Twelve-year old Millie Small won the Vere Johns (the Jamaican Ted Mack) talent contest in her native Jamaica. She recorded a few songs that became hits on Jamaican radio. These songs made their way to Chris Blackwell, noted hitmaker and founder of Island Records, one of England’s biggest independent labels. Blackwell brought Millie to London where she began an extensive regimen of dance and diction training. Blackwell hand-picked the song “My Boy Lollipop,” a cover of a tune by The Cadillacs, to become Millie’s next single. Released in 1964, it shot to the top a many international charts, becoming the first ska influenced hit. It also became the first international hit for Island Record. Millie was tagged “The Blue Beat Girl,” for introducing a hybrid sound of rhythm & blues and reggae.

Millie appeared on a 1964 Beatles TV special. This led to bookings on numerous other music programs. She began a brief affair with Peter Asher of Peter & Gordon, a relationship she later denied. A surge of popularity of reggae insured more opportunities for Millie, but, sadly she found herself broke and destitute in the late 1980s. She disappeared from the public eye, even failing to appear at an awards ceremony in Jamaica where she was honored with a lifetime achievement presentation.

In 2012, Millie granted a rare interview with Goldmine Magazine, where she revealed that Rod Stewart played harmonica on “My Boy Lollipop” and that she received no royalties for the recording.

Millie passed away on May 5, 2020 at her home in England. She was 72.

Comments

comments

Melville See Jr. graduated from Princeton University and headed to University of Arizona to take graduate courses in anthropology. In June 1962, he married photographer and fellow student Linda Eastman, an art major whose mother was killed in a plane crash just a few months earlier. By the end of the year, the couple became parents of Heather Louise See. Unfortunately, the young couple soon discovered their dissimilar lifestyles and they divorced in 1965.

In 1967, while on a photography assignment in London, newly-single Linda met Paul McCartney at a club. She met him again at a party at Brian Epstein’s house for the release of the Beatles album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Linda and her daughter began spending a lot of time with Paul. They eventually left their New York home and moved to London. Paul and Heather, who was six, bonded immediately. Paul told Linda that he had always dreamed of having children.

Friends noticed that Linda had a calming effect on Paul, putting him at ease during the hectic business of “being a Beatle.” They married in March of 1969. Paul had grown depressed after the Beatles break-up. He credits Linda with bringing him out of it. Paul wrote “Maybe I’m Amazed” for his wife. Paul and Linda had three children together and Paul legally adopted Heather. Melville had been out of his daughter’s life for years.

However, Paul wrote another song that referenced Linda’s past. The character “Jo Jo” mentioned in the Beatles song “Get Back” is Melville See Jr., whose actual first name was Joseph.

In March 2000, an on-again-off-again girlfriend discovered the body of Melville See Jr. in his home in the desert of Tuscon, Arizona. He had a single gunshot wound in his head and a gun lay nearby. He was 62 years old. He left no note.

Comments

comments

Catherine Hukill expressed an interest in acting as a teenager in her native Chicago. She performed a song-and-dance act with her cousin in several local productions. In the middle 1920s, she teamed up with Frank Faylen and toured the vaudeville circuit as “Faylen and Hughes,” where she played the role of the “dumb girl” to the delight of audiences. In 1928, she married Faylen. Soon, the couple headed to Hollywood to persue careers in movies.

After signing on as a contract player with Warner Brothers, her name was changed to “Carol Hughes” by studio executives. She was given bit parts in a number of “B” pictures. She worked her way up to speaking roles, eventually landing lead roles in Meet the Boy Friend, Marry the Girl, Renfrew of the Royal Mounted, and The Westland Case, all in 1937.

The late 1930s saw Carol transition to Westerns, appearing opposite Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, the two biggest cowboy stars on the silver screen. In 1940, she was cast in her most notable role — “Dale Arden,” femme fatale to Buster Crabbe’s heroic “Flash Gordon” in the 12-part serial Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe, the last of the “Flash Gordon” serials for Universal Pictures.

The 40s saw Carol’s roles dwindle to small parts in Mighty Joe Young and The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer. She returned to the stage, although she took a few more small roles in the early 1950s before calling it a career. Her husband, Frank Faylen, enjoyed a successful career as a character actor with more than 200 credits over five decades. Despite appearances in It’s A Wonderful Life, Gone With The Wind, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and even Funny Girl, Faylen is best remembered as irascible grocer “Herbert T. Gillis,” father of the title character on the sitcom The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. Carol remained married to Faylen for 57 years until his death in 1985.

