Invisible Themepark

Author: Lee Wallender

  • Charles McGraw’s Freakishly Sad and Incongruous Death

    Charles McGraw’s Freakishly Sad and Incongruous Death

    Charles McGraw (1914-1980) was the squarest jawed of all square-jawed Hollywood actors of the golden period, always playing a tough guy of some sort: police lieutenants and sergeants, rear admirals, sheriffs, captains, gladiators.

    If you were a casting director and you needed a certain granite-like face with oversized features, plus a steely demeanor to match, you might cast Allen Jaffe, Neville Brand, or Charles McGraw–born Charles Butters in Iowa, in 1914.

    One of McGraw’s best performances is as Commander Wayne Lee, in “The Bridges at Toko-Ri.” Lee is the commander of the air group whose focus is always is fliers and his mission.

    An interesting scene is when Lee approaches Rear Admiral George Tarrant: Lee is concerned because the carrier’s captain is running the propeller planes, which are lashed down to the deck, at full speed to help control the carrier as he docks in Japan.

    Lee’s concern is his fliers, since running the planes eats away at their total engine-run hours. It’s a nicely regulated performance, his furor kept in check because he’s addressing a superior officer. You even catch the glint of a tear in his eye after being dressed down by the admiral.

    Charles McGraw, when he was known as Charles Crisp-Butters, and his wife Freda Choy Kitt, in 1939

    So, it’s especially incongruous that such a tough guy could come to a sad end: falling through a shower door.

    On July 29, 1980, Charles McGraw fell through the glass shower door of his North Hollywood, California home.

    According to the Los Angeles Times, the LA County Coroner’s office stated that McGraw had suffered from a degenerative hip condition in the last few years, hampering his ability to act.

    While in the shower, he slipped and fell through the glass, lacerating himself and bleeding to death.

    Alan K. Rode, who wrote a biography of McGraw, mentions having become friends with Mildred Black. Black was McGraw’s de facto caregiver, helper, and friend in the last 13 years of McGraw’s life. Apparently, McGraw was an alcoholic who had many issues. Black owned the home where McGraw resided and was present after his accident, all recounted here:

    Charles McGraw, Film Noir Tough Guy, by Alan K. Rode

     

  • Miss Lesley E. Bogert, Prominent Among Newport Socialites

    Miss Lesley E. Bogert, Prominent Among Newport Socialites

    It starts with a photo in a LIFE magazine, July 11, 1938, with the caption saying, “Miss Lesley E. Bogert was prominent among Newport socialites at opening of the summer season June 21.”

    LIFE was a family magazine, so risque comments like prominent didn’t happen often.

    You see:

    Lesley E. Bogert

    Lesley was born into the extremely upper-crust Newport-Palm Beach socialite world that existed in the 20th century. Her father, Beverley Bogert, was a banker:

    Beverley Bogert Obituary

    Here’s Lesley six months later while shopping in Palm Beach:

    Lesley E. Bogert, Palm Beach
    Lesley E. Bogert, Palm Beach / Historic Images

    Four years before all of this, Lesley chummed with a certain Prince George of Russia (Prince Georgy Konstantinovich of Russia)

    Lesley Bogert and Prince George of Russia, April 11, 1935

    But nothing came of the courtship, if there was had been one.

    In fact, Price George never would marry. Prince George became an interior decorator in New York and died barely 7 months later.

    His body is now in Nanuet, New York, in a Russian Orthodox cemetery called Novo-Diveevo.

    Steering clear of the doomed Romanov, Lesley ended up in the arms of one Francis Taylor

    Lesley Bogert and Francis Taylor, January 1939

    who is described as have gone onto the Harvard Business School, but no mention of a career, at least for the moment.

    Francis Taylor came from upper-crust society but was a rumble-and-tumble sort, the polar opposite of Prince George, with a resemblance to Ernest Hemingway.

    Francis Taylor
    Francis Taylor

    In fact, Francis Taylor eventually “forsook society life in 1951,” according to his obituary, to move to Moapa, Nevada, where he planted rotation crops and raised cattle at the Warm Springs Ranch.

    He had already divorced Lesley Bogert by then.

    Her next marriage was to John Yocum Randolph Crawford, a professional bridge and backgammon player, which likely means that he had family money.

