Tag: The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour
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MAXINE SEMON
April 8, 1909 Maxine Semon was born on April 8, 1909 in Kalamazoo, Michigan. She made her screen debut in October 1944 in one of RKO’s Edgar Kennedy short films titled “Feather Your Nest”. In 1936, Lucille Ball had appeared in one of the shorts titled “Dummy Ache”. In 1950 she made her television debut as Honeybee Gillis…
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HARRY JAMES
March 15, 1906 Harry Haag James was born in Albany, Georgia, the son of a bandleader in a traveling circus. He started performing with the circus at an early age, first as a contortionist, then playing the drum in the band. James started taking trumpet lessons from his father at age eight, and by age twelve…
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MADELYN PUGH
March 15, 1921 Madelyn Laverne Pugh was born in Indianapolis in 1921. She became interested in writing at Shortridge High School with classmate Kurt Vonnegut. She graduated from Indiana University School of Journalism in 1942. Her first professional writing job was writing short radio spots for an Indianapolis radio station. When her family moved to California, she…
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CESAR ROMERO
February 15, 1907 Cesar Julio Romero Jr. was born in New York City to Cuban Parents. He grew up in Bradley Beach, New Jersey, and was educated at Bradley Beach Elementary School and Asbury Park High School. He appeared on Broadway in the 1929 to 1932, before moving to Hollywood. His first film role was in The…
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IDA LUPINO
February 4, 1914 Ida Lupino was born in Herne Hill, London, to actress Connie O’Shea and music hall comedian Stanley Lupino, a member of the theatrical Lupino family, which included Lupino Lane, a song-and-dance man. Her father, a top name in musical comedy in the UK and a member of a centuries-old theatrical dynasty, encouraged her…
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TALLULAH BANKHEAD
January 31, 1903 Tallulah Bankhead was born in 1903 in Huntsville, Alabama, and left home at the age of 15 to appear on the New York stage. Like Lucille Ball, she was considered for the role of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With the Wind (1939). From 1918 (the same year she did her first film)…
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ROY ROWAN
January 25, 1920 Roy Rowan was born in Paw-Paw, Michigan. He became an announcer for CBS Radio, eventually leaving to freelance for CBS TV starting with “I Love Lucy” (1951-57) and “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” (1957-60). After “I Love Lucy” ran its course of 179 shows, Rowan worked for Ball on 156 episodes of “The…
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ERNIE KOVACS
January 23, 1919 Ernest Edward Kovacs was an American comedian, actor, and writer who was born in Trenton, New Jersey to Hungarian immigrants. Coincidentally, Lucille Ball also briefly lived in Trenton, several years before Kovacs was born. Though a poor student, Kovacs received an acting scholarship to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1937. …
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DANNY THOMAS
January 6, 1912 Danny Thomas was born Amos Muzyad Yakhoob Kairouz in Deerfield, Michigan and raised in Toledo, Ohio. His parents were from Lebanon. He attended Catholic schools and the University of Toledo. Initially, Thomas performed in nightclubs, but reached a wider audience on radio in such shows as “The Bickersons” and “The Baby Snooks Show”. His…
Papermoon Loves Lucy 