Donster

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and Queen Elizabeth II’s husband of 73 years, died on Friday at Windsor Castle. He was 99. RIP Prince Philip.

Morning all. 47F under cloudy skies with rain. Light rain will wind down later this morning and it will be cloudy this afternoon. There may be a few scattered showers, but will be very light and brief. High of 59F.

Buick Ad - April 1944 1940: German troops invade Denmark and Norway simultaneously. There is very little opposition by the surprised Danes, with Copenhagen being captured within 12 hours. The Germans make sea-borne landings in Norway at Oslo, Kristiansand, Bergen, Trondheim and Narvik. An airborne landing is also made against the airfield at Stavanger. Norwegian defenders move inland. Major Quisling sets up 'National Government' in Oslo. 1940: The Kriegsmarine loses the cruisers Blücher, which is sunk by Norwegian coastal batteries, plus Königsberg and Karlsruhe to British naval and air attack. *Delores Moran 1941: The RAF attack Kiel in an attempt to knock out the port facilities. 1941: German forces capture Nis and Monastir in Yugoslavia. German tanks enter Thessalonika, trapping the Greek 2nd Army in the Metaxas line, forcing them to surrender. Delores Moran 1941: Rommel's forces take Bardia. 1942: The Germans make some limited advances towards their surrounded units at Kholm-Staraya Russa. Russian troops attack furiously at Kerch in the Crimea, but there have no success because of the stubborn German defense. Delores Moran 1942: Mahatma Gandhi arrested in India. 1942: Japanese aircraft sink the British carrier Hermes, the destroyer Vampire and three other warships in Indian Ocean. Delores Moran 1942: US-Filipino forces surrender on Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines. 78,000 troops are captured, including 12,000 Americans, but 2,000 escape to Corregidor. This is the largest capitulation in US History. 1943: Exterminations at Chelmno cease. The camp will be reactivated in the spring of 1944 to liquidate ghettos. In all, Chelmno will total 300,000 deaths. Delores Moran 1944: The remains of the 1st Panzer Army regain the German lines after a 150-mile forced march. The Red Army breaks through the German lines at Kerch in the eastern Crimea. 1944: Fierce fighting across the District Commissioner's tennis court at Kohima. The Japanese renew their struggle with the 17th Indian Division, South West of Imphal. Delores Moran 1945: The British Eighth Army launches its final offensive in Italy with a 1,800-plane and 1,500-gun bombardment of the German positions East of Bologna. The U.S. Fifth Army begins its offensive toward Bologna and the Po river valley. 1945: Army Group E is now completely isolated from the main German forces, but continues its struggle against Titos partisan forces in Yugoslavia. Delores Moran 1945: Russians secure Königsberg, after the commander of "fortress Königsberg" General Lasch surrenders (and for this condemned to death in Germany). 1945: The Red Army is repulsed at the Seelow Heights on the outskirts of Berlin. Delores Moran *Moran's brief career as a film actress began in 1942 with some uncredited roles in such films as "Yankee Doodle Dandy". By 1943 she had become a popular pin-up girl and appeared on the cover of such magazines as Yank. She was given supporting roles in films such as "Old Acquaintance" (1943) with Bette Davis and Warner Bros. attempted to increase interest in her, promoting her along with Lauren Bacall as a new screen personality when they co-starred with Humphrey Bogart in "To Have and Have Not" (1944). The film made a star of Bacall, but Moran languished and her subsequent films did little to further her career. The "Horn Blows at Midnight" gave her a leading role with Jack Benny and Alexis Smith but her film appearances after this were sporadic, and she suffered ill health that reduced her ability to work. Her film career ended in 1954 with a featured role in the John Payne and Lizabeth Scott western film "Silver Lode". She was married to the film producer Benedict E. Bogeaus in Salome, Arizona in 1946. Their son, Brett Benedict, born 30 August 1948 in Hollywood, later became a successful businessman. They divorced in 1962, he died of a heart attack in 1968. As Dolores Moran Bogeaus, she dies on February 5, 1982 at age 56 in Woodland Hills, California. Buick Ad - April 1945

Morning all. 49F under cloudy skies with light rain. Chance of a light shower early afternoon. High of 55F.

United States Rubber Company Ad - April 1943 1939: Italy invades Albania. 1940: British submarines torpedo three German ships. Destroyer Glowworm is sunk after reporting German fleet movements and ramming cruiser Hipper. British naval vessels lay mines in Norwegian waters in preparation for landings by British and French forces at Namsos, Narvik and Andalsnes. The Polish submarine 'Orzel' sinks the German transport ship 'Rio de Janeiro' at 11:50. The Norwegians rescue several German soldiers who claim they are on their way to help the Norwegians against the British. (MORE INFO) *Ruth Rogers 1941: After a temporary lull, the Luftwaffe launches a heavy attack against Coventry. 1941: The German raider Penguin is sunk by HMS Cornwall off the Seychelles Islands in the Indian Ocean. 1941: The British 'Northern Force' captures Massawa, the last Italian stronghold in Eritrea. This removes any remaining threat to British convoys sailing through the Red Sea. United States Rubber Co. Ad - April 1944 1942: A US delegation led by special presidential advisor Harry L. Hopkins and joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General George C. Marshall arrive in Britain to discuss US and British strategy on the Second Front. The proposal they brought from Roosevelt, was for major landings on the French coast in the summer of 1943, with Antwerp as the initial objective, and for a similar but smaller operation in 1942 to take advantage of a sudden German disintegration or to stave off an imminent Russian collapse. 1942: The Soviets open a rail link to the besieged city of Leningrad. 1942: The badly damaged cruiser HMS Penelope, limps in to Gibraltar. Ruth Rogers 1944: The Russians reach the Slovakian border. The also continue their advance into Romania. The final Russian offensive to destroy the German 17th Army in Crimea begins. 1945: A British SAS Brigade paratroops into eastern Holland, to clear the way for Canadians troops who are moving North. The British Second Army reaches Hildesheim, while the US Seventh Army captures Pforzheim near the upper Rhine. 1945: The 2nd Ukrainian front continues its advance into northern Czechoslovakia and establishes a bridgehead across the rivers Morava and Donau (East and Northeast of Vienna). Heavy fighting in the centre of Vienna. The Red Air Force drops 1,500 tons of bombs on Königsberg. Ruth Rogers *Barbara Ruth Rogers was born on October 4, 1918 in Tracy, California. The former beauty contestant Ruth Rogers decorated the background of quite a few films before gracing a couple of Hopalong Cassidy Westerns: "Silver on the Sage" (1939) and "Hidden Gold" (1940). She was also in "The Three Mesqueteers" and "The Night Riders" (1939), "Texas Rangers Ride Again" (1940), "Hidden Gold", (1940), "The Light of Western Stars" and "There's Magic in Music" (1941), but the blonde starlet drifted out of films a little more than a year later. Ruth Rogers died on October 9, 1953, cause and location not found in research. United States Rubber Co. Ad - April 1945

Morning all. 61F under cloudy skies. Light rain this morning changing to heaver showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. High of 72F.

