Andy Kaufman took the whole world for a ride. From his beginnings as a stand-up comic, Andy marched to his own beat. When he performed a short bit on the premiere episode of NBC’s Saturday Night Live, no one knew what to make of him… and that’s just what Andy wanted. After an introduction by …
The current Illustration Friday challenge word is “kernel”. “Every once in a while, someone will mail me a single popcorn kernel that didn’t pop. I’ll get out a fresh kernel, tape it to a piece of paper and mail it back to them.” Orville Redenbacher In 1951, 44-year old Orville Redenbacher and his partner …
Nineteen-year-old Pamela Courson met Jim Morrison in a club on Sunset Boulevard in 1965. They remained a couple for six years, when Pamela found Jim dead in their Paris apartment’s bathtub. After Jim’s death, Pamela returned to Los Angeles and shunned all publicity, essentially becoming a recluse. She became a heavy heroin user and allegedly …
After brief nursing training, Alexandra Denny — “Sandy” to her friends — went against her parents’ strict wishes and took a shot at a singing career. She made regular appearances at clubs in south London. Her popularity increased by word of mouth and soon Sandy joined up with British folk group The Strawbs. American folk …
This week’s Illustration Friday word is “hitched”. “Life has got a habit of not standing hitched. You got to ride it like you find it. You got to change with it. If a day goes by that don’t change some of your old notions for new ones, that is just about like trying to milk …
Based on his excellence in high school, Kevin Peter Hall was awarded a basketball scholarship to George Washington University. At 7′ 2″, Kevin dominated the game, but despite his athletic prowess, he decided his major would be theatrical arts. After abandoning a brief basketball career in Venezuela, Kevin landed his first role in the 1979 …
Seventeen-year old Germaine Hélène Irène Lefebvre was riding in a carriage in Paris when she was spotted by a fashion photographer. With a little encouragement, she used that chance meeting to kick off a career as a model for the likes of Givenchy and Christian Dior. She changed her name to the mysterious Capucine (French …
In 1963, The State Mutual Life Assurance Company of Worcester, Massachusetts purchased Guarantee Mutual Company of Ohio. As a result of the takeover, employee morale plummeted. Freelance artist Harvey Ross Ball was hired to create something as a confidence builder for distribution among the distraught employees. Harvey’s creation would be plastered everywhere — cards, posters …
Thelma Todd, Hollywood’s “Ice Cream Blond”, was most famous for the comedy short subjects she made for producer Hal Roach starring opposite Laurel and Hardy. She appeared with the Marx Brothers in their classic Monkey Business and Horse Feathers. One of Hollywood’s original “party girls,” Thelma was in a tumultuous marriage with gangster Pat DiCicco. Many nights with …
Walter Slezak was working as a bank teller in his native Austria when he was talked into a role in the 1922 silent biblical epic Sodom and Gomorrah by his friend, director Michael Curtiz. Walter was one of over 14,000 performers in the film, which was the largest and most expensive production in Austrian film …