    In 1988, Lesley Bogert Crawford would die at 71.

    Lesley Bogert Obituary
    Lesley Bogert Obituary

     

     

     

  • Predicting the Date Kamala Harris Becomes President

    With Joe Biden’s election as U.S. president, a major power shift has happened in the White House. But there is also the belief that another power shift will happen within Biden’s presidency: that Joe Biden is a passthrough for Kamala Harris to become president.

    Whether Biden dies or becomes incapacitated is impossible to predict. But if Biden abdicates, my prediction (or projection) is that it will be 2 years and 17 days after his inauguration date. The “17 days” gets a two-day extension, as you’ll see at the end.

    How Will It Happen?

    Abdication. Biden is old enough that he can plausibly leave the presidency at any time.

    Death is another possibility, as it is for all of us at any moment. Biden will be 78 years old on the date of the inauguration. But he’s a hardy 78-year-old with no major outstanding health concerns.

    Many of the examples of Biden’s cognitive dissonance can be chalked up to his famously loopy style; the whole hairy legs and pony soldier bit. Other examples might be attributed to him being a campaigner whose every word and pause and misstep is weighed and balanced to the nearest gram by social media.

    Will It Happen By Year 1?

    This is too soon to happen by plan. The first year of a presidency passes fast. By the time that whirlwind First 100 Days of a Presidency are done, nearly one-third of the year is gone.

    Not within the first year.

    Can It Happen By Year 3?

    If Harris assumes the presidency before Biden completes his term, she needs to establish enough groundwork for re-election. If she takes office in 2023, that leaves little or no time before campaigning for the 2024 election.

    Not in the third year.

    Can It Happen By Year 4 (Election)?

    Why would strategizers place Harris in an uncertain position when there is a certain solution at hand? Trying to elect Harris in 2024 is uncertain; it’s all left up to the voters. Switching her out for Biden ahead of 2024 is a certain thing.

    No.

    Harris as President: February 8, 2023

    That leaves the two-year mark as the date that Kamala Harris will become president. Two full years after Biden becomes president would be January 20, 2023.

    The “17” is a number that I can’t shake, one of those psychic-reading numbers floating in my head. From a less woo-woo angle, though, it does push things a notch past January 20, 2023. It would be too strange to abdicate on the exact two-year anniversary, fodder for conspiracy theorists.

    This “17” takes us to February 6, 2023. But that’s a Monday. I see this as happening more mid-week: Wednesday.

    Kamala Harris will become president on Wednesday, February 8, 2023.

     

  • Houlihan’s Old Place: The Era of the Funky Themed Restaurant

    Houlihan’s Old Place: The Era of the Funky Themed Restaurant

    It was the post-hippie era, early- to mid-Seventies, but the hippie influence had permeated into the lives of regular citizens and lingered for awhile.

    Houlihans St. Louis The full name was Houlihan’s Old Place, squarely identifying itself, as a theme restaurant. Along with TGI Friday and Bennigan’s, Houlihan’s marked the beginning of the theme restaurant era.

    Houlihan's Old Place Hostesses
    Kansas City Star, March 5, 1972

    Gilbert Robinson was the Kansas City firm behind Houlihan’s Old Place and apparently named it because it “Old Place” because it was in an old clothing store.

  • Helen Dzo Dzo Kaptur: Pure Palm Springs Attitude

    Helen Dzo Dzo Kaptur: Pure Palm Springs Attitude

    Everything about this photo by Slim Aarons of Helen Dzo Dzo Kaptur just kills me. What I like is that Helen, 41 years old here and widowed for the last 10 years but prior to her marriage to Hugh Kaptur, is pure attitude, her posture, her so-what-ness carry it. Helen lived a rich life of two husbands, a career in modeling, three children, friends, travels. Helen’s obituary says of this and other photographs from Aarons’ series:

    Getting invited by her friend Nelda Linsk to her home in January of 1970 for a casual photo shoot immortalized Helen. The resulting photograph entitled “Poolside Gossip” by Slim Aaron depicts Helen seated poolside with her friend Nelda Linsk “gossiping” while actress Lita Baron approaches them. The iconic photo has come to define the Palm Springs lifestyle of the 1960s; style, fashion and architecture.