Hank Simms obit

Hank Simms, Prolific TV Announcer Has Died

Sims worked for years on Quinn Martin productions, including The FBI, The Streets of San Francisco and Barnaby Jones.

 

 He was not on my list.

Henry F. "Hank" Simms, an announcer whose voice was heard on numerous television programs, died August 7, 2013, in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He was 90.

Born May 25, 1923, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Simms graduated from Tulsa Central High School in 1940 and went on to attend the University of Oklahoma.

In 1942, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps, and after basic training in Sheppard Field, Texas, was sent to Officers Training School in Boca Raton, Florida, and later to Yale University, where he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant. 
Following assignment to a training station in Mountain Home, Idaho, he joined a B-24 Bomber Group, the 456th, in Muroc Dry Lake, California. Shortly afterward, the Group was ordered to Stornara, Italy, where Simms was successively an Assistant Squadron Engineering Officer, Head of the Technical Inspectors at Group Headquarters (in which capacity he was promoted to 1st Lieutenant) and finally a Squadron Engineering Officer. In the later position, he was promoted to Captain.

When the war ended, he returned to Oklahoma University and later attended Tulsa University. Encouraged by his brother, Frank, he entered the field of radio announcing. After broadcasting jobs in Tulsa, Wichita and Dallas, he moved to Los Angeles, and later to Honolulu, Hawaii.

In 1951, during the Korean War, he was recalled to the Air Force and promoted to Major. Soon afterward, he met his future wife, Moe, while they were greeting mutual friends at the Honolulu Airport. The two were married in Oklahoma City in 1954.

The couple later returned to Los Angeles, where Simms worked as an announcer for the next quarter-decade. His many television credits included The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Academy Awards, The Emmy Awards, The Golden Globes and some 15 Quinn Martin Productions series, including The FBI, Cannon, The Streets of San Francisco and Barnaby Jones.

The Simmses retired to John’s Island in Vero Beach, Forida, where they lived for ten years and pursued their shared interests in golf and bridge. They then moved to Hot Springs, Arkansas.

In lieu of flowers, it is suggested that donations be made to either the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity or to the Jonsson Cancer Center Foundation at UCLA.

Additional Crew (28 credits)

 1982 Police Squad! (TV Series) (announcer - 6 episodes)

- Testimony of Evil (Dead Men Don't Laugh) (1982) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- Rendezvous at Big Gulch (Terror in the Neighborhood) (1982) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- Revenge and Remorse (The Guilty Alibi) (1982) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- The Butler Did It (A Bird in the Hand) (1982) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- Ring of Fear (A Dangerous Assignment) (1982) ... (announcer - uncredited)

1981 Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (TV Series) (Narrator - 11 episodes)

- The Dorian Secret (1981) ... (Narrator)

- Testimony of a Traitor (1981) ... (Narrator)

- The Hand of the Goral (1981) ... (Narrator)

- Shgoratchx! (1981) ... (Narrator)

- The Satyr (1981) ... (Narrator)

1973-1980 Barnaby Jones (TV Series) (announcer - 178 episodes)

- The Killin' Cousin (1980) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- Deadline for Murder (1980) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- The Silent Accuser (1980) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- The Final Victim (1980) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- Death Is the Punchline (1980) ... (announcer - uncredited)

1978-1979 The Runaways (TV Series) (announcer - 16 episodes)

- 48 Hours to Live (1979) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- False Images (1979) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- Street of Terror: Part 2 (1979) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- Street of Terror: Part 1 (1979) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- They'll Never Forgive Me (1979) ... (announcer - uncredited)

1977 Tales of the Unexpected (TV Series) (announcer - 8 episodes)

- No Way Out (1977) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- You're Not Alone (1977) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- Force of Evil (1977) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- A Hand for Sonny Blue (1977) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- The Nomads (1977) ... (announcer - uncredited)

 

 1972-1977 The Streets of San Francisco (TV Series) (announcer - 119 episodes)

- The Canine Collar (1977) ... (announcer)

- Time Out (1977) ... (announcer)

- Let's Pretend We're Strangers (1977) ... (announcer)

- Breakup (1977) ... (announcer)

- Dead Lift (1977) ... (announcer)

1971-1977 Columbo (TV Series) (announcer - 38 episodes)

- The Bye-Bye Sky High I.Q. Murder Case (1977) ... (announcer)

- Old Fashioned Murder (1976) ... (announcer)

- Fade in to Murder (1976) ... (announcer)

- Last Salute to the Commodore (1976) ... (announcer)

- Now You See Him (1976) ... (announcer)

1977 Lanigan's Rabbi (TV Series) (announcer - 4 episodes)

- In Hot Weather, the Crime Rate Soars (1977) ... (announcer)

- Say It Ain't So, Chief (1977) ... (announcer)

- The Cadaver in the Clutter (1977) ... (announcer)

- Corpse of the Year (1977) ... (announcer)

 1971-1977 McMillan & Wife (TV Series) (announcer - 39 episodes)

- Have You Heard About Vanessa? (1977) ... (announcer)

- Affair of the Heart (1977) ... (announcer)

- Coffee, Tea, or Cyanide (1977) ... (announcer)

- Philip's Game (1977) ... (announcer)

- Dark Sunrise (1977) ... (announcer)

1971-1977 McCloud (TV Series) (announcer - 39 episodes)

- McCloud Meets Dracula (1977) ... (announcer)

- London Bridges (1977) ... (announcer)

- The Moscow Connection (1977) ... (announcer)

- The Great Taxicab Stampede (1977) ... (announcer)

- 'Twas the Fight Before Christmas... (1976) ... (announcer)

1976-1977 Quincy M.E. (TV Series) (announcer - 4 episodes)

- Hot Ice, Cold Hearts (1977) ... (announcer)

- A Star Is Dead (1976) ... (announcer)

- Who's Who in Neverland (1976) ... (announcer)

