This week’s Illustration Friday challenge word is “suspense”. Alfred Hitchcock – Hollywood’s master of suspense. He was a technical innovator, a masterful storyteller and a visionary director. In his career, that spanned six decades, he never won an Oscar (aside from an honorary and conciliatory lifetime achievement award).
Alexa Kenin began acting as a child, landing her first role opposite Academy Award-winning actor Jason Robards in the 1972 TV movie The House Without a Christmas Tree. She appeared in several more TV productions, including five Afterschool Specials. The 80s brought Alexa her big-screen debut in the Tatum O’Neal-Kristy MacNichol teen camp film Little …
Teenage aspiring dancer Beryl Heischuber answered a casting call ad and landed a role in the 1928 production of Vanities at the Earl Carroll Broadway theatre. Using the more accessible (and more pronounceable) name “Wallace”, Beryl appeared amid dozens of other young dancers billed under the umbrella title “the most beautiful girls in the world”. …
For as long as he could remember, Tommy Lasorda, the longest tenured employee with the Dodgers organization, including twenty years as team manager, loved baseball. Growing up in a poor family in Norristown, Pennsylvania, Tommy could never afford to attend to a real Major League baseball game. When he was fifteen, Tommy joined his high …
Tom Forman was a prolific “triple threat” in the early days of Hollywood. He was an actor in over 50 films beginning in 1913. He wrote seven screenplays and he was a sought-after director, calling the shots on over twenty-seven films. He directed top stars of the day including Lon Chaney and Mary Astor. In …
This week’s Illustration Friday word is “prepare.” “Artie is a singer, and I’m a writer and a player and a singer. We didn’t work together on a creative level and prepare the songs. I did that.” Paul Simon I understand the popularity of Simon and Garfunkel. I am aware of Paul Simon’s songwriting ability …
It was through his piano-playing stepsister that Leon “Chu” Berry was introduced to music at a young age. He stuck with it, playing alto saxophone through high school. He later switched to tenor sax after hearing jazz virtuoso Coleman Hawkins. (Although cited as an influence, Coleman Hawkins considered Chu an equal). Chu began his professional career …
Over thirty years, Sammee Tong appeared in over seventy movies and television shows as houseboys, cooks, waiters and any number if stereotypical roles that Hollywood offered Chinese-American actors. Sammee worked regularly in Westerns and in the “Charlie Chan” and “Mr. Moto” detective series. He even tried his hand at comedy as a laundry owner in …
In 1939, Shirley Temple lost the part of Dorothy in MGM’s The Wizard of Oz. Although she was the foremost child star of the day, her singing was no match for the vocal talents of Judy Garland. In an attempt at consolation, her contracted studio, Twentieth Century Fox, gave Shirley the lead in The Blue …
This week’s Illustration Friday challenge word is “grounded”. Benjamin Franklin’s experiments with electricity were all failures until he got the kite properly grounded.
