Twelve-year old Millie Small won the Vere Johns (the Jamaican Ted Mack) talent contest in her native Jamaica. She recorded a few songs that became hits on Jamaican radio. These songs made their way to Chris Blackwell, noted hitmaker and founder of Island Records, one of England’s biggest independent labels. Blackwell brought Millie to London …
Casey Jones, a respected engineer with the Memphis-based Illinois Central Railroad, was a risk taker. His trains were often on-schedule, though his methods to keep that schedule were questionable. A number of citations for various rules infractions were issued to Casey and he totaled suspensions for well over one hundred days, but none of those …
Melville See Jr. graduated from Princeton University and headed to University of Arizona to take graduate courses in anthropology. In June 1962, he married photographer and fellow student Linda Eastman, an art major whose mother was killed in a plane crash just a few months earlier. By the end of the year, the couple became …
22-year old Lena Nyman played 22-year old “Lena Nyman” in the controversial 1966 film I Am Curious (Yellow), as well as its companion piece I Am Curious (Blue). The film was held up by US Customs while an investigation was conducted to determine if it was to be classified as “pornography” under the current strict …
Catherine Hukill expressed an interest in acting as a teenager in her native Chicago. She performed a song-and-dance act with her cousin in several local productions. In the middle 1920s, she teamed up with Frank Faylen and toured the vaudeville circuit as “Faylen and Hughes,” where she played the role of the “dumb girl” to …
I’ve done several illustrations over the years for the word “blue” and they’ve taken varied forms. There’s this one of Pablo Picasso that I did back in 2007. In 2018, I did this abstract composition. For this week’s Inktober 52, I went the abstract route again, but more of a minimalist take.
Duncan Hines worked tirelessly, criss-crossing the country selling letter openers and paper clips, as well as printing services for a Chicago based company. His sales routes took him all over, forcing stays in hotels and meals in one restaurant after another. In 1920s America, there were very few (if any) chain restaurants, so Duncan frequented …
I first became familiar with Red Skelton when I was a kid. My family, like most families across the country, watched Red Skelton’s variety show every Tuesday night. I didn’t know who Red Skelton was or why he had such an unusual first name, but my parents watched, therefore I watched it too. Red had …
Upon his discharge from the US Navy after World War II, Herk Harvey took a teaching position in the drama department at the University of Kansas. He decided against a career in chemical engineering, the trade he mastered in the service, opting to use the directorial experience he gained before the war. Herk did some …
Moe Greene may have “made his bones when you were going out with cheerleaders,” but he has no idea of the fate that awaits him.
