Those who have passed in March 2007

Sat, 1 Apr 2007 16:00:00 GMT

posted by kenaz
In March 2007 the world lost another group of bright talents from all walks of life. Some famous for what they accomplished in the lime light. While others received notoriety for what they accomplished quietly away from the glare of scrutiny.

March 6-Ernest Gallo, 97, American co-founder of E & J Gallo Winery. Parlayed $5,900 and a wine recipe from a public library into the world's largest winemaking empire. He and his late brother and business partner, Julio, grew up working in the vineyard owned by their immigrant father who came to America from Italy's famed winemaking region of Piedmont. They founded the E.&J.; Gallo Winery in 1933, at the end of Prohibition, when they were still mourning the murder-suicide deaths of their parents. Ernest and Julio rented a ramshackle building, and everybody in the family pitched in to make ordinary wine for 50 cents a gallon - half the going price. The Gallos made $30,000 the first year.

March 9-Brad Delp, 55, American lead singer of 1970s AOR band Boston, suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning. Delp auditioned as lead vocalist for Boston, and got the job immediately. He also contributed back-up vocals, guitar, and keyboards on the Boston albums, and also played the harmonica. His partnership with guitarist Tom Scholz led to a string of hit songs. In fact, On the first three Boston Albums, Brad Delp's voice is the only one that is used. He did all of the lead and backing vocals.

March 10-Ernie Ladd, 68, American NFL player and wrestler, cancer. The American Football League's San Diego Chargers selected the Grambling State University standout with their 15th pick in the 1961 draft. At 6'9" and 315 pounds, Ladd was arguably the biggest and strongest man in professional football during his era: 52-inch chest, 39-inch waist, 20-inch biceps, 19-inch neck, 20-inch calf, and size 18D shoes. Ladd started wrestling in 1961. As a publicity stunt, some wrestlers in the San Diego area challenged Ladd to a private wrestling workout. Before long, Ladd was a part-time competitor in Los Angeles, during football's off-season. Ladd became a huge draw in short order. Ladd became one of wrestling's most hated heels during the 1970s, as well as one of the first Black wrestlers to portray a heel character.

Richard Jeni, 49, American comedian, apparent suicide by gunshot. Jeni regularly toured the country with a standup act and had starred in several HBO comedy specials, most recently "A Big Steaming Pile of Me" during the 2005-06 season. Another HBO special, "Platypus Man," won a Cable ACE award for best standup comedy special, and formed the basis for his UPN sitcom of the same name, which ran for one season. Jeni's movie credits included "The Mask," in which he played Jim Carrey's best friend, "The Aristocrats," "National Lampoon's Dad's Week Off," and "An Alan Smithee Film: Burn, Hollywood, Burn." He had guest appearances in the TV shows "Everybody Hates Chris," "Married: With Children" and updated versions of the game shows "Hollywood Squares" and "Match Game." The comic first received national attention in 1990 with the Showtime special "Richard Jeni: Boy From New York City." Two years later, his "Crazy From the Heat" special attracted the highest ratings in Showtime's history. Jeni became a frequent guest on "The Tonight Show" during Johnny Carson's reign and continued to appear after Jay Leno took over as host. He also wrote comic material for the 2005 Academy Awards, which was hosted by his friend Chris Rock.

March 11-Betty Hutton, 86, American singer/actress (The Miracle of Morgan's Creek), complications from colon cancer. Hutton was at the top of the heap when she walked out of her Paramount contract in 1952, reportedly in a dispute over her demand that her then-husband direct her films. She made only one movie after that but had a TV series for a year and worked occasionally on the stage and in nightclubs. Unlike other actresses who have been called "blonde bombshells," Hutton had a screen personality that had more to do with energy and humor than sex. Time magazine wrote in 1950: "Betty Hutton, who is not remarkably pretty, by movie standards, nor a remarkably good singer or dancer, has a vividly unique personality in a town that tends to reduce beauty and talent to mass-produced patterns. Watching her in action has some of the fascination of waiting for a wildly sputtering fuse to touch off an alarmingly large firecracker." Several of her films were biopics: "Incendiary Blonde," about actress and nightclub queen Texas Guinan; "Perils of Pauline," about silent-screen serial heroine Pearl White; and "Somebody Loves Me," about singer Blossom Seeley. "Annie Get Your Gun" (1950) was the Irving Berlin musical biography of Annie Oakley, with Hutton playing the part Ethel Merman had made famous on Broadway. Hutton got the movie role part when Judy Garland dropped out of the production. Another notable film was "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek," the 1944 Preston Sturges satire that rattled the censors with the story of a young woman who gets pregnant after a spur-of-the-moment marriage and can't quite remember who the father is.

