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Vintage Vibes, D D N Hemantha , 2735 Wyntercrest Lane, Durham, CA (2026)

08/02/2024

Rose McClendon born on August 27, 1884 was dubbed the "Negro first lady of the dramatic stage” because of her powerful stage performances. She was born as Rosalie Virginia Scott in Greenville, South Carolina, and as a child relocated to New York City. She started acting in church plays as a child, but did not become a professional actress until she won a scholarship to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts when she was in her thirties.
Her first claim to fame came in Deep River, a "native opera with jazz", in 1926. In addition to acting, she also directed several plays at the Harlem Experimental Theatre. She appeared in the 1927 Pulitzer Prize-winning play In Abraham's Bosom by Paul Green. In 1931, she was in another Paul Green play on Broadway, The House of Connelly, which was the first production by The Group Theatre, directed by Lee Strasberg.
McClendon was a contemporary of Paul Robeson, Ethel Barrymore, Lynn Fontanne and Langston Hughes. Hughes wrote a character for her, Cora Lewis, in his 1935 historic play, Mulatto. Her talent extended to directing as well and in 1935, she co-founded with Dick Campbell, the Negro People's Theatre in Harlem. A year later McClendon died of pneumonia on July 12, 1936 at the age of 51. After her death Campbell and his wife, Murial Rahn, founded the RoseMcClendon players in honor of her groundbreaking accomplishments.

08/02/2024

Pola Negri performs brilliantly at Valentino's funeral, giving two performances, one in New York and one in Los Angels. For years it was speculated that it was she who showed up every year at his grave on the anniversary of his death, draped in black, to place a single red rose. Now, most sources agree that the lady in black was a no-name actress, hired by a publicity department to drum up interest in Valentino's films long after his death.

08/02/2024

CLARA BRIM, enslave by William Lyons of Branch, Louisiana, now lives in Beaumont, Texas. The town of Branch was known in slave days as Plaquemine Bouley. Clara estimates her age to be 100 or 102, and from various facts known to her and her family, this would seem to be correct.
"Old massa's name was William Lyons. I didn't have no old missus, 'cause he was a bachelor. He had a big plantation. I don't know how big but dey somethin' like twenty fam'lies of slaves and some dem fam'lies had plenty in dem. My ma was Becky Brim and pa, he name Louis Brim. She come from Old Virginny. Dey work in de field. I had two sister name Cass and Donnie and a brudder name Washington. He went off to de war. When it break out dey come and take him off to work in de army. He lost in dat war. He didn't come back. Nobody ever know what happen to him.
"Some de houses log house and some plank, but dey all good. Dey well built and had brick chimneys. Dey houses what de wind didn't blow in. Us had beds, too, not dem built in de wall. Us sho' treat good in slavery times, yes, suh. Old massa give us plenty clothes to keep us good and warm. He sho' did.
"Old massa, he wasn't marry and eat de same things de slaves eat. He didn't work dem in de heat of de day. 'Bout eleven o'clock, when dat sun git hot, he call dem out de field. He give dem till it git kind of cool befo' he make dem go back in de field. He didn't have no overseer. He seed 'bout de plantation hisself. He raise cotton and corn and sweet 'taters and peas and cane, didn't fool with rice. He didn't go in for oats, neither.
"When Sunday come Old Massa ask who want to go to church. Dem what wants could ride hoss-back or walk. Us go to de white folks church. Dey sot in front and us sot in back. Us had prayer meetin', too, reg'lar every week. One old cullud man a sort of preacher. He de leader in 'ligion.
"When de slaves go to work he give dem de task. Dat so much work, so many rows cotton to chop or corn to hoe. When dey git through dey can do what dey want. He task dem on Monday. Some dem git through Thursday night. Den dey can hire out to somebody and git pay for it.
"Old Massa even git de preacher for marryin' de slaves. And when a slave die, he git de preacher and have Bible readin' and prayin'. Mostest de massas didn't do dat-a-way.
"I as big in war time as I is now. I used to do anything in de field what de men done. I plow and pull fodder and pick cotton. But de hardes' work I ever done am since I free. Old Massa, he didn't work us hard, noway.
"He allus give us de pass, so dem patterrollers not cotch us. Dey 'bout six men on hoss-back, ridin' de roads to cotch ni***rs what out without de pass. Iffen dey cotch him it am de whippin'. But de ni***rs on us place was good and civ'lized folks. Dey didn't have no fuss. Old Massa allus let dem have de garden and dey can raise things to eat and sell. Sometime dey have some pig and chickens.
"I been marry his' one time and he been dead 'bout forty-one years now. I stay with Old Massa long time after freedom. In 1913 I come live with my youngest girl here in Beaumont. You see, I can't 'member so much. I has lived so long my 'memberance ain't so good now.
Credit - original owner ( respect 🫡)

