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Did somebody say Oklahoma?

I wondered just how long it would take our Eva to arrive in this wee studio.

Yes, dear, they did, and how is that teaching proceeding? If they start to require lesson plans, I have a zillion that I'll lend you. I had forgotten that Oklahoma was called the "sooner" state, so here's a song about sooner:

Madonna
» Sooner Or Later

Sooner or later you're gonna be mine,
Sooner or later you're gonna be fine.
Baby, it's time that you face it,
I always get my man.

Sooner or later you're gonna decide,
Sooner or later there's nowhere to hide.
Baby, it's time, so why waste it in chatter?
Let's settle the matter.

Baby, you're mine on a platter,
I always get my man.

But if you insist, babe, the challenge delights me.
The more you resist, babe, the more it excites me.
And no one I've kissed, babe, ever fights me again.
If you're on my list, it's just a question of when.

When I get a yen, then baby, Amen.
I'm counting to ten, and then ...

I'm gonna love you like nothing you've known,
I'm gonna love you, and you all alone.
Sooner is better than later but lover,
I'll hover, I'll plan.

This time I'm not only getting, I'm holding my man.

Greta Garbo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Birth name: Greta Lovisa Gustafsson
Date of birth: September 18, 1905
Birth location: Stockholm, Sweden
Date of death: April 15, 1990
Death location: New York City, New York, USA

Greta Garbo (September 18, 1905 - April 15, 1990) was a Swedish actress, by reputation one of the greatest and most inscrutable movie stars ever to be produced by MGM and the Hollywood studio system. In 1954 she received an Honorary Oscar "for her unforgettable screen performances" [1] [2], and The Guinness Book of World Records named her "the most beautiful woman who ever lived."[3] She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

She was born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson (some sources cite her original surname as Gustafson) ([4]) in Stockholm, Sweden, the youngest of three children born to Karl Alfred Gustafsson (1871 -1920) and Anna Lovisa Johansson (1872 - 1944). Her older sister and brother were Alva and Sven.

Becoming an actress

When Greta was 14, her father, to whom she was extremely close, died, and her relationship with her mother was, at best, strained. Consequently, she was forced to leave school and go to work. Her first job was as a lather girl in a barbershop.

She then became a clerk in the department store PUB in Stockholm, where she would also model for newspaper advertisements. Her first motion picture aspirations came when she appeared in a group of advertising short films for the department store where she worked, eventually seen by comedy director Eric Petscher.

He cast her in a bit part for his upcoming film Peter The Tramp (1922) (although her major motion picture debut was a year earlier in a low-budget film).

From 1922 to 1924, she studied at the prestigious Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. While she was there, she met director Mauritz Stiller. He trained her in cinema acting technique, gave her the stage name Greta Garbo, and cast her in a major role in the silent film Gösta Berlings Saga (1924) (English: The Story of Gösta Berling), a dramatization of the famous novel by Nobel laureate Selma Lagerlöf. She starred opposite Swedish film actor Lars Hanson.

She starred in two movies in Sweden and one in Germany (Die Freudlose Gasse -- The Joyless Street).

She and her mentor, Mauritz Stiller, were brought to MGM by Louis B. Mayer on the strength of Gösta Berlings Saga. On viewing the film, Mayer was impressed with Stiller's direction, but was much more taken with Garbo's acting and screen presence. According to his daughter, Irene Mayer, with whom he screened the film, it was look and emotions that emanated from her eyes that would make her a star. Unfortunately, her relationship with Stiller came to an end as her fame grew and he struggled in the studio system. He was fired by MGM and returned to Sweden in 1928, where he died soon after.

Throughout this period, Garbo was slowly emerging as a Galatea molded by a series of corporate Pygmalions. In photographs and films one can see her change from a pudgy shopgirl, through various metamorphoses as she enters the studio machinery, until she turns into the perfect Sphinx, the "face" captured in famous pictures by Steichen and Clarence Bull and other photographers of the period.

Life in Hollywood

Garbo in the 1920s.The most important of Garbo's silent movies were The Torrent (1926), Flesh and the Devil (1927) and Love (1927). She starred in the latter two with the popular leading man John Gilbert.

Her name was linked with his in a much publicized romance, and she was said to have left him standing at the altar when she changed her mind about getting married. The actress reportedly had several lesbian or bisexual lovers, including Louise Brooks and the writer/socialite Mercedes de Acosta.

She also had an on-and-off affair with the primarily homosexual British photographer Cecil Beaton who writes about his somewhat requited passion for her in his published diaries.

