On this Day 5 October death of Gloria Grahame – Eddie Kendricks – Rodney Dangerfield – Steve Jobs

On this day in 1981, actress and singer Gloria Grahame died from cancer at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan, New York City, at the age of 57.  Born Gloria Grahame Hallward on November 28, 1923 in Los Angeles.  She began her acting career in theatre, and in 1944 made her first film for MGM.

Despite a featured role in It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), MGM did not believe she had the potential for major success, and sold her contract to RKO Studios. Often cast in film noir projects, Grahame was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Crossfire (1947), and later won the award for her work in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952). After starring opposite Humphrey Bogart in In A Lonely Place (1950), she achieved her highest profile with Sudden Fear (1952), The Big Heat (1953), Human Desire (1954), and Oklahoma! (1955).

Grahame was married four times and had four children. Her first marriage was to actor Stanley Clements in August 1945. They divorced in June 1948.  The day after her divorce from Clements was made final, Grahame married director Nicholas Ray.  They had a son, Timothy, in November 1948. After several separations and reconciliations, Grahame and Ray divorced in 1952.  Grahame’s third marriage was to writer and television producer Cy Howard. They married in August 1954 and had a daughter, Marianna Paulette in 1956.  Grahame filed for divorce from Howard in May 1957, citing mental cruelty.  Their divorce became final in November 1957.

Grahame’s fourth and final marriage was to actor Anthony “Tony” Ray (b. 1937), the son of her second husband Nicholas Ray and his first wife Jean Evans; Anthony Ray was her former stepson. According to Nicholas Ray, their relationship reportedly began when Tony Ray was 13 years old and Grahame was still married to his father (Nicholas Ray allegedly caught the two in bed together, which he claimed effectively ended the marriage to Grahame in 1950.)  However, Grahame’s former partner and biographer, Peter Turner, has disputed this, saying that the story of Tony being underage when Grahame began her sexual relationship with him is “fiction”.  Grahame and Anthony Ray reconnected in 1958 and married in Tijuana, Mexico, in May, 1960. The couple went on to have two children: Anthony, Jr. (born 1963) and James (born 1965).

News of the marriage was kept private until 1962, when it was written about in the tabloids and the ensuing scandal damaged Grahame’s reputation and affected her career. After learning of her marriage to Anthony Ray, Grahame’s third husband, Cy Howard, attempted to gain sole custody of the couple’s daughter, Marianna. Howard claimed Grahame was an unfit mother, and the two fought over custody of Marianna for years. The stress of the scandal, her waning career, and her custody battle with Howard took its toll on Grahame and she had a nervous breakdown. She later underwent electroshock therapy in 1964.  Despite the surrounding scandal, Grahame’s marriage to Anthony Ray was her only one, of four, to last well beyond four years (her marriage to his father lasted 4 years 2 months), as they did not divorce until a few days short of their 14th anniversary, in May 1974.

From 1979 to 1981, Grahame had a relationship with Peter Turner. Turner authored a book about his relationship with Grahame called Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool, which was later turned into a movie with the same name.

Grahame had an affair with her leading man Glenn Ford during the filming of Human Desire in 1954.

 
The Final Footprint

In March 1974, Grahame was diagnosed with breast cancer. She underwent radiation treatment, changed her diet, stopped smoking and drinking alcohol, and also sought homeopathic remedies. In less than a year, the cancer went into remission.  The cancer returned in 1980, but Grahame refused to acknowledge her diagnosis or seek radiation treatment. Despite her failing health, Grahame continued working in stage productions in the United States and the United Kingdom.In the autumn of 1981, while performing at The Dukes in Lancaster, England, Grahame was taken ill. The local hospital wanted to perform surgery immediately, but she refused. Contacting her former lover, actor Peter Turner, she requested to live in Liverpool at the home of Turner’s mother, where she would remain for six days.

Grahame requested that Turner not contact medical people or her family, but Turner did so, for he was concerned about her health. According to Turner’s book Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool, his local family doctor told Grahame that she had a cancerous tumor in her abdomen “the size of a football.” Breast cancer is not mentioned in the book.

Turner informed Grahame’s children Timothy and Marianna of her illness, and they brought Grahame back to the U.S., against her wishes and those of her doctor and Turner, on October 5, 1981. She was immediately admitted to St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan, New York City, where she died a few hours later at the age of 57.

Grahame’s remains were interred at Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Chatsworth, Los Angeles. Her death came just 11 days before that of her first husband Stanley Clements, who died from emphysema on October 16.  Grahame had kept an apartment at the Manhattan Plaza residential complex; and its community room, where her portrait hangs, is dedicated to her.

#RIP #OTD 1992 singer (“The Way You Do the Things You Do”, “Get Ready”, “Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)”), songwriter, co-founder of the Temptations, Eddie Kendricks died of lung cancer at Baptist Medical Center-Princeton in Birmingham, Alabama aged 52. Elmwood Cemetery, Birmingham

On this day in 2004, actor and comedian Rodney Dangerfield died in Los Angeles, California at the age of 82.  Born Jacob Cohen in Babylon, New York on 22 November 1921.  In my opinion, one of the funniest entertainers.  I saw him in concert in Austin, Texas when I was a student at the University of Texas.  It was non-stop laughter from beginning to end.  He was so funny in Caddyshack.  Upon entering the hospital prior to his death, he was asked how long he would be in the hospital.  He reportedly replied, “If all goes well, about a week.  If not, about and hour and a half.”  Dangerfield married three times: Joyce Indig (1949–1962 divorce; 1963–1970 divorce) and Joan Child (1993–2004 his death).

The Final FootprintDangerfield was interred at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park and Mortuary (a Dignity Memorial® provider) in Los Angeles, California.  Joan held a memorial in which the word “Respect” had been emblazoned in the sky, while each guest was given a live Monarch butterfly for a Native American butterfly-release ceremony led by Farrah Fawcett, who would pass away in 2009 and be interred in the same cemetery.  His grave is marked by a granite upright marker with his name and the following inscription:  THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD.  Rodney Dangerfield, funny to the end and beyond.  Other notable final footprints at Westwood include; Ray Bradbury, Sammy Cahn, Truman Capote, James Coburn, Farrah Fawcett, Hugh Hefner, Brian Keith, Don Knotts, Burt Lancaster, Peter Lawford, Peggy Lee, Janet Leigh, Jack Lemmon, Karl Malden, Dean Martin, Walter Matthau, Marilyn Monroe, Carroll O’Connor, Roy Orbison, George C. Scott, Dorothy Stratten, Natalie Wood, and Frank Zappa.

Steve_Jobs_Headshot_2010-CROPOn this day in 2011, American entrepreneur, marketer, and inventor, who was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple Inc., Steve Jobs died at his Palo Alto, California, home at the age of 56, due to complications from a relapse of his previously treated islet-cell neuroendocrine pancreatic cancer, resulting in respiratory arrest, with his wife, children, and sisters at his side.  Born Steven Paul Jobs on 24 February 1955 in San Francisco and adopted at birth by Paul and Clara Jobs.  Through Apple, he is widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution and for his influential career in the computer and consumer electronics fields.  Jobs also co-founded and served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios and became a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company in 2006, when Disney acquired Pixar.  Jobs oversaw the development of the iMac, iTunes, iPod, iPhone, and iPad, and on the services side, the company’s Apple Retail Stores, iTunes Store and the App Store.

The Final Footprint – Both Apple and Microsoft flew their flags at half-staff throughout their respective headquarters and campuses.  Bob Iger ordered all Disney properties, including Walt Disney World and Disneyland, to fly their flags at half-staff, from October 6 to 12, 2011.  His death was announced by Apple in a statement which read:

We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today.  Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.  His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts.

For two weeks following his death, Apple’s corporate Web site displayed a simple page, showing Jobs’s name and lifespan next to his grayscale portrait.  Clicking on the image led to an obituary, which read:

Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.

An email address was also posted for the public to share their memories, condolences, and thoughts.  Over a million tributes were sent, which are now displayed on the Steve Jobs memorial page.  Also dedicating its homepage to Jobs was Pixar, with a photo of Jobs, John Lasseter and Edwin Catmull, and the eulogy they wrote:

Steve was an extraordinary visionary, our very dear friend, and our guiding light of the Pixar family. He saw the potential of what Pixar could be before the rest of us, and beyond what anyone ever imagined. Steve took a chance on us and believed in our crazy dream of making computer animated films; the one thing he always said was to ‘make it great.’ He is why Pixar turned out the way we did and his strength, integrity, and love of life has made us all better people. He will forever be part of Pixar’s DNA. Our hearts go out to his wife Laurene and their children during this incredibly difficult time

A small private funeral was held on 7 October 2011, of which details were not revealed out of respect to Jobs’s family.  Apple announced on the same day that they had no plans for a public service, but were encouraging “well-wishers” to send their remembrance messages to an email address created to receive such messages.  Sunday, 16 October 2011, was declared “Steve Jobs Day” by Governor Jerry Brown of California.  On that day, an invitation-only memorial was held at Stanford University.  Those in attendance included Apple and other tech company executives, members of the media, celebrities, close friends of Jobs, and politicians, along with Jobs’s family.  Bono, Yo Yo Ma, and Joan Baez performed at the service.  The service was highly secured, with guards at all of the university’s gates, and a helicopter flying overhead from an area news station.  A private memorial service for Apple employees was held on 19 October 2011, on the Apple Campus in Cupertino.  Present were Cook, Bill Campbell, Norah Jones, Al Gore, and Coldplay, and Jobs’s widow, Laurene.  Some of Apple’s retail stores closed briefly so employees could attend the memorial.  A video of the service is available on Apple’s website.  Jobs is interred in an unmarked grave at Alta Mesa Memorial Park in Palo Alto.  He is survived by Laurene, his wife of 20 years, their three children, and Lisa Brennan-Jobs, his daughter from a previous relationship.  His family released a statement saying that he “died peacefully”.  His sister, Mona Simpson, described his passing thus: “Steve’s final words, hours earlier, were monosyllables, repeated three times. Before embarking, he’d looked at his sister Patty, then for a long time at his children, then at his life’s partner, Laurene, and then over their shoulders past them. Steve’s final words were: OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW.” He then lost consciousness and died several hours later.

