KINGPORT, Tenn. Janette Carter, the last surviving member of The Carter Family mountain musicians, has died. She was 82.
Carter was the daughter of A-P and Sara Carter. Her parents and his sister-in-law Maybelle formed a singing trio discovered in 1927 when talent scout Ralph Peer came through the Tennessee-Virginia border town of Bristol to record mountain music.
When her brother Joe died last March, Janette Carter became the last surviving child of the original group's members. She had Parkinson's disease and other chronic illnesses.
Following the death of her father in 1960, Carter dedicated her life to preserving not only the Carter Family music, but the folk and country music of Appalachia.
One result of that effort was establishment of the Carter Family Fold in Hiltons, Virginia.
In September, Carter was given the Bess Lomax Hawes award by the National Endowment for the Arts, which recognized her lifelong effort to preserve and perform Appalachian music.
Full Version: Dead Thread
Pages: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34
Hi Tony! Where's the Birthday Thread?
Actor Anthony Franciosa dies at 77 :
QUOTE
By BOB THOMAS
Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Anthony Franciosa, whose strong portrayals of moody, troubled characters made him a Hollywood star in the 1950s and '60s but whose combative behavior on movie sets hampered his career, has died, his publicist said Friday. He was 77.
Franciosa died Thursday at UCLA Medical Center after suffering a massive stroke, publicist Dick Guttman said. The actor's wife, Rita, and children were present. The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a longtime friend, visited the family later, Guttman said.
Franciosa was part of a new wave in the mid-20th century who revolutionized film acting with their introspective, intensely realistic approach to their roles. Most of them were schooled in the method acting of New York's Actors Studio. They included Marlon Brando, James Dean, Rod Steiger, Shelley Winters and Paul Newman.
Franciosa was once married to Winters, who died last weekend.
From his first important film role as the brother of a drug addict in "A Hatful of Rain," Franciosa became known for his portrayals of complicated young men. He received a 1956 Tony nomination for his performance in the role he created on Broadway, then an Oscar nod. In 1957, the actor appeared in three other films, "This Could Be the Night," "A Face in the Crowd" and "Wild Is the Wind."
Franciosa's career continued in high gear with such films as "The Long Hot Summer," "The Naked Maja" (as Goya), "The Story on Page One," "Period of Adjustment," "Rio Conchos" and "The Pleasure Seekers."
The actor's behavior on movie productions became the subject of Hollywood gossip. The stories alleged fiery disputes with directors, sulking in his dressing room, outbursts with other actors.
"I went out to Hollywood in the mid-1950s," he remarked in a 1996 interview, "and I would say I went there a little too early. It was an incredible amount of attention, and I wasn't quite mature enough psychologically and emotionally for it."
Franciosa's assertive attitude extended beyond movie stages; in 1957 he served 10 days in the Los Angeles County jail for slugging a press photographer. His reputation contributed to the downturn in Hollywood offers, and his career veered to European-made films and television.
His first TV series, "Valentine's Day," cast him as a swinging New York publishing executive involved in numerous romances. It lasted one season (1964-65).
In "The Name of the Game" (1968-71) Franciosa alternated with Gene Barry and Robert Stack as adventurous members of a Los Angeles publishing firm. In 1971 the producing company, Universal Pictures, fired him from the series, charging erratic behavior. He countered that the company had treated him badly and demanded that he take a pay cut.
The 1975 TV series "Matt Helm," with Franciosa as a wisecracking detective (a role Dean Martin played in feature films), was canceled after half a season.
He was born Anthony Papaleo on Oct. 25, 1928, in New York City. He was 1 when his father disappeared, and the boy grew up tough in Manhattan slums. "Getting in the first blow was something I learned in childhood," he once said.
After working in odd jobs and sometimes sleeping in flophouses, at 18 he attended an audition for actors at the YMCA and was chosen for two plays. He later studied at the Actors Studio and the New School for Social Research. Adopting his mother's maiden name, Franciosa, he began getting roles in television and the theater. "A Hatful of Rain" made him a star.
Besides Winters, Franciosa was married to writer Beatrice Bakalyar and real estate agent Judy Kanter, with whom he had a daughter, Nina. His lasting marriage was to Rita Thiel, a German fashion model. They had sons Christopher and Marco.
---
Associated Press Writer John Antczak contributed to this report.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.
Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Anthony Franciosa, whose strong portrayals of moody, troubled characters made him a Hollywood star in the 1950s and '60s but whose combative behavior on movie sets hampered his career, has died, his publicist said Friday. He was 77.
Franciosa died Thursday at UCLA Medical Center after suffering a massive stroke, publicist Dick Guttman said. The actor's wife, Rita, and children were present. The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a longtime friend, visited the family later, Guttman said.
Franciosa was part of a new wave in the mid-20th century who revolutionized film acting with their introspective, intensely realistic approach to their roles. Most of them were schooled in the method acting of New York's Actors Studio. They included Marlon Brando, James Dean, Rod Steiger, Shelley Winters and Paul Newman.
Franciosa was once married to Winters, who died last weekend.
From his first important film role as the brother of a drug addict in "A Hatful of Rain," Franciosa became known for his portrayals of complicated young men. He received a 1956 Tony nomination for his performance in the role he created on Broadway, then an Oscar nod. In 1957, the actor appeared in three other films, "This Could Be the Night," "A Face in the Crowd" and "Wild Is the Wind."
Franciosa's career continued in high gear with such films as "The Long Hot Summer," "The Naked Maja" (as Goya), "The Story on Page One," "Period of Adjustment," "Rio Conchos" and "The Pleasure Seekers."
The actor's behavior on movie productions became the subject of Hollywood gossip. The stories alleged fiery disputes with directors, sulking in his dressing room, outbursts with other actors.
"I went out to Hollywood in the mid-1950s," he remarked in a 1996 interview, "and I would say I went there a little too early. It was an incredible amount of attention, and I wasn't quite mature enough psychologically and emotionally for it."
Franciosa's assertive attitude extended beyond movie stages; in 1957 he served 10 days in the Los Angeles County jail for slugging a press photographer. His reputation contributed to the downturn in Hollywood offers, and his career veered to European-made films and television.
His first TV series, "Valentine's Day," cast him as a swinging New York publishing executive involved in numerous romances. It lasted one season (1964-65).
In "The Name of the Game" (1968-71) Franciosa alternated with Gene Barry and Robert Stack as adventurous members of a Los Angeles publishing firm. In 1971 the producing company, Universal Pictures, fired him from the series, charging erratic behavior. He countered that the company had treated him badly and demanded that he take a pay cut.
The 1975 TV series "Matt Helm," with Franciosa as a wisecracking detective (a role Dean Martin played in feature films), was canceled after half a season.
He was born Anthony Papaleo on Oct. 25, 1928, in New York City. He was 1 when his father disappeared, and the boy grew up tough in Manhattan slums. "Getting in the first blow was something I learned in childhood," he once said.
After working in odd jobs and sometimes sleeping in flophouses, at 18 he attended an audition for actors at the YMCA and was chosen for two plays. He later studied at the Actors Studio and the New School for Social Research. Adopting his mother's maiden name, Franciosa, he began getting roles in television and the theater. "A Hatful of Rain" made him a star.
Besides Winters, Franciosa was married to writer Beatrice Bakalyar and real estate agent Judy Kanter, with whom he had a daughter, Nina. His lasting marriage was to Rita Thiel, a German fashion model. They had sons Christopher and Marco.
---
Associated Press Writer John Antczak contributed to this report.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.
Wean the dead thread down to essentials. I somehow missed the December death of John Spencer, largely because i didn't want to weed through the morass of banjo players, neurosurgeons and poet laureates of Sri Lanka in this thread.
QUOTE(Slackmo @ Jan 23 2006, 08:11 PM) [snapback]1657[/snapback]
Wean the dead thread down to essentials. I somehow missed the December death of John Spencer, largely because i didn't want to weed through the morass of banjo players, neurosurgeons and poet laureates of Sri Lanka in this thread.
The obscurati are what I like about this thread.
MADISON, Wis., Jan. 24 (UPI) -- African-American literature scholar, Nellie Y. McKay, who co-edited the "Norton Anthology of African American Literature," has died in Madison, Wis.
McKay was chairwoman of the Afro-American studies department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and she lived in a large house near the campus until shortly before her death from cancer on Sunday, the Wisconsin State Journal reported Tuesday.
In 1997, McKay and Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates received accolades from The New York Times and scholarly journals for the "Norton Anthology of African American Literature," a 2,600-page canon of 200 years of African-American literature.
Born to West Indian parents in New York City, McKay earned a master's degree and doctorate in English from Harvard. She had taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison since 1978.
"When she came here there was not a single university that was paying any attention to black women's literature, Craig Werner, UW-Madison professor of Afro-American studies, told the State Journal. "Now, there isn't a single university that isn't."
A memorial service was planned.
McKay was chairwoman of the Afro-American studies department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and she lived in a large house near the campus until shortly before her death from cancer on Sunday, the Wisconsin State Journal reported Tuesday.
In 1997, McKay and Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates received accolades from The New York Times and scholarly journals for the "Norton Anthology of African American Literature," a 2,600-page canon of 200 years of African-American literature.
Born to West Indian parents in New York City, McKay earned a master's degree and doctorate in English from Harvard. She had taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison since 1978.
"When she came here there was not a single university that was paying any attention to black women's literature, Craig Werner, UW-Madison professor of Afro-American studies, told the State Journal. "Now, there isn't a single university that isn't."
A memorial service was planned.
wasn't she just fighting with her record label?
QUOTE(rudayo @ Jan 24 2006, 04:29 PM) [snapback]2753[/snapback]
wasn't she just fighting with her record label?
SANTA MONICA - Actor Chris Penn died in Santa Monica. The brother of
Sean Penn was 43.
Sean Penn was 43.
The last surviving member of the Nicholas Brothers tap dancing duo has died. Fayard Nicholas died at his home in Burbank, California at the age of 91.
His biographer Paula Broussard says Nicholas suffered a massive stroke last November. His brother Harold died in 2000.
Fred Astaire once described the Nicholas brothers' performance in the film "Stormy Weather" as "the greatest dance number ever filmed." While giving the brothers a Kennedy Center Honor in 1991, Gregory Hines called them the world's first "stunt dancers."
Fayard Nicholas told AP Radio News that night that what he loved most was to "dance and sing and be merry."
His biographer Paula Broussard says Nicholas suffered a massive stroke last November. His brother Harold died in 2000.
Fred Astaire once described the Nicholas brothers' performance in the film "Stormy Weather" as "the greatest dance number ever filmed." While giving the brothers a Kennedy Center Honor in 1991, Gregory Hines called them the world's first "stunt dancers."
Fayard Nicholas told AP Radio News that night that what he loved most was to "dance and sing and be merry."
QUOTE(Tony @ Jan 24 2006, 08:40 PM) [snapback]2957[/snapback]
SANTA MONICA - Actor Chris Penn died in Santa Monica. The brother of
Sean Penn was 43.
Nice guy Eddie is dead!
Joe is going to be pissed!
CARACAS, Venezuela -- Carlos Martinez, who played for seven seasons in Major League Baseball, died on Tuesday at his home in Venezuela at age 40, his wife said.
Martinez, an infielder for the Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians and California Angels from 1988-93 and 1995, died at his home in the coastal state of Vargas, about 20 kilometers north of the capital Caracas, Evelyn de Martinez told reporters.
She declined to specify the cause of death, although she said he had suffered for years from the same disease which forced him to retire from baseball in 1998.
"He was hospitalized many times until last week, when they told me nothing else could be done," De Martinez said. "He wanted to spend his final days here at home with his family."
"Cafe" Martinez, as he was affectionately known because of his penchant for Venezuelan coffee, began his professional career at age 18 in his home port city of La Guaira with Los Tiburones, and was signed that same year by the New York Yankees as an amateur free agent.
He was traded in 1986 to the Chicago White Sox, for whom he made his major leagues debut two years later in the last month of the regular season as a third baseman.
Undermined by injuries, he finished with a MLB career batting average of .258 with 25 home runs, and 161 RBI.
Martinez, an infielder for the Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians and California Angels from 1988-93 and 1995, died at his home in the coastal state of Vargas, about 20 kilometers north of the capital Caracas, Evelyn de Martinez told reporters.
She declined to specify the cause of death, although she said he had suffered for years from the same disease which forced him to retire from baseball in 1998.
"He was hospitalized many times until last week, when they told me nothing else could be done," De Martinez said. "He wanted to spend his final days here at home with his family."
"Cafe" Martinez, as he was affectionately known because of his penchant for Venezuelan coffee, began his professional career at age 18 in his home port city of La Guaira with Los Tiburones, and was signed that same year by the New York Yankees as an amateur free agent.
He was traded in 1986 to the Chicago White Sox, for whom he made his major leagues debut two years later in the last month of the regular season as a third baseman.
Undermined by injuries, he finished with a MLB career batting average of .258 with 25 home runs, and 161 RBI.
Fayard Nicholas:
LOS ANGELES -- Fayard Nicholas, the elder half of the show-stopping Nicholas Brothers tap-dancing duo that thrilled audiences during the 1930s and beyond with their elegance and daring athleticism, has died. He was 91.
Nicholas, who had been in failing health since suffering a stroke in November, died of pneumonia Tuesday at his home in the Toluca Lake area of Los Angeles, said Paula Broussard, a friend.
The self-taught Nicholas Brothers -- Fayard and younger brother Harold -- tap-danced their way from vaudeville and Harlem's legendary Cotton Club to Broadway and Hollywood. Known for their airborne splits and acrobatics, the handsome and dapper duo are considered by many to be the greatest dance team ever to work in American movies.
The great Russian ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov once called them "the most amazing dancers I have ever seen in my life -- ever."
When filmgoers saw the Nicholas Brothers' dazzling acrobatic routine in the 1940 movie musical "Down Argentine Way" (starring Don Ameche, Betty Grable and Carmen Miranda), they were known to applaud and stomp their feet until the projectionist rewound the film and played the dance sequence again.
Fred Astaire considered the Nicholas Brothers' "Jumpin' Jive" dance sequence in the 1943, all-black musical "Stormy Weather" the greatest dance number ever filmed.
The show-stopping performance, set in a large cabaret with the Cab Calloway band playing, has the brothers jumping onto tabletops and leaping off a grand piano onto the dance floor in complete splits.
The highlight of their breath-taking, synchronous routine occurs when they leap over each other in complete splits while descending an oversized staircase.
"That was one take, coming down those stairs (and) jumping over each other's heads," Nicholas told the Los Angeles Times in 1989.
Fayard Nicholas was born in Mobile, Ala., in 1914; Harold arrived seven years later. Their musician parents played in vaudeville pit orchestras and Fayard learned to dance by watching the shows.
"One day at the Standard Theater in Philadelphia," he told The Associated Press in 1999, "I looked onstage and I thought, 'They're having fun up there; I'd like to do something like that."'
He copied what he saw, taught it to his brother and worked up a vaudeville act called the Nicholas Kids.
In 1932, the two young performers made their film debuts in a short subject ("Pie, Pie Blackbird" with Eubie Blake) and the same year began singing and dancing at the Cotton Club.
They caught the eye of Hollywood producer Samuel Goldwyn who hired them for their first major film musical, "Kid Millions" featuring Eddie Cantor (1934). "The Big Broadcast of 1936" followed.
The Nicholas Brothers appeared on Broadway in "The Ziegfeld Follies of 1936" and in 1937 they worked with ballet choreographer George Balanchine in the Rodgers and Hart Broadway musical-comedy "Babes in Arms."
In 1938, the Nicholas Brothers used their engagements at the Cotton Club to refine and update their style, and they took it back to Hollywood in a series of musical films made throughout the 1940s.
Among those films are "Sun Valley Serenade" (1941) in which they memorably performed the number "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" with Dorothy Dandridge, whom Harold later married and divorced; "Orchestra Wives" (1942) and "The Pirate" (1948), which was highlighted by their acrobatic routine with Gene Kelly in the "Be a Clown" number.
"We call our style of dancing classical tap," Nicholas explained in a 1991 Washington Post interview. "Some people think we're a flash act. But we're not. At the end of the act, we'd put those splits in, but we'd do them gracefully. You don't just hit, bam and jump up. We tried to make it look easy. It's not easy. But we tried to make it look that way -- come up and smile."
After spending a year in the Army stateside during World War II, Fayard re-teamed with Harold. In 1946, Fayard had a featured role in the Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer Broadway musical "St. Louis Woman," in which Harold had the lead. They then embarked on a new series of international tours.
In 1948, they gave a royal command performance for the king of England at the London Palladium. Later, they danced for nine different U.S. presidents.
Nightclubs, tours and television appearances dominated their performing schedule for the next decade, along with a number of projects away from each other. With Harold working in Europe and Fayard in the U.S., the Nicholas Brothers did not perform as a team for seven years.
The brothers reunited as a duo in 1964 for an appearance on "The Hollywood Palace" TV variety show. But they lived on opposite coasts after that, Broussard said, and when not performing together they performed separately.
On his own, Fayard Nicholas took on a dramatic role in the 1970 movie "The Liberation of L.B. Jones" and won a Tony for his choreography for the Broadway revue "Black and Blue" (1989), which included a dance on stairs for three child tap dancers, one of whom was a young Savion Glover.
Among a string of awards in their later years, the Nicholas Brothers in 1991 received Kennedy Center Honors and were honored at the Academy Awards.
