January

Well tomorrow it will be January. The new year will be starting.  But of course you probably know that. Did you know there was no January until sometime in the area of 713 BC? The previous calendars only had ten months and in the winter there were no months. There was no January or February. The Romans added to two months to make the calendar and the lunar year match.
January first is naturally New Years Day and is celebrated world wide but it is also know as The Feast of the Circumcision among many Christians. Makes the mind reel doesn't it!

Happy Birthday Sister Morphine

Marianne Faithful is now eligible to be a pensioner. Sister Morphine is 65 today and it is some what amazing she is alive. She was the embodiment of swinging 60's London and barely made it out alive. Name a drug she did it, name a rock star she did him is the reputation, deserved of not, that swallowed her. Cocaine in the 60's and heroin in the 70's those were her most public addictions. Her career was never really much of anything but a train wreck until she cleaned herself up in the 80's. The once lilting high voice now smoked a raspy baritone her career is better now at 65 than it has ever been. Happy Birthday Mariane Faithful, glad you did what you did!

The Girl With Three Names

Mary Tyler Moore turned 76 today. That's right Laura Petrie aka Mary Richards is 76 years old! America's career girl and favorite wife is Mary Tyler Moore and has been since 1961 when Carl Reiner cast her in The Dick Van Dyke Show. Ms Moore had played some small roles and "Happy Hotpoint" a dancing elf before the role of Laura Petrie. She had auditioned for the role of Danny Thomas' daughter on the Danny Thomas show but was turned down as Thomas thought no one believe that a girl with such a small nose could be his daughter. Thomas did remember her and when he was producing the Dick Van Dyke Show he suggested the girl with three names to Carl Reiner. Mary Tyler Moore went on to play the role of Laura for five years.

In 1970 Mary Tyler Moore and her then husband Grant Tinker formed MTM Enterprises and they pitched the idea of The Mary Tyler Moore Show to CBS. The character of Mary Richards was the first single career woman to be an independent and happy woman. The Mary Tyler Moore Show was one of the most successful sitcoms of the 1970's. MTM Enterprises also produced the spin-off series Rhoda and Phyllis along with The Bob Newhart Show, Hill Street Blues, WKRP in Cincinnati and Newhart.
Married three times Mary Tyler Moore had only one child during her first marriage,a son named Richard. Her son died at the age of 24 from an accidental gun shot wound. Her second husband Grant Tinker was her partner in MTM Enterprises and eventually became Chairman of NBC. They divorced in 1981. Moore met her third husband a doctor when he treated her mother and made a house call.
She will always be Laura and Mary in the eyes of the television watching public even though she did play one of the coldest mothers ever in the film "Ordinary People". One of her other film roles more fitting to the perception of her persona was that of a nun in the Elvis movie "Change of Habit".

S & H Green Stamps

There was a time when the grocery stores, dry cleaners and gas stations of America would do all kinds of things to get your money and one of the most popular gimmick was "Green Stamps". The stamps were given out at the cash register and the more money one spent the more stamps one got. These stamps were then put into books that could be redeemed for premiums. These premiums were usually housewares and appliances and could be gotten at the S&H Green Stamp Redemption Center.

The S&H in the company name stands for Sperry and Hutchinson. The company was founded in 1896 by Thomas Sperry and Shelly Byron Hutchinson in Michigan. They grew to be the largest trading stamp company in the country and during their heyday 1960's the issues more stamps the the US Postal Service.
Their small green stamps came in denominations of one, ten and fifty points and were stuck into books that when filled counted 1200 points. When a customer had enough points accumulated the books were then brought to the Redemption center and exchanged for items. One could also redeem them through a catalog. The popularity of Green Stamps slowly started to decline in the 1970's and eventually was discontinued in the 1990's.

Annoying Words

The Marist Poll of 2012's most annoying words has come out. They claim "whatever" to be the most annoying. That may well be. There are many more annoying words than whatever in my opinion. The word I find most annoying is "chillax". I haven't any idea why but when I hear it is just cringe. I also have an extreme repulsion by the word "belly". I would much rather hear the word "whatever" any day but "chillax" is like nails on a black board and "belly" just creeps me out. Marist also listed the word "twitterverse" as an annoying word and on that I do have to agree. The thing is I don't think I have ever actually heard anyone say it so it doesn't bother me as much as it might.