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On this Day 4 October death of Rembrandt – Henrietta Lacks – Janis Joplin – Anne Sexton – Secretariat – Diahann Carroll – Loretta Lynn

Rembrandt_van_Rijn_-_Self-Portrait_-_Google_Art_ProjectOn this day in 1669, Dutch painter and etcher Rembrandt died in Amsterdam at the age of 63.  Born Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn on 15 July 1606 in Leiden, in the Dutch Republic, nowadays the Netherlands.  In my opinion, he is one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art and the most important in Dutch history.  His contributions to art came in a period of great wealth and cultural achievement that historians call the Dutch Golden Age.  His etchings and paintings were popular throughout his lifetime and his reputation as an artist remained high.  Rembrandt’s greatest creative triumphs are exemplified especially in his portraits of his contemporaries, self-portraits and illustrations of scenes from the Bible.  Because of his empathy for the human condition, he has been called “one of the great prophets of civilization.”  Rembrandt married Saskia van Uylenburgh (1634 – 1642 her death).  During Saskia’s illness, Geertje Dircx was hired as his son’s caretaker and nurse and also became Rembrandt’s lover.  In the late 1640s Rembrandt began a relationship with the much younger Hendrickje Stoffels, who had initially been his maid.

The Final Footprint – Rembrandt was buried in an unmarked grave in the Westerkerk, a Dutch Protestant church in central Amsterdam.  It is next to Amsterdam’s Jordaan district, on the bank of the Prinsengracht canal.

After twenty years, his remains were taken away and destroyed, as was customary with the remains of poor people at that time.

The Westerkerk is located close to the Achterhuis (now Anne Frank House) where diarist Anne Frank, her family and others hid from Nazi persecution for two years during World War II.  The Westerkerk is mentioned frequently in her diary – its clock tower could be seen from the attic of the Achterhuis and Anne Frank described the chiming of the clock as a source of comfort.  A memorial statue of Frank is located outside the church.

#RIP #OTD in 1951 African-American woman and unwitting donor, whose cancer cells are the source of the HeLa cell line, the first immortalized human cell line Henrietta Lacks died from cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore aged 31. Lacks Family Cemetery, Clover, Virginia

Janis_Joplin_seated_1970On this day in 1970, singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger, The Queen of Psychedelic Soul, Pearl, Janis Joplin died from an overdose of heroin at the Landmark Motor Hotel in Los Angeles at the age of 27, thus becoming a member of Club 27 or the Forever 27 Club; a group of famous musicians who died when they were 27 years old.  Other members of the Forever 27 Club include; Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Rolling Stone Brian Jones, Robert Johnson, Jim Morrison, Alan Wilson, Amy Winehouse, and Anton Yelchin.  Joplin died sixteen days after Hendrix.  Born Janis Lyn Joplin on 19 January 1943 in Port Arthur, Texas.  Joplin first rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of the psychedelic-acid rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company, and later as a solo artist with her own backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band.  She was apparently one of the more popular acts at the Monterey Pop Festival and later became one of the major attractions to the Woodstock festival and the Festival Express train tour.  Popular songs from her four-year solo career include “Down on Me”, “Summertime”, “Piece of My Heart”, “Ball ‘n’ Chain”, “Maybe”, “To Love Somebody”, “Kozmic Blues”, “Work Me, Lord”, “Cry Baby”, and “Mercedes Benz”.  Her number one hit, “Me and Bobby McGee”, was written by Kris Kristofferson, reportedly her lover in the spring of 1970.  Joplin was well known for her performing abilities, and her fans referred to her stage presence as “electric”.  Joplin was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.

janisjoplinThe Final Footprint – Joplin was cremated at the Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Mortuary in Los Angeles; her ashes were scattered from a plane into the Pacific Ocean and along Stinson Beach.  Joplin’s will funded $2,500 to throw a wake party in the event of her demise.  The party, took place 26 October 1970, at the Lion’s Share, located in San Anselmo, California.

Anne_Sexton_by_Elsa_DorfmanOn this day in 1974 poet Anne Sexton died at the age of 45 by carbon monoxide poisoning at her home in Weston, Massachusetts.  Born Anne Gray Harvey in Newton, Massachusetts on 9 November 1928.  She won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1967.  Themes of her poetry include her long battle against depression and mania, suicidal tendencies, and various intimate details from her private life, including her relationships with her husband and children.

 The Final Footprint – She is interred at Forest Hills Cemetery and Crematory in Jamaica Plain, Boston.  Other notable final footprints at Forest Hills include; E. E. Cummings and Eugene O’Neill

Secretariat_at_studOn this day in 1989, chestnut thoroughbred race horse, Triple Crown winner, two-time Horse of the Year, Big Red, Secretariat died at Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky at the age of 19.  Foaled 30 March 1970 at Meadow Farm in Caroline County, Virginia.  Secretariat was sired by Bold Ruler out of Somethingroyal, by Princequillo.  Owned by Penny Chenery, also known as Penny Tweedy, he was trained by Lucien Laurin and mainly ridden by Canadian jockey Ron Turcotte.  He raced in Chenery’s Meadow Stable’s blue and white checkered colors.  His groom was Eddie Sweat and exercise rider was Charlie Davis.  Secretariat stood approximately 16.2 hands tall, and weighed 1,175 pounds (533 kg), with a 75-inch girth, in his racing prime.  In my opinion, the greatest racehorse who ever raced.  He set new race records in two of the three Triple Crown races, the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont, and his time in the Belmont is a world record for a 1.5 mile race on dirt.  In the Derby he ran each quarter-mile segment faster than the one before it, which means he was still accelerating in the final quarter-mile of the race.  He broke last in the Derby but gradually moved on the field and overtook Sham at the top of the stretch.  He broke last in the Preakness but overtook the field on the first turn and was never challenged.  He won the Belmont wire-to-wire by a record 31 lengths.  My memories of his Derby and Preakness runs are not clear, but I will never forget watching his Belmont run from home with my Dad.  My favorite racehorses have ever since been the chestnuts.

The Final Footprint – Secretariat was buried whole at Claiborne Farm.  Usually winning racehorse’s bodies were cremated while the head, heart and hooves only were buried.  His grave is marked by an upright granite marker.  The necropsy revealed that his heart weighed 22 pounds, 2.5 times larger than that of an average horse.  Bronze replica statues of Secretariat have been erected at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York and Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky.  A Walt Disney Pictures film titled Secretariat, starring Diane Lane opened 8 October 2010.

#RIP #OTD in 2019 actress (Carmen Jones, Porgy and Bess, Claudine, Paris Blues, The Split, Eve’s Bayou), singer, model, activist Diahann Carroll died from cancer at her home in West Hollywood, California at the age of 84. Woodlawn Cemetery the Bronx

#RIP #OTD in 2022 singer/songwriter (“Blue Kentucky Girl”, “You’re Lookin’ at Country”, “You Ain’t Woman Enough”, “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl”, “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind)”, “One’s on the Way”, “Fist City”, “Coal Miner’s Daughter”) Loretta Lynn died in her sleep at her home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee aged 90. Interred at her Hurricane Mills ranch

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Day in History 3 October – St. Francis of Assisi – Woody Guthrie – Janet Leigh

Saint_Francis_of_Assisi_by_Jusepe_de_RiberaOn this day in 1226, Italian Catholic friar and preacher, St. Francis of Assisi died in a hut next to the Porziuncola, a small church located within the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli in the frazione of Santa Maria degli Angeli, situated about 4 kilometres from Assisi, Umbria, singing Psalm 142(141) – “Voce mea ad Dominum”, at the approximate age of 44.  Born Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, but nicknamed Francesco (“the Frenchman”) by his father, in 1181 or 1182 in Assisi.  He founded the men’s Order of Friars Minor, the women’s Order of St. Clare, and the Third Order of Saint Francis for men and women not able to live the lives of itinerant preachers followed by the early members of the Order of Friars Minor or the monastic lives of the Poor Clares.  Though he was never ordained to the Catholic priesthood, Francis is one of the most venerated religious figures in history.  Francis’ father was Pietro di Bernardone, a prosperous silk merchant. Francis lived the high-spirited life typical of a wealthy young man, even fighting as a soldier for Assisi.  While going off to war in 1204, Francis had a vision that directed him back to Assisi, where he lost his taste for his worldly life.  On a pilgrimage to Rome, he joined the poor in begging at St. Peter’s Basilica.  The experience moved him to live in poverty.  Francis returned home, began preaching on the streets, and soon amassed a following.  His Order was authorized by Pope Innocent III in 1210.  He then founded the Order of Poor Clares, which became an enclosed religious order for women, as well as the Order of Brothers and Sisters of Penance (commonly called the Third Order).  In 1219, he went to Egypt in an attempt to convert the Sultan to put an end to the conflict of the Crusades.  By this point, the Franciscan Order had grown to such an extent that its primitive organizational structure was no longer sufficient.  He returned to Italy to organize the Order.  Once his community was authorized by the Pope, he withdrew increasingly from external affairs.  In 1223, Francis arranged for what is thought to be the first Christmas manger scene.  In 1224, he received the stigmata, making him the first recorded person to bear the wounds of Christ’s Passion.  He is known as the patron saint of animals, the environment, and is one of the two patron saints of Italy (with Catherine of Siena).  It is customary for Catholic and Anglican churches to hold ceremonies blessing animals on his feast day of October 4.  He is also known for his love of the Eucharist, and his sorrow during the Stations of the Cross.  Saint Francis is considered the first Italian poet by literary critics.  He believed commoners should be able to pray to God in their own language, and he wrote often in the dialect of Umbria instead of Latin.  His writings are considered to have great literary and religious value.