Broussard, who had been working with Fayard on a biography of the Nicholas Brothers in recent years, said he remained active after his brother's death in 2000, dancing at tap festivals and giving lecture-demonstrations -- that after having had both hips replaced due to arthritis.
Fayard Nicholas' dance choreography and the brothers place in dance history were chronicled in the 2000 book "Brotherhood in Rhythm" by Constance Valis Hill. The Nicholas Brothers also were the subject of the documentary "We Sing and We Dance" (1997)and an episode of A&E's "Biography."
The late tap dancer Gregory Hines said in the foreword to "Brotherhood in Rhythm" that if Hollywood ever wanted to make a movie of the Nicholas Brothers' lives, "the dance numbers would have to be computer-generated."
Nicholas is survived by his third wife, Katherine Hopkins-Nicholas; his sister, Dorothy Nicholas Morrow; his sons, Tony and Paul; four grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter.
LOS ANGELES -- Fayard Nicholas, the elder half of the show-stopping Nicholas Brothers tap-dancing duo that thrilled audiences during the 1930s and beyond with their elegance and daring athleticism, has died. He was 91.
Nicholas, who had been in failing health since suffering a stroke in November, died of pneumonia Tuesday at his home in the Toluca Lake area of Los Angeles, said Paula Broussard, a friend.
The self-taught Nicholas Brothers -- Fayard and younger brother Harold -- tap-danced their way from vaudeville and Harlem's legendary Cotton Club to Broadway and Hollywood. Known for their airborne splits and acrobatics, the handsome and dapper duo are considered by many to be the greatest dance team ever to work in American movies.
The great Russian ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov once called them "the most amazing dancers I have ever seen in my life -- ever."
When filmgoers saw the Nicholas Brothers' dazzling acrobatic routine in the 1940 movie musical "Down Argentine Way" (starring Don Ameche, Betty Grable and Carmen Miranda), they were known to applaud and stomp their feet until the projectionist rewound the film and played the dance sequence again.
Fred Astaire considered the Nicholas Brothers' "Jumpin' Jive" dance sequence in the 1943, all-black musical "Stormy Weather" the greatest dance number ever filmed.
The show-stopping performance, set in a large cabaret with the Cab Calloway band playing, has the brothers jumping onto tabletops and leaping off a grand piano onto the dance floor in complete splits.
The highlight of their breath-taking, synchronous routine occurs when they leap over each other in complete splits while descending an oversized staircase.
"That was one take, coming down those stairs (and) jumping over each other's heads," Nicholas told the Los Angeles Times in 1989.
Fayard Nicholas was born in Mobile, Ala., in 1914; Harold arrived seven years later. Their musician parents played in vaudeville pit orchestras and Fayard learned to dance by watching the shows.
"One day at the Standard Theater in Philadelphia," he told The Associated Press in 1999, "I looked onstage and I thought, 'They're having fun up there; I'd like to do something like that."'
He copied what he saw, taught it to his brother and worked up a vaudeville act called the Nicholas Kids.
In 1932, the two young performers made their film debuts in a short subject ("Pie, Pie Blackbird" with Eubie Blake) and the same year began singing and dancing at the Cotton Club.
They caught the eye of Hollywood producer Samuel Goldwyn who hired them for their first major film musical, "Kid Millions" featuring Eddie Cantor (1934). "The Big Broadcast of 1936" followed.
The Nicholas Brothers appeared on Broadway in "The Ziegfeld Follies of 1936" and in 1937 they worked with ballet choreographer George Balanchine in the Rodgers and Hart Broadway musical-comedy "Babes in Arms."
In 1938, the Nicholas Brothers used their engagements at the Cotton Club to refine and update their style, and they took it back to Hollywood in a series of musical films made throughout the 1940s.
Among those films are "Sun Valley Serenade" (1941) in which they memorably performed the number "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" with Dorothy Dandridge, whom Harold later married and divorced; "Orchestra Wives" (1942) and "The Pirate" (1948), which was highlighted by their acrobatic routine with Gene Kelly in the "Be a Clown" number.
"We call our style of dancing classical tap," Nicholas explained in a 1991 Washington Post interview. "Some people think we're a flash act. But we're not. At the end of the act, we'd put those splits in, but we'd do them gracefully. You don't just hit, bam and jump up. We tried to make it look easy. It's not easy. But we tried to make it look that way -- come up and smile."
After spending a year in the Army stateside during World War II, Fayard re-teamed with Harold. In 1946, Fayard had a featured role in the Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer Broadway musical "St. Louis Woman," in which Harold had the lead. They then embarked on a new series of international tours.
In 1948, they gave a royal command performance for the king of England at the London Palladium. Later, they danced for nine different U.S. presidents.
Nightclubs, tours and television appearances dominated their performing schedule for the next decade, along with a number of projects away from each other. With Harold working in Europe and Fayard in the U.S., the Nicholas Brothers did not perform as a team for seven years.
The brothers reunited as a duo in 1964 for an appearance on "The Hollywood Palace" TV variety show. But they lived on opposite coasts after that, Broussard said, and when not performing together they performed separately.
On his own, Fayard Nicholas took on a dramatic role in the 1970 movie "The Liberation of L.B. Jones" and won a Tony for his choreography for the Broadway revue "Black and Blue" (1989), which included a dance on stairs for three child tap dancers, one of whom was a young Savion Glover.
Among a string of awards in their later years, the Nicholas Brothers in 1991 received Kennedy Center Honors and were honored at the Academy Awards.
Broussard, who had been working with Fayard on a biography of the Nicholas Brothers in recent years, said he remained active after his brother's death in 2000, dancing at tap festivals and giving lecture-demonstrations -- that after having had both hips replaced due to arthritis.
Fayard Nicholas' dance choreography and the brothers place in dance history were chronicled in the 2000 book "Brotherhood in Rhythm" by Constance Valis Hill. The Nicholas Brothers also were the subject of the documentary "We Sing and We Dance" (1997)and an episode of A&E's "Biography."
The late tap dancer Gregory Hines said in the foreword to "Brotherhood in Rhythm" that if Hollywood ever wanted to make a movie of the Nicholas Brothers' lives, "the dance numbers would have to be computer-generated."
Nicholas is survived by his third wife, Katherine Hopkins-Nicholas; his sister, Dorothy Nicholas Morrow; his sons, Tony and Paul; four grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter.
QUOTE(zolacolby @ Jan 26 2006, 09:00 AM) [snapback]4192[/snapback]
Fayard Nicholas:
LOS ANGELES -- Fayard Nicholas, the elder half of the show-stopping Nicholas Brothers tap-dancing duo that thrilled audiences during the 1930s and beyond with their elegance and daring athleticism, has died. He was 91.
POSTED!
QUOTE(Tony @ Jan 25 2006, 11:45 AM) [snapback]3333[/snapback]
CARACAS, Venezuela -- Carlos Martinez, who played for seven seasons in Major League Baseball, died on Tuesday at his home in Venezuela at age 40, his wife said.
You left out the best part of his story!
Carlos Martinez is the guy who hit the home run that bounced off of Jose Canseco's head and into the seats!
NEW YORK -- Former pro basketball forward Luther "Sally'' Green, who played for the New York Nets and the Philadelphia 76ers, has died from lung cancer. He was 59.
Green died Wednesday at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, hospital spokeswoman Ellen Watson said Thursday.
Green was a star at DeWitt Clinton High School, then went to Long Island University, where as a 6-foot, 6½-inch senior he was selected a University Division All-Star by the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association in 1968. He was inducted into LIU's Hall of Fame in 2003.
He played 85 regular-season games for the Nets over two seasons in the American Basketball Association 1969-71, scoring 381 points plus 32 more in seven playoff games. He had three points over five games with Philadelphia in the NBA in 1972-73.
He also played for the Harlem Wizards from 1971-72 and in Argentina from 1978-82, according to his sister-in-law, Paula Clark Green. At DeWitt Clinton, he played with Nate Archibald, she said.
He is survived by his wife, Perchelle Dunston Green; sons Omar and LaRon Green; daughter Teauna Upshaw; mother Lavinia Green; and brothers Michael Green and Jackie Ford.
Green died Wednesday at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, hospital spokeswoman Ellen Watson said Thursday.
Green was a star at DeWitt Clinton High School, then went to Long Island University, where as a 6-foot, 6½-inch senior he was selected a University Division All-Star by the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association in 1968. He was inducted into LIU's Hall of Fame in 2003.
He played 85 regular-season games for the Nets over two seasons in the American Basketball Association 1969-71, scoring 381 points plus 32 more in seven playoff games. He had three points over five games with Philadelphia in the NBA in 1972-73.
He also played for the Harlem Wizards from 1971-72 and in Argentina from 1978-82, according to his sister-in-law, Paula Clark Green. At DeWitt Clinton, he played with Nate Archibald, she said.
He is survived by his wife, Perchelle Dunston Green; sons Omar and LaRon Green; daughter Teauna Upshaw; mother Lavinia Green; and brothers Michael Green and Jackie Ford.
BERLIN (Reuters) - Johannes Rau, a prominent figure in post-war German politics and the country's first head of state to address Israel's parliament in German, died on Friday. He was 75.
Rau, who had been ill for some time following three operations in 2004, died at home in the presence of members of his family, his office said.
"Germany has lost an exceptional personality," Chancellor Angela Merkel said.
A Social Democrat (SPD), Rau served as Germany's eighth post-war president between 1999 and 2004. He used the largely ceremonial office to encourage Germans to take a more open approach to immigration and a more optimistic view of life.
"Germans walk around looking as if they have too much gastric acid," Rau told reporters in 2003, shortly before his retirement. "I wish they'd relax more."
He sparked controversy in 2000 by being the first German head of state since the Holocaust to address Israel's parliament in German, prompting some lawmakers to walk out. But Israeli President Moshe Katsav paid tribute to him on Friday.
"Johannes Rau was a great friend of the state of Israel and the Jewish people," Katsav said in a statement. "During his tenure as president, Herr Rau contributed significantly to bilateral relations and was a great fighter against anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial."
The son of a Protestant preacher, he made his name from 1978 to 1998 as the state premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, home to 18 million people, or nearly a quarter of the population.
"We all remember well his life-long commitment to reconciliation, his feeling for what moved people in this country and, not least, his sense of humor," President Horst Koehler, Rau's successor, said in a statement.
Merkel, Germany's first leader from the formerly communist east, said she had often spoken to Rau and appreciated his humanity and sense of humor.
"He often traveled in the old East Germany and did everything in his power to help East German citizens through his contacts with the Protestant church," she said.
News magazine Der Spiegel dubbed him Germany's "citizen king" because of his popularity with ordinary voters.
This reputation took a dent in 1999, when it was revealed he and other top Social Democrats in North Rhine-Westphalia had taken advantage of aircraft put at their disposal by a state-owned bank to go on private trips.
Rau also suffered some high profile political setbacks on the national stage, most notably when he failed to oust conservative chancellor Helmut Kohl in the 1987 general election. Rau also lost to conservative Roman Herzog in his first bid to become president in 1994.
Rau married Christina Delius, a woman 25 years his junior, when he was 51. She was the granddaughter of his political mentor, Germany's third post-war President Gustav Heinemann.
He is survived by his wife and three children.
Rau, who had been ill for some time following three operations in 2004, died at home in the presence of members of his family, his office said.
"Germany has lost an exceptional personality," Chancellor Angela Merkel said.
A Social Democrat (SPD), Rau served as Germany's eighth post-war president between 1999 and 2004. He used the largely ceremonial office to encourage Germans to take a more open approach to immigration and a more optimistic view of life.
"Germans walk around looking as if they have too much gastric acid," Rau told reporters in 2003, shortly before his retirement. "I wish they'd relax more."
He sparked controversy in 2000 by being the first German head of state since the Holocaust to address Israel's parliament in German, prompting some lawmakers to walk out. But Israeli President Moshe Katsav paid tribute to him on Friday.
"Johannes Rau was a great friend of the state of Israel and the Jewish people," Katsav said in a statement. "During his tenure as president, Herr Rau contributed significantly to bilateral relations and was a great fighter against anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial."
The son of a Protestant preacher, he made his name from 1978 to 1998 as the state premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, home to 18 million people, or nearly a quarter of the population.
"We all remember well his life-long commitment to reconciliation, his feeling for what moved people in this country and, not least, his sense of humor," President Horst Koehler, Rau's successor, said in a statement.
Merkel, Germany's first leader from the formerly communist east, said she had often spoken to Rau and appreciated his humanity and sense of humor.
"He often traveled in the old East Germany and did everything in his power to help East German citizens through his contacts with the Protestant church," she said.
News magazine Der Spiegel dubbed him Germany's "citizen king" because of his popularity with ordinary voters.
This reputation took a dent in 1999, when it was revealed he and other top Social Democrats in North Rhine-Westphalia had taken advantage of aircraft put at their disposal by a state-owned bank to go on private trips.
Rau also suffered some high profile political setbacks on the national stage, most notably when he failed to oust conservative chancellor Helmut Kohl in the 1987 general election. Rau also lost to conservative Roman Herzog in his first bid to become president in 1994.
Rau married Christina Delius, a woman 25 years his junior, when he was 51. She was the granddaughter of his political mentor, Germany's third post-war President Gustav Heinemann.
He is survived by his wife and three children.
R&B vocalist and songwriter Gene McFadden, best known
for singing and co-writing the 1979 smash ``Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now,''
died Friday after a battle with cancer. He was 56.
McFadden died at his home in the city's Mount Airy section around 3:45
a.m., his family said.
He and John Whitehead formed a group called the Epsilons in their youth
and toured with Otis Redding in the 1960s. They became a prominent
songwriting and performing duo at Philadelphia International Records,
the soul music powerhouse.
``Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now'' hit No. 1 on the R&B chart and No. 13 on
the pop charts. The duo also wrote several hit songs performed by
others, including ``Back Stabbers'' for the O'Jays and ``Wake Up
Everybody'' for Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes.
Whitehead was fatally shot in May 2004 while he was working on a
vehicle in the city's West Oak Lane section.
Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff co-founded Philadelphia International
Records, the label that produced a string of hits in the 1960s and
'70s.
``Their talent was indispensable and their music capabilities were
uniquely flexible,'' the duo said in a statement Friday. ``As
songwriters, we appreciated them for sharing our commitment to creating
lyrics of motivation and strength for people around the globe to
enjoy.''
McFadden is survived by his wife, Barbara, 57, two sons and two
daughters.
``My dad was laid back and cool,'' said Casandra McFadden, one of his
daughters. ``He was a really private man and really about his family.''
Casandra McFadden said her father had been suffering from liver and
lung cancer since being diagnosed in October 2004.
Funeral ser yards.
Because of their rarity, collectors can pay tens of thousands of
dollars for prized cycad specimens from far-flung places. Black-market
thieves can make tens of thousands of dollars stealing and selling
them.
But not the King Sago, whose abundance in yards and on roadway medians
all over Florida owes greatly to the fact that the hardy plant
historically requires very little to maintain in the first place, even
surviving storm surges and extreme temperatures.
Some of its owners might not even know they have scale. If they do, few
may be inclined to invest the substantial time, labor and cost
necessary to beat it.
An estimated 90 percent of cycads in Miami most of them King Sagos have
been destroyed by scale. Within five years, estimates Lakeland nursery
owner Tom Broome, the same could happen in Tampa and Orlando.
``The landscape maintenance people don't know how to treat it, so they
think cutting off the bad leaves is the best thing to do,'' Broome
said. ``Then they put the leaves on a truck, haul it away and spread it
all over town.''
Researchers say scale affects only certain cycads like the Sagos, but
its recent, rapid spread to native species of cycad in Guam (possibly
from U.S. Sago exports) has raised alarm it could unbalance island
biodiversity.
``That has much more of an ecological impact than destruction of some
attractive, ornamental plants'' imported for U.S. landscaping, said Ron
Cave, assistant professor at the University of Florida's Indian River
Research and Education Center in Ft. Pierce.
Several pesticides can help control scale, but they require multiple
and thorough application, said Catharine Mannion, an assistant
professor and extensions specialist in Homestead with the University of
Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
``The tricky part is you have to do repeat applicat, because people
can't be spraying these plants forever.''
It got so bad in Naples that the city decided to dig up all Sagos on
public property, said Joe Boscaglia, superintendent for parks and
parkways.
``It's kind of a losing battle. The treatment is not effective, and you
can get some identifiable results,'' he said. ``But for the most part,
it's a continuous maintenance nightmare not to mention the cost to
continuously maintain and treat.''
Even Haynes, who makes his living caring for the plants, let his go.
``I had a couple in my yard, and it wasn't worth it. I removed them
even before they died,'' he said. ``I didn't have time or money to
continuously treat them.''
for singing and co-writing the 1979 smash ``Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now,''
died Friday after a battle with cancer. He was 56.
McFadden died at his home in the city's Mount Airy section around 3:45
a.m., his family said.
He and John Whitehead formed a group called the Epsilons in their youth
and toured with Otis Redding in the 1960s. They became a prominent
songwriting and performing duo at Philadelphia International Records,
the soul music powerhouse.
``Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now'' hit No. 1 on the R&B chart and No. 13 on
the pop charts. The duo also wrote several hit songs performed by
others, including ``Back Stabbers'' for the O'Jays and ``Wake Up
Everybody'' for Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes.
