It was Hollywood’s glamor time, and Liza Mendel was Hollywood’s glamor woman. Tall, poised, with a radiating smile, people stopped and stared when she walked into a room. Some mustered the courage to talk with her, which could be done in English, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, or Yiddish. “Bubbe, which…

“The night is beautiful, So the faces of my people. The stars are beautiful, So the eyes of my people Beautiful, also, is the sun. Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people.” Langston Hughes wrote this poem at twenty-one. He called it “My People.” Born in Missouri in 1902…

Bert Williams was simple and kind, many liked him. He was also one of the best comedians of his time. “The funniest man I ever saw,” one fellow comedian described Bert. Born in Nassau, The Bahamas, in 1874, Bert moved to Florida with his family at eleven, and to California…