Baby Boomers Talk Radio

Donald John DeFore (August 25, 1913 – December 22, 1993) was an American actor. He is best known for his roles in the sitcom The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet from 1952 to 1957 and the sitcom Hazel from 1961 to 1965, the former of which earned him a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.DeFore was one of seven children born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to Joseph Ervin, a railroad engineer who worked at the Chicago and North Western Transportation Company and was also a local politician, and Albina Sylvia DeFore (née Nezerka).[1] DeFore's mother, who occasionally directed plays at their local church, was of Czechoslovakian descent.[2][3] After graduating from Washington High School in Cedar Rapids, DeFore attended the University of Iowa.[4] He initially studied law while also playing basketball, track, and baseball before becoming interested in acting. Since acting was not a major study at the university, he left and enrolled at the Pasadena Community Playhouse, where he won a scholarship and stayed for three years. During this time, he and four fellow students wrote a play called Where Do We Go From Here? It was presented in a little theater in Hollywood with DeFore in the cast. As a young man, DeFore toured the country in stock companies for several years before making his Broadway debut in Where Do We Go From Here? in 1938, when Oscar Hammerstein II offered to take it to Broadway, and DeFore and five of the original cast members went along. The show ran for four weeks, and DeFore was soon recognized as a member of legitimate theater. He remained in New York and won a key role in The Male Animal, which ran for almost eight months on Broadway[6] and eight months on the road.

In Hollywood, DeFore's first screen appearance was in a bit part in 1936's Reunion. By the early 1940s, he was appearing regularly in films such as: The Male Animal (1942), A Guy Named Joe (1943), Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), You Came Along (1945), Without Reservations (1946), It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947), Romance on the High Seas (1948), My Friend Irma (1949) and Jumping Jacks (1952). In 1946, exhibitors voted him the fourth-most promising "star of tomorrow".[7]

DeFore also worked in radio, performing on such programs as Suspense, Old Gold Comedy Theater, and Lux Radio Theatre, but he is best known for his work in television. Beginning in 1952, DeFore had a recurring role as the Nelsons' friendly neighbor, "Thorny", on the ABC sitcom The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet,[8] earning a nomination in 1955 for a Best Supporting Actor in a Regular Series Primetime Emmy Award.[9] In time though, the role of Thorny was superseded by Lyle Talbot as Joe Randolph, and Mary Jane Croft as his wife Clara.

From 1954 to 1955, he served as president of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. He was instrumental in arranging for the Emmy Awards to be broadcast on national television for the first time on March 7, 1955.[8] He also served on the board of the Screen Actors Guild.[10]

From 1961 to 1965, DeFore was a co-star of the television series Hazel as "Mr. B." (George Baxter), employer of the spirited, domineering housekeeper Hazel Burke, played by Shirley Booth and based on the cartoon character appearing in The Saturday Evening Post.[8] DeFore was not the original actor to portray George Baxter. In the pilot episode, the role was played by character actor Edward Andrews. DeFore took over the role when the series was green-lighted. The series ran on prime time until 1966 when it was canceled by NBC. DeFore and his co-star Whitney Blake were written out of the series when CBS picked up the series for its final season.[11]

In 1970 Defore appeared as Mayor Evans on the TV western “The Men From Shiloh” in the episode titled "Colonial Mackenzie Verses The West." In that role he played a murderer which was a major shift from the comedy roles he was better known for on sitcoms like The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and Hazel. Men From Shiloh was a rebranded name for The Virginian.

For his contribution to the television industry, Don DeFore has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 6804 Hollywood Blvd.[

“The Unknown Comic” is the stage name adopted by Canadian actor and stand-up comic Murray Langston (born June 27, 1945 in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada), best known for his comic performances on The Gong Show, in which he usually appeared with a paper bag over his head. As of 2015, Langston was making his residence in Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada.[1][2]

Buy my book. Shooting the Breeze With Baby Boomer Stars ! Find it on Amazon. Wesley Eure (born August 17, 1951) is an American actor, singer, author, producer, director, charity fundraiser, and lecturer. He is best known for appearing as Michael Horton on the American soap opera Days of Our Lives from 1974 to 1981, during which he also starred on the popular children's television series Land of the Lost. He later hosted the popular children's game show Finders Keepers in 1987 and 1988, and co-created the children's educational television show Dragon Tales in 1999. He subsequently published several books (for children and adult), and has produced plays and raised funds for HIV/AIDS and other causes.

