Robert Chesebrough began his career as a chemist refining and clarifying sperm whale oil. With the development of coal oil and when petroleum was discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania, Robert’s job suddenly became obsolete. Robert packed his bags for Titusville to see if he could use the new material for something else. He spoke with some of the workers in the drilling field and was introduced to a substance known as “rod wax.” The workers explained that “rod wax” was a jelly-like substance that built up on the pumping equipment. The substance was a nuisance for the workers, as it had to be cleaned off regularly, thus slowing down production. Although the workers complained about “rod wax,” the did say that if someone suffered a cut or burn on the job, an liberal application of “rod wax” seemed to lessen the pain and speed up the healing process. Robert was intrigued.

Robert began collecting the unwanted “rod wax” in jars. In June 1872, Robert was awarded patent number US127568A for the process of manufacturing “rod wax,” which he renamed “petroleum jelly.” Robert began selling the product under the name “Vaseline.”

With firm beliefs in his product, Robert founded the Chesebrough Manufacturing Company and began demonstrating his Vaseline all over the East coast. Before a bewildered crowd, Robert would burn his skin with a flame (or sometimes acid) and quickly cover the fresh wound with a layer of Vaseline. Crowds were amazed and Vaseline was selling over 1400 jars per day. Stores that stocked the product couldn’t keep it on the shelves. Robert often gave out free samples of Vaseline, one of the first times the practice was employed to sell and promote a product.

Robert claimed that he ate a spoonful of Vaseline everyday. He contracted a case of pleurisy (an inflammation of the lungs similar to pneumonia) in his 90s and had his nurse cover him from head to toe in Vaseline. He recovered.

Robert passed away in 1933 at the age of 96. He stood by the magical healing properties of Vaseline his entire life.

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Arthur Anderson began his career as a child. He portrayed “Buddy” on the NBC radio serial Tony and Gus. In 1936, he began his long association with the children’s radio show Let’s Pretend.

As a teenager, Arthur met and began to work with fledgling impresario Orson Welles. He appeared with Welles’ Mercury Theater and took roles in several of Welles’ Broadway productions, including Treasure Island, Julius Caesar and Sherlock Holmes.

He continued his career with small roles in films and television. In 1963, he landed the role for which he is best known. Arthur was recruited as the voice of the wily leprechaun mascot for commercials for General Mills’ Lucky Charms cereal. He voiced the character for 29 years. Later, he took over the voice role of “Eustace Bagge” in the cartoon series Courage the Cowardly Dog, after the original actor passed away.

In 2008, Arthur took exception to a character in the film Me and Orson Welles. The character “Richard Samuels” was shown in a romantic rivalry with Orson Welles over a young woman. The film depicted Welles exercising his authority and firing the young actor. Arthur surmised that “Richard Samuels” was based on him. He went on to counter that Orson Welles never fired anyone and he was never involved in a battle for a woman’s affections with the producer/director. He said that Orson Welles was a wonderful colleague and mentor and his time working with the multi-talented performer was very enjoyable.

In 2004, Arthur wrote and published a book chronicling the history of the Let’s Pretend series. He became very active in “Friends of Old Time Radio,” a group that recreated broadcasts using the original scripts and was a regular participant in their conventions. Arthur was active with the group until his death in 2016 at the age of 93.

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June is Pride Month.

James Bidgood was an aspiring filmmaker and an early performance artist. Under the guise of “Les Folies des Hommes,” James produced films and photographic series of a homoerotic nature.

From 1963 until 1970, James filmed scenes in his Manhattan apartment for what would become Pink Narcissus. James wrote the script and built all of the sets himself. The film, celebrated within New York City’s gay community, was released under James’s pseudonym, leading viewers to speculate that it was the work of Andy Warhol.

James also staged photoshoots using his meager resources, which he transformed into lush and colorful backdrops and settings. His photos, featuring a combination of camp and erotica, were recognized by noted art book publisher Taschen, who released a retrospect of James’s work in 1999. James was also a contributor to Out Magazine and a collaborator with fashion designer Christian Louboutin.

James contracted COVID-19 in the early part of 2022 and passed away from complications at the age of 88.

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June is Pride Month.

A respected columnist for the Los Angeles Times and a regular contributor to The Advocate, The Village Voice and Salon, Norah Vincent created her most ambitious work in 2006.

Norah chronicled her eighteen-month “experiment” of living as a man in her book Self-Made Man. Using the name “Ned,” Norah joined an all-male bowling club, joined a men’s therapy group, went to a strip club, dated women, and used her knowledge as a lapsed Catholic to visit monks in a monastery. She compared her experience to that of John Howard Griffin’s 1961 account of living as an African-American in his book Black Like Me.

Norah revealed that, for the first time in her life, she was viewed as “feminine” while she posed as a man. She explained that she was assumed to be gay by her colleagues, something she found amusing and intriguing.

Norah’s next project was 2008’s Voluntary Madness, in which she recounted her time in three different institutions for the mentally ill. And later, Norah wrote two novels — a comedic thriller and a work of historical fiction featuring Virginia Woolf as the main character.

Norah lived with depression her entire life. She died by assisted suicide in Switzerland in 2022. She was 53.

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June is Pride Month.

Thierry Mugler launched his eponymous fashion house in the early 1970s. He gained attention for his avant-garde, often theatrical, designs. Thierry was groundbreaking in his insistence of diversity in his runway shows, featuring drag queens, porn stars, and transgender women as models. Thierry created signature looks for a number of celebrities, including Michael Jackson, Madonna, Duran Duran, Grace Jones, David Bowie and Diana Ross, to name just a few. He also directed and designed outfits for George Michael’s “Too Funky” video.

In the early 2000s, Thierry left the fashion world, focusing his attention of directing live performance like Cirque du Soleil shows and concert tours. He also re-entered the designer fragrance market after great success in the 90s with his Angel perfume.

Later in life, he became reclusive and devoted most of his time to his life-long passion of bodybuilding.

Thierry passed away in January 2022 of natural causes at the age of 73.

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