After recovering from an accident that nearly rendered him immobile for the rest of his life, nine-year-old Dick Trickle was taken to Crown Speedway in his hometown of Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin. The youngster was bewildered by the speeding cars and, at that moment, was determined to become a race car driver.

Dick became one of the most prolific drivers in the history of the sport. He ran over 2200 races, winning over half of them. 67 of those wins came in 1972 alone. He participated in all of the major auto racing circuits including NASCAR and American Speed Association. He was popular among fans, as well as his fellow drivers.

On May 16, 2013, Dick parked his pick-up truck at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Boger City, North Carolina. He called 911 and told the operator “There was going to be a dead body. Suicide.” When the operator asked who was going to commit suicide, Dick replied, “I’m the one.” When police arrived at the scene, they discovered Dick dead from a self-inflicted gunshot. He was 71 years old. His granddaughter, the victim of a car accident, was previously interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery.

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Photographer Felix Benedict Herzog — the first to have his photographs accepted as “art” — spotted 17 year-old Audrey Munson window-shopping with her mother on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue. He introduced the teen to his friends and colleagues in the New York art society. Soon, Audrey was an in-demand artist’s model — posing for photographs, paintings and sculptures.

After being persuaded to pose nude, Audrey became the model for numerous sculptures on display throughout the country. For the magnificent Three Graces, on public display in the Grand Ballroom at the Hotel Astor in Times Square, Audrey was the model for all three depicted figures. She was the subject of nearly all of Alexander Stirling Calder’s sculpted figures created for the Panama–Pacific International Exposition held in San Francisco in 1915. Audrey even posed for Charles Dana Gibson as one of his celebrated “Gibson Girls.”

Audrey’s notoriety led to a film career. She became one of the very first actress to appear nude in mainstream film, beginning with the drama Inspiration in 1915. Her films were confounding to censors, forcing them to allow the films under the classification of “art,” lest they begin banning Renaissance artwork, as well.

A prominent Manhattan doctor was taken by Audrey’s beauty and popularity. He murdered his wife in an effort to make himself available to the young actress/model. After his arrest, Audrey denied any sort of relationship with the doctor when questioned by police. The doctor received a death sentence as a result of a trial, but he hanged himself in prison prior to his execution.

Audrey became the subject of a number of publicity stunts, including posing with a bogus $27,500 check to promote her latest film. She also was involved in a nationwide search for “the perfect man” to marry. The search was called off when she announced that she was not ready for matrimony. Publicity tours, acting and modeling soon took a toll on Audrey’s physical and mental heath. She attempted suicide in 1921, but was unsuccessful. However, her mother petitioned to have Audrey committed to an asylum in 1931, citing erratic behavior and mental issues. She was placed in the St. Lawrence State Hospital for the Insane in Ogdensburg, New York, where she was treated for depression and schizophrenia. Audrey remained in the facility for 65 years, until her death in 1996 at the age of 104. She went for decades without a visitor.

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John Hughes was a pioneering and influential filmmaker whose output dominated movie screens throughout the 1980s. With his directorial debut Sixteen Candles, John kicked off his signature style of portraying teen angst in an open, realistic and often humorous fashion. Thanks to the inspired casting of sixteen-year old Molly Ringwald, Sixteen Candles spawned other teen-centric films, including The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Weird Science, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and others. He branched out with more adult-oriented projects like Planes, Trains and Automobiles, She’s Having a Baby and the Home Alone series, as well as a retelling of his 1979 National Lampoon article about a vacation he took with his own family — which was the basis for National Lampoon’s Vacation and its sequels.

Ringwald’s film relationship with John abruptly ended after she turned down a role in his film Some Kind of Wonderful. She was scheduled for one more project with John, entitled Oil & Vinegar, but it was scrapped when he refused a studio-required rewrite. Ringwald reflected on her career with John with mixed emotions, expressing gratitude, but also noting that his scripts were fraught with sexism, racism and homophobia. She went on to say that she was puzzled by the sensitivity, care and insight expressed in his writing, yet it was often punctuated by blatantly sexist and offensive lines masquerading as jokes.

John Hughes passed away unexpectedly in August 2009 at the age of 59. He left a body of work that was both beloved and controversial — depending on how you look at it.

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