After appearing in bit parts in films throughout the late 1930s, Carole Landis made a huge splash as “Loana” in the 1940 prehistoric fantasy One Million BC. That film was a springboard for her career. Carole was cast in 22 films over the next eight years, mostly due to her secret affair with powerful producer …
This is just what is looks like. A pig playing a banjo. It’s inspired by a website called “Dueling Banjo Pigs”. They tell their story this way: “It started out with a duel between friends. Guy Francis challenged fellow illustrator, Stacy Curtis, to a duel of banjo playing pigs. Now, other illustrators have joined the …
Roger C. Carmel and Richard Deacon were mainstays of episodic television from the 1950’s through the early 1980’s. Roger was best known for his role as intergalactic criminal Harry Mudd in two episodes of the original Star Trek series. Roger made many one-shot guest appearances in TV sit-coms and dramas throughout his career, including memorable …
Continue reading ‘from my sketchbook: roger c. carmel and richard deacon’ »
My wife has celebrated 28 birthdays since we met. Last year, we enjoyed a wonderfully intimate concert by banjo impresario Tony Trischka at the elegant, historic Elkins Estate, around the corner from our house. Two years ago, we spent a wonderful birthday in New York City. We went to a huge street festival on Sixth Avenue, wandered around …
Lindsay Lohan? Lightweight! Paris Hilton? Amateur! They can’t compare to Scotty Beckett. Scotty made his debut in the Our Gang comedies playing Spanky’s best friend for a little over a year until he left to star in feature films. He was replaced by Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer. From 1936 until the early 1950s, Scotty was one …
Wallace Wood began his influential career in art as an apprentice under several of his own influences, Will Eisner and George Wunder, who had taken over the popular comic Terry and the Pirates from creator Milton Caniff. Wallace, a graduate of New York’s School of Visual Arts. soon moved on to famed horror comic publisher …
When she was just sixteen, blond-haired, blue-eyed bombshell Barbara Pepper was chosen to be a Ziegfeld Girl on Broadway. That was the springboard she needed to start her career in show business. Soon, she and friend, fellow Ziegfeld girl Lucille Ball, were chosen to join the Goldwyn Girls, as contract group of female dancers at …
Racists are like the lowly cockroach – filthy, repulsive and filled with the endurance to have kept it going for thousands of years. You catch one skittering by in your peripheral vision every once in a while. Smoosh a cockroach and there’s always another to take it place. Always. I grew up in one of …
Continue reading ‘from my sketchbook: racism is alive and well’ »
Mike Edwards was the flamboyant cello player in Electric Light Orchestra from 1972 until 1975, when he left by his own choosing. He was a crowd favorite, known for his unusual playing techniques, sometimes involving dragging a sliced orange or grapefruit across the strings of his cello, then having his solos culminate in the instrument …
I submitted these three halloween greeting cards to a contest earlier this year. I didn’t win.
