Walker Edmiston - The World of Sid & Marty Krofft

"I do many voices that I can't do and people ask me what I mean.  What I tell them is that I'll be hired to come in and do a voice and prior to going in I can't do it...somehow, I have this ear where I can hear a voice and reproduce it."

Walker Edmiston.  Not exactly a household name.  But if you're of a certain generation, you've undoubtedly heard his voice at some point during your formative years.

He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on February 6, 1926.  He was interested in acting from a very early age, appearing in many high school productions. Upon graduation, he moved to California, where he studied acting at the famed Pasadena Playhouse.

In the 1950s, he began appearing on local Los Angeles television programs, beginning with Time for Beany, a puppet show produced for the children's hour (Beany was a seasick sea serpent).  Edmiston proved such a natural at voice-over work that station KTLA gave him his own series, the aptly titled Walker Edmiston Show.  It ran for 13 years and helped introduce him to a much larger audience.  During this same time, he often worked on the original Star Trek TV series, providing voice-over work on such episodes as "Return of the Archons," "A Taste of Armageddon," and "The Gamesters of Triskelion" (two quatloos on the newcomer!).

After his series came to a close, Edmiston was introduced to famed Puppeteers Sid and Marty Krofft, who were planning a new children's series for NBC.  H.R. Pufnstuf premiered in September 1969, forever changing Saturday morning TV.  A live-action series, many of the characters were either puppets or costumed human actors, for which Edmiston provided a number of voices.  Although fellow voice-over artist and friend Lennie Weinrib provided the voice of Pufnstuf himself, Edmiston voiced his associate Dr. Blinky (above) and Seymore, the, whatever it was.

This started a decades-long collaboration between Edmiston and the Kroffts.  He provided the main character's voice (as well as his entire family) on Sigmund and the Sea Monsters as well as Sparky the firefly on The Bugaloos. The Krofft role he is probably best remembered for however, is that of Enik the Altrusian (left), both friend and antagonist to the Marshall Family on Land of the Lost.  Edmiston not only voiced the role, but he appeared on screen in the costume as well.

He continued acting throughout the 1970s and 80s, appearing on such shows as Adam-12, The Dukes of Hazzard, and Knots Landing.  He continued his voice work as well, speaking for many of the autobots and decepticons on the pop culture juggernaut The Transformers.

By the early 2000s, Edmiston was diagnosed with cancer and his health began to decline.  He passed away on February 15, 2007.  He was 81 years old.

Walker Edmiston was cremated.  His ashes were interred at famed Hollywood Forever Cemetery, in a very high alcove.  To give you some perspective, I'm 6'4".

Rest in peace, Enik.

Trivia

• Edmiston recorded the theme song for his show on vinyl.  To say that its kooky would be an understatement.  Give it a listen on YouTube.
  
  
• Edmiston did a lot of the voice work in the 1977 film Smokey and the Bandit and can often be heard on the police CB.  Here's one such scene on YouTube (Edmiston comes in at the 1:20 mark).  He also provided the voice of the air traffic controller in the 1980 classic film Airplane!
   
• Edmiston auditioned for the voice of Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back, a role that ultimately went to Frank Oz.
  
  
• Edmiston recorded an interview as one of the bonus features on the Land of the Lost DVD set.  You can watch it in its entirety on YouTube.
  
  
• Krofft fan Keir Neubauer acquired the original Enik costume in the early 2000s, by which point it had greatly deteriorated.  He commissioned Tom Spina Designs in New York to restore the costume to its original glory.  This blogger got to see the results of their work at the Chiller Theatre pop culture convention in 2017.

Roxie Roker

 

I've been wanting to do this particular post for a while, as the story of my visit to her grave is one that I love to tell.  Whenever someone asks me some version of "what's your favorite grave," this one invariably comes up.

Roxie Albertha Roker was born in Miami, Florida, on August 28, 1929.  She was the daughter of Al Roker (see Trivia below), a porter originally from The Bahamas, and Bessie Roker, a maid from Georgia.  Shortly after her birth, the family relocated to Brooklyn, New York.

