Honest to God, this blog is not a permanent obit column. I was actually working on an actor profile that is going to go up shortly - but simply had to pause in order to comment on the passing of three notable people from the world of film and entertainment who will be sorely missed. Actually it’s difficult to quantify the world of Forrest J. Ackerman as he created a unique firmament that bound up so many others. His death last Thursday at age 92 was not unexpected, but has left a permanent void. Ackerman was an authentic icon of American popular culture. I bought my first Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine at a corner newsstand in Jackson Heights with my brother that was next to the elevated subway down the block from my Grandparents apartment. I can’t remember the issue number, but it had a large picture of Vincent...

  Mildred Black died the other week in her home in the San Fernando Valley. Mill wasn’t a movie star or anyone famous. She was a sweet, tough, generous woman who gave a lot more than she got in this life. There wasn’t a funeral, wake, celebration of life or an obit in the L.A. Times for her. I don't usually opine on this blog about someone I know, but these words are a public memoriam for a dearly departed friend. I met Millie shortly after I began researching the life of actor Charles McGraw. It was a serendipitous encounter. I mailed her a brief note inquiring if she knew anything about McGraw after checking property records and discovering that she was the owner of the house where the actor died in a horrifically tragic accident back in 1980. I didn’t receive a response. Several months later, I marshaled the appropriate...

  By 1954, the venerable HOLLYWOOD sign had been the symbol of Tinseltown for over three decades. The fifty foot high milestone on Mount Lee was emblematic of the aspirations of those worthies who appear everyday in Hollywood in pursuit of their respective holy grail. Most didn’t make it and still don’t. There were more than several who longed too much and cared too little that became authentic casualties. Let us offer a moment of silence for those unfortunates as personified by unemployed actress Peg Entwistle whose despondent swan dive to eternity off of the top of the Hoccurred in 1932. Although L.A. Times publisher Harry Chandler originally erected the original HOLLYWOODLAND sign to publicize his upscale housing development, the real estate company eventually played out. The City of Hollywood took over a landmark in disrepair in 1949 that was a direct reflection of the twin devastations - television and the...