Boxing Day

Today is the day after Christmas and in British Isles and Canada it is Boxing Day. American's haven't got a clue as to what it is. The name is kind of a mystery. It is generally believed that tradesmen would receive "Christmas" boxes from the wealthy households that they served and servants who had spent Christmas working would visit their families and take boxes of leftover food. Now it is mainly a shopping day. It is the British equivalent to "Black Friday".

Easy Baking Boys

Baking with a light bulb used to be something made especially for girls but now thanks to McKenna Pope boys can now proudly own an Easy Bake Oven. The Hasbro toy company has bowed to the pressure from Miss Pope a thirteen year old sister of a boy would wanted an Easy Bake Oven. McKenna wanted gender neutral advertising and design. The oven toy has traditionally been made in pinks and purples; colors that are considered "girl colors". Miss Pope was not alone in her desire for gender neutral ovens. She has a face book following of 40,000 and male chefs like Bobby Flay behind her. Hasbro invited her and her parents to their office in Pawtucket, RI to listen to her ideas. The shirts at Hasbro could see the dollar signs in their gender neutral future and jumped on the "boys like ovens too" boat. Boys can now proudly bake with a light bulb too and not have to do it in secret. They can do it for only $39.99 retail.

McKenna Pope



MMMM Egg Nog

Nothing say happy holidays more than a glass of egg nog does it? The frothy yule time treat never fails to bring delight be it spiked or non-alcoholic. Traditionally made from cream, sugar and whipped eggs and spices; egg nog is not a healthy beverage but it is delish.
The history of egg nogg is up for debate by those who debate this kind of thing but it is generally believed to have been developed in the East Anglia area of England. It also could be a variant of Posset a medieval English drink of curdled milk and wine or ale. It is also refereed to as an Egg Flip. Flip come from the way it was made flipping it from pitcher to pitcher to develop the froth. Nog seems to come from a vessel called a noggin that one drank from.
Egg nog became a very popular beverage in Colonial America as there was an abundance of dairy and eggs. In England egg nog was more often drunk by aristocracy. In the colonies egg nog was often mixed with rum as it was cheap and commonly in a colonial home due to triangle trade. During the revolutionary war when rum was sanctioned the locally made bourbons became the substitute. In 1826 an egg nog riot occurred at US Military Academy spurred on by smuggled whiskey.
Egg nog is not a terribly healthy drink because of both the amount of cream, sugar and raw eggs. Egg nog is a close cousin of custard. It is now available in shops for vegans and the lactose intolerant made with soy and coconut milk.
Have a glass of egg nog and enjoy!

Who Would Want to Castrate Justin Beiber?

Sometimes an obsession can go awry. Sometimes is becomes so crazy it is hard to believe it is true but it is. This is exactly what happened to a man named Dana Martin. Poor Dana became obsessed with pop teen star Justin Beiber. Not only did he get a tattoo of Justin on his leg he decided that Justin had to die. Martin had a problem though, he was in prison for the rape and murder of a teen age girl in New Mexico. He did come up with a solution. He met another inmate while in stir named Mark Staake. Martin convinced Staake and his nephew Tanner Ruane to kill Justin Beiber. The plan was for Staake and Ruane to kill Beiber his body guard and two other people. Martin wanted Staake to strangle Beiber with a paisley tie, this is Martin's "calling card" and then castrate him with some pinking shears.

Staake and his nephew were in Vermont hatching their evil plan when suddenly Martin had a change of heart and turned them in. Police officials in Vermont arrested Staake on an outstanding warrant but his nephew made it to New York where Justin was going to be performing at Madison Square Garden. Vermont police recorded a phone conversation between Staake and Ruane where they discussed their disappointment about not being able to commit the murders. Police in New York were able to arrest Ruane who was found with the paisley tie and the pinking shears!
Thanks to the work of the police Justine Beiber escaped penis intact!

One of the Worst Ideas EVER

Paul McCartney the man who brought the world some of the lamest songs ever is teaming up with what is left of Nirvana to perform for the Hurricane Sandy Relief Concert in Madison Square Garden. Haven't the victims of the storm suffered enough?
Paul McCartney as Kurt Cobain? Kurt would shoot himself again if he could! Will they play some Wings songs and maybe pull on Courtney as Linda McCartney? Paul singing "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is just ludicrous! Will he fill "Penny Royal Tea" with his saccharine deliveries? The remaining un-nameable members of Nirvana should be forced to listen to hours of "Ebony and Ivory"!

