Sandy Baron (born Sanford Irving Beresofsky; May 5, 1936 – January 21, 2001) was an American comedian who performed on stage, in films, and on television.
Early life
Sanford Beresofsky was born in Brooklyn, New York, grew up in the Brownsville neighborhood and graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in East New York; and while he was a student at Brooklyn College, to which he received a scholarship, changed his name to Sandy Baron—taking his inspiration from the nearby Barron's Bookstore.[1][2] He started his career working in the Catskill Mountains resorts when they were synonymous with the "Borscht Belt" brand of Jewish humor on which Baron made his mark. He then moved on to the Compass Players Improv Comedy group in the late 1950s.
Career
He made his Broadway debut in Tchin-Tchin in 1962. He also appeared in many other Broadway plays, hits as well as flops, including Autoro Ui, Generations and Lenny (Los Angeles production); replacing Cliff Gorman in the lead role of Lenny Bruce on Broadway.
In 1964, he established a reputation for himself as part of That Was The Week That Was and as the opening act for Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme at the Copacabana in New York City.
In the 1966-1967 season, Baron co-starred with Will Hutchins in the NBC sitcom Hey, Landlord about an apartment complex in Manhattan. In the 1970s, he made regular appearances on talk shows such as The Mike Douglas Show and Merv Griffin, and multiple guest appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
Sandy was also co-host of the The Della Reese Show and hosted a number of television talk shows including A.M. New York and Mid-Morning LA. In addition, he was the host of the pilot for Hollywood Squares and often appeared as a celebrity contestant on this and other games shows.
He acted in many television programs, including a notable recurring role in Seinfeld as Jack Klompus, starred in Law and Order, and as Grandpa in a 1996 TV-movie revival of The Munsters' Scary Little Christmas.
His appearances in feature films included Sweet November (1968), Targets (1968), If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium (1969), The Out-of-Towners (1970), Birdy (1984), and others.
Along with several of his contemporaries, Baron played himself in the opening scene of Woody Allen's Broadway Danny Rose (1984); he also narrated this film.[1]
Baron wrote music, too, starting out at the Brill Building in New York with 1961 songs such as "Flying Blue Angels" and Adam Wade's "The Writing on The Wall,"
and later co-writing Lou Rawls' hit "A Natural Man" with Bobby Hebb ("Sunny") in 1971.
Sandy wrote and recorded a number of comedy albums, including The Race Race and God Save the Queens co-written with Reverend James R. McGraw, editor/writer of Dick Gregory's books.
Throughout his career, he opened for Neil Diamond, The Fifth Dimension, Bobby Vinton, Anthony Newley, Diana Ross, and others.
Personal life and death
He was married to model/actress Geraldine Baron, writer/activist Mary Jo Webster Baron, and writer/screenwriter Stephanie Ericsson;[3] all ending in divorce. He had no children. [4] Baron died of emphysema in Van Nuys, California, at the age of 64.[5] He is interred at Hillside Cemetery.
References
1. Van Gelder, Lawrence (29 January 2001). "Sandy Baron, 64, Veteran Comic Who Antagonized Morty Seinfeld". The New York Times.
2. Bisogno, Frank (1990). Is Anyone Here from Brooklyn?. Fradon Publishing. ASIN B0006EV8V0.
3. http://pr.harpercollins.com/author/microsite/about.aspx?authorid=2908
4. "Amazon.com: Stephanie Ericsson: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle". amazon.com.
5. Woo, Elaine (26 January 2001). "Sandy Baron; Comic Known for Quirky Roles on Stage, Screen". Los Angeles Times.
Sidney Roy Korshak (June 6, 1907 – January 20, 1996) was a lawyer and "fixer" for businessmen in the upper echelons of power and the Chicago Outfit in the United States. His reputation as the Chicago mob's man in Los Angeles made him one of Hollywood's most fabled and influential fixers.[1] His partnership with Chicago mobsters led him to be named "...the most powerful lawyer in the world" by the FBI.
