Leah Chase, the second of thirteen children, helped her family survive the Great Depression by cooking the okra, peas and greens that was grown in the family’s Madisonville, Louisiana garden. Leah and her siblings wore clothes made from rice and flour sacks, while he father worked his meager job at the Jahncke Shipyard. Wishing the …
Sue Bernard was the free-spirit daughter of a free-spirit father. Her father, Bruno Bernard, later known as “Bernard of Hollywood,” fled Nazi Germany in 1937, telling Germany authorities he was pursuing a graduate degree in the United States. He left the country with few possessions, but held on to his treasured Rolleiflex camera. In the …
In the early 1950s, years before the world became aware of Bob Dylan or Joni Mitchell, Connie Converse wrote and performed songs for her friends at parties around the blossoming “bohemian” scene of Greenwich Village. Her delicate, poetic lyrics, her plaintive voice and her simple acoustic guitar accompaniment gave birth to the “singer-songwriter” genre before …
Established in 1986, the LA Marathon is one of the largest and well-attended running events in the country. The course, which starts at Dodger Stadium and ends on Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica 26 miles away, welcomes more than 25,000 participants. One of the participants in the 2019 LA Marathon was Frank Meza, a 70 …
Arte Johnson was in a lot. Sure, you remember him peeking through the ferns at the end of Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, offering a corny pun in an affected German accent. Or as the doddering old Tyrone, attempting to make a move on the uptight Gladys Ormphby, as played by Ruth Buzzi, only to get …
Denise Nickerson was best remembered for her iconic role as “Violet Beauregard,” the gum-snapping daughter of a pushy used car salesman in the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Fresh from her multi-character casting on the Gothic soap opera Dark Shadows, Denise’s popularity was given a huge boost as a result of her appearance …
“Benjamin Franklin may have discovered electricity, but it was the man who invented the meter who made the money.” — Earl Wilson Earl Wilson struggled for years as a writer. In 1942, he received an offer to take over a the column of a colleague who was going off to war. He was employed by …
“Come Get It, Get It, Come, Come / Walk on guilded splinters Come Get It, Get It, Come, Come / Walk on guilded splinters” Dr. John explained that the song “Walk On Guilded Splinters” was based on a traditional voodoo church song. He said, “It’s supposed to be ‘Splendors’, but I turned it into ‘Splinters’… …
This is it, Elizabeth! The big one! I’m comin’ t’ join ya, honey!
In 1953, President Dwight Eisenhower issued Executive Order 10450, establishing who could receive a federal security clearance. The order named security risks as Communists, subversives, drunks and drug users, and “sexual perverts.” As far as this order was concerned “sexual perverts,” meant homosexuals. Frank Kameny was employed as an astronomer for the US Army’s cartography …
