Ernie Roth entered show business as a disc jockey in the early 1960s. Soon, he became involved with professional wrestling and began managing in the Detroit are using several different stage names, including “Mr. Clean” and “J. Wellington Radcliffe”. He represented Michigan native Edward Farhat, who wrestled under the guise of a rich but crazed …
Jack Slivinski thought he was doing the right thing. The 32 year-old Philadelphia firefighter always wanted to help those in need any way he could. So, when photographer Katherine Kostreva asked him to pose for a charity calendar called “Nation’s Bravest” a pictorial of firefighters from across the country with proceeds from sales going …
The Illustration Friday website suggests “midsummer night” as this week’s inspiration. My son and I experienced Niagara Falls for the first time at the same time. My wife, whose parents took their three children on numerous family vacations, saw the renowned natural spectacle in her youth. I went on my last furlough with my parents …
At 16 years old, Larry Fischer was institutionalized for attacking his mother with a knife. He was diagnosed with severe paranoid schizophrenia and manic depression (now known as bipolar disorder). After his release from a mental hospital in his late teens, Larry lived on the streets of Los Angeles. He became a street performer serenading …
In 1939, retailer Montgomery Ward was looking for a gimmick to drum up business for the upcoming Christmas holiday. In the past, they had distributed free coloring books to children and decided to produce a book of their own to save money. They assigned in-house copywriter Robert May to come up with an appealing holiday …
This week’s Illustration Friday challenge word is “launch”. Some of the first-year NASA recruits were a little more ambitious than others. (HERE is another illustration, from a few years ago, that fits the challenge too.)
After his 1917 discharge from military service, West Virginia-born Harry R. Truman moved to Riffe, Washington. In 1926, he became the caretaker of a lodge on the shore of Spirit Lake. The lodge was a popular spot for hunters and fishing enthusiasts looking for rustic accommodations in a remote wooded area. Harry was a cantankerous character who took in …
Gus Dudgeon worked his way from tea boy to sound engineer at Decca Records in the middle 1960s, where he worked on The Zombies hit “She’s Not There” and John Mayall’s Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton. By the end of the 60s, he produced albums by Ten Years After, The Bonzo Dog Band and a …
My father’s low tolerance for other humans kept my parent’s accumulation of friends to a minimum. There was one couple with which my parents maintained a close relationship and that was Jack and Myrna. They’d go out to dinner regularly. They’d visit each others homes, sometimes including a few other couples so the men could …
Dick Shawn was a difficult performer to peg. He was an film actor, a stand-up comic, a singer, a voice actor and a stage actor. And he did them all well. But he never achieved the fame for his performances that he really deserved. He actually became more famous for the circumstances surrounding his death. Born Richard …