I have interviewed over 100 celebrities. This next one is most important interview I have achieved. My subject is Stan Goldman who talks about his mother’s survival during the Holocaust. His book has a long sub title but reveals a good synopsis which is “The Bargain That Broke Adolf Hitler and Saved My Mother.” The real title is “Left to the Mercy of a Rude Stream.” Goldman reviews the horrors of his mother’s captivity, the improbability of her survival, and how Heinrich Himmler arranged for her release from Ravensbruck where she toiled in slave labor. This interview is out of my wheel house but when a Hollywood agent contacted me, I could not turn this one down. If you only listen to only one interview that I have done this should be the one. As the religious Jew I you can understand how important this is to me. OK…for those that really know me that was a partial lie. I am a reform Jew. But it does not matter how religious you are or if you are not Jewish at all …this interview will touch your soul. The history woven through this heartfelt narrative is worth the price of admission.

Seven years after the death of his mother, Malka, Stanley A. Goldman traveled to Israel to visit her best friend during the Holocaust. The best friend's daughter showed Goldman a pamphlet she had acquired from the Israeli Holocaust Museum that documented activities of one man's negotiations with the Nazi's interior minister and SS head, Heinrich Himmler, for the release of the Jewish women from the concentration camp at Ravensbrück. While looking through the pamphlet, the two discovered a picture that could have been their mothers being released from the camp. Wanting to know the details of how they were saved, Goldman set out on a long and difficult path to unravel the mystery.
After years of researching the pamphlet, Goldman learned that a German Jew named Norbert Masur made a treacherous journey from the safety of Sweden back into the war zone in order to secure the release of the Jewish women imprisoned at the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Masur not only succeeded in his mission against all odds but he contributed to the downfall of the Nazi hierarchy itself. This amazing, little-known story uncovers a piece of history about the undermining of the Nazi regime, the women of the Holocaust, and the strained but loving relationship between a survivor and her son.
The son of a Holocaust survivor rehearses the horrors of his mother’s captivity, the improbability of her survival, and the deleterious lingering effects on her—and him.
Goldman (Loyola Law School, Los Angeles), the on-air legal editor for Fox News from 1996 to 2006, has several objectives here: to outline a piece of the history of the Holocaust (grim reminders of inhumanity appear on virtually every page), tell his mother’s remarkable story, ruminate about the perpetrators of the atrocities, and condemn those who profited by it, especially Alfried Krupp, whose family and wartime business found great success because of the Nazi war machine—and because of the labor of Jewish slaves. Although the author focuses primarily on his mother, he occasionally employs a wide-angle lens to show us what was going on throughout war-torn Europe; he even deals some with the stories of Anne Frank, Raoul Wallenberg, and other Holocaust icons. His mother’s story is astonishing; her survival, virtually impossible. As the war was winding down, she was working in the concentration camp at Ravensbrück and would almost certainly have died there if not for one man’s negotiation with Heinrich Himmler, who, seeing the end of the war (and realizing what would happen to him), made a deal to release some Jewish women, Goldman’s mother among them. She then traveled to Sweden, stayed about a year and a half and immigrated to America, where she married (the Nazis had shot her first husband) and gave birth to the author. Her dark memories never left her, and Goldman describes his own difficulties dealing with her as she aged and struggled. The author works hard to maintain a scholar’s tone in his text, but throughout, he also shows us the blood of millions seeping through his pages.
I knew well a little Jewish woman whose life was spared by a frightened Heinrich Himmler and the saving of her led to the death of Adolf Hitler. So begins the true account of an improbable April 1945 rescue from a Nazi death camp.
On April 21 a German Jewish businessman returned from the safety of neutral Sweden to the nation of his birth. He secretly met with Heinrich Himmler and arranged the release of a group of Jewish women (one of whom was my mother) from Ravensbruck. In exchange, Himmler's offer of a cease-fire on the Western front was delivered to the Allied leaders. The news of Himmler's attempt at a separate peace would be a principal cause of Hitler's April 30th suicide.
The book also documents the events allowing my mother to survive both the line to the gas chamber in Auschwitz and the allied bombings of Berlin where she toiled in slave labor. Interposed is how the Holocaust affected the remainder of her life as well as much of mine.

