Hattie McDaniel is one of the most talented actresses and one of the most underrated actress ever to come out of Hollywood. After a successful beginning as an actress, singer and songwriter with her brother’s minstrel show, she toured with the Melody Hounds, a singing group. A radio performance by The Melody Hounds led to …
Then one day he was shootin’ at some food and up from the ground come a bubblin’ crude. Black gold. Texas tea.
Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. Her attempt to do the same across the Pacific didn’t work out quite as well.
Lena Horne joined the chorus line at Harlem’s famed Cotton Club in the fall of 1933 when she was just 16. By the spring, she was a featured performer at the club, eventually touring as a vocalist with bandleader Charlie Barnet. Not a fan of life on the road, Lena returned to her native New …
Frederick Douglass was a one-time slave who, secretly, taught himself how to read a write. He eventually escaped his inhumane treatment, fleeing to the North and settling in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He became an outspoken proponent for freedom as a firm believer in equality for all people. He was an advocate for voting rights for women and …
Poor Bob Wilson! No one sees the mischievous gremlin on the wing of the airplane. except him. Not even Shatner‘s overacting could convince them.
Henry Heimlich, a thoracic surgeon and medical researcher, wrote a piece for the trade publication Emergency Medicine, extolling the virtues of his abdominal thrust method of rescuing victims of choking. The procedure, used to success by a Bellevue, Washington restaurant owner on a choking patron, was embraced and promoted by both the American Heart Association and The American …
Who can take a nothing day, and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile?
The Mills Brothers began singing in their church choir, branching out to street performances outside their father’s barbershop. A win on a local talent show got them a gig at May’s Opera House in their hometown of Piqua, Ohio. They sang in between showings of Rin Tin Tin. Famed pianist and bandleader Duke Ellington saw the group …
I was a fan of the progressive rock band Renaissance when I was in high school. The band, originally forming from former members of The Yardbirds, evolved into a band combining a rock base with medieval touches and mystical lyrics. They were fronted by the angelic voiced Annie Haslam. Haslam was trained as an opera singer …