Nipsy Russel Comic Poet Laureate

If you watched a game show in the 1960's,70's or 80's you had to have seen Nipsey Russell. He was the consummate game show celebrity.  Nipsy was on everything! Match Game, To Tell the Truth,  Hollywood Squares, Password Nipsey did them all and contributed a small poem on a regular basis.
Julius "Nipsey" Russell was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1918. One of his first jobs was as a carhop where he found if he made the customers laugh he made more money. After World War II Nipsey started performing in night clubs and recorded party albums. He hooked up with an old vaudevillian Mantan Moreland and performed Morelands famous "Interruption Routine" where a conversation ensues with no full sentences just interruptions. He eventually appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show". This lead him to a role on the TV show "Car 54 Where Are You?" He also appeared in the short lived sitcom "Barefoot in the Park" and on the "Dean Martin Show". In the 60's Npsey started doing game shows. This is where his quick wit and charm was able to shine. He was also one of the roasters on "Dean Martin's Celebrity Roast". He was known for his short and amusing poems. He would recite them from memory or at times ad lib them.

If you owe too much on American Express,

And your Diner's Club notes are too hard,

Take a loan on your Visa,

And pay it off with your MasterCard.

Although Nipsey made very few films one of them will be remembered as a classic. He played the Tin Man in the film version of "The Wiz".
Nipsey found a new fame and audience in the 1990's when he began appearing on The "David Letterman Show".
Nipsey died in New York at the age of 87 in 2005.

The Dancing Cop of Providence

Every city has it's own peculiar holiday traditions. Providence, Rhode Island has one that it truly unique; the Dancing Cop. Tony Lepore was a full-time police officer on the Providence police force for 17 years. One of the things that Tony enjoyed doing as a police officer was directing traffic. When Tony retired he didn't completely stop being a traffic cop, he now directs traffic in intersections of Providence's shopping district at Christmas. He doesn't just direct traffic he dances while doing it. He spins, pops, jives and discos about in the middle of the street with his whistle as his orchestra. Tony's "act" may not make for smooth flowing traffic but it gives pedestrians and drivers alike a holiday treat.
Not only does Tony direct traffic on Providence's streets but on television and in movies as well. He has appeared on both the Today Show and Good Morning America directing Manhattan traffic for the cameras. Tony also appears on local children's television as well as private parties. His website has offers of his various services. (http://www.providencedancingcop.com/about.html) He also has a doll!
Tony was a real cop. He saved lives and made arrests and walked a beat. One of the doing foot patrol was directing traffic. One day in 1984 he got bored while directing traffic and the dancing cop was born. He was influenced by an old Candid Camera episode. Tony is a lot of fun to watch unless you are in a hurray.
If you are in the Providence area during December stop and check Tony out!

Miss Jane Hathaway

Possessing the "face of a shriveled balloon, the figure of a string of spaghetti, and the voice of a bullfrog in mating season.", Miss Jane Hathaway always saved the day. Milton Drysedale aka "Chief" hired Miss Jane as his private and personal secretary after she graduated from Vassar. She works 24/7 much of her time is spent seeing after the wealthy Clampett family in their Beverly Hills home. Voted #38 on  "50 Greatest TV Characters of All Time" list Miss Jane was always a hit. An avid bird watcher during her rare free time the spinster Hathaway was secretly in love with Jethro Clampett the nephew of oil millionare Jed Clampett.

Where Is my mind?

 

This has been a quiet week for the "ole" Blog. I have moved from the Hills of Los Feliz and my glass box in the sky to a loft in Swingin' Hollywood.  2 dogs, one cat, an old man and piles of books and little old me are piled pell mell while I enjoy a moment for a beer a cigarette and maybe a comedy show around the corner later. Be back when I know where my socks and coffee maker are.

Never Slug a Palm Beach Psychic

There are rules in this world, unspoken rules, and Lindsay Lohan has just broken another. Early Thursday morning in Chelsea Lindsay Lohan exited a club and got into a verbal and physical altercation with a Palm Beach Psychic, Tiffany Mitchell. (You just can't make this kinda stuff up)

Doesn't Lindsay know one of the most cardinal of all rules: never have a punch out with a psychic. And what about this Tiffany Mitchell what kind of psychic couldn't see that coming? It all smacks of set up to me. Lindsay may now have violated her parole and still flush from her comeback success!
Let's face hasn't almost everyone at one point wanted to punch a psychic? Free Lindsay!