Don Murray's role as Beauregard "Beau" Decker in Bus Stop (1956) marked his film debut. He starred alongside Marilyn Monroe, who played Cherie, the object of his desire. His performance as the innocent cowboy who is determined to get Cherie was well received, and he was nominated for a BAFTA for Most Promising Newcomer and for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

In 1957, he starred as reserved, married bookkeeper Charlie Sampson in The Bachelor Party.[5] The same year he starred in one of his most successful roles, that of Johnny Pope in the drama A Hatful of Rain. Despite director Fred Zinnemann's intention to typecast the actor as the comical brother Polo, Murray insisted on playing the lead. Thus he portrayed Johnny Pope, a morphine addicted Korean War veteran. The film was one of the first to show the effects of drug abuse on the addicted and those around him.

He starred as a blackmailed United States senator in Advise & Consent (1961), a film version of a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Allen Drury. The movie was directed by Otto Preminger and cast Murray opposite Henry Fonda and Charles Laughton. He also co-starred with Steve McQueen in the film Baby the Rain Must Fall (1965) and played the ape-hating Governor Breck in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972).n 1976, Murray starred in the film Deadly Hero.[5] In addition to acting, Murray directed a film based on the book The Cross and the Switchblade (1970) starring Pat Boone and Erik Estrada.Murray starred with Otis Young in the ground breaking ABC western television series The Outcasts (1968–69) featuring an interracial bounty hunter team in the post-Civil War West.

In 1979, he starred as Sid Fairgate on the long-running prime-time soap opera Knots Landing. He also scripted two episodes of the program in 1980. In 1981 Murray decided to leave the series after two seasons to concentrate on other projects, although some sources say he left over a salary dispute. The character's death was notable at the time because it was considered rare to kill off a star character. The death came in the second episode of season three, following season two's cliffhanger in which Sid's car careened off a cliff. To make viewers doubt that the character had actually died, Murray was listed in the credit sequence for season three; in fact, season three revealed that Fairgate had survived the plunge off the cliff (thus temporarily reassuring the viewers), but died shortly afterwards in hospital. Although he effectively distanced himself from the series after that, Murray later contributed an interview segment for Knots Landing: Together Again, a reunion special made in 2005.In 1956, Murray married Hope Lange, with whom he had co-starred in Bus Stop. They had two children, Christopher and Patricia. They divorced in 1961. In 1962, he married Elizabeth Johnson and then had three children: Coleen, Sean, and Michael.

CLICK ON LINK ABOVE TO HEAR MY INTERVIEW WITH DONNA:
Donna Loren (born March 7, 1947) is an American singer and actress. A prolific performer in the 1960s, she was the "Dr Pepper Girl" from 1963 to 1968, featured female vocalist on Shindig, and a cast member of the American International Pictures Beach Party movie franchise. She was signed to Capitol Records in 1964, releasing several singles and the Beach Blanket Bingo LP soundtrack, which included her signature song "It Only Hurts When I Cry".

Loren guest starred on episodic television series including Dr. Kildare, Batman, and The Monkees, as well as appearing regularly on network and local variety and music shows.

In 1968, Loren retired from her career to marry and raise a family. She recorded again in the 1980s and ran her own fashion business, ADASA Hawaii, throughout the 1990-2000s. In 2009, she returned to performing, and her most recent releases include the album Love It Away (2010) and the EP Donna Does Elvis in Hawaii (2010), as well as the compilation These Are the Good Times: The Complete Capitol Recordings (2014). Her first book, Pop Sixties: Shindig!, Dick Clark, Beach Party, and Photographs from the Donna Loren Archive, was released in 2017.

Click on above to hear my interview with Glenn. Glenn Christopher Scarpelli (born July 6, 1966) is an American former child actor and singer. He is perhaps best known for his role as Alex Handris from 1980 to 1983 on the sitcom One Day at a Time.

George Michael Dolenz Jr. (born March 8, 1945) is an American actor, musician, television director, radio personality and theater director, best known as a vocalist and drummer of the 1960s pop/rock band the Monkees.

