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1. Ridgefield, Connecticut – Ridgefield is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. Situated in the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains, the 300-year-old community had a population of 24,638 at the 2010 census, the town center, which was formerly a borough, is defined by the U. S. Census Bureau as a census-designated place. Ridgefield was first settled by English colonists from Norwalk and Milford in 1708, the town was incorporated under a royal charter from the Connecticut General Assembly issued in 1709. The most notable 18th-century event was the Battle of Ridgefield on April 27,1777 and they faced a larger British force that had landed at Westport and was returning from a raid on the colonial supply depot in Danbury. Today, the dead from both sides are buried together in a cemetery on Main Street on the right of the entrance to Casagmo condominiums. foes in arms. The Keeler Tavern, an inn and museum, features a British cannonball still lodged in the side of the building. There are many landmarks from the Revolutionary War in the town. In the summer of 1781, the French army under the Comte de Rochambeau marched through Connecticut, encamping in the Ridgebury section of town, for much of its three centuries, Ridgefield was a farming community. Among the important families in the 19th century were the Rockwells and Lounsburys and they produced two Connecticut governors, George Lounsbury and Phineas Lounsbury. The Ridgefield Veterans Memorial Community Center on Main Street, also called the Lounsbury House, was built by Gov. Phineas Chapman Lounsbury around 1896 as his primary residence, the Lounsbury Farm near the Florida section of Ridgefield is one of the only remaining operational farms in Ridgefield. These and dozens of other estates became unaffordable and unwieldy during and after the Great Depression, in their place came subdivisions of one- and 2-acre lots that turned the town into a suburban, bedroom community in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. However, strong planning and zoning has maintained much of the 19th- and early 20th-century charm of the town, in 1946, Ridgefield was one of the locations considered for the United Nations secretariat building, but was not chosen due to its relative inaccessibility. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has an area of 35.0 square miles, of which 34.4 square miles is land and 0.5 square miles. The town is bordered by the towns of North Salem and Lewisboro in Westchester County, New York to the west, Danbury to the north, Wilton to the south, the town has a Metro-North Railroad station called Branchville in the Branchville corner of town. The Census designated place corresponding to the center covers a total area of 6.4 square miles. Ridgefield consists of hilly, rocky terrain, ranging from 1,060 feet above sea level to 342 feet at Branchville and its average village elevation is 725 feet above sea level. The landscape is strewn with countless rocks deposited by glaciers, and among the bodies of water is Round Pond. A particularly interesting feature is Camerons Line, named for Eugene N. Cameron and this fault line was formed some 250 million years ago by the collision of Proto North America and Proto Africa, and there are still occasional light earthquakes felt along its length
2. Larry Adler – Lawrence Larry Cecil Adler was an American musician, one of the worlds most skilled harmonica players. Ralph Vaughan Williams, Malcolm Arnold, Darius Milhaud and Arthur Benjamin composed for him, during his later career he collaborated with Sting, Elton John, Kate Bush and Cerys Matthews. Adler was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to Sadie Hack and he graduated from Baltimore City College high school. He taught himself harmonica, which he called a mouth-organ, in 1927, he won a contest sponsored by the Baltimore Sun, playing a Beethoven minuet, and a year later he ran away from home to New York. From there, he was hired by Florenz Ziegfeld and then by Lew Leslie again as an urchin and he broke the typecasting and appeared in a dinner jacket in the 1934 Paramount film Many Happy Returns, and was hired by theatrical producer C. B. He became a star in the United Kingdom and the Empire and he recorded all except the Scott Serenade, some more than once. Other works he played in harmonica arrangements were by Bartók, Beethoven, Debussy, Falla, Gershwin, Mozart, Poulenc, Ravel, Stravinsky and Walton. During the 1940s, Adler and the dancer, Paul Draper, formed an act and toured nationally and internationally, one popular number was Gershwins I Got Rhythm. After the blacklisting and a libel suit decided in 1950, he moved to the United Kingdom in 1951 and settled in London. Another source indicates he stayed in London from 1949, the 1953 film Genevieve brought him an Oscar nomination for his work on the soundtrack, and great wealth. His name was removed from the credits in the United States due to blacklisting. His other film scores included A Cry from the Streets, The Hellions, The Hook, King & Country and he also scored a hit with the theme song of the French Jacques Becker movie Touchez pas au grisbi with Jean Gabin, written by Jean Wiener. In 1959, a reviewer from the Village Voice called Adler a great artist after watching his twice-nightly performances at the Village Gate. In 1994, for his 80th birthday, Adler and George Martin produced an album of George Gershwin songs, The Glory of Gershwin, the Glory of Gershwin reached number 2 in the UK albums chart in 1994. Adler was a musician and showman, concerts to support The Glory of Gershwin showed he was a competent pianist. He opened each performance with Gershwins Summertime, playing piano and harmonica simultaneously, Adler appeared in five movies, including Sidewalks of London, in which he played a harmonica virtuoso named Constantine. His other film appearances were in Three Daring Daughters playing himself, Music for Millions playing Larry, The Singing Marine playing Larry and he was a prolific letter writer, his correspondence with Private Eye becoming popular in the United Kingdom. Adler wrote an autobiography — entitled It Aint Necessarily So — in 1985 and he appeared on the Jack Benny radio program several times, entertaining disabled soldiers in the USA during World War II
3. Larry Aldrich – Larry Aldrich was an American fashion designer, art collector, and founder of the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Aldrich began working in the trade in 1924. He began producing garments under his own label in the 1940s and he was president of the New York Couture Group. He began collecting art in 1937, though initially it was just a circumstantial act and he was married in 1940 and he and his wife bought a weekend home in Ridgefield, Connecticut. His wife had an interest in painting and, concerned about her boredom during the week while he was in New York, he began bringing home literature about art, when World War II ended, air travel to Paris resumed. Aldrich had already concluded he would like to acquire art and in 1947, he. His collection grew to be substantial, on his way out to buy cigarettes one day, he spied a building for sale. Seeing that it had high ceilings, he thought it would work well as a place to house his art collection. After investing a substantial sum to renovate, he turned it into a museum, initially called the Old Hundred and he soon changed it, however, because the name did not indicate the contemporary character of the contents. He founded the Larry Aldrich Museum in 1964, the Museum awards an annual Larry Aldrich Award
