Los Angeles
Los Angeles the City of Los Angeles and known by its initials L. A. is the most populous city in California, the second most populous city in the United States, after New York City, the third most populous city in North America. With an estimated population of four million, Los Angeles is the cultural and commercial center of Southern California; the city is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity and the entertainment industry, its sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles is the largest city on the West Coast of North America. Los Angeles is in a large basin bounded by the Pacific Ocean on one side and by mountains as high as 10,000 feet on the other; the city proper, which covers about 469 square miles, is the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the country. Los Angeles is the principal city of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second largest in the United States after that of New York City, with a population of 13.1 million. It is part of the Los Angeles-Long Beach combined statistical area the nation's second most populous area with a 2015 estimated population of 18.7 million.
Los Angeles is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States, with a diverse economy in a broad range of professional and cultural fields. Los Angeles is famous as the home of Hollywood, a major center of the world entertainment industry. A global city, it has been ranked 6th in the Global Cities Index and 9th in the Global Economic Power Index; the Los Angeles metropolitan area has a gross metropolitan product of $1.044 trillion, making it the third-largest in the world, after the Tokyo and New York metropolitan areas. Los Angeles hosted the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics and will host the event for a third time in 2028; the city hosted the Miss Universe pageant twice, in 1990 and 2006, was one of 9 American cities to host the 1994 FIFA men's soccer World Cup and one of 8 to host the 1999 FIFA women's soccer World Cup, hosting the final match for both tournaments. Home to the Chumash and Tongva, Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542 along with the rest of what would become Alta California.
The city was founded on September 4, 1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence. In 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, becoming part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4, 1850, five months before California achieved statehood; the discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city. The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, delivering water from Eastern California assured the city's continued rapid growth; the Los Angeles coastal area was settled by the Chumash tribes. A Gabrieleño settlement in the area was called iyáangẚ, meaning "poison oak place". Maritime explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo claimed the area of southern California for the Spanish Empire in 1542 while on an official military exploring expedition moving north along the Pacific coast from earlier colonizing bases of New Spain in Central and South America.
Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2, 1769. In 1771, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra directed the building of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the first mission in the area. On September 4, 1781, a group of forty-four settlers known as "Los Pobladores" founded the pueblo they called El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles,'The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels'; the present-day city has the largest Roman Catholic Archdiocese in the United States. Two-thirds of the Mexican or settlers were mestizo or mulatto, a mixture of African and European ancestry; the settlement remained a small ranch town for decades, but by 1820, the population had increased to about 650 residents. Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the historic district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street, the oldest part of Los Angeles. New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, the pueblo continued as a part of Mexico.
During Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles Alta California's regional capital. Mexican rule ended during the Mexican–American War: Americans took control from the Californios after a series of battles, culminating with the signing of the Treaty of Cahuenga on January 13, 1847. Railroads arrived with the completion of the transcontinental Southern Pacific line to Los Angeles in 1876 and the Santa Fe Railroad in 1885. Petroleum was discovered in the city and surrounding area in 1892, by 1923, the discoveries had helped California become the country's largest oil producer, accounting for about one-quarter of the world's petroleum output. By 1900, the population had grown to more than 102,000; the completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, under the supervision of William Mulholland, assured the continued growth of the city. Due to clauses in the city's charter that prevented the City of Los Angeles from selling or providing water from the aqueduct to any area outside its borders, many adjacent city and communities became compelled to annex themselves into Los Angeles.
