Magnificent Montague
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Nathaniel "Magnificent" Montague (born in New Jersey, January 11, 1928[1]), is an American R&B disc jockey notable not only for the soul music records he helped promote on KGFJ Los Angeles and WWRL New York City, but also his trademark catch-phrase, "Burn, baby! Burn!" that became the rallying cry of the 1965 Watts riots. Following criticism that this phrase had inadvertently stirred up rioters, Montague advocated non-violence and urged young listeners to pursue their education, coining the new phrase "Learn, baby! Learn!"
Semi-retired by the mid-1970s, Montague relocated to Palm Springs, California, where he was instrumental in the launch of easy listening KPLM, today a successful country music station. His was the first radio station construction permit issued to an African-American in four decades.
Montague's catchphrase was referenced in the Apollo 11 software code that took Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the Moon in 1969: "BURN, BABY, BURN – MASTER IGNITION ROUTINE". In 2009, on the 40th anniversary of the first moonwalk, Don Eyles attributed this code reference to Montague.[2]
The catchphrase would also be referenced in the 1976 hit "Disco Inferno" by the Trammps.
His autobiography, Burn, Baby! Burn! (ISBN 978-0252028731) was published in October 2003 by the University of Illinois Press.
African-American memory collector
[edit]For 50 years, Montague and his wife Rose Thaddeus Casalan (known as Rose Catalon as songwriter) acquired a collection of African-American visual culture, historical artifacts and documents, known as the Montague Collection, on display at the Meek-Eaton Black Archives Research Center and Museum of the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, in Tallahassee, since February 14, 2017.
Personal life
[edit]Montague retired with his wife Rose to Las Vegas, Nevada. He is a convert to Judaism.[3]
References
[edit]- ^ "Magnificent Montague: R&B Disc Jockey & Historian Noted for Catch-Phrase". 2018-06-11.
- ^ "The code that took America to the moon was just published to GitHub, and it's like a 1960s time capsule". 9 July 2016.
- ^ Montague, Nathaniel (2003). Burn, Baby! BURN! The Autobiography of Magnificent Montague. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press. p. 81. ISBN 0-252-02873-2.
External links
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- American autobiographers
- American radio DJs
- 1928 births
- Living people
- African-American radio personalities
- African-American writers
- People from Palm Springs, California
- African-American Jews
- Jewish American writers
- 21st-century African-American people
- 21st-century American Jews
- 20th-century African-American people
- American radio people stubs