Edward Teller (1908 - 2003)

Edward Teller (Hungarian: Teller Ede; January 15, 1908 – September 9, 2003) was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist who was born in Hungary, and is known colloquially as “the father of the hydrogen bomb”, although he claimed he did not care for the title. He made numerous contributions to nuclear and molecular physics, spectroscopy (in particular the Jahn–Teller […]

George Gamow (1904 - 1968)

In the early 20th century, radioactive materials were known to have characteristic exponential decay rates, or half-lives. At the same time, radiation emissions were known to have certain characteristic energies. By 1928, Gamow in Göttingen had solved the theory of the alpha decay of a nucleus via tunnelling, with mathematical help from Nikolai Kochin. The […]

Vera Rubin (1928 - 2016)

Vera Rubin held various academic appointments for the next eleven years. She served for a year as an Instructor of Mathematics and Physics at Montgomery County Community College, then worked from 1955-1965 at Georgetown University, as a Research Associate Astronomer, Lecturer (1959-1962), and finally, Assistant Professor of Astronomy (1962-1965). She joined the Carnegie Institute in […]

Roy Lunn (1925 - 2017)

In 1953, Roy  Lunn joined Ford Motor Company in England and was assigned the task of starting a new Research Center in Birmingham. This center made the first prototype of what became the 105-E Anglia. Lunn transferred to Ford plant in Dagenham as the car’s product planning manager to follow the 105-E into mass production. He […]

Pete Domenici (1932 - 1932)

One of the first issues that Pete Domenici concerned himself with was waterway usage fees, in spite of his state lacking any waterway capable of commercial traffic. The idea behind a waterway usage fee was that the Army Corps of Engineers built dams and other expensive waterway projects, which the barge industry were able use […]

Ralphie May (1972 - 2017)

Ralphie May was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee on February 17, 1972, and raised in Clarksville, Arkansas. When he was 16, May broke 42 of his bones in an automobile accident. At 17, he won a contest to open for Sam Kinison, whom he considered his idol. Kinison suggested that May move to Houston to further develop […]

William Marston (1893 - 1947)

On October 25, 1940, an interview conducted by former student Olive Byrne (under the pseudonym “Olive Richard”) was published in The Family Circle (titled “Don’t Laugh at the Comics”), in which William Marston said that he saw “great educational potential” in comic books. (A follow-up article was published two years later in 1942.) The interview […]

Joe Shuster (1914 - 1992)

Siegel and Joe Shuster created a bald telepathic villain, bent on dominating the world, as the title character in the short story “The Reign of the Superman”, published in Siegel’s 1933 fanzine Science Fiction #3. The character was not successful, and Siegel eventually devised the more familiar version of the character. Shuster modeled the hero […]

Bud Collyer (1908 - 1969)

In 1950 Bud Collyer got the job which genuinely made him a household name: Beat the Clock, a game show that pitted couples (usually, but not exclusively, married) against the clock in a race to perform silly (sometimes messy) tasks, which were called “problems” but could with more accuracy be called “stunts.” The grand prizes […]

Mark Goodson (1915 - 1992)

Mark Goodson and long-time partner Bill Todman produced some of the longest-running game shows in US television history. Their first television show, Winner Take All, debuted on CBS television on July 1, 1948. The long list of Goodson-Todman productions includes The Price Is Right, Family Feud, Match Game, Password, Beat the Clock, To Tell the […]

Jay Stewart (1918 - 1989)

Jay Stewart was perhaps best known for his work on Let’s Make a Deal and in the 1980s on Sale of the Century. Let’s Make a Deal host Monty Hall called Stewart “the best second banana you ever found in your life” and said that “it was a very, very good feeling between us.” On […]

Marilyn Hall (1927 - 2017)

Marilyn Hall began her career in radio for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. She subsequently became a songwriter; her song “Is It Possible That I’ve Been Gone So Long” was recorded by Hildegarde. She was a television writer for Love, American Style and Lights, Camera, Monty! She was an associate producer of Jelly’s Last Jam and […]

Monty Hall (1921 - 2017)

Monty Hall started his career in Winnipeg at CKRC radio while still a student. He moved to Toronto in 1946 and found a job with radio station CHUM, where management shortened his name to Hall and misspelled his first name as “Monty” on billboards, giving him the stage name “Monty Hall”. For the next decade […]

Frank Hamblen (1947 - 2017)

Frank Alan Hamblen, II (April 16, 1947 – September 30, 2017) was an American basketball coach and scout. He played college basketball at Syracuse. He died in San Diego on September 30, 2017. Born in Terre Haute, Indiana, Frank Hamblen graduated from Garfield High School in Terre Haute in 1965. As a Sophomore, he was a […]

Emil Sitka (1914 - 1998)

Emil Sitka’s first Three Stooges’ film was Half-Wits Holiday. It was a reworking of their earlier Hoi Polloi. Both films were adaptations of George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion (1913). The Three Stooges’ films dealt with the idea that two professors bet on the outcome of turning the Three Stooges into gentlemen—with predictable results. Sitka played […]

Del Lord (1894 - 1970)