08/02/2024

Ben Johnson was a ranch hand and rodeo performer when, in 1940, Howard Hughes hired him to take a load of horses to California.
"I'd been making a dollar a day as a cowboy, and my first check in Hollywood was for $300. After that, you couldn't have driven me back to Oklahoma with a club."
He decided to stick around (the pay was good), and for some years was a stunt man, horse wrangler, and double for such stars as John Wayne, Gary Cooper and James Stewart. He left Hollywood in 1953 to return to rodeo, where he won a world roping championship, but at the end of the year he had barely cleared expenses. The movies paid better, and were less risky, so he returned to the west coast and a career that saw him in over 300 movies.
During the making of "Rio Grande" (1949), Johnson and Ford had a brief verbal argument. All seemed well afterward, and nothing further was said of it, so Ben assumed it was completely blown over. However, Ford didn't use Johnson again in another picture for 14 years, when Ben played a small role in "Cheyenne Autumn" (1964). Johnson's lifelong friend Harry Carey Jr. said he believed the reason was that when Ford was casting "The Sun Shines Bright" (1953), Johnson's agent heard that Ford wanted him for the role, called Ford--without Johnson's knowledge--and demanded a hefty salary. Outraged at having been squeezed like that, Ford held it against Johnson, and used that and the argument they had during "Rio Grande" as an excuse not to use him again. They did manage to maintain a friendly relationship nonetheless.
Johnson initially turned down the role of Sam the Lion in "The Last Picture Show" (1971) when it was first offered to him by Peter Bogdanovich because he thought the script was "dirty", and he did not approve of swearing and nudity in motion pictures.
Bogdanovich appealed to Ford, who got Johnson to change his mind as a favor to him. With the permission of Bogdanovich, Johnson rewrote his role with the offensive words removed. Johnson went on to win a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for playing the role.
From his Oscar speech: "What I'm about to say probably will stir up a lot of conversation around over the country. There's something I'd like to leave in everyone's mind throughout the world: This couldn't have happened to a nicer feller. Thank you." (IMDb/Oscars.org)
Credit - original owner ( respect 🫡)

08/01/2024

The Japanese belong to the ethnic group known as Yamato, but are all natives of Japan Yamato? Nope. Those born in Okinawa belong to a different group called Uchinanchu, while in Hokkaido, in the north, we can find another group called Ainu.

The word Ainu means "human" in their original language, and they have inhabited the coldest areas of Japan for more than 5,000 years. The Ainu fought long and hard to stop the advance of the samurai during the 10th century. In fact, the title Sh**un was born in the fight against these men. The full title was Sei Taii Sh**un, which means something like "Commanding General Who Fights Against the Barbarians of the North." The "barbarians of the North" were precisely the Ainu.

The samurai began their final advance in Hokkaido only in the 17th century, but colonization began at the end of the 19th century. One of the first colonizers was Morihei Ueshiba, the founding master of Aikido.

Today there are only 24,000 Ainu left in the country. Fortunately, they now have their own voice in the Japanese Congress. Their features are more similar to the Mongolian peoples and their culture, religion and customs differ greatly from those of the Yamato.

