josh pincus is crying

This week’s Illustration Friday challenge word is “immovable”.

Robert Earl Hughes made appearances in small county fairs and festivals in his native Illinois and neighboring states. He was driven around the fairgrounds in the open flatbed of a pickup truck and curiosity seekers marveled at him. Then, the truck would stop and Robert signed souvenir photos of himself — twenty-five cent for a small one, half a buck for a large. A malfunctioning pituitary gland had caused Robert to gain weight at an uncontrollable rate. Although he boasted a 700+ pound frame, Robert loved the attention.

Robert visited New York for a proposed appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show  to portray Santa Claus. The Sullivan Show  people failed to make subsequent contact after their preliminary offer and Robert, short on funds, was stuck in New York. He was kicked out of his hotel for failure to pay his bill. He sought the help of the Salvation Army, who took pity on Robert and flew him home to Illinois. Soon after, he contracted measles from one of his nieces. The measles escalated into kidney failure and Robert fell into a coma and passed away at age 32. At the time, he was the heaviest man on record, weighing 1,041 pounds.

A specially constructed casket was created by The Embalming Burial Case Co. of Burlington, Iowa. It measured 85 inches long, 52 inches wide and 34 inches deep. It was made of heavy cypress, reinforced with steel. Twelve pallbearers maneuvered the casket along, on a wheeled dolly, past the largest funeral gathering Brown County had even seen. Over 2,000 mourners came out to pay their last respects. Robert’s casket was lowered by a large crane into, what is now, a very unassuming grave.

Billy Tipton was a jazz pianist who performed to moderate success in the Spokane, Washington area in the late 1940s through the 60s. His small group, The Billy Tipton Trio, played regular gigs for years at many popular jazz venues in the Pacific Northwest. He recorded and released two albums of jazz standards for independent Tops Records, but shunned further offers in favor of continuing his live appearances.

Billy had serious relationships with five women. These relationships lasted for years with several of the women identifying themselves as”Mrs. Tipton,” although he only eventually married former stripper Kitty Kelly. Billy had informed Kitty, as he did his other intimate companions, that he had been involved in a horrific auto accident, leaving him with permanent ribcage damage, disfigured genitals and rendering him sterile. He was forced to wear a tight, binding cloth around his torso to ease his pain and enable him to function.

Billy and Kitty adopted three sons and Billy loved the role of “family man/father”. He was an active PTA member and often accompanied his boys on Boy Scout activities. As the children came into their teens, their wild behavior was the cause of many arguments between Kitty and Billy. Billy left the house, opting to move into a trailer home with his boys. As the years went on, the boys left Billy on his own. With his music career long in his past, Billy had no income and lived in poverty.

In the late 1980s, Billy fell seriously ill from a hemorrhaging peptic ulcer. He refused treatment and died in 1989 at the age of 74. Kitty and the children contacted Ball & Dodd Funeral Home to make Billy’s final arrangements. While Billy’s body was being prepared for burial, the funeral director informed the family of a startling discovery. Billy was a woman.

Billy was born Dorothy Lucille Tipton in Oklahoma in 1914 and had lived his life as a man for 54 years. Each of his female companions were given and convinced by the same “accident” story. Billy insisted to making love in the dark and preferred to do the touching rather than being touched. In the darkness, he was able to conceal a prosthetic penis he wore attached to an athletic supporter. A shocked Kitty tried to cover-up the truth, but son William went public and made many talk show appearances and happily gave interviews to both tabloids and more reputable papers.

Jack Cassidy achieved early fame as musical performer on Broadway for over twenty years. He won the Best Featured Actor Tony Award in 1963 for his role in She Loves Me, a musical reworking of the play Parfumerie  (which, itself, made been remade several times as Shop Around the Corner  and, most recently, You’ve Got Mail). He also appeared in dozens of guest roles in episodic television — displaying his skills in both comedy and drama — and a handful of theatrical films. He earned two Emmy nominations. He was featured in a memorable role on the Mary Tyler Moore show as Hal Baxter, the equally pompous brother of news anchor Ted Baxter (played by the late Ted Knight).

He experienced a small resurgence in popularity in the early 1970s, however not necessarily for his own talents. Jack’s son, David, was the hottest thing on television, playing heartthrob Keith Partridge on the hit series The Partridge Family.  Jack’s jealousy of David’s success increased at the same rate of his son’s popularity. It didn’t help matters that Jack’s wife (and David’s step-mother), Oscar-winning actress Shirley Jones, was also featured on the show and was enjoying comparable glory. From Jack’s perspective, they were being rewarded with the great success that had eluded him and that he rightfully deserved. He was extremely critical of David’s and Shirley’s performances. He belittled the show itself, pointing out that he was a true actor and what they were doing could not compare.