Early life
Sidney was born into a Jewish family, with four siblings, in Chicago's West Side Lawndale neighborhood, on June 6, 1907. His parents were Harry Korshak (1876-1931)[2] and Rebecca Beatrice Lash (Lashkovitz, Laskowitz) (1883-1963),[3] who were married on July 15, 1902 in Chicago. Sidney's father Harry was a wealthy Chicago contractor.[1] Sidney's younger brother Morris Jerome "Marshall" Korshak (1910-1996)[4] became a longtime Chicago politician, city treasurer and state senator.[1] Sidney attended Herzl Elementary School, the University of Wisconsin–Madison and obtained his law degree from the DePaul University College of Law.
Career
Sidney's law practice brought him into contact with many mobsters, such as Al Capone,[5]Frank Nitti, Sam Giancana, Tony Accardo and Moe Dalitz. His services were used by the upper ranks of both legitimate and illegitimate business in the United States.
Korshak numbered among his friends many Hollywood celebrities and leading figures in the entertainment industry, including MCA/Universal chiefs Jules C. Stein and Lew Wasserman, entertainment lawyer Paul Ziffren (the driving force behind bringing the 1984 Olympics to Los Angeles), MGM chief Kirk Kerkorian, Gulf+Western founder Charles Bluhdorn, Frank Sinatra, Ronald Reagan, William French Smith (labor attorney and future United States Attorney General), Edmund "Pat" Brown, Edmund "Jerry" Brown, future Governor of California Gray Davis, producer Robert Evans, Warren Beatty, Barron Hilton and Hugh Hefner.
Korshak was highly successful in the field of labor consulting and negotiations, and his client list included Hilton Hotels, Hyatt Hotels, MGM, Playboy, MCA/Universal, and Diner's Club. One of his clients was Jimmy Hoffa, notorious head of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters; Korshak was heavily involved in the Teamsters' west coast operations during a time when organized labor was at the peak of its activity.
Korshak was an attorney for various elements of the Chicago Outfit. Korshak bought the J.P. Seeburg Corporation and immediately after the company stock rose from $35 to $141.50 a share. He then sold 143,000 shares to pivotal figures in the stock market like Bernard Cornfield, who owned the FOF Property Fund, in Switzerland. Korshak received $5 million from the deal.
Personal life
Sidney Korshak married Bernice Stewart (born 1920)[6] sometime in the mid-1940s, and they had three children, namely, Harry Stuart Korshak[7] (born 1945), Stuart R. Korshak[8] (born 1947), and Katherine "Katy" Korshak. The Korshaks' primary residence was a mansion in Beverly Hills, California for many years, with a secondary home in Palm Springs, California.
It was Korshak who suggested actress Jill St. John to Eon Productions for the James Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever.[9]
Sidney Korshak died on January 20, 1996, without ever having a criminal conviction against him (or even an indictment, according to his New York Times obituary). He was interred at the Hillside Memorial Park in Culver City, California.[10] Marshall Korshak predeceased his brother by one day.
References
1. Sidney Korshak, 88, Dies; Fabled Fixer for the Chicago Mob, The New York Times, January 22, 1996
2. Harry Korshak (January 15, 1876 - January 29, 1931)
3. Rebecca Beatrice Lashkovitz (1883 - November 4, 1963)
4. Morris Jerome "Marshall" Korshak (February 6, 1910 - January 19, 1996)
5. "Mafia Jews..." Lisa Keys, The Jewish Daily Forward, 27 Oct 2006
6. Bernice "Bee" Stewart - According to the 1920 U.S. Federal Census, Bernice was born in 1920 in Alamo, Lincoln County, Nevada (see household of Omer A. Stewart). Her parents were Omer Averett Stewart (May 31, 1884 - June 26, 1957) and Ethel Irene Grainger (August 23, 1887 - January 1983). Some sources claim that Bernice Stewart Korshak is the same person as Bernice Korchek (October 4, 1919 - March 17, 2006), but this claim is not correct. Research has confirmed that Sidney Korshak's widow Bernice Stewart Korshak is still living, and that she is currently (in 2015) 95 years old.
7. Harry Stuart Korshak (born April 24, 1945) - He married Victoria Olson (Schmidlapp) Frederickson (born 1951) on May 2, 1975 in Los Angeles. Victoria had previously married Harry Gray Frederickson, Jr. on April 1, 1970 in Palm Beach, Florida.
