The Terrible Catsafterme

Among the sea of midget actors and actresses in the classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, one of the faces everyone would be sure to recognize is that of Jerry Maren. Standing three feet, four inches at the time, nineteen-year old Jerry was the middle member of the Lollipop Guild, the trio of Munchkins who hand Dorothy a giant lollipop upon her arrival to Oz. As a big fan of The Wizard of Oz, I have been pleased to meet Jerry Maren on three different occasions. Read the rest of this entry »

I had had virtually three full days in a row of traveling and sightseeing in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Charleston, South Carolina – and I was ready to spend my last day of my final major trip of 2009 relaxing in Myrtle Beach on Friday, July 31. The exhaustion I felt at that point actually allowed me to sleep a full eight hours that night before waking up to a bit of bacon and eggs…and two visitors. Read the rest of this entry »

Richie Scarlet is not a Big 7 member, but he plays one on stage. He had worked with former KISS member Ace Frehley in the first incarnations of his solo band and then returned to be a prominent player on this third solo studio album Trouble Walkin’. This album was cool in that it was technically as much of the original KISS as KISS themselves then were, as it also featured drummer Peter Criss as a guest performer on a few tracks. Read the rest of this entry »

Although Candy Clark has a handful of film credits, her most famous role by far was in American Graffiti. She portrayed the blonde Connie Stevens-ish Debbie Dunham so well that she was nominated for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. She always fascinated me in this role in her shy but sexy portrayal of this mysterious woman capable of getting Terry the Toad into all sorts of trouble. Candy might also be seen in such films as The Big Sleep, Cat’s Eye, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Zodiac. Read the rest of this entry »