GA Russell

MG, do you get the Doonesbury comic strip in England? There is a character called Uncle Duke who is based on Thompson. Thompson's alter ego in his books was Raoul Duke.

Raleigh has a chance to get a team in the proposed United Football League, and that is what we have been reading about in this area. Here is an article about another proposed league that I had not heard about. http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home New football league holds first draft GEORGE HENRY Associated Press January 26, 2008 at 8:23 PM EST ATLANTA — Bryan Randall and Eric Crouch still long to play professional football. Though the two quarterbacks might not earn another NFL paycheque, Randall and Crouch are grateful that the All American Football League will debut in April. Former college standouts Randall and Crouch were the second and third picks in the league's inaugural draft on Saturday, with Randall going to Tennessee and Crouch going to Texas. Randall, a former Virginia Tech standout who spent time on the Atlanta Falcons' squad, went to training camp last year with the Pittsburgh Steelers but didn't make the team. "It's a great opportunity for me, and I can't wait to get back on the field and compete," Randall said. "I guess I've learned that you never get football out of your blood, or at least I haven't been able to, over the last few months." The league will fill the void created when the NFL shut down NFL Europe earlier this year after 16 seasons. The league was losing a reported US$30 million a season. With teams in Detroit; Little Rock, Ark; Gainesville, Fla.; Birmingham, Ala.; Knoxville, Tenn.; and a yet-to-be-determined city in Texas, the league hopes to build on fans' identification with former collegiate stars. Former Troy offensive lineman Zarah Yisrael was drafted No. 1 overall by Arkansas. Florida picked Marshall quarterback Eric Kresser fourth overall, and another quarterback, David Koral of UCLA, went to Michigan in the No. 5 spot. Alabama drafted centre Josh Sewell, formerly of Nebraska, with the sixth and final pick of the first round. Crouch, who won the 2001 Heisman Trophy at Nebraska, is eager to show American fans that he can still play quarterback. Drafted No. 3 overall by the Texas team, Crouch was an NFL receiver for St. Louis and Green Bay. Kansas City later designated him to NFL Europe, where he remained a wideout in 2006 for Hamburg. But not long after leaving Germany, Crouch was allowed to play quarterback again when he signed with the CFL's Toronto Argonauts. "I love the game of football, but quarterback really is my passion," Crouch said. "I can't deny that I'd like to get another chance to play in the NFL, but the fact remains that I'm really excited to play this spring for Texas. I think the atmosphere will be great." League CEO Marcus Katz, who made a fortune after co-founding a company that provided student loans, first announced plans last year for a professional league that would lean heavily on the year-round craze of big-time college programs. So when the All American debuted its colours, logos, helmets and mascots during the draft, it was no surprise that everything was nearly identical to those used by each state's most popular college program. Florida, for example, will wear orange and blue and play three of its five home games at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville. Former Gators quarterback Shane Matthews is the head coach, and Kresser will face competition from Chris Leak, who helped the state's biggest university beat Ohio State for 2006 national title. Hoping to avoid alienating fans from rival in-state schools, the league has encouraged teams to sign players with regional ties. Auburn running back Tre Smith will wear crimson and white and play at Birmingham's Legion Field after signing with Alabama. Receiver Peter Warrick, who starred at Florida State before the Cincinnati Bengals drafted him No. 4 overall in 2000, will play for Florida. The league has yet to complete a television contract, but it used many of the techniques on Saturday that have helped the NFL make its annual draft a media phenomenon. A studio at TBS hosted a central draft show, and the league set up a "war room" at its headquarters in suburban Sandy Springs. Each team hosted a draft-day event that was televised from hotel ballrooms in the clubs' hometowns. Former NFL stars and other celebrities made brief appearances in an attempt to lend credibility. Lem Barney, a Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee with the Detroit Lions, boxing legend Thomas Hearns and former current Cleveland Browns receiver Braylon Edwards announced picks in Michigan. Actor David Keith, a renowned Tennessee fan, did the same in Knoxville. Former SMU running back Craig James and former Houston quarterback David Klingler appeared for Texas.

Welcome clave and Bev! I've got you all beat. I'm a lesbian trapped in a man's body. The woman on the far left is Polly Bergen. When I was little my sister had an early LP of hers called Bergen Sings Morgan, in which she covered the songs of Helen Morgan. Twenty years later I had a part time job in a department store, and she made an appearance into my little corner and briefly chatted with me. I think she was in the store promoting a new perfume of hers. She was still quite attractive, and very nice too.

