James Parrott (1897 - 1939)

James Gibbons Parrott was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to Charles and Blanche Thompson Parrott. In 1903, his father died from a heart attack, leaving the family in bad financial shape, which forced them to move in with a relative. Charley Jr. quit school, so he could go to work, in order to support his mother […]

Leroy Shield (1893 - 1962)

Leroy Shield (October 2, 1893 – January 9, 1962) was an American film score and radio composer. A native of Waseca, Minnesota, Shield was an employee of RCA Victor’s National Broadcasting Company, for which he composed and conducted on-air musical pieces. Starting approximately 1922 (seven years before the Victor Talking Machine was bought by RCA and […]

Sam Wood (1884 - 1949)

Samuel Grosvenor “Sam” Wood (July 10, 1883 – September 22, 1949) was an American film director and producer, who was best known for directing such Hollywood hits as A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, and The Pride of the Yankees. He was also involved in a few acting […]

Karl Freund (1890 - 1969)

Karl Freund was born to Jewish parents in Dvůr Králové (Königinhof), Bohemia. His career began in 1905 when, at age 15, he was hired as an assistant projectionist for a film company in Berlin, where his family had moved in 1901. Freund worked as a cinematographer on over 100 films, including the German Expressionist films The […]

Fred Niblo (1874 - 1948)

Fred Niblo was born Frederick Liedtke (several sources give “Frederico Nobile”, apparently erroneously) in York, Nebraska, to a French mother and a father who had served as a captain in the American Civil War and was wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg. Using the stage name, Fred Niblo, Liedtke began his show business career performing […]

Edward Bowes (1874 - 1946)

Edward Bowes’ father died when he was six years old, and young Bowes worked as he could to augment the family income. After leaving grammar school he worked as an office boy and then went into the real estate business, until the cataclysmic 1906 San Francisco earthquake wiped out his fortune. He then went to […]

Clayton Moore (1914 - 1999)

Clayton Moore Clayton Moore grew up in Chicago, Illinois and although his father wanted him to become a doctor, he had visions of something a little more glamorous. Naturally athletic, he practiced gymnastics during family summer vacations in Canada, eventually joining the trapeze act The Flying Behrs at 19. During the 1934 Chicago World’s Fair, […]

Scotty Moore (1931 - 2016)

Scotty Moore Scotty Moore, the pioneering rock guitarist whose sharp, graceful style helped Elvis Presley shape his revolutionary sound and inspired a generation of musicians that included Keith Richards, Jimmy Page and Bruce Springsteen, died Tuesday. He was 84. Scotty Moore died at his home in Nashville, said biographer and friend James L. Dickerson, who […]

Jack Lord (1920 - 1998)

Jack Lord Jack Lord is worth millions. He and CBS own Hawaii Five-0, and it’s made both of them rich. Yet Jack Lord sacrificed much to become the star of the longest running series on the air. The man who plays Steve McGarrett is incredibly complex, and so, Modern People exclusively got the whole, strange, […]

Florence Henderson (1934 - 2016)

Florence Henderson Florence Henderson, who went from Broadway star to become one of America’s most beloved television moms in “The Brady Bunch,” has died, her manager and her publicist said. She was 82. Henderson died Thursday night at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, after being hospitalized the day before, said her publicist, David Brokaw. […]

Leon Russell (1942 - 2016)

Leon Russell Leon Russell, renowned multi-instrumentalist and songwriter who collaborated with Bob Dylan, George Harrison, the Rolling Stones and Elton John over the course of 50 years in the music industry, died Sunday. He was 74. “Leon Russell died on Nov. 13, 2016 in Nashville at the age of 74. His wife said that he […]

Margaret Illington (1879 - 1934)

Margaret Illington ill-ing-ton (July 23, 1879 – March 11, 1934) was a stage actress popular in the first decade of the 20th century. She later made an attempt at silent film acting by making two films with Adolph Zukor’s Famous Players-Lasky franchise. After her film and theater career were over she settled down as the […]

Daniel Frohman (1851 - 1940)

Daniel Frohman (August 22, 1851 – December 26, 1940) was an American theatrical producer and manager, and an early film producer. Daniel Frohman was born to a Jewish family in Sandusky, Ohio. In his younger days he worked as a clerk at the New York Tribune, and while there witnessed the fatal shooting of the reporter […]

Frank Reicher (1875 - 1965)

Frank Reicher was born in Munich, Germany, the son of actor Emanuel Reicher  and Hedwig Kindermann, a popular German prima donna who was a daughter of the famous baritone August Kindermann. Reicher’s parents divorced in 1881 and his mother died two years later while at Trieste. His sister, Hedwiga Reicher, would also become a Hollywood […]

Eve Unsell (1887 - 1937)

Eve Unsell underwent training as a journalist and magazine writer for the Kansas City Post and attended Emerson College in Boston for her postgraduate year, studying literature and drama. The theatrical agent, Beatrice DeMille was so impressed with one of Unsell’s short stories that she hired young Eve as a play reader for her theatrical […]

Evangeline Booth (1865 - 1950)

