Pinup Star Raquel Welch on This Day in History

 

Today in History: Raquel Welch was born on this day in 1940. When I was a kid in the 1970's in school, all the boys agreed that Raquel Welch was the hottest female alive. There were some mentions of Ann-Margret or Sophia Loren, but mostly it was Raquel Welch. As the 70's progressed though, young male hearts turned to Farrah Fawcett, Cheryl Tiegs and Barbi Benton. Raquel Welch actually auditioned for the role of Mary Ann on Gilligan's Island, but was too hot to play the “girl next door.”

Her rise to stardom in the mid-1960s was partly credited with ending Hollywood's vigorous promotion of the blonde bombshell. She won a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Actress in a Musical or Comedy in 1974 for her performance in The Three Musketeers. She was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in Television Film for her performance in the film Right to Die (1987). In 1995, Welch was chosen by Empire magazine as one of the "100 Sexiest Stars in Film History". Playboy ranked Welch No. 3 on their "100 Sexiest Stars of the Twentieth Century" list.

Welch played a significant figure in the 1994 film The Shawshank Redemption. The poster that Andy Dufresne had on his prison cell wall at the time of his escape was the famous pinup image of Welch in One Million Years B.C. Prior to Dufresne's escape being realized, the warden refers to Welch as Miss Fuzzy Britches.

Raquel Welch also runs a successful business in designer wigs and hair extensions for women and men called HairUWear.

In 2014, during an appearance on The O'Reilly Factor, Welch described herself as being on the conservative side, attributing it to her mother's midwestern values.

Hollywood Conservative Clark Gable on This Day in History

 

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This day in history: Clark Gable was born on this day [February 1] in 1901. Gable often referred to as "The King of Hollywood". He had roles in more than 60 motion pictures in multiple genres during a career that lasted 37 years, three decades of which was as a leading man. Gable died of a heart attack at the age of 59; his final on-screen appearance was as an aging cowboy in The Misfits, released posthumously in 1961. Despite his reluctance to play the role, Gable is best known for his Oscar-nominated performance in the Academy Award-winning best picture Gone with the Wind (1939).

Clark Gable was also one of many Republicans that dominated early Hollywood. Gable however kept quiet about his political views, and he even married a liberal Democratic activist, Carole Lombard, who cajoled him into supporting Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal. "While it may seem as though Hollywood has always been liberal, it hasn’t. Very few people today realize that at one point in the development of American cinema, conservatives ruled the movie-making industry. Even today, conservative celebrities make successful movies for their millions of fans. Santa Monica College Professor Larry Ceplair, co-author of 'The Inquisition in Hollywood,' wrote that during the ‘20s and ‘30s, most studio heads were conservative Republicans who spent millions of dollars to block union and guild organizing. Likewise, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, the Moving Picture Machine Operators, and the Screen Actors Guild were all headed by conservatives, as well." Source

Other movie stars that were Republicans were: Ginger Rogers, James Cagney, Fred Astaire, Loretta Young, Jane Russell, James Stewart, Lou Costello, Charlton Heston, William Holden, John Wayne, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Pat Boone, Gary Cooper, Frank Sinatra (he endorsed Ronald Reagan), Barbara Stanwyck, Shirley Temple, Hedda Hopper, Ronald Reagan (of course), Walter Brennan, Gloria Swanson, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Doris Day, Eva Gabor, Steve McQueen, Jerry Lewis, Jane Wyman, Claudette Colbert, Betty Grable, Mickey Rooney, Rosalind Russell, Red Skelton, Robert Mitchum, Cesar Romero, Joan Crawford, Jackie Gleason, Ethel Merman, Walter Pidgeon, William Powell, Agnes Moorehead, Glenn Ford, Buster Keaton, Fred MacMurray, Dean Martin, Lillian Gish, Yvonne De Carlo, Fay Wray, Maureen O'Hara and Lionel Barrymore to name but a few.

There are many Libertarian celebrities as well, such as Clint Eastwood, Tom Selleck, Gene Simmons, Kurt Russell, Penn & Teller, Raquel Welch, Denis Leary, John Malkovich, Christina Ricci, Keanu Reeves, Drew Carey, Frank Zappa, Vince Vaughn, Kelly Clarkson, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Gary Oldman, Dwight Yoakam etc. 