- Go Fight City Hall... to the Death (1976) ... (announcer)

 1976 Bert D'Angelo/Superstar (TV Series) (announcer - 11 episodes)

- Serpent's Tooth (1976) ... (announcer)

- Scag (1976) ... (announcer)

- What Kind of Cop Are You? (1976) ... (announcer)

- Flannagan's Fleet (1976) ... (announcer)

- A Concerned Citizen (1976) ... (announcer)

1971-1976 Cannon (TV Series) (announcer - 120 episodes)

- Madman (1976) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- Blood Lines (1976) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- Point After Death (1976) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- Snapshot (1976) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- The Quasar Kill (1976) ... (announcer - uncredited)

1975-1976 McCoy (TV Series) (announcer - 4 episodes)

- New Dollar Day (1976) ... (announcer)

- In Again, Out Again (1976) ... (announcer)

- Double Take (1975) ... (announcer)

- Bless the Big Fish (1975) ... (announcer)

 1975 Caribe (TV Series) (announcer - 13 episodes)

- Assault on the Calavera (1975) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- The Assassin (1975) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- Counterfeit Killer (1975) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- The Patriots (1975) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- One Second to Doom (1975) ... (announcer - uncredited)

1975 Ellery Queen (TV Series) (announcer - 1 episode)

- Too Many Suspects (1975) ... (announcer)

 1974-1975 Amy Prentiss (TV Series) (announcer - 3 episodes)

- Profile in Evil (1975) ... (announcer)

- The Desperate World of Jane Doe (1974) ... (announcer)

- Baptism of Fire (1974) ... (announcer)

 1972-1974 Hec Ramsey (TV Series) (announcer - 10 episodes)

- Only Birds and Fools (1974) ... (announcer)

- Scar Tissue (1974) ... (announcer)

- Dead Heat (1974) ... (announcer)

- The Detroit Connection (1973) ... (announcer)

- A Hard Road to Vengeance (1973) ... (announcer)

1973-1974 The Snoop Sisters (TV Series) (announcer - 4 episodes)

- A Black Day for Bluebeard (1974) ... (announcer)

- The Devil Made Me Do It! (1974) ... (announcer)

- Fear Is a Free-Throw (1974) ... (announcer)

- Corpse and Robbers (1973) ... (announcer)

 1972-1974 Banacek (TV Series) (announcer - 16 episodes)

- Now You See Me, Now You Don't (1974) ... (announcer)

- Fly Me- If You Can Find Me (1974) ... (announcer)

- Rocket to Oblivion (1974) ... (announcer)

- Horse of a Slightly Different Color (1974) ... (announcer)

- The Vanishing Chalice (1974) ... (announcer)

1973-1974 Faraday and Company (TV Series) (announcer - 4 episodes)

- A Matter of Magic (1974) ... (announcer)

- Fire and Ice (1973) ... (announcer)

- A Wheelbarrow Full of Trouble (1973) ... (announcer)

- Say Hello to a Dead Man (1973) ... (announcer)

 1973-1974 Tenafly (TV Series) (announcer - 4 episodes)

- Man Running (1974) ... (announcer)

- The Window That Wasn't (1973) ... (announcer)

- The Cash and Carry Caper (1973) ... (announcer)

- Joyride to Nowhere (1973) ... (announcer)

 1972-1973 Madigan (TV Series) (announcer - 6 episodes)

- The Park Avenue Beat (1973) ... (announcer)

- The Naples Beat (1973) ... (announcer)

- The Lisbon Beat (1973) ... (announcer)

- The London Beat (1972) ... (announcer)

- The Midtown Beat (1972) ... (announcer)

 1972-1973 Banyon (TV Series) (announcer - 15 episodes)

- Time Lapse (1973) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- Just Once (1972) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- The Murder Game (1972) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- The Lady Killer (1972) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- Sally Overman Is Missing (1972) ... (announcer - uncredited)

1972 Cool Million (TV Series) (announcer - 5 episodes)

- The Million Dollar Misunderstanding (1972) ... (announcer)

- The Abduction of Baynard Barnes (1972) ... (announcer)

- Assault on Gavaloni (1972) ... (announcer)

- Hunt for a Lonely Girl (1972) ... (announcer)

- Mask of Marcella (1972) ... (announcer)

 1970-1971 Dan August (TV Series) (announcer - 26 episodes)

- The Assassin (1971) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- Prognosis: Homicide (1971) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- Days of Rage (1971) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- The Meal Ticket (1971) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- The Manufactured Man (1971) ... (announcer - uncredited)

 

 1965-1969 The F.B.I. (TV Series) (announcer - 7 episodes)

- The Inside Man (1969) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- Southwind (1968) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- The Phone Call (1968) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- Crisis Ground (1968) ... (announcer - uncredited)

- A Mouthful of Dust (1965) ... (announcer - uncredited)

 

 1967-1969 Judd for the Defense (TV Series) (announcer - 50 episodes)

- Visitation (1969) ... (announcer)

- Runaway (1969) ... (announcer)

- The View from the Ivy Tower (1969) ... (announcer)

- An Elephant in a Cigar Box (1969) ... (announcer)

- The Holy Ground: The Killers - Part 2 (1969) ... (announcer)

 

 

 

Margaret Pellegrini

Munchkin Pellegrini has passed away. Her death leaves only two surviving munchkins. She was not on the list.

Margaret Pellegrini, a 'Wizard of Oz' munchkin, dies at 89

Margaret Pellegrini, one of the original Munchkins from the 1939 classic movie "The Wizard of Oz," has died. She was 89.

Pellegrini suffered a stroke Monday at her Glendale home and died Wednesday at a Phoenix-area hospital, said Ted Bulthaup, a Woodbridge, Ill., resident who owns a Chicago theater where Pellegrini and other Munchkins have made special appearances. Bulthaup said he learned of Pellegrini's death from her relatives.

With her death, only two of the original 124 Munchkins in the movie are still alive.

