l2910 On a rainy December morning in 1942, a hotel chambermaid found a beautiful woman barely conscious in a ground-floor suite at the Dorchester Hotel in London. An empty bottle of sleeping pills lay beside the bed. Within a day, the woman was dead. Within a week, Britain’s most powerful press baron arrived at her door, … Read more
On a bright London morning in the spring of 1959, Kay Kendall lay in a private room at the London Clinic, surrounded by flowers she was told were get-well gifts from admirers. At 32, she was still breathtakingly beautiful, her auburn hair spread across the pillow, her famous cheekbones casting soft shadows. She was laughing, … Read more
When Peggy Emmons died suddenly in 2007, the man widely considered the greatest steel guitar player in history simply stopped playing. Buddy Emmons, known throughout the music world as “The Big E,” had spent more than 50 years engineering some of the most celebrated sounds in country music. But after the loss of his wife, … Read more
Roddy McDowall, best remembered for his role as Caesar in the original Planet of the Apes film series, died of lung cancer on October 3, 1998, at his home. The actor, who reportedly died peacefully, was honored with a rose garden named after him at the Motion Picture Retirement Home. Born on September 17, 1928, … Read more
In 1969, the federal government declared Chattanooga, Tennessee, home to the filthiest air in the United States. Soot from iron foundries and chemical plants fell so thick over downtown that on some days drivers turned on their headlights at noon. Doctors reported respiratory disease at rates that alarmed federal health officials, families who could afford … Read more
Stanley Myron Handleman, a soft-spoken Brooklyn comedian known for his surreal deadpan humor and trademark flat newsboy cap, died of a heart attack on August 5, 2007, at Mission Community Hospital in Panorama City, California. He was 77 years old. Born on November 21, 1929, in Brooklyn, Handleman was the son of a furrier and … Read more
In August 1899, a woman returned to the West Virginia Hospital for the Insane, where she had once been a patient, to testify against its superintendent. Her name was Mary L. Somerville. The board assured her she would be protected no matter what she said. Three years earlier, Somerville had arrived at the same sandstone … Read more
Paul Davis wrote some of the most enduring pop and country hits of the 1970s and 1980s, yet his name rarely appears in discussions about the greatest songwriters of his era. Despite scoring a record-breaking chart smash with “I Go Crazy” and later writing award-winning country songs in Nashville, Davis never received the recognition many … Read more
A retired man who now spends his days combing through county archives has revealed how he built a digital record of America’s long-forgotten state hospital system—by reading the paperwork almost no one else touches. The man, who goes by Wendell Roe, explained that the name is not the one he was born with. He said … Read more
In the spring of 1944, as Germany retreated across the Eastern Front, the Soviet High Command prepared the operation intended to break the German army in the East: a massive assault on Army Group Center in Belarus. Stalin favored a single breakthrough, standard doctrine. Every commander in the room knew better than to disagree. Except … Read more