For 28 years, Max Manning taught sixth grade in Pleasantville, New Jersey before retiring in 1983. In those years, how many students knew anything about their teacher’s past? Max was born in Georgia and grew up in South Jersey, just outside of Atlantic City. He was a stellar athlete on his high school’s baseball team. …
This week’s Illustration Friday challenge word is “capable”. The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems. Mohandas Gandhi Mohandas Gandhi began a law practice in South Africa in the late 1800s, after several failed attempts at establishing a practice in his …
Jill Banner was born Mary Molumby near Puget Sound in Washington. Her widowed mother moved around the country when Jill was a child until the family finally settled in Glendale, California. Jill attended Hollywood Professional School with classmates Peggy Lipton (of TV’s Mod Squad and future mother of actress Rashida Jones), Carl Wilson (of the Beach Boys) …
This week’s Illustration Friday challenge word is “fluid”. No matter what anyone says, Andres Serrano is an artist in every sense of the word (or at least by Andy Warhol‘s definition). Like Ansel Adams, his medium of choice is photography and he photographs ordinary subjects in an artful fashion. Unlike Adams, Serrano finds beauty in …
After bouncing between the minor leagues and the bigs, Bo Díaz was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies in the ’81 off-season. With the departure of All-Star catcher Bob Boone, Bo became the Phillies starting backstop. His game-calling skills helped Phils ace Steve Carlton become the league’s only twenty game winner in 1982. Bo finished the …
Senior U.S. microbiologist Frank Olson was a scientist at a lab in Fort Detrick, Maryland. Here, Frank worked for the CIA researching and conducting experiments with assassination techniques, biological warfare, terminal interrogations, and LSD mind-control. He was aware of highly-confidential information and he was uncomfortable with that knowledge. On Monday, November 23, 1953, Frank told …
Even as a youngster, Jesse Belvin was interested in music. He joined several bands as a vocalist early in the 1950s. Even an brief stint in the army didn’t hinder Jesse’s songwriting. His composition “Earth Angel” was a hit for The Penguins in 1955 and became one of the first songs to successfully make the …
The new Illustration Friday suggestion for inspiration is “popularity”. “Popularity, I have always thought, may aptly be compared to a coquette – the more you woo her, the more apt is she to elude your embrace.” — John Tyler, Tenth President of the United States John Tyler knew of what he spoke, as popularity certainly …
For eleven years, Rusty Hamer traded barbs with showbiz heavyweight Danny Thomas on the popular sitcom Make Room For Daddy. Most often, Rusty got bigger laughs than his veteran co-star. For a kid, his comedic timing was impeccable and rivaled that of actors with many times his experience. Shooting had to be halted quite often …
Twenty-three year-old Debbie Boostrom auditioned, alongside hundreds of anxious and hopeful young ladies, to become the coveted 25th Anniversary Playboy Playmate. Debbie was unsuccessful, but a little over a year later, she was presented in the magazine as Miss August 1981. In the following months, she appeared in several Playboy videos and participated in some of Hugh Hefner’s …
