When she was just sixteen, blond-haired, blue-eyed bombshell Barbara Pepper was chosen to be a Ziegfeld Girl on Broadway. That was the springboard she needed to start her career in show business. Soon, she and friend, fellow Ziegfeld girl Lucille Ball, were chosen to join the Goldwyn Girls, as contract group of female dancers at …
Mike Edwards was the flamboyant cello player in Electric Light Orchestra from 1972 until 1975, when he left by his own choosing. He was a crowd favorite, known for his unusual playing techniques, sometimes involving dragging a sliced orange or grapefruit across the strings of his cello, then having his solos culminate in the instrument …
This week’s Illustration Friday challenge word is “immovable”. Robert Earl Hughes made appearances in small county fairs and festivals in his native Illinois and neighboring states. He was driven around the fairgrounds in the open flatbed of a pickup truck and curiosity seekers marveled at him. Then, the truck would stop and Robert signed souvenir …
Billy Tipton was a jazz pianist who performed to moderate success in the Spokane, Washington area in the late 1940s through the 60s. His small group, The Billy Tipton Trio, played regular gigs for years at many popular jazz venues in the Pacific Northwest. He recorded and released two albums of jazz standards for independent Tops Records, …
Jack Cassidy achieved early fame as musical performer on Broadway for over twenty years. He won the Best Featured Actor Tony Award in 1963 for his role in She Loves Me, a musical reworking of the play Parfumerie (which, itself, made been remade several times as Shop Around the Corner and, most recently, You’ve Got Mail). …
This week’s Illustration Friday word is “atmosphere”. “Oh, oh, oh! Let’s go fly a kite. Up to the highest height! Let’s go fly a kite and send it soaring. Up through the atmosphere, Up where the air is clear, Oh, let’s go fly a kite!” Mary Poppins (1964) Beginning around 1938, a small Hollywood …
In 1949, Agnes Morra, a 15-year-old heroin addict, gave birth to a boy named Michael. Michael was given formula laced with an opiate derivative because he had become addicted to heroin in utero. Michael’s father, a career gangster, was deported to Italy. Agnes soon developed a relationship with a drug-addicted former boxer, who regularly beat …
This week’s Illustration Friday challenge is “star gazing”. Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642) has been acknowledged as the father of modern observational astronomy. He made great improvements to the telescope, enabling him to amend previous astronomical observations. He also invented the tuna salad sandwich and perfected the current technology for central air conditioning. He traveled …
“These people, dressed as they are, come from all over the United States to make deals here in the Marketplace of America. Let’s! Make! A Deal!” – Jay Stewart Jay Stewart broke into show business as a sax player, but landed a few announcing jobs after his graduation from college. Jay became the announcer on …
Roy Sullivan, a U.S. park ranger at Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, was hit by lightning on seven different occasions between 1942 and 1977. He survived all of them. Roy was included in the Guinness World Records as the person struck by lightning more times than any other human being. In 1983, Roy died from …
