Since it first premiered in 1926, F.W. Murnau’s “Faust” has been lauded as one of the greatest silent films ever made. And in the century that’s followed, striking a deal with the devil has been one of cinema’s most enduring tropes.
“Him,” the Jordan Peele-produced horror film reaching theaters Friday, is the latest testament to the fact that, in Hollywood at least, the devil’s offer never goes out of style.
It tells the story of an aspiring professional football player, Cameron Cade (Tyriq Withers), who gets invited to train at a secluded compound under famed quarterback Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans). But Cade eventually realizes what is meant by the question he keeps getting asked: “What are you willing to sacrifice?”
“People are so fixated with the whole selling your soul to the devil and they really think that it’s a man in a suit who’s like, ‘Sign the dotted line,’” said Julia Fox, who plays White’s wife. “I think that selling your soul to the devil is a metaphor for selling out and doing things that you don’t want to do, compromising your morals and values for a paycheck.”
Like “Him,” Faustian stories in cinema are often billed as horror. Much like the literary and artistic retellings of the German fable, from Marlowe and Goethe to the song “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” film adaptations span place, decade and genre — from the cult Keanu Reeves’ DC Comics adaptation, “Constantine,” to Brendan Fraser’s 2000 rom-com “Bedazzled,” a remake of the 1967 film of the same name that starred Raquel Welch.
The devil can promise money — as in “The Devil and Daniel Webster,” the 1941 post-Great Depression takedown of greed — or fame, a la Jack Black’s 2006 musical comedy, “Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny.”
“It’s pretty much everywhere once you start looking,” said Kirsten Thompson, a professor of film studies at Seattle University. “We all want to have eternal life or youth or power or status. And the various iterations of the myth sometimes emphasize different things.”
“Him” isn’t even the first Faustian film set against the backdrop of sports. “Damn Yankees,” the 1958 adaptation of the Bob Fosse-choreographed Broadway show, tells the story of a diehard baseball fan who makes a devilish pact to help his team.
Murnau’s ‘Faust’ legacy
Although the 1926 “Faust” isn’t the oldest cinematic retelling of the legend — French filmmaker Georges Méliès made a handful of adaptations beginning in the 1890s — Murnau’s movie has the greatest legacy.
“The film has these very striking set pieces that are, visually, enormously iconographic and influential on subsequent silent cinema, including American cinema,” Thompson said.
Speaking with the Associated Press last year to promote his adaptation of “Nosferatu” (the original vampire tale was also made by Murnau, in 1922), Robert Eggers testified to the ways in which “Faust” has influenced him as a director.
“Filmmaking — it didn’t really get better than that,” he said.
Murnau’s “Faust” follows its titular protagonist, a faithful alchemist who despairs over a deadly, seemingly unstoppable plague. He eventually meets the demon Mephisto — legend often refers to him as Mephistopheles — who convinces Faust to do a trial-run pact to renounce God in exchange for the power to help the infirm village.
But Faust’s demonic deal is found out when a crowd realizes he cannot look upon a cross. Despondent, Faust plans to kill himself, but is stopped by Mephisto, who comes back with another offer: The demon will give the elderly alchemist back his youth.
Origins of the devil’s offer
It’s unclear when exactly the idea that humans could strike a deal with the demonic materialized, according to Joseph Laycock, a professor of religion who studies Satanism and demonic belief at Texas State University.
The idea that a powerful supernatural being could grant wishes or help humans exists in pre-Islamic Arabic traditions, but most Western depictions of this kind of myth borrow from Christian theology.
“Humans and demons each have something the other wants. We want this power. We want control over the natural world. The demons have it and we don’t. But the demons want our souls,” Laycock said. “The Faust legend is kind of ready to be told as soon as this Christian demonology emerges.”
One clue into the origins of a Satanic bargain lies within the “Malleus Maleficarum,” often translated as the “Hammer of Witches,” a 15th century German Catholic theological text on demonology.
In it, God has limited Satan’s power, Laycock explained. But, “there’s this loophole. And the loophole is, if a demon makes a pact with a human, the demon gets to do all the stuff it couldn’t normally do.”
This period around the Reformation was a “golden age” for possession, exorcism and witch-hunting in Europe, Laycock said, which sets the stage for the Faust legend to materialize.
In the 1800s, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe adapted the Faust story into a two-part tragic play, converting the German legend into a literary giant that would have tremendous influence on the Western world, Thompson argues.
She compares Goethe’s cinematic influence to works from Shakespeare and stories like “Sherlock Holmes,” which have also been repeatedly retold. “Canonical works of literature in different languages are adapted over and over again,” she said.
Fauria writes for the Associated Press. Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc.
EastEnders’ Rita Simons has revealed she’s married her long-term partnerCredit: instagram/@rita_simonsofficial
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The actress and Ben Harlow said I Do in a stunning ceremony in CumbriaCredit: Instagram/rita_simonsofficial
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She is best known for playing Roxy Mitchell in EastEndersCredit: Handout
Now Rita, who is best-known for playing EastEnders‘ Roxy Mitchell, has tied the knot with Ben Harlow in the same year.
The actress took to her social media grid to reveal the happy news as well as a handful of snapshots showing her stunning boho bridal look.
Rita opted for an off the shoulder flowing cream dress adorned with a floral print for the ceremony in Carlisle, Cumbria.
She styled her blonde hair into waves and a half-up style with fresh make-up.
Her new groom Ben opted for a handsome beige suit and crisp white shirt.
The lovebirds shared images showing them enjoying a kiss while in front of a lake as well as holding hands when strolling through a park.
Rita also gave a snapshot of the ceremony, too, with the pair looking blissfully in love as they read their vows in a wood-floored barn.
She then hopped onto the stage with Blue’s Duncan James during the wedding reception to mark their special night.
In her emotional caption, the soap star wrote: “Well this happened yesterday!
“I married my best friend @benjyharlow. Just a little teaser before I have the good stuff from @the.event.editor content creator.”
EastEnders fans are only just realising Rita Simons has a very famous uncle as he appears on her TikTok begging her to return to soap
She added: “I can’t even put into words how special our day was…mostly because we have the most incredible bunch of humans who love us unconditionally and who were prepared to travel to @hiddenriverbarn from all over the world to share our day.
“We love you all. You know who you are …sorry there’s gonna be a ton of pics to follow!
“The stars of the day were (apart from my babies @jaimee_silv @maiya.sammy ) @therocketscollective who rocked SO hard for the entire day and night! (Videos incoming!)”
She then told of All Rise singer Duncan’s role in the special day and added: “Thank you my darling @mrduncanjames for giving me away, I love you forever.”
EastEnders stars who QUIT
MICHELLE Collins has seen her second EastEnders stint boost her bank balance. Yet what stars have quit this year?
The Sun exclusively reported how Michelle, 62, was down to £20,000 in her company accounts when she agreed to a shock back-from-the-dead return to Albert Square last year.
Her character, Cindy Beale, was presumed dead off-camera in 1998.
One of the most successful stars to come from the BBC One soap is Rob Kazinsky.
He played Stacey Slater’s brother Sean Slater from 2006 to 2009, he has starred in Hollywood blockbusters Pacific Rim and Captain Marvel.
Ben Hardy, who quit EastEnders as Bobby Beale almost a decade ago, went on to break Hollywood the following year, when he starred as Archangel in X-Men: Apocalypse.
She starred as the lead in short-lived American series Bionic Woman from 2007 to 2008.
HAPPY ENGAGEMENT
The pair’s wedding comes just nine months after their engagement.
In the Instagram picture back in January, Rita can be seen showing off her engagement ring as she poses for the camera, while Ben beams for the camera as he sits beside her.
Captioning the post, Rita wrote: “… so this happened!”
The actress then added two sparkling ring emojis and an excited face.”
Rita and theatre actor Ben first met in 2017 when they both starred in the touring production of hit musical Legally Blonde.
They started dating a couple of years later after Rita split with her first husband of 14 years, Theo Silveston.
The former couple had met in 2004 and welcomed twin daughters together before they separated in 2018.
Their divorce was finalised in 2020.
Rita joined EastEnders as Roxy in 2007 and became a fan favourite before she was brutally killed off alongside on-screen sister Ronnie in a tragic New Year storyline in 2017.
MANCHESTER UNITED fans are calling for a club legend to replace struggling manager Ruben Amorim at the helm.
This comes after the five-time Premier League champion made his punditry debut at Amazon Prime during the Champions League‘s opening week.
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Manchester United fans have called for a club legend to replace manager Ruben AmorimCredit: Chris Foxwell/ProSports/Shutterstock
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Man Utd fans want Michael Carrick to become the next managerCredit: Katie Chan/Every Second Media
That is none other than United hero Michael Carrick, who was joined by fellow club icons Dimitar Berbatov and Wayne Rooney, with whom he won the Champions League in 2008.
And Man Utd fans were left in awe with the ex-England international’s knowledge and insight while discussing tactics at the studio ahead of his other former club Tottenham‘s clash with Villarreal.
