Buffalo Bob Smith

 

"We do constructive things.  We talk about safety and good manners and encourage the kids to go to their place of worship on Sunday.  And the show is an emotional outlet for children.  They like to see Clarabell chase me with a seltzer bottle because its something they'd like to do."

Buffalo Bob Smith was born Robet Emil Schmidt in Buffalo, New York on November 27, 1917. He graduated from Masten Park High School in 1935 before joining the local radio scene.  He got his start at WGR-AM before moving to WBEN-AM in 1943.

Schmidt was an overnight success, beating long-time ratings champ Don McNeill, who's Breakfast Club morning program had topped the local charts for several years. Schmidt's success caught the attention of NBC, who brought him to their flagship New York station (WNNNNNNBC) in 1945.  It was there that he first created The Howdy Doody Show and the character of Buffalo Bob.

In 1947, Smith took the series to television and had a series of Howdy Doody marionettes created (see Trivia below).  Before each program, he would record Howdy's dialogue, then interact with the puppet throughout the show.  He rounded out the cast with a clown named Clarabell, who took an early vow of silence, only speaking once during this emotional farewell in the final episode.  Smith also included a live studio audience, nicknamed the Peanut Gallery.  The series ran for 13 years before ultimately being canceled in 1960.

When it was over, Smith toured college campuses, bringing an eclectic mix of contemporary humor and nostalgia.  He would make occasional television appearances on such shows as Happy Days and What's My Line.  He even turned up in the 1991 film Problem Child 2.

Smith eventually retired to Flat Rock, North Carolina.  It was there that he died of lung cancer on July 30, 1998.  He was 80 years old.  Headline News filed this report.  He was laid to rest at Pinecrest Presbyterian Church Memorial Garden. His marker even bares his trademark name.

Rest in peace.

Trivia

• If you want to learn more about Buffalo Bob Smith, take a voyage to Amazon.  Its all in books.
  
  
• The original Howdy Doody marionette was created by puppet expert Frank Paris in 1947.  It would only last for one season however, as Paris and Smith could not agree on merchandising rights.  After a brief absence from the show, a new puppet premiered in 1948, with Bob announcing that Howdy Doody had undergone plastic surgery.  I'm not making that up.
  
  
• Buffalo Bob participated in the A&E documentary series Biography in 1995.  You can catch that Howdy Doody-themed episode in its entirety on YouTube.
  
  
• Buffalo Bob later appeared in a live infomercial on QVC promoting Howdy Doody memorabilia, just four weeks before his death.  It would ultimately be his final public appearance.  It's also available on YouTube.
  
  
• Buffalo Bob was no stranger to late-night TV back when it was good, making regular appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and Late Night with David Letterman.
  
  
• Buffalo Bob passed away three days before fellow puppeteer Shari Lewis, who's own show had, ironically, taken over his old timeslot.

The Future Grave of an American President

 

Lancaster, Ohio is home to a 200-year-old historical curiosity - Stonewall Cemetery Park, the future final resting place of any American President who wants to claim it.

The story began in 1817, when local resident Nathaniel Wilson III set aside a strip of land on his estate to be used as a family burial ground. In October of that year, he deeded the site to President James Monroe and his successors forever in trust.  Wilson passed away in 1839, but his son completed the project, surrounding it with 7-foot-high sandstone walls. 

An inscription reads:

"This wall, which encloses the family burying ground of Nathaniel Wilson (one of the early Pioneers of the West, who emigrated from Cumberland County, Pennsylvania and settled near this place AD 1798, when all around was one continued and uninhabited wilderness) was commenced by him AD 1838 and finished in the following year by his son Gustin, the former having suddenly died May 12, 1839."

Monroe never took ownership of the property, but for several generations, Fairfield County officials made a point to notify subsequent administrations of the cemetery's availability.  They later claimed the property in 1960 and turned conservatorship over to Fairfield County Parks.  Today, it's something of a unique tourist attraction.

Book your tour today!

Happy Presidents Day!

Trivia

• For more information about this unique Ohio tourist attraction, please visit Roadside America.
  
  
• President Monroe visited the nearby state capital of Columbus in August 1817 as part of a 15-week tour aimed at building national unity.  Could this have been the inspiration for Wilson's gift?  
  
  
• Planning a trip to Lancaster?  Consider taking a tour of the abandoned and supposedly haunted Fairfield County Infirmary, which features remnants of the anthology series American Horror Story: Freak Show.  Check it out on Roadside America.