From an early age, Roker was interested in the performing arts.  After completing high school, she attended Howard University in Washington, DC, where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Afterwards, she returned home to New York, where she joined the Negro Ensemble Company, and began a successful career on the Broadway stage.

It was also during this time that she married television producer Sy Kravitz.  In 1964, the couple welcomed their first and only child, future pop star Lenny Kravitz (right). 

In 1974, she made her first acting appearance on television in the made-for-TV movie Change at 125th Street.  Just one year later, she was cast in the role for which she is most famously remembered, that of Helen Willis on The Jeffersons (below). Roker stayed with the series for its entire eleven-year run, making television history in the process.  She and co-star Franklin Cover portrayed the first interracial couple in a primetime television series.

When the series concluded in 1985, Roker was in the process of divorcing Sy after more than twenty years of marriage.  She continued acting on TV during this time, making the obligatory appearances on The Love Boat and Murder, She Wrote.  She also made a guest appearance on the NBC sit-com 227, starring her Jeffersons co-star Marla Gibbs.  On the big screen, she appeared in the 1987 cult comedy classic Amazon Women on the Moon.

By the early 1990s, Roker's health was in decline.  She was diagnosed with breast cancer, which ultimately took her life on December 2, 1995.  She was just 66 years old. 

Roker was returned to Miami and laid to rest with her mother, Bessie. 

Location: Southern Memorial Park
East Court #2, Lot #19, Gr #2B

In 2012, this blogger went to Miami on a grave expedition.  The city is the final resting place for many Hollywood notables, including Jackie Gleason, Leslie Nielsen, and Roker.  I made my way to Southern Memorial Park, but locating Roker's grave proved to be a challenge.  I don't often ask staff for assistance, as they can be reluctant to provide information on famous graves.  However, this day I lucked out.

When I went to the main office, I met a woman in her mid-20s and asked her for directions to the grave.  When she asked me the name of the deceased, I sheepishly replied "Roxie Roker," and to my great relief, the name didn't register.  Not only did she give me directions to the grave, but she also offered to drive me to it in one of the cemetery's golf carts.  This was too good to be true.

We got to the grave, which as you can see, bares her married name of Roxie Roker Kravitz.  It was at this point that the young woman made the connection, asking me if Roker was related to Lenny Kravitz.  "Why yes," I replied.  "This is his mother."  I further explained that this was Helen Willis from The Jeffersons.

My host could not have been more surprised.  Not only was she a huge Lenny Kravitz fan, but she was also watching The Jeffersons on cable.  I pulled out my phone, played the theme song on YouTube, and we recreated the dance from the intro.  I don't normally dance at one's grave, but this was not to be passed up.  

As I left, I gave my host some parting advice - keep an eye on this grave.  One day, Lenny might show up.

Rest in peace.

Trivia

• Roxie's second cousin is long-time NBC weatherman and Sharknado star Al Roker.  He was named after Roxie's father.
  
  
• In the early 1960s, Roker hosted a Brooklyn public affairs TV series called Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant.  Check out this episode on YouTube.
  
  
• In 1974, Roker won an Obie Award and a Tony nomination for her performance in the Broadway show The River Niger.
  
  
• According to Roker, during her audition for The Jeffersons, producer Norman Lear felt that she didn't look believable as an African-American woman married to a Caucasian man. In response, Roker showed Lear a photo of her husband Sy Kravitz (Caucasian) and was immediately hired.
  
  
• The character of Helen Willis originated in the classic All in the Family episode "Lionel's Engagement," played by actress Kim Hamilton.  Check out this clip on YouTube. (Note: the original 1970s language is intact.)
  
  
• After his mother's passing, Lenny recorded the tribute sone "Thinking of You," the video for which included a photo of Roker.  Check it out on YouTube.
  
