Curtis Ousley began playing the saxophone at twelve years old. In a relatively short time, he became an accomplished musician. Curtis turned down college scholarships in favor of joining the great Lionel Hampton‘s big band. Using the stage name “King Curtis,” he earned a reputation as a respected session musician, playing on recordings by artists …
Gladys George made her stage debut at age 3 alongside her showbiz parents. It was her Broadway debut, at age 18 opposite Isadora Duncan, that seemed to be Gladys’ path to stardom. She was a hit in the comedy Personal Appearance, which Mae West adapted for the film Go West, Young Man. West took Gladys’ …
Prolific director Allan Dwan saw 12-year-old Jane Peters playing baseball on a Los Angeles street and cast her in his film The Perfect Crime in 1921. Young Jane was a contract player in low-budget films for Fox and Pathé, until both studios dropped her and she signed with Paramount. Jane, now using the stage name …
She was a seven-year old, just dancing in her father’s drug store, when a representative of RCA Victor hired her to advertise Victrolas at the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition. A short time afterwards, young Lina Basquette was studying ballet. At ten, she was signed to a contract with Universal Pictures to star in a series …
“Hey, Farney, I don’t know if that was you who really caught that ball, but that was pretty good if it was.” After an unremarkable debut with the Toronto Blue Jays, Ryan Freel came into his own with a free agency signing with the Cincinnati Reds. Ryan showed himself to be a pretty reliable and …
Charles Boyer will be remembered as one of Hollywood’s most romantic leading men. Starring opposite some of the silver screen’s most desirable leading ladies – Hedy Lamarr, Marlene Dietrich, Merle Oberon – Charles was a first class charmer. He succeeded in making the female members of the audience swoon along with his female co-stars. Warner …
She was Hollywood’s first cowgirl. Mary Louise “Texas” Guinan burst out of Waco, Texas and kept her home state’s name as a moniker when she appeared in a slew of silent films in the early part of the twentieth century. She earned herself the nickname “Queen of the West.” but soon, the always opportunistic “Texas” …
Meredith MacRae was born with show business in her blood. She was the eldest daughter of actor-singer Gordon MacRae, the star of movie musicals Oklahoma and Carousel and his wife, actress Sheila MacRae, best remembered as succeeding Audrey Meadows in the role of “Alice Kramden” in The Honeymooners, as performed in sketches on Jackie Gleason’s …
Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha III was born in Santiago, Cuba to the city’s youngest mayor. After the 1933 Cuban Revolution led by Fulgencio Batista, Desi’s grandfather, a wealthy executive with the Bacardi Rum Company, was jailed and his assets confiscated. He was released six months later and the Arnaz family fled to Miami. …
“Are there any requests?” “Yes, how about ‘the refrain from singing’?” Florence Foster took music lessons and expressed an interest in singing opera. Her father refused to subsidize his daughter’s dream, so she ran off at the age of 22 and eloped with physician Frank Thornton Jenkins. The marriage lasted seven years, ending in divorce in …