The Final Footprint – On 16 July 1228, he was pronounced a saint by Pope Gregory IX (the former cardinal Ugolino di Conti, friend of St Francis and Cardinal Protector of the Order).  The next day, the Pope laid the foundation stone for the Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi.  He was entombed on 25 May 1230, under the Lower Basilica, but his tomb was soon hidden on orders of Brother Elias to protect it from Saracen invaders.  His burial place remained unknown until it was discovered in 1818.  Pasquale Belli then constructed for his remains a crypt in neo-classical style in the Lower Basilica.  It was refashioned between 1927 and 1930 into its present form by Ugo Tarchi, stripping the wall of its marble decorations.  In 1978, the remains of St. Francis were examined and confirmed by a commission of scholars appointed by Pope Paul VI, and put in a glass urn in the ancient stone tomb.

Woody_Guthrie_2On this day in 1967, singer, songwriter, musician Woody Guthrie died of complications of Huntington’s disease at Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens, New York at the age of 55.  Born Woodrow Wilson Guthrie on 14 July 1912 in Okemah, Oklahoma.  His musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children’s songs, ballads and improvised works.  He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his guitar.  Perhaps his best-known song is “This Land Is Your Land.”  Many of his recorded songs are archived in the Library of Congress.  Many songwriters including Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, Pete Seeger, Billy Bragg, and Tom Paxton have acknowledged Guthrie as a major influence.  Many of his songs are about his experiences in the Dust Bowl era during the Great Depression when Guthrie traveled with migrant workers from Oklahoma to California and learned their traditional folk and blues songs, earning him the nickname the “Dust Bowl Troubadour.”  Guthrie was married three times and fathered eight children, including American folk musician Arlo Guthrie.  During his later years Guthrie served as a figurehead in the folk movement, providing inspiration to a generation of new folk musicians, including mentor relationships with Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and Dylan.

 The Final Footprint – Guthrie is interred in Highland Cemetery in Okemah.

On this day in 2004, Academy Award nominated actress, singer, dancer and author, former wife of Tony Curtis and mother of Jamie Lee Curtis, Janet Leigh died at her home in Los Angeles, California at the age of 77.  Born Jeanette Helen Morrison on 6 July 1927 in Merced, California.

Raised in Stockton, California by working-class parents, Leigh was discovered at 18 by actress Norma Shearer, who helped her secure a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Leigh had her first formal foray into acting, appearing in radio programs before making her film debut in the drama The Romance of Rosy Ridge (1947).

Early in her career, she appeared in several popular films for MGM which spanned a wide variety of genres, including Act of Violence (1948), Little Women (1949), Angels in the Outfield (1951), Scaramouche (1952), The Naked Spur (1953), and Living It Up (1954). Leigh played mostly dramatic roles during the latter half of the 1950s, in such films as Safari (1956) and Orson Welles’s film noir Touch of Evil (1958), but achieved her most lasting recognition as the doomed Marion Crane in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), which earned her a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Her highly publicized marriage to Curtis ended in divorce in 1962, and after starring in The Manchurian Candidate that same year, Leigh scaled back her career. Intermittently, she continued to appear in films, including Bye Bye Birdie (1963), Harper (1966), Night of the Lepus (1972), and Boardwalk (1979). In late 1975, she made her Broadway debut in a production of Murder Among Friends. She would also go on to appear in two horror films with Jamie Lee: The Fog (1980) and Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998).

In addition to her work as an actress, Leigh also wrote four books between 1984 and 2002, two of which were novels.

My favorite movies with her are:  Psycho, The Naked Spur, Touch of Evil, The Manchurian Candidate.

The Final FootprintLeigh was cremated and her ashes were inurned in a niche at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park and Mortuary (a Dignity Memorial® provider) in Los Angeles, California.  Other notable final footprints at Westwood include; Ray Bradbury, Sammy Cahn, Truman Capote, James Coburn, Rodney Dangerfield, Farrah Fawcett, Hugh Hefner, Brian Keith, Don Knotts, Burt Lancaster, Peter Lawford, Peggy Lee, Jack Lemmon, Karl Malden, Dean Martin, Walter Matthau, Marilyn Monroe, Carroll O’Connor, Roy Orbison, George C. Scott, Dorothy Stratten, Natalie Wood, and Frank Zappa.

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On this Day 2 October death of Marcel Duchamp – Hazel Scott – Rock Hudson – Gene Autry – August Wilson – Tom Petty

On this day in 1968, painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer Marcel Duchamp died in his home in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France at the age of 81. Born Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp on 28 July 1887 in Blainville-Crevon, France. His work is associated with Cubism, conceptual art, and Dada. In my opinion he, along with Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, are the three artists who helped to define the revolutionary developments in the plastic arts in the opening decades of the 20th century. By World War I, he had rejected the work of many of his fellow artists as “retinal” art, intended only to please the eye. Instead, Duchamp wanted to use art to serve the mind.

Three Duchamp brothers, left to right: Marcel Duchamp, Jacques Villon, and Raymond Duchamp-Villon in the garden of Jacques Villon’s studio in Puteaux, France, 1914, (Smithsonian Institution collections)

Marcel Duchamp, Nude (Study), Sad Young Man on a Train (Nu [esquisse], jeune homme triste dans un train), 1911–12, oil on cardboard mounted on Masonite, 100 x 73 cm (39 3/8 × 28 3/4 in), Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice. This painting was identified as a self-portrait by the artist. Duchamp’s primary concern in this painting is the depiction of two movements; that of the train in which there is a young man smoking, and that of the lurching figure itself.

Marcel Duchamp. Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 (1912). Oil on canvas. 57 7/8″ x 35 1/8″. Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Rrose Sélavy (Marcel Duchamp), 1921 photograph by Man Ray, art direction by Marcel Duchamp, silver print, 5-7/8″ x 3″-7/8″, Philadelphia Museum of Art

Man Ray, 1920, Three Heads(Joseph Stella and Marcel Duchamp, painting bust portrait of Man Ray above Duchamp), gelatin silver print, 20.7 x 15.7 cm, Museum of Modern Art, New York

Duchamp was a passionate smoker of Habana cigars.

In June 1927, Duchamp married Lydie Sarazin-Lavassor; however, they divorced six months later. It was rumored that Duchamp had chosen a marriage of convenience, because Sarazin-Lavassor was the daughter of a wealthy automobile manufacturer. Early in January 1928, Duchamp said that he could no longer bear the responsibility and confinement of marriage, and they were soon divorced.

Between 1946 and 1951 Maria Martins was his mistress.

In 1954, he and Alexina “Teeny” Sattler married. They remained together until his death.

After an evening dining at home with his friends Man Ray and Robert Lebel, Duchamp retired at 1:05 A.M., collapsed in his studio, and died of heart failure.

Étant donnés, 1946–1966, mixed media, posthumously and permanently installed in the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1969

The Final Footprint

 Duchamp’s gravestone Cimetière Monumentale, Rouen, France with the epitaph, D’ailleurs, c’est toujours les autres qui meurent (Besides, it’s always the others who die). Other notable final footprints at Monumentale include; Gustave Flaubert, Duchamp’s sister Suzanne Duchamp, brother Raymond Duchamp-Villon, and brother Jacques Villon.

Gallery

On this day in 1985 Academy Award nominated actor Rock Hudson died from AIDS-related complications at his home The Castle in Beverly Hills, California at the age of 59.  Born Roy Harold Scherer, Jr. on 17 November 1925 in Winnetka, Illinois.  The 6 foot 5 inch tall actor was one of the most popular and well-known movie stars of his time.  He completed nearly 70 films and starred in several television productions during a career that spanned over four decades.  My favorite Rock Hudson movies include: Giant, A Farewell to Arms, and The UndefeatedGiant, perhaps my all-time favorite movie, is based on the novel by Edna Ferber.  Along with Hudson the movie features Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean, Dennis Hopper, and Chill Wills.

The Final Footprint – Hudson was cremated and his cremains  were scattered in the channel between Wilmington and Santa Catalina Island.  A cenotaph was installed at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Cathedral City, California.  He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6104 Hollywood Boulevard.  Taylor purchased a bronze plaque for Hudson on the West Hollywood Memorial Walk. Other notable final footprints at FLCCC include; Dinah Shore, Jerry Vale, and Jane Wyman.

Gene_AutryOn this day in 1998 singer, actor, The Singing Cowboy, Gene Autry died of lymphoma 3 days after his 91st birthday at his home in Studio City, California.  Born Orvon Grover Autry on 29 September 1907 in Tioga, Texas.  Autry gained fame as a singing cowboy on the radio, in movies, and on television for more than three decades beginning in the early 1930s.  Autry was also owner of a television station, several radio stations in Southern California, and the Los Angeles/California/Anaheim Angels Major League Baseball team from 1961 to 1997.  From 1934 to 1953, Autry appeared in 93 films and 91 episodes of The Gene Autry Show television series.  During the 1930s and 1940s, he personified the straight-shooting hero—honest, brave, and true—and profoundly touched the lives of millions of Americans.  Autry was also probably one of the most important figures in the history of country music.  His singing cowboy movies were the first vehicle to carry country music to a national audience.  In addition to his signature song, “Back in the Saddle Again”, Autry is still remembered for his Christmas holiday songs, “Here Comes Santa Claus”, which he wrote, “Frosty the Snowman”, and his biggest hit, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”.  Autry is a member of both the Country Music Hall of Fame and Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and is the only person to be awarded stars in all five categories on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for film, television, music, radio, and live performance.  The town of Gene Autry, Oklahoma was named in his honor.