Whitehead was fatally shot in May 2004 while he was working on a
vehicle in the city's West Oak Lane section.
Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff co-founded Philadelphia International
Records, the label that produced a string of hits in the 1960s and
'70s.
``Their talent was indispensable and their music capabilities were
uniquely flexible,'' the duo said in a statement Friday. ``As
songwriters, we appreciated them for sharing our commitment to creating
lyrics of motivation and strength for people around the globe to
enjoy.''
McFadden is survived by his wife, Barbara, 57, two sons and two
daughters.
``My dad was laid back and cool,'' said Casandra McFadden, one of his
daughters. ``He was a really private man and really about his family.''
Casandra McFadden said her father had been suffering from liver and
lung cancer since being diagnosed in October 2004.
Funeral ser yards.
Because of their rarity, collectors can pay tens of thousands of
dollars for prized cycad specimens from far-flung places. Black-market
thieves can make tens of thousands of dollars stealing and selling
them.
But not the King Sago, whose abundance in yards and on roadway medians
all over Florida owes greatly to the fact that the hardy plant
historically requires very little to maintain in the first place, even
surviving storm surges and extreme temperatures.
Some of its owners might not even know they have scale. If they do, few
may be inclined to invest the substantial time, labor and cost
necessary to beat it.
An estimated 90 percent of cycads in Miami most of them King Sagos have
been destroyed by scale. Within five years, estimates Lakeland nursery
owner Tom Broome, the same could happen in Tampa and Orlando.
``The landscape maintenance people don't know how to treat it, so they
think cutting off the bad leaves is the best thing to do,'' Broome
said. ``Then they put the leaves on a truck, haul it away and spread it
all over town.''
Researchers say scale affects only certain cycads like the Sagos, but
its recent, rapid spread to native species of cycad in Guam (possibly
from U.S. Sago exports) has raised alarm it could unbalance island
biodiversity.
``That has much more of an ecological impact than destruction of some
attractive, ornamental plants'' imported for U.S. landscaping, said Ron
Cave, assistant professor at the University of Florida's Indian River
Research and Education Center in Ft. Pierce.
Several pesticides can help control scale, but they require multiple
and thorough application, said Catharine Mannion, an assistant
professor and extensions specialist in Homestead with the University of
Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
``The tricky part is you have to do repeat applicat, because people
can't be spraying these plants forever.''
It got so bad in Naples that the city decided to dig up all Sagos on
public property, said Joe Boscaglia, superintendent for parks and
parkways.
``It's kind of a losing battle. The treatment is not effective, and you
can get some identifiable results,'' he said. ``But for the most part,
it's a continuous maintenance nightmare not to mention the cost to
continuously maintain and treat.''
Even Haynes, who makes his living caring for the plants, let his go.
``I had a couple in my yard, and it wasn't worth it. I removed them
even before they died,'' he said. ``I didn't have time or money to
continuously treat them.''
January 29, 2006
Arthur T. von Mehren, 83, Scholar of International Law, Is Dead
By WOLFGANG SAXON
Arthur T. von Mehren, a leading American scholar of international law at Harvard, died on Jan. 16 in Cambridge, Mass. He was 83.
His death was announced by Harvard Law School, where he had a teaching career of more than 50 years. The cause was pneumonia, said his identical twin brother, Robert B. von Mehren.
"He was a leading figure for many decades in comparative law and international conflicts of law and jurisdictions," said George A. Bermann, professor of law at Columbia University and a co-editor of the American Journal of Comparative Law, who called Professor von Mehren "the undisputed leader in these increasingly important fields."
Professor von Mehren was named Story professor emeritus of law in 1991 but continued to work until just before his death.
He was an authority on international jurisdiction, comparative law and international commercial arbitration. He studied law in three countries, taught it in nine, and published 10 books and hundreds of articles.
Professor von Mehren formerly headed the United States delegation to the Hague Conference on Private International Law, a standing body that writes the procedures for such dealings. Last year, he witnessed the completion of an agreement on international jurisdiction and the effects of foreign judgments in civil and commercial matters.
Arthur Taylor von Mehren was born in Albert Lea, Minn., and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard in 1942. He received his law degree from Harvard in 1945 and a doctorate in government a year later, when he was appointed an assistant professor at Harvard Law. Fluent in French and German, he spent the first three years of his career in Europe studying French, German and Swiss law.
His study comparing United States and German civil procedures remained a standard for 50 years. He was an editor for many years of the American Journal of Comparative Law and founded the Joseph Story fellow program under which young German academics worked as his research assistant for a year.
He was a member of the Advisory Committee on Private International Law at the State Department, and a founding member and past president of the American Society of Comparative Law.
Besides his brother, a resident of Manhattan, Professor von Mehren is survived by his wife of 53 years, Joan Moore von Mehren; three sons, George M., of Cleveland, Peter A., of Philadelphia, and Philip T., of Bronxville, N.Y.; and several grandchildren.
Arthur T. von Mehren, 83, Scholar of International Law, Is Dead
By WOLFGANG SAXON
Arthur T. von Mehren, a leading American scholar of international law at Harvard, died on Jan. 16 in Cambridge, Mass. He was 83.
His death was announced by Harvard Law School, where he had a teaching career of more than 50 years. The cause was pneumonia, said his identical twin brother, Robert B. von Mehren.
"He was a leading figure for many decades in comparative law and international conflicts of law and jurisdictions," said George A. Bermann, professor of law at Columbia University and a co-editor of the American Journal of Comparative Law, who called Professor von Mehren "the undisputed leader in these increasingly important fields."
Professor von Mehren was named Story professor emeritus of law in 1991 but continued to work until just before his death.
He was an authority on international jurisdiction, comparative law and international commercial arbitration. He studied law in three countries, taught it in nine, and published 10 books and hundreds of articles.
Professor von Mehren formerly headed the United States delegation to the Hague Conference on Private International Law, a standing body that writes the procedures for such dealings. Last year, he witnessed the completion of an agreement on international jurisdiction and the effects of foreign judgments in civil and commercial matters.
Arthur Taylor von Mehren was born in Albert Lea, Minn., and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard in 1942. He received his law degree from Harvard in 1945 and a doctorate in government a year later, when he was appointed an assistant professor at Harvard Law. Fluent in French and German, he spent the first three years of his career in Europe studying French, German and Swiss law.
His study comparing United States and German civil procedures remained a standard for 50 years. He was an editor for many years of the American Journal of Comparative Law and founded the Joseph Story fellow program under which young German academics worked as his research assistant for a year.
He was a member of the Advisory Committee on Private International Law at the State Department, and a founding member and past president of the American Society of Comparative Law.
Besides his brother, a resident of Manhattan, Professor von Mehren is survived by his wife of 53 years, Joan Moore von Mehren; three sons, George M., of Cleveland, Peter A., of Philadelphia, and Philip T., of Bronxville, N.Y.; and several grandchildren.
Wendy Wasserstein, who celebrated women confronting feminism, careers, love and motherhood in such works as "The Heidi Chronicles'' and "The Sisters Rosensweig,'' died Monday, Lincoln Center Theater said. She was 55. Wasserstein, who had been battling cancer in recent months, died at Memorial Sloan Kettering hospital.
Paik Nam-june, known as the inventor of video
art, has died, according to his Web site. He was 74.
The Korean-born artist died Sunday night of natural causes at his Miami
apartment, a statement on his Web site said.
Song Tae-ho, head of a South Korean cultural foundation working on a
project to build a museum for the artist, said he learned of Paik's
death from his nephew, Ken Paik Hakuta, in New York.
Paik completed degrees in music and aesthetics in Japan before pursuing
graduate work in philosophy. Some of his experiments were in radio and
television, and he is thought to have coined the terms "information
superhighway" and "the future is now."
He made his debut in the art world in 1963 with a solo art exhibition
titled "Exposition of Music-Electronic Television."
A stroke in 1996 left him partially paralyzed.
Funeral services will be held this week in New York City, Hakuta told
South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
art, has died, according to his Web site. He was 74.
The Korean-born artist died Sunday night of natural causes at his Miami
apartment, a statement on his Web site said.
Song Tae-ho, head of a South Korean cultural foundation working on a
project to build a museum for the artist, said he learned of Paik's
death from his nephew, Ken Paik Hakuta, in New York.
Paik completed degrees in music and aesthetics in Japan before pursuing
graduate work in philosophy. Some of his experiments were in radio and
television, and he is thought to have coined the terms "information
superhighway" and "the future is now."
He made his debut in the art world in 1963 with a solo art exhibition
titled "Exposition of Music-Electronic Television."
A stroke in 1996 left him partially paralyzed.
Funeral services will be held this week in New York City, Hakuta told
South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
Bryan Harvey, ex-guitarist for the band 'House of Freaks' and 'Gutterball', found murdered with his family:
I was just told about this today. I remember seeing House of Freaks years ago, and I think I've seen Gutterball, too. Supposedly 2 men have been arrested for the crime, I haven't heard anything about evidence or strength of the case against them.
Samples for House of Freaks from Amazon.com
QUOTE
Murder, grief and mystery
Police say scene left some people crying
BY JIM NOLAN AND BILL MCKELWAY
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITERS Jan 3, 2006
A poinsettia and a stuffed rabbit were placed outside the Harvey home at 812 W. 31st St. yesterday in memory of the South Richmond family found slain on Sunday.
The Woodland Heights home where four members of a popular South Richmond family were found slain on New Year's Day showed no sign of being ransacked or burglarized, police say.
In trying to piece together a motive for the killings of Bryan and Kathryn Harvey and their young daughters, Richmond police yesterday called in a Virginia State Police criminal profiler.
Authorities said it was too early in the investigation to identify a motive or suspects, but they continue to pore over evidence gathered from the house. They have interviewed family, friends and acquaintances of the Harveys and still want to talk with relatives who live outside the Richmond area.
Richmond Police Chief Rodney Monroe said the case is "too open to start speculating on any particular issue."
As the shock of the slayings reverberated throughout the community, details provided by a friend of the Harveys have helped police narrow the time frame of Sunday's events.
According to investigators, the friend arrived at the Harveys' West 31st Street home about 10 a.m. Sunday with her daughter to drop off the Harveys' elder daughter Stella.The two girls had spent the night in another part of the city with friends from Fox Elementary School.
As they stepped inside, Stella ran ahead and went down to the Harveys' basement family room.
The mother and daughter were met inside the house by Kathryn Harvey, who had just come upstairs.
According to investigators, she appeared ashen and nervous.
The woman asked whether Harvey was OK. She replied that she didn't feel well and might be getting sick.
Not wanting to intrude, themother and her daughter said goodbye and left, not realizing they may have been the last people outside the home to see Kathryn and Stella Harvey alive.
Less than four hours later, at 1:46 p.m., firefighters responding to a 911 call of a blaze at the home looked in the basement and found the bodies of Bryan Harvey, 49, Kathryn Harvey, 39, and their daughters, Stella, 9, and Ruby, 4. All had been murdered -- bound with tape and their throats cut.
A fire had been set in the basement, producing heavy smoke. A Harvey family friend, Johnny Hott, encountered the smoke when he and his daughter arrived about 1:40 p.m. to help the family prepare for a 2 o'clock New Year's Day cookout.
The names of the woman and daughter, who could not be reached for comment, are being withheld by The Times-Dispatch.
"She's devastated," said an investigator close to the case.
Homicide investigators yesterday continued their round-the-clock investigation of the quadruple murders, part of a six-homicide Sunday believed to be the deadliest day in Richmond in at least 10 years.
They combed through the two-story brick home, removing boxes of items.
While details of the crime scene have not been publicly discussed by authorities, one detective said yesterday that the condition of the bodies and the wounds "left some of our people crying."
A seasoned veteran of police work, he said the crime scene was the worst he has ever seen.
"You always try and focus on the mission, but there is just no way you can't just stop for a minute and think about how horrible this is," the detective said.
Likewise, across the city, friends, family, classmates and acquaintances of the Harveys and their children tried to process the slayings of a well-known, and loved, family.
Bryan Harvey was a talented Richmond musician who had just played a New Year's Eve gig with his band, NrG Krysys.
Kathryn was a fun-loving and successful Carytown businesswoman and co-owner of the World of Mirth. When she was pregnant with Ruby, she once decorated her belly as a jack-o'-lantern for Halloween.
Stella was a precocious third-grader at Fox Elementary, and Ruby was a preschooler.
"Everyone I know knows the community has lost four wonderful people," said Manny Mendez, 43, a longtime friend of Bryan and Kathy Harvey who owns the popular restaurant Kuba Kuba.
"They were perfect. There was not a bad bone in their body," added Mendez, who was invited to the Harveys' New Year's Day chili party but had other plans.
"How is it that the sweetest people in the world have something heinous happen to them?"
The question was a source of concern, not only for detectives investigating quadruple murders, but also for the Harveys' neighbors and tight-knit group of friends and family.
By noon yesterday, bouquets of flowers began to pile up beside a tree near yellow police tape surrounding the corner house.
Three families said yesterday that police detectives have told them they need not be alarmed about a continuing threat in the neighborhood.
"One of the detectives came to me and said, 'There's no need to worry,'" said one neighbor, who has a wife and two children.
The resident might not have been totally convinced. Like representatives of two other families, he asked that his name not be used.
The Woodland Heights murders bear a striking similarity to the 1994 murder of a Vinton couple and their two young daughters, said Leigh Hagan, a forensic psychologist based in Chesterfield County. The father and daughters were shot, the mother was strangled and the house was set on fire.
The man convicted of those murders, Earl C. Bramblett, was a family friend. He was executed in 2003.
Hagan hesitated to speculate on the Harvey case, but said it "just seems so curiously similar to the facts in the Bramblett case."
A local psychologist who declined to be identified said the murder of an entire family usually indicates that the murderer knew the victims. It could also indicate that a mentally ill person unknown to the family committed the murder, but that is less likely, the psychologist said.
While detectives work to solve the crime, friends of the Harveys are left to mourn.
"They meant so much," Manny Mendez said, "to so many people."
Contact staff writer Jim Nolan at jnolan@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6061.
Contact staff writer Bill McKelway at bmckelway@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6601.
Staff writers Dena Sloan and Michael Martz contributed to this report.
Police say scene left some people crying
BY JIM NOLAN AND BILL MCKELWAY
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITERS Jan 3, 2006
A poinsettia and a stuffed rabbit were placed outside the Harvey home at 812 W. 31st St. yesterday in memory of the South Richmond family found slain on Sunday.
The Woodland Heights home where four members of a popular South Richmond family were found slain on New Year's Day showed no sign of being ransacked or burglarized, police say.
In trying to piece together a motive for the killings of Bryan and Kathryn Harvey and their young daughters, Richmond police yesterday called in a Virginia State Police criminal profiler.
Authorities said it was too early in the investigation to identify a motive or suspects, but they continue to pore over evidence gathered from the house. They have interviewed family, friends and acquaintances of the Harveys and still want to talk with relatives who live outside the Richmond area.
Richmond Police Chief Rodney Monroe said the case is "too open to start speculating on any particular issue."
As the shock of the slayings reverberated throughout the community, details provided by a friend of the Harveys have helped police narrow the time frame of Sunday's events.
According to investigators, the friend arrived at the Harveys' West 31st Street home about 10 a.m. Sunday with her daughter to drop off the Harveys' elder daughter Stella.The two girls had spent the night in another part of the city with friends from Fox Elementary School.
As they stepped inside, Stella ran ahead and went down to the Harveys' basement family room.
The mother and daughter were met inside the house by Kathryn Harvey, who had just come upstairs.
According to investigators, she appeared ashen and nervous.
The woman asked whether Harvey was OK. She replied that she didn't feel well and might be getting sick.
Not wanting to intrude, themother and her daughter said goodbye and left, not realizing they may have been the last people outside the home to see Kathryn and Stella Harvey alive.
Less than four hours later, at 1:46 p.m., firefighters responding to a 911 call of a blaze at the home looked in the basement and found the bodies of Bryan Harvey, 49, Kathryn Harvey, 39, and their daughters, Stella, 9, and Ruby, 4. All had been murdered -- bound with tape and their throats cut.
A fire had been set in the basement, producing heavy smoke. A Harvey family friend, Johnny Hott, encountered the smoke when he and his daughter arrived about 1:40 p.m. to help the family prepare for a 2 o'clock New Year's Day cookout.
The names of the woman and daughter, who could not be reached for comment, are being withheld by The Times-Dispatch.
"She's devastated," said an investigator close to the case.
Homicide investigators yesterday continued their round-the-clock investigation of the quadruple murders, part of a six-homicide Sunday believed to be the deadliest day in Richmond in at least 10 years.
They combed through the two-story brick home, removing boxes of items.
While details of the crime scene have not been publicly discussed by authorities, one detective said yesterday that the condition of the bodies and the wounds "left some of our people crying."
A seasoned veteran of police work, he said the crime scene was the worst he has ever seen.
"You always try and focus on the mission, but there is just no way you can't just stop for a minute and think about how horrible this is," the detective said.
Likewise, across the city, friends, family, classmates and acquaintances of the Harveys and their children tried to process the slayings of a well-known, and loved, family.
Bryan Harvey was a talented Richmond musician who had just played a New Year's Eve gig with his band, NrG Krysys.
Kathryn was a fun-loving and successful Carytown businesswoman and co-owner of the World of Mirth. When she was pregnant with Ruby, she once decorated her belly as a jack-o'-lantern for Halloween.