So much so that a number of the Red Devils’ faithful took to social media calling for minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe to bring the former Middlesbrough manager to the Old Trafford hotseat.
One fan tweeted: “I want Carrick!”
Another commented: “Would give Carrick a run.”
A third wrote: “Give Carrick at a run at it. If he’s good give him a permanent.”
This fan said: “Why is Carrick doing punditry? He should be at home planning the filthy 4-2-3-1 he’s gonna cook up for us in a few weeks.”
That one posted: “Carrick such an intelligent and good pundit.”
And another fan stated: “Michael Carrick doing punditry for Amazon, bring him to the club.”
This comes amid United‘s worst ever Premier League start which has seen Amorim’s men lose two of their first four matches, of which they barely won one.
David Beckham says he’s ‘fed up’ as he makes rare public comments about Man Utd problems
This follows the Manchester giants’ worst ever Prem finish last season, which saw them sink to 15th place under the Portuguese tactician.
But club bosses are continuing to back the 40-year-old as it is still early in the season.
Nevertheless, Man Utd would have to pay the ex-Sporting Lisbon boss a huge severance fee if they sack him before November 1.
Amorim would be in line to pocket a whopping £12million if he is axed before the first anniversary of him taking the job.
The United head coach’s coaching staff would also be in line for a pay-off if Ratcliffe decided to pull the plug.
Emily Tunnicliff, 25, laid her simple arrangement of flowers outside Ricky Hatton’s home, called The Heartbreak, to join the hundreds already there.
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Ricky Hatton was found dead at his home after pals called police when they had been unable to contact himCredit: PA
For many, the former boxer was the heart not only of Hyde but of Britain.
“I am from Hyde,” Emily added.
“He was proud of where he came from and we were proud of him.
“He has done so much for this city. He never forgot his roots.”
Read More on Ricky Hatton
Her friend, boxer Tyler Dolby, 23, trains at Ricky’s brother Matthew’s gym nearby.
He agreed. He said: “He was an estate lad and you could never take that out of him. He was such an inspiration. He said to all the young lads here and in Britain you could all make it.”
Kirsty Cartwright, 34, said: ‘I wanted to be here to show how much he was was loved’ (above pictured with Lisa Cartwright)Credit: Andy Kelvin / Kelvinmedia
Footie band funeral bid
THE England football supporters’ official brass band hopes to play at Ricky Hatton’s funeral.
The England Band performed at the legend’s fights — and their version of the Great Escape is heard at Three Lions matches.
A trumpeter with the Sheffield musicians — John Hemmingham, 62 — said: “Ricky was an ordinary bloke who loved boxing and football. The chant ‘There’s only one Ricky Hatton’ was born after we started playing it.
“We’ll be at his funeral and if we’re able to play that would be a great honour. It’s up to the family. But we’d love to play for Ricky one last time.”
ARIEL, Wash. — Music thumps. Boots stomp. Smoke swirls.
It rises like a dry mist from red-glowing cigarettes. It ebbs around an elk’s skull, five-point antlers still attached, and a muzzle loader hanging on the wall.
A potbellied stove washes its warmth over strutting men, women and children. A skinned-out bobcat dangles from the ceiling. A two-man chain saw with a 12-horsepower engine roosts on a canopy over the bar. A sign says: “This Business is Supported by Timber Dollars.”
Tab tops pop. Bartenders slide Budweiser and Rainier and Miller and Coors across the varnished bar top, 3,120 cans and bottles in all. On a wall nearby, these people have tacked up $40. The money is waiting for D.B. Cooper. If he ever shows up, they would like to buy him a drink.
Classic stories from the Los Angeles Times’ 143-year archive
All of this is in his honor. For 11 hours, a guitar and a bass and a mandolin and a sax and a dobro and an accordion and some drums do not stop, and neither does the dancing nor the singing nor the drinking nor the joking. One husky man lifts his redheaded lady high in the air, puts her feet gently back on the floor and gives her a big kiss.
Maybe that is him. Or maybe that is her. The thought stops conversation cold. If D.B. Cooper were a woman, would she be a redhead? “Nah,” shouts Bill Partee, over the pounding of the band. He is 64 and has lived here a dozen years. He has a full, white Old Testament beard, and he wears a cap that says: Ariel Store, Home of D.B. Cooper Days. “She had dark hair when she did this thing, but by now she’s a blond.”
What D.B. Cooper did was hijack a plane. It had just taken off from Portland, Ore. At Seattle, he forced airline officials to bring him four parachutes and $200,000 in $20 bills. In the air again, somewhere around here, high over the cedars and the firs and the hemlocks that cover the Cascade Mountains, he strapped on two of the parachutes, and he jumped out. He disappeared. Vanished. No ripped rigging. No bones. Nothing.
In this undated file photo, a helicopter takes off from search headquarters to scour the area where hijacker Dan Cooper might have parachuted into in Woodland, Wash.
(Associated Press)
That was 25 years ago on Thanksgiving eve. People have found only two things in the wilderness to show that this hijacking ever happened: a placard that blew off the back door of the plane when he opened it, and money–a few bundles of $20 bills with serial numbers that match the loot. These prove that he died, some say. Others say no, he simply dropped some of the dough. Too bad, they add, not unkindly.
To many, D.B. Cooper is a folk hero. Nobody else in America has ever hijacked a commercial airliner for money and never been caught. He has become a legend, a new Jesse James, Butch Cassidy, Billy the Kid. Books have been written about him, a play staged, a movie filmed. He is the inspiration for ballads and bumper stickers and T-shirts and coffee mugs. Saloons across the country adopt his name and invite people to “drop in on us sometime.”
Every year, on the weekend after Thanksgiving, his fans gather here at the Ariel Store and Tavern, in this mountain town of 50 people, 35 miles north of the Oregon state line. This year they are 500 strong, and they come from as far away as Brooklyn, N.Y., and Birmingham, Ala., and even Seward, Alaska. Their appraisals of D.B. Cooper and what he did offer a case study in how Americans create mythic figures and the ways in which they worship them.
Some stand and read the walls in the southeast corner of the bar, which are covered with newspaper accounts of D.B. Cooper’s exploit. They scrawl their names on a white parachute canopy spread across the front porch. They eat D.B. Cooper stew and D.B. Cooper sausages. They shake their heads at a photograph of a headstone someone put up in a front yard across the Lewis River. “Here Lies D.B. Cooper,” it says. “We spent your money wisely.”
The headstone, regardless of its attempt at humor, runs contrary to an article of faith: that D.B. Cooper is very much alive and enjoying a modest and well-deserved decadence. To his fans, the headstone shows an impertinence that borders on the unseemly. They are relieved to learn that the stone and an oval of smaller rocks outlining a faux grave were judged in bad taste and that the attempted humorist finally removed them.
Mostly, though, they party. For much of Saturday and often into Sunday they holler and dance and set off roaring fireworks. Each explosion sends clouds of white smoke billowing into a light rain and then up through the trees. They draw for prizes, mainly D.B. Cooper T-shirts, and they stage a D.B. Cooper look-alike contest. One year the winner was a basset hound in D.B. Cooper’s trademark disguise: sunglasses.
This year the contest is hard-fought. Dona Elliott, 59, owns this combination country store and saloon, built in 1929 of clapboard and shingles, uphill from the river and hard by a narrow woodland road. She holds one hand over a young man, then an older man, both in sunglasses; then a man with a $20 bill pasted on his forehead; then a couple wearing torn clothes and parachute rigging with fir twigs snagged in the straps.
By hooting and yelling and applauding, the crowd decides. Jim Rainbow, 48, a Susanville, Calif., mortician, tangled in the rigging and the twigs, is here with his wife for their 10th anniversary. He runs second. The older man in sunglasses, Eldon Heller, 70, a retired contractor from Washougal, Wash., wins by a hair. He thinks for a minute about D.B. Cooper’s current age and then smiles. “I’m just about right, huh?”
The crowd cheers again, and the band, called the Enlightened Rogues, swings through another verse about “good women who drink with the boys.” Dona Elliott is short, soft-spoken and has wavy brown hair, but she has been known to throw unruly drunks out the front door bodily and by herself. She pronounces the event a good one.
She knows that celebrating D.B. Cooper angers pilots, the airlines and especially Ralph Himmelsbach, 71, a retired FBI agent who spent the last eight years of his career trying to find him. He has written the most authoritative book about the hijacking, called “NORJAK: the Investigation of D.B. Cooper.”
Himmelsbach, who code-named the case NORJAK when he was still with the agency, spends D.B. Cooper Day at his home in Redmond, Ore. To him, Cooper is “a bastard,” nothing more than a “sleazy, rotten criminal who jeopardized the lives of more than 40 people for money.”
“That’s not heroic,” he declares, and he means it. “It’s selfish, dangerous and antisocial. I have no admiration for him at all. He’s not at all admirable. He’s just stupid and greedy.”
Elliott understands. She knows why people on the hijacked plane, for instance, might not appreciate what goes on here. But she wishes that Himmelsbach would come up anyway.
