Few things are as calming as walking on an Autumn day while leaves fall and swirl around you.

A quiet moment spent in the company of your own thoughts enjoying a coffee on an Autumn day is bliss. 

Stand still, and consider the wonder of Autumn, and her dancing leaves.

All animals, except man, know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it. 

 

Clifton Webb (November 19, 1889 – October 13, 1966)

He was known for his Oscar-nominated roles in such films as Laura, The Razor's Edge, and Sitting Pretty. In the theatrical world he was known for his appearances in the plays of Noël Coward, notably Blithe Spirit, as well as career on Broadway in a number of very successful musical revues. Webb's mainstay was the Broadway theater. Between 1913 and 1947, he appeared in 23 Broadway shows, starting with major supporting roles and quickly progressing to leads. He introduced Irving Berlin's "Easter Parade" and George and Ira Gershwin's "I've Got a Crush on You" in Treasure Girl (1928); Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz's "I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan" in The Little Show (1929) and "Louisiana Hayride" in Flying Colors (1932); and Irving Berlin's "Not for All the Rice in China" in As Thousands Cheer (1933). One of his stage sketches, performed with co-star Fred Allen, was filmed by Vitaphone as a short subject titled The Still Alarm (1930). Allen's experiences while working with Webb appear in Allen's memoirs. Webb was in his mid-fifties when actor/director Otto Preminger chose him over the objections of 20th Century Fox chief Darryl F. Zanuck to play the elegant but evil radio columnist Waldo Lydecker, who is obsessed with Gene Tierney's character in the 1944 film noir Laura. His performance won him wide acclaim, and despite Zanuck's original objection, Webb was signed to a long-term contract with Fox. Two years later he was reunited with Tierney in another highly praised role as the elitist Elliott Templeton in The Razor's Edge (1946).

He received Academy Award nominations for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for both. Webb also received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role in 1949 for Sitting Pretty, the first in a three-film series of comedic "Mr. Belvedere" features with Webb portraying a snide and omniscient babysitter. Because of health problems, Webb spent the last five years of his life as a recluse at his home in Beverly Hills, California, eventually succumbing to a heart attack at the age of 76. He is interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, alongside his mother.

 

Can a voice change the course of music forever? Billie Holiday did.

Born Eleanora Fagan in 1915, Billie Holiday transformed jazz and pop singing with a style inspired by instrumentalists, bending phrasing and tempo in ways that were entirely her own. She co-wrote only a few songs, but classics like God Bless the Child, Don’t Explain, Fine and Mellow, and Lady Sings the Blues remain timeless.

Her haunting performances of Strange Fruit, Easy Living, and Good Morning Heartache revealed a depth of emotion that few could match. Yet her life offstage was turbulent, marked by addiction and arrests for drug possession. By the late 1950s, her health declined, and in 1959, she passed away from pulmonary edema and heart failure caused by cirrhosis.

Even in her struggles, Billie’s voice continues to resonate, influencing generations of singers and leaving an indelible mark on the world of music. She is buried at Saint Raymond’s Cemetery in the Bronx, NY.

#BillieHoliday, #JazzLegend, #GodBlessTheChild, #LadySingsTheBlues, #ClassicJazz, #MusicHistory, #InfluentialArtists

 

Vincent Eugene Craddock, known as Gene Vincent (February 11, 1935 – October 12, 1971)

Vincent was a musician who pioneered the styles of rock and roll and rockabilly. His 1956 top ten hit with his Blue Caps, "Be-Bop-A-Lula", is considered a significant early example of rockabilly. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. Vincent dropped out of school in 1952, at the age of seventeen, and enlisted in the United States Navy. As he was under the age of enlistment, his parents signed the forms allowing him to enter the Navy. He completed boot camp and joined the fleet as a crewman aboard the fleet oiler USS Chukawan, with a two-week training period in the repair ship USS Amphion, before returning to the Chukawan. He never saw combat but completed a Korean War deployment. He sailed home from Korean waters aboard the battleship USS Wisconsin but was not part of the ship's company. He planed a career in the Navy, however, a motorcycle accident (and the lingering pain) forced him to be discharged. Craddock became involved in the local music scene in Norfolk. He changed his name to Gene Vincent and formed a rockabilly band, Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps.

On April 16, 1960, while on tour in the UK, Vincent, Eddie Cochran and the songwriter Sharon Sheeley were involved in a high-speed traffic accident in a private-hire taxi in Chippenham, Wiltshire. Vincent broke his ribs and collarbone and further damaged his weakened leg. Sheeley suffered a broken pelvis. Cochran, who had been thrown from the vehicle, suffered serious brain injuries and died the next day. Vincent returned to the United States after the accident. Vincent toured the UK again in 1963 with the Outlaws, featuring future Deep Purple guitar player Ritchie Blackmore, as a backing band. Vincent's alcohol problems marred the tour, resulting in problems both on stage and with the band and management. Vincent's attempts to re-establish his American career in folk rock and country rock proved unsuccessful; he is remembered today for recordings of the 1950s and early 1960s released by Capitol Records. In the early sixties, he also put out tracks on EMI's Columbia label, including a cover of Arthur Alexander's "Where Have You Been All My Life?" A backing band called the Shouts joined him.

Vincent died at the age of 36 on October 12, 1971, from a ruptured stomach ulcer, while visiting his father in California. He is interred at Eternal Valley Memorial Park in Newhall, CA.

 

Sometimes life may appear boring, I like peaceful. There's a difference.

Distance is the answer.

Some days, I sit, and I remember. . .

Autumn, the best, and most beautiful season of the year.

Early Autumn at Pepple Creek

 

 

Elizabeth Short, also known as the "Black Dahlia," is one of the most famous people buried in Oakland's Mountain View Cemetery, but how exactly did she end up buried there instead of Los Angeles where she was killed?

Elizabeth, known by friends as Betty, was found brutally murdered in a vacant lot at Norton Ave and 39th Street in Southwest Los Angeles on the morning of Jan. 15, 1947. She was an aspiring actress who had moved to California from Massachusetts in hopes of becoming a movie star.

Short's mother, Phoebe M. Short, arrived at San Francisco Airport on Jan. 18, 1947 - three days after her daughter's body was found. Phoebe had flown from her home in Medford, Massachusetts to see her daughters (Virginia and Elizabeth). Virginia, who lived in Berkeley, greeted her at the airport. But Elizabeth had never shown up for the family reunion.

Phoebe Short learned about her daughter's death from Wain Sutton, a rewrite man for the LA Examiner. Sutton first told the mother that her daughter had won a contest and they were checking with her for background info. After squeezing Elizabeth's life story out of her for a while, Examiner city editor Jimmy Richardson told Sutton to give Phoebe the bad news.

Elizabeth's body arrived in Oakland a day later, at the same time that police in Los Angeles were conducting house-to-house searches to find the Dahlia murder site. They never did.

She was buried Jan. 25, 1947. Despite the hot media coverage, her funeral was a lonely one, attended by her mother, sister, brother-in-law, and a pair of men in trench coats - either cops, or reporters. The case has never been solved.

Source:SecretOakland