  
• Roker's co-star Isabel Sanford was also profiled here at Six Feet Under Hollywood.

Norman Fell

 

"I enjoyed acting and marveled that one could get paid for doing it."
  --Norman Fell

Norman Noah Feld (Norman Fell) was born in Pennsylvania on March 24, 1924. He was the son of Austrian Jewish immigrants who opened a restaurant in Philadelphia.  There he attended Central High School, with plans to study drama in college.  But as America entered World War 2, Fell opted to serve his country instead.

He enlisted in the now-defunct U.S. Army Air Forces and was assigned to the Fifth Air Force in the Pacific Fleet.  There he served as a tail gunner on a B-25 bomber. When the war was over, he returned to Philadelphia and studied drama at Temple University.

After graduation, Fell moved to Hollywood and began acting on television.  He guest starred on several notable series of the 50s and 60s, including Perry Mason, The Untouchables and The Fugitive.  During this time, he appeared in a made-for-tv movie that was ironically titled Three's a Crowd, though it had no relation to any of the future series.

His first film role of note was in the original 1960 version of Ocean's 11.  He'd later appear in the 1963 classic comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Ironically, he'd also play a landlord in the 1967 Dustin Hoffman film The Graduate.

In 1970, Fell landed a series of his own, opposite up-and-coming actor Burt Reynolds.  Dan August (right) was a detective series produced by Quinn Martin that aired for one season on ABC.  Check out the intro on YouTube.

All of this is leading up to the role that Fell is most famously associated with, that of Stanley Roper on the ABC sit-com Three's Company, a show that sadly, could never be produced today.  He played the character for three seasons, earning a Golden Globe Award along the way. As Mr. Roper, Fell was notorious for breaking the fourth wall and laughing directly at the camera.  Here's a great compilation.

In 1980, he was convinced by the show's producers to leave the series for one of his own, a spin-off entitled The Ropers (left).  Though it lasted for two seasons, it was never a ratings hit and it lacked the charm of the original.  Upon its cancellation, Fell famously attempted to return to Three's Company, but found himself on the wrong side of his ABC contract.

He never hurt for work however, keeping busy for the next two decades.  In 1989, he made this memorable guest appearance on the ABC sit-com Hooperman, appearing alongside his former Three's Company co-star John Ritter.

On the morning of Thanksgiving 1998, Fell found himself too weak to get out of bed.  He was rushed to the hospital where he was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer, which was already in its final stages.  He died just two weeks later, on December 14, 1998.  He was 74 years old.

Norman Fell was cremated and his ashes were inurned at Mount Sinai Memorial Park in Los Angeles.

Location: Garden of Heritage, Columbarium of Tradition, Niche #1601, Space A
Inscription #1: Cherished and Adored Father, Grandfather and Brother
Inscription #2: A Greatly Talented and Romantic Man

Rest in peace.

Trivia

• Fell was credited with two Japanese kills during World War 2.
  
  
• For more than 40 years, Fell managed to fool Hollywood into believing that he and Jack Klugman were bitter enemies.  In fact, the two were co-conspirators in the hoax, having grown up together as friends in Philadelphia.
  
  
• Fell did a lot of commercial work throughout his career, including this hilarious spot for Pepto-Bismol. He also appeared in a public service announcement for the IRS, alongside future Golden Girl Rue McClanahan.
  
  
• Fell's final on-screen appearance was in a 1998 episode of the Ellen DeGeneres sit-com Ellen.  Fittingly, he reprised his role of Stanley Roper one last time.  Check it out on YouTube.
  
  
• Fell's replacement on Three's Company, Don Knotts, also appeared in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

This One's to Go

 

Burgers, chicken and crunchy gorditas.  Who doesn't love a good fast food meal?  In this blog post, meet three pioneers who all thought outside the bun, creating a whole new neighborhood of dining options for travelers and families alike.  Make this one to go, as you travel to three states and visit their final resting places.     
                  
