Nineteen-year-old Ruth Steinhagen went to a Chicago Cubs game in 1947 and was never the same. She became obsessed with Eddie Waitkus, the Cubs’ good looking, young first baseman. Ruth began to gather every bit of information she could on Waitkus. She sought out photos and newspaper clippings about him. Her room in her parents’ …
Many decades before another pair of namesake sisters were grabbing headlines, there was conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton. Born in the English coastal town of Brighton, Daisy and Violet were joined at the hips and buttocks. While they did share blood circulation, they shared no internal organs. Their mother, an unwed barmaid named Kate …
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Pascual Pérez wasn’t a great pitcher, but he certainly was an interesting one. After a brief stint with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Pascual was traded to the Atlanta Braves. He had two consecutive career seasons, winning fifteen games in 1983 and fourteen games in 1984, despite joining the team after an arrest in his native Dominican …
When 24-year old Gwili Andre (the former Gurli Andresen) arrived in Hollywood from her native Denmark, she had aspirations of movie stardom. She was undoubtedly beautiful — blond hair, blue eyes and statuesque. She was a near double for Hollywood darling Greta Garbo. Producer David O. Selznick was taken by her appearance and signed her …
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 …
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” …
