Trivia: Inimitable, multi-talented entertainer Danny Kaye first gained fame on Broadway by upstaging the great Gertrude Lawrence in Lady in the Dark in 1941 with an unforgettable rendition of the "Tchaikovsky," in which he rapidly fired off the names of 54 Russian composers in 38 seconds. Born David Daniel Kaminski, a garment worker's son in Brooklyn, New York, Kaye left school at age 13 to work as a mischievous busboy in the popular "borscht belt" resorts of the Catskill Mountains. While endeavoring to break into vaudeville and nightclub acts as a singer and dancer, Kaye also occasionally worked as a soda jerk and an insurance salesman. In 1939, he made his Broadway debut in Straw Hat Revue with Imogene Coca. Following the run of Lady in the Dark, he began making a series of educational films during the '30s. In 1943, he signed a movie contract with producer Sam Goldwyn, and became a star when he appeared in Up in Arms (1944). A talented mimic, physical comedian, singer and dancer, he was unlike any performer who had come before him. Kaye specialized in playing multiple roles or personalities in such films as Wonder Man (1945), The Kid From Brooklyn (1946), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), The Inspector General (1949), and On the Riviera (1951). Probably his best films are The Court Jester (1956), which contains the unforgettable "pellet with the poison's in the vestle with the pestle" routine, based on similar but less effective bits in earlier films, and White Christmas (1954). His wife, composer-lyricist Sylvia Fine, wrote most of his best gags and patter numbers throughout his career. Though tremendously popular during the mid-'40s through the '50s -- most particularly in Great Britain, where played to record-breaking crowds in the Palladium in 1948 and 1949 (he even made personal visits to Buckingham Palace) -- his bright star began to wane in the late 1950s when he began spending most of his time working for UNICEF, and traveling the world-over to entertain impoverished children. In the early to mid-'60s, he starred in The Danny Kaye Show, a comedy-variety television series for which he won an Emmy in 1964. He also found time to conduct symphony orchestras and appear in Two by Two on Broadway. In 1955, Kaye was awarded an honorary Oscar; the Motion Picture Academy also awarded him the Jean Hersholt Award in 1982 for his selfless work with UNICEF.

Trivia: The daughter of Norman Bel Geddes, the noted architect and theatrical set designer, Barbara Bel Geddes was a professional stage actress from age 18. She gained prominence as the ingenue in the original Broadway production of that summer-stock perennial Out of the Frying Pan. Other accomplishments in Barbara's years on stage included the New York critics circle award in 1945, and her performance as Maggie "The Cat" in the original 1955 production of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Ms. Bel Geddes enjoyed a promising beginning in films in 1947's The Long Night (remake of Marcel Carne's Le Jour se Leve); one year later, she was nominated for an Oscar for her performance as Irene Dunne's daughter in I Remember Mama (1948). The House UnAmerican Activities Committee investigations effectively ended Ms. Bel Geddes' starring career in films. She returned before the cameras thanks to a few brave souls like Alfred Hitchcock, who cast Barbara in his famous "Lamb to the Slaughter" episode in his weekly TV anthology (as well as three additional installments), and in a strong supporting role in his theatrical feature Vertigo (1958). Beginning in 1978, Barbara Bel Geddes played Miss Ellie Ewing on the nigthttime TV serial Dallas, a role which earned her an Emmy award; she remained with Dallas until its cancellation in 1991, save for the 1984-85 season, when she temporarily retired due to heart surgery (the role of Miss Ellie was filled that year by Donna Reed).

Trivia: Though he pretended to find it amusing, singer/bandleader Bob Crosby was rather sensitive about being constantly bracketed with his older brother Bing. At one point, Crosby observed in 1958, "it got so bad that whenever someone asked me what my occupation was, I used to answer automatically 'Bing Crosby's brother.'" To many jazz aficionados, however, Bob was the only Crosby, by virtue of his famous musical aggregation "The Bobcats," which he formed in 1935. Crosby and his able musicians Yank Lawson, Bob Haggart, Ray Bauduc, Eddie Miller, Bob Zurke, Jesse Stacey and Joe Sullivan delivered some of the hottest jazz ever to emanate from a primarily white orchestra. Because of Bing's movie popularity, Bob's handlers decided that records, radio and nightclubs weren't enough: the "other Crosby" would have to have a movie career as well, thus Bob made his film debut in 1935's Rhythm on the Roof. Crosby made a few tentative stabs at playing characters other than himself in films like Let's Make Music (1940) and The Singing Sheriff (1944), but he seemed more comfortable playing "himself' in guest spots. One of his more enjoyable screen appearances was in Two Tickets to Broadway (1951), wherein Crosby genially poked fun at brother Bing in the delightful production number "Let's Make Comparisons." He also popped up unbilled from time to time in Bing's pictures: in Road to Bali, Bob walks on, says hello to his brother, fires a gun into the air and walks off, whereupon Bing explains "I promised him a shot in this picture." Entering television as orchestra leader for The Jack Benny Show (a job he'd taken over from Phil Harris on radio), Crosby successfully starred on his own daytime program for CBS, which ran from 1953 through 1957; he then moved to NBC, where he headlined a prime-time summer replacement series for Perry Como in 1958. Bob Crosby made his final film appearance along with several other jazz greats in the Red Nichols biopic The Five Pennies (1959).

