Abe Saperstein, the founder of the world famous barnstorming basketball team The Harlem Globetrotters, discovered one of his biggest stars in a very unlikely place — a baseball field. Goose Tatum was playing for Birmingham Black Barons, a professional baseball team in the Negro League. Saperstein thought the athletic fielder’s 6-foot-plus frame and 6-foot-plus arm …
Angela Aames had a handful of roles in both B pictures and Hollywood blockbusters. Relegated to roles reserved for dimwitted buxom bombshells, Angela made her big screen debut in Harry Hurwitz’s Fairy Tales, an adult take on familiar bedtime stories, as “Little Bo Peep.” She also appeared in Scarface, Bachelor Party, All The Marbles and …
Evelyn West was a pioneer… sort of a Hernando de Soto of Burlesque. In the early days of the art form theater, the emphasis for titillation was placed on sexy walks and suggestive pelvic gyrations. Evelyn, with her reputed 39 1/2 inch bust line, moved the focus upward. She employed her own style of publicity, …
Australian actor Tristan Rogers played the character “Robert Scorpio” on the ABC soap opera General Hospital for twelve years. His character was killed, but Rogers returned for a series of episodes in which he played Robert Scorpio’s spirit. He returned again, this time playing a very much alive Robert Scorpio in early 2006. He popped …
In 1981, I was a student attending a small but respected* art school in Philadelphia. To help pay my tuition, I worked three evenings a week at my cousin’s health food restaurant. Each Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, I would sneak out of class a bit early and rush to the restaurant to get there in …
June Lockhart passed away on October 23, 2025 at the age of 100. 100 — boy! what a run! June was most identified as the all-American wholesome model Mom, playing the definitive role in — not one but two — popular TV series, Lassie and Lost in Space. Well, I never watched Lassie and I’ve …
I was a KISS fan for a few months when I was in 10th grade. I was one of the first people to wear a KISS t-shirt in my high-school. It was a big plastic-like iron-on decal of KISS’s debut album cover that I selected from a wall of designs on display at a local …
In 1961, 22-year old college dropout Calisto Tanzi opened a small pasteurization plant in Parma, Italy. As time went on, the business, Parmalat, grew and grew, branching out from dairy products to include bakery items, juices and other beverages. The company began trading on the Milan Stock Exchange as its expansion continued, mostly by acquisition. …
Poor Sal Mineo. After a couple of film roles (including one for which he beat out another up-and-coming actor named Clint Eastwood), Sal Mineo was cast as “John ‘Plato’ Crawford” in Rebel Without a Cause alongside James Dean and Natalie Wood. The film earned Sal an Academy Award nomination and made him a household name, …