They Want Their Farrah

The University of Texas has sued actor Ryan O'Neal over a painting of the late actress Farrah Fawcett done by Andy Warhol. The always arrogant O'Neal is hard to root against in this case. His rationale is logical on this rare occasion. His story is he had known Warhol for ten years when he introduced Farrah to Warhol and the artist wanted to do her portrait. He did two (they didn't require a lot of work) one was for Farrah and one for O'Neal.
When Farrah died he living will donated her art collection to the University of Texas. Farrah had attend the university in the 1960's. The university has one of the portraits but wants the other which is valued at over $30,000,000.
Granted Ryan O'Neal is sort of a putz but he and Farrah were together for many many years and he is th father of her messed up child. The University had a private investigator look for the painting and his sleuthing found the Warhol on the wall in O'Neal's home. He was able to located it by watching Ryan and Tatum O'Neals failed reality show. Didn't this once happen on the Rockford Files?

Is Angus T. Jones a Hypocrite?

The actor on the sitcom "Two and a Half Men" Angus T. Jones has declared the show to be filth and asks viewers to sop watching it. It seems Mr. Jones has had a religious conversion and now feels that the show is bad. He did sign a contract to be on what could now be called "Two Men and a Hypocrite" and has a year to go. He claims the show goes against his new religious beliefs but taking the pay check apparently isn't.
Jones has been on the show for ten years and it has always been rather filthy and puerile if he hadn't noticed it. He could have left when Charlie Sheen left the show and simply not signed the contract that is keeping him there. He could also break the contract and give back some of the money. His character can easily be written out and he can go on his sanctimonious way.

To Bomb or not to Bomb

Being miscast in a made for TV movie with a bad script can kill a career but it may have revived Lindsay Lohan's. "Liz & Dick" was a dreadful waste of a viewers time and a producers money and it wasn't Lindsay's fault. The script was insipid at best and the direction slipshod. The dialogue in this train wreck was hackneyed at best and the character development was nonexistent. Grant Bowler did a yeoman's work as Richard Burton and was the most believable and fleshed out of all the characters in the 90 minute catastrophe. The secondary characters were all flatter than flat with some of the worst dialogue written since Ed Wood was writing. One has to pity the actress playing Sara Taylor and Sybil Burton as their dialogue was just embarrassingly bad.
Sadly "Liz & Dick" isn't even funny bad just bad bad. The only redeeming factor was Lindsay's make up and hair.

The costumes were also rather disappointing. Elizabeth Taylor was know in the 60's and 70's for her frankly wild and often unflattering outfits in the version of her life they toned it down having her appear nearly pedestrian. Where were the turbans and the Pucci's? Here and there a fur hat would appear but never did Lindsay have that Elizabeth Taylor flair. The only time Lindsay ever achieved a truly "Liz" look was at the end of the evening's horror show when they brought out the 80's hair and shoulder pads.
Lindsay was trying hard you could see but was given so little to try with. Did she look like Elizabeth Taylor? Sometimes yes and sometimes no. Did she capture the essence of Taylor? Generally she did not and it is really hard to fault her as the direction and dialogue was so pathetic. Will this film kill her career? It is doubtful but it hasn't done anything to further it either. What she got was press and as the cliche goes there is no such thing as bad press.

 

The Flying Fishbowl

Earlier today I was driving along and I saw something I hadn't seen in a very long time and it made me smile. I saw an AMC Pacer cruising down Hollywood Blvd. I had forgotten about the Pacer. I do admit I did follow it for a block or two just to see it and smile some more. Although only in production for 5 years the Pacer is iconic. Does any thing say 1970's more than a Pacer. The one I saw today was a lovely shade of yellow.

The Pacer's design was fairly avante garde for its day with its bubbled back window and almost George Jetson like design. The automotive designer Richard Teague started work on the design in 1971 and the first Pacer hit the roads in 1975. It was marketed as "the first wide small car" as it was a compact car but the rear was as wide as a traditional 70's sedan. Teague's "low drag" aerodynamic design was very innovative for the day and predated the fuel crisis that brought on the development of more aerodynamic small cars as well as the increase of import cars with better fuel mileage.

