The Terrible Catsafterme

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 »

Most people would have thought it a little strange – in fact even I thought it a little strange. As I approached Adriana Caselotti at the Hollywood Collectors Show on June 24, 1995 to purchase an autograph, she began singing to me Someday My Prince Will Come. Of course this wasn’t quite as bizarre as it sounds if you know that Adriana Caseloti provided the voice for none-other-than Snow White in Walt Disney’s very first animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Now as a professed Disneyphile, this is an incredible memory to have, even though it was a bit strange and off-putting at the time. Read the rest of this entry »

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 »