Del Lord (October 7, 1894 – March 23, 1970) was a Canadian film director and actor best known as a director of Three Stooges films. Delmer Lord was born in the small town of Grimsby, Ontario, Canada. Interested in the theatre, he traveled to New York City, then when fellow Canadian Mack Sennett offered him a job […]

Jules White (1900 - 1985)

In 1933, Jules White was appointed head of Columbia Pictures’ short-subject division, which became the most prolific comedy factory in Hollywood. In a time when theaters were playing more double-feature programs, fewer short comedies were being made; by the mid-1930s the three major comedy producers — Hal Roach, Educational Pictures and Universal Pictures — scaled […]

Robert Sterling (1917 - 2006)

After signing with Columbia Pictures in 1939, he changed his name to Robert Sterling to avoid confusion with silent western star William S. Hart. His name was legally changed while he was a second lieutenant officer attending flight training in Marfa in West Texas in 1943. In 1939, he performed with Shemp Howard, of “The Three […]

Anne Jeffreys (1923 - 2017)

Born Anne Carmichael on January 26, 1923 in Goldsboro, North Carolina, Anne Jeffreys entered the entertainment field at a young age, having her initial training in voice (she was an accomplished soprano). “She became a member of the New York Municipal Opera Company on a scholarship and sang the lead at Carnegie Hall in such […]

Hugh Hefner (1926 - 2017)

Hugh Hefner In January 1952, Hugh Hefner left his job as a copywriter for Esquire after he was denied a $5 raise. In 1953, he took out a mortgage, generating a bank loan of $600, and raised $8,000 from 45 investors, including $1,000 from his mother (“Not because she believed in the venture,” he told […]

Bernie Casey (1939 - 2017)

Bernie Casey was a record-breaking track and field athlete for Bowling Green State University. He earned All-America recognition and a trip to the finals at the 1960 United States Olympic Trials. In addition to national honors, Casey won three consecutive Mid-American Conference titles in the high-hurdles, 1958–60. Bernie Casey was drafted by the San Francisco […]

Leonard Mason (1920 - 1944)

Leonard Mason (February 22, 1920 – July 22, 1944) served in the United States Marine Corps during World War II. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism during the Battle of Guam where he was mortally wounded. Leonard Foster Mason was born on February 22, 1920 in Middlesboro, Kentucky. He enlisted in […]

Suzan Farmer (1942 - 2017)

Suzan Maxine Farmer (16 June 1942 – 17 September 2017) was an English film and television actress. She appeared in an episode of the Patrick McGoohan series Danger Man entitled “No Marks for Servility” and also featured in many other ITC series in the 1960s and 70s including UFO, Man in a Suitcase, The Persuaders!, […]

Goldy McJohn (1945 - 2017)

John Raymond Goadsby (May 2, 1945 – August 1, 2017), known as Goldy McJohn, was a Canadian keyboard player best known as the original keyboardist for rock group Steppenwolf. Originally a classically trained pianist, he was a pioneer in the early use of the electronic organ (Hammond B3) in heavy metal. He was also an […]

Vito Scotti (1918 - 1996)

Vito Scotti entered movies and television by the late 1940s. He made his film debut, playing an uncredited role as a Mexican youth in Illegal Entry (1949), with Howard Duff and George Brent. By 1953, Scotti replaced J. Carrol Naish as Luigi Basco, an Italian immigrant who ran a Chicago antique store, on the television version […]

William Bigler (1814 - 1880)

William Bigler (January 1, 1814 – August 9, 1880) was an American politician. A Democrat, he served as the 12th Governor of Pennsylvania from 1852 to 1855, and later a U.S. Senator for Pennsylvania from 1856 until 1861. William Bigler was born in rural Pennsylvania and received little formal education; he studied informally under his elder brother […]

John Bigler (1805 - 1871)

John Bigler was born in early 1805 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania to parents of German ancestry. Beginning work in the printing trade at an early age, Bigler, as well as his younger brother, William, never received a formal education, yet Bigler took it upon himself to educate his younger brother. In 1831, both brothers moved to […]

Asa Biggs (1811 - 1878)

Asa Biggs (February 4, 1811 – March 6, 1878) was a North Carolina politician who held a number of positions. He was a U.S. Representative, a U.S. Senator, and federal judge. Biggs was born in Williamston, Martin County, North Carolina. He read law, was admitted to the bar in 1831, and commenced practice in Williamston. He was […]

Jacob Howard (1805 - 1871)

Jacob Howard was born in Shaftsbury, Vermont, and attended the district schools and the academies of Bennington and Brattleboro. He graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts in 1830 and then studied law. He moved to Detroit, Michigan in 1832 and was admitted to the bar in 1833 and commenced practice in Detroit. He was city […]

John Biddle (1792 - 1859)

At the outbreak of the War of 1812, John Biddle enlisted in the U.S. Army and was appointed a second lieutenant in the Third Artillery on July 6, 1812 and promoted to first lieutenant March 13, 1813. He was attached to the staff of General Winfield Scott on the Niagara Frontier for most of the […]