josh pincus is crying

While studying criminal law at the Sorbonne in her native Paris, Corinne Calvet dabbled in acting on French radio dramas and on the stage. She appeared in a few French-produced films until noted producer Hal Wallis brought her to Hollywood and cast her in Rope of Sand  opposite Burt Lancaster in 1949. She went on to appear in a string of films during the 1950s, playing French characters in both dramas and comedies, including the James Cagney war picture What Price Glory,  for which she also performed songs for the soundtrack. Corinne continued to act in French films while playing roles in American television series and films. Her last role was in 1982’s cult fantasy The Sword and The Sorcerer.

In 1952, Corinne sued Zsa Zsa Gabor for slander after she spread rumors that Corinne was not actually French.

The three-times married and three-times divorced, Corinne lamented, in her autobiography, that Hollywood never offered her roles that fully showcased her acting ability. Corinne passed away from a cerebral hemorrhage in 2001 at the age of 76.

The Illustration Friday challenge word this week is “disguise”.

“Um, four please.”

Bud Jamison has the dubious distinction of delivering the first “eye poke” in a Three Stooges short. It was in 1934’s Woman Haters  and he applied the move to Moe, Larry and Curly in succession. Bud also recited his line in that short in verse. He went on to be a staple supporting player in hundreds of Stooges shorts playing policemen, judges, servants, crooks - whatever was required. He liked to entertain the crew with his beautiful tenor singing voice, which was featured in only a handful of the comedy two-reelers. In addition to The Three Stooges, Bud appeared alongside Charlie Chaplin, Abbott and Costello, Buster Keaton and Zasu Pitts. He was also a reliable stock player for producers Mack “Keystone Kops” Sennett and Hal “Our Gang” Roach.

Bud was a diabetic and a devout Christian Scientist. It is believed that, because of his religious beliefs, he refused medication for an infection that had become gangrenous. Shortly after wrapping on the musical comedy Nob Hill  in 1944, Bud succumbed to a heart attack brought on by the infection. He was 50 years old.

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After great success with Mack Sennett in the 1920s, Vernon Dent joined Columbia Pictures in their short subject department in 1935. He appeared in more Three Stooges shorts than any other supporting actor. Vernon, playing any number of exasperated authority figures, worked as the perfect foil for the Stooges outlandish antics. During his years at Columbia, Vernon became very close friends with Shemp Howard, as well as his brothers Moe and Jerry (Curly) and Larry Fine. Moe often spoke glowingly about the barbershop singing he’d perform with Vernon and Bud Jamison on movie sets.

Vernon was also a diabetic and as the years went on, the disease took its toll. Vernon has become completely blind by the 1950s. His condition, however, did not interrupt his acting career. He would often deliver his lines seated at a table or standing in a stationary position. In 1955, Vernon attended the funeral of his friend and co-star Shemp Howard. Fellow character actor Emil Sitka, a veteran of countless Stooges shorts himself, recalled Vernon being led into the ceremony. “He was staring straight ahead,” related Sitka, “and was told ‘This is Shemp.’ by his guide, who then placed Vernon’s hand on Shemp’s. It was then I realized that Vernon was blind. I had worked with him and never knew it.”

After over 400 film appearances, Vernon finally retired from show business due to declining health. He died of a heart attack in 1963 at the age of 68.

The Illustration Friday word of inspiration this week in “influence”.

“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.”

The man who said that began his celebrated literary career as a printer, then on to the unlikely path of master riverboat pilot on the Mississippi. After a short and failed attempt at gold mining, he became a reporter. During his time as a reporter, he wrote the humorous story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.  The tale enjoyed widespread popularity and Samuel Clemens was on his way to becoming one of the greatest names in American literature. He adopted his nome de plume  while working on the riverboats. When a boat was about to enter water depths of two fathoms - safe for passage -the riverboatman would call “Mark Twain” signalling the mark of fathoms and twain for two.

Although he was a successful novelist and public speaker, gaining praise from peers and critics alike, he was a poor manager of money and an unwise investor. He eventually filed for bankruptcy. Later in life, he overcame his financial difficulty and paid his creditors, even-though his bankruptcy relieved him of that responsibility.

Mark Twain was born in 1835. For his entire life, he remarked that he came into the world in the year of Halley’s Comet and he would go out with it. He once said: “The Almighty has said, no doubt: ‘Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.’” On April 21, 1910, he died of a heart attack, one day after Halley’s Comet reached it’s closest proximity to Earth since Mark Twain’s birth. He is buried in Elmyra, New York, under a headstone that measures twelve feet - two fathoms.

