Over thirty years, Sammee Tong appeared in over seventy movies and television shows as houseboys, cooks, waiters and any number if stereotypical roles that Hollywood offered Chinese-American actors. Sammee worked regularly in Westerns and in the “Charlie Chan” and “Mr. Moto” detective series. He even tried his hand at comedy as a laundry owner in …
In 1939, Shirley Temple lost the part of Dorothy in MGM’s The Wizard of Oz. Although she was the foremost child star of the day, her singing was no match for the vocal talents of Judy Garland. In an attempt at consolation, her contracted studio, Twentieth Century Fox, gave Shirley the lead in The Blue …
As a visitor and patient of John Harvey Kellogg’s Battle Creek Sanitarium, C.W. Post was impressed and inspired to start his own cereal company. Concerned with his own health, Post invented a cereal alternative to coffee that he dubbed “Postum”. Postum was made from wheat bran, wheat, molasses, and maltodextrin from corn. It was never …
James Byrd, Jr. was murdered for no other reason than because he was black. On June 7, 1998, 49-year old James was walking home from a party. He couldn’t afford a car so he walked everywhere, but he didn’t mind walking. Shawn Berry, Lawrence Brewer and John King drove up to James in a pick-up truck …
This week’s Illustration Friday challenge word is “sink”. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Frank Silvera immigrated to the United States with his family as a youngster. Determined to follow his dream of acting, he appeared briefly on Broadway before joining the US Naval Reserves during World War II. After the war, he returned to acting. He …
At quarter to six on the morning of March 22, 2011, Rebecca Coriam picked up the phone in a hallway of the Disney cruise ship “Wonder”, dialed an on-board number and, after speaking for a minute or two, began to cry. A fellow crew member, passing her on his way to who-knows-where, stopped to ask …
Barbara Nichols was definitely “in on it”. For nearly four decades, she flaunted her way across Hollywood in small (even uncredited) roles as strippers, gold-diggers, prostitutes, gun molls and other assorted floozies. She played characters with names like “Lola”, “Brandy”, “Candy” and even “Poopsie”. She played her brassy, buxom, wise-cracking dumb-blond scene-stealer to its absolute …
In the early 1930s, Frank Churchill filled the void of house composer just after Carl Stalling left The Disney Studios to join Warner Brothers (along with Disney animator Ub Iwerks). Frank was a veritable music machine, cranking out “feel good” musical scores to accompany the cheerful antics depicted in Disney’s animated cartoons. His music and collaborative …
Joyce Compton had an unusual Hollywood career (unusual, at least, as compared to the multitude of tragic Hollywood careers highlighted on this blog). Joyce starred in hundreds of uncredited roles in a career that spanned five decades. She was regularly cast as the quintessential “dumb blond”, playing the part in big-budget films and B-grade productions. …
This week’s Illustration Friday word is “round”. Michael Larson was flat broke, unemployed and had few possessions. He did, however, have a lot of time. And he used his time wisely. With no job, he began watching game shows to combat his boredom. One show, Press Your Luck, piqued his interest. Famous for its simple …
