Literotica Cemetary

[hurricane64]

Austin Leslie

Chef Austin Leslie, the internationally recognized face of “Creole
Soul” food who’s cooking underscored the debt New Orleans cuisine owes the
African-American kitchen, died this morning in Atlanta, where
he and his wife evacuated after Hurricane Katrina.
Leslie suffered a heart attack, said family spokesperson Julie Sardie.
He was 71.
Leslie’s career extends back a half-century, when as a teenager he took
a job delivering fried chicken by bicycle for Portia’s Fountain on
Rampart St. His star rose in 1975 when he purchased Chez Helene from his
aunt Helen Pollack.
The North Robert Street restaurant’s popularity was such that it became
an inspiration for a network television show, “Frank’s Place.” It
featured a chef decked out in Leslie’s signature garb: chef's whites and a
captain’s hat.
After leaving New Orleans for a period to work in Europe, Leslie
returned to the city in the mid-90s, landing at Jacques-Imo’s Café, where
Leslie turned a new generation onto his soulful, signature dishes: spicy
stuffed pork chops, butter-drenched corn bread, and particularly fried
chicken.
Leslie left Jacques-Imo’s last year to become the chef at Pampy’s
Creole Kitchen on Broad Street.
“Austin called me two days ago, and we had
an extensive conversation,” said owner Stan “Pampy” Barre. “He wanted to
go back to work. He wanted to get back in the kitchen.”
Funeral arrangements are incomplete.

---the dude could make some mean fried chicken and oysters rockefeller. Take it to the bank. RIP Mr. Leslie.

 

[linuxgeek]

TV comic Louis Nye dead at 92

src

TV comic Louis Nye dead at 92
Long career stretched to HBO's 'Curb Your Enthusiasm'

Tuesday, October 11, 2005; Posted: 8:21 a.m. EDT (12:21 GMT)

http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2005/SHOWBIZ/TV/10/11/nye.obit.ap/vert.nye.ap.jpg

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Comedian Louis Nye, who created a national catchphrase belting out "Hi, ho, Steverino!" as one of the players on Steve Allen's groundbreaking 1950s TV show, has died. He was 92.

Nye died Sunday at his home in Los Angeles after a long battle with lung cancer, his son, Peter Nye, told The Associated Press on Monday.

Nye had worked regularly in nightclubs and on television until just a couple of years ago, his son said. He had a recurring role from 2000 to 2002 in the HBO comedy "Curb Your Enthusiasm" as the father of Jeff Garlin's character.

When he joined Allen's show in 1956 he was already well established as one the era's hippest comics, appearing regularly on radio, in clubs and on early TV shows.

A master of voices and accents, he could go from being droll one moment to prissy the next. He could also switch effortlessly from comically evil Nazis to bumbling Russians.

"He has a great business card from that time that lists something like 15 accents that he could do," his son recalled with a chuckle.

On "The Steve Allen Show," which ran until 1961 under various names, he quickly endeared himself to audiences as Gordon Hathaway, the effete, country-club snob who would welcome Allen's arrival with the "Hi, ho, Steverino!" salutation.

Other regulars on the landmark show included comedians Don Knotts, Tom Poston and Bill Dana.

After the show's run ended, Nye appeared often on TV game shows, in films and as a regular on "The Ann Sothern Show." He was often cast as the second banana, never the lead.

Nye appeared as Sonny Drysdale, the prissy son of harried banker Milburn Drysdale, in the debut 1960-61 season of "The Beverly Hillbillies." He once said his character was dropped after one season because a CBS executive thought he was "too sissified." Nye returned as Sonny for the 1993 TV movie "The Legend of the Beverly Hillbillies."

Nye teamed with Allen again in 1967, on "The Steve Allen Comedy Hour," a CBS show in which he also portrayed Gordon Hathaway. His cohorts included Allen's wife, Jayne Meadows, Ruth Buzzi and John Byner, among others.

In the summer of 1970 he hosted the variety show "Happy Days" on CBS and three years later co-starred with Norman Fell in the New York garment industry sitcom "Needles and Pins." He played Kirby Baker in the 1978 TV show "Harper Valley P.T.A."

In the 1980s and '90s Nye provided various voices for the "Inspector Gadget" cartoon show.

His film credits included "Cannonball Run II," "Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood," "A Guide for the Married Man," "Good Neighbor, Sam" and "Sex Kittens Go to College."

He also guest starred on such shows as "St. Elsewhere," "The Love Boat," "Laverne & Shirley" and "The Munsters," and appeared frequently as a guest on "The Jackie Gleason Show," "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" and "The Andy Williams Show."

Nye was born May 1, 1913, in Hartford, Connecticut, where he began his career in theater before moving to New York City to enter radio.

Although the son recalled his father as being "just naturally funny," the elder Nye once told The Associated Press that when he began his career he had aspirations of being a serious actor.

"I still think of myself as an actor," he said in that 1970 interview. "In the radio days I was busy playing rotten Nazis, rich uncles and emotional juveniles -- the whole span -- and the only time I tried to be funny was at parties."

 

[linuxgeek]

Vivian Malone Jones

src

Civil rights pioneer dead at 63
Thursday, October 13, 2005; Posted: 4:03 p.m. EDT (20:03 GMT)

http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2005/EDUCATION/10/13/obit.jones.ap/story.malone.jones.ap.jpg

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- Vivian Malone Jones, one of two black students whose effort to enroll at the University of Alabama led to George Wallace's infamous "stand in the schoolhouse door" in 1963, died Thursday. She was 63.

Jones, who went on to become the first black to graduate from the school, died at Atlanta Medical Center, where she had been admitted Tuesday after suffering a stroke, said her sister, Sharon Malone.

"She was absolutely fine Monday," Sharon Malone said.

Jones, a retired federal worker who lived in Atlanta, grew up in Mobile, Alabama. She had enrolled at historically black Alabama A&M University in Huntsville when she transferred to the University of Alabama in 1963. The move led to then-Gov. Wallace's infamous stand in defiance of orders to admit black students. Jones and James Hood, accompanied by then-Deputy U.S. Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, enrolled after Wallace finished his statement and left.

At an appearance last year in Mobile, she recalled meeting with Wallace in 1996, when the former governor was in frail health. He died in 1998.

