John List was faced with a dilemma. He had lost his job as an accountant. He was months behind on the mortgage payments for his nineteen-room mansion in Westfield, New Jersey. Burdened with heavy financial debt and accumulating bills, he could either force his family to accept government-sanctioned welfare or he could send them to …
Bea Benaderet worked and worked and worked. Early in her career, Bea appeared on countless popular radio shows in various character roles – telephone operators, landladies, sales clerks and most often “the neighbor.” Her keen knack for vocal inflection and dialects allowed her to portray several characters in one show, unbeknown to the radio audience. …
Stephani Germanotta has a secret. In 2007, young Stephani, a budding singer, was introduced to another singer named Lina Morgana by Sony Records producer Rob Fusari. Stephani and Lina began collaborating on songs, eventually penning nearly two dozen compositions. Lina, with her dark hair and exotic good looks, was the obvious choice for performing them. …
José Ramón Gil Samaniego and his family fled their native Mexico in 1913 to escape that country’s violent revolution. The family settled in Los Angeles. With a distant show business connection (actress Delores Del Rio was a second cousin), Ramón took bit parts in silent films while working as a singing waiter to supplement his …
Universal Pictures classic Frankenstein frightened audiences when it was released in 1931. One scene in particular horrified viewers so much that it was removed from early versions of the film and not restored until home video releases in 1980, nearly fifty years later. The infamous scene featured Dr. Frankenstein’s hulking, fearsome creature stumbling through the …
It was November 1969. Veronica Lopez, a one-time prostitute and career criminal, sat in a cell at Sybil Brand Women’s Prison. Veronica was serving a sentence for forging a prescription. One day, she got a new cellmate – a 21-year old hippie girl with a wild look in her eye. She called herself Sadie Mae …
“Oh, what a tangled web we weave When first we practise to deceive!” — Marmion by Sir Walter Scott My dad was a liar. And not a very good one. In the long ago days before the internet, when facts were a little tougher to confirm, my dad made up shit left and right. He …
Twenty-three year old Jon-Erik Hexum took his college diploma and his good looks and headed to New York City to persue an acting career. He took a job cleaning apartments until he struck gold — and it paid off. Jon-Erik met Bob LeMond, John Travolta’s manager. LeMond saw real acting potential in Jon-Erik and urging him to …
Johnny Ace sat backstage at Houston’s City Auditorium on Christmas Day 1954, taking a short break between sets. In just two whirlwind years, Johnny had gone from stumbling into the vocalist role in B.B. King’s band to a string of eight consecutive hits on Duke Records. And now, as part of the touring company supporting …
In 1960, Life Magazine graced its cover with a photo of a pretty 23-year-old budding actress named Ina Balin, accompanied by the teasing headline “An Early Look at a Star-To-Be.” By that time, young Ina had received critical acclaim for her performance on Broadway in A Majority of One and she starred alongside Anthony Quinn in …