Trivia: The life story of African American jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong could fill a dozen books, and in fact it has. Rising to fame with his own "Hot Five" group in the 1920s, "Satchmo" Armstrong (the nickname is derived from "Satchelmouth"; incidentally, he was known to his closest friends as "Pops") was a seasoned pro when movies began demanding his services in 1930. His earliest film appearances-- notably the Betty Boop cartoon (!) I'll Be Glad When You're Dead You Rascal You (32)--exemplified the "dangerous," sexually suggestive Armstrong who had become famous in nightclubs and on 78 RPM records. The racial barriers of 1930s Hollywood required Armstrong to smooth out his rough edges and sometimes to come in through the servant's entrance; in 1938's Going Places, for example, he appears as a stableboy, and introduces the lively but comparatively antiseptic ditty "Jeepers Creepers." Armstrong was serendipitously teamed with Bing Crosby on two memorable occasions: the 1936 musical drama Pennies From Heaven and the 1956 tune-filled remake of Philadelphia Story, High Society. Usually cast as himself (or a thinly disguised facsimile), Louis was given a rare chance to act in the 1943 all-black MGM musical Cabin in the Sky, playing the heavenly emissary "The Trumpeter." In 1964, Louis Armstrong scored so huge a hit with his recording of the title tune from the Broadway musical Hello Dolly that he was arbitrarily written into the 1969 film version, sharing a few precious on-screen moments with Barbra Streisand; it was the last of his 25 feature-film appearances.

Trivia: Street-smart leading actor Harry Guardino entered films in 1952 after several years of knocking around the New York stages. The best of his early film roles was Cary Grant's comic handyman in 1958's Houseboat. Guardino worked extensively in European productions in the 1960s, playing such parts as Barabbas in 1961's King of Kings. Among Harry Guardino's many TV assignments were the title role in the 1964 New York-based series The Reporter and the "Bogart/Bond" hero on the syndicated 1971 weekly Monty Nash. He made his final film appearance in Fist of Honor (1991).

Trivia: A leading teen ingénue of the 1950s and 1960s, Tuesday Weld later emerged as one of the more intriguing actresses in Hollywood, delivering a string of well-received performances in the kinds of offbeat and idiosyncratic projects rarely visited by performers of her beauty and glamour. Born Susan Weld August 27, 1943, in New York City, the name "Tuesday" was an extension of a girlhood nickname, "Tu-Tu." She began working as a child model at age four to help support her family after the death of her father, quickly moving from mail-order catalogues to television commercials. She made her film debut in 1963's Rock, Rock, Rock before understudying in Broadway's 1957 production of The Dark at the Top of the Stairs. Upon signing a seven-year contract with 20th Century Fox, Weld was labeled by the press as "Fox's answer to Sandra Dee," but after just one film, 1959's Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys!, the studio dropped her.Weld shot to prominence through her work in the television comedy The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, which premiered in 1959. That same year she appeared on the silver screen opposite Danny Kaye in The Five Pennies, followed in 1960 by the campus drama Because They're Young. Also in 1960, Weld began appearing under schlockmeister Albert Zugsmith, first in Sex Kittens Go to College and later in the following year's The Private Lives of Adam and Eve. Successive roles in Return to Peyton Place and the Elvis Presley vehicle Wild in the Country further crippled her attempts to mount a serious acting career, although her turn in the 1962 Frank Tashlin comedy Bachelor Flat showed signs of life. Weld then turned down the seemingly tailor-made title role in Stanley Kubrick's Lolita in order to study her craft at the Actors' Studio, and after holding her own opposite Steve McQueen and Jackie Gleason in 1963's Soldier in the Rain, she announced she would no longer accept teenage roles.However, teen roles were all that continued to come Weld's way, and after a two-year absence from the screen she resurfaced in 1965's I'll Take Sweden as the young daughter of star Bob Hope. She followed with an appearance in the McQueen gambling drama The Cincinnati Kid, and in 1966 delivered her strongest performance to date in George Axelrod's little-seen satiric gem Lord Love a Duck. That same year Weld married, later giving birth to her first child. Motherhood brought a temporary halt to her career, forcing her to turn down plum assignments including Bonnie and Clyde, Cactus Flower, True Grit, and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. She returned to work in 1968's Pretty Poison, again earning strong critical notices, but after 1970's I Walk the Line, it was reported that she had moved to Britain and retired from film.The move was not permanent, for in 1971 Weld appeared in her friend Henry Jaglom's A Safe Place. After 1972's Play It As It Lays, she returned to television work, starring in the TV films Reflections of Murder and F. Scott Fitzgerald in Hollywood. In 1977, Weld appeared in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and a year later she starred in Who'll Stop the Rain? From 1980 to 1985, Weld was married to Dudley Moore, a period during which she appeared in Michael Mann's 1981 thriller Thief and Sergio Leone's 1984 classic Once Upon a Time in America. In the latter half of the decade, however, she appeared more infrequently before the camera, with only a pair of TV-movie credits, 1986's Something in Common and Circle of Violence: A Family Drama, and a lead role in the 1988 feature Heartbreak Hotel. In the 1990s, Tuesday Weld sightings were even more rare, including only 1991's Mistress, 1993's Falling Down, and 1996's Feeling Minnesota.

