Remembering William Peter Blatty And The Exorcist, The Pioneer Cabin Tree, Buddy Greco, Claire Hollingworth

William Peter Blatty was the author of the acclaimed 1971 horror novel The Exorcist, which was made into the classic blockbuster 1973 film of the same name. Blatty won an Academy Award for his screenplay for the movie. When he was a struggling young writer, he earned the money to continue writing after winning $5000 as a contestant on “You Bet Your Life” with Groucho Marx in 1961. The Pioneer Cabin Tree of Calaveras County was a sequoia, perhaps 2000 years old that became one of California’s most popular tourist attractions when a tunnel was carved in the middle. Buddy Greco was a jazz pianist for Benny Goodman who became a singer frequently associated with Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack. Claire Hollingworth was a British journalist for over 70 years who broke possibly the biggest scoop of the 20th Century – the Nazi invasion of Poland that started World War II.