Jill Banner was born Mary Molumby near Puget Sound in Washington. Her widowed mother moved around the country when Jill was a child until the family finally settled in Glendale, California. Jill attended Hollywood Professional School with classmates Peggy Lipton (of TV’s Mod Squad and future mother of actress Rashida Jones), Carl Wilson (of the Beach Boys) …
After bouncing between the minor leagues and the bigs, Bo Díaz was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies in the ’81 off-season. With the departure of All-Star catcher Bob Boone, Bo became the Phillies starting backstop. His game-calling skills helped Phils ace Steve Carlton become the league’s only twenty game winner in 1982. Bo finished the …
Senior U.S. microbiologist Frank Olson was a scientist at a lab in Fort Detrick, Maryland. Here, Frank worked for the CIA researching and conducting experiments with assassination techniques, biological warfare, terminal interrogations, and LSD mind-control. He was aware of highly-confidential information and he was uncomfortable with that knowledge. On Monday, November 23, 1953, Frank told …
Even as a youngster, Jesse Belvin was interested in music. He joined several bands as a vocalist early in the 1950s. Even an brief stint in the army didn’t hinder Jesse’s songwriting. His composition “Earth Angel” was a hit for The Penguins in 1955 and became one of the first songs to successfully make the …
The new Illustration Friday suggestion for inspiration is “popularity”. “Popularity, I have always thought, may aptly be compared to a coquette – the more you woo her, the more apt is she to elude your embrace.” — John Tyler, Tenth President of the United States John Tyler knew of what he spoke, as popularity certainly …
On December 7, 2009 at 12:30 am, Josh Powell packed up his two young sons and set out for an impromptu camping trip in a remote area near the family’s Salt Lake City home. Susan Powell, Josh’s 28-year-old wife and mother of the boys, was still asleep in bed. Josh returned home with the boys …
For eleven years, Rusty Hamer traded barbs with showbiz heavyweight Danny Thomas on the popular sitcom Make Room For Daddy. Most often, Rusty got bigger laughs than his veteran co-star. For a kid, his comedic timing was impeccable and rivaled that of actors with many times his experience. Shooting had to be halted quite often …
Twenty-three year-old Debbie Boostrom auditioned, alongside hundreds of anxious and hopeful young ladies, to become the coveted 25th Anniversary Playboy Playmate. Debbie was unsuccessful, but a little over a year later, she was presented in the magazine as Miss August 1981. In the following months, she appeared in several Playboy videos and participated in some of Hugh Hefner’s …
Alexa Kenin began acting as a child, landing her first role opposite Academy Award-winning actor Jason Robards in the 1972 TV movie The House Without a Christmas Tree. She appeared in several more TV productions, including five Afterschool Specials. The 80s brought Alexa her big-screen debut in the Tatum O’Neal-Kristy MacNichol teen camp film Little …
Teenage aspiring dancer Beryl Heischuber answered a casting call ad and landed a role in the 1928 production of Vanities at the Earl Carroll Broadway theatre. Using the more accessible (and more pronounceable) name “Wallace”, Beryl appeared amid dozens of other young dancers billed under the umbrella title “the most beautiful girls in the world”. …