Stella was a precocious third-grader at Fox Elementary, and Ruby was a preschooler.
"Everyone I know knows the community has lost four wonderful people," said Manny Mendez, 43, a longtime friend of Bryan and Kathy Harvey who owns the popular restaurant Kuba Kuba.
"They were perfect. There was not a bad bone in their body," added Mendez, who was invited to the Harveys' New Year's Day chili party but had other plans.
"How is it that the sweetest people in the world have something heinous happen to them?"
The question was a source of concern, not only for detectives investigating quadruple murders, but also for the Harveys' neighbors and tight-knit group of friends and family.
By noon yesterday, bouquets of flowers began to pile up beside a tree near yellow police tape surrounding the corner house.
Three families said yesterday that police detectives have told them they need not be alarmed about a continuing threat in the neighborhood.
"One of the detectives came to me and said, 'There's no need to worry,'" said one neighbor, who has a wife and two children.
The resident might not have been totally convinced. Like representatives of two other families, he asked that his name not be used.
The Woodland Heights murders bear a striking similarity to the 1994 murder of a Vinton couple and their two young daughters, said Leigh Hagan, a forensic psychologist based in Chesterfield County. The father and daughters were shot, the mother was strangled and the house was set on fire.
The man convicted of those murders, Earl C. Bramblett, was a family friend. He was executed in 2003.
Hagan hesitated to speculate on the Harvey case, but said it "just seems so curiously similar to the facts in the Bramblett case."
A local psychologist who declined to be identified said the murder of an entire family usually indicates that the murderer knew the victims. It could also indicate that a mentally ill person unknown to the family committed the murder, but that is less likely, the psychologist said.
While detectives work to solve the crime, friends of the Harveys are left to mourn.
"They meant so much," Manny Mendez said, "to so many people."
Contact staff writer Jim Nolan at jnolan@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6061.
Contact staff writer Bill McKelway at bmckelway@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6601.
Staff writers Dena Sloan and Michael Martz contributed to this report.
I was just told about this today. I remember seeing House of Freaks years ago, and I think I've seen Gutterball, too. Supposedly 2 men have been arrested for the crime, I haven't heard anything about evidence or strength of the case against them.
Samples for House of Freaks from Amazon.com
James Bastien, whose instructional music books have became an institution among piano teachers, died December 7 in La Jolla, California, reports the New York Times.
James William Bastien was born in Bellingham, Washington, on April 10, 1934. He received his bachelor's and masters degrees from Southern Methodist University. Hungarian pianist György Sándor was one of his teachers.
Bastien married Jane Smisor, a pianist and teacher, in 1961. He and his wife became a prolific pedagogical team; writing more than 300 instructional books aimed at both children and adults. Titles in various series include James Bastien Piano Basics, Musicianship For The Older Beginner, Bastien Favorite Classic Melodies, Bastien Pop, Boogie, Rock, Country, and Bastiens' Invitation To Music: Piano Party Book A.
The Bastien series present a carefully sequenced approach, with accompanying materials devoted to theory, technique, and performance. The Bastien method avoids teaching musical notation immediately; instead, beginners learn to play basic tunes by placing their fingers on particular keys and adhering to finger patterns. After several months, students learn how to read music.
Bastien taught at Notre Dame, Tulane University, and Loyola University as well as at summer institutes such as Tanglewood and what is now called the Interlochen Arts Camp in Interlochen, Michigan.
In recognition of their contribution to music and music education, Jane and James Bastien were awarded the 1999 MTNA (Music Teachers' National Association) Lifetime Achievement Award.
According to a blog published by his daughter Lori Bastien Vickers, a La Jolla-based piano teacher, a memorial concert was held January 28 and featured performances by students of the Bastien family. Their other daughter, Lisa Bastien Hanss, of Manhattan, is also a piano teacher. Both daughters have worked on books within the Bastien series.
Bastien died of Alzheimer's disease, according to his wife. He was 71.
James William Bastien was born in Bellingham, Washington, on April 10, 1934. He received his bachelor's and masters degrees from Southern Methodist University. Hungarian pianist György Sándor was one of his teachers.
Bastien married Jane Smisor, a pianist and teacher, in 1961. He and his wife became a prolific pedagogical team; writing more than 300 instructional books aimed at both children and adults. Titles in various series include James Bastien Piano Basics, Musicianship For The Older Beginner, Bastien Favorite Classic Melodies, Bastien Pop, Boogie, Rock, Country, and Bastiens' Invitation To Music: Piano Party Book A.
The Bastien series present a carefully sequenced approach, with accompanying materials devoted to theory, technique, and performance. The Bastien method avoids teaching musical notation immediately; instead, beginners learn to play basic tunes by placing their fingers on particular keys and adhering to finger patterns. After several months, students learn how to read music.
Bastien taught at Notre Dame, Tulane University, and Loyola University as well as at summer institutes such as Tanglewood and what is now called the Interlochen Arts Camp in Interlochen, Michigan.
In recognition of their contribution to music and music education, Jane and James Bastien were awarded the 1999 MTNA (Music Teachers' National Association) Lifetime Achievement Award.
According to a blog published by his daughter Lori Bastien Vickers, a La Jolla-based piano teacher, a memorial concert was held January 28 and featured performances by students of the Bastien family. Their other daughter, Lisa Bastien Hanss, of Manhattan, is also a piano teacher. Both daughters have worked on books within the Bastien series.
Bastien died of Alzheimer's disease, according to his wife. He was 71.
Coretta Scott King, 78, Dies
By ERRIN HAINES, Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
(01-31) 05:00 PST ATLANTA (AP) --
Coretta Scott King, who turned a life shattered by her husband's assassination into one devoted to enshrining his legacy of human rights and equality, has died, former mayor Andrew Young told NBC Tuesday morning. She was 78.
Young, who was a former civil rights activist and was close to the King family, broke the news during a phone call he made to the "Today" show. "I was not expecting it. She has been ill for last few months. My first reaction was she was ready to cross on over."
Asked how he found out about her death, Young said: "I understand she was asleep last night and her daughter tried to wake her up."
Efforts by The Associated Press to reach the family were unsuccessful. They did not immediately return phone calls, but flags at the King Center were lowered to half-staff Tuesday morning.
King suffered a serious stroke and heart attack in 2005.
She was a supportive lieutenant to her husband, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., during the most tumultuous days of the American civil rights movement. She had married him in 1953.
After her husband's assassination in Memphis, Tenn., on April 4, 1968, she kept his dream alive while also raising their four children.
She worked to keep his ideology of equality for all people at the forefront of the nation's agenda. She goaded and pulled for more than a decade to have her husband's birthday observed as a national holiday, then watched with pride in 1983 as President Reagan signed the bill into law. The first federal holiday was celebrated in 1986.
King became a symbol, in her own right, of her husband's struggle for peace and brotherhood, presiding with a quiet, steady, stoic presence over seminars and conferences on global issues.
"I'm more determined than ever that my husband's dream will become a reality," King said soon after his slaying, a demonstration of the strong will that lay beneath the placid calm and dignity of her character.
She was devoted to her children and considered them her first responsibility. But she also wrote a book, "My Life With Martin Luther King Jr.," and, in 1969, founded the multimillion-dollar Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change.
King saw to it that the center became deeply involved with the issues she said breed violence — hunger, unemployment, voting rights and racism.
"The center enables us to go out and struggle against the evils in our society," she often said.
After her stroke, King missed the annual King holiday celebration in Atlanta in January 2006, but she did appear with her children at an awards dinner a couple of days earlier, smiling from her wheelchair but not speaking. The crowd gave her a standing ovation.
At the same time, the King Center's board of directors was considering selling the site to the National Park Service to let the family focus less on grounds maintenance and more on King's message. But two of the four children were strongly against such a move.
Coretta Scott was studying voice at the New England Conservatory of Music and planning on a singing career when a friend introduced her to Martin Luther King, a young Baptist minister working toward a Ph.D. at Boston University.
"She said she wanted me to meet a very promising young minister from Atlanta," King once said, adding with a laugh, "I wasn't interested in meeting a young minister at that time."
By ERRIN HAINES, Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
(01-31) 05:00 PST ATLANTA (AP) --
Coretta Scott King, who turned a life shattered by her husband's assassination into one devoted to enshrining his legacy of human rights and equality, has died, former mayor Andrew Young told NBC Tuesday morning. She was 78.
Young, who was a former civil rights activist and was close to the King family, broke the news during a phone call he made to the "Today" show. "I was not expecting it. She has been ill for last few months. My first reaction was she was ready to cross on over."
Asked how he found out about her death, Young said: "I understand she was asleep last night and her daughter tried to wake her up."
Efforts by The Associated Press to reach the family were unsuccessful. They did not immediately return phone calls, but flags at the King Center were lowered to half-staff Tuesday morning.
King suffered a serious stroke and heart attack in 2005.
She was a supportive lieutenant to her husband, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., during the most tumultuous days of the American civil rights movement. She had married him in 1953.
After her husband's assassination in Memphis, Tenn., on April 4, 1968, she kept his dream alive while also raising their four children.
She worked to keep his ideology of equality for all people at the forefront of the nation's agenda. She goaded and pulled for more than a decade to have her husband's birthday observed as a national holiday, then watched with pride in 1983 as President Reagan signed the bill into law. The first federal holiday was celebrated in 1986.
King became a symbol, in her own right, of her husband's struggle for peace and brotherhood, presiding with a quiet, steady, stoic presence over seminars and conferences on global issues.
"I'm more determined than ever that my husband's dream will become a reality," King said soon after his slaying, a demonstration of the strong will that lay beneath the placid calm and dignity of her character.
She was devoted to her children and considered them her first responsibility. But she also wrote a book, "My Life With Martin Luther King Jr.," and, in 1969, founded the multimillion-dollar Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change.
King saw to it that the center became deeply involved with the issues she said breed violence — hunger, unemployment, voting rights and racism.
"The center enables us to go out and struggle against the evils in our society," she often said.
After her stroke, King missed the annual King holiday celebration in Atlanta in January 2006, but she did appear with her children at an awards dinner a couple of days earlier, smiling from her wheelchair but not speaking. The crowd gave her a standing ovation.
At the same time, the King Center's board of directors was considering selling the site to the National Park Service to let the family focus less on grounds maintenance and more on King's message. But two of the four children were strongly against such a move.
Coretta Scott was studying voice at the New England Conservatory of Music and planning on a singing career when a friend introduced her to Martin Luther King, a young Baptist minister working toward a Ph.D. at Boston University.
"She said she wanted me to meet a very promising young minister from Atlanta," King once said, adding with a laugh, "I wasn't interested in meeting a young minister at that time."
Actor Henry McGee, famed for playing the stooge in the Benny Hill TV
show, has died at the age of 77.
He died on Saturday and had been battling Alzheimer's, his agent said.
He spent the last six months of his life in a nursing home.
McGee played Hill's sidekick in the comedy sketch show for 20 years and
was also appeared alongside the Honey Monster in the Sugar Puffs
commercials.
He became an actor after finishing his National Service in the Navy.
The actor was descended from a theatrical family dating back to an 18th
Century actress, Kitty Clive.
"I couldn't understand why they did it," he once said. "I thought they
must be barmy.
Mousetrap joke
"They would be talking about it all the time and everything they were
talking about was a disaster. It was the last thing I wanted to do."
The actor joked that his greatest claim to fame was that he was
contracted to play for two weeks in The Mousetrap, giving him the
distinction of being cast for the shortest time in the longest-running
show.
He also carved out a film career with roles in The Italian Job, The
Pink Panther, Carry on Emmanuelle and Holiday On The Buses.
His TV work included parts in Last Of The Summer Wine, Z Cars, Rising
Damp, The Goodies, The Saint and The Avengers.
The actor also played the lead in television's Jimmy and the Desperate
Woman. He appeared in No That's Me Over There with Ronnie Corbett and
The Worker with Charlie Drake.
And his stage work included sharing the limelight with Terry Scott,
Dick Emery, Eric Sykes, Tommy Cooper, Rod Hull and Jimmy Tarbuck.
Stew Albert, a co-founder of the theatrically unruly Youth International Party -- whose members were more commonly known as Yippies -- and one of the last remaining radical leftists of a colorful cohort that once included Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman, Bobby Seale, Huey Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, John Lennon, Timothy Leary and Tom Hayden, died Monday in Portland of liver cancer. He was 66.
Mr. Albert was clubbed by police during the iconic 1968 anti-war Democratic National Convention riot, and was named as an unindicted co-conspirator at the Chicago 7 trial; seven others were indicted for conspiring to start a riot at the convention. The prosecution read articles he'd written for an underground newspaper.
The Yippies were a political and cultural group which in 1968 advanced a pig as candidate for president and in 1970 invaded Disneyland for a day. In 1970, Mr. Albert ran for sheriff of Alameda County, Calif., but lost. (He carried the city of Berkeley, though.)
A lifelong radical and activist, unlike many aging '60s radicals and hippies who grew into careerists who worried about their own kids and drugs, Mr. Albert continued to carry an idealistic torch for the 1960s, marching, protesting, speaking and writing on behalf of radical social change.
Mr. Albert moved to Portland in 1984 with his wife, Judy Gumbo, whom he married in 1977, and young daughter. He worked as a freelance writer and editor from his Northeast Portland home, helped raise his daughter and enjoyed his reputation as a hell-raiser. He was active in Northwest Coalition for Human Dignity, an anti-racism group, and was president of Oregon Jewish Agenda, which in the mid-'80s started promoting Arab (Palestinian)-Jewish dialogue.
"I came here to bring the holy spirit of the '60s to this younger generation," he said in 2000.
His memoir, "Who the Hell is Stew Albert?" -- so named because of a question Howard Stern posed on his radio show -- was published by Red Hen Press in 2005.
"It's less a case of local boy makes good, more a case of local boy makes trouble," Mr. Albert said.
Mr. Albert was born Dec. 4, 1939, in Brooklyn, N.Y., an only child. He graduated from Pace University and in 1964 began organizing against the Vietnam War.
In 1988, he attended a 20-year reunion in Chicago of 1968 protesters.
"I imagine Americans secretly miss the passion of my generation," he wrote of that experience.
In 1996, Mayor Richard M. Daley, son of former Mayor Richard J. Daley, invited him to Chicago with his pal Tom Hayden (a former roommate), for a day of reconciliation. Mr. Albert shook hands with the younger Mayor Daley.
Mr. Albert was co-author with his wife of "The Sixties Papers" anthology
He ran the Yippie Reading Room online and continued to blog until the day before his death, at http://members.aol.com/stewa/stew.html
He is survived by his wife, Judy Gumbo Albert, and daughter, Jessica Pearl Albert.
A funeral will be at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Havurah Shalom.
Remembrances to Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette or Rosenberg Fund for Children.
Arrangements by Holman's.
Mr. Albert was clubbed by police during the iconic 1968 anti-war Democratic National Convention riot, and was named as an unindicted co-conspirator at the Chicago 7 trial; seven others were indicted for conspiring to start a riot at the convention. The prosecution read articles he'd written for an underground newspaper.
The Yippies were a political and cultural group which in 1968 advanced a pig as candidate for president and in 1970 invaded Disneyland for a day. In 1970, Mr. Albert ran for sheriff of Alameda County, Calif., but lost. (He carried the city of Berkeley, though.)
A lifelong radical and activist, unlike many aging '60s radicals and hippies who grew into careerists who worried about their own kids and drugs, Mr. Albert continued to carry an idealistic torch for the 1960s, marching, protesting, speaking and writing on behalf of radical social change.
Mr. Albert moved to Portland in 1984 with his wife, Judy Gumbo, whom he married in 1977, and young daughter. He worked as a freelance writer and editor from his Northeast Portland home, helped raise his daughter and enjoyed his reputation as a hell-raiser. He was active in Northwest Coalition for Human Dignity, an anti-racism group, and was president of Oregon Jewish Agenda, which in the mid-'80s started promoting Arab (Palestinian)-Jewish dialogue.
"I came here to bring the holy spirit of the '60s to this younger generation," he said in 2000.
His memoir, "Who the Hell is Stew Albert?" -- so named because of a question Howard Stern posed on his radio show -- was published by Red Hen Press in 2005.
"It's less a case of local boy makes good, more a case of local boy makes trouble," Mr. Albert said.
Mr. Albert was born Dec. 4, 1939, in Brooklyn, N.Y., an only child. He graduated from Pace University and in 1964 began organizing against the Vietnam War.
In 1988, he attended a 20-year reunion in Chicago of 1968 protesters.
"I imagine Americans secretly miss the passion of my generation," he wrote of that experience.
In 1996, Mayor Richard M. Daley, son of former Mayor Richard J. Daley, invited him to Chicago with his pal Tom Hayden (a former roommate), for a day of reconciliation. Mr. Albert shook hands with the younger Mayor Daley.
Mr. Albert was co-author with his wife of "The Sixties Papers" anthology
He ran the Yippie Reading Room online and continued to blog until the day before his death, at http://members.aol.com/stewa/stew.html
He is survived by his wife, Judy Gumbo Albert, and daughter, Jessica Pearl Albert.
A funeral will be at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Havurah Shalom.
Remembrances to Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette or Rosenberg Fund for Children.
Arrangements by Holman's.