Having achieved enormous success as a silent movie star, she was one of the few who made the transition to talkies. She delayed as long as possible, and the studio worried endlessly about whether the world was ready for a talking Swedish Sphinx. Her film The Kiss (1929) was the last film MGM made without dialog (it used a soundtrack with music and sound-effects only), and marked the end of an era.

Her low, husky voice with Swedish accent was heard on screen for the first time in Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie (1930), which was publicized with the slogan "Garbo Talks". The movie was a huge success, but Garbo personally hated her performance.


Unfortunately, her one-time fiancé, John Gilbert, whose popularity was waning, did not fare as well after the advent of sound, due to the high pitch and thinness of his voice, and his career faltered. His last appearance with Garbo, in Queen Christina, was not as bad as some critics have suggested: he suffered from the problem all of Garbo's leading men suffered, which was that she was inevitably stronger and more powerful than they were.

Gilbert, John Barrymore, Fredric March, Robert Taylor and others ended up like feeble drones worshipping before the queen bee. Clark Gable was more than a match for Garbo, but she made only one early film with him, Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise. This may have been because the two greatly disliked each other - Greta thought Gable was a wooden actor while Gable in turn thought Greta was a snob.

When she was filmed, if something happened that she was not pleased with she would say, "I think I'll go back to Sweden!" This would frighten the movie studio heads, who gave in to her every wish. She was known for always having a closed set to all visitors, and was famous for having various MGM executives and actors ejected from sets. No one could watch as her scenes were shot.

Garbo appeared very seductive as the World War I spy in the title role of Mata Hari (1931). The censors complained about her revealing outfit shown on the movie poster. She was next part of an all-star cast in Grand Hotel (1932), which won the Best Picture Oscar and featured Garbo as a Russian ballerina melodramatically delivering the line "I want to be alone". Her co-star was John Barrymore, among the other all-stars, including his elder brother, Lionel Barrymore.


Edward Steichen portrait of GarboShe then had a contract dispute with MGM and did not appear on the screen for almost two years. They finally settled and she signed a new contract, which granted her almost total control over her movies.

She exercised that control by getting her leading man on Queen Christina (1934), Laurence Olivier, replaced with Gilbert. David O. Selznick wanted her cast as the dying heiress in Dark Victory in 1935, but she insisted on being cast instead in another screen version of Tolstoy's classic, Anna Karenina (she had made a previous silent version Love with John Gilbert in 1927). While Anna Karenina has its moments, it also has the "glorious airless fishbowl" quality of many MGM epics of the period.

Her performance as the doomed courtesan in Camille (1936), directed by George Cukor, was called the finest ever recorded on film; her death scene with Robert Taylor was particularly memorable. She subsequently starred opposite Melvyn Douglas in the comedy Ninotchka (1939), directed by Ernst Lubitsch, which she herself seemed to enjoy making, and was one of her favourites.

Garbo was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for Anna Christie (1930), Romance (1930), Camille (1937) and Ninotchka (1939).

Many of her fellow Hollywood actors and actresses were in awe of Garbo's talent.

"Her instinct, her mastery over the machine, was pure witchcraft. I cannot analyse this woman's acting. I only know that no one else so effectively worked in front of a camera." ?-Bette Davis

Personal life

Early Garbo portrait from the 1920sGreta Garbo was considered one of the most glamorous movie stars of the 1920s and 1930s. She was also famous for shunning publicity, which became part of the Garbo mystique. Except at the very beginning of her career, she granted no interviews, signed no autographs, attended no premieres and answered no fan mail.

Her famous byline was always said to be: "I want to be alone", spoken with a heavy accent which made the word 'want' sound like vont. This quote as noted comes from her role in Grand Hotel, however Garbo commented later, "I never said, 'I want to be alone.' I only said, 'I want to be left alone.' There is all the difference."

In recent years it has been revealed through countless sources about how common homosexuality and lesbianism were in the early years of Hollywood. Many stars of the silver screen were known to prefer the same sex, but the powerful studios almost always invented a life that would cover the "darker" side of the star's lives from the general public.

Garbo kept her private affairs out of the limelight. According to private letters released in Sweden in 2005 to mark the centenary of her birth, she was reclusive in part because she was "self-obsessed, depressive, and ashamed of her latrine-cleaner father." [5]

Some also suggest that Garbo remained single in the United States because of an unrequited love for her drama school sweetheart, the Swedish actress Mimi Pollak (see [6]). Garbo's personal letters recently released to the public indicate that she remained in love with Pollak for the rest of her life. When Pollak announced she was pregnant, Garbo wrote: "We cannot help our nature, as God has created it. But I have always thought you and I belonged together."