Los Angeles created the first municipal zoning ordinance in the United States. On September 14, 1908, the Los Angeles City Council promulgated residential and industrial land use zones; the new ordinance established three residential zones of a single type, where industrial uses were
Our Gang
Our Gang is a series of American comedy short films about a group of poor neighborhood children and their adventures. Created by comedy producer Hal Roach, the series was produced from 1922 to 1944 and is noted for showing children behaving in a natural way. Roach and original director Robert F. McGowan worked to film the unaffected, raw nuances apparent in regular children rather than have them imitate adult acting styles; the series broke new ground by portraying white and black girls interacting as equals. The franchise began in 1922 as a series of silent short subjects produced by the Roach studio and released by Pathé Exchange. Roach changed distributors from Pathé to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1927, the series entered its most popular period after converting to sound in 1929. Production continued at the Roach studio until 1938, when the series was sold to MGM, which produced the comedies until 1944. In total, the Our Gang series includes 220 shorts and one feature film, General Spanky, featured over 41 child actors.
As MGM retained the rights to the Our Gang trademark following their purchase of the production rights, the 80 Roach-produced "talkies" were syndicated for television under the title The Little Rascals beginning in 1955. Roach's The Little Rascals package and MGM's Our Gang package have since remained in syndication. New productions based on the shorts have been made over the years, including a 1994 feature film, Little Rascals, released by Universal Pictures. Unlike many motion pictures featuring children and based in fantasy, producer/creator Hal Roach rooted Our Gang in real life: most of the children were poor, the gang was at odds with snobbish "rich kids," officious adults and other such adversaries. Senior director Robert F. McGowan helmed most of the Our Gang shorts until 1933, assisted by his nephew Anthony Mack. McGowan worked to develop a style that allowed the children to be as natural as possible, downplaying the importance of the filmmaking equipment. Scripts were written for the shorts by the Hal Roach comedy writing staff, which included at various times Leo McCarey, Frank Capra, Walter Lantz and Frank Tashlin, among others.
The children, some too young to read saw the scripts. When sound came in at the end of the 1920s, McGowan modified his approach but scripts were not adhered to until McGowan left the series. Our Gang directors, such as Gus Meins and Gordon Douglas, streamlined the approach to McGowan's methods to meet the demands of the sophisticated movie industry of the mid-to-late 1930s. Douglas in particular had to streamline his films, as he directed Our Gang after Roach halved the running times of the shorts from two reels to one reel; as children became too old for the series, they were replaced by new children from the Los Angeles area. Our Gang talent scouting employed large-scale national contests in which thousands of children tried out for an open role. Norman "Chubby" Chaney, Matthew "Stymie" Beard and Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas all won contests to become members of the gang; when there was no talent search, the studio was bombarded by requests from parents who were sure their children were perfect for the series.
Among them were the future child stars Mickey Rooney and Shirley Temple, neither of whom made it past the audition. The Our Gang series is notable for being one of the first in cinema history in which African-Americans and White Americans were portrayed as equals; the four African-American child actors who held main roles in the series were Ernie "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison, Allen "Farina" Hoskins, Matthew "Stymie" Beard and Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas. Ernie Morrison was, in fact, the first African-American actor signed to a long-term contract in Hollywood history and the first major African-American star in Hollywood history. Although the African-American characters have since been criticized as racial stereotypes, in their adult years, actors Morrison and Thomas defended the series, maintaining that its integrated cast and innocent story lines were not racist, they argued that the white characters in the series were stereotyped: the "freckle-faced kid", the "fat kid", the "neighborhood bully", the "pretty blond girl", the "mischievous toddler".