4. Peggy Bacon – Margaret Frances Peggy Bacon was an American printmaker, illustrator, painter and writer. Bacon was known for her humorous and ironic etchings and drawings, Bacon was born on May 2,1895 in Ridgefield, Connecticut to Charles Roswell Bacon and Elizabeth Chase Bacon. She was the first of three children but raised a child after her two younger brothers died in infancy. Bacons parents were artists and met while attending the Art Students League in New York. Her father, a boy for Tiffanys during his childhood. Both of her parents were well read, they loved reading Henry James. Bacons parents moved frequently and would have tutors for Bacon wherever they went, the family lived in Connecticut but spent winters in New York and in the winter of 1902 they lived in Nassau, Bahamas. They also spent time in Pas de Calais and London, between the ages of 9 and 11 Bacon lived with her parents in France, first in Paris and then in a house in Picardy at Montreaux-sur-Mer. Bacon described her childhood as absolutely delightful. Her youth was very sheltered, she was accompanied by a governess. The only time she really had freedom from this life was when her family was living in Nassau because her parents. At the age of fourteen, Bacon began attending Kent Place School, in 1913, the same year she graduated, Bacons father killed himself in his studio in New York. He had overcome alcoholism but was susceptible to bouts of depression, after this devastating event Bacon and her mother moved to New York City and lived on the West Side in the home of family friends. Bacon had always interested in art and from a very young age her early artistic interests were encouraged and supported by her parents. Although Bacon started drawing when she was a year and a half old, at the end of 1913, Bacon first studied art at the School of Applied Design for Women but disliked it calling it, the prissiest, silliest place that ever was. She transferred after a few weeks to the School of Fine and Applied Arts on the West Wide where she took classes in illustration, during the summer of 1914 Bacon attended Jonas Lies landscape class in Port Jefferson, Long Island. From 1915-1920 Bacon studied painting with Kenneth Hayes Miller, John Sloan, George Bellows, while at the League, Bacon became friends with several other artists. Looking back at her time at the League Bacon said, The years at the Art Students League were an important chunk of life to me
5. Silvio Bedini – Silvio Bedini was an American historian, specialising in early scientific instruments. He was Historian Emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution, where he served on the staff for twenty-five years. Bedini was born in Ridgefield, Connecticut in 1917, by 1965, Bedini became Assistant Director of the Museum of History and Technology, and in 1972 was appointed Deputy Director of the National Museum of History and Technology. Afterwards, Bedini served as Historian Emeritus at the Smithsonian, in 2000, in Munich, Germany he was awarded the Leonardo da Vinci Medal, the highest recognition from the Society of the History of Technology. Bedini was completing his twenty-third book, Johann Philipp Trefler, Clockmaker of Augsburg, Bulletin of the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, reprinted as pamphlet. Agent for the Archduke, Another chapter in the story of Johann Phillip Treffler, Clockmaker of Augsburg, xIVth and XVth century public clocks of the papal marches. Galileo Galilei and time measurement, A re-examination of pertinent documents, the scent of time, A study of the use of fire and incense for time measurement in Oriental countries. C. Early American Scientific Instruments and Their Makers, the makers of Galileos scientific instruments. The Astrarium of Giovanni de Dondi from Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, Volume 56, sundials and dialling, A bibliography of Italian and other references. Benjamin Banneker and the survey of the District of Columbia,1791, the Life of Benjamin Banneker, The Definitive Biography of the First Black Man of Science. Moon Mans Greatest Adventure (with Wernher von, Whipple, Fred L. and Thomas, thinkers and tinkers, Early American men of science. Introduction—the Vaticans astronomical paintings and the Institute of the Sciences of Bologna, thinkers and Tinkers, Early American Men of Science. Declaration of Independence Desk, Relic of Revolution, thinkers and Tinkers, Early Men of Science. At the Sign of the Compass and Quadrant, The Life, the scientific instruments of the Lewis and Clark expedition, Great Plains Quarterly. Thomas Jefferson and His Copying Machines, clockwork cosmos, Bernardo Facini and the Farnese planisferologio. Thomas Jefferson and American vertebrate paleontology, Early American Scientific Instruments and Their Makers. The pulse of time, Galileo Galilei, the determination of longitude, Science and Instruments in Seventeenth-Century Italy. The Trail of Time, Time Measurement with Incense in East Asia, ISBN 0-521-37482-0 The Mace and the Gavel, Symbols of Government in America
6. Wayne Boring – Wayne Boring was an American comic book artist best known for his work on Superman from the late 1940s to 1950s. He occasionally used the pseudonym Jack Harmon, Boring attended the Minnesota School of Art and the Chicago Art Institute. In 1937, he began ghosting on such features as Slam Bradley. In 1942, the by-then-named National Comics hired Boring as a staff artist, the two would work together for nearly 20 years. During this mid-1940s period, he signed his work for rival Novelty Press Blue Bolt Comics as Jack Harmon. Borings Superman Covers Atom Bomb Test, cover for Action Comics #101 was an early example of nuclear weapons in popular culture. A more detailed origin story for Superman by Boring and writer Bill Finger was presented in Superman #53 to mark the tenth anniversary. Boring co-created the Fortress of Solitude in Action Comics #241 with writer Jerry Coleman, Boring was the primary Superman comic-book penciller through the 1950s. Swan succeeded him the following decade, though Boring returned for sporadic guest appearances in the early 1960s and then again in late 1966 and early 1967. Boring was let go from DC in 1967, along with artists from the 1930s and 1940s. From 1968 to 1972, Boring ghosted backgrounds for Hal Fosters Prince Valiant Sunday comic strip, and took over the art on writer Sam Leffs 1961–71 United Feature Syndicate strip Davy Jones. Afterward, Boring did a small amount of work on Marvel Comics Captain Marvel, then left the field to semi-retire as a security guard. He briefly returned to DC to pencil some stories in All-Star Squadron Annual #3, Superman #402, in 1985, DC Comics named Boring as one of the honorees in the companys 50th anniversary publication Fifty Who Made DC Great. His final work was All-Star Squadron #64 a recreation of Superman #19 and he was posthumously inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2007. Archived from the original on August 23,2011, Wayne Boring at the Comic Book DB Wayne Boring at Mikes Amazing World of Comics Wayne Boring at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