Cadillac Ad - April 1945 1940: The RAF spots units of the Kriegsmarine steaming North towards Narvik and Trondheim loaded with troops and equipment. 1941: British war budget raises income tax. 1941: Germans break towards Salonika. 1941: Great Britain severs diplomatic relations with Hungary. *Joan Dixon 1941: German troops capture Skopje in Macedonia forcing the Yugoslav forces to withdraw in the south of the country, which exposes the Greek flank. British promise allegiance to Yugoslavia. 1941: Derna is captured by the 5th Light Afrika Division along with Generals Neame and O'Connor later in the day. 1942: The U.S. Treasury lends 40,000 tons of silver to Electric Generator plants to replace copper being used in conductors; the copper will be used for military production instead. 1942: After 4 days of desperate fighting on Bataan, the Japanese have managed to penetrate 4 miles in to the US-Filipino lines, bringing General Wainwright's forces to the brink of collapse. Joan Dixon 1943: Hitler spends the better part of four days at Klessheim Castle near Salzburg (which has recently been refurbished as a Nazi Party conference center and spa) alternately browbeating and cajoling Mussolini to keep Italy in the war. Concerned by Mussolini's evaporating morale, Hitler spends the rest of April summoning to Klessheim the leaders Vichy France, Norway, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Croatia for a series of pep talks. With the war's tide clearly turning against the Axis, the Fuhrer has limited success. 1943: Eighth Army joins up with the U.S. 2nd Corps in central Tunisia, while the British First Army makes progress in the North forming a solid line against the German army. 1943: The Japanese air force begins a 10-day, round-the-clock bombing offensive against US shipping in the Solomon's. Champion Spark Plugs Ad - April 1944 1944: Goebbels takes overall control of Berlin. 1944: Two Jewish inmates escape from Auschwitz-Birkenau and make it safely to Czechoslovakia. One of them, Rudolf Vrba, submits a report to the Papal Nuncio in Slovakia which is forwarded to the Vatican. Joan Dixon & Cleo Moore 1945: The U.S. First Army takes Göttingen, 25 miles Northeast of Kassel. The US Ninth Army captures Hameln and Eisenach. 1945: Army Group Centre under General Schörner continues with its attacks against the 2nd and 4th Ukrainian front. 1945: In Yugoslavia, German Army Group E under General Löhr evacuates it remaining troops from Sarajevo. Champion Spark Plugs Ad - April 1945 1945: The battle of East China Sea begins as U.S. aircraft from Task Force 58 sink the Japanese super-battleship Yamato in a three-hour battle, 60 miles to the Southeast of Japan. Japanese casualties are reported as 2,488 sailors killed, four destroyers sunk, 58 aircraft destroyed. 1945: B29s fly their first fighter-escorted mission against Japan with P-51 Mustangs based on Iwo Jima. Joan Dixon *Joan Dixon was born in Norfolk, Virginia on June 6, 1930. She is known for her role in the film noir, "Roadblock" (1951). Dixon's career, while under contract at RKO Pictures, was in the hands of Howard Hughes. He attempted but failed to make her into the star he made of Jane Russell (whom Dixon resembled). Hughes had personal contracts with Dixon, Russell, and Janis Carter. In September 1952, it was revealed that Hughes had an agreement with the Ralph E. Stolkin syndicate to lend RKO Pictures the sum of $8,000,000. The loan commitment was made as part of a sales accord following losses sustained by RKO in the previous two years. Earlier Hughes controlled RKO-Radio studio. Joan eloped and married Chicago, Illinois camera manufacturer Theodore (Ted) Briskin in October 1952. Briskin was formerly the husband of Betty Hutton, having married and divorced her twice. Dixon and Briskin were married in a surprise ceremony in the wedding chapel of the Flamingo Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada. She was 23 and he was 35. Their marriage lasted but three weeks, with Miss Dixon leaving Briskin in early November 1952. She was later married to writer William Dixon, but they divorced in 1959. The actress appeared in ten films (mostly westerns) and appeared on a few television programs. Her television appearances include episodes of "The Ford Television Theater" (1957) and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" (1956). She also performed as a vocalist at Dino's Lodge in Los Angeles, California in December 1960. She died on February 20, 1992, aged 61, in Los Angeles, California. North American Aviation Ad - April 1945

Morning all. 60F under mostly cloudy skies. Expecting partly to mostly cloudy skies through the day. High of 77F.

Packard Ad - April 1944 1941: Six Beaufort torpedo-bombers attack the German cruiser Gneisenau, anchored in Brest harbour. One, piloted by Fg Off Kenneth Campbell, makes a successful attack before being shot down, inflicting serious damage that took six months to repair. For this, Campbell was awarded a posthumous VC. 1941: German, Italian and Hungarian forces begin the invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece. The Luftwaffe carries out several devastating bombing raids against Belgrade and all but wipes out the Yugoslav air force on the ground. **Marie Windsor 1941: The Luftwaffe launches an air attack against the Greek port of Piraeus from bases in Bulgaria. During the raid, the British ammunition ship Clan Fraser is hit and explodes in a massive fireball, wrecking the harbor and port facilities. 1941: Elements of the 5th Light Division capture Mechili and threaten to cut of the 9th Australian Division which is withdrawing at speed towards Tobruk along the coast. Haile Selassie's troops occupy the Italian forts at Debra Markos, after their epic march through the Abyssinian hinterland, relying on camels to carry all their supplies. The 11th African Division captures Addis Ababa, the capital of Abyssinia, taking 8,000 Italians prisoner. Marie Windsor 1942: Axis bombers attack the port of Alexandria in Egypt. 1942: The Japanese make landings on Manus Island in the Bismarck Archipelago. Marie Windsor 1942: First U.S. troops arrive in Australia. 1943: British and American forces in Tunisia launch an attack against the 5th Panzerarmee. Marie Windsor 1945: Sarajevo falls into the hands of Yugoslav partisans. 1945: Preceded by a tremendous artillery and air bombardment, the 3rd Belorussian Front with Four armies, 137,000 men, 530 tanks and 2,400 aircraft begin their final assault against Königsberg, which is held by 35,000 Germans troops. The Battle for Vienna begins. Marie Windsor 1945: The U.S. fleet off Okinawa is hit by the first suicide raid, code named 'Floating Chrysanthemum I'. During this attack, three destroyers are sunk, while 116 Japanese aircraft are destroyed. *1938: The United States recognizes Nazi Germany's conquest of Austria. Marie Windsor **Marie Windsor was born Emily Marie Bertelson on December 11, 1919, in Marysvale, Piute County, Utah. Windsor was an actress known as "The Queen of the Bs" because she appeared in so many film noirs and B-movies like "Cat-Women of the Moon" (1953). However, other actresses, such as Fay Wray, Lucille Ball, and others have garnered the title as well. Windsor, a former Miss Utah, trained for the stage under Maria Ouspenskaya, and after several years as a telephone operator, a stage and radio actress, and a bit and extra player in films, she began playing feature and lead parts in 1947. The 5'9" actress's first memorable role was opposite John Garfield in "Force of Evil" playing seductress Edna Tucker. Windsor also had large roles in film noirs including "The Sniper", "The Narrow Margin", "City That Never Sleeps" and Stanley Kubrick's heist movie "The Killing" playing Elisha Cook Jr.'s scheming wife. Later she moved on to television, appearing on such shows as "Maverick" (in episodes "The Quick and the Dead" with James Garner and "Epitaph for a Gambler"), "The Incredible Hulk", "General Hospital", "Murder, She Wrote", "Rawhide" ("Incident on the Edge of Madness"), and "Salem's Lot". After her acting career she became a painter and sculptor. She was one of the 500 stars nominated to become one of the 50 greatest American screen legends as part of the American Film Institute's 100 years. She married twice, first briefly to bandleader Ted Steele, and later to Jack Hupp, a member of the 1936 U.S. Olympic basketball team. Hupp, with whom Windsor had a son, was posthumously inducted into the University of Southern California (USC) Athletic Hall of Fame in 2007. She died of congestive heart failure in Beverly Hills, California, on December 10, 2000, the day before her 81st birthday. TRIVIA: Measurements: 37 1/2-25-39 1/4 Often cast as an adulterous wife, slutty girlfriend, female gang leader or gun moll, she proved so convincing in those roles that she often received Bibles in the mail with passages underlined that covered the "sins" she had committed onscreen, warning her that she would go to hell if she didn't reform. Several of those types of letters dwelt so much on her "immorality" and "evil ways" that, unnerved, she turned them over to the police. Packard Ad - April 1945

