W. C. Fields, Hollywood Legend To much excitement, it was announced that Fields would next team up with Mae West.  One of America’s biggest stars in the mid-thirties, West, now aged 43, had also recently been cut loose by Paramount after her popularity waned.  Months would pass before a script and director would be selected, the result of Fields’ cantankerous and territorial approach to his participation.  Surprisingly, the two actors were able to co-exist and … Continue reading WC FIELDS (VOLUME 3, EPISODE ONE) PART TWO →

The Chicago Black Sox and the Scandal Surrounding the 1919 World Series Almost one hundred years after the Black Sox scandal, the legend of Shoeless Joe Jackson, created by disingenuous journalists and burnished by Hollywood, lives on in the American imagination.  An illiterate mill hand, a country boy who escaped small town poverty and obscurity as a baseball savant, Jackson is perceived as tragically victimized by wealthy owners and slickered by hustlers and cheats who … Continue reading The Chicago Black Sox And the 1919 World Series (Volume 2, Episode 12) Part One →

The Chicago Black Sox and the scandal surrounding the 1919 World Series “Regardless of the verdict of juries, no player that throws a ballgame; no player that undertakes or promises to throw a ballgame; no player that sits in a conference with a bunch of crooked players and gamblers where the ways and means of throwing games are planned and discussed and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever play professional baseball.” Today, … Continue reading The Chicago Black Sox And The 1919 World Series (Volume 2, Episode 12) Part Two →

DB Cooper, the man behind the most notorious airplane hijacking in American history On November 24, 1971, a man walked up to the Northwest Orient ticket counter at the Portland, Oregon International Airport.  After waiting on line for a few moments, he paid $20 dollars in cash for a ticket for Flight 305 to Seattle, a scheduled 30 minute trip leaving at 2:50 PM. He gave his name as “Dan Cooper” for the purposes of … Continue reading DB Cooper (Volume 2, Episode 11) Part One →

DB Cooper, the man responsible for the most notorious air hijacking in US history. On Thanksgiving morning, A Portland FBI investigator involved in the case, Ralph Himmelsbach, took it upon himself to use his own single engine plane to fly over the area where it is believed that Cooper might have bailed out.  He spends much of Thanksgiving Day flying back and forth over Vector 23, the route that flight 305 took through the area, … Continue reading DB Cooper (Volume 2, Episode 11) Part Two →

Robert E. Lee, Valiant Hero or Misguided Traitor? Robert E. Lee was born on January 19, 1807.  He was the son of Henry Lee III and Anne Carter, Henry and Ann’s fifth child. Lee was initially assigned to assist in the construction of a fort on the Savannah River, 12 miles from the city of Savannah, Georgia itself.  But construction was unsuccessful and it would be sixteen years before Fort Pulaski was completed.  Long before … Continue reading Robert E. Lee (Volume 2, Episode 10, Part 1) →

Robert E. Lee: Valiant Hero or Misguided Traitor? George Parke Custis was kicked out of Princeton, left St. John’s College of Annapolis after only one semester and made a living renting out all of the various plantation properties that he had inherited.  By comparison to the industrious and spartan Robert E. Lee, Custis was an indolent patrician who lived on the wealth of his ancestors. Eventually, understanding that his daughter was enthusiastic about marrying Lee, Mary … Continue reading Robert E. Lee (Volume 2, Episode 10, Part 2) →

Herman Melville: From obscurity to immortality When he died at age 72, on September 28, 1891, Herman Melville was so obscure that those who even remembered his literary output presumed that he had passed away many decades earlier.  Melville’s works were out of print, his last novel published more than thirty years before his death.  The title of his epic work Moby Dick was misspelled in Melville’s New York Times obituary and one of his … Continue reading Herman Melville (Volume 2, Episode 9, Part 1) →

Herman Melville: From Obscurity to Immortality Over forty, Melville need not be concerned with actually having to fight for the Union but in 1863, he and his wife decided to move back to New York City, exchanging Arrowhead, which he was unable to sell, for his brother Allan’s East 26th Street home. Throughout this time period, Melville continued to toil away at his custom’s officer’s job.  When he began working at the Customs House in 1866 … Continue reading Herman Melville (Volume 2, Episode 9, Part 2) →

Ted Ngoy, the ultimate American Dream, including donuts Eventually, in 1976, one of Ted’s customers showed him an ad in the local newspaper, the Orange County Register, advertising a donut shop for sale.  Ngoy had meticulously saved 20,000 dollars, the seller financed the rest of the $45,000 purchase price. By 1985, Ted was a millionaire and a very respected member of the Cambodian community.  He and his wife moved into a 7,000 square foot home … Continue reading Ted Ngoy, The Donut King Of Southern California, (Volume 2, Episode 8) →