Pellegrini has said she was 16 when "The Wizard of Oz" was filmed. She played one of the "sleepy head" kids and wore a flowerpot on her head in the movie.

Later, Pellegrini was a guest speaker at grade schools across the Phoenix metropolitan area for many years.

She usually appeared in costume and told stories about her time as a Munchkin, The Arizona Republic reported. She also told children that "The Wizard of Oz" contained a moral lesson.

"There are two roads in life that you can take - the wrong road and the right road," she said. "And remember, there really is no place like home."

When asked by the newspaper if she and the other actors who played Munchkins had sung for the movie, Pellegrini shook her head.

The real singers were "adults, dubbed in," she said. "They just played the record faster so their voices would sound high."

Bulthaup had known Pellegrini for more than a decade and said she was an energetic person.

"She really had a very robust personality. She was a great lady," he said. "She was always on the move. You couldn't hold her down."

The surviving Munchkins are Jerry Maren, 93, who lives in Los Angeles, and Ruth Duccini, 95, who lives in Phoenix, Bulthaup said.

Art Donovan - #57

Art Donovan: An NFL classic dies at 89

He was number 57 on the list

Art Donovan played pro football for 12 years. The rest of his life, he spent telling everyone about it. Donovan, 89, who died Sunday of a respiratory ailment at Stella Maris Hospice, played and talked a great game. He was a Hall of Fame defensive tackle for the Baltimore Colts and an engaging raconteur at banquets and on TV talk shows. His cherublike face, adenoidal voice and side-splitting tales of yore captivated generations of viewers who never saw Donovan collar a quarterback or take down a runner."Artie made a career out of telling people everything that he'd done right -- and wrong -- in football," said Ordell Braase, his teammate on the field and in the broadcast studio. "The diversity of his appeal was amazing. Everyone wanted to hug 'Fatso,' from young girls to little old ladies."Donovan died just before 8 p.m., surrounded by 15 to 20 family members, said his daughter, Kelly Donovan-Mazzulli."My mom (Dorothy) was with dad to his last breath, as she was determined to be," she said.Ten times, Donovan appeared on "Late Night with David Letterman," where he spun yarns about his youth in the Bronx, his hitch in the Marines during World War II and his experiences during the sanguinary years of the National Football League, when the game was played by "oversized coal miners and West Texas psychopaths."Often, his stories were laced with self-deprecating humor and some choice four-letter words. Like beer, Spam and junk food."Dunnie had all of his stories numbered," said Alex Sandusky, a Colts teammate. "Going to games, he'd sit in the last seat on the bus, the widest one. That was our 'story room.' Then he'd say, 'This is number 46 coming up.'"He was a classic -- a great, fun-loving human being. If they can laugh in heaven, he'll get them going."Arthur James Donovan Jr. was born in New York City, the son of a famous boxing referee. Arthur Sr., a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame, officiated 14 heavyweight title bouts, including a number of Joe Louis' fights.Donovan's grandfather, Mike Donovan, was a world middleweight champion who also gave boxing lessons to President Theodore Roosevelt.But football was Donovan's love. Despite a modest high school career, he received a scholarship to the University of Notre Dame in 1942 but left after one semester to join the Marines. Stationed in the Pacific, he served as an anti-aircraft gunner aboard the USS San Jacinto during the assault on Leyte in the central Philippines.After 13 months at sea, Donovan volunteered for the Fleet Marine Force, which landed him in the middle of combat on Okinawa. His citations, which included the Asiatic Pacific Area Ribbon and the Philippine Liberation Ribbon, would later earn him a place in the U.S. Marine Corps Sports Hall of Fame -- the first pro football player so honored."Here's a guy that fought in World War II and played with the Baltimore Colts," former Colts wide receiver Raymond Berry said this weekend while attending the Hall of Fame festivities in Canton, Ohio. "I would say, 'Artie, tell me about your World World II service.' And (he would say), 'Well, I got shot in the butt at Okinawa.' That was typical Art Donovan."Donovan's favorite war story? The time on Guam when he swiped a case of Spam, got caught and was ordered to eat it or go to the brig. In nine days, he polished off all 30 pounds of the processed pork.His go-to jokes dealt with food and drink. Donovan liked to describe himself as a light eater."As soon as it's light, I start to eat," he would say.And: "The only weight I ever lifted weighed 24 ounces. It was a Schlitz. I always replaced my fluids."At war's end, he returned briefly to Notre Dame, then transferred to Boston College, where he made second-team All New England.TURNING PROIn 1950, the Colts picked Donovan in the third round of a special NFL draft. That team folded at season's end, as did the next two clubs for which he played -- the New York Yanks and Dallas Texans."I helped kill three teams," Donovan said in retrospect.In 1953, the Colts returned to Baltimore with the crew-cut tackle in tow. He would never leave again.Strong, smart and surprisingly quick for his size, which ranged from 270 to 300 pounds, Donovan made All-NFL for four straight years (1954-1957) and played in five consecutive Pro Bowls (1953-1957)."He had good balance and great agility," Buzz Nutter, then the Colts' center, once said. "One man alone could not knock Artie off his feet."Playing alongside Gino Marchetti, a Hall of Fame end, Donovan anchored a Colts defense that helped Baltimore win world championships in 1958 and 1959."You can't fool Donovan twice with the same play, and on trap plays he has no equal," said his coach, Weeb Ewbank.The Sun described Donovan thusly: "He blocks the passer's view for yards on either side, and he tackles a player like a house collapsing.""How tough was Artie?" Marchetti said recently. "One game, he and (San Francisco 49ers tackle) Don Campora were going at it, calling each other an s.o.b. All of a sudden, Artie gave him a shot and I looked over there and Artie had a whole handful of the guy's teeth."The referee came over but didn't do anything because when Campora tried to tell him what Artie had done, he couldn't talk right."Donovan's nimble feints drove opponents batty."He was always the hardest tackle for me to block," the Chicago Bears' Stan Jones once told The Sun. Jones, a Hall of Fame lineman who'd played at the University of Maryland, called No. 70 "the smartest tackle I ever faced. He was quick, like a matador. He'd move one way and go the other."Donovan took pride in the fact that, during the 1956 Pro Bowl, he played on a kick-return team for the only time in his life. He delivered two crunching blocks to spring the Detroit Lions' Jack Christiansen for a 103-yard touchdown on the game's first play.That same year, Donovan married Dorothy Schaech, a Baltimore pharmacist whom he'd met on a blind date. Their wedding reception featured a chocolate cake, shaped like a football, and inscribed: To Art Donovan -- The Best Lineman.Teammates called him "Fatso," and he cottoned to it."You know you're big when you sit in the bathtub and the water in the toilet rises," he said.During training camp in Westminster, Donovan liked to saunter downtown, park himself in Harry's Main Street Grille and wolf down hot dogs, as many as 25 at one sitting. In his dorm room, he often slept with the television on. The TV, he said, kept warm the leftover pizza he had placed on top of it.The Colts tried to curb Donovan's appetite by offering a $2,000 bonus every season he managed to keep his playing weight under 275 pounds. Sometimes he got the cash, sometimes not."His (weekly) weigh-in was a story," Marchetti said. "Donovan would take his clothes off, piece by piece, and weigh himself after each one."His last hope was always his (false) teeth. A couple of times he had to take them out to make weight."Run himself into shape? Not Donovan."You could draw a 5-foot circle around him at practice and he'd never leave it," Nutter said.Only once did Donovan ever win a footrace, a 30-yard sprint against a 300-pound rookie during camp in 1960. Fatso won by several yards."I felt like Jesse Owens," he recalled later. "I broke the tape with my arms up."The rookie was released by the team that same day.