The Final Footprint – Autry is interred in the Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.  His grave is marked by a flat bronze individual marker and is engraved thusly; AMERICA’S FAVORITE COWBOY / AMERICAN HERO PHILANTHROPIST PATRIOT AND VETERAN MOVIE STAR SINGER COMPOSER BASEBALL FAN AND OWNER 33RD DEGREE MASON MEDIA ENTREPRENEUR LOVING HUSBAND GENTLEMAN A BELIEVER IN OUR WESTERN HERITAGE.  Other notable final footprints at Hollywood Hills include; Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, David Carradine, Scatman Crothers, Bette Davis, Sandra Dee, Ronnie James Dio, Michael Clarke Duncan, Carrie Fisher, Bobby Fuller, Andy Gibb, Buck Henry, Michael Hutchence, Jill Ireland, Al Jarreau, Buster Keaton, Lemmy Kilmister, Jack LaLanne, Nicolette Larson, Liberace, Strother Martin, Jayne Meadows, Ricky Nelson, Bill Paxton, Brock Peters, Freddie Prinze, Lou Rawls, Debbie Reynolds, Telly Savalas, Lee Van Cleef, and Paul Walker.

#RIP #OTD in 2005 playwright (Fences (1987, The Piano Lesson, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone), August Wilson died from liver cancer at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle. Greenwood Cemetery, Pittsburgh

On this day in 2017, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, actor, and member of the Traveling Wilburys, Tom Petty died from a heart attack caused by an accidental overdose at UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica, California at the age of 66. Born Thomas Earl Petty on October 20, 1950 in Gainesville, Florida. He was the lead singer of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, formed in 1976. He previously led the band Mudcrutch.

Petty recorded a number of hit singles with the Heartbreakers and as a solo artist. In his career, he sold more than 80 million records worldwide. He and the Heartbreakers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.

Petty (center) with the Heartbreakers in 1977

Petty performing at the Nissan Pavilion in Bristow, Virginia, 2006

Petty performing in San Francisco in 2016

Petty married Jane Benyo in 1974, and they divorced in 1996. Benyo once told mutual friend Stevie Nicks that she had met Petty at “the age of seventeen”. Nicks misheard Benyo’s North Florida accent, inspiring the title of her song “Edge of Seventeen”. Petty married Dana York on June 3, 2001.

The Final Footprint

Petty’s funeral took place at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles on October 16, 2017. He was cremated and his cremains were given to his family.

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On this day October 1 death of Pierre Corneille – William Brodie – Joe LeFors – Walter Alston – Richard Avedon – Charles Aznavour – Beverly ‘’Guitar’’ Watkins

#RIP #OTD in 1684 tragedian (El Cid, Horace), one of the three great 17th-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine, Pierre Corneille died at his home in Paris aged 78. Église Saint-Roch, Paris

On this day in 1788, Scottish cabinet-maker, deacon of the trades guild and Edinburgh city councillor by day and burglar by night, Deacon William Brodie was hanged in Edinburgh at the age of 47.  Born on 28 September 1741 in Edinburgh.

Brodie is thought to be the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson‘s novel, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide (1886).

The Final Footprint – Brodie was interred in an unmarked grave at the Parish Church in Buccleuch.

On this day in 1940 lawman Joe LeFors, best known for the arrest of gunman Tom Horn in 1903 for the alleged murder of 14 year old sheepherder Willie Nickell, died in Buffalo, Wyoming at the age of 75.  Born Joe Shelby LeFors on 20 February 1865 in Paris, Texas.

The Final Footprint – LeFors is interred in Willow Grove Cemetery in Buffalo, Wyoming.  LeFors appears, or is mentioned, in at least two movies: Mr. Horn (1979) a made-for-TV movie starring David Carradine as Horn and John Durren as LeFors and  Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), where LeFors is mentioned as a feared lawman giving chase to Butch and Sundance.

On this day in 1984, baseball Hall of Famer, Brooklyn and Los Angles Dodgers manager, Smokey, Walter Alston died in Oxford, Ohio at the age of 72.  Born Walter Emmons Alston on 1 December 1911 in Venice, Ohio.  Led the Dodgers to their first four World Series Championships, one in Brooklyn and three more after the team moved to Los Angeles.

The Final Footprint – Alston was buried in Darrtown Cemetery in Darrtown, Ohio.  His grave his marked with a companion upright granite monument.  His wife Lela is buried next to him.  His number 24 was retired by the Dodgers.

And on this day in 2004, fashion and portrait photographer Ricard Avedon died in a San Antonio, Texas, hospital of complications from a cerebral hemorrhage, aged 81.  He worked for Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue and Elle specializing in capturing movement in still pictures of fashion, theater and dance.  An obituary published in The New York Times said that “his fashion and portrait photographs helped define America’s image of style, beauty and culture for the last half-century”.  Born in New York City on 15 May 1923.

Hollywood presented a fictional account of Avedon’s early career in the 1957 musical Funny Face, starring Fred Astaire as the fashion photographer “Dick Avery.” Avedon supplied some of the still photographs used in the production, including its most noted single image: an intentionally overexposed close-up of Audrey Hepburn’s face in which only her noted features – her eyes, her eyebrows, and her mouth – are visible.

Hepburn was Avedon’s muse in the 1950s and 1960s, and he went so far as to say: “I am, and forever will be, devastated by the gift of Audrey Hepburn before my camera. I cannot lift her to greater heights. She is already there. I can only record. I cannot interpret her. There is no going further than who she is. She has achieved in herself her ultimate portrait.”

In 1944, Avedon married 19-year-old bank teller Dorcas Marie Nowell, who later became the model and actress Doe Avedon; they did not have children and divorced in 1949.  The couple summered at the gay village of Cherry Grove, Fire Island, and Avedon’s bisexuality has been attested to by colleagues and family.  He was reportedly devastated when Nowell left him.

In 1951, he married Evelyn Franklin; she died on March 13, 2004.

The Final Footprint – He was in San Antonio shooting an assignment for The New Yorker.  Cremation.

The 2005 film Capote contains a recreation of Avedon photographing convicted murderers Perry Edward Smith and Richard Hickock in April 1960. Avedon is portrayed by the film’s cinematographer, Adam Kimmel.

#RIP #OTD in 2018 singer/songwriter (“Que c’est triste Venise”, “She”, “The Old Fashioned Way”, “Comme ils disent”), actor, diplomat Charles Aznavour died from a heart attack at his home at Mouriès, France aged 94. Cimetière de Montfort l’Amaury, France

#RIP #OTD in 2019 blues guitarist, singer (Back in Business) Beverly ‘’Guitar’’ Watkins died in Atlanta from a heart attack aged 80. Cremation

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On this day 30 September death of James Dean – Mary Ford – Simone Signoret – Jessye Norman

On this day in 1955, actor, cultural icon, James Dean died in Cholame, California at the age of 24 in an automobile accident.  Born James Byron Dean on 8 February 1931 in Marion, Indiana.  A cultural icon of teenage disillusionment, as expressed in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause (1955), in which he starred as troubled Los Angeles teenager Jim Stark.  The other two roles that defined his stardom were as loner Cal Trask in East of Eden (1955), and as the surly ranch hand, Jett Rink, in Edna Ferber’s Giant (1956) alongside Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson.  Perhaps my favorite book and movie.  Dean was the first actor to receive a posthumous Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and remains the only actor to have had two posthumous acting nominations.

The Final Footprint– Dean was buried in Park Cemetery in Fairmont, Indiana, less than a mile from where he grew up on his aunt and uncle’s farm.  His grave is marked with an upright granite monument.  A sculpture made of concrete and stainless steel was erected in his honor in Cholame, California.  A quote from Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s The Little Prince is inscribed on the sculpture: “What is essential is invisible to the eye.”

#RIP #OTD in 1977, guitarist, vocalist of the husband-and-wife musical team Les Paul and Mary Ford (How High the Moon, Vaya con Dios), Mary Ford died of complications of alcohol abuse in Arcadia, California, at the age of 53. Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Covina, California

Simone_SignoretOn this day in 1985 actress Simone Signoret died of pancreatic cancer in Auteuil-Anthouillet, France at the age of 64.  Born Simone Henriette Charlotte Kaminker in Wiesbaden, Germany.   In my opinion she is one of France’s greatest film stars.  She became the first French person to win an Academy Award, for her role in Room at the Top (1959).  In her lifetime she also received a César, three BAFTAs, an Emmy, Cannes Film Festival recognition, the Silver Bear for Best Actress awards and a Golden Globe nomination.  Her memoirs, Nostalgia Isn’t What It Used To Be, were published in 1978.  She also wrote a novel, Adieu Volodya (1985).  She first married filmmaker Yves Allégret (1944–49 divorce).  Her second marriage was to the Italian-born French actor Yves Montand (1951 – 1985 her death).

The Final Footprint – Signoret is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.  Père Lachaise is the largest cemetery in the city of Paris and quite possible the most visited cemetery in the world.  Other notable Final Footprints at Père Lachaise include; Guillaume Apollinaire, Honoré de Balzac, Georges Bizet, Jean-Dominique Bauby, Maria Callas, Frédéric Chopin, Colette, Auguste Comte, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Max Ernst, Molière, Jim Morrison, Édith Piaf, Camille Pissarro, Marcel Proust, Sully Prudhomme, Gioachino Rossini, Georges-Pierre Seurat, Gertrude Stein, Dorothea Tanning, Alice B. Toklas, Oscar Wilde, and Richard Wright.