Samuel Truett Cathy was born in Eatonton, Georgia, on March 14, 1921. In 1946, he opened his first restaurant, the Dwarf Grill, named so for its small size.  There, he and his brother created a chicken sandwich that would become the signature item at what is today called Chick Fil A, at approximately 2,600 locations worldwide.  Cathy died of diabetes on September 8, 2014.

Location: Greenwood Cemetery (Atlanta, GA), Section #21
Inscription: A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches (Proverbs 22:1)

Rex David Thomas (Dave Thomas) was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on July 2, 1932.  He had an appreciation for the restaurant industry from an early age, dropping out of high school to pursue this interest.  After serving as a mess sergeant during the Koren War, Thomas returned to the U.S. and worked for Colonel Harland Sanders, helping to revitalize four failing Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants in the Midwest.  Then in 1969, he opened his first Wendy's restaurant in Columbus, Ohio, naming the franchise after his daughter.  Today, there are more than 6,900 locations worldwide.  Thomas died of cancer on January 8, 2002.

Location: Union Cemetery (Columbus, OH), Mausoleum Chapel B, Lot #1B, Space #1

Colonel Harland David Sanders was born in Henryville, Indiana, on September 9, 1890. During the Great Depression, he began selling chicken at his first roadside restaurant in North Corbin, Kentucky.  It was here that he developed his secret recipe of eleven herbs and spices.  He began franchising the chain in 1952, and today, there are more than 24,000 locations worldwide.  Sanders died of pneumonia on December 16, 1980.

Location: Cave Hill Cemetery (Louisville, KY), Section #33, Lot #57, Grave #1
Inscription: Born near Henryville, Indiana, Founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken Empire

Rest in peace.

Supreme Court Row

Arlington National Cemetery was established in 1864. Located on the Potomac River just outside Washington, DC, it is the final resting place for more than 400,000 service members, politicians and other national figures. 

Included in this tally are 14 members of the U.S. Supreme Court. Many are scattered throughout the park, although a handful can be found in what this blogger calls "Supreme Court Row."

You'll find it just inside the main gate and up a winding road situated on a small hill.  On a recent visit to the park, I found graves for four of the so-called "men in black."

Warren Earl Burger was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on September 17, 1907.

In 1969, he was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Richard M. Nixon, where he served as Chief Justice until his retirement in 1986.  He was succeeded in this position by Judge William Rehnquist.

Burger died of congestive heart failure on June 25, 1995.

Joan Ruth Bader Ginsburg was born in Brooklyn, New York, on March 15, 1933.

In 1993, she was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton, where she served as Associate Justice until her death on September 18, 2020.  She was succeeded in this position by Judge Amy Coney Barrett.

Ginsburg was laid to rest with her husband Martin, who preceded her in death in 2010.  Like his wife, he was also a lawyer, having taught at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.

Thurgood Marshall (birth name Thoroughgood) was born in Baltimore, Maryland on July 2, 1908.

In 1967, he was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Lyndon B. Johnson, where he served as Associate Justice until his retirement in 1991. He was succeeded in this position by Judge Clarence Thomas.

Marshall died of heart failure on January 24, 1993.

John Paul Stevens was born in Chicago, Illinois, on April 20, 1920.

In 1975, he was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Gerald Ford, where he served until his retirement in 2010.  He was succeeded in this position by Elena Kagan.

Stevens died from complications of a stroke on July 16, 2019.

Rest in peace.

The Hilton Sisters

 

Recently on a road trip through the Carolinas, I was perusing roadsideamerica.com, a great resource for finding unique and odd roadside attractions.  I came across this entry in Charlotte, for the grave of conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton.  I had never heard of them, but from what I read, they had made a name for themselves in film and on the stage.

While Six Feet Under Hollywood normally profiles celebrities and notable figures, I do occasionally like to showcase some of the lesser-known residents of our nation's cemeteries, such as the outer space alien buried in Aurora, Texas.  The Hilton Sisters are no less interesting.