George Duke obit

George Duke obituary

Jazz-funk keyboard star of the 70s who became a hit-making music producer 

He was not on the list.

George Duke, who has died aged 67, was one of the brightest stars in the 1970s jazz-funk firmament. In a career that lasted four decades, he was a prolific keyboard player, bandleader, solo artist, music producer and musical director for film and television. Duke lent his talents to a wide range of musical assignments, yet he was rarely a backroom boy – his humour, generosity and sheer musicality shone through whatever he did.

Born in San Rafael, near San Francisco, he grew up in California and began studying piano at the age of seven, inspired by Duke Ellington. In his teens, he formed a band with the singer Al Jarreau and made a first (forgettable) solo album. He studied music formally at San Francisco Conservatory and San Francisco State University, but his big break came touring with the French jazz violinist Jean Luc Ponty: at a 1969 club date in LA, the audience included the composer-producer Quincy Jones, the Mothers of Invention bandleader Frank Zappa and the saxophonist Cannonball Adderley – all future employers.

Duke did two stints on the road with Zappa's bands and made a memorable, self-mocking appearance in Zappa's 1971 movie 200 Motels. In 1971, Adderley hired him to replace Joe Zawinul, who had left to start Weather Report, and he stayed with the band for several years.

When Duke made solo albums in the 1970s, his musical voice was fresh and surprisingly commercial – jazz-funk instrumentals with vocal spice. Albums such as I Love The Blues, She Heard My Cry (1975) helped establish Duke as a significant artist in Europe and the US. For Love (I Come Your Friend), a typical Duke composition from The Aura Will Prevail (1974), features translucent falsetto vocals, exhilarating drumming by Leon "Ndugu" Chancler, and sweeping, virtuoso synthesiser solos that demonstrated how expressive and emotional these new-fangled, wire-strewn keyboards could be in the right hands. "I learned how to make them talk; I learned how to get the blues out of them," wrote Duke.

His 1970s recordings have found new champions in recent years: his tracks have been sampled by hip-hop artists including A Tribe Called Quest, MF Doom, Example and Common. The American bassist Thundercat (aka Stephen Bruner) made a memorable version of For Love (I Come Your Friend) for his 2011 album The Golden Age of Apocalypse.

Duke credited Zappa for breaking down his "musical elitism". In turn, his boss's music benefited hugely from Duke's presence, which tempered the metrical complexity of Zappa's compositions with a gospel-drenched richness, as on Be-Bop Tango from the album Roxy & Elsewhere (1974) and Sofa No 1 from One Size Fits All (1975).

The George Duke credit turns up in the small print of countless jazz, soul and R&B records – he played with Michael Jackson, Airto, David Axelrod, Chaka Khan, Flora Purim, Shuggie Otis, Sonny Rollins, Nancy Wilson and hundreds more.

Duke was a member of several jazz-fusion supergroups, including a band with the former Mahavishnu Orchestra drummer Billy Cobham and a power trio with the bassist Stanley Clarke.

The pop success of Duke's album Reach For It (1977) attracted a more funk- and R&B-oriented audience to his gigs, and eventually enabled him to develop a parallel career as a hit-making producer – he made albums with Dee Dee Bridgewater, the duo A Taste of Honey, Jeffrey Osborne, Deniece Williams and many more artists, including Take 6 and his cousin Dianne Reeves.

He even worked with his childhood hero Miles Davis, producing a track on each of Davis's 1980s electro albums, Tutu (1986) and Amandla (1989). He forged successful working partnerships with the singers Rachelle Ferrell and Anita Baker and took part in fundraising ventures (such as Wave For Peace) and TV specials (such as the Soul Train Music Awards).

Duke made nearly 40 albums under his own name, breaking new ground in world jazz by recording Brazilian Love Affair (1979), one of his best-loved albums, in Rio with local musicians. From time to time, he enjoyed freak hits – in Japan with Shine On and in France with Reach Out.

Face the Music (2002) was a great return to form. His last album, DreamWeaver (2013), released in July, included a tribute to his wife, Corine, who died in 2012 – they had been together more than 40 years.

