I was always a big fan of George Carlin, the original purveyor of counterculture, hippie humor. I remember watching him on The Tonight Show, always amused by the hearty laughs he coaxed out of host Johnny Carson. I remember hearing a George Carlin comedy album at a friend’s house and rolling on the floor in hysterics at …
This week’s Illustration Friday challenge word is “secret”. “Bachelor number one is a successful photographer who got his start when his father found him in the darkroom at the age of 13, fully developed. Between takes you might find him skydiving or motorcycling.” Host Jim Lange’s introduction of Rodney Alcala on The Dating Game, …
By the late 1920s, Helen Chandler was a huge star on Broadway. Her credits numbered twenty plays ranging from broad farce to Shakespeare. As the 30s approached, she hoped her popularity would continued as she headed for Hollywood. Helen had roles in a few pictures including the film version of her popular stage production Outward Bound, about passengers …
The 1950s were Martine Carol’s time to shine. The seductive blond bombshell was a top box office draw in French cinema. She starred in 15 films and was regularly compared to Marilyn Monroe. She was married to Stephen Crane, fresh from his divorce of Lana Turner (and father of Cheryl Crane, who was accused of …
Roger Peterson was born and raised in Alta, Iowa, and earned his private pilot’s license in 1954, just after graduating from high school. Four years later, he got his commercial pilot’s certificate and was quickly hired by Dwyer’s Flying Service in Mason City, Iowa. Mason City was just a short drive from where Roger and …
The new Illustration Friday challenge word is “shiny”. It was summer in Philadelphia in the early 1980s. I was scooping ice cream on South Street to help pay my tuition for art school. Bubblegum pop radio station WIFI had just shaken up their format, re-emerging as “I92 – Rock of the 80s”. As disco was …
From her first part on the early 60s ABC soap opera The Young Marrieds, Brenda Benet became an in-demand character actress. She played roles in both top prime-time comedies and dramas in the 1960s and 70s, appearing in Mannix, Love American Style, I Dream of Jeannie, Hogan’s Heroes and many others. She even landed a part …
In 1941, Merriman Smith became the White House correspondent for United Press International (UPI), a position he held until the Nixon administration. He began the tradition of closing his presidential conferences with “Thank you, Mr. President,” a practice still used by current correspondents. On November 22, 1963, Merriman Smith sat with several other reporters in …
This week’s Illustration Friday suggestion for inspiration is the word “faded”. “Before the flowers of friendship faded friendship faded.” Gertrude Stein, 1931 In 1907, Gertrude Stein met Alice B. Toklas at the apartment of Gertrude’s brother Michael. Soon after, Gertrude and Alice became companions and lovers until Gertrude’s death in 1946. Gertrude wrote Q.E.D. …
This week’s Illustration Friday word is “sight”. The assassination of President Kennedy was a traumatic event for the generation before mine. Everyone knew where they were, what they were doing and who they were with when they heard the terrible news that the president was shot In a Dallas motorcade. It was something they would never forget. …