Although only 280,000 cars were built by AMC they have become iconic. The automotive press of the time loved the design. Motor Trend magazine said "the most creative, most people oriented auto born in the U.S. in 15 years" in its 1975 review of the car. It is still not long enough ago for the Pacer to be considered a classic but they have become highly collectible. So hop in your Pacer put Grand Funk Railroad tape in the eight track and head out for a drive in your Pacer!

The Agnes Moorehead Lounge

If you are a fan of "Bewitched" or maybe "Citizen Kane" there is a bar in Reedsburg, Wisconsin that is a must see. The Touchdown Tavern is a sports bar with what has to be one of the odder attractions of any sports bars. It is also the home of The Agnes Moorehead Lounge. Yes that's right there is a room dedicated to Endora. Filled with memorabilia of her life and career this sports bar has an entire room dedicated to Ms Moorehead who died in 1974. They have photos, autographs, letters written on her stationary and a gown that she owned. Agnes Moorehead has no real connection with the town other than she was once a a ribbon cutting. You have to give the bar owners credit for coming up with a truly quirky tribute to a fine actress.

Can Justin Beiber Become Anymore Annoying?

Oh Justin Beiber when will you go away? When will we have all forgotten about you? Now you appear on music award shows getting rewarded for the frankly dull music you make and then feel you have the right to give lectures on stage. You little man/boy should be happy you have made some money and have a slew of mindless little fans who once their hormones balance out will drop you like an old fish. You are not timeless may I just say Bobby Sherman. What you don't know who he is? Right! You will soon be nostalgia.
Now you also feel you must stop your silly look at me car in traffic and lecture the people following you around and tell them they are in the wrong line of work. Okay you may not have been 100% wrong but your method is just annoying to those who happen to be on the same street as you. So baby baby baby please go away.

Octomom's Kids Put Out a Christmas Song

Nadya Suleman's kids have gone to work. They have are called the "Roctuplets" and have recorded the saddest Christmas song ever. The song is sad as the kids seem almost in a trance. Not all of the kids participate in this little ditty just five of the fourteen perform. The money from sales of the single will go into a trust for the kids education or perhaps therapy. This sad little song is available on line.

Oh No Dolly Madison!

There has been a lot of talk and lamentation about the demise of the Twinkie but completely over shadowed is the possible end of yet another snack cake line, Dolly Madison. They too are Hostess products. Dolly Madison seems to be the ugly step-sister of Hostess but they have one thing that Hostess did not. They had the blessings of Charlie Brown, Lucy Van Pelt and Peppermint Patty.
"Cakes and pastries fine enough to serve in the White House" was the motto of Roy Nafziger's company. Roy Nafziger a baker started the company in 1937. He had an obsession with first lady Dolly Madison so he named the company after her. The most popular of all of the Dolly Madison products is Zingers. What will be come of Dolly Madison? Will they go the way of Charlie Brown himself and just disappear?

Hey Have You Got 45 Million Dollars?

If you have a spare 45 million dollars have I got a house for you! It is in the very elegant South Palms Springs neighborhood and it was once the home of a bonafide celebrity. The house designed by architectural superstar John Lautner in 1973 but wasn't built until 1976. Well it was almost built but it burned to the ground just before the original completion and had to be rebuilt from the ground up. But who was the celebrity??? It was none other than Bob Hope. Hope and his wife Dolores had the house built to their specifications and it is a quirky house to say the least. The spaceship shaped two story house has 22,000 square feet and a mushroom like roof. It also incorporated natural elements like a huge boulder in the living room. Hope and his wife built the house for just over 2 million dollars. This is the first time it has been on the market as Dolores Hope lived there until her death last year. She was 102.
The house has six bedrooms and ten bathrooms and is next to another Coachella Valley architectural icon the Elrod house.

"Oh Nice!"

Geoffrey Hughes is known to most American's as Onslow the bone idle brother-in-law of Hyacinth Bucket on the television series 'Keeping Up Appearances". Hughes had a long and successful television career in the UK. Like many British actors he started his career in repertory theater and pantomime then moving on to perform in West End shows. His first television role came in 1969 with a small role on a sitcom. Hughes worked off and on in sitcoms before landing the role of Eddie Yeats on the long running soap opera "Coronation Street". Eddie was from Liverpool and a bit a bounder working as a widow cleaner and builder as well as a petty thief. Hughes played Eddie for nearly ten years before leaving the show in 1983. He did return very briefly for one season in 1987. The next role he had was that of Onslow on "Keeping Up Appearances". Hughes played Onslow for the five year run of the show.