I last saw Duke and his band during a residency at the Jazz Cafe in London in 2004. On stage he was a big, smiling presence, with a nice line in chat and an instinctive showmanship that never got in the way of the music. At the end of an exciting and beautifully judged set, Duke invited members of the audience to come on stage and perform. Several took the challenge, while the band gave empathetic support, playing quietly behind one girl's nervous scatting, blowing up a storm beneath the gutsy piano-playing of a skinny kid in a hoodie. The whole episode, which felt risky at first, demonstrated a special confidence and professionalism on Duke's part – his ability to listen, to improvise, to communicate and to lead a band.

Duke once wrote: "I really think it is possible to make good music and be commercial at the same time. I believe it is the artist's responsibility to take the music to the people. Art for art's sake is nice; but if art doesn't communicate, then its worth is negated, it has not fulfilled its destiny."

Duke is survived by two sons, Rasheed and John.

Dixie Evans obit

Dixie Evans

Dixie Evans, the dancer known as “the Marilyn Monroe of Burlesque”, who has died aged 86, thrilled post-war America with her scantily-clad impression of the film star; in later life she ran a museum of exotic dancing in the Mojave Desert. 

She was not on the list.

Dixie Evans was a legendary burlesque performer whose stage act drew illustrious fans. But she was more than a sexy dancer with a strut and a bump.

Dixie Evans was a legendary burlesque performer whose stage act drew illustrious fans such as Frank Sinatra. But she was more than a sexy dancer with a strut and a bump. She was a historian and advocate whose passion for her craft inspired a new generation of performers and earned her the nickname “Godmother of Burlesque.”

“I honestly think Dixie is the person who is single-handedly responsible for the resurgence of burlesque,” said Angie Pontani, a New York-based burlesque performer. “She kept the flame alive. Her legacy is all the performers on stage today.”

Evans, who died Aug. 3, 2013, at age 86, shared her skills and stories with countless visitors who journeyed to her Exotic World Museum in California’s Mohave Desert, later renamed the Burlesque Hall of Fame and moved to Las Vegas. Dressed in full regalia – from hair and make-up to slinky dress – Evans shared burlesque treasures including Sally Rand’s feather fan and Gypsy Rose Lee‘s travel trunk with museum visitors.

For wannabe burlesque dancers, a trip to the museum was almost a pilgrimage, Pontani said

“If you’re a painter and go to the Met, they don’t sit you down and say, ‘Let me show you how to paint,'” said Dustin Wax, executive director of the Hall of Fame. “But the way Dixie encouraged young dancers was an inspiration. She really opened herself up to this whole generation and taught them not just how they used to do it, but the attitude and spirit that they were looking for.”

Evans was a headline act at burlesque houses around the country in the 1940s and ’50s, the so-called Golden Age of Burlesque. Her resemblance to Marilyn Monroe prompted one show promoter to dub her “Marilyn Monroe of Burlesque.” The name stuck, and Evans incorporated skits about Monroe’s life and parodies of Monroe’s movies into her act. Even in her 80s, Evans would “drop into Marilyn Monroe at the drop of a hat,” Wax said.

A natural storyteller, Evans stressed the tease and humor in her performances. One of her better-known acts featured a casting couch. In a 2011 interview with the Las Vegas Sun she talked about how hard she’d worked on the routine, joking, “I really gave that couch a workout.”

“Her acts were very narrative. For Dixie, they were like little plays,” said Lynn Sally, Evans’ biographer and a professor at New York University. “She was telling a story.”

The reveal at the end of the show wasn’t just about showing off one’s body; it was a punchline or a political statement, Sally noted. And what happened before that mattered a lot, Evans told the Newark Star-Ledger in 2007. “It wasn’t about taking your clothes off. It was the way you took them off.”

A job in burlesque was a chance for a working class woman to move beyond a job in a factory or a department store, two of the most popular options at the time, Sally said. It allowed them to travel and make their own rules.

“They came up with their own acts. There was no producer telling them, ‘Here’s your song. Here’s your costume,'” Sally said. “It’s a self-authored performance medium and that was attractive for independent woman.”

According to her obituary in the New York Times, Evans’ celebrity fans included Walter Cronkite, Frank Sinatra and Joe DiMaggio, who reportedly sought solace from Evans’ act after his 1954 divorce from Monroe.

Monroe’s death in 1962 was a blow to Evans, who briefly performed a Monroe tribute act before taking a break from the stage, Sally said.

After a few years living and working in the Bahamas, Evans returned to the United States, where former burlesque dancer Jennie Lee told her about her dream of creating a museum dedicated to burlesque. After Lee’s death in 1990, Evans followed through on her friend’s plans.

The Exotic World Museum was housed on a dusty farm off Route 66 in the Mojave Desert. A sign out front instructed visitors to honk three times for a tour. To draw more attention to the museum, Evans started the Miss Exotic World pageant in 1991. It’s still going strong.

“Burlesque is a theatrical art form, uniquely American, and Dixie wanted that history preserved and passed on,” said Pontani, who won the pageant in 2008.

The museum was moved to Las Vegas in 2010 and its name was changed to the Burlesque Hall of Fame. Evans maintained her role as tour guide and talent scout extraordinaire.

On one visit to Las Vegas, Pontani was unloading groceries from the car and Evans noticed her shapely posterior. “She said, ‘Angie, your behind is amazing! You need to use that in your act more!’ She was always thinking about putting on a show. She lived burlesque,” Pontani said.

Sally is among a group of Evans’ fans working to raise money to pay off the late star’s medical bills and to finance a monument at Westwood Village Memorial Park, where Monroe is at rest.

“It sounds so cheesy and trite but (Evans’ legacy) would be, ‘Follow your heart. Dedicate every day to living fully and doing something you love,” Sally said. “She used to say, ‘I wouldn’t have traded my life for the world.'”

