With dreams of becoming a fashion designer, Mattiwilda Dobbs attended Spellman College in the early 1940s. Her instructors encouraged young Mattiwilda to pursue singing and she graduated in 1946 with a degree in music. She began performing in Europe, making her operatic debut in Holland in Stravinsky’s The Nightingale. In 1953, at the request of …
The child of free blacks who moved North just prior to the Civil War, Mary Eliza Mahoney began working as an untrained practical nurse at twenty-years old. To supplement her income, Mary took on janitorial duties at the New England Hospital for Women and Children. In 1878, she was accepted into the New England Hospital’s …
Pete Smith began his career, humbly, as an aide on the vaudeville circuit. He soon found work with Louis B. Mayer as a publicity manager for Mayer’s studio. He was promoted to doing voice overs and editing on short subjects and sports-related newsreels. Based on his sense of humor, Pete was given his own series …
As a student at Northern Illinois University, Cynthia Ann Cichorski took DJ duties at the campus radio station. She parlayed her communications degree as a reporter for a local radio station using the more “radio-friendly name “Morgan.” After graduation, Cindy worked as the on-air weather forecaster at a Rockford TV station. Eventually, she made her …
Much like Lou Costello, Tom Smothers was a character. His stammering naiveté was a concisely conceived and performed character. That’s right — a character. Tom was a star competitor in track and field at San Jose State College, as well as a competitive unicyclist. Tom, along with his younger brother Dick, set out to be …
In 1941, after a few roles in live-action films, Kent Rogers kicked off his career as a voice actor with a role in Goofy Groceries, a “Merrie Melodies” animated short directed by Bob Clampett. Just two months later, Kent’s talents were given a chance to shine, as he voiced 14 different characters in the famous …
Victoria María Aragüés Gadea studied classical ballet for fifteen years, eventually performing on stages in and around her native Barcelona. Victoria had a sort of novelty act with her sister, a contortionist. After the death of dictator Francisco Franco, Spain began to relax its strict laws on the sexual explicity of entertainment. Victoria, ready to …
After a bout of meningitis, William Hoy was rendered deaf at the age of three… but it never hindered his determination. After graduating as valedictorian from the Ohio State School for the Deaf, he opened a shoe repair business and played baseball on the weekends. Impressed with William’s on-field prowess, baseball manager Frank Selee signed …
21-year old Argentine model Norma Cappagli entered the 1960 Miss World contest and, much to her surprise, was crowned the winner. She was the first representative from Argentina to win the title since the pageant’s inception a decade earlier. She became an ambassador of the contest, making goodwill appearances all over the world. In 1962, …
Anthony Bourdain was a renowned chef and world traveler. He was also well known for speaking his mind and calling things as he saw them. In his 2001 travelogue/memoir A Cook’s Tour, Bourdain visited Cambodia. After viewing — first-hand — the long-term devastation the country suffered as a result of illegal military directives orchestrated by …
