I just found out one of my all-time favorite super-heroines, Joanna Cameron, who played Isis on Saturday morning TV in the 1970s passed away October 15, 2021. Born in Greeley, Colorado, she started her show business career in the comedy How to Commit Marriage with Bob Hope, Jackie Gleason, Tina Louise, Leslie Nielsen and Tim Matheson. But she is probably best known for her role as the superheroine Egyptian goddess Isis on The Secrets of Isis, which aired for two seasons. Despite its popularity, it was cancelled during the second season.
Joanna was once listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for having appeared in the most television commercials. She was living in Honolulu, Hawaii when she passed away from complications following a stroke.
Robert Cenker, born November 5, 1948 in Menallen Township, Pennsylvania, went into space aboard Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-61-C) as payload specialist in January 1986. It was the last flight before the Challenger tragedy later that month.
Zhai Zhigang, born October 10, 1966 in China, is the first Chinese astronaut to perform a spacewalk. He launched aboard Shenzhou 7 in September 2008 when he performed his EVA lasting 22 minutes.
Shawn Ashmore, born October 7, 1979 in British Columbia, Canada, is probably best known for his portrayal of Bobby Drake/Iceman in four of the X-Men movies: X-Men, X2, X-Men: Last Stand, and X-Men: Days of Future Past. Shawn won an MTV Movie Award for his performance in X2.
He is one minute younger than his twin brother Aaron who is also an actor.
Gorgeous Welsh actor Ioan Gruffudd, born October 6, 1973 in Cardiff, Wales, is known for his work as Horatio Hornblower and Mr. Fantastic in the Fantastic Four. I don't remember him in Titanic, but I do remember him as a jerk in San Andreas.
Nancy Barrett, born October 5, 1943 in Shreveport, Louisiana, is best known for her work on the cult television series Dark Shadows. She was married to fellow Dark Shadows actor David Ford, who played Sam Evans. She was also a bridesmaid for fellow Dark Shadows actress Alexandra Moltke, who played Victoria Winters.
David Barkley Cantu, born March 31, 1899 in Laredo, Texas, enlisted in the Texas National Guard in 1917, and entered the US Army in April of that year. He enlisted under his father's name of Barkley for fear of discrimination. At the time, Hispanics were segregated to serve in non-combat units, but Congress passed an act to allow Hispanics to fight in May 1917.
He was assigned to the 155th Infantry in August 1918 and sent to France in WWI. Later he was assigned to Company A, 356th Infantry, 89th Division. Just before the Armistice, he volunteered to swim across the Meuse River, behind German lines in France to gather information about the enemy. He and a sergeant managed to get the information, but Barkley drowned as he swam back across the river.
He was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for his bravery.
Major Robert Henry Lawrence, Jr., born October 2, 1935 in Chicago Illinois, was the first black man chosen to be an astronaut. He completed flight training at Malden Air Force Base in Missouri and became a pilot at 21 years old.
He earned a PhD in physical chemistry from Ohio State University in 1965. In June 1967, he completed the US Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in California and the same month selected by the USAF as an astronaut in the Manned Orbital Laboratory.
Unfortunately, he was killed in December 1967 during a plane crash at Edwards AFB, while he was instructing a trainee pilot.
The first Peanuts comic strip appeared in seven newspapers October 2, 1950. Creator Charles Schulz had some moderate success previously with a one-panel drawings called Li'l Folks. It was dropped in January 1950, so Schulz approached United Feature Syndicate. They were more interested in the four-panel version he had developed since Li'l Folks had ended.
The first Sunday page appearance of Peanuts came on January 6, 1952. Eventually it became one of the most popular comic strips of all time. The strip has been made into 5 feature films and 45 television specials.
Jonny Kim, born in 1984 to South Korean immigrants in Los Angeles, California, is an astronaut, a former Navy SEAL, and received a Doctor of Medicine from Harvard Medical School. NASA announced that he is in training for a 2024 moon landing.
Walter Tin Kit "Sneeze" Achiu, born August 3, 1902 in Honolulu, Hawaii, was the first Chinese-American to play in the National Football League. He played running back and defensive back for the Dayton Triangles from 1927-1928. Later he became a successful pro wrestler.
Georgi Grechko, born May 25, 1931 in Leningrad in the Soviet Union, has been in space three times.
His first mission was aboard Soyuz 17 in 1975 to the space station Salyut 4. He stayed on Salyut 4 for 29 days, setting a record for that time.
His second mission was aboard Soyuz 26 to the space station Salyut 6 in December 1977. He participated in the first long duration expedition, EO-1. He returned to Earth aboard Soyuz 27 in March 1978.