 

Actress

Smut (1999)

Smut

5.6

Marty's mother

1999

 

Mafia Girls (1969)

Mafia Girls

4.0

Stripper

1969

Gail Kobe obit

R.I.P. Gail Kobe

She was not on the list.

Film and television actress and producer Gail Kobe died yesterday at the age of 82. Her first major film was Cecil B. DeMille’s epic The Ten Commandments in 1956. She went on to appear in dozens of TV shows throughout her career, earning an Emmy nomination for her portrayal of Dr. Anne Warner on the 1960s TV series Dr. Kildare. Her other TV credits include soaps Peyton Place and Bright Promise. She also starred in such TV classics The Twilight Zone, The Fugitive, Bewitched, Hogan’s Heroes, The Mod Squad, Mission Impossible, Whirlybirds and The Outer Limits and appeared in over 50 Westerns, including, Rawhide, The Virginian, Maverick, Daniel Boone and Gunsmoke. She moved into producing daytime dramas during the 1970s and 80s with credits including Days of Our Lives, Texas, Another World, The Bold And The Beautiful, and Guiding Light, for which she was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award. For the past two years, she resided at the Motion Picture Television Fund Home, where she was very active at Channel 22, organizing the show We’ve Got Mail, among other Fund activities.

Kobe portrayed Penny Adams on the TV series Trackdown. She appeared on the Alcoa Theatre in a 1958 episode titled "Disappearance" starring Jack Lemmon and Joan Blackman. In 1965 she portrayed Doris Schuster on TV's Peyton Place. She also appeared on daytime television in the NBC serial Bright Promise as Ann Boyd Jones (1970–1972).

During the 1950s and 1960s, Kobe made guest appearances on Highway Patrol ("The Search"), The O. Henry Playhouse ("The Guilty Party"), The Californians, The Rebel, Mackenzie's Raiders, Blue Light, Felony Squad, Ironside, The Outer Limits, Richard Diamond, Private Detective, The Fugitive, Bourbon Street Beat, Maverick, M Squad (four episodes), Whirlybirds, Perry Mason, Hogan's Heroes, The Twilight Zone ("In His Image", "The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross", "A World of Difference"), Dr. Kildare, Empire, Gunsmoke (S3E25 "Dirt", S12E13 "The Moonstone" and S14E23 "The Intruder"), Cheyenne, Daniel Boone, Mission: Impossible, The Untouchables, Have Gun – Will Travel, The Mod Squad, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, and Mannix. In 1962, she portrayed Dr. Louise Amadon in the episode "A Woman's Place" on Rawhide, about a woman doctor's struggles against stereotypes in the Old West. In 1963 she appeared in Combat! as Francois.

On February 17, 1959, Kobe was cast in the episode "Disaster Town" of the series Rescue 8 in the role of Ellen Mason, a mother looking for her son in a western ghost town.

In the series, Laramie, Kobe played a saloon girl in the episode "Gun Duel" (aired December 25, 1962).

Kobe began to work behind the camera as supervising producer and associate producer on such daytime programs as CBS's The Edge of Night and NBC's Return to Peyton Place. From 1981 to 1982, its final year on the air, Kobe became executive producer of the NBC soap opera, Texas. From 1983 to May 1986, she was the executive producer of CBS's Guiding Light (for which she was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award) and then served as a producer on CBS's The Bold and the Beautiful from its debut in 1987 through the early 1990s.

Kobe taught at San Fernando Valley State College.

Kobe was a member of St. Louis Church. She volunteered many hours to Eisenhower Medical Center and the Palm Springs Art Museum while she lived in Palm Springs. While she resided at the Motion Picture Television Fund Home in Woodland Hills, California, she organized the program, We've Got Mail, which airs on cable Channel 22.

Filmography

Year     Title            Role            Notes

1955    East of Eden    Student            Uncredited

1956    The Ten Commandments           Pretty Slave Girl        

1956            Highway Patrol            Susan Keefe            Episode: "The Search"

1957-1958            Trackdown      Penny Adams / Cindy / Beth Waislip            6 episodes

1958            Gunsmoke      Polly Troyman            Season 3, Episode 25, "Dirt"

1958            Gunsmoke in Tucson            Katy Porter  

1958-1964            Perry Mason            Gertrude Lewis / Margo - Drake's Secretary            2 episodes

1960    Tales of Wells Fargo            Kate Brown            Episode: "The Late Mayor Brown"

1960    The Twilight Zone            Sally            Season 1, Episode 23, "A World of Difference"

1963    The Virginian            Ruth Ferris            Episode: "Run Quiet"

1963            Combat!            Francois           Season 1, Episode 28, the Sniper

1963    The Twilight Zone            Jessica Connelly            Season 4, Episode 4, "In His Image"

1964    The Twilight Zone            Leah Maitland            Season 5, Episode 16, "The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross"

1964    The Outer Limits            Janet Doweling            Season 1, Episode 22, "Specimen: Unknown"

1964    The Outer Limits            Janet Lane     Season 2, Episode 12, "Keeper of the Purple Twilight"

1966            Gunsmoke      Bar Girl Madge Season 12, Episode 13, "The Moonstone"

1968    The Mod Squad            Donna            Season 1, Episode 8, "The Price of Terror"

1969            Bewitched       Evelyn Tucker Season 5, Episode 22, "Going Ape"

1969            Gunsmoke      Ellie Decker Season 14, Episode 23, "The Intruder"

Dick Kazmaier obit

Dick Kazmaier; 1930-2013: Maumee star won Heisman

Princeton gradstarted a fiscalconsulting firm

She was not on the list.

 Dick Kazmaier, one of the best athletes to emerge from northwest Ohio, who as a Princeton halfback won the Heisman Trophy in 1951 as the nation’s outstanding college football player, but who rejected a professional career, saying he had achieved all he wanted in the sport and could make more money in business, died Thursday in Boston. He was 82.

The cause was heart and lung disease, said Bob Ruxin, president of Mr. Kazmaier’s company, Kazmaier Associates, an investment and financial consulting business with a special interest in sports.