Eliza Roberts was born as Eliza Rayfiel. She is a casting director and actress, known for Animal House (1978), Doctor Who (1996) and Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993). She has been married to Eric Roberts since August 16, 1992. She was previously married to James Simons.

Barret Eugene "Barry" Hansen (born April 2, 1941),[1] better known as Dr. Demento, is an American radio broadcaster and record collector specializing in novelty songs, comedy, and strange or unusual recordings dating from the early days of phonograph records to the present.
Hansen created the Demento persona in 1970 while working at Los Angeles station KPPC-FM.[1] After Hansen played "Transfusion" by Nervous Norvus on the radio, DJ "The Obscene" Steven Clean said that Hansen had to be "demented" to play that. Thereafter, the name stuck. His weekly show went into syndication in 1974[1] and from 1978 to 1992 was syndicated by the Westwood One Radio Network. Broadcast syndication of the show ended on June 6, 2010, but the show continues to be produced weekly in an online version.
Hansen has a degree in ethnomusicology, and has written magazine articles and liner notes on recording artists outside of the novelty genre. He is credited with introducing new generations of listeners to artists of the early and middle 20th century whom they might not have otherwise discovered, such as Harry McClintock, Spike Jones, Benny Bell, Yogi Yorgesson, Stan Freberg, and Tom Lehrer, as well as with bringing parodist "Weird Al" Yankovic to national attention.

Born in Los Angeles, California, Rudie became an overnight star, in 1956, with her performance in the title role in the episode "Eloise" on television's Playhouse 90. It brought her critical acclaim, much press coverage, and an Emmy nomination at age six—the first time a child actress was so honored. She returned to Playhouse 90 the following year, portraying the young Perle Mesta in The Hostess with the Mostest.[citation needed]

The television "Eloise" was an adaptation of the popular book by Kay Thompson, which owed much to the delicate line illustrations of Hilary Knight. The marketing of "Eloise" and the subsequent book sequels practically always featured the illustrations of Knight, and numerous photographs were published in the 1950s of Rudie in the role. Her popularity as a child star led to the merchandising of at least one product which did not associate her with the character of Eloise, Evelyn Rudie Paper Dolls (Saalfield, 1958).

During the late 1950s, she also appeared on Alfred Hitchcock Presents, General Electric Theater, Lawman, The Red Skelton Show, and Wagon Train, along with seven appearances on The Tonight Show with Jack Paar. During this period, she also was an actress on radio programs, including Suspense.

Nine-year-old Evelyn Rudie appeared as a contestant on the October 29, 1959, episode of the TV quiz program You Bet Your Life, hosted by Groucho Marx. Rudie danced a waltz with her fellow contestant and told a joke in the German language. The pair earned $500.[2]

After appearing uncredited in director George Sidney's Bye Bye Birdie (1963), she focused on education. She graduated from Hollywood High with honors and then studied film production at UCLA. Over a 36-year span, she has given more than 10,000 stage performances in 350 plays.[citation needed]

Rudie's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is located at the corner of Hollywood and Highland.

Her book is...HOW NOT TO COOK FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. Marilyn Sternberg was born in Manhattan on February 26, 1943 to Russian émigrés: Cantoress and actress Fraydele Oysher and father Harold Sternberg, who was a senior basso with the Metropolitan Opera for 37 years. Her uncle was the cantor and film actor Moishe Oysher.

Marilyn began performing with her mother at age 7 on the Yiddish stage and throughout Canada. At 14, she was soloist in her father and uncle's choir, and also sang duets with Oysher on the classic recording, "Moishe Oysher’s Chanukah Party."

She attended the High School of Music and Art as a music major, but switched to Art in her sophomore year. While still in high school, she was signed to Debbie Records, headed by Ray Rainwater (brother of Marvin Rainwater) and her first single, "Johnny Where Are You," was produced by Phil Ramone. This was followed by a recording contract with RCA Victor record producers Hugo and Luigi, for which she sang "Tell Tommy I Miss Him" — the answer-song to the hit "Tell Laura I Love Her" — by Ray Peterson. She recorded both U.S. and UK versions. She later recorded for Warner Brothers and ABC Paramount [4][5][6] and appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Hollywood Palace, The Jackie Gleason American Scene Magazine and NBC’s Hullabaloo, with Sammy Davis Jr. She would appear with Sammy Davis Jr. again on The Name of the Game, The Flip Wilson Show, and Sammy in Acapulco.