Morning all. 57F under partly cloudy skies. Rain and possible thunderstorms this afternoon and evening. High of 76F.

Fisher Body Ad - April 1944 1940: British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, tells the British people that Hitler has 'missed the bus', meaning that a German invasion of the west is now unlikely to succeed. 1940: RAF attacks ship in Wilhelmshaven. *Cleo Moore 1940: Norway and Sweden are both informed of the allied intention to mine Norwegian waters. 1941: German commandos secure docks along the Danube River in preparation for Germany's invasion of the Balkans. Cleo Moore 1941: Allied forces enter Addis Ababa, the capital of Abyssinia, taking 8,000 Italians prisoner. 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 drives South into the Caucasus to seize the oilfields and become the northern punch of a grand pincer movement (the southern half being Rommel) to seize Suez, the Nile Delta, the Middle-East and its oilfields. Cleo Moore 1942: 180 Japanese planes from five aircraft carriers attack the Royal Navy's base at Colombo in Ceylon. These came from Admiral Nagumo's 1st Air Fleet under Admiral Kondo's Southern Force which was tasked with destroying the Royal Navy's Fleet in the Indian Ocean. However, the British received prior warning and sailed the bulk of their fleet to the Maldives, although the armed merchant cruiser Hector and destroyer Tenedos were sunk. Fifty-three Japanese carrier-aircraft did however locate and sink the Royal Navy's heavy cruisers Dorsetshire and Cornwall, to the south east of Ceylon, in just 22 minutes. 1943: The British 8th Army attacks the next blocking position of the retreating Axis forces at Wadi Akarit. Cleo Moore 1944: The RAF and USAAF conduct the first of 24 round-the-clock raids on the Ploesti oil refineries in Romania. 1944: A Jewish inmate, Siegfried Lederer, escapes from Auschwitz-Birkenau and makes it safely to Czechoslovakia. He then warns the Elders of the Council at Theresienstadt about Auschwitz. Cleo Moore 1945: During a raid on Kiel by the U.S. 8th Air Force, severe damage is caused to the cruisers Hipper and Emden. 1945: Eighteen U.S. divisions begin the clearance of Ruhr Pocket. The French First Army captures Karlsruhe on the upper Rhine. Cleo Moore 1945: The 3rd Ukrainian Front reaches the railway North West of Vienna, cutting rail link with Linz. 1945: A U.S. military government is established on Okinawa. Cleo Moore *Cleo Moore was born October 31, 1928 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Her parents were deeply involved in Democratic politics. Politics, in Louisiana, was an all consuming passion with a lot of families in the 20's and 30's. Cleo began her trek to stardom when she participated in school plays in high school. When she was just 15 years old, Cleo wed Palmer Long, son of the late Huey "Kingfish" Long in 1944. Palmer's father had been one of the movers and shakers in Louisiana politics for years, first serving as governor and then the U.S. Senate. He was assassinated in 1935 in the state capitol building. (Cleo, herself, was to run for Governor of Louisiana in 1956). The marriage was doomed to fail having lasted a mere six weeks. After Cleo finished high school, she moved with her family to California where her father was anticipating the end of World War II and the building boom that was expected to follow. Once in sunny California, it didn't take long to get "discovered". She was spotted by an RKO executive and was convinced to take a screen test. She passed. Her first film was in a rather non-descript film called "Congo Bill" in 1948. After that fiasco, Cleo went back to work at her family's building business and did some modeling. Two years later, in 1950, the shapely blonde appeared in a Western entitled, "Rio Grande Patrol". She received fifth billing in the movie that got no where. That year proved to busy for Cleo as she appeared in five other films. In "Bright Leaf", a film about the tobacco industry, was a well-received one even though she had only a small part. "Gambling House" was, somewhat, of a personal breakthrough. Instead of having, basically, unknowns as her co-stars, Cleo had Victor Mature and William Bendix. Then it was back to another substandard flick called "This Side of the Law". Hard as it was to break into films that really grabbed to public's attention, Cleo seemed to be destined to stay in B movie roles for the balance of her career. She did appear in a good film called "On Dangerous Ground" in 1951 with Ida Lupino and Robert Ryan, but had only a minor part. For an actress who had a wonderful talent, she seemed to be picked because of how her physical attributes played on the screen. Never mind the role. That seemed secondary to the moguls of the studios. She was very beautiful, but Cleo wanted them to look past that and see the talent she possessed. In 1954, Cleo appeared in two more duds, "The Other Woman" and "Bait". The following year she made two more films, "Hold Back Tomorrow" which was termed strange and "Women's Prison". Although a second class movie, it fared well at the box-office because of the subject matter and Cleo. Other than that, it didn't have a lot going for it. In 1957, Cleo starred in her final film, along with her sister, Mari Lea, called "Hit and Run". She had star billing, but it was another bomb. Cleo, then, left films forever. She married a real estate tycoon in 1961 and settled down to a life of being a socialite and domesticity. Cleo had a daughter born in 1963. Less than a week before her 45th birthday, Cleo died of a heart attack on October 25, 1973 in Inglewood, California. To her legions of fans, she remains their favorite sex symbol of the 1950's and others languish knowing that her talent could have sent her to loftier heights instead of being wasted in minor roles in substandard B pictures. TRIVIA: Measurements: 38-24-36 (in 1954), (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine) Height: 5' 4 1/2" (1.64 m) Nickname: Queen of the B Movie Bad Girls Fisher Body Ad - April 1945

Morning all and Happy Easter to you! 49F under clear skies. Sunny and a bit breezy today with a high of 74F.