Jeff Garcia was chosen today for the Pro Bowl game in a couple of weeks. This will be his fourth Pro Bowl. IMO, this is a "Please forgive us for not picking you last year" sort of thing. He had an amazing run with the Eagles last year, but the selections were made too early, and Tony Romo was picked ahead of him, which last year was a mistake. This year Garcia played very little the second half of the season, with a back injury. Of course, without him Tampa Bay would not have made the playoffs. http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home

I have both Henry Mancini Peter Gunn albums. I think the first one is a masterpiece, the second not as good. I have the second Shelly Manne, which contains the same songs as the second Mancini. The Mancini and the Manne create entirely different moods. The albums are not similar at all, despite the presence of the same songs. I enjoy all of my Shelly Manne albums very much except Yesterdays, which was released a few years ago. I opened up At the Blackhawk Vol. 2 just last week, and have been playing the heck out of it. I've been meaning to pick up the first Manne Gunn album, but haven't yet. Maybe the next Concord blowout. Anyway, another thumb up for Son of Gunn.

MG, North Carolina, for example, has a sales tax of 7%. The govt of NC would like to collect that on everything that a resident of NC purchases. But... The US Constitution prohibits states from interfering with interstate commerce. Just as France numbers its republics by the number of constitutions it has had (Isn't France now the Fifth Republic?), the US is now on its second republic. The first constitution was called the Articles of Confederation, which existed approximately from 1776 to 1789. The Articles of Confederation allowed the States much more independence than our present constitution, which was passed in 1789. Under the Articles of Confederation, business was a mess. Each state was printing its own money, I think. States were taxing goods shipped in from other states. So the 1789 constitution prohibited such interference. So since 1789, states have been prohibited by the Constitution from placing a sales tax or tariff on goods purchased from another state. However, if a company has a location in the state, a purchase from that company is considered intrastate commerce (and therefore taxable) no matter where the good is actually shipped from.

Nik Bartsch's Ronin will have a new album called Holon released Feb. 5 (aka Super Tuesday and Mardi Gras), and they will be touring the US promoting it: February 23 - Portland, OR - Portland Jazz Festival February 25 & 26 - Los Angeles, CA - Jazz Bakery February 27 - Ann Arbor, MI - Firefly February 28 - Boston, MA - Regattabar February 29 - Knoxville, TN - Bijou Theater March 3 - Washington DC - Blues Alley March 4 - Columbus, OH - Wexner Center March 5 - New York City - Joe’s Pub March 7 - San Francisco, CA - SF Jazz - YBCA Forum We had a thread on his last album called Stoa which I really enjoyed. I'm looking forward to this new one.

The trio will be touring: February 2 - Newark, NJ - New Jersey Performing Arts Center March 5 - Los Angeles, CA - Royce Hall March 8 - San Francisco, CA - SF Jazz / Masonic Auditorium September 1 - Philadelphia, PA - Kimmel Center October 18 - New York, NY - Carnegie Hall

Lots of non-jazz entertainers, of course. Very few New York jazz people. Lots of local musicians. I'd like to see Roy Head! If you have never gone, I highly recommend it. No need to hear any non-jazz acts that don't appeal to you. And the food is great! http://www.nojazzfest.com/index.php?http%3...f_pr_012408.php

