The Terrible Catsafterme

President James A. Garfield is a name virtually lost among the United States Presidents. Having served just six months and fifteen days of office – the second shortest term of any President – he was shot on July 2, 1881 by a disgruntled Federal office seeker named Charles Guiteau. For the last two and a half months of his term, Garfield lay incapacitated until he finally succumbed from the gunshot wound on September 19. It has been argued that it was really the ineptitude of his doctors that actually caused his death, but nevertheless Garfield is considered the second of four assassinated Presidents. Read the rest of this entry »

Betty Lou Gerson was a character actress who could be seen in numerous televsion shows throughout the 1950’s and 60’s – most notably in one of my favorites The Twilight Zone, in which she starred in the episode Ring-A-Ding Girl. But Ms. Gerson really sealed her fame when she was cast to voice the evil vixen Cruella de Vil (To see her is to take a sudden chill) in Walt Disney’s 1961 animated feature 101 Dalmations. Read the rest of this entry »

Tippi Hedren is best known for her role as Melanie Daniels in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 thriller The Birds…and little else. Although Hitch tried to make her a big star by casting her as leading role in this film as well as the lesser-acclaimed Marnie, it never really happened for her. She was quickly relegated to low-budget films and fleeting television appearances (but did also star in A Countess From Hong Kong, notable as the last film of Charlie Chaplin).

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As our nation’s nineteenth President from 1877-81, Rutherford B. Hayes had the good fortune to serve his single term during a quiet part of American history. He effectively ended reconstruction of the South following the tumultuous Civil War…and the Spanish-American War was still seven years away following his term. This means that although he did a good job in office, today he is relegated to the bin of ‘forgotten Presidents’ In fact, most grade school students will likely only remember Hayes for his seemingly out-of-control chin whiskers. Read the rest of this entry »

You could have knocked me over with a feather-duster on September 23, 1998 when my sister called me to inform me of the latest celebrity passing. The fact that she was only age 55 didn’t even enter my mind but I just couldn’t fathom that fact that Mary Frann, the lady who had played Joanna Louden, wife of Bob Newhart’s character Dick Louden, on one of my all-time favorite sitcoms Newhart was now gone. It had only been less than one year since I had sent her an autograph request on September 28, 1997. Read the rest of this entry »