20th-Century-Personalities

[20th-century-personalities]

Tommy John, the namesake of a ligament-replacement surgery that paved a path to recovery for injured baseball players pitched for six teams including the Dodgers and Yankees / Lennox McLendon/AP

He was four-time All-Star who played in three World Series over a 26-season career, John won 288 games overall — the largest total for any pitcher not in the Hall of Fame.

[20th-century-personalities]

Zale Parry in 1958 with her diving equipment and her pet owl, Spooks. She was the first female superstar of diving / Los Angeles Examiner/USC Libraries, via Corbis — Getty Images

In 1951, she was a secretary at Douglas Aircraft Company in Santa Monica, Calif. A colleague set her up with an engineer there named Parry Bivens. Mr. Bivens was a polymath and had many hobbies outside of work, including scuba-diving and taking psychedelic drugs. He introduced her to both. On dates, Mr. Bivens taught Ms. Parry to scuba-dive off Catalina Island. Soon, she was hooked.

During the summer of 1954, Ms. Parry several other divers set off one Sunday afternoon to test a new mouthpiece valve. Ms. Parry offered to be the guinea pig. Everyone hoped she could set a record.Three miles offshore, with the Coast Guard monitoring, she jumped in the water and headed down. She kept going, and going, until she reached the bottom, where she found an empty can of Schlitz beer. The depth — 209 feet — was a world record for a female diver.

Press coverage of the feat made her a celebrity. She appeared on the Groucho Marx game show “You Bet Your Life.” Sports Illustrated put her on the cover of its May 23, 1955, issue with the headline “Zale Parry, Girl Skin Diver.”

Ms. Parry joined the documentary TV show “Kingdom of the Sea,” appearing in segments on water safety. On “Sea Hunt,” she played a damsel in distress onscreen; offscreen she tutored Mr. Bridges on diving techniques.

The series “gave Bridges his signature role as Mike Nelson, diver detective,” Mr. Gilliam wrote. “And Zale became the sex symbol that everyone wanted to give CPR to.”

Ms. Parry appeared in several other TV shows in the late 1950s and early ’60s, including “Peter Gunn, Wagon Train” and “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,” along with the films “Underwater Warrior” (1958) and “The Miracle” (1959). “When liquid dramas come along,” Ms. Parry told United Press International, “I’m in business.”

Zale Parry in 1961 / CBS, via Getty Images

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Actress Madeline Smith of The Vampire Lovers, 1971

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Ringo Starr Outside Downing Street, 1965. Terry O'Neill. Chromogenic print.

[soundsof71]

Ozzy Osbourne in a Black Sabbath t-shirt, 1972, my edit of original via schoolofrock

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'A painting is music you can see and music is a painting you can hear.' - Miles Davis

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NY Yankees slugger Mickey Mantle, "the Commerce Comet,” (October 20, 1931 – August 13, 1995) #MLB #baseball

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Today In 1908: The Boston Red Sox celebrate “Cy Young Day” at Huntington Avenue Grounds! The 41-year-old pitching legend will finish the season with 21 wins and a 1.26 ERA!

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Joan Baez, Carmel, CA, 1962 © Ralph Crane.

[20th-century-personalities]

Entertainer Abbe Lane in 1966. In addition to being a successful vocalist, she appeared on TV shows and in movies. It was widely reported that Pope Pius XII saw her on Italian television and deemed her sinfully sexy / Mirrorpix, via Everett Collection

She was a popular singer, dancer and actress who exuded a sultry Latin air as the star vocalist for the bandleader Xavier Cugat in the 1950s and ’60s, and in a successful solo career afterward.

Born in Brooklyn, Ms. Lane sang in Spanish and sometimes Italian, as a redhead, a brunette or a blonde — and she was all three, in turn — dancing rumba, mambo or cha-cha rhythms. Her sparkly, low-cut gowns were often strapless, with daring décolletage. Her skirts were fan-tailed or fringed or slit to reveal one leg all the way to the top of her thigh.

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Bob Dylan browsing books in Greenwich Village, July 1964, photographed by Douglas R. Gilbert (1, 2)

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[20th-century-personalities]

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins

[citizenscreen]

Robert Aldrich was born on August 9, 1918. #bots 🎥 unique, varied, entertaining filmography

[baseballbybsmile]

Today In 1971: Legendary pitcher Satchel Paige becomes the first player to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Special Committee on the Negro Leagues.

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Sharon Tate by Milton H. Greene, 1966.

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Tony Bennett (born Anthony Dominick Benedetto, 3 August 1926 - 21 July 2023)

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Mel Brooks (born Melvin Kaminsky, 28 June 1926)