#RIP #OTD in 2019 opera singer of dramatic soprano roles (leading roles with the Metropolitan Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Paris Opera, the Royal Opera, London), Jessye Norman died at Mount Sinai Morningside in Manhattan fromcomplications of a spinal cord injury aged 74. Westover Memorial Park, Augusta, Georgia

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On this Day 29 September death of Émile Zola – Carson McCullers – W. H. Auden – Casey Stengel – Charles Addams – Roy Lichtenstein – Patrick Caulfield – Lois Maxwell – Mickey Newbury – Tony Curtis – Otis Rush – Mac Davis – Helen Reddy

emileZOLA_1902BOn this day in 1902, writer Émile Zola died at his home in Paris of carbon monoxide poisoning caused by an improperly ventilated chimney at the age of 62.  In my opinion, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism.  Zola was a major figure in the political liberalization of France and in the exoneration of the falsely accused and convicted army officer Alfred Dreyfus, which is encapsulated in the renowned newspaper headline J’accuse.  Zola was nominated for the first and second Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901 and 1902.

The Final Footprint – Zola was initially buried in the Cimetière de Montmartre in Paris, but on 4 June 1908, just five years and nine months after his death, his remains were relocated to the Panthéon.  The Panthéon is a building in the Latin Quarter in Paris.  It was originally built as a church dedicated to St. Genevieve and to house the reliquary châsse containing her relics but, after many changes, now functions as a secular mausoleum containing the remains of distinguished French citizens.  The inscription above the entrance reads AUX GRANDS HOMMES LA PATRIE RECONNAISSANTE ( “To the great men, the grateful homeland”). By burying its great men in the Panthéon, the Nation acknowledges the honour it received from them. As such, interment here is severely restricted and is allowed only by a parliamentary act for “National Heroes”.  Other notable Final Footprints at the Panthéon include: Victor Hugo, Louis Braille, Pierre and Marie Curie, André Malraux, and Alexandre Dumas, père, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Voltaire.

CarsonmccullersOn this day in 1964 the author of the The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940) and one of my favorites, Carson McCullers died in Nyack, New York after a brain hemorrhage at the age of 50.  Born Lula Carson McCullers on 19 February 1917 in Columbus, Georgia.

Her first novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, explores the spiritual isolation of misfits and outcasts in a small town of the U.S. South. Her other novels have similar themes and most are set in the deep South.

McCullers’ oeuvre is often described as Southern Gothic and indicative of her southern roots, but her writing and eccentric characters are universal in scope. Her stories have been adapted to stage and film. A stagework of her novel The Member of the Wedding (1946), which captures a young girl’s feelings at her brother’s wedding, made a successful Broadway run in 1950–51.

McCullers married Reeves McCullers (1937 – 1941 divorce and 1945 – 1953 his death).

The Final Footprint – McCullers is interred in Oak Hill Cemetery in Nyack.

whAudenVanVechten1939On this day in 1973, poet W. H. Auden died in Vienna at the age of 66.  Born Wystan Hugh Auden on 21 February 1907 in York, England.  In my opinion, Auden is one of the greatest writers of the 20th century.  His work is noted for its stylistic and technical achievements, its engagement with moral and political issues, and its variety of tone, form and content.  The central themes of his poetry are love, politics and citizenship, religion and morals, and the relationship between unique human beings and the anonymous, impersonal world of nature.  In the 1950s and 1960s many of his poems focused on the ways in which words revealed and concealed emotions, and he took a particular interest in writing opera librettos, a form ideally suited to direct expression of strong feelings.  He was also a prolific writer of prose essays and reviews on literary, political, psychological and religious subjects, and he worked at various times on documentary films, poetic plays and other forms of performance.  Throughout his career he was both controversial and influential.  After his death, some of his poems, notably “Funeral Blues” (“Stop all the clocks”), “Musée des Beaux Arts”, “Refugee Blues”, “The Unknown Citizen”, and “September 1, 1939”, became known to a much wider public than during his lifetime through films, broadcasts, and popular media.

The Final Footprint – Auden is buried in a Kirchstetten churchyard in Kirchstetten, Austria.

On this day in 1975, baseball Hall of Famer, player, manager, The Old Perfesser, Casey Stengel died in Glendale, California at the age of 85.  Born Charles Dillon Stengel on 30 July 1890 in Kansas City, Missouri.  The only manager to win five consecutive World Series championships, all with the New York Yankees. Between playing and managing, he is the only man to have worn all four of New York’s major league clubs’ uniforms.  His number 37 was retired by both the Yankees and the Mets.

The Final Footprint– Stengel was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.  His grave is marked with a flat bronze on granite marker.  A plaque on a wall near his grave reads in part: FOR OVER SIXTY YEARS ONE OF AMERICA’S FOLK HEROES WHO CONTRIBUTED IMMENSLEY TO THE LORE AND LANGUAGE OF OUR COUNTRY’S NATIONAL PASTIME, BASEBALL.  “THERE COMES A TIME IN EVERY MAN’S LIFE AND I’VE HAD PLENTY OF THEM” CASEY STENGEL.  His plaque in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium reads; Brightened baseball for over 50 years; with spirit of eternal youth; Yankee manager 1949-1960 winning 10 pennants and 7 world championships including 5 consecutive.  Monument Park is an open-air museum containing a collection of monuments, plaques, and retired numbers honoring distinguished members of the Yankees.  Other notable Final Footprints at Forest Lawn Glendale include; L. Frank Baum, Humphrey Bogart, Lon Chaney, Nat King Cole,  Sam Cooke, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis, Jr., Walt Disney, Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Michael Jackson, Carole Lombard, Tom Mix, Casey Stengel, Jimmy Stewart, Elizabeth Taylor, and Spencer Tracy..  Other notable Yankees whose final footprints include memorialization in Monument Park; Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, George Steinbrenner, Thurman Munson, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Phil Rizzuto, Billy Martin, Mel Allen, and Bob Sheppard.

On this day in 1988 cartoonist known for his darkly humorous and macabre characters Charles Addams died at St. Clare’s Hospital and Health Center in New York City, having suffered a heart attack, aged 76.  Born Charles Samuel Addams in Westfield, New Jersey on 7 January 1912.  Some of the recurring characters, who became known as the Addams Family, have been the basis for spin-offs in several other forms of media.

In late 1942, he met his first wife, Barbara Jean Day, who purportedly resembled his cartoon character Morticia Addams.  The marriage ended eight years later after Addams decline to have children.

Addams married his second wife, Barbara Barb (Estelle B. Barb), in 1954. A practicing lawyer, she “combined Morticia-like looks with diabolical legal scheming,” by which she wound up controlling The Addams Family television and film franchises and persuaded her husband to give away other legal rights.  At one point, she got her husband to take out a US $100,000 insurance policy. Addams consulted a lawyer on the sly, who later humorously wrote: “I told him the last time I had word of such a move was in a picture called Double Indemnity starring Barbara Stanwyck, which I called to his attention.” In the movie, Stanwyck’s character plotted her husband’s murder.  The couple divorced in 1956.

Addams was “sociable and debonair”. A biographer described him as being “a well-dressed, courtly man with silvery back-combed hair and a gentle manner, he bore no resemblance to a fiend”. Figuratively a “ladykiller”, Addams accompanied women such as Greta Garbo, Joan Fontaine and Jacqueline Kennedy on social occasions.

Addams married his third and final wife, Marilyn Matthews Miller, best known as “Tee” (1926–2002), in a pet cemetery.  In 1985, the Addamses moved to Sagaponack, New York, where they named their estate “The Swamp”.

The Final Footprint – As he had requested, a wake was held rather than a funeral.  He had reportedly wished to be remembered as a “good cartoonist”.  In accordance with Addams’s wishes, he was cremated, and his ashes were interred in the pet cemetery of “The Swamp”.

On this day in 1997, artist Roy Lichtenstein died of pneumonia in 1997 at New York University Medical Center, at the age of 73. Born Roy Fox Lichtenstein on October 27, 1923 in Manhattan. During the 1960s, along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and James Rosenquist among others, he became a leading figure in the new art movement. His work defined the premise of pop art through parody. His work was influenced by popular advertising and comic book style. He described pop art as “not ‘American’ painting but actually industrial painting”. His paintings were exhibited at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City.

Perhaps best known for his works; Whaam!, Drowning Girl, Oh, Jeff…I Love You, Too…But…, and Look Mickey.

Oh, Jeff…I Love You, Too…But…

Drowning Girl

In 1949, Lichtenstein married Isabel Wilson, who previously had been married to Ohio artist Michael Sarisky. After he began teaching at the State University of New York at Oswego in 1958. The couple sold the family home in Highland Park, New Jersey, in 1963 and divorced in 1965.

Lichtenstein married his second wife, Dorothy Herzka, in 1968. From 1970 until his death, Lichtenstein split his time between Manhattan and Southampton.

The Final Footprint

Lichtenstein was cremated.

#RIP #OTD in 2002 singer/songwriter (Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In), Sweet Memories, Time is a Thief, Here Comes the Rain Baby), Mickey Newbury died from emphysema in Springfield, Oregon aged 62. Greenwood Cemetery, Leaburg, Oregon

#RIP #OTD 2005 painter (Pottery, Still Life Ingredients) Patrick Caulfield died in London in 2005 aged 69. Highgate Cemetery

#RIP #OTD in 2007 actress best known for her portrayal of Miss Moneypenny in the first fourteen Eon-produced James Bond films, Lois Maxwell died at Fremantle Hospital, Freemantle, Australia, age 80. Cremation.

