John Leguizamo Interview on the Jon Stewart Show (June 18, 1995) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2026-09-26 | John Leguizamo Interview on the Jon Stewart Show (June 18, 1995)
Cher, Carrol Burnett and Dennis Weaver on Cher (May 11, 1975) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2024-02-01 | Carol Creighton Burnett (born April 26, 1933) is an American comedian, actress, and singer. Her groundbreaking comedy-variety show The Carol Burnett Show, which originally aired on CBS, was one of the first to be hosted by a woman.[1][2] She has performed on Broadway, on television, and in film of varying genres, including dramatic and comedic roles. She has received numerous accolades, including seven Primetime Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, a Grammy Award, and seven Golden Globe Awards. Burnett was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005, the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2013, and the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2015.[3][4]Burnett was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, until her family moved to Hollywood, living a block away from Hollywood Boulevard.[5] She attended Hollywood High School and eventually studied theater and musical comedy at UCLA. Later, she performed in nightclubs in New York City and had a breakout success on Broadway in 1959 in Once Upon a Mattress, for which she received a Tony Award nomination. She soon made her television debut, regularly appearing on The Garry Moore Show for the next three years, and won her first Emmy Award in 1962. Burnett had her television special debut in 1963 when she starred as Calamity Jane in the Dallas State Fair Musicals production of Calamity Jane on CBS.[6]Eventually, Burnett moved back to Los Angeles and began an 11-year run as star of The Carol Burnett Show on CBS television from 1967 to 1978. With its vaudeville roots, The Carol Burnett Show was a variety show that combined comedy sketches with song and dance. The comedy sketches included film parodies and character pieces. Burnett created many memorable characters during the show's run, and both she and the show won numerous Emmy and Golden Globe Awards. During and after her variety show, Burnett appeared in many television and film projects.Burnett’s film roles include Pete 'n' Tillie (1972), The Front Page (1974), A Wedding (1978), The Four Seasons (1981), Annie (1982), Noises Off (1992), and Horton Hears a Who! (2008). She has also given performances in the dramas 6 Rms Riv Vu (1974) and Friendly Fire (1979); in guest roles such as in Mad About You, for which she won an Emmy Award; and in various specials with Julie Andrews, Dolly Parton, and Beverly Sills. She returned to Broadway in Moon Over Buffalo (1995), receiving another Tony Award nomination. She acted in the AMC drama Better Call Saul (2022).Burnett has written and narrated several memoirs, earning Grammy nominations for almost all of them, including a win for In Such Good Company.[7][8] In 2019, the Golden Globes named an award after her for career achievement in television, the Carol Burnett Award, and Burnett received her first award.[9] She was honored with an NBC special Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love celebrating her 90th birthday.
Cher on Cher (May 11, 1975) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2024-02-01 | Cher is an American variety show that premiered on CBS in 1975, hosted by singer-actress Cher. The show had many famous musical guests. It followed a TV special featuring Elton John, Bette Midler, and Flip Wilson as guests. Cher premiered at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, February 16, 1975, and finished the season ranked first among variety shows and twenty-second among all programs, with a 21.3 average household share,[1] also receiving the most fan mail of any CBS program at the time.[2] The first season aired Sundays at 7:30 and the second aired at 8:00.OverviewThe show featured Cher interviewing various celebrity guests ranging from musicians to actors and pop culture figures. The series also featured sketches and comedic field reports. Cher would also perform her songs with a live band. David Geffen, with whom Cher had an affair while waiting for her divorce from Sonny Bono to be finalized,[3] served as producer.[4]David Bowie and Cher in 1975David Bowie performing with Cher on the variety show in November 1975With Sonny, Cher had co-starred in The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour for CBS from 1971 to 1974, before the two divorced amid major bitterness and acrimony. Each partner would get their own series: Cher got this series on CBS, while Sonny (who got to keep all of the staff and intellectual property from the Comedy Hour) got The Sonny Comedy Revue. Cher was allowed to keep the Comedy Hour's musical director, Jimmy Dale, and Comedy Hour director Art Fisher also directed several Cher episodes. The two were to face each other head-to-head in the ratings, but ABC cancelled the Revue before Cher premiered.By the end of the season, Sonny and Cher had set aside their differences and agreed to reunite. She later stated that doing the show alone was overwhelming.[5] Cher was immediately replaced by a revived The Sonny & Cher Show, with a new production and writing team. With Sonny, the new show lasted 11⁄2 seasons, airing until 1977.Home media and syndicationTime-Life includes select episodes of Cher as part of its compilation DVD sets: ten episodes are included in The Best of Cher[6] and five on I Got You Babe: The Best of Sonny & Cher.[7]getTV sporadically reruns the series.
Ed Asner and Cher on Cher (September 14, 1975) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2024-02-01 | Cher (/ʃɛər/; born Cherilyn Sarkisian; May 20, 1946) is an American singer, actress and television personality. Often referred to by the media as the "Goddess of Pop", she has been described as embodying female autonomy in a male-dominated industry. Known for her distinctive contralto singing voice and for having worked in numerous areas of entertainment, as well as adopting a variety of styles and appearances, Cher rose to fame in 1965 as one half of the folk rock husband-wife duo Sonny & Cher before launching a successful six-decade-long solo career. Shortly after her success with Sonny Bono, Cher released her first solo top-ten singles "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" and "You Better Sit Down Kids". Throughout the 1970s, she scored the US Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves", "Half-Breed", and "Dark Lady", becoming the female solo artist with the most number-one singles in US history at the time.After her divorce from Bono in 1975, Cher released the successful disco album Take Me Home (1979). Her music career revival in 1987 saw the releases of rock-inflected albums Cher (1987), Heart of Stone (1989), and Love Hurts (1991), all of which yielded hit singles such as "I Found Someone", "If I Could Turn Back Time", and "Save Up All Your Tears". Cher reached a new commercial peak in 1998 with the dance-pop album Believe, which featured pioneering use of Auto-Tune to distort her vocals, known as the "Cher effect". The title track became the number-one song of 1999 in the US and the best-selling single of all time by a female artist in the UK. She continued to make music, with the albums Closer to the Truth (2013) and Dancing Queen (2018) both debuting at number three on the Billboard 200 and becoming her highest-charting solo albums in the US.Cher became a television personality in the 1970s with her CBS shows The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, watched by over 30 million viewers weekly during its three-year run, and the namesake Cher. In 1982, she made her Broadway debut in the play Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean and starred in its film adaptation. Cher subsequently garnered critical acclaim for her performances in films such as Silkwood (1983), Mask (1985), and Moonstruck (1987), the last of which won her the Academy Award for Best Actress. She contributed to the soundtrack for her next film, Mermaids (1990), which spawned the UK number-one single "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss)", and made her directorial debut with a segment in the abortion-themed anthology If These Walls Could Talk (1996). During the 2010s, Cher landed starring roles in the films Burlesque (2010) and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018).Having sold 100 million records, Cher is one of the world's best-selling music artists. Her achievements include a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, an Academy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, a Cannes Film Festival award, the Billboard Icon Award, and awards from the Kennedy Center Honors and the Council of Fashion Designers of America. She is the only solo artist to date to have a number-one single on a Billboard chart in seven consecutive decades, from the 1960s to the 2020s. Her 2002–2005 Living Proof: The Farewell Tour became the highest-grossing concert tour by a female artist ever at the time, earning $250 million. Aside from music and acting, she is noted for her trendsetting, elaborate outfits, plastic surgeries, political views, social media presence, philanthropic endeavors, and social activism, including LGBT rights and HIV/AIDS prevention.Cher was born Cherilyn Sarkisian in El Centro, California, on May 20, 1946.[1] Her father, John Sarkisian, was an Armenian-American truck driver with drug and gambling problems; her mother, Georgia Holt (born Jackie Jean Crouch), was a former model and retired actress who claimed Irish, English, German, and Cherokee ancestry.[2][3] Her paternal grandparents were Armenian Genocide survivors.[4] Cher's father was rarely home when she was an infant,[5] and her parents divorced when Cher was ten months old.[1] Her mother later married actor John Southall, with whom she had another daughter, Georganne, Cher's half-sister.[6]Moving to Los Angeles, Cher's mother began acting while working as a waitress. She changed her name to Georgia Holt and played minor roles in films and on television. Holt also secured acting parts for her daughters as extras on television shows like The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.[5] Holt remarried and divorced several more times, and she moved her family around the country (including New York, Texas, and California).[5] They often had little money, and Cher recounted having had to use rubber bands to hold her shoes together.[7] At one point, her mother left Cher at an orphanage for several weeks.[8] Although they met every day, both found the experience traumatic.[7]
Redd Foxx & Pat Morita on Cher (September 14, 1975) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2024-02-01 | Noriyuki "Pat" Morita (June 28, 1932 – November 24, 2005)[1] was an American actor and comedian. He was best known for his roles as Matsuo "Arnold" Takahashi on Happy Days, Mr. Miyagi in The Karate Kid film series, Captain Sam Pak on the comedy series M*A*S*H, Ah Chew in Sanford and Son, Mike Woo in The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo, and The Emperor of China in Mulan and Mulan II. He was the series lead actor in the television program Mr. T and Tina and in Ohara, a police-themed drama. The two shows made history for being among the few TV shows with an Asian-American series lead.Morita was nominated for the 1985 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Mr. Miyagi in The Karate Kid,[2] which would be the first of a media franchise in which Morita was the central player.Early lifeMorita was born on June 28, 1932, in Isleton, California, to Japanese immigrant parents.[3] Morita's father Tamaru, born in 1897, immigrated to California from Kumamoto Prefecture on the Japanese island of Kyushu in 1915.[4] Tamaru's wife, Momoe, born in 1903, immigrated to California in 1913.[5] Noriyuki, as Pat was named, had a brother named Hideo (Harry) who was twelve years older.[6][7]Morita developed spinal tuberculosis (Pott disease) at the age of two and spent the bulk of the next nine years in the Weimar Institute in Weimar, California, and later at the Shriners Hospital in San Francisco. For long periods, he was wrapped in a full-body cast, and he was told that he would never walk.[8] During his time at a sanatorium near Sacramento, Morita befriended a visiting priest who would often joke that, if Morita ever converted to Catholicism, the priest would rename him to "Patrick Aloysius Ignatius Xavier Noriyuki Morita".[9] Released from the hospital at age 11 after undergoing extensive spinal surgery and learning how to walk, Morita was transported from the hospital directly to the Gila River camp in Arizona to join his interned family.[10] After about a year and a half, he was transferred to the Tule Lake War Relocation Center.[11]After World War II ended, Morita moved back to the Bay Area and he graduated from Armijo High School in Fairfield, California in 1949. For a time after the war, the family operated Ariake Chop Suey, a restaurant in Sacramento, California,[12] jokingly described by Morita years later as "a Japanese family running a Chinese restaurant in a black neighborhood with a clientele of blacks, Filipinos and everybody else who didn't fit in any of the other neighborhoods".[13] Morita would entertain customers with jokes and serve as master of ceremonies for group dinners.[14] After Morita's father was killed in 1956 in a hit-and-run while walking home from an all-night movie, Morita and his mother kept the restaurant going for another three or four years. Needing a regular job to support his wife and a newly born child, Morita became a data processor in the early 1960s with the Department of Motor Vehicles and other state agencies, graduating to a graveyard shift job at Aerojet General. In due time, he was a department head at another aerospace firm, Lockheed, handling the liaison between the engineers and the programmers who were mapping out lunar eclipses for Polaris and Titan missile projects.[13]However, Morita suffered from occupational burnout and decided to quit his job and try show business.[13] He began working as a stand-up comedian at small clubs in Sacramento as well as San Francisco, taking the stage name "Pat Morita", in part due to the presence of comedians including Pat Henry and Pat Cooper, in addition due to memories of the priest he had befriended as a boy.[9] Morita struggled for many years in comedy, until fellow performer—ventriloquist Hank Garcia—told him to try his luck in Los Angeles.[13] Sally Marr, Lenny Bruce's mother, acted as his agent and manager after he moved to Los Angeles, and booked him in the San Fernando Valley and at the Horn nightclub in Santa Monica. Morita sometimes worked as the opening act for singers Vic Damone and Connie Stevens and for his mentor,[15] the comedian Redd Foxx. Morita used the nickname "The Hip Nip".[16]
Ed Asner on Cher (September 4, 1975) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2024-02-01 | Eddie Asner (/ˈæznər/; November 15, 1929 – August 29, 2021) was an American actor. He is best remembered for portraying Lou Grant during the 1970s and early 1980s, on both The Mary Tyler Moore Show and its spin-off series Lou Grant, making him one of the few television actors to portray the same character in both a comedy and a drama.Asner is the most honored male performer in the history of the Primetime Emmy Awards, having won seven – five for portraying Lou Grant (three as Supporting Actor in a Comedy Television Series on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and two as Lead Actor in a Dramatic Television Series on spin-off Lou Grant). His other Emmys were for performances in two miniseries: Rich Man, Poor Man (1976), and Roots (1977).[2]Asner acted in numerous films such as the western El Dorado (1966), the crime drama They Call Me Mister Tibbs! (1970), and the cop drama Fort Apache, The Bronx (1981). He portrayed Guy Banister in the political thriller JFK (1991), Warren Buffett in the HBO drama film Too Big to Fail (2011), and Santa Claus in several films, including in Elf (2003). He voiced Carl Fredricksen in Pixar's animated film Up (2009).[3]Asner starred in the ABC sitcom Thunder Alley (1994–1995), and Michael: Every Day (2011–2017). He also acted extensively in numerous television series such as The Practice, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, The Good Wife, Cobra Kai, Briarpatch, Working Class, and Dead to Me. He also voiced J. Jonah Jameson in the Spider-Man (1994) series, and Uncle Ben in The Spectacular Spider-Man (2008).
Redd Foxx on Cher (September 14, 1975) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2024-02-01 | John Elroy Sanford (December 9, 1922 – October 11, 1991), better known by his stage name Redd Foxx, was an American stand-up comedian and actor. Foxx gained success with his raunchy nightclub act before and during the civil rights movement. Known as the "King of the Party Records", he performed on more than 50 records in his lifetime. He portrayed Fred G. Sanford on the television show Sanford and Son[3] and starred in The Redd Foxx Show and The Royal Family (TV series), where he played the grandfather to actor Larenz Tate. His film projects included All the Fine Young Cannibals (1960), Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970), Norman... Is That You? (1976) and Harlem Nights (1989).In 2004, Foxx ranked 24th in Comedy Central Presents: 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time.[4] Foxx not only influenced many comedians[3] but was often portrayed in popular culture as well, mainly as a result of his catchphrases, body language and facial expressions exhibited on Sanford and Son. During the show's six-year run, Foxx won a Golden Globe Award and received an additional three nominations, along with three Primetime Emmy Award nominations.[5][6] Foxx was posthumously given a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame in 1992.[7]
Ronald Reagan Atlanta, Ga. Visit (September 15, 1975) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-10-30 | Ronald Wilson Reagan (/ˈreɪɡən/ RAY-gən; February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. A member of the Republican Party, his presidency constituted the Reagan era, and he is considered one of the most prominent conservative figures in American history.Reagan graduated from Eureka College in 1932 and began to work as a sports broadcaster in Iowa. In 1937, he moved to California, and became a well-known film actor there. From 1947 to 1952, Reagan served as the president of the Screen Actors Guild. During the 1950s, he worked in television and spoke for General Electric. From 1959 to 1960, he again served as the Screen Actors Guild's president. In 1964, "A Time for Choosing" gave Reagan attention as a new conservative figure. He was elected governor of California in 1966. During his governorship, he raised taxes, turned the state budget deficit into a surplus, and cracked down harshly on university protests. After challenging and losing to incumbent president Gerald Ford in the 1976 Republican presidential primaries, Reagan won the Republican nomination and then a landslide victory over incumbent Democratic president Jimmy Carter in the 1980 United States presidential election.In his first term, Reagan implemented "Reaganomics", which involved economic deregulation and cuts in both taxes and government spending during a period of stagflation. He escalated an arms race and transitioned Cold War policy away from détente with the Soviet Union. Reagan also ordered the invasion of Grenada in 1983. Additionally, he survived an assassination attempt, fought public-sector labor unions, expanded the war on drugs, and was slow to respond to the AIDS epidemic in the United States, which began early in his presidency. In the 1984 presidential election, he defeated former vice president Walter Mondale in another landslide victory. Foreign affairs dominated Reagan's second term, including the 1986 bombing of Libya, the Iran–Iraq War, the secret and illegal sale of arms to Iran to fund the Contras, and a more conciliatory approach in talks with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that culminated in the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.Reagan left the presidency in 1989 with the American economy having seen a significant reduction of inflation, the unemployment rate having fallen, and the United States having entered its then-longest peacetime expansion. At the same time, the national debt had nearly tripled since 1981 as a result of his cuts in taxes and increased military spending, despite cuts to domestic discretionary spending. Reagan's policies also helped contribute to the end of the Cold War and the end of Soviet communism.[7] Alzheimer's disease hindered Reagan post-presidency, and his physical and mental capacities rapidly deteriorated, ultimately leading to his death in 2004. Historians and scholars have typically ranked him among the upper to middle tier of American presidents, and his post-presidential approval ratings by the general public are usually high.