"I asked him why did he do it," she said. "He said he did what he felt needed to be done at that point in time, but he would not do that today. At that point, we spoke -- I spoke -- of forgiveness."

She recalled that she and Hood waited in a car until Wallace read his proclamation. Finally, when he stepped aside, she said, that allowed them to enter the university.

"I was never afraid. I did have some apprehensions in my mind, though, especially having gone to segregated, 'separate, but equal' schools," she said.

Jones said her religious beliefs gave her confidence to persist, and she graduated in 1965.

"God was with me," she said.

Hood left after a few months but returned to receive his doctorate in 1997.

University of Alabama President Robert E. Witt paid tribute to Jones on Thursday, saying she "opened the doors of opportunity for thousands of students. She will be remembered for her courage and grace that inspired young people throughout the world. We pray for strength for her family during this difficult time."

While Jones was the first black Alabama graduate, she and Hood were not the first to enroll at the school. Autherine Lucy enrolled at Alabama in 1956, but rioting broke out and her stay there was brief.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Sonji Clay, first wife of Muhammad Ali, dead at 59

Posted on Wed, Oct. 12, 2005

CHICAGO - Sonji Clay-Glover, the first wife of boxing great Muhammad Ali, has died. She was 59.

Clay-Glover's body was found early Tuesday morning in her Hyde Park home on Chicago's South Side, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. The office on Wednesday said her death was reported to them as being of natural causes so no autopsy would be performed.

A nephew told the Chicago Sun-Times that she may have suffered a heart attack.

Clay was introduced to Ali by his manager, Herbert Muhammad, when the heavyweight champion still was known as Cassius Marcellus Clay.

They married just 41 days later, on Aug. 14, 1964. But the couple divorced by January 1966 amid conflict over Ali's increasing devotion to the Nation of Islam.

"She was an independent-minded woman and she wanted to be herself," H.D. "Doc" White, Clay's friend and record producer, told the Sun-Times. "She was kind, but she just wasn't a very submissive woman. She was a very, very spirited woman."

Longtime friend and former neighbor Shirley Fisher said Clay went through a lot during the breakup of her marriage.

"I know she suffered a lot from that whole incident. ... But I really know that he loved her a lot and they loved each other," Fisher said.

After the divorce, Clay returned to Chicago from Miami, where the couple had been living.

The aspiring singer recorded a couple of singles for Aries Record Productions, including "I Can't Wait (Until I See My Baby's Face)," and the ballad "Here I Am and Here I'll Stay."

Clay never achieved the musical fame she had hoped for but, "Her music had a kind of sweet loneliness, sometimes a little sultry," White said.

Clay married attorney Reynaldo Glover, with whom she had a son, Reynaldo Jr. They later divorced. She also had a son, Herman Griffin, from a previous relationship.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Gordon Lee, Porky on 'Our Gang,' dead at 71

Fri Oct 21, 2005 9:08 PM ET

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Eugene "Gordon" Lee, who played the chunky tag-a-long "Porky" in the 1930s-era "Our Gang" movie shorts, has died, a friend said on Friday.

Lee, the adopted son of a Fort Worth, Texas, mortician, died of lung cancer on Sunday at a Minneapolis nursing home, his friend Tracy Tolzmann said. He was 71.

"He would say it took him a while to realize he was making movies. He thought he was just playing with other kids," Tolzmann said.

Lee got the role of Porky when he was just 19 months old, after his mother sent a photograph of the boy to producer Hal Roach, noting the resemblance to the Spanky character.

Lee's first contract paid $50 a week and four years later he was making $300 -- enough to support the destitute family, Tolzmann said.

Frequently teamed in the short comedies with the character Buckwheat, who was black, Porky's slight speech impediment created laughs as the duo often outsmarted Spanky and his friend Alfalfa. Porky, not Buckwheat, was the first to mispronounce "okay" as "otay," Tolzmann said.

In one scene, Spanky asked Porky how old he was -- "3, 3 or so," came the slurred reply, Tolzmann recalled. "His answer was unscripted. It was real kids, talking."

The "Our Gang" series reappeared on television reruns as "The Little Rascals."

A growth spurt four years after his debut in "Little Sinner" as Spanky's younger brother cut short Lee's acting career, sending the family back to Texas.

"He would say they were dirt-poor," living above the funeral home, Tolzmann said.

Lee later became a high school history teacher in Denver before retiring to Minnesota to be closer to his only son, Douglas, he said.

Douglas was named for Lee's favorite director, Gordon Douglas.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Collier remembered as more than a player

http://www.nba.com/media/hawks/JasonCollier_1017video_600.jpg

ATLANTA - Jason Collier’s family asked that his funeral service be a celebration of his life, but grieving Atlanta Hawks teammates, as well as former high school and college teammates and coaches, were still struggling Wednesday with the death of the 28-year-old center.

“Jason’s untimely death has stunned us,” former Georgia Tech coach Bobby Cremins said. “He will always be with us in memory and soul.”

Collier, who began his college career at Indiana before transferring to Georgia Tech, played with Houston and Atlanta in a five-year NBA career that ended when he died early Saturday after he had trouble breathing at his home.

The Hawks arrived as a team and sat together during the service at All Saints Catholic Church in Dunwoody, a north Atlanta suburb.

Among others attending were current Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt, former Houston Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich, former Hawks general manager Pete Babcock and current Hawks president Bernie Mullin.

Also attending the service were members of Collier’s Springfield, Ohio, high school team.

Sitting with Collier’s Hawks teammates were coach Mike Woodson and general manager Billy Knight.

Collier’s father, Jeff, said, “He was my best friend.”

“How do you make a father proud? This is how you do it,” said Jeff Collier as he unfolded his son’s No. 52 Georgia Tech jersey, the same number Jeff Collier wore when he played at Georgia Tech.

Jeff Collier held the jersey throughout the service and managed a smile as he shared the story of encouraging his son to try another number when Jason, struggling with knee problems, had to take a job with a developmental league team.

“It wasn’t very lucky for me and it’s not lucky for you,” Jeff Collier said he told his son.

Collier’s wife, Katie, said Jason “was a messenger from God, an angel sent to touch my life.”

Collier’s mother, Joyce, asked those attending the service to “go home and hug those people you love while you have a chance.”

Collier’s framed Hawks jersey and a large photo of the player in his Atlanta uniform were displayed in the entry way into the church.