Curtis - Wright Ad - April 1944 1941: Field Marshal Erwin Rommel captures the British held town of Benghazi in North Africa. Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, is abandoned by Italians. 1943: Mrs. Thomas E. Sullivan christens the USS Sullivans, a destroyer named in honor of her five sons, who perished aboard the USS Juneau. After the tragedy, the Navy makes a point of not allowing brothers to be posted together on its warships. *Priscilla Lane 1943: Newly built gas chamber/crematory V opens at Auschwitz. 1944: The 17th Indian Division reaches the Imphal plain after a 20-day fighting retreat. Japanese forces begin five weeks of attacks to reach Imphal from the South and begin their attack on Kohima, Assam. Priscilla Lane 1944: Charles de Gaulle becomes the head of Free French armed forces in place of Giraud. 1944: Army Group Centre, under General Busch launches a counterattack which succeeds in reaching German units surrounded at Kovel in the Pripet swamps since the 19th March. Priscilla Lane 1945: The US 8th Air Force launches its heaviest raid to date (700 bombers) against Kiel on the Baltic. 1945: The US Third Army advancing toward Leipzig takes Suhl and Gotha and finally clears Kassel of German resistance. The British Second Army captures Osnabrück. The French First Army enters Karlsruhe. Priscilla Lane 1945: U.S. forces liberated the Nazi death camp Ohrdruf in Germany. 1945: The Russian 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian front complete the liberation of Hungary. Troops of the 2nd Ukrainian front capture Bratislava. The Germans forces counterattack in Moravska-Ostrava and Nitra. Priscilla Lane *Born Priscilla Mullican on June 12, 1915, the youngest of four sisters in Indianola, Iowa. She attended the Eagin School of Dramatic Arts in New York before joining her sisters in a singing act with Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians. The sisters toured with the band for five years. She then signed a contract with Warner Brothers in 1937 and made her first film, "Varsity Show" that same year. She teamed with her sisters, Rosemary Lane and Lola Lane, to make the hit "Four Daughters" in 1938. In 1939, while under consideration for the role of Melanie Wilkes in "Gone With the Wind," she co-starred in "The Roaring Twenties" with James Cagney. She was suspended several times by Jack Warner for refusing to take roles she regarded as poor. She was finally cast in Alfred Hitchcock's 'Saboteur' in 1942 and, in perhaps her most recognizable role in "Arsenic and Old Lace" opposite Cary Grant in 1944. She appeared in only two more films, "Fun on a Weekend" in 1947 and "Bodyguard" in 1948 before retiring from film work. Following her retirement, she accompanied her husband, Colonel Joseph A. Howard, USAF, around from the world from base to base, often singing at camp shows. The couple eventually settled in New England and had four children. Priscilla made a brief comeback in 1958 as host of "The Priscilla Lane Show" on Boston television. She died on April 4, 1995 from lung cancer in Andover, Massachusetts at the age of 79. She was buried in Arlington National Cemetery next to her husband. Curtis - Wright Ad - April 1945

Morning all. 43F under clear skies. A weekend of spectacular weather begins today, with a lot of sunshine and warm temperatures. An occasionally strong breeze, especially early on Saturday, will be the only thing you may notice as disruptive about today’s weather. Expected high today of 70F.