Carol passed away in 1995 at the age of 85, after being retired from show business for nearly 40 years.

Comments

comments

Duncan Hines worked tirelessly, criss-crossing the country selling letter openers and paper clips, as well as printing services for a Chicago based company. His sales routes took him all over, forcing stays in hotels and meals in one restaurant after another. In 1920s America, there were very few (if any) chain restaurants, so Duncan frequented single location eateries — each with varying degrees of quality. Duncan made notes of the good places — the ones that offered a substantial meal at a reasonable price. (A “reasonable price” in Duncan’s opinion was $1.35for a full-course meal.) He began making notes and compiling lists of the best places and the greatest values. He insisted on inspecting the kitchens of each dining establishment he visited. Duncan distributed his list to friends who were traveling. Soon, he self-published his findings in a book called Adventures in Good Eating. The book was so popular, it led to Duncan’s three-day-a-week syndicated column, also called Adventures in Good Eating. The column appeared in newspapers across the country and became the authority for travelers.

Through a deal with the Durkee’s Bakery Company of Homer, New York, Duncan introduced his own line of bread. After a year of success with his first foray into the baked goods business, he teamed up with entrepreneur Roy H. Park to form Hines-Park Foods. The new company licensed the “Duncan Hines” name to various companies, including Nebraska Consolidated Mills, who produced cake mixes. In 1957, Nebraska Consolidated Mills sold the cake mix business to the consumer products company Procter & Gamble. The company expanded the business to the national market and added a series of related products.

Duncan Hines passed away in 1959, eleven days before his 79th birthday. “Duncan Hines” is one of the most widely recognized and respected brands of consumer food products. Not bad for a guy who couldn’t cook.

Comments

comments

Upon his discharge from the US Navy after World War II, Herk Harvey took a teaching position in the drama department at the University of Kansas. He decided against a career in chemical engineering, the trade he mastered in the service, opting to use the directorial experience he gained before the war.

Herk did some acting on the side at Centron Corporation, an independent industrial and educational film production company in Lawrence, Kansas. He eventually joined the staff at Centron as a director and writer. He made numerous films for corporations and governmental use. He worked with a variety of name stars over the years, including Walter Pidgeon, Rowan and Martin, Dennis Day, Louis Nye, Billy Barty, Anita Bryant, Eddie Albert, Ed Ames, Jesse White, and Ricardo Montalban. He won many awards for his work, including the highest honors from the American Film Festival. Herk was praised for the special effects innovations that he developed while working at Centron.

In 1961, Herk was returning from a work-related film shoot in California. He passed an abandoned resort called Saltair on the southern shore of the Great Salt Lake in Utah. He was taken by the ornate building and recruited John Clifford, a co-worker at Centron, to write the screenplay for a film idea based on the resort. Herk took three weeks off from work to film around Lawrence, Kansas and Salt Lake City, Utah. He raised $17,000 for his initial budget, getting an additional $13,000 on deferment. He hired an assistant director. Reza Badiyi, a young immigrant who was just beginning his film work in the United States. (Badiyi would go on to create some of the most well-known, iconic television series openings and montages, including: Hawaii Five-O, Get Smart, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show.) Through arrangements with local government, Herk was permitted free access to film on a bridge, providing he repair any damage his crew created. He ended up paying $38 to fix a guard rail through which a car crashed on the bridge. Herk bribed a salesgirl to allow him to film for thirty minutes in a Lawrence department store. The only cast member that received compensation was Candace Hilligoss, a budding professional actress who played the lead role of “Mary.” Candace received $2000. The result of Herk’s efforts was the supernatural horror film Carnival of Souls.

Released in late 1962, Carnival of Souls was panned by critics. Disappointed by its poor showing, Herk returned to Centron and never directed another commercial film again. However, in later years, Carnival of Souls gained a cult following and has since been praised for its foreboding atmosphere and homage to German expressionist cinema. George Romero and David Lynch have both cited Carnival of Souls as inspiration for their own work.

After retiring from Centron, Herk became a regular on the horror convention circuit where he signed autographs and posed for pictures with fans. When asked why he only directed one film, Herk would quickly reply, “I directed over 400 films!”

Herk passed away in 1996 at his home in Lawrence. He was 71. The Academy Film Archive selected Carnival of Souls for preservation in 2012.

Comments

comments