Larry and Roger Troutman had no idea how influential their band would be. They just wanted to play the funk. Roger made a deal with his childhood friend, bassist Bootsy Collins. They vowed that whoever became more famous would help the other achieve the same level of fame. In 1978, Roger founded Zapp with his …
In 1964, Barbara Colby gave a well-received performance in Six Characters in Search of an Author. This led to Broadway, where she made her debut the following year in The Devils with co-stars Anne Bancroft, Jason Robards, James Coco and Albert Dekker. She garnered positive reviews for her roles in numerous plays throughout the remainder …
Bobby Buntrock got his first taste of acting on an episode of Wagon Train at the age of seven. He landed the part of little Harold Baxter on the sitcom Hazel with Oscar winner Shirley Booth as the problem-solving maid for George and Dorothy Baxter as played by Don DeFore and Whitney Blake (Meredith Baxter’s mother). …
This week’s Illustration Friday challenge word is “remedy”. “There is a remedy for everything. It is called death” — Portuguese proverb In the nearly five year existence of this blog, I have related over two hundred stories of death. I have also chronicled numerous excursions to cemeteries – one of my favorite hobbies. I guess the Portuguese are on to …
Ernie Roth entered show business as a disc jockey in the early 1960s. Soon, he became involved with professional wrestling and began managing in the Detroit are using several different stage names, including “Mr. Clean” and “J. Wellington Radcliffe”. He represented Michigan native Edward Farhat, who wrestled under the guise of a rich but crazed …
At 16 years old, Larry Fischer was institutionalized for attacking his mother with a knife. He was diagnosed with severe paranoid schizophrenia and manic depression (now known as bipolar disorder). After his release from a mental hospital in his late teens, Larry lived on the streets of Los Angeles. He became a street performer serenading …
In 1939, retailer Montgomery Ward was looking for a gimmick to drum up business for the upcoming Christmas holiday. In the past, they had distributed free coloring books to children and decided to produce a book of their own to save money. They assigned in-house copywriter Robert May to come up with an appealing holiday …
After his 1917 discharge from military service, West Virginia-born Harry R. Truman moved to Riffe, Washington. In 1926, he became the caretaker of a lodge on the shore of Spirit Lake. The lodge was a popular spot for hunters and fishing enthusiasts looking for rustic accommodations in a remote wooded area. Harry was a cantankerous character who took in …
Gus Dudgeon worked his way from tea boy to sound engineer at Decca Records in the middle 1960s, where he worked on The Zombies hit “She’s Not There” and John Mayall’s Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton. By the end of the 60s, he produced albums by Ten Years After, The Bonzo Dog Band and a …
Dick Shawn was a difficult performer to peg. He was an film actor, a stand-up comic, a singer, a voice actor and a stage actor. And he did them all well. But he never achieved the fame for his performances that he really deserved. He actually became more famous for the circumstances surrounding his death. Born Richard …