QUOTE(Freddie Freelance @ Jan 30 2006, 01:12 PM) [snapback]7189[/snapback]
Bryan Harvey, ex-guitarist for the band 'House of Freaks' and 'Gutterball', found murdered with his family:
I was just told about this today. I remember seeing House of Freaks years ago, and I think I've seen Gutterball, too. Supposedly 2 men have been arrested for the crime, I haven't heard anything about evidence or strength of the case against them.
Samples for House of Freaks from Amazon.com
There was a report on this on Sunday, I can't remember what channel I was watching. The two arrested were from Philly and are career criminals. As luck happened, a few days later, those two were hanging out with some woman and a friend at her friend's house (who lived with her parents), where the one woman had an uneasy feeling about some of the things the two said. She went to the police about it. Turns out by the time the police got to the friend's house, the friend and her parents were all bound and stabbed, much like the Harvey's.
Theory is the friend (who was killed with her family) was involved in the Harvey kiliings as well as a driver or something if I remember correctly. The two are also believed to have been responsible for crimes in DC the week before. One of the two had just gotten out of jail (go figure) for armed robbery after 10 years.
Sybaris founder dies in crash
January 31, 2006
BY FRANK MAIN AND MARK J. KONKOL Staff Reporters
The founder of Sybaris Clubs International Inc. was on the twin-engine corporate airplane that crashed and burst into flames while preparing to land at Palwaukee Municipal Airport in the northwest suburbs last night, the company confirmed today.
Kenneth Knudson, 61, and three other people were on the plane, according to Sybaris. None of the other three people was a member of Knudson’s family, the company said. There were no survivors.
Knudson was a certified pilot as was another person on the 10-sat Cessna 421, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Authorities did not say whom was flying the plane.
The plane was flying from an airport in Olathe, Kan., Monday when it went down about 6:30 p.m. in a storage yard of DeGraf Concrete Construction Inc. in Wheeling.
The company would not say what business Knudson had in the Kansas City, Mo. area Monday. But a story in the U.S. Business Review in April said the Arlington Heights-based company was in the licensing approval process for a unit in the Kansas City suburbs.
Knudson founded the first Sybaris, a romantic getaway geared toward married couples, in Downers Grove in April 1975. Sybaris Clubs International and its affiliates posted $10 million in gross revenue in 1998, according to a company news release.
A company Web site lists other locations in Northbrook, Frankfort, Indianapolis and Mequon, Wis.
In an interview, Knudson described a typical bedroom in one of his businesses as having a swimming pool, a fireplace, palm trees, Hawaiian sunsets on the walls and walk-in steam rooms to evoke a tropical paradise.
“It has to be absolutely perfect,” said Knudson, whose had a home in far northwest suburban Lake Zurich, according to public records in 2004.
Knudson attended Elmhurst College and was a fifth-degree black belt in karate. He owned 10 Olympic Karate Studios, among other businesses and was president of the American Karate Association.
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s office was conducting dental comparisons today to confirm the identity of the other people on the plane, a spokesman said. The office would not identify any of the victims.
Federal investigators were trying to determine today why the Cessna 421 crashed.
One witness, 15-year-old Wheeling High School student Matt Glowa, heard what he thought was a propeller making weird noises as he was playing football at Robert Frost Elementary School, a few blocks from the crash site.
Then came a big bang he compared to the sound of a Dumpster hitting the wall. “Everything lit up,” Glowa said. “The sky was like daytime. I blinked and then it turned dark and smoke was rising up over the houses.”
Another witness, 18-year-old Michael Donis, was on his way home when he spotted the plane, which seemed to be headed toward a routine landing. But it started to rise, with its nose up, and then went into a spiral dive toward the ground, Donis said. “There was a plume of smoke and the whole sky turned orange and red,” he said.
Wheeling Fire Chief Keith MacIsaac said a surveillance camera at a nearby business recorded three or four frames — about a second of the crash — as the 32-year-old plane plummeted nose down into the ground. It showed the plane hitting at a 45-degree angle, MacIsaac said. “There was nothing left.’’
Authorities knew of no distress call.
A part-owner of DeGraf Concrete, Mike Pirron, got a call around 6:30 p.m. from central dispatch that the alarm had gone off at his company. Firefighters, it turns out, had broken through the lock to get to the crash site.
The business is a half-mile to a mile south of the airport, which is jointly run by the towns of Prospect Heights and Wheeling.
Pirron got 40 feet from the wreckage after the fire was put out. “There wasn’t much left,” he said. “It was a totally demolished plane, just twisted metal. I couldn’t see the wings. It was all melted. . . . A huge explosion.”
The plane landed against some steel and wooden forms used in pouring concrete.
Four people — apparently all adults — were killed but their identities weren’t immediately released. A woman who appeared to be shaken and was believed to be the wife of one of the victims was brought to the scene around 9:30 p.m.
The plane departed from Johnson County Executive Airport in suburban Kansas City, said an airport contractor there, Tom Cargin. “I know they went through, but I don’t know of any problems,” he said.
Fourth-busiest airport in area
The plane, registered to a Delaware corporation, was readying to land on Palwaukee’s Runway 34 at the time of the accident, said FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory. Runway 34 is a 5,000-foot-long northwest-by-southeast strip — the longest of three at the airport.
It was cloudy at the time, with a visibility of about 10 miles, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Bob Somrek. It was past sunset, there was no precipitation, and the winds were moderate, at about 10 mph, he said.
Palwaukee handles general aviation and corporate flights, as opposed to big commercial jets. It sees around 140,000 takeoffs and landings a year — fourth busiest in the area behind O’Hare, Midway and DuPage airports, said Palwaukee spokesman Rob Mark.
While the aircraft in Monday night’s crash missed residences in the area, many residents long have been concerned about their proximity to Palwaukee. One of the worst local accidents occurred in 1996 when a Gulfstream IV was taking off. It crashed near an apartment complex, then burst into flames, killing the two pilots, the flight attendant and the passenger, an Aon executive.
Last year, there were several minor crashes of planes heading to or from Palwaukee.
The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the probe into Monday’s crash.Link
Film critic Paul Clinton, a founding member of the Broadcast Film Critics Assn., died Jan. 30 in West Hollywood. He was 54.
A memorial gathering will be held Feb. 11 at 3 p.m. at 925 S. Dunsmuir Ave., Los Angeles.
Born in Columbus, Ohio, Clinton attended Ohio State U. and then moved to New York, where he became a page at NBC. He produced for the "The Tomorrow Show" with Tom Snyder and then moved to Los Angeles to work on "The Merv Griffin Show."
He then moved to KCBS as an entertainment news producer.
In 1988, Clinton began working on the Turner Entertainment Report and other media in the CNN family, where he started reviewing films. In addition to being a critic for CNN.com, his radio reviews and "Paul's Picks" pieces aired on more than 100 stations domestically and internationally.
He is survived by a niece and a nephew.
A memorial gathering will be held Feb. 11 at 3 p.m. at 925 S. Dunsmuir Ave., Los Angeles.
Born in Columbus, Ohio, Clinton attended Ohio State U. and then moved to New York, where he became a page at NBC. He produced for the "The Tomorrow Show" with Tom Snyder and then moved to Los Angeles to work on "The Merv Griffin Show."
He then moved to KCBS as an entertainment news producer.
In 1988, Clinton began working on the Turner Entertainment Report and other media in the CNN family, where he started reviewing films. In addition to being a critic for CNN.com, his radio reviews and "Paul's Picks" pieces aired on more than 100 stations domestically and internationally.
He is survived by a niece and a nephew.
Otto Lang brought a gift of grace and European refinement to the unruly ski slopes of the Northwest, an influence that resonates with skiers seven decades after his arrival here.
The Bosnian-born émigré, founder of ski schools on Mount Rainier, Mount Baker and Mount Hood, ski instructor to the stars, movie director, author, photographer and guiding light for later generations of skiers, died Monday at his West Seattle home. He was 98 and had been suffering from heart disease.
"It's the absolute end of an era. He was the last of that generation. No one else is left," said Warren Miller, a legendary ski-film producer who first met Mr. Lang in 1946 in Sun Valley, Idaho, where Mr. Lang then ran the ski school.
Mr. Lang came to the Northwest in 1936 looking for a place to film a ski-instruction movie. What he found was a lot of snow and mayhem.
He watched the running of the Silver Skis Race, an annual race from Camp Muir, high on the flank of Mount Rainier, to Paradise Lodge.
"I tell you, it was like something I'd never seen," Mr. Lang recalled in a Seattle Times interview in 2003. "People flying through the air, crossing their skis, falling, somersaulting. It was just unbelievable the mayhem and danger — twisted knees and ankles and everything. So I said, well, this is a place they need a ski school very badly!"
It was the antithesis to the controlled, graceful skiing style Mr. Lang had honed in the Austrian Alps. He was born in 1908 in a small town outside Sarajevo and raised in Austria, where he was schooled in the latest downhill-skiing technique.
Recruited to the United States in 1935 to bring sophistication to the slopes of America, Mr. Lang quickly set his sights on the Northwest as a place badly in need.
In 1936, he opened the ski school at Mount Rainier, and the next year he added ones at Mount Baker and Mount Hood.
Mr. Lang's work with ski instruction makes him "a true pioneer," said Franz Gabl, an Olympic skier who knew Mr. Lang for seven decades and now lives in Bellingham. "He contributed a lot to Northwest skiing."
But his time here was short during the height of his career. In 1939, Mr. Lang left for the ski school at Sun Valley, a resort created by railroad magnate Averell Harriman. There, Mr. Lang ran the school with a firm hand, said Miller, who worked for him in 1948.
"He told me, 'Go get your hair cut and take a shower,' " Miller recalled. "He was a very strict disciplinarian."
Mr. Lang also met movie mogul Darryl F. Zanuck, head of 20th Century Fox. Zanuck put the skier in charge of the ski sequences of the movie "Sun Valley Serenade" starring Sonja Henie.
Mr. Lang proved equally at home in the mountains and film studios.
He eventually produced several Fox movies, including "Call Northside 777," a 1948 thriller with Jimmy Stewart; "Five Fingers," a 1952 spy film nominated for an Oscar; and the Cinerama film, "Search for Paradise." In the 1950s and '60s, he directed episodes in a number of TV shows, including "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.," "Daktari" and "Cheyenne."
He returned to the Northwest in 1987 and turned his seemingly boundless energy to books. He wrote a memoir, "Bird of Passage," and later published a collection of photographs from his travels, "Around the World in 90 Years."
Gerard Schwarz, music director of the Seattle Symphony, described Mr. Lang as "a great photographer, a great writer, a great director in television and movies, a brilliant intellect and in some ways most importantly, a very positive caring and loving human being."
Thursday's Seattle Symphony performance will be dedicated to Mr. Lang.
Still, throughout all of his travels and careers, skiing remained his polestar, he said in a 2005 Seattle Times interview.
"I know it is a broad statement, but it is true: Skiing is responsible for everything in my life. It connected everything."
Mr. Lang is survived by his longtime companion, June Campbell of Seattle; and sons Mark Lang of Coronado, Calif., and Peter Lang of Santa Rosa, Calif.
Information on services for Mr. Lang was unavailable.
The Bosnian-born émigré, founder of ski schools on Mount Rainier, Mount Baker and Mount Hood, ski instructor to the stars, movie director, author, photographer and guiding light for later generations of skiers, died Monday at his West Seattle home. He was 98 and had been suffering from heart disease.
"It's the absolute end of an era. He was the last of that generation. No one else is left," said Warren Miller, a legendary ski-film producer who first met Mr. Lang in 1946 in Sun Valley, Idaho, where Mr. Lang then ran the ski school.
Mr. Lang came to the Northwest in 1936 looking for a place to film a ski-instruction movie. What he found was a lot of snow and mayhem.
He watched the running of the Silver Skis Race, an annual race from Camp Muir, high on the flank of Mount Rainier, to Paradise Lodge.
"I tell you, it was like something I'd never seen," Mr. Lang recalled in a Seattle Times interview in 2003. "People flying through the air, crossing their skis, falling, somersaulting. It was just unbelievable the mayhem and danger — twisted knees and ankles and everything. So I said, well, this is a place they need a ski school very badly!"
It was the antithesis to the controlled, graceful skiing style Mr. Lang had honed in the Austrian Alps. He was born in 1908 in a small town outside Sarajevo and raised in Austria, where he was schooled in the latest downhill-skiing technique.
Recruited to the United States in 1935 to bring sophistication to the slopes of America, Mr. Lang quickly set his sights on the Northwest as a place badly in need.
In 1936, he opened the ski school at Mount Rainier, and the next year he added ones at Mount Baker and Mount Hood.
Mr. Lang's work with ski instruction makes him "a true pioneer," said Franz Gabl, an Olympic skier who knew Mr. Lang for seven decades and now lives in Bellingham. "He contributed a lot to Northwest skiing."
But his time here was short during the height of his career. In 1939, Mr. Lang left for the ski school at Sun Valley, a resort created by railroad magnate Averell Harriman. There, Mr. Lang ran the school with a firm hand, said Miller, who worked for him in 1948.
"He told me, 'Go get your hair cut and take a shower,' " Miller recalled. "He was a very strict disciplinarian."
Mr. Lang also met movie mogul Darryl F. Zanuck, head of 20th Century Fox. Zanuck put the skier in charge of the ski sequences of the movie "Sun Valley Serenade" starring Sonja Henie.
Mr. Lang proved equally at home in the mountains and film studios.
He eventually produced several Fox movies, including "Call Northside 777," a 1948 thriller with Jimmy Stewart; "Five Fingers," a 1952 spy film nominated for an Oscar; and the Cinerama film, "Search for Paradise." In the 1950s and '60s, he directed episodes in a number of TV shows, including "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.," "Daktari" and "Cheyenne."
He returned to the Northwest in 1987 and turned his seemingly boundless energy to books. He wrote a memoir, "Bird of Passage," and later published a collection of photographs from his travels, "Around the World in 90 Years."
Gerard Schwarz, music director of the Seattle Symphony, described Mr. Lang as "a great photographer, a great writer, a great director in television and movies, a brilliant intellect and in some ways most importantly, a very positive caring and loving human being."
Thursday's Seattle Symphony performance will be dedicated to Mr. Lang.
Still, throughout all of his travels and careers, skiing remained his polestar, he said in a 2005 Seattle Times interview.
"I know it is a broad statement, but it is true: Skiing is responsible for everything in my life. It connected everything."
Mr. Lang is survived by his longtime companion, June Campbell of Seattle; and sons Mark Lang of Coronado, Calif., and Peter Lang of Santa Rosa, Calif.
Information on services for Mr. Lang was unavailable.
Film editor Stu Linder died of a heart attack Jan. 12, in Ridgefield,
Conn., while on location working on "Man of the Year" for Barry
Levinson. He was 74.
Linder began his 25-year collaboration with Levinson on "Diner" in
1981. Their films together include "Rain Man," "The Natural," "Tin
Men," "Good Morning Vietnam," "Avalon," "Bugsy," "Disclosure" and "Wag
The Dog."
In 1967, Linder shared the editing Oscar for John Frankenheimer's
"Grand Prix" and in 1989 received the American Cinema Editors feature
award, an Oscar nom and and a BAFTABAFTA nomination for "Rain Man."
His other editing credits include "The Fortune," "First Family," "My
Bodyguard," "Six Weeks," "Code Name: Emerald" and "Quiz Show."
Linder began his career at Paramount Studios in 1955. Among his
assistant credits are "The Misfits," "Seconds," "The Man Who Shot
Liberty Valance," "Carnal Knowledge," "Catch 22" and "Day of the
Dolphin."
Linder was born in Geneva, Ill. and grew up in Hermosa Beach, Calif. An
Army veteran of the Korean War, he served as an illustrator for the
Foreign Language School at Fort Ord.
He is survived by his wife, Cathy Fitzpatrick Linder, a former HBO
exec; a son and a brother.
Donations may be made to the California Special Olympics.
Conn., while on location working on "Man of the Year" for Barry
Levinson. He was 74.
Linder began his 25-year collaboration with Levinson on "Diner" in
1981. Their films together include "Rain Man," "The Natural," "Tin
Men," "Good Morning Vietnam," "Avalon," "Bugsy," "Disclosure" and "Wag
The Dog."
In 1967, Linder shared the editing Oscar for John Frankenheimer's
"Grand Prix" and in 1989 received the American Cinema Editors feature
award, an Oscar nom and and a BAFTABAFTA nomination for "Rain Man."
His other editing credits include "The Fortune," "First Family," "My
Bodyguard," "Six Weeks," "Code Name: Emerald" and "Quiz Show."
Linder began his career at Paramount Studios in 1955. Among his
assistant credits are "The Misfits," "Seconds," "The Man Who Shot
Liberty Valance," "Carnal Knowledge," "Catch 22" and "Day of the
Dolphin."
Linder was born in Geneva, Ill. and grew up in Hermosa Beach, Calif. An
Army veteran of the Korean War, he served as an illustrator for the
Foreign Language School at Fort Ord.
He is survived by his wife, Cathy Fitzpatrick Linder, a former HBO
exec; a son and a brother.
Donations may be made to the California Special Olympics.
Former POISON IDEA Guitarist PIG CHAMPION Found Dead
Thomas "Pig Champion" Roberts, guitarist for POISON IDEA, died at his home in Portland, Oregon, Monday night (Jan. 30). A founding member of the seminal punk band, he continued to appear with POISON IDEA throughout the late Nineties and into the new millennium, despite officially quitting the band in 1993. Variously described as "spectacularly fat," and "the single largest man in hardcore history," Roberts crowned himself "Pig Champion" after hitting an impressive 450 lbs. on the scales. The highly regarded guitarist was revered by a devoted following worldwide. No further information is available at this time.