Marie McDonald, daughter of a Ziegfeld girl, began modeling as a teenager. Her aspirations took her to Hollywood where she danced at nightclubs and sang with big bands, including a brief stint with Tommy Dorsey. She was soon signed to a contract with Universal Pictures and got her first credited role in Abbott & Costello’s 1942 comedy Pardon My Sarong.  The film tagged her with the nickname “The Body” (for obvious reasons), a name that followed Marie for her entire career. Marie was relegated to mostly low-budget “B” pictures, but she was a very popular pin-up girl during World War II, after her photo appeared in the US Army-published YANK  Magazine.

But, things got weird.

Marie was an alleged mistress of gangster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, a claim neither one acknowledged. She was married briefly to Richard Allford in 1940. It was the first of seven marriages for Marie. She married shoe magnate Harry Karl… twice. She and Harry adopted two children before giving birth to a daughter, after several miscarriages. During her second marriage to Harry, she claimed to have been kidnapped by two men who forced her from her home. She was found in her pajamas with a black eye and two missing dental caps. Subsequent investigations cast numerous doubts on her story. It was dismissed as just another in Marie’s on-going efforts at “headline-grabbing”. Harry thought she was nuts and the couple divorced again. Tabloids regularly reported on her romances (including affairs with Eddie Fisher and Michael Wilding, both of whom would eventually marry Elizabeth Taylor), her mysterious auto accidents and even an escape from a psychiatric hospital.

In 1957, Marie returned to music and recorded “The Body Sings” for RCA Records. She followed that with a popular nightclub act. She also made several appearances on Steve Allen’s and Red Skelton’s variety shows. With renewed interest in her talents, she was cast opposite Jerry Lewis in 1958’s The Geisha Boy.  Marie ended her film career in 1963 with a role in the post-Hays Code sex farce Promises! Promises!  The film’s draw was multiple nude scenes featuring fellow tabloid darling Jayne Mansfield. Later in ‘63, Marie was arrested and convicted of forging prescriptions for Percodan.

In early 1965, Marie launched a cosmetic business that proved unsuccessful. In October 1965, her husband Donald Taylor, the producer of Promises! Promises!,  found her dead with an empty Percodan bottle by her side. The overdose was ruled accidental. Marie was 42. Three months later, on New Year’s Day 1966, Donald committed suicide. Marie’s children, from her marriage to Harry Karl, went to live with Harry and his new wife, actress Debbie Reynolds (who was previously married to Eddie Fisher).

Hooray for Hollywood!

After finishing school, Michael Wilding got a job in the art department of a London film studio. Despite his ability as an artist, he was recruited and groomed by the studio to be a movie star. With his dashing good looks and relaxed demeanor, he launched what would become a three-decade career in 1933. He starred in numerous British films including two of Alfred Hitchcock’s lesser-known efforts Under Capricorn and Stage Fright.

In 1952, Michael divorced his wife of fifteen years to marry Elizabeth Taylor, who was twenty years his junior. It was the second marriage for each. The marriage lasted five years and produced two children. The couple had an amicable split and remained friends after their divorce. Just after his divorce, he began a secretive affair with actress Marie McDonald, until he broke it off to remarry in 1958.

Michael accepted steady acting roles throughout the 60s. He was forced to cut back on his working schedule due to his life-long battle with epilepsy. In 1979, 66 year-old Michael was at his home in West Sussex, England, when an epileptic seizure caused him to fall down a flight of stairs. He died from head injuries sustained in the fall.

In 1947, twenty-year old Virginia-born Peggie Blair was eating at a Beverly Hills restaurant when her striking good looks caught the attention of a talent scout. She began her whirlwind career in Hollywood, using the stage name “Peggie Castle” and started off appearing in a slew of uncredited roles. Peggie was perpetually cast as b-girls, gun molls and other unsavory characters. Her breakout role as the murderous Charlotte Manning in the big screen version of Mickey Spillane’s I, The Jury  in 1953, didn’t stray from her usual typecast.

In the 50’s, Peggie found work in television Westerns and landed a regular stint on Lawman  as saloon owner Lily Merrill. The show lasted four seasons and she received a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame for her contributions to television. In 1964, she retired from acting, now married to her third husband, director/producer William McGarry.

Not content with her life and fleeting fame, Peggie found comfort in alcohol and her use and abuse of it increased. She died of cirrhosis of the liver in a small apartment on Hollywood Boulevard. She was 45 years old.