Georgia State Senator Julian Bond Cocaine Investigation (April 17, 1987) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-10-30 | Julian Bond ran for the United States House of Representatives from Georgia's 5th congressional district (encompassing Atlanta) in 1986. He lost the Democratic nomination in a primary runoff to rival civil rights leader John Lewis in a bitter contest.[32] During it Bond was accused of using cocaine and other drugs.[33] During the campaign, Lewis challenged Bond to take a drug test (Lewis had said he took one and passed). Bond refused, saying the drug test was akin to McCarthyism and trivialized the issue of drugs.[34]While Bond had raised twice as much money as Lewis and had a larger national reputation, Lewis cast himself as the man on the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement and ran up large margins over Bond among white liberals in Atlanta.[35] As the district had a very large Democratic majority, winning the Democratic primary meant that Lewis was almost certain to win the general election. After he did so, he served in Congress for 30 years until his death on July 17, 2020.Still dogged by allegations of drug use, Bond resigned from the Georgia Senate the following year.[36][37] Bond's estranged wife, Alice, who had publicly accused him of using cocaine, later retracted her statements.[31]After leaving politics, Bond taught at several universities in major cities in the North and South, including American University,[38] Drexel,[39] and Harvard.[40]Bond taught the history of the civil rights movement at the University of Virginia from 1990 to 2012. While there he shared his experiences of the movement with thousands of students through stories, newsreels, music, and film.[41] Bond was on the Board of Selectors of Jefferson Awards for Public Service.[42]Horace Julian Bond (January 14, 1940 – August 15, 2015) was an American social activist, leader of the civil rights movement, politician, professor, and writer. While he was a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, during the early 1960s, he helped establish the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In 1971, he co-founded the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, and served as its first president for nearly a decade.Bond was elected to serve four terms in the Georgia House of Representatives and later he was elected to serve six terms in the Georgia State Senate, serving a total of twenty years in both legislative chambers. Following his career in the legislature, he was a professor of history at the University of Virginia from 1990 to 2012. From 1998 to 2010, he was chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).Bond was born in 1940 at Hubbard Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, to parents Julia Agnes (née Washington) and Horace Mann Bond. His father was an educator, then president of Fort Valley State College. His mother, Julia, was a former librarian at Clark Atlanta University, also a historically black college.[1]The family resided on campus at Fort Valley State College. The house of the Bonds was a frequent stop for scholars, activists, and celebrities passing through, such as W. E. B. Du Bois and Paul Robeson.In 1945, Bond's father accepted the position of president of Lincoln University, where he was its first African-American president, and the family moved North.[2][3][4]In 1957, Bond graduated from George School, a private Quaker preparatory boarding school near Newtown in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.[3] He attended Morehouse College, a historically black college in Atlanta, Georgia.On July 28, 1961, Bond married Alice Clopton, a student at Spelman College. They had five children: Phyllis Jane Bond-McMillan, Horace Mann Bond II, Michael Julian Bond (an Atlanta City councilman), Jeffrey Alvin Bond, and Julia Louise Bond. They divorced on November 10, 1989.In 1990 Bond married Pamela Sue Horowitz, a former SPLC staff attorney.[67] Bond died from complications of vascular disease on August 15, 2015, in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, at the age of 75.[48]
William Bryan Cruse Kills Six, Injures 10 in Palm Bay, Fla. Massacre (April 25, 1987) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-10-30 | Retired librarian’s berserk shooting spreeFebruary 18, 2023 at 1:30 p.m.For more than two decades, William Bryan Cruse spent 23 hours a day in his cell on Florida’s Death Row, pacing.He landed there for committing the “Palm Bay Massacre,” on April 23, 1987. Six died, including two police officers, and 10 were injured by the retired librarian gone wild with a gun.Chief among Cruse’s many beefs with humanity was the delusion that everyone thought he was a homosexual. But the trigger for his deadly rampage was just a couple of kids on bikes.Around 6 p.m., two boys started yelling and zipping back and forth on his lawn. Cruse, 59, had just finished feeding dinner to his invalid wife, Melahat, who had Parkinson’s disease.In a rage, he burst through his front door with a shotgun. His targets eluded him, but John Rich IV, 14, was not so lucky. Rich was shooting hoops outside his home across the street when over 50 shotgun pellets ripped into him. He survived.Cruse then loaded his car with a pistol, shotgun, semi-automatic rifle, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition and headed for a local shopping center. He shot and killed students Nobil Al-Hameli, 25, and Enud Al-Tawakuly, 18, at the entrance to the Publix grocery store. Homemaker Ruth Greene, 67, on a mission to buy lettuce for her pet guinea pig, received a fatal wound as she pulled her car into the parking lot.Cruse then roared off to another shopping center and targeted a Winn-Dixie. He first fired seven shots into the windshield of a police car, killing Officer Ronald Grogan, 27.A second officer, Gerald Johnson, 28, got a bullet wound in the leg as soon as he arrived. Johnson was crouching behind his car, reloading, when Cruse got him in the back.“Where’s the cop? Get away from the cop. I want the cop to die,” a witness quoted the gunman as saying.Bullets kept flying, wounding several shoppers trying to flee through the Winn-Dixie’s rear exit. One shot took the life of Lester Watson, 52, a married father of four.Cruse found two women cowering in a bathroom. He released one, telling her to instruct police to turn out the store lights.“You’re my hostage,” he told the other, Robin Brown, 21, a clerk in the frozen-food section.Brown told the St. Petersburg Times that Cruse gave her an account of his sorrows, sick wife, loneliness, and alcoholism. During the day, he said he downed a six-pack of beer and a bottle of whiskey.At one point, she asked if she could have a beer. “No,” he said. “Drinking’s bad. See what it did to me.”After seven terrifying hours, Cruse let her go, saying he was going to kill himself.Police bombarded the store with tear gas and stun grenades and grabbed him as he fled.None of this surprised his neighbors. They had been living in fear of the crabby old man since he and his wife moved to Palm Bay from Lexington, Ky., in 1985.In addition to shouting obscenities and making lewd gestures at the kids, neighbors described wildly erratic and dangerous behavior, like chasing children with guns. During one boy’s trumpet practice, Cruse stood under the budding musician’s window, revving a chainsaw.Several neighbors filed complaints with the police, but no action was taken.During the five-week trial that started in March 1989, his attorneys presented an insanity defense, portraying his client as pathetic, deeply disturbed, and alcohol crazed on the deadly night.They said his problems were deeply rooted. His father was an alcoholic who had been in trouble with the law. Cruse was a small, skinny, quiet child but as a young adult, his strange ideas and behavior became impossible to ignore. Mental issues led to an early discharge from military service. When he became a librarian, he would hide in the stacks to avoid co-workers.Always, he obsessed over the delusion that people were gossiping that he was a homosexual.“I resent the fact that people want to test me to see if I’ve been looking at their crotch, like you two guys have been doing,” he said during a 2 1/2-hour taped interview played in court.“I drank too much,” he said at another point. “I was crazy, kinda out of my mind. I don’t remember a lot about it.”Everyone, including prosecutors and defense attorneys, agreed that Cruse was severely mentally ill. But the prosecution maintained it was no excuse.“I am sorry all this has happened,” he sobbed later at his sentencing hearing. He got the death penalty.Off he went to the Florida State Prison in Starke, home of the state’s electric chair. His wife moved back to her native Turkey.Year after year, appeal after appeal, he remained on Death Row, a cadaverous figure with an unkempt beard and long stringy hair, wandering his cell, speaking to no one.He was still awaiting his execution on Nov. 29, 2009 — more than 22 years after his crime — when he died of natural causes. At 82, he had earned the dubious distinction of being the oldest person on Florida’s Death Row.
Mozella Dansby Shoots Two, then Commits Suicide; Passed Over for Promotion for White Man (4/24/87) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-10-30 | On Friday, April 24, 1987, Mozella Dansby, a bookkeeper at the Georgia Power Company, walked into her office, pulled out a gun, and shot and wounded two of her supervisors. And then the 31-year-old woman, wife and mother, pointed the gun to her own head and pulled the trigger. The newspapers reporting that she’d been distraught because once again she’d been passed over for a promotion on the job.An acquaintance wrote about Mozella Dansby: “Almost a week elapsed between the time Mozella found out she’d been denied the promotion and the time she fired those shots. Dansby said his wife was a quiet person who enjoyed her family, going to the movies and Dansby graduated from West Rome High School and had worked as a bank teller at Trust Company Bank. The family has lived in a small, quiet, middle-class neighborhood near the intersection of Bolton Road and Bankhead Highway. Neighbors described Mrs. Dansby as "a nice, respectable lady" and a "kind person." Gloria Stanford, the Dansbys' next-door neighbor, said she last saw Mrs.Dansby when she came over to talk on Easter. "She seemed like she was happy," Mrs. Stanford said. 'How are you? How are you feeling She just seemed like herself. She kissed Dwight on the face, she kissed several times, then she left," he said.Van Mol said the company had a $12,500 insurance policy on Mrs. Dansby that will be paid to the family. Family members said they hoped to start a trust fund for the children's education. Police said Mrs. Dansby, a representative in the payroll -and accounting office employed at Georgia Power since 1979, then 'turned her pistol on English in a nearby office. CJ. "The way it looks, she just started shooting," said Atlanta police homicide Sgt. Mickey Lloyd. English, 58, of Tyrone, was in serious condition at Georgia Baptist -Medical Center late Friday with a wound to the chest. English had worked for the company since 1947. Phillips, 33, of McDonough, was released from Georgia Baptist after treatment for a bullet wound to his arm. Phillips has worked for Georgia Power since 1974, according to Van Mol, director of corporate communications. Lovett said Mrs. Dansby brought weapon, a revolver, into the building in her purse.Georgia Power has a policy against employees carrying weapons into the building, but Van Mol said employees' purses and personal belongings were not checked by building guards, Lloyd said about 80, to 100 people work on the ninth floor, separated only by cubicles. About 30 employees were at work when the shots rang out, Lovett said. Crying and shaken Georgia Power employees assembled outside the building shortly after the incident, trying to get over what they had seen inside. "It sounded like I heard several bangs," said Janet Ainsworth. "I heard three shots.In her suicide note, Mrs. Dansby complained that both she and a close friend had been treated unfairly by Georgia Power. Van Mol confirmed that the friend had been fired by the company recently. "Our policy is to treat employees fairly both in the hiring and promotion process." He said Mrs. Dansby, who was responsible for bookkeeping in her job, had received two promotions since she joined the company in 1979. He said she had made no formal complaints of racial discrimination with the company this week. Van Mol said only Phillips, Mrs. Dansby's direct supervisor, could answer questions about the promotion process that led to the shooting."The day started out as usual," he said. "We did everything we usually do. We got the children up and ready. Then she left." Dansby, an insurance agent, said he and his wife have two small children, Tiffany Nichole, 5, and Dwight 2. Dansby's father, Charlie Dansby Jr.Rickey Dansby, her brother-in-law, demanded the claims of racial discrimination be investigated. "The members of the Dansby family issue a challenge to the NAACP and the SCLC and other organizations to investigate this incident involving discrimination with the Georgia Power he said in a prepared statement. The Rev. Joseph Lowery, president of the SCLC, said, "We certainly plan to look into the situation." The civil rights organization, which has worked with Georgia Power in the past in developing fair employment practices, has received what Lowery described as an unusual number of complaints from black women who were fired by Georgia Power. "We are looking into it carefully," he said. "Mozella had been doing the job for the last three weeks and her supervisor told her personally that she would be responsible for training
News Coverage of the Atlanta Day Trading Firm Shootings by Mark Orrin Barton (July 31, 1999) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-10-13 | On July 29, 1999, a shooting spree occurred at two Atlanta-area day trading firms, Momentum Securities and the All-Tech Investment Group. Nine people were killed, and 13 other people were injured. The gunman, identified as 44-year-old former day trader Mark Orrin Barton, later committed suicide in Acworth before he could be apprehended by police.Police searching Barton's home in nearby Stockbridge found the bodies of his second wife and the two children from his first marriage, murdered by hammer blows inflicted before the shooting spree started.[1] According to a note left at the scene by Barton, his wife was killed on July 27 before the children were on the following day.[2] Barton was believed to be motivated by large financial losses incurred during the previous two months.[1]EventsOn July 27, 1999, Mark Orrin Barton woke up early in the morning at his home in Stockbridge, Georgia, and bludgeoned his second wife, Leigh Ann Vandiver, to death as she slept. The next night, he also beat his children from his first marriage, Matthew and Mychelle, to death. He covered them with blankets and left notes on their bodies, reading in part:[2]I killed Leigh Ann because she was one of the main reasons for my demise. ... I know that Jehovah will take care of all of them in the next life. I'm sure the details don't matter. There is no excuse, no good reason I am sure no one will understand. If they could I wouldn't want them to. I just write these things to say why. Please know that I love Leigh Ann, Matthew and Mychelle with all my heart. If Jehovah's willing I would like to see them all again in the resurrection to have a second chance. I don't plan to live very much longer, just long enough to kill as many of the people that greedily sought my destruction.On July 29, Barton went to the offices of his former employer, Momentum Securities, in Atlanta. Witnesses say that Barton briefly chatted with coworkers before suddenly pulling out two pistols and opening fire. He shot and killed four people and attempted to execute Brad Schoemehl, who was shot three times at point-blank range. Barton then walked to the nearby All-Tech Investment Group building and murdered an additional five victims. Barton left the scene before police could arrive.[3] The police searched his house and found the bodies of his family and the notes that he had left with them, in which Barton vehemently denied responsibility for the deaths of his first wife and mother-in-law.[2]An intense manhunt ensued. Four hours after the All-Tech Investment Group shooting, Barton accosted and threatened a young girl in Kennesaw, apparently attempting to secure a hostage for his escape. The young girl escaped and called police.[4] Responding police officers spotted Barton in his minivan and a chase ensued, culminating at a gas station in Acworth.[5] As law enforcement attempted to apprehend him, Barton shot and killed himself.[6]PerpetratorBartonMark Orrin Barton (April 2, 1955 – July 29, 1999) was born in Stockbridge, Georgia, to an Air Force family and was raised in South Carolina. He attended Clemson University and the University of South Carolina, where he earned a degree in chemistry despite an ongoing drug habit. Back in Atlanta, Barton married Debra Spivey, with whom he had two children named Matthew and Mychelle.[7]Barton's family moved to Alabama as his employer required him there. Barton grew paranoid and started distrusting his wife. He lost his employment after his performance plummeted. He was also caught sabotaging data of the company that had fired him and served a short jail term for this retaliatory act. Barton found a new employer in Georgia and a mistress in one of his wife's acquaintances, with whom he had an affair. In 1993, Spivey and her mother Eloise were killed by bludgeoning. Barton was the prime suspect in the double homicide, but he was not charged due to a lack of evidence. Despite his denials, authorities still consider Barton a suspect in the 1993 murders.[5]Barton had received a $294,000 insurance settlement from his first wife's death and used the funds to finance his day trading career, preferring high risk Internet-related stocks.[8] He married Vandiver, his former mistress, in 1995. His mental health continued to deteriorate, however, and he began to suffer from both severe depression and paranoid delusions.[7] In the month prior to his killing spree, Barton had lost $105,000, and Momentum Securities had cancelled his account.[8]VictimsThe following is a list of those killed:Leigh Ann Vandiver Barton, 27Matthew David BartonMychelle Elizabeth Barton, 8Allen Charles Tenenbaum, 48Dean Delawalla, 52Joseph J. Dessert, 60Jamshid Havash, 45Vadewattee Muralidhara, 44Edward Quinn, 58Kevin Dial, 38Russell J. Brown, 42Scott A. Webb, 30On July 29, 2009, Atlanta marked the 10th anniversary of the tragedy.[11]
The Death of Atlanta Day Trading Firm Shooting Victim Edward Quinn (August 5, 1999) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-10-13 | Family Celebrates Life Of Shooting VictimAugust 5, 1999DUNWOODY--Edward Quinn was "solid" like the coal from the coal-mining city in Pennsylvania where he was born."He created warmth for anyone who gathered around him," said his longtime friend and UPS business associate, John Mascia, in his remarks to the congregation at the funeral Mass celebrated for Mr. Quinn on Aug. 3 at All Saints Church, Dunwoody. Mascia joined hundreds of worshippers at All Saints to celebrate the legacy of Edward G. Quinn, whose life ended July 29 during Mark O. Barton's violent rampage in the Buckhead financial district. Mr. Quinn had stopped briefly that afternoon at the All-Tech Investment Group, where Barton killed five people and wounded four others. Mr. Quinn and his wife, Marie, have been "faithful parishioners" at All Saints since 1986, according to staff member Patty Wolf."Everyone has said what a wonderful family they are, that they're very close-knit and very spiritual."Msgr. R. Donald Kiernan, pastor, was the main celebrant. He was assisted by Father Liam Coyne, parochial vicar at All Saints, and Deacon Ray Egan.Close family members gathered near the entrance of the church as Msgr. Kiernan blessed the body of Mr. Quinn who, he said, was baptized in Christ now to be reunited with him in the resurrection.Mr. Quinn's best friend, George Kuhn, his brother-in-law, Samuel Agolino Jr. and his four brothers, Gerald, Joseph, Jack and Francis, surrounded the casket as they and family members processed down the church's main aisle to the hymn, "Amazing Grace." A nephew, Matthew Davis, delivered the first reading from Isaiah 25, proclaiming that the "Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces ... let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us!"Family friend James Anderson read from the Acts of the Apostles, his voice quivering as he read, "To (God) all the prophets bear witness, that everyone who believes in him will receive forgiveness of sins through his name."Deacon Egan proclaimed the Gospel of John 11: 21-27 in which Martha professes her faith that Jesus is indeed the Messiah and that her brother Lazarus will come to life again in the resurrection.During his homily, Msgr. Kiernan acknowledged "the grief and bewilderment" surrounding Mr. Quinn's death. "We're drawn to this place by circumstances that have no rhyme or reason," he said. "The heaviness is compounded with a sense of confusion and, like St. Thomas, we wonder: Has God forgotten how to be gracious?"Msgr. Kiernan challenged those gathered to find "honesty within ourselves" when approaching this tragedy."(Don't) allow this tragedy to become larger than life ... to darken the sun."He reminded the congregation, "The fact of thorns does not cancel out the fact of roses ... Life, my good people, is both good and bad, ugly and beautiful, tragic and triumphant."People have searched out the meaning of such a tragedy. But even the sages and saints throughout time don't have the answer, Msgr. Kiernan said."What we need is not to understand (tragedy) but to accept it." There is no "solution for the hurt in our hearts," he said."But if the hurt is to be handled creatively, it will be done with spiritual tools."Money, power and other human inventions become impotent in the face of tragedy, he said."We live to learn to love and laugh again and the thing that enables us to do this is faith in God."Msgr. Kiernan reminded Mr. Quinn's family and friends of his care for others and love of golf."Ed would not want sadness, but would much more want to place a golf club in the hand of everyone here ... (Ed's) in the hand of God ... Don't be sad, have the heart to live."He offered one of the "spiritual tools" needed to move beyond Mr. Quinn's death."The vital function of a mature faith holds on to God in the dark until one can walk back into the sunlight."Nicole Watson, a friend of the family, read the intercessory prayers.Bringing up the gifts of bread and wine were Mr. Quinn's nieces, Lisa and Corinne Agolino, and nephews, Samuel and Joseph Agolino.Mr. Quinn's son Michael helped distribute the Eucharist along with family friends Michael Norz, Maureen Dunn and James Rainsford.Following Communion, Mascia was honored to pay tribute to his friend and colleague."This is not the time to dwell on the tragedy that took him suddenly from us," he said, but on the memories he left with those in the congregation.Born in the coal mining city of Tamaqua, Pa., Mr. Quinn endured many hardships as a young boy which included living in an orphanage with his four brothers for a time."Ed was always focused, setting goals for himself at an early age and seeing them through."He married Marie, "his best friend," and together they have three "beautiful" adult children: Michael, 30, Colleen E. Ellen, 27, and Scott, 23.
