NEW YORK -- Elvis Presley, yes; Marilyn Monroe, no. Albert Einstein, yes; Al Capone, no. Babe Ruth, yes; Magic Johnson, no.
Life Magazine unveiled its list Friday of the 100 Most Influential Americans of the 20th century, and those among the missing are as interesting as those who made it.
No Madonna, no Magic, no Michael Jordan. No Clark Gable. No Greta Garbo. No Al Jolson.
Not a single U.S. president -- and there have been 17 since 1900.
So who did make it?
Elvis, Albert and the Babe. Polio vaccine inventor Jonas Salk and infant care guru Benjamin Spock. The king of rock-n-roll is joined by a half-dozen other musicians: Louis Armstrong, Irving Berlin, Leonard Bernstein, Bing Crosby, Bob Dylan and Richard Rodgers.
"It's a list of the most influential people of the past 100 years, not the famous," said Mary Steinbauer, editor of the special issue. "In making our selections we looked at how our lives would be different if each of our honorees didn't live."
More than 60 historians and other experts were consulted by Life in making the list. Only three people received unanimous support, the magazine reported: the Wright Brothers and Henry Ford.
More than half of those on the list were born in the 19th century, and only 21 are still living.
Marlon Brando was the lone actor to make the list; from the world of sports, Muhammad Ali, Billie Jean King and Jackie Robinson joined the Bambino.
Activists-advocates produced the second largest number of honorees, after scientists. Thirteen of them were cited, including civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill Wilson and feminist Betty Friedan.
Thirteen were born in a foreign country and later became U.S. citizens, such as choreographer George Balanchine (Russia) and scientist Wernher von Braun (Germany). New York was the state that produced the most honorees, 14, double that of runner-up Illinois.