In the summer of 1961, eighteen-year-old Richard Manuel joined Ronnie Hawkins’ backing group, The Hawks, along with Levon Helm on drums, Robbie Robertson on guitar and Rick Danko on bass. Garth Hudson joined the band around Christmas time. After two years, Richard along with Helm, Robertson, Danko, Hudson and saxophonist Jerry Penfound left Hawkins and …
In March 1916, eight-year-old Peg Entwistle came to America with her father and her uncle, both stage actors. In 1922, her father was killed by a hit-and-run driver. Peg and her two half-brothers were taken in by their uncle. 1925 brought Peg her first acting role, a walk-on part in Hamlet. This led to the …
Willie Stargell was unquestionably the guiding force behind the success of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the late ’70s. He played his entire career — 21 seasons — with The Pirates. He was the league MVP at age 39. Besides being the team’s best player, he kept the clubhouse loose. He even instituted the equivalent of …
Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle appeared in several Keystone Kops shorts in 1913. In 1914 Paramount Pictures offered the then-unknown Arbuckle $1,000 a day, 25% of all profits and complete artistic control of movies he made for them. The movies were so lucrative and popular that in 1918 they offered Arbuckle a 3-year, $3 million contract. In …
Born Albert Van Ecke in Brooklyn, New York, Albert Dekker made his professional acting debut with a Cincinnati stock company in 1927. Within a few months, Dekker was featured on Broadway. Dekker moved to Hollywood in 1937, and made his first film, The Great Garrick. He returned to the stage and replaced Lee J. Cobb …
“She left her home one morning/For her school not far away./And no one dreamed that danger/Was lurking near that day” On December 15, 1927, Marion Parker, the 12-year-old daughter of Perry Parker, a prominent banker in Los Angeles, was abducted from her school. Nineteen-year-old Edward Hickman showed up at the school Marian attended with her …
Continue reading ‘from my sketchbook: edward hickman & marian parker’ »
The challenge word on sugarfrostedgoodness.com is “wicked”. “Wicked” Wilson Pickett was born March 18, 1941 in Prattville, Alabama, and grew up singing in Baptist church choirs. He was the youngest of 11 children. He made reference to his mother as “the baddest woman in my book.” He said, “I get scared of her now. She …
Born Harriet Shapiro on July 9, 1927 in Boston, Susan Cabot grew up shuffled between 8 foster homes. She developed an interest in acting and singing performing evenings at Manhattans Village Barn. A film career seemed destined when the nightclub singer appeared in the 1947 film Kiss of Death with Colleen Gray and Victor …
The challenge word on sugarfrostedgoodness.com this week is “joy”. This is the first of two illustrations for the topic. Joy Division were an English rock band formed in 1976 in Greater Manchester. The band consisted of Ian Curtis, Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris. Joy Division rapidly evolved from their initial punk rock influences, …
This week’s Monday Artday challenge is an unusual one ― “half beast“. Somewhere between Bigfoot and werewolves is the legend of the wendigo. The wendigo is a figure appearing in Algonquian Indian mythology. In remote forest areas, sometimes groups of travellers, hunters or campers were cut off from the rest of their party by the …
