Monday, Sep. 18, 1978
BORN. To Bruce Jenner, 29, Olympic decathlon gold medalist of 1976 and television personality, and Chrystie Jenner, 30, former flight attendant: a boy, their first child; in Los Angeles. Name: Burton William. Weight: 7 lbs. 12 oz.
DIED. Keith Moon, 32, frenzied drummer for rock's veteran group, The Who; of a drug overdose; in London. Moon joined the band 14 years ago and took part in its greatest artistic success, the rock opera Tommy (1969). A manic performer, he was equally spirited offstage; he estimated having paid $400,000 in hotel and restaurant damages during his touring days. The day after he announced his engagement, at a party given by ex-Beatle Paul McCartney, he was found dead in his apartment by his fiancee.
DIED. Metropolitan Nikodim, 48, Russian Orthodox Archbishop of Leningrad and Novgorod; of a heart attack during an audience with Pope John Paul I; in Vatican City. Consecrated a bishop in 1960 and an archbishop a year later, Nikodim served as a president of the World Council of Churches. Though he refused to criticize Moscow's restrictions on religious freedom, he was respected by other denominational leaders for his ecumenism. Nikodim headed his church's delegation at the accession of the new Pope, who administered his last rites.
DIED. Adolf ("Adi") Dassler, 77, sports shoe mogul from whose name came the title of his brand--Adidas; of a heart attack; in Herzogenaurach, West Germany. Dassler and his brother entered the shoe business in 1920, but split after World War II to form fiercely competing firms. With some $700 million in sales yearly, Adidas leads the field in athletic footwear; his brother's company, Puma, is a distant second.
DIED. Benjamin Sonnenberg, 77. public relations wizard whose clients once included Philip Morris, CBS and Samuel Goldwyn; of a heart attack; in New York City. A young immigrant who became head of his own public relations firm in the 1920s, the walrus-mustached Sonnenberg dressed like an Edwardian, cultivated the rich and powerful, and lived in a style most of his clients envied. In his 37-room, antique-filled mansion on Manhattan's Gramercy Park, he held lavish soirees at which he flourished as raconteur and keeper of secrets, wheeler-dealer and patron of intellectuals. Sonnenberg once proclaimed: "I want my house and office to convey an impression of stability and to give myself a dimension, background and tradition that go back to the Nile."
DIED. Jack L. Warner, 86. last of the four pioneering film-producing brothers who in 1927 brought out the first sound movie, The Jazz Singer: of inflammation of the heart: in Los Angeles.
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