Lindsay Lohan? Lightweight! Paris Hilton? Amateur! They can’t compare to Scotty Beckett. Scotty made his debut in the Our Gang comedies playing Spanky’s best friend for a little over a year until he left to star in feature films. He was replaced by Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer. From 1936 until the early 1950s, Scotty was one …
The Illustration Friday challenge word this week is “transportation”. In 2001, after a buzz of preliminary publicity, a two-wheeled, self-balancing electric vehicle was introduced to the public. It was called the Segway. By 2006, approximately 23,500 had been sold. In December 2009, British billionaire Jimi Heselden bought the company Segway Inc. On September 26, 2010, …
Wallace Wood began his influential career in art as an apprentice under several of his own influences, Will Eisner and George Wunder, who had taken over the popular comic Terry and the Pirates from creator Milton Caniff. Wallace, a graduate of New York’s School of Visual Arts. soon moved on to famed horror comic publisher …
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 …