7. Orlando Busino – Orlando Busino is a US artist whose cartoons have appeared in McCalls, Readers Digest, Good Housekeeping, Saturday Evening Post, and many other magazines. Among his creations are Gus, the series of cartoons about a large dog that has appeared in Boys Life magazine. Busino grew up in Binghamton, New York and his interest in cartooning started at the age of 9 and by age 14 he sold his first cartoon and gag to the New York Daily Mirror. Busino also won cartoon contests in Open Road for Boys Magazine, in High School, Orlando drew cartoons for the school newspaper, including a regular called Bulldog, with Central, the Wonder Dog, a super-hero style comic strip. He was drafted into the United States Army and served in Panama at the Albrook Air Force Station for twenty months from 1945-1947, while there he drew for the army unit newspaper. After leaving the army, Busino went to Triple Cities College and then the State University of Iowa and he drew cartoons both at the Triple Cities College student newspaper and at The Daily Iowan. After a year of working there, he sold his first cartoon to the Saturday Evening Post, Busino also worked for Archie Comics working with George Gladir in the 1960s, doing covers, illustrations, and stories for Tales Calculated To Drive You Bats. This work was reprinted in Archies Madhouse. In addition to contributing cartoons to a number of leading magazines, about the antics of a large white dog named Gus, the cartoon first appeared in Boys Life in January 1970. It look over the spot on the Think & Grin page and has remained there ever since. Gus appeared on the cover of Boys Life in December 1981 and he received the National Cartoonist Society Gag Cartoon Award for 1965,1967, and 1968 for his work. His cartoons have been anthologized in two books, Good Boy. and Other Animal Cartoons and Oh, Gus
8. David Cassidy – David Bruce Cassidy is a retired American actor, singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He later had a career in acting and music. Cassidy was born at Flower Fifth Avenue Hospital in New York City and his father was of half-Irish and half-German ancestry, and his mother was of mostly Colonial American descent, along with smaller amounts of Irish and Swiss. Some of his mothers ancestors were among the founders of Newark, as his parents were frequently touring on the road, he spent his early years being raised by his maternal grandparents in a middle-class neighborhood in West Orange, New Jersey. In 1956, he found out from neighbors children that his parents had been divorced for two years and had not told him. Davids parents had decided because he was at such a young age and they were gone often with theater productions and home life remained the same. In 1956, his father married singer and actress Shirley Jones, David remained there seeking fame as an actor/musician while simultaneously working half-days in the mailroom of a textile firm. He moved out when his career began to flourish, Cassidys father Jack is credited with setting his son up with his first manager. Aarons had represented Jack and Shirley Jones for several years prior, aarons became an authority figure and close friend to Cassidy, and proved to be the fighting force behind his on-screen success. On January 2,1969, Cassidy made his debut in the Broadway musical The Fig Leaves Are Falling. It closed after four performances, but a casting director saw the show, in 1969, he moved to Los Angeles. After signing with Universal Studios in 1969, Cassidy was featured in episodes of the TV series Ironside, Marcus Welby, M. D. Adam-12, and Bonanza. In 1970, he took the part of Keith Partridge, son of Shirley Partridge, shortly after production began, though, Cassidy convinced music producer Wes Farrell that he was good enough and he was promoted to lead singer for the shows recordings. Once I Think I Love You became a hit, Cassidy began work on solo albums, as well. Within the first year, he had produced his own single, Cherish and he began tours that featured Partridge tunes and his own hits. Ten albums by The Partridge Family and five albums were produced during the show. Internationally, Cassidys solo career eclipsed the already success of The Partridge Family. He became an instant drawcard with spectacular sellout concert successes in major arenas around the world and these concerts produced mass hysteria, resulting in the media coining the term Cassidymania
9. Roz Chast – Rosalind Roz Chast is an American cartoonist and a staff cartoonist for The New Yorker. She grew up in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, the child of an assistant principal. Her earliest cartoons were published in Christopher Street and The Village Voice, since 1978, she has published more than 800 cartoons in The New Yorker. She also publishes cartoons in Scientific American and the Harvard Business Review, in recognition of her work, Comics Alliance listed Chast as one of twelve women cartoonists deserving of lifetime achievement recognition. Chast is a graduate of Midwood High School in Brooklyn and her parents were children of the Depression, and she has spoken about their extreme frugality. She first attended Kirkland College and then studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and she also holds honorary doctorates from Pratt Institute and Dartmouth College, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Chasts subjects often deal with domestic and family life and her comics reflect a conspiracy of inanimate objects, an expression she credits to her mother. Her first New Yorker cartoon showed a collection of Little Things, strangely named, oddly shaped small objects such as chent, spak. A significant part of the humor in Chasts cartoons appears in the background and her New Yorker cartoons began as small black-and-white panels, but increasingly she has been using color and her work now often appears over several pages. Her first cover for The New Yorker was on August 4,1986, in 2006, Theories of Everything, Selected Collected and Health-Inspected Cartoons, 1978–2006 was published, collecting most of her cartoons from The New Yorker and other periodicals. One characteristic of her books is that the photo is always a cartoon she draws of, presumably. The title page, including the Library of Congress cataloging information, is also hand-lettered by Chast and she is represented by the Danese/Corey gallery in Chelsea, New York City. She lives in Ridgefield, Connecticut with her husband, humor writer Bill Franzen,2014 Kirkus Prize winner for Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant. 2014 National Book Critics Circle Award winner for Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant,2015 Reuben Award, Cartoonist of the Year National Cartoonists Society 2015 Heinz Award for the Arts and Humanities Chast, Roz. The Talk of the Town, Postscript, Leo Cullum, the Best American Comics 2016 Around the Clock Roz Chast, Cartoon Memoirs Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant
10. Fanny Crosby – Frances Jane van Alstyne, more commonly known as Fanny Crosby, was an American mission worker, poet, lyricist, and composer. She was a member of the Sixth Avenue Bible Baptist Church in Brooklyn, New York, and she wrote many hymns together with her minister Robert Lowry. She was one of the most prolific hymnists in history, writing more than 8,000 hymns and gospel songs, with more than 100 million copies printed and she is also known for her teaching and her rescue mission work. By the end of the 19th century, she was a household name, Crosby was known as the Queen of Gospel Song Writers and as the Mother of modern congregational singing in America, with most American hymnals containing her work. With the possible exception of Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley, Crosby has generally represented by the largest number of hymns of any writer of the twentieth century in nonliturgical hymnals. Her gospel songs were paradigmatic of all music, and Ira Sankey attributed the success of the Moody. Some of Crosbys best-known songs include Pass Me Not, O Gentle Saviour, Blessed Assurance, Jesus Is Tenderly Calling You Home, Praise Him, Praise Him, Rescue the Perishing, and To God Be the Glory. Some publishers were hesitant to have so many hymns by one person in their hymnals, Crosby wrote more than 1,000 secular poems and had four books of poetry published, as well as two best-selling autobiographies. She was committed to Christian rescue missions and was known for her public speaking, Frances Jane Crosby was born on March 24,1820 in the village of Brewster, about 50 miles north of New York City. She was the child of John Crosby and his second wife Mercy Crosby. He was a widower who had a daughter from his first marriage, Bernard Ruffin, John and Mercy were possibly first cousins, however, by the time Fanny Crosby came to write her memoirs, the fact that her mother and father were related. Had become a source of embarrassment, and she maintained that she did not know anything about his lineage, Crosby was proud of her Puritan heritage. She was also a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Bridgeport, Connecticut, through Simon Crosby, Fanny was also a relative of Presbyterian minister Howard Crosby and his neoabolitionist son Ernest Howard Crosby, as well as singers Bing Crosby and his brother Bob. At six weeks old, Crosby caught a cold and developed inflammation of the eyes, mustard poultices were applied to treat the discharges. John Crosby died in November 1820 when Fanny was only six months old, so she was raised by her mother and maternal grandmother Eunice Paddock Crosby. These women grounded her in Christian principles, helping her memorize long passages from the Bible, when Crosby was three, the family moved to North Salem, New York where Eunice had been raised. In April 1825, she was examined by Valentine Mott, who concluded that her condition was inoperable, at age eight, Crosby wrote her first poem which described her condition. She later remarked, It seemed intended by the providence of God that I should be blind all my life
11. Jeremiah Donovan – Jeremiah Donovan was a saloon owner and Democratic politician in Norwalk, Connecticut. He was a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1903 and 1904 and he served in the Connecticut Senate representing the 26th District from 1905 to 1909, and from 1911 to 1913. He served in the United States House of Representatives from Connecticuts 4th congressional district from 1913 to 1915 and he was the 17th mayor of the city of Norwalk, Connecticut from 1917 to 1921. He was born in Ridgefield, Connecticut where he attended the schools and was graduated from Ridgefield Academy. He moved to South Norwalk in 1870 and he engaged in the retail liquor business until 1898 when he retired. His saloon at the corner of Washington and Water streets is still in business, now named Donovans, Donovan was a member of the Norwalk city council and also served as deputy sheriff. Donovan was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention from 1896 to 1916 and he was a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1903 and 1904 and served in the Connecticut Senate 1905-1909. He was elected to the Sixty-third Congress from March 4,1913 to March 3,1915 and he was the mayor of the city of Norwalk, Connecticut 1917-1921. He retired before dying in Norwalk, Connecticut in 1935 and he was buried at St. John’s Cemetery. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, jeremiah Donovan at Find a Grave
12. Ralph Edwards – Ralph Livingstone Edwards was an American radio and television host, radio producer, and television producer, best known for his radio-TV game shows Truth or Consequences and This Is Your Life. Born in Merino, Colorado, Edwards worked for KROW Radio in Oakland, after graduating from high school in 1931, he worked his way through college at the University of California, Berkeley, earning a B. A. in English in 1935. While there, he worked at every job from janitor to producer at Oaklands KTAB, now KSFO. Failing to get a job as a school teacher, he worked at KFRC and then hitchhiked across the country to New York City. The young director had an assured, professional manner, and in a few years he was established as a nationally famous announcer. It was Edwards who introduced Major Bowes every week on the Original Amateur Hour, Edwards perfected a chuckling delivery, sounding as though he was in the midst of telling a very funny story. This laugh in the voice technique served him well when 20th Century Fox hired him to narrate the coming-attractions trailers for Laurel and he later used the conspiratorial chuckle frequently when surprising someone on his programs. Edwards was the second host of the NBC radio childrens talent show The Horn and he appeared in a few films, including Radio Stars On Parade with the comedy team of Wally Brown and Alan Carney, and Ill Cry Tomorrow with Susan Hayward. Truth or Consequences started out as a game show that premiered on NBC Radio in March 1940. From the start contestants preferred to miss the question, with Edwards commenting Most of the American people are darned good sports, commercials were $9 for 10 minutes. The show was based in New York, with Allen as announcer. After the U. S. entered World War II in late 1941, causing TV programming to be suspended, its radio run started on CBS, Edwards and Allens home network, then moved to NBC. Occasionally the show played for sentiment, as contestants were surprised on stage by a sweetheart in the military, Truth or Consequences, New Mexico was named after the show following Edwards promise to broadcast the show from the first city that renamed itself. The city in southern New Mexico features several parks and facilities that bear his name. Beginning in 1950 and continuing for the next 50 years, Edwards traveled to city during the first weekend of May every year. Edwards and the Truth or Consequences radio show were featured in a Superman story in Action Comics #127, in 1948 Edwards created, produced, and hosted This Is Your Life on NBC Radio, moving to NBC-TV in 1952-1961. Each week Edwards would surprise some unsuspecting person and review the subjects personal and professional life in front of the TV audience, the show drew great interest from viewers, partly because the identity of the subject wasnt revealed until the show went live. Throughout the half-hour Edwards would guide the narrative of the show, ushering visitors on and off stage, Edwards was showman enough to draw upon his Truth or Consequences experience, emphasizing the sentimental elements that appealed to viewers and listeners at home