His third and final flight was aboard Soyuz T-14 to Salyut 7 in September 1985. He returned to Earth aboard Soyuz T-13 later the same month.
Norman Mineta, born November 12, 1931 in San Jose, California, is the first Asian-American to be elected major of a major US city. In 1971, he ran against 14 candidates but became the first Japanese-American mayor of a major US city.
He was elected to the US House of Representatives for California's 13th congressional district.
In 2000, he was appointed by President Clinton as US Secretary of Commerce, making him the first Asian-American to appointed to a presidential post.
In 2001, Bush appointed him as Secretary of Transportation, becoming the only Democrat to serve in W's cabinet and the first Asian-American to hold the position.
Maksim Surayev, born May 24, 1972 in the former USSR, is a veteran of two space missions.
His first flight was aboard Soyuz TMA-16 to the International Space Station, launched in September 2009. He participated in Expeditions 21 and 22.
His second and final flight was aboard Soyuz TMA-13M to the International Space Station in May 2014. He participated in Expeditions 40 and 41. He returned to Earth in November 2014.
Surayev conducted two EVAs. The first on January 14, 2010 with fellow cosmonaut Oleg Kotov. The second with Aleksandr Samokutyaev in October 22, 2014. The total time he has spent on EVAs is 9 hours, 22 minutes.
Dr. Roger Tsien, born February 1, 1952 in New York City, New York, was awarded the Nobel prize in Chemistry in 2008. A Chinese-American, Tsien suffered from asthma growing up and spent much time indoors, conducting chemistry experiments in his family's basement.
He won the Westinghouse Talent Search at 16. He received his PhD in physiology in 1977 from Churchill College in Cambridge, England.
He shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Osamu Shimomura and Martin Chalfie in 2008 for their wok for "the green fluorescent protein; discovery, expression and development".
I have read every book in Laura Joh Rowland's excellent Sano Ichiro, a samurai-detective set in feudal Japan, in the late 1690s to the early 1700s. I enjoyed them very much and was not happy when she ended the series. Oh, well.
She is the daughter of Chinese-American and Korean-American immigrants and grew up in Michigan. Her first novel of the Ichiro series Shinju was published in 1994.
Alien 3, released May 22, 1992, is the third installment of the Alien franchise, and just might be the worst of them, IMHO. It was featured on a youtube.com channel as one of the top 10 movies that pissed off their audiences in the first scene.
Sigourney Weaver reprises her role as Ellen Ripley, and the movie takes place only days or weeks after the events Aliens. A malfunction aboard the military ship causes the life pods containing Ripley, Hicks and Newt, to be ejected. They crash-land on a prison colony planet. And the aliens arrive on the same escape pod and begin to wreak havoc.
Michael Biehn (Corporal Hicks) found of that his character was written out of the third movie and so he refused to have anything to do with the film, even not allowing them to use his image. Carrie Henn (Newt) probably could not have recreated her role, since there were six years between movies, but only weeks between the events in the movies.
Alien 3 was nominated for an Academy Award, for Best Visual Effects.
Billy Joel released the title track from his album The Stranger as a single May 21, 1978 in Japan. It peaked at #2 on the Oricon chart, which is kind of a Japanese version of our Billboard charts. It also made the top 10 in New Zealand. It charted in Australia and France.
James Wong Howe, born August 28, 1899 in China, is the first Asian-American to win an Academy Award. He won for Best Cinematography for his work on The Rose Tattoo at the 28th ceremony in 1956.
He was nominated ten times for Best Cinematography winning a second time for Hud at the 36th ceremony in 1963.
David Walker, born May 20, 1944 in Columbus, Georgia, is a veteran of four space shuttle flights.
His first flight was aboard Discovery (STS-51-A) as pilot in November 1984. The flight recovered two satellites.
His second flight was aboard Atlantis (STS-30) as commander in May 1989. The primary objective of the mission was to deploy the Magellan spacecraft to Venus.
His third flight was aboard Discovery (STS-53) as commander in December 1992. It was a mission dedicated to the US Department of Defense.
His fourth and final flight was aboard Endeavour (STS-69) as commander in September 1995. It was the second flight of the Wake Shield Facility.
Jean-Pierre Haignere, born May 19, 1948 in Paris, France, has been in space twice as an astronaut for France's National Centre for Space Studies.
His first flight was aboard Soyuz TM-17 to the space station Mir, launched July 1, 1993. He returned to Earth July 22 aboard Soyuz TM-16.