According to Forsyth County Coroner Lauren McDonald III, the full autopsy report may not be complete for several weeks. A preliminary report may be released as early as this week.

Collier’s agent, Richard Howell, says he has been told Collier may have had an enlarged heart.

The Hawks will leave Collier’s uniform in his locker through the season.

Hawks players also will wear black shoulder patches on their uniforms to honor Collier.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Songwriter Baker Knight Dies

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Prolific songwriter Baker Knight, whose hits were recorded by stars ranging from Elvis Presley to Ricky Nelson, Paul McCartney, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, has died at age 72.

From the 1950s to the 1970s, Knight wrote almost 1,000 songs. More than 40 singers recorded his tunes, which include the 1970 Presley hit "The Wonder of You" and Martin's "Somewhere There's a Someone" and "That Old Time Feelin'." Nelson and McCartney sang the same Knight hit, "Lonesome Town," decades apart.

Perry Como, Jerry Lee Lewis, Sammy Davis Jr. and Mickey Gilley also recorded some of Knight's songs.

Born Thomas Baker Knight Jr., he died Wednesday of natural causes at his home in Birmingham, according to his daughter, Tuesday Knight.

Knight went to Los Angeles in 1958 and met Nelson through a mutual friend. Within six months, Nelson's version of "Lonesome Town," a ballad about being lonely in Hollywood, was on Billboard's Top 10, as was its flip side, "I Got a Feeling," another Knight tune. In all, Nelson recorded 21 Knight originals.

Knight learned to play guitar while in the Air Force. He formed a rock band, Baker Knight and the Knightmares, whose height of fame was opening for country stars Carl Perkins and Conway Twitty in 1956.

After the band split up, Knight moved to Los Angeles for a movie role that never materialized. He returned to Birmingham in 1985 and began to suffer from agoraphobia and a condition similar to chronic fatigue syndrome, which put his songwriting career on hold.

Knight is survived by his daughter and a son, Thomas Baker Knight.

 

[sweet soft kiss]

Shirley Horn, Jazz Singer and Pianist, Is Dead at 71

By BEN RATLIFF
Published: October 22, 2005

Shirley Horn, a jazz singer and pianist who drew audiences close with a powerfully confidential, vibratoless delivery, died yesterday at a nursing home in Cheverly, Md. She was 71. Her death was announced by Regina Joskow, vice president of publicity at the Verve Music Group, Ms. Horn's label.


Ms. Horn was a unique singer, with one of the slowest deliveries in jazz and a very unusual way of phrasing, putting stress on certain words and letting others slip away. She cherished her repertory, making audiences feel that she was cutting through to the stark truths of songs like "Here's to Life" and "You Won't Forget Me." She wanted things just so: she stuck with her drummer, Steve Williams, for 23 years, and her bassist, Charles Ables - who died in 2002 - for 33.

She lived all her life in and around Washington, often performing close to home to be near her family. But over the last two decades she enjoyed a quietly expanding revival of the concert and club career she had begun in the 1950's, and she became a star in the jazz world.

When she was 4, her mother had her start piano lessons. In her teens she won a scholarship to Juilliard, but it was decided that living in New York would cost the family too much money; she studied classical music at Howard University in Washington instead.

She recalled that at 17, while she was playing classical music at a restaurant in Washington, a man appeared in front of her with a four-foot-tall turquoise teddy bear. "If you sing 'Melancholy Baby,' " he said, "I'll give you this bear." She did, and he did.

At the time Ms. Horn was shy and largely focused on classical music, but she often cited this as the moment when it dawned on her that if she overcame her reluctance to sing and to play jazz in public, she might be able to make a living at it. About her transition from classical to jazz, she liked to say: "I loved Rachmaninoff, but then Oscar Peterson became my Rachmaninoff. And Ahmad Jamal became my Debussy."

From 1954, she led her own jazz trio in Washington. In 1960 she recorded her first album, "Embers and Ashes," for a small label called Stere-o-Craft. It was not widely heard, but Miles Davis heard it, and a year later he tracked down her telephone number in Washington and invited her to open for him at the Village Vanguard in New York. That exposure, plus the help of the jazz agent and manager John Levy, helped get her a contract with Mercury Records.

Mercury signed Ms. Horn as a singer, not a singer-pianist. Although some of the great piano-playing accompanists, including Hank Jones and Jimmy Jones, were hired to play on her records, and although "Loads of Love," from 1962, showcased her voice well - she could sound like a quieter, subtler version of Dinah Washington - the situation made her uncomfortable.

By the mid-1960's she had stopped touring and decided to restrict her performing to the Washington and Baltimore areas so she could spend more time at home raising her daughter, Rainy. From 1963 to 1978 she made only two records - "Travelin' Light" for ABC-Paramount and "Where Are You Going?" for Perception. From 1978 to 1984, she recorded for the Danish label Steeplechase and slowly came back into the awareness of jazz fans.

In 1982, she played her first New York performance in more than 15 years, at Michael's Pub, and in 1986 she was signed by Verve. The company built up her career all over again over the course of 11 albums, including "You Won't Forget Me" (1990), which featured guest appearances by Miles Davis and Wynton Marsalis; "I Remember Miles" (1998), which won a Grammy Award; and a few that featured string sections.

Ms. Horn's survivors include her husband, Sheppard Deering, of Upper Marlboro, Md.; her daughter, Rainy Smith, of Maryland; and several grandchildren.

Ms. Horn had been fighting breast cancer for some time when complications of diabetes led to the amputation of her right foot in 2002. For a few years she performed sitting in a chair and facing the audience directly, away from the piano, which was played by George Mesterhazy. But in her final performances in New York, a two-week stretch at Le Jazz Au Bar that started last Dec. 30, she was back at the piano again, with the help of a prosthetic device that helped her to use the instrument's sustain pedal.

Three of those performances will be released in October on a Verve anthology of her work, "But Beautiful: The Best of Shirley Horn."

 

[Denae]

By BEN RATLIFF
Published: October 22, 2005

Shirley Horn, a jazz singer and pianist who drew audiences close with a powerfully confidential, vibratoless delivery, died yesterday at a nursing home in Cheverly, Md. She was 71. Her death was announced by Regina Joskow, vice president of publicity at the Verve Music Group, Ms. Horn's label.