Himmelsbach, for his part, says: “I know I wouldn’t be welcome there.”
“Oh, sure he would!” Elliott responds. She chuckles. “He’s chicken.”
Thanksgiving Eve 1971
As people here tell and retell the tale of D.B. Cooper and his feat, they praise Himmelsbach’s book as the most thorough.
Folklore has entwined itself around the story like heavy brush. But from Himmelsbach’s account and news reports at the time, this much can be said:
Shortly before 2 p.m. on Nov. 24, 1971, a man stepped out of a blowing rain at the airport in Portland, Ore., and walked to the Northwest Orient Airlines ticket counter. He asked for a seat on the next flight to Seattle.
The man was middle-aged, pleasant. He stood nearly 6 feet tall. He had olive skin, dark brown eyes and dark hair. It was cut short, neatly trimmed. He wore a lightweight black raincoat and loafers, a dark business suit, a crisp white shirt, a narrow black tie and a pearl stick-pin.
He had no luggage to check. In his left hand, he carried an attache case.
Returning?
“No,” the man replied.
His name?
“Dan Cooper.”
The fare was $20. He placed a $20 bill on the counter.
Ticket in hand, he walked to Gate 52, unhindered at the time by X-ray machines or metal detectors. As he walked, he slipped on a pair of dark glasses.
Departure was scheduled for 2:50 p.m. He waited and smoked a cigarette, a filter-tip Raleigh. Finally a gate agent called Flight 305 for Seattle. Dan Cooper shuffled into line. He handed his ticket envelope to the agent, who took it and checked off his name on a boarding list, then handed back the envelope and his boarding pass.
Cooper stepped onto the plane. It was a jet, a Boeing 727. It had a pilot, a co-pilot and a flight engineer. It had three flight attendants, and it offered nearly 100 seats. But it was less than half full. Besides himself, there were only 36 passengers. He walked to an empty row in back and sat in seat 18C. But he did not take off his sunglasses or his raincoat.
The plane began to taxi. A flight attendant, Florence Schaffner, took a seat nearby. She asked him to put his attache case beneath the seat in front of him.
She settled in for the roll-out and climb.
He handed her a note.
It was Thanksgiving, and he was away from home, and she was attractive. She thought that he was proposing something indiscreet. So she paid no attention and put the note aside.
“Miss,” he said, “you’d better look at that note.”
He paused. “I have a bomb.”
To Jim Lissick, 69, of South St. Paul, Minn., who is here at the Ariel Store and Tavern to celebrate with a son and a daughter, such good manners are a sign that Cooper is a gentleman. “He was a caring person,” Lissick says, then catches himself. “Still is.”
Certainly, Lissick says, people such as D.B. Cooper can be tough and extremely demanding. But history, he says, is full of hard cases who were unfailingly polite to women and always kind to children. All of this, he adds, simply becomes part of the mythology that grows up around them.
Mike Holliday, 40, agrees. He has lived in this area since the days when loggers came to the Ariel Store and Tavern after work, hung up their wet clothes to dry and sat around the potbellied stove in their long johns drinking beer and telling stories.
To him, D.B. Cooper shows the unflappable cool of a modern Robin Hood. “But I doubt like hell that he is the kind of guy who gives money away.”
3 p.m.
Florence Schaffner glanced at the man’s note. It was neat, clear. She looked at the man’s face. He was not joking.
The note specified his demands. Take it up to the captain, he ordered, and then bring it back with his response. The man repeated: Return the note.
She hurried to the cockpit and gave the note to Captain William Scott and First Officer Bill Rataczak. They radioed that Flight 305 was being hijacked: A man with a bomb wants $200,000 in negotiable bills, a money sack and a pair of back-pack parachutes.
Part of the money that was paid to legendary hijacker D.B. Cooper in 1971 is shown during an F.B.I. news conference, Feb. 12, 1980, where it was announced that several thousand dollars was found 5 miles northwest of Vancouver, Wash., by Howard and Patricia Ingram and their 8-year-old son Brian on Feb. 10.
(Eric Risberg / Associated Press)
Schaffner returned to Dan Cooper with his note. He opened his attache case. She saw red cylinders, a battery and wires. She hurried back to the cockpit and described the contents to Scott and Rataczak. They radioed authorities on the ground: It looks like dynamite.
Cooperate, responded Northwest Airlines headquarters in Minneapolis, and try not to alarm the passengers. By now Flight 305 was over Seattle, but Cooper refused to let it land until the money and the parachutes were ready. Scott told the passengers that the plane had a mechanical problem requiring it to circle and burn off fuel. The flight attendants served drinks. Cooper had a bourbon and water. He paid with a $20 bill.
Tina Mucklow, another of the flight attendants, sat down next to him. She was easygoing, pretty and wore her hair long and flowing. They developed a rapport. He smoked another Raleigh. She lit it for him so he could keep both hands on his briefcase. “He wasn’t nervous,” she recalled later. “He seemed rather nice. He was never cruel or nasty. He was thoughtful and calm.”
Now Cooper wanted two more parachutes, for a total of four–two front packs and two backpacks. Four meant that he might jump with a hostage, and this signaled: Do not tamper with the gear. The Air Force offered two. But Cooper demanded civilian models. Civilian parachutes meant that he might free-fall away from the flight path before pulling the rip cord, and this signaled: A tail plane will be useless.
As Flight 305 circled over Seattle, airline officials, FBI agents and Seattle police scrambled to get the money that Dan Cooper was demanding. They rounded up $20 bills from several banks. Twenties would be easy to pass and would signal cooperation. It took time, but they found enough–10,000 of them. The bills weighed 21 pounds and filled a white cotton sack. The FBI microfilmed every one.
Cooper grew impatient. He ordered another bourbon and water. Then he demanded that a truck meet the plane and refill it with fuel when it landed in Seattle. He said he would release all passengers, but he wanted meals brought on board for the crew.
A skydiving school finally came up with four civilian parachutes. In a mistake that the rigger would not discover until later, they included a dummy chute that would not open.
At 5:39 p.m., a message went by radio up to Flight 305. “Everything is ready for your arrival.”
Captain Scott eased the jet onto runway 16R. He taxied to a corner of the airfield. “He says to get that stuff out here right now.”
A fuel truck drove over.
Dan Cooper sent Tina Mucklow out to get the money and the parachutes.
Then he let the passengers go.
It is commonly held in Ariel that all of this demonstrates beyond the silly doubt of any pinch-nosed naysayer exactly how brilliant D.B. Cooper really is.
“He pulls it all off pretty good,” says Steve Forney, 40, of Kelso, Wash., a biker who parks his 1979 Harley shovelhead in a special spot at the door that Dona Elliott reserves for motorcycles.
A friend, Jim Smith, 49, of Castle Rock, Wash., who pulls up on a 1987 Harley blockhead, wipes the rain off his leather jacket. He declares with approval:
“D.B. Cooper is one smart outlaw.”
6 p.m.
Arguably, ground crews were less smart. The first fuel truck they sent out to the plane had a vapor lock. The second ran dry. Finally a third topped off the tanks.
Inside the plane, Cooper announced that he wanted to go to Mexico City, and he wanted to fly in a certain way: with the landing gear down, the wing flaps down and the aft air-stairs down.
Flaps?
“Fifteen degrees,” Cooper said, with precision.
This meant that he knew the rear stairway on a 727 could be lowered in flight. It also meant that he knew flying with the gear and the flaps down would slow the plane, and he knew how far the flaps could be lowered to do it safely.
He gave another order: Stay below 10,000 feet.
This meant that he knew flying any higher with the aft door open would be risky. At 10,000 feet, the outside air had enough oxygen in it to make it safe to breathe. But any higher it did not.
First Officer Bill Rataczak figured that flying this way would burn a lot of fuel. By his calculation the plane would have a range of only 1,000 miles. Mexico City was 2,200 miles away.
This called for refueling stops on the way. Cooper agreed that one would be Reno, Nev.
A hijacked Northwest Airlines jetliner is seen in this Nov. 25, 1971 file photo as it sits on a runway for refueling at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Nov. 25, 1971, Seattle.
(Associated Press)
He freed attendants Alice Hancock and Florence Schaffner but kept Tina Mucklow seated next to him. At 7:37 p.m., Flight 305 was back in the air.
Cooper told Mucklow to go up to the cockpit and pull the first-class curtain closed behind her. She glanced back once. He was cutting cord from one of the parachutes and tying the money bag to his waist.
At 7:42 p.m. Captain Scott saw a cockpit light indicating that the aft stairs were down.
The plane leveled off at 10,000 feet and cruised at 196 mph. Outside it was dark, stormy and 7 degrees below zero. Now First Officer Rataczak’s watch showed almost 8 p.m.
“Everything OK back there?” he asked on the intercom. “Anything we can do for you?”
Finally a light showed that the stairs were fully extended.
“No!” Cooper replied.
At 8:12 p.m., the nose of the plane curtsied, and its instruments showed a small bump in cabin pressure. This meant that the tail had suddenly gotten lighter and that the stairs had bounced up and into the plane and then dropped down again.