His next major role was that of Twiggy on the sitcom "The Royale Family". The series set in Manchester was about the television obsessed family living on state benefits. Twiggy was a petty criminal and friend of the family.
Hughes also had a role in one of  the very popular "Carry On" films. His was also the voice of Paul McCartney in the animated film "Yellow Submarine".
When not acting Hughes lived on the Isle of Wright. In 2009 he was appointed Deputy Lord Lieutenant to the Isle of Wright which made him the official link between the island and royalty at official engagements.
Geoffrey Hughes had battled prostate cancer starting in 2010 and died at his home on the Isle of Wright in July of 2102.

She was "His boy Elroy"

Lucille Bliss died on November 8, 2012. You most likely would not recognise her name but you would know her voice. Bliss was a very successful voice over actress. Ms Bliss' voice has been the voice of very memorable animated characters. Her voice was the voice of the title role of the first made for television cartoon Crusader Rabbit. Bliss also worked in animated films. She is the voice of one of the horrid step-sisters in Disney's "Cinderella" as well as in "101 Dalmations". Her real fame came from her television characters. She was the voice of Bam Bam Rubble and Elroy Jetson in the 60's and later was the voice of Smurfette.

Bliss a pioneer in telvision animation was born in New York in 1916 and later lived in San Francisco where she started working in radio dramas.. When she heard that Walt Disney was casting role for Cinderella she moved to LA and auditioned. Disney gave Ms. Bliss her Hollywood first job.
I'm an actress specializing in voices," Bliss once told a writer. "I don't like the term 'voice-over.' … You have to be an actor first, and then the voice.... You have to take acting lessons to learn how to act before you can speak."

Lucille Bliss died of natural causes at the age of 96 while living in an assisted living center in Costa Mesa, California.

Edendale LA's Lost Bohemian Enclave

 

Once upon a time before there was Hollywood there was a thriving idiosyncratic neighborhood in Los Angeles called Edendale. Edendale hugged the hills along Sunset Blvd. Narrow curved streets followed the contours of the hills abruptly ending and then starting up again when the hills became to steep. In the flatter areas small farms grew vegetables and citrus. Serviced by the Red Car streetcar system Edendale was a short commute to Downtown Los Angeles. It was an idyllic enclave populated by immigrants from the east coast and Europe looking to start a new life in California. Before World War II Edendale was a thriving artist colony and American communist stronghold. It was also because of this attitude and the climate the fledgling movie industry immigrated there at the turn of the century. The silent era was Edendale's film industry's heyday. In 1911 the early film trade magazine gushed over Edendale saying: "Edendale...is a very beautiful suburb of Los Angeles. It is the motion picture center of the Pacific Coast. With clear air and sunshine three hundred days out of the year, conditions are ideal for perfect picture making. The scenic advantages of the location, too, are unique. From [Edendale] can be seen the Pacific Ocean, twenty-two miles to the west, and the broad panorama of Southern California, with its fruit and stock ranches, its snow capped mountains and its tropical vegetation, to the east, north and south. Within a short distance of Edendale may be found every known variety of national scenery, seemingly arranged by a master producer expressly for the motion picture camera."

The quiet and busy streets, the hills and lakes, and the sunshine were custom made for the early film industry. In 1909 a film company from Chicago called Selig-Polyscope opened the first permanent studio in Edendale. Later that year New York Motion Picture company opened their studio in Edendale and started making westerns under the name Bison Pictures. Mack Sennett moved his studio to what was mainly a vacant lot and started making his Keystone Comedies. His Keystone Cops movies were shot on the streets on Edendale.It was in Edendale that the first filmed pie in the face scene was shot. The Sennett Bathing Beauties pranced around nearby lakes and included such future stars as Gloria Swanson and Carol Lombard. Both Fatty Arbuckle and Charlie Chaplin's careers started at Keystone. Sennett's biggest star in the silent era was Mabel Normand. She too built herself a studio right around the corner from Sennett's.

By the 1920's there were several studios pumping out movies in Edendale. William Fox started his Fox Studio's there. His early films included Cleopatra with Theda Bara. Tom Mix the colorful cowboy star built his Mixville Studio nearby. Norbig Studios opened as a rental space and directors like Hal Roach directed the early Harold Lloyd comedies on this lot.
Edendale was densely built and when the studios need more room to expand they weren't able to find the land they needed. They moved down Prospect Ave that had now been re-named Hollywood Blvd. and found the land they needed in the little village of Hollywood.