"We were just a group of kids who were having fun", Beard recalled. Morrison stated, "When it came to race, Hal Roach was color-blind." Other minorities, including Asian Americans Sing Joy, Allen Tong, Edward Soo Hoo. According to Roach, the idea for Our Gang came to him in 1921, when he was auditioning a child actress to appear in a film; the girl was, in his opinion, overly made up and overly rehearsed, Roach waited for the audition to be over. After the girl and her mother left the office, Roach looked out of his window to a lumberyard across the street, where he saw some children having an argument; the children had all taken sticks from the lumberyard to play with, but the smallest child had the biggest stick, the others were trying to force him to give it to the biggest child. After realizing that he had been watching the children bicker for 15 minutes, Roach thought a short film series about children just being themselves mig
State Fair of Texas
The State Fair of Texas is an annual state fair held in Dallas at historic Fair Park. The fair has taken place every year since 1886 except for varying periods during World War I and World War II, it begins the last Friday in September and ends 24 days later. With an annual attendance of over 2 million, it is recognized as one of the most attended and best state fairs in America as well as Dallas's signature event; the State Fair of Texas opening day ceremonies are highlighted by the annual Friday parade rolling through downtown Dallas. Traditionally, the centerpiece of the fair has been the annual college football game between Oklahoma and Texas, nicknamed the Red River Rivalry and played in the Cotton Bowl at Fair Park; the State Fair Classic, featuring Grambling State University and Prairie View A&M University, is played at the Cotton Bowl during the fair. In 2010, Baylor and Texas Tech played their game during the fair for the first time. During the opening weekend of the 2013 fair and Louisiana Tech played in the only Heart of Dallas Classic at the Cotton Bowl.
The new Texas State Fair Football Showdown is scheduled to take place on the third weekend of the 2018 and 2019 fair and will feature Southern and Texas Southern. The State Fair of Texas is the only fair in the US to include a full auto show, dating back to 1913; the State Fair used to feature "Birds of the World". It was removed from the Fair lineup in 2014; the Texas Skyway is a gondola ride which only operates 24 days a year transports visitors around the fairgrounds. Its construction cost 5 million dollars. There is a BMX bike show as well as dog and pig races. For children, puppet shows, Children's Medical Center Barnyard, Story Time take place inside the fair. In recent years, the fair has emphasized its reputation as an event featuring unique, albeit high-fat foods, it has been known for years for Fletcher's brand corny dogs. Recent years have seen the introduction of new unusual deep-fried items, including deep-fried Oreos, deep-fried Twinkies, deep-fried s'mores, deep-fried pork ribs, fried cheesecake.
New foods in 2008 included fried banana splits. For the 2012 fair, the Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas added the deep-fried Samoa cookie. What was known as the State Fair of Texas was held in Houston from 1870 through 1878. In its modern incarnation, the State Fair of Texas was charted as a private corporation by local businessmen, it attracted thousands of people. However, in 1904 a series of events led to a financial crisis and not enough income was available to keep the fair running. Therefore, the businessmen sold it to the city of Dallas with the agreement that 24 days during the fall would be set aside annually for the fair and exhibition. On February 10, 1942, a five-alarm blaze “raged unchecked for an hour in the automobile building at the State Fair park” causing damage estimated at several hundred thousand dollars. One fireman was hospitalized after being overcome with smoke and a half dozen others were given treatment at the scene. “Roy Rupard, secretary of the State Fair association, said the loss was covered by insurance.”Big Tex, a 55-foot tall cowboy statue, has been its symbol since his introduction in 1952.
In 1953, Big Tex's jaw was hinged, so that he appears to "speak" the announcements that promote fair events. After a fire on October 19, 2012 destroyed the original Big Tex, he was rebuilt and reintroduced for the 2013 fair. Big Tex is claimed to be the world's tallest cowboy, its 212-foot Texas Star Ferris wheel was the largest in North America when it debuted in October 1985, just months before the Texas Sesquicentennial. It has since been dwarfed by Ferris wheels in Las Orlando. DART's Fair Park Station and MLK Jr. Station opened in 2009 to serve Fair Park and the State Fair. In addition to regular service on the Green Line, the Red Line and Blue Line run "special event" trains to Fair Park Station for major fair events. In 1955, Juanita Craft organized a protest of the State Fair of Texas against its policy of admitting blacks only on "Negro Achievement Day." The State Fair in 1966 commissioned a report on the redevelopment of the fair, which concluded that the land around Fair Park should be `bought up and turned into a paved, fenced parking lot" that would `eliminate the problem from sight'.
