25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Radio Permalink

Ted Malone

October 25, 2019

Ted Malone, was an American radio broadcaster.

Ted Malone became interested in oral performance when he attended high school in Missouri. He was also a champion debater in college, and graduated from William Jewell College in 1928.

Malone had a long career in radio as a storyteller and reader of poetry.

He was one of the few broadcast interpretationists recorded in the history of radio, his radio programs–spanning three decades on local stations and national networks?perhaps best represent both the initiation and prime of broadcast interpretation.

25 Oct 2019
Television Permalink

Ted Knight

October 25, 2019

Ted Knight was an American actor best known for playing the comedic role of Ted Baxter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Henry Rush on Too Close for Comfort, and Judge Elihu Smails in Caddyshack.

Born Tadeus Wladyslaw Konopka to a Polish-American family in Terryville, Connecticut, Knight dropped out of high school to enlist for military service in World War II, He was a member of A Company, 296th Engineer Combat Battalion, earning five battle stars while serving in the European Theatre.

In 1948, he married Dorothy Smith, and eventually had three children: Ted Knight, Jr., Elyse, and Eric.

During the postwar years, Knight studied acting in Hartford, Connecticut. He became proficient with puppets and ventriloquism, which led to steady work as a television kiddie-show host at WJAR in Providence, Rhode Island from 1950 to 1955. In 1955, he left Providence for Albany, New York, where he landed a job at station WROW-TV, hosting The Early Show featuring MGM movies and a kids? variety show, playing a “Gabby Hayes” type character named “Windy Knight”. He was also a radio announcer for sister station WROW radio. He left the station in 1957 after receiving advice from station manager Thomas S. Murphy that he should take his talents to Hollywood.

25 Oct 2019
Radio, Recording Permalink

Ted Husing

October 25, 2019

Edward Britt Husing was an American sportscaster and was among the first to lay the groundwork for the structure and pace of modern sports reporting on television and radio.

Husing was born in the Bronx, New York — and given the name Edmund. The youngest of three children of immigrant German parents, he was the only one to survive childhood. His father Henry was a fan of middle weight boxing champ Jimmy Edward Britt. By his tenth birthday, the boy’s name was changed to Edward Britt Husing. As a teenager, he took on the tag of “Ted” and the nickname stuck.

At age 16, he joined the National Guard and in World War I was assigned to stand watch over New York’s harbor. Following the war he floated from jobs as carnival barker to payroll clerk. Once he won an audition over 500 applicants for announcer at New York radio station WHN, Husing found his life’s calling. He was schooled under the tutelage of pioneer broadcaster Major J. Andrew White. There he covered breaking news stories, political conventions, and assisted White during football commentaries.

As an announcer, Husings rapid manner of speech earned him the nickname Mile a Minute Husing. His use of descriptive language combined with a commanding voice made his broadcasts a must listen. By 1927, he was voted seventh most popular announcer in a national poll. Following a pay dispute, he moved to Boston where he broadcast Boston Braves baseball games. Later in ’27, he returned to New York and helped his mentor, J. Andrew White, start the new CBS chain. After cigar mogul William S. Paley bought the cash strapped network in 1928, Ted Husing rose to unseen heights of glory and fame.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures Permalink

Taylor Holmes

October 25, 2019

Taylor Holmes was an actor who appeared in over 100 Broadway plays in his five-decade career. However, he’s probably best remembered for his film roles, which he began in silent movies in 1917 before working more in films than on stage in the 1940s. Holmes played a number of memorable roles, including the gullible millionaire conned in Nightmare Alley, a shifty lawyer in Kiss of Death and the voice of King Stefan in Disney’s animated feature Sleeping Beauty – Holmes’ last credited screen role. He was married to actress Edna Phillips and was the father of actors Phillips Holmes, Madeleine Taylor Holmes, and Ralph Holmes.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Tallulah Bankhead

October 25, 2019

Tallulah Brockman Bankhead was an American actress, talk-show host, and .

Bankhead was born in Huntsville, Alabama to William Brockman Bankhead and Adelaide Eugenia “Ada” Bankhead. She was named after her paternal grandmother. Her mother died as a result of blood poisoning on February 23, 1902, shortly after Tallulah’s birth. Tallulah has been described as “an extremely homely child”, overweight and with a deep, husky voice resulting from chronic bronchitis. However, others described her as an exhibitionist, performer, personality, and star from the very beginning.

She came from the powerful Bankhead and Brockman political family, active in the Democratic Party in the South in general and Alabama in particular. Her father was the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1936?1940, immediately preceding Sam Rayburn.

She was the niece of Senator John H. Bankhead II and granddaughter of Senator John H. Bankhead. Bankhead herself was a Democrat, albeit one of a more liberal stripe than the rest of her family. Her elder sister and only sibling, Evelyn Eugenia was known as “Sister”. Tallulah’s family sent her to various schools in a vain attempt to keep her out of trouble, which included several years at a Roman Catholic convent school. Bankhead herself would be raised as a Methodist.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures Permalink

Sylvester Stallone

October 25, 2019

Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone, nicknamed Sly Stallone, is an American actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, and film director. Stallone is known for his machismo and Hollywood action roles. Two of the notable characters he has portrayed include boxer Rocky Balboa and soldier John Rambo. The Rocky and Rambo franchises, along with several other films, strengthened his reputation as an actor and his box office earnings.