In 1974, The Partridge Family’s run came to an end and, at the same time, Jack’s alcohol consumption increased. David observed his father’s behavior become erratic and unpredictable. Jack’s neighbor’s noticed similar action, when one afternoon Jack was spotted watering his front lawn in the nude. Another incident, a short time later, had Jack proclaiming himself to be Christ. He was admitted to a psychiatric facility. His marriage to Shirley was essentially over.

In 1976, newly-single Jack moved into an apartment in West Hollywood. In the early morning of December 12, 1976, Jack passed out, possibly from excessive drinking, while holding a lit cigarette. The couch caught fire and it quickly spread through the apartment. Jack’s body was found on the floor, as though he had been crawling toward the sliding glass doors to safety. He was so badly burned that he was identified by dental record and a pinkie ring that he was never without. Jack was 49.

This week’s Illustration Friday word is “atmosphere”.

“Oh, oh, oh! Let’s go fly a kite. Up to the highest height! Let’s go fly a kite and send it soaring.
Up through the atmosphere, Up where the air is clear, Oh, let’s go fly a kite!”  — Mary Poppins (1964)

Beginning around 1938, a small Hollywood cartoon producer named Walt Disney did his best to persuade author Pamela Travers to let him turn her series of childrens’ stories into a film. Time after time, Travers rebuffed Disney’s offers. Travers did not believe a film version of her books would do justice to her creation, especially an animated film. Disney’s plans for a live-action movie put off Travers even more, as she perceived him as merely a cartoon maker. Disney was persistent, though, and remained in regular contact with Miss Travers. Finally, after twenty-three years of begging and convincing and cajoling, Travers caved and granted Disney filming rights for her Mary Poppins stories. The agreement contained some caveats, including script approval. Disney was okay with that, but still maintained the final word over the entire project.

With the rights secured, Disney began to set production rolling. He hired the songwriting team of Richard and Robert Sherman to write songs and score the film. The Shermans also helped with the story development and changed the setting from the 1930s to London’s Edwardian era. The Sherman Brothers initially wrote thirty-eight songs, many of them cut during development and others integrated into stronger compositions. Disney cast Broadway actress Julie Andrews, fresh off of being passed over by Jack Warner for Warner Brothers’ film version of  My Fair Lady, for the role that Andrews originated on stage. Dick Van Dyke was cast alongside Andrews’ big-screen debut, as Bert. Bert was a conglomerate of several characters from the Travers’ stories. The multi-talented Van Dyke, while endearing in the part, was reviled for his amateurish, almost distracting, Cockney accent. Veteran British character actors David Tomlinson and Glynis Johns were given the roles of Mr. and Mrs Banks. Young Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber played Mary Poppins’ charges, Jane and Michael. Van Dyke and Tomlinson also provided the voices for some of the animated characters throughout the film.

After many objections (especially to the animated sequences) and eventual compromises with Travers, Mary Poppins opened to rave reviews in late August 1964. (Travers hated the final project and vowed never to entertain any future offers from Disney.) It went on to become the most popular film of 1965 earning over 28 million dollars. It was nominated for 13 Academy Award and won five, including Best song, Best Score and Best Actress for Julie Andrews, who, incidentally beat Audrey Hepburn who nabbed the role of Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady. Mary Poppins launched the careers of Andrews, Van Dyke and the Sherman Brothers into the realms of super-stardom. Tomlinson and Johns were in demand and more popular than ever. Johns still acts and appeared in 1995’s While You Were Sleeping. Tomlison retired in 1979 and passed away in 2000.  Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber co-starred again for Disney in 1967’s The Gnome-Mobile. Karen appeared in several British television productions until she felt being a full-time mother was a better fit for her. Matthew briefly lived with his parents in India, where he contracted hepatitis and passed away at age 21.

Mary Poppins was the first movie I ever saw in a theater. It was on its initial release in 1964 at the Orleans on Bustleton Avenue in northeast Philadelphia. I still love watching it forty-six years later.

In 1949, Agnes Morra, a 15-year-old heroin addict, gave birth to a boy named Michael. Michael was given formula laced with an opiate derivative because he had become addicted to heroin in utero. Michael’s father, a career gangster, was deported to Italy. Agnes soon developed a relationship with a drug-addicted former boxer, who regularly beat her and young Michael. The boxer eventually murdered Michael’s mother.

For self-prescribed therapy, Michael began to perform as a stand-up comic under the stage name “Rockets Redglare”. He became a fixture in the small clubs of Manhattan’s East Village. He also spent a lot of time in drug rehab, hoping to kick his addiction.

