Donster

Morning all. 52F under clear skies. Windy and warmer today with gusts up to 40MPH to go along with a high of 77F.

Oldsmobile Ad - April 1943 1940: The British stun the French and Norwegians by deciding to evacuate southern Norway. 1941: The Italian fortress of Dessie, south of Amba Alagi is captured by South African forces. *Frances Rafferty - YANK Pin-up Girl - Oct. 12, 1945 Issue 1942: The RAF again attacks Rostok, this time with 128 aircraft. The Luftwaffe again raid Bath. 1942: Cunningham is forced to order the withdrawal of the 10th Submarine Flotilla from Malta as a result of the intense bombing and because of the mines laid by aircraft and German E-boats. Frances Rafferty 1943: Axis losses in Africa for first 3½ months of 1943 are 66,000 killed, wounded and captured. 1944: The Army seizes a Montgomery Ward plant in Chicago and reopens it for war production after its board of directors refuses to negotiate with the CIO labor union. Chairman Sewell Avery refuses to leave his office, and still seated in his chair, is carried out to the parking lot, where he bows to workers and enters a waiting limousine. Frances Rafferty 1944: In marked contrast to earlier USAAF efforts, Bomber Command makes a hugely successful attack on the German ball-bearing factories at Schweinfurt. 1944: Marshal Petain makes his first and only visit to Paris in the course of the war to inspect Allied bomb damage in the city. Crowds cheer him enthusiastically, the same crowds who will cheer De Gaulle exactly four months later. Frances Rafferty 1944: The Greek PM resigns and George Papandreou forms a new government. 1944: The 'Chindits' occupy Indaw. Frances Rafferty 1944: Japanese fighters attack their first B-29, one fighter is shot down. 1944: Australians troops occupy Alexishafen in New Guinea. Frances Rafferty 1945: German troops at Bremen surrender to the British and Canadians. Allied troops now line the Swiss border from Basle to Lake Constance. The U.S. Third Army takes Regensburg on the Danube. Goering's fall from grace announced in Germany, General Ritter von Greim is to replace him. Exide Battery Ad - April 1943 1945: The 2nd Belorussian front captures Stettin on the river Oder, while the 3rd Belorussian Front captures the Baltic port of Pillau, 20 miles West of Königsberg. General Wenck embarks on the last German offensive to relieve Berlin, but only manages to reach Ferch on the 27th April, before the offensive grinds to a halt. The remnants of 9th Army are cut off and surrounded in the Halbe pocket 30 miles southwest of Frankfurt am der Oder. The 2nd Ukrainian Front captures Brno, in Czechoslovakia. 1945: Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, the head of France's Vichy government during World War II, was arrested. Frances Rafferty 1945: The first of some 75,000 ex-prisoners of war are flown back to the UK by aircraft of Bomber Command. 1945: Italian Partisans take Genoa and stage revolt in Milan. The U.S. Fifth Army captures Verona, 20 miles Northeast of Mantua. Frances Rafferty *Rafferty was born in Sioux City, Iowa, on June 16, 1922. As the Depression took its hold on America, her family moved to Los Angeles when she was 9 in search of work. Rafferty had a gift for dance, and won a scholarship to the Edith Jane Dancing School the next year. She attended UCLA following her high school graduation but soon dropped out after earning an understudy position for dancer Vera Zorina in the film "I Was an Adventuress" (1940). Rafferty soon changed her focus to acting after breaking a kneecap from a fall during a performance at the Hollywood Bowl on the concrete stage. Months of recovery awaited. The execs at MGM signed Rafferty at the age of 19 and her Hollywood career began with a bit part in "The War Against Mrs. Hadley" (1942). She got a dancing role in "Presenting Lily Mars" (1943) starring Judy Garland. She also turned heads with her small role in the Rooney and Garland musical, "Girl Crazy" (1943). So, MGM was good to her, giving her other parts in the Wallace Beery vehicle, "Barbary Coast Gent" (1944) and "Mrs. Parkington" (1944), starring Tay Garnett, Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon. Rafferty became known for her exotic beauty and she capitalized on it in "Dragon Seed" (1944), playing the unfortunate Oriental girl who is raped and murdered. Rafferty became a famous war-era cover girl for YANK, the Army Weekly but as hard as she tried, she was unable to attain major starring roles in "A" pictures. She continued in Hollywood, remaining a "B" level co-star, best remembered as the pouty glamor girl. She received star billing in "Abbott and Costello in Hollywood" (1945), one of the first full-length features starring the two comedians and was convincing in the entertaining mystery, "The Hidden Eye" (1945). After World War II, Rafferty acted in only a handful of films like 1947's comedy, "Lost Honeymoon, Curley" (1947), as a tormented teacher of the Little Rascals and 1948's "An Old-Fashioned Girl" (1948). Sadly, Rafferty's career had become less significant as the 1940's came to a close. In 1948 she married Thomas R. Baker, an Air Force colonel who later became general manager for the Los Alamitos Racetrack, and had two children. Frances Rafferty died in her sleep at her home of natural causes on April 18, 2004 in Paso Robles, California. Revere Copper and Brass Ad - April 1944

MEOW!!! No wonder you have a Henry to carry around!

