Now that Daylight Saving Time is changing the second Sunday in March at 2:00am and revert back on the first Sunday in November, I wondered why we even observe this at all. What happened to REGULAR time?

Daylight Saving was originally started in 1966 when most of the United States observed Daylight Saving Time from the first Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October. The main idea was to make better use of daylight so that during the summer we move one hour of daylight from the morning to the evening. Also, it does save energy by decreasing the electricity usage by a small amount (about 1% per day).

Some people, however, intensely dislike DST. They argue that the sleep patterns take time to adjust and there has been some evidence that the severity of auto accidents increases and work productivity decreases as people adjust. And since we are up later in the evening, the energy used to cool homes in warm areas could increase energy costs.

DST was first introduced in 1918 during WWI, but was later repealed in 1919 due to its unpopularity. It was then reintroduced in 1942 to 1945, year-round and was called “War Time.” Each state could choose to implement DST or not and also choose when it began and ended. This caused great confusion.

The following states and territories DO NOT observe DST: Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Arizona does also not observe DST, but the Navajo Nation does.

As for me, I hate it in the Spring and love it in the Fall. Just because of sleep reasons!

BTW – The official name is Daylight Saving Time, not Daylight Savings Time)

[tags]Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time[/tags]

In older movies you can sometimes hear the characters referring to drinking “Grape Nehi.” I always wondered what happened to this drink that was once so popular.

Nehi, a flavored soft drink, actually had many flavors including Grape, Orange, Root Beer, Lemonade, Peach, Strawberry, Fruit Punch, Wild Red, Pink Lemonade, Chocolate, Blueberry and Blue Cream. Whew! It was founded by Claude Hatcher who began bottling ginger ale and root beer in 1905. This developed into Union Bottle Works in 1924. The Nehi Corporation name was later used in 1928 after the popularity of the soft drinks. The name of the company was changed in 1955 to Royal Crown Company after its RC Cola product.

Today, Nehi is a brand of Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages. You can still get these delicious sodas online.

Whatever happened to the old names of infections and illnesses? Do you ever read old novels and wonder what they are talking about? We become more scientific in our use of disease names and thus the change. Here is a little primer to help you translate all those strange infirmities you might come across:

[tags]diseases, infections[/tags]

Pat Priest, played the “normal” daughter on The Munsters. Pat was born in 1936 in Utah. Her mother, Ivy Baker Priest was US Treasurer for Eisenhower and California’s Treasurer for Regan when he was Governor. In the 1950s she won a beauty contest in Washington DC and then moved to California to pursue an acting career. She was discovered because she looked so much like the original Munsters Marilyn, Beverly Owen who was quiting the show. Pat signed on and was on the show for 57 episodes.

After The Munsters finished airing, Pat found little Hollywood work. In fact, she was not cast as Marilyn in The Munsters movie Munster, Go Home! – they said she was too old (30). The rest of the cast, however, was in the movie.

Pat retired from show biz in the 80s and wrote two books. She currently lives in Idaho and has two sons.

She did appear with Elvis in one of his lesser know films Easy Come, Easy Go. Elvis actually purchased a black convertible car for her which she sold two years later.

Butch Patrick was born Patrick Alan Lilley on August 2, 1953. He is best know for his role as Eddie Munster in The Munsters. Patrick did make several other appearances in television shows in the 60s including Mister Ed and Gunsmoke, as well as eight episodes of My Three Sons.

In the 1980s, he formed a rock band called Eddie & The Monsters. They released a single entitled “Whatever Happened to Eddie?” This song eventually lead to an MTV show – Basement Tapes – which featured unsigned bands.

Recently, Patrick appeared in an episode of The Simpsons as himself and on a episode of the reality TV show Star Dates.

He is currently the co-host of Macabre Theatre which showcases horror films. He is usually booked for Halloween parties and has been a favorite guest on the Howard Stern show.

Unfortunately, he receives no residuals from The Munsters. His biography will be published in 2007.

Al Lewis will always be remembered as the crazy Grandpa on The Munsters. He was born April 30, 1923 in New York and started his acting career as a circus performer in the late 1920s. Many facts about his life are not well documented. He claimed to earn a college degree in 1941 from Columbia University, but the University has no record of this. His acting career is better documented – he started working in burlesque and vaudeville in the 40s and later worked on Broadway in the 50s.

His first big TV role was that of Officer Leo Schnauser on Car 54, Where Are You? along with The Munsters co-star Fred Gwynne. He then went on to his role as Grandpa in The Munsters.

He starred in a few movies after The Munsters, but not with much success. In 1987 he opened his restaurant “Grandpa’s Belle Gente” in Greenwich Village, a popular restaurant with fans of The Munsters. He loved to be called Grandpa Al.

In 1998 he decided to run for Governor of New York for the Green Party. He wanted to be listed on the ballot as “Grandpa Al Lewis” but this was rejected by the courts. He received a total of 52,533 votes which was more than the minimum of 50,000 votes needed to give the Green Party an automatic ballot line for the next four years.

