Entries
Dig a hole: A.C. Lyles, the man from Paramount
New Year's Eve, 2001, the first year I ever rang out the old in a warm climate. Who says I'm not connected? While on vacation in Hollywood, a friend of a friend who worked in the Paramount mailroom had arranged …
Dig a hole: Jerry G. Bishop, the architect of Svengoolie
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/sep/19/53443/ He was Chicago television's answer to SCTV's 'Count' Floyd Robertson, a professional broadcaster picking up change on the side while dressed in a sub-Ben Cooper Halloween getup and telling jokes between commercial breaks on a low budget kid's horror-movie …
Dig a hole: Noise reduction pioneer Ray Dolby
"I was never a gold-digger, or an Oscar-digger, or anything like that. I just had an instinct about the right sort of things that should be done in my business. So all these things just fell into place." -- Dr. …
Dig a hole: Cal Worthington
Never so much as a rank and file member of the motion picture industry, Calvin Coolidge "Cal" Worthington's presence was felt in practically every film produced during Hollywood's golden era. At one point or another, his crass commercial spiels and …
Dig a divot: Munchkin Margaret Pellegrini is really most sincerely dead
Will Ruth Robinson Duccini or Jerry Maren be next?
As hole digger I must aver, the Phoenix coroner examined her. And she's not only merely dead, she's really most sincerely dead. Margaret Pellegrini, the hip-switching Munchkin City looker with the flowerpot headdress -- and until today one of only …
Dig a hole: the San Diego Film Commission
Their website is no more. The final post on their Facebook page says it all: "After nearly 40 years of serving the film industry in the region, the San Diego Film Commission will close its doors today. We thank you …
Dig a pool: Esther Williams
Esther Williams was an odd footnote to movie history. The record-setting competitive swimmer found a place in Hollywood where, in the '40's and '50's, she left her watermark on a series of "aquamusicals". If you find today's movies lacking in …
Dig a hole: Steve Forrest
"S.W.A.T." star and Dana Andrews' younger brother
http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/may/23/46129/ Steve Forrest, movie actor, Lt. Hondo Harrelson on TV's S.W.A.T., and dependable Dana Andrews' real-life kid brother, is dead. For years I couldn't see the Forrest for the Andrews. (It must have had something to do with countless childhood …
Dig a hole: Dr. Joyce Brothers
Dr. Joyce Brothers was a celebrity in the truest sense of the word; a person famous for being famous. She rose to fame in 1955 by competing on the TV program, The $64,000 Question. Dr. Joyce originally entered the show …
Dig a hole and Tulips Shall Grow: Ray Harryhausen
Never mind the above-the-line talent: Ray Harryhausen was one of the few special visual effects creators whose name in the advertising guaranteed butts in seats. Harryhausen's Dynamation sequences, his patented brand of model animation, were the stop motion equivalent of …
Dig a hole: Jack Shea, three-time president of the DGA
Jack Shea. The name sounded so familiar. The rest of the world probably remembers Shea's contributions to television history through the number of popular shows he directed, but why am I having such a tough time making a connection? There …
Dig a hole: Deanna Durbin
Allow me not to be the first to say, "Was Deanna Durbin still alive?" She was a huge star in her day, Universal's answer to Shirley Temple. In 1946 Deanna Durbin was the second highest paid woman in America. Bette …
Dig a hole: Jonathan Winters
God must have been in dire need of a good laugh. Someone please inform Jerry, Albert, Howard, and Joan they are free to move one rung up the ladder of living comic legends. Jonathan Winters died yesterday. He was 87. …
Dig a hole: Mickey Rose
Woody Allen's former writing partner was 77
http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/apr/11/43568/ The man responsible for many of the howls contained in three of Woody Allen's earliest and funniest movies is dead. Mickey Rose, co-author of What's Up, Tiger Lily?, Take the Money and Run, and Bananas died of cancer Sunday …
David Elliott remembers Roger Ebert
Former Chicago rival recalls Ebert before Siskbert
Where was I when Roger Ebert died? He'd have been proud. I was all alone in the Clairemont Town Square with pen in hand covering G.I. Joe Retaliation. Ebert lived to be the most influential film critic the world has …
Dig a hole: 'Stooge woman' Sally Starr
Philadelphians remember Sally Starr as the cowgirl host of Popeye Theater, a daily after school outlet for Popeye and Clutch Cargo cartoons as well as Three Stooges shorts. The show ran from 1954 to 1971. According to the Philadelphia Enquirer, …
Dig a hole: Michael Winner
http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/jan/21/38741/ I read the news today, oh boy. Death Wish(es) director Michael Winner kept his appointment with death. Michael Winner brought me more entertainment, albeit unintentional, than just about any living director. Death Wish 3 is oxygen to my lungs! …
Dig a hole: Conrad Bain
Pictured: Conrad Bain at the 2003 TV Land Awards. The actor who helped Woody Allen test coffins in Bananas is now being fitted for one. Conrad Bain — Maude's nemesis, Arnold's dad, and Mr. President George C. Scott's Chief of …