"Garbo's biographer Barry Paris notes that she was technically bisexual, predominantly lesbian, and increasingly asexual as the years went by", and it has been indicated that Garbo struggled greatly with her sexuality, only becoming involved with other women in affairs that she could control. (as per [7]).

Her most famous heterosexual relationship was with actor John Gilbert. They starred together for the first time in the classic Flesh and the Devil (1927). Their on-screen "erotic intensity" (see [8]) soon translated into an off-camera romance and by the end of production Garbo had moved in with Gilbert (see[9]) Gilbert is said to have proposed to Garbo at least three times (see [10]) though when a marriage was finally arranged in 1927, she failed to show up at the ceremony (see [11]).

She was also linked romantically with actresses Marlene Dietrich, Eva Le Gallienne, Claudette Colbert, Joan Crawford, Louise Brooks, Ona Munson, with writer Salka Viertel, and had a long term and unstable affair with writer/poet Mercedes de Acosta from 1931 to 1944, which ended badly. [12] De Acosta reportedly loved her for the remainder of her life, although Garbo did not return that love.

Later career

Ninotchka was a successful attempt at lightening Garbo's image and making her less exotic, complete with the insertion of a scene in a restaurant which her character breaks into joyful laughter which subsequently provided the film with its famous tagline, "Garbo laughs!"

A follow-up film, Two-Faced Woman (1941), attempted to capitalize by casting Garbo in a romantic comedy, where she would play a double role that also featured her dancing, and tried to make her into "an ordinary girl". The film, directed by George Cukor, was a failure. It was Garbo's last screen appearance.

It is often reported that Garbo chose to retire from cinema after this film's failure, but already by 1935 she was becoming more choosy about her roles, and eventually years passed without her agreeing to do another film. By her own admission, Garbo felt that after World War II the world changed, perhaps forever.

In 1941, MGM costume-designer Adrian also left the studio, later saying:

"It was because of Garbo that I left M-G-M. In her last picture they wanted to make her a sweater girl, a real American type. I said, 'When the glamour ends for Garbo, it also ends for me. She has created a type. If you destroy that illusion, you destroy her.' When Garbo walked out of the studio, glamour went with her, and so did I."

In 1949, Garbo filmed several screen tests as she considered reentering the movie business to shoot "La Duchess de Langeais" directed by Walter Wanger, but otherwise never stepped in front of a movie camera again. The plans for this film collapsed when financing failed to materialize, and these tests were lost for 40 years, then resurfaced in someone's garage[13]. They were included in the 2005 TCM documentary Garbo [14] [15], and show her still radiant at age 43[16]. There were suggestions that she might appear as the "Duchess de Guermantes" in a film adaptation of Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time but this never came to fruition. She was offered many roles over the years, but always turned them down.

She withdrew from the entertainment world completely and moved to a secluded life in New York City, refusing to make any public appearances. Up until her death, Garbo sightings were considered sport for paparazzi photographers.

Despite these attempts to flee from fame, she was nevertheless voted Best Silent Actress of the Century (her compatriot Ingrid Bergman winning the Best Sound Actress) in 1950, and was also designated as the most beautiful woman ever lived by the Guiness Book of World Records.

Secluded retirement

Gravestone of Greta GarboGarbo felt her movies had their proper place in history and would gain in value. On February 9, 1951, she became a naturalized citizen of the United States. In 1954 she was awarded a special Academy Award for her unforgettable performances.

In 1953, she bought a seven room apartment in New York City at 450 East 52nd Street, where she lived for the rest of her life. She reportedly never got over the unfinished affair she had with actress Mimi Pollak in her youth, and in later life became bitter over it.

She would at times jet-set with some of the world's best known personalities such as Aristotle Onassis, but chose to live a private life. She was known for taking long walks through New York streets dressed casually and wearing large sunglasses, always avoiding prying eyes, the paparazzi and media attention.

Garbo lived the last years of her life in absolute seclusion. She had invested very wisely, was known for extreme frugality, and was a very wealthy woman. It is rumored that she wrote an autobiography just before her death but this book has yet to be published if it even exists.

She died at age 84 as a result of end stage renal disease (ESRD) and pneumonia in New York and was cremated. She had previously been operated and treated for breast cancer, which she apparently overcame.