Dan Cooper had jumped.
Around the potbellied stove in Ariel, two airline employees marvel at D.B. Cooper’s knowledge.
Phil Brooks, 34, of Speedway, Ind., an aircraft dispatcher, thinks that Cooper either was involved with an airline or did his homework very well.
“He was intelligent and gutsy,” Brooks says. “That tells me he had a good background, maybe Special Forces or intelligence. He didn’t work down at the carwash. And he was a major stud; he had the guts to jump out of an airplane at night in the winter.”
Brooks proudly shows off a Cooper Vane, a device named after D.B. Cooper, which locks aft air-stairs from the outside during flight. It was installed on all 727s after the hijacking to prevent further Cooper capers. Years later, Brooks found the hijacked jet in a Mississippi scrap yard. He recovered the Cooper Vane from the Cooper plane.
With Brooks is Dan Gradwohl, 30, a first officer on 727s for Ryan International Airlines, a charter service. “Cooper knew something about the 727,” Gradwohl says, “or he had to have talked to somebody and learned about it.
“He beat the system,” Gradwohl points out, and spectacularly so. “If D.B. Cooper would have simply robbed a bank, he wouldn’t be a legend.
“But he robbed several banks, and then he parachuted out of a plane.”
When Flight 305 landed in Reno, the FBI found two parachutes, the butts of eight filter-tip Raleighs and 66 fingerprints. None matched prints in the FBI files.
The next day in Seattle, the parachute rigger realized his mistake. Cooper had jumped with a good parachute and a backup that would not open.
At one point, a reporter for United Press International spotted FBI agents at the Portland police station and asked a clerk what they were doing.
“They’re looking for a guy named Cooper,” the clerk replied. “D.B. Cooper.”
The reporter phoned in his information. While it was a fact that agents were checking out a man named D.B. Cooper, they cleared him almost immediately.
But the initials stuck.
Dan Cooper entered history–and folklore–with the wrong name.
The only significant evidence that Ralph Himmelsbach ever processed was the $5,800, found on a Columbia River sandbar by Brian Ingram, 8, of Vancouver, Wash., while he was picnicking with his family. Himmelsbach matched the $20 bills to Cooper’s loot.
Will D.B. Cooper ever be located?
“I doubt it,” Himmelsbach says.
Officially, though, the FBI case against Dan Cooper is not closed. Ray Lauer, an agency spokesman in Seattle, says:
“We’re still trying to find the guy.”
Researchers Paul Singleton, Julia Franco and Steve Tice contributed to this story.
Guitar ace Slash rose to prominence with an unmistakable look as the anchor of Guns N’ Roses. A true rock ’n’ roll persona, the artist was once rarely seen without a drooping cigarette and a top hat, the latter of which could barely contain his face-engulfing curly hair.
Now, as of this week, he’s a theme park character at Universal Studios Hollywood.
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Slash, or, rather, a skeletal facsimile of him played by an actor, will be available for photo opportunities and meet and greets at Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights, which runs most evenings through Nov. 2. For the musician, born Saul Hudson, it’s a dream fulfilled. A lifelong devotee of theme parks and coasters, Slash has been closely aligned with Halloween Horror Nights since 2014, when he first began scoring music for its haunted houses.
And the character, he says, was partly his idea.
“I went to them and said, ‘Hey, can we have one of those stilt walkers?’” says Slash, referring to the larger-than-life lurkers who haunt guests during the festivities. “That would be really cool. So they came up with one and he looks pretty menacing.”
Slash enjoys the idea of being a towering, sometimes intimidating presence. That’s clear when he’s on stage as the attention-demanding cornerstone of numerous bands. And he likes to scare, as evidenced by his own horror-focused film production company, BerserkerGang. But get Slash one-on-one, and he really just wants to geek out on his favorite theme park rides.
Universal Studios has released a second vinyl compilation of music Slash has composed for Halloween Horror Nights over the years.
(Gabriella Angotti-Jones / For The Times)
We talked to Slash about a week before Halloween Horror Nights opened from Orlando, Fla., where he was holed up recording an album with his band the Conspirators. That work, he says, will be released in 2027 due to planned 2026 touring obligations with Guns N’ Roses. He lamented that he wouldn’t have time to visit Walt Disney World and Universal’s new Epic Universe. The latter Florida park is home to a monsters-themed land that Slash said he was eager to see.
His love of theme parks runs deep, and is, of course, nonpartisan.
“I’m a real Disney head,” he says, joking that such a declaration may not make his Universal partners happy. He says he first visited Disneyland in the early 1970s. “I really can’t put into words what makes it so magical, but there is a definite thing there that you feel when you’re actually there. I’ve loved it since I was a little kid.”
“But I love theme parks in general,” he continues. “I love roller coasters. I love that carnival energy going on. I love arcades. I love everything about that festive outdoor thing, and I’ve never grown out of it.”
Arguably, he’s grown into it.
Halloween season means it’s time for Universa’s Halloween Horror Nights, which runs through early November at the theme park.
(Gabriella Angotti-Jones / For The Times)
Slash has a deep fascination with Universal Studios, made clear by his knowledge of how the park’s backlot tram trek — officially designated as the World-Famous Studio Tour — has shifted over the years. And as a lifelong horror fan who speaks nostalgically of watching 1970s films such as “The Wicker Man,” “The Omen” and “The Exorcist” with his parents, Halloween Horror Nights is especially dear to Slash’s heart.
Slash was first drawn to the event in 2013 due to a haunted house themed around the music and images of Black Sabbath. The artist was given a tour of Horror Nights by John Murdy, who has long overseen the West Coast edition of the festivities.
“I was so blown away,” Slash says. “I was elated. I remember physically making giddy sounds. The whole thing, from the stilt walkers to the invisible bush figures who would hide in the bushes and were camouflaged, it was unbelievable. I wanted to be involved.”
Murdy was open to the idea. “The first time I walked into his personal recording studio, the first thing I noticed was a huge print of ‘Bride of Frankenstein,’ our 1935 classic, hanging on the wall. And I was like, ‘Oh, we have something in common.’”
Halloween Horror Nights is filled with haunted houses and scare actors.
(Gabriella Angotti-Jones / For The Times)
Slash would go on to write the music for six Halloween Horror Nights houses centered around Universal’s classic monster characters. This year, he’s returned to Horror Nights with a score set to a relaunch of an original, Depression-era set maze, “Scarecrow.” Musically, it’s a departure for the artist. “Scarecrow” includes a Slash-composed cover of traditional folk number “O Death.”
“We started talking ‘Scarecrow,’ and as pure coincidence, he said, ‘Oh, I just learned the banjo and the dobro,’” Murdy says. “He was learning all these traditional Appalachian instruments, and I said, ‘That’s awesome because my house is set in the Dust Bowl.’”
That Slash has been dipping into more Americana-influenced music isn’t a complete surprise. His 2024 solo effort, “Orgy of the Damned,” leans blues for instance, including a blistering, rootsy take on early Fleetwood Mac rocker “Oh Well” with country star Chris Stapleton. Selections from Slash’s Halloween Horror Nights work, minus the new “Scarecrow” music, will again be available on a limited-run vinyl sold at Universal Studios during Halloween Horror Nights.
Slash is featured this year as a “character” at Halloween Horror Nights, a skeletal, stilt-walking interpretation of the artist.
(Gabriella Angotti-Jones / For The Times)
“As soon as they gave me the concept, my brain went into that realm — I could pull out my pedal steel, and do an Americana-type approach, as opposed to the goth, kind of pseudo-metal thing I was doing for all the Universal Monsters,” Slash says.
Slash has become such a Halloween Horror Nights fixture that this year will feature a bar centered around the artist, one complete with a mini top hat as a dessert. When asked how he feels to be immortalized as a sculpted sponge cake with coconut lime mousse, he doesn’t flinch.
“I wish I could explain in words how much I love that kind of stuff,” Slash says.
He is, after all, a theme park regular, although his favorite rides are found a few miles from Universal Studios in Anaheim. “I love the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. That and Pirates of the Caribbean will always be my two favorite rides,” he says. “The attention to detail and the creative element and everything that is going on with those old Disney rides is still, to this day, second to none.”
Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios
The mark of any true theme park aficionado is an appreciation of slow-moving, old-school dark rides, attractions that are set in darkened show buildings and often filled with an assortment of vignettes. Slash singles out Universal’s “The Secret Life of Pets: Off the Leash” as another highlight.
“I went with my stepdaughter and we went on that ride and it’s great,” Slash says. “The ‘Pets’ one is really sweet. I’m a big animal guy. We love our cats, so that was a lot of fun.”
Crowds lined up to enter “Scarecrow,” a haunted house at Halloween Horror Nights featuing music by Slash.
(Gabriella Angotti-Jones / For The Times)
And before Slash can finish his next thought, he starts gushing about a recent trip to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, where he visited Ferrari World, home to a number of celebrated roller coasters.