The Multiple Graves of F. Scott Fitzgerald

 

"What people are ashamed of usually makes a great story."

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota on September 24, 1896.  Prior to his birth, Fitzgerald's father moved the family from Maryland, intent on opening a wicker furniture manufacturing business.

He was a writer from an early age.  His first novel, This Side of Paradise, was published in 1920, when he was just 24 years old. One week after its publication, he married Zelda Sayre, a fellow novelist and socialite.

Fitzgerald's most famous work, The Great Gatsby, was published in 1925.  It's a tale of the jazz age, a term he coined himself, that is often hailed by literary critics as the great American novel.  He'd eventually write four novels, four story collections, and 164 short stories.

On December 21, 1940, Fitzgerald died of a heart attack in Hollywood.  He was just 44 years old.  His will called for "the cheapest funeral" possible, something that Zelda, who was living in a sanatorium at the time, decided to honor.  She had the body shipped east for burial in the family plot in Rockville, Maryland's Catholic Cemetery.  Fitzgerald's reputation would follow him to the grave however, as the church deemed him "unfit to be buried alongside good Catholics in consecrated ground."  Zelda subsequently arranged for him to be buried in Rockville Cemetery.  Eight years later, she died in a hospital fire in North Carolina and was laid to rest atop her husband in the single plot.

Usually, this would be the end of the story.  However, by 1975, the Fitzgeralds' grave was in great disrepair.  A local fraternal organization petitioned the Archbishop of Washington to reconsider Fitzgerald's 1940 request for internment in the family plot at Catholic Cemetery, since renamed St. Mary's Church Cemetery.  The request was approved, and the Fitzgeralds' final resting place moved one mile down the road.

Rest in peace.

Trivia

• If you want to learn more about F. Scott Fitzgerald, take a voyage to Amazon.  Its all in books.
  
  
• Fitzgerald was named after his distant relative Francis Scott Key.  His second cousin, Mary Suratt, was hanged in 1865 for her role in the assassination of President Lincoln.
  
  
• At the time of his death, Fitzgerald was writing his novel The Last Tycoon, which was published unfinished.  Its also available from Amazon.
  
  
• In addition to The Great Gatsby, a number of Fitzgerald's other stories have also been adapted for the silver screen, including The Beautiful and the Damned (2009) and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008).
  
  
• Among the many posthumous tributes to the author are his induction into the New Jersey Hall of Fame (2008), appearing on a 23-cent U.S. postage stamp (1996), and the creation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society at Hofstra University in New York (1990).

Writer's Ashes Turned Into Comic Book!

 

Mark Gruenwald is not exactly a household name.  A few years ago however, this blogger stumbled across his final resting place quite by accident and was immediately intrigued.  This was a story I had to cover.

He was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin on June 18, 1953.  He was an artist from an early age, beginning a fanzine called Omniverse.  It caught the attention of DC Comics, who hired him to write articles for their official fanzine, The Amazing World of DC Comics.  

In 1978, he was hired by Marvel Comics, where he was eventually put in charge of such titles as Captain America, Thor, and The Avengers.  He authored the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, a 15-volume encyclopedic presentation of its various characters and titles.  He was most proud however, of his 12-issue series Squadron Supreme, which told the tale of an alternate world ruled by well-intentioned but delusional superheroes.

Gruenwald died unexpectedly on August 12, 1996, at the age of 43.  Doctors attributed his death to an undiagnosed congenital heart defect.  In keeping with his wishes, Gruenwald was cremated, and his ashes were taken to Marvel Comics.  There, they were mixed with printers ink and used in the first printing of Squadron Supreme's trade paperback.  This blogger found one such copy on display at the Ripley's Believe it or Not Odditorium in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Rest in peace.

Trivia

• If you want to see more of Gruenwald's comic book legacy, take a voyage to Amazon.  Its all in books.  Comic books.
  
  
• Gruenwald was a known practical joker.  Upon his sudden death, friends and co-workers assumed it was an elaborate prank.
  
  
• Both Marvel and DC Comics paid tribute to Gruenwald by naming several people and places in their stories after him.  The most obvious reference is in the Marvel streaming series Loki, where the character Mobius M. Mobius, as played by Owen Wilson, is made to resemble Gruenwald.  Check out a clip on YouTube.
  