"If the poor Negroes in their shacks cannot be seen, all the guilt feelings…will disappear, or at least be removed from primary consideration". The State Fair came under fire in October 2014 for spending over $5,000,000 on attorneys fees to two insiders. Despite a $30,000,000 investment in Summer Adventures, the event was shuttered after just one season. In August 2015, the State Fair was sanctioned more than $75,000 for filing a SLAPP suit against a lawyer who had requested financial documents from the State Fair. On August 2, 2016, the Dallas Court of Appeals reversed in its entirety the judgment against the State Fair of Texas, holding that the trial court erred in, among other things, finding that the State Fair's lawsuit was a SLAPP suit; the State Fair of Texas opened its gates for the first time on October 26, 1886. 14,000 people attend the opening day. On November 7, 1886, the fair closes and attracted over 100,000 people for the first year; the State Fair of Texas has a history of racial discrimination dating back to the 1880s.
The first designated day for African-Americans to attend the fair was held in 1889 and was called "Colored People's Day." Educator Norman Wash
The Jack Benny Program
The Jack Benny Program, starring Jack Benny, is a radio-TV comedy series that ran for more than three decades and is regarded as a high-water mark in 20th-century American comedy. Jack Benny – played himself. Protagonist of the show, Benny is a comic, penny-pinching miser, insisting on remaining 39 years old on stage despite his actual age, playing the violin badly. Eddie Anderson – Rochester Van Jones, Jack's valet and chauffeur. Early in the show's run, he talked of gambling or going out with women. On, he complained about his salary. Don Wilson – Himself. Don opened the show and did the commercials, he was the target of Jack's jokes about his weight. Gene McNulty – Dennis Day, a vocalist, always in his early 20s no matter how old he was, he was sweet but not bright. When called upon, he could use a wide variety of accents, useful in plays, he sang a song about 10 minutes into the program. If the episode was a flashback to a previous time, a ruse would be used such as Dennis singing his song for Jack so he could hear it before the show.
McNulty adopted the name "Dennis Day" as his stage name for the rest of his career. Sadie Marks – Mary Livingstone, a sarcastic comic foil whose varying roles all served as, to use the description of Fred Allen, "a girl to insult." Marks, who in real life was Benny's wife legally changed her name to "Mary Livingstone" in response to the character's popularity. Her role on the program was reduced in the 1950s due to increasing stage fright, Livingstone retired from acting in 1958. Phil Harris – Himself. A skirt-chasing, hip-talking bandleader who put Jack down, he referred to Mary as "Livvy" or "Liv", Jack as "Jackson".. Harris explained this once by saying it's "as close as I can get to jackass and still be polite" Spun off into The Phil Harris–Alice Faye Show with his wife, actress Alice Faye. Harris left the radio show in 1952 and his character did not make the transition to television. Mel Blanc – Carmichael the Polar Bear, Professor Pierre LeBlanc, Sy the Mexican, The Maxwell and many other assorted voices.
An occasional running gag went along the lines of how the various characters Mel portrayed all looked alike. He was the sound effects of Jack's functional Maxwell automobile—a role he played again in the Warner Brothers cartoon The Mouse that Jack Built. Another participating voice actor was Bert Gordon. Mel played a train station announcer, whose catchphrase was, "Train leaving on Track Five for Anaheim and Cuc-amonga." Frank Nelson – The "Yeeee-essss?" man. He was always the person who waited on Jack wherever he was, from the railroad station agent, to the store clerk, to the doorman, to the waiter. Frank always delighted in aggravating Jack, as he was constantly aggravated by Jack's presence. Sheldon Leonard – A racetrack tout who offered unsolicited advice to Benny on a variety of non-racing-related subjects, he never gave out information on horse racing, unless Jack demanded it. One excuse the tout gave was "Who knows about horses?" His catchphrase was "Hey, bud... C'mere a minute". Joseph Kearns – Ed, the superannuated security guard in Jack's money vault.