She penned: “We’re coming back in 2026 with the #NTK Tour starting in the UK and Ireland. Europe dates to come soon.”
Loyal fans flocked to the comments section to share their excitement as one enthused: “Wembley Arena is where I saw Anastacia for the first time in 2005.”
Another fan commented: “I’m so happy that you are coming to Cardiff next year, my hometown and of course I’ll have to go to Wembley, the place I saw you live for the very first time.”
Someone else said: “Yes!!!! The tour that keeps on giving. The best celebration for an album ever,” and a fourth added: “Time to buy my first flight for the UK.”
“Returning to Wembley after so many years feels like coming full circle—and I can’t wait to celebrate these songs with the fans who’ve been on this journey with me since the very beginning.”
She expressed: “Three weeks from now I will have done 70 shows this tour this year. I’m super grateful for it because it’s the 25th anniversary and you know it just seemed like people were really up for celebration and every crowd, every country was super excited about being there.
“When I got to the number 25, I actually was like, wow, yeah, that’s kind of cool. I do feel there is a place, they’re still playing my music, they actually like my music still. I feel good about it.”
The tour comes as Anastacia celebrates 25 years since the release of her chart-topping debut album, Not That Kind.
She played an incredible 64 shows across the UK and Europe earlier this year as part of her sold-out, Not That Kind tour.
In September, she will head to Australia for four shows and to commemorate the milestone in her career, she has released a special anniversary edition of her debut album.
Anastacia began her career back in 1993 and has gained commercial success with huge hits over the years including I’m Outta Love, Paid My Dues and Left Outside.
After releasing her first album in 2000, the icon has gone on to release seven further albums, with seven worldwide tours.
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Anastacia appeared on This Morning today to share the exciting newsCredit: Shutterstock Editorial
“So, they don’t have that person slowing them down.
“I used to try and practice with somebody if I could to keep me in that rhythm of playing.
Luke Littler responds to calls for him to retire after Australian Darts Masters
“So, that is why a lot when a player plays a younger player [like Littler], they start slowing them down to put them off because they are not used to it.
“Anybody who plays Luke Littler will slow their throw down.”
This year has been a success for Littler as he has already won the World Darts Championship, World Matchplay, Belgian Darts Open and UK Open among others.
John Middleton takes a bold step as he goes from vicar to villain in C4 soap Hollyoaks. The former Emmerdale legend has spoken about his time on set and his role as Froggy Black.
John Middleton has gone from vicar to villain with a new role in Hollyoaks(Image: Lime Pictures)
He played much-loved vicar Ashley Thomas in Emmerdale for 20 years, but now John Middleton has taken on a much darker role as Fraser “Froggy” Black – grandfather to villainess Grace Black and her sister Clare Devine – in Hollyoaks.
After years in Longmere Prison, Froggy is finally out – and heading straight back into the heart of his fractured family. “He does want to bring the family together,” John, 71, says. “For what purpose, that’s yet to be revealed. But he wants to restore the relationship between Clare and Grace.”
One of the highlights of his new role, John says, is working with Tamara Wall and Gemma Bissix, who play Grace and Clare. “They ask me, ‘What do you tell your wife when you go back home?’”, John shares.
“I say, ‘I don’t tell her anything. I sit in a corner, occasionally hugging my knees and rocking backwards and forwards,’” he jokes. “They’re a laugh to work with!”
John made his Hollyoaks debut in August as Fraser “Froggy” Black(Image: Lime Pictures)
Froggy made his first appearance in the Chester-based show in early August, seen behind bars with Tom Cunningham, whom he’d taken under his wing as a financial advisor.
When his granddaughters were arrested for their part in Clare’s husband’s trafficking ring, the reunion was icy. Still, Froggy was determined to win over Grace – despite his hatred for Clare.
Now, John teases that Froggy could blow the village apart. “He knows things, particularly about one particular person,” John says. “The past being revealed would be catastrophic for their present.
He knows something about people he’s most closely working with, which is going to be revealed. He knows a lot of secrets, he knows where all the bodies are buried – quite literally.
He was once known as Ashley Thomas in Emmerdale (Image: ITV)
His past is possibly murderous, his present is possibly vengeful. Froggy is totally unpredictable. You never know what he’s going to do next.”
With secrets come enemies – but Froggy isn’t fazed. “He’s an incredibly manipulative person so the fact he’s got enemies doesn’t bother him,” John admits. “The fact that he has control over his enemies is essential to him.”
This isn’t John’s first brush with Hollyoaks . In 1997 he popped up as Cindy Cunningham’s doctor – a role he admits he’d forgotten about.
His soap career was then peppered with cameos. In the 1990s he appeared twice in Coronation Street – first as John Hargreaves, the driver who accidentally killed Lisa Duckworth, and later as a hospital consultant. Even Emmerdale wasn’t entirely new to him when he took on Ashley’s role.
John portrayed Ashley Thomas, the husband of Laurel Thomas, until his exit in 2017(Image: ITV)
“I was a policeman about a year and a half before becoming Ashley,” he says. “But Froggy is a completely different character, which is why I’m doing it.”
John says the whole Hollyoaks team made his transition easy. And though he still struggles with nerves, executive producer Hannah Cheers has assured him he’s in the right place.
“You adjust quickly to it and it was helped because everyone here is lovely,” he says. “My first few scenes, I was nervous. I was completely reassured when I bumped into Hannah and she said, ‘I really love what you’re doing.’ That was a great relief!”
When the Dodgers are reeling and roiling and losing their grip on a long hot summer, who is the one player who can stop the fall and calm the nerves and, oh yeah, kick some San Diego Padre butt?
Still, still, still, Clayton Kershaw.
He’s 37 with a battered 18-season body and a fastball the speed of a Zamboni and yet there he was Friday night, carrying an entire worried Dodger nation on his weary shoulders into the opener of a three-game series against the cocky rivals who had just stolen first place.
“We had the right guy on the mound tonight, I think we all know that,” said manager Dave Roberts, smiling for what seemed like the first time in a week. “What he did for us tonight, not only just the compete, but the stuff … getting us through six innings was huge, setting us up for the rest of the series … Clayton set the tone … big, big outing by him.”
It was a blast from the past, only it’s been happening in the present, Kershaw behaving like the staff’s second-best starter, improving his record to 7-2 while lowering his ERA to 3.01 and, as crazy as this once sounded, making an early case for inclusion in the postseason rotation.
“It was a good night,” Kershaw said.
Understated as usual. For all this game meant, it was a great night.
Since July 4 the Dodgers had been worse than even the Colorado Rockies, with a 12-21 record while losing 10 games in the standings to the Padres in a span of 40 days, surrendering first place just two days ago, and set to play the Padres six times in the next two weeks.
They desperately needed somebody to stop the bleeding. And before the game, Roberts claimed that Kershaw was “the perfect guy” to do it.
Perfect prediction. Almost perfect performance.
There was Kershaw, spinning and steering and surfing the ball past the Padre bats with apparent ease, his only mistake a hanging curve that Ramón Laureano hit 400 feet.
There was Kershaw, deftly making plays from the mound, demonstrably pleading for every close strike call, proudly stalking from the mound into a dugout filled with hugs and high-fives.
And there was Kershaw, after his maligned bullpen danced through danger and barely survived, admitting that maybe this game meant a little more.
“When you play everyday, things can spiral pretty quick,” he said. “So maybe just coming home, having an off day to reset, and playing good games … it just takes one to get going. Hopefully this was it tonight for us.”
Before the game, Roberts acknowledged that the Dodgers just play harder, and with more urgency, when Kershaw is pitching.
“He had a way of elevating people’s focus and play,” Roberts said.
Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw turns to walk back to the dugout after the Dodgers completed a double play against the Padres in the sixth inning Friday.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Sure enough, a team that had seemingly forgotten to do the little things did every little thing, from great defensive plays at the corners from Alex Freeland and Freddie Freeman to the eighth-inning sweeper from Blake Treinen that fooled Manny Machado into stranding two runners with a popout.
This is a team that devoutly follows Kershaw … when they’re not sitting back and admiring him.
“He’s built for these big moments,” said Teoscar Hernández, whose seventh inning homer eventually proved to be the difference. “He is a legend.”
Kershaw was at his best when the Dodgers’ best was needed, and in doing so he brought sanity back to the National League West and old-fashioned hardball back to a series that had become cheap and unseemly.
In these two teams’ seven previous meetings this season, the Padres Fernando Tatis Jr. was hit three times, Shohei Ohtani was hit twice, and Roberts and Padres manager Mike Shildt engaged in a brief shoving and shouting match.
The stage was set for more bad blood, but Kershaw, who entered with a career 23-11 record and 2.19 ERA against the Padres, quickly put an end to that. He retired the Padres on a three-up-three-down first inning and efficiently dominated them from there.
“It’s a game in August, obviously, it’s not that huge a deal,” Kershaw said. “But the way we were going, it felt like a big game for us and, thankful that we got a win.”