13. Chris Elliott – Christopher Nash Chris Elliott is an American actor, comedian, and writer. He has also starred in such as Cabin Boy, Theres Something About Mary, Scary Movie 2. He is currently starring as Roland Schitt on CBC Televisions Schitts Creek. Elliott was born in New York City, and is the youngest of five children of Lee, a model and TV director, and Bob Elliott and he grew up on the Upper East Side. He attended the National Theater Institute at the Eugene ONeill Theater Center in the spring of 1979, Elliott became known in the mid-to-late 1980s, when he was a writer and performer on Late Night with David Letterman, playing an assortment of recurring quirky, oddball characters. His characters on the included, The Regulator Guy – a parody of the The Terminator films. The Regulator Guy spoke with a vaguely Germanic accent and claimed to be from the future, the Regulator Guy segments were usually pre-taped and presented by Letterman as the trailer for an upcoming television series. The font used for the title was similar to the font used for the then-popular American television series The Equalizer, in the Regulator Guys only live, on-stage appearance, Elliott, carried by wires, flew over the audience via jet pack onto the Late Night set. The jet pack prop appeared to malfunction, which the Regulator Guy then blamed for ruining his dramatic appearance. The Fugitive Guy – a parody of the TV series The Fugitive The Panicky Guy – Elliott would pretend to be an audience member, once in the hallway he would be run over and crushed by an advancing floor waxer, with his hands raised in terror. In one variation, he played a German Panicky Guy in Lederhosen, marlon Brando – a parody of Brando, whom Elliott portrays as a semi-deranged man who performs a banana dance to the tune of Alley Cat. Chris Elliott, Jr. – a spoof of talk-show host Morton Downey, the miracle was the behind-the-scenes work needed to bring his character to life and others. In 1986 Elliott starred in the Cinemax special FDR, A One Man Show, a spoof comedy about the life and times of the president. He looked and sounded nothing like the man, he portrayed events from Roosevelts life that never happened, such as a Japanese bombing of the White House, by the end of the show, he had performed Gallaghers shtick of smashing watermelons and other soft fruits on stage. Many of Elliotts early film roles were as an actor in non-comedies such as Michael Manns Manhunter. In 1990, Elliott created and starred in his own sitcom, Elliotts real-life father, Bob Elliott, appeared in the show as Chris father. The January 1999 issue of TV Guide called the Zoo Animals on Wheels episode the 19th funniest TV moment of all time. In 1993, Elliott teamed up with producer Brad Hall and directed a series of acclaimed short films that Elliott showed when appearing on Late Show with David Letterman
14. Howard Fast – Howard Melvin Fast was an American novelist and television writer. Fast also wrote under the pen names E. V. Cunningham, Fast was born in New York City. His mother, Ida, was a British immigrant, and his father, when his mother died in 1923 and his father became unemployed, Howards youngest brother, Julius, went to live with relatives, while he and his older brother Jerome worked by selling newspapers. He credited his early reading to his part-time job in the New York Public Library. Fast began writing at an early age, while hitchhiking and riding railroads around the country to find odd jobs, he wrote his first novel, Two Valleys, published in 1933 when he was 18. His first popular work was Citizen Tom Paine, an account of the life of Thomas Paine. S. Senate and battles other former slaves and white sharecroppers to keep the land that they tended all their lives, Fast is the author of the prominent Why the Fifth Amendment. This essay explains in detail the purpose of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, Fast effectively uses the context of the Red Scare to illustrate the purpose of the Fifth. Fast spent World War II working with the United States Office of War Information and it was while he was at Mill Point Federal Prison that Fast began writing his most famous work, Spartacus, a novel about an uprising among Roman slaves. Blacklisted by major publishing houses following his release from prison, Fast was forced to publish the novel himself, by the standards of a selfpublished book, it was a great success, going through seven printings in the first four months of publication. He subsequently established the Blue Heron Press, which allowed him to publishing under his own name throughout the period of his blacklisting. In 1952, Fast ran for Congress on the American Labor Party ticket, during the 1950s he also worked for the Communist newspaper, the Daily Worker. In 1953, he was awarded the Stalin Peace Prize, later that decade, Fast broke with the Party over issues of conditions in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. In the mid-1950s, Fast moved with his family to Teaneck, in 1974, Fast and his family moved to California, where he wrote television scripts, including such television programs as How the West Was Won. In 1977, he published The Immigrants, the first of a series of novels. He married his first wife, Bette Cohen, on June 6,1937 and their children were Jonathan and Rachel. In 1999, he married Mercedes OConnor, who already had three sons and he died in Old Greenwich, Connecticut. Fasts son Jonathan Fast, himself a novelist, was married to novelist Erica Jong, the writer Julius Fast was his younger brother
15. Harvey Fierstein – Harvey Forbes Fierstein is an American actor, playwright, and voice actor. Fierstein has won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his own play Torch Song Trilogy and the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for playing Edna Turnblad in Hairspray. He also wrote the book for the musical La Cage aux Folles, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical and he was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2007. Fierstein was born to Eastern European Jewish immigrants in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Jacqueline Harriet, a librarian, and Irving Fierstein. Fierstein was raised in Conservative Judaism and he is non-observant and considers himself an atheist. Fierstein occasionally writes columns about gay issues and he was openly gay at a time when very few celebrities were. His careers as a comic and female impersonator are mostly behind him. The gravel-voiced actor is best known for the play and film Torch Song Trilogy, Fierstein also wrote the book for La Cage aux Folles, winning another Tony Award, this time for Best Book of a Musical, and a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Book. Legs Diamond, his 1988 collaboration with Peter Allen, was a critical and commercial failure and his other playwriting credits include Safe Sex, Spookhouse, and Forget Him. In 2007, Fierstein wrote the book to the musical A Catered Affair in which he