from my sketchbook: peggy knudsen

Nineteen-year-old Peggy Knudsen debuted on Broadway in the title role in the popular play My Sister Eileen,  replacing Jo Ann Sayers, in the role she originated. Soon, Peggy headed for Hollywood, appearing in her first film A Stolen Life  opposite Bette Davis. That performance led to her being cast as the icy Mona Mars in …

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from my sketchbook: ed delahanty

On September 4, 2012, the struggling Philadelphia Phillies dropped another heartbreaking loss – this time to the National League Central-leading Cincinnati Reds. It was during this game that shortstop Jimmy Rollins racked up his 2000th career hit as a member of the Phillies, joining an elite club of only three additional members – each in …

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from my sketchbook: gary vinson

Gary Vinson began showing up in guest roles on popular TV series in the late 1950s. He appeared in comedies like The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, dramas like Perry Mason  and Westerns, like Gunsmoke  and Bat Masterson.  In 1960, he was cast as a regular in the short-lived drama The Roaring 20s  with Dorothy …

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from my sketchbook: lillian hall-davis

At 19, Lillian Hall-Davis entered the world of acting. Hoping to convey a sophisticated upbringing and high social status, she listed her place of birth as the fashionable Hampstead section of London. In reality, she hailed from the working-class neighborhood of Mile End, where she led a far-from-glamourous life as the daughter of a cab driver. …

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from my sketchbook: robin graham

On November 14, 1970, Robin Graham went out with some friends. Around quarter-to-two in the morning, after a night of fun, Robin was dropped off at her car, which she had left in the parking lot of the Pier 1 Imports store where she was a part-time employee. Robin waved and bid her friends ‘good …

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from my sketchbook: maggie mcnamara

While she attended Textile High School in New York, Maggie McNamara worked as a teen model, becoming one of the most successful models at the John Robert Powers’ modeling agency. At 23, she made her acting debut, replacing Barbara Bel Geddes in a stage production of The Moon is Blue.  Later the same year, she debuted on …

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IF: lonely

This week’s Illustration Friday challenge word is “lonely”. In 1939, Judy Garland won a Juvenile Academy Award (the category no longer exists). She went on to receive two Academy Award nominations. She is a two-time Grammy Award winner and Grammy Hall of Fame inductee. She had a 40-year career in movies and television. The American Film Institute placed her among the …

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from my sketchbook: betty blythe

After her five-year contract expired, silent film sex symbol Theda Bara retired from the silver screen. Fox Studios scrambled for a suitable replacement. Stage actress Betty Blythe fit the bill. Betty was recruited to appear in a series of costume productions originally tagged for Bara, including the famously risqué The Queen of Sheba  in 1921. …

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from my sketchbook: brian keith

Brian Keith had show business in his blood. The son of stage actor Robert Keith and actress Helena Shipman, young Brian made his motion picture debut in the 1924 silent film Pied Piper Malone at the age of 3. After his parents’ divorce, Brian’s father briefly married actress Peg Entwistle, whose claim to fame was …

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