Mall of Georgia Grand Opening; 4,000 Monarch Butterflies Caught and Released (August 13, 1999) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-10-13 | Mall of Georgia is an enclosed super-regional shopping mall located in unincorporated Gwinnett County, Georgia, near the city of Buford, 30 miles (48 km) northeast of Atlanta. Opened in 1999, it is currently the largest shopping mall in both the Atlanta Metropolitan Area and the state of Georgia,[2] consisting of more than two hundred stores on three levels.[1] Featured in the mall is a large village section, comprising lifestyle tenants and restaurants in an outdoor setting, as well as a 500-seat amphitheater. In 2017 the Mall of Georgia renovated the indoor food court area by updating the seating arrangements, furniture styles, and color schemes. Mall of Georgia was built by and is still owned by Simon Property Group. A portion of the Ivy Creek Greenway runs along the shopping mall area. The mall features the traditional retailers JCPenney,Belk, Dick's Sporting Goods, Macy's, Dillard's, and Von Maur, in addition to a 20-screen Regal Cinemas which also features IMAX. The anchor stores are Von Maur, Macy's, Dillard's, Belk, JCPenney, Havertys Furniture, Barnes & Noble, Dick's Sporting Goods, and Regal Cinemas.HistoryThe Mall of Georgia officially opened August 13, 1999 drawing shoppers away from Gwinnett Place Mall, and featured Dillard's, JCPenney, Lord & Taylor, and Nordstrom as its anchor stores, with Bed Bath & Beyond, Haverty's, and Galyan's (now Dick's Sporting Goods) as additional junior anchors.[2] Lord & Taylor, Dillard's, and JCPenney opened on August 11, 1999, two days before the official opening of the mall.[3] The Mall of Georgia also has a 20-screen Regal Cinemas and an IMAX Theater. In 2000, Atlanta-based Rich's was added on,[4] and many more mall stores were added, bringing the total number of stores in the mall to more than 200. Lord & Taylor was repositioned and shuttered entirely; it was replaced with Belk in 2005.[5] Following Federated Department Stores' (now Macy's, Inc.) decision to consolidate nameplates in 2003, the Rich's store at Mall of Georgia was dual-branded as Rich's-Macy's, and the Rich's name was dropped entirely in 2005. In 2015, it was announced Von Maur would be joining the center, replacing Nordstrom.[6]Current anchorsBelk (2005-present)Dillard's (August 11, 1999-present)JCPenney (August 11, 1999-present)Macy's (March 6, 2005-present)Von Maur (2016-present)Former anchorsLord & Taylor (August 11, 1999-2003)Nordstrom (August 13, 1999-2015)Rich's (2000-March 6, 2005)StatueThe statue atop the mall is of Button Gwinnett, one of the first men to sign the United States Declaration of Independence and for whom its location of Gwinnett County is named.[7]
Matthew Lillard Interview on Thirteen Ghosts (October 29, 2001) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-10-12 | Thirteen Ghosts (also known as 13 Ghosts and stylized as THIR13EN Ghosts) is a 2001 supernatural horror film directed by Steve Beck in his directorial debut. A remake of the 1960 film 13 Ghosts by William Castle,[2] the film stars Tony Shalhoub, Embeth Davidtz, Matthew Lillard, Shannon Elizabeth, Alec Roberts, Rah Digga, and F. Murray Abraham.[2]Released theatrically on October 26, 2001, the film grossed $68 million at the box office on a budget of $42 million and received generally negative reviews upon release.[3]Matthew Lyn Lillard (born January 24, 1970) is an American actor. His early film work includes Chip Sutphin in Serial Mom (1994), Emmanuel "Cereal Killer" Goldstein in Hackers (1995), Stu Macher in Scream (1996), Stevo in SLC Punk! (1998), Brock Hudson in She's All That (1999), Dennis Rafkin in Thirteen Ghosts (2001), and Jerry Conlaine in Without a Paddle (2004). He played Shaggy Rogers in Scooby-Doo (2002) and its sequel Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004), and in animation, he has been the voice of Shaggy since Casey Kasem retired from the role in 2009.[1]While much of his work is comedic in nature, Lillard has also given dramatic performances in films such as The Descendants (2011), Trouble with the Curve (2012), Match (2014), and Twin Peaks: The Return (2017). Lillard also starred as Dean Boland in the television series Good Girls (2018–2021). He made his directorial debut with the coming-of-age drama Fat Kid Rules the World (2012).[2] He will star in the upcoming film adaptation of Five Nights at Freddy's, set for release on October 27th, 2023.Early lifeLillard was born in Lansing, Michigan, on January 24, 1970, the son of Paula and Jeffrey Lillard (born 1948),[3][4][5] and grew up in Tustin, California.[6] He has a younger sister, Amy, and attended Foothill High School in North Tustin, California. He later attended Fullerton College and then went to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Pasadena, California, with fellow actor Paul Rudd. He also attended Circle in the Square Theatre School in New York City.
Shannon Elizabeth Interview on Thirteen Ghosts (October 29, 2001) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-10-12 | Shannon Elizabeth Fadal (born September 7, 1973) is an American actress, conservationist, animal activist, model and poker player. A popular sex symbol and teen idol of the 1990s and 2000s, Elizabeth is best known for her roles in the films American Pie, Tomcats, Scary Movie, and Love Actually. She also starred in the films Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Thirteen Ghosts, Cursed, and Night of the Demons, and played a recurring role in the sitcom That '70s Show and Saved by the bell, was a series regular in Cuts.Elizabeth splits her time between Cape Town, South Africa, and the USA,[citation needed] and runs her non-profit organization, an animal rescue turned conservation organization she co-created in 2001—previously Animal Avengers. The org is currently working alongside SANParks and Brett Barlow to care for Munu the Rhino and build him a sanctuary and breeding program. The Foundation has also launched One Woman's Legacy, a scholarship program that helps African women break through the glass ceiling in conservation studies. [4] She is a professional poker player, and in 2006 was named "one of the leading celebrity poker players."[5]Early lifeElizabeth was born in Houston, Texas, to a father of Lebanese and Syrian ancestry,[6][7][8] and to a mother of German, English and Irish ancestry.[9] She was raised in Waco, Texas, from 3rd grade through high school; Elizabeth graduated from Waco High School in 1991.[10] In high school, she was a member of the tennis team and at one point considered a professional tennis career. Elizabeth worked as a model for Ford & Elite models before she began a career in film.[11]
J.K. Rowling Book Signing in Atlanta, Ga. (October 20, 1999) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-10-09 | Joanne Rowling CH OBE FRSL (/ˈroʊlɪŋ/ "rolling";[1] born 31 July 1965), best known by her pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British author and philanthropist. She wrote Harry Potter, a seven-volume fantasy series published from 1997 to 2007. The series has sold over 600 million copies, been translated into 84 languages, and spawned a global media franchise including films and video games. The Casual Vacancy (2012) was her first novel for adults. She writes Cormoran Strike, an ongoing crime fiction series, under the alias Robert Galbraith.Born in Yate, Gloucestershire, Rowling was working as a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International in 1990 when she conceived the idea for the Harry Potter series while on a delayed train from Manchester to London. The seven-year period that followed saw the death of her mother, the birth of her first child, divorce from her first husband, and relative poverty until the first novel in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, was published in 1997. Six sequels followed, and by 2008, Forbes had named her the world's highest-paid author.Rowling concluded the Harry Potter series with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007). The novels follow a boy called Harry Potter as he attends Hogwarts (a school for wizards), and battles Lord Voldemort. Death and the divide between good and evil are the central themes of the series. Its influences include Bildungsroman (the coming-of-age genre), school stories, fairy tales, and Christian allegory. The series revived fantasy as a genre in the children's market, spawned a host of imitators, and inspired an active fandom. Critical reception has been more mixed. Many reviewers see Rowling's writing as conventional; some regard her portrayal of gender and social division as regressive. There were also religious debates over the Harry Potter series.Rowling has won many accolades for her work. She has received an OBE and made a Companion of Honour for services to literature and philanthropy. Harry Potter brought her wealth and recognition, which she has used to advance philanthropic endeavours and political causes. She co-founded the charity Lumos and established the Volant Charitable Trust, named after her mother. Rowling's charitable giving centres on medical causes and supporting at-risk women and children. In politics, she has donated to Britain's Labour Party and opposed Scottish independence and Brexit. She has publicly expressed her opinions on transgender people and related civil rights since 2017. These have been criticised as transphobic by LGBT rights organisations and some feminists, but have received support from other feminists and individuals.
Elisabeth Omilami Interview on Hosea Williams Cancer Scare (November 4, 1999) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-10-09 | Born in Atlanta, Williams-Omilami is the daughter of activist Hosea Williams and Georgia State Representative Juanita T. Williams. Williams-Omilami young life was spent with the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.[2] After graduating from college, she created the People's Survival Theatre, producing a season of five shows per year.[citation needed] People's Survival Theatre continued to produce shows long after Williams-Omilami's journey to New York City when her husband Afemo Omilami received a scholarship to New York University. In New York, Williams-Omilami worked as an arts administrator and executive assistant.[where?] Williams-Omilami directed and acted as much as she could, supporting her family as her husband's career grew. In 1985, Williams-Omilami left New York to return to Atlanta.[citation needed] While in Atlanta Williams-Omilami continued to perform on stage and in film and television.[citation needed] Williams-Omilami graduated from Hampton University with a BA in Theatre.[1]Williams-Omilami's parents brought her along on Civil Rights marches and movements across the South since she was young. During the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Williams-Omilami attended boarding school to Wasatch Academy in Utah where she was the only African-American student.[citation needed] Williams-Omilami had worked for over 15 years in the background of her father's Hosea Feed The Hungry and Homeless efforts,[3][1] and upon his passing in November 2000 became the organization's CEO, expanding the organization from a budget of $200,000 to over $1.5 million.[citation needed] Williams-Omilami worked to provide programs that would meet the basic needs of the working poor and homeless along a continuum of care leading to self-sufficiency. Williams-Omilami expanded these programs from four months to year-round services and established medical clinics, clothing distribution, barber and beautician services, children's educational programs, and home delivery of over 22,000 dinners per year.[citation needed] Williams-Omilami has spoken and toured worldwide for several international relief efforts in places like the Philippines, where she has founded and operates a school for the underprivileged children of Mindanou,[citation needed] and Haiti and Uganda, where she sponsors several orphanages.[citation needed]Williams-Omilami has been acknowledged many times for her humanitarian service.[citation needed] Honorary membership induction into Zeta Phi Beta sorority,[4] A Georgia State Senate Resolution in recognition of her community service,[citation needed] Atlanta Business League 100 Women of Influence,[citation needed] For Sisters Only,[citation needed] Women In Film Humanitarian Award,[citation needed] Secretary of State of Georgia Outstanding Citizen,[citation needed] State of Georgia Goodwill Ambassador,[citation needed] YWCA Women of Achievement Academy,[citation needed] Burger King Urban Everyday Heroes,[citation needed] Kraft Community Service;[citation needed] Southern Christian Leadership Conference Women Drum Major for Justice,[citation needed] T. D. Jakes Phenomenal Woman,[citation needed] Daughters of Isis Community Service Award,[citation needed] the Emory University M.L.K. Community Service Award[citation needed] and The National Conference of Black Mayors Fannie Lou Hamer Unsung Heroine Award.[citation needed]Theatre and filmEditLearn moreThis section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources. (February 2016)Williams-Omilami founded of one of Atlanta's earliest theatre companies People's Survival Theater,[1] as well as the "Summer Artscamp", providing arts programming for economically challenged youth for over 7 years.[citation needed] Williams-Omilami is a playwright has written several plays, one of which is There Is A River In My Soul.[1] She is a past member of both the Georgia Council For The Arts[1] and the Fulton County Arts Council[1] and is a passionate advocate for the arts to be instituted as permanent part of society.[citation needed] She is an actress and has performed at the Alliance Theatre in A Christmas Carol and in early 2002 in Left Hand Singing at the Jewish Theatre of The South.[citation needed] She can also be seen in the HBO made-for-television movie Boycott,[1] In the Heat of the Night[citation needed] and the award-winning I'll Fly Away.[1]
Marietta, Ga. Collections Agent Anna Kay Collins Found Dead, Stuffed in Trunk (November 4, 1999) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-10-09 | ...
The Mysterious Death of Southwest DeKalb High School Student Joanna Muthu (September 30, 1999) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-10-09 | Joanna K. Muthu of Decatur, Dekalb County, GA was born on September 22, 1981, and died at age 18 years old on September 29, 1999.