According to the Taang! Records web site, POISON IDEA was formed in 1980 in Portland, Oregon by frontman Jerry A., Roberts, bassist Chris Tense, and drummer Dean Johnson. The group debuted three years later with the EP "Pick Your King", cramming 13 songs into a 16-minute time frame; the "Record Collectors Are Pretentious Assholes" EP followed in 1985, fine-tuning the band's blistering sound and fatalistic worldview. Thanks to their notoriously insatiable diet of drugs, alcohol, and junk food, the members of POISON IDEA all ballooned past the 300-pound mark by the time of the 1986 full-length "Kings of Punk". Tense and Johnson were then dismissed from the lineup, although the former returned in time for 1987's "War All the Time", recorded with second guitarist Eric "Vegetable" Olsen and drummer Steve "Thee Slayer Hippy" Hanford; Tense was then replaced by bassist Mondo for 1988's "Filthkick" EP. Both the "Darby Crash Rides Again" and "Ian MacKaye" EPs followed a year later, another period of roster tumult which made way for the addition of guitarist Kid Cocksman (soon replaced by Aldine Striknine) and bassist Myrtle Tickner. POISON IDEA returned in 1990 with "Feel the Darkness", with a series of live releases (the "Official Bootleg" EP, the "Live in Vienna" EP, and the "Dutch Courage" LP) preceding 1992's "Blank Blackout". A collaboration with Jeff Dahl appeared a year later, concurrent with the covers album "Pajama Party"; however, in the wake of Pig Champion's subsequent departure POISON IDEA disbanded, releasing their June 6, 1993, farewell gig at Portland's La Luna as "Pig's Last Stand".
Thomas "Pig Champion" Roberts, guitarist for POISON IDEA, died at his home in Portland, Oregon, Monday night (Jan. 30). A founding member of the seminal punk band, he continued to appear with POISON IDEA throughout the late Nineties and into the new millennium, despite officially quitting the band in 1993. Variously described as "spectacularly fat," and "the single largest man in hardcore history," Roberts crowned himself "Pig Champion" after hitting an impressive 450 lbs. on the scales. The highly regarded guitarist was revered by a devoted following worldwide. No further information is available at this time.
According to the Taang! Records web site, POISON IDEA was formed in 1980 in Portland, Oregon by frontman Jerry A., Roberts, bassist Chris Tense, and drummer Dean Johnson. The group debuted three years later with the EP "Pick Your King", cramming 13 songs into a 16-minute time frame; the "Record Collectors Are Pretentious Assholes" EP followed in 1985, fine-tuning the band's blistering sound and fatalistic worldview. Thanks to their notoriously insatiable diet of drugs, alcohol, and junk food, the members of POISON IDEA all ballooned past the 300-pound mark by the time of the 1986 full-length "Kings of Punk". Tense and Johnson were then dismissed from the lineup, although the former returned in time for 1987's "War All the Time", recorded with second guitarist Eric "Vegetable" Olsen and drummer Steve "Thee Slayer Hippy" Hanford; Tense was then replaced by bassist Mondo for 1988's "Filthkick" EP. Both the "Darby Crash Rides Again" and "Ian MacKaye" EPs followed a year later, another period of roster tumult which made way for the addition of guitarist Kid Cocksman (soon replaced by Aldine Striknine) and bassist Myrtle Tickner. POISON IDEA returned in 1990 with "Feel the Darkness", with a series of live releases (the "Official Bootleg" EP, the "Live in Vienna" EP, and the "Dutch Courage" LP) preceding 1992's "Blank Blackout". A collaboration with Jeff Dahl appeared a year later, concurrent with the covers album "Pajama Party"; however, in the wake of Pig Champion's subsequent departure POISON IDEA disbanded, releasing their June 6, 1993, farewell gig at Portland's La Luna as "Pig's Last Stand".
The internationally-renowned ballet dancer and actress Moira Shearer has died, her husband has revealed.
Ludovic Kennedy, who married the flame-haired star of The Red Shoes in 1950, said she died at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford on Tuesday. He said she had been gradually becoming weaker since her 80th birthday in mid-January.
In tribute to his wife, the broadcaster said: "She was full of spirit and also she was very beautiful. She moved wonderfully gracefully as you would expect of
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a ballet dancer. I found her very good company and I think the children did too."
The couple had four children - Alastair, Ailsa, Rachel and Fiona - and seven grandchildren. Most of her family were with her when she died, Sir Ludovic said, and details of arrangements for the funeral and a memorial were currently being worked out.
Born Moira King in Dunfermline in Scotland, she was educated in Scotland and Zambia, and received her professional training at the Mayfair School and The Nicholas Legat Studio.
She danced at Sadler's Wells in 1942, becoming a principal dancer at the company, and sharing the stage with fellow famed ballerina Margot Fonteyn.
Her first major ballet role was as Sleeping Beauty at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden in 1946. It was followed by a tour as Sally Bowles in I Am A Camera in 1955 and at the Bristol Old Vic as Major Barbara in 1956.
But it is perhaps in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's 1948 film The Red Shoes that garnered her the most widespread fame as young ballet dancer Victoria Page, in a role which saw her torn between love and her career.
She was a council member of the Arts Council of Great Britain between 1973 and 1975, and on the the General Advisory Council of the BBC, for whom she had previously worked as a continuity announcer.
A spokeswoman at the Scottish Arts Council - a successor body of the Arts Council of GB - said: "We are saddened to hear of Moira's death and extend our sympathies to her husband and family at this difficult time."
Ludovic Kennedy, who married the flame-haired star of The Red Shoes in 1950, said she died at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford on Tuesday. He said she had been gradually becoming weaker since her 80th birthday in mid-January.
In tribute to his wife, the broadcaster said: "She was full of spirit and also she was very beautiful. She moved wonderfully gracefully as you would expect of
Advertisement
a ballet dancer. I found her very good company and I think the children did too."
The couple had four children - Alastair, Ailsa, Rachel and Fiona - and seven grandchildren. Most of her family were with her when she died, Sir Ludovic said, and details of arrangements for the funeral and a memorial were currently being worked out.
Born Moira King in Dunfermline in Scotland, she was educated in Scotland and Zambia, and received her professional training at the Mayfair School and The Nicholas Legat Studio.
She danced at Sadler's Wells in 1942, becoming a principal dancer at the company, and sharing the stage with fellow famed ballerina Margot Fonteyn.
Her first major ballet role was as Sleeping Beauty at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden in 1946. It was followed by a tour as Sally Bowles in I Am A Camera in 1955 and at the Bristol Old Vic as Major Barbara in 1956.
But it is perhaps in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's 1948 film The Red Shoes that garnered her the most widespread fame as young ballet dancer Victoria Page, in a role which saw her torn between love and her career.
She was a council member of the Arts Council of Great Britain between 1973 and 1975, and on the the General Advisory Council of the BBC, for whom she had previously worked as a continuity announcer.
A spokeswoman at the Scottish Arts Council - a successor body of the Arts Council of GB - said: "We are saddened to hear of Moira's death and extend our sympathies to her husband and family at this difficult time."
Billy Joel's career has died it's been revealed. Age was unknown.
Billy Joel's career is survived by Tony. No further details are available.
J/K Tony. I luvs you.
Billy Joel's career is survived by Tony. No further details are available.
J/K Tony. I luvs you.
QUOTE(alternachick @ Feb 1 2006, 01:15 PM) [snapback]8920[/snapback]
Billy Joel's career has died it's been revealed. Age was unknown.
Billy Joel's career is survived by Tony. No further details are available.
J/K Tony. I luvs you.
The sold out stadiums on his current tour must be the death throes.
QUOTE(Tony @ Feb 1 2006, 01:40 PM) [snapback]8957[/snapback]
The sold out stadiums on his current tour must be the death throes.
"Sold out". You got it right in one.
ROME Feb 3, 2006 — Romano Mussolini, a son of Italy's World War II dictator Benito Mussolini and his last living offspring, died Friday. He was 78.
The jazz musician and painter had been hospitalized more than two weeks ago for kidney and gall bladder problems and died Friday, according to the Web site of his daughter's political party. The daughter, Alessandra Mussolini, leads a small right-wing political movement.
Romano Mussolini, one of the dictator's three sons and two daughters, was 17 when he last saw his father in April 1945, 11 days before the dictator was killed.
Jazz music was censored in Italy during the fascist regime, but the ban didn't reach the sheltered lives of Benito Mussolini's family. Romano developed a love for jazz and became one of Italy's early connoisseurs, writing reviews in magazines and teaching himself to play the piano.
Benito Mussolini didn't share his son's passion for jazz, but preferred classical music. In recent interviews, Romano recalled with fondness the times when he played classical pieces with his father, who was an amateur violinist.
After the war, Romano Mussolini shied away from his father's tainted legacy and earned a living playing under assumed names with a band in the Naples area. In the 1960s, he became one of Italy's foremost jazz musicians, using his own name in the "Romano Mussolini All Stars" band.
His 1963 "Jazz Allo Studio 7" record was acclaimed by critics and international tours brought him in contact with Chet Baker, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton.
He was "a personality that has contributed, in far away and difficult years, to spread and popularize in Italy the extraordinary artistic strength of jazz," Rome mayor Walter Veltroni said.
Mussolini refrained from discussing his father's legacy until 2004, when he published a book titled "My Father Il Duce," depicting him as a caring father who loved music and cried at the wedding of his first-born daughter.
Mussolini leaves his wife, Carla Maria Puccini, and three daughters: Alessandra, Elisabetta and Rachele. The first two are the daughters of his first wife, Anna Maria Scicolone the sister of actress Sophia Loren.
The jazz musician and painter had been hospitalized more than two weeks ago for kidney and gall bladder problems and died Friday, according to the Web site of his daughter's political party. The daughter, Alessandra Mussolini, leads a small right-wing political movement.
Romano Mussolini, one of the dictator's three sons and two daughters, was 17 when he last saw his father in April 1945, 11 days before the dictator was killed.
Jazz music was censored in Italy during the fascist regime, but the ban didn't reach the sheltered lives of Benito Mussolini's family. Romano developed a love for jazz and became one of Italy's early connoisseurs, writing reviews in magazines and teaching himself to play the piano.
Benito Mussolini didn't share his son's passion for jazz, but preferred classical music. In recent interviews, Romano recalled with fondness the times when he played classical pieces with his father, who was an amateur violinist.
After the war, Romano Mussolini shied away from his father's tainted legacy and earned a living playing under assumed names with a band in the Naples area. In the 1960s, he became one of Italy's foremost jazz musicians, using his own name in the "Romano Mussolini All Stars" band.
His 1963 "Jazz Allo Studio 7" record was acclaimed by critics and international tours brought him in contact with Chet Baker, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton.
He was "a personality that has contributed, in far away and difficult years, to spread and popularize in Italy the extraordinary artistic strength of jazz," Rome mayor Walter Veltroni said.
Mussolini refrained from discussing his father's legacy until 2004, when he published a book titled "My Father Il Duce," depicting him as a caring father who loved music and cried at the wedding of his first-born daughter.
Mussolini leaves his wife, Carla Maria Puccini, and three daughters: Alessandra, Elisabetta and Rachele. The first two are the daughters of his first wife, Anna Maria Scicolone the sister of actress Sophia Loren.
Former all-pro running back Dick Bass has died. He played along with Jack Snow and Roman Gabriel
From punknews.org:
"Word has come in that Jason Sears, vocalist of RKL has passed away. A
friend had this to say:
'Santa Barbara local, father, skater, and punk died today battling his
illness. It has been a hard year for 805 crew. 3 RKL members in less
than a year is a huge loss. I knew each and everyone one of them...
each had touched my life in many ways over the last 20 years. Back from
when I was arrested at an RKL show at the Rock On Broadway in SF in
1986 and Bomber tried to put me in their tour van while I was in hand
cuffs, to the time Jason ran off with my friend Natasha for a week and
was MIA in the East Bay... When I moved to Santa Barbara in August 1987
Jason made me feel right at home. To watch all three of these people
rise and fall over the last 20 years has been a beautiful and tragic
expericence.'
RKL, or Rich Kids on LSD was a fixture of the 90s Santa Barbara punk
scene. Two members of the band, guitarist Chris Rest and drummer Dave
Raun, went on to join Lagwagon,
Sears was the vocalist of the band from 1983-1989 and 1994-1996 and was
responsible for the vocals on the band's Epitaph full length, Riches to
Rags. The band split up around 1996 but had reunited in various
configurations 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2005. A posthumous collection, Keep
Laughing - The Best Of RKL appeared in 2001.
After his time in RKL, Jason recorded Jason Sears And Mercury Legion
which was released last year.
Our deepest condolences go out to Jason's family, bandmates, fans and
friends."
The two other RKL members alluded to are both drummers: Bomber Manzullo
died of a drug overdose in December, and Derrick Plourde shot himself
last spring.
"Word has come in that Jason Sears, vocalist of RKL has passed away. A
friend had this to say:
'Santa Barbara local, father, skater, and punk died today battling his
illness. It has been a hard year for 805 crew. 3 RKL members in less
than a year is a huge loss. I knew each and everyone one of them...
each had touched my life in many ways over the last 20 years. Back from
when I was arrested at an RKL show at the Rock On Broadway in SF in
1986 and Bomber tried to put me in their tour van while I was in hand
cuffs, to the time Jason ran off with my friend Natasha for a week and
was MIA in the East Bay... When I moved to Santa Barbara in August 1987
Jason made me feel right at home. To watch all three of these people
rise and fall over the last 20 years has been a beautiful and tragic
expericence.'
RKL, or Rich Kids on LSD was a fixture of the 90s Santa Barbara punk
scene. Two members of the band, guitarist Chris Rest and drummer Dave
Raun, went on to join Lagwagon,
Sears was the vocalist of the band from 1983-1989 and 1994-1996 and was
responsible for the vocals on the band's Epitaph full length, Riches to
Rags. The band split up around 1996 but had reunited in various
configurations 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2005. A posthumous collection, Keep
Laughing - The Best Of RKL appeared in 2001.
After his time in RKL, Jason recorded Jason Sears And Mercury Legion
which was released last year.
Our deepest condolences go out to Jason's family, bandmates, fans and
friends."
The two other RKL members alluded to are both drummers: Bomber Manzullo
died of a drug overdose in December, and Derrick Plourde shot himself
last spring.
Louise Scruggs - the wife of banjo innovator Earl Scruggs and
considered among the most influential business people in country music
history - died Thursday afternoon at Baptist Hospital in Nashville.
She had been battling respiratory ailments for many months. She was 78.
Earl Scruggs, a Country Music Hall of Fame member, always gave credit
to his mate of six decades for his accomplishments.
A half-century ago Louise Scruggs began managing and booking the
now-legendary bluegrass act Flatt and Scruggs.
As her husband's steward, she became the first female manager in
Nashville music, she brought bluegrass into the folk boom and she
virtually created the notion of bluegrass as a successful business
venture.
There's more, too. When Flatt and Scruggs disbanded, she managed and
booked the Earl Scruggs Revue, a country-rock ensemble that spanned
generations, inspired the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's famed Will the
Circle Be Unbroken albums and included the couple's three sons, Gary,
Randy and Steve.
Through her illness, Mrs. Scruggs worked to further the reach and
popularity of her husband's music, helping him toward Grammy Awards,
a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and other honors.
"She advanced me and advanced our music," Earl Scruggs said during
an interview last February.
"I didn't get where I went just on talent. What talent I had would
never have peaked without her. She helped shape music up as a business,
instead of just people out picking and grinning."
Mrs. Scruggs was born in 1927, and grew up in Middle Tennessee, near
Lebanon.
In 1946, she sat on the front row at the Grand Ole Opry and saw Bill
Monroe's Blue Grass Boys with new member Earl Scruggs. The young
instrumentalist, then 22 years old, was winning applause with his
electrifying, "three-finger" style of banjo playing. Audiences
loved the syncopated roll of Earl's banjo, and Monroe did, too. It
made the entire band sound faster, edgier and different than anyone
else had ever sounded. That sound would ultimately define what came to
be known as bluegrass, and the banjo method would later be called
"Scruggs Style."
Mrs. Scruggs didn't immediately concern herself with the pickin'
style Earl had developed.
"I was more struck by him, not his playing," she remembered.
Arrangements will be announced on Friday. For a full obituary, see
Friday's Tennessean.
considered among the most influential business people in country music
history - died Thursday afternoon at Baptist Hospital in Nashville.
She had been battling respiratory ailments for many months. She was 78.
Earl Scruggs, a Country Music Hall of Fame member, always gave credit
to his mate of six decades for his accomplishments.
A half-century ago Louise Scruggs began managing and booking the
now-legendary bluegrass act Flatt and Scruggs.
As her husband's steward, she became the first female manager in
Nashville music, she brought bluegrass into the folk boom and she
virtually created the notion of bluegrass as a successful business
venture.
There's more, too. When Flatt and Scruggs disbanded, she managed and
booked the Earl Scruggs Revue, a country-rock ensemble that spanned
generations, inspired the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's famed Will the
Circle Be Unbroken albums and included the couple's three sons, Gary,
Randy and Steve.