Ms. Horn was a unique singer, with one of the slowest deliveries in jazz and a very unusual way of phrasing, putting stress on certain words and letting others slip away. She cherished her repertory, making audiences feel that she was cutting through to the stark truths of songs like "Here's to Life" and "You Won't Forget Me." She wanted things just so: she stuck with her drummer, Steve Williams, for 23 years, and her bassist, Charles Ables - who died in 2002 - for 33.

She lived all her life in and around Washington, often performing close to home to be near her family. But over the last two decades she enjoyed a quietly expanding revival of the concert and club career she had begun in the 1950's, and she became a star in the jazz world.

When she was 4, her mother had her start piano lessons. In her teens she won a scholarship to Juilliard, but it was decided that living in New York would cost the family too much money; she studied classical music at Howard University in Washington instead.

She recalled that at 17, while she was playing classical music at a restaurant in Washington, a man appeared in front of her with a four-foot-tall turquoise teddy bear. "If you sing 'Melancholy Baby,' " he said, "I'll give you this bear." She did, and he did.

At the time Ms. Horn was shy and largely focused on classical music, but she often cited this as the moment when it dawned on her that if she overcame her reluctance to sing and to play jazz in public, she might be able to make a living at it. About her transition from classical to jazz, she liked to say: "I loved Rachmaninoff, but then Oscar Peterson became my Rachmaninoff. And Ahmad Jamal became my Debussy."

From 1954, she led her own jazz trio in Washington. In 1960 she recorded her first album, "Embers and Ashes," for a small label called Stere-o-Craft. It was not widely heard, but Miles Davis heard it, and a year later he tracked down her telephone number in Washington and invited her to open for him at the Village Vanguard in New York. That exposure, plus the help of the jazz agent and manager John Levy, helped get her a contract with Mercury Records.

Mercury signed Ms. Horn as a singer, not a singer-pianist. Although some of the great piano-playing accompanists, including Hank Jones and Jimmy Jones, were hired to play on her records, and although "Loads of Love," from 1962, showcased her voice well - she could sound like a quieter, subtler version of Dinah Washington - the situation made her uncomfortable.

By the mid-1960's she had stopped touring and decided to restrict her performing to the Washington and Baltimore areas so she could spend more time at home raising her daughter, Rainy. From 1963 to 1978 she made only two records - "Travelin' Light" for ABC-Paramount and "Where Are You Going?" for Perception. From 1978 to 1984, she recorded for the Danish label Steeplechase and slowly came back into the awareness of jazz fans.

In 1982, she played her first New York performance in more than 15 years, at Michael's Pub, and in 1986 she was signed by Verve. The company built up her career all over again over the course of 11 albums, including "You Won't Forget Me" (1990), which featured guest appearances by Miles Davis and Wynton Marsalis; "I Remember Miles" (1998), which won a Grammy Award; and a few that featured string sections.

Ms. Horn's survivors include her husband, Sheppard Deering, of Upper Marlboro, Md.; her daughter, Rainy Smith, of Maryland; and several grandchildren.

Ms. Horn had been fighting breast cancer for some time when complications of diabetes led to the amputation of her right foot in 2002. For a few years she performed sitting in a chair and facing the audience directly, away from the piano, which was played by George Mesterhazy. But in her final performances in New York, a two-week stretch at Le Jazz Au Bar that started last Dec. 30, she was back at the piano again, with the help of a prosthetic device that helped her to use the instrument's sustain pedal.

Three of those performances will be released in October on a Verve anthology of her work, "But Beautiful: The Best of Shirley Horn."

I am so glad that you posted this. I hadn't heard of Ms. Horn, but after reading about her, you can bet that I am going to try and find her music. Thank you.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Former "SNL" cast member Charles Rocket commits suicide

http://www.saturday-night-live.com/images/weekendupdate/rocket.gif

BOSTON - Actor Charles Rocket, whose unscripted profanity on "Saturday Night Live" in 1981 cost him his network television job, has committed suicide by cutting his throat, police said on Monday.

Rocket, 56, was found dead behind his Connecticut residence on October 7 with his throat slashed, said Connecticut State Police Sgt. J. Paul Vance.

"There was no criminal aspect to this case. The post-mortem showed he had committed suicide by cutting his throat with a knife," Vance said.

Rocket, whose real name was Charles Claverie, was a cast member of NBC's late-night comedy show, "Saturday Night Live," during the 1980-81 season.

He lost his job after he appeared in a parody of the US television show "Dallas" and its famous "Who Shot J.R.?" episode.

After Rocket's character was shot, he uttered the obscenity while saying he'd like to know who did it. Viewers complained and NBC issued an apology.

Rocket, fellow cast members Gilbert Gottfried and Ann Risley, and four of the show's writers were then dismissed.

His movie credits included "Earth Girls are Easy," "How I Got Into College," "Dumb & Dumber" and "Dances With Wolves." He also played a role in the 1980s television series "Max Headroom" and provided voices for several cartoon characters.

Rocket is survived by his wife, Beth, and son, Zane.

 

[linuxgeek]

Rosa Parks

DETROIT (AP) -- Rosa Parks, who sparked a revolution nearly 50 years ago when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Ala., bus, died Monday night. She was 92.

Her one small act of defiance galvanized a generation of activists, including a young Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and earned her the title "mother of the civil rights movement."

In 1955, Jim Crow laws in place since the post-Civil War Reconstruction required separation of the races in buses, restaurants and public accommodations throughout the South, while legally sanctioned racial discrimination kept blacks out of many jobs and neighborhoods in the North.

Mrs. Parks, an active member of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, was riding on a city bus Dec. 1, 1955, when a white man demanded her seat.

She refused, despite rules requiring blacks to yield their seats to whites. Two black Montgomery women had been arrested earlier that year on the same charge, but Mrs. Parks was jailed. She also was fined $14.

Speaking in 1992, Mrs. Parks said history too often maintains "that my feet were hurting and I didn't know why I refused to stand up when they told me. But the real reason of my not standing up was I felt that I had a right to be treated as any other passenger. We had endured that kind of treatment for too long."

Her arrest triggered a 381-day boycott of the bus system organized by a then little-known Baptist minister, the Rev. King, who later earned the Nobel Peace Prize for his work.

