update

 

girl reporter brie as Lois lane:

brie790

from my recent visit to los angeles:

firstly, here is a google satellite view of the bell motel, which was margot kidder’s last residence during her nervous breakdown period:

margosat1

here is the street view from google:

(as you can see the bell motel on the right just before the tropical fish place on colorado blvd. in glendale has been torn down, when google came through)

bellstreet1

here is a new building, where the bell motel used to be: (from recent photo during my trip to LA)

p6160028

 looks like the tropical fish sign has been painted!

previously,

i remember when the “E” channel used to have good stuff on, unlike now.

in addition to howard stern late at night they had really good programs. one of the best was a documentary about margot kidder’s nervous breakdown! margot, who played lois lane in the superman movie, got into a traffic accident — poor baby! she was unable to work for two years. so, she wrote her autobiography, but when it was nearing completion, her computer crashed, thereby pushing her over the edge. from the los angeles airport she migrated toward skid row, then on up through echo park, atwater, and into glendale, where she stayed at the “bell” motel on colorado blvd, which looked like something from the 1930’s. i stayed at a slightly nicer place across the street once. unanswered questions: who paid her rent? how did she support herself? what did she do? i have my suspicions, but i’m not messing with legitimate celebrities because they have power and might destroy me! perhaps she lived off the $ from her acting career, or her ex husband tomas mcguane (the writer!) helped her out. the story margot tells is that mcguane, when they first met,  didn’t have a chance, since margot wore a tartan skirt with saddle shoes!

something like this:   brie727

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Russian girl wearing colorful socks:

russia

christine & renee

um hi

brie as velma the bobby-soxer:

brie1608

Christine Jorgensen (born George William Jorgensen, Jr. 30 May 1926 The Bronx, New York City –, 3 May 1989) was famous in the USA for having been the first widely-known individual to have sex reassignment surgery (Copenhagen Denmark)—in this case, male to female.

christine
The second child of George William Jorgensen Sr., a carpenter and contractor, and his wife, the former Florence Davis Hansen, Jorgensen grew up in the Bronx and later described herself as having been a “frail, tow-headed, introverted little boy who ran from fistfights and rough-and-tumble games”.

Jorgensen graduated from Christopher Columbus High School in 1945 and shortly thereafter was drafted into the Army.

After he was discharged from the Army, Jorgensen attended Mohawk College in Utica, New York, the Progressive School of Photography in New Haven, Connecticut, and the Manhattan Medical and Dental Assistant School in New York City, New York. He briefly worked for Pathé News.

there was a lovely and excellent movie made about christine:

c_jo_story

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Renée Richards (born Richard Raskind August 19, 1934, in New York City) is an American ophthalmologist, author and former professional tennis player. In 1975, Richards underwent sex reassignment surgery. She is known for initially being denied entry into the 1976 US Open by the United States Tennis Association, citing an unprecedented women-born-women policy. She disputed the ban, and the New York Supreme Court ruled in her favor in 1977. This was a landmark decision in favor of transsexual rights.

reneerichards1Raskind moved to Forest Hills at age 6 and was ranked among the top-10 Eastern and national juniors in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He was captain of his high school tennis team at the Horace Mann School in New York City, and at fifteen won the Eastern Private Schools Interscholastic singles title. Raskind went to Yale and played on the tennis team first in singles competition and captained the team in 1954. After Yale, Raskind went to medical school at the University of Rochester, then served in the Navy as a Lieutenant Commander. He pursued a career as an eye surgeon, specializing in strabismus (eye misalignment). Raskind reached the final of the men’s national 35-and-over tennis championships in 1972.

a book and television movie was made about renee:

richards

brie ready for tennis:

brie7882