When the freeway system was built in Los Angles Edendale was dissected and eventually dissolved and became the neighborhoods of Los Feliz, Silverlake and Echo Park. There are still reminders of Edendale in tact, the post office and a library still have the name Edendale. 

Never Drink and Marry

Oh the things that happen in Las Vegas when you are drinking! Take Janeane Garofalo's story as a cautionary tale! It seems stand up comic Ms. Garofalo and her then boyfriend sitcom producer Rob Cohen were in Vegas having a good ole time drinking and riding in cabs. They were in a cab drunk and went to a drive through wedding chapel and accidentally (?) got married. They in their drunkenness thought it was just a lark and wasn't legal.
Then lo and behold twenty years later a sober Mr. Cohen wants marry and finds there is a bit of a snag. He is legally married to Garofalo! Oops! Lucky for him Ms Garofalo agreed to stop into a notary's office before her appearance at a comedy festival. This time they went to a bank to disolve their union. Ms. Garofalo no longer drinks.

Fondle Me Elmo

The puppeteer who is the voice and movement of Sesame Street's character Elmo has been accused of having a sexual relationship with an under aged boy. The accuser says the relationship started when he was sixteen and Kevin Clash, the puppeteer was forty-five. Clash admits to the relationship but claims it was not sexual until the accuser was of age. The age of consent in New York state where the relationship occurred is seventeen. Clash has taken a leave of absence from Sesame Street to take time to clear his name as he denies the charges. Sesame Workshop through their lawyers say it has nothing to do with the show and it is a personal relationship.
This unfortunately could be the end of Clash's career with Sesame Workshop. The accuser has hired the law firm that handled the cases for the accusers in the Jerry Sandusky molestation case. They have accused Sesame Workshop of trying to discredit the accuser and valuing the the image of one of their most valuable characters of the young man now twenty-three years old.

"I've Got Another Sick Headache"

The ultimate wasp and nosey mother-in-law was what Mabel Albertson played on TV and in the movies but in fact she was neither. She was born in Lynn Massachusetts in 1901 to Russian born Jewish immigrant parents. Albertson's mother was a stock actress who worked in a shoe factory in Lynn to make ends meet for her family. Albertson's younger brother was another actor Jack Albertson from "Chico and the Man", "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" and "Poseidon Adventure" fame.

Alberston started her film career in the late 20's and early 30's. One of her memorable film roles was as a banker's wife in "Ma and Pa Kettle go to Waikiki". In the 50's she began appearing on television. Alberston began playing a series of waspy busy body mothers and mother-in-laws. She was Donald Hollinger's mother on "That Girl" and she was most famous for her role as Mrs. Stevens Samantha's neurotic mother-in-law on "Bewitched".  She was also Howard Sprauge's mother on "The Andy Griffith Show". She also played Paul Lynde's mother-in-law on the "Paul Lynde Show". One of her most memorable film role was in "What's Up Doc" as Mrs. Van Hoskins the woman who's jewels were stolen.
In real life she was a mother-in-law to Cloris Leachman when she was married to Albertson's son George Englund.

Mabel Albertson died from the complications of Alzheimer's disease in 1982 at the age of 81.

Love on a Rooftop

Set in San Francisco the 1966 sitcom "Love on a Rooftop" starred Pete Duel as Dave Willis and as his wife Julie Willis, Judy Carne. The series only lasted one season dispite of good ratings. The premise of the show was Dave an apprentice architect making $87.37 a week falls in love with art student Julie and they marry. Eccentric Judy Carne finds an apartment on the roof of an apartment building in Nob Hill. Well it isn't really an apartment; it is an unused storage unit. Think of it as a mash up of "Barefoot in the Park" and "Djarma and Greg". In this version Judy Carne's parents are the rich people and her father and husband of course but heads.

They of course have a pair of wacky best friends, Carol and Stan Parker played by Barbara Bostock and Rich Little. Stan is an oddball inventor of gadgets and Carol is naturally a housewife. Stan has a habit of walking in unannounced to Dave and Julie's apartment always to explain a new hair brained money making scheme.
"Love on a Rooftop" was mainly written by Bernard Slade a sitcom writer who went on to write such classics as "The Flying Nun", "Bridget Loves Bernie" and the "Partridge Family".