Ed had been guarding Jack's vault since the founding of Los Angeles, the American Civil War, the American Revolutionary War, or when Jack had just turned 38 years old. Burt Mustin took over the role on television following Kearns' death in 1962.. Kearns played other roles, that of Dennis Day's father, that of a beleaguered IRS agent, of a clerk when it wasn't necessary to have Frank Nelson antagonize Jack. Artie Auerbach – Mr. Kitzel [who appeared on Al Pearce's radio show in the late 1930s, where his famous catch phrase was, "Hmmmm... eh, could be!", several years as a regular on The Abbott & Costello Show, who started out as a Yiddish hot dog vendor selling hot dogs during the Rose Bowl. In episodes, he would go on to lose his hot dog stand, move on to various other jobs. A big part of his schtick involved garbling names with his accent, such as referring to Nat King Cole as "Nat King Cohen", or mentioning his favorite baseball player, "Rabbi Maranville", he complained about his wife, an unseen character, described as a large, domineering woman who, on one occasion, Kitzel visualized as "...from the front, she looks like Don Wilson from the side!"
He sang various permutations of his jingle, "Pickle in the middle and the mustard on top!" Kitzel was heard to say, "Hoo-hoo-HOO!" in response to questions asked of him. Bob Crosby – In 1952, Crosby replaced Phil Harris as the bandleader, remaining until Benny retired the radio show in 1955. In joining the show, he became the leader of the same group of musicians who had played under Harris. Many of his running jokes focused on his apparent inability to pronounce "Manischewitz", his own family, the wealth and lifestyle of his older brother, Bing Crosby. Benny Rubin – Played a variety of characters on both the radio and television versions, his most memorable bit was as an information desk attendant. Jack would ask a series of questions that Rubin would answer with an ever-increasing irritated, "I don't know!" Followed by the punchline {among them: "Well, if you don't know, why are you standing behind that counter?"/"I gotta stand behind something.
Vista, California
Vista is a city in Southern California and is located in northwestern San Diego County. Vista is a medium-sized city within the San Diego-Carlsbad, CA Metropolitan Area and has a population of 101,659. Vista's sphere of influence includes portions of unincorporated San Diego County to north and east, with a county island in the central west. Located just seven miles inland from the Pacific Ocean, it has a Mediterranean climate; the lands of Rancho Buena Vista and Rancho Guajome, Vista was founded on October 9, 1882 with the establishment of a post office. It was incorporated on January 28, 1963 and became a charter city on June 13, 2007. Vista has more than 25 educational institutions for youth, a business park home to over 800 companies. Vista is ranked as the 173rd-best place in California out of 240 for families, based on factors such as family life, recreational opportunities, health and affordability in a 2015 review; the Vista area was inhabited by the Luiseño Indians, who lived on the land until the founding of the San Luis Rey Mission in 1798.
The prosperity of the mission-era declined by the 1830s with the independence of Mexico from Spain. The Mexican government began to grant land ownerships to a variety of people, thus beginning the Rancho era of California. Three ranchos were granted in the Vista area: Rancho Guajome, Rancho Buena Vista, Agua Hedionda Y los Manos. In the 1850s the ranchos began to fade due to changing political conditions and the scarcity of water. A growing number of settlers came to the area after California became a state in 1850 and began to create smaller agricultural holdings. One settler in the Vista area, John Frazier, applied to open the first post office and after several attempts to name the city, Frazier chose the name "Vista". With the opening of the first post office in 1882, Vista had arrived. In 1870, Bernard Delpy arrived from France to build what became known as "Delpy Corners" at the intersection of today's East Vista Way and Foothill Drive, his nephew, Jules Jacques Delpy, joined him in 1879 and together they planted several hundred acres of grapes.
