MUSIC BREAK: ANNE SHELTON - PAPA LOVES MAMA

HEALTHWATCH: MICHELLE NICHOLS

Nichelle Nichols, who starred in the original "Star Trek" series as Lieutenant Uhura has suffered a mild stroke.

The 82-year-old actress's rep Michael Conley told ABC News, "Nichelle Nichols is resting comfortably and undergoing tests. We do not have a prognosis yet but everyone’s prayers and well wishes are appreciated.”

The actress has still been active into her 80's and was featured in the show "Heroes" a few years back along with her extensive "Star Trek" work in hits like "The Wrath of Khan" and "The Search for Spock."

A statement was also posted to her Facebook page on Thursday.

"Last night while at her home in LA, Nichelle Nichols suffered from a mild stroke. She is currently undergoing testing to determine how severe the stroke was. Please keep her in your thoughts," it read, signed by Zach McGinnis from Galactic Productions. The website Startrek.com also posted about the stroke.

Nichols' latest projects include "The White Orchid" opposite Jennifer Beals and "Omaha Street" with Dennis Haysbert.

Her role in "Star Trek" was groundbreaking in the late 1960's as one of the first black women featured in a role of authority. She also kissed show star William Shatner during one episode, which is thought to be one of the first interracial kiss on TV.

Some of her former co-stars have posted kind words on social media.

"We understand #NichelleNichols has been rushed to the hospital. We don't have any diagnosis on her condition but our thoughts are with her," George Takei tweeted...

ANNA MAY WONG: THE FIRST ASIAN STAR

I have to admit, I have never seen a movie that Anna May Wong was in, but I am fascinated with her story and like so many minorities in the 1930s, she never received the recognition that she deserved. Anna was the first Chinese American movie star,^[ and the first Asian American actress to gain international recognition. Her long and varied career spanned both silent and sound film, television, stage and radio.

Born on January 3, 1905 near the Chinatown neighborhood of Los Angeles to second-generation Chinese-American parents, Wong became infatuated with the movies and began acting in films at an early age. During the silent film era, she acted in The Toll of the Sea (1922), one of the first movies made in color and Douglas Fairbanks' The Thief of Bagdad (1924). Wong became a fashion icon and by 1924 had achieved international stardom. Frustrated by the stereotypical supporting roles she reluctantly played in Hollywood, Wong left for Europe in the late 1920s, where she starred in several notable plays and films, among them Piccadilly (1929). She spent the first half of the 1930s traveling between the United States and Europe for film and stage work. Wong was featured in films of the early sound era, such as Daughter of the Dragon (1931) and Daughter of Shanghai (1937) and with Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg's Shanghai Express (1932).

In 1935 Wong was dealt the most severe disappointment of her career, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer refused to consider her for the leading role of the Chinese character O-Lan in the film version of Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth, choosing instead the German actress Luise Rainer to play the leading role. Wong spent the next year touring China, visiting her family's ancestral village and studying Chinese culture. In the late 1930s, she starred in several B movies for Paramount Pictures, portraying Chinese Americans in a positive light. She paid less attention to her film career during World War II, when she devoted her time and money to helping the Chinese cause against Japan. Wong returned to the public eye in the 1950s in several television appearances as well as her own series in 1951, The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong, the first U.S. television show starring an Asian-American series lead. She had been planning to return to film in Flower Drum Song when she died in 1961, at the age of 56.

For decades after her death, Wong was remembered principally for the stereotypical "Dragon Lady" and demure "Butterfly" roles that she was often given. Her life and career were re-evaluated in the years around the centennial of her birth, in three major literary works and film retrospectives. Interest in her life story continues and another biography, Shining Star: The Anna May Wong Story, was published in 2009. She was forgotten pretty much while she was alive, but hopefully audiences are discovering her work over fifty years after her death...as I did.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY: HOLLYWOOD KIDS - PART ONE

Here is the first of three installments of Hollywood children and their famous parents. Each installment will feature three offspring of tinsel town royality...

(Please feel free to request any updates or pictures of Hollywood offspring...)

Jennifer Grant, the daughter of Cary Grant (1904-1986) and Dyan Cannon (born 1937)

Jennifer Grant today at 49

B.D. Hyman, the daughter of Bette Davis (1908-1989) and William Grant Sherry (1914-2003)

B.D. Hyman today at 67

Joey Luft, the son of Judy Garland (1922-1969) and Sid Luft (1915-2005)

Joey Luft today at 59

THE FIRST MRS. BOB HOPE

Comedian Bob Hope and his wife Dolores had one of the longest marriages in Hollywood history. They were married for 69 years until Bob's death in 2003. While Hope entertained the troops during World War II and made countless movies and radio appearances, Dolores stayed at home and raised their four adopted children. During Hope's popularity the media as well as Dolores herself avoided any gossip or rumors about the entertainer's infidelity. However, now over ten years after he died, many of the rumors of Bob Hope have become fact. One rumor that has been proven was that Bob Hope had a first wife whom he was married to briefly before Dolores!

Bob and Dolores always claimed that they married in February 1934 in Erie, Pennsylvania. But at that time he was secretly married to his Vaudeville partner  Grace Louise Troxell, after three years together on and off. One of Hope's biographers found divorce papers for Bob and Louise dated November 1934, so either Bob Hope was a bigamist or he lied about marrying Dolores in February that year.

