Mo Rocca’s long love of obituaries returns for a third season. Mo looks to celebrate the dearly departed people (and things) of the past who have long intrigued him— this season explores the most intriguing history from TV’s most beloved dog to the woman of a thousand voices. Hear fresh takes on these famous legacies and why they deserve a moment in the spotlight. Listen to new episodes every Wednesday.
What’s in a name…that makes it popular to one generation, and downright ugly to the next? From “Bertha” and “Layla” to “Reagan” and “Katrina,” history shows us that politics, pop songs and news events all play roles in sending baby names skyrocketing or plunging in the rankings. Mo (short for “Maurice”!) returns to his elementary […]
In the 1990s, PBS introduced young audiences to a canine star like none other: a Jack Russell terrier who imagined himself as characters from classic works of literature. The show was called Wishbone. Today there’s a whole generation of adults who were first weaned on Mark Twain, the legend of Faust or the Greek epics […]
The utter sincerity of his songs (“Country Roads,” “Rocky Mountain High”) endeared John Denver to fans worldwide and helped make him one of the biggest stars of the 1970s. But the easy-mannered mountaineer with the dutch boy haircut and granny glasses was often dismissed as shallow or corny. The longing in Denver’s voice was real, […]
Mo Rocca’s long love of obituaries returns for a third season. Mo looks to celebrate the dearly departed people (and things) of the past who have long intrigued him— this season explores the most intriguing history from TV’s most beloved dog to the woman of a thousand voices. Hear fresh takes on these famous legacies […]
Anna May Wong wasn’t supposed to be in the movies. Her traditionalist laundryman father was dead set against it. And Hollywood almost always used white actors in “yellow face” for Asian characters. But Wong knew what she wanted. As a young girl growing up in Los Angeles, she saw movies being made on the streets. […]
This week, CBS Sunday Morning’s hit podcast Mobituaries brings you a brand new episode taped before live audiences in Asbury Park, New Jersey and Fairfield, Connecticut. Mobituaries host and CBS Sunday Morning correspondent Mo Rocca drew sold out crowds to discuss his new hit book, and his passion for obituaries. “I inherited my love of […]
In 1971, following two decades on air, ABC cancelled the Lawrence Welk Show, a musical variety show led by the German-accented bandleader and accordionist, Lawrence Welk. Welk and his show were swept up in a series of mass cancellations that included shows like The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, and Petticoat Junction. (“The Rural Purge”, as […]
From 1854 to 1929, 250,000 abandoned or orphaned children in East Coast cities found themselves on journeys across the country. Shepherded by private organizations like the New York Foundling or the Children’s Aid Society, these orphans were resettled with families who promised to give them shelter, an education, and a place to grow up. It […]
On June 12, 2019, the St. Louis Blues made franchise history when they won the Stanley Cup, beating the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of the ice hockey championship in Boston. Just after the buzzer sounded, St. Louis fans celebrated their unlikely triumph with the most unlikely of anthems: the 1982 pop song, “Gloria.” Yes, […]
On the evening of January 8, 1964, tens of millions of Americans tuned their television sets to CBS for an epic matchup. This wasn’t a fight between Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston. Instead the main event was a feisty grandmother battling a kangaroo she had mistaken for a giant jackrabbit. This was the actual premise […]