In 1955, Charlaine Karalus was working hard in the subscription department of Playboy magazine, the fledgling publication started by Hugh Hefner, a former copy editor for Esquire magazine. For the first year of its existence, Playboy used professional models in the magazine’s famous pictorials. But Hefner want to portray a different type of woman. He …
Eddie Mekka was more than “Carmine Ragusa,” the singing-dancing, on-again-off-again tough guy boyfriend of Shotz Beer bottle capper “Shirley Feeney” in the 1970s sitcom Laverne & Shirley. Before landing the part of “The Big Ragu,” Eddie performed on Broadway in the rock opera The Lieutenant, a role that earned him a Tony Award nomination. Post-Laverne …
Olga Baclanova apprenticed at the Moscow Art Theatre but was soon appearing in films in the Russian cinema. In 1925, as part of a touring company from the Moscow Art Theatre, Olga came to New York City. She defected during the tour and caught the sight of film producers during a performance in Los Angeles. …
Alice White worked as a script girl and secretary for noted Academy Award-nominated director Josef von Sternberg. She also served as a switchboard operator at the Hollywood Writers’ Club. After a disagreement with von Sternberg, she went to work for Charles Chaplin. Alice was often compared to actress Clara Bow. Her bubbly personality caught the …
Born in Peru in 1925, Carlos Tobalina emigrated to California in 1956. He found work as a used car salesman and, in a second career, doing voice-overs on a Spanish language radio station. Taken in by the appeal of the Southern California film industry, Carlos founded his own production company in 1964. The company — …