Electric Boat Company Ad - April 1944 1940: War Cabinet reshuffle, Churchill to chair committee directing general war policy. 1941: Pro-Axis coup in Iraq, led by Rashid Ali. *Claire Trevor 1941: British withdrawal in North Africa continues as German and Italian units move east from El Agheila. 1942: Japanese bomb Mandalay in Central Burma, killing 2,000. They met no opposition from the RAF as all its aircraft had by now been withdrawn to India. Claire Trevor 1942: The final Japanese offensive on Bataan begins with a five hour artillery and air bombardment, after which the Japanese launch infantry attacks supported by some tanks, which allows them to make penetrations in to US-Filipino defensive positions. 1944: Forty-two Royal Navy, fleet Air Arm Barracuda torpedo-bombers hit the Battleship Tirpitz 14 times in a daring raid (Operation Tungsten) on the Alten Fjord, in Norway. Tide Water Associated - April 1944 1945: The British Second Army reaches Münster; the U.S. Ninth Army captures Recklinghausen in the Ruhr, while the US First Army takes Fulda and Kassel. 1945: The Austrian resistance leader Major Szokoll and Russian military authorities confer about co-operation on the Russian offensive against Vienna. The 2nd Ukrainian front advances close to Vienna. The Russians breaches the German defensive lines between Wiener Neustadt and Neusiedler lake. Hard fighting continues as the Red Army advances towards Bratislava. Claire Trevor 1945: MacArthur is appointed as C-in-C of land forces in the Pacific. 1945: Admiral Nimitz is appointed as C-in-C of all naval forces in the Pacific. Claire Trevor *Claire Trevor was born Claire Wemlinger on March 8, 1910 in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, the only child of Fifth Avenue merchant-tailor Noel Wemlinger, an immigrant Frenchmen from Paris who lost his business during the Depression, and his Belfast-born wife Betty. Trevor's interest in acting began when she was 11 years old. She attended high school in Mamaroneck, NY. After starting classes at Columbia University, she spent six months at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, also in New York. Her adult acting experience began in the late 1920s in several stock productions. Her professional stage debut came with Robert Henderson's Repertory Players in Ann Arbor, MI, in 1930. That same year she signed with Warner Bros. Not too far from her home haunts was Brooklyn-based Vitagraph Studios, the last and best of the early sound process studios, which had been acquired by Warner Bros. in 1925 to become Vitaphone. Trevor appeared in several of the nearly 2000 shorts cranked out by the studio between 1926 and 1930. Then she was sent west to do ten weeks of stock productions with other contract players in St. Louis. In 1931 she did summer stock with the Hampton Players in Southampton, Long Island. Finally, she debuted on Broadway in 1932 in "Whistling in the Dark". She moved to the feature screen, debuting in the western "Life in the Raw" (1933). There would be three more films (another western) that year and six or more through the 1930s. Though Trevor had been typed playing gun molls and hardcase women of the world, she displayed her already considerable versatility in these early films, as often playing competent, take-charge professional women as she did shady ladies. There was a disappointed-pout-vulnerability in her face and that famous slightly New York-burred voice that cracked with a little cry when heightened by emotion that quickly revealed an unusual and sensitive performer. Many of her early films were "B" potboilers, but she worked with Spencer Tracy on several occasions, notably "Dante's Inferno" (1935). Hollywood finally took notice of her talents by nominating her for a Best Support Actress Oscar for her standout performance as a good girl raised in the slums who is forced by poverty to turn to prostitution in "Dead End" (1937), opposite 'Humphrey Bogart'. That year she did the radio drama "Big Town" with Edward G. Robinson, then teamed with he and Bogart again for the slightly hokey but entertaining "The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse" (1938). Director John Ford tapped her for his first big sound western, "Stagecoach" (1939), the film that made a star of John Wayne. All her abilities to bring complexity to a character showed in "Stagecoach" as the kicked-around dance hall girl 'Dallas', one of her great early female roles. She and Wayne were electric, and they were paired in three more films during their careers, "Allegheny Uprising" (1939), and again in 1940 in "Dark Command". Over a decade later, she would again costar with Wayne, gaining her final Oscar nomination for "The High and the Mighty" (1954). Claire Trevor In the 1940s Trevor began appearing in the genre that brought her to true stardom, known as "film noir". She started in a big way as killer Ruth Dillon in "Street of Chance" (1942) with Burgess Meredith. She was equally convincing as the more complex but nonetheless two-faced Mrs. Grayle in the Philip Marlowe vehicle "Murder, My Sweet" (1944). However, she was something very different and quite extraordinary as washed-up, boozy nightclub singer Gaye Dawn in "Key Largo" (1948), for which she won an Academy Award, again working with Bogart and Robinson. The film hangs on her wrenching performance during a pathetic rendition of the torch song "Moanin' Low", sung in humiliation to gain a desperately wanted drink. There were more quality movies and an additional Academy nomination for "The High and the Mighty" (1954) into the 1950s, but Trevor was also doing stage and television. She was enthusiastic about live TV and appeared on several famous shows by the mid-1950s. She won an Emmy for Best Live Television Performance by an Actress as the flighty wife of Fredric March in "Dodsworth" (1956) on NBC's "Producers' Showcase" (1954). She alternated her career among film, stage and TV roles. As she aged she easily transitioned into "distinguished matron" and mother roles, one of her most unusual ones being the murderous Ma Barker in an episode of the gun-blasting "The Untouchables" (1959). Her final film role was as Sally Field's mother in "Kiss Me Goodbye" (1982). Trevor and her third husband, producer Milton H. Bren, had long been residents of tiny Newport Beach, CA, to which they returned in 1987 when Trevor finally retired from screen work. However, she did maintain an active interest in stage work, and became associated with The School of Arts at the University of California, Irvine. She and her husband contributed some $10 million to further its development for the visual and performing arts (that included three endowed professorships). After her death, the University renamed the school The Claire Trevor School of the Arts. Her presence on the UCI campus is in more than spirit alone-visibly so-her Oscar for "Key Largo" stands in an exterior glass window on view in the school's Arts Plaza complex. Claire Trevor died of respiratory failure in Newport Beach, April 8, 2000 at the age of 90. Tide Water Associated - April 1945

Morning all. 29F under partly cloudy skies. Windy and warmer today. High of 54F.

U.S. Army Recruiting Ad - April 1944 1940: Germans again attack Scapa Flow and North Sea convoys. 1940: Hitler gives orders that the invasion of Denmark and Norway is to begin on the 9th April 1940. *Olga San Juan 1941: The 5th Light Division recaptures Agedabia from the British and fans out into three columns, two of which race across the desert in an attempt to cut off the retreating British, while the third pushes up the coast road towards Benghazi. 1941: Rear Admiral Bonnetti, the commander of the Italian Red Sea Flotilla orders his seven destroyers out on 'do or die' missions. All the destroyers are sunk or captured without achieving any worthwhile results. Olga San Juan 1942: Axis air forces begin a bombing campaign against La Valetta, the British naval base on Malta. 1942: British retreat from Prome, upper Burma. Oldsmobile Ad - April 1945 1944: The Russians announce their entry into Romania and threaten to shoot one third of all German POWs if the 18 divisions of the trapped First Panzer Army do not surrender. The Russian army crosses the river Prut, East of Cernovcy and liberates the little city Gerca. Olga San Juan 1945: The British 7th Armoured Division enters Rhine on Dortmund-Ems canal, 60 miles Northeast of Essen. 1945: The 3rd Ukrainian Front and Bulgarian forces take Nagykanizsa, thereby gaining control of the main Hungarian oil production region. 2nd Ukrainian front under Malinovsky conquers the industrial area of Mosonmagyarovar and reaches the Austrian border between Dounau and the Neusiedler lake. Olga San Juan *Dubbed the "Puerto Rican Pepperpot" during her heyday, Olga was born in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn on March 16, 1927. Her family returned to Puerto Rico when she was three, but came back to America after a few years and this time settled in "Spanish Harlem". By age 3 she was taking dancing lessons and was almost immediately thrust into the limelight by her mother. By age 11, she (and five other young girls) had executed the Fandango for FDR at the White House. As a teenager Olga performed at such hot spots as the El Morocco and the Copacabana and subsequently earned pay as a dancer with famed jazz and mambo musician Tito Puente, who by then had earned the title of "The King of Latin Music". She possessed the same tiny frame and fervid Latin temperament as her Brazilian counterpart Carmen Miranda and for most her career Puerto Rican singer/dancer Olga San Juan, like Miranda, was a welcome distraction by American audiences. A flavorful, scene-stealing personality who delightfully mangled the English language, she decorated a number of war-era and post-war musicals and comedy escapism with her special brand of comedy. Gaining momentum appearing on radio, Olga formed a popular night club act (Olga San Juan and Her Rumba Band) that eventually caught the eye of Paramount Studios. Putting her under contract, Olga, as an added incentive to stand out, decided to become the first dyed-blonde Latin movie spitfire. Making her film debut in the tropical musical short "Caribbean Romance" (1943), her second short film, "Bombalera" (1945), earned itself an Academy Award nomination. In this Olga was billed appropriately enough as "The Cuban Cyclone". She was front and center in her third short "The Little Witch" (1945), a musical romance in which she virtually played herself as a night club singer. Olga San Juan Her feature film debut came in the form of "Rainbow Island" (1944), a typical South Seas vehicle for sarong-wearing Dorothy Lamour. Soon Olga was seen playing "other woman" supports. Arguably her finest hour came alongside Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire in her first post-war picture "Blue Skies" (1946) adding zest to such songs as "You'd Be Surprised," "Heat Wave" and "I'll See You in C-U-B-A". While the boys are vying for the romantic attentions of gorgeous Joan Caulfield, Olga is paired up engagingly with another comedy scene stealer, Billy De Wolfe. Constricted in films by her heavy accent, Olga nevertheless became an ethnic commodity for Paramount and, for the rest of the post-war decade, was enjoyably featured in light "B" material. She stood out playing Mary Hatcher's comedy sidekick and fellow wannabe movie star in "Variety Girl" (1947), which seemed more of an excuse to feature Paramount's huge roster of superstars in cameo bits; was borrowed by Universal to juice up the musical proceedings opposite geeky Donald O'Connor in the comedy "Are You with It?" (1948); played a mortal second fiddle to goddess Ava Gardner in "One Touch of Venus" (1948); offered silly distraction in skating star Sonja Henie's final Hollywood ice extravaganza -- "The Countess of Monte Cristo" (1948); and lent funny, flashy vulgarity to one of Preston Sturges' lesser outings, "The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend" (1949), a Betty Grable vehicle for Twentieth Century-Fox. During this period (1948) Olga had met and married actor 'Edmond O'Brien'. The couple had three children, two girls and a boy. Her last hurrah in the industry came by accident when famed lyricist Alan Jay Lerner happened to hear her sing at a festive Hollywood gathering and offered her one of the leads (Jennifer Rumson) in his Broadway-bound musical "Paint Your Wagon" in 1951. The show was a flop, running just eight months, and Olga left the cast before the run ended, after becoming pregnant with her second child. In the aftermath, Olga, a strict Roman Catholic, decided to concentrate on marriage and family. Aside from a smattering of TV shows, she completely retired. On film she was briefly glimpsed only two times more, both of them being her husband's vehicles, "The Barefoot Contessa" (1954), in which he won the "supporting actor" Oscar, and "The 3rd Voice" (1960). Olga San Juan Settling in West Los Angeles, Olga suffered a stroke in the 1970s and slowly declined in health from that point on. Divorced from O'Brien in 1976, their children all involved themselves in different facets of the business. Daughter Maria O'Brien became an actress in her own right and son Brendan also delved into acting as well as writing and guitar-playing. Other daughter Bridget O'Brien Adelman became a TV producer. After decades of being out of the news, on January 3, 2009 Olga died at a Burbank hospital of kidney failure following an extended illness. She was 81. Oldsmobile Ad - April 1945