U.S. Attorney Accuses Telly Hankton of Committing Central City Massacre (May 16, 2016) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-10-02 | Telly Hankton committed 'Central City massacre', feds sayFeds: Telly Hankton, not Michael Anderson, committed 'Central City massacre'In a case almost ten years old, a new federal indictment names Telly Hankton, not Michael Anderson, in a shooting that killed five people in Central City.Monday the mother and cousin of one of the most notorious crimelords in New Orleans history pleaded guilty in federal court, in a case involving a deadly drug ring that operated for decades. Telly Hankton's mother Shirley and his cousin Thomas pleaded guilty to racketeering. Thomas also admitted to trying to kill a witness to keep him from testifying against Hankton in a state murder trial.The pleas comes on the heels of a new development out of the U.S Attorney's office over the weekend: that it was Telly Hankton, not Michael Anderson who gunned down five teens in the 2006 Central City massacre."The wound has been reopened,” said Mona Lisa Hunter, a mother of one of the teens gunned down. “I went through this already--he wasn't the right person. I don't trust the system. Why is all of this is coming to light now, ten years later after my sons were killed?"The slain were Marquise Hunter, 19; his brother, Arsenio "Lil Man" Hunter, 16; Warren "Luv" Simeon, 17; Iraum Taylor, 19; and Reggie "Putty" Dantzler, 19.Already serving a life sentence in Oklahoma for murder, Telly Hankton is awaiting trial on federal charges for three separate killings. Hankton has also been convicted of second-degree murder in the execution-style killing of Darnell Stewert in 2008 on S. Claiborne Ave. The shooting of a witness who survived 17 shots to testify against Hankton, followed by the murder of that witness’ brother days after Hankton receiving a life sentence in 2011 solidified his violent reputation.For years many also suspected Hankton was behind the murder of five teenagers on Josephine Street. However, it was Michael Anderson who was ultimately charged. Now, recent court filings by the U.S. Attorney's office had a surprise twist. An Assistant U.S. Attorney said Hankton committed the 2006 mass murder in essence to maintain his role as the leader, principal drug supplier and gunman for his enterprise.Former FBI special agent in charge, Jim Bernazzani, worked on a violent crime task force at the time."This is an aberration,” he said. “There’s no question it needs to be looked at. There should be a hot wash afterwards to find out how we got here in the first place.”It's a controversial case that's lasted through three U.S. Attorneys."You could see how this could happen,” said WWL legal analyst Chick Foret.“It's a perfect storm. You have a lack of witnesses. You have a lack of law enforcement. You have a lack of resources after Katrina."After a mistrial, Anderson finally cut a deal in state court in 2011 and was sentenced to 80 years pleading no contest to a crime his family says he never did commit."I know my son didn't do it," said Anderson’s mother in 2011.Despite these new revelations, Anderson's state conviction will not be thrown out and he will remain in a federal jail serving a life sentence after pleading guilty to running a drug ring and other crimes. Now legal experts wonder if this new evidence will be introduced when Hankton's federal trial gets underway next month."This is all going to be very confusing to the jury,” said Foret. “The jury is going to ask the logical question, ‘Wait a minute, you're giving me evidence that Telly Hankton committed this murders and murders for which someone else was convicted?’"After all of this, both men are still in jail and Mona Lisa Hunter's heart is still broken. She hopes to celebrate the teen's life in a ceremony this June on the anniversary of their murders.The U.S. Attorney’s office is under a gag order on this case.
Christopher Wilder News Coverage (April 23, 1984) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-09-29 | Christopher Bernard Wilder (March 13, 1945 – April 13, 1984), also known as the Beauty Queen Killer and the Snapshot Killer, was an Australian-American serial killer[1] who abducted and raped at least twelve young women and girls, torturing and killing at least eight of them during a six-week, cross-country crime spree in the United States in early 1984. Wilder's series of murders began in Florida on February 26, 1984, and continued across the country through Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Nevada and California, with attempted abductions in Washington and New York. Wilder was killed during a struggle with police in New Hampshire on April 13, 1984. Since his death, he has also been considered a suspect in many unsolved murders, including the unsolved 1965 murder of two teenaged girls in his native Sydney.
Christopher Wilder News Coverage (April 22, 1984) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-09-29 | Christopher Bernard Wilder (March 13, 1945 – April 13, 1984), also known as the Beauty Queen Killer and the Snapshot Killer, was an Australian-American serial killer[1] who abducted and raped at least twelve young women and girls, torturing and killing at least eight of them during a six-week, cross-country crime spree in the United States in early 1984. Wilder's series of murders began in Florida on February 26, 1984, and continued across the country through Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Nevada and California, with attempted abductions in Washington and New York. Wilder was killed during a struggle with police in New Hampshire on April 13, 1984. Since his death, he has also been considered a suspect in many unsolved murders, including the unsolved 1965 murder of two teenaged girls in his native Sydney.
David Austin After-School Program for Boys at Herndon Elementary in Atlanta, Ga. (March 14, 1994) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-09-29 | ...
The Death of Lewis Grizzard (March 20, 1994) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-09-29 | Lewis McDonald Grizzard Jr. (October 20, 1946 – March 20, 1994) was an American writer and humorist, known for his Southern demeanor and commentary on the American South. Although he spent his early career as a newspaper sports writer and editor, becoming the sports editor of the Atlanta Journal at age 23, he is much better known for his humorous newspaper columns in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a popular stand-up comedian and lecturer.Grizzard also published a total of 25 books, including collections of his columns (e.g. Chili Dawgs Always Bark at Night), expanded versions of his stand-up comedy routines (I Haven't Understood Anything Since 1962), and the autobiographical If I Ever Get Back to Georgia, I'm Gonna Nail My Feet to the Ground. Although much of his comedy discussed the South and Grizzard's personal and professional lives, it was also a commentary on issues prevalent throughout America, including relationships between men and women (e.g. If Love Were Oil, I'd Be About a Quart Low), politics, and health, especially heart health. Grizzard was also the stepbrother of the Southern humorist Ludlow Porch.BiographyGrizzard was born in Fort Benning, Georgia.[1][2] His father, Lewis Grizzard, Sr., was a soldier in the United States Army who served in both World War II and the Korean War, and was a sole survivor of a Chinese attack that wiped out his platoon. Lewis Sr. left his wife Christine, a school teacher, when Lewis Jr. was young, and mother and son moved in with Christine's parents in Moreland, Georgia, where Lewis spent the rest of his childhood. Grizzard recounted his often frustrating relationship with his father in My Daddy Was a Pistol and I'm a Son of a Gun, and blamed his father's difficulties in civilian life on what at the time was called "battle fatigue" and is now called post-traumatic stress disorder, saying, "Daddy came home from his second war" (the Korean War) "a complete mess, the Army did nothing to help him, and he died young." He began his writing early, publishing stories of his Little League team in the nearby Newnan Times-Herald, Newnan, Georgia.Grizzard attended the University of Georgia in Athens, where he was a member of the Sigma Pi fraternity and Gridiron Secret Society. During his time in Athens, he became an avid Georgia Bulldogs fan. He studied journalism, but he shunned the school newspaper in favor of the independent Athens Daily News. Before graduating with a bachelor's degree in journalism,[3][2] Grizzard moved on to Atlanta, joining the Atlanta Journal, and becoming the youngest-ever executive sports editor of the Journal at the age of 23. The executive editor of the Journal, Jim Minter, said that had Grizzard stayed there, he would be remembered today as one of the great newspaper editors of the 20th century. His time there included the Marshall University football team tragedy and the Journal's coverage of Hank Aaron's 715th home run.Grizzard then left to become the executive sports editor at the Chicago Sun-Times.Grizzard often drew criticism for his disparaging remarks about gay people and feminists, and his dislike for the New South and reflections on the "Old South" of his youth were frequently misinterpreted.[who?] Nevertheless, he was extremely popular in the South, and he had enduring popularity across the nation because of the perceived humor, humanity, patriotism, and "old-fashioned" values that permeated his writing. A few days after marrying for the fourth time, Grizzard died of complications of his fourth heart-valve surgery. Prior to his surgery, he was asked if he had any questions; his reply: "I just have one question: When's the next bus to Albuquerque?"[6] As a result of the surgery, Grizzard suffered from brain damage, according to one report, from lack of oxygen to his brain. Had he survived, he would have been quite impaired. In accordance with his wishes, his body was cremated, and some of his ashes were scattered at the 50-yard line of the Sanford Stadium at the University of Georgia. TGrizzard never fathered any children, but he did adopt Jordan, the daughter of his fourth wife.[7]
Eddie Lawrence Testifies in Fred Tokars Murder Case (March 15, 1994) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-09-29 | In the 1980's and early 1990's Fred Tokars was a crooked lawyer in Atlanta. He engaged in numerous criminal activities, including money laundering. On November 29, 1992 Fred Tokars' beautiful young wife Sara was kidnaped and shotgunned to death by Eddie Lawrence and Curtis Rower. In 1993 Tokars, Lawrence, and Rower were all charged with her murder by a Cobb County grand jury.In 1994 Fred Tokars was convicted of racketeering and other federal felonies in federal court and was given four sentences of life without parole in a federal prison. After his federal sentences were upheld on appeal, Tokars was put on trial before a jury in a Georgia superior court last January for the murder of Sara. The trial was televised live on Court TV.On Saturday, March 8, 1997 the jury found Fred Tokars guilty of her murder. Four days later the same jury found that the state had proved beyond a reasonable doubt several aggravating circumstances permitting a death sentence, but nonetheless exercised its discretion to impose a life sentence on Tokars.The horrible murder of Sara Tokars, which cannot be sufficiently condemned, must not blot out our eternal vigilance for liberty and justice. There are important civil liberties lessons to be learned as a result of the Fred Tokars murder trial.First, the "necessity" exception to the hearsay rule was ballooned to allow the jury to hear a vast mass of hearsay and double hearsay testimony, highly damaging to the defendant, concerning the marriage of Fred and Sara Tokars. Grieving relatives or angry friends of Sara were the sources of most of this evidence. The Tokars trial proves there is increasing danger that Americans will be prosecuted and punished on the basis of tittle-tattle. We had better be careful about any further relaxing of the rules of evidence.Second, the death penalty is a very expensive and a very arbitrary procedure. Prosecutors use it for political purposes. Death penalty cases are now tried on the basis of prosecution testimony coming from jailhouse informers, prostitutes, drug dealers, and murderers, all claiming that the defendant made breathless confessions of guilt to them.Sometimes the family members of a victim may hijack a public prosecution and transform it into a private vendetta. Under the guise of victim's rights, the prosecution is now allowed to produce a scripted film to be shown to the jury prior to deciding sentence. Victim's rights are now used to mask vindictiveness; victim's rights are becoming a smoke screen to advance the agenda of the law and order elements.Third, every day prosecutors do more to help criminals than all the liberals and defense lawyers could ever dream of doing. In the Tokars case Cobb County D.A. Tom Charron showered the fiendish murderer, liar, and habitual criminal Eddie Lawrence, a hands-on killer of Sara, with sweetheart deals that will permit him to be released from prison and live in the witness protection program. How many other prosecution witness-criminals received leniency in exchange for giving testimony incriminating Tokars? Some limits need to placed on the unlimited, discretionary power of prosecutors to grant favors to government witnesses or informers.Fourth, the Tokars case reminds of the role that race plays in death penalty cases. The victim was white and from an affluent white family that wanted a death sentence. It is inconceivable that a black family, or a poor white family, would have had the input into prosecutorial decision-making that Sara's family had.
Hosea Williams Press Conference on Police Brutality (March 14, 1994) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-09-29 | ...
Debbye Turner and Cathy Podewell Interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show (February 11, 1990) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-09-28 | Catherine Ann Podewell (born January 27, 1964) is an American actress known for playing the role of Cally Harper Ewing on Dallas from 1988 to 1991, 2013.[1]Early life and educationPodewell was born in Evanston, Illinois.[1][2] She moved to Walnut Creek, California and was raised there by her father, a teacher, and her mother, a real estate agent. Her paternal grandparents, Lester Podewell and Beverly Younger, were also actors.[2] She attended the University of California, Santa Barbara where she studied theater arts and dancing.[2]CareerPodewell is best known for playing Cally Harper Ewing, the second wife of the character J.R. Ewing, on Dallas from 1988 to 1991 and was nominated for Soap Opera Digest Award for Outstanding Lead Actress. In 2013, Podewell reprised her role as Cally Harper for J.R. Ewing's funeral episode in the second season of the new Dallas.[3] Podewell had guest appearances on television series, including Valerie, Murder, She Wrote, Beverly Hills, 90210, Guns of Paradise, Walker, Texas Ranger and Growing Pains. Podewell also had a guest appearance on the game show Win, Lose or Draw.Podewell starred in the 1988 horror film Night of the Demons and appeared in the 1989 comedy film Beverly Hills Brats. Podewell also starred in the TV film Earth Angel (1991) with Cindy Williams, Mark Hamill, and Eric Estrada.Personal lifePodewell married Steven Glueck in May 1989.[4][5] They have three children.[6] She took time from acting from 1995 to 2013 to focus on motherhood.Debbye Turner Bell (born September 19, 1965 in Honolulu, Hawaii) is an American TV anchor, veterinarian, talk show host, former beauty queen and winner of the 1990 Miss America pageant.Early life and educationTurner was born in Honolulu, Hawaii and raised in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Turner earned a Bachelor of Science in agriculture from Arkansas State University, and attended the University of Missouri. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Turner also spent a couple of years honing her public service skills working for Safeway Stores.In 1991, she received her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine.[1] She became a spokesperson for Purina and pursued a career in veterinary medicine before going into television.PageantryTurner was the first runner-up at the Miss Arkansas Pageant, a state preliminary competition for the Miss America program in 1988.In the summer of 1989, she won the Miss Missouri title and went on to win the 1990 Miss America crown. Turner is a singer, pianist, and skilled percussionist, evidenced by her marimba rendition of '"Flight of the Bumblebee"' in the talent portion of the 1990 Miss America contest. Turner was the third African-American national titleholder and the first—and as of 2019, the only—Miss Missouri to be crowned Miss America.[2]CareerTurner's first hosting job came at the St. Louis NBC affiliate KSDK, on a show called Show Me St. Louis in 1995.[3]Six years later, Turner joined CBS News as a feature correspondent then became their "resident veterinarian" and a fill-in anchor. Turner was also a fill-in anchor on the CBS Morning News. Turner left CBS in 2012. She has appeared on Animal Planet's Cats 101 and Dogs 101 series. She was the host of Arise America, on Arise News. She is currently the Leadership and discipleship leader [4]at Kentwood Community Church, located in Grand Rapids Michigan.Personal lifeTurner is the daughter of Frederick C. Turner, Jr. and Gussie Turner.[5] Turner married Gerald Bell in 2008. The couple have a daughter.[6]Turner's older sister, Suzette, is married to megachurch pastor, Kirbyjon Caldwell.
Plymouth Acclaim Television Commercial (February 11, 1990) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-09-28 | The Plymouth Acclaim is a mid-size sedan produced in the 1989 to 1995 model years. The Acclaim was Plymouth's updated replacement for both the similarly sized E-body Caravelle and the K-body Reliant.[2] Badge engineering was employed to give Dodge and Chrysler their own versions of the AA-body Acclaim: the Dodge Spirit, the Chrysler LeBaron sedan, and the export-market Chrysler Saratoga. It was replaced by the Plymouth Breeze in 1996.PlatformThe Acclaim was a version of the Chrysler Corporation's AA-body 4-door sedan, which was an evolutionary development of Chrysler's extended K-car platform. Acclaim (and Dodge Spirit) production ended on December 9, 1994, after a short 1995 model year and the Cab-forward Plymouth Breeze was introduced as a replacement for 1996. The Acclaim was one of the last K-car derivatives produced by Chrysler. In all, just under half a million examples of the Acclaim were built in its 7-model year run.[3]Market positioningThe AA-body cars were badge-engineered triplets, as were most Chrysler products of this time. The Acclaim differed from its siblings primarily in wheel choices, bodyside molding, and fascias where it sported its unique taillights and the corporate Plymouth eggcrate-grille. Like the K-body and E-body vehicles they replaced, the Acclaim and Dodge Spirit were both marketed as mainstream variants, while the Chrysler LeBaron was marketed as the luxury variant. Despite this, there was substantial overlap in trims and equipment among each car. For example, a fully loaded Acclaim was almost similar to a base LeBaron in features and price.[4]In addition to its entry-level base model, the Acclaim was initially available in mid-range LE and high-end LX trim. LE and LX models came equipped with features such including premium cloth seating, power windows/door locks, premium sound systems, bodyside cladding, additional exterior brightwork, and on the latter 15-inch lace-spoke aluminum wheels.[5] In spite of this, the base model accounted for nearly 85 percent of Acclaim sales.[6] Unlike the Spirit, the Acclaim did not receive any sport-oriented models.[7]The Acclaim has also been characterized as the replacement for the smaller Reliant,[8][9][10] though the Sundance launched in 1987 is closer than the Acclaim in most dimensions to the Reliant.Changes through the years1989-1990 Plymouth Acclaim1989-1992 Plymouth Acclaim LX1993-1995 Plymouth AcclaimFor 1992, the Acclaim's three trim levels were consolidated into one base model.[6] At extra cost, it could be equipped with packages and stand-alone options previously included in LE and LX models.The Acclaim was mildly facelifted for 1993, with a new radiator grille and other minor trim detail changes including a new chrome Pentastar hood ornament. Starting in 1993, the Acclaim was offered with a "Gold Package". This included gold pinstripes, gold bodyside trim, and gold-accented alloy wheels accented with gold paint.A motorized shoulder belt was added to the front passenger seating position of US-market Acclaims in 1994, to comply with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 208's requirement for passive restraints. These motorized belts did not comply with Canada's safety standards. As a result, Canadian-market Acclaims continued to use a manual passenger seatbelt, and 1994-1995 Acclaims could not be legally imported in either direction.[11] For 1995, its final model year, the 2.5-liter engine got a slightly revised cylinder head and the 4-speed A604 automatic transmission and anti-lock brakes were both dropped. Otherwise, the Acclaim remained mostly unchanged during its 6-year run.
