"After viewing the situation from all sides, Mr. Laurel says that he is thoroughly reconciled to the fact that the moving picture industry is still in its infancy." - Radio announcer, "Me and My Pal"
Rand Brooks achieved fame for his role in Gone With the Wind, playing the pivotal role of Charles Hamilton, brother to the character of Melanie’s brother and first husband of Scarlett O’Hara. The victim of battle in the Civil War, his scenes are confined to the beginning of the film. Rand went on to star in more than 100 various roles in both films and television until he retired from acting. He passed away in 2003. Read the rest of this entry »
Although he’d never being accused of being our greatest Commander-in-Chief, our nation’s 38th President entered the arena at a time when it seemed like the government was falling apart. Appointed the 40th Vice-President by Richard Nixon after the resignation of Spiro Agnew, it was a mere nine months later that he ascended to the Presidency as the only President to never have been elected to a National office. During his abridged single term of office from 1974-77, he became noted for the pardon of President Nixon, the withdrawal of troops from Vietnam, his attack on inflation (W.I.N. – Whip Inflation Now), the occasional embarassing pratfall, but most importantly as a good and decent man who capably filled the vacancy in the White House after the Watergate scandal had rocked the nation and our President resigned his office. Read the rest of this entry »
Of note at the Hollywood Collectors Show on June 24, 1995, was my encounter with Art Hindle. He had an impressive array of film and even more television credits that included guest roles on such TV shows as Starsky and Hutch, Baretta, Barnaby Jones, and Murder, She Wrote. But it was the first two films in the Porky’s franchise from which I knew him best. He played Ted Jarvis, the Angel Beach police officer and older brother of Mickey, who memorably assists in the revenge on Porky and his brother-in-law cop, played by Alex Karras. Read the rest of this entry »
One of the best and most memorable vacations that I ever took came during the Summer of 1977. As an impressionable lad of five, I’m quite convinced that it was this trip that solidified my love of Florida, Disney World, and vacations in general. Although I can’t be 100%certain of the dates of this trip, two photos from it were given by my parents to my Grandma Range. She dated the back of each photo as June 6, 1977. Although each photo was likely taken on a different day of the trip (one was at Disney and the other was out to eat at the Kapok Tree with Ira and Mildred), I have no reason to doubt that this was a valid date during the trip. Read the rest of this entry »
It had been eight years since I had been on the west coast, but it had been even longer since I had seen Penn & Teller perform live, ten years having passed since I last saw them locally at the Fraze Pavillion in Kettering. So the one request I made of Jimmy was that we go to Las Vegas and catch the bad boys of magic live at the Rio – and he obliged. In fact, when Bob heard that we were going to head out to Vegas, he decided to forego his weekend at Lone Pine and go along with us. Maybe he didn’t like his friends venturing out onto his turf without him, or maybe he thought the city would swallow us alive – but nonetheless he decided that we would all go to Vegas together. Read the rest of this entry »