His second and final flight was aboard Soyuz TM-29 to Mir in February 1999. He participated in Mir EO-27 and stayed aboard for almost 189 days before returning to Earth in August 1999.
Jubilation Lee, or Jubilee, is a superhero and a member of the X-Men. She is the daughter of Chinese immigrants and born in Beverly Hills, California. After her parents were murdered, she was sent to an orphanage. However, she ran away and hid in the Hollywood Mall, stealing food to survive. That is when her mutant powers begin to manifest themselves.
Her first appearance was in The Uncanny X-Men #244 in May 1989. She has been a member of Generation X and the X-Corps.
Shiro Yoshida, or Sunfire, made his first appearance in X-Men #64 in January 1970, but although an earlier member of the X-Men than Jubilee, he maintains his distance from the team and from the West.
I’m a big sucker for the black and white 50’s science
fiction horror movies and get excited when I find one that I haven’t seen
before. While searching for something to
watch, I happened upon Monster from Green Hell, and BONUS, it’s a giant bug
movie! This one featured huge wasps, so
I’m thinking Them! (giant ants), The Deadly Mantis (a giant praying mantis),
Earth vs. the Spider (a giant tarantula), Black Scorpion (giant scorpions,
duh), The Beginning of the End (giant grasshoppers), and the queen of giant
bugs, Mothra.
Monster from Green Hell, released May 17, 1957, was directed
by Kenneth Crane, in his directorial debut, and produced by Al Zimbalist. Jim Davis, who would go on to play Jock Ewing
in the Dallas saga, played the lead Dr. Quent Brady and Robert Griffin stars as
Dan Morgan.
The movie opens with an unnamed space agency sending animals
and insects into space to see how they react to solar radiation. A rocket carrying wasps goes off course and
goes down somewhere off the coast of Africa.
Could you be a little more vague?
Plot point!
An African native is killed by paralysis of the nervous
system. Dr. Lorentz (Vladimir Sokoloff)
states there isn’t an animal that could deliver the amount of poison found in
the body.
Then the audience gets to see the monster, which really does
not look like a wasp.
A giant wasp(?)
The image is superimposed onto stock footage of animals and
people running away. Supposedly, in an
effort to instill fear and emphasize the size of the wasps, the producers
employed an effect used by the Toho Company a few years before in Godzilla,
where the creature appears over a hill crest, frightening natives below.
Who did it better?
Six months later, Brady and Morgan read about monsters in
Africa in the newspapers and wonder if they could be connected to their lost
rocket. Just then Brady reveals that
exposure to cosmic radiation causes organisms to increase in size.
Look at the size of those crab legs! Why wasn’t Morgan thinking
about sea food?
Just now? It took him
six months to figure this out?
Brady and Morgan travel to Africa and are directed to the
village of Mongwa, where the first victim was found and diagnosed by Dr. Lorentz.
A giant wasp, buzzing loudly, sneaks up on two natives.
It takes a week and a half to get an expedition to travel
the 400 miles on foot to Mongwa. They
expect to make the journey in 27 days. Couldn’t
they have gotten a little closer or hired a plane?
Along the way, the expedition is attacked by an angry African
tribe, which causes a delay. The attack
has nothing to do with the giant wasps.
It seems to be included only to lengthen the movie which runs at a
whopping 71 minutes. The ambush causes
them to add 75 miles to the trek to avoid any more run-ins with the locals.
Running out of water, they come across a creek, but discover
it is poisoned. Mahri (Eduardo Ciannelli) know it is poisoned because he finds
a dead lion. No explanation. No idea how he can take one glance at a dead
lion and know it has been poisoned.
After more days without water and at the point of death by
dehydration, a monsoon relieves them of their thirst, but causes them even more
delays.
The expedition finally reaches Dr. Lorentz’s clinic, but are
informed that the doctor has been killed by the monster in an area the natives
call Green Hell.
Before they can continue into Green Hell, their expedition
members abandon them. Brady, Morgan,
Lorna (Dr. Lorentz’s daughter played by Barbara Turner) and Arobi (Joel
Fluellen) travel to a nearby village to recruit more men but find everyone
dead. The only clues are giant wasp
footprints.
Lorna and Brady
The nearby volcano begins to steam and spout smoke. Hmmm…
They camp for the night at the base of the volcano and Brady
explains to the group how the wasp hive forms around the queen, so they must
destroy her or else the hive will expand and take over the world. This is followed by more walking and more
buzzing noises.
An hour into the movie with only ten minutes left, Brady
finds the colony. They lob grenades into
the hive, but the explosions only serve to make them mad as hornets.
