Hollywood – (U.P. by Aline Mosby) December 16, 1954 — The latest gift to local television viewers is a buxom blonde in a negligee who kisses the TV screen and murmers “Welcome to my boudior…our special hideaway.” The bosomy beauty, called Voluptua, is a new star on the local ABC TV station that already has […]
LOVES CHAPLIN; SEEKS TO DIE Romantic Girl Asserts She Took Poison Found Lying in Street at Home of Star Gives Comedian and Pola Three Hard Days Los Angeles Times, May 2, 1923 A husky young Castilian senorita with cinema ambitions and a hundred-proof Charlie Chaplin complex is Marina Vega, 15-year-old belle from the calles of […]
The mysterious John Montague, perhaps the greatest golfer never to have a won a professional tournament. His exploits on and off the green were legendary, and you, too, will be amazed once you read about him. From the Smithsonian Magazine, June 2008. Montague the Magnificent He was a golfing wonder, a dapper strongman and the […]
Conflicting. STAR COMEDIENNE CAUGHT IN A RAID. MARGARET GIBSON, PICTURE ACTRESS, ARRESTED. Taken with Others on Charge of Violating Rooming-house Ordinance, but She Asserts Her Innocence and Authorities will Make Further Inquiry. Los Angeles Times, Aug. 26, 1917 — Margaret Gibson, moving picture comedy star, was arrested late yesterday afternoon and lodged in the City […]
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John Wagstaff as Popeye in 1935. From Life Magazine (Oct. 4, 1937) : Sirs: Enclosed find photos of a friend, Mr. John Wagstaff of this city, who has a face that he can readily screw into various positions and shapes. He does not use any artificial makeup or teeth removing. It’s just a natural […]
“They would murder me if they thought I was afraid of them. And I’ll tell you the truth – I am. Man, when I’m in there with those cats, I’m acting.” — Dick Walker, the resident lion tamer at Jungleland in Thousand Oaks. Here he is in 1960, preparing for an appearance at a fair […]
“It’s for your good! You have no business being sick – everyone of you should get well and get up and go to work, huh? Get up and go to work and earn some money and help send the gospel out! Amen!” — Sister Aimee Semple McPherson AIMEE HORRIFIED BY PARIS NIGHT […]
May Isabel Betteridge (1905-1984) was one of the most photographed models in Los Angeles from 1927-1935. She later became an amateur archaeologist. She was born in Rhode Island in 1905. Her father, John Thomas Betteridge, came to the U.S. from Ireland and her mother, Mary, immigrated from Britain. The Betteridges married in Massachusetts and had […]
“I have no whine at fate. I began with nothing and have ended with more money than is good for one. . . I write because I love to. . . I have perhaps less academic training than any man who has ever succeeded at writing in America. . . I will never be the […]