Yes I did. And lots of it. Pissed dad off so much that he was always threatening to have me sheered. Mom always defended me. "That's the style now George. He's a good boy George. Never gets into trouble." I had mom fooled. Ahh good times.

Well the Emperor...I mean the wife just got home from a three week trip to Pennsylvania. My vacation just came to a end. Stans, is that a picture of Leonard McCoy or Alfred E. Neuman?

I wonder if I can still sue the Bay City Rollers for stealing my different hairstyles back in the 70's. They really ripped me off. Except I don't see long sideburns though. Maybe they didn't shave yet.

Morning all. 40F under clear skies. Another cool day is expected across the area, with varying amounts of cloudiness through the day. Skies will become a bit more overcast toward late morning through early afternoon. High today of 54F. It looks like Stans has really been reprogrammed and has allied himself with the NWO. The use of the metric system is the big tip off of his reduced capacity. We will have to check with The Dude to see if bringing Stans back from the dark side is feasible financially.

Mobilgas Ad - April 1943 1940: Allied forces withdraw from Lillehammer in central Norway.1940: New evacuation scheme introduced in Britain as a Ministry of Health survey shows that only 8% of eligible children have been registered; 19% of parents refused to do so; 73% did not bother to reply. *Joan Caulfield 1941: Roosevelt announces an indefinite extension of US Atlantic patrols.1941: German paratroops seize Corinth and cross the Corinth Canal to the Peloponnese. Hitler issues Directive No.28, ordering the preparation of plans to capture Crete. The basic plan is to involve 22,750 paratroops, 650 combat aircraft and is to be launched on the 18th May 1941, although this is put back to the 20th May 1941. Joan Caulfield 1942: The Luftwaffe attack Bath as the 'Baedeker' raids continue.1943: On his last patrol aboard U-404, Kapitänleutnant Otto von Bülow fires two FAT and two G7e torpedoes at British aircraft carrier HMS Biter. All detonate prematurely and HMS Biter escapes without damage. Von Bülow is later decorated by Hitler with Oak leaves to his Knights Cross for his Atlantic successes and German newspapers report the recent sinking of the American carrier USS Ranger as well. Later, USS Ranger commander Gordon Rowe, is photographed aboard his carrier smiling at a photograph of von Bülow and the German report of his vessel's demise. Swifts Premium Ad - April 1943 1944: With Allied control of the skies over Germany now virtually complete, Goebbels strongly objects to Hitler's plan to fly to Berlin for one of his rare visits to attend Colonel General Hube's funeral. Hitler insists on going anyway. It will be the last time the increasingly reclusive Fuhrer will show himself at a large public gathering in the Third Reich.1944: The British right hook South of Kohima begins. Joan Caulfield 1945: Beginning of the San Francisco Conference convened to discuss the founding of the United Nations.1945: German U-boats sink 5 allied supply ships in the English Channel. Joan Caulfield 1945: The U.S. Third Army crosses the Danube, 70 miles Northeast of Munich. The RAF attacks the 'Eagle's Nest', Hitler's chalet and the SS barracks at Berchtesgarten. Troops of the U.S. Ninth Army and the Soviet 1st Ukrainian Front meet on the Elbe at Torgau, 100 miles Southwest of Berlin.1945: The U.S. Fifth Army enters Mantua, 60 miles Northwest of Bologna and continues its drive up coast, while the British Eighth Army crosses the Po river and captures Parma. Joan Caulfield 1945: Russian units of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts meet at Kietzen west of Berlin, meaning that eight Russian armies have now surrounded Berlin in a vice like grip. The suburbs Tegel and Reinickendorf fall into Russian hands. A relief attack by the III Panzer Korps from the area of Eberswalde 50 miles northeast of Berlin fails.1945: U.S. Marines seize islands off coast of Okinawa in Pacific. Joan Caulfield *Beatrice Joan Caulfield was born on June 1, 1922 in East Orange, New Jersey. Born while her family resided in East Orange, New Jersey, she moved to West Orange during childhood but continued attending Miss Beard's School in Orange, New Jersey. During her teenage years, the family moved to New York City where Joan eventually attended Columbia University. One of her most memorable roles was when she was lent out to Warner Bros. to appear in "The Unsuspected" (1947) alongside Claude Rains and Audrey Totter. Later in life she appeared mostly on television, appearing on programs such as "Cheyenne", "Baretta", and "Murder, She Wrote", with Angela Lansbury. In the 1957-1958 season, Caulfield starred in her own short-lived NBC situation comedy, "Sally" in the role of a traveling companion to an elderly widow, played by Marion Lorne. At midseason, Gale Gordon and Arte Johnson joined the cast. Joan Caulfield An urban legend states that Caulfield's film "Dear Ruth" (1947) inspired author J.D. Salinger to name the protagonist of his novel The Catcher in the Rye (1951) "Holden Caulfield" after seeing a movie theater marquee with the film's stars: Caulfield and William Holden. However, Holden Caulfield was mentioned in Salinger's short story "Last Day of the Last Furlough" in the July 15, 1944 issue of the Saturday Evening Post, three years before Dear Ruth. The earliest known use of the Caulfield name, including a mention of Holden, is in the unpublished 1942 story "The Last and Best of the Peter Pans." A more common version of the legend claims that Salinger was taken by Joan Caulfield upon first seeing her in a modeling photo or a publicity still or an acting performance. Since Joan was a leading model by 1941 and her acting career began in 1942 with an appearance in the short-lived Broadway musical "Beat the Band", this version of the legend makes his using her surname for his character at least possible. Joan was considered a very beautiful woman, she charmed everyone she worked with and on April 29, 1950 she married Frank Ross, with whom she remained married until April 1, 1960. They had one child. On November 24, 1960 she married again, this time with Dr. Robert Peterson, but they divorced on June 9, 1966. They had one son, John. She died two weeks after cancer surgery in Los Angeles, on June 18, 1991 at age 69, from cancer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and had lived in Beverly Hills, California. TRIVIA: Measurements: 35 1/2-25-35 1/2 Height: 5' 5" (1.65 m) Department of Strange Coincidences: Caulfield's former spouse, Frank Ross, had earlier been married to Jean Arthur. On the very day after Caulfield's death, Arthur herself died. Hailed in her time as one of the screen's great beauties, many of her cameramen said she was one of the few women in Hollywood whom it was virtually impossible to photograph badly. Ethyl Corporation Ad - April 1945