Lois Nettleton died Friday. This obituary shows that she had a much more interesting career than I realized. I had no idea that she had so many roles on Broadway. I guess time marches on, but I had no idea that she was that old, ten years older than Suzanne Pleshette for example. I remember her starring in a TV series about 1962. As I recall she was a divorcee who ran a farm. I think but I'm not sure that Jerry Van Dyke was in it. To my knowledge that was the first TV show in which the lead role was of a divorcee. I also remember seeing her on a game show a few years later in which she got into a little bit of an argument with the emcee about the rules. She didn't lose her temper, but she kept saying, "I don't want to cavil, but..."! Here's her LA Times obituary: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...news-obituaries Lois Nettleton, 80; stage, movie and TV actress Los Angeles Times The actress, shown in 1985, once said she enjoyed playing a variety of roles. She appeared on many television series, including "In the Heat of the Night," "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "The Twilight Zone." By Mary Rourke, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer January 23, 2008 Lois Nettleton, an actress who went from Broadway plays to roles in movies and on popular television series, has died. She was 80. Nettleton died Friday of complications from lung cancer at the Motion Picture and Television Fund Hospital in Woodland Hills, publicist Dale Olson said. She made her Broadway debut in a 1949 production of "The Biggest Thief in Town," a comedy by Dalton Trumbo. She appeared in more than a dozen other plays, on and off Broadway, over the next decade. As Blanche DuBois in a 1973 production of "A Streetcar Named Desire" by Tennessee Williams, Nettleton avoided the typical portrayal of a faded beauty turned boozy manipulator. "This is a Blanche . . . who has been to hell and back and yet retains her innocence," wrote critic Clive Barnes in a review for the New York Times. "Miss Nettleton plays Blanche as a woman of nearly unshatterable courage." Nettleton said in interviews that theater was her first love, but she moved to Los Angeles to be closer to her ailing mother. In Hollywood, starting in the 1950s, she was a guest actress on dozens of leading television series. She had roles on "Kraft Television Theatre" and "Studio One" in the 1950s and appeared on "The Twilight Zone" in a 1961 episode titled "The Midnight Sun." She played a woman coping with the radically shifting climate after the Earth falls out of orbit. Nettleton also had roles on "Bonanza" and "The Fugitive" in the 1960s and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" in the '70s, among other series. For two years in the late 1980s, she was a regular on the police drama "In the Heat of the Night." She also appeared on "The Golden Girls," "Murder, She Wrote" and "Cagney & Lacey." For three years in the 1990s, she had a role as Virginia Benson on the soap opera "General Hospital." She won Emmy Awards for daytime television for her role as suffragette Susan B. Anthony in "The American Woman: Portraits in Courage" in 1976 and her performance in an episode of the religious program "Insight" in 1983. She made her movie debut in 1962 in "Period of Adjustment," based on a play by Williams. She also had roles in "Mail Order Bride" in 1964, "The Man in the Glass Booth" in 1975 and "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" in 1982. "It takes courage to be . . . a gypsy actor like I am," Nettleton told The Times in 1985, adding that she liked playing a variety of roles. "I'm a character actress. I always wanted to be as different in everything as possible," she said. Nettleton was born Aug. 16, 1927, in Oak Park, Ill. At 21, she was named Miss Chicago. She studied acting at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and moved to New York City, where she joined the Actors Studio. She married Jean Shepherd, the writer, actor and radio personality, in 1960. Their marriage ended in divorce seven years later. She had no children and has no immediate survivors. Instead of flowers, contributions in Nettleton's name can be made to The Actors Fund, for Everyone in Entertainment, 729 Seventh Ave., 10th floor, New York, NY 10019.

Yesterday I listened to the first three discs of the Buddy DeFranco box. One of these days I will get around to opening up Disc 4. I've only had the set for 18 years!

The Argos released Troy Davis today, so I guess he's done. http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home

I bought quite a few from him a few years ago. Google OTR in MP3 by G. L. Mercer. He just uses the best quality recordings that he has. Some, like the Harry Limes, have excellent sound. Some don't. Radio Spirits is more expensive, but they remaster only the best sounding shows available, so they sound like they were originally broadcast today.

Here's an article about Lawrence Tynes from the Canadian perspective: http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home

Happy Birthday aparxa!

I'm a Canadian league fan, but no favorite team there. I root for former CFL players in the NFL, so I root for their teams too: Jeff Garcia, Jon Ryan, Lawrence Tynes, Kenton Keith and Mike Sellars. My favorite teams when I was a boy were the Boston teams because my family is from there: Red Sox, Patriots and Celtics. The Bruins have had a long history of jerks in management, so I have never rooted for them. However, I will admit that I met Don Cherry in 1979 and he was a very nice guy (unlike his reputation!). My favorite team when I was a boy in DC was the local baseball team, the Washington Senators. My family moved to Seattle the same time the Senators moved to Minnesota, so I continued to root for them. But I stopped rooting for the Twins when Harmon Killebrew and Camilo Pascual moved on and everybody else retired. In 1972 I was a season ticket holder of the New England Whalers, who are today reincarnated, coincidentally, as my local team the Carolina Hurricanes. I have a friend who is an employee of the Ottawa Senators, so I root for them too. I consider New Orleans to be my home town, but the Saints' first year was not until my last year there (senior year of high school). So I root for the Saints, but not ahead of the Patriots. And as I think I have said before, the Patriots haven't been quite the same for me since they changed their name to New England; and they lost a lot of appeal to me when they changed their uniform colors and logo. I was an AFL fan when I was a boy, so I root for all of the 1963 AFL teams which still exist. My first year of collecting bubble gum cards was 1959, so I root for the 1959 NFL teams that still exist too. If the team relocates, I don't root for them! I feel the same way about the 1959 MLB teams. My favorite college teams are Georgetown and Pitt. I always look for their football scores. I can't say that I was ever much of a basketball fan, although naturally I enjoyed it when Georgetown won the national championship. The only team I have ever disliked is the New York Yankees.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=dcb_1200881104