Evangeline Booth was born in South Hackney, London, England, the seventh of eight children born to William Booth and Catherine Mumford, who had earlier in the year founded The Christian Mission, which became the Salvation Army in 1878. Catherine Booth had recently read Uncle Tom’s Cabin and wanted to name her baby ‘Eva’, but William […]

Ballington Booth (1857 - 1940)

Born in Brighouse, England, Ballington Booth was the second child of William and Catherine Booth, founders of The Salvation Army in 1878. As a teenager, he began preaching at Salvation Army open-air meetings, where he would often end by singing and playing his concertina. He became a Colonel in The Salvation Army at the age […]

Pietro Boetto (1871 - 1946)

Pietro Boetto was born in Vigone to Antonio and Caterina (née Anghilano) Boetto. One of two brothers and three sisters, he was confirmed by Bishop Filippo Chiesa of Pinerolo in 1883. Boetto attended the diocesan seminary of Giaveno from 1884 to 1888, when he entered the Society of Jesus on February 1. While studying at […]

John Bode (1816 - 1874)

John Ernest Bode (February 13, 1816 – October 6, 1874) was an Anglican priest, educator, poet, and hymnist. Born in London, John Bode was the son of William Bode. Married with three children. Educated at Eton, the Charter House, and then at Christ Church, Oxford where he received his B.A. in 1837 and a M.A. He […]

Ralph Larsen (1938 - 2016)

Ralph Larsen was born in Brooklyn, New York City in a family of five siblings in 1938. His father was a first-generation immigrant from Norway. He joined the United States Navy for a few years. He worked his way through college, taking electrical jobs, and he received a Bachelor of Business Administration from Hofstra University […]

Edwin Houston (1847 - 1914)

Edwin J. Houston (July 9, 1847 – March 1, 1914) was an American businessman, professor, consulting electrical engineer, inventor and author. Edwin Houston was born July 9, 1844 to John Mason and Mary (Lamour) Houston in Alexandria, Virginia. He graduated from Central High School of Philadelphia (a degree-granting institution rather than an ordinary high school) in […]

Elihu Thomson (1853 - 1937)

Elihu Thomson was born in Manchester (England) on March 29, 1853, but his family moved to Philadelphia in 1858. Thomson attended Central High School in Philadelphia and graduated in 1870. Thomson took a teaching position at Central, and in 1876, at the age of twenty-three, held the Chair of Chemistry. In 1880, he left Central […]

Charlie Bachman (1892 - 1985)

In 1919, at age 26, Charlie Bachman began his head coaching career at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Bachman brought a number of former players returning from World War I military service to Northwestern, but his team posted a disappointing 2–5 record. He moved on to Kansas State College in Manhattan, Kansas following this season, […]

Herbert Dow (1866 - 1930)

Herbert Henry Dow was born in 1866 in Belleville, Ontario, the eldest child of the Americans Joseph Henry Dow, an inventor and mechanical engineer, and his wife, Sarah Bunnell, who were from Derby, Connecticut. When the infant boy was six weeks old, the family returned to their hometown. They moved again in 1878, this time […]

Arnold Wilson (1884 - 1940)

Arnold Wilson was born in 1884 and educated in England at Clifton College, where his father James Maurice Wilson was a headmaster. His younger brother was the tenor Sir Steuart Wilson. Wilson was tall and strong. He began his military career as an army officer 19 August 1903, having been awarded the King’s Medal and sword […]

James Scrugham (1880 - 1945)

James Graves Scrugham (January 19, 1880 – June 23, 1945) was an American politician. He was a Representative, a Senator, and the 14th Governor of the U.S. state of Nevada. He was a member of the Democratic Party. James Scrugham was born in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1880. He graduated from the University of Kentucky at […]

Samuel Arentz (1879 - 1934)

Samuel Arentz was born in Chicago, Illinois on January 8, 1879. He graduated from the Chicago Manual Training School in 1897 and from the South Dakota School of Mines at Rapid City in 1904. He was a member of the South Dakota National Guard at Rapid City from 1901 to 1904. He moved to Ludering, […]

Leslie Arends (1895 - 1985)

Born in Melvin, Illinois, Leslie Arends was the youngest of 10 children born to George Teis Arends and Talea (née Weiss) Arends. His father was born in Peoria to parents who were both natives of Germany; his mother was born in Hanover, Germany. Arends served in the United States Navy during World War I and […]

Irving Lerner (1909 - 1976)

Irving Lerner (7 March 1909, New York City – 25 December 1976, Los Angeles) was an American filmmaker. Before becoming a filmmaker, Lerner was a research editor for Columbia University’s Encyclopedia of Social Sciences, getting his start in film by making documentaries for the anthropology department. In the early 1930s, he was a member of […]

Irving Pichel (1891 - 1954)

A native of Pittsburgh, Irving Pichel graduated from Harvard University in 1914 and went immediately into the theater. Pichel’s first work in musical theatre was as a technical director for the theater of the San Francisco Bohemian Club; he also helped with the annual summer pageant, held at the elite Bohemian Grove, in which up […]