The Montgomery bus boycott, which came one year after the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark declaration that separate schools for blacks and whites were "inherently unequal," marked the start of the modern civil rights movement.

The movement culminated in the 1964 federal Civil Rights Act, which banned racial discrimination in public accommodations.

After taking her public stand for civil rights, Mrs. Parks had trouble finding work in Alabama. Amid threats and harassment, she and her husband, Raymond, moved to Detroit in 1957. She worked as an aide in U.S. Rep John Conyers' Detroit office from 1965 until 1988.

Mrs. Parks said she wanted to devote more time to the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development. The institute, incorporated in 1987, is devoted to developing leadership among Detroit's young people and initiating them into the struggle for civil rights.

"Rosa Parks: My Story," was published in February 1992. In 1994 she brought out "Quiet Strength: The Faith, the Hope and the Heart of a Woman Who Changed a Nation," and in 1996 a collection of letters called "Dear Mrs. Parks: A Dialogue With Today's Youth."

In 1999, she was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation's highest civilian honor.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Tony Adams, Film, TV and Stage Producer, Dead at 52

24 Oct 2005

Tony Adams, the veteran film and stage producer whose credits include Blake Edwards' "Pink Panther" movies, "S.O.B., "10," and the film and stage versions of "Victor/Victoria," died of a stroke Oct. 22 at Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan.

Mr. Adams was 52 years old. Prior to his sudden death, Mr. Adams was a senior managing member of Hello Entertainment, a theatre producing company actively developing and producing Off-Broadway and Broadway shows, such as The Immigrant, A New American Musical.

Blake Edwards and Julie Andrews said in a statement, "We have known Tony for so many years; we felt he was our second son. He was a beloved, dear, trusted and talented friend. We are devastated at this sudden loss and we will miss him, his kindness and his wonderful sense of humor. Our thoughts go out to his family at this time."

Survivors include Mr. Adams' widow, the Broadway actress Anne Runolfsson.

Born in Dublin, Ireland, Mr. Adams got his start in the film business as movie director John Boorman's personal assistant on the film "Deliverance." The picture's star, Burt Reynolds, heard that the teen-aged Mr. Adams wanted to stay in the U.S. and offered him a job on his Florida ranch, which paid for Mr. Adams' tuition at Atlantic College in Palm Beach. Reynolds and friend Dinah Shore spoke to Blake Edwards and Mr. Adams was off to Hollywood, where he worked with Edwards and his wife Julie Andrews, and attended Pepperdine University.

In 1975, Edwards went to London to shoot "The Return of the Pink Panther" starring Peter Sellers and Christopher Plummer, and gave the young Mr. Adams the responsibility of associate producer. He later became president of Blake Edwards Entertainment and produced (with Edwards) the following motion pictures: "The Pink Panther Strikes Again," "Revenge of the Pink Panther," "10," "S.O.B.," "Victor/Victoria," "Trail of the Pink Panther," "Curse of the Pink Panther" "The Man Who Loved Women," "Micki and Maude," "A Fine Mess," "That's Life!" "Blind Date," "Sunset," "Skin Deep," "Switch," "Son of the Pink Panther." He also produced the films "Millie" and "Peter Gunn."

The Broadway musical version of Victor/Victoria starring Julie Andrews brought Mr. Adams to New York in 1995. He also produced the Off-Broadway productions of The Immigrant (the musical) and Minor Demons.

For PBS he produced the "Lullaby of Broadway: Opening Night on 42nd Street," "Julie Andrews: Back on Broadway" and the acclaimed television series "My Favorite Broadway: The Leading Ladies" and "My Favorite Broadway: The Love Songs."

He was a founding board member of the world relief organization Operation USA, a charity that has won many accolades, most notably a share of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for its part in the International Campaign To Ban Landmines and the 1983 President's Volunteer Action Award, which Mr. Adams accepted from President Ronald Reagan on behalf of the charity. He traveled extensively with the group and was among the first assembly of Westerners back into Cambodia after the reign of terror by the Khmer Rouge (1979), where he delivered medicines and photographed victims of the Khmer Rouge which were published worldwide.

Mr. Adams was a co-founder of Show Coalition, a Hollywood political action committee and spearheaded fundraising drives for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

His first marriage to Avril Adams and his second marriage to Debrah Farentino ended in divorce. His survivors include his third wife, the Broadway actress Anne Runolfsson; two daughters Molly Adams of Santa Monica, CA, and Tess Adams of New York City; two sons Andrew Hopewell of Malibu, CA and Alister Adams of Toronto; four sisters Anne Adams, Joan Paybody, Teresa Deane, and Maeve Gallagher of Ireland; and four brothers John Adams of Ireland, Richard Adams of Los Angeles and Seamus Adams of England.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Wellington Mara

http://www.nypost.com/photos/giantslede10262005.jpg

Wellington Mara, co-owner of the New York Giants, and one of the most influential men in the history of the National Football League, died on Tuesday at age 89, from cancer.

Mara had been an owner of the Giants for the past 75 years, one of the longest running tenures of any owner in professional sports. He was an anachronism in today's NFL, who ran the team for the love of the game and not the bottom line. Up until he died, "My father still knew every player on the team and his time in the 40-yard dash," said son John Mara, the team's chief operating officer and the oldest of Mara's 11 children. But Mara had little desire to concern himself with the business side of ownership, leaving that up to his various co-owners.

Still, Mara's mark on the financial health of the NFL is indelible. Mara began his NFL career as a ball-boy and shoe-shiner for the New York Giants, which his father, Timothy, had bought in 1925 for $500. Five years later, his father turned over the franchise to his sons, Jack, 22, and Wellington, 14. By 1962, with the NFL's popularity on the rise, CBS wanted to ink a national TV deal. Under the previous contract, the Giants had been paid $175,000 a year, while small-market Green Bay made only $35,000. But Mara argued that the NFL was only as strong as its weakest link, and convinced the league to equally share all TV revenue, something that continues to this day.

The ownership ride was not always a smooth one for Mara. In the 1960s and 70s, the Giants suffered a series of losing seasons, known to Giants fans as "the wilderness years." In 1965, Mara's brother, Jack, died and left his half of the team to his son, Timothy, Jr. Mara and his nephew clashed about the direction of the team, going so far as to erect Venetian blinds between the owners' boxes, and leaving the Giants in as much disarray off the field as they were on it. In 1978, a group of fed up fans formed "The Committee Against Mara Insensitivity to Giants Fans" and hired a small plane that flew over the stadium during a game with a banner that read "15 years of lousy football…we've had enough."