I suppose you all noticed that tonight's NFC Championship Game featured ex-Ottawa Renegade Lawrence Tynes of the Giants against ex-Winnipeg Blue Bomber Jon Ryan of the Packers.

Don't know the album, but I heard a track from it this morning on Gary Burton's Sirius show. I enjoyed it!

Here's another fond remembrance of Don Wittman: http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/New...783503-sun.html What I remember him most for are his broadcasts with Ron Lancaster and Leo Cahill.

DukeCity, that second photo is really something, isn't it?! Here's here LA Times obit: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...news-obituaries Suzanne Pleshette, sexy star of 'Bob Newhart Show,' dies at 70 Suzanne Pleshette and Bob Newhart, co-stars in 'The Bob Newhart Show.' Pleshette died in Los Angeles Saturday, January 19. She was 70. By Dennis McLellan, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer January 20, 2008 Suzanne Pleshette, the dark-haired, smoky-voiced actress who played Bob Newhart's confident and sexy wife, Emily Hartley, for six years on the popular 1970s sitcom "The Bob Newhart Show," has died. She was 70. The widow of comic actor Tom Poston, Pleshette died of respiratory failure Saturday evening at her Los Angeles home, Robert Finkelstein, an entertainment lawyer and family friend, told the Associated Press. Pleshette underwent chemotherapy in 2006 for lung cancer. A stage-trained New York actress who made her movie debut in the 1958 Jerry Lewis comedy "The Geisha Boy," Pleshette appeared in such films as "The Birds," "Nevada Smith," "Youngblood Hawke," "A Rage to Live" and "Fate Is the Hunter." She also appeared with Troy Donahue, to whom she was married for eight months in 1964, in the 1962 romantic drama "Rome Adventure" and the 1964 western "A Distant Trumpet." On Broadway in 1961, Pleshette replaced Anne Bancroft in the role of Annie Sullivan in "The Miracle Worker," opposite Patty Duke as Helen Keller. And on television in 1991, she earned an Emmy Award nomination for the title role in the TV movie "Leona Helmsley: The Queen of Mean." But she had a flair for comedy. Among her screen credits are "40 Pounds of Trouble," "If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium," "Support Your Local Gunfighter," "The Shaggy D.A.," "The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin," "The Ugly Dachshund" and "Blackbeard's Ghost." Pleshette, however, is best remembered for playing what New York Times critic Frank Rich once described as "the sensible yet woolly wife" on "The Bob Newhart Show," which ran from 1972 to 1978. Her role as Emily earned her two Emmy nominations. Pleshette retired from acting after marrying her second husband, wealthy businessman Tom Gallagher, in 1968. She told TV Guide in 1972 that after she'd been hanging around the house for six months, "my loving husband said, 'You're getting to be awfully boring. Go back to work.' " After trying to figure out how she could return to work without having to get up at 5 a.m. or go out of town for weeks on movie locations, she recalled, "I said to myself, 'What can you do best?' 'Talk,' I said. 'So what better than the talk shows on TV?' I said. I picked up the phone and asked my agent to try to book me with Johnny Carson." She made a couple of dozen appearances on the Carson show over the next few years, including one with fellow guest Newhart -- a show seen by writers David Davis and Lorenzo Music, the creatorsof the upcoming Newhart show. "Suzanne started talking, and I looked at Lorenzo and Lorenzo looked at me," Davis told TV Guide. "There she was, just what we were looking for. "She was revealing her own frailties, talking freely about being over 30. She was bubble-headed but smart, loving toward her husband but relentless about his imperfections. We were trying to get away from the standard TV wife, and we knew that whoever we picked would have to be offbeat enough and strong enough to carry the show along with Newhart. We didn't dream Suzanne would accept the part." Pleshette told the magazine that "Bob is just like my husband, Tommy, letting me go bumbling and stumbling through life. And the way it's written, the part is me. There's the stream of non sequiturs by which I live. There are fights. I'm allowed to be demonstrative. But the core of the marriage is good." Off-camera, Pleshette was known for being what an Orlando Sentinel reporter once described as "an earthy dame, an Auntie Mame who isn't afraid to tell a dirty story." Or, as TV Guide put it in 1972: "Her conversations -- mostly meandering monologues -- are sprinkled with aphorisms, anecdotes, salty opinions and X-rated expletives." She enjoyed talking so much that during the making of "The Geisha Boy," Lewis took to calling her "Big Mouth." Newhart, according to the TV Guide article, "was finding himself outtalked by Suzanne on the set about 12 to 1 but professed to be unperturbed by the phenomenon." "I don't tangle," Newhart said, "with any lady who didn't give Johnny a chance to exercise his mouth -- even to sneer -- for 10 whole minutes." Although Newhart got a new TV wife, played by Mary Frann, for his 1982-90 situation comedy "Newhart," Pleshette had the last laugh -- making a memorable surprise guest appearance as Newhart's previous TV wife, Emily, at the end of the series' final episode. In it, Dick Loudon, the Vermont innkeeper Newhart played on "Newhart," is knocked out by a stray golf ball. Then the show cuts to a darkened bedroom as he wakes up and turns on the light to reveal Chicago psychologist Bob Hartley's bedroom from "The Bob Newhart Show." The Vermont-set "Newhart" and its colorful characters, it turns out, had only been a dream, and Pleshette's Emily tells Bob he should watch what he eats before going to bed. In a 1990 interview with "CBS This Morning," Pleshette recalled that when the "Newhart" studio audience first saw the familiar bedroom set from the old series, she heard gasps. "And then they heard this mumble under the covers, and nobody does my octave, you know," she recalled. "And I think they suspected it might be me, but when that dark hair came up from under the covers, they stood and screamed." For her and Newhart "to be together again with the old rhythms, looking into each other's eyes, was just wonderful," she said. And, she said, it was "very touching and so dear" that the studio audience "remembered us with such affection." Pleshette was born Jan. 31, 1937, in New York City. Her mother had been a dancer, and her father was the manager of the New York and Brooklyn Paramount theaters during their big-band days. After attending the New York High School of the Performing Arts -- "I found myself there," Pleshette later said -- she spent a semester at Syracuse University and a semester at Finch College before moving on to the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre and acting teacher Sanford Meisner. Pleshette also starred in the short-lived sitcoms "Suzanne Pleshette Is Maggie Briggs" (1984) and "The Boys Are Back" (1994-95) and the dramatic series "Bridges to Cross" (1986) and "Nightingales" (1989). More recently, she played the lusty grandmother in the sitcom "Good Morning, Miami" (2002-03). Pleshette was married to Gallagher from 1968 until his death in 2000. She first met -- and dated -- Poston when they appeared together in the 1959 Broadway comedy "Golden Fleecing." They were both dealing with the deaths of their spouses in 2000 when they got back together. They were married the next year. "They are a romantic duo," actor Tim Conway, a friend of Poston's, told People magazine in 2001. "It's almost embarrassing. You have to put cold water on them." Poston died in April at age 85 after a brief illness. Details on survivors were not immediately available.