also starred, after tryouts at San Diegos Old Globe Theatre in September 2007, it opened on Broadway April 17,2008 and closed on July 27,2008. He received a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Book of a Musical, Fierstein wrote the book for the stage musical Newsies, along with Alan Menken and Jack Feldman. The musical opened on Broadway in March 2012, Fierstein was nominated for the Tony Award for Book of a Musical. Fierstein wrote the book for a musical version of the film Kinky Boots with music. After a fall 2012 run at the Bank of America Theatre in Chicago it opened at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on Broadway in April 2013, the musical was nominated for thirteen 2013 Tony Awards and won six, including best musical. His play, Casa Valentina was produced on Broadway by the Manhattan Theatre Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, the play opened in April 2014 and closed in June 2014. It was directed by Joe Mantello, with a cast that featured Patrick Page as George/Valentina, John Cullum, Fierstein wrote the teleplay for The Wiz Live. NBC TV broadcast on December 3,2015, featuring Stephanie Mills, as Aunt Em, Queen Latifah as The Wiz, the teleplay is an adaptation of the The Wiz broadway production which ran from October 1974 until January 1979. As one of the first openly gay celebrities in the United States, Fierstein helped make gay and lesbian life into viable subjects for contemporary drama with no apologies and no climactic suicides
16. John H. Frey – John H. Frey is an American Real Estate Broker, businessman and politician. A member of the Republican Party, he is the State Representative from the 111th District, in the 2004 election, Frey won with 68. 7% of the vote and was the highest vote-getter in the 151-member Connecticut House of Representatives. In 2008, he received nearly 3,000 more votes than his opponent, in 2014, he was elected to his ninth term in an election where he garnered 74. 70% of the vote against his Democratic challenger. Serving in his term as Ridgefield’s chief advocate in Hartford. He serves on the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee, the Bank Committee and he also serves on the state Aging Commission. He is largely credited for gaining funding for the 400-acre Bennetts Pond State Park, Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell thanks Rep. John Frey for his perseverance in advocating for funding for the project. In October 2008, he secured an additional $640,000 to cover unanticipated funding shortfalls, Representative Frey was also appointed ‘government representative’ for the University of Connecticut Business School Center for Real Estate and Economic Studies, a position he still holds. In June 2008, he was appointed by President George W. Bush to the Presidents Commission on White House Fellows, Frey served as a member of the Ridgefield Republican Town Committee from 1981 to 1998 and the Republican State Central Committee from 1989 to 2000. In February 2007 Frey was elected as the Connecticut National Committeeman to the Republican National Committee and he was re-elected to a four-year term in June 2008 and to a second full term in May 2012. Mr. Frey was appointed by RNC Chairman Michael Steele to the RNC Redistricting Committee, in July 2009, he was elected to the RNC Site Selection Committee. The eight member committee was charged with determining the site of the 2012 Republican National Convention, mr. Frey was appointed to the Committee on Arrangements, charged with the planning and oversight of the 2012 Republican National Convention. He has served on the RNC Rules Committee since 2007 and he was a delegate to the 2008 Republican National Convention and served on the Rules Committee. Frey was also a member of the Connecticut Institute of Municipal Studies Property Revaluation Task Force, Chairman of Ridgefield’s Parking Authority, Frey is the Principal of Century 21 Landmark Properties. In October 2009, Frey was named Realtor Of The Year by the Ridgefield Board of Realtors, in July 2009, Frey was elected a corporator of Fairfield County Bank. In October 2010 Frey was recognized by the Ridgefield Housing Authority for his tireless efforts in securing the funding for the expansion/modernization of 120 housing units. The project was over $20 million, in addition to his extensive business and governmental background, Frey remains active in the Ridgefield community. Representative Frey is a president of the Ridgefield Workshop for the Performing Arts. Frey has lived in Ridgefield since 1966, a graduate of Ridgefield High School, he attended Western Connecticut State University
17. Varian Fry – Varian Mackey Fry was an American journalist. Fry ran a network in Vichy France that helped approximately 2,000 to 4,000 anti-Nazi and Jewish refugees to escape Nazi Germany. He was the first American to be recognized as Righteous Among the Nations, Varian Fry was born in New York City. His parents were Lillian and Arthur Fry, a manager of the Wall Street firm Carlysle, the family moved to Ridgewood, New Jersey in 1910. He grew up in Ridgewood and enjoyed bird-watching and reading, during World War I, at 9 years of age, Fry and friends conducted a fund-raising bazaar for the American Red Cross that included a vaudeville show, ice cream stand and fish pond. He was educated at Hotchkiss School from 1922 to 1924 when he left the school due to hazing rituals and he then attended the Riverdale Country School, graduating in 1926. He was suspended for a prank just before graduation and had to repeat his senior year and they married on June 2,1931. He said in 1945, I could not remain idle as long as I had any chances at all of saving even a few of its intended victims. Following his visit to Berlin, Fry wrote about the treatment of Jews by Hitlers regime in the New York Times in 1935. He wrote books about foreign affairs for Headline Books, owned by the Foreign Policy Association and it describes the troubled political climate following World War I, the break-up of Czechoslovakia and the events leading up to World War II. Greatly disturbed by what he saw, Fry helped raise money to support European anti-Nazi movements, Fry had $3,000 and a short list of refugees under imminent threat of arrest by agents of the Gestapo, mostly Jews. Clamoring at his door came anti-Nazi writers, avant-garde artists, musicians, some historians later noted it was a miracle that a white American Protestant would risk everything to help the Jews. Beginning in 1940, in Marseille, despite the eye of the collaborationist Vichy regime, Fry. More than 2,200 people were taken across the border to Spain, Fry helped other exiles escape on ships leaving Marseille for the French colony of Martinique, from which they too could go to the United States. When the Nazis seized France in 1940, Gold went to Marseille, also working with Fry was a young academic named Albert O. Hirschman. From his isolated position in Marseille, Fry relied on the Unitarian Service Committee in Lisbon to help the refugees he sent. This office, staffed by American Unitarians under the direction of Robert Dexter, helped refugees to wait in safety for visas and other necessary papers, Fry was forced to leave France in September 1941 after both the Vichy government and United States State Department disapproved of his covert activities. The IRC is a nonsectarian, nongovernmental international relief and development organization that still operates today