The Illustration Friday challenge word this week is “swell”.

“Gee, Dad, as far as fathers go… you’re swell!”

Even as Dennis Mitchell was wreaking havoc in Mr. Wilson’s petunia bed (no, that’s not  a euphemism), he loved his dad. And what was not to love?

Herbert Anderson was born in Oakland, California in 1917. At 22, he headed to Hollywood to pursue an acting career. After small, uncredited roles in a dozen or so films, he got his break in 1941’s Navy Blues  opposite Martha Raye. He followed that with the World War II epic Battleground  in which he adopted the screen name “Guy Anderson”. Herbert’s regular work continued at Warner Brothers Studios, where he appeared in numerous roles as newspaper men, naval officers, photographers and the occasional “good friend” of the main character. His role of Dr. Bird in the 1955 Broadway production of The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial  led to a reprise of the part in the film version with Humphrey Bogart. Herbert was the only cast member from the play chosen to do the movie.

The new medium of television offered Herbert more opportunities to play everyday characters on sitcoms and Westerns. In 1959, he landed the role for which he would be forever remembered, good natured Henry Mitchell, father to Dennis the Menace. For four seasons and 144 episodes, Herbert, as Henry, puffed his pipe and presided over the household at 627 Elm Street. He passed level-headed judgement and extended unconditional love to his son… even when Dennis and pal Tommy were torturing the hell of of poor Mr. Wilson. He also exercised fair discipline when the situation called for it. Dennis was right. He was a swell dad.

When Dennis the Menace  was cancelled, Herbert found steady work in a number of television series, appearing in guest roles on My Three Sons, Batman, The Patty Duke Show, The Brady Bunch  and many others. He performed as the harried, onscreen manager alongside Herman’s Hermits in the 1966 Beatles rip-off Hold On. In 1994, after twelve years of retirement from the entertainment business, Herbert passed way at age 77 from complications following a stroke.

Nafisa Joseph was born in the southern India city of Bangalore. With the help of a neighbor, Nafisa began a modeling career at the age of twelve. Her beauty caught the eye of Indian fashion designer Prasad Bidapa. With Bidapa’s direction and assistance, she entered the Miss India Universe pageant in 1997 and at nineteen years of age, became the contest’s youngest winner. She placed among the ten semifinalists in the subsequent Miss Universe Pageant.

Her popularity landed her a hosting position on MTV India’s House Full  for nearly five years. She also appeared in CATS,  India’s version of the American show Charlie’s Angels.  Nafisa became the editor of the Indian fashion magazine Gurlz.  In addition, she became a strong and vocal advocate for animal rights, campaigning diligently for PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and various other animal protection groups. She even wrote a weekly column called Nafisa for Animals  for the Bangalore edition of the Times of India.

In 2004, she met and fell in love with businessman Gautam Khanduja and plans were made to marry. Just prior to their wedding, Nafisa discovered that Gautam was already married and lied about his divorce. When questioned further, he refused to answer and could not produce official divorce documents he claimed to have. Nafisa immediately called off the upcoming ceremony and broke off the relationship. She was distraught and sought consolation with her family.

On July 29, 2004, Nafisa hanged herself from a ceiling fan in her home. She was 25.

The Illustration Friday challenge word this week is “imperfect”.

In November 1960, CBS broadcast an episode of the science-fiction anthology series Twilight Zone  called “Eye of the Beholder” (renamed “A Private World of Darkness” in subsequent rebroadcasts). It was a morality tale that forced viewers to reassess their concept of “perfect” and “imperfect”. The episode involves the final healing stages of an operation to make a woman’s looks more acceptable to society’s standards of beauty. The woman, whose face was concealed by a full covering of gauze bandages, converses with her doctor, hopeful for a positive result. The doctor, nurses and various background staff are all shown in shadow, although the episode is shot in such a way that it is not a focal point. At the story’s climax, it is revealed why the actors were filmed in that manner.

Ironically, in a segment dealing with society’s judgment of imperfection, the bandaged patient Janet Tyler was played by actress Donna Douglas, two years away from her career-defining role as critter-loving hottie Elly May Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies.  However, Donna’s face wasn’t shown on camera until the final minutes of the episode. Janet Tyler’s sultry, resonant voice was provided by actress Maxine Stuart. The producers felt that Donna’s pronounced southern Louisiana drawl would not fit their character or the ominous tone of the story. While her pretty features were exactly what they were looking for, her voice was less than perfect.