Tony_Curtis-LeighOn this day in 2010 United States Navy veteran, actor Tony Curtis died at his Henderson, Nevada home of cardiac arrest at the age of 85.  Born Bernard Schwartz on 3 June 1925 in The Bronx.  His career spanned six decades, and had his greatest popularity during the 1950s and early 1960s.  He acted in more than 100 films in roles covering a wide range of genres, from light comedy to serious drama.  Although his early film roles were partly the result of his good looks, by the later half of the 1950s he became a notable and strong screen presence.  He began proving himself to be a fine dramatic actor, having the range to act in numerous dramatic and comedy roles.  He won his first serious recognition as a skilled dramatic actor in Sweet Smell of Success (1957) with co-star Burt Lancaster.  The following year he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in another drama, The Defiant Ones (1958). Curtis then gave what could arguably be called his best performance: three interrelated roles in the comedy Some Like It Hot (1959), possibly one of the funniest films ever made.  The film co-starred Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe, and was directed by Billy Wilder.  That was followed by Blake Edwards’s comedy Operation Petticoat (1959) with Cary Grant. They were both frantic comedies, and displayed his impeccable comedic timing.  In 1960, Curtis co-starred with Kirk Douglas in Spartacus, which became another major hit for him.  Cirtis married six times: Janet Leigh (1951–1962 divorce), Christine Kaufmann
(1963–1968 divorce), Leslie Allen (1968–1982 divorce), Andrea Savio (1984–1992 divorce), Lisa Deutsch (1993–1994 divorce), Jill Vandenberg (1998–2010 his death).

The Final Footprint – Curtis was interred in a private estate at Palm Memorial Park Cemetery, a Dignity Memorial property, in Green Valley, Nevada.  His memorial service was attended by his daughters, Jamie Lee Curtis and Kelly Curtis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ron Jeremy, Rich Little, and Vera Goulet, Robert Goulet’s widow.  Investor Kirk Kerkorian, Kirk Douglas and singer Phyllis McGuire were among the honorary pallbearers.  His epitaph; “And he was always quietly arrayed, And he was always human when he talked; But still he fluttered pulses when he said “Good Morning!” and he glittered when he walked.”  Other notable final footprints at Palm Memorial include Redd Foxx and Joe Williams.

#RIP #OTD in 2018 blues guitarist, singer (“I Can’t Quit You Baby”), songwriter (“Double Trouble”, “All Your Love (I Miss Loving)”) Otis Rush died from complications of a stroke in Chicago at the age of 84.

#RIP #OTD in 2020 singer-songwriter (“Baby, Don’t Get Hooked On Me”; “In The Ghetto”; “I Believe In Music”), actor (North Dallas Forty), Mac Davis died from heart surgery complications aged 78. City of Lubbock Cemetery, Lubbock, Texas

#RIP #OTD 2020 singer (“Delta Dawn”), lyricist (“I am Woman”), actress, television host, activist Helen Reddy died at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Los Angeles, at the age of 78. Cremated remains scattered at sea

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On this Day 28 September death of Herman Melville – André Breton – Miles Davis – Althea Gibson – Elia Kazan – Arthur Penn – Kris Kristofferson

Herman_MelvilleOn this day in 1891 author Herman Melville died at his home in New York City at age 72 from cardiac dilation.  Born in New York City on 1 August 1819.  Best known for the novel Moby-Dick.  His first three books gained much contemporary attention (the first, Typee, became a bestseller), but after a fast-blooming literary success in the late 1840s, his popularity declined precipitously in the mid-1850s and never recovered during his lifetime.  It was not until the “Melville Revival” in the early 20th century that his work won recognition, especially Moby-Dick, which was hailed as one of the literary masterpieces of both American and world literature.  In 1919, the unfinished manuscript for his novella Billy Budd was discovered by his first biographer, Raymond M. Weaver, who published a version in 1924.  He was the first writer to have his works collected and published by the Library of America.  Melville married Elizabeth Shaw (1847 – 1891 his death).

Herman_Melville_Headstone_1024The Final Footprint – He was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York.  Woodlawn Cemetery is one of the largest cemeteries in New York City and is a designated National Historic Landmark.  Other notable Final Footprints at Woodlawn include; Irving BerlinMiles Davis (see below), Duke Ellington, Fiorello La Guardia, Lionel Hampton, Rowland Macy, Bat Masterson, J. C. Penney, Joseph Pulitzer, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

André_BretonOn this day in 1966, French writer, poet, anarchist and anti-fascist, the founder of Surrealism, André Breton died at 70. Born on 19 February 1896 in Tinchebray (Orne) in Normandy.Perhaps best known as the co-founder, leader, principal theorist and chief apologist of Surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto (Manifeste du surréalisme) of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as “pure psychic automatism”.

Breton married his first wife, Simone Kahn, on 15 September 1921. The couple relocated to rue Fontaine # 42 in Paris on 1 January 1922. The apartment on rue Fontaine (in the Pigalle district) became home to Breton’s collection of more than 5,300 items: modern paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, books, art catalogs, journals, manuscripts, and works of popular and Oceanic art.


The Final Footprint
–  His final resting place is in the Cimetière des Batignolles in Paris. His epitaph;

JE CHERCHE L’OR DU TEMPS

Other notable final footprints at Batignolles inlclude Paul Verlaine and Édouard Vuillard.

On this day in 1991, multiple Grammy winner, trumpeter, bandleader and composer Miles Davis died in Santa Monica, California at the age of 65.  Born Miles Dewey Davis III on 26 May 1926 in Alton, Illinois.  In my opinion he is one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century.  Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz, hard bop, modal jazz, and jazz fusion.  Davis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006.  On 7 October 2008, his 1959 album Kind of Blue received its fourth platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for shipments of at least four million copies in the United States.  On 15 December 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a symbolic resolution recognizing and commemorating the album Kind of Blue on its 50th anniversary, “honoring the masterpiece and reaffirming jazz as a national treasure”.  He was knighted into the Légion d’honneur or Ordre national de la Légion d’honneur in Paris.  In my opinion, Kind of Blue is one of the greatest albums ever recorded.  I heard someone say once, if you do not own Kind of Blue, something is wrong with you.  Yes, I own a copy.  Davis married actress Cicely Tyson on 26 November 1981.  The ceremony was conducted by Atlanta mayor Andrew Young at the home of actor Bill Cosby.  Davis and Tyson divorced in 1988.

The Final Footprint – Davis is buried with one of his trumpets, in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.  His grave is marked by a large black granite engraved rectangular monument.  It is inscribed, In Memory of Sir Miles Davis and has a music scale and a trumpet engraved in the granite.  A bronze statue of Davis was erected in Kielce, Poland.  Other notable Final Footprints at Woodlawn include; Irving Berlin, Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Fiorello La Guardia, Rowland Macy, Bat Masterson, Herman Melville (see above), J. C. Penney, Joseph Pulitzer, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

#RIP #OTD in 2003 tennis player (11x Grand Slam champ), the first Black player to compete on the Women’s Professional Golf Tour, Althea Gibson from respiratory and bladder infections in East Orange, New Jersey aged 76. Rosedale Cemetery, Orange, New Jersey

On this day in 2003, film and theatre director, producer, screenwriter and actor Elia Kazan died from natural causes in his Manhattan apartment aged 94.  Born Elias Kazantzoglou on September 7, 1909 in Constantinople, now Istanbul.  In my opinion, one of the most honored and influential, and controversial, directors in Broadway and Hollywood history.

After attending Williams College and then the Yale School of Drama, he acted professionally for eight years, later joining the Group Theatre in 1932, and co-founded the Actors Studio in 1947. With Robert Lewis and Cheryl Crawford, his actors’ studio introduced “Method Acting” under the direction of Lee Strasberg. Kazan acted in a few films, including City for Conquest (1940).

His films were concerned with personal or social issues of special concern to him. Kazan wrote, “I don’t move unless I have some empathy with the basic theme.”  His first such “issue” film was Gentleman’s Agreement (1947), with Gregory Peck, which dealt with antisemitism in America. It received eight Oscar nominations and three wins, including Kazan’s first for Best Director. It was followed by Pinky (1949), one of the first films in mainstream Hollywood to address racial prejudice against African Americans. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), an adaptation of the stage play which he had also directed, received twelve Oscar nominations, winning four, and was Marlon Brando’s breakthrough role. Three years later, he directed Brando again in On the Waterfront, a film about union corruption on the New York harbor waterfront. It also received 12 Oscar nominations, winning eight. In 1955, he directed John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, which introduced James Dean to movie audiences.

A turning point in Kazan’s career came with his testimony as a witness before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1952 at the time of the Hollywood blacklist, which brought him strong negative reactions from many friends and colleagues. His testimony helped end the careers of former acting colleagues Morris Carnovsky and Art Smith, along with the work of playwright Clifford Odets.  Kazan and Odets had made a pact to name each other in front of the committee.  Kazan later justified his act by saying he took “only the more tolerable of two alternatives that were either way painful and wrong.”  Nearly a half-century later, his anti-Communist testimony continued to cause controversy. When Kazan was awarded an honorary Oscar in 1999, dozens of actors chose not to applaud as 250 demonstrators picketed the event.

Kazan influenced the films of the 1950s and 1960s with his provocative, issue-driven subjects. Director Stanley Kubrick called him, “without question, the best director we have in America, [and] capable of performing miracles with the actors he uses.”  Film author Ian Freer concludes that even “if his achievements are tainted by political controversy, the debt Hollywood—and actors everywhere—owes him is enormous.”  In 2010, Martin Scorsese co-directed the documentary film A Letter to Elia as a personal tribute to Kazan.

Kazan was married three times.  His first wife was playwright Molly Day Thacher. They were married from 1932 until her death in 1963.  His second marriage, to the actress Barbara Loden, lasted from 1967 until her death in 1980.  His marriage, in 1982, to Frances Rudge continued until his death.

The Final Footprint – Greenwood Union Cemetery, Rye, New York

And on this day in 2010, director and producer of film, television and theater, Arthur Penn died in Manhattan a day after his 88th birthday from congestive heart failure.  Born Arthur Hiller Penn on September 27, 1922 in Philadelphia.  Closely associated with the American New Wave, Penn directed critically acclaimed films throughout the 1960s such as the drama The Chase (1966), the biographical crime film Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and the comedy Alice’s Restaurant (1969). He also received attention for his acclaimed revisionist Western Little Big Man (1970), Night Moves (1975) and The Missouri Breaks (1976).  In the 1990s he returned to stage and television direction and production, including an executive producer role for the crime series Law & Order.  By his death he had been nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Director, a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, two Emmys, and two Directors Guild of America Awards. He was the recipient of several honorary accolades, including an Honorary Golden Bear, a Tony Award, and an Akira Kurosawa Award from the San Francisco International Film Festival.