In the 1980s and 1990s, the on-the-field product got better. The Giants won Super Bowls in 1986 and 1990. But uncle and nephew never really got along, throwing separate Super Bowl parties after both victories.

In the end, tragedy settled the Mara family feud. In 1991, after Timothy was diagnosed with cancer, Preston "Bob" Tisch bought his half of the team, bringing peace to the boardroom (Timothy died in 1997). Mara's son, John, eventually took over the team's day-to-day operations, under the watchful eyes of Tisch, who is fighting his own battle against cancer.

But Wellington Mara, who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1997, never strayed too far from the sideline, attending nearly every practice and game until this past spring when he fell ill. He was beloved by his players and was known affectionately as "The Duke."

This past Sunday, after a come-from behind victory against the Denver Broncos, Giants players chanted, "Duke, Duke, Duke" in the locker room. Mara watched the game from his home in Rye, N.Y., and saw Giants quarterback-of-the-future, Eli Manning, throw a last-second, game-winning touchdown pass in the gloam of an autumn evening, a fitting finale for one of the NFL's last lions.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Green Giant Voice Elmer Dresslar Jr. Dies

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Oct 25, 8:39 PM (ET)

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (AP) - Elmer "Len" Dresslar Jr., who extolled generations of TV watchers to eat their vegetables as the booming voice of the Jolly Green Giant, has died. He was 80.

Dresslar died Oct. 16 of cancer, according to daughter Teri Bennett.

Dresslar was an entertainer and singer for nearly six decades. But his voice rang through millions of households when he sang the simple refrain, "Ho, Ho, Ho," in an ad jingle for Green Giant foods.

"His was the most consistent and most frequent voice of the Jolly Green Giant over the years, the one consumers are going to recognize," said Tara Johnson, a spokeswoman for General Mills, which owns Green Giant Co.

Dresslar, a Kansas native, moved to Chicago with his wife in the early 1950s to study voice after touring with a production of "South Pacific." By the 1960s, the Navy veteran had carved out a career singing in clubs, on television and in advertising jingles.

He recorded 15 albums with The Singers Unlimited jazz group and appeared on the CBS television show "In Town Tonight" from 1955 to 1960. He and his wife, Dorothy, retired to Palm Springs in 1991.

Ad jingles were the most consistent part of his career, and he landed roles for Rice Krispies cereal, Marlboro cigarettes, Amoco oil and Dinty Moore canned beef stew.

He periodically re-recorded the "Ho, Ho, Ho" for Jolly Green Giant commercials, most recently about 10 years ago.

Bennett said her father auditioned for the Green Giant job without any idea his baritone would become so recognizable.

"He never got tired of it," she said. "If nothing else, it put my sister and I through college."

 

[JennyOmanHill]

'Judging Amy' Teen Actress Shot To Death

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POSTED: 9:07 am CST October 31, 2005

LOS ANGELES -- The funeral for Tara Correa-McMullen, who played former gang member Graciela on "Judging Amy," was Friday.

She was remembered at her funeral as an energetic and unassuming teen.

Correa-McMullen, 16, was shot to death Oct. 21. Police in Inglewood, Calif., south of Los Angeles, said she could have been killed by gang gunfire.

Correa-McMullen was shot several times as she stood outside an apartment complex. Two men with her were wounded.

One police officer said, "She may have just been at the wrong place at the wrong time."

During services Friday at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park Hollywood Hills Correa-McMullen's parents said their daughter was an easygoing person who could make friends with anyone.

Friends at the funeral said Correa-McMullen recently had been hanging out with a "bad crowd."

Correa-McMullen played one of the teenagers in the Martin Lawrence movie, "Rebound," which was released this past summer. But, it was filmed a while back. After she filmed the movie, she got her recurring role on "Judging Amy."

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Skitch Henderson, Conductor Who Led New York Pops, Dead at 87

http://www.playbill.com/images/photos/skitch1.jpg


02 Nov 2005

Skitch Henderson, the conductor and musical director who banged the drum loudly for American popular music, died Nov. 1 of natural causes at his home in New Milford, Connecticut.

Mr. Henderson was 87 and was an early bandleader for the "Tonight" show and founded The New York Pops, which introduced a new generation to the 20th-century American popular music of theatre composers Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Cy Coleman, George Gershwin and others.

In a long career he worked with such vocalists as Judy Garland, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra.

Born in 1918 in Birmingham, England, with the name Lyle Russell Cedric Henderson, Mr. Henderson went on to "successfully transform himself into a popular American icon and, in doing so, has managed to be at the center of every phenomenon in American popular music and culture," according to the New York Pops.

According to his biography on the New York Pops website, Mr. Henderson began his career playing piano in the roadhouses of Montana and Minnesota in the 1930s and since then has been closely involved in all branches of popular musical entertainment — live performances, movies, television, radio.

Skitch Henderson's big break came in 1937 when he filled in for an ailing accompanist for an MGM promotional tour featuring Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney.

The tour started in Denver and wound up in Chicago, and Mr. Henderson was left with the original pianist's roundtrip ticket to Hollywood. "It was like a scene from a Warner Brothers movie," he recalled. "The tour manager said to me, 'Kid, what are you going to do?' and I said I don't know and he said, 'Well I got a ticket, why don’t you come to Hollywood?' And that’s exactly how I went."

In Hollywood, he continued playing piano however he could. He accompanied a young vocalist named Dolores Reed (the future Mrs. Bob Hope), joined the music department at MGM, and ultimately played piano for Bob Hope and "The Pepsodent Show." The Hopes were "like family to me," Mr. Henderson once said. "Just like Bing. In fact, it was at their house that I first met Bing."

Crosby went on to play an important role in the bandleader's life. "He was like a guru for me," Mr. Henderson said. "Bing taught me stage presence and manners; he taught me a great deal. He was an incredible human being."

Crosby was also instrumental in creating the "Skitch" nickname. As Henderson explained it, "I was called 'the sketch kid' because of the way I would quickly sketch out a new score in a new key. And Bing said, 'If you're going to compete, get your name straightened out. People always forget Christian names but they never forget nicknames.'"