Former Bay City Rollers frontman Les McKeown has died aged 65, his family has told the BBC. RIP Les. I think the BC Rollers were probably the favorite boys band of Herr Fick. Fick dresses like them I'm sure to this day. Wow. This song was a hit my senior year of high school. YIKES!!!!

Rest in Peace, Jim. You had many talents.

Morning all. 44F under cloudy skies. Skies will clear this afternoon. High today of 58F. Low 80's are forecast for early next week.

General Electric Ad - April 1943 1940: Commons approves trade agreement with Spain, first since Spanish Civil War. 1940: French reinforcements arrive at Aandalesnes. British troops forced to withdraw north of Trondheim after sharp fighting. Norwegian troops attack the Germans south of Narvik, but are beaten back. *Nancy Saunders 1941: German forces in Greece break through British positions at Thermopylae and land paratroops on Greek islands in the north-eastern Aegean. The British expeditionary force begins the evacuation of its troops to Egypt and Crete. Nancy Saunders 1942: The Luftwaffe raids Exeter in the first of Hitler's retaliatory raids, which were soon to become known as the 'Baedeker' raids after the famous guidebook series of that name. A second raid employing 91 aircraft is made against Rostok. Nancy Saunders 1944: All overseas travel is banned in Britain. 1944: The first B-29 arrives in China, over the Hump of the Himalayas. General Motors Ad - April 1944 1944: The British force the road to Kohima open. 1944: U.S. troops secure Hollandia and Aitape in New Guinea inflicting 9,000 Japanese casualties, while only suffering 450 dead themselves. Australians troops enter Madang in New Guinea. Nancy Saunders 1945: The British Second and Canadian First Armies enter Bremen. The U.S. First Army liberates Dachau concentration camp. The US Seventh Army crosses the Danube at Dillingen and captures Ulm. 1945: The Eighth Army captures Ferrara, 30 miles to the Northeast of Bologna and crosses the Po after fierce fighting. The U.S. Fifth Army takes Spezia on the Gulf of Genoa and Modern. Nancy Saunders 1945: The Japanese Burma Area Army C-in-C leaves Rangoon. The British Fourteenth Army takes Pyinmana in central Burma. Nancy Saunders *Nancy Saunders was born on June 29, 1925 in Los Angeles, California. She appeared in over 20 films between 1946 and 1957. The leading lady of six "Durango Kid" Westerns and at least two "Three Stooges" comedy shorts, voluptuous ash-blonde Nancy Saunders came to the screen in 1946 courtesy of RKO talent scout/movie actor Donald Dillaway, who reportedly spotted her dancing at Hollywood's famed Coconut Grove. A former photographer's model and a professional exhibition rider, Saunders was a natural for B-Western fame -- she did a total of eight -- but television audiences are probably better acquainted with her appearances in the Stooges' shorts "Brideless Groom" (1947), as one of Shemp Howard's aggressive would-be brides, and "The Ghost Talks" (1949), as Lady Godiva no less. Footage from these comedies wound up in "Stone Age Romeos" (1955) and "Husbands Beware" (1956), prolonging Saunders' onscreen visibility by about four years. Nancy passed away on June 13, 2020 (aged 94) in Mission Viejo, California. General Electric Ad - April 1945

Emperor? Seems Stans has some side affects from his dealings with the NWO. Morning all. 47F under overcast skies. Possibility of a morning shower exists. Partly cloudy this afternoon with a high of 55F.