One of the giant wasps chases them into a cave. Although it cannot reach them, Brady
detonates the rest of their stash of grenades and collapses the mouth of the
cave. Why? They were safe inside the cave.
Why stand within reach when you have
a huge cave to retreat into?
Good thing they found another way out! Maybe Brady should have searched for another
exit before destroying the only one they knew?
As soon as they emerge, the volcano erupts, and lava
destroys the nest.
The closing line: Nature
has a way of correcting its own mistakes – Dan Morgan
No, Morgan. Nature
corrected YOUR mistake!
The movie was not well received upon release and has a
rating of 3.5 on imdb.com. One of many
things that probably doomed the film was about 40% of the movie uses stock
footage from Stanley and Livingston released in 1939, which contributed to
inconsistencies in the scenes involving the expedition to Mongwa.
Other things that do not make sense.
The rocket crashes off the African coast. Brady, Morgan and company do not seem to
worry about it. Shouldn’t they contact
someone in Africa to alert them? Was
their technology so primitive that they could not narrow down the spot where
the rocket crashed?
It is only when monsters appear in Africa that Brady and
Morgan remember their lost rocket from six months before. Still, no warning or heads-up.
Throughout the movie, there is the fear that the wasps will
expand their territory and destroy civilization. But after eight months, the wasps haven’t
ventured beyond Green Hell. And there is
only a handful of them. Has the solar
radiation sterilized them?
As far as good ‘bad’ movies go, it’s worth a watch but
doesn’t hold up to other 1950s, B&W, sci-fi monster movies.
The lovely Michelle Yeoh, born August 6, 1962 in Ipoh, West Malaysia, is an award-winning actress, who appeared in Star Trek: Discovery as Captain Philippa Georgiou. She has played a Bond Girl in Tomorrow Never Dies as well as numerous martial arts films, first appearing with Jackie Chan. She appeared in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and its sequel.
She is a former Miss Malaysia and usually does her own stunts.
Rod Serling won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Writing Achievement in Drama for The Twilight Zone at the 13th ceremony, held May 16, 1961. The Twilight Zone was also nominated for Outstanding Program Achievement in the Field of Drama.
Dafydd Williams, born May 16, 1954 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, has been in space twice as an astronaut from the Canadian Space Agency. He received a Doctor of Medicine and Master of Surgery from McGill University in 1983.
His first trip into space was aboard Columbia (STS-90) as mission specialist in April-May 1998. While in orbit, Williams and fellow astronauts James Pawelczyk and Jay Buckey appeared on the Canadian television series Popular Mechanics for Kids.
His second and final flight was aboard Endeavour (STS-118) as mission specialist to the International Space Station in August 2007. He performed three EVAs with fellow astronauts Richard Mastracchio and Clayton Anderson for almost 18 hours total.
The twenty-third episode of the third season of Star Trek: Deep Space 9, Family Business, is one of my favorites because it stars the incomparable Andrea Martin, one of the funniest comediennes ever. She appears as Ishka, mother to Quark (Armin Shimerman) and Rom (Max Grodenchik), who are horrified when they learn their mother has been wearing clothes and making profits, absolutely forbidden for Ferengi women.
Janet Jackson's That's the Way Love Goes, a single released from her fifth album Janet, reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 May 15, 1993. It stayed at #1 for eight weeks, the most of any song from the Jackson clan.
Kurt Chew-een Lee, born January 21, 1926 in San Francisco, California to Chinese immigrants, is the first Asian-American to become an officer in the US Marine Corps. He was in high school when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and he joined the Marine Corps in 1944. He graduated from The Basic School, USMC officer training in 1946 as second lieutenant, becoming the first non-white officer and the first Asian-American officer in the Marine Corps.
He served in the Korean War and the Vietnam War. He attained the rank of major on January 1, 1963 and retired in 1968. He was awarded the Navy Cross, the Silver Star and two Purple Hearts. He passed away in March 2014.
Frank Culbertson, born May 15, 1949 in Charleston, South Carolina, has been in space three times, and is the only American not on Earth during the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
His first flight was aboard Atlantis (STS-38) as pilot in November 1990. The mission carried a classified payload for the Department of Defense.
His second flight was aboard Discovery (STS-51) as commander in September 1993. The astronauts were filmed by a camera crew from the United Kingdom and the documentary was released as Space Shuttle Discovery.
His third and final flight was aboard Discovery (STS-105), launched in August 2001 as mission specialist to the International Space Station. He was commander of the ISS during Expedition 3. He conducted one space walk with fellow astronaut Vladimir Dezhurov for just over 5 hours. He returned to Earth on Endeavour (STS-108) in December 2001.