The only possible controversy emerged when Kershaw was removed from the game after just 76 pitches, surprising fans who didn’t have time to give him the proper standing ovation while leaving the game in the shaky hands of the bullpen.
Get used to it. The Dodgers are smartly going to protect the midseason Kershaw in hopes of maximizing the October Kershaw.
“I just think we’ve got to take care of him,” Roberts said. “For Clayton to give us six strong innings of one-run baseball, he did his job, there was no reason to push him more.”
Before the game, Roberts was asked if his struggling team held a players-only meeting. He said that, no, the transparent results of the next week would be the equivalent of any meeting.
“I don’t like to be embarrassed, I don’t think our players do, so this series I’m expecting high intensity and high performance,” Roberts said. “I think in itself, the schedule over the next week, will suffice in lieu of a meeting.”
In an opener that pulled the two teams into a first-place tie, the early results were clear.
“Suleiman lost his football career, and football lost Suleiman.” The family of Palestinian football icon Suleiman al-Obaid mourn his loss after he was killed in an Israeli air strike while waiting for humanitarian aid in Gaza.
Fifty years ago, L.A. free-jazz titan Bobby Bradford moved into a rambling, verdant house in Altadena. The cornet and trumpet virtuoso, who performed in Ornette Coleman’s band and taught jazz history at Pomona College and Pasadena City College for decades, chose the neighborhood partly because it was bustling with artists. He finally had enough bedrooms for his young family to thrive in a bucolic corner of the city with deep Black roots.
In January, Bradford’s house burned down in the Eaton fire, alongside thousands of others in his cherished Altadena. At 91, he never imagined starting his life over again in tiny rented apartments, with decades of memories in cinders.
Despite it all, he’s still playing music. (He said that while he did not receive grants from major organizations such as MusiCares or Sweet Relief, a GoFundMe and others efforts by fellow musicians helped him replace his cherished horn.)
At the Hammer Museum on Thursday, he’ll revisit “Stealin’ Home,” a 2019 suite of original compositions inspired by his lifelong hero — the baseball legend and Dodgers’ color-line-breaker Jackie Robinson, a man who knew about persevering through sudden, unrelenting adversity.
“That’s all I have left,” Bradford said, pulling his horn out of its case to practice for the afternoon. “I’m [91] years old. I don’t have years to wait around to rebuild.”
For now, Bradford lives a small back house on a quiet Pasadena residential street. It’s his and his wife’s fifth temporary residence since the Eaton fire, and they’ve done their best to make it a home. Bradford hung up vintage posters from old European jazz festivals and corralled enough equipment together to peaceably write music in the garage.
Still, he misses his home in Altadena — both the physical neighborhood where he’d run into friends at the post office and the dream of Altadena, where working artists and multigenerational families could live next to nature at the edge of Los Angeles.
“We knew who all the musicians were. Even if we didn’t spent much time all together, it did feel like one big community,” Bradford said. “We knew players for the L.A. Phil, painters, dancers.”
L.A.-based jazz composer/musician Bobby Bradford plays the cornet while rehearsing his original composition in his Altadena home in 2019.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
These days, there’s a weariness in his eyes and gait, understandable after such a profound disruption in the twilight of his life. He’s grateful that smaller local institutions have stepped up to provide places for him to practice his craft, even as insurance companies dragged him through a morass. “The company said they won’t insure me again because because I filed a claim on my house,” he said, bewildered. “How is that my fault?”
But he draws resilience from his recent music, which evokes the gigantic accomplishments and withering abuse Robinson faced as the first Black player in Major League Baseball. As a child in 1947, Bradford remembers listening to the moment Robinson took the field, and while he has always admired the feat, his understanding of Robinson has evolved with age.
“It was such a revelation to me as a kid, but later I was more interested in who the person was that would agree to be the sacrificial lamb,” Bradford said. “How do you turn that into flesh-and-blood music? I began to think about him being called up, with a kind of call-and-response in the music.”
The challenge Bradford gave himself — evoking Robinson’s grace on the field and fears off it — caps a long career of adapting his art form to reflect and challenge the culture around him.
With Coleman’s band in the ’50s and ’60s, and on his own formidable catalog as a bandleader, he helped pioneer free jazz, a style that subverted the studied cool of bebop with blasts of atonality and mercurial song structures. He played on Coleman’s 1972 LP “Science Fiction,” alongside Indian vocalist Asha Puthli. “Ornette played with so much raw feeling,” Bradford said. “He showed me how the same note could be completely different if you played it in a different chord. I had to learn that to play his songs.” His longstanding collaboration with clarinetist John Carter set the template for post-bop in L.A., charged with possibility but lyrical and yearning.
American jazz trumpeter Bobby Bradford performs onstage circa 1980.
(David Redfern / Redferns)
He’s equally proud of his decades in academia, introducing young students to centuries of the Black American music that culminated in jazz, and the new ways of being that emerged from it. At both Pomona College and Pasadena City College (where Robinson attended and honed his athletic prowess), Bradford helped his students inhabit the double consciousness required of Black artists to survive, invent and advance their art forms in America — from slavery’s field songs to Southern sacred music, to Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Sarah Vaughan and into the wilds of modernity.
“You always had that one kid who thinks he knows more about this than I do,” he said with a laugh. “But then you make him understand that to get to this new Black identity, you have to understand what Louis Armstrong had to overcome, how he had to perform in certain ways in front of white people, so he could create this music.”
He’s been rehearsing with a mix of older and younger local musicians at Healing Force of the Universe, a beloved Pasadena record store and venue that reminds him of the makeshift jazz club he owned near Pasadena’s Ice House in the ’70s.
Places like that are on edge in L.A. these days. Local clubs such as ETA and the Blue Whale (where Bradford recorded a live album in 2018) have closed or faced hard times postpandemic. Others, like the new Blue Note in Hollywood, have big aspirations. He’s hopeful L.A. jazz — ever an improvisational art form — will survive and thrive even after the loss of a neighborhood like Altadena displaced so many artists. “I remember someone coming into our club in the ’70s and saying he hated the music we were playing. I asked him what he didn’t like about it, and he said, ‘Well, everything.’ I told him, ‘Maybe this isn’t the place for you then,’” Bradford laughed. “You can’t live in Los Angeles without that spirit. There are always going to be new places to play.”
Bobby Bradford rehearses in Pasadena.
(Michael Rowe / For The Times)
He’s worried about the country, though, as many once-settled questions about who belongs in America are called into doubt under the current president. January’s wildfires proved to him, very intimately, that the most fixed points in one’s life and community are vulnerable.
Even Jackie Robinson, whose feats seemed an indisputable point of pride for all Americans, had his military career temporarily scrubbed from government websites in a recent purge against allegedly “woke” history.
“I thought we had rowed ourselves across the River Jordan,” Bradford said, shaking his head. “But now we’re back on the other side again. We thought we had arrived.”
Who knows how many years of performing Bradford has left. But as the sound of his melancholy horn arced through a sweltering Pasadena afternoon, one couldn’t help but be grateful to still have him here playing, even after losing everything.
“You know, in his first game, in three times at bat, Jackie Robinson didn’t get a hit,” he said. “Folks said, ‘Oh, it’s so sad. We told you he couldn’t play on a professional level.’ But when you dig into it, you discover that he didn’t get a hit at the game, but he laid down a sacrifice to score the winning run.”
Star cancelled all appearances earlier this year after being hit by a ‘health situation’
10:49, 08 Aug 2025Updated 10:57, 08 Aug 2025
Robert Llewellyn as Kryten, Craig Charles as Dave Lister and Chris Barrie as Arnold Rimmer – Barrie has given a new health update to fans(Image: Getty Images)
Red Dwarf legend Chris Barrie has given worried fans an update after being struck with a ‘health situation’ earlier this year. The 65-year-old played Arnold J. Rimmer on the popular science fiction sitcom which has been a smash hit on the BBC and has a huge fanbase.
A post earlier this year said he had cancelled all forthcoming public appearances due to an ongoing “medical situation”. He had been due to appear at London Comic Con over the weekend alongside Red Dwarf co-stars Robert Llewellyn, Craig Charles, Danny John-Jules, and Hattie Hayridge.
Now he has given an update in a new post on his website. He said: “For those interested, here is an update on my health situation. Since being discharged from hospital in early July I have been feeling better and stronger with each passing day. I am not on any medication and am now a month into a 3-4 month healing process and there may be more diagnostic tests towards the end of that period.
“Apologies for being utterly non specific but I would rather keep it that way for now. So, in brief, feeling much more myself, enjoying being at home and busying myself with light tasks, although this is about to be stepped up to medium tasks….
“With regard to working, it is still too early to say. If my rate of recovery remains the same as over the last month, then I could be looking at working the odd day in October, but I will not be in a position to confirm this until early September. As usual I will update on this page as and when anything is confirmed. In the meantime good ‘ol Scarborough remains on the schedule as I really hope to be back working by November.”
The popular science fiction sitcom aired on the BBC from 1988 to 1999 and on Dave from 2009 to 2020. The show, starring Craig Charles as Dave Lister, the last living human, gained a cult following over time.