Seagram's Five Crown Ad - April 1943 1940: Budget Day raises taxes on beer by 1d, whiskey up 1/9d (9p) and postage up 1d. Estimates of the 1940 war expenditure as £2,000 million criticized by MPs for being too low. 1941: King George II of Greece and his government are flown to Crete by the RAF. *Olivia de Havilland 1941: The German build up for Operation 'Barbarossa' continues with 59 divisions now deployed along the border with the Soviet Union. 1942: In a secret session of the House of Commons, Churchill delivers a speech declaring that the liberation of Europe was 'the main war plan' of Britain and the USA. Olivia de Havilland 1942: Churchill tells the House of Commons of disasters in Japanese war. 1942: The RAF raids Rostok with 142 aircraft. Camel Cigarette Ad - April 1944 1942: The Russian plan to hit the Germans with a powerful force of 640,000 men, 1,200 tanks, and 900 aircraft in the Kharkov area, while the Germans plan to hit the Russians with 636,000 men, 1,000 tanks, and 1,220 aircraft. Olivia de Havilland 1944: The last Japanese attack on Garrison Hill, Kohima is repulsed as the British left hook begins its advance to the North. 1945: Dessau is reported as clear of German troops. The British Second Army reaches Harburg across the Elbe from Hamburg. Frankfurt is captured. Goring telegraphs Hitler saying that he will take over command as Hitlers Deputy. Hitler says he must resign all his posts and orders Gorings arrest. Reichsführer-SS Himmler begins secret negotiations for a separate peace in the West with Count Bernadotte, head of the Swedish Red Cross. 1945: The U.S. Fifth and British Eighth Armies reach the Po, to the North of Bologna. Olivia de Havilland *Olivia Mary de Havilland was born to a British patent attorney and his wife on July 1, 1916, in Tokyo, Japan. Her sister, Joan, later to become famous as Joan Fontaine, was born the following year. Her parents divorced when Olivia was just three years old, and she moved with her mother and sister to Saratoga, California. After graduating from high school, where she fell prey to the acting bug, Olivia enrolled in Mills College in Oakland. It was while she was at Mills that she participated in the school play "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and was spotted by Max Reinhardt. She so impressed Reinhardt that he picked her up for both his stage version and, later, the Warner Bros. film version in 1935. She again was so impressive that Warner executives signed her to a seven-year contract. No sooner had the ink dried on the contract than Olivia appeared in three more films: "The Irish in Us" (1935), "Alibi Ike" (1935) and "Captain Blood" (1935), the latter with the man with whom her career would be most closely identified, heartthrob Errol Flynn. He and Olivia starred together in eight films during their careers. Olivia de Havilland In 1939 Warner Bros. loaned her to David O. Selznick for the classic "Gone with the Wind" (1939). Playing the sweet Melanie Hamilton, Olivia received her first nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, only to lose out to one of her co-stars in the film, Hattie McDaniel. After GWTW, Olivia returned to Warner Bros. and continued to churn out films. In 1941 she played Emmy Brown in "Hold Back the Dawn" (1941), which resulted in her second Oscar nomination, this time for Best Actress. Again she lost, this time to her sister Joan for her role in "Suspicion" (1941). After that strong showing, Olivia now demanded better, more substantial roles than the "sweet young thing" slot into which Warner Bros. had been fitting her. The studio responded by placing her on a six-month suspension, all of the studios at the time operating under the policy that players were nothing more than property to do with as they saw fit. As if that weren't bad enough, when her contract with Warner Bros. was up, she was told that she would have to make up the time lost because of the suspension. Irate, she sued the studio, and for the length of the court battle she didn't appear in a single film. The result, however, was worth it. In a landmark decision, the court said not only that Olivia did not have to make up the time, but that all performers were to be limited to a seven-year contract that would include any suspensions handed down. This became known as the "de Havilland decision"; no longer could studios treat their performers as mere cattle. Returning to screen in 1946, Olivia made up for lost time by appearing in four films, one of which finally won her the Oscar that had so long eluded her. It was "To Each His Own" (1946), in which she played Josephine Norris to the delight of critics and audiences alike. Olivia was the strongest performer in Hollywood for the balance of the 1940s. In 1948 she turned in another strong showing in "The Snake Pit" (1948) as Virginia Cunningham, a woman suffering a mental breakdown. The end result was another Oscar nomination for Best Actress, but she lost to Jane Wyman in "Johnny Belinda" (1948). As in the two previous years, she made only one film in 1949, but she again won a nomination and the Academy Award for Best Actress for "The Heiress" (1949). After a three-year hiatus, Olivia returned to star in "My Cousin Rachel" (1952). From that point on, she made few appearances on the screen but was seen on Broadway and in some television shows. Her last screen appearance was in "The Fifth Musketeer" (1979), and her last career appearance was in the TV movie "The Woman He Loved" (1988) (TV). During the hoopla surrounding the 50th anniversary of GWTW in 1989, she graciously declined requests for all interviews as the only surviving one of the four main stars. Today she enjoys a quiet retirement in Paris, France. TRIVIA: Measurements: 32-23-33 Height: 5' 4" (1.63 m) Spouse: Pierre Galante (2 April 1955 - 30 April 1979) (divorced) 1 child Marcus Goodrich (26 August 1946 - 28 August 1953) (divorced) 1 child Olivia's cousin was Sir Geoffrey de Havilland (1882-1965), the British aviation pioneer and designer of aircraft such as the wartime Mosquito fighter. Older sister of actress Joan Fontaine. Daughter of film and stage actress Lillian Fontaine. Relations between de Havilland and younger sister Joan Fontaine were never all that strong and worsened in 1941, when both were nominated for 'Best Actress' Oscar awards. Their mutual dislike and jealousy escalated into an all-out feud after Fontaine won for Suspicion (1941). Despite the fact that de Havilland went on to win two Academy Awards of her own, they remained permanently estranged. In a rare act of reconciliation, Olivia and her sister Joan Fontaine celebrated Christmas 1962 together along with their then-husbands and children. Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Ad - April 1944