Dennis Miller Miller Genuine Draft Television Commercial (February 11, 1990) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-09-28 | Dennis Michael Miller (born November 3, 1953) is an American political commentator, stand-up comedian, talk show host, writer, and former sportscaster.Miller was a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1985 to 1991, and he subsequently hosted a string of his own talk shows on HBO, CNBC, and also in syndication. From 2007 to 2015, Miller hosted a daily, three-hour, self-titled talk radio program, nationally syndicated by Westwood One.[2] On March 9, 2020, Dennis Miller + One show, launched on RT America. It ran twice-weekly and featured celebrity interviews.[3]Miller is listed as 21st on Comedy Central's 100 greatest stand-up comedians of all time,[4] and was ranked as the best host of SNL's Weekend Update by Vulture.com.The Miller Brewing Company is an American brewery and beer company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was founded in 1855 by Frederick Miller. Molson Coors acquired the full global brand portfolio of Miller Brewing Company in 2016,[1][2] and operates the Miller Brewery at the site of the original Miller Brewing Company complex.Miller Genuine Draft: Nicknamed MGD, it was introduced in 1985 as "Miller High Life Genuine Draft". Developed to replicate the flavor of High Life from a non-pasteurized keg in a can or bottle, MGD is made from the same recipe as High Life but the beer is cold filtered instead of pasteurized. As of 2007 Genuine Draft had a 1.5% share of the United States market; by 2012 it had declined to 0.7% market share, representing a decline of 1.7 million barrels.[18] It has 4.7% abv.[13]
The Peoples Court Television Commercial (February 12, 1990) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-09-28 | The People's Court is an American arbitration-based reality court show, featuring an arbitrator handling small claims disputes in a simulated courtroom set. Within the court show genre, it is the first of all arbitration-based reality-style programs, which has overwhelmingly become the convention of the genre. The original series ran from 1981 to 1993, and the revival ran from 1997 to 2023. Both versions have run in first-run syndication. The show ranks as the longest-running traditional court show and second-longest-running court show in general, having a total of 38 overall seasons as of the 2022–23 television year, behind only niche court show Divorce Court by 2 seasons.The first version of The People's Court was presided over solely by former Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Joseph Wapner. The current incarnation of the show has had different presiding judges: former New York City Mayor Ed Koch (1997–1999), former New York Supreme Court Judge Jerry Sheindlin (1999–2001), and former Florida State Circuit Court Judge Marilyn Milian (2001–2023). Milian is the show's longest-reigning arbiter, having made it to 20 years of presiding over the series by spring 2021.[1]The program is the third highest rated of court shows after only Judge Judy reruns (ended the original run in July 2021) and Hot Bench (produced by Judy Sheindlin), respectively.[2] With Judge Judy's end at 25 seasons in 2021, The People's Court's revival now boasts the genre's longest single production continuance having entered its 26th season in the 2022–23 television year (albeit having gone through 3 arbitrators). In June 2021, The People's Court won its 4th Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Legal/Courtroom Program, which officially gives it the most Daytime Emmy wins in the court show genre. In February 2023, it was confirmed that the 26th season of the revival would be its last.[3]
Wiseguy Television Commercial (February 12, 1990) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-09-28 | Wiseguy is an American crime drama television series that aired on CBS from September 16, 1987, to December 8, 1990, for a total of 75 episodes over four seasons. The series was produced by Stephen J. Cannell and was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, to avoid the higher studio costs associated with filming in Los Angeles.Wiseguy originally starred Ken Wahl as Vinnie Terranova, a Brooklyn native and Fordham University graduate who was a deep cover operative for the FBI under the supervision of senior agent Frank McPike, played by Jonathan Banks. The primary cast was rounded out by Jim Byrnes, who played an information operative known as Lifeguard (real name Daniel Burroughs) who assisted Vinnie in the field.After the third season, Wahl departed from the series. Steven Bauer was brought in to replace Wahl as the lead, with Cecil Hoffman joining as a fourth regular cast member alongside Bauer and the returning Banks and Byrnes. Wiseguy ended its run midway through the 1990–1991 television season with three produced episodes left unaired.SynopsisThe series followed Vincent "Vinnie" Terranova, an undercover agent of the OCB (Organized Crime Bureau), a fictional division of the FBI. The show kept its focus on both the mechanics of being deep undercover and the consequences of the protagonist's actions.[1]Unlike similar series of the day, Wiseguy was serialized over multiple episodes telling a self-contained story that would conclude in the final episode of the cycle. This gave rise to the industry term "story arc".[citation needed] Some cycles were short while others were extended, but each new story had a specific set of central characters exclusive to it who would appear over the course of multiple episodes. For example, Kevin Spacey appeared in seven episodes of a first-season arc as an antagonist, while Jerry Lewis was a protagonist for five episodes in a season-two arc.Season OneSonny Steelgrave storylineFBI undercover agent Vinnie Terranova is released from prison after serving an 18-month sentence to establish his cover. After his training agent is murdered by Dave Steelgrave (Gianni Russo), an Atlantic City Mafia boss, Vinnie vows to infiltrate the organization and take the Steelgraves down. He eventually earns the trust of Sonny Steelgrave (Ray Sharkey), Dave's brother, and after Dave's death and the apparent defection of one of the Steelgrave captains, he is made Sonny's second-in-command. Over time, Vinnie feels conflicted by his genuine feelings of friendship towards Sonny, and having to lie to his mother about his work for the government in order to maintain his cover. Eventually, Sonny discovers that Vinnie is an undercover agent and, about to be arrested for his crimes, commits suicide rather than face the death penalty. Vinnie is ultimately able to overcome the guilt he feels over his betrayal of Sonny and continues to work as an undercover agent.Mel Profitt story lineVinnie, using his reputation developed as a result of infiltrating the Steelgrave crime family, makes contact with a hitman/assassin named Roger Lococco (William Russ).As it turns out, the Profitt connection is part of a much larger plot by the CIA to train mercenaries and install a puppet regime in the Caribbean. Lococco's training officer and immediate superior Herb Ketcher provea to be behind the plot, and after Vinnie and McPike infiltrate the operation, the entire thing is exposed as a front for an American corporation and Lococco turned state's evidence. Shortly after his testimony, Lococco goes off the grid. Ketcher, after being exposed, takes his own life before consequences can be dealt him.As the arc comes to an end, Vinnie announces his resignation from OCB and will not listen when McPike said he will give him six months off instead.Stephen J. Cannell, producer of Wiseguy, stated that the character Jim Profit from the short-lived Fox series Profit (which Cannell also produced) was named after and partially based on the Mel Profitt character.Note: In 1997 TV Guide ranked the episode "Blood Dance" number 14 on its "100 Greatest Episodes of All Time" list.[2]
Paine College Television Commercial (March 11, 1990) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-09-28 | Paine College is a private, historically black Methodist college in Augusta, Georgia. It is affiliated with the United Methodist Church and Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. Paine College offers undergraduate degrees in the liberal arts, business administration, and education through residential, commuter, and off-site programs. The college is accredited by the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS).CampusThe campus, c. 1910Paine College has a 64.4-acre (260,617.6 m2) campus in the heart of Augusta. Most of its buildings, including residence halls, classroom buildings, and the library, are located in the main campus area. The athletic field, gymnasium, tennis court, and the chapel/music building are included in the rear campus area. The Collins-Calloway Library and Resources Center houses the Paine College Digital Collections, which feature historical images of Paine College and oral history interviews of Paine College alumni and presidents.A historic district within the campus was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 26, 2012, for its contributions to education and African-American heritage.[4]AthleticsPaine College's athletic teams are nicknamed as the Lions. The college currently competes as a member of the National Christian Collegiate Athletic Association (NCCAA). Men's sports include baseball and basketball; women's sports include basketball, softball, and volleyball.Paine formerly competed in the Division II level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), primarily in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) from 1985–86 to 2020–21.The college's football team was dropped after the 1963 season, but returned to play in 2014.[5] In their first season back, the football team finished 2-8[6] before the program was again shut down.[7]Accreditation and financesThe college is experiencing financial issues and had its regional accreditation revoked by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) in 2016.[8]In November 2015, following an initial recommendation from SACS to revoke its accreditation, Paine College launched the "Build it Back Campaign", which raised over half a million dollars in six months.[9] This was to support its fundraising goal of $3.5 million, of which $2.5 million in cash was raised. The college plans to use the money to offset the debt of $5.4 million.[10] Following a March 2016 onsite visit, SACS found the college in compliance with one of the standards that was previously problematic, leaving a total of three standards in question: financial resources, financial stability, and control of sponsored research/external funds.[9] In May, the college celebrated meeting its fundraising goal. However, one month later SACS recommended that the college lose its regional accreditation.[11] The college unsuccessfully appealed to the accreditor[12] and federal courts.[13][14]The college subsequently applied for and was granted candidate status with the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS) in 2018.[15]Notable alumniThis is a list of notable alumni of Paine Institute and/or Paine College.This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.Name Class year Notability Reference(s)John Wesley Gilbert 1886 first African-American archaeologist [16]Emma R. Gresham 1953 mayor of Keysville, Georgia (1985-2005) and the second African American female to be elected as a chief official in Georgia [17]Louis Lomax 1942 journalist, first African American to appear on television as a newsman [18]Joseph Lowery president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference 1977-1997 [19]Pastor Troy rapper [20]Mike Thurmond 1975 attorney and first African-American elected as Georgia Labor Commissioner [21]Channing Tobias 1902 civil rights activist and appointee on the President's Committee on Civil Rights [22]Woodie W. White 1958 bishop of the United Methodist Church [21]Frank Yerby 1937 acclaimed author and film writer [23]Samuel Lee Fudge 2016 American film actor
The Oprah Winfrey Show Television Commercial Married to a Real Jerk (February 11, 1990) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-09-28 | The Oprah Winfrey Show, often referred to as The Oprah Show or simply Oprah, is an American daytime syndicated talk show that aired nationally for 25 seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in Chicago, Illinois. Produced and hosted by Oprah Winfrey, it remains the highest-rated daytime talk show in American television history.[2]The show was highly influential to many young stars, and many of its themes have penetrated into the American pop-cultural consciousness. Winfrey used the show as an educational platform, featuring book clubs, interviews, self-improvement segments, and philanthropic forays into world events.[3] The show did not attempt to profit off the products it endorsed; it had no licensing agreement with retailers when products were promoted, nor did the show make any money from endorsing books for its book club.[4]Oprah was one of the longest-running daytime television talk shows in history. The show received 47 Daytime Emmy Awards before Winfrey chose to stop submitting it for consideration in 2000.[5] In 2002, TV Guide ranked it at No. 49 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.[6] In 2013, they ranked it as the 19th greatest TV show of all time.[7]In November 2009, Winfrey announced that the show would conclude in 2011 following its 25th and final season. The series finale aired on May 25, 2011.
Patricia Stephens Due Interview (November 1, 1963) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-09-28 | PATRICIA STEPHENS DUE, INTEGRATIONIST (MSOF) ON APPEAL FOR READMISSIONS TO FLORIDA A AND M.1963/11/012778-07Patricia Stephens Due (December 9, 1939 – February 7, 2012)[1][2] was one of the leading African-American civil rights activists in the United States, especially in her home state of Florida. Along with her sister Priscilla[3] and others trained in nonviolent protest by CORE, Due spent 49 days in one of the nation's first jail-ins, refusing to pay a fine for sitting in a Woolworth's "White only" lunch counter in Tallahassee, Florida in 1960.[4] Her eyes were damaged by tear gas used by police on students marching to protest such arrests, and she wore dark glasses for the rest of her life. She served in many leadership roles in CORE and the NAACP, fighting against segregated stores, buses, theaters, schools, restaurants, and hotels, protesting unjust laws, and leading one of the most dangerous voter registration efforts in the country in northern Florida in the 1960s.[5]With her daughter, Tananarive, Due wrote Freedom in the Family: a Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights, documenting the struggle she participated in, initially as a student at Florida A&M University, and later working for civil rights organizations and Florida communities, sometimes in partnership with her husband, civil rights attorney John D. Due, Jr.BiographyPatricia Stephens was born on December 9, 1939, in Quincy, Florida to Lottie Mae (née Powell) and Horace Walter Stephens. She was the second of three children. In 1963, she married Florida A&M University (FAMU) law student John D. Due, Jr., who went on to become a prominent civil rights attorney.[6] The couple had three daughters.[5]Due's university studies were repeatedly interrupted by protests and arrests that sometimes got her suspended, as well as speaking and fund-raising tours. Though she entered Florida A&M University in 1957, she did not receive her degree until 1967.[1]Civil rights activismDue and her sister Priscilla started fighting segregation when Due was 13 by insisting on being served at the "white only" window of their local Dairy Queen (name of business: The Polar Bear) in Belle Glade, instead of the "colored" window.[1]During the summer of 1959, the sisters attended a nonviolent resistance workshop organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). On February 20, 1960, eleven FAMU students, including Patricia and Priscilla, were arrested for ordering food at a "white only" Woolworth lunch counter. On March 12, dozens of FAMU and Florida State University students who participated in sit-ins at McCrory's and Woolworth's were arrested. A thousand students began marching from the FAMU campus toward downtown Tallahassee, but were stopped by Police officers with teargas. At the head of the march, Due was teargassed right in the face, and suffered permanent eye damage.[7]Due and the other sit-in participants were tried and found guilty on March 17, 1960. Eight refused to pay the $300 fine, deciding instead to go to jail. Eight students served 49 days at the Leon County Jail: FAMU students Patricia and Priscilla Stephens, John Broxton, Barbara Broxton and William Larkins, and three other students—Clement Carney, Angelina Nance, and 16-year-old high school student Henry Marion Steele (son of activist pastor Rev. C.K. Steele).[citation needed]The "jail-in" gained nationwide attention, and the students received a supportive telegram from Martin Luther King Jr. Due sent a letter to baseball pioneer Jackie Robinson, who published it in a column he wrote. Robinson later sent the jailed students diaries so they could write down their experiences. After the jail-in, Due and the others traveled the country in speaking tours to publicize the civil rights movement. She met with such leaders as Eleanor Roosevelt and author James Baldwin, and was jailed on numerous occasions as a leader in the movement.[5]DeathPatricia Stephens Due died in 2012, aged 72, following a battle with cancer.[where?]In 2008, the National Hook-Up of Black Women Inc. honored Due at its national convention.[9]In 2017, Due was inducted into the Florida Civil Rights Hall of Fame.[10]LegacyIn February 2010, Florida A&M University (FAMU) students gathered on campus to re-enact the sit-ins, jail-in, and protest march that had occurred 50 years previously in Tallahassee.[11]The John Due and Patricia Stephens Due Freedom Endowed Scholarship provides $1000 annually to a FAMU student who plans to use the legacy of the civil rights movement to do his or her part to make a better nation.[12]Patricia Due was honored by Tallahassee Mayor John R. Marks, who issued a proclamation declaring May 11, 2011 as Patricia Stephens Due Day.InterviewsPatricia Stevens Due and Tananarive Due on NPR, Fresh Air from WHYY, January 16, 2003 (Audio)
