative of the War of Encroachment; Angria and the Angrians; Battell Book; Juvenilia; Letter from a Father on Earth to His Child in Her Grave; Letters from an Englishman; Life of Warner Howard Warner; Lines Spoken by a Lawyer on the Occasion of the Transfer of This Magazine; Mary's Prayer; Ode on the Celebration of the Great African Games; On Caroline; Penmaenmawr; Percy's Musings upon the Battle of Edwardston; Real Life in Verdopolis, volume 1–2; Real Rest; Remember Me; Sir Henry Tunstall; Tales of Angria (1838–1839); The End of All; The Fate of Regina; The Glass Town; The History of the Young Men from Their First Settlement to the Present Time (1829–1831); The Liar Detected; The Pirate A Tale; The Politics of Verdopolis; The Revenge A Tradgedy; The Young Men's Magazine, Number 1 – 3 (1830); Thorp Green.

Recommended reading - The Third Figure, by Collin Wilcox (1968):

The Third Figure

By Collin Wilcox.

Published by Dodd, Mead.

First published 1968.

ASIN: B0006BUJVS

Description:

A mob boss is dead, and his widow wants Drake to help him rest in peace. Dominic Vennezio is found on the floor of his beachside love nest, murdered on a Sunday night. It looks like an ordinary mob hit, part of a routine power struggle with the East Coast Outfit, but Vennezio's widow has other suspicions. Her marriage to the kingpin had been strained ever since he began taking his secretary for weekends at the beach house, but even now, she feels a devotion to him. She wants justice for her husband – not just legal, but cosmic – and for cosmic justice, San Francisco can offer no better sleuth than Stephen Drake. A crime reporter with a clairvoyant streak, Drake's apprehensions about working for the mob are overcome by his sympathy for the noble widow. He starts his investigation in Los Angeles, talking to Vennezio's replacement, and sees immediately that it doesn't take a psychic to figure out that this job could be deadly.

Jhumpa Lahiri, on writing:

I approach writing stories as a recorder.

I think of my role as some kind of reporting device - recording and projecting.

- Jhumpa Lahiri.