They were born in Sussex, England, on February 5, 1908.  As you can imagine, it was a difficult birth.  The sisters were born fused at the hips, and while they shared blood circulation, their organs were all their own.

The twins were unique, in that they were the first to be born in the United Kingdom to survive more than a few weeks.  Doctors considered separating them, but feared it would lead to the death of one or both of them. 

Their mother, Kate Skinner, was an unmarried barmaid. The pub's owner, Mary Hilton, saw great financial opportunity in the girls, and for lack of a better word, she bought them from Skinner.  You read that correctly.  The girls were trained in singing and dancing, then put on display at the Queen Arm's pub in Brighton.

By the time they were three, Hilton was already touring the sisters throughout Great Britain.  In 1911, the tour continued through Germany and Australia, before they finally crossed the pond into America.  Once there, they joined the vaudeville circuit, and Hilton crafted an imaginative backstory to entertain the curious.  I wish I knew what that was.

In 1926, the sisters teamed up with up-and-coming comedian Bob Hope, forming a new act called "Dancemedians."  Any profits the two earned from this collaboration however, went directly to Hilton.  But when she died unexpectedly in Birmingham, Alabama, the twins were bequeathed to her daughter Edith Meyers and her husband Meyer Meyers.  Honest.  I'm not making any of this up.

The Hiltons and the Meyers, circa 1927.

The family relocated to San Antonio, Texas, where the Meyers trained them in musical instruments.  Although the girls were quick studies, it was probably the frequent beatings at the hands of the Meyers that inspired their training. 

Tired of the beatings and the financial servitude, the girls were legally emancipated at age 22.  Really. They sued the Meyers and were awarded $100,000 in damages, or $1.4 million in current dollar totals.

In 1932, the sisters appeared in the Tod Browning cinematic masterpiece Freaks.  Set against the backdrop of a traveling circus, the sisters appeared alongside other famed sideshow performers, including dwarf siblings Harry and Daisy Earles and Simon Metz, a victim of microcephaly with an abnormally small head.  Although the film was a financial disappointment upon release and was banned in several countries, it would achieve acclaim later in the 1960s upon re-release.  Check out this clip on the Hiltons on YouTube.

After the film, they returned to the United Kingdom, where they'd spend the next year on tour.  In 1933, the sisters returned to America, where they tried leading normal lives.  Violet began dating musician Maurice Lambert.  Although the couple wanted desperately to marry, their license to do so was rejected in 21 states.

In 1936 however, Violet successfully married gay actor James Moore, but biographers attribute this to a publicity stunt.  After Freaks, the girls' popularity was in decline, while Moore was trying to make a name for himself.  The marriage lasted for ten years on paper, but the couple never lived as husband and wife.  In 1941, Daisy took a husband of her own, dancer Buddy Sawyer, who was also gay.  The marriage lasted ten days.

In 1952, the sisters starred in the exploitation film Chained for Life (left), which was loosely based on their own personal story.  It too was a financial failure, but that won't stop you from watching it on YouTube.  

The sisters would continue touring for the next ten years, but by 1961, public interest was in decline.  They unknowingly made their final public appearance at a drive-in in Charlotte, North Carolina, where their manager abandoned them. With no money or transportation, the sisters took jobs at a local grocery store, Park 'N Shop, where they'd continue working for the rest of their lives.

 On January 4, 1969, the sisters failed to report to work.  The store manager notified police, who went to their home and conducted a welfare check.  Both sisters were found dead, victims of the Hong Kong Flu.  An autopsy would later reveal that Daisy died first, while Violet lasted another two to four days.

The Hilton Sisters were laid to rest at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Charlotte.  They were buried in a single coffin (imagine the logistics of that) in a donated plot. 

Location: Section M, Lot #313
Inscription: Beloved Siamese Twins.

Rest in peace, girls. 