Patricia Stephens Due Interview on Demonstrations Against Florida Segregated Movie Theaters (6/2/63) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-09-28 | PATRICIA DUE, CORE REPRESENTATIVE, SOF, TALLAHASSEE ON RACIAL PROBLEM.1963/06/022643-16Patricia Stephens Due (December 9, 1939 – February 7, 2012)[1][2] was one of the leading African-American civil rights activists in the United States, especially in her home state of Florida. Along with her sister Priscilla[3] and others trained in nonviolent protest by CORE, Due spent 49 days in one of the nation's first jail-ins, refusing to pay a fine for sitting in a Woolworth's "White only" lunch counter in Tallahassee, Florida in 1960.[4] Her eyes were damaged by tear gas used by police on students marching to protest such arrests, and she wore dark glasses for the rest of her life. She served in many leadership roles in CORE and the NAACP, fighting against segregated stores, buses, theaters, schools, restaurants, and hotels, protesting unjust laws, and leading one of the most dangerous voter registration efforts in the country in northern Florida in the 1960s.[5]With her daughter, Tananarive, Due wrote Freedom in the Family: a Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights, documenting the struggle she participated in, initially as a student at Florida A&M University, and later working for civil rights organizations and Florida communities, sometimes in partnership with her husband, civil rights attorney John D. Due, Jr.BiographyPatricia Stephens was born on December 9, 1939, in Quincy, Florida to Lottie Mae (née Powell) and Horace Walter Stephens. She was the second of three children. In 1963, she married Florida A&M University (FAMU) law student John D. Due, Jr., who went on to become a prominent civil rights attorney.[6] The couple had three daughters.[5]Due's university studies were repeatedly interrupted by protests and arrests that sometimes got her suspended, as well as speaking and fund-raising tours. Though she entered Florida A&M University in 1957, she did not receive her degree until 1967.[1]Civil rights activismDuring the summer of 1959, the sisters attended a nonviolent resistance workshop organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). On February 20, 1960, eleven FAMU students, including Patricia and Priscilla, were arrested for ordering food at a "white only" Woolworth lunch counter. On March 12, dozens of FAMU and Florida State University students who participated in sit-ins at McCrory's and Woolworth's were arrested. A thousand students began marching from the FAMU campus toward downtown Tallahassee, but were stopped by Police officers with teargas. At the head of the march, Due was teargassed right in the face, and suffered permanent eye damage.[7]Due and the other sit-in participants were tried and found guilty on March 17, 1960. Eight refused to pay the $300 fine, deciding instead to go to jail. Eight students served 49 days at the Leon County Jail: FAMU students Patricia and Priscilla Stephens, John Broxton, Barbara Broxton and William Larkins, and three other students—Clement Carney, Angelina Nance, and 16-year-old high school student Henry Marion Steele (son of activist pastor Rev. C.K. Steele).[citation needed]The "jail-in" gained nationwide attention, and the students received a supportive telegram from Martin Luther King Jr. Due sent a letter to baseball pioneer Jackie Robinson, who published it in a column he wrote. Robinson later sent the jailed students diaries so they could write down their experiences. After the jail-in, Due and the others traveled the country in speaking tours to publicize the civil rights movement. She met with such leaders as Eleanor Roosevelt and author James Baldwin, and was jailed on numerous occasions as a leader in the movement.[5]DeathPatricia Stephens Due died in 2012, aged 72, following a battle with cancer.[where?]Due received the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Outstanding Leadership, the Gandhi Award for Outstanding Work in Human Relations, and the Florida Freedom Award from the NAACP. She was also awarded an honorary doctorate from her alma mater, Florida A&M University.[8]In 2008, the National Hook-Up of Black Women Inc. honored Due at its national convention.[9]In 2017, Due was inducted into the Florida Civil Rights Hall of Fame.[10]LegacyIn February 2010, Florida A&M University (FAMU) students gathered on campus to re-enact the sit-ins, jail-in, and protest march that had occurred 50 years previously in Tallahassee.[11]The John Due and Patricia Stephens Due Freedom Endowed Scholarship provides $1000 annually to a FAMU student who plans to use the legacy of the civil rights movement to do his or her part to make a better nation.[12]Patricia Due was honored by Tallahassee Mayor John R. Marks, who issued a proclamation declaring May 11, 2011 as Patricia Stephens Due Day.InterviewsPatricia Stevens Due and Tananarive Due on NPR, Fresh Air from WHYY, January 16, 2003 (Audio)
Carrie Meek Backs Rubin Askew Instead of Jesse Jackson for Presidential Nomination (Feb. 17, 1984) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-09-28 | BOGERT, REVEREND JESSE JACKSON, CAMPAIGN SOUTH MIAMI, NOBLE SISSLE JR., JACKSON, FLORIDA COORDINATOR CARRIE MEEK AND BARBARA CAREY ALL SOT.1984/02/17Carrie Mae Pittman Meek (April 29, 1926 – November 28, 2021) was the United States Representative for Florida's 17th congressional district, from 1993 to 2003. Having been elected in the September 1992 primary with no general election opponent, she was the first African American since the Reconstruction era elected to represent Florida in the United States Congress, where she advocated for the poor and for members of minority groups. An educator, legislator, stateswoman and a member of the Democratic Party, she served from 1979 to 1982 in the Florida House of Representatives, from 1982 to 1992 in the Florida Senate, and from 1993 to 2003, as a congresswoman in the United States House of Representatives. She was the founder of the Carrie Meek Foundation.Early life and educationCarrie Mae Pittman[1] was born on April 29, 1926, in Tallahassee, Florida,[2] where she was raised, the youngest of 12 children of Willie and Carrie Pittman.[3] She was the daughter of sharecroppers and granddaughter of a slave.[4]Meek was a graduate of Lincoln High School. She remained in north Florida for college and was graduated from Florida A&M University (a historically black university then known as Florida A&M College for Negroes) in 1946. Her degree was in physical education and biology, and she also lettered in track and field.[3] At that time, African Americans were not admitted to graduate schools in Florida, so Meek enrolled in the University of Michigan and received her master of science degree in 1948.[2]Academic careerAfter graduation from the University of Michigan, Meek was hired as a teacher at Bethune-Cookman College, another historically black college in Daytona Beach, Florida. Following that, she taught at her alma mater, Florida A&M University.[2] Meek moved to Miami in 1961 to serve as special assistant to the vice president of Miami-Dade Community College.[2] Largely due to Meek's integral role in the administration of the college during the push for its integration, the college was desegregated in 1963.[5]Throughout her years as an educator, Meek was also active in community projects in the Miami area.[6]Political careerFlorida LegislatureWhen state representative Gwen Cherry, Florida's first woman African American legislator, died in a car crash in 1979,[7][8] Meek decided to run in the special election to succeed her. She was elected to the Florida House as a Democrat.[9] As a state representative, she introduced a bill criminalizing stalking.[2] She served until 1982.[9]Meek never lost a race for reelection to the U.S. House of Representatives.[12] She announced that she would not seek re-election in the 2002 election, and retired from the House at the end of her term in January 2003. Her son, Kendrick Meek, ran for her vacated seat and succeeded her.Meek was married twice. Her husbands were Lucius Davis and Harold Meek. Both marriages ended in divorce.[3][15] She had three children, two daughters, Lucia Davis-Raiford and Sheila Davis, and a son, Kendrick Meek.[12]Renown for liberal opinions, folksy yet powerful oratory, and colorful Republican bashing, once while discussing why she was a Democrat, she said, “The last Republican that did something for me was Abraham Lincoln”.[16]After her retirement from politics, she spent much of her time running the Carrie Meek Foundation, which she had founded in 2001 to provide resources and opportunities for those living in her Miami-Dade community. She stepped down for health reasons in 2015.[12]She died at her home in Miami on November 28, 2021, at the age of 95.[4][11][10]Awards and honorsThe Carrie Meek – James N. Eaton, Sr. Southeastern Regional Black Archives Research Center and Museum in Tallahassee, Florida, on the campus of Florida A&M University, was co-named in Meek's honor.[17]She was a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, and an honorary member of Iota Phi Lambda sorority.[18]Meek was also awarded honorary degrees by a number of institutions, including Florida A&M University, University of Miami, Barry University, Florida Atlantic University, and Rollins College.[12]
Carrie Meek at NAACP Fundraiser in Miami, Fla. (October 29, 1983) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-09-28 | NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR ADVANCEMENT OF COLOR PEOPLE (NAACP) SUPPORT DINNER, FUNDRAISER, CARRIE MEEK SOT.1983/10/29649-23Carrie Mae Pittman Meek (April 29, 1926 – November 28, 2021) was the United States Representative for Florida's 17th congressional district, from 1993 to 2003. Having been elected in the September 1992 primary with no general election opponent, she was the first African American since the Reconstruction era elected to represent Florida in the United States Congress, where she advocated for the poor and for members of minority groups. An educator, legislator, stateswoman and a member of the Democratic Party, she served from 1979 to 1982 in the Florida House of Representatives, from 1982 to 1992 in the Florida Senate, and from 1993 to 2003, as a congresswoman in the United States House of Representatives. She was the founder of the Carrie Meek Foundation.Early life and educationCarrie Mae Pittman[1] was born on April 29, 1926, in Tallahassee, Florida,[2] where she was raised, the youngest of 12 children of Willie and Carrie Pittman.[3] She was the daughter of sharecroppers and granddaughter of a slave.[4]Meek was a graduate of Lincoln High School. She remained in north Florida for college and was graduated from Florida A&M University (a historically black university then known as Florida A&M College for Negroes) in 1946. Her degree was in physical education and biology, and she also lettered in track and field.[3] At that time, African Americans were not admitted to graduate schools in Florida, so Meek enrolled in the University of Michigan and received her master of science degree in 1948.[2]Academic careerAfter graduation from the University of Michigan, Meek was hired as a teacher at Bethune-Cookman College, another historically black college in Daytona Beach, Florida. Following that, she taught at her alma mater, Florida A&M University.[2] Meek moved to Miami in 1961 to serve as special assistant to the vice president of Miami-Dade Community College.[2] Largely due to Meek's integral role in the administration of the college during the push for its integration, the college was desegregated in 1963.[5]Throughout her years as an educator, Meek was also active in community projects in the Miami area.[6]Political careerFlorida LegislatureWhen state representative Gwen Cherry, Florida's first woman African American legislator, died in a car crash in 1979,[7][8] Meek decided to run in the special election to succeed her. She was elected to the Florida House as a Democrat.[9] As a state representative, she introduced a bill criminalizing stalking.[2] She served until 1982.[9]Meek never lost a race for reelection to the U.S. House of Representatives.[12] She announced that she would not seek re-election in the 2002 election, and retired from the House at the end of her term in January 2003. Her son, Kendrick Meek, ran for her vacated seat and succeeded her.Meek was married twice. Her husbands were Lucius Davis and Harold Meek. Both marriages ended in divorce.[3][15] She had three children, two daughters, Lucia Davis-Raiford and Sheila Davis, and a son, Kendrick Meek.[12]Renown for liberal opinions, folksy yet powerful oratory, and colorful Republican bashing, once while discussing why she was a Democrat, she said, “The last Republican that did something for me was Abraham Lincoln”.[16]After her retirement from politics, she spent much of her time running the Carrie Meek Foundation, which she had founded in 2001 to provide resources and opportunities for those living in her Miami-Dade community. She stepped down for health reasons in 2015.[12]She died at her home in Miami on November 28, 2021, at the age of 95.[4][11][10]Awards and honorsThe Carrie Meek – James N. Eaton, Sr. Southeastern Regional Black Archives Research Center and Museum in Tallahassee, Florida, on the campus of Florida A&M University, was co-named in Meek's honor.[17]She was a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, and an honorary member of Iota Phi Lambda sorority.[18]Meek was also awarded honorary degrees by a number of institutions, including Florida A&M University, University of Miami, Barry University, Florida Atlantic University, and Rollins College.[12]
Carrie Meek Runs for Office in Miami, Fla. (March 19, 1979) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-09-28 | SPOTLIGHT CLUB HEARS DEMO CANDIDATES FOR REP SEAT OF GWEN CHERRY, JO ANNA DE LOACH AND CARRIE MEEK BOTH SOT.1979/03/19166-32Carrie Mae Pittman Meek (April 29, 1926 – November 28, 2021) was the United States Representative for Florida's 17th congressional district, from 1993 to 2003. Having been elected in the September 1992 primary with no general election opponent, she was the first African American since the Reconstruction era elected to represent Florida in the United States Congress, where she advocated for the poor and for members of minority groups. An educator, legislator, stateswoman and a member of the Democratic Party, she served from 1979 to 1982 in the Florida House of Representatives, from 1982 to 1992 in the Florida Senate, and from 1993 to 2003, as a congresswoman in the United States House of Representatives. She was the founder of the Carrie Meek Foundation.Early life and educationCarrie Mae Pittman[1] was born on April 29, 1926, in Tallahassee, Florida,[2] where she was raised, the youngest of 12 children of Willie and Carrie Pittman.[3] She was the daughter of sharecroppers and granddaughter of a slave.[4]Meek was a graduate of Lincoln High School. She remained in north Florida for college and was graduated from Florida A&M University (a historically black university then known as Florida A&M College for Negroes) in 1946. Her degree was in physical education and biology, and she also lettered in track and field.[3] At that time, African Americans were not admitted to graduate schools in Florida, so Meek enrolled in the University of Michigan and received her master of science degree in 1948.[2]Academic careerAfter graduation from the University of Michigan, Meek was hired as a teacher at Bethune-Cookman College, another historically black college in Daytona Beach, Florida. Following that, she taught at her alma mater, Florida A&M University.[2] Meek moved to Miami in 1961 to serve as special assistant to the vice president of Miami-Dade Community College.[2] Largely due to Meek's integral role in the administration of the college during the push for its integration, the college was desegregated in 1963.[5]Throughout her years as an educator, Meek was also active in community projects in the Miami area.[6]Political careerFlorida LegislatureWhen state representative Gwen Cherry, Florida's first woman African American legislator, died in a car crash in 1979,[7][8] Meek decided to run in the special election to succeed her. She was elected to the Florida House as a Democrat.[9] As a state representative, she introduced a bill criminalizing stalking.[2] She served until 1982.[9]Meek never lost a race for reelection to the U.S. House of Representatives.[12] She announced that she would not seek re-election in the 2002 election, and retired from the House at the end of her term in January 2003. Her son, Kendrick Meek, ran for her vacated seat and succeeded her.[11][10][14]Personal lifeMeek was married twice. Her husbands were Lucius Davis and Harold Meek. Both marriages ended in divorce.[3][15] She had three children, two daughters, Lucia Davis-Raiford and Sheila Davis, and a son, Kendrick Meek.[12]Renown for liberal opinions, folksy yet powerful oratory, and colorful Republican bashing, once while discussing why she was a Democrat, she said, “The last Republican that did something for me was Abraham Lincoln”.[16]After her retirement from politics, she spent much of her time running the Carrie Meek Foundation, which she had founded in 2001 to provide resources and opportunities for those living in her Miami-Dade community. She stepped down for health reasons in 2015.[12]She died at her home in Miami on November 28, 2021, at the age of 95.[4][11][10]Awards and honorsThe Carrie Meek – James N. Eaton, Sr. Southeastern Regional Black Archives Research Center and Museum in Tallahassee, Florida, on the campus of Florida A&M University, was co-named in Meek's honor.[17]She was a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, and an honorary member of Iota Phi Lambda sorority.[18]Meek was also awarded honorary degrees by a number of institutions, including Florida A&M University, University of Miami, Barry University, Florida Atlantic University, and Rollins College.[12]