In the image, taken in 1865, two Ainu inhabitants can be seen next to a Ronin.

08/01/2024

Television’s first fantasy-sitcom, Topper, was actually derived from a book and a movie 20 years old.
The Thorne Smith classic came to television with Leo G Carroll as the stuffy and befuddled well-to-do banking vice president, Cosmo Topper, whose new house at 101 Yardley Avenue in New York, was inhabited by the ghosts of the former owners, George and Marion Kerby, who had been killed in an avalanche while skiing in Switzerland.
Only he could see them, which made for some hilarious situations indeed, especially as George and Marion – not to mention their alcoholic St Bernard dog, Neil – were prone to practical joking.
Marion, an excellent cook, called Cosmo “Topper Darling” while George, a former pl***oy who still had an eye for the ladies, called Topper “Old Man”.
Anne Jeffries and Robert Sterling starred as the Kerbys (they were also married in real life), with Lee Patrick as the air-headed Henrietta Topper (she had a straight role in the film The Maltese Falcon).
Thurston Hall was bank president Mr Schuyler, never able to fathom Topper’s explanations of the paranormal activities surrounding him, and Kathleen Freeman was the Topper’s benumbed maid, Katie.
The early use of trick camera techniques gave George, Marion and Neil ghostly effects and objects moved seemingly of their own accord.
The series was a hit with American viewers and was also shown in Britain in the early days of ITV, although only 36 episodes were purchased.

08/01/2024

CLARA BRIM, enslave by William Lyons of Branch, Louisiana, now lives in Beaumont, Texas. The town of Branch was known in slave days as Plaquemine Bouley. Clara estimates her age to be 100 or 102, and from various facts known to her and her family, this would seem to be correct.

"Old massa's name was William Lyons. I didn't have no old missus, 'cause he was a bachelor. He had a big plantation. I don't know how big but dey somethin' like twenty fam'lies of slaves and some dem fam'lies had plenty in dem. My ma was Becky Brim and pa, he name Louis Brim. She come from Old Virginny. Dey work in de field. I had two sister name Cass and Donnie and a brudder name Washington. He went off to de war. When it break out dey come and take him off to work in de army. He lost in dat war. He didn't come back. Nobody ever know what happen to him.

"Some de houses log house and some plank, but dey all good. Dey well built and had brick chimneys. Dey houses what de wind didn't blow in. Us had beds, too, not dem built in de wall. Us sho' treat good in slavery times, yes, suh. Old massa give us plenty clothes to keep us good and warm. He sho' did.

"Old massa, he wasn't marry and eat de same things de slaves eat. He didn't work dem in de heat of de day. 'Bout eleven o'clock, when dat sun git hot, he call dem out de field. He give dem till it git kind of cool befo' he make dem go back in de field. He didn't have no overseer. He seed 'bout de plantation hisself. He raise cotton and corn and sweet 'taters and peas and cane, didn't fool with rice. He didn't go in for oats, neither.

"When Sunday come Old Massa ask who want to go to church. Dem what wants could ride hoss-back or walk. Us go to de white folks church. Dey sot in front and us sot in back. Us had prayer meetin', too, reg'lar every week. One old cullud man a sort of preacher. He de leader in 'ligion.

"When de slaves go to work he give dem de task. Dat so much work, so many rows cotton to chop or corn to hoe. When dey git through dey can do what dey want. He task dem on Monday. Some dem git through Thursday night. Den dey can hire out to somebody and git pay for it.

"Old Massa even git de preacher for marryin' de slaves. And when a slave die, he git de preacher and have Bible readin' and prayin'. Mostest de massas didn't do dat-a-way.

"I as big in war time as I is now. I used to do anything in de field what de men done. I plow and pull fodder and pick cotton. But de hardes' work I ever done am since I free. Old Massa, he didn't work us hard, noway.