She left her entire estate to her niece, Gray Reisfeld (Mrs. Donald Reisfeld), and nothing to the elderly female companion with whom she lived for many years, Claire.

Her ashes are buried at the Skogskyrkogården Cemetery in Stockholm, Sweden.

Greta Garbo has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6901 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood.

Her height was 5ft 7½" (1.71m).

Posthumous recognition

2005 Commemorative StampIn 1990 Ninotchka (1939) was added to the National Film Registry. [17]

In 1998 Camille (1936), Grand Hotel (1932) and Ninotchka (1939) were included in the American Film Institute's list of 400 Movies nominated for AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies; however none made the final list.

In 1999, Garbo was #5 in the list of women in AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars.

In 2000, Ninotchka (1939) was #52 in the list of AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs.

In 2002, Camille (1936), Ninotchka (1939) and Anna Karenina (1935) were included in the list of AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions.

In 2005, Garbo's famous line "I want to be alone." from Grand Hotel (1932) was #30 in the list of AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes.

In 2005 both Camille (1936) [18] and Ninotchka (1939) [19] were included on Time Magazine's All-Time 100 Movies.

In 2005, near the 100th anniversary of her birth, the U.S. Postal Service and Sweden Post jointly issued two commemorative postage stamps bearing her likeness.

The teaching is going very well, thank you!

I passed my first major test last week. I gave the 3-person editorial team their first writing assignment, and not a one of them turned it in on time. I lectured them nicely about deadlines, but again the next day, no articles. "What was I going to have to do?" I asked myself.

Then I remembered that all three of these students were guys that were involved in sports. So I thought I'd try talking to them the way their coach would if they were losing a game. Yeah! I sent them a HOT e-mail that night saying I would tolerate NO more excuses, not even if blood was involved. That they now had to prove to me that they were willing to do the work, or I'd call the whole thing off. Told them to get busy right now and show me what they could do.

Just in case I was too forceful, I bcc'd it to the Head of School.

All three showed up with the article first thing the next morning.

The Head of School merely chuckled.

Woo hoo! I passed!

Jack Warden
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Born September 18, 1920
Newark, New Jersey
Died July 19, 2006
New York City, New York

Jack Warden, born John H. Lebzelter (September 18, 1920 - July 19, 2006), was an Emmy Award-winning Oscar-nominated American character actor.

Biography

Born in Newark, New Jersey, he was the son of Jack Warden Lebzelter and the former Laura Costello. Raised in Louisville, Kentucky, he was expelled from high school for fighting and eventually fought as a professional boxer under the name Johnny Costello. He had 13 welterweight bouts but earned little money. He worked as a nightclub bouncer, tugboat deckhand and lifeguard before joining the Navy in 1938. He was stationed in China for three years with the Yangtze River Patrol.

In 1941, he joined the Merchant Marine; but quickly tiring of the long convoy runs, he switched to the Army in 1942 where he served as a paratrooper in the elite 101st Airborne Division during World War II. In 1944, on the eve of the D-Day invasion (during which many of his friends died), Warden shattered his leg by landing on a fence during a night-time practice jump in England. After almost a year in the hospital (during which time he read a Clifford Odets play and decided to become an actor after the end of the war), he recovered enough to participate in the Battle of the Bulge in 1945.

After leaving the military with the rank of sergeant, he moved to New York City and pursued an acting career on the G.I. Bill. He joined the company of the Dallas Alley Theater and performed on stage for five years. In 1948 he made his television debut on The Philco Television Playhouse and Studio One. He made an uncredited film debut in 1951 in You're in the Navy Now, a movie which also featured the film debuts of Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson.

Warden had his first credited film role in The Man with My Face in 1951, and in 1952 he began a three-year role in the television series Mr. Peepers. After a role as a sympathetic corporal in From Here to Eternity (1953), Warden's breakthrough film role was his performance as Juror No. 7, a salesman who wants a quick decision in a murder case, in 12 Angry Men (1957).

He received a supporting actor Emmy Award for his performance as Chicago Bears coach George Halas in Brian's Song (1971), and was nominated for Academy Awards as Best Supporting Actor for his performances in Shampoo (1975) and Heaven Can Wait (1978). He also had notable roles in such films as All the President's Men (1976), ...And Justice for All and Being There (both 1979), The Verdict (1982), Problem Child (1990) and its sequel (1991), While You Were Sleeping (1995), and the Norm MacDonald film Dirty Work (1998).

