Rugged, good-looking Eric Fleming began his acting career in low-budget features like Curse of the Undead and Queen of Outer Space opposite Zsa Zsa Gabor (yes, she was actually in movies). In 1958, the 6-foot 3-inch Eric was cast in Rawhide, a TV Western that joined the ranks and popularity of Gunsmoke, Bonanza and others …
Sixty-five years before Anna Nicole Smith set her sights on oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall, there was Peaches. Wealthy New York real estate mogul Edward Browning just couldn’t pick women. At 41, Edward married Adele Lowen, a young lady 18 years his junior. Edward showered his new bride with gifts and jewels and furs and …
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Chico Ruiz had an unremarkable career. He hit two home runs in his rookie season and never hit another. He played eight seasons in the majors with a lifetime batting average of .240. About average. But, on September 21, 1964, Chico Ruiz became the bane of every baseball fan in Philadelphia. In a scoreless game …
Beverly Neill was working as a telephone operator when she began to take some small roles in a few MGM productions. Using the stage name “Amanda Blake” , she appeared with Judy Garland and James Mason in the first remake of A Star is Born in 1954. The following year, she signed on for the …
Vicki Morgan wanted everything – money, sex, drugs, fame – and for the most part, she got it. Born in Colorado, the sixteen-year old willowy beauty was sent to a Catholic maternity home for girls in Los Angeles to hide her family’s shame over her unwanted pregnancy. At seventeen, she married Earle Lamm, thirty years …
This week’s Illustration Friday challenge word is “mesmerizing”. In his doctoral dissertation of 1766, De influxu planetarum in corpus humanum [“The Influence of the Planets upon the Human Body”], physician Franz Mesmer theorized that a natural energy force exists and flows continuously over the body. He publicized his belief that this energy was influenced by the …
While studying criminal law at the Sorbonne in her native Paris, Corinne Calvet dabbled in acting on French radio dramas and on the stage. She appeared in a few French-produced films until noted producer Hal Wallis brought her to Hollywood and cast her in Rope of Sand opposite Burt Lancaster in 1949. She went on …
Bud Jamison has the dubious distinction of delivering the first “eye poke” in a Three Stooges short. It was in 1934’s Woman Haters and he applied the move to Moe, Larry and Curly in succession. Bud also recited his lines in that short in verse. He went on to be a staple supporting player in hundreds of …
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The Illustration Friday word of inspiration this week in “influence”. “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.” The man who said that began his celebrated literary career as a printer, then on to the unlikely path of master riverboat pilot on the Mississippi. After a short and failed attempt …
Marie McDonald, daughter of a Ziegfeld girl, began modeling as a teenager. Her aspirations took her to Hollywood where she danced at nightclubs and sang with big bands, including a brief stint with Tommy Dorsey. She was soon signed to a contract with Universal Pictures and got her first credited role in Abbott & Costello’s …
