DCS: sheila ryan

A 1940 newspaper article called Sheila Ryan “an actress whose alluring curves alone might have disqualified them from screen careers not so long ago.” The petite, dark-haired beauty made 60 films during her thirty-year career. She innocently auditioned for a small role in a locally-produced show for LA station KCBS. She got the role immediately. Sheila went on …

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DCS: debbie stone

Debbie Stone’s celebrity status is of an unfortunate nature. The 18 year-old Santa Ana High School graduate holds the distinction of being the first Disneyland cast member killed while working in the theme park. At the end of the summer of 1973, The Carousel of Progress, Disney’s innovative and entertaining chronology of technological advancement was packed up …

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DCS: pete duel

Pete Duel landed a role in the touring company of the play Take Her, She’s Mine. Hoping to use the part as a springboard for film roles, Pete’s mother drove him across the country to Hollywood, sometimes sleeping in a tent along the way. The good-looking 25 year-old found work in bit parts on episodic television in …

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DCS: patty duke

I met Patty Duke in 2011. I was at the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention in Cockeysville, Maryland, seventeen miles north of Baltimore. (That’s right… Cockeysville!) She was sitting behind a table filled with glossy black and white and color photographs that chronicled her long and illustrious career. I waited patiently as she engaged each and every …

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