He was married twice and had three sons. He lived on Roosevelt Island (between Manhattan and Queens) for most of the later part of his life. He died on February 3, 2006 of natural causes at the age of 82. He was later cremated and laid to rest in his favorite cigar box.

Living in New Jersey, I had a chance to hear him a number of times on the radio and remember his run for Governor. He was known for his generosity and kindness and was a great character!

[tags]Al Lewis, Grandpa Al, The Munsters, Car 54, Where Are You?[/tags]

Fred Gwynne will always be best remembered for his role as Herman Munster on the TV show The Munsters. However, he had numerous other memorable roles as well.

Fred was born July 10, 1926 in New York City to a wealthy family. He attended private schools and got his start in acting there. He served as a Radio Man in the Navy during World War II. He later attended Harvard and graduated there in 1951! After graduation he did some acting, but made a living as a book illustrator and a commercial artist.

He made his Broadway debut in 1952 in Mrs. McThing and his movie debut in 1954 in the classic film On the Waterfront with Marlon Brando. He played one of the thugs.

His lead TV role came in 1961 where he played a New York City police officer named Francis Muldoon in the comedy Car 54, Where Are You? which lasted only two seasons.

Shortly thereafter he was cast in 1964 in The Munsters as the Frankenstein-like character, Herman Munster. Although Gwynne already stood 6′5″, he wore 4″ lifts in his shoes and 40-50 pounds of padding, plus tons of makeup. It was reported that he lost 10 pounds in one day of filming due to the hot lights and extra padding!

After The Munsters, Fred returned to the theater to avoid type-casting. He made numerous TV appearances, but tried to avoid anything remotely related to Herman Munster or Frankenstein.

In the 1980s, with his Herman Munster role far behind him, Fred received various roles in such movies as The Cotton Club, Ironweed, and Pet Sematary.

His last film is probably his most famous and one of my favorites. Gwynne was given the role of Judge Chamberlain Haller in My Cousin Vinny starring Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei. Who can forget the line “The what? The two utes?”

Fred avoided the Hollywood and Broadway scene and in later years painted, sculpted and wrote and illustrated children’s books including The King Who Rained.

He was married twice and had five children by his first wife. He died on July 2, 1993 just short of turning 67 of cancer in Taneytown, Maryland.

A great talent that is sorely missed!

[tags]Fred Gwynne, The Munsters, Car 54 Where Are You?, My Cousin Vinny[/tags]

Yvonne De Carlo is probably best known for her role as Lily Munster in the television sitcom The Munsters. Before that, she had a “higher” role as that of Moses’ wife, Zipporah, in The Ten Commandments.

Yvonne was born September 1, 1922 in Canada as Margaret (”Peggy”) Yvonne Middleton. At the age of fifteen she was taken to Hollywood by her mother where she won the title Miss Venice Beach in 1938. Her big break came in 1945 when she starred in the film Salome, Where She Danced. She has starred in various movies with Burt Lancaster, Clark Gable, Sidney Poitier and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.

She took the role of Lily to help pay for her husband’s medical bills (he was a stunt man). She never realized at the time that it would become her most famous role!

Yvonne suffered a stroke in 1987 and took up residence in the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California. She passed away at the age of 84 on January 8, 2007.

[tags]Yvonne De Carlo, Lily Munster, The Munsters, The Ten Commandments[/tags]

On January 8th, Yvonne De Carlo, better know as Lily Munster, passed away. In her honor, I have decided to do a series of Whatever Happened To… The Munsters.

The Munsters was a sitcom that ran from 1964-1966 for a total of 72 episodes. I remembering watching the show after school in the 70s when it was in syndication. The black and white series concerned a family of “monsters” that lived in a average American neighborhood. The Munsters interacted with the community and had no idea that they were different.

The main characters included Herman Munster, the bumbling Frankenstein-like dad, Lily Munster, his no-nonsense wife who looks like the bride of Frankenstein and Grandpa, who is Lily’s father, is a mad scientist type and can transform into a bat or wolf.

There were also two other characters, Eddie Munster, Lily and Herman’s son who is a werewolf and Marilyn Munster, the daughter of one of Lily’s sisters, who in the family’s view is “quite plain” but in fact looks like an average American girl.

The family’s pet was Spot, a fire-breathing dragon, whose lived in the basement.

A bit of trivia – Bert Lahr (better known as the Lion from The Wizard of Oz) was originally in the running for the role of Grandpa!


[tags]The Munsters, Lily Munster, Herman Munster, TV Sitcom[/tags]

Karen Dotrice played Jane Banks, Michael Banks’ (Matthew Garber) brother in Mary Poppins. Karen was born November 9, 1955 in England. She started acting at the age of four with her parents who were stage actors. She was discovered by a Disney scout and taken to meet Walt Disney.

She acted in both The Three Lives of Thomasina and Mary Poppins with Matthew Garber. She later lost touch with Matthew and learned of his death by telephone.

Karen retired from acting in 1984, but was interviewed for the release of the 40th anniversary of Mary Poppins and also received a Disney Legend award.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

[tags]Karen Dotrice, Mary Poppins[/tags]