Trivia

• The Hiltons were chronicled in a number of books.  Check out these titles on Amazon:
   * Violet and Daisy: The Story of Vaudeville's Famous Conjoined Twins, by Sarah Miller (2021)
   * The Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet Hilton: A True Story of Conjoined Twins, by Dean Jensen (2006)
  
  
• During their vaudeville years, the sisters learned self-hypnosis from Harry Houdini, as a means of being alone.
  
  
• In 1997, the musical Side Show opened on Broadway, telling the story of Daisy and Violet Hilton.  Although it received four Tony Award nominations, the production closed after just 91 performances.
  
  
• Just one week before this blog was published, a commemorative plaque honoring the sisters was erected at their birthplace.  Note that it gives their birth name of Skinner.
  
  
  
  

Titanic Bodies

 

"There is no danger that Titanic will sink. The boat is unsinkable and nothing but inconvenience will be suffered by the passengers."
  --Phillip Franklin, Vice-President of the White Star Line.

Everyone knows the story of the Titanic, even those who didn't see James Cameron's 1997 love letter to the disaster.  The ship advertised as "unsinkable" did just that, ironically enough on its maiden voyage.  When she slipped beneath the sea in the early morning hours of April 15, 1912, she took more than 1,500 souls with her.

In the days following the disaster, more than 300 bodies were pulled from the Atlantic by the CS Mackay-Bennett, a transatlantic cable-laying and cable repair ship.  Those that were identifiable were claimed by friends and family.  Most however, were far too decomposed, making positive identification impossible.  More than 100 such bodies were buried in unmarked graves at Fairview Lawn Cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

This blogger has yet to visit those graves.  On a recent trip to New York however, I did find the final resting places for three Titanic victims at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.  

Archibald Gracie IV was an American writer, historian, and real estate investor.  When it became obvious that the ship was doomed, Gracie assisted the second officer in loading women and children into the lifeboats. He himself however, would go down with the ship. 

Although initially pulled under by the suction, Gracie managed to free himself and swim to the surface.  He spent the next several hours standing atop an overturned collapsible lifeboat, with a handful of other survivors.

"There arose to the sky the most horrible sounds ever heard by mortal man except by those of us who survived this terrible tragedy," Gracie later recalled.  "The agonizing cries of death from over a thousand throats, the wails and groans of the suffering, the shrieks of the terror-stricken and the awful gaspings for breath of those in the last throes of drowning, none of us will ever forget to our dying day."

Gracie was one of the 705 survivors to be rescued that night.  Soon thereafter, he published his personal account of the disaster, entitled Titanic: A Survivor's Story.  But as a diabetic, the incident had a lasting impact on Gracie's health, and he died just eight months later, on December 4, 1912.  He was one of the first survivors of the tragedy to pass away.

Location: Catalpa Plot, Section 23/24
Inscription: "Hero of S.S. Titanic, Sunk April 15, 1912"

Isador Straus was an American businessman and politician.  He served one term in the U.S. House of Representatives, and along with his brother, founded the Macy's Department Store chain. 

In 1871, he married Rosalie Ida Blun (Ida Straus).  The couple had seven children together, and by the time they boarded Titanic, had spent more than 40 years as husband and wife.

In terms of the sinking, there's is a story that is often portrayed with great romance in film and literature.  Although offered a seat in the lifeboat, Ida refused to leave Isador's side.  Survivor and friend Archibald Gracie later quoted her as saying "I will not be separated from my husband.  As we have lived, so we will die, together."

The couple were last seen arm-in-arm on deck.  One survivor described it as "the most remarkable exhibition of love and devotion."

Isador's body was recovered by the Mackay-Bennett.  Ida's however, was never found. A private mausoleum was erected at Woodlawn by the family, where Isador's body was interred.  A bottle of ocean water was placed in the grave to represent Ida.

Location: F-4 Myosotis
Inscription: "Many waters cannot quench love - neither can the floods drown it."
--The Bible, Song of Solomon 8:7

Rest in peace.