Shitzie Shitzie Shitzie. Keep dreaming. Word is you only get excited around Fink.

I have an axe with your name on it Dink Hermit. That helmet won't do you any good either.

U.S Navy Recruitment Poster-1960's April 1, 1965 - At the White House, President Johnson authorizes sending two more Marine battalions and up to 20,000 logistical personnel to Vietnam. The President also authorizes American combat troops to conduct patrols to root out Viet Cong in the countryside. His decision to allow offensive operations is kept secret from the American press and public for two months. April 7, 1965 - President Johnson delivers his "Peace Without Conquest" Speech at Johns Hopkins University offering Hanoi "unconditional discussions" to stop the war in return for massive economic assistance in modernizing Vietnam. "Old Ho can't turn that down," Johnson privately tells his aides. But Johnson's peace overture is quickly rejected. April 15, 1965 - A thousand tons of bombs are dropped on Viet Cong positions by U.S. and South Vietnamese fighter-bombers. April 17, 1965 - In Washington, 15,000 students gather to protest the U.S. bombing campaign. Student demonstrators will often refer to President Johnson, his advisers, the Pentagon, Washington bureaucrats, and weapons manufacturers, simply as "the Establishment." April 20, 1965 - In Honolulu, Johnson's top aides, including McNamara, Gen. Westmoreland, Gen. Wheeler, William Bundy, and Ambassador Taylor, meet and agree to recommend to the President sending another 40,000 combat soldiers to Vietnam. April 24, 1965 - President Johnson announces Americans in Vietnam are eligible for combat pay. Chris Noel April 12, 1966 - B-52 bombers are used for the first time against North Vietnam. Each B-52 carries up to 100 bombs, dropped from an altitude of about six miles. Target selections are closely supervised by the White House. There are six main target categories; power facilities, war support facilities, transportation lines, military complexes, fuel storage, and air defense installations. April 13, 1966 - Viet Cong attack Tan Son Nhut airport in Saigon causing 140 casualties while destroying 12 U.S. helicopters and nine aircraft. April 6, 1967 - Quang Tri City is attacked by 2500 Viet Cong and NVA. April 14, 1967 - Richard M. Nixon visits Saigon and states that anti-war protests back in the U.S. are "prolonging the war." April 15, 1967 - Anti-war demonstrations occur in New York and San Francisco involving nearly 200,000. Rev. Martin Luther King declares that the war is undermining President Johnson's Great Society social reform programs, "...the pursuit of this widened war has narrowed the promised dimensions of the domestic welfare programs, making the poor white and Negro bear the heaviest burdens both at the front and at home." April 20, 1967 - U.S. bombers target Haiphong harbor in North Vietnam for the first time. April 24-May 11, 1967 - Hill fights rage at Khe Sanh between U.S. 3rd Marines and the North Vietnamese Army resulting in 940 NVA killed. American losses are 155 killed and 425 wounded. The isolated air base is located in mountainous terrain less than 10 miles from North Vietnam near the border of Laos. April 24, 1967 - General Westmoreland condemns anti-war demonstrators saying they give the North Vietnamese soldier "hope that he can win politically that which he cannot accomplish militarily." Privately, he has already warned President Johnson "the war could go on indefinitely." April 30-May 3, 1967 - The Battle of Dai Do occurs along the Demilitarized Zone as NVA troops seek to open an invasion corridor into South Vietnam. They are halted by a battalion of U.S. Marines nicknamed "the Magnificent Bastards" under the command of Lt. Col. William Weise. Aided by heavy artillery and air strikes, NVA suffer 1568 killed. 81 Marines are killed and 297 wounded. 29 U.S. Army are killed supporting the Marines and 130 wounded. For the time being, this defeat ends North Vietnam's hope of successfully invading the South. They will wait four years, until 1972, before trying again, after most of the Americans have gone. It will actually take seven years, until 1975, for them to succeed. Chris Noel - Long Binh, Vietnam -1968 April 9, 1969 - 300 anti-war students at Harvard University seize the administration building, throw out eight deans, then lock themselves in. They are later forcibly ejected. April 30, 1969 - U.S. troop levels peak at 543,400. There have been 33,641 Americans killed by now, a total greater than the Korean War. April 20, 1970 - President Nixon announces the withdrawal of another 150,000 Americans from Vietnam within a year. April 30, 1970 - President Nixon stuns Americans by announcing U.S. and South Vietnamese incursion into Cambodia "...not for the purpose of expanding the war into Cambodia but for the purpose of ending the war in Vietnam and winning the just peace we desire." The announcement generates a tidal wave of protest by politicians, the press, students, professors, clergy members, business leaders, and many average Americans against Nixon and the Vietnam War. The incursion is in response to continuing Communist gains against Lon Nol's forces and is also intended to weaken overall NVA military strength as a prelude to U.S. departure from Vietnam. Chris Noel April 1, 1971 - President Nixon orders Calley released pending his appeal. April 19, 1971 - 'Vietnam Veterans Against the War' begin a week of nationwide protests. April 24, 1971 - Another mass demonstration is held in Washington attracting nearly 200,000. April 29, 1971 - Total American deaths in Vietnam surpass 45,000. April 30, 1971 - The last U.S. Marine combat units depart Vietnam. April 2, 1972 - In response to the Eastertide Offensive, President Nixon authorizes the U.S. 7th Fleet to target NVA troops massed around the Demilitarized Zone with air strikes and naval gunfire. April 4, 1972 - In a further response to Eastertide, President Nixon authorizes a massive bombing campaign targeting all NVA troops invading South Vietnam along with B-52 air strikes against North Vietnam. "The bastards have never been bombed like they're going to bombed this time," Nixon privately declares. April 10, 1972 - Heavy B-52 bombardments ranging 145 miles into North Vietnam begin. April 12, 1972 - NVA Eastertide attack on Kontum begins in central South Vietnam. If the attack succeeds, South Vietnam will effectively be cut in two. April 15, 1972 - Hanoi and Haiphong harbor are bombed by the U.S. April 15-20, 1972 - Protests against the bombings erupt in America. April 19, 1972 - NVA Eastertide attack on An Loc begins. April 27, 1972 - Paris peace talks resume. April 30, 1972 - U.S. troop levels drop to 69,000. Chris Noel April 1973 - President Nixon and President Thieu meet at San Clemente, California. Nixon renews his earlier secret pledge to respond militarily if North Vietnam violates the peace agreement. April 1, 1973 - Captain Robert White, the last known American POW is released. April 30, 1973 - The Watergate scandal results in the resignation of top Nixon aides H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman. Chris Noel April 9, 1975 - NVA close in on Xuan Loc, 38 miles from Saigon. 40,000 NVA attack the city and for the first time encounter stiff resistance from South Vietnamese troops. April 20, 1975 - U.S. Ambassador Graham Martin meets with President Thieu and pressures him to resign given the gravity of the situation and the unlikelihood that Thieu could ever negotiate with the Communists. April 21, 1975 - A bitter, tearful President Thieu resigns during a 90 minute rambling TV speech to the people of South Vietnam. Thieu reads from the letter sent by Nixon in 1972 pledging "severe retaliatory action" if South Vietnam was threatened. Thieu condemns the Paris Peace Accords, Henry Kissinger and the U.S. "The United States has not respected its promises. It is inhumane. It is untrustworthy. It is irresponsible." He is then ushered into exile in Taiwan, aided by the CIA. April 22, 1975 - Xuan Loc falls to the NVA after a two week battle with South Vietnam's 18th Army Division which inflicted over 5000 NVA casualties and delayed the 'Ho Chi Minh Campaign' for two weeks. April 23, 1975 - 100,000 NVA soldiers advance on Saigon which is now overflowing with refugees. On this same day, President Ford gives a speech at Tulane University stating the conflict in Vietnam is "a war that is finished as far as America is concerned." Chris Noel