Mr. Kazmaier, the last Ivy Leaguer to win the Heisman, went from Princeton to graduate school at Harvard and a lucrative career.

He was chairman of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and president of the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame.

Mr. Kazmaier, a 1948 graduate of Maumee High School, scored 111 points as a 5-11, 155-pound senior football player, and averaged 23.4 points per game in basketball.

At Princeton University, he was a three-year starter at halfback. He ran, passed, and punted the Tigers to a 24-3 record (1949-51), including 22 straight wins to end his career. He led the nation in total offense with 1,827 yards for the sixth-ranked Tigers in 1951, and won the Heisman vote by a then-record margin (1,777 to 424).

Mr. Kazmaier once was asked whether, when he went to sleep, he thought of himself as a Heisman winner, a successful businessman, or a family man.

“When I go to bed, I go to sleep,” Mr. Kazmaier said.

“I have always been very purposeful,” he told The Blade in 2000. “I enjoy getting the most I possibly can out of every day, and then spending a little time at the end of each one planning for the next. I don’t spend much time looking back.”

In 1998, the Maumee High School stadium was named in his honor.

“There’s nothing to compare with being recognized and honored by your hometown,” he said at the time. He also lent his name to an annual golf tournament, which raised money for a scholarship fund in his name — and of which he was a benefactor.

“Athletics are a great part of education, but it has to be kept in perspective,” he said in 1998. “There’s so much more to life than athletics or sports.”

He was born Nov. 23, 1930, the only child of Marian and Richard Kazmaier. He attended Union Elementary in Maumee.

He won high school letters in football, basketball, baseball, track and golf, and finished second in his class academically. He was recruited by 23 colleges, most offering full scholarships.

Ohio State expressed interest, but Mr. Kazmaier chose Princeton, in part because of local alumni.

As a junior and senior, he led Princeton to undefeated seasons and was named to most all-American teams. As a senior, in separate player-of-the-year polls, he won the Heisman Trophy, the Maxwell Award and the Walter Camp Trophy. He was voted The Associated Press athlete of the year in 1951.

Frank McPhee, a teammate, said he knew Mr. Kazmaier would succeed. “He was the most determined kid I ever saw,” he said.

In his three varsity seasons, Mr. Kazmaier passed for 2,404 yards and rushed for 1,950. As a senior, he led the nation with 1,027 yards rushing in nine games.

His classmates voted him the senior who did the most for Princeton. Years later, The Princeton Athletic News named him Princeton’s football player of the century. In 1966, he was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame.

Mr. Kazmaier was drafted by the Chicago Bears but declined to join the team, or any other one. Annual salaries then were often less than $5,000 a year. Instead, with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, he pursued a master’s in business administration at Harvard, receiving the degree in 1954.

After Harvard came three years as a Navy officer. He then started a career in sports marketing and consulting and in 1975 founded Kazmaier Associates.

In 2008, Princeton retired his number, 42.

He and the former Patricia Hoffmann of Perrysburg married on June 20, 1953. She survives.

Also surviving are daughters, Michelle, Kimberly, Susan, Kathy, and Kristen, and several grandchildren. His daughter Patricia — an ice hockey star at Princeton — died at age 28 in 1990 of a rare blood disease.

Mike Hinton obit

Guitarist Michael Hinton Dies (R.I.P.)

 He was not on the list.

Michael "Mike" Hinton was an American guitarist , residing in the San Francisco Bay Area. During his career, he has been a member of several bands such as Merl Saunders & the Rainforest Band for nine years, and has appeared on several albums with the Rainforest Band and other Merl Saunders projects, including It's In The Air, Fiesta Amazonica, Still Having Fun, Merl Saunders With His Funky Friends - Live, and Still Groovin'.

Hinton played with Country Joe and Friends, and recorded with Rick Danko on A Tribute To Jerry Garcia: Deadhead Festival in Tokyo, Japan, 1997. He was also on the Roky Erickson albums, Don't Slander Me and You're Gonna Miss Me: The Best Of Roky Erickson. Among his other credits are his involvement in the Mickey Hart and Merl Saunders band, High Noon, and Freddie Roulette and Friends. He also co-wrote the music for the films Stacy's Knights (1982) and Eddie Macon's Run (1983), and played on the score for the 1980s remake of the television program, The Twilight Zone with Jerry Garcia, John Cippolina, David Grisman and others. Hinton also co-wrote several songs with the late Norton Buffalo, world renowned harmonica player, as well as playing lead guitar in Norton's band for approximately seven years, beginning in late 1980.

Hinton has played several Merl Saunders tributes since the keyboardist's death in October 2008. A re-launch of the Rainforest Band as a tribute to Saunders took place at the 29th Starwood Festival on July 25, 2009, the site of their last performance, featuring Saunder's son and bassist Tony Saunders, Hinton, and other members of the Rainforest Band and other Saunders' projects.

The following is from Barry Melton's (Country Joe & The Fish) FB page:

I've been a guitar player for more than 60 years now (gulp!); and next year will mark my 50th year of performing in public. And throughout my career, I've sought to perform with great guitar players -- like Mike Hinton -- who could play stuff beyond my reach, who could push the sonic envelope and get me into that very special place that has no adequate description, but is inadequately referred to sometimes as "the groove," or "the zone," or something like that.

Together -- with Michael -- I've been on lost continents, walked on other planets and explored far-away universes. We knew where those places were and we didn't always get "there," but we struggled mightily against gravity and other earthbound forces to make our music free. And most of the time, even if only for a few minutes, we got to experience that very special place I mentioned above (and when I use the word "we," it includes the other musicians on stage and the wonderful folks who came to hear our off-brand brand of live music.)

Thankfully, we left a bit of evidence -- we got to record a few tracks together on a Hippie Uprising CD and thanks to anonymous archivists who record such things, there are smatterings of our work together scattered throughout cyberspace. It may not be our best work, but we were "there" and I'm going to miss those places -- I'm gonna miss Michael.

