The Terrible Catsafterme

The house chosen in the Spring of 1969 to be used for all exterior shots in the hip-yet-square TV series The Brady Bunch still stands unassumingly in Burbank, California deep in the heart of the San Fernando Valley. The widow who owned the house at the time was paid a very modest sum for its usage, and exterior shots from every angle were gathered. These initial shots were recylced for the entire five-year duration of the series. Although the house wasn’t a two-story dwelling that would match the already-designed interior, producers didn’t care because it captured so well the look of the California middle-class that was trying to be conveyed. In order to correct this slight problem, the answer was to simply add a phony window to the upper level. Read the rest of this entry »

I didn’t expect to have any more celebrity encounters this late in the year, but when Bob sent me an email and the subject was “Caroline Kennedy book signing get your ass there!” – I knew that I better make my best effort to cross paths with her. Caroline is of course the daughter and only remaining living child of President John F. Kennedy. She lived in the White House from just after her third birthday until just after her sixth – when her father was assassinated in Dallas. She herself went on to become a successful attorney and author, and I might I add, quite a natural beauty. Read the rest of this entry »

Had he completed his entire term, our nation’s twelfth President Zachary Taylor might have proven to be one of our weakest due to his complete lack of political involvement before running for the highest office in the land. Because of the fame derived from battlefield victories under his leadership in several major wars including the War of 1812, ‘Old Rough and Ready’, as he was known, became the victor in the 1848 Presidential election. Unfortunately, President Taylor died just 16 months into his term under rather mysterious circumstances. The consensus was that he passed away from dysentery, but some claim that he may have been poisoned. Read the rest of this entry »

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William Henry Harrison became our nation’s ninth President on March 4, 1841. Just thirty-one days later he passed away from pneumonia resulting from giving an incredibly long inauguration speech in the biting cold weather. This, unfortunately, was Harrison’s biggest claim to fame – being the first President to die in office, having the shortest term, and being the oldest President ever elected (until Ronald Reagan broke his record in 1980). Before his short-lived Presidency, he held many imporant roles as well – not the least of which was Governor of the Indiana Territory and as an Ohio Senator, but we will never know what Harrison might accomplished as our country’s Chief Executive. Read the rest of this entry »