Stallone’s film Rocky was inducted into the National Film Registry as well as having its film props placed in the Smithsonian Museum. Stallone’s use of the front entrance to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the Rocky series led the area to be nicknamed the Rocky Steps. Philadelphia has a statue of his Rocky character placed permanently near the museum, on the right side before the steps.

Sylvester Stallone was born in New York City, the son of Frank Stallone, Sr., an Italian immigrant hairdresser, and Jackie Stallone, an astrologer, former dancer, and promoter of women’s wrestling. He is the brother of actor and musician Frank Stallone. Stallone’s father was born in Castellammare Del Golfo, Sicily, and emigrated to the United States as a child, while Stallone’s mother was of Russian Jewish and French descent.

Complications his mother suffered during labor forced her obstetricians to use two pairs of forceps during his birth; misuse of these accidentally severed a nerve and caused paralysis in parts of Stallone’s face. As a result, the lower left side of his face is paralyzed, including parts of his lip, tongue, and chin, an accident which has given Stallone his trademark snarling look and slightly slurred speech. He spent his first five years in Hell’s Kitchen, bouncing between foster homes while his parents endured a loud, troubled marriage. Eventually reunited with them, Stallone’s odd face made him an outcast in school, where he was often suspended for fighting, other behavior problems, and poor grades. His father, a beautician, moved the family to Washington DC, where he opened a beauty school. His mother opened a women’s gymnasium called Barbella’s in 1952.} They divorced when Stallone was 11, and he was later sent to a special high school for “troubled kids,” where he was voted “most likely to end up in the electric chair”.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Susan Saint James

October 25, 2019

Susan Saint James is an American actress and activist, most widely known for her work in television during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.

Born Susan Jane Miller in Los Angeles, California to a Connecticut family, Saint James was raised in Rockford, Illinois where she began modeling as a teenager. During this time, she attended the Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart in Lake Forest, Illinois. She later attended the Connecticut College for Women. Saint James became a household name at the age of 22, starring as an editorial assistant, Peggy Maxwell, on The Name of the Game. Then came starring roles as Rock Hudson's younger supportive wife, Sally McMillan, in a popular 1970s crime drama, McMillan & Wife, and as Jane Curtin's childhood friend, Kate McArdle, in a 1980s sitcom, Kate & Allie.

At 20, she moved to California where she began her acting career. Among her early television appearances were two episodes of the first season of Ironside. She also had a supporting role in the sequel to The Trouble with Angels: Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows. From 1968 to 1971, she had a regular part in the series The Name of the Game, winning an Emmy Award for her role in 1969. At the same time she had a recurring role as Chuck, Alexander Mundy's fellow thief and "friend with benefits" in four episodes of the series It Takes a Thief. She also appeared in the pilot episode of Alias Smith and Jones. From 1971 until 1976, she played Sally McMillan opposite Rock Hudson in the series McMillan & Wife and received four Emmy Award nominations.

25 Oct 2019
Television Permalink

Suzanne Pleshette

October 25, 2019

Suzanne Pleshette was an American actress, on stage, screen and television.

After beginning her career in theatre, she began appearing in films in the early 1960s, such as Rome Adventure and Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds. She later appeared in various television productions, often in guest roles, and played the role of Emily Hartley on The Bob Newhart Show from 1972 until 1978, receiving Emmy Award nominations for her work.

She continued acting until 2004, and died from respiratory failure as a result of lung cancer in 2008.

Pleshette was born in Brooklyn Heights, New York City, of Russian Jewish heritage. Her mother, Geraldine, was a dancer and artist who performed under the stage name Geraldine Rivers. Her father, Eugene Pleshette, was a stage manager, network executive and manager of the Paramount Theater in Brooklyn. She graduated from Manhattan’s High School of Performing Arts and then attended Syracuse University for one semester before transferring to Finch College.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Recording Permalink

Sylvia Sidney

October 25, 2019

Sylvia Sidney was an American actress most notable for her performances in gangster movies of the 1920s and 1930s.

Sidney, born Sophia Kosow in The Bronx, New York, was the daughter of Rebecca, a Romanian Jew, and Victor Kosow, a Russian Jewish immigrant who worked as a clothing salesman. The area from which Victor Kosow came from is today in Belarus. Her parents divorced by 1915 and she was adopted by her stepfather, Sigmund Sidney, a dentist. Her mother became a dressmaker and renamed herself Beatrice Sidney. Now using the surname Sidney, she became an actress at the age of fifteen as a way of overcoming shyness. As a student of the Theater Guild’s School for Acting, Sidney appeared in several of their productions during the 1920s and earned praise from theater critics. In 1926, she was seen by a Hollywood talent scout and made her first film appearance later that year.

During the Depression, Sidney appeared in a string of films, often playing the girlfriend or the sister of a gangster. She appeared opposite such heavyweight screen idols as Spencer Tracy, Henry Fonda, Joel McCrea, Fredric March, George Raft, and Cary Grant. Among her films from this period were:

An American Tragedy, City Streets and Street Scene, Alfred Hitchcock’s Sabotage and Fritz Lang’s Fury, You Only Live Once, Dead End and The Trail of the Lonesome Pine an early three-strip Technicolor film.