DEATHIVERSARY: CLARA BLANDICK (April 15, 1962)

Clara Blandick is best known for her memorable minor role as Auntie Em in The Wizard of Oz. Blandick's health steadily declined throughout the 1950s. Her eyesight began to fail, and she was suffering greatly from severe, painful arthritis. At 69, Blandick had gone into seclusion at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. On April 15, 1962, Blandick returned to her room from Palm Sunday services at church. She began rearranging her room, placing her favorite photos and memorabilia in prominent places. She laid out her resume and a collection of press clippings from her lengthy career. She dressed immaculately in an elegant royal blue dressing gown, and with her hair properly styled, she took an overdose of sleeping pills. She lay down on a couch, covered herself with a gold blanket over her shoulders, and tied a plastic bag over her head. She left the following note: "I am now about to make the great adventure. I cannot endure this agonizing pain any longer. It is all over my body. Neither can I face the impending blindness. I pray the Lord, my soul, to take. Amen." Blandick's landlady, Helen Mason, found her body Sunday morning. In preparing to die, she had disposed of all her medicines the previous week. Her ashes were interred at the Great Mausoleum, Columbarium of Security at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale. Blandick's ashes lie just yards from those of Charley Grapewin, her on-screen husband in The Wizard of Oz.

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WORLD PREMIERE: HERE LIES RAMON NOVARRO (Episode 5)

Go behind the sign to Halloween Eve 1968. Two young hustlers ring the doorbell at 3110 Laurel Canyon Drive. A gracious 69-year-old man greets them. Once upon a time in Hollywoodland, the old man was one of the greatest Latin heartthrobs to have ever lived. Now frail and looking older than his age, the man invites the hustlers inside - "a burly young man of 22 and a slender twink of 17--his murderers." By morning, the old man would be dead, badly beaten, and having choked to death on his own blood. The bludgeoned body was that of actor Ramon Novarro.

Go behind the sign to Calvary Cemetery... in the search of Ramon Novarro's grave.

WORLD PREMIERE: THE NIGHT THELMA TODD DIED! (Episode 4)

Go behind the sign to the night 1930's actress Thelma Todd died in her lover's estranged wife's garage. Was it suicide? An accident? Or was the Ice Cream Blonde murdered? The list of suspects is long…

ISSUE No. 1: Sal Mineo

Hollywood’s ‘First Gay Teenager,’ Sal Mineo, was born on this day in 1939. Ahead of his time and taken way too soon. Sal was the youngest person nominated for an Academy Award for 1955’s “Rebel Without a Cause” where Sal played Plato, a lonely gay teenager in 1950’s America. He was nominated once again a few years later for his role in “Exodus” - the epic film on the founding of the modern State of Israel. By the early 1960s, Sal was becoming too old to play the type of role that had made him famous, and his rumored homosexuality led to his being considered inappropriate for leading roles. Sal's last role in a motion picture was a small part in the film Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971); he played the chimpanzee, Dr. Milo. In a 1972 interview, Sal openly discussed his bisexuality. At the time of his murder, he was in a six-year relationship with male actor Courtney Burr III. On the night of February 12, 1976, the actor returned home following a rehearsal for the play P.S. Your Cat Is Dead. After parking his car in the carport below his West Hollywood apartment, the 37-year-old was stabbed once in the heart by a mugger who quickly fled the scene. Police pursued multiple leads but assumed the crime to be the result of some sort of “homosexual motivation.” In March of 1979, Lionel Ray Williams was sentenced to 57 years in prison for both killing Mineo and committing ten robberies in the same area. Lionel was paroled in the 1990s. CLICK HERE for the issue that started it all DEAD IN HOLLYWOOD: SAL MINEO (Issue no. 1).

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DEATHIVERSARY: LUPE VELEZ (December 14, 1944)

𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙼𝚎𝚡𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚗 𝚂𝚙𝚒𝚝𝚏𝚒𝚛𝚎, 𝙻𝚞𝚙𝚎 𝚅é𝚕𝚎𝚣, 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚏𝚒𝚛𝚜𝚝 𝚜𝚞𝚌𝚌𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚏𝚞𝚕 𝙼𝚎𝚡𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚗-𝚋𝚘𝚛𝚗 𝙷𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚢𝚠𝚘𝚘𝚍 𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚜. 𝚅é𝚕𝚎𝚣 𝚍𝚒𝚎𝚍 𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚍𝚊𝚢 𝚒𝚗 𝟷𝟿𝟺𝟺, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚛𝚒𝚋𝚞𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜 𝚜𝚑𝚎 𝚕𝚎𝚏𝚝 𝚋𝚎𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚍 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚖𝚘𝚜𝚝𝚕𝚢 𝚕𝚘𝚜𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚊𝚗 𝚞𝚐𝚕𝚢 𝚞𝚛𝚋𝚊𝚗 𝚕𝚎𝚐𝚎𝚗𝚍 𝚜𝚞𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚜’𝚜 𝚍𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚑. 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚘𝚗 𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚍𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚑 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚏𝚊𝚗𝚣𝚒𝚗𝚎 𝙳𝙴𝙰𝙳 𝙸𝙽 𝙷𝙾𝙻𝙻𝚈𝚆𝙾𝙾𝙳: 𝙻𝚄𝙿𝙴 𝚅É𝙻𝙴𝚉 (𝙸𝚜𝚜𝚞𝚎 #𝟷𝟹).

CLICK HERE!

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