Elizabeth Short, aka "The Black Dahlia"

Note: This is a particularly disturbing story.  Parental guidance is suggested.

Elizabeth Short was born was born on July 29, 1924 in Hyde Park, Massachusetts.  She was the third of five children, and when she turned three, her family relocated to Portland, Maine.  There, her father owned a series of successful miniature golf courses, but these would disappear, along with the family's savings, in the Stock Market Crash of 1929.  A year later, her father himself disappeared.  Although his body was never found, circumstantial evidence indicated that he had committed suicide.

Fast forward twelve years to 1942.  Short's mother Phoebe received a letter from her supposedly dead husband, who had in fact relocated to San Francisco.  Elizabeth, having already dropped out of high school, moved west to reunite with her father.  There, she had a series of run ins with the law, including an arrest for underage drinking in 1943.

Short's 1943 mug shot.

Following the arrest, Short left California, this time relocating to Florida.  There, she met and fell in love with Matthew Michael Gordon, Jr., a decorated Air Force pilot.  The two were engaged and planned to marry, but it would never come to be.  Gordon's plane went down on August 10, 1945, just one week before Japan surrendered.

Following his death, she returned to California, this time settling in Los Angeles.  She spent the final six months of her life working as a waitress.  By all accounts she had aspirations of becoming a movie star, but this too, would not come to be.

On the morning of January 15, 1947, Short's body was discovered in an undeveloped area of the Leimert Park section of Los Angeles.  She was the victim of a brutal murder.  The body was naked and severed in two pieces at the torso.  These photos can be readily found on the internet if you are curious.

The case remains cold to this day and remains one of the most infamous unsolved murders in the world.  For more information, books, movies and a score of documentaries on the case are all available.

Short was interred at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland California.  The grave site is on a rather steep hill and can be difficult to find.  Be careful where you step!

Mountain View Cemetery
Section 66
Marker 798

Trivia

• The origin of the Black Dahlia nickname is a subject of debate.  Some claim it came from the LAPD, who noted her preference for sheer black clothing.  Others maintain it was given to her by friends at a Long Beach drug store following release of the 1946 Alan Ladd film noir The Blue Dahlia.
  
  
• Two weeks after Short's murder, Republican state assemblyman C. Don Field introduced a bill calling for the formation of a sex offender registry.  California became the first state to make the registration of sex offenders mandatory.
  
  
• Vlogger (yes, that's a word) Adam the Woo visits the Dahlia murder locations in this video.
  
  
• In 2006, Brian DePalma brought the story to the big screen.  The Black Dahlia starred Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson and Hillary Swank.  The film was a complete disaster and bombed at the box office.  This blogger was dragged to it, kicking and screaming.  Feel free to watch the trailer here.
  
  
• A number of documentaries on the case have been produced over the years.  Here's one by CBS's 48 Hours.  Running time: 1 hour, 5 minutes. 

This One's To Go

Raymond Albert Kroc was born in Oak Park, Illinois on October 5, 1902.  Why this is not celebrated as a national holiday I will never know.

He was the son of Czech immigrants who fulfilled the American dream of striking it rich in the land of opportunity.  Unfortunately, most of the money they made selling real estate would be lost in the Stock Market Crash of 1929.

Kroc suffered a series of business failures through most of his early career.  In 1954, he was a traveling salesman for a milkshake company called Prince Castle, but had very few clients.  Then he got word of a business in San Bernardino, California, that had mysteriously bought six of his milkshake mixers.  This was unheard of at the time, and Kroc went to California to investigate.

There he met the owners of the business, Richard and Maurice McDonald, who had invented what would become the fast food industry.  Kroc was immediately impressed with their business model and wanted in on the company.  The brothers were hesitant however, having had prior franchising difficulties.

Richard and Maurice McDonald.

Kroc persisted, and the brothers ultimately allowed him to open a franchise back in Des Plaines, Illinois.  By all accounts, he was most interested in creating an environment that was safe and clean, one that customers would want to return to.  Employees were to be well groomed and were to treat customers with professionalism and respect.  Yes, we are talking about McDonald's here.

The original location in San Bernardino is today a McDonald's
museum, which this blogger visited in 2008.

The restaurant was a success, and Kroc, defying the brothers, opened additional locations.