Patricia Ann Priest (born August 15, 1936), mainly credited as Pat Priest, is an American actress known for portraying the second Marilyn Munster on the television show, The Munsters (1964–1966) after original actress Beverley Owen left after 13 episodes.

Chris Korman (producer) The son of beloved comedian Harvey Korman, Chris has fifteen years experience in the entertainment industry, working with artists in various capacities, including brand building and agenting. A graduate of Lesley College in Cambridge, MA, where he studied theatre history, he received training in stage management at Colorado Mountain College under Thomas Cochran. Following in the tradition of his father, Chris has supported such charitable organizations as the non-profit Marianne Frostig Golf Tournament, which he co-hosted and served on the board for fifteen years; Keshet of Chicago, for which he served as spokesperson in 1997; and the Learning Disabilities Association of America, for which he gave a keynote address in 2017. Chris has worked behind the scenes of TV Confidential since 2016.

Harvey Herschel Korman (February 15, 1927 – May 29, 2008) was an American comedic actor who performed in television and film productions and was also a voice artist. His big break was being a featured performer on CBS' The Danny Kaye Show, but he is best remembered for his performances on the sketch comedy series The Carol Burnett Show and in several films by Mel Brooks. Korman, who was of Russian Jewish descent,[1] was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Ellen (née Blecher) and Cyril Raymond Korman, a salesman.[2][3] He served in the United States Navy during World War II.[4] After being discharged, he studied at the Goodman School of Drama.[5] He was a member of the Peninsula Players summer theater program during the 1950, 1957, and 1958 seasons.[6]


Korman's first television role was as a head waiter in The Donna Reed Show episode, "Decisions, Decisions, Decisions". He appeared as a comically exasperated public relations man in a January 1961 episode of the CBS drama Route 66. He was seen on numerous television programs after that, including the role of Blake in the 1964 episode "Who Chopped Down the Cherry Tree?" on the NBC medical drama The Eleventh Hour and a bartender in the 1962 Perry Mason episode, "The Case of the Unsuitable Uncle." He frequently appeared as a supporting player on The Danny Kaye Show from 1963 through 1967. He was cast three times, including the role of Dr. Allison in "Who Needs Glasses?" (1962), on ABC's The Donna Reed Show. He also guest-starred on Dennis the Menace and on the NBC modern western series Empire.

Peter Mark Richman (born April 16, 1927) is an American actor who has starred in films and on television, who was for many years credited as Mark Richman. He appeared in over 30 films and over 130 television series since the 1950s

Joyce Collins Bulifant (born December 16, 1937) is an American television actress, notable for her cheerful, girlish voice with a Southern lilt. In addition to many theater appearances and a recurring role on The Mary Tyler Moore Show as Marie Slaughter, Bulifant was a frequent panelist on the television game shows Chain Reaction, Match Game, and

Marion Ross (born October 25, 1928) is an American actress. Her best-known role is that of Marion Cunningham on the ABC television sitcom Happy Days, on which she starred from 1974 to 1984 and received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Before her success on Happy Days, Ross appeared in a variety of film roles, appearing in The Glenn Miller Story (1954), Sabrina (1954), Lust for Life (1956), Teacher's Pet (1958), Some Came Running (1958), Operation Petticoat (1959), and Honky (1971), as well as several minor television roles, one of which was on television’s "The Lone Ranger" (1954). Ross also starred in The Evening Star (1996), for which she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Since the 1990s, Ross has been known for voice-over work on animated television series such as King of the Hill and SpongeBob SquarePants among others, and recurring roles on The Drew Carey Show, That '70s Show, Gilmore Girls, and Brothers & Sisters, and guest spots.

Lyle Wesley Waggoner (born April 13, 1935) is an American actor and former model, known for his work on The Carol Burnett Show from 1967 to 1974, and for playing the role of Steve Trevor and Steve Trevor Jr. on Wonder Woman from 1975 to 1979.