Trivia: Sardonic, short-statured actor Ned Glass was born in Poland and spent his adolescence in New York. He came from vaudeville and Broadway to films in 1938, playing bits and minor roles in features and short subjects until he was barred from working in the early 1950s, yet another victim of the insidious Hollywood blacklist. Glass was able to pay the bills thanks to the support of several powerful friends. Producer John Houseman cast Glass in uncredited but prominent roles in the MGM "A" pictures Julius Caesar (1953) and The Bad and the Beautiful (1954); Glass' next-door neighbor, Moe Howard of the Three Stooges, arranged for Glass to play small parts in such Stooge comedies as Hokus Pokus (1949) and Three Hams on Rye (1954); and TV superstar Jackie Gleason frequently employed Glass for his "Honeymooners" sketches. His reputation restored by the early 1960s, Glass appeared as Doc in West Side Story (1961) and as one of the main villains in Charade (1963), among many other screen assignments; he also worked regularly on episodic TV. In 1972, Ned Glass was nominated for an Emmy award for his portrayal of Uncle Moe on the popular sitcom Bridget Loves Bernie.

Trivia: It is hardly necessary to enumerate the accomplishments, patriotic services, charitable donations, awards, medals, and honorariums pertaining to Bob Hope, a man for whom the word "legend" seems somehow inadequate. Never mind that he was born in England; the entertainer unquestionably became an American institution.Hope's father was a stonemason and his mother a one-time concert singer; when he was two, his parents moved him and his brothers to Cleveland, where relatives awaited. Since everyone in the Hope clan was expected to contribute to the family's income, he took on several part-time jobs early in life. One of these was as a concessionaire at Cleveland's Luna Park, where Hope had his first taste of show business by winning a Charlie Chaplin imitation contest. (He later claimed he'd gotten his brothers to strong-arm all the neighborhood kids to vote for him). At 16, Hope entered the work force full-time as a shoe salesman for a department store, then as a stock boy for an auto company. At night, he and a friend picked up spare change singing at local restaurants and saloons, and, for a brief time, he was an amateur boxer, calling himself "Packy East." Picking up dancing tips from older vaudevillians, Hope decided to devote himself to a show business career, first in partnership with his girlfriend Mildred Rosequist, then with a pal named Lloyd Durbin. Comedian Fatty Arbuckle, headlining a touring revue, caught Hope and Durbin's comedy/dancing act and helped the boys get better bookings. Following the accidental death of Durbin, Hope found another partner, George Byrne, with whom he developed a blackface act. After several career reversals, Hope and Byrne were about to pack it in when they were hired to emcee Marshall Walker's Whiz Bang review in New Castle, PA. As the more loquacious member of the team, Hope went out on-stage as a single and got excellent response for his seemingly ad-libbed wisecracks. It was in this and subsequent vaudeville appearances that Hope learned how to handle tough audiences by having the guts to wait on-stage until everyone in the crowd had gotten his jokes; he was still using this technique seven decades later. Dropping his blackface makeup and cannibalizing every college humor magazine he could get his hands on, Hope took on yet another partner (Louise Troxell) in 1928 and started getting choice vaudeville bookings on the Keith Circuit. A year later, he was given a movie screen test, but was told his ski-slope nose didn't photograph well. With material from legendary gagster Al Boasberg, Hope appeared as a single in The Antics of 1931, which led to a better theatrical gig with Ballyhoo of 1932, in which he was encouraged to ad-lib to his heart's content. He then went back to vaudeville and squeezed in his first radio appearance in 1933 before being hired as the comedy second lead in an important Jerome Kern Broadway musical, Roberta. During the long run of this hit, Hope met and married nightclub singer Dolores Reade, who became still another of his on-stage partners when the play closed and Hope yet again returned to vaudeville. He scored a major success in Ziegfeld Follies of 1936, which spotlighted his talent for sketch comedy, and then co-starred with Ethel Merman and Jimmy Durante in Red, Hot and Blue. In 1937, he was brought to Hollywood for Paramount's The Big Broadcast of 1938, in which he duetted with Shirley Ross in the Oscar-winning song "Thanks for the Memory," which became his signature theme from then on. Hope's first few years