The China National Space Administration successfully landed its Tianwen-1 spacecraft on Mars, May 14, 2021. It is the first attempt by the CNSA and China becomes the second nation after the US to put a craft on Mars. It touched down in the Utopia Planitia
Soon the rover Zhurong, named after the god of fire from Chinese folklore, will being its exploration of the Red Planet.
William Gregory, born May 14, 1957 in Lockport, New York, went into space aboard Endeavour (STS-67) as pilot. With Commander Stephen Oswald, Gregory used the Middeck Active Control Experience (MACE) to test 200 different motion disturbance situations, lasting over 45 hours, to design better control systems.
Eugene Trinh, born September 14, 1950 in Saigon, Vietnam, is the first Vietnamese-American to go into space. He went aboard Columbia (STS-50) as a Payload Specialist in June-July 1992.
He was Director of the Physical Sciences Research Division at NASA. He received the Golden Torch Award from the Vietnamese American National Gala in Washington DC.
The supernatural thriller, The Car, was released (Friday) May 13, 1977. It starred James Brolin, John Rubinstein, and Ronny Cox. It follows the story of a demon-possessed car that goes on a killing spree in a remote desert town.
I enjoyed this movie. It's pretty close to Stephen King's Christine, so I don't know which I like best.
Cosmonaut Aleksandr Kaleri, born May 13, 1956 in present-day Latvia, ranks fourth in time spent in space.
His first flight was as Flight Engineer on Soyuz TM-14 to the Mir space station in March 1992. He spent over 145 days in space as part of Mir EO-11.
His second flight was as Flight Engineer on Soyuz TM-24 to Mir in August 1996. He spent over 196 days in space as part of Mir EO-22.
His third flight was aboard Soyuz TM-30 as Flight Engineer to Mir in April 2000. He spent over 72 days in space as part of Mir EO-28.
His fourth flight was as Commander of Soyuz TMA-3 to the International Space Station in October 2003. He participated in Expedition 8 and spent over 194 days in space.
His fifth and final flight was aboard Soyuz TMA-01M as commander to the International Space Station. He participated in Expeditions 25-26, spending over 159 days in space.
In total, he has spent more than 769 days in space, which is over 2 years!
Patti Yasutake, born September 6, 1953 in Los Angeles, California, is best known for her performance as Nurse Alyssa Ogawa on Star Trek: The Next Generation. She also appeared in Star Trek: Generations and Star Trek: First Contact.
Billy Joel released his single It's Still Rock and Roll to Me May12, 1980. It was recorded on his Glass Houses, released in March 1980. It's Still Rock and Roll to Me went to to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in July and stayed there for two weeks. It is now double-platinum having sold over 2 million copies.
Released in April 1984, the Pet Shop Boys single West End Girls reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 May 10, 1986. It stayed there for only one week, but it was the first of many singles for the Pet Shop Boys. It won Best Single at the Brit Awards. It was awarded Song of the Decade between years 1985 and 1994 by the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters.
Stephanie Murphy, born September 16, 1978 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, is the first Vietnamese-American woman to be elected to the US House of Representatives.
She was elected to the US House of Representatives for Florida's 7th congressional district, which includes Seminole County and northern Orange County, in 2016. She was sworn into office January 3, 2017.
Gobind Behari Lal, born April 1, 1889 in Delhi, British India, became the first Indian to win the Pulitzer Prize. He attended the University of California, Berkeley in 1912 and served as Science Editor for the San Francisco Examiner from 1925-1930.
He shared the Pulitzer Prize for Reporting in 1937 with John O'Neill, William Laurence, Howard Blakeslee and David Dietz for their coverage of science at Harvard University.
He was one of the founding members of the National Association of Science Writers.
He passed away of cancer in October 1982 of cancer.
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety or Music for Mark Warren at the 23rd ceremony held May 9, 1971.
The show was nominated for Outstanding Variety Series - Musical, but lost to the Flip Wilson Show.
Vertigo, released May 9, 1958, is considered to be one of Alfred Hitchcock's classic movies. It stars James Stewart as a former police detective, who is forced into early retirement after he develops vertigo, a fear of heights. He is hired by an acquaintance to investigate the acquaintance's wife, played by Kim Novak.
The movie co-starred Barbara Bel Geddes (of Dallas fame). Edith Head was the costume designer.
It is based on a 1954 French novel From Among the Dead. It was nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Art Direction and Best Sound. In 1989, it was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry.