Morning all. 34F under partly cloudy skies. Clear skies later this morning throughout the rest of the day, along with a light southwest breeze will bring todays high to 58F.

Boeing Ad - April 1943 1940: Inter-Allied Supreme War Council meets in Paris; Poland and Norway represented. 1942: Fuhrer Directive 41 rolls off the mimeograph machines in Rastenberg and the Wehrmacht has its marching orders for 1942. Leningrad is to finally be captured, but that's a secondary objective. The big plan is in the South, which involves 2nd Army and 4th Panzer Army breaking through to Voronezh on the Don. 6th Army will break out South of Kharkov and combine with the 4th Panzer Army to surround the enemy. After that, the 4th Panzer Army and 6th Army will drive East under the command of Army Group B and surround Stalingrad from the North, while Army Group A's 17th Army and 1st Panzer Army will do so from the South. Once Stalingrad is taken, the 6th Army will hold the flank defense line while Army Group A drive South into the Caucasus to seize the oilfields and become the northern punch of a grand pincer movement (the southern half being Rommel) the seize Suez, the Nile Delta, the Middle-East and its oilfields. *Ginger Rogers 1943: The British First and Eighth Army's, the U.S. 2nd Corps and Free French forces begin the final offensive to destroy the axis bridgehead in Tunisia. 1943: Japan announces captured Allied pilots will be given "one way tickets to hell." Ginger Rogers 1944: Bomber Command uses a 'J' bomb (30lb liquid incendiary) for first time in a raid on Brunswick. 1944: The Russians say their talks with Finns are over. Boeing Ad - April 1944 1944: Tito's Partisans storm the Adriatic Island of Korcula, capturing 800 Germans. 1944: An increasingly depressed and dispirited Mussolini arrives at Klessheim Castle near Salzburg for one of his last meetings with Hitler. The Fuhrer warns that the Allied invasion can be expected within "6 to 8 weeks," at which time he would unleash "new technical weapons" that would turn London in a "heap of ruins." The Duce leaves unconvinced. Ginger Rogers 1944: The allies land unopposed at Hollandia, on the northern coast of New Guinea. 1945: The U.S. First and Ninth Armies clear all German resistance in the Harz Mountains, 40 miles Southwest of Magdeburg. The U.S. Seventh Army captures a bridge across the Danube. The British Second Army is fighting in the outskirts of Bremen. The U.S. Third Army starts its drive down the Danube valley as the French First Army reaches Lake Constance on the Swiss/ German border. Hitler, ignoring the pleas of his entourage, decides to stay in his bunker at Berlin to await the inevitable end. Ginger Rogers 1945: The 1st Belorussian Front penetrates into the northern and eastern suburbs of Berlin. 1945: The U.S. campaign in the central Philippines officially ends with the capture of Cebu Island. Ginger Rogers *Ginger Rogers was born Virginia Katherine McMath in Independence, Missouri on July 16, 1911. Her mother, known as Lelee, went to Independence to have Ginger away from her husband. She had a baby earlier in their marriage and he allowed the doctor to use forceps and the baby died. She was kidnapped by her father several times until her mother took him to court. Ginger's mother left her child in the care of her parents while she went in search of a job as a scriptwriter in Hollywood and later to New York City. Mrs. McMath found herself with an income good enough to where she could send for Ginger. Lelee became a Marine in 1918 and was in the publicity department and Ginger went back to her grandparents in Missiouri. During this time her mother met John Rogers. After leaving the Marines they married in May, 1920 in Liberty, Missouri. He was transferred to Dallas and Ginger (who treated him as a father) went too. Ginger won a Charleston contest in 1925 (age 14) and a 4 week contract on the Interstate circuit. She also appeared in vaudeville acts which she did until she was 17 with her mother by her side to guide her. Now she had discovered true acting. She married in March, 1929, and after several months realized she had made a mistake. She acquired an agent and she did several short films. She went to New York where she appeared in the Broadway production of "Top Speed" which debuted Christmas Day, 1929. Her first film was in 1929 in "A Night in a Dormitory" (1930). It was a bit part, but it was a start. Later that year, Ginger appeared, briefly in two more films, "A Day of a Man of Affairs" (1929) and "Campus Sweethearts" (1930). Ginger Rogers For awhile she did both movies and theatre. The following year she began to get better parts in films such as "Office Blues" (1930) and "The Tip-Off" (1931). But the movie that enamored her to the public was "Gold Diggers of 1933" (1933). She did not have top billing but her beauty and voice was enough to have the public want more. She suggested using a monocle and this also set her apart. One song she popularized in the film was the now famous, "We're in the Money". In 1934, she starred with Dick Powell in "Twenty Million Sweethearts" (1934). It was a well received film about the popularity of radio. Ginger's real stardom occurred when she was teamed with Fred Astaire where they were one of the best cinematic couples ever to hit the silver screen. This is where she achieved real stardom. They were first paired in 1933's "Flying Down to Rio" (1933) and later in 1935's "Roberta" (1935) and "Top Hat" (1935). Ginger also appeared in some very good comedies such as "Bachelor Mother" (1939) and "5th Ave Girl" (1939) both in 1939. Also that year she appeared with Astaire in "The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle" (1939). The film made money but was not anywhere successful as they had hoped. After that studio executives at RKO wanted Ginger to strike out on her own. She made several dramatic pictures but it was 1940's "Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a Woman" (1940) that allowed her to shine. Playing a young lady from the wrong side of the tracks, she played the lead role well, so well in fact, that she won an Academy Award for her portrayal. Ginger followed that project with the delightful comedy, "Tom Dick and Harry" (1941) the following year. It's a story where she has to choose which of three men she wants to marry. Through the rest of the 1940s and early 1950s she continued to make movies but not near the caliber before World War II. After "Oh, Men! Oh, Women!" (1957) in 1957, Ginger didn't appear on the silver screen for seven years. By 1965, she had appeared for the last time in "Harlow" (1965/II). Afterward, she appeared on Broadway and other stage plays traveling in Europe, the U.S. and Canada. After 1984, she retired and wrote an autobiography in 1991 entitled, "Ginger, My Story" which is a very good book. On April 25, 1995, Ginger died of of congestive heart failure in Rancho Mirage, California. She was 83. Boeing Ad - April 1945