In 1886, they built the first successful winery in the country. The winery was shut down by the prohibition era. Inhibited by the lack of water, Vista grew through the early 1910s to less than 1,000 people. With the vote of the people in 1923, the Vista Irrigation District had the necessary funding to construct a new water supply from Lake Henshaw. New buildings in downtown sprang up immediately. Agriculture began to flourish with crops such as tomatoes and citrus fruits; some hillsides were planted for avocados and by 1948, the Vista became the "avocado capital of the world"Following World War II, agriculture declined with an influx of growth of population and housing. The City of Vista was incorporated on January 23, 1963; the frequent housing booms of the 1970s through early 2000s increased the population of Vista. Numerous apartment complexes were built in these booms. Many light manufacturing businesses moved into the Business Park area on the south side, starting in the 1980s. In the 1990s, Wal-Mart and Costco opened large stores.
In 1993, Vista became involved in a national controversy when the Vista Unified School District board unsuccessfully tried to incorporate creationist, anti-evolution views into the biology curriculum. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 18.7 square miles, all land. Vista is a hilly city. Most of the businesses are located in the flatter areas, residences climb the hills. In undeveloped areas, the natural vegetation types includes chaparral brushland, oak-sycamore woodland, riparian woodland and oak-grass savanna; the natural vegetation is best seen in natural Buena Vista Park on the south side, in the San Marcos Hills east of the city, in undeveloped pockets on the north side. Climate is temperate. Coastal breezes and foggy overcast keep the late spring/early summer high temperatures below 80 degrees F. on most days. The cool, overcast conditions are called "May gray" and "June gloom" by Vistans. In general, the western side of the city is cooler and more overcast with ocean fog than the eastern side.
It is common in May–June for the western side of Vista to be overcast and cool, while the eastern side basks in clear skies and sunshine. July and September are warmer, as the coastal breezes lessen. High temperatures in excess of 90 degrees F. sometimes occur in late summer. High temperatures accompany dry Santa Ana wind events, which can strike any month, but are most common during fall. On 90% of days, the moderating influence of the nearby Pacific keeps the weather pleasant and temperatures moderate. Frost is quite rare in winter, snowfall unknown. Most of the annual rainfall of 13.24 inches falls between April. Rainfall is higher in the San Marcos Hills on the eastern edge of the city, up to 20 inches per year; the moderate climate has made surrounding areas a center of the plant nursery industry. Avocados and other subtropical plants thrive in the area; the 2010 United States Census reported that Vista had a population of 93,834. The population density was 5,023.7 people per square mile. The racial makeup of Vista was 59,551 White, 3,137 Black, 1,103 Native American, 3,979 Asian, 677 Pacific Islander, 20,423 from other races, 4,964 from two or more rac
Alan Shepard
Rear Admiral Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. was an American astronaut, naval aviator, test pilot, businessman. In 1961 he became the first American to travel into space, in 1971 he walked on the Moon. A graduate of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Shepard saw action with the surface navy during World War II, he became a naval aviator in 1946, a test pilot in 1950. He was selected as one of the original NASA Mercury Seven astronauts in 1959, in May 1961 he made the first crewed Project Mercury flight, MR-3, in a spacecraft he named Freedom 7, his craft was not capable of achieving orbit. He became the second person, the first American, to travel into space, the first space traveler to manually control the orientation of his craft. In the final stages of Project Mercury, Shepard was scheduled to pilot the Mercury-Atlas 10, planned as a three-day mission, he named Mercury Spacecraft 15B Freedom 7 II in honor of his first spacecraft, but the mission was canceled. Shepard was designated as the commander of the first crewed Project Gemini mission, but was grounded in 1963 due to Ménière's disease, an inner-ear ailment that caused episodes of extreme dizziness and nausea.
This was surgically corrected in 1969, in 1971, Shepard commanded the Apollo 14 mission, piloting the Apollo Lunar Module Antares to the most accurate landing of the Apollo missions. At age 47, he became the fifth, the oldest, the earliest-born person to walk on the Moon, the only one of the Mercury Seven astronauts to do so. During the mission, he hit two golf balls on the lunar surface, he was Chief of the Astronaut Office from November 1963 to July 1969, from June 1971 until his retirement from the United States Navy and NASA on August 1, 1974. He was promoted to rear admiral on the first astronaut to reach that rank. Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. was born on November 18, 1923, in Derry, New Hampshire, to Alan B. Shepard Sr. and Pauline Renza Shepard. He had a younger sister, known as Polly, he was one of many famous descendants of Mayflower passenger Richard Warren. His father, Alan B. Shepard Sr. known as Bart, worked in the Derry National Bank, owned by Shepard's grandfather. Alan Sr. joined the National Guard in 1915 and served in France with the American Expeditionary Force during World War I.
