People are people and that includes famous people too. Some famous folks end up being really rich. Others end up just like you and me. And they have to live somewhere. Not all famous people live in mansions or by the ocean. They end up in places all over.
In the town of Paradise lives Gary Burghoff. You might remember him as Radar on M*A*S*H. He was married and has a son. That marriage ended in divorce with most of all his money going to his wife who lives in Connecticut. Gary is a painter and I've even seen him with his artwork at local gallery showings. I shouldn't say this but his stuff isn't really that great, IMO. He loves to paint nature scenes and his son out in nature. He's a super humble guy when you talk to him. I've also run into him at Safeway where he delights in getting some cut of meat that's 50% off because it will go bad the next day. He really does live like any normal middle-class people looking for bargains and bringing coupons to the store.
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There was a tragedy that struck an elderly couple here last Monday night. James and Barbara McCollum and their dog named Bear died when their home caught fire. James was 87 and Barbara was 83. Our local paper said she'd been Darla on the old black and white TV show "Our Gang" also known as "The Little Rascals." She didn't play that role for long as Darla Hood was the most well known "Darla" on that show (she passed away at age 47 from hepatitis leading to heart failure).
An interesting note about that show is a number of the main actors that played the roles of those characters died before reaching 65 years of age...many far younger including Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, Scotty Beckett, Norman "Chubby" Chaney, Billy "Froggy" Laughlin, Donald Haines, Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins, Darla Hood, Matthew "Stymie" Beard, Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas, and George "Spanky" McFarland and others. This became known as "the curse of The Little Rascals" in 2002 in a documentary by E!. When you really look at the total number of folks that were cast for the parts, it doesn't turn out to be anything but an interesting coincidence.
I was unable to find a picture of Barbara McCollum online so I can't show you what she looked like.
There were several incarnations of Our Gang with many different kids cast for each part over the years for which they all had to audition. Interestingly, Micky Rooney and Shirley Temple didn't make the grade and were passed over. A number of people claimed to have been on the show but never had been including Nanette Fabray, Eddie Bracken, and gossip columnist Joyce Haber. Jack Bothwell was another fraud, but he got on the TV show To Tell the Truth and fooled them all. Bill English, who worked at a grocery store, convinced the producers of ABC's TV show 20/20 in 1990 that he had been on the show when in fact he was a fraud too. He was busted and later sued by the son of "Buckwheat."
Since I was unable to find any actress named Barbara that played any character in Our Gang, I wonder if our local paper is full of it. It wouldn't be the first time.
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The former owner of the Paradise Post, Lowell Blankfort, passed away at age 88 in La Jolla, CA. He bought the paper in 1977 after a fascinating life as a reporter then owner of newspapers. The Paradise Post first printed 30 years earlier in 1947. He also started a printing press business while owning the Paradise Post which made most of the money by far. It printed (and still does) weekly rags all over the state of California.
He was a liberal man and his paper was originally really fun to read when I first moved here. He got his start at age 9 when he made a newspaper for his elementary school class. He never looked back. At age nine he did his first interview with a man that lived two floors up in the same apartment complex. That man's name was Babe Ruth. The reason he got the interview is his mom pestered him to ask for one and since he was so tiny at the time he could fit in the elevator with Babe Ruth.
He worked all over the world for papers like the Stars and Stripes, the Daily Mirror and the Wall Street Journal. After years of doing that he realized he'd never make any real money working for others so he borrowed $5000 from his grandma and bought the Pacifica Tribune in 1954. Four years later he sold it for $155,000 then repaid his grandma and traveled the world with his wife until the money was mostly gone. After traveling he and a business partner bought the Chula Vista Star in 1961 and ran that for 12 years before selling it. With that money he bought 14 newspapers across the Western part of the country.
When the Paradise Post became available in 1977 he bought it for $990,000. When he wanted to retire he was unable to get any of his children interested in buying the paper or having anything to do with news, so he sold it to MediaNews Group in 2003 for $13,000,000. The Paradise Post had a circulation of just over 8000 in a town of 25,000 prior to the sale. Once it was sold it totally changed from a liberal-leaning newspaper, which was also balanced with conservative opinions, to a totally right-wing newspaper which resulted in it having a weekly circulation of less than 4000 today.
What do you want to kibitz about tonight?
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Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share part of the evening around a virtual kitchen table with kossacks who are caring and supportive of one another. So bring your stories, jokes, photos, funny pics, music, and interesting videos, as well as links—including quotations—to diaries, news stories, and books that you think this community would appreciate. Readers may notice that most who post diaries and comments in this series already know one another to some degree, but newcomers should not feel excluded. We welcome guests at our kitchen table, and hope to make some new friends as well.
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