"He allus give us de pass, so dem patterrollers not cotch us. Dey 'bout six men on hoss-back, ridin' de roads to cotch ni***rs what out without de pass. Iffen dey cotch him it am de whippin'. But de ni***rs on us place was good and civ'lized folks. Dey didn't have no fuss. Old Massa allus let dem have de garden and dey can raise things to eat and sell. Sometime dey have some pig and chickens.
"I been marry his' one time and he been dead 'bout forty-one years now. I stay with Old Massa long time after freedom. In 1913 I come live with my youngest girl here in Beaumont. You see, I can't 'member so much. I has lived so long my 'memberance ain't so good now.

Credit - original owner ( respect 🫡)

08/01/2024

Ben Johnson was a ranch hand and rodeo performer when, in 1940, Howard Hughes hired him to take a load of horses to California.
"I'd been making a dollar a day as a cowboy, and my first check in Hollywood was for $300. After that, you couldn't have driven me back to Oklahoma with a club."

He decided to stick around (the pay was good), and for some years was a stunt man, horse wrangler, and double for such stars as John Wayne, Gary Cooper and James Stewart. He left Hollywood in 1953 to return to rodeo, where he won a world roping championship, but at the end of the year he had barely cleared expenses. The movies paid better, and were less risky, so he returned to the west coast and a career that saw him in over 300 movies.

During the making of "Rio Grande" (1949), Johnson and Ford had a brief verbal argument. All seemed well afterward, and nothing further was said of it, so Ben assumed it was completely blown over. However, Ford didn't use Johnson again in another picture for 14 years, when Ben played a small role in "Cheyenne Autumn" (1964). Johnson's lifelong friend Harry Carey Jr. said he believed the reason was that when Ford was casting "The Sun Shines Bright" (1953), Johnson's agent heard that Ford wanted him for the role, called Ford--without Johnson's knowledge--and demanded a hefty salary. Outraged at having been squeezed like that, Ford held it against Johnson, and used that and the argument they had during "Rio Grande" as an excuse not to use him again. They did manage to maintain a friendly relationship nonetheless.

Johnson initially turned down the role of Sam the Lion in "The Last Picture Show" (1971) when it was first offered to him by Peter Bogdanovich because he thought the script was "dirty", and he did not approve of swearing and nudity in motion pictures.

Bogdanovich appealed to Ford, who got Johnson to change his mind as a favor to him. With the permission of Bogdanovich, Johnson rewrote his role with the offensive words removed. Johnson went on to win a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for playing the role.

From his Oscar speech: "What I'm about to say probably will stir up a lot of conversation around over the country. There's something I'd like to leave in everyone's mind throughout the world: This couldn't have happened to a nicer feller. Thank you." (IMDb/Oscars.org)
Credit - original owner ( respect 🫡)

07/31/2024

In "The Dark Side of Genius", Donald Spoto wrote that Tallulah Bankhead would climb a ladder every day to reach the tank where the filming took place. She never wore underwear and regularly received an ovation from the crew. When advised of this situation, Sir Alfred Hitchcock observed, "I don't know if this is a matter for the costume department, make-up or hairdressing."
How to explain Tallulah Bankhead to a modern audience?
She was like the “Mother of all Train Wrecks”, equal parts Paris Hilton, Amy Winehouse and Lindsay Lohan, but also had a tremendous talent that spanned four decades on stage and screen.
Dick Cavett wrote of Tallulah Bankhead meeting Chico Marx at a party. This was before she had become famous, and when she was still prominent for being the daughter of William B. Bankhead, a respectable Alabama politician, member of the US House of Representatives and Speaker of the House. Thus, that night, Groucho pleaded with his brother not to be his usual crude self with pretty women and Chico promised to behave. According to Cavett, the conversation began innocently enough over the punch bowl:
“Hello, Miss Bankhead”, said Chico.
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Marx”, Tallulah replied.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Until Chico blurted out: “You know, I really want to f**k you.”
And Tallulah replied: “And so you shall, you old fashioned boy!” (IMDb