I have Frank Sinatra's and Linda Purl's recordings of Nice 'n' Easy, and Mel Torme's recording of That Face. Here's his LA Times obituary. Interesting story, that he introduced Alan and Marilyn Bergman. http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...news-obituaries Lew Spence, 87; composed songs sung by Frank Sinatra, Fred Astaire By Dennis McLellan, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer January 20, 2008 Lew Spence, a songwriter who composed the Grammy-nominated Frank Sinatra song "Nice 'n' Easy" and "That Face," a standard recorded by Fred Astaire, has died. He was 87. Spence died in his sleep Jan. 9 at his home in Los Angeles, said his niece, Toni M. Schulman. A onetime singer-pianist, Spence began turning his songwriting hobby into a career in the late 1940s when he was nearly 30. He worked with a number of lyricists over the years, including Alan and Marilyn Bergman. Much later in his career -- at 60 -- he began writing lyrics to some of his songs, and he continued songwriting until his death. Among his best-known works are "Half as Lovely (Twice as True)," "If I Had Three Wishes," "Love Looks So Well on You," "Sleep Warm" and "So Long My Love." In addition to Sinatra and Astaire, other artists who sang Spence's songs included Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, Bobby Short, Peggy Lee, Nat King Cole, Johnny Mathis, Bing Crosby, Billy Eckstine and Dinah Shore. "I think he was an excellent songwriter, and his work had a lot of charm," said Hugh Martin, a theater and film composer best known for his songs in the 1944 MGM musical "Meet Me in St. Louis." Martin, who had gotten to know Spence in recent years, said his favorite Spence song was "What's Your Name (And Will You Marry Me?)" "It's just delightful, and he was a delightful person," Martin told the Los Angeles Times on Friday. "I enjoyed being with him. He loved life, and every day was exciting to him." Marilyn Bergman said Friday that Spence "was a very talented songwriter. He should have had a bigger career than he did." In 1956, Spence played a significant role in the life of the Bergmans, with whom he collaborated for several years. "Alan was working with Lew in the morning, and I was working with him in the afternoon," Bergman recalled. "One day, he introduced his morning lyric writer to his afternoon lyric writer. Then the three of us started working together." Collaborating with the Bergmans, Spence most notably co-wrote "Nice 'n' Easy," which was nominated for three Grammys in 1960 -- for record, album and song of the year. And with Alan Bergman, he wrote "That Face." Spence later said he was inspired to write "That Face" the morning after meeting actress Phyllis Kirk in a Beverly Hills restaurant. For Alan Bergman, "That Face" had another meaning. "Alan was planning to give the song to me as an engagement present," said Marilyn Bergman, whose favorite singer was Astaire. Although the movie legend told Spence and Alan Bergman that he didn't record songs that weren't in his movies, he said he would listen to it. When they played and sang the song for Astaire, Marilyn Bergman recalled, "He said, 'I like that, and I'll record it next week,' and he did." Singer-pianist Michael Feinstein said "That Face," which Astaire sang on his multi-Emmy Award-winning 1958 NBC special "An Evening With Fred Astaire," has become "one of a small group of songs from that era that has become a standard." "He was a very talented man who was a real melodic craftsman," Feinstein said of Spence, whom he first met in the 1980s. Like Marilyn Bergman, Feinstein believes Spence "deserved more success than he ultimately attained." "He was very gentle and kind and perhaps didn't have the killer instinct needed to really get out there and flog his songs," Feinstein said. "I think he lived comfortably from the royalties of what he had written, because he wrote a lot, and he was always gently offering his songs to singers." Just last year, Feinstein said, "Lew called me and said, 'I've written a song I'd like you to hear.' He said, 'I'd just like to play it for you.' He was as gentle a song plugger as there was." Spence went over to Feinstein's house in Los Feliz and played it on his piano. Feinstein didn't remember the title but said that "it was a beautiful song for which I think he also wrote the lyrics." When Spence finished, Feinstein recalled, "He said, 'OK, now I'm happy,' and off he went." Spence, who was born June 29, 1920, in Cedarhurst, N.Y., is survived by two sisters, Ruth Mindling and Evelyn Dilloff. A private memorial service was held Saturday.