Carrie Meek at Dade County Forum Young Children and Adults (September 6, 1972) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-09-28 | C.T. TAYLOR SPECIAL REPORT (MSOF) ON ORB FORUM ON FUTURE OF DADES YOUNG CHILDREN AND ADULTS, DR. CHARLES PERRY, FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY (FIU), POLICE CHIEF BERNARD GARMIRE AND CARRIE MEEK, DIVISION COMMISSIONER, SERVICES ALL, ALSO PHILLIP HUBBARD. (MSOF).1972/09/065906-05Carrie Mae Pittman Meek (April 29, 1926 – November 28, 2021) was the United States Representative for Florida's 17th congressional district, from 1993 to 2003. Having been elected in the September 1992 primary with no general election opponent, she was the first African American since the Reconstruction era elected to represent Florida in the United States Congress, where she advocated for the poor and for members of minority groups. An educator, legislator, stateswoman and a member of the Democratic Party, she served from 1979 to 1982 in the Florida House of Representatives, from 1982 to 1992 in the Florida Senate, and from 1993 to 2003, as a congresswoman in the United States House of Representatives. She was the founder of the Carrie Meek Foundation.Early life and educationCarrie Mae Pittman[1] was born on April 29, 1926, in Tallahassee, Florida,[2] where she was raised, the youngest of 12 children of Willie and Carrie Pittman.[3] She was the daughter of sharecroppers and granddaughter of a slave.[4]Meek was a graduate of Lincoln High School. She remained in north Florida for college and was graduated from Florida A&M University (a historically black university then known as Florida A&M College for Negroes) in 1946. Her degree was in physical education and biology, and she also lettered in track and field.[3] At that time, African Americans were not admitted to graduate schools in Florida, so Meek enrolled in the University of Michigan and received her master of science degree in 1948.[2]Academic careerAfter graduation from the University of Michigan, Meek was hired as a teacher at Bethune-Cookman College, another historically black college in Daytona Beach, Florida. Following that, she taught at her alma mater, Florida A&M University.[2] Meek moved to Miami in 1961 to serve as special assistant to the vice president of Miami-Dade Community College.[2] Largely due to Meek's integral role in the administration of the college during the push for its integration, the college was desegregated in 1963.[5]Throughout her years as an educator, Meek was also active in community projects in the Miami area.[6]Political careerFlorida LegislatureWhen state representative Gwen Cherry, Florida's first woman African American legislator, died in a car crash in 1979,[7][8] Meek decided to run in the special election to succeed her. She was elected to the Florida House as a Democrat.[9] As a state representative, she introduced a bill criminalizing stalking.[2] She served until 1982.[9]Meek never lost a race for reelection to the U.S. House of Representatives.[12] She announced that she would not seek re-election in the 2002 election, and retired from the House at the end of her term in January 2003. Her son, Kendrick Meek, ran for her vacated seat and succeeded her.[11][10][14]Personal lifeMeek was married twice. Her husbands were Lucius Davis and Harold Meek. Both marriages ended in divorce.[3][15] She had three children, two daughters, Lucia Davis-Raiford and Sheila Davis, and a son, Kendrick Meek.[12]Renown for liberal opinions, folksy yet powerful oratory, and colorful Republican bashing, once while discussing why she was a Democrat, she said, “The last Republican that did something for me was Abraham Lincoln”.[16]After her retirement from politics, she spent much of her time running the Carrie Meek Foundation, which she had founded in 2001 to provide resources and opportunities for those living in her Miami-Dade community. She stepped down for health reasons in 2015.[12]She died at her home in Miami on November 28, 2021, at the age of 95.[4][11][10]Awards and honorsThe Carrie Meek – James N. Eaton, Sr. Southeastern Regional Black Archives Research Center and Museum in Tallahassee, Florida, on the campus of Florida A&M University, was co-named in Meek's honor.[17]She was a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, and an honorary member of Iota Phi Lambda sorority.[18]Meek was also awarded honorary degrees by a number of institutions, including Florida A&M University, University of Miami, Barry University, Florida Atlantic University, and Rollins College.[12]
Big Willie Robinson & Tomiko Robinson Interview (October 10, 1972) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-09-24 | BIG WILLIE [”TOMIKO AND BIG WILLIE”]PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD ORGANIZER TALKS ABOUT DRAG RACING INTERVIEWED BY TONY SEGRETO."Big Willie" Robinson (1942 – May 18, 2012) was an American street racer, bodybuilder, and president of the International and National Brotherhood of Street Racers. He was active in the street racing community in Los Angeles, especially in the 1960s and 1970s, where he gained attention of the Los Angeles Police Department, the local media, and politicians. The Watts riots led to Robinson using drag racing as a method of addressing street violence fueled by racial tensions and police violence. He married fellow street racer Tomiko Robinson in the late 1960s, who became an integral part of the street racing community until her death in 2007. With the support of Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley, Robinson founded Brotherhood Raceway Park in 1974 and the dragstrip maintained a presence on Terminal Island until 1994. Robinson died in 2012.[1][2][3]HistoryRobinson was born and raised in New Orleans. He spent a year at Louisiana State University in 1960. Robinson recalled in 1994 how he came out of history class to find his 1953 Oldsmobile 98, a gift from his father, with its headlights and windows smashed and its tires slashed as the result of a racially motivated attack by a group of white people who were angry at the university's integration.[1][4] He moved to Los Angeles in the early 1960s, where he attended UCLA. After financial difficulties following his parents' separation, he went to work at a local body shop before joining the street racing scene.[3]He was drafted in the army during the Vietnam War and was medically discharged in 1966. He returned to Los Angeles in 1966 and returned to racing.[3] Robinson quickly gained notoriety and became synonymous with Los Angeles street racing in the period.[5]After the Watts riots of 1965, Robinson founded the International and National Brotherhood of Street Racers in 1968 with support from the LAPD, whose officers first attended his drag racing events in Compton, Inglewood, and Watts undercover.[2] Paul Norwood, executive vice president of the organization stated that "there was a lot of tension and the police thought this was a good way for the people to get rid of their anxiety and anger by allowing them to do this on weekends."[3] The organization at its height grew to over 80,000 members in 38 states and 9 countries.[6]Support from Mayor Tom Bradley was instrumental in the opening of the organization's track in 1974, named Brotherhood Raceway Park.[1] In 1977, Bradley commented: "It provides not only an opportunity to give these youngsters an outlet, but it helps build brotherhood. They are built upon the theme of brotherhood through street racing."[3] The track closed in 1984 but re-opened again in 1993, after Robinson persuaded the Los Angeles Harbor Commission to allow its reopening for two years. Some reports from officers indicate that crime dropped when the track was open. A retired deputy sheriff stated, "pretty much all the cops knew [that] when Willie's track is open, it definitely makes a difference ... virtually all the street racing stopped because now they had a place to go."[3] In a 1994 article for Sports Illustrated, Robinson commented: "Black, white, yellow, brown, skinheads, Nazi party members, Muslims, we got 'em all. They're all here at the track, and they're communicatin'. And once they start communicatin', they start likin' each other, and once they start likin' each other, they forget about the hate." Robinson's mantra reportedly was If you're racing, you're not killing.[4]In his 2012 obituary published in the Los Angeles Times, Robinson was described as "a gentle giant who promoted organized drag racing as a way to unite people of all races and classes and ease racial tensions."[3]
Robert Conrad Interview on His Boxing Career (February 2, 1972) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-09-17 | Robert Conrad (born Conrad Robert Falk; March 1, 1935 – February 8, 2020) was an American film and television actor, singer, and stuntman. He is best known for his role in the 1965–1969 television series The Wild Wild West, playing the sophisticated Secret Service agent James T. West. He portrayed World War II ace Pappy Boyington in the television series Baa Baa Black Sheep (later syndicated as Black Sheep Squadron). In addition to acting, he was a singer and recorded several pop/rock songs in the late 1950s and early 1960s as Bob Conrad. He hosted a weekly two-hour national radio show (The PM Show with Robert Conrad) on CRN Digital Talk Radio beginning in 2008.[1]Early lifeConrad was born Conrad Robert Norton Falk in Chicago. His father, Leonard Henry Falk, was 17 years old at the time of Conrad's birth and was of German descent. His mother, Alice Jacqueline Hartman (daughter of Conrad and Hazel Hartman), was 15 years old when she gave birth, and named her son after her father.[2] She became the first publicity director of Mercury Records, where she was known as Jackie Smith. She married twice, including once to Chicago radio personality Eddie Hubbard in 1948.[3] Eddie Hubbard and Jackie Smith reportedly had a child together (born c. 1949)[4] before splitting up in 1958.[5][6][7]Conrad attended Chicago schools including South Shore High School, Hyde Park High School, the YMCA Central School, and New Trier High School.[8] He dropped out of school at age 15 to work full-time, including loading trucks for Consolidated Freightways and Eastern Freightways, and driving a milk truck for Chicago's Bowman Dairy.[8]After working in Chicago for several years and studying theater arts at Northwestern University, Conrad pursued an acting career.[8] One of his first paying roles was a week-long job posing outside a Chicago theater where the film Giant (1956) was screened;[9] Conrad bore a resemblance to the film's lead, actor James Dean, so his mother used her entertainment industry contacts to help him get the part intended as a publicity stunt to boost attendance at the theater.[10] Conrad also studied singing; his vocal coach was Dick Marx, the father of singer Richard Marx.[11]CareerEarly performancesIn 1957, Conrad met actor Nick Adams while visiting James Dean's gravesite in Fairmount, Indiana.[12] They became friends and Adams suggested that Conrad move to California to pursue acting.[12][13]Adams got a bit part for Conrad in the film Juvenile Jungle (1958).[12] Adams was supposed to appear in it, but withdrew so he could take a part in a different movie.[12] Conrad's brief non-speaking role in Juvenile Jungle enabled him to join the Screen Actors Guild.[12] He had a small role in the film Thundering Jets, also in 1958.Warner Bros.Conrad was soon signed to an acting contract by Warner Bros. He also sang, and released several recordings with Warner Bros. Records on a variety of LPs, EPs, and SPs 33-1/3 and 45 rpm records during the late 1950s and early 1960s.[14] In 1961, he had a minor Billboard hit song in "Bye Bye Baby" which reached No. 113.[15]At Warner, he appeared in the second season of the James Garner series Maverick (episode: "Yellow River", 1959). He was featured in other shows, either for Warner or Ziv Television, including Highway Patrol, Lawman, Colt .45 (playing Billy the Kid),[citation needed] Sea Hunt, The Man and the Challenge, and Lock Up.[citation needed]
Jackie Gleason Interview on Florida Golf Courses (August 22, 1964) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-09-17 | John Herbert Gleason (February 26, 1916 – June 24, 1987) was an American actor, comedian, writer, and composer known affectionately as "The Great One".[1][2][3] He developed a style and characters from growing up in Brooklyn, New York and was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy, exemplified by his city bus driver character Ralph Kramden in the television series The Honeymooners. He also developed The Jackie Gleason Show, which maintained high ratings from the mid-1950s through 1970. The series originated in New York City, but filming moved to Miami Beach, Florida in 1964 after Gleason took up permanent residence there.Among his notable film roles were Minnesota Fats in 1961's The Hustler (co-starring with Paul Newman) and Buford T. Justice in the Smokey and the Bandit series from 1977 to 1983 (co-starring Burt Reynolds).Gleason enjoyed a prominent secondary music career during the 1950s and 1960s, producing a series of best-selling "mood music" albums. His first album Music for Lovers Only still holds the record for the longest stay on the Billboard Top Ten Charts (153 weeks), and his first 10 albums sold over a million copies each.[4] His output spans more than 20 singles, nearly 60 long-playing record albums, and over 40 CDs.
Nigel Hawthorne Interview on The Madness of King George (March 11, 1995) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-09-16 | The Madness of King George is a 1994 British biographical historical comedy-drama film directed by Nicholas Hytner and adapted by Alan Bennett from his own 1991 play The Madness of George III. It tells the true story of George III of Great Britain's deteriorating mental health, and his equally declining relationship with his eldest son, the Prince of Wales, particularly focusing on the period around the Regency Crisis of 1788–89. Two text panels at the end of the film note that the colour of the King's urine suggests that he was suffering from porphyria, adding that the disease is "periodic, unpredictable and hereditary."The Madness of King George won the BAFTA Awards in 1995 for Outstanding British Film and Best Actor in a Leading Role for Nigel Hawthorne, who was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. The film won the Oscar for Best Art Direction and was also nominated for Oscars for Best Supporting Actress for Mirren and Best Adapted Screenplay. Helen Mirren also won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress and Hytner was nominated for the Palme d'Or.In 1999, the British Film Institute voted The Madness of King George the 42nd greatest British film of all time.Sir Nigel Barnard Hawthorne CBE (5 April 1929 – 26 December 2001) was an English actor. He is known for his stage acting and his portrayal of Sir Humphrey Appleby, the permanent secretary in the 1980s sitcom Yes Minister and the Cabinet Secretary in its sequel, Yes, Prime Minister. For this role, he won four BAFTA TV Awards for Best Light Entertainment Performance.He won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for portraying King George III in The Madness of King George (1994). He later won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor, for the 1996 series The Fragile Heart. He was also an Olivier Award and Tony Award winner for his work in theatre.
Jonathan Taylor Thomas Interview on Man of the House (February 24, 1995) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-09-16 | Man of the House is a 1995 American comedy film starring Chevy Chase, Farrah Fawcett, and Jonathan Taylor Thomas. The film is about a boy (Thomas) who must come to terms with his potential stepfather (Chase), a well meaning lawyer who is unknowingly the subject of a manhunt by relatives of a man he helped land in prison. It was shot in Los Angeles, California and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.A soundtrack by Walt Disney Records was scheduled to coincide with the film's release, but never came to fruition due to the fact Disney could not procure the rights to several of the songs for a soundtrack release, most notably C+C Music Factory's "Gonna Make You Sweat" and Enigma's "Return to Innocence". Despite this, "Hit the Road Jack", a song by R&B artist Percy Mayfield, was cleared for release on the soundtrack that, ultimately, never made it to market.The soundtrack was advertised on promotional materials from mid 1994 to the beginning of 1995. "Return to Innocence (Short Version)" was used in Jack and Sandy's wedding during the film, "Return to Innocence (Single Version)" was to be used on the unreleased Man of the House soundtrack, and "Return to Innocence (380 Midnight Mix)" was used in the two Man of the House promo television spots.ReceptionThe film was panned by critics, and has a rating of 14% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 14 reviews.Entertainment Weekly critic Owen Gleiberman awarded the film a D+, describing it as a "a lethargic family comedy" and castigating Chase's acting abilities, remarking that "as a performer, Chase hasn't lost his air of foggy detachment; he still delivers his lines as if he were reading them off a TelePrompTer mounted somewhere in the next room. This time, though, he attempts to pass off his deadpan quizzicality as concern. It's an eerie sight. I mean, does anyone really want to watch Chevy Chase try to be heartwarming? He had more conviction reporting the death of Franco."[2]Jonathan Taylor Thomas (né Weiss; born September 8, 1981) is an American actor and director. He is known for portraying Randy Taylor on Home Improvement and voicing young Simba in Disney's 1994 animated feature film The Lion King and Pinocchio in New Line Cinema's 1996 film The Adventures of Pinocchio.Early life and educationThomas was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and later moved to Sacramento, California, and then to Los Angeles.[1]Thomas's uncle was playwright and actor Jeff Weiss.[2] Thomas has Pennsylvania Dutch and Portuguese ancestry.[3][4]In 2000, Thomas graduated with honors from Chaminade College Preparatory School in West Hills, California.[5][6]Upon graduation, he enrolled at Harvard University, where he studied philosophy and history and spent his third year abroad at the University of St Andrews in Scotland.[7]In 2010, he graduated from the Columbia University School of General Studies.[8]CareerTelevisionThomas began his television career in 1990, playing the role of Kevin Brady, the son of Greg Brady, on The Bradys, a spin-off of the 1970s TV show The Brady Bunch. In 1991, Thomas appeared in three episodes of Fox's sketch comedy series In Living Color. That same year, he was cast as middle son Randy Taylor on ABC's sitcom Home Improvement. Despite looking much younger, in reality, Thomas was a month older than Zachary Ty Bryan who played his elder brother Brad. Thomas remained with Home Improvement well into his teenage years but left the show in 1998 to focus on academics.In early 2004, Thomas had a small guest role on 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter, another ABC sitcom, and appeared in the WB's Smallville in 2002 and 2004. In 2005, he appeared in UPN's high school detective drama Veronica Mars and was also featured on The E! True Hollywood Story's episode on Home Improvement.[9]On March 22, 2013, Thomas guest-starred on the second-season finale of his third ABC sitcom, Last Man Standing, and again in the fourth episode of the third season on October 11, 2013, reuniting with Tim Allen, his TV father from Home Improvement.[10] On January 10, 2015, he once again guest-starred on the twelfth episode of the fourth season of Last Man Standing, this time as Randy, reuniting with his TV parents from Home Improvement, Tim Allen and Patricia Richardson.[11]FilmThomas appeared in many films during and after his run on Home Improvement. He had a few roles as a voice actor in his child years, including Disney's animated feature The Lion King, in which he voiced the protagonist Simba as a cub.He also appeared in live-action films. Among the ones he starred in are those from Disney: Man of the House, Tom and Huck, and I'll Be Home for Christmas. Other live-action films starring Thomas are an adaptation of The Adventures of Pinocchio (in which he played and voiced the titular character), Wild America, Speedway Junky, and Walking Across Egypt.