Barrie is also known for his role as Gordon Brittas in The Brittas Empire. Fans greeted the better news and Paul said: “When I heard Chris was ill, like a lot of people, my stomach churned. It’s massively good news he is recovering and I hope he’s back on his feet soon. I know we all say this because of Ace Rimmer but I’m talking about Chris Barrie. What A Guy!”
Angela said: ”Thanks for sharing. Bless him. I hope he stays in “stasis” relaxing for a full recovers. Ruth said: “That’s great news. I hope he still gets to film RD as planned and that he’s well and happy. Great that he’s not having to be on any meds.”
Mart D. added: “Get well soon Chris. Awful being laid up in dock, but Scarborough is even worse.”
Nurmagomedov believes McGregor turning his life around would be a story which could inspire people across the globe.
The former undefeated and long-reigning lightweight champion said: “He has to change how he is living.
Conor McGregor shows off shadow boxing after hinting at UFC return
“Why am I talking about this? If he’s gonna change, he can change with him so many other lives too.
“That’s why I wish him to change himself. If he’s not gonna change, it will be punishment all his life.”
McGregor has only fought three times since losing the biggest fight in UFC history.
The Irishman got back in the win column against Donald Cerrone in January 2020 before suffering back-to-back stoppage losses to Dustin Poirier the following year.
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Conor McGregor hasn’t set foot inside the octagon since breaking his left leg four years agoCredit: REUTERS
THE SKINT celebrities that are struggling to make ends meet – from Dawn O’Porter to Mischa Barton.
Even if you have made lots of money, it doesn’t always mean you’re not going to run into money problems as these celebrities have found out.
Mischa Barton
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Mischa Barton even sued her mother over moneyCredit: Rex Features
The OC actress Mischa, 39, has had a widely-publicised battle with her former momager, Nuala Barton, over her money.
In July 2015, she even sued her mother, alleging that she lied about how much Mischa was being paid for a film role and pocketed the rest of the cash herself.
She’s also struggled to make mortgage payments on her home in the past, at one point falling five months behind.
Though she eventually sold the Beverly Hills mansion in summer 2016 for $7.05 million reports The BBC.
The television presenter, 46, who has been married to Bridesmaids actor Chris O’Dowd since 2012, has opened up about her money woes.
She expressed to MailOnline: “I work pay cheque to pay cheque. I’m always broke. My card got declined last week. I’m like, what the f*** is happening? When will this end?”
The Scottish writer and director has had a varied career, presenting several documentaries and shows including BBC’s Super Slim Me and How To Look Good Naked on Channel 4.
Meanwhile, Chris, 45, has starred in some of Hollywood’s biggest productions, including This Is 40, Thor: The Dark World, Gulliver’s Travels and St. Vincent.
The couple have two children, sons Art, 11, and Valentine, who is eight years old.
Wife of Hollywood actor claims she’s ‘always broke’ and ‘lives pay cheque to pay cheque’
Lindsay Lohan
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Lindsay Lohan had her bank accounts seized in 2012Credit: Getty
The Parent Trap’s Lindsay Lohan had her bank accounts seized in 2012, for reportedly owing $234,000 in tax.
Lindsay apparently sent her 18-year-old sister to haggle with second hand stores to make some emergency cash from her old clothes.
Ali Lohan went to the vintage clothing store Wasteland to flog the singer’s most valuable designer gear.
Ali was seen arriving at the Los Angeles store with bags bursting with shoes, clothes and accessories.
But she was reportedly shocked when she was offered a lot less than she was expecting.
She went through items including a pair of Chanel pumps and a Balenciaga handbag, saying: “These have to be worth more, Lindsay was photographed wearing them, that has to add value.”
But the manager would not be swayed, and Ali had to settle much lower than she had planned.
Her Scary Movie 5 co-star, Charlie Sheen, gave her $100,000 towards the bill and Lindsay now appears to have her finances under control.
50 Cent
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50 Cent declared himself bankrupt in 2015Credit: Getty
50 Cent declared himself bankrupt in 2015, but said the move was a ‘strategic’ one, and not because he’d spent all of his money.
He made the decision after he was sued for leaking a sex tape of Lastonia Leviston, who has a child with his rap rival Rick Ross, and didn’t want other people to follow suit.
He told US talk show host Larry King in 2015L “It’s a move that was necessary for me to make at this point.
“So I didn’t allow myself to create that big red and white bulls eye on my back, where I become the person that people consistently come to.”
He still had to pay off debts of more than $22 million, though, with $6 million going to Lastonia for invasion of privacy.
Shane Richie
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Shane Richie had to borrow from friends and familyCredit: BBC/Jack Barnes/Kieron McCarron
Back in 2020, the EastEnders legend said the coronavirus pandemic hit him hard and left him begging friends and family for loans.
Shane revealed how the pandemic and years of daft spending had left him “literally skint.”
At the time he was relying on loans from friends and family, and government help to pay his mortgage.
He told the Mirror at the time: “I was going on tour, doing a TV series and panto but it all got cancelled in March. Now I am literally skint!
“You save for a rainy day but you don’t expect the rainy day to last eight months. Thankfully, I’ve been able to borrow money from mates, my family and the bank.”
He added: “I got rid of my car but only cos I lease a car for my wife for the school run. I can get around on a moped.
“I am alright, I have had a career and if it all finishes tomorrow, so be it. If the worst comes to the worst, I’ll do stand-up or resurrect a musical.”
Shane also revealed that he blew thousands on the strangest things, in particular Planet of the Apes memorabilia.
He said: “It was my favourite show as a boy, I couldn’t resist. It harks back to Christmases when mum and dad couldn’t afford much.”
In April 2014, Courtney was hit with a $320,000 tax bill, as well as being ordered to pay $96,000 to a fashion designer she defamed on Twitter.
Later that year, the singer told the Sunday Times, “I lost about $27 million.
“I know that’s a lifetime of money to most people, but I’m a big girl, it’s rock ‘n roll, it’s Nirvana money, I had to let it go.
“I make enough to live on, I’m financially solvent, I focus on what I make now.”
And back in 2021 according to official tax records, theHole lead singerhad five outstanding tax debts that have accumulated from 2017 to 2021.
The iconic artist was hit with three outstanding Internal Revenue Service liens, totaling $1.9 million, while the rest of the debt was owed to the State of California.
The Grammy nominee explained that she was living with her parents for a while in Las Vegas before the situation became unfavourable.
She eventually moved back to Los Angeles after her manager suggested she move in with him for a bit.
But the home was too small so Dawn ultimately resided in a hotel for eight months before deciding to research “car life.”
Following her search, the singer began living in her car in 2022 and said that she “felt free.”
She added: “I felt free. I felt like I was on a camping trip. It just felt like it was the right thing to do.
“I didn’t regret it. You know, a lot of celebrities have lived in their cars.”
The singer admitted that though the experience is sometimes “scary” she’s learned “what to do in my car and how to do it, like, how to cover my windows and you don’t talk to certain people.”
She explained: “You’re careful of telling people that you’re alone, as a woman especially.”
Cat Power had to cancel her European TourCredit: Getty
Charlyn Marie “Chan” Marshall, better known by her stage name Cat Power, is an American singer-songwriter.
She spent a lot of her own money on recording 2012 album, Sun.
Then, when it came time to tour Sun, she took to Instagram to share some bad news with fans.
She wrote: “I may have to cancel my European tour due to bankruptcy & my health struggle with angioedema.
“I have not thrown in any towel, I am trying to figure out what best I can do.”
The tour was indeed postponed, with Chan later adding: “The American tour has been wonderful and amazing, and with me being unable to afford to bring my show with full production (which i helped create), to Europe.
“Financially, really dumped a huge additional amount of stress on me as I was and still am fighting trying to get tour support.”
Corrie’s Sally Ann Matthews announced recently that she’s leaving the ITV soap and there’s now speculation that a returning star could take over as the owner of the Rovers Return
Catherine Tyldesley is said to be returning to Coronation Street(Image: ITV)
It’s been claimed that former cast member Catherine Tyldesley, 41, will be reprising her role as Eva Price, who will take over the pub. It would mark her return after a seven year absence, with her last seen in Weatherfield in 2018.
Catherine Tyldesley is reportedly returning to Coronation Street and it’s claimed that her character will be the new owner of the Rovers Return(Image: ITV)
Catherine has reportedly been persuaded to return with the promise of major storylines for her character. Eva was last seen on the show in 2018 when she left Weatherfield in a taxi for a new life in France with her daughter Susie.
According to the Sun, Catherine agreed to return to Corrie earlier this year. The outlet adds that she is due to start filming Eva’s comeback next week and her first scenes are then expected to be broadcaster sometime in the autumn.
A source said: “It’s one of the biggest jobs in soap, the landlady of the Rovers Return pub.” They further told the outlet: “Bosses were desperate to get Cath back. They came up with the perfect storyline with her being unveiled as the new landlady of the Rovers.”
