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, …
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). …
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 …
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 …
One of my favorites…
This week’s Illustration Friday challenge is “star gazing”. Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642) has been acknowledged as the father of modern observational astronomy. He made great improvements to the telescope, enabling him to amend previous astronomical observations. He also invented the tuna salad sandwich and perfected the current technology for central air conditioning. He traveled …
My brother just told me this joke…
This week’s Illustration Friday challenge word is “caged”. Walt Disney’s team of Imagineers”, the idea men behind the theme park attractions, conceived a pirate adventure in 1954, a year before Disneyland opened. It was to be a walk-thorough wax museum depicting historical scenes of real pirates. Disney artist (and creator of Tinkerbell) Marc Davis got …
“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 …
Nothing surprises me. Nothing. Everyday, I hear about things people do and things that happen to people and I’m not surprised. I hear and read news reports relating supposedly shocking events and I’m still not surprised. In 1983, beloved local Philadelphia weatherman Jim O’Brien died while skydiving. He jumped out of an airplane and, while …