The relationship between Kroc and the brothers was tumultuous at best.  He bought them out in 1961 for a mere $2.7 million.  For more information, I highly recommend the 2016 film The Founder, starring Michael Keaton as Kroc.  Watch the trailer here. 

Kroc died of heart failure on January 14, 1984.  He was interred at El Camino Memorial Park in San Diego.

Mausoleum of the Bells Terrace
Sunset Couches
Section D
Bay 1

Trivia

• During World War I, 15-year-old Kroc lied about his age and enlisted in the Army, serving as an ambulance driver with the Red Cross.  One of his fellow drivers was a still-unknown Walt Disney.
  
  
• In 1974, Kroc retired from McDonald's and turned to his other interest, baseball, buying the San Diego Padres.  Watch him throw out the first pitch here.  During his first year as owner, the team lost 102 games.  In 1984, shortly after his passing, the team made it to the World Series, ultimately losing to the Detroit Tigers four games to one.  Kroc was posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999.
  
  
• In 1977, Kroc published his autobiography Grinding it Out: The Making of McDonald's.  Pick up a copy here.
  
  
• Kroc gave interviews well into his final years.  Here's one in which he discusses the name McDonald's.
  
  
• One of Kroc's neighbors at El Camino Cemetery is Jonas Salk.

Stow it, Dingy!

Victor Tayback was born in Brooklyn on January 6, 1930.  He was the son of Syrian immigrants who came to America in the 1920s.  By the time he was a teenager, the family decided to move west and eventually settled in Burbank, California, where he completed high school.

After school, Tayback went right into acting.  His first credited role was the 1958 spiritual film The Power of the Resurrection, as Simon the Canaanite.  You can the watch the film in its entirety here.

In 1962, Tayback married his wife Sheila.  The couple welcomed their only child, son Christopher Tayback, shortly thereafter.

Throughout the 1960s, Tayback made several guest appearances on many popular shows of the time, including Get Smart, Bonanza and Rawhide.  One of his more famous guest roles during this period was in the original Star Trek episode "A Piece of the Action."  Watch Tayback chew up the scenery in this clip.

He'd continue to take roles in films, including that of diner owner Mel in the 1974 Martin Scorcese film Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, the story of a battered wife who takes her son cross country to get away from her abusive husband.  Watch the trailer here.

Two years later, CBS decided to take the controversial film and turn it into a weekly series.  While maintaining the central plot of a mother and her son moving cross country, the series would be much more lighthearted than the parent film had been.  Simply dubbed Alice and starring Linda Lavin, the sit-com depicted a widow and her son leaving New Jersey following the untimely death of her loving husband.

While many of the key roles from the film would be recast for the series, Tayback returned as Mel Sharples, owner of Mel's Diner in Phoenix, Arizona.  The series was a ratings success and ran for ten seasons on the network.  Tayback won two Golden Globe Awards during its run.  Here's a clip from the final episode.

When the series concluded in 1985, Tayback continued acting on television, appearing on such series as T.J. Hooker, Fantasy Island and The Love Boat.  He also did occasional film work, including the 1989 Patrick Dempsey film, Loverboy.

On May 25, 1990, Tayback passed away following a heart attack.  He was only 60 years old.  He was interred at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills, where he was joined by Sheila in 2001.

Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills
Sheltering Hills Section
Plot #3813

Vic's plot can be very difficult to find.  One tip: It's very close to the road, so don't go too far down the hill before you look for it or you'll walk right by it.

Stow it, Mel!

Trivia

• Butter!  Tayback starred in a 1976 commercial for Parkay Margarine.  Watch it here.
  
  
• Alice attempted a spin-off series in the form of Flo, which featured Polly Holliday reprising her role.  It wasn't as successful, and was dropped after one season.  Catch the intro here, sung by Hoyt Axton no less.
  
  
• In one of the oddest and most ill-conceived TV cross-overs ever, actors Sorrell Booke and Sonny Shroyer from the CBS series The Dukes of Hazzard appeared as their characters Boss Hogg and Enos Strate in the 1983 Alice episode "Mel Gets Hogg-Tied."  Here's a commercial for the episode (at the 2:00 mark) and here's a clip.
  
