LYNN ANDERSON
Voted top female vocalist of the 1970s by the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music
Association, Anderson won a Grammy for her crossover hit
[I Never Promised
You A] Rose Garden which rose to number three on the Billboard Pop Chart.
Her broad appeal was confirmed when she became the first female country music performer
to win an American Music Award and to sell out at Madison Square Garden.
BUDDY BAKER Son of
NASCAR Champion Buck Baker, Buddy followed in his father's racing footsteps, surpassing
his dad's achievements by becoming the first NASCAR driver to exceed 200 miles per hour on a closed course.
Baker is one of only nine drivers to garner a Career Grand Slam, by winning the sport's
four major races -the Daytona 500, the Aaron's 499, the Coca-Cola 600, and the Southern 500.
Baker became a broadcast commentator after his career as a driver ended and was inducted into
the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1997.
ERNIE BANKS
Nicknamed "Mr. Cub" by his fans, Banks played shortstop and first base for the Chicago team
from 1953 to 1970. Considered by many to be one of the greatest ball players of all time,
Ernie began his career in 1950 in the Negro leagues. Named a National League All Star for
eleven seasons, Banks was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1977. After
his playing career ended, Banks went on to become the first African-American Ford Motor
Company dealer in the U.S. and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013 for his
contributions to the world of sports.
GEORGE BARRIS Barris grew up
restoring vintage cars and creating balsa wood models of customized autos that would win him
local hobby shop competitions. Putting both skills to use, he founded Barris Kustom
Industries in the 1950s and went on to design cars for both films and film stars. In the 1960s
Barris was called on to design the Batmobile for TV's Batman as well as two custom cars for
The Munsters.
YOGI BERRA
An icon of Boom Era baseball, Yogi played all but the last of his 19 seasons as a catcher for
the New York Yankees. One of only five players ever to be named an American League Most
Valuable Player three times, Yogi was known as much for his trademark
malapropisms as he was for his playing skills. A hell of a hitter despite
being only 5' 7", Berra caught
Don Larsen's final pitch in his legendary perfect game of the 1956 World Series.
Inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972, the same year that the Yankees
retired his number 8, Berra went on to coach and manageboth the Mets and the Yankees after
his 1963 retirement as a player. You were one of a kind, Yogi.
THEODORE BIKEL Born in Vienna,
Bikel grew up and began his acting career in Israel before moving to London in 1954 to study
at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Known for his ability to play a number of nationalities,
Bikel played Captain Von Trapp in the first Broadway production of
The Sound of Music. He also played a Soviet submarine commander in
The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming, a German naval officer in
The African Queen, and played Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof over 2,000 times.
An accomplished folk singer and musician, Bikel became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1961.
JULIAN BOND A lifelong social
activist and civil rights advocate, Bond helped to found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee in 1960 while studying at Atlanta's Morehouse College. He would go on to serve four terms
in the Georgia House of Representatives and six terms in the state's Senate. At 28 Bond became
the first African-American to be nominated for the vice presidency by a major political
party, a role that he quickly declined as the minimum age requirement for the position is 35.
In 1971 Bond became chairman of the Southern Poverty Law Center and later served 21 years as chairman of
the NAACP. Bond remained an outspoken supporter of human, civil and gay rights, and will, to many,
remain the youthful face of those movements. Farewell, Mr. Bond.
CHRIS BURDEN
Burden first made his mark on the world of performance art in the early 70s with pieces like
1971's Shoot, which consisted of his being shot in the arm with a .22 rifle from a distance
of 16 feet. For his 1973 piece, Trans-Fixed (pictured at left), Burden had himself nailed
by his palms to the top of a Volkswagen. Though his later work became largely sculptural, Burden
remained a innovative and much-collected artist until his death.
DAVID CANARY
Canary, who grew up in Ohio, moved to New York City to pursue a career in acting in the early 1960s.
In 1967, after a move to L.A., he was cast as Candy Canaday on TV's
Bonanza. Canary
would later assume the dual role of twins Adam and Stuart Chandler on the ABC soap opera All My
Children.