Warden married French actress Yanda Dupre in 1958 and had one son, Christopher. Although they separated in the 1970's they never divorced. [1]. He appeared in over one hundred movies, typically playing gruff cops, sports coaches, trusted friends and similar roles, during a career which spanned six decades. His last film was 2000's The Replacements, opposite Gene Hackman and Keanu Reeves.

The 85-year-old actor, who lived in Manhattan, died of heart and kidney failure and other medical problems in a New York hospital on July 19, 2006. According to his long-time business manager, Sidney Pazoff, "Everything gave out...old age."

Wonderful, Eva. Nothing is better than passing. Hmmm. Wonder where dj is? Try taking the kids on a tour through a newpaper facility. I did, and I knew more than the guide.

Well, the hawkman is doing Greta once again. Sooner or later, he'll catch up.

Ah, there he is folks with Jack.

Phyllis Kirk
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Phyllis Kirk (born as Phyllis Kirkegaard on 18 September 1929 in Syracuse, New York) is an American actress. She had polio as a child and as a result had difficulty walking later in life.

Before entering show business on stage, Kirk worked as a sales clerk, waitress, and model. She was brought to Hollywood by a Goldwyn scout in 1954 and made her film debut in Our Very Own. Later she became a Hollywood contract player for MGM and Warner Brothers.

Kirk is best known for her many television and film roles throughout the 1950s. She appeared with Vincent Price in the 3-D horror film House of Wax in 1953. Her most notable television role was opposite Peter Lawford in The Thin Man (1957?-1959), where they played Nick and Nora Charles. She also appeared with Jerry Lewis in his 1957 film The Sad Sack, with Robert Ryan, Anita Ekberg, and Rod Steiger in the 1956 film Back from Eternity. Kirk was also a regular on The Red Buttons Show. Kirk appeared as a guest on some television programs, including an episode of The Twilight Zone, and was a panelist on Mantrap in 1971.

Kirk then returned to the stage before leaving show business altogether to enter public relations, working as a publicist for CBS News, retiring in 1992.

Robert Blake (actor)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Robert Blake (born September 18, 1933) is an American actor most famous for starring in the U.S. television series Baretta, and for being found not guilty of the murder of his wife Bonnie Lee Bakley.

Early years

He was born Michael James Vijencio Gubitosi in Nutley, New Jersey, the son of James Gubitosi (January 14, 1906-August 15, 1956) and Elizabeth Cafone (born 1910). His brother was James Gubitosi (October 26, 1930-January 30, 1995) and his sister Jovanni Gubitosi.

His father was born in Italy, arriving in the United States in 1907, and his mother was an Italian-American born in New Jersey. They married in 1929. In 1930, James worked as a die setter for a can manufacturer. Eventually, James and Elizabeth began a song-and-dance act. In 1936, the three children began performing, billed as "The Three Little Hillbillies." They moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1938, where the children began working as movie extras.

Film career

As a child actor

Mickey Gubitosi's acting career began when he appeared as Toto in the MGM movie Bridal Suite (1939) starring Annabella and Robert Young. Gubitosi then began appearing in MGM's Our Gang short subjects under his real name, replacing Eugene "Porky" Lee. He appeared in forty of the shorts between 1939 and 1944 and eventually becoming the series' final lead character. James and Jovanni Gubitosi also made appearances in the series as extras.

During his early Our Gang period, Gubitosi's character, Mickey, was often called upon to cry, and the young actor has been noted by some film critics as having been unsubtle and unconvincing [1]. In 1942, he acquired the stage name Bobby Blake, and his character in the series was renamed "Mickey Blake". In 1944, MGM discontinued Our Gang, releasing the final short in the series, Dancing Romeo, on April 29.

In 1944, Blake began playing an Indian boy, "Little Beaver," in the Red Ryder Western series at Republic Pictures, appearing in twenty-three of the movies until 1947. He also had roles in the Warner Bros. movies Humoresque (1946), playing John Garfield's character as a child, and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), playing the Mexican boy who sells Humphrey Bogart a winning lottery ticket.

According to Blake, he had an unhappy childhood with a miserable home life and was abused by an alcoholic father. When he entered public school at age ten, he could not understand why the other children were hostile to him. He had fights, which led to his expulsion. When he was fourteen, he ran away from home. The next few years were a reportedly difficult period in his life.[citation needed]

As an adult actor

In 1950, he went into the Army. When he returned to Southern California he entered Jeff Corey's acting class and began turning his life around, both personally and professionally. He matured and became a seasoned Hollywood actor, playing some choice dramatic roles in movies and television. In 1956, he was billed as Robert Blake for the first time.

