While appearing in a high school production, young Thalia Dickerson was spotted by a talent scout from Warner Brothers Studios. She was signed to a contract and made her debut with the stage name “Gloria Dickson” in 1937’s They Won’t Forget, a fictionalized account of the events surrounding the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan. The film …
Twelve-year old Patsy Kelly made her show business debut as a vaudeville dancer. She eventually moved on to Broadway as a teenager until she landed a contract with producer Hal Roach. Young Patsy appeared in a series of popular shorts with Thelma Todd. Here, she honed her character of the wise-cracking sidekick. Patsy and Thelma …
Aunt Bee is just gonna have to come to the realization that she will never top Clara for “Best Pickles” at the county fair.
In 1842, master showman P.T. Barum leased a curiosity from Moses Kimball, a Boston contemporary. Barnum had big plans for the piece – the Fiji Mermaid. He wrote letters to newspapers, fabricating a story of the mermaid’s exotic past. He had an associate pose as “Dr. Griffith,” a so-called noted expert on … whatever. The …
If we didn’t have villains, how would we know which ones are the good guys?
Jerry Lewis, the son of a popular vaudeville entertainer, is one of the last living connections to the Golden Age of Hollywood. In 1945, he was performing at a club in New York City. He met a young singer named Dean Martin who was also scheduled on the bill. The pair decided to team up …
Edwin Geist taught and composed music and served as occasional conductor in his native Berlin in the early 1930s. However, when Nazi Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels founded the Reichsmusikkammer (The Reich Chamber of Music), Edwin’s music was declared “degenerate,” along with compositions by Debussy, Stravinsky, Mendelssohn, even Artie Shaw and Bennie Goodman. Banned from …
Anne Frank received a journal as a present for her thirteenth birthday. Nearly a month later, she was hiding from the Nazis in a secret annex with her family. She remained in seclusion for a little over two years until someone, who still remains officially unidentified, exposed the family to Nazi officials. Three days after …
Follow! But! Follow only if ye be men of valor! For the entrance to this cave is guarded by a creature so foul, so cruel, that no man yet has fought with it… and lived! Bones of full fifty men lie strewn about its lair! So! Brave knights! If you do doubt your courage or …
“As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.” — Andrew Carnegie In 1889, self-made millionaire Andrew Carnegie wrote an article called “The Gospel of Wealth,” in which he described the responsibility of the country’s wealthy upper class to share and distribute their surplus funds to …