I just heard on CBS Radio News that Suzanne Pleshette has died of respiratory failure. She would have been 71 Jan. 31. She was always a good interview on the Carson show! Here's her obit from the San Jose Mercury News: http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci...?nclick_check=1 Suzanne Pleshette, known as 'Newhart's' wife, dies in Los Angeles By BOB THOMAS Associated Press Writer Article Launched: 01/19/2008 09:14:37 PM PST LOS ANGELES—Suzanne Pleshette, the beautiful, husky-voiced film and theater star best known for her role as Bob Newhart's sardonic wife on television's long-running "The Bob Newhart Show," has died, said her attorney Robert Finkelstein. She was 70. Pleshette, who underwent chemotherapy for lung cancer in 2006, died of respiratory failure Saturday evening at her Los Angeles home, said Finkelstein, who is also a family friend. "The Bob Newhart Show, a hit throughout its six-year run, starred comedian Newhart as a Chicago psychiatrist surrounded by eccentric patients. Pleshette provided the voice of reason. Four years after the show ended in 1978, Newhart went on to the equally successful "Newhart" series in which he was the proprietor of a New England inn populated by more eccentrics. When that show ended in 1990, Pleshette reprised her role—from the first show—in one of the most clever final episodes in TV history. It had Newhart waking up in the bedroom of his "The Bob Newhart Show" home with Pleshette at his side. He went on to tell her of the crazy dream he'd just had of running an inn filled with eccentrics. "If I'm in Timbuktu, I'll fly home to do that," Pleshette said of her reaction when Newhart told her how he was thinking of ending the show. Born Jan. 31, 1937, in New York City, Pleshette began her career as a stage actress after attending the city's High School of the Performing Arts and studying at its Neighborhood Playhouse. She was often picked for roles because of her beauty and her throaty voice. "When I was 4," she told an interviewer in 1994, "I was answering the phone, and (the callers) thought I was my father. So I often got quirky roles because I was never the conventional ingenue." She met her future husband, Tom Poston, when they appeared together in the 1959 Broadway comedy "The Golden Fleecing," but didn't marry him until more than 40 years later. Although the two had a brief fling, they went on to marry others. By 2000 both were widowed and they got back together, marrying the following year. "He was such a wonderful man. He had fun every day of his life," Pleshette said after Poston died in April 2007. Among her other Broadway roles was replacing Anne Bancroft in "The Miracle Worker," the 1959 drama about Helen Keller, in New York and on the road. Meanwhile, she had launched her film career with Jerry Lewis in 1958 in "The Geisha Boy." She went on to appear in numerous television shows, including "Have Gun, Will Travel," "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "Playhouse 90" and "Naked City." By the early 1960s, Pleshette attracted a teenage following with her youthful roles in such films as "Rome Adventure," "Fate Is the Hunter," "Youngblood Hawke" and "A Distant Trumpet." She married fellow teen favorite Troy Donahue, her co-star in "Rome Adventure," in 1964 but the union lasted less than a year. She was married to Texas oilman Tim Gallagher from 1968 until his death in 2000. Pleshette matured in such films as Hitchcock's "The Birds" and the Disney comedies "The Ugly Dachshund," "Blackbeard's Ghost" and "The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin." Over the years, she also had a busy career in TV movies, including playing the title role in 1990's "Leona Helmsley, the Queen of Mean." More recently, she appeared in several episodes of the TV sitcoms "Will & Grace" and "8 Simple Rules ... For Dating My Teenage Daughter." In a 1999 interview, Pleshette observed that being an actress was more important than being a star. "I'm an actress, and that's why I'm still here," she said. "Anybody who has the illusion that you can have a career as long as I have and be a star is kidding themselves."