In 1955, he married actress Peggy Maurer.

The Final Footprint – Penn was cremated.

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On this Day 27 September death of Edgar Degas – Adelina Patti – Babe Didrikson – H. D. – Clara Bow – Cliff Burton – Doak Walker – Hugh Hefner – Michael Gambon

Self-portrait (Degas au porte-fusain), 1855

On this day in 1917, French Impressionism artist Edgar Degas died in Paris at the age of 83.  Born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar de Gas on 19 July 1834 in Paris. Perhaps best known for his pastel drawings and oil paintings of ballerinas. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints, and drawings. He is especially identified with the subject of dance; more than half of his works depict dancers. Although Degas is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism, he rejected the term, preferring to be called a realist, and did not paint outdoors as many Impressionists did. In addition to ballet dancers and bathing women, Degas painted race horses and racing jockeys, as well as portraits. His portraits are notable for their psychological complexity and for their portrayal of human isolation.

At the beginning of his career, Degas wanted to be a history painter, a calling for which he was well prepared by his academic training and close study of classical art. In his early thirties, he changed course, and by bringing the traditional methods of a history painter to bear on contemporary subject matter, he became a classical painter of modern life.

The Final FootprintDegas is entombed in the Famille de Gas private mausoleum in the Cimetiere de Montmartre in Paris.  Other notable final footprints at Montmartre include; Hector Berlioz, Dalida, Alexandre Dumas, fils, Théophile GautierJeanne MoreauJacques Offenbach, François Truffaut, and Alfred de Vigny.

Gallery

  • Young Spartans Exercising, c. 1860, National Gallery, London

  • Édouard Manet and Mme. Manet, 1868–1869, Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art, Japan

  • Portrait of Miss Cassatt, Seated, Holding Cards, 1876–1878

  • At the Café-Concert: The Song of the Dog, 1875–1877

  • Fin d’Arabesque, with ballerina Rosita Mauri, 1877, Musée d’Orsay.

  • The Singer with the Glove, 1878, The Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts

  • Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando, 1879, The National Gallery, London

  • The Millinery Shop, 1885, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

  • Ballet Rehearsal, 1873, The Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts

  • Waiting, 1880-82.

  • Dancer with a Bouquet of Flowers (Star of the Ballet), 1878

  • Stage Rehearsal, 1878–1879, The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York City

  • Woman in Street Clothes, Portrait of Ellen Andrée, 1879, pastel on paper

  • Dancers at The Bar, 1888, The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC

  • Woman in the Bath, 1886, Hill-Stead Museum, Farmington, Connecticut

  • The Tub, 1886, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France

  • The Bath: Woman Supporting her Back, c. 1887, pastel on paper, Honolulu Academy of Arts

  • Kneeling Woman, 1884, Pushkin Museum, Moscow

  • Three Dancers in Yellow Skirts, circa 1891, oil on canvas, The Detroit Institute of Arts

  • After the Bath, Woman Drying her Nape 1898, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France

  • The Spanish Dance, c. 1885 (bronze cast 1921), bronze, 46.3 x 14.3 cm, Ackland Art Museum

  • Little Dancer of Fourteen Years, cast in 1922 from a mixed-media sculpture modeled ca. 1879–80, Bronze, partly tinted, with cotton skirt and satin hair ribbon, on a wooden base, Metropolitan Museum of Art

    #RIP #OTD in 1919 coloratura soprano known for her bel canto technique, preeminent operatic performer throughout the last half of the 19th Century, Adelina Patti died at Craig-y-Nos, Wales aged 76. Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris

    On this day in 1956 sportswoman Mildred Ella “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias died of cancer at the John Sealy Hospital in Galveston, Texas, at the age forty-five.  Born on 26 June 1911 in Port Arthur, Texas.  She is interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Beaumont, Texas.

    On this day in 1961, early modernist poet, novelist, essayist, H. D., Hilda Doolittle died from complications of a stroke in the Klinik Hirslanden in Zürich, aged 75.  Her career began in 1911 after she moved to London and co-founded the avant-garde Imagist group of poets with the American expatriate poet and critic Ezra Pound. During this early period her minimalist and free verse works drew international attention. Over time her output developed to longer and more complex Epic poetry and prose.

    Doolittle was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on 10 September 1886.  Discovering her bisexuality she had her first same-sex relationship while attending Bryn Mawr College between 1904 and 1906. After years of friendship, Doolittle became intellectually and sexually interested in Pound and followed him to London in 1911 where he championed her work, but their relation soon fell apart. Following a number of other sexual encounters and relationships, in 1918 she met the female novelist Bryher (Annie Winifred Ellerman) who became her constant companion until her death.

    An associate literary editor of the Egoist journal between 1916 and 1917, Doolittle was published by the English Review and Transatlantic Review. During World War I, her brother died and her 1913 marriage to the writer and poet Richard Aldington ended. She was treated by Sigmund Freud during the 1930s, looking to understand both her war trauma and bisexuality.  She wrote in a wide range of genres and formats over five decades. However her early Imagist poems overshadowed her later and more complex writings. Following a reappraisal by feminist critics in the 1970s and 1980s, she is now considered one of the foremost 20th-century modernist poets. Doolittle was interested in Ancient Greek literature and published numerous translations. Her poetry often borrows from Greek mythology and classical poets, and ranges from the Imagism of her youth to the epic poems composed from the 1940s, the best known of which is “Helen in Egypt” (1952–1954). These works are noted for their incorporation of natural scenes and objects, often used to evoke a particular feeling or mood. Doolittle wrote several novels, including Hedylus (1928), Palimpsest (1926), and Bid Me to Live (1960).

    The Final Footprint – Cremated remains interred in the family plot in the Nisky Hill Cemetery, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on October 28, 1961. Her headstone is inscribed with lines from her early poem “Epitaph”:

    So you may say,
    Greek flower; Greek ecstasy
    reclaims forever
    one who died
    following
    intricate song’s lost measure.

    Nisky Hill Cemetery, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

    On this day in 1964, the Warren Commission issued a report concluding that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in assassinating President John F. Kennedy.

    On this day in 1965, actress (Man Trap, It, Wings), rancher, “The It Girl” Clara Bow died of a heart attack in Culver City, California, aged 60.  Born Clara Gordon Bow in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn at 697 Bergen Street.

    She rose to stardom during the silent film era of the 1920s and successfully made the transition to “talkies” in 1929. Her appearance as a plucky shopgirl in the film It brought her global fame and the nickname “The It Girl”.  Bow came to personify the Roaring Twenties and has been described as its leading sex symbol.

    Bow appeared in 46 silent films and 11 talkies, and was named first box-office draw in 1928 and 1929 and second box-office draw in 1927 and 1930.  Her presence in a motion picture was said to have ensured investors, by odds of almost two-to-one, a “safe return”.  At the apex of her stardom, she received more than 45,000 fan letters in a single month (January 1929).

    Two years after marrying actor Rex Bell in 1931, Bow retired from acting and became a rancher in Nevada.  Her final film, Hoop-La, was released in 1933.

      The Final Footprint – Freedom Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Heritage at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

    Cliff_Burton_1On this day in 1986 Metallica bassist Cliff Burton died when their tour bus crashed in Ljungby Municipality, near Dörarp in rural southern Sweden.  Born Clifford Lee Burton on 10 February 1962 in Castro Valley, California.  Burton joined Metallica in 1982 and performed on the band’s first three studio albums, Kill ‘Em All, Ride the Lightning, and Master of Puppets.  He also received a posthumous writing credit for the song “To Live Is to Die” from the band’s fourth studio album …And Justice For All.

    The Final Footprint – Burton was cremated and his cremains were scattered at the Maxwell Ranch.  At the ceremony, the song “Orion” was played. The lyrics “…cannot the Kingdom of Salvation take me home” from “To Live Is to Die” are written on Burton’s memorial stone.  Perhaps the best-known non-Metallica tribute to Burton is the song “In My Darkest Hour” by thrash metal band Megadeth.  According to Dave Mustaine, after hearing of Burton’s death, he wrote the song in Burton’s honour.  Mustaine was Metallica’s lead guitarist in the early days and was a close friend of Burton.

    On this day in 1998 Heisman Trophy winner Doak Walker died as a result of injuries suffered previously in a skiing accident at the age of 71.  Born Ewell Doak Walker, Jr. on 1 January 1927 in Dallas, Texas.  Walker was cremated and his cremains were scattered on Long’s Peak in Colorado.

    On this day in 2017, businessman, magazine publisher, and playboy Hugh Hefner died at his home in Holmby Hills, Los Angeles at the age of 91. Born Hugh Marston Hefner on April 9, 1926 in Chicago. He was the founder of Playboy and editor-in-chief of the magazine, which he founded in 1953. An advocate of sexual liberation and freedom of expression, Hefner was a political activist and philanthropist in several other causes and public issues.

    Hefner with his then-partners Holly Madison(left) and Bridget Marquardt, 2007

    In 1949, Hefner married Northwestern University student Mildred (“Millie”) Williams. Before the wedding, Mildred confessed that she had an affair while he was away in the army. He called the admission “the most devastating moment of my life.” A 2006 E! True Hollywood Story profile of Hefner revealed that Mildred allowed him to have sex with other women, out of guilt for her own infidelity and in the hope that it would preserve their marriage. The two were divorced in 1959.