18. Cass Gilbert – Not to be confused with American architect C. P. H. Gilbert Cass Gilbert was a prominent American architect and his public buildings in the Beaux Arts style reflect the optimistic American sense that the nation was heir to Greek democracy, Roman law and Renaissance humanism. Gilberts achievements were recognized in his lifetime, he served as president of the American Institute of Architects in 1908-09, Gilbert was a conservative who believed architecture should reflect historic traditions and the established social order. C. Gilbert was born in Zanesville, Ohio, the middle of three sons, and was named after the statesman Lewis Cass, to whom he was distantly related, Gilberts father was a surveyor for the United States Coast Survey. At the age of nine, Gilberts family moved to St. Paul, Minnesota and he attended preparatory school but dropped out of Macalester College. He began his career at age 17 by joining the Abraham M. Radcliffe office in St. Paul. In 1878, Gilbert enrolled in the program at MIT. Gilbert later worked for a time with the firm of McKim, Mead. He was commissioned to design a number of stations, including those in Anoka, Willmar. He won a series of house and office-building commissions in Minnesota, as a Minnesota architect he was best known for his design of the Minnesota State Capitol dome and the downtown St. Paul Endicott Building. His goal was to move to New York City and gain a national reputation, the completion of the Minnesota capitol gave Gilbert his national reputation and in 1898 he permanently moved his base to New York. His break-through commission was the design of the Alexander Hamilton U. S, custom House in New York City. Commission of Fine Arts from 1910 to 1916, in 1906 he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, and became a full Academician in 1908. Gilbert served as President of the Academy from 1926 to 1933, modernists embraced his work, John Marin painted it several times, even Frank Lloyd Wright praised the lines of the building, though he decried the ornamentation. C. In particular, his Union Station in New Haven lacks the common of the Beaux-Arts period. Gilberts drawings and correspondence are preserved at the New-York Historical Society, the Minnesota Historical Society, the University of Minnesota, Saint Paul Seminary, Saint Paul, Minnesota. Cretin Hall, Loras Hall, the Service Center, a building, the refectory building, the administration building in 1894. Only Cretin, Loras, the Service Center, and Grace still stand, Minnesota State Capitol, Saint Paul, Minnesota, 1895–1905. Designed in High Renaissance style, the building is not merely a replica of the United States Capitol and its brick dome is held in hoops of steel
19. Samuel Griswold Goodrich – Samuel Griswold Goodrich was an American author, better known under the pseudonym Peter Parley. Goodrich was born at Ridgefield, Connecticut, the son of a Congregational minister, Goodrich was largely self-educated, and became an assistant in a country store at Danbury, Connecticut, which he left in 1808, and later again at Hartford, Connecticut, until 1811. From 1816 to 1822 he was a bookseller and publisher in Hartford and he visited Europe from 1823 to 1824, and moved to Boston in 1826. In 1833 he bought 45 acres in nearby Roxbury and built a home in what is now Jamaica Plain. There he continued in the business, and from 1828 to 1842 published an illustrated annual, The Token. A selection from these contributions was published in 1841 under the title Sketches from a Students Window, the Token also contained some of the earliest work of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Nathaniel Parker Willis, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Lydia Maria Child. In 1841 he established Merrys Museum, which he continued to edit till 1854, Goodrich was associated with his brother Charles A. Goodrich in writing books for the young. His series, beginning in 1827 under the name of Peter Parley, embraced geography, biography, history, science and miscellaneous tales. Of these he was the author of only a few, but in 1857 he wrote that he was the author and editor of about 170 volumes. An English writer, George Mogridge, also used the name Peter Parley, raising objections from Goodrich, who had the prior claim. In 1857 he published Recollections of a Lifetime, which contains a list both of the works of which he was the author or editor and of the works published under his name. By his writings and publications he amassed a large fortune, at the end of his consulship, he was presented with a commemorative medal. He returned to America and, in 1859, he published Illustrated History of the Animal Kingdom and he died in New York and was buried in Southbury, Connecticut where he lived for a short time. <http, //historicbuildingsct. com/. cat=143&paged=2> The Archives and Special Collections at Amherst College holds a collection of his papers, goodrichs land in Jamaica Plain was subdivided into residential streets, among them Peter Parley Road, Parley Avenue and Parley Vale. There is a street called Peter Parley Row in Berlin, CT, there are two streets bearing his name in Ridgefield, CT, Parley Road and Parley Lane. James Joyce mentions the name of Peter Parley in his novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man at the end of chapter I, one room Schoolhouse in Ridgefield, CT, was named after Peter Parley. George du Maurier mentions Peter Parleys Natural History in his first novel Peter Ibbetson, Recollections of a Lifetime, or Men and Things I Have Seen
20. Walter Hampden – Walter Hampden Dougherty, known professionally as Walter Hampden, was an American actor and theatre manager. He was a stage star on Broadway in New York who also made numerous television. Walter Hampden was the son of John Hampden Dougherty and Alice Hill and he was a younger brother of the American painter Paul Dougherty. He went to England for apprenticeship for six years and he graduated from what is now NYU Poly in 1900. Later, he played Hamlet, Henry V and Cyrano de Bergerac on Broadway, in 1925, he became manager of the Colonial Theatre on Broadway, which was renamed Hampdens Theatre from 1925 to 1931. He became noted for his Shakespearean roles as well as for Cyrano and he appeared on the cover of the Time Magazine in March 1929. Hampdens last stage role was as Danforth in the original Broadway production of Arthur Millers The Crucible, John Garrett Underhill produced the first English-language version of The Bonds of Interest by Jacinto Benavente, with Walter Hampden, in 1929. This was Hampdens first sound film, he was sixty at the time he made it, several other roles followed—Jarvis Langdon in the 1944 film The Adventures of Mark Twain among them, but all were supporting character roles, not the lead roles that Hampden played onstage. These last two films are arguably those for which Hampden is most well known to modern audiences and he also played long-bearded patriarchs in biblical epics like The Silver Chalice and The Prodigal. Hampden reprised his portrayal of Hercule Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac in the first episode of the radio program Great Scenes from Great Plays. In addition to his roles, Hampden also appeared in several dramas during the early days of television. He made his TV debut in 1949, playing Macbeth for the last time at the age of 69 and it was released posthumously, more than a year after Hampdens death. For 27 years, Walter Hampden was president of the Players Club, the clubs library is named for him. His ashes are buried at The Evergreen Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, Hampden married actress Mabel Carrie Moore on 17 July 1905. They had a son, Paul Hampden Dougherty, and a daughter, Mary Moore Dougherty