Through her illness, Mrs. Scruggs worked to further the reach and
popularity of her husband's music, helping him toward Grammy Awards,
a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and other honors.
"She advanced me and advanced our music," Earl Scruggs said during
an interview last February.
"I didn't get where I went just on talent. What talent I had would
never have peaked without her. She helped shape music up as a business,
instead of just people out picking and grinning."
Mrs. Scruggs was born in 1927, and grew up in Middle Tennessee, near
Lebanon.
In 1946, she sat on the front row at the Grand Ole Opry and saw Bill
Monroe's Blue Grass Boys with new member Earl Scruggs. The young
instrumentalist, then 22 years old, was winning applause with his
electrifying, "three-finger" style of banjo playing. Audiences
loved the syncopated roll of Earl's banjo, and Monroe did, too. It
made the entire band sound faster, edgier and different than anyone
else had ever sounded. That sound would ultimately define what came to
be known as bluegrass, and the banjo method would later be called
"Scruggs Style."
Mrs. Scruggs didn't immediately concern herself with the pickin'
style Earl had developed.
"I was more struck by him, not his playing," she remembered.
Arrangements will be announced on Friday. For a full obituary, see
Friday's Tennessean.
'Grandpa Munster' Al Lewis Dies at 95
By LARRY McSHANE, Associated Press Writer 12 minutes ago
NEW YORK - Al Lewis, the cigar-chomping patriarch of "The Munsters" whose work as a basketball scout, restaurateur and political candidate never eclipsed his role as Grandpa from the television sitcom, died after years of failing health. He was 95.
Lewis, with his wife at his bedside, passed away Friday night, said Bernard White, program director at WBAI-FM, where the actor hosted a weekly radio program. White made the announcement on the air during the Saturday slot where Lewis usually appeared.
"To say that we will miss his generous, cantankerous, engaging spirit is a profound understatement," White said.
Lewis, sporting a somewhat cheesy Dracula outfit, became a pop culture icon playing the irascible father-in-law to Fred Gwynne's ever-bumbling Herman Munster on the 1964-66 television show. He was also one of the stars of another classic TV comedy, playing Officer Leo Schnauzer on "Car 54, Where Are You?"
But Lewis' life off the small screen ranged far beyond his acting antics. A former ballplayer at Thomas Jefferson High School, he achieved notoriety as a basketball talent scout familiar to coaching greats like Jerry Tarkanian and Red Auerbach.
He operated a successful Greenwich Village restaurant, Grandpa's, where he was a regular presence — chatting with customers, posing for pictures, signing autographs.
Just two years short of his 90th birthday, a ponytailed Lewis ran as the Green Party candidate against incumbent Gov. George Pataki. Lewis campaigned against draconian drug laws and the death penalty, while going to court in a losing battle to have his name appear on the ballot as "Grandpa Al Lewis."
He didn't defeat Pataki, but managed to collect more 52,000 votes.
Lewis was born Alexander Meister in upstate New York before his family moved to Brooklyn, where the 6-foot-1 teen began a lifelong love affair with basketball. He later became a vaudeville and circus performer, but his career didn't take off until television did the same.
Lewis, as Officer Schnauzer, played opposite Gwynne's Officer Francis Muldoon in "Car 54, Where Are You?" — a comedy about a Bronx police precinct that aired from 1961-63. One year later, the duo appeared together in "The Munsters," taking up residence at the fictional 1313 Mockingbird Lane.
The series, about a family of clueless creatures plunked down in middle America, was a success and ran through 1966. It forever locked Lewis in as the memorably twisted character; decades later, strangers would greet him on the street with shouts of "Grandpa!"
Unlike some television stars, Lewis never complained about getting typecast and made appearances in character for decades.
"Why would I mind?" he asked in a 1997 interview. "It pays my mortgage."
Lewis rarely slowed down, opening his restaurant and hosting his WBAI radio program. At one point during the '90s, he was a frequent guest on the Howard Stern radio show, once sending the shock jock diving for the delay button by leading an undeniably obscene chant against the Federal Communications Commission.
He also popped up in a number of movies, including the acclaimed "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" and "Married to the Mob." Lewis reprised his role of Schnauzer in the movie remake of "Car 54," and appeared as a guest star on television shows such as "Taxi," "Green Acres" and "Lost in Space."
But in 2003, Lewis was hospitalized for an angioplasty. Complications during surgery led to an emergency bypass and the amputation of his right leg below the knee and all the toes on his left foot. Lewis spent the next month in a coma.
A year later, he was back offering his recollections of a seminal punk band on the DVD "Ramones Raw."
He is survived by his wife, Karen Ingenthron-Lewis, three sons and four grandchildren.
By LARRY McSHANE, Associated Press Writer 12 minutes ago
NEW YORK - Al Lewis, the cigar-chomping patriarch of "The Munsters" whose work as a basketball scout, restaurateur and political candidate never eclipsed his role as Grandpa from the television sitcom, died after years of failing health. He was 95.
Lewis, with his wife at his bedside, passed away Friday night, said Bernard White, program director at WBAI-FM, where the actor hosted a weekly radio program. White made the announcement on the air during the Saturday slot where Lewis usually appeared.
"To say that we will miss his generous, cantankerous, engaging spirit is a profound understatement," White said.
Lewis, sporting a somewhat cheesy Dracula outfit, became a pop culture icon playing the irascible father-in-law to Fred Gwynne's ever-bumbling Herman Munster on the 1964-66 television show. He was also one of the stars of another classic TV comedy, playing Officer Leo Schnauzer on "Car 54, Where Are You?"
But Lewis' life off the small screen ranged far beyond his acting antics. A former ballplayer at Thomas Jefferson High School, he achieved notoriety as a basketball talent scout familiar to coaching greats like Jerry Tarkanian and Red Auerbach.
He operated a successful Greenwich Village restaurant, Grandpa's, where he was a regular presence — chatting with customers, posing for pictures, signing autographs.
Just two years short of his 90th birthday, a ponytailed Lewis ran as the Green Party candidate against incumbent Gov. George Pataki. Lewis campaigned against draconian drug laws and the death penalty, while going to court in a losing battle to have his name appear on the ballot as "Grandpa Al Lewis."
He didn't defeat Pataki, but managed to collect more 52,000 votes.
Lewis was born Alexander Meister in upstate New York before his family moved to Brooklyn, where the 6-foot-1 teen began a lifelong love affair with basketball. He later became a vaudeville and circus performer, but his career didn't take off until television did the same.
Lewis, as Officer Schnauzer, played opposite Gwynne's Officer Francis Muldoon in "Car 54, Where Are You?" — a comedy about a Bronx police precinct that aired from 1961-63. One year later, the duo appeared together in "The Munsters," taking up residence at the fictional 1313 Mockingbird Lane.
The series, about a family of clueless creatures plunked down in middle America, was a success and ran through 1966. It forever locked Lewis in as the memorably twisted character; decades later, strangers would greet him on the street with shouts of "Grandpa!"
Unlike some television stars, Lewis never complained about getting typecast and made appearances in character for decades.
"Why would I mind?" he asked in a 1997 interview. "It pays my mortgage."
Lewis rarely slowed down, opening his restaurant and hosting his WBAI radio program. At one point during the '90s, he was a frequent guest on the Howard Stern radio show, once sending the shock jock diving for the delay button by leading an undeniably obscene chant against the Federal Communications Commission.
He also popped up in a number of movies, including the acclaimed "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" and "Married to the Mob." Lewis reprised his role of Schnauzer in the movie remake of "Car 54," and appeared as a guest star on television shows such as "Taxi," "Green Acres" and "Lost in Space."
But in 2003, Lewis was hospitalized for an angioplasty. Complications during surgery led to an emergency bypass and the amputation of his right leg below the knee and all the toes on his left foot. Lewis spent the next month in a coma.
A year later, he was back offering his recollections of a seminal punk band on the DVD "Ramones Raw."
He is survived by his wife, Karen Ingenthron-Lewis, three sons and four grandchildren.
Al Lewis truly was what most conservatives claim what Hollywood is, a radical. Perhaps I should look this up but I do not feel like it but one of my favorite stories about him goes something like this. One night, he appeared at a police function. The next day, he was arrested at a demostration by cops who were also at the function the night before. The cops asked him why, they thought that he was on their side. Al Lewis said that his appearence was in order to pay his rent. They did not pay him for his beliefs. I wish there were more like him.
Cheers,
Janine
Cheers,
Janine
Honored and sad to post this one...
Link
Feminist Author Betty Friedan Dies at 85
WASHINGTON - Betty Friedan, whose manifesto "The Feminine Mystique" became a best seller in the 1960s and laid the groundwork for the modern feminist movement, died Saturday, her birthday. She was 85.
Friedan died at her home of congestive heart failure, according to a cousin, Emily Bazelon.
Friedan's assertion in her 1963 best seller that having a husband and babies was not everything and that women should aspire to separate identities as individuals, was highly unusual, if not revolutionary, just after the baby and suburban booms of the Eisenhower era.
The feminine mystique, she said, was a phony bill of goods society sold to women that left them unfulfilled, suffering from "the problem that has no name" and seeking a solution in tranquilizers and psychoanalysis.
"A woman has got to be able to say, and not feel guilty, `Who am I, and what do I want out of life?' She mustn't feel selfish and neurotic if she wants goals of her own, outside of husband and children," Friedan said.
In the racial, political and sexual conflicts of the 1960s and '70s, Friedan's was one of the most commanding voices and recognizable presences in the women's movement.
As a founder and first president of the
National Organization for Women in 1966, she staked out positions that seemed extreme at the time on such issues as abortion, sex-neutral help-wanted ads, equal pay, promotion opportunities and maternity leave.
Link
Feminist Author Betty Friedan Dies at 85
WASHINGTON - Betty Friedan, whose manifesto "The Feminine Mystique" became a best seller in the 1960s and laid the groundwork for the modern feminist movement, died Saturday, her birthday. She was 85.
Friedan died at her home of congestive heart failure, according to a cousin, Emily Bazelon.
Friedan's assertion in her 1963 best seller that having a husband and babies was not everything and that women should aspire to separate identities as individuals, was highly unusual, if not revolutionary, just after the baby and suburban booms of the Eisenhower era.
The feminine mystique, she said, was a phony bill of goods society sold to women that left them unfulfilled, suffering from "the problem that has no name" and seeking a solution in tranquilizers and psychoanalysis.
"A woman has got to be able to say, and not feel guilty, `Who am I, and what do I want out of life?' She mustn't feel selfish and neurotic if she wants goals of her own, outside of husband and children," Friedan said.
In the racial, political and sexual conflicts of the 1960s and '70s, Friedan's was one of the most commanding voices and recognizable presences in the women's movement.
As a founder and first president of the
National Organization for Women in 1966, she staked out positions that seemed extreme at the time on such issues as abortion, sex-neutral help-wanted ads, equal pay, promotion opportunities and maternity leave.
I wonder how many die on their birthday? I think Ingrid Bergman did also.
CNN article says Al Lewis was only 83. I was sure that he was pushing 100.
Link
Grandpa 'Munster' dies at age 83
Al Lewis was also a basketball scout, political candidate
Link
Grandpa 'Munster' dies at age 83
Al Lewis was also a basketball scout, political candidate
QUOTE(Howard Rock @ Feb 4 2006, 02:19 PM) [snapback]11489[/snapback]
CNN article says Al Lewis was only 83. I was sure that he was pushing 100.
Link
Grandpa 'Munster' dies at age 83
Al Lewis was also a basketball scout, political candidate
Al Lewis was born on April 30, 1910.
Al Lewis got a Ph.D. in Child Psychology in 1941. That would preclude him being born in 1923.
Paul Regina, 49, progressive actor, family man
Newsday
February 4, 2006 Saturday
The warmth of the spotlight can be hard to reject for anyone
in show business. But Paul Regina - a movie, television and
stage actor who spent more than 20 years in Hollywood - did
just that when he left Tinseltown to return to his boyhood
home of Medford and be with his family. It was the kind of
sacrifice typical of Regina, family and friends said.
Regina, whose portrayal of one of television's first
recurring gay characters on the Showtime series "Brothers"
broke new ground for gay acting roles, died Tuesday at St.
Catherine of Siena Medical Center in Smithtown of liver
cancer. He was 49.
"He was a thoroughbred as an actor, and he was even better
as a person," said Fred Carpenter, a local independent film
director who worked with Regina on three movies. "This was a
first-class guy."
Born in Brooklyn, Regina was raised in Medford and graduated
from Patchogue-Medford High School in 1974. While in school,
he already knew the direction he wanted his career to take
and sought parts in every school play and musical
production.
In 1976, he landed the role of Kenickie in a national
touring company of "Grease," appearing briefly on Broadway
in the show.
By then, Regina had settled in Los Angeles. He worked
steadily, doing spots on various television shows and
keeping company in movies with Anthony Hopkins, Shirley
MacLaine and Rosanna Arquette.
In 1984 he began a five-year stint as Cliff Waters, one of
three brothers living in Philadelphia, in "Brothers."
In the first episode, to the shock of his brothers, Regina's
character comes out. The series and Regina's character were
hailed as landmarks in the portrayal of gays on television.
Regina loved the part, his wife, Nancy, said, and often got
letters from fans who viewed Cliff as a positive role model.
Brookhaven resident Frank Pierre said that as a young man
coming out, he would race to his cousin's house every week
to catch "Brothers."
He said that seeing Regina's character revealed that
portrayals of gays on television did not have to rely on
stereotypes.
"It was the only gay character on TV that wasn't the
flamboyant sidekick," Pierre, 45, said. "He was Everyman
USA. It was so important to see that."
In 1990, Regina married Nancy Dye, his teacher in an improv
workshop. In 1996 he co-starred with Eric Roberts, George
Segal and Margaret Cho in "It's My Party," about a man dying
of AIDS.
By 2000, however, Regina was itching to get back to Long
Island.
"He really wanted his daughter to grow up here," said Nancy
of the couple's 15-year-old, Nicolette. "He wanted to be
close to his family, too."
The move was daring, Carpenter said. "No one gives up their
careers in Hollywood," he said. "And here's a man who put
his wife and daughter first. It's unheard of."
Regina continued to act, joining Carpenter on his
independent films. He also wrote scripts and volunteered
whenever he could, his wife said, helping out with missing
children's charities and starting up "The Actors' Place"
workshop to coach aspiring thespians.
In addition to his wife and daughter, Regina is survived by
his mother, Irma, of Medford; a brother, Pat, of Manorville;
and three sisters, Joyce Regina, of Pembroke Pines, Fla.,
Julie Schindler, of Syracuse, and Christina Alam, of San
Francisco.
A memorial service will be held Saturday at 10:45 a.m. at
St. Sylvester's Church in Medford, followed by a celebration
of Regina's life at the Brick House Brewery and Restaurant
in Patchogue.
Newsday
February 4, 2006 Saturday
The warmth of the spotlight can be hard to reject for anyone
in show business. But Paul Regina - a movie, television and
stage actor who spent more than 20 years in Hollywood - did
just that when he left Tinseltown to return to his boyhood
home of Medford and be with his family. It was the kind of
sacrifice typical of Regina, family and friends said.
Regina, whose portrayal of one of television's first
recurring gay characters on the Showtime series "Brothers"
broke new ground for gay acting roles, died Tuesday at St.
Catherine of Siena Medical Center in Smithtown of liver
cancer. He was 49.
"He was a thoroughbred as an actor, and he was even better
as a person," said Fred Carpenter, a local independent film
director who worked with Regina on three movies. "This was a
first-class guy."
Born in Brooklyn, Regina was raised in Medford and graduated
from Patchogue-Medford High School in 1974. While in school,
he already knew the direction he wanted his career to take
and sought parts in every school play and musical
production.
In 1976, he landed the role of Kenickie in a national
touring company of "Grease," appearing briefly on Broadway
in the show.
By then, Regina had settled in Los Angeles. He worked
steadily, doing spots on various television shows and
keeping company in movies with Anthony Hopkins, Shirley
MacLaine and Rosanna Arquette.
In 1984 he began a five-year stint as Cliff Waters, one of
three brothers living in Philadelphia, in "Brothers."
In the first episode, to the shock of his brothers, Regina's
character comes out. The series and Regina's character were
hailed as landmarks in the portrayal of gays on television.
Regina loved the part, his wife, Nancy, said, and often got
letters from fans who viewed Cliff as a positive role model.
Brookhaven resident Frank Pierre said that as a young man
coming out, he would race to his cousin's house every week
to catch "Brothers."
He said that seeing Regina's character revealed that
portrayals of gays on television did not have to rely on
stereotypes.
"It was the only gay character on TV that wasn't the
flamboyant sidekick," Pierre, 45, said. "He was Everyman
USA. It was so important to see that."
In 1990, Regina married Nancy Dye, his teacher in an improv
workshop. In 1996 he co-starred with Eric Roberts, George
Segal and Margaret Cho in "It's My Party," about a man dying
of AIDS.
By 2000, however, Regina was itching to get back to Long
Island.
"He really wanted his daughter to grow up here," said Nancy
of the couple's 15-year-old, Nicolette. "He wanted to be
close to his family, too."
The move was daring, Carpenter said. "No one gives up their
careers in Hollywood," he said. "And here's a man who put
his wife and daughter first. It's unheard of."
