Chrissy Amphlett met guitarist Mark McEntee at the Sydney Opera House in 1980 and soon after formed the band Divinyls. They performed in and around Sydney with a rotating lineup – Chrissy and McEntree as the core members. The band released six albums between 1982 and 1996, hitting its pinnacle in 1991 with the international hit single “I Touch Myself” from their self-titled album. She was a focal point of live shows, often performing in a schoolgirl uniform accented by fishnet stockings. Divinyls wouldn’t release another album until 1996, Underworld, which would be their final effort as a band.

Chrissy toyed with a solo career but concentrated more on acting. She appeared in a number of stage plays, including taking the role of Judy Garland in the original touring production of The Boy from Oz.

In 2007, Chrissy revealed a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. Three years later, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, which took her life in 2013 at the age of 53.

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A professional model from the age of five, J. Madison Wright pursued a career in acting. At 9, she made appearances on the sitcom Grace Under Fire and The Nanny playing snotty beauty pageant contestants. Soon after, she landed a regular role on the NBC science-fiction series Earth 2, followed by a guest role on ER and a starring role in the family film Shiloh alongside her younger sister Tori.

After filming wrapped on the made-for-television Disney picture Safety Patrol, J. Madison retired from show business at the age of 15. She returned to her native Kentucky.

J. Madison was suffering from a bout of pneumonia that she could not shake when she was diagnosed with restrictive cardiomyopathy, a disease where the walls of the heart become rigid. Actor Clancy Brown, her co-star in Earth 2, led fundraising efforts to pay for a heart transplant. Her transplant was successful and her recovery was surprisingly quick. J. Madison returned to school where she enjoyed time with the cheerleading squad, as well as giving inspirational talks to promote organ donation. After graduation, she attended college, working towards teaching credentials.

In 2006, one day after returning home from her honeymoon, J. Madison suffered a heart attack. She was admitted to the University of Kentucky Medical Center where she died on July 21, just two weeks after her wedding, and eight days before her 22nd birthday.

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Olivia de Havilland made 49 movies. She starred alongside Errol Flynn, Frederic March, Leslie Howard and James Cagney. She was nominated for five Oscars. She won two. And she outlived her sister.

Olivia passed away on July 25, 2020 at the age of 104. One hundred and four years is quite a lifetime.

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Born in Philadelphia, Dorothy Dare began singing in church and made her stage debut at the age of seven. When she got older, she was spotted during a performance by an impressed Florenz Ziegfeld. The famed producer gave Dorothy a place in his stage show. Soon, she was appearing in a series of Vitaphone musical short subjects.

Dorothy co-starred with Bette Davis in the Michael Curtiz directed Front Page Woman in 1935 and Busby Berkeley’s Gold Diggers of 1935. Film critics were impressed by her performances in the shorts rather than her full-length features.

After the 1942 patriotic musical The Yanks are Coming, Dorothy abruptly left show business. She moved to Orange County, California and rarely gave interviews or spoke about her time in Hollywood. She passed away in 1981 at the age of 70. Her death was barely noticed by the press.

Years after her death, an actress in New York began making claims that she was Dorothy Dare and was briefly entertained by the media — until an investigation exposed her as an impostor.

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“When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something.” — John Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020)

I support the movement to rename the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama in honor of John Lewis. Edmund Pettus was a brigadier general in the Confederate Army and Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.

John Lewis was the opposite.

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Corinne Griffith was regarded as one of the most beautiful actresses of the silent film era. A biographer’s research revealed that the phrase “the camera loves her” was coined for Corinne. She was praised by critics for her acting abilities, as well. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1929. He had the opportunity of produce her own movies, a rarity among women in the early days of Hollywood. As the 20s became the 30s, Corinne’s’ career slowed and she decided to retire from the silver screen in 1932.

In her retirement, Corinne remained very active. She embarked on a new a career – writing. She was very prolific, releasing a number of fiction and non-fiction works. Her 1952 memoir Papa’s Delicate Condition was turned into a film starring Jackie Gleason and Glynis Johns in 1963. She also became active in the real estate market. She delivered speeches supporting her efforts to repeal the 16th Amendment to the Constitution.

After two brief marriages, Corinne married Washington Redskins owner George Preston Marshall in 1936. During her marriage, she wrote the lyrics to “Hail to the Redskins,” the Redskins’ fight song. Marshall passed away in 1958 and Corinne remarried a fourth time, this time to Broadway actor Danny Scholl, who was 25 years her junior.

Corinne’s marriage to Scholl lasted just two months before divorce proceedings began. During the divorce hearing, Corinne claimed that she was not Corinne at all. She claimed that Corinne had died and she was actually Corinne’s younger sister. She also denied that she had been previously married. When she was questioned about her true age, Corinne refused to comment, stating that her religion, Christian Science, prevented her from publicly disclosing it. Two actress acquaintances testified against Corinne’s claims, but she stuck by her story… initially. Until she changed it, explaining that she was Corinne’s twin sister, Mary. She insisted that Corinne had died in 1924 and was buried in an unmarked grave in Mexico.

In the wake of her wild claims, Corinne spent her final years writing in seclusion. She focused on non-fiction, including two collections of essays and an analytical book called Not for Men Only – but Almost, that detailed the appeal of sports to men, and its lack of appeal for most women.

Corinne suffered a stroke in 1979 and passed away in the summer at the age of 84. She left behind an estate worth in excess of 150 million dollars, making her one of the richest women of the time.

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