Eddie Van Halen received a phone call in 1982 from someone named “Quincy.” He didn’t know anyone named “Quincy.” “Is this Eddie?,” the voice on the phone asked. “Who the hell is this?,” a very suspicious Eddie replied. “Quincy. Quincy Jones, man.” Eddie Van Halen gulped and smiled to himself. “Oh! I’m sorry.” The famed …
Tall, lanky George Mann played center on the Venice Union Polytechnic High High School basketball team. He also served as vice president of the school’s drama club… and that was his true calling. He starred in a production of the farce What Happened to Jones?, along with classmate, future actress (and future mother of singer …
What if Hollywood discovered Roald Dahl in the 1940s?
At eighteen, pretty blond Nita Pike made her acting debut in the “Goldwyn Girls” chorus of the 1931 Eddie Cantor musical romp Palmy Days. This kicked off a succession of non-credited roles that ran throughout the 1930s and 1940s. In 1940, film comic and impresario Charles Chaplin cast Nita in the role of a secretary …
Katalin Karády was a pretty big star in her native Hungary, with a career that mirrored her Hollywood counterparts of the time. She gained the persona of “diva” and “sex symbol” after her 1939 debut in the film Halálos Tavasz (“Deadly Spring”). Katalin was also a popular vocalist. Her songs were heard frequently on Hungarian …
Seventeen-year old Marvel Rea joined up with the Keystone Film Company, landing a spot among the famed Sennett Bathing Beauties, a celebrated group of young ladies assembled by producer Mack Sennett. The Bathing Beauties made promotional appearances for the movie studio and were well received where ever they went. Marvel made her film debut in …
One day, a New York City couple dropped several of their ten children off at an orphanage and left… never to be seen by their abandoned children again. One of those kids was Edith Massey. Edith wound up in a foster home, where she endured cruel treatment. She put up with it as long as …
After a stint in the United States Marine Corps, Don Cornelius tried his hand at a number of different jobs. He sold tires, then cars and finally insurance. He even joined the Chicago Police. But, the thirty-year old husband and father of two took a chance on a three-month broadcasting course. Upon completion, he landed …
The Supremes were a hit-making powerhouse. In 1967, riding high on a succession of twelve Top Ten singles — 10 of which hit Number One — the trio released their first foray into the fledging genre of “psychedelia.” Smack in the middle of the so-called “Summer of Love,” Motown Records issued “Reflections” with an arrangement …
Heather Angel is one of those actors that I discovered late in their career. I knew Heather from her recurring role in the 1960s sitcom Family Affair. She played the very proper “Miss Faversham,” a nanny who cares for the children of one of Bill Davis’ (Brian Keith) neighbors in the high-rise Manhattan apartment building. …