RIP Michael.

 

Performed or recorded with

 

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Grateful Dead: Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Brent Mydland, Tom Constanten, Vince Welnick, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann

Quicksilver Messenger Service: John Cippolina, David Frieberg

Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship: Jack Casady, Don Baldwin, Pete Sears

Santana: Jose "Chepito" Areas, Michael Carabello

Country Joe and the Fish / Country Joe McDonald and Friends: Joe McDonald, Barry Melton

Rainforest Band: Merl Saunders, Muruga Booker, Vince Littleton, Michael Warren, Tony Saunders

Johnnie Johnson and Unreal

Max Gail Band

High Noon: Mickey Hart, Jim McPherson (Copperhead), Bobby Vega (Etta James)

Norton Buffalo and the Knockouts

Schellville Southside Blues Band

Zero: Greg Anton, Chip Roland, Steve Kimock

Sons of Champlin: Geoffrey Palmer, Jim Preston

Barry Melton Band

Peter Albin (Big Brother and the Holding Company)

Byron Allred (Steve Miller Band)

Trey Anastasio (Phish)

Maya Angelou

Babatunde Olatunji

Joan Baez

John Barbata (Dinosaurs)

Elvin Bishop

Bobby Black

Vernon Black (Mariah Carey)

Ed Bogas

O'Teal Burbage (Allman Brothers)

Paul Butterfield

Ray Chew (Showtime at the Apollo)

Vassar Clements (Old & In the Way)

The Coasters

Lacy J. Dalton

Rick Danko (The Band)

John Dawson (New Riders of the Purple Sage)

Austin de Lone

Lance Dickerson (Commander Cody)

Greg Douglass (Steve Miller Band)

Roky Erickson (13th Floor Elevators)

Steve Erquiaga (Andy Narell)

Greg Errico

Mimi Farina (Bread and Roses)

Billy C. Farlow (Commander Cody)

Martin Fiero (Legion of Mary)

Mic Gillette (Tower of Power)

Nate Ginsberg (Herbie Hancock)

Bill Graham

Nick Gravenites (Electric Flag)

Rusty Gauthier (New Riders of the Purple Sage)

David Grisman

Billy Hart (Herbie Hancock)

Edwin Hawkins Singers

Mark Isham

Dr. John

Matt Kelly (Kingfish)

Kronos Quartet

Lowell "Banana" Levinger (The Youngbloods)

Huey Lewis

Carl Lockett (Jimmy Smith)

Harvey Mandel

Mel Martin

Scott Mathews

John McFee (Clover/Doobie Brothers)

Buddy Miles (Electric Flag/Jimi Hendrix)

Steve Miller

Ziggy Modeliste

Eddie Moore (Woody Shaw)

Maria Muldaur

Charlie Musselwhite

Mark Naftalin (Butterfield Blues Band)

Odetta

Sammy Piazza (Hot Tuna)

John Popper (Blues Traveler)

Jimmy Pugh (Robert Cray Band)

Chuck Rainey (Steely Dan)

Vicki Randle (George Benson/Tonight Show)

Brett Rasmussen (Merl Saunders)

Roy Rogers

Freddie Roulette

John Schneider (Dukes of Hazzard)

Melvin Seals (Jerry Garcia Band)

Ron Stallings (Reconstruction/Elvin Bishop)

Luther Tucker (Little Walter Jacobs)

Bill Vitt (Saunders-Garcia Band)

Narada Michael Walden

"Bishop" Norman Williams

Kate Wolf

Television appearances and work

"Q" for KQED (Merl Saunders and the Rainforest Band live)

KGO Curethon (Merl Saunders and the Rainforest Band live)

Tales From The Crypt (TV series) (HBO) "On A Dead Man's Chest" Directed by William Friedkin (The Exorcist)

Rediscovering The Amazon - Filmed on the Amazon River (Documentary for Moondragon Pictures)

The Twilight Zone (CBS) "The Girl That I Married" (with John Cippolina), "Shelter Skelter", "Joy Ride", "The Junction" (with David Grisman), "Dead Run" (with Bob Weir, Brent Mydland)

Studio Cafe (Norton Buffalo and Michael Hinton duo live)

Norton Buffalo and the Knockouts live (KRCB)

Sports America (Abe Lemons and Eddie Sutton — NCAA Basketball Coaches)

"Revenge Of The Insects" (for PBS with Barry Melton and Mickey Hart)

Discography

I Ain't No Angel - Lindy Gravelle (1982)

Don't Slander Me - Roky Erickson (1986) Restless Records

You're Gonna Miss Me: The Best Of Roky Erickson (1991) Restless Records

It's In The Air - Merl Saunders & the Rainforest Band (1993) Summertone Records

Still Having Fun - Merl Saunders (1995) Summertone Records

Fiesta Amazonica - Merl Saunders (& the Rainforest Band) (1998) Summertone Records

Merl Saunders With His Funky Friends - Live (1998) Summertone Records

Still Groovin - Merl Saunders (2004) Summertone Records

San Francisco After Dark - Merl Saunders

A Promise Kept - Jim McPherson (2009)

Keystone Revisited - Tony Saunders, Michael Hinton, Bill Vitt, Steve Abramson, Jeff Pevar (2013)

Sonoma Soundtrack - Schellville Southside Blues Band

Joan Baez (unreleased tracks) - produced by Mickey Hart (Featuring members of the Grateful Dead and High Noon) (2001)

 

Filmography

Scores

Stacy's Knights (1982) (with Kevin Costner) co-wrote the music with Norton Buffalo and performed, Crown International Pictures

Eddie Macon's Run (1983) (with Kirk Douglas, John Schneider) co-wrote with Norton Buffalo and performed soundtrack, Universal Pictures/ MCA

He had a small part as a drummer in All that Jazz.