    Hefner remade himself as a bon vivant and man about town, a lifestyle he promoted in his magazine and two TV shows he hosted, Playboy’s Penthouse (1959–1960) and Playboy After Dark (1969–1970). He admitted to being “‘involved’ with maybe eleven out of twelve months’ worth of Playmates” during some of these years. Donna Michelle, Marilyn Cole, Lillian Müller, Shannon Tweed, Barbi Benton, Karen Christy, Sondra Theodore, and Carrie Leigh – who filed a $35 million palimony suit against him – were a few of his many lovers. In 1971, he acknowledged that he experimented in bisexuality. Also in 1971, Hefner established a second residence in Los Angeles with the acquisition of Playboy Mansion West and, in 1975, moved there permanently from Chicago.

    In 1986 he married Playmate of the Year Kimberley Conrad; they were 36 years apart in age. After he and Conrad separated in 1998, she moved into a house next door to the mansion.

    Hefner became known for moving an ever-changing coterie of young women into the Playboy Mansion, including twins Sandy and Mandy Bentley. He dated as many as seven women concurrently. He also dated Brande Roderick, Izabella St. James, Tina Marie Jordan, Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt, and Kendra Wilkinson.

    After an 11-year separation, Hefner filed for divorce from Conrad citing irreconcilable differences.

    In January 2009, Hefner began a relationship with Crystal Harris. She joined the Shannon Twins after his previous “number one girlfriend”, Holly Madison, had ended their seven-year relationship. On December 24, 2010, he became engaged to Harris, to become his third wife. Harris broke off their engagement on June 14, 2011, five days before their planned wedding. In anticipation of the wedding, the July issue of Playboy, which reached store shelves and customer’s homes within days of the wedding date, featured Harris on the cover and in a photo spread as well. The headline on the cover read “Introducing America’s Princess, Mrs. Crystal Hefner”. Hefner and Harris subsequently reconciled and married on December 31, 2012.

    The Final Footprint 

    He is entombed at Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles in the crypt beside Marilyn Monroe. “Spending eternity next to Marilyn is an opportunity too sweet to pass up,” Hefner had told the Los Angeles Times in 2009. Other notable final footprints at Westwood include; Ray Bradbury, Sammy Cahn, Truman Capote, James Coburn, Rodney Dangerfield, Janet Leigh, Farrah Fawcett, Brian Keith, Don Knotts, Burt Lancaster, Peter Lawford, Peggy Lee, Jack Lemmon, Karl Malden, Dean Martin, Walter Mathau, Marilyn Monroe, Carroll O’Connor, Roy Orbison, George C. Scott, Dorothy Stratten, Natalie Wood, and Frank Zappa.

    #RIP #OTD in 2023 actor(Gosford Park, Harry Potter, Open Range), Michael Gambon died in Witham, Essex, England aged 82. Cremation

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On this day 26 September death of Harriet Monroe – Bessie Smith – Anna Magnani – Robert Palmer – Paul Newman – Gloria Stuart

#RIP #OTD in 1936 editor, scholar, literary critic, poet, patron of the arts, founding publisher of Poetry magazine, Harriet Monroe died on her way to climb Machu Picchu from a cerebral hemorrhage aged 75. Cremated remains interred in Arequipa, Peru

1936 (photograph by Carl Van Vechten)

On this day in 1937 singer, the Empress of the Blues, Bessie Smith died from injuries suffered in a car crash near Clarksdale, Mississippi, at the age of 43. Born on April 15, 1894 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In my opininon, she was one of the greatest singers of her era and was a major influence on other jazz singers.

She was living in Philadelphia, when she met Jack Gee, a security guard, whom she married on June 7, 1923, just as her first record was being released. During the marriage Smith became the highest-paid black entertainer of the day, heading her own shows, which sometimes featured as many as 40 troupers, and touring in her own custom-built railroad car. Their marriage was stormy with infidelity on both sides, including numerous female lovers for Bessie. Gee was impressed by the money but never adjusted to show business life or to Smith’s bisexuality. In 1929, when she learned of his affair with another singer, Gertrude Saunders, Smith ended the relationship, although neither of them sought a divorce.

Smith later entered a common-law marriage with an old friend, Richard Morgan, who was Lionel Hampton‘s uncle. She stayed with him until her death.

The Final Footprint

Smith’s funeral was held in Philadelphia, on October 4, 1937. Her body was originally laid out at Upshur’s funeral home. As word of her death spread through Philadelphia’s black community, the body had to be moved to the O.V. Catto Elks Lodge to accommodate the estimated 10,000 mourners who filed past her coffin on Sunday, October 3. Contemporary newspapers reported that her funeral was attended by about seven thousand people. Her burial took place at Mount Lawn Cemetery, in nearby Sharon Hill. Gee thwarted all efforts to purchase a stone for his estranged wife, once or twice pocketing money raised for that purpose. Smith’s grave remained unmarked until a tombstone was erected on August 7, 1970, paid for by Janis Joplin and Juanita Green, who as a child had done housework for Smith.

On this day in 1973, stage and film actress, La Lupa, Anna Magnani died from pancreatic cancer in Rome at the age of 65. Born on 7 March 1908 in Rome. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress, along with four other international awards, for her portrayal of a Sicilian widow in The Rose Tattoo.

Director Roberto Rossellini called her “the greatest acting genius since Eleonora Duse”. Playwright Tennessee Williams became an admirer of her acting and wrote The Rose Tattoo specifically for her to star in.

After meeting director Goffredo Alessandrini she received her first screen role in La cieca di Sorrento (The Blind Woman of Sorrento) (1934) and later achieved international fame in Rossellini’s Rome, Open City (1945), considered the first significant movie to launch the Italian neorealism movement in cinema. As an actress she became recognized for her dynamic and forceful portrayals of “earthy lower-class women” in such films as L’Amore (1948), Bellissima (1951), The Rose Tattoo (1955), The Fugitive Kind (1960) and Mamma Roma (1962).

With director Luchino Visconti on the terrace of Palazzo Altieri where Magnani lived in the fifties.

Photo signed 1969

She married film director, Goffredo Alessandrini, in 1935, two years after he discovered her on stage. After they married, she retired from full-time acting to “devote herself exclusively to her husband”, although she continued to play smaller film parts. They separated in 1942.

Magnani had a love affair with the actor Massimo Serato.

In 1945 she fell in love with Rossellini while working on Roma, Città Aperta aka Rome, Open City (1945). “I thought at last I had found the ideal man… [He] had lost a son of his own and I felt we understood each other. Above all, we had the same artistic conceptions.” Rossellini had become violent, volatile and possessive, and they argued constantly about films or out of jealousy. “In fits of rage they threw crockery at each other.” As artists, however, they complemented each other well while working on neorealist films. The two finally split apart when Rossellini fell in love with and married, Ingrid Bergman.

The Final Footprint

Huge crowds gathered for the funeral. She was provisionally laid to rest in the family mausoleum of Rossellini; but then subsequently interred in the Cimitero Comunale of San Felice Circeo in southern Lazio.

On this day in 2003, singer, songwriter, musician, Robert Palmer died in Paris at the Hôtel Warwick Champs-Elysées, rue de Berri, from a heart attack at the age of 54.  Born Robert Allen Palmer on 19 January 1949 in Batley, West Yorkshire, England.  Palmer was known for his distinctive voice and the eclectic mix of musical styles on his albums, combining soul, jazz, rock, pop, reggae and blues.  He found success both in his solo career and in the musical act The Power Station, and had Top 10 songs in both the UK and the US.  His iconic music videos by Terence Donovan for the hits “Addicted to Love” and “Simply Irresistible” featured identically dressed dancing women with pale faces, dark eye makeup and bright red lipstick, which resembled the women in the art of Patrick Nagel, an artist popular in the 1980s.  Sharp-suited, his involvement in the music industry commenced in the 1960s, and covered five decades.  Palmer received a number of awards throughout his career, including two Grammy Awards for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, an MTV Video Music Award, and was twice nominated for the Brit Award for Best British Male.  Palmer married twice: Shelly Putman (1974 – 1978 divorce) and Susan Eileen Thatcher (1979 – 1999 divorce).

The Final FootprintCimitero Comunale della Città di Lugano. On her All The Best compilation album, Palmer’s Swiss neighbour, Tina Turner, added a live version of “Addicted to Love” in tribute to him.  Apparently, Palmer’s favourite author was Jack Vance and he was especially fond of the character Cugel.  Vance paid homage to Palmer in his novel Night Lamp, which begins: “Toward the far edge of the Cornu Sector of Ophiuchus, Robert Palmer’s star shone brilliant white, its corona flaring with films of blue, red and green colour.”

On this day in 2008, Academy Award winning actor, director, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and auto racing enthusiast Paul Newman died at his home surrounded by his family and friends in Westport, Connecticut at the age of 83.  Born Paul Leonard Newman on 26 January 1925 in Shaker Heights, Ohio.  He won numerous awards, including an Academy Award for best actor for his performance in the 1986 Martin Scorsese film The Color of Money and eight other nominations, six Golden Globe Awards (including three honorary ones), a BAFTA Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Cannes Film Festival Award, an Emmy award, and many honorary awards.  He also won several national championships as a driver in Sports Car Club of America road racing, and his race teams won several championships in open wheel IndyCar racing.  Newman was a co-founder of Newman’s Own, a food company from which Newman donated all post-tax profits and royalties to charity.  One of my favorite actors.  My favorite movies with Newman; Cat on a hot Tin Roof, The Hustler, Hud, Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, The Sting, The Color of Money.  Newman married twice: Jackie Witte (1949 – 1958 divorce) and actress Joanne Woodward (1958 – 2008 his death).

The Final Footprint – His remains were cremated after a private funeral service near his home in Westport.

#RIP #OTD in 2010 actress (The Old Dark House, The Invisible Man, Titanic), visual artist, activist, amateur chef, Gloria Stuart died from respiratory failure at her home in Los Angeles aged 100. Cremated remains scattered off the Santa Monica pier

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