8. Stuart R. Korshak (born March 6, 1947) - He married Louise A. Hendricks on April 19, 1980 in Los Angeles.
9. Kiss Kiss Bang! Bang!: The Unofficial James Bond Film Companion, by Alan Barnes & Marcus Hearn, Batsford, 2003 ISBN 0-7134-8645-7
10. Sidney Roy Korshak at Find a Grave
Russo, Gus; Supermob, how Sidney Korshak and his criminal associates became America's hidden power brokers- Bloomsbury,2006
The Kid Stays in the Picture a film about Robert Evans
DeMaris, Ovid; The Last Mafioso: Jimmy "The Weasel" Fratianno
Bob May (September 4, 1939 – January 18, 2009)[1][2] was an American actor best remembered for playing The Robot on the television series Lost in Space, which debuted in 1965 and ran until 1968. May appeared in all 83 episodes inside a prop costume built by Bob Stewart; the robot's voice was dubbed by Dick Tufeld, who was also the narrator of the series.[3]
Acting and stunt career
Born in New York City, May was the grandson of vaudeville comedian Chic Johnson, half of the Olsen and Johnson comedy team famed for their blackout gags and orchestrated mayhem. May's first experience in show business came when he was two years old, when his grandfather had him appear in the Hellzapoppin comedy review, together with his partner Ole Olsen.[4]
May became an actor, stage performer, stuntman, director and public speaker, appearing in several films together with Jerry Lewis, including The Nutty Professor. He also performed in several television series, including The Time Tunnel (where he played the role of Adolf Hitler in the 1967 episode titled "The Kidnappers"), McHale's Navy and The Red Skelton Show. May also worked as a stuntman, performing in television programs and movies of the 1950s and 1960s, among them Cheyenne, Hawaiian Eye, Palm Springs Weekend, Stagecoach, Surfside 6, The Roaring Twenties and 77 Sunset Strip.[4]
Lost in Space
June Lockhart, who played Maureen Robinson in the series, said that May had insisted he got the job because he fit in the robot suit. Irwin Allen, the creator of the Lost in Space television series, selected May to fill the role of the robot, the sidekick of the Robinson family, after May was sent to see him about the part; Allen promised May, "If you can fit in the suit, you've got the job."[4] Bob donned the suit for the first time in front of Allen, and made the suit fit. When he exited the suit (which was made of metal and fiberglass) for the first time, he was cut and bleeding, but very happy that he got the part.
The voice of the robot was primarily performed by the show's announcer Dick Tufeld, including the show's catch phrase, "Danger, danger, Will Robinson." However, May's own voice can be heard when the robot's voice overlaps the other characters' lines and during instances of when the robot is singing. May enjoyed playing the part inside the robot, describing the suit as his "home away from home." It was so difficult to get inside the suit, that he would stay inside even during breaks in filming. Because he couldn't respond to external cues, he would learn the lines of all of the actors in each show so that he would know when it was his line. During breaks, he would puff on a cigarette inside the suit, with the smoke coming out of the suit amusing other members of the cast.[4] Bob's suit was even fitted inside with an ashtray. Once Allen showed up on the set in between shooting and saw smoke billowing up out of the suit. He wasn't aware that Bob was still inside, and thought that the suit was on fire. When he saw that it was Bob smoking inside the suit, he told him that in the future, whenever the script called for the suit to issue smoke, that Bob should be the one to make it happen.
The robot costume had been created by art director and production designer Robert Kinoshita, who had been the designer of Robby the Robot from the 1956 film Forbidden Planet. Though the regularly used robot required someone to be inside, there were some shots filmed during the third season of the series that used an unoccupied "stunt robot" in certain long shots.[5]
For years, May was a regular at autograph conventions in the Los Angeles area and around the country, sought after by fans of the show.[4] One Los Angeles-based convention, Gallifrey One, has named its annual charity auction in May's memory. May was never too busy for his fans, he once remarked: "I will stay at any convention signing autographs until the last fan was finished, or the cleaning crew forces me to leave."