Mr. Henderson said, "It was sage advice. Skitch really stuck. And I even changed my passport."

During World War II, he flew for both the Royal Air Force and, after becoming an American citizen, the United States Army Air Corps. Among other things, it was a way of indulging his ongoing love of flying and airplanes, according to his New York Pops bio.

After the war, Mr. Henderson became the musical director for a touring Frank Sinatra, and, later, for Sinatra's "Lucky Strike Show" on NBC Radio. Henderson said, "Sinatra and I were old music friends. I played piano on the first record he made. And after the war, he put me to work immediately."

He later found himself the music director for NBC television, but not without first doing a brief guest conductor stint for the legendary Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony. Eventually, Mr. Henderson was paired up with Steve Allen for "The Tonight Show," and much later, Johnny Carson.

Mr. Henderson founded The New York Pops in 1983 "to share his passion for music by bringing the more accessible symphonic pops fare to a broader audience." The New York Pops is "the largest independent symphonic pops orchestra in the United States, and its subscription season is one of the most successful at its home at New York City's Carnegie Hall."

He is survived by his wife, Ruth, and their children, Heidi Maria and Hans Christian.

 

[marshalt]

“How do you make a father proud? This is how you do it,” said Jeff Collier as he unfolded his son’s No. 52 Georgia Tech jersey, the same number Jeff Collier wore when he played at Georgia Tech.

So basically, had he not been a basketball player, his dad wouldn't have been proud? What an ass!

 

[KindaKinky]

PPMan

https://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=382861

The man provided many a spirited conversation.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Wrestler Reggie 'The Crusher' Lisowski Dies

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Reggie "The Crusher" Lisowski, 79, a professional wrestler whose blue-collar bona fides made him beloved among working class fans for 40 years, died of a brain tumor Oct. 22 at the Bradford Terrace Convalescent Center in Milwaukee.

A 6-foot, 260-pound specimen with a cement-mixer voice, Mr. Lisowski performed in the days before vitamin supplements and anabolic steroids were widely used. Dubbed "The Wrestler Who Made Milwaukee Famous," the barrel-chested bulldozer bragged that he worked out by running along the Lake Michigan waterfront with a keg of beer on each shoulder, building his stamina to polka all night with the local "Polish dollies." He was often photographed relaxing before a match by drinking a beer and smoking a cigar.

He was marketed as a villain, but the public loved him. He once drew 8,000 fans in the 1970s and often sold out arenas a week in advance. Earlier this year, Mr. Lisowski was inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame with his most famous tag-team partner, the late Dick "The Bruiser" Afflis. The pair collected five American Wrestling Association world tag titles; Mr. Lisowski, paired with other wrestlers, won three more. He also won the AWA's world heavyweight title three times.

"I think working people identify with me because years ago I worked when I wrestled, too," Mr. Lisowski told the Milwaukee papers in 1985. "I worked at Ladish, Drop Forge, Cudahy Packing House. I was a bricklayer. But finally, I got away from punching the clock."

He punched plenty of other things with his signature finishing move, the bolo, which had a windup like a fast pitch softball pitch but ended with a whomp! to a competitor's bone and muscle. His own body was not spared the violence of the ring. Mr. Lisowski broke his right elbow seven or eight times, his son David Lisowski said, and was unable to fully straighten it. He had "thousands" of stitches in his head, countless concussions and a damaged eardrum. When he broke his right shoulder, he came home from a match, went to a pillar in the basement and yanked it back into place. He also had two hip replacements, a knee replacement and multiple heart bypass surgeries.

Yet he was so strong that he could bend a tire in half, which is harder than it sounds.

"I come up the hard way. I had all these cage matches. I wrestled in the cage more than any other rassler in the history of rasslin'. I got all the scars to prove it. The time I wrestled Mad Dog [Vachon] in the cage, I had to go to the hospital, and he had to go to the veterinarian to get sewn up."

A native of South Milwaukee, Mr. Lisowski served in the Army during World War II, where he learned to wrestle. His first match was in 1949, as a dark-haired "baby face" who wore a star-spangled jacket, Oliver said. A few years later, he bleached his hair blond, grew it long and adopted the persona of a rule-breaker. By 1959, he had a crew cut, had picked up the nickname "Crusher" and had become a tough guy. His signature phrase became the two-fisted challenge, "How 'bout dat?"

After 40 years on the road, during which he traveled six days a week, Mr. Lisowski retired.

His wife of 55 years, Faye Lisowski, died in 2003. Survivors, in addition to his son, include three other children, nine grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.

Despite the overheated rhetoric of the ring, Mr. Lisowski was by many accounts a friendly, outgoing man who would vacation with his fellow competitors.

"We had some dandy matches," Verne Gagne, a former NCAA wrestling champion and pro wrestler, told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. "The Crusher never was a great technically skilled wrestler, but he was tougher than nails and a brawler. He could bench press nearly 600 pounds. And he loved to have fun. After a match, he couldn't get a beer in his hands fast enough."

 

[JennyOmanHill]

'WWE Smackdown!' Star Guerrero Dies

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Nov 13, 6:24 PM (ET)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Eduardo Gory Guerrero, a World Wrestling Entertainment superstar was found dead in his hotel room Sunday in Minneapolis, where he was scheduled to appear that evening in a WWE Supershow. He was 38.

When he didn't respond to a wake-up call, hotel security at Minneapolis Marriott City Center and Guerrero's nephew and fellow WWE wrestler, Chavo Guerrero, forced their way into the room, police said.

There were no apparent signs of foul play or suicide, police said. An autopsy was planned at the Hennepin County medical examiner's office.

He was a featured star on the UPN series "WWE Smackdown!" and son of Mexican wrestler Gory Guerrero.

Chavo Guerrero and McMahon said Guerrero was open about his past drug and alcohol abuse but they said he'd been sober for four years.

In February 2004, Guerrero became the second wrestler of Hispanic heritage to be WWE champion when he defeated Brock Lesnar, a former University of Minnesota wrestling standout. Guerrero lost the title four months later.

In May 2004, UPN aired the special "Cheating Death, Stealing Life: The Eddie Guerrero Story." The one-hour program chronicled his childhood and his struggle with drug addiction that almost cost him his job, family and life before his recovery and eventual capture of the WWE championship.

