Category Archives: Features

By Judy Gonyeau, managing editor What do you think of when you see a harmonica? A blues player with hands wrapped around this small instrument while blowing a lot of air and generating a rusty, gutsy sound. A cowboy playing a quiet tune while sitting around the fire after a long day of ranching. An […]

by Maxine Carter-Lome   Some of the earliest albums recorded for commercial distribution were comedy albums. Various collections of humorous short stories recited by vaudeville comedian Cal Stewart were released by Edison Records as early as 1898, according to Ronald L. Smith, author of Comedy on Record: The Complete Critical Discography. Cal Stewart recorded monologues […]

by Judy Gonyeau with heavy reference from Defining New Yorker Humor by Judith Yaross Lee   Launched in 1925, The New Yorker is a mostly-weekly magazine dispersing information through a myriad of journalistic articles, commentary, satire, fiction, criticism, its famous cartoon comments, and poetry. It continues to be renowned for its journalism covering everything from […]

by Maxine Carter-Lome In 1946, Capitol Records writer/producer Alan Livingston introduced Bozo the Clown to the world via a children’s record entitled Bozo at the Circus – a first-of-its-kind record album with an illustrative read-along book set. It lasted an astounding 200 weeks on Billboard’s “Best Selling Children’s Records” chart and sold over one million […]

by Grant Geissman By the spring of 1952, artist/writer/editor Harvey Kurtzman was exhausted from researching, writing, laying out, drawing for, and editing the world’s first true-to-life war comics, Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat. For these, Kurtzman would do meticulous and time-consuming research, including talking to war veterans, reading historical accounts, and even going up on […]

by Mike Ivankovich   The parlor was traditionally a gathering room where family members and friends would meet, eat, socialize, and relax. Smaller and less affluent homes had the Kitchen, Dining Room, and parlor all merged-together in a single room. Larger and wealthier homes often had a separate parlor where people gathered for formal occasions […]

by Judy Gonyeau, managing editor   Evidence has been brought to light that charms were perhaps first formed as far back as 75,000 years ago according to the discovery in Africa of shells being used for adornments. Moving forward to 30,000 years ago, intricately carved mammoth tusk charms were found in Germany. Back in 10,000 […]