Around the time of WWII, actor Fred MacMurray bought land in the Russian River area of northern California. He named it MacMurray Ranch. After MacMurray passed away, the land was sold to the Ernest and Julio Gallo wine company, which planted grapes on the land.
To this day you can buy wine labeled MacMurray Ranch. Fred’s daughter Kate reportedly still lives there and has remained active in the wine community. The MacMurray Ranch web site has a link to videos for Kate.
Fred MacMurray was originally cast as Perry Mason and Raymond Burr as DA Hamilton Burger in the Perry Mason TV series but MacMurray did not take the part setting up Burr’s memorable portrayal.
In the mid-1950s, Raymond Burr met Robert Benevides, a young actor and Korean War veteran, on the set of Perry Mason. According to Benevides, they became a couple about 1960. Benevides gave up acting in 1963 and later became a production consultant for 21 of the Perry Mason TV movies.Together they owned and operated an orchid business and then a vineyard, in the Dry Creek Valley. They were partners until Burr’s death in 1993. Burr left Benevides his entire estate, including “all my jewelry, clothing, books, works of art,…and other items of a personal nature.”
Although William Shakespeare’s will left his wife, Anne Hathaway, his “second-best bed”, it is not known who got his best one.
Anne Hathaway was 10 years older than Shakespeare and pregnant when they were wed. It was speculated that it was a “shotgun” wedding and thus she received his enmity in life and only his second best bed upon his death.
The shotgun formation was first introduced by the San Francisco 49ers in 1960, but didn’t become widespread until Tom Laundry and the 1975 Dallas Cowboys dusted it off and started using it again.
“My Boyfriend’s Back and There’s Gonna Be Laundry” was a cycle of three, one-woman plays by Canadian actress Sandra Shamas.
Chip became the middle brother, however, when original eldest son Mike (Tim Considine) left the show. Barry Livingston, who was actually Stanley’s brother, was introduced as Ernie, an orphaned friend of Chip. Ernie was subsequently adopted into the Douglas household. Just that I’d put this out there for anyone who only caught the later seasons and thus was never aware of (the fictional) Mike Douglas!
In play: The song “My Boyfriend’s Back” was recorded by The Angels, a trio consisting of Peggy Santiglia, Barbara Allbut, and Phyllis Allbut.
Horatio’s epitaph for Hamlet is “Good night, sweet Prince; / And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”
It may be an echo from the last antiphon of the Requiem Mass: In paradisum deducant te Angeli : “May angels lead you into paradise”.
“My Boyfriends Back” was the title of two movies, one made for TV that starred Sandy Duncan, Judith Light and Jill Eichenberry as the Bouffants, a 60’s pop trio that had one hit (guess what it was) and a 1993 film directed by Bob Balaban about a teenage zombie.
Sandy Duncan lost her left eye at 25 years old because of surgery to remove a benign tumor from it.
Longtime Major League Baseball pitching coach Dave Duncan never threw a pitch in “the show” during his eleven total seasons with the Athletics, Indians, and Orioles. He gained his knowledge of pitching by being a catcher for such star hurlers as Vida Blue and Catfish Hunter.
Oakland A’s pitcher Dave Stewart won 20 games a season in four straight seasons, 1987-1990. During that stretch he was the World Series MVP in 1989, winning 2 of the 4 games as the A’s swept the San Francisco Giants in the series, 4 games to none.
However, when Stewart was first drafted in 1975, his position was catcher, not pitcher.
Following his rookie season in 1983 with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and, after a trade for Rick Honeycutt, the Texas Rangers, Dave Stewart was arrested in Los Angeles’ Skid Row districi for soliciting a transvestite hooker known as Lucille, né Elson Tyler. With the Dodgers, Stewart had been partly responsible for hiding Steve Howe doing lines of cocaine in the bullpen.
The Texas Ranger Division, commonly called the Texas Rangers, is a law enforcement agency with statewide jurisdiction in Texas, and is based in Austin, Texas. Over the years, the Texas Rangers have investigated crimes ranging from murder to political corruption, acted as riot police and as detectives, protected the Governor of Texas, tracked down fugitives, and functioned as a paramilitary force at the service of both the Republic (1836–45) and the state of Texas.
Austin, TX is home to the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum. The US National Archives and Records Administration has 13 presidential libraries and museums.
Disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong has sold his Austin,Texas estate to an oil-and-gas rights agent. It was Armstrong’s home since 2004 and the site of the Oprah Winfrey interview where he admitted his use of performance-enhancing drugs.
Stretch Armstrong is made of latex rubber filled with gelled corn syrup, which allows it to retain shape for a short time before shrinking to its original shape. The later 1990s figures had small beads inside them. An original Stretch Armstrong in mint condition is one of the rarest toy collectibles.
Willie “Stretch” McCovey played first base in the Major Leagues from 1959 to 1980 mostly with the San Francisco Giants. In their playing days, fellow Hall of Famer Bob Gibson called McCovey “The scariest hitter in baseball”. “Stretch” is a nickname commonly conferred on first basemen in baseball owing to the fact that they are frequently tall and that they stretch to receive throws from infielders.
The Gibson is a martini with an onion instead of an olive. As with most mixed drinks, origin of the drink and its name is unknown.