21. Heusted W. R. Hoyt – Heusted Warner Reynolds Hoyt was a member of the Connecticut Senate representing the 12th District from 1869 to 1870 and from 1873 to 1874. He was a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1886 to 1889, Hoyt was born in Ridgefield, Connecticut on November 1,1842. He was the son of the Rev, Warner Hoyt, the rector of St. Stephens Episcopal Church, and Elizabeth Phillipina Reynolds. His father died when Heusted was three years old and he was elected a member of the Connecticut Senate in 1869 and in 1873. He was elected a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1886 to 1889 and he was elected the first judge of the Borough Court of Greenwich in 1889, and held that office as long as he lived
22. Alexander Julian – Alexander Julian is an American clothing designer widely known for his Colours clothing brand and designing his own clothing fabric. Julian has won five Coty Awards for design — the first before age 30—and the Cutty Sark award three times, born to Mary Brady and Maurice S. Julian, he was raised in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a childhood playmate of James Taylor. His father, Maurice S. Julian, opened a shop in Chapel Hill, Julians Cyclery, later becoming a clothier. Julian pursued a degree in English at the University of North Carolina while working at his fathers clothing store and he subsequently bought out his fathers interest, leading to a period where he and his father were in direct competition. In 1973 Julian campaigned for the Chapel Hill Board of Aldermen, in 1988, Julian received a Distinguished Alumni award from UNC. The store is now located on the side of Franklin Street and is called Julians. Julian had one child with his first wife and he has three children with his wife, the former Meagan Mannell and three children by previous marriages. In 1975 Julian moved to New York, founding the Alexander Julian Company, in the 1990s Julian consolidated his companies under a venture capital fund, which subsequently liquidated its fashion interests in 1995. Having essentially lost his clothing businesses, Julian later rebuilt his businesses, beginning again from his furniture line, which he had started in 1994 and not consolidated under the venture fund. Julian designed the uniform for the Charlotte Hornets when they joined the NBA and he created the trademark argyle pattern down the sides of the uniform, added bolder trim, and used different fabrics for the 1991-92 season upon Dean Smiths request. He also designed the stadium seating for the Charlotte Knights baseball team in 1990, in 1981, he started a successful menswear clothing line called Colours by Alexander Julian. His textile design is part of the Smithsonians permanent collection, later, he branched out to furniture and home furnishings, and in 2008 moved his furniture licensing to Vaughan-Bassett. Julian was the designer for the 1992 Robert Altman film. In 2014 he designed a line of mens moisture-wicking cycling shirts that can be worn to lunch or the office after cyclings — for the Chapel Hill company, Performance Bicycle
23. Edwin O. Keeler – Edwin Olmstead Keeler was a Republican Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut from 1901 to 1903. He had previously served as the first mayor of Norwalk, Connecticut from 1893 to 1894 and he was a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1893 to 1896, and was a member of the Connecticut Senate representing the 12th District from 1897 to 1900. He served as President pro tempore of the Connecticut Senate and he served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention from Connecticut in 1896. He was the son of Jonah Charles Keeler and Henrietta Olmstead, prior to his political career, he was a banker. On May 13,1868, he married Sarah Velina Whiting and he was of English ancestry, all of which has been in the country since the colonial period. His earliest ancestor in America was Ralph Keeler, one of the settlers of Norwalk
24. Alice Gore King – Alice Gore King was a women’s rights entrepreneur, educator, writer, artist, and a native New Yorker. King went on to start and become the Executor Director of the Alumnae Advisory Center, King was born in New York City on July 17,1914 to Marion Morrison King and Frederick Gore King. After graduating from the Brearley School, King attended Bryn Mawr College, King began her career in 1942 as Warden and Vocational Adviser at Bryn Mawr College. In 1943, she took a job as Personnel Supervisor at Pratt & Whitney, after World War II, King became the Head of the Psychology Department at the Brearley School, the chairperson of the Remedial Reading Department and later Assistant Head of the School. In 1950, King founded the Alumnae Advisory Center as a counseling and placement service for college women in New York. From 1977 to 1979, King served as a consultant for the center before retiring that year, the Alumnae Advisory Center aimed to help women advance to executive positions, find part-time jobs, or return to work after raising children. The center was located in the Women’s Exchange building,541 Madison Avenue between 54 and 55 Streets until 1980 when it became known as Council for Career Planning, members of the Board of Directors included individuals like Sarah Gibson Blanding. Although the center made its services available to men, it was not until the 1970s with newly formed co-educational colleges that its male clientele increased, dolly Cannon became Executive Director in 1977. The Center moved to 310 Madison Avenue in 1980, King published at least three books including “Women in Business”, “Help Wanted, Female” and “Women And Careers In the Big Apple”. “To Stagger Traffic Lights”, New York Times, September 25,1958, “Pedal for Mailboxes”, New York Times, February 2,1971. “Present Since the Creation”, American Heritage Magazine, December 1994 Volume 45, “What Women Want Is Simple Respect”, New York Times, January 21,1990. “Connecticut Opinion, Getting the Short Shrift From the Tall”, New York Times, “Connecticut Opinion, Installing a Dishwasher in 77 Days”, New York Times, April 17,1988. “Making the Most of Special Events”, New York Times, September 29,1985, “How to Create an Effective Board”, Non-profit World, Volume 12, No.2 / March/April 1994. Help Wanted, Female, the Young Womans Guide to Job-Hunting, Career Opportunities for women in business. Women and careers in the Big Apple, three decades of development, the story of the Alumnae Advisory Center, how to look for a job in New York. Alice Gore King & M. Jean Herman, The Job Interview, King Manor Weir Farm National Park New York Society Library Bryn Mawr The Brearley School