A Nice Gun For A Baby
Yes, it’s an unusual photo op. This leads to many questions you may have. How’d the Associated Press find out about the newest Earp? This baby is now 62: how has life been for him? Continue reading
Yes, it’s an unusual photo op. This leads to many questions you may have. How’d the Associated Press find out about the newest Earp? This baby is now 62: how has life been for him? Continue reading
Charles Chaplin and George Bernard Shaw In Honolulu
Honolulu, Hawaii – Charles Chaplin, film comedian, (left) and George Bernard Shaw, playwright, are shown in a Honolulu restaurant when they meet to keep a luncheon engagement – February 26, 1936 photo: International News
When they met for lunch Chaplin and Shaw were both on around the world tours in opposite directions. Chaplin kept Shaw waiting half an hour, which had Shaw fuming. But all was forgiven once Chaplin greeted Shaw at Waikiki Lau Yee Chai Chinese restaurant. Continue reading
Which One Is The Beatle?
Ringo Starr, one of the Beatles, puts a cigarette into mouth of his wax likeness during unveiling at Madame Tussaud’s Waxworks in London today. The museum now feature the Beatles among its replicas of well-known people. photo: AP April 29, 1964.
The Beatles wax figures at Madame Tussaud’s were the first rock band effigies to be displayed at the museum.
In 1967 the figures were lent out for Peter Blake’s photo session used on the cover of the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band. Continue reading
Mary Pickford was born Gladys Smith in 1892. Pickford was the most famous film star in the world for two decades and dubbed “America’s Sweetheart.” Continue reading
Love or a Hollywood beard? Beard is the old term for a man covering his preference for male companionship by being seen with or escorting women in public.
Deanna Durbin Charms In Preview
Hollywood, Calif. – Deanna Durbin previewed her new picture at the Panteges Theater in Hollywood, last night before an enthusiastic crowd which witnessed her picture “Three Smart Girls Grow Up” by Universal.
Photo shows (left to right) Marlene Dietrich, Tyrone Power and Annabella arriving at the Theater. Photo: Acme 3/17/39
In 1938 Tyrone Power placed second in receiving fan mail, right behind Shirley Temple. Power was a major film star form the late 1930s until his death on November 15, 1958 at age 44 from a massive heart attack. Power reportedly smoked three packs of cigarettes a day.
Biographer Hector Arce in his book The Secret Life of Tyrone Power (William Morrow) 1979, claimed Power was bisexual.
A newspaper article by Lucie Neville in 1938 asked a bevy of Hollywood actor-bachelors why they were not married. Among those Neville queried were James Stewart, Edgar Bergen and Tyrone Power. When read today, the responses Neville received are almost comical for the reasons the actors gave for averting matrimony. Continue reading

National League’s Hank Aaron (44) steals second base in sixth inning. Rod Carew takes throw with umpire Mel Steiner on top of play in All-Star game. July 9, 1968 Photo :George Honeycutt Houston Chronicle
While reluctantly watching this year’s baseball All-Star Game there was a pre-game tribute to Hank Aaron who passed away January 22, 2021. This may have been the high point of the evening as the Fox broadcast and the game itself was lacking in any drama or competitiveness.
The All-Star Game has become a love-fest between the players and interleague play has ruined what was once a fierce rivalry between the American and National Leagues. In the 1950 All-Star Game in Chicago, Ted Williams fractured his left elbow making a leaping, off-the-wall catch on a Ralph Kiner smash in the 1st inning. Williams remained in the game, and put the American League ahead, 3 – 2, in the fifth inning with an RBI single. Ted Williams said he was never the same after fracturing his elbow. Williams, like many players went all out playing in the All-Star Game, which is an exhibition game with no meaning in the standings. The AL and NL teams used to badly want to beat the opposition in the annual showdown.
Not anymore. Continue reading
One of Marchers In New York’s May Day Parade
New York – This marcher in the combined Socialist-Communist May Day Parade in New York today, May 1st, adopted this costume to demonstrate his point. 5-1-1936 credit: International News Photo
The original 1936 news caption writer left out one detail about this marcher: Nazi.
Theoretically, communists and socialists are not the allies of fascists. But in the mid-1930s Continue reading
Mayor Walker Gets The Cheese
New York City – Although Mayor Walker was unable to visit Switzerland during his recent rip abroad, the greeting of the Swiss people was brought to him today, along with a 168 pound loaf of Switzerland cheese, the gift of H. Lindt, Staat-Presidente of the city of Berne. The gigantic loaf of cheese, which measures three feet in diameter and is larger than the wheel of a motor truck, was presented by Robert J.F. Schwarzenbach, the Swiss General Consul here. It is the first loaf to bear the imprint of Switzerland, the new name recently decided upon to distinguish the Swiss product from the holed type of cheese now being made in many countries.Photo shows the presentation – Charles Koch and Paul Zulling, in native Swiss costume and left to right – Consul-General Schwarzenbach, Mayor Walker and James Byrne, Borough President of Brooklyn. Photo: Wide World Photos, 10-24-27
The cheese was originally to be given to the mayor at a banquet in Berne, Switzerland during Walker’s European trip. The gift was for the high regard the Swiss felt for the mayor and the people of New York. As the news slug mentions, Walker never got to visit Switzerland.
Upon seeing the gigantic cheese Mayor Walker half joked to his bodyguards Lieutenants Thomas O’Connor and John Howard, “Hurry up and get me a cracker.” They scattered to search for a cracker. Continue reading
Carole Lombard, blonde screen star, killed two kinds of birds with one gun in this skeet shooting match against Fred MacMurray and writer Claude Binyou while on location with Paramount’s “True Confession” company at Lake Arrowhead. Not only did Carole blast the clay pigeons with unerring accuracy. She also bagged two masculine egos, thoroughly puncturing the pretensions of MacMurray (waiting to shoot) and Binyou (operating the trap) to superior marksmanship. photo: Tom Evans for Paramount 1937
Among the many things that drew Clark Gable to Carole Lombard was that she was one of the guys. Lombard was also a favorite among studio stagehands and technicians.
In Gable & Lombard & Powell & Harlow, 1975 (Dell) by Joe Morella and Edward Z. Epstein the following story illustrates the sort of loyalty that made Lombard so appealing. Continue reading
In the mid-90s actor Leslie Nielsen was doing publicity for a comedic book “Bad Golf My Way.” The radio stations who set up interviews with Nielsen expected the star of “Airplane” and “Police Squad / The Naked Gun” to be as witty as the man who was in those movies.
While Leslie Nielsen had a sense of humor he was not a funny man. The public seems to forget that writers write those funny lines for actors to say.
Nielsen did his best, doing four hours of back to back interviews with FM stations across the country. But the radio hosts mostly got a reality check. Just because you’re a comedic actor does not translate into being a funny guest.
On the other hand Bob Uecker was a professional baseball catcher for six seasons in the 1960s who had a career .200 batting average. While Uecker was by his own estimate not a particularly good ballplayer, he was very funny. Uecker parlayed his natural sense of humor into a fifty year career as a baseball announcer and talk show guest, and he is still going strong, The 87-year-old Uecker remains the radio voice of the Milwaukee Brewers.
Here is Uecker’s seventh appearance on The Tonight Show, September 23, 1971.
What makes this clip rare is that for the first 10 years that Carson hosted The Tonight Show from New York, almost every tape was subsequently erased. Continue reading