  
• In 1985, Tayback did a series of commercials for Heinz 57.  Here's one of them.
  
  
• What's the funniest joke you ever heard?  Tayback shares his in this 1984 TV special.

Odd and Amusing Graves in Ohio's Maplewood Cemetery

Six Feet Under Hollywood takes another detour from the famous this week, offering some interesting and unique graves discovered on a recent visit to Ohio.  Our trip takes us to the historic Maplewood Cemetery in New Albany, which was first established back in 1810. 

Maplewood has a rich history, with a large section devoted to Ohio's Civil War dead.  Some of these markers are quite touching, and offer an interesting glimpse into the culture of the time.

More recent internments often offer a sense of humor, a zest for life, and a love of all things Ohio. 

We hope you enjoy.

Does God have cable?

Dedicated to a small child who died accidentally.

Just Dew it.

Shall not be infringed.

The world is not enough.

He loved his music, Part 1.

Wrapped in a terrible towel.

The Bridges of Brown County.

He loved his music, Part 2.

Homeward bound.

Speed demon.

One-track mind.

 

Hef

Hugh Marston Hefner was born in Chicago on April 9, 1926.  He grew up in a conservative, midwestern family, and his mother encouraged him to become a missionary.  Write your own joke.

After high school, Hefner joined the Army and served as a writer for a military newspaper, his first taste of journalism.  He later continued his education at the University of Illinois.  Although he majored in psychology, he minored in creative writing and art, studies that would undoubtedly help him later in life.

By 1952, Hefner was working at Esquire, but he quit when he was refused a $5 raise.  The following year, he took out a mortgage loan of $600 and raised $8,000 from 45 investors to go into business for himself, launching the first magazine for men, Playboy.

He published the first issue in December 1953.  It famously featured Marilyn Monroe from a nude calendar shoot she had done four years earlier.  By 1953, her star had risen considerably, and the issue sold more than 50,000 copies, putting Playboy on the map.

Once the magazine took off, Hefner promoted it through a number of related enterprises, especially television.  The 1960s and 70s featured two series hosted by Hefner himself, Playboy's Penthouse and Playboy After Dark.  Click on the titles to see a complete episode of each series.

In the 60s he also created the first "private-key" club in his hometown of Chicago, with other locations soon to follow.  In 1975, he moved his operation west, headquartering at the now-famous Playboy mansion.

By the 1980s, the hard lifestyle caught up with Hefner, and he suffered a minor stroke at age 59.  He re-evaluated his life, and decided to turn control of his empire over to daughter Christie in 1988.

The following year, he married his second wife and former Playmate of the Year, Kimberly Conrad.  The marriage produced two sons, but ultimately ended in 2010.  Apparently they remained friends, judging by this tongue-in-cheek interview she gave in 2011.

Following his divorce (and most say long before it), Hefner famously dated a number of serious "number one" girlfriends, including Holly Madison, who helped Hefner create the very successful reality series The Girls Next Door.  While Hefner claimed he would never marry again, what he really meant was that he would never marry her.  Instead, he married another playmate, Crystal Harris, aka The Runaway Bride, in 2012.  The couple remained married through Hefner's final years, before he ultimately passed on September 27, 2017, a victim of e. coli.  The more you know.

Years earlier, Hefner purchased the burial crypt next to his first cover girl Marilyn Monroe, at Pierce Brothers Westwood Memorial Village.

In this shot of Marilyn Monroe's crypt, taken in 2016, Hefner's future crypt appears
behind the standing bouquet.

Rest in peace, Hef.

Trivia:

• Despite featuring her in Playboy's premiere issue and buying the burial crypt next to her, Hefner never actually met Marilyn Monroe.
  
  
• One of the 45 investors was Hefner's mother Grace.  Reportedly she did so not believing in the project, but because "she believed in her son."
  
  
• Following publication of the June 1963 issue, which featured Jayne Mansfield, Hefner was arrested for promoting obscene literature, as the pictorial included one photo with a very lucky man.  The case went to trial, but ultimately resulted in a hung jury.  No, that's not a pun.
  
  
•  In 1993, Hefner voiced himself in an episode of The Simpsons entitled "Krusty Gets Kancelled."  Watch a clip here.
  
  
•  ABC's Good Morning America reported on Hef's passing in this segment.
  
