This week’s Illustration Friday challenge word is “myth”. Walt Disney. Artist. Animator. Innovator. Visionary. In 1928, Walt produced Steamboat Willie, the first synchronized sound cartoon. The cartoon introduced the world to a little character named Mickey Mouse. Walt would go on to create the first full-length animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Feature-length cartoons were unheard of at the time. Walt was …
Kevin Coughlin was one of those teen actors that was everywhere in the 60s. With his big smile and tousled shock of blond hair, he convincingly played both good kids and delinquents. Kevin showed up in various episodes of popular Westerns like The Virginian, Gunsmoke and Bonanza. He was equally adept in comedies, with parts in …
From the time he was young, Donny Hathaway expressed an interest in music. He sang in church choir with his grandmother and played in jazz bands. At Howard University, on a fine arts scholarship, Donny studied music and began a life-long friendship with classmate Roberta Flack. He left Howard University before graduation and began writing, playing and …
In 2008, popular South Korean actress Choi Jin-sil hanged herself. She had starred in nearly two dozen movies and television shows and was the veteran of over 100 commercials. She earned herself the nickname “The Nation’s Actress”. She was married to Cho Sung-min, a one-time pitcher for the Japanese baseball team The Yomiuri Giants. The …
Eugenia Eagles quit school as a child to work as a cash girl in a Kansas City department store to help her widowed mother support six children. But, at 15, young Jeanne caught the acting bug and began touring with a traveling theater company. At 21, she headed to New York City, where she became …
Mary Mallon was an uneducated, hot-tempered Irish immigrant, but, boy, could she cook. Mary came to the United States in 1884 and worked a succession of menial jobs until she discovered her talents in the kitchen. In 1900, she found employment as the personal cook for a family in Westchester County, just outside of Manhattan. …
Winstead Sheffield Glenndenning Dixon Weaver loved to pull pranks and plan practical jokes as a student at Stanford University. His penchant for comedy led him to become a contributor to the school’s humor magazine. Using his childhood nickname “Doodles”, he began appearing on Rudy Vallee’s radio program and eventually signed on as a member of the raucous …
In 1966, Bob Kuban and The In-Men had a Billboard Top 40 hit with “The Cheater,” a catchy pop tune that gave a word of warning to potential adulterers. The In-Men, an eight-piece band with a horn section, were a throwback for the time. Competition from guitar-driven bands of the British Invasion was tough to …
“We are all worms, but I do believe that I am a glow worm.” — Winston Churchill When Sir Winston Churchill passed away in 1965, his funeral was the largest state funeral in world history, with representatives from 112 nations. Only China did not send an emissary.
Vocalist Earl Carroll and some of his Harlem friends formed The Carnations in 1953. Two members left after the group’s first recording. They were replaced and the new group renamed themselves The Cadillacs for its association with automotive elegance and to separate the group from multitude of “bird” and “flower”-named competing bands. With Earl still handling the lead …