Morning all. 26F under clear skies. We continue to see cold air remain in place tonight and tomorrow. Highs remain in the 40s with lows in the 20s. Tonight and tomorrow night we will drop to near-record levels. Along with that, a freeze warning is in effect. High today of 45F.

Philco Ad - April 1943 1941: The Greek Army surrenders to the 1st SS Leibstandarte Division. Its commander, Sepp Dietrich accepts this, without referring to his superiors. All Greek soldiers were allowed to return home, while officers were allowed to retain their side arms. Mussolini, upon hearing of this is furious and makes the Greeks sign another surrender document with much harsher terms. *Michèle Morgan 1942: The first U-boat tanker or ' Milch cow', U-459, sets sail for the Atlantic. Her role was to prolong the time that U-boats could spend in US waters by refueling and re-arming them at sea. Michèle Morgan 1945: The U.S. Ninth Army captures Blankenburg, 80 miles to the East of Kassel. The U.S. First Army take Dessau. The French First Army captures Stuttgart along with 28,000 prisoners and crosses the Danube. 1945: Field Marshal Model, commits suicide. German troops keep up their resistance around Elbingerode in the Harz Mountains. Michèle Morgan 1945: The Soviet 1st Ukrainian Front captures Bautzen and Cottbus 70 miles southeast of Berlin. German troops still hold out in the port of Pillau. 1945: The 2nd Polish Corps which is fighting with the British Eighth Army captures Bologna in co-ordination with the U.S. 34th Division, of the U.S. Fifth Army. 1945: U.S. troops take 'Bloody Ridge' on Okinawa. Michèle Morgan *Morgan was born Simone Renée Roussel on February 29th, 1920 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, a western suburb of Paris. She left home at the age of 15 for Paris determined to become an actress. She took acting lessons from René Simon while serving as an extra in several films to pay for her drama classes. Her beauty was noticed by director Marc Allégret who offered her a major role in the film Gribouille in 1937, opposite Raimu. Then came the film Le Quai des brumes by Marcel Carné in 1938, opposite the great French actor Jean Gabin, and Remorques in 1941. These two films established her as one of the leading actress of the time in french cinema. Upon the invasion of France in 1940 by the Germans, Morgan left for the United States and Hollywood where she was contracted to RKO Pictures. Her career there proved rather disappointing, apart from "Joan of Paris" opposite Paul Henreid in 1942, "Higher and Higher" opposite Frank Sinatra in 1943. She was tested and strongly considered for the female lead in "Casablanca" but RKO would not release her for the amount of money that Warner Bros. offered. Morgan did work for Warners in "Passage to Marseille" opposite Humphrey Bogart in 1944. Nothing major came her way. The war over, Morgan returned to France and quickly picked up her career with the 1946 film, "La Symphonie Pastorale" by Jean Delannoy, which earned her the "Best Actress" award at the Cannes Film Festival. Other notable films include "Fabiola" (1949), "The Proud and the Beautiful" (1953) by Yves Allégret, "Les Grandes Man½uvres" (1955) by René Clair, "Marie-Antoinette reine de France" (1956). Morgan continued working in films throughout the 1960s, notably in "Lost Command", a 1966 film version of "Les Centurions". In the 1970s, she largely retired from the acting career, then made occasional appearances on film, television and theatre. Michèle Morgan For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Morgan has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1645 Vine Street. In 1969, the government of France awarded her the Legion of Honor. For her long service to the French motion picture industry, in 1992 she was given an Honorary César Award. In 1996, she also received the Career Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the Venice Film Festival. Morgan achieved the most popularity in french cinema during the 1940s and 1950s, although she is mostly unknown outside of France. She published her autobiography entitled Avec ces yeux-là in 1977. She also paints and has done ever since the 1960s. She has a fetish for painting fish because it is her zodiac sign. While others were on the barricades in May 1968, she was painting abstract objects. She accepted to do an exhibition at the Paris Gallery "Artistes En Lumière à Paris" from 2 March until the end of April 2009. While in Hollywood, she married actor William Marshall in 1942 with whom she had a son, Mike Marshall (1944-2005). Morgan and Marshall divorced in 1948. She married in 1950 French actor Henri Vidal (1919-1959) with whom she remained until his unexpected early death in 1959. She then lived with film director and actor/writer Gérard Oury until his death in 2006. Morgan has six grandchildren, including Sarah Marshall, a French model & actress (1981). Morgan died on 20 December 2016, aged 96, in Meudon, France of natural causes. Her funeral was held at the Église Saint-Pierre in Neuilly-sur-Seine on 23 December 2016, and she was buried at the Montparnasse Cemetery. TRIVIA: While in Hollywood during WWII, Morgan built the house at 10050 Cielo Drive, the site of Sharon Tate's murder by the followers of Charles Manson in 1969. By that time, Morgan was no longer the owner of the house. Her son Mike Marshall, born in 1944, became an actor in both France and Hollywood. He died on June 1st, 2005 (lung disease). Florida Citrus Commission Ad - April 1944

