Category: People You’ve Never Heard Of

Mercury Moll: Mrs. Linda Plannette

We’re barely out of the 1940s–1952, to be exact–and this lovely lady is presaging the Sixties already by wearing cut-off jeans shorts, no doubt called “dungarees” at that time.  She’s a missus, too:  Mrs. Linda Plannette.  Looks like a sunny but cool Spring day in Southern California, judging by the long sleeves.  My guess is… Continue reading Mercury Moll: Mrs. Linda Plannette

Obliterating Time: The 1922 Kodachrome Color Test Girl

The past always seems to be so…old.  Previous styles, mores, customs seem to have vanished, replaced wholesale with an entirely new set of styles, mores, and customs. That’s why we can snicker at ridiculous stuff like men with handlebar mustaches riding crazy bicycles and corpulent women vamping it up as if they were sex goddesses.… Continue reading Obliterating Time: The 1922 Kodachrome Color Test Girl

Winston Churchill’s Mother is Hot

Sizzling, steamy hot.  Oh sure, by today’s standards, she would probably never make the tabloid pages.  But considering the time period and the hideously, troll-like son she produced, I’d have to say that Brooklyn-born Jennie Jerome, later Lady Randolph Churchill, was a damn fine-looking lady with smoky dark looks. Come hither: The smokiest and darkest… Continue reading Winston Churchill’s Mother is Hot

True: Beverly Hilton Pocket Knife Surgery and Near-Resurrection of Harry “Parkyakarkus” Parke

Harry Parke and Lucille Ball Shortly Before Parke's Death

A comedian who delivers “the most hilarious speech of his career” in front of 1,000 fellow celebrities at The Beverly Hilton, then collapses.  An emcee who shouts for a doctor and “five physicians immediately run to the dais.”  And then–get this–they cut open his chest with a pocket knife.  And then–well, ya just gotta hear the… Continue reading True: Beverly Hilton Pocket Knife Surgery and Near-Resurrection of Harry “Parkyakarkus” Parke