 

[Violette]

"Jenny-on-the-spot" is on the job, I see! I'm a wrestling fan, and I just got the news myself. Thanks for putting it on the thread, Jen.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

"Jenny-on-the-spot" is on the job, I see! I'm a wrestling fan, and I just got the news myself. Thanks for putting it on the thread, Jen.

Hi Violette

Since moving to Omaha, I have been watching wrestling, and I'm just so saddened by this loss! I was enjoying watching Eddie "team up" with Batista these last few weeks.

I discovered the news from LIT's wrestling thread, BTW.

 

[JennyOmanHill]

Sheree North, 72, stage, film, TV star

Posted on Mon, Nov. 07, 2005

http://www.chixinflix.com/images/sheree_north.jpg

SHE WAS KRAMER'S MOTHER ON `SEINFELD'

LOS ANGELES - Sheree North, a platinum blond bombshell of 1950s musicals who is remembered by younger audiences for her continuing television roles as Lou Grant's sultry girlfriend on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' and Kramer's mother Babs on "Seinfeld,'' has died. She was 72.

Ms. North, who had been in good health, died Friday at a Los Angeles hospital of complications following surgery, said her daughter, Dawn Bessire of Santa Monica.

Groomed as a studio glamour girl who could substitute for the more famous but often unreliable Marilyn Monroe, Ms. North was later interviewed or cast in documentaries and shows about Monroe.

Hollywood insiders originally whispered that 20th Century Fox hired her only as a threat to the troublesome Monroe -- whom she did replace in the 1955 "How to Be Very, Very Popular,'' in which she outdanced and outshone the leggy Betty Grable.

Unlike other studio-styled blonds such as Jayne Mansfield or Mamie Van Doren, Ms. North tried to change her bombshell image, allowing herself to age gracefully, work without makeup and segue into older character parts. She worked steadily, enjoying a half-century career on stage, television and in film. But she never quite shook the initial image as a beauty, which she blamed on studio-generated press coverage in the 1950s.

Born Dawn Bethel in Los Angeles on Jan. 17, 1933, she danced as a youngster with USO shows during World War II.

She made her film debut in 1951 in "Excuse My Dust,'' starring Red Skelton. But despite her first few films, she became so discouraged about launching a show-business career that she considered going to secretarial school.

When she appeared on the initial episode of "The Bing Crosby Show'' on television that same year, former Times television critic Walter Ames noted: "One of the surprises of the show was Sheree North, the shapely dancer. No one had given me an inkling that she could deliver comedy lines as well as she did, but she more than held her own with Bing and Jack Benny. Sheree came pretty close to walking off with the show.''

After that, her film credits quickly rose to leading lady status, as in the 1956 musical film "The Best Things in Life Are Free'' opposite Gordon MacRae and Dan Dailey.

Ms. North appeared on stage in such popular musicals as "Can-Can,'' "Irma La Douce'' and "Bye Bye Birdie.'' Her films include "The Outfit'' with Robert Duvall in 1973, "The Shootist'' starring John Wayne in 1976, and the 1991 thriller "Defenseless'' with Barbara Hershey and Sam Shepard.

But the actress probably gained her widest recognition on television. She had guest roles in such top series as "The Virginian,'' "The Fugitive,'' "Cannon,'' "McMillan and Wife,'' "Kojak,'' "Hawaii Five-O,'' "Fantasy Island'' and "The Golden Girls.''

She earned Emmy nominations for appearances on "Marcus Welby, M.D.'' and "Archie Bunker's Place.''

 

[JennyOmanHill]

'Halloween' Producer Dies After Jordan Bombings

POSTED: 6:52 am CST November 11, 2005

AMMAN, Jordan -- The producer of the "Halloween" movies is among those killed by Wednesday's bombings in Jordan.

Moustapha Akkad died Friday of wounds from the blast. A surgeon at a Jordanian hospital told The Associated Press Akkad "had bleeding in the lungs, his ribs were fractured" and he had a severe heart attack.

The Syrian-born producer lived in Los Angeles and was in his 70s. His 34-year-old daughter also died in the attacks.

The daughter, Rima Akkad Monla, grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from the University of Southern California in 1995. Her mother describes her as "a totally American girl." Patricia Akkad spoke by telephone from her ex-husband's home in Los Angeles.

The three bombings of Western hotels killed at least 60 people. A Web statement Friday in the name of al-Qaida in Iraq claims four Iraqis, including a husband and wife, bombed the three hotels.

 

[sweet soft kiss]

TV icon Ralph Edwards dies at 92

This was his life.

BY DAVID HINCKLEY
DAILY NEWS FEATURES WRITER
Thursday, November 17th, 2005

Ralph Edwards, the father of "Truth or Consequences," "This Is Your Life" and "The People's Court," died yesterday in Los Angeles of heart failure. He was 92.

Fellow TV host Bob Barker, who got his start succeeding Edwards on "Truth or Consequences," described him yesterday as "one of the finest men I have ever met and a gentleman about whom I have never heard a word of criticism."

A child of poverty who slept in a church when he arrived penniless in New York from California amid the Great Depression, Edwards made his first score by creating and hosting the radio version of "Truth or Consequences" in 1940. Based on a game he played as a child, "Truth" required contestants to quickly answer a trick question or face a humiliating consequence - such as parading in baby clothes or washing an elephant in public.

"Truth" became the most popular radio entertainment show of the decade before Edwards moved it to television in 1950. He left as host a year later and in 1952 launched the TV run of another show he had created on radio, "This Is Your Life."

Where "Truth" fed on the embarrassment of its contestants, "This Is Your Life" was openly sentimental. It tracked the lives of famous and ordinary people by finding relatives and friends, and it often ended with subjects and audiences awash in tears.

Edwards downshifted his demeanor from the devilish bad boy of "Truth" to the sympathetic everyman, helping shape a style still common today.

After "This Is Your Life" ended in 1961, Edwards stayed in television; 20 years later, he created "The People's Court" with Judge Joseph Wapner.

Like "Truth or ConsequeT
nces" and "This Is Your Life," the new show was often criticized as a cheap appeal to lowbrow instincts. Like the others, it soon became a cultural touchstone.

Off the air, Edwards described himself as a quiet man who enjoyed spending time with his wife, Barbara, and their three children, whom he referred to as "our consequences."