Regina continued to act, joining Carpenter on his
independent films. He also wrote scripts and volunteered
whenever he could, his wife said, helping out with missing
children's charities and starting up "The Actors' Place"
workshop to coach aspiring thespians.
In addition to his wife and daughter, Regina is survived by
his mother, Irma, of Medford; a brother, Pat, of Manorville;
and three sisters, Joyce Regina, of Pembroke Pines, Fla.,
Julie Schindler, of Syracuse, and Christina Alam, of San
Francisco.
A memorial service will be held Saturday at 10:45 a.m. at
St. Sylvester's Church in Medford, followed by a celebration
of Regina's life at the Brick House Brewery and Restaurant
in Patchogue.
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/news_c...nistswischlist/
Grandpa Munster's fib outlives him
The Smoking Gun busted James Frey.
So, trying to keep pace, on Saturday night, I bagged my own celebrity fibber.
Grandpa Munster.
Seriously.
How about that, Oprah?
If you read the Internet or caught the TV news on Saturday, you probably went to bed thinking that Al Lewis -- aka “Grandpa Munster,” the lovable, cigar-chomping patriarch of the iconic 1960s television sitcom family “The Munsters” -- had died on Friday night at the age of 95.
Well … he didn’t.
Oh, Lewis passed away, alright. That much was true.
But the longtime comic wasn’t 95.
Nope, thanks to a little late-night sleuthing done by yours truly, the Associated Press instead ended up reporting a correction just before 11 p.m. Saturday that stated Lewis was, in fact, 82.
Apparently, “Grandpa” may have been fudging his age for decades.
What would Lily think?
The ball got rolling on this controversy a little past 9 p.m. on Saturday when, while working at the Tribune Tower, I began reading the AP obituary for Lewis that was posted on chicagotribune.com.
After finishing the story -- which reported Lewis’ age to be 95 -- I happened to surf over to CNN.com, which featured the same AP obituary.
With one big difference.
It said Lewis was 83.
Finding that to be quite the head-scratcher, I printed out copies of each story and, with amusement, alerted the Tribune’s News Desk to a discrepancy as oddball as “Grandpa Munster” himself.
My editors checked the AP wire, but no correction had been issued. So, they surmised that CNN must have made the change itself.
A Tribune editor then placed a call to the New York Bureau of the AP, which said it had no reason to doubt Lewis’ reported age of 95.
After slipping on my gumshoes and doing a little online investigating, however, I found plenty of them.
Numerous Web sites, including the popular film database IMDB.com, listed Lewis as having been born in New York City in 1910.
Other sites, meanwhile, reported his birth year to be 1923.
Somewhat perplexed -- what actor in Hollywood lies to make himself 13 years older?! -- I finally came across a Web site that shed some apparent light on the subject.
In answer to the question “Wasn’t Al Lewis really born in 1910?” the celebrity Internet archive “Who’s Alive and Who’s Dead” (www.wa-wd.com) reported, “No, he was born 23 April 1923. This has been documented on his birth certificate and college application. … I know he claims to have been in the circus in the 1920s and in the Merchant Marines in the 1930s, but he wasn’t really.
“He lied about his age to get the part of Grandpa, and he’s been lying about it ever since.”
Now, “The Munsters” ran from 1964-66, which meant that -- if Lewis had been born in 1923 -- he would have been only 40 or 41 years old when the series debuted.
That’s pretty young for a “Grandpa,” so it would make some sense that Lewis would have claimed to be in his early 50s while auditioning for the role.
SchnauserIronically, however, Lewis already had starred alongside Fred Gwynne (the future “Herman Munster”) as “Officer Leo Schnauser” from 1961-63 in the hit sitcom “Car 54, Where Are You?”
So, oddly enough, while Lewis' name and face were already well known in the TV biz, his actual age apparently was not.
Wanting more concrete facts about Lewis’ true age, I proceeded to dig a little deeper using the public records Web site LexisNexis. And, by searching records for the name of Lewis’ widow, Karen Ingenthron, I found a New York City home address that I proceeded to cross-reference with the name “Al Lewis.”
Bingo.
Numerous records in LexisNexis’ files confirmed that Al Lewis was, in fact, born in April of 1923.
Not 1910.
Which that meant Lewis wasn’t 95, or even 83.
He was 82.
When a Tribune editor called back the New York AP Bureau to report my findings, an AP editor grumbled that they were talking to Lewis’ son and were working to determine whether the actor was 82 or 83 years old.
Minutes later, a corrected obituary came across the wire listing Lewis’ age as 82 and including a new line that read: “The actor was widely reported to have been born in 1910, but his son Ted Lewis said Saturday that his father was born in 1923.”
Told ya.
The funny thing is, as a little kid, I was a huge fan of “The Munsters.” And Lewis’ wisecracking “Grandpa” was always my favorite character.
All these years later, it amuses me to no end that I'm the one who kept that rascally vampire, who so loved his coffin, from pulling one final prank from the grave.
Ah, Herman would be proud.
Grandpa Munster's fib outlives him
The Smoking Gun busted James Frey.
So, trying to keep pace, on Saturday night, I bagged my own celebrity fibber.
Grandpa Munster.
Seriously.
How about that, Oprah?
If you read the Internet or caught the TV news on Saturday, you probably went to bed thinking that Al Lewis -- aka “Grandpa Munster,” the lovable, cigar-chomping patriarch of the iconic 1960s television sitcom family “The Munsters” -- had died on Friday night at the age of 95.
Well … he didn’t.
Oh, Lewis passed away, alright. That much was true.
But the longtime comic wasn’t 95.
Nope, thanks to a little late-night sleuthing done by yours truly, the Associated Press instead ended up reporting a correction just before 11 p.m. Saturday that stated Lewis was, in fact, 82.
Apparently, “Grandpa” may have been fudging his age for decades.
What would Lily think?
The ball got rolling on this controversy a little past 9 p.m. on Saturday when, while working at the Tribune Tower, I began reading the AP obituary for Lewis that was posted on chicagotribune.com.
After finishing the story -- which reported Lewis’ age to be 95 -- I happened to surf over to CNN.com, which featured the same AP obituary.
With one big difference.
It said Lewis was 83.
Finding that to be quite the head-scratcher, I printed out copies of each story and, with amusement, alerted the Tribune’s News Desk to a discrepancy as oddball as “Grandpa Munster” himself.
My editors checked the AP wire, but no correction had been issued. So, they surmised that CNN must have made the change itself.
A Tribune editor then placed a call to the New York Bureau of the AP, which said it had no reason to doubt Lewis’ reported age of 95.
After slipping on my gumshoes and doing a little online investigating, however, I found plenty of them.
Numerous Web sites, including the popular film database IMDB.com, listed Lewis as having been born in New York City in 1910.
Other sites, meanwhile, reported his birth year to be 1923.
Somewhat perplexed -- what actor in Hollywood lies to make himself 13 years older?! -- I finally came across a Web site that shed some apparent light on the subject.
In answer to the question “Wasn’t Al Lewis really born in 1910?” the celebrity Internet archive “Who’s Alive and Who’s Dead” (www.wa-wd.com) reported, “No, he was born 23 April 1923. This has been documented on his birth certificate and college application. … I know he claims to have been in the circus in the 1920s and in the Merchant Marines in the 1930s, but he wasn’t really.
“He lied about his age to get the part of Grandpa, and he’s been lying about it ever since.”
Now, “The Munsters” ran from 1964-66, which meant that -- if Lewis had been born in 1923 -- he would have been only 40 or 41 years old when the series debuted.
That’s pretty young for a “Grandpa,” so it would make some sense that Lewis would have claimed to be in his early 50s while auditioning for the role.
SchnauserIronically, however, Lewis already had starred alongside Fred Gwynne (the future “Herman Munster”) as “Officer Leo Schnauser” from 1961-63 in the hit sitcom “Car 54, Where Are You?”
So, oddly enough, while Lewis' name and face were already well known in the TV biz, his actual age apparently was not.
Wanting more concrete facts about Lewis’ true age, I proceeded to dig a little deeper using the public records Web site LexisNexis. And, by searching records for the name of Lewis’ widow, Karen Ingenthron, I found a New York City home address that I proceeded to cross-reference with the name “Al Lewis.”
Bingo.
Numerous records in LexisNexis’ files confirmed that Al Lewis was, in fact, born in April of 1923.
Not 1910.
Which that meant Lewis wasn’t 95, or even 83.
He was 82.
When a Tribune editor called back the New York AP Bureau to report my findings, an AP editor grumbled that they were talking to Lewis’ son and were working to determine whether the actor was 82 or 83 years old.
Minutes later, a corrected obituary came across the wire listing Lewis’ age as 82 and including a new line that read: “The actor was widely reported to have been born in 1910, but his son Ted Lewis said Saturday that his father was born in 1923.”
Told ya.
The funny thing is, as a little kid, I was a huge fan of “The Munsters.” And Lewis’ wisecracking “Grandpa” was always my favorite character.
All these years later, it amuses me to no end that I'm the one who kept that rascally vampire, who so loved his coffin, from pulling one final prank from the grave.
Ah, Herman would be proud.
Myron Waldman, Who Drew Cartoon Stars, Is Dead at 97
By DAVE KEHR, NY Times
Published: February 6, 2006
Myron Waldman, an animator and illustrator who worked on such
celebrated characters as Betty Boop, Popeye, Superman and Casper the
Friendly Ghost during his long career, died Saturday at New Island
Hospital in Bethpage, N.Y. He was 97 and lived in Wantagh, N.Y.
Max Fleischer Studios
Myron Waldman helped develop characters including Betty Boop.
The cause was congestive heart failure, his family said.
Born in Brooklyn, Mr. Waldman attended the Pratt Institute and was
hired as an inker and fill-in artist by the Fleischer Studios in 1930.
The studio, located at 1600 Broadway in Times Square and operated by
the battling brothers Max and Dave Fleischer, was America's pre-eminent
animation workshop, though its status would soon be challenged by Walt
Disney's West Coast operation.
Mr. Waldman was promoted to animator on the 1931 short "By the Light of
the Silvery Moon," one of Fleischer's long-running series of "Screen
Songs" famous for their "follow the bouncing ball" sing-along device.
With Mr. Waldman's second assignment as an animator, "Wait Till the Sun
Shines, Nellie" in 1932, he first encountered the studio's rising young
star, a flapper with a Brooklyn accent and a famously fluty voice
(provided by Mae Questel). At that point, the proto-Betty Boop was
still a doglike character with floppy ears, vestigial characteristics
that would disappear as the Fleischers, with the help of animators like
Mr. Waldman, Seymour Kneitel, Willard Bowsky and Dave Tendlar,
developed the character into a sultry, sexy, fully human figure who
gave Mae West a run for her money in the heady days before the
censorious Production Code was fully enforced.
Credits for early animated films are notoriously difficult to
establish, and while the Fleischer Studios usually gave the producing
credit to Max and the directing credit to Dave, it was often the
animators who were effectively the authors of individual shorts.
Subsequent generations of animation scholars have identified Mr.
Waldman with the gentle strain of whimsy (so different from the often
abrasive, sexually charged surrealism of his colleagues) that began to
appear in the Fleischers' "Color Classics" series, initiated in 1934 in
direct imitation of Disney's "Silly Symphonies."
In 1938, Mr. Waldman went with the Fleischers when, backed by a loan
from Paramount Pictures, the brothers moved their studio to Miami,
where they planned to concentrate on more upscale, Disney-like fare,
beginning with the feature-length "Gulliver's Travels." When "Gulliver"
proved only a modest success, the studio moved into the production of
two-reel color specials, based on the Superman stories licensed from DC
Comics and E. C. Segar's comic strip character Popeye the Sailor
(already a star in Fleischer black-and-white cartoons). Mr. Waldman
assumed a major role in several of these productions, and in 1941 he
became the principal animator (some sources simply call him the
director) of "Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy," a 17-minute special based
on the Johnny Gruelle children's stories that many critics regard as
the finest of the late Fleischer productions.
Paramount foreclosed on the Fleischers after the catastrophic failure
of their second feature, the 1941 "Mister Bug Goes to Town," and the
studio was reorganized in New York as Famous Studios.
Mr. Waldman stayed with the new company, but under Paramount's control,
the studio lost its grand ambitions and adult sensibilities, falling
into a series of routine shorts intended for children and featuring
lesser characters like Baby Huey, Herman and Katnip, Little Lulu and
Casper. Though officially the studio's head animator, Mr. Waldman found
his true affinity in the Casper series, curiously morbid fantasies
centered on an infant ghost. Animation buffs often cite Mr. Waldman's
"There's Good Boos Tonight" (1948), which ends with the death (and
resurrection as a ghost) of a lovable fox character, as a particularly
traumatic childhood experience.
Mr. Waldman left Famous in 1957 but continued to work, mainly for
television. In his later years he traveled and lectured, creating
paintings for galleries and working on a musical feature that never
came to fruition.
In the 1990's he was honored with retrospectives at the Museum of
Modern Art, the American Museum of the Moving Image and the Los Angeles
County Museum of Art.
His wife, Rosalie, a cooking instructor whom he met when she was an
animation checker at the Fleischer Studio in the early 1940's, survives
him, as do two sons, Robert, a television writer and producer in New
York, and Steve, a sales executive in Hollywood, Fla., as well as three
grandchildren.
By DAVE KEHR, NY Times
Published: February 6, 2006
Myron Waldman, an animator and illustrator who worked on such
celebrated characters as Betty Boop, Popeye, Superman and Casper the
Friendly Ghost during his long career, died Saturday at New Island
Hospital in Bethpage, N.Y. He was 97 and lived in Wantagh, N.Y.
Max Fleischer Studios
Myron Waldman helped develop characters including Betty Boop.
The cause was congestive heart failure, his family said.
Born in Brooklyn, Mr. Waldman attended the Pratt Institute and was
hired as an inker and fill-in artist by the Fleischer Studios in 1930.
The studio, located at 1600 Broadway in Times Square and operated by
the battling brothers Max and Dave Fleischer, was America's pre-eminent
animation workshop, though its status would soon be challenged by Walt
Disney's West Coast operation.
Mr. Waldman was promoted to animator on the 1931 short "By the Light of
the Silvery Moon," one of Fleischer's long-running series of "Screen
Songs" famous for their "follow the bouncing ball" sing-along device.
With Mr. Waldman's second assignment as an animator, "Wait Till the Sun
Shines, Nellie" in 1932, he first encountered the studio's rising young
star, a flapper with a Brooklyn accent and a famously fluty voice
(provided by Mae Questel). At that point, the proto-Betty Boop was
still a doglike character with floppy ears, vestigial characteristics
that would disappear as the Fleischers, with the help of animators like
Mr. Waldman, Seymour Kneitel, Willard Bowsky and Dave Tendlar,
developed the character into a sultry, sexy, fully human figure who
gave Mae West a run for her money in the heady days before the
censorious Production Code was fully enforced.
Credits for early animated films are notoriously difficult to
establish, and while the Fleischer Studios usually gave the producing
credit to Max and the directing credit to Dave, it was often the
animators who were effectively the authors of individual shorts.
Subsequent generations of animation scholars have identified Mr.
Waldman with the gentle strain of whimsy (so different from the often
abrasive, sexually charged surrealism of his colleagues) that began to
appear in the Fleischers' "Color Classics" series, initiated in 1934 in
direct imitation of Disney's "Silly Symphonies."
In 1938, Mr. Waldman went with the Fleischers when, backed by a loan
from Paramount Pictures, the brothers moved their studio to Miami,
where they planned to concentrate on more upscale, Disney-like fare,
beginning with the feature-length "Gulliver's Travels." When "Gulliver"
proved only a modest success, the studio moved into the production of
two-reel color specials, based on the Superman stories licensed from DC
Comics and E. C. Segar's comic strip character Popeye the Sailor
(already a star in Fleischer black-and-white cartoons). Mr. Waldman
assumed a major role in several of these productions, and in 1941 he
became the principal animator (some sources simply call him the
director) of "Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy," a 17-minute special based
on the Johnny Gruelle children's stories that many critics regard as
the finest of the late Fleischer productions.
Paramount foreclosed on the Fleischers after the catastrophic failure
of their second feature, the 1941 "Mister Bug Goes to Town," and the
studio was reorganized in New York as Famous Studios.
Mr. Waldman stayed with the new company, but under Paramount's control,
the studio lost its grand ambitions and adult sensibilities, falling
into a series of routine shorts intended for children and featuring
lesser characters like Baby Huey, Herman and Katnip, Little Lulu and
Casper. Though officially the studio's head animator, Mr. Waldman found
his true affinity in the Casper series, curiously morbid fantasies
centered on an infant ghost. Animation buffs often cite Mr. Waldman's
"There's Good Boos Tonight" (1948), which ends with the death (and
resurrection as a ghost) of a lovable fox character, as a particularly
traumatic childhood experience.
Mr. Waldman left Famous in 1957 but continued to work, mainly for
television. In his later years he traveled and lectured, creating
paintings for galleries and working on a musical feature that never
came to fruition.
In the 1990's he was honored with retrospectives at the Museum of
Modern Art, the American Museum of the Moving Image and the Los Angeles
County Museum of Art.
His wife, Rosalie, a cooking instructor whom he met when she was an
animation checker at the Fleischer Studio in the early 1940's, survives
him, as do two sons, Robert, a television writer and producer in New
York, and Steve, a sales executive in Hollywood, Fla., as well as three
grandchildren.
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