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“The Most Beautiful Woman in the World", Hedy Lamarr, on This Day in History

 

This day in history: Austrian-born American film actress and inventor, Hedy Lamarr was born on this day in 1914. She was at one time called “the most beautiful woman in the world...Lamarr made her name as a sex object in movies like the scandalous Ecstasy. She rubbed shoulders with the likes of Adolf Hitler and Mussolini at parties thrown by her first husband, a Viennese arms merchant who forced her to leave the movie business. But Lamarr was unhappy in her marriage and disgusted by her husband’s 'shady business dealings with Nazi industrialists,' writes Jennifer Ouellette for Scientific American, so she escaped Austria for Paris, London and eventually the United States in the late 1930s."~Erin Blakemore

"Most people remember actress Hedy Lamarr for her beauty and brains. She co-invented a device that manipulated radio frequencies, making it harder for wartime enemies to jam radio-controlled torpedoes. Although she patented the device in August of 1942, hoping that the U.S. would use it to fight the Nazis, it was never used. Decades later, people realized that modern wireless technology relied on the ideas in her patent. But besides inventing an antecedent to Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth, Lamarr also invented an effervescent tablet that transformed flat water into a carbonated drink. Although the tablet worked—dissolving the tablet in the water did create fizz—the product didn’t taste good and was too similar to Alka-Seltzer. Not every invention can pave the way for Wi-Fi."~Suzanne Raga

Her wartime invention was eventually used in 1962 (at the time of the Cuban missile crisis) on Navy ships.

Her later years were of a different sort. She was arrested twice for shoplifting. Once in Los Angeles and once in Florida (she stole laxatives and eye drops). She would not be the only celebrity who got caught shoplifting. Others were Lindsay Lohan, Winona Ryder, Farrah Fawcett, Britney Spears and Amanda Bynes

In 1974, she filed a $10 million lawsuit against Warner Brothers, claiming that the running parody of her name ("Hedley Lamarr") in the Mel Brooks comedy Blazing Saddles infringed her right to privacy. The studio settled out of court for an undisclosed amount and issued an apology to Lamarr for "almost using her name". Brooks said that Lamarr "never got the joke".

Today is also Inventors' Day in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Gail Borden, who invented condensed milk was born on this day in 1801.

Watch: The Strange Woman (1946)

Wealthy Actor and Miser Fred MacMurray on This Day in History

 

This day in history: American actor and wealthy businessman, Fred MacMurray, died on this day in 1991. MacMurray appeared in over one hundred films and a successful television series in a career that spanned nearly a half-century. His most renowned role was in Double Indemnity, which Cameron Crowe called “flawless film-making” and Woody Allen declared “the greatest movie ever made”. 

In the film Fred MacMurray plays an insurance salesman, and Barbara Stanwyck stars as a provocative housewife who is accused of killing her husband, and Edward G. Robinson plays a claims adjuster whose job is to find phony claims. The term "double indemnity" refers to a clause in certain life insurance policies that doubles the payout in rare cases when the death is accidental. 

MacMurray was a businessman who, at one time, was the fourth highest paid citizen in the United States. In 1941, he purchased land in the Russian River Valley in Northern California and established MacMurray Ranch. At the 1,750-acre ranch he raised prize-winning Aberdeen Angus cattle, cultivated prunes, apples, alfalfa, and other crops. "He was famously shrewd with his money, pinching every penny and investing whatever he could into real estate. At the time of his death in 1991, Fred owned an impressive real estate portfolio that was worth $100 – $150 million." Source

He was also a notorious cheapskate, despite his wealth. He would actually bring a bag full of boiled eggs in to the set everyday as his lunch, and he rode the bus as it was cheaper than driving the car. He was once hunting with Gable and another man. Gable noticed MacMurray didn’t bring a lunch, asking, “Aren’t you going to eat?” MacMurray stated, “Oh, I’ll just eat what you leave.” The Vine Street Brown Derby would hold a large, complimentary buffet dinner once a month, and Fred and his wife June would show up each time.

As cheap as he was, at least he was not like Cary Grant who would charge 25 cents for autographs.

Fred MacMurray also starred in the popular and wholesome TV sitcom My Three Sons. However, MacMurray, by some accounts, didn't really like kids. He insisted that he and the four boys who played his sons had to film as many of their scenes separately as possible. 

In 1939, artist C. C. Beck used MacMurray as the initial model for the superhero character who became Fawcett Comics' Captain Marvel.

MacMurray was also a devoted Republican who backed Nixon and Reagan.

Peg Entwistle on This Day in History

Hauntings-The Hollywood Sign Girl

This Day in History: Actress Peg Entwistle was born on this day in 1908. She is not known for any roles she played, as she gained notoriety after she jumped to her death from atop the "H" on the Hollywood sign on September 1932, at the age of 24. She came to Hollywood from Wales to strike it big as an actress only to be disappointed. In desperation she committed suicide, and it was in
death that she finally became famous as her fall became widely publicized. To this day people say the Hollywood Sign is haunted by her ghost.

Oh, and you can eat at the Pig'n Whistle in Hollywood, a restaurant dedicated to her name.

See also: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2014/10/hollywood-sign-haunted

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