You might not recognize the name Robbie Rist, but if you grew up in the 70s and 80s you would know him as Cousin Oliver from the Brady Bunch. A reader from Geeky Speaky wants to know – Whatever Happened To Oliver?

During the Brady Bunch’s final season, the writers decided they needed to add a younger character into the mix. All the Brady kids were over 12 years old, so along came Cousin Oliver played by Robbie Rist. Even though the show was pretty much on the way out, some people still joke that it was Oliver that killed the Brady Bunch! He appeared in only six episodes.

After the Brady Bunch was canceled, Robbie went on to more TV roles appearing in Big John, Little John, Mary Tyler Moore and Galactica 1980.

As an adult, Rist became a voice over artist. He was the voice of Michelangelo in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film series and he starred in the Saturday morning cartoon Kidd Video as Whiz. He continues to do voice overs for movies, television and commercials.

Rist is musically talented, playing the violin at three, the piano at 5 and the drums at 13. When not doing voice overs, he is busy playing with many west coast bands. He even has his own website!

No not the animal, the shoe! These shoes were very popular in the 70s. I had a pair of chocolate brown ones, but the most popular color was a tan. They only had two lace holes and the bottom of the shoe was a crepe rubber. These were the most comfortable shoes that I have every owned! I was so sad when I wore them out.

The shoes went out of fashion for a while, but you can still get them today! The original manufacturer was Clarks, a UK based store. The Wallabee was introduced in 1965 when Lance Clark sketched out a moccasin based on other Clark shoes. The price has gone up, but the style remains the same!

This week we celebrated my son’s 4th birthday and my daughter’s 13th birthday with a big family party. I put out a bowl of pistachios on the table for snacking. They were not the red dyed ones, but the natural ones. Of course the question arose “Whatever happened to Red Pistachios?”

The Pistachio is a small tree that is native to central and southwestern Asia. The fruit grows in bunches. The outside of the pistachio is white and the inside green. The trees are planted in orchards and take seven to ten years to reach a good production. They split open slightly when they are ripe with a slight popping sound. Good luck comes to those who stand under the tree and hear the popping sound.

The shells used to be dyed red by importers to hide any stains on the shells that were caused by hand picking. Most pistachios are picked by machine now so the red dye is not necessary. Some importers still dye them red because of customer demand.

Little known fact – Pistachio nuts are actually highly flammable when stored in large quantities. They are been known to spontaneously combust!

I always keep a book in my car. When I am waiting for kids to get out of school or for them to be through with their games or practices I get a few minutes of reading in. This time the “car book” is 1776 by David McCullogh.

The book starts out with George Washington ready to attack Boston and gives an old map of the area. It started me to wonder – Whatever happened to Noddle’s Island?

East Boston was originally five different islands – Noddle’s (the largest), Hog (Breed’s), Governor’s, Bird and Apple. In the beginning of the Revolutionary War some of these islands were captured by the Americans as they fought to take over Boston.

These islands were mostly privately owned and used for farming, grazing, livestock and military fortifications. In 1833, the East Boston Company proceeded to fill in the surrounding water with landfill to incorporate all five islands into one land mass.

The largest islands – Noddle’s and Hog – were used for residential and commercial areas of East Boston. This area was inhabited by many new immigrants including Canadians (1840s) Irish (1850s), Russians and Eastern Europeans (1890s) and Italians (1900s). Today the area is quite diverse.

What happened to the other three smaller islands? If you have ever flown into Boston, you have landed on these three islands at Logan Airport!

Zero Mostel is one of my favorite comedic actors! Since two of his movies in my Thursday Thirteen post, I am going to tell you a little more about him.

Zero Mostel was born 28 February 1915 in New York as Samuel Joel Mostel. He was one of eight children in an Orthodox Jewish Family. He started in the arts by painting and drawing and later earned a degree in art at the City College of New York. He then went on to teach both drawing and painting.

Mostel started his comedic career at a downtown nightclub in New York where he got his nickname Zero (because he started from nothing). He was a huge hit and was hired for 141 performances. He then went on to Broadway in 1942 to star in “Keep ‘em Laughing” which ran for 77 shows. During the WWII he entertained the troops.

Blacklisted in the 1950s for refusing to “name names” in the Communist Witchhunt he lost movie and nightclub deals. However, he was able to get roles in the theater.

His firs big Broadway hit was “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”. He played “Pseudolus” with Jack Gilford playing “xx”. The play was choreographed by Jerome Robbins. It opened on May 8, 1962 and wan for 964 performances! He later revised the A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum role in the 1966 movie with Jack Gilford.

But the next performance had it beat! He opened as Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof” in 1964 and it did not close for eight years! There were over 3,000 performances. Unfortunately, Mostel was not cast as Tevye in movie version of Fiddler on the Roof.

One of my favorite roles was that of Max Bialystock in Mel Brooks’ The Producers with Gene Wilder.

Both his Forum role and Producers role was successfully played by Nathan Lane on Broadway. Lane’s comedic style reminds me of Mostel!

In 1976 he revived his role of Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof and was cast to play Shylock in The Merchant (a different take on Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice). He was looking forward to the role, but was hospitalized and died from an aneurysm at the age of 62 on September 8, 1972. He had been married to Kathryn Harkin for 33 years and had 2 children.

You might recognize Mostel’s son Josh Mostel in the film Billy Madison. He was the Principal that used to be a pro wrestler!