Well done Stans! Maybe the NWO idiots will go away now. So...how did you escape?

Hopefully they can get her airworthy soon.

Morning all. 32F under cloudy skies. Cloudy this afternoon with a chance of snow flurries. Looking ahead to tonight, a freeze warning is in effect. High today of 42F. Welcome back to the forums Stans!

United States Rubber Ad - April 1945 1940: Danish Army demobilized. 1941: British forces in Greece retreat from Mt. Olympus. King George II heads new Greek government. **Deanna Durbin 1942: An assassination attempt on Doriol, head of the French Fascists fails. Pierre Laval, the premier of Vichy France, in a radio broadcast, establishes a policy of "true reconciliation with Germany." 1942: In a reprisal for Resistance sabotage of German troop trains, the Germans execute thirty French hostages at Rouen. The next day, twenty more hostages are killed at St. Nazaire. Deanna Durbin 1942: Adolf Hitler plans the German summer offensive, but the first priority is to remove the Barvenkovo salient in the Ukraine, which is gives the Russian a springboard to retake Kharkov, or turn South and retake the Ukraine. General Friedrich Paulus, a tall, ascetic Prussian staff officer, draws up the plans for an panzer offensive to pinch out this salient. Amazingly, the Russian are simultaneously planning their own offensive out of the salient. 1942: The US aircraft-carrier Wasp delivers 46 Spitfires to Malta as reinforcement, although such is the intensity of the axis air onslaught (9,599 sorties in April), that almost all these aircraft had been destroyed on the ground within 3 days. Deanna Durbin 1942: German Jews are banned from using public transportation. 1942: As a result of the Doolittle raid on Japan, the Japanese decide that Operation 'Mi' must take place as soon as possible, while plans to capture Samoa, Fiji and New Caledonia are to be postponed. United States Rubber Ad - April 1945 1943: The limited recruitment of women into the Home Guard is announced in Britain. 1943: The Jewish uprising in Warsaw triggers a massive German response and initiates a month long massacre of the 60,000 Jews in the ghetto. 1943: The Americans announce that their airmen captured in the 'Doolittle Raid' on Tokyo were beheaded by Japanese. Deanna Durbin 1944: Colonel General Hans V. Hube, whose hard-charging aggressiveness on the Eastern Front had made him one of Hitler's favorites, is killed when his plane crashes on takeoff from Berchtesgaden on the return trip to his command after offering the Fuhrer birthday greetings. Grief-stricken at losing such an outstanding commander, Hitler orders a state funeral for Hube in the Reich Chancellery in Berlin. 1945: The British Home Secretary says that 60,585 British civilians have died and 86,175 have been seriously injured in air attacks since outbreak of war. 1945: The U.S. Seventh Army takes Nuremberg. Deanna Durbin 1945: The U.S. Fifth Army reaches the Po river Plain in northern Italy as a German retreat to river ordered. 1945: Russian artillery begins to shell Berlin. The Germans desperately counterattack both North and South of Frankfurt an der Oder. A Furious battles takes place at Sternbeck and Protzel. In Czechoslovakia the Russian pressure increases at Moravska-Ostrava and Brno. *1889: Adolf Hitler, the Nazi dictator of Germany who led his country into World War II and was responsible for persecuting millions of Jews, was born. Deanna Durbin **Deanna Durbin was born Edna Mae Durbin on December 4, 1921, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Her British-born parents moved to California while she was still young, and her singing voice soon had talent scouts knocking at her door. She signed a contract with MGM in 1936, at the age of 14, which resulted in her appearance in "Every Sunday" (1936), a short that also starred Judy Garland. Deanna was dropped by MGM but was immediately picked up by Universal Pictures, which cast her in the role of Penny Craig in "Three Smart Girls" (1936). While preparing for the role she was coached intensely by director Henry Koster; it's doubtful she would have been the star she was had it not been for Koster. The profits from this film and its follow-up, "One Hundred Men and a Girl" (1937), rescued Universal from bankruptcy. The studio quickly capitalized on these hits, casting Deanna in two successive and highly acclaimed films, "That Certain Age" (1938) and "Mad About Music" (1938). With these films Deanna became Hollywood's darling. She reprised her role of Penny Craig in "Three Smart Girls Grow Up" (1939). Deanna was such a hit that she shared the Academy Award's 1939 Juvenile Award with Mickey Rooney "for their significant