Jerzy Kosinski walked a fine, sometimes blurred, line between bullshitter and storyteller. Kosinski was born Josek Lewinkopf in Poland in 1933. As a child during World War II, he avoided the Nazis by using a false identity. He lived with a Roman Catholic Polish family in eastern Poland under the name, Jerzy Kosinski, an assumed name given to …
The challenge word on Monday Artday this week (at my suggestion) is “money”. On February 26, 1981, in Philadelphia, a twenty-eight year-old, meth-addicted, unemployed longshoreman named Joey Coyle had his life changed forever. Joey and two of his friends were on their way to buy drugs. They were driving behind a Purolator Armored Services truck that …
Mary Bickford Dunn was born in 1898 in Ontario, Canada. After her father died, she moved to Los Angeles with her mother and sister. While working as a secretary, the attractive Marie applied for and landed an acting job at the Hollywood studio owned by Mack Sennett. Sennett dubbed her “the exotic French girl,” and …
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 …