I lived in Pittsburgh in the 70s when they were winning their Super Bowls, so of course I remember Ernie Holmes. Even if you don't recall the name, you probably remember the haircut. Here's his LA Times obituary: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...news-obituaries From the Associated Press January 19, 2008 Ernie Holmes, who won two Super Bowls as an anchor of Pittsburgh's famed "Steel Curtain" defense in the 1970s, has died in a car crash in southeast Texas. He was 59. Holmes was driving alone Thursday night when his car left the road and rolled several times near Lumberton, about 80 miles from Houston, a Texas Department of Public Safety dispatcher said Friday. He was not wearing a seat belt and was ejected from the car and pronounced dead at the scene, the department said. The two-time All-Pro played for the Steelers from 1972 to 1977 and spent part of the 1978 season with New England before retiring. He played on a defensive line with Steel Curtain teammates "Mean" Joe Greene, L.C. Greenwood and Dwight White. "Ernie was one of the toughest players to ever wear a Steelers uniform," Steelers Chairman Dan Rooney said in a statement. "He was a key member of our famous Steel Curtain defense, and many people who played against him considered Ernie almost impossible to block. At his best, he was an intimidating player who even the toughest of opponents did not want to play against." Holmes was part of a front four in the 1975 Super Bowl that helped limit Minnesota to 17 yards rushing and 119 total yards. The Steelers won their first Super Bowl, 16-6. They were back a year later, beating Dallas, 21-17, in the title game. Holmes had a reputation for being "stone crazy," he told Time magazine in 1975. That came mostly from a case early in his career when he pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon following a bizarre episode in which he fired a pistol at trucks and a police helicopter. He was sentenced to five years' probation. Holmes was nicknamed "Fats" for most of his life. He also was nicknamed "Arrowhead Holmes" in 1974 when he shaved his head, leaving only an arrow-shaped pattern of hair on his skull. Holmes, who was 6 feet 3 and about 260 pounds during his career, also told Time he was attracted to the violence of football. "I don't mind knocking somebody out," Holmes said. "If I hear a moan and a groan coming from a player I've hit, the adrenaline flows within me. I get more energy and play harder." Earnest Lee Holmes was born July 11, 1948, in Jamestown, Texas, and played football at Texas Southern University. After football, Holmes had minor acting roles. He appeared in an episode of the 1980s TV show "The A-Team" and dabbled in professional wrestling. Holmes tried to live a calmer life in later years, settling on a ranch in Wiergate, Texas, where he had a church and was an ordained minister. He told the Steelers he was a more "spiritual being." Information about survivors was incomplete Friday.