Blake performed in numerous theatrical motion pictures as an adult, including his starring role in The Purple Gang (1960), a gangster movie, and featured roles in such movies as Ensign Pulver (1964) and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965). In 1967, he starred in his acclaimed role of real-life murderer Perry Smith in In Cold Blood, which was directed by Richard Brooks, who also adapted the story for the screen from the Truman Capote novel. Blake also starred in the role of an Indian fugitive in Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (1969), a film adaptation of Of Mice and Men (1981) and as a motorcycle highway patrolman in Electra Glide in Blue (1973).

Blake is probably best known for his Emmy Award-winning role of Tony Baretta in the popular TV series Baretta (1975 to 1978), in which he played an undercover police detective who specialized in disguises. Trademarks of the show include his pet cockatoo and a memorable theme song 'Keep Your Eye on the Sparrow' written by Dave Grusin and Morgan Ames and performed by Sammy Davis Jr.

He continued to act through the 1980s and 1990s, mostly in television, including the role of Jimmy Hoffa in the miniseries Blood Feud (1983) and John List in the murder drama Judgment Day: The John List Story (1993), for which he received another Emmy. He had character parts in the theatrical movies Money Train (1995) and Lost Highway (1997). Blake also starred in another television series called "Hell Town" in which he played a priest working in a tough neighbourhood.

Personal

He and actress Sondra Kerr were married in 1964 and divorced in 1983. They had two children, actor Noah Blake (born 1965) and Delinah Blake (born 1967).

Bonnie Lee Bakley

In 1999, Blake met Bonnie Lee Bakley, reportedly a woman with a history of exploiting older men for money, especially celebrities. She was seeing Christian Brando, son of Marlon Brando, before becoming acquainted with Blake. She then had a baby, Rose Lenore Sophia (born June 2, 2000). Blake and Bakley married November 19, 2000 after DNA tests proved that he was in fact the biological father of Rose. It was his second marriage, her ninth.

Although they were married, it was unconventional. Bakley lived in a small guest house behind her husband's house in the Studio City area of the San Fernando Valley.

On May 4, 2001, Blake took Bakley to an Italian dinner at Vitello's Restaurant on Tujunga Boulevard in Studio City. Afterward, Bakley was murdered by a gunshot to the head while sitting in the car, which was parked on a side street around the corner from the restaurant. Blake told the police that he had gone back to the restaurant to get a gun he left at the table and was there when the shooting occurred.

Arrest and trial for murder

He was arrested on April 18, 2002, and charged in connection with the murder of his wife. His longtime bodyguard, Earle Caldwell, was also arrested and charged with conspiracy in connection with the murder.

On April 22, Blake was charged with one count of murder with special circumstances, an offense eligible for the death penalty. He was also charged with two counts of solicitation of murder and one count of murder conspiracy. Blake pled not guilty to all charges. Caldwell was charged with a single count of murder conspiracy and also pled not guilty.

On April 25, the Los Angeles District Attorney's office announced they would not seek the death penalty against Blake should he be convicted, but prosecutors would seek a sentence of life in prison without parole.

After Blake posted $1 million bail, Caldwell was released on April 27. But a judge denied bail for Blake on May 1. On March 13, 2003, after almost a year in jail, Blake was granted bail, which was set at $1.5 million, and allowed to go free to await trial.

Acquittal

On March 16, 2005, Blake was found not guilty of the murder of Bonnie Lee Bakley, and of one of the two counts of soliciting a former stuntman to murder her. The other count of solicitation was dropped after it was revealed that the jury was deadlocked 11-1 in favor of an acquittal. Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley, commenting on this ruling, called Blake a "miserable human being" and the jurors "incredibly stupid." Blake's defense team and members of the jury responded that the prosecution had failed to prove its case.

Civil Case

Bakley's four children filed a civil suit against Blake asserting that he was responsible for their mother's death. On November 18, 2005, the jury found Blake liable for the wrongful death of his wife and ordered him to pay $30 million. On February 3, 2006, Blake filed for bankruptcy.


Post Acquittal and Civil Case

Following filing for bankruptcy, Blake has gotten a job as a ranch-hand. He has moved into a small apartment and hopes to return to acting. His young daughter Rosie has been adopted by his older daughter.

Jimmie Rodgers (pop singer)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Background information

Birth name James Frederick Rodgers
Born September 18, 1933, Camas, Washington, United States

James Frederick Rodgers (born September 18, 1933 in Camas, Washington) is sometimes classed as a rock and roll singer, but his style was more typical of traditional pop music. He was not related to the famous country singer Jimmie Rodgers.