07/31/2024

The First Black "Miss Ohio USA"-
Jayne Kennedy Overton [Harrison] (October 27, 1951) is an American television personality, actress, model, corporate spokeswoman, producer, writer, public speaker, philanthropist, beauty pageant titleholder and sports broadcaster.
In 1970, while still in high school, Kennedy was crowned Miss Ohio USA. She was the first African American woman to win the title, and was one of the 15 semi–finalists in the 1970 Miss USA Pageant. It was rare for an African American woman at that time to be in the contest.
In 1978, she won national acclaim as one of the first women to enter the male-dominated world of sports as an announcer on The NFL Today. She went on to be the only female to ever host the syndicated TV series Greatest Sports Legends.
Kennedy won the NAACP Theater Award for Best Producer along with Bill Overton (her current husband) for their production of the highly acclaimed staged musical, The Journey of the African American. Kennedy also won an Emmy Award for her coverage of the Rose Parade and was nominated for an Emmy for her coverage of the news feature on soldiers on the DMZ in South Korea for NBC's Speak Up America in 1980.
She was listed in Ebony Magazine as "One of the 20 Greatest S*x Symbols of the 20th Century." Coca Cola USA named Jayne Kennedy "The Most Admired Black Woman in America".
Kennedy also won a 1982 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture for her performance as Julie Winters in the 1981 film Body and Soul co-starring alongside her then–husband Leon Isaac Kennedy.

07/30/2024

Lucy and Desi got married at noon on Saturday November 30, 1940. “He left me at my hotel at 3 am, saying he’d picked me up again at eight, and I went to bed deliriously happy. Just before I went to bed, I remembered all my clothes were in Milwaukee with Harriet. All I had was the little black wool numbered I’d been wearing all day. When I thought all the appropriately beautiful things I had in my trunk but not available for eight am, I was fit to be tied. But Desi was much too elated to notice his bride wore black. I sat beside him in the back of the car while his business manager drove like sixty over the icy, treacherous winter roads to Greenwich. Desi had a noon show at the Roxy to make. In Greenwich, we spent a harried two hours seeing a judge about waiving the five-day waiting period and getting the necessary health examination. Desi had planned to marry me at the office of Justice of the Peace John J.O'Brien. He had forgotten only one thing, a wedding ring. Desi’s business manager ran into Woolworth’s and bought me a brass one. Although Desi later gave me a platinum ring, that little discolored brass ring rest among the diamonds and emeralds in my jewel case for years. At the last moment, the justice of the peace decided that we needed a more romantic spot than his office for the wedding, so he drove us out into the country to the Byram River Beagle Club. After the short ceremony, we ate our wedding breakfast in front of a bright fire in the club’s lounge. Outside, a fresh mantle of snow hung on the pine trees. After all the indecision we’d been through, Desi and I were dazed with happiness. We kissed each other and the marriage certificate again and again. It still has my lipstick marks on it. ’I’m going to keep this forever and ever,’ I told Desi, clutching it to my black-wool-covered bosom. This marriage had to work. I would do anything, sacrifice anything, to make Desi happy. - Lucille Ball (Love Lucy)
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07/30/2024

In 1932, Richard B. Spikes received a patent for an automatic car gear shift. Major companies welcomed his inventions. Its patent #1889,814.
By the time he created the automatic safety brake in 1962, Spikes was losing his vision. To complete the device, he first created a drafting machine for blind designers. The machine would soon be used in almost every school bus nationwide.
These are other inventions by Richard B. Spikes:
railroad semaphore (1906)
automatic car washer (1913)
automobile directional signals (1913)
beer keg tap (1910)
self-locking rack for billiard cues (1910)
continuous contact trolley pole (1919)
combination milk bottle opener and cover (1926)
method and apparatus for obtaining average samples and temperature of tank liquids (1931)
automatic gear shift (1932)
transmission and shifting thereof (1933)
automatic shoe shine chair (1939)
multiple barrel machine gun (1940)
horizontally swinging barber chair (1950)
automatic safety brake (1962)
Credit - original owner ( respect 🫡)

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