Rockets worked as a club bouncer, as a roadie for a band called the Hassles (featuring a young Billy Joel), and acted as a bodyguard and drug supplier for Sex Pistols’ bassist Sid Vicious and artist-musician Jean Michel Basquiat. Rockets made a drug delivery to Sid Vicious at the Chelsea Hotel the night Vicious’ girlfriend Nancy Spungen was murdered. In the book, Pretty Vacant: A History of Punk, it is speculated that Rockets was her killer.

Rockets made his acting debut in director Jim Jarmusch’s 1984 film Stranger Than Paradise. That role led to more  small, quirky roles as seedy characters in films like Desperately Seeking Susan, After Hours and Down By Law. He played the hotel clerk who welcomed a frightened Tom Hanks to his questionable accommodations in Big. He taunted Eric Bogosian’s character as a deranged and angry caller in Talk Radio.

In 2001, while battling various addictions, Rockets Redglare died from a combination of kidney failure, liver failure, cirrhosis and hepatitis C. He admitted, “Anything I ever liked…I always did to excess”. Rockets was 52.

“These people, dressed as they are, come from all over the United States to make deals here in the Marketplace of America. Let’s! Make! A Deal!” — Jay Stewart

Jay Stewart broke into show business as a sax player, but landed a few announcing jobs after his graduation from college. Jay became the announcer on the fledgling Let’s Make A Deal one year after its premiere. Let’s Make a Deal  host Monty Hall called Jay “the best second banana you ever found in your life”. In addition to annoucing, Jay carried prize boxes and appeared on stage in various costumes when “zonk” prizes were awarded.

When the original version of Let’s Make a Deal  left the air in 1977,  Jay announced for other game shows like Sale of the Century, Joker’s Wild  and Tic-Tac-Dough until 1981, when the suicide of Jay’s daughter disrupted his career.

Jay returned to the airwaves in 1983, announcing on Pat Robertson’s 700 Club  that he had found religion and it was helping him to deal with his daughter’s death. However, Jay never fully overcame her death and, coupled with chronic back pain from the years of heavy lifting on Let’s Make A Deal,  he turned increasingly to alcohol. After a brief stint as an agent for other TV announcers, Jay committed suicide by shooting himself at his home in September 1989 at the age of 71.

Roy Sullivan, a U.S. park ranger at Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, was hit by lightning on seven different occasions between 1942 and 1977. He survived all of them. Roy was included in the Guinness World Records as the person struck by lightning more times than any other human being.

In 1983, Roy died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound over an unrequited love. He was 71.

At 6′ 11″, Mel Turpin dominated the court as starter for the University of Kentucky Wildcats basketball team in the 1984 NCAA Final Four. He was the Southeastern Conference scoring leader and still holds the record for most field goals in SEC tournament play. At center, he was an aggressive player, scoring 42 points in a game against Tennessee.

He was the sixth overall pick in the first round by the Washington Bullets in the 1984 NBA Draft. Although there were high hopes for Mel, he was immediately traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers. But, Mel never achieved his full potential in the NBA. He struggled with fluctuating weight, earning him the derisive nickname “Dinner Bell Mel”. He was traded to the Utah Jazz and then back to Washington where, after five unremarkable seasons in the NBA, he called it a career. In a year that included future superstars like Charles Barkley, Hakeem Olajuwon, John Stockton and Michael Jordan, Mel Turpin was considered one of the biggest disappointments in draft history.

After his retirement, Mel worked as a security guard.

On July 8, 2010, Mel committed suicide by self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was 49.

Ernie Kovacs’ influence can still be seen. Groundbreaking shows like Laugh-In, Monty Python, Saturday Night Live — even Captain Kangaroo  and Sesame Street  owe a large debt to the pioneering techniques of this comedic wizard.

From his humble beginnings as a disc jockey, Ernie landed his own early morning show on Philadelphia NBC-affiliate WPTZ (now KYW). The program, Three to Get Ready, was a blank canvas for Ernie’s creativity. Employing a variety of camera tricks and stage settings, Ernie developed a rapid-fire repertoire of skits, pantomimes and visual illusions for, basically, his own amusement. He figured no one would be watching at the pre-dawn hour at which his show was broadcast. Much to the surprise of both Ernie and the network, the format was a hit. Ironically, it led to the cancellation of Ernie’s show in favor of a network-wide morning show called Today.

While at WPTZ, Ernie created and honed his menagerie of characters including intellectual Percy Dovetonsils, German disc jockey Wolfgang von Sauerbraten, horror show host Auntie Gruesome and bumbling magician Matzoh Heppelwhite. A series of popular monthly specials made way for Ernie’s own show in the 1950s and a twice-a-week stint filling in for Steve Allen as host of The Tonight Show. The biggest stars of the day lined up to appear and perform with Ernie. When he introduced the musical comedy group The Nairobi Trio on this show, it was made up of Ernie as conductor, Ernie’s wife Edie Adams, and close friend, Academy Award winning actor Jack Lemmon, all hidden behind rubber ape masks.

