After early interest in football, Reggie Lisowski turned his sights on professional wrestling once he joined the army. He trained in his native South Milwaukee neighborhood and made his ring debut in 1949. His early matches only netted the budding wrestler a mere five dollars a night, so he took menial jobs to supplement his …
Mark Sandman was an interesting and mysterious guy. He worked a number of blue-collar jobs, including construction, commercial fishing and driving a cab. He was stabbed and robbed as a cab driver, a traumatic incident that had a lasting effect on him for the rest of his life. The untimely deaths of his two brothers …
Don Wilson was an integral part of the Houston Astros for nine seasons. His career could have continued… but other circumstances changed that. Don won over 100 games for the Astros. He was selected to the All Star Game in 1971, where he pitched two scoreless innings. Her also threw two no-hitters – one in …
As a teenager, Hollywood-born Diane Webber took ballet lessons from noted dance instructor Maria Bekefi. Diane’s mother, a model and sometime actress, sowed the seeds for Diane’s career path. She worked as a chorus girl at a San Francisco club. In between performing, Diane was an in-demand model, working with the likes of Bunny Yeager …
Robert Sorrells made his acting debut in a first season episode of the anthology series Twilight Zone. In “The Mighty Casey,” Robert played an emotionless robot recruited by a losing baseball team as their pitching “secret weapon.” In typical Twilight Zone fashion, Robert’s robot was, at first effective, but gained human sensitivity and felt bad …
I will admit… I wasn’t the biggest Mac Davis fan that ever lived. I didn’t dislike him. I heard his songs on the radio throughout the 70s. It was difficult not to! He had a lot of hits in those years. I watched his variety show when it premiered in 1974. I was 13 and …
Ron and Russell Mael moved to England in 1973 with plans to conquer the United Kingdom. The brothers placed an ad in Melody Maker to fill out the new incarnation of their band Sparks. Along with bassist Martin Gordon and guitarist Adrian Fisher, they signed self-taught drummer “Dinky” Diamond. The newly-formed band recorded and released …
Not wanting to interrupt her modeling career, 17-year old Marsha Hunt reluctantly accepted a seven-year contract with Paramount Pictures. She made 12 movies in her first three years at Paramount, before her contract was terminated early. She headed to the smaller studios, appearing in run-of-the-mill Westerns. Growing impatient with Hollywood, Marsha headed for New York …
Norm Macdonald told this joke often… A moth goes into a podiatrist’s office. “What’s wrong?” asks the podiatrist. The moth replies: “Doc, I hate my career. My marriage is failing. My family is exhausting. My relationships with my children are terrible. Sometimes it’s all too much to bear. I don’t know where to turn.” “You …
Josephine Workman was born in Los Angeles in 1882, one of seven children. With no experience or aspirations, she innocently answered an ad in a local newspaper seeking women with “the physical attributes for playing a Native American.” The ad was placed by Bison Motion Pictures’ director/producer Thomas Ince, known in Hollywood as “The Father …