U.S. Defense Bonds Poster April 1-21, 1951: Operations RUGGED and DAUNTLESS take Eighth Army line slightly north of the 38th parallel, where it prepares to defend against the expected enemy offensive. April 1-21, 1951: The 1st Marine Division advances north to the Hwachon Reservoir. On the following day, Chinese Communist Forces launch an all-out "Spring Offensive." The Marines halt the Chinese breakthrough of IX Corps, and by 27 April, the situation is stabilized. Mamie Van Doren April 11, 1951: President Truman relieves General MacArthur for insubordination and replaces him with General Ridgway. LTG James A. Van Fleet, the Commanding General of Second Army, is assigned as the new commander of Eighth Army. April 12, 1951: War's first major aerial duel. More than 40 MiG-15s attack a B-29 formation, shooting down two bombers. Eleven of the MiGs are destroyed, seven by B-29 gunners. Mamie Van Doren April 22-29, 1951: Chinese Communist Forces first spring offensive. Largest single battle of the Korean War. CCF launch their Spring Offensive with 250,000 men in 27 divisions. Five U.S. Army divisions (2nd, 3rd, 7th, 24th and 25th) and the 1st Marine Division participate. April 22-25, 1951: Battle of Imjin River (Gloster Hill). The 29th Infantry Brigade (UK) slows Chinese advances until further U.N. forces are able to blunt the Chinese offensive. A particularly notable stand is made by the 1st Battalion of the Glouscestershire Regiment on Hill 235 which becomes known as "Gloster Hill." The actions serve to protect the U.N. and prevent a Chinese advance on Seoul. Mamie Van Doren April 22-25, 1951: Battle of Kapyong. The 27th British Commonwealth Brigade composed largely of Australian and Canadian forces slows Chinese advances until further U.N. forces can successfully blunt the Chinese offensive. The actions serves to protect the U.N. and prevents a Chinese advance on Seoul. April 30, 1951: CCF offensive is stopped north of Seoul. Mamie Van Doren April 12, 1953: The 1st Marine Aircraft Wing (1st MAW) flies the first night close air support missions using intersecting searchlight beams to mark enemy targets. The results of this "searchlight-night fighter" team on ground targets are described as "excellent" by ground and air observers. April 16-18, 1953: Battle of Pork Chop Hill. The 17th and 31st Infantry Regiments (7th Infantry Division) hit hard and suffer heavy casualties. April 20-26, 1953: Operation Little Switch exchanges sick and wounded POWs, including 149 Americans.

Morning all. 23F under clear skies. Light NW winds this afternoon along with clear skies and a high of 42F.