at Paramount found him appearing in relatively sedate comedy leads, but with The Cat and the Canary (1939) he solidified his screen persona as the would-be great lover and "brave coward" who hides his insecurities with constant wisecracking. In 1940, Hope was teamed with Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour for Road to Singapore, the first of the still-uproarious "Road" series that featured everything from in-jokes about Bob and Bing's private lives to talking camels. While continuing to make money at the box office, Hope was also starring in his long running NBC radio program, which was distinguished by its sharp topical humor and censor-baiting risqué material. But it was not so much his show business earnings as his profitable real estate deals and holdings that formed the basis of Hope's immense personal fortune. In the midst of all his media clowning during World War II, Hope worked tirelessly as a U.S.O. entertainer for troops in the U.S. and abroad -- so much so that he was unable to make any films at all in 1944. In 1950, Hope inaugurated a long-term television contract with NBC, which resulted in more than 40 years worth of periodic specials that never failed to sweep the ratings. He also later hosted (and occasionally starred in) an Emmy-winning '60s anthology series, Bob Hope Presents The Chrysler Theatre. With his film box-office receipts flagging in the early '50s (audiences didn't quite buy the idea of a 50-year-old man playing a 30-ish girl chaser), Hope took the advice of writer/directors Norman Panama and Melvin Frank and attempted a dramatic film role as Eddie Foy Sr. in The Seven Little Foys (1955). He succeeded in both pulling off the character and in packing a relatively maudlin script with humanity and humor. Hope's last "straight" film part was as New York City Mayor Jimmy Walker in Beau James (1957), in which he again acquitted himself quite nicely. Having long taken a percentage of profits on his Paramount releases, Hope became his own producer in 1957, which at first resulted in such fine pictures as Alias Jesse James (1959) and The Facts of Life (1960, with frequent co-star Lucille Ball). But the quality of Hope's films took a depressing downward spiral in the '60s, and even hard-core Hope fans were hard-pressed to suffer though such dogs as Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! (1966) and The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell (1968). It has been theorized that Hope was too wealthy and much too busy with a multitude of other projects to care about the sorry state of his films. Besides, even the worst of the Hope pictures posted a profit, which to him evidently meant more than whether or not the films were any good. His last feature film appearance was a 1985 cameo in Spies Like Us, a spoof of the road pictures he made with Crosby. In 1991, he again traveled overseas to entertain U.S. troops -- this time in Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War. Though Hope's only onscreen appearances through the remainder of the decade would prove archival in origin, generations of fans would later show their appreciation for his enduring career in the 2003 television special 100 Years of Hope and Humor. Hope proved too frail to attend the celebration in person, though his friends and family assured the public that the star was indeed overwhelmed at the outpouring of public affection.On Sunday, July 27, 2003, the world lost one of its most beloved comic talents when Bob Hope died of pneumonia in Taluca Lake, CA. He was 100.

Trivia: Actress Blanche Sweet was typically cast as the strong-willed heroine in silent films. She was a favorite of D.W. Griffith. Born in Chicago into a family of show people, she began her professional career as a dancer at age 4. A decade later, in 1909, Sweet, now a 14-year old stage veteran, debuted in films working for Biograph. Unlike other heroines of her time such as Lillian Gish and May Marsh, Sweet did not play fragile shrinking violets in constant need of salvation; instead she played confident and resourceful women who attempted to save themselves. Her most famous films, both directed by Griffith were The Lonedale Operator and Judith of Bethulia. She later went on to Lasky studios where she began working with Cecil B. DeMille and others, one of whom was Marshall Neilan. She married him in 1922, but, by 1929, they had divorced. She continued to be successful until the early thirties when she appeared in three talkies, and then retired to the stage. She married her stage costar Raymond Hackett in 1936. After he died in 1958, she returned to the screen one last time to play a bit part in the Danny Kaye movie The Five Pennies.