  
•  This author's first letter to the editor was published in the June 1998 issue.

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Ann Bradford Davis was born on May 3, 1926 in Schenectady, New York.  Growing up, she had always planned on a career in medicine.  However, after seeing her older brother appear on stage in a production of Oklahoma!, Davis was immediately hooked.  She graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in Drama and Speech.

Hollywood was calling, and Davis soon found herself accepting minor roles on television.  She appeared as a musical judge on the talent series Jukebox Jury.  Here's the theme song.  Her first taste of fame however, was on the sit-com The Bob Cummings Show, wherein she played the title character's lovelorn secretary, Charmaine "Schultzy" Schultz.  Davis won two primetime Emmy Awards for the role, as best Supporting Actress in a Sit-Com.  Here's an episode in its entirety.

Throughout the 1960s, Davis did a series of commercials for the Ford Motor Company and their Ford Fairlane automobile.  Here's one such commercial.  Parental guidance is suggested.

In 1968, Davis was cast in the role that would forever cement her place in pop culture history, that of housekeeper Alice Nelson (yes, she had a last name) on The Brady Bunch.  Ironically, Davis was a last-minute substitution by series creator Sherwood Schwartz, who had just recast the role of Carol Brady with actress Florence Henderson, replacing comedic actress Joyce Bulifant.  As Henderson did not have a comedic resume, Schwartz opted to make the housekeeper the more lighthearted character, and immediately cast Davis.

The show ran until 1974, at which time Davis left Hollywood, although never officially retiring from acting.  She sold her Los Angeles home and move to Denver, Colorado.  A deeply spiritual woman, Davis joined an Episcopal community and devoted her life to Christ.  The community later relocated to Pennsylvania, where Davis continued to be an active member within the church.

Schultzy, The Brady Bunch Movie (1995).

Throughout the 1970s until her death, Davis would occasionally take acting roles, usually in the various Brady Bunch spin-offs and related projects.  She reprised the role of Alice in a number of projects, including The Brady Bunch Variety Hour (1976), A Very Brady Christmas (1988) and The Bradys (1990).  ironically, she also reprised the role of Schultzy in The Brady Bunch Movie (1995).

By 2014, Davis was living in San Antonio, Texas.  Still active in the church, she attended services at St. Helena's in nearby Boerne.  She shared a home with the pastor and his wife, who found her unresponsive on the morning of June 1.  Paramedics were called, but Davis was already gone.  Her death was attributed to a subdermal hematoma after having taken a fall in her bathroom.  Davis was cremated, and her ashes interred at St. Helena's Columbarium and Memorial Gardens.

Davis's marker can be found on this columbarium.

The author pays his respects.

Trivia

• Ann had a twin sister named Harriett.  Ironically, Davis would later play her identical twin cousin in the Brady episode "Sargent Emma."
  
  
• During her run on The Brady Bunch, Davis appeared as herself on an episode of The Dating Game.  Watch her segment here.  Ironically, she never married nor was she ever romantically linked to anyone.
  
  
• During the 1980s, Davis did a series of commercials for Shake 'N Bake.  Here's one, ironically filmed in a butcher shop.
  
  
• Davis released a cookbook in 1994 entitled "Alice's Brady Bunch Cookbook."  Pick up a copy here.
  
  
• Entertainment Tonight reported on her passing with this tribute.
  
  
• Wanna hear the 911 call when Ann's roommate found her unconscious?  Here it is.

I Grok Spock!

Leonard Nimoy was born on March 26, 1931 in Boston.  He was the son of Jewish immigrants who had fled their native Ukraine, resettling in America and carving out their slice of the American dream.  His father owned a barbershop, while his mother raised Leonard and his older brother Melvin.

From an early age, Leonard had an interest in the theatre.  His father however, encouraged him to go to college and find a more stable career.  He enrolled in Boston College, but soon realized it wasn't for him, despite the drama classes he took against his father's wishes.  He had earned $600 selling vacuum cleaners door to door, and figured it was enough to get him started in Hollywood.

The Pasadena Playhouse, circa 1953.

Once in LA, he enrolled in classes at the Pasadena Playhouse.  This too, wasn't for him, as he felt that he was already a better actor than he could ever become there.  "I thought, I have to study here three years in order do this level of work, and I'm already doing better work."  Seeing the illogic of it, he dropped out.