He actually married Louise in January 1933 in Erie when they were travelling on the Vaudeville circuit. When he claimed he had married Dolores in Erie he was actually miles away in New York, on Broadway. More intriguing, there is no record anywhere of his marriage to Dolores, if it happened. And there are no wedding photos, either. But he never forgot Grace and quietly sent her money in her later years.

Who was Grace Louise Troxell is what I wanted to investigate. Her whereabouts were harder than I thought to solved. There is not much about Grace after her short marriage to Bob "two wives" Hope. What I found out is Grace Louise Troxell was born on October 25, 1912 in Cincinnati, Ohio to a hardware salesman William Asa Troxell Jr. (1881-1964) and housewife Katherine S. Hummeldorf (1888-1939). Grace was the 4th of 8 children and her family was pretty poor, but she was a pretty good dancer and a beauty by Ohio standards so she met up with Bob Hope and made her way to vaudville by the late 1920s.

After the whirlwind quickie marriage and divorce to Bob Hope, Grace tried to make it as a solo act in New York City in 1935. After a few months though, Grace moved back to Ohio where she met and married a car salemen by the name of Herbert Koppmeier (1901-1974). He was eleven years older than Grace, but he gave her stability that she wanted. They were married on May 4, 1940. The marriage was reportedly a happy one and the couple had a daughter. However, when Herbert got ill finances got tight for Grace. Reportedly Bob sent her money before and after Herbert died in 1974. On August 30, 1992, Grace died of heart failure in a nursing home at the age of 79 and Bob Hope while not attending her funeral, did pay for all of the funeral expenses. Grace Louise Troxell did not have a lot in her failed show business life, but until her death she always had hope... 

RECENTLY VIEWED: LOVE IS STRANGE

With two small children, I don't get the time to watch many new movies. However, I recently heard actor John Lithgow on NPR radio talking about his new movie in 2014, Love Is Strange, and I wanted to see it. I finally picked up a copy off of ebay and got a chance to watch it. Yes, I do not have a Netflix membership yet. I still like watching movies the old fashioned way.

Anyways,  the plot revolves around two gay men who have lived together for 39 years and finally get married, a decision that will alter their lives in ways that are unexpected and transforming. We first meet Ben, a seventy-one year old artist, (John Lithgow in a breathtaking performance) and his partner George (Alfred Molina in an equally fine portrayal,) a music teacher in a Catholic school - both excitedly, and nervously preparing for the ceremony and the post- wedding party. From the moment we first view Lithgow and Molina singing a duet together - their voices and theatrics in synch and at odds - tender intimacy is apparent. Ira Sachs and co-writer Mauricio Zacharias have created two remarkably gentle and loving individuals, their intimacy and enduring connection, is both understated and powerfully passionate.

The consequences of ultimately legitimizing their union bear witness to the harsh realities that accompany that choice. Soon after the nuptials, George gets fired from his job, and the economic demands of existing in NYC, forced to sell the apartment in order to find more affordable housing, interrupts their former cadence of living. Having no alternative, George and Ben, temporarily separate to move in with friends and relatives till they can find a home of their own. Molina and Lithgow stunningly convey the anguish of living apart and the intense longing of being united again. It is as if one person is sliced in half – going through the motions, but not fully functioning without the other.

The movie, and the modern romance between John Lithgow and Alfred Molina had the potential to make this film a modern classic, but the last fifteen minutes of the movie seem like it was pieced together all wrong. Maybe the studio got hold of the film and edited it, but I feel the ending, as it stands, did not give the movie the finale it deserved. Love Is Strange was like watching a runner in a marathon that starts off strong, but loses energy in the end. The best part of the movie was Lithgow and Molina, who make you believe quite easily and quickly that they are a couple. However, I wish the movie told the ending a little better. It was well worth finding this copy off of Ebay, and it was well worth watching this beautiful film featuring some wonderful acting though...

MY RATING: 7 out of 10

MEL BROOKS, THE NAZIS, AND WORLD WAR II

Last Veteran's Day on November 11, 2014 I posted a story on Jimmy Stewart and his military experience. Now that it is Memorial Day, I figured I'd post an interesting story about Mel Brooks and his time in the military during World War II...

Mel Brooks is best known for his award-winning comedy films such as Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles. But Brooks was also a combat veteran of World War II who fought under General Patton in the Battle of the Bulge: a four-week-long battle that resulted in the death of over 60,000 Allied troops.

Brooks, who was studying psychology at Brooklyn College at the time, was drafted into the Army and sent to war as a combat engineer in the 1104 Combat Engineer Battalion, 78th Infantry Division. During his time in the Army, Brooks was primarily responsible for disarming land mines.

While fighting in Germany, Brooks often heard Nazi propaganda being played from loudspeakers, which must have really got on his nerves because he went about creating his own speaker system to play Al Jolson, a Jewish singer, back at the Nazis, according to Military.

Brooks, when asked about his time at war, said, “War isn’t hell . . . War is loud. Much too noisy. All those shells and bombs going off around you. Never mind death. A man could lose his hearing.”
So the next time you watch Spaceballs, remember that Mel Brooks once fought Nazis with music because apparently he really hated how loud warfare was...

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