He remained in the National Guard between the wars, was recalled to active duty during World War II, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. Shepard attended Adams School in Derry. In 1936, he went to the Pinkerton Academy, a private school in Derry that his father had attended and where his grandfather had been a trustee, he completed years 9 to 12 there. Fascinated by flight, he created a model airplane club at the Academy, his Christmas present in 1938 was a flight in a Douglas DC-3; the following year he began cycling to Manchester Airfield, where he would do odd jobs in exchange for the occasional ride in an airplane or informal flying lesson. Shepard graduated from Pinkerton Academy in 1940; because World War II was raging in Europe, his father wanted him to join the Army. Shepard chose the Navy instead, he passed the entrance exam to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1940, but at sixteen was too young to enter that year. The Navy sent him to the Admiral Farragut Academy, a prep school for the Naval Academy, from which he graduated with the class of 1941.
Tests administered at Farragut indicated an IQ of 145. At Annapolis, Shepard enjoyed aquatic sports, he was a keen and competitive sailor, winning several races, including a regatta held by the Annapolis Yacht Club. He learned to sail all the types of boats the academy owned, up to and including USS Freedom, a 90-foot schooner, he participated in swimming, rowed with the eight. During his Christmas break in 1942, he went to Principia College to be with his sister, unable to go home owing to wartime travel restrictions. There he met Louise Brewer, whose parents were pensioners on the du Pont family estate, like Renza Shepard, were devout Christian Scientists. Owing to the war, the usual four-year course at Annapolis was cut short by a year, he graduated and was commissioned as an ensign on June 6, 1944, ranked 463rd in his class of 915; the following month he became secretly engaged to Louise. In 1944 he received a Bachelor of Science at the United States Naval Academy. After a month of classroom instruction in aviation, Shepard was posted to a destroyer, USS Cogswell, in August 1944.
At the time the destroyer was deployed on active service in the Pacific Ocean. Shepard joined it when it returned to the naval base at Ulithi on October 30. After just two days at sea Cogswell helped rescue 172 sailors from the cruiser USS Reno, torpedoed by a Japanese submarine escorted the crippled ship back to Ulithi; the ship was buffeted by Typhoon Cobra in December 1944, a storm in which three other destroyers went down, battled kamikazes in the invasion of Lingayen Gulf in January 1945. Cogswell returned to the United States for an overhaul in February 1945. Shepard was given three weeks' leave; the ceremony took place on March 3, 1945, in St. Stephen's Lutheran Church in Delaware, his father, served as his best man. The newlyweds had only a brief time together before Shepard rejoined Cogswell at the Long Beach Navy Yard on April 5, 1945
Sky King
Sky King was an American radio and television series. Its lead character was aircraft pilot Schuyler "Sky" King; the series may have been based on a true-life personality of the 1930s, Jack Cones, known as the "Flying Constable" of Twentynine Palms in San Bernardino County, although this notion is unverified. The series had strong Western elements. King captured criminals and spies and found lost hikers, though he did so with the use of his airplane, the Songbird. Two twin-engine Cessna airplanes were used by King during the course of the TV series; the first was a Cessna T-50 and in episodes a Cessna 310B was used till the series' end. The 310's make and model type number was prominently displayed during the closing titles. King and his niece Penny lived on the Flying Crown Ranch, near the fictitious town of Grover, Arizona. Penny and Clipper were pilots, although they were inexperienced and looked to their uncle for guidance. Penny was an accomplished air racer, rated as a multiengine pilot, whom Sky trusted to fly the Songbird.