It comes following speculation that Eva would return earlier this year. It was reported in February that Catherine would be back on the show, with it suggested that the proposal had been “too good of an opportunity to pass up”.
The actor had previously teased over potentially returning. Whilst on Good Morning Britain just last year, after sparking rumours after reuniting with former co-stars for a birthday celebration, she shared: “I mean, never say never!”
It comes following the news that Sally Ann Matthews, who plays current landlady Jenny Connor, is leaving the ITV soap once again(Image: ITV)
The news of her apparent return this year comes after the latest departure from the cast was announced this week. It was revealed that Sally, 54, who returned in 2015 after a more than 20 year absence, is leaving once again.
She shared the news on Instagram just days ago. Sally, who made her debut as Jenny in 1986, told fans that she hadn’t expected to stay for a decade when she returned. She however said that she wants to take on other roles.
Sally said in her post earlier this week: “I was supposed to stay for five months but ended up doing an extra ten years because I loved it so much. It’s time though to play those parts I always hoped I would when I’d ‘grown up’. Thanks Trafford Wharf Rd for the memories and endless laughter.”
Coronation Street continues tomorrow night from 8pm on ITV and ITVX.
LOVE Island star Laura Anderson has backed Toni Laites and Cach Mercer to win when the series reaches its climax tomorrow night.
The Scottish beauty, who was runner-up in the 2018 series, believes former Las Vegas cabana server Toni and dancer Cach deserve to scoop the £50,000 prize.
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Love Island legend has backed Cach Mercer and Toni Laites to win when the series reaches its climax
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Lauren says she ‘really loves’ Shakira and Harry as a coupleCredit: Shutterstock Editorial
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Yasmin Pettet and Jamie RhodesCredit: Eroteme
Toni brought Cach back from the other villa, Casa Amor, but left him in tears after deciding to reconcile with lothario Harrison Solomon.
However, since Harrison left the show, Toni and Cach have become the bookies’ favourites after winning the hearts of viewers with their rocky romance.
Laura said: “I think if Toni and Cach won, the general public would be very happy.
“Toni is my favourite and watching Cach get upset and then seeing them get back together . . . it was a lovely little story.”
Speaking about the Meet The Parents episode, in which sees the contestants’ families visit the villa, Laura said: “It was incredible to see Toni’s mum say such lovely words to Cach.
“It was a really nice moment. I thought it was really sweet.”
And her thoughts on their rivals for the prize, such as Yasmin Pettet and Jamie Rhodes, and Shakira and Harry?
Laura says: “Yas has really surprised me and I just think she is great, she is just so authentic. Her and Jamie seem really happy and sweet.
“I love Harry and Shakira as a couple. I really hope Harry can prove himself and I think Shakira is really emotionally mature.”
CANTON, Ohio — Sterling Sharpe stood at the podium a few feet from his bronze bust, took off his new gold jacket and gave it to his fellow Pro Football Hall of Fame brother.
Shannon Sharpe had given Sterling his first Super Bowl ring and now big brother was returning the favor on stage after the crowning moment of his football career.
“This is why I played football,” Sterling said, referring to his younger brother, who wrapped his arm around him and had tears streaming down his face. “This is why I got out of bed; it wasn’t work. It was because of this right here. Before I leave you, I want to do two things. The most precious gift I’ve ever received is the Super Bowl ring. … I wear this ring because of love. You gave me this not knowing you were going to get another one. And I prayed to God: ‘Please, God, let him get another.’ God blessed him with two.
“The second thing is, the last time I was here, you said that you were the only pro football player in the Hall of Fame that could say that you were the second-best player in your own family. I agree with that statement, but it would be an extreme privilege. … for you to be the only player in the Pro Football Hall of Fame with two gold jackets. You see, you have to learn to follow before you can lead.”
Chargers great Antonio Gates, right, and Chargers owner Dean Spanos post next to Gates’ Hall of Fame bust on Saturday.
(David Dermer / Associated Press)
Eric Allen, Jared Allen and Antonio Gates joined Sterling Sharpe as the Class of 2025 was inducted into football immortality during a ceremony at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium, where the Chargers beat the Detroit Lions 34-7 on Thursday night to kick off the NFL preseason.
Sterling Sharpe averaged 85 catches and 1,162 yards, finishing with 65 touchdowns in seven seasons with the Green Bay Packers. The wide receiver was named to five Pro Bowls and earned first-team All-Pro honors three times. A neck injury cut his career short and he waited a long time to get the call from the Hall.
Shannon Sharpe, who played tight end for the Denver Broncos and Baltimore Ravens, was inducted in 2011. They are the first brothers in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Jared Allen was the first player among the new class to take the stage after Hall of Fame running back Thurman Thomas led the crowd in singing “Happy Birthday” to former Bills coach Marv Levy, who turns 100 on Sunday.
Wearing his trademark cowboy hat, Allen talked about his motivation for success.
“Why is what makes you different; it’s your long game,” he said. “It’s the motivation that drives you to do all necessary action steps to achieve your goal. My why can be summed up in three things: fear, respect and the pursuit of greatness. … I apply my why to everything in my life, to my walk with Christ, my marriage and being a father.”
Jared Allen made five Pro Bowls, was a four-time All-Pro and had 136 sacks in 12 seasons with the Chiefs, Vikings, Bears and Panthers. His final game was Super Bowl 50, a loss by Carolina against Peyton Manning and the Broncos.
Eric Allen, a six-time Pro Bowl cornerback who played for the Eagles, Saints and Raiders, was presented by one of his four sons. Allen, who had 54 career interceptions, including eight returned for touchdowns, gave the obligatory “Fly! Eagles! Fly!” to support the Super Bowl champions who drafted him in 1988.
“I grew up in Philadelphia. I became a man there. I have a special gratitude for the organization,” Allen said.
Allen also thanked current Raiders owner Mark Davis, who was in attendance.
“Al Davis had a statement: ’Commitment to excellence,” Allen said. “It’s all over our building in Las Vegas. We are trying to make sure we fulfill that destiny, we fulfill what Al Davis was about.”
Gates closed out the day with a 23-minute speech that began with him saying he wouldn’t cry but included several emotional moments. Gates, who was presented by Chargers owner Dean Spanos, never played a single down of college football yet ended up becoming the 23rd of 382 Hall of Famers who were undrafted by NFL teams.
He thanked former Chargers tight ends coach Tim Brewster for discovering him after he led Kent State’s basketball team to the Elite Eight.
“Tim Brewster saw something special in me. He was pretty sure that I could make the team. He was adamant that I’d be All-Pro in three years,” Gates said. “You see, the thing is when switching sports or careers for that matter, it can be life-changing. The unexpected are often the most powerful ones because it can completely redirect your life if you’re ready to take advantage and you’re ready for the opportunity. Thank you to Coach Tim Brewster and Coach Marty Schottenheimer. They gave me an opportunity to play tight end in the NFL. Because of you, Coach Tim Brewster, NFL teams and NFL scouts will never look at college basketball players the same again.”
Gates played all 16 of his NFL seasons with the Chargers, finishing with 955 catches for 11,841 yards and 116 TDs. He made the Pro Bowl eight times and was All-Pro three times, the first in just his second season.
Son revealed his decision during an emotional press conferenceCredit: AP
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The forward was sat next to boss Thomas Frank at the presserCredit: AP
“So I just want to share this information before we start the press conference.”
On how he came to the decision, Son added: “It was the most difficult decision of my football career.
Son Heung-min announces he is LEAVING Tottenham after ten years in emotional press conference
“I’ve been here ten years at a beautiful club with beautiful fans and having such amazing memories.
“And after all that, it was so hard to make this decision. But as I said, I feel like I need a new environment and to push myself.
“And to get more of me, I feel like I need a little bit of change. Ten years is a lot of time when you’re thinking about it.
He added: “I came to London as a kid. 23-years-old, a very young age, [and] a young boy came to London who even didn’t speak English.
“And [I’m] leaving this club as a grown man. This is a very, very proud moment.
“So I just wanna say thank you to all of the Spurs fans that gave me so much love.
“I felt like it was my home. But yeah, it was, it was one of the toughest decisions I’ve ever made.”
A MODERN DAY LEGEND
Son signed for Tottenham from Bayer Leverkusen in 2015 aged 23 in a deal worth around £22million.
The popular forward went on to score 173 goals in 454 appearances for the North Londoners, placing him fourth on the club’s all-time list of goalscorers.
Son was appointed club captain by former boss Ange Postecoglou in 2023.
The Tottenham legend went on to lift the Europa League trophy in May, as the club ended its 17-year drought.
On the timing of his White Hart Lane exit, Son said: “The goodbye is always also in a good timing. But I think it’s the right time to make this decision.
“I hope that everybody understands my decision and I hope that everybody respects that.”
Son has been strongly linked with a move to MLS side LAFC.
The switch would see him reunite with his predecessor as Spurs captain Hugo Lloris.
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Son lifted the Europa League in Bilbao back in MayCredit: PA
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Son could reunite with Hugo Lloris at LAFCCredit: The Sun