JACK CARTER Known for the
rapid-fire delivery of his comedy routines, Jack Carter was a humor staple on The Ed
Sullivan Show and
other variety programs of the 1960s and 70s. A native of Brooklyn, Carter also hosted
his own variety show that preceded his friend Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows on NBC.
Carter remained close to Caesar for the rest of Sid's life, delivering the eulogy at
his friend's funeral in 2014.
DEAN CHANCE
In 1964 Chance became the youngest player in baseball to win the Cy Young award. Known for
never facing home plate once he'd received a pitch signal from his catcher, Dean spent eleven
years in the majors, pitching eleven shut-outs, an American League record that still
holds as of 2015.
ORNETTE COLEMAN He invented
the term "free jazz" with the release of his 1960 album Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation. He took the form to its funkiest,
most memorable limits as a saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter and composer, continuing to
innovate throughout his career. He would go on to win a Pulitzer Prize for music and a
MacArthur "Genius" Fellowhip.
JACKIE COLLINS
A native of London, Collins moved to Los Angeles in the early 1960s and began writing what
would eventually total 32 New York Times bestselling romance novels. Collins, who
was known for adding more overtly sexual content to the traditional romance novel format, would
find her books translated into over 40 languages, see them adapted into a number of films and made-for-TV movies,
and would enjoy the benefits of selling over 500 million copies.
SUZANNE CROUGH The youngest
member of The
Partridge Family, Crough did her best to shake a mean tambourine, but served as
little more than an acting cipher. Still, her presence on the series made her
part of the Boom Era TV phenomenon.
GARY DAHL While sitting in
a bar in the early 70s listening to his friends kvetch about their pets, Dahl came up with
one of the single most absurd fads to enthrall a generation: the Pet Rock. Although the penchant for
the lapidary companions only lasted about 6 months, the rage lasted long enough to make
Dahl a millionaire and to afford the idea iconic Boom status.
CARL DJERASSI
An Austrian-born chemist and Jew, Djerassi moved to the U.S. in 1939 to escape Nazi persecution.
Known for inventing one of the first commercially available antihistamines, Djerassi would
go on to develop the first oral contraceptive, and advance that would ultimately liberate
generations of women from unwanted pregnancies.
E.L. DOCTOROW His 1975 book,
Ragtime won him the National Book Critics Circle Award and established him as a brilliant
historical novelist. The Book of Daniel, Ragtime, Billy Bathgate and
another of his novels were made into films, adding to his notoriety and to his stature as
a seminal story teller.
CAROL DODA She reigned as
the queen of topless dancers from the 1960s through the 1980s, twirling her pasties far
longer than she probably should have. But anyone who passed through San Francisco during
those Boom Era decades knew of her "twin 44s"- enhanced from their original 34" measurements
with silicone- and that she was a fixture at her Columbus Avenue Condor Club.
DONNA DOUGLAS She played Elly
May Clampett, the only daughter of rags-to-riches hick, Jed Clampett on
The Beverly Hillbillies.
Despite other acting forays and a post-Hillbillies career as a gospel singer, Douglas
is remembered most as the animal-loving, man-whupping, perpetually innocent Elly.
ANITA EKBERG Born in Sweden,
Ekberg's unique, voluptuous beauty was evident early on. She modeled as a teen, won the
beauty pageant title of Miss Sweden and earned a starlet movie contract with Universal for
finishing as one of six finalists in the 1951 Miss Universe competition. Though she had
roles in a number of U.S. films and television shows, and courted Hollywood gossip by having
affairs with the likes of Frank Sinatra and Yul Brynner, it was her turn as Sylvia in
Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita that put Ekberg on the map of movie sex symbols. The scene of her
and Marcello Mastroianni in the
Trevi Fountain has become a film classic.
DONALD FEATHERSTONE
Featherstone graduated from the art school at the Wooster Massachusetts Art Museum and took
his talents as a sculptor with him when he joined the staff at Union Products. It was there,
in 1957, that he created what would become one of the most famous items of 1950s kitsch-
the Plastic Pink Flamingo.
STAN FREBERG
Author, animated voice actor, radio personality, puppeteer, recording artist and ad agency
creative director.
