This is one of the most interesting threads on the Dope, lots of “I didn’t know that!”
My own little contribution, though it won’t mean much to most anyone but her fans. It’s of course interesting to me because it’s someone I know. It kinda blew my mind when I found out that Happy Rhodes is related to Cecil Rhodes. Yeah, THAT Cecil Rhodes (it’s not her fault, she had no say in the matter). In fact, her birth name was Kimberley Tyler Rhodes. Kimberley after Kimberley, South Africa and the diamond mines. The Tyler is after Mary Tyler Moore, who was a friend of Hap’s mom when they both danced in New York City. “Happy” was a nickname she had since birth, and she legally changed her name to Happy Tyler Rhodes when she was 16.
For a more positive connection, and much more interesting to me is that Hap’s grandfather on her mom’s side was a musician/songwriter named Dave Stamper, who’s not a “name” anyone would recognize, but he was a principal songwriter for the Ziegfeld Follies from 1912 to 1931, and he also wrote for other Broadway shows (his “Other works” section from IMDB). He went west like so many NY songwriters, and wrote a few songs for a few minor Hollywood movies, including one for Alfred Hitchcock’s Stage Fright (his IMDB page), but soon returned to NY. His greatest claim to fame can’t be documented unfortunately. It is said (by Eddie Cantor for one), that Stamper was the true songwriter of the classic hit song “Shine On Harvest Moon” though it’s credited to someone else (the story of how he sold the song when he was a hungry accompanist is on the Wikipedia page). His biggest “hit” as an undisputed songwriter (along with lyricist partner Gene Buck) was “Tulip Time” (that’s the original recording, it was also covered by Julie Andrews). My favorite songs I’ve heard are “Peasant Love Song.” I don’t know if that was a hit, but it should have been, and “Dance Away The Night” because it’s a waltz. Oh, and besides all that, he was a charter member of ASCAP too. Seems like an interesting guy. He died 2 years before Hap was born.
I grew up fascinated by the Ziegfeld Follies and that kind of music (though not the style of singing so much), probably because my parents had a lot of 78rpm records that had belonged to my grandmother and we listened to them all, so I was delighted when I found that she was connected to it. I know I use way too many parens.
He’s husband of Rebecca Miller, who is a screenwriter/director, most famous for “Personal Velocity.” She happens to be the daughter of playwright Arthur Miller and his third wife, the photographer Inge Morath.
Another one I just found out about. Herman Goering had a younger brother Albert. Albert didn’t like the Nazis and helped a number of Jews escape Nazi Europe. But the Gestapo was unable to arrest him because his brother protected him.
Göring’s [second] wife Emme was an actress who had many gay/Jewish/leftist friends and he helped them escape, though for the rich ones he often charged. His brother used his influence as well. Göring was probably the least antisemitic of the Nazi high ups- his godfather (and by rumor Albert’s biological father) was of Jewish ancestry and it was one of his closest relationships. I don’t say this at all to exonerate him- he needed the hanging he didn’t get- but unlike many Nazis he was motivated more by limitless hunger for money, power, fame, adoration, etc. to feed his monumentally huge ego than ideology. All the Nazi big wigs were greedy for money of course but Göring was in a class by himself- he couldn’t be rich enough.
Albert, the brother who’d sponged off of him for money and favors and above all protection, would repay the favor. After the war he was the lifeline for Göring’s widow and daughter they fell from being one of the richest families in Europe (dozens of residences- including numerous castles- and brandy snifters of precious stones in their rooms) to having a one room coldwater walkup flat and one change of clothes each. He helped them get housing and a pension and basically back into a modest working class lifestyle and salvage a few of their former belongings.
Not half-sisters. Full sisters. They were both daughters of Daniel and Anna MacDonald. Blossom (Edith MacDonald) married a performer named Clarence Rock, hence the different last names.
I hope I’m not repeating, but I don’t think I saw this one: Mariska Hargitay from Law and Order is Jayne Mansfield’s daughter with actor/Mr. Universe 1955 Mickey Hargitay.
A distant relative of Helena’s is actress Anna Chancellor, from the 1995 version of Pride and Prejudice. She’s related to H. H. Asquith as well (on her mother’s side), as well as Jane Austen (8-times great aunt), Lord Byron (second cousin, six times removed), Mary Boleyn and John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, as well as some other aristocrats.
Speaking of Byron–and I’m sure many of you already know this–but his daughter was Ada Lovelace, who worked with Charles Babbage on his analytical engine.
And she was in the car accident that killed her mother. Incidentally, theunderride guard on the backs of trucks are informally called ‘mansfield bars’.
Kind of an obscure one, but- Mabel Albertson, ubiquitous character actress perhaps best known for playing Darrin’s mother on Bewitched, was Jack Albertson’s sister and Cloris Leachman’s mother-in-law. Leachman’s husband of many years (they’re still very close friends) is a cousin of Robert “Freddy Krueger” Englund, but I’m not sure how close.
Celebrities connected by marriage:
Jose Ferrer and Rosemary Clooney’s son Gabriel is married to Pat Boone’s daughter Debby (best known for You Light Up My Life and for… well, I guess that’s about it really).
Gregory Peck was the father-in-law of Cheryl Tiegs for several years and grandfather of her son.
Actor Orson Bean (Dr. Quinn among many other things- to those around in the 70s and 80s he may be most famous for game shows) is the father-in-law of Andrew Breitbart. Bean was once a leftist and in fact was blacklisted for a time though apparently he’s more conservative these days; he says Breitbart calls Orson’s other kids “the little commies”. Bean’s current wife is Wonder Years mom Alley Mills.
In history:
Jefferson Davis was the son-in-law of Zachary Taylor. He became engaged to his commanding officer Taylor’s daughter Sarah Knox over her father’s loud objections; Taylor knew how hard the life of a career military officer’s wife could be and only gave permission for them to wed if Davis would first resign his commission as a lieutenant.
Davis, who had a lifetime habit of doing things his way come hell or high water regardless of best information and common sense saying otherwise, ignored the pleas of his in-laws and his new bride by driving through malaria infested Louisiana and Mississippi on their honeymoon. As a result Knox died 3 months after their wedding and Davis suffered major malaria related health problems for the rest of his life.
Speaking of Davis, the reason he received Oscar Wilde during his U.S. tour had nothing to do with Wilde’s fame (especially since he was basically famous for being famous at the time [1882]) but more to do with the fact Wilde’s uncle, Judge C.D. Elgee, had been one of the richest planters in Mississippi and Louisiana (he had substantial holdings in both) and had lost a son and son-in-law fighting for the Confederacy. (By the time of Wilde’s tour the remaining Elgees were essentially penniless.)
Magda Goebbels’s granddaughters are among the richest women in Germany, each a billionaire in their own right through inheritance from each of their parents. Their father was Harald Quandt was Magda’s son by her first marriage and unlike her six younger children survived the war, much of which he spent in a P.O.W. camp in Canada. Their father despised his mother, though less for her Nazism and marriage to Goebbels than for the murder of his half-siblings, and though he had five daughters none had any of his mother’s given names (Johanna Maria Magdalena) and he asked that none use any of those names for their own children.
Come on, now. Is it really so horrible to be related to Cecil Rhodes? He was entirely a product of his time. And he had the best of intentions. His goal was to bring modernity to places that didn’t have it. That includes things like modern medicine and agriculture.