After his seven year marriage to Bette Wilcox ended, he was award custody of their two daughters, due to Bette’s unstable mental health. Bette kidnapped the girls, but after a long search and with the help of girlfriend Edie Adams, he regained custody. Ernie and Edie were married in Mexico in a ceremony performed entirely in Spanish, a language that neither one of the couple spoke.

Ernie and Edie appeared together on the last episode of I Love Lucy. It was the last time Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball appeared together and they barely spoke between takes.

Ernie had brief success in movies, with roles in  Wake Me When It’s Over  and the Richard Quine-directed  Operation Mad Ball and Bell Book and Candle.

In January 1962, Ernie met his wife at a party hosted by Milton Berle. Ernie left in his own car and drove through a heavy southern California rainstorm. While distracted, possibly to light a cigar, Ernie lost control of his car and crashed into a utility pole. He was thrown halfway out of the passenger side of the car and died instantly from head and chest injuries. When Edie learned of the crash, she frantically called the police. When she identified herself, she heard a voice, muffled by a hand over the telephone receiver, say, “It’s Mrs. Kovacs. He’s on his way to the coroner — what should I tell her?” Jack Lemmon identified Ernie’s body at the morgue when Edie was too distraught to do it.

At the time of his death, Ernie was negotiating for the role of Melville Crump in Stanley Kramer’s It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, with Edie playing his wife. Sid Caesar took the part in the finished film.

The Nairobi Trio on The Ernie Kovacs Show:

Tokyo Rose didn’t exist.

The name “Tokyo Rose” was a catch-all  for a collective of women whose voices were heard on Radio Tokyo’s “Zero Hour” broadcasts during World War Two. These were radios shows presented specifically for US servicemen. They featured popular American swing and big-band music and brief comedy and chit-chat mixed with non-political news. The treasonous stigma that became attached to “Tokyo Rose” was pinned, unjustly, on Iva Toguri.

Iva Toguri was born in Los Angeles, California on Independence Day 1916. In her pursuit of a career in medicine, she attended and graduated from UCLA with a degree in zoology. One day after her 22 birthday, Iva sailed from Los Angeles to Japan to further her studies and to care for a sick aunt. She left without a passport and was issued a “Certificate of Identification” by the US State Department. While in Japan, she contacted the US Consul and applied for a passport, but the process was interrupted when Pearl Harbor was attacked later in the year and the US went to war with Japan. Iva, an American citizen now stranded in Japan, remained voluntarily for the duration of the war. She enrolled in Japanese language classes and landed a job as a typist for Radio Tokyo. She was pressured by the Tojo-controlled Japanese government to renounce her American citizenship. She repeatedly refused.

In November 1943, Allied POWs forced to broadcast propaganda selected her to host portions “Zero Hour.” Her producer was an Australian Army officer with previous radio experience. Iva knew some other POWs from the times she smuggled food and blankets into camps. Although she refused to broadcast anti-American propaganda, Iva, using the on-air name “Orphan Ann” (Orphan because of her stranded status and Ann being short for “announcer”), was regularly featured on weekday installments of “Zero Hour”. Scripts for her show never featured any anti-American propaganda. Army analysis suggested that the programs had no negative effect on troop morale and that it might even have raised it a bit. She used some of her $7 per month salary to continue to smuggle food to POWs.

After the war, the several press sources identified Iva as “Tokyo Rose” and the US Army had her arrested. An investigation followed and Iva was released for lack of concrete evidence. Once again, Iva applied for a passport and a campaign, led by broadcaster Walter Winchell, demanded that Iva be considered a traitor be arrested and tried.

Iva appeared before the Department of Justice in what would become the most expensive trial in US history to date. A parade of witnesses offered testimony after perjured testimony, including several who were coached by reporter Harry Brundidge, a zealot of questionable morals. Although Brundidge steered clear of the proceedings, his indelible witch-hunting mark was prevalent throughout. Many of the defense’s witnesses were denied appearances and hundreds of hours of actual recordings of Iva’s broadcasts were never presented. On September 29, 1949, the jury found her guilty on one count of treason. The jury ruled that: “…on a day during October, 1944, the exact date being to the Grand Jurors unknown, said defendant, at Tokyo, Japan, in a broadcasting studio of the Broadcasting Corporation of Japan, did speak into a microphone concerning the loss of ships.”  This verdict was based on several fabricated stories and recorded speeches whose announcer was never identified. Iva was sentenced to ten years imprisonment and fined $10,000.

In January 1956, Iva was released from a federal prison, where she had served a little over six years of her sentence. In 1977, on his last full day in office, President Gerald Ford granted her a full and unconditional pardon. Iva passed away in 2006 at the age of 90.