FRANK GIFFORD Football great.
RONNIE GILBERT
Songwriter, singer, social activist, actress and original member of The Weavers.
LESLEY GORE
Singer, songwriter, actress and activist who gave us the hit song It's My Party.
GUNTER GRASS
Author of The Tin Drum and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
MICHAEL C. GROSS
Artist, film producer and legendary art director, from 1970 to 1974, of National Lampoon magazine.
WILLIAM GUEST
Singer and founding member of Gladys Knight and the Pips. (Left in photo)
IRWIN HASEN
Cartoonist and creator of the Dondi comic strip.
MARTY INGELS
Actor, comedian and co-star of
I'm Dickens,
He's Fenster.
DEAN JONES
Actor and Disney film regular.
LOUIS JOURDAN
Actor and star of
Gigi.
ELSWORTH KELLY
Color-field and minimalist artist/painter.
B.B. KING
Legendary blues singer and guitarist who gave us
The Thrill is Gone.
BEN E. KING
Singer, composer and member of the original Drifters who co-wrote and sang the fabulous
Stand By Me.
ROBERT KINOSHITA
Artist, art director, set/production designer and the man who gave us Robby the Robot from
Forbidden Planet and the B9 robot from
Lost in Space.
JACK LARSON
Actor and Superman's television sidekick
Jimmy Olsen.
CHRISTOPHER LEE
Actor and horror movie all star.
CURTIS LEE
Singer and one-hit wonder who gave us
Pretty Little
Angel Eyes.
MEADOWLARK LEMON
Basketball great and the "Clown Prince" of the Harlem Globetrotters.
CYNTHIA LENNON
First wife of Beatle John Lennon.
ROBERT LOGGIA
Actor and star of the 60s TV series
T.H.E. Cat.
AL MARINARO
Actor who played Murray the cop on television's
The Odd Couple.
MARY ELLEN MARK
Fine art photographer and photojournalist.
ROD McKUEN
Singer, songwriter, musician and poet.
JAYNE MEADOWS Actress and wife of
comedian and talk show host Steve Allen.
ANNE MEARA
Actress, comedienne and half of the comedy duo of Stiller and Meara.
MARTIN MILNER
Actor and co-star of TV's
Route 66.
MINNIE MINOSO
Left fielding All-Star for the Chicago White Sox, Minoso was the first black Cuban player in
the major leagues and the first African-American player for the Sox.
RON MOODY
Actor and Oscar-nomiated portrayer of Dickensian street gang guru Fagin in the 1968 film
Oliver!.
BESS MYERSON
The first Jewish Miss America (1945), actress, politician and New York City Commissioner.
JEAN NIDETCH
Co-founder of the Weight Watchers weight loss program.
LEONARD NIMOY
Actor, singer, director and iconic portrayer of Star Trek's
Mr. Spock.
MAUREEN O'HARA
Actress and favorite of director John Ford.
GARY OWENS
Disc jockey and on-air announcer for the wacky crew on
Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In.
BETSY PALMER
Actress and regular panelist on the game show
What's My Line?.
CYNTHIA ROBINSON
Singer and trumpet player for
Sly and the Family Stone.
ALEX ROCCO
Actor and portrayer of Vegas casino owner Moe Greene in
The Godfather Part 2.
LIZABETH SCOTT
Film noir actress known for her smoky voice and sultry blonde looks.
OMAR SHARIF
Striking Egyptian actor known for his starring roles in Lawrence of Arabia,
Doctor Zhivago and Funny Girl.
CHARLIE SIFFORD
Golf great and the first African-American to play the PGA Tour.
PERCY SLEDGE
Singer who gave us the remarkable
When a Man Loves a Woman.
ROD TAYLOR
Actor who appeared in movies such as The Time Machine and The Birds.
CHARLES H. TOWNES
Nobel-Prize-winning physicist and creator of the maser.
GRACE LEE WHITNEY
Actress and portrayer of Captain Kirk's personal assistant
Janice Rand on Star Trek.
GAIL ZAPPA
Wife of singer/musician Frank Zappa.