He was taught music by his mother, learned to play the piano and guitar, and formed a band while he served in the United States Air Force. Like a number of other entertainers of the era, he was one of the contestants on Arthur Godfrey's talent show on the radio. When Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore left RCA Records to found a new record company, Roulette Records, they became aware of Jimmie's talent and signed him up.

In the summer of 1957, he recorded a song called "Honeycomb" which had been done by Bob Merrill three years earlier. It was his first big hit, reaching the top of the charts for four weeks. The following year, he had a number of other hits that reached the top ten on the charts: "Kisses Sweeter than Wine", "Oh-Oh, I'm Falling in Love Again", "Secretly", and "Are You Really Mine". Other hits include "Bimbombey", "Ring-a-ling-a-lario", "Tucumcari," and "Tender Love and Care (T.L.C)". In 1959 he had a televised variety show on the NBC network.

In 1962 he moved to the Dot label, and four years later to A&M Records. He also appeared in some movies, including The Little Shepard of Kingdom Come, opposite Neil Hamilton, and Back Door to Hell, which he helped finance.

In 1967 he had his last top-100 single, "Child of Clay". On December 20, 1967, while preparing to do a film for 20th Century Fox, he was a victim of an assault after being pulled over by an off-duty LAPD officer on the San Diego Freeway in Southern California, receiving a severe beating leading to a fractured skull. Neither the assailant(s) nor the reason for the assault has ever been verifiably established. Not long after the assault, he appeared on a late-night talk show and talked about it, but all he could recall were bright lights, presumably from the car of his attacker(s). Rodgers later claimed that members of the San Diego Police Department had assaulted him. After Rodgers sued the police department, the LAPD settled out of court for 200,000, a large sum of money at the time.

Recovery from his injuries caused an approximately year-long period when he ceased to perform, but he eventually returned, though not reaching the top singles chart again. He did, however, make an appearance on the album chart as late as 1969. Also, during that summer, he made a brief return to network television with a summer variety show on ABC.

His first wife, Colleen, with whom he had two children, Michelle and Michael, had a fatal blood clot, claiming her life shortly after the 1967 beating. He remarried in 1970 to a woman named Trudy and had two sons, Casey and Logan. He and Trudy divorced in the late 70's, and he remarried again. Jimmie and Mary Rodgers are still married today, and they have a daughter, Katrine, who was born in 1989.

Television

In the mid-1960s, he re-recorded two of his best-known songs, for use in TV commercials:

"Honeycomb" was adapted for a Post Cereals product called "Honeycomb".
"Oh-Oh, I'm Falling in Love Again" was adapted for one of Franco-American's pasta products: "Oh-Oh, SpaghettiO's!"

Hmmm. A tour through a newspaper plant. Good idea!

I didn't know you had taught this subject, Letty. I'm going on pure guts & experience. No teaching credentials at all. But I've already cultivated a couple of good contacts...journalism teachers at other area high schools. They've recommended a few good materials, and I've found more on the internet.

This school has a couple of excellent English instructors. But there is a big difference between starting a publication and keeping one going. No one there knew the first thing about how to start one. That's why I stepped in. If they continue to need my help once it gets going (and if I want to continue being involved), they will add me to the faculty. But for now, it's volunteer. We'll see where it goes.

Tomorrow the kids have their first real editorial planning session. They'll produce a trial issue during the next few weeks before they launch into a regular schedule. Tomorrow should be fun...for me!...the kids, however, will wonder what hit them.

Frankie Avalon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Francis Thomas Avallone (born September 18, 1939 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was an American actor and teen idol in the 1950s and early 1960s.

By the time he was 12, Avalon began making appearances on U.S. television for his trumpet prowess, and as a teenager, played with Bobby Rydell in a band known as Rocco and the Saints. In 1959, his songs "Venus" and "Why?" both went to number one on Billboard magazine's Hot 100. Indeed, "Why" was the last #1 hit of the 1950s.

During the 1960s, Avalon became known for his roles in the beach film genre. Later, he became the U.S. national television spokesperson for Sonic Drive-In.