  
• Having served as writer of Captain America for more than ten years, it's no surprise that Gruenwald owned a replica of the titular character's iconic shield, which is today owned by former late-night host Stephen Colbert.
  
  
• In 2024, this blog profiled the cremated remains of Ed Headrick, who not only invented the modern-day frisbee, but had himself turned into one as well.  Check it out here.

Christa McAuliffe - Teacher in Space

 

"I touch the future. I teach."

Sharon Christa Corrigan (Christa McAuliffe) was born in Boston, Massachusetts on September 2, 1948.  In 1985, NASA chose her to be the first civilian in space, hoping to reinvigorate America's interest in space exploration.  On January 28, 1986, she was one of seven astronauts onboard Space Shuttle Challenger, a flight that was destined for disaster.  The shuttle exploded shortly after takeoff, killing all seven aboard.  It became a defining "where were you when" moment for an entire generation.

McAuliffe, who was of both Irish and Lebanese descent, beat out more than 11,000 applicants for NASA's Teacher in Space Project.  On her application, she recalled watching John Glenn orbit the Earth in Friendship 7, writing "I watched the Space Age being born, and I would like to participate."

Upon her selection, McAuliffe made the media rounds, promoting her upcoming flight.  While appearing on the Today Show in July 1985, she told host Bryant Gumbel, through a thick New England accent, that applying to NASA was like playing the lottery.  "If you don't play it, you don't win.  When I filled out that application, that's really how I felt.  I figured there'd be at least 50,000 people sticking that same application in the mailbox."

Six months later, she boarded Challenger on that fateful January morning.  The shuttle launched from Florida's Cape Canaveral at 11:38 ET, as people all over the world watched at home and in classrooms, while her friends and family watched from below.  Nobody was expecting the tragedy that would occur just 73 seconds into the flight, when a rocket booster failure led to the shuttle's explosion at an altitude of 48,000 feet, killing all seven aboard.

NASA began a search and recovery operation, but it would take more than three months to locate the crew compartment and all human remains.  NASA would later state their belief that several of the crew members survived the initial breakup of the shuttle, only to perish in the descent to the ocean floor below.

Christa McAuliffe was laid to rest at Blossom Hill Cemetery in her hometown of Concord, New Hampshire.

Rest in peace.

Trivia

• If you want to learn more about Christa McAuliffe, take a voyage to Amazon.  Its all in books.  You can also watch the 2007 documentary Christa McAuliffe: Reach for the Stars on YouTube.
  
  
• In 1990, the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center opened its doors in Concord.  Named in her honor, as well as that of fellow astronaut Alan Shepard, the center serves as an air and space museum, offering an observatory, a planetarium, vintage aircraft and more. That same year, the Christa McAuliffe Space Center opened in Pleasant Grove, Utah.  Offering a planetarium, starship simulators and laser shows, its goal is to introduce elementary school-aged children to the world of astronomy. 
  
  
• McAuliffe's runner-up in the Teacher in Space project, Barbara Morgan, became a professional astronaut in 1998, flying aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour to the International Space Station.
  
  
• Ten months after the disaster, Paramount Pictures released Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home.  The film opened with a dedication to the Challenger crew, stating that their "courageous spirit shall live to the 23rd century and beyond."
  
  
• In 2019, President Trump signed the Christa McAuliffe Commemorative Coin Act.  Subsequently in 2021, the Department of Treasury issued $1 silver coins in her memory.
  
  
• The grave of Dr. Ronald McNair, who was also onboard Challenger, was previously profiled by this blog.
  
  
• In 2024, the New Hampshire State Capitol unveiled a statue of McAuliffe on its grounds, inscribed with the quote that headlined this blog post.
  

Eva Gabor

 

"I was the first actress in the family, and I am still the only actress in the family.  I shouldn't be saying it, but it slipped out!"

Eva Gabor was born in Budapest, Hungary on February 11, 1919.  She was the youngest of three sisters born to mother Jolie, a jeweler, and father Vilmos, a soldier.  When Eva was just 18, she immigrated to America, the first in her family to do so.

Her first acting role came in 1941, when she appeared in the feature film Forced Landing.  Over the next decade, she'd land a number of small roles in other feature films, including The Last Time I Saw Paris, with Liz Taylor.  In 1953, Eva was even given her own television talk show, the aptly titled Eva Gabor Show, which ran for one season.