contribution in bringing to the screen the spirit and personification of youth, and as juvenile players, setting high standards of ability and achievement". Deanna's singing and acting ability had the world talking. There was no doubt she was the most popular performer of her day. She was, however, by nature a very private individual, never comfortable with the glitz, glamor and publicity that came with stardom. Despite her uneasiness, she continued to churn out hits and kept the public enthralled. In 1943 she played Penny Craig again, for the third time, in "Hers to Hold" (1943). Deanna's final film was "For the Love of Mary" (1948), whereupon, at the age of 27, she simply walked away. For a star of her stature, that took a tremendous amount of courage. All she wanted was to be anonymous. Today Deanna lives in France, just outside Paris, with her third husband, French director Charles David, whom she wed in 1950. She has had numerous offers to return to the screen and has turned them all down. She has not even been interviewed since 1949. According to a family friend, Durbin died on or about April 20, 2013 in Neauphle-le-Château, France. TRIVIA: Was an option to play Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz (1939). By twenty-one, she was the highest-paid woman in the United States and highest-paid female film star in the World. Deanna Durbin dolls existed along with many other types of merchandising in the 1940s. Universal Pictures top star in the 1940s where she was paid $400,000 per film. She is reported as the star who saved the company. Tried for the voice of Snow White in Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) but Disney himself rejected her, claiming she sounded "too mature." She was 14 at the time. She was sought for the female leads of the original Broadway productions of both Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II's "Oklahoma!" (1943) and Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's "My Fair Lady" (1956). Universal refused to loan her for Oklahoma! and she turned down the lead in My Fair Lady (after Lerner personally came to her home to audition the songs for her) because, as she said later, "I had my ticket for Paris in my pocket." She was the number one female box office star in Britain for the years 1939- 1942 inclusive. She was so popular that in 1942 a seven day "Deanna Durbin Festival" was held during which her films were screened exclusively on the Odeon Theatre Circuit throughout Britain, a feat that has never been duplicated for any other star. According to reports from the BBC over the past three decades, it receives more requests from the public for Durbin's films and recordings, than for those of any other star of Hollywood's Golden Age. She was Holocaust victim Anne Frank's favorite movie star. There are two pictures of Durbin on Anne's "Movie Wall" in the secret annex in Amsterdam where Frank and her family hid from the Nazis. In 1941, Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini published an open letter to Durbin in his official newspaper, "Il Popolo", asking her to intercede with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on behalf of American youth to dissuade him from becoming involved in Word War II. She didn't. She was Prime Minister Winston Churchill's favorite movie star. He reportedly insisted that he be permitted to screen her films privately before they were released to the public in Britain, and would often screen her film One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937) to celebrate British victories during World War II. He considered her "a formidable talent." Personal Quotes: "I couldn't go on forever being Little Miss Fixit who burst into song." "Just as Hollywood pin-up represents sex to dissatisfied erotics, so I represented the ideal daughter millions of fathers and mothers wished they had." - 1959 Camel Cigarette Ad - April 1945

Silla's friend and former Buck Rogers in the 25th Century costar Gil Gerard reported on Twitter that Silla died Friday after a battle with pancreatic cancer. Rest in Peace Felix.

Monday, NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter became the first aircraft in history to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet. We sure have come far since Sputnik.

Mike Mitchell, founding member of the influential ’60s rock band the Kingsmen, and guitarist on their hit single “Louie Louie,” has died. The band’s drummer Dick Peterson confirmed the news to Rolling Stone, stating that Mitchell died on Friday (April 16), his 77th birthday. No cause of death was revealed, but Peterson told RS that Mitchell “peacefully passed away.” Rest in Peace Mike.