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1-9 of 9
- Attractive with plenty of personality and versatility, dancer Consuela Harris was the sensational and considered best of the shake, hot, swinging dancers in the 1930s. Consuela was a New York headliner and the darling of the night club patrons and crowds in the East and West who raved over her charm and artistry. She performed at the famous Sebastian's Cotton Club in California and other New York highlights. She was one of the rare dancers who told a story with her dancing. Flexible and graceful she was. Consuela appeared showing off her dancing talents in two Oscar Micheaux films, "Swing" from 1938 and God's Stepchildren also from 1938. She was also in the movie, "Harlem on the Prairie" with Herb Jeffries. Hopefully more info will surface on this great dancer.
- Jim Lowe was born on 25 June 1926 in Fort Worth, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for State Fair (1962). He died on 28 May 2000 in the USA.
- Vern Whaley was born in 1908 in Valley Junction, Iowa, USA. He died on May 28, 2000 in Skokie, Illinois, USA.
Vern Whaley was a picture editor for the old Chicago American for more than two decades and a sportswriter who covered boxing for the Chicago Evening Post in the late 1920s.
The son of a Rock Island railroad engineer, Whaley was born in Valley Junction, Iowa. He went on to become a Chicago journalist and, according to good friend and fellow journalist John O'Brien, "a virtual walking historian."
"He was always full of stories," said O'Brien, a former Chicago Tribune reporter who got to know Whaley when they were members of the Chicago Press Veterans' Association.
"He was legendary. When other journalists or people would come to Chicago looking for stories about Al Capone or Chicago, Vern Whaley would always be there to oblige them."
For example, there was the time when Capone, an avid sports fan, spotted Whaley at a sports writers' luncheon inside the Metropole Hotel and handed him a 50-cent Cuban cigar, a very expensive smoke at the time. Whaley was hooked, until age 80, when he decided to stop smoking them "cold turkey," O'Brien said.
"But after that day, he never smoked anything less than a Cuban cigar," O'Brien said. "And his home, it was like a museum. It was a reflection of his time and era, of the Great Depression, of the Prohibition Era. He was particularly proud of a slot machine. It was seized by police in some vice raid ... way back when."
Whaley started his career as a sportswriter for the Des Moines Register from 1924 to 1928. It was an experience that helped land him a job as an editor and sportswriter at the Chicago Evening Post, where he worked from 1928 to 1930 covering prominent boxing matches and writing a popular column called "Knockout Drops."
He was a sportswriter at a time when reporters and writers occasionally socialized with the people they covered. And so it came to be that boxer Jack Dempsey helped finance Whaley's wedding in 1929 after Whaley lost $500 in savings, according to his son Dr. John V. Whaley. "That was the story that he would tell anybody who would listen," said Dr. Whaley. "My poor mother had to listen to that for 66 years of marriage. In fact, the only way she could get out of it was by preceding him in death four years ago."
Most of Whaley's career was spent at the Chicago American, a daily newspaper in Chicago, where he was a picture editor for 21 years. One day, in the late 1950s, Whaley decided to place several potted plants inside several potholes along a stretch of city street. The headline the next day read: "Mayor Daley's New Plan for Beautifying Chicago's Streets."
Hours after the newspaper hit the stand, Mayor Daley's street crews were filling the holes.
Whaley was inducted into the Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame in May 1998. In 1992, he was named Chicago Press Veteran of the Year by the Press Veterans' Association of Chicago.
In his later years, some of Whaley's thoughts and feelings on what it was like to be a reporter during the Depression were tape recorded. They are now part of the Encyclopaedia Britannica audio-visual library. He has also appeared in several documentaries in Europe and the United States about Chicago's Roaring '20s. - Producer
- Additional Crew
Robert Fryer was born on 18 November 1920 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. He was a producer, known for The Boys from Brazil (1978), The Shining (1980) and The Boston Strangler (1968). He died on 28 May 2000 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Dennis Sweeting was born on 23 November 1915 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He was an actor, known for Les fils de la liberté (1981), Seaway (1965) and Quentin Durgens, M.P. (1966). He died on 28 May 2000 in Lindsay, Ontario, Canada.
- Carolyn Casey was born on 28 July 1978 in Lawton, Oklahoma, USA. She died on 28 May 2000 in College Station, Texas, USA.
- Eric Turner was born on 20 September 1968 in Ventura, California, USA. He died on 28 May 2000 in Thousand Oaks, California, USA.
- Writer
- Actor
- Director
Jean Curtelin was born on 25 December 1932 in Lyon, Rhône, France. He was a writer and actor, known for The Prize of Peril (1983), Suivez mon regard (1986) and Mission spéciale à Caracas (1965). He died on 28 May 2000 in Paris, France.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Jerry Brandow was born on 20 November 1918 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for Zacharia Farted (1998), Meet Me After the Show (1951) and She's Back on Broadway (1953). He died on 28 May 2000 in Los Angeles, California, USA.