In 1965, Eva landed the role for which she is most famously remembered, that of socialite Lisa Douglas on the CBS sit-com Green Acres.  For reasons this blogger has never understood, the series was a huge hit, running for six seasons on CBS.  It proved so popular that Eva's character appeared on two CBS sister series, The Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction.

After the show was canceled in 1971, Eva remained active in Hollywood, appearing as a semi-regular panelist on The Match Game.  She did a lot of voice-over work for Disney as well, appearing in such animated classics as The Aristocats and The Rescuers.  She attempted a return to television in 1990, but the pilot for her proposed series Close Encounters was never picked up.

In the summer of 1995, Eva was on vacation in Mexico, where she fell in the bathtub.  She returned to Los Angeles, but the damage was already done.  She died of pneumonia and respiratory failure on July 4th.  She was 76 years old.  Although she was the youngest of the three sisters, she was the first to pass, even preceding mother Jolie who would die two years later.

She was laid to rest at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village in Los Angeles.

Location: Lot #306
Inscription #1: Our Darling Eva
Inscription #2: You Are in Our Hearts Forever

Rest in peace.

Trivia

• If you want to learn more about Eva Gabor, take a voyage to Amazon.  Its all in books.
  
  
• In 2005, Eva's co-star Eddie Albert passed away at the age of 99.  He was also laid to rest at Pierce Brothers, just a short walk from Eva's grave.
  
  
• Speaking of Albert, Eva reunited with him in 1983 for a Broadway production of You Can't Take it With You.
  
  
• Eva was a successful entrepreneur, marketing a host of women's accessories, including fashionwear, beauty products and a wig line called Charming Lady.  Check out this commercial from 1981 on YouTube.
  
  
• Of the three Gabor sisters, Eva is the only one to have never married actor George Sanders (Mr. Freeze).

Don "Bubba" Bexley

 

Donald Thomas Bexley was born on March 10, 1910.  By most official accounts, he was born in Jamestown, Virginia.  Other sources cite his place of birth as Detroit.  This blogger tends to believe the former. 

Bexley was born with a flair for the stage.  His mother was a classical vocalist while his father was a Bible scholar and teacher.  He got his own start in the 1940s as a standup comedian in upstate New York, working with such notables as Milton Berle, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Henny Youngman.  Bexley was the first African-American comedian to perform in the Catskills of New York.

During his travels, he met fellow comedian Redd Foxx.  They immediately hit it off and would often perform together, a friendship and professional relationship that would span fifty years.

In 1971, Foxx started his signature series hit Sanford and Son, convincing NBC to hire his friend as well.  Bexley was cast as Fred Sanford's friend Bubba, the role for which he is best remembered.  Bexley stayed with the show until it ended in 1977, later reprising the role in a short-lived spin-off (see Trivia below).

Bexley continued acting throughout the 1980s, appearing on such hits as Hill Street Blues, Cheers, and Laverne and Shirley.  By 1996, his health was in decline however, and after suffering a hip injury, Bexley relocated to Hampton, Virginia, just a stone's throw from this blogger.  It was there that he died of heart and kidney failure on April 15, 1997.  He was 87 years old.  He was laid to rest at Hampton Memorial Gardens.

Location: Veteran's Block #3, Lot #228, Space #1
Inscription #1: Bubba
Inscription #2: In God's Loving Care

Rest in peace.

Trivia

• Bexley was good friends with Redd Foxx for more than fifty years.  In 1991, Foxx was starring in the short-lived sit-com The Royal Family, and as this blog reported, he died on set.  Producers opted to kill off his character in a similar manner and continue the series.  Bexley pulled double duty, serving as a pallbearer at Foxx's Las Vegas service while appearing as a funeral guest on the sit-com as well.  You can watch the episode in its entirety on YouTube.
  
  
• In 1957, Bexley and partner Dave Turner released a comedy album called Laff of the Party.  Check it out on YouTube.  Note: While the YouTube comments section suggests that this is not a Don Bexley recording, this blogger has verified its authenticity.
  
  
• Bexley reprised the role of Bubba on the short-lived 1977 spin-off series The Sanford Arms.  Check out the intro on YouTube.
  
  
• Bexley had a brief, uncredited role in the 1984 flop turned cult classic Dune.
  
  
• In 1989, Bexley was named Outstanding Senior Citizen of the Year by Orlando's Support the Artists of America.