Frankie Avalon married Kathryn Diebel on January 26, 1962. She was a former beauty pageant winner, and Avalon met her while playing cards at a friend's house. He told his friend that Kay was the girl he was going to marry. His agent warned Avalon not to marry as it would spoil his teen idol mystique, but Avalon ignored his advice. Still together, the couple has 8 children--in order of age Frankie Jr., Tony, Dina, Laura, Joseph, Nicolas, Kathryn and Carla. They also have 10 grandchildren. In her autobiography, gossip queen Rona Barrett revealed that Avalon fathered a girl, born in December 1960, by a fan. Barrett was the assistant to Avalon's manager, Robert Marcucci, at the time. Frankie Jr. is a drummer and Tony, the second oldest son, currently plays guitar and teaches at the Paul Green School of Rock; both still tour and perform with their father.

In 1987 Avalon and Annette Funicello returned to the movies, with the aptly titled Back to the Beach.

With the fading of his music and acting career, Avalon has turned to marketing and has created Frankie Avalon Products, a successful line of health supplements and cosmetic products.

He regularly guest stars in stage productions of Grease in the role of Teen Angel (a role he played in the film version starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John) and Tony n' Tina's Wedding as a characterized version of himself.

I will tell you more later, Eva, after our Bob finishes. Love the discussions on our little radio, listeners.

Here he is back with Frankie.

T he Value of a Drink

"Sometimes when I reflect back on all the wine I drink
I feel shame . Then I look into the glass and think
about the workers in the vineyards and all of their hopes
and dreams . If I didn't drink this wine, they might be out
of work and their dreams would be shattered.
Then I say to myself, "It is better that I drink this wine and let their
dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver."
~ Jack Handy
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may leave you wondering what the hell
happened to your bra and panties.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they
wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're
going to feel all day. "
~Frank Sinatra
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may create the illusion that you are tougher,
smarter, faster and better looking than most people.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading."
~ Henny Youngman
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may lead you to think people are laughing WITH you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case. Coincidence? I think not."
~ Stephen Wright
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may cause you to think you can sing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"When we drink, we get drunk. When we get drunk,
we fall asleep. When we fall asleep, we commit no sin.
When we commit no sin, we go to heaven So, let's all
get drunk and go to heaven!"
~ Brian O'Rourke
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may cause pregnancy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."
~ Benjamin Franklin
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol is a major factor in dancing like a retard.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Without question, the greatest invention in the
history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the
wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does
not go nearly as well with pizza."
~ Dave Barry
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may cause you to tell your friends over and over again that you love them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To some it's a six-pack, to me it's a Support Group. Salvation in a can!
~ Dave Howell
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may make you think you can logically converse with members of the opposite sex without spitting.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And saving the best for last, as explained by Cliff Clavin, of Cheers.
One afternoon at Cheers, Cliff Clavin was explaining the " Buffalo Theory" to his buddy Norm.
Here's how it went:
"Well ya see, Norm, it's like this... A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first . This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. That's why you always feel smarter after a few beers."
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may make you think you are whispering when you are not

Sure thing, Letty!

I really enjoyed the Cliff's Note, btw.

Oh, my Gawd, Bob. Love those. W.C. Fields would approve, Boston. Back later to review the celebs, honey. A million thanks for making us smile.

Well, Eva, while we wait for our Raggedy to appear, a brief op.ed. <smile>

First of all, having worked in practically every media available--newspaper, radio, TV, I did get a feel for things. Also, I taught the media and it's influence on society in secondary education. If you will look at a newspaper, you will notice that they have a format. First, all headlines are done in the present tense. That's to compete with instant news on TV. It helps the reader to feel that the news is happening NOW.

Next, Important headlines are usually placed in the upper right of the front page, because it has been determined that the eye of the reader tends to look there first.

All reporters know that their articles must be done in pyramid fashion, so that if the article must be edited, the most important part will not be cut out.

Now I will pause and have the usual drink of water.

Good afternoon.

Laughing at Bob's funnies and thinking about Greta Garbo. TCM is featuring her movies today. She was special.

Wow, Raggedy. Is Camille one of those movies? Where's the Prince.

Wow. Now, THAT's a photo.



Miss Letty! My new best friend!!!



Yep. Just finished laying out a mock issue for them, including word counts for all articles/columns. Also made up a layout dummy showing fixed elements & column inch grid.



Never knew why. Makes perfect sense.



Right side, not left. (scribbling notes) Got it. Our local paper must not know this. Just checked NYTimes & WSJ...you're right.



Yes. Classic "inverted pyramid" writing, cut from the bottom. Covered it. (A basic for p.r., dontchaknow. Standard for all press releases.)

I think I need to start a new thread on this.
Will put it under "Teaching."

Great idea, Eva. I noticed that George Bush just said that education was the key to democracy. Where's he been?

Public schools are the cornerstone to pure democracy.