The radio show began in 1946 and was based on a story by Roy Winsor, the brainchild of Robert Morris Burtt and Wilfred Gibbs Moore, who created Captain Midnight. Several actors played the part of Sky, including John Reed King. "Radio premiums" were offered to listeners. For example, the Sky King Secret Signalscope was used on November 2, 1947, in the "Mountain Detour" episode. Listeners were advised to get their own for only 15 cents and the inner seal from a jar of Peter Pan Peanut Butter, produced by the sponsor, Derby Foods; the Signalscope included a glow-in-the-dark signaling device, magnifying glass, Sky King's private code. With the Signalscope, one could see around corners and trees; the premiums were innovative, such as the Sky King Spy-Detecto Writer, which had a "decoder", magnifying glass, measuring scale, printing mechanism in a single package over two inches long. Other notable premiums were the Magni-Glo Writing Ring, which had a luminous element, a secret compartment, a magnifier, a ballpoint pen, all in the crown piece of a "fits any finger" ring.
The radio show continued until 1954, broadcasting with the first portion of the television version. The television version starred Kirby Grant as Gloria Winters as Penny. Other regular characters included Sky's nephew Clipper, played by Ron Hagerthy, Mitch the sheriff, portrayed by Ewing Mitchell. Mitch, a competent and intelligent law enforcement officer, depended on his friend Sky's flying skills to solve the harder cases. Other recurring characters included Jim Bell, the ranch foreman, played in four episodes by Chubby Johnson, as well as Sheriff Hollister portrayed by Monte Blue in five episodes, Bob Carey, portrayed in ten episodes by Norman Ollestad. Many of the storylines would parallel those used in such dramatic pot-boilers as Adventures of Superman with the supporting cast finding themselves in near-death situations and the hero rescuing them with seconds to spare. Penny would often fall into the hands of spies, bank robbers, other ne'er-do-wells. Sky never killed the villains, as with most television cowboy heroes of the time, though one episode had him shooting a machine gun into his own stolen plane.
Sky King was a show for children, although it sometimes broadcast in prime time. The show became an icon in the aviation community. Many pilots, including American astronauts, named him as an influence. Plot lines were simplistic, but Grant was able to bring a casual, natural treatment of technical details, leading to a level of believability not found in other TV series involving aviation or life in the American West. Villains and other characters were depicted as intelligent and believable, rather than as two-dimensional; the writing was above the standard for contemporary half-hour programs, although sometimes critics suggested that the acting was not. Episodes of the television show were notable for the dramatic opening with an air-to-air shot of the sleek, second Songbird banking away from the camera and its engines roaring, while the announcer proclaimed, "Out of the clear blue of the Western sky comes Sky King!" The short credit roll which followed was dramatic, with the Songbird swooping at the camera across El Mirage Lake, California pulling up into a steep climb as it departed.
The end title featured a musical theme, with the credits superimposed over an air-to-air shot of the Songbird, cruising at altitude for several moments banking away to the left. The show featured low-level flying with the Songbird, highlighting the desert flashing by in the background. Kirby Grant as Schuyler "Sky" King Gloria Winters as Penny King Ewing Mitchell as Sheriff Mitch Hargrove Ron Hagerthy as Clipper King The television show was first broadcast on Sunday afternoons on NBC-TV between September 16, 1951, October 26, 1952; these episodes were rebroadcast on ABC's Saturday morning lineup the following year from November 8, 1952 through September 21, 1953 when it made its prime-time debut on ABC's Monday night lineup. It was telecast twice-a-week in September 1954, before ABC cancelled it. New episodes were produced when the show went into syndication in 1955; the last new episode, "Mickey's Birthday", was telecast March 8, 1959. "Mickey" was a kinsman of Sky King portrayed in three 1959 episodes by child actor Gary Hunley.
Thereafter, Sky King surfaced on the CBS Saturday schedule in reruns until September, 1966. CBS began airing reruns of the show on early Saturday afterno