Ethyl Corporation Ad - April 1942 1941: General Platt and his 'Northern Force' capture Asmara, the capital of Eritrea. A pro-axis coup, led by Raschid Ali seizes power in Iraq. *Martha Hyer 1942: As a result of the immense loss in shipping along the US eastern seaboard, since January 1942, the US authorities instituted a partial convoying system, known as the 'Bucket Brigade'. This meant that ships would sail in convoy as close to the coast as possible during daylight hours and anchor in protected harbours at night. Due to the shortage of escort vessels, continuous convoying was not possible and the 'Bucket Brigade' system did not apply to the Caribbean or Gulf of Mexico. 1942: Actor Lew Ayers is sent to a logging camp near Portland, Oregon, where he will work alongside other conscientious objectors chopping down trees and fighting forest fires. Ayres's acting career, which peaked with All Quiet on the Western Front, never recovers from the adverse publicity. Martha Hyer 1942: The Japanese force the Chinese out of Toungoo, north of Rangoon. 1942: Japanese begin landing in Dutch New Guinea. Evans Products Company - April 1944 1943: Attempting to stem inflation in the USA, President Roosevelt freezes wages, salaries, and prices. Meat, fats, canned goods, and cheese are now rationed in the US. 1944: The USAAF accidentally bombs Schaffhausen in Switzerland. The Swiss protest strongly. The Americans offer reparations. Martha Hyer 1945: The U.S. First and Ninth Armies link up at Lippstadt cutting off a third of a million German troops in the Ruhr area. The U.S. First Army enters Hamm, 40 miles Northeast of Essen. 1945: The 3rd Ukrainian Front capture Sopron in Hungary, a vital road junction between Budapest and Vienna and also reaches Wiener Neustadt as it continues its advance toward Vienna. The fighting in Breslau continues. Martha Hyer 1945: The invasion of Okinawa, known as 'Operation Iceberg' begins, consisting of the U.S. Tenth Army, the US Marine III Amphibious Corps and 1,457 ships in support. 60,000 troops land unopposed and establish an 8-mile bridgehead. Martha Hyer *Martha Hyer was born on August 10, 1924 in Fort Worth, Texas to Agnes Barnhart and Julien C. Hyer, Texas state senator and international president of the Lions Clubs, the middle of three daughters, the others named Agnes and Jeane. Her father will later become Judge Advocate with the Fifteenth Army, setting up the war crime trials in Germany. Once she finished her formal schooling, Martha played a bit role in 1946's "The Locket" (1946). Slowly, Martha began picking up roles with more and more substance. The best years for the beautiful actress began in 1954 when she played in films such as "Down Three Dark Streets" (1954), "Showdown at Abilene" (1956) and "Battle Hymn" (1957). Perhaps the best role of her long career was as "Gwen French" in 1958's "Some Came Running" (1958) in which she starred opposite Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Shirley MacLaine. As a result of her stellar role, Martha received an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress, but she lost out to Wendy Hiller in "Separate Tables" (1958). Afterwards, Martha's stint on the US silver screen's trailed off some. She did make a handful of foreign films, returning to appear in the US from time to time, but nothing compared to the pace she had in the fifties. Her last film was in 1973 in the film "The Day of the Wolves" (1973). In 1966, she married producer Hal B. Wallis and remained with him until his death in 1986. Hyer enjoyed a quiet retirement through the 1980s and 1990s. She died on May 31, 2014, at the age of 89 from natural causes, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she had lived for many years. Martha Hyer TRIVIA: Measurements: 36 1/2-23-36 (in 1956), (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine) Height: 5' 6" (1.68 m) This placid blonde was once in the running for the role of Marion Crane in Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), but lost out to Janet Leigh. Was once labeled "Universal's answer to Grace Kelly". Her classmates at Northwestern University included Cloris Leachman, Paul Lynde, Charlotte Rae, Charlton Heston, Patricia Neal and Agnes Nixon. Ethyl Corporation Ad - April 1945

Morning all. 27F under clear skies. Sunny and cold today with a chance of snow flurries tonight and a high this afternoon of 38F.

Chrysler Ad - March 1944 1939: Britain and France agree to support Poland if Germany threatens to invade. 1941: A US scientific/military team arrives in the Danish colony of Greenland, to consider the establishment of military bases there. *Martha O'Driscoll 1941: British civilian casualties: 4,259 killed and 5,557 injured. London, Portsmouth, Merseyside, Clydeside, Bristol and Plymouth all badly hit. RAF raids Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen. 1941: Italian naval forces sink the British Cruiser, HMS Bonaventure off Crete. Martha O'Driscoll 1941: The 5th Light Division engages the British 2nd Armoured Division near Mersa Brega, as it attempts to capture the town. The battle rages all day and results in the British withdrawing towards Agedabia. 1941: Major General Frederick Martin and Rear Admiral Patrick Bellinger, commanders, respectively, of the Army Air Corp and Navy in Hawaii, send a joint report to Washington warning that the Japanese may be planning an early-morning raid on the islands. Chrysler Ad - March 1944 1943: Newly built gas chamber/crematory II opens at Auschwitz. 1943: The Australian 9th Division marches through Melbourne watched by more than half a million people. Martha O'Driscoll 1944: RAF losses after 35 major attacks on German cities since the 18th November 1943 are 1,047 aircraft destroyed and 1,682 damaged. 1945: The Germans start pulling out of Holland. The French First Army crosses the Rhine for first time since Napoleon. The US Third Army reaches Siegen 20 miles East of the Rhine. 1945: The Russians enter German territory near Sopron in Hungary. The Russians capture Ratibor in Upper Silesia. Martha O'Driscoll 1945: The United States and Britain bar a Soviet supported provisional regime in Warsaw from entering the U.N. meeting in San Francisco. 1945: British 26th Division reaches the Burma Road, which ends eight months of fighting. Martha O'Driscoll *Martha O'Driscoll was born on Saturday, March 04, 1922 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Another gorgeous "B" movie blonde who came and went uneventfully in the 40s, the beautiful Martha O'Driscoll started off modeling as a child. Her parents were nonprofessionals. Trained in singing and dancing, she was discovered by choreographer Hermes Pan in a local theater production in Phoenix, which led to unbilled bits in musical movies from 1935. Once she had her foot in the door, she was groomed in more visible parts and began pitching products for Max Factor and Royal Crown Cola, among many others, in magazine ads, while such endorsements promoted her upcoming pictures in return. She attracted film offers from both Paramount and Universal studios in her twelve Hollywood years, which included musicals, silly slapstick and horror films. She appeared as "Daisy Mae" in the first screen version of "Li'l Abner" (1940) and proved a sexy foil for Abbott & Costello and Olsen & Johnson in their comedy vehicles. She played the pretty prairie flower to a couple of notable western film stars including Tim Holt, and was terrorized by the Wolfman, Dracula AND the Frankenstein Monster in her most notable feature "House of Dracula" (1945). Martha O'Driscoll In 1943, she married a Lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy but they separated ten months later. Following her last film, "Carnegie Hall" (1947) and a final divorce decree from her first marriage, she married a second time to Chicago businessman Arthur Appleton, heir to an industrial empire, and retired completely. She was only 25. In Chicago, she became one of the city's more civic-minded leaders, an interest which would last for more than four decades. She also served as an executive for many committees, including the Sarah Siddons Society, and on the Board of Directors for a few of her husband's companies. From time to time, she even appeared in nostalgia conventions. Martha O'Driscoll died on November 3, 1998, in Ocala, Florida. Sperry Corporation Ad - March 1944