Born in Hooker, Oklahoma, young Sandra Giles moved to Los Angeles with her single mother as a child. Sandra was discovered by a press agent while she was working as a waitress at Canter’s Delicatessen. Not content with being touted as the next “Blonde Bombshell,” Sandra began drama classes at Los Angeles City College.

In 1958, Sandra was cast in three, low-budget films with a teen audience in mind. Later that year, she showed up at the premier of the Clark Gable film Teacher’s Pet in a furry, pink Cadillac convertible. Life Magazine photographers chronicled the publicity appearance in a two-page spread called “The Blond from Hooker.” The pictorial also featured shots of Sandra in a bubble bath.

In 1963, Sandra landed her biggest role, opposite Elvis Presley in It Happened at the World’s Fair. She later appeared in small roles in other films, as well as episodic television. In the 70s, Sandra dated tennis star Bobby Riggs and appeared with him in an episode of the sitcom The Odd Couple. Her on-screen demand dwindled to one or two roles per year and she finished her career with a cameo in an episode of Columbo.

Sandra passed away in 2016 from complications from bullous pemphigoid, a chronic autoimmune skin disease. She was 84.

Comments

comments

Twenty year-old fashion model Susan Hayward headed to Hollywood with dreams of becoming a movie star. Like most hopeful actresses, Susan started in some bit parts in some “B” pictures. Some of her roles never made it past the editing room. It was producer Walter Wagner who, taking a chance on the young actress, launched her career. Signing Susan to a multi-year contract worth a whopping $100,000, Wagner cast her in Canyon Passage in 1946.

Susan became an in-demand actress with her first of five Academy Award nominations for Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman,  in 1947.  Susan was paired with top actors, like Clark Gable, Robert Mitchum and Charlton Heston in numerous big-screen blockbusters through the 1940s and 1950s. Susan was famously cast by Howard Hughes in his misguided epic The Conquerer starring John Wayne in full racist make-up as Genghis Khan. The Conquerer was filmed near a government testing site for atomic weapons and an overwhelming majority of the cast and crew contracted cancer, including  John Wayne, Agnes Moorehead, Pedro Armendáriz (who took his own life), and director Dick Powell. The film was panned. She redeemed her reputation the following year and won an Oscar for her portrayal of convicted murderer Barbara Graham in 1958’s I Want to Live, her last film for producer Walter Wagner.

In the 1960s, Susan’s career began to decline. She replaced Judy Garland in the camp classic Valley of the Dolls and made a succession of forgettable failures.

In 1973, Susan was diagnosed with brain cancer. She continued to act for as long as her health would allow. Susan made her final on-screen appearance at the 1974 Academy Awards as a presenter with one-time co-star Charlton Heston. She passed away in early 1975 at the age of 57.

Comments

comments

Beautiful Carol Vitale grew up in northern New Jersey, where she was popular in high school. She was a track star and dated the captain of the football team. Upon graduation, Carol and a friend moved to Florida. Carol’s good looks immediately secured her employment as a model for Oldsmobile, leading to a job as spokeswoman at a Florida racetrack.

Soon, Carol found herself as a finalist in the “Miss Florida World” beauty pageant. Afterwards, she began her five-year stint as a bunny at the Miami Playboy Club. Carol graced the cover of the August 1972 issue of Playboy. Two years later, she was named “Playmate of the Month” in the July 1974 issue. Carol made three more pictorial appearances in the publication.

In 1979, Carol headed to California, where a job in the Publicity Department at Universal Studios sparked her interest in broadcasting. She earned a degree in broadcasting and in 1989, began hosting The Carol Vitale Show, a talk-format program that ran on the USA Network for eleven years. During this time, Carol dabbled in fashion design, introducing a line of lingerie gloves marketed by both Playboy and Frederick’s of Hollywood.

In later years, Carol’s health deteriorated. Suffering from the ravages of lupus and scleroderma, Carol ended her own life in 2008 with a self-inflicted gunshot.

Comments

comments

James Dean in that Mercury ’49 
Junior Johnson runnin’ thru the woods of Caroline 
Even Burt Reynolds in that black Trans-Am 
All gonna meet down at the Cadillac Ranch

Comments

comments

Ephraim Hawthorne opened a bakery in Saint Andrew, Jamaica, selling “family recipes” to the locals. In 1989, 29 year-old Lowell Hawthorne brought his father’s dream to the United States, opening the first Golden Krust Caribbean Bakery & Grill in The Bronx. The restaurant duplicated some of Ephraim’s most popular recipes including Jamaican patties, a flaky pastry filled with meat and vegetables. Golden Krust also served jerk chicken and fish, as well as other Caribbean specialties. Lowell’s goal was to make Jamaican cuisine as popular in the United States as other ethnic foods, like pizza, bagels, and Asian noodles. With money pooled from family members, Lowell opened Golden Krust’s first retail location to an overwhelmingly positive reception.

In 1996, Golden Krust opened a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, expanding their distribution to supermarkets. The company won a contract with New York City to provide meals to prison inmates. At the same time, more Golden Krust restaurants sprung up all over New York with expansion to New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Florida, Maryland, North Carolina and Massachusetts — growing to over one hundred locations. The company received industry accolades and Lowell Hawthorne, its CEO, was the recipient of numerous awards and recognition. In May 2016, Lowell was featured in an episode of the reality series Undercover Boss, where he discovered that some of his chefs “aren’t on the same cookbook page.”

On December 2, 2017, Lowell Hawthorne shot himself inside the Golden Krust factory in The Bronx. He left no note and his suicide confounded his family and colleagues. Lowell was 57 years old.

Comments

comments