Eddie Griffin Interview on The Walking Dead (February 23, 1995) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-09-16 | The Walking Dead is a 1995 war film written and directed by Preston A. Whitmore II and starring Allen Payne, Joe Morton and Eddie Griffin. The film depicts the lives of five Marines who are all assigned to rescue a group of POW during the Vietnam War in 1972. It opened to poor reviews and low box office receipts. Previews billed it as "the black experience in Vietnam".The box-office gross was over $6,000,000.00.[1]In 1972 North Vietnam, short-timer Marines are dispatched by helicopter to conduct their last mission: to evacuate the survivors from a POW camp abandoned by the Viet Cong. The landing zone - which they expect to be cold - is actually hot (under fire[2]) and after a short fight, only four members of the rescue mission survive. SSgt. Barkley and Hoover have a brief fight after Hoover wants to radio for an evacuation and Barkley insists they finish the mission. During their fight a mortar lands nearby, knocking them both into a swamp. Barkley saves Branche from drowning. CastAllen Payne as Cole EvansEddie Griffin as Pvt. Hoover BracheJoe Morton as SSgt. BarkleyVonte Sweet as PFC. Joe BrooksRoger Floyd as Cpl. PippinsBernie Mac as RayIon Overman as Shirley EvansKyley Jackman as Sandra EvansJean-Claude La Marre as Pvt. Earl Anderson (as Jean LaMarre)Lena Sang as Barbra JeanWendy Raquel Robinson as CelesteDana Point as EdnaDoil Williams as HaroldDamon Jones as 2nd Lt. DuffyKevin Jackson as DeuceSoundtrackSoundtrack album by Various artistsReleased March 7, 1995Singles from The Walking Dead soundtrack"Among the Walking Dead"Released: April 25, 1995The soundtrack album for the film was released on March 7, 1995, by Motown Records. It consists mostly of Motown hits from the 1960s and 1980s but also includes three newly recorded hip-hop songs exclusive to the soundtrack. The soundtrack failed to make it to the Billboard charts but Scarface's "Among the Walking Dead" was a minor hit on the R&B and rap charts.Edward Rubin Griffin (born July 15, 1968) is an American stand up comedian and actor.Early lifeGriffin was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and was raised by his single mother, Doris Thomas, a phone company operator.[2] His family were Jehovah's Witnesses.[3] In 1984, at 16 years old, he moved to Compton, California, to live with his cousins. He later became a father and enlisted in the U.S. Navy but was discharged within months for using marijuana. After six months in jail on an assault conviction following a fight, he made ends meet dancing and painting houses.CareerAt a comedy club open-mic night in 1989, Griffin hopped onstage on a bet and earned a standing ovation with family stories. He talked his way into stand-up gigs around town and in L.A. One popular bit was his gay version of tough-guy comic Andrew Dice Clay, who later hired Griffin to open for him.[4]Once he achieved a fair amount of success in standup, Griffin became legendary at The Comedy Store for stopping in to do guest sets on open mic nights and staying up on stage long enough to tire the audience out for the hapless budding comic who had to follow him.Griffin has appeared in films such as The Meteor Man (1993), The Walking Dead (1995) “David E. Talbert: A Fool & His Money” (1997), Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999), Double Take (2001), Undercover Brother (2002), John Q (2002), Scary Movie 3 (2003), Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo (2005), Norbit (2007), and Urban Justice (2007).Griffin has appeared on television shows such as Malcolm & Eddie (1996–2000) and Chappelle's Show in the skit "World Series of Dice" as Grits n' Gravy. Griffin performed on two tracks from Dr. Dre's 1999 album, 2001, and the intro track from The D.O.C.'s 1996 album Helter Skelter. He has also appeared on commercials for Miller Beer's Man Laws.In 2011, Comedy Central released Griffin's stand-up comedy special You Can Tell 'Em I Said It on DVD. In December 2019, his stand-up comedy special, E-Niggma, was released on Showtime.Personal lifeGriffin and his mother got into an argument at his 20th birthday party when she accused him of stealing jewelry from her, which Griffin denied doing. Afterward, Griffin did not see his mother for four years until he moved back to Los Angeles, California, in March 1992, to be closer with his family when his mother was injured in a car accident.[5]Griffin has been married four times. He married his first wife, Carla in 1984 when he was 16 years old. They divorced in 1997.[6] He married his second wife, Rochelle, in 2002 and divorced in 2009.[6] On September 8, 2011, he married his third wife, Nia Rivers. However, they filed for divorce after one month of marriage, citing irreconcilable differences. They were officially divorced six months later in 2012.[7][8] He married his fourth wife, Ko Lee Griffin, on July 27, 2017, in Las Vegas, Nevada.[9]
Michele Pommier Interview on Male Models (February 22, 1995) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-09-16 | ...
Cindy Crawford Interview on Male Models (February 20, 1995) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-09-16 | Cynthia Ann Crawford (born February 20, 1966) is an American model, actress and television personality. During the 1980s and 1990s, she was among the most popular supermodels and a ubiquitous presence on magazine covers and runways, as well as fashion campaigns. She subsequently expanded into acting and business ventures.Early lifeCrawford was born in DeKalb, Illinois, on February 20, 1966,[2] the daughter of Dan Crawford and Jennifer Sue Crawford-Moluf (née Walker).[3] She has two sisters, Chris and Danielle,[4] and a brother, Jeffery, who died of childhood leukemia at age 3.[5] On social media, she has stated that her family had been in the United States for generations and that her ancestry was mostly German, English, and French.[6] She is Christian.[7] Appearing in an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? in 2013, she discovered that her ancestors included European nobility and that she was descended from Charlemagne.[8]In her sophomore year at high school, she received a call from a local clothing store regarding modeling work, only to discover it was a prank by two of her classmates. However, the following year, another store hired a number of high school girls, including Crawford, to work for them (including a fashion shoot). In her junior year, local photographer Roger Legel, whose duties included photographing a different college girl to be that week's coed in the DeKalb Nite Weekly, asked to take her picture for the publication; the result was Crawford's first cover.[9] The photo and positive feedback she received were enough to convince her to take up modeling. Initially, she worked with a small agency, which was sold to Elite Model Management shortly after she signed. In 1983, she entered Elite's Look of the Year contest at 17 and made the national finals.[10][11]Crawford graduated from DeKalb High School in 1984 as valedictorian.[10][12] She earned an academic scholarship to study chemical engineering at Northwestern University, which she attended for only one semester before dropping out to pursue a full-time modeling career. After working for photographer Victor Skrebneski in Chicago, she moved to New York City in 1986 and signed with the Elite New York modeling agency.
Paul Sutera Interview on The Brady Bunch Movie (February 16, 1995) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-09-16 | Paul Sutera was born on 24 September 1979 in Winter Park, Florida, USA. He is a producer and actor, known for The Brady Bunch Movie (1995), True Romance (1993) and A Very Brady Sequel (1996).The Brady Bunch Movie is a 1995 American comedy film that parodies the 1969–1974 television series The Brady Bunch. The film was directed by Betty Thomas, with a screenplay by Laurice Elehwany, Rick Copp, and Bonnie and Terry Turner, and stars Shelley Long, Gary Cole, and Michael McKean. It also features cameos from Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork, and RuPaul, along with some of the original cast of The Brady Bunch in small roles. The film places the original sitcom characters, with their 1970s fashion sense and sitcom family morality, in a contemporary 1990s setting, drawing humor from the resulting culture clash.The Brady Bunch Movie was released in the United States on February 17, 1995, and grossed $54 million. A sequel titled A Very Brady Sequel was released on August 23, 1996, and a television film titled The Brady Bunch in the White House was aired on November 29, 2002.The film was shot almost entirely in Los Angeles, California, with the Brady house being located in Sherman Oaks. The school scenes were shot at Taft High School in Woodland Hills. Some scenes were filmed at Bowcraft amusement park in Scotch Plains, New Jersey.The producers had sought to film the original house that had been used for exterior shots during the original Brady Bunch series, but its appearance had been seriously altered since 1969. The filmmakers instead erected a façade around a house in nearby Encino and filmed scenes in the front yard.[2]ReleaseThe Brady Bunch Movie was released in theaters on February 17, 1995. The film opened at number 1 at the US box office with $14.8 million in its opening four-day weekend and went on to gross $46.6 million in the U.S. and Canada.[3] Internationally, it only grossed $7.5 million for a worldwide total of $54.1 million.[1] The Brady Bunch Movie was released on DVD June 10, 2003 and re-released on April 25, 2017.[4] The film has also been released digitally on Google Play.[5]ReceptionThe review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 63% approval rating based on 43 reviews and an average rating of 5.9/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Though lightweight and silly, The Brady Bunch Movie still charms as homage to the 70s sitcom".[6]Leonard Klady of Variety wrote: "For five years back in the early 1970s, U.S. TV homes were in the thrall of The Brady Bunch. Two decades after their small-screen demise, the clean-cut crew is back in mythic form as The Brady Bunch Movie. Part homage, part spoof, the deft balancing act is a clever adaptation—albeit culled from less than pedigreed source material".[7]Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote: "The film establishes a bland, reassuring, comforting Brady reality – a certain muted tone that works just fine but needs, I think, a bleaker contrast from outside to fully exploit the humor. The Brady Bunch Movie is rated PG-13, which is a compromise: The Bradys themselves live in a PG universe, and the movie would have been funnier if when they ventured outside it was obviously Wayne's World".[8] He and Gene Siskel also agreed that the film offers charmingly bright and silly set decoration but fails to deliver genuine laughs.[9]Common Sense Media said that "for those who grew up watching the TV show, The Brady Bunch Movie is deeply satisfying and the best part is its nostalgia. Sure, it's fun to see the Bradys treated as freaks. But the heart of the film is a campy, affectionate interpretation of the TV show".[10]SequelsA Very Brady SequelMain article: A Very Brady SequelA Very Brady Sequel, directed by Arlene Sanford, was released theatrically on August 23, 1996. It sees the family routine thrown into disarray when a man claiming to be Carol's long-lost first husband arrives on their doorstep. The family must then follow Carol to Hawaii in order to set things straight. All of the main cast members reprised their roles.The Brady Bunch in the White HouseMain article: The Brady Bunch in the White HouseThe second sequel, The Brady Bunch in the White House, sees a convoluted series of mishaps end with Mike and Carol Brady elected as President and Vice President of the United States. Despite innocent efforts to improve the country, the Brady family is beset on all sides by controversy and imagined scandals which threaten to tear them apart. Although the original actors for Mike and Carol return, the children and Alice are all recast for this film, which was released as a filmed-for-television movie.
Andy García Sister Tessi Garcia Interview (February 10, 1995) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-09-16 | And The Beat Goes On Exiled as young children Andy and Tessi Garcia grew up with an unbreakable family bond and a drive to succeed. The only wish that has yet to come true for both is one for a free Cuba.The boy was only four years old, but he sensed that something was amiss. In the neighborhood where his family lived, tension hung in the air like a fog. Rebels troops marked their territory. Still of that blissful age when one is too young to know better, the child was not afraid.But his sister knew better. At age nine, she was more aware of the fragile political climate. When, in early spring of 1961, that tension culminated in a brutal gust of violence that dragged on for days, she and her brothers took cover beneath their beds. Eventually, when quiet returned, her little brother wandered into the aftermath and, with typical childlike fascination, gathered up the empty casings that littered the streets as though they were seashell on a beach.Andy Garcia is no longer that little boy, but he remembers him well. Three month after the invasion on the bay of pigs, Rene Garcia, a lawyer and prosperous farmer in Cuba, informed his young son that the family would be leaving their home in Bejucal for a little vacation in Miami Beach, just until the things quieted down in their homeland." My parents didn't want to overload the children's sensibility with the truth, " Andy says solemnly, his voice thick and deep. " So I never felt any fear. We just hoped that Castro would fall and we'd be able to go back." He pauses." To this days, the exile community still hopes that will happen."But Castro didn't fall, and the family didn't go back."When Castro took over, we lost everything. Our land was confiscated, our assets were frozen, and we came to Miami Beach only with what we could carry," recalls Tessi Garcia, Andy's sister. " I was always very hands-on, making sure my brothers were OK, because my father stayed behind for a few months to see if he could get some funds together. My mother was sick, so I was in charge." Her emotions overwhelm her, and she begins to cry." But I never saw my parents depressed, and I never heard them complain. We were always kept in positive, happy situations. And both of them taught me the same philosophy: Nunca para atrás, ni para coger impulso. That means' Never take a step back, not even to gain momentum.'"The Garcia Children took that philosophy to heart. At 19, armed with a degree from Miami-Dade Community College but void of any professional experience, Tessi launched her own interior design business, opting to go it alone rather than apprentice at an established firm. It didn't occur to her at the time that she was taking on the world with three strikes already against her: she was a teenager, she was a woman, and she was Cuban. "In order to achieve," she says simply," you take risks."Andrés Arturo García Menéndez (born April 12, 1956), known professionally as Andy García or Andy Garcia, is an American actor, director and musician. He first rose to prominence acting in Brian De Palma's The Untouchables (1987) alongside Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, and Robert De Niro. He continued to act in films such as Stand and Deliver (1988), and Internal Affairs (1990). He then costarred in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part III (1990) as Vincent Mancini, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.Early lifeGarcía was born Andrés Arturo García Menéndez in Havana, Cuba. His mother, Amelie Menéndez, was an English teacher and his father, René García Núñez, was an attorney in Cuba.[6] García has two older siblings, a sister named Tessi and a brother named René.[7] When he was five years old, his family moved to Miami, Florida after the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion. Over a period of several years, they built up a million-dollar perfume/fragrance company. García was raised as a Catholic[8][9] and attended Miami Beach Senior High School, where he played on the basketball team. During his senior year of high school, he became ill with mononucleosis,[10] which convinced him to pursue a career in acting. He began his acting career that year by taking a drama class with Jay W. Jensen. He graduated from Florida International University.[4]
Carol Lawrence Interview on Funny, You Don’t Look Like a Grandmother (February 8, 1995) Foggy Melsons Breakdown 2023-09-16 | Carol Lawrence (born Carolina Maria Laraia; September 5, 1932) is an American actress, appearing in musical theatre and on television. She is known for creating the role of Maria on Broadway in the musical West Side Story (1957), receiving a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She appeared at The Muny, St. Louis, in several musicals, including Funny Girl. She also appeared in many television dramas, including Rawhide and Murder She Wrote. She was married to fellow performer Robert Goulet.BiographyEarly yearsBorn Carolina Maria Laraia on September 5, 1932,[1] in Melrose Park, Illinois, her parents were of Italian ancestry.[2] Her father was born in Trivigno, in the province of Potenza, and her maternal family came from the same town.[3] Laraia graduated from Proviso Township High School, in Maywood, Illinois. She spent one year at Northwestern University and then left to pursue her career.[1]CareerLarry Kert and Carol Lawrence in the balcony scene of West Side Story, original Broadway cast (1957)Lawrence made her Broadway debut as a Ted Adair Dancer in the 1951 revue Borscht Capades, alongside Joel Grey.[4][5][6][7] She achieved success in the role of Maria in the original Broadway production of West Side Story in 1957,[8] for which she received a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical nomination, losing to Barbara Cook (The Music Man).[8] She played the role for two years, and after an appearance in the short-lived show Saratoga in 1959[8] she returned to West Side Story for its 1960 season. Other Broadway successes were Subways Are for Sleeping, I Do! I Do! (replacement "She/Agnes", 1967), and Kiss of the Spider Woman (1992–93, replacement Spider Woman/Aurora).[1][8] Her most recent Broadway credit is serving as standby for Lauren Bacall in the 1999 production of Noel Coward's Waiting in the Wings.[9]She made a few record albums of standards and showtunes including Tonight at 8:30 (1960), where she sang studio versions of the songs "Tonight", and "Something's Coming", both from West Side Story.She played several roles at The Muny in St. Louis, Missouri, the largest outdoor theater in the U.S., including Fanny Brice in Funny Girl (1975),[10] Charity in Sweet Charity (1977), and Lucille Early in No, No, Nanette (1990). Among her other musical theatre parts are the title role in Mame (2000 at the Helen Hayes Center for Performing Arts in Nyack, New York),[11] Guenevere in Camelot (opposite husband Robert Goulet),[1] Do I Hear a Waltz? at the Pasadena Playhouse (2001),[12] and Follies at the Wadsworth Theatre in Los Angeles in 2002.[13]Her television performances include a guest role in Breaking Point (as Evelyn Denner in the 1963 episode titled "There Are the Hip, and There Are the Square"). In October 1976, she appeared as the special guest on the popular weekly variety program The Bobby Vinton Show, which aired across the United States and Canada. From 1991 to 1993, she played the role of matriarch Angela Eckart on General Hospital.[14] She hosted five shows of Chef du Jour for the Food Network, cooking from I Remember Pasta, her own cookbook, and setting a record for cookbook sales on the Home Shopping Network.[14]In 1999, she appeared in the television movie remake of Jason Miller's That Championship Season in a cameo role as Claire's mother (the mother-in-law of Vincent D'Onofrio's character), a role written into the film specifically for her.[15] In 2013, she appeared Off-Broadway at the Westside Theatre Downstairs in Jason Odell Williams's play Handle with Care.[16]Lawrence has written her autobiography, with Phyllis Hobe, titled Carol Lawrence: The Backstage Story, published in 1990.[2LAWRENCE REPLACES PROWSE IN TOURING MUSICALCarol Lawrence has replaced Juliet Prowse in the musical revue Funny, You Don’t Look Like a Grandmother, due at the Royal Poinciana Playhouse Jan. 24-Feb. 5 and the Parker Playhouse Feb. 7-26.Prowse underwent surgery Dec. 8 and remains ill, according to her representatives, who declined to disclose the nature of her ailment or her condition. The National Enquirer claimed this week that Prowse, 62, had pancreatic cancer and that the organ was removed.Prowse appeared in a production of Funny, You Don’t Look Like a Grandmother earlier this year. Lawrence kicks off a 1995 national tour produced by the Pace Theatrical Group, with a cast that includes Broadway regulars Ron Holgate, Karen Morrow and Tony Award winners Marilyn Cooper and Joy Franz.Lawrence, who created the role of Maria in West Side Story, followed Chita Rivera in the title role of the current Broadway production of Kiss of the Spider Woman.Funny, You Don’t Look Like a Grandmother is based on Lois Wyse’s best-selling book, described as “a celebration of women who have discarded the image of crotchety grandmas to take on new roles in a changing family society.”
