In passing
Bushkin, jazz pianist, writer of Sinatra hit
Santa Barbara, Calif. Jazz pianist and songwriter Joe Bushkin, who co-wrote Frank Sinatra’s first hit and performed with some of the best jazz musicians of his time, has died. He was 87.
Bushkin, who performed and recorded with such jazz and big band greats as Fats Waller, Eddie Condon and Billie Holiday, died Wednesday of pneumonia, his family said.
As a member of the Tommy Dorsey band, he co-wrote the hit “Oh! Look at Me Now” with John DeVries. The song launched the career of a young Frank Sinatra, the band’s vocalist.
Born to Russian immigrants in New York City, Bushkin learned to play the piano at 10 and started playing professionally in 1932 with Frank LaMarr at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City.
Three years later, Bushkin became intermission pianist at the Famous Door, where the Bunny Berigan Boys, a group that included guitarist Eddie Condon and pianist George Zack, performed.
Bushkin ended up replacing Zack and went on to play with Condon, Joe Marsala and Dorsey. He played on Billie Holiday’s first recording under her own name in 1936.
Bushkin retired in the 1960s but returned to play on Bing Crosby’s last tour in 1976 and 1977. He also performed in a concert series at New York’s St. Regis hotel in 1984 that celebrated his 50 years in show business.
Binger, theater owner, ex-CEO of Honeywell
Minneapolis James Binger, former CEO of Honeywell Inc. and owner of five Broadway theaters, has died, his family foundation said. He was 88.
Binger held top executive positions at Honeywell from 1961 to 1978, including chairman and chief executive officer.
Along with his wife, the daughter of a 3M Co. founder, Binger owned five Broadway playhouses – the St. James, Al Hirschfeld, Virginia, Eugene O’Neill and the Walter Kerr. He was on the board of the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.
His wife, Virginia McKnight Binger, died in 2002.
He also served from 1974 to 1996 on the board of the McKnight Foundation, which his in-laws established in 1953 and which his wife led from 1974 to 1987. It’s the largest philanthropic foundation based in Minnesota.
Schairer, helped design swept-wing jets
Kirkland, Wash. George Swift Schairer, a scientist whose discovery of Nazi wind tunnel research played a crucial role in the development of swept-wing jets, died Thursday of complications from Alzheimer’s disease, his son said. He was 91.
Schairer, instrumental in developing military and civilian aircraft that made billions for the Boeing Co., was Boeing’s vice president for research and development from 1959 to 1973 and for research until he retired in 1978. His awards included the Daniel Guggenheim Medal for “great achievements in aeronautics” and the Spirit of St. Louis Medal.
Renowned for irascibility as well as a keen scientific mind, Schairer came to Boeing in 1939 after completing studies in aeronautical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He worked with the U.S. Army Air Corps in World War II.
Toward the end of the war, he and other scientists encountered documents on German wind tunnel tests of a swept-wing design for aircraft equipped with the newly developed jet engine.
He notified a Boeing colleague and fellow MIT alumnus, Holden W. “Bob” Withington, and when he returned to civilian life they used the discovery in designing such landmark aircraft as the B-47 and B-52 bombers and 707 passenger jet.