Tall, lanky George Mann played center on the Venice Union Polytechnic High High School basketball team. He also served as vice president of the school’s drama club… and that was his true calling. He starred in a production of the farce What Happened to Jones?, along with classmate, future actress (and future mother of singer …
By the time I was a junior in high school, I had amassed a pretty sizeable record collection. I began my collection way back in elementary school, when I purchased my first album with my own money. As an eleven year-old, I proudly selected a copy of Carole King’s “Tapestry” from the “Best Sellers” section …
Born in Australia to vaudeville performer parents, Mae Busch traveled to the United States in 1896. As a child, she stayed in a New Jersey convent while her parents toured the country. But, at the age of 12, Mae joined the act. Soon she was getting roles on her own, including a spot in Over …
At eighteen, pretty blond Nita Pike made her acting debut in the “Goldwyn Girls” chorus of the 1931 Eddie Cantor musical romp Palmy Days. This kicked off a succession of non-credited roles that ran throughout the 1930s and 1940s. In 1940, film comic and impresario Charles Chaplin cast Nita in the role of a secretary …
Neil Nephew struggled. He struggled with his career. He struggled with his marriage… and he struggled with his demons. In 1961, the young Neil Bernstein — using the stage name “Neil Nephew” — landed his first film role as part of an ensemble cast in the gangster tale Mad Dog Coll. He starred alongside future …
With coaching and encouragement from her mother, Katherine Grant entered — and won — the 1922 “Miss Los Angeles Beauty Contest.” Her new-found fame landed her roles in several of Hal Roach’s “Little Rascals” comedy shorts. As the winner of the local beauty contest, Katherine entered the “Miss America” pageant, but lost to Mary Katherine …
Pretty Christine Maple was a character. Moving to Los Angeles from her native rural Kansas, the vivacious blonde began appearing in local beauty pageants. Her film debut in 1930 led to a coveted spot in the Ziegfeld Follies. During a performance, she surprised her fellow cast members, the audience and Ziegfeld himself, when she appeared …
Katalin Karády was a pretty big star in her native Hungary, with a career that mirrored her Hollywood counterparts of the time. She gained the persona of “diva” and “sex symbol” after her 1939 debut in the film Halálos Tavasz (“Deadly Spring”). Katalin was also a popular vocalist. Her songs were heard frequently on Hungarian …
For the better part of six years, Joanna Lee struggled through an unfulfilling acting career, landing few roles of little significance. She appeared uncredited in the Frank Sinatra film The Joker is Wild, as well as Ed Wood’s notorious sci-fi schlockfest Plan 9 from Outer Space. A serious car accident sidelined Joanna’s acting career, but …
