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.

Edward Bridge ?Ted? Danson III is an American actor best known for his role as central character Sam Malone in the sitcom Cheers, and his role as Dr. John Becker on the series Becker. He also was on Larry David’s HBO sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm, starred alongside Glenn Close in legal drama Damages and is now a regular on the HBO comedy series Bored to Death.

In his thirty-year career, Danson has been nominated for fourteen Primetime Emmy Awards, winning two; ten Golden Globe Awards nominations, winning three; one Screen Actors Guild Awards nomination; one American Comedy Award and a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. He was ranked second in TV Guide’s list of the top 25 television stars.

Danson was born in San Diego, California, the son of Jessica Danson and Edward Bridge Danson, Jr., an archaeologist and museum director. He was raised in Flagstaff, Arizona.

In 1961, he enrolled in the prestigious Kent School where he was a basketball star. He became interested in drama while attending Stanford University. He transferred to the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in drama, in 1972.

Ted Mack, born as William Edward Maguiness, was the host of Ted Mack and the Original Amateur Hour on radio and television.

In the late 1920s clarinetist Mack formed a dance band, under his real name. A nightclub owner didn’t like how “Edward Maguiness” looked on his marquee, so he impulsively changed the bandleader’s name to the shorter and snappier “Ted Mack.” The name stuck. The Original Amateur Hour began on radio in 1934 as Major Bowes’ Amateur Hour, and ran until 1946 when Major Bowes, the creator, died. Mack, a talent scout who had directed the show under Bowes, revived it in 1948 for ABC Radio and the DuMont Television Network.

It lasted on radio until 1952 and until 1970 on television, where it ran on all four major networks, ending as a Sunday afternoon CBS staple. A success in the early days of television, the program set the stage for numerous programs seeking talented stars, from The Gong Show to Star Search to American Idol to America’s Got Talent.

Auditions for the show were generally held in New York’s Radio City Music Hall. Those who passed the initial screening were invited to compete on the program, featuring amateurs whose performance were judged by viewers, voting via letters and phone calls. Contestants who won three times earned cash prizes, scholarships or participation in a traveling stage show associated with the program.