Allan Melvin was the guy from You'll Never Get Rich who popped up twenty years later on All in the Family. For some reason, I found him the most memorable actor of the Phil Silvers cast. It must have been his face, which you can see with this link. He always sounded like a dopey guy, so I am surprised that he graduated from Columbia. Here is his LA Times obituary: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...news-obituaries Allan Melvin, 84; popular character actor By Dennis McLellan, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer January 19, 2008 Allan Melvin, a popular character actor who played Cpl. Henshaw on the classic 1950s sitcom "The Phil Silvers Show" and later portrayed Archie Bunker's neighbor and friend Barney on "All in the Family," has died. He was 84. Melvin, who was in the original Broadway cast of "Stalag 17" in the early 1950s, died of cancer Thursday at his home in Brentwood, said his wife of 64 years, Amalia. During his five-decade career, Melvin made guest appearances on numerous TV shows, including playing different roles on at least eight episodes of "The Andy Griffith Show" and playing Dick Van Dyke's old Army buddy on "The Dick Van Dyke Show." He also played Sgt. Charlie Hacker on "Gomer Pyle: U.S.M.C."; portrayed butcher Sam Franklin -- Alice the housekeeper's boyfriend -- on "The Brady Bunch"; and continued playing Barney when the hit "All in the Family" became "Archie Bunker's Place." Melvin, who appeared in only one movie -- the 1968 Doris Day comedy "With Six You Get Eggroll" -- also did voice-over work in cartoons, including providing the voices of Magilla Gorilla and Bluto on "Popeye." He worked on numerous TV commercials as well, including playing Al the Plumber in the Liquid-Plumr commercials for 15 years. After launching his show business career in the sound effects department of NBC radio in New York in 1944, Melvin began acting on radio soap operas and then moved into live television. At the same time, he did movie star impressions in Manhattan in a nightclub act written by his friend Richard Condon, who later wrote "The Manchurian Candidate." Melvin's stand-up act led to his winning "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts" radio show in the late 1940s. He was playing Reed in "Stalag 17," the hit 1951-52 Broadway play set in a German POW camp during World War II, when he first caught Silvers' attention. "The Phil Silvers Show," originally titled "You'll Never Get Rich," was set on an Army base in Kansas and ran from 1955 to 1959. As Cpl. Henshaw, Melvin was the right-hand man to Silvers' con-man extraordinaire, Sgt. Ernie Bilko. "He was brilliant" as Henshaw, Mickey Freeman, who played Pvt. Zimmerman on the show, told The Times on Friday. In recent years, when fans would ask Freeman how many surviving cast members were left, he would reply, "Allan Melvin and me -- that's a high mortality rate for a noncombatant unit." Noting that Melvin "was a great mimic of voices," Freeman recalled an episode in which an officer arrived at Ft. Baxter to stop the men from gambling. One of the ways the officer did that, Freeman said, was to make them listen to his wife lecture on art. But the woman had an unusual twitch -- pulling on her skirt -- and Bilko and the other soldiers placed bets on how many times she would do that during her lecture. Freeman recalled that Melvin, as Henshaw, was positioned outside the lecture hall with a microphone, broadcasting to the other soldiers on the base -- " 'She's up to 42 now . . . 43 . . . 44, and she's not even breathing heavy.' He made a whole racetrack thing out of it," Freeman said. "He was wonderful." Melvin was born Feb. 18, 1923, in Kansas City, Mo. His family soon moved to New York City, where he graduated from Columbia University as a journalism major. Melvin retired from acting about 10 years ago -- long after becoming a household face who was used to people spotting him in public and saying, "Hey, Henshaw" or "Hey, Sam the Butcher." "I've enjoyed the stuff I've done," he told People magazine in 1996, "but the one you're getting paid for, that's what you enjoy most." In addition to his wife, he is survived by a daughter, Jennifer Hanson; and a grandson. Services will be private.