Though the robot character appeared in the 1998 Lost in Space film, with Dick Tufeld reprising his role as the robot's voice, May did not fill the role of fitting inside the robot in the movie remake.[6]
Personal
May's home in an upscale mobile home park in the San Fernando Valley was destroyed in the November 2008 California wildfires that hit the Los Angeles area, though he and his wife were able to escape without injury.[7]
May died at age 69 on January 18, 2009 at a hospital in Lancaster, California of congestive heart failure. He was survived by his wife, Judith, son, Martin, daughter, Deborah and four grandchildren.[4]
Bob May is interred in San Fernando Mission Cemetery.
References
1. Cast Birthdays - LIS Memories
2. "'Lost in Space' robot actor Bob May dies". The Associated Press. January 19, 2009.
3. 'Lost in Space' actor Bob May dies at 69 in Calif. - Monday, January 19, 2009 10:47 AM - (AP) The Columbus Dispatch
4. Associated Press (January 18, 2009). "Lost in Space actor Bob May dies". Los Angeles Times.
5. Huntington, Tom. "Lust in Space", Forbes, June 20, 2005.
6. Sauter, Michael. "Platinum-Plated Pal: Lost in Space revives its 'mechanical man' -- Dick Tufeld recreates his role as the famous robot’s voice in the upcoming movie", Entertainment Weekly, April 10, 1998.
7. "Lost in Space - May's Home Claimed by Fire". Contactmusic.com. November 20, 2008.
Ted Mann (April 16, 1916 – January 15, 2001) was an American businessman, involved in the film industry, and head of Mann Theatres. He famously changed the name of Grauman's Chinese Theater to Mann's Chinese Theater when he purchased the National General Theatre chain that owned it in 1973. Born in Wishek, North Dakota, Mann started off in the movie business as an usher around the time he attended the University of Minnesota in the 1930s. He rented the Selby Theatre in Saint Paul, Minnesota for $100 a month and began to build his own company. He ran the theater almost completely by himself, expanding to 25 venues within a few years.
Mann sold the theaters to General Cinema Corporation in 1970 and moved to California. The first production to his credit was 1969's The Illustrated Man, based on a Ray Bradbury book.
He didn't stay out of the theater business for long, and purchased the troubled 276-screen National General Theatre chain in 1973. Mann soon expanded the chain to 360 screens, but again sold off his theaters in 1986, this time to Gulf+Western, which later renamed itself to Paramount Communications (which itself became part of Viacom). Grauman's Theater eventually regained its original name in late 2001.
Ted Mann served as Producer on The Illustrated Man and Buster and Billie. He served as Executive Producer on Lifeguard, The Nude Bomb, Brubaker, and Krull.
Both the Orpheum and Pantages venues of today's Hennepin Theatre District in Minneapolis were once owned by Mann. He eventually owned at least six theaters in the city's downtown region. The Ted Mann Concert Hall at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis is named for him.
On June 24, 1934, Ted Mann married Ida Charon (1911–1997).[1] Before their divorce,[2] Ted and Ida Mann had two daughters, Victoria Mann Sims[3] and Roberta Lynn Mann-Benson (died 2010).[4] He married actress Rhonda Fleming in 1977, and they remained together until Mann died at age 84 in Los Angeles of complications from a stroke. Upon his death he was survived by, in addition to Fleming, two daughters, a sister Edythe, two grandsons, and two granddaughters.[5]
Ted Mann is buried at Hillside Cemetery.
References
1. "Paid Notice - Memorials MANN, IDA". NY Times. 23 December 1997.
2. "Divorce settlement just not enough". Gadsden Times. 30 July 1978.
3. Foreman, Judy (2 March 2014). "Dr. Victoria Mann Simms, Champion of Early Childhood Education, Opens Up about Cause". Noozhawk, Santa Barbara, California.
4. "Mann-Benson, Dr. Roberta". Star Tribune, Minneapolis. 28 October 2010.
5. Oliver, Myrna (17 January 2001). "Ted Mann; Theater Chain Owner Put His Name on Grauman's Chinese". Los Angeles Times.
Jason Buchanan. Ted Mann Biography. Yahoo!/Allmovie.
