After finishing school, Michael Wilding got a job in the art department of a London film studio. Despite his ability as an artist, he was recruited and groomed by the studio to be a movie star. With his dashing good looks and relaxed demeanor, he launched what would become a three-decade career in 1933. He …
In 1947, twenty-year old Virginia-born Peggie Blair was eating at a Beverly Hills restaurant when her striking good looks caught the attention of a talent scout. She began her whirlwind career in Hollywood, using the stage name “Peggie Castle” and started off appearing in a slew of uncredited roles. Peggie was perpetually cast as b-girls, gun molls …
The Illustration Friday challenge word this week is “swell”. “Gee, Dad, as far as fathers go… you’re swell!” Even as Dennis Mitchell was wreaking havoc in Mr. Wilson‘s petunia bed (no, that’s not a euphemism), he loved his dad. And what was not to love? Herbert Anderson was born in Oakland, California in 1917. At …
Nafisa Joseph was born in the southern India city of Bangalore. With the help of a neighbor, Nafisa began a modeling career at the age of twelve. Her beauty caught the eye of Indian fashion designer Prasad Bidapa. With Bidapa’s direction and assistance, she entered the Miss India Universe pageant in 1997 and at nineteen …
The Illustration Friday challenge word this week is “imperfect”. In November 1960, CBS broadcast an episode of the science-fiction anthology series Twilight Zone called “Eye of the Beholder” (renamed “A Private World of Darkness” in subsequent rebroadcasts). It was a morality tale that forced viewers to reassess their concept of “perfect” and “imperfect”. The episode involves …
Marion Martin was born in Philadelphia and grew up going to private schools and living an entitled Main Line life of as the daughter of a Bethlehem Steel executive. In 1929, her family’s fortune was wiped out in the stock market crash. Twenty year-old Marion pursued a career in show business to help her family’s financial …
This week’s Illustration Friday challenge word is “obsession”. Regular readers of my blog (all four of you) are already familiar with my obsession the one aside from drawing. I love old movies, Hollywood scandals, obscure actors and actresses and stories of untimely demise. So, how do I satisfy all of those interests at one shot? I visit cemeteries, …
Charles McGraw made a career as a B-move leading man. With his hulking build, gravelly voice and craggy looks, he starred as countless military men and law enforcement officers, and the occasional gangster, in over 140 movies and television shows from the early 40s until the mid-70s. Although mostly cast in film noir, he played …
In the long-ago days when a band called Led Zeppelin still existed, when the mention of The Rolling Stones entering a recording studio did not evoke an exasperated “eye roll” and Cat Stevens was singing about the joys of moonshadows instead of Jihad, a local stop on your favorite band’s concert tour came with the perennial regularity of Daylight Savings Time, the …
This week’s Illustration Friday‘s challnege word is “gesture”. If you want a symbolic gesture, don’t burn the flag; wash it. Norman Thomas Norman Thomas was a noted pacifist, war critic, conscientious objector, co-founder of the National Civil Liberties Bureau (the precursor to the ACLU) and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America. …