He wasn't wrong.  He quickly landed roles in a number of B movies.  He was introduced to the world in 1952 in the Republic Pictures serial Zombies of the Stratosphere, playing, of all things, an alien.  You can watch the entire serial here.  Here he is in an episode of Dragnet.

Nimoy as Spock, 1968.

Despite these early successes, Nimoy felt that he would never reach star status due to his thin physique.  Turns out it's what one up-and-coming producer was just looking for.

In 1964, former police officer turned Hollywood executive Gene Roddenberry cast Nimoy in his new science fiction series, Star Trek.  The two had worked together on Roddenberry's detective series The Lieutenant, where the producer first realized that Nimoy would be perfect for the role of Spock.

The series was a marginal success for NBC, where it ran for three seasons.  Of course everyone knows it went on to become a pop culture juggernaut, with Nimoy featured prominently front and center.

After Star Trek, Nimoy joined the cast of Mission Impossible for its final two seasons, playing a master of disguise named Paris.  Here he is in a 1970 episode, featuring his Star Trek co-star Mark Lenard.

In Search of....a steady paycheck.

In 1977, Nimoy began hosting the investigative series In Search Of, which ran in syndication for five seasons.  In addition to exploring historical mysteries such as the Lindbergh baby and Amelia Earheart, the series also examined paranormal phenomena, such as aliens, Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster.  Watch the iconic intro here.

That same year, Hollywood was rocked by the success of George Lucas's Star Wars, produced by 20th Century Fox.  Rival studio Paramount, buoyed by Star Trek's nearly ten-year success in syndication, opted to bring the series back as a feature film. From 1979 to 1991, Nimoy and his co-stars reunited for six such films, two of which were directed by Nimoy himself.  The more successful of these films was Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.  In this "Director's Series" video produced by Paramount, Nimoy shows us production of that film.

I could go on for days here, but entire books have been written on Nimoy's life, including a few by Nimoy himself (see below).  He retired from acting in 2011, though he continued to make occasional appearances on series such as Fringe and The Big Bang Theory.as well as providing voice-over work in a number of films in The Transformers movie franchise.

Nimoy arrives at JFK Airport, 2014.

In 2014, Nimoy publicly revealed that he had COPD, a condition he attributed to his years of smoking.  Although nicotine free for more than 30 years, he could not escape the effects of it, and by 2015, relied on an oxygen tank for normal breathing.  He ultimately passed on February 27 from the disease.

The world mourned the loss of a true pop culture icon.  It's one of those I remember where I was when I heard the news moments.

He was laid to rest at Hillside Memorial Cemetery in Culver City, California, the first major Star Trek actor to have a final resting place, as both DeForest Kelley and James Doohan had opted for other, undisclosed arrangements.


Final Resting Place

A plaque adorns a rock marker by a cool stream at Hillside Memorial Gardens.

Mementos

Indeed it was.

A fan has recreated Nimoy's final tweet, published just days before he passed away.

Rest in peace, Mr. Spock.

Trivia

• Nimoy was born just four days after his co-star William Shatner.
  
  
• As a sergeant in the U.S. Army, Nimoy encouraged one of his fellow recruits, Ken Berry, to go into acting himself.  Berry did just that, starring in F-Troop, Mayberry, RFD and Mama's Family.
  
  
• Nimoy and Shatner first worked together in an episode of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.  You can watch a clip of it here.  Robert Vaughn and Colonel Klink himself, Werner Klemperer, also appear.
  
  
• Nimoy tried to shed his Spock exterior in 1976 when he published his first memoir, I am Not Spock.  Pick up a copy here.  Years later, he had a change of heart, publishing the follow-up I AM Spock.  Here's a link.
  
  
• Nimoy was a versatile stage actor, racking up hundreds of Broadway roles, including a 1971 production of Fiddler on the Roof and a 1974 production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
  
  
• Nimoy did hundreds of commercials throughout his career, including some with William Shatner.  Here are some for Aleve, MCI, and Priceline.com.
  
  
• I'd be negligent if I didn't include a link to Nimoy's 1968 music video, The Ballad of Billbo Baggins.  Here you go.