March 13-Arnold Skaaland, 82, American professional wrestler. Skaaland served in the U.S. Marines during World War II. After a short-lived attempt to make a living through boxing, he became a professional wrestler and debuted in 1946 as Arnold Skaaland. Though competing under his real name, he was billed early in his career as hailing from Norway. Skaaland gained the nickname "The Golden Boy" and was known as a small, agile wrestler who relied on speed, wits and toughness in the ring rather than size and strength. In the late 1950s, he wrestled in Georgia under the ring name Bobby Weaver. In the early 1960s, Skaaland unsuccessfully challenged both Pat O'Connor and "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. In 1963, Skaaland was a part of the newly created, New York City-based World Wide Wrestling Federation. On June 1, 1967 he collected his only title as one half of the WWWF United States Tag Team Champions, when Tony Parisi gave his half of the title to Skaaland. Skaaland and his partner, Spiros Arion, soon lost the titles to The Sicilians (Lou Albano and Tony Altimore).

March 15-Bowie Kuhn, 80, American Major League Baseball commissioner (1969–1984), respiratory failure. His 15 tumultuous years as baseball commissioner coincided with free agency and multimillion-dollar salaries. When Kuhn took over as commissioner from William Eckert on Feb. 4, 1969, baseball just had completed its final season as a tradition-bound 20-team sport with no playoffs, a reserve clause and an average salary of about $19,000.
During his tenure, the sport battled the rise of the NFL and a combative players' union that attacked him with lawsuits, grievances and work stoppages. By the time Peter Ueberroth succeeded Kuhn on Oct. 1, 1984, the major leagues had 26 teams in four divisions, a designated hitter in the American League, the first night World Series games, color-splashed uniforms, free agency and an average salary of nearly $330,000.

March 16-Carol Richards, 84, American actress and singer ("Silver Bells" with Bing Crosby).Richards won a Bob Hope talent contest in her early 20s, moved to Hollywood and made numerous TV appearances including I Love Lucy, Name That Tune, The Saturday Night Review, and variety shows hosted by Ralph Edwards, Dennis Day, Pinky Lee, Edgar Bergen, and Ezio Pinza. For four years (1953-1957), she was a regular cast member on the Bob Crosby Show. She was the movie singing voice for Vera Ellen in Call Me Madam, for Cyd Charisse in Silk Stockings, Brigadoon, Deep in my Heart, and It's Always Fair Weather, and for Betta St. John in The Robe. She worked frequently with Danny Kaye, Jerry Lewis, and Bob Hope, and sang with the Russ Morgan and Desi Arnez Bands.

March 23-Walter Turnbull, 62, American founder of the Boys Choir of Harlem, stroke. The Boys Choir of Harlem, founded with 20 boys in the basement of a Harlem church in 1968, has performed at the White House, at the United Nations and for Pope John Paul II. It has released albums and been heard on the soundtracks of films such as "Jungle Fever," "Malcolm X" and "Glory." Beyond its musical training, the choir provides educational and personal counseling each year to hundreds of inner-city children ages 9 to 19.

Later,
Kenaz

http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

Welcome to our blog about Professional wrestling aerial techniques

Wed, 18 Jan 2007 22:33:01 GMT

posted by The_Zimbio_Team
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Those who have passed in March 2007

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