Sybil Bruncheon's "Let's Laugh on Laundry Day!"...

1)   Always check both the washer and the dryer for left-behind items from other users… (orphaned underpants, expensive cashmere sweater-sets… possibly even money too! Hell, I’ll bend over for a quarter! LOLOL!)

2)   Always clean the detergent, bleach, and softener slots thoroughly and any other spills on top of the washer. Why can’t people pour their liquid laundry products inside the little drawers instead of all over the rest of the machine? JEEESH! And always clean the dryer filter before use too. Interestingly, fire departments warn that lint traps are overwhelmingly a source of fires… (I wonder if the same is true for dust-bunnies under the sofa?...)

3)   Obviously separate whites from colors, but also separate more delicate garments, etc. from bath towels, heavy blankets, thick denims, etc. (So much for tumbling your négligées with old burlap potato sacks!)

4)   Always zip up zippers completely, and even turn those items inside out so that the zipper tabs (or any other sharp metal!) will not tumble around and snag fabric.

5)   Use less detergent than recommended by the maker, and always opt for an “Extra Rinse” cycle to get your laundry free of all chemicals. No more “itchies”!!

6)   Be sure to bring a dish-towel or an old T-shirt to fold and wedge between your washer and the one next to it during a spin cycle in case it goes off balance. I call it the “Laundry Lambada”! The folded fabric will force the machines into a tight, non-rocking fit and keep them “on-cycle”. (This is one of my very favorite housekeeping inventions! You’re welcome!)

7)   Always check your washer when you’re finished for any left-behind items of your own; the orphan sock, the sequined g-string, (and again, MONEY!)…

8)   Shake out all your damp laundry before you load it into the dryer, especially pillow cases! You’ll be amazed at how much less wrinkled they’ll be after drying even if you’re not the kind of person who irons the sheets!

9)   When drying bed sheets, always check the dryer after the first 20 minutes, pull it all out of the dryer for a quick shake-out to make sure it’s not just ending up as a tangled lump of wet cloth at the end of the cycle. (I think that’s how they may have finally located Jimmy Hoffa and the Lindbergh baby!)

10)  Check YouTube for a video of “How to fold a fitted sheet”. It’s actually quite simple and loads of fun! No pun intended!

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Sybil Bruncheon's "WHO'Z DAT?"... Hollywood Birthdays in JULY!... The Fabulous Faces!

Answers Below!

(Clockwise from upper left: George Tobias, Olivia de Havilland, and James Cagney; Emil Jannings; Arthur Treacher; Yul Brynner; Rudy Vallee; Walter Brennan; Charles Laughton; Theda Bara; Jason Robards, Jr.)

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Sybil Bruncheon's "WHO'Z DAT?"... Hollywood Birthdays in JULY!... Behind the Camera!

Answers Below!

(Clockwise from bottom left: Delmer Daves, William Wyler, Louis B. Mayer, Stanley Kubrick, James Whale, George Cukor, Sydney Pollack, Peter Bogdanovich)

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A New Sybil Bruncheon's "WHO'Z DAT?"... ONA MUNSON (June 16, 1903 – February 11, 1955)

Darlings! Mummy has made a decision! After reading dozens of posts and having hundreds of conversations with well-meaning folks who just don't know about the great CHARACTER actors who gave films the depth and genius that surrounded and supported the so-called "stars", I am going to post a regular, special entry called SYBIL'S "WHO'Z DAT?"....there'll be photos and a mini-bio, and the next time you see one of those familiar, fabulous faces that you just "can't quite place".......well, maybe these posts will help. (and feel free to share them with your friends!) Some of these actors worked more, had longer and broader careers, and ended up happier, more loved, and even wealthier than the "stars" that the public "worships". (I think there may be a metaphor in that! What do you think???). Well, folks, make way for a lady! A lovely lady who, sadly did NOT end up very happily, but who was much loved. Ona Munson (June 16, 1903 – February 11, 1955).

Munson was born Owena Wolcott in Portland, Oregon. Blessed with a distinctive voice and clear American diction, she was among the better vocal actresses of the late 1920s, and she won plaudits in vaudeville. Trained as a dancer in Portland, Oregon, she first appeared on Broadway in GEORGE WHITE’S SCANDALS in 1919 when she was only 16 years of age. She co-starred with Eddie Buzzell in NO OTHER GIRL and married him during the run. She first came to fame on Broadway as the singing and dancing ingenue in the original production of NO, NO, NANETTE (1925) which made her a star, a status that was solidified by 1926's TWINKLE, TWINKLE and comedies such as MANHATTAN MARY (1927).  From this, Munson had a very successful stage and radio career in New York. She introduced the song "You're the Cream in My Coffee” in the 1927 Broadway musical HOLD EVERYTHING.

Her first starring role was in a Warner Brothers talkie called GOING WILD (1930). Originally this film was intended as musical but all the numbers were removed prior to release due to the public's distaste for musicals which had virtually saturated the cinema in 1929-1930. Munson appeared the next year in a musical comedy called HOT HEIRESS (1931) in which she sings several songs along with her co-star Ben Lyon. She also starred in BROADMINDED (1931) and FIVE STAR FINAL (1932). One of the smartest women in Hollywood in the 1930s, she chafed at roles that had her mooning at cowboys from ranch windows or playing blonde secretaries. She briefly retired from the screen, only to return in 1938.

When David O. Selznick was casting his production GONE WITH THE WIND (1939), he first announced that Mae West was to play Belle, but this was a publicity stunt. Tallulah Bankhead refused the role as too small. Munson herself was the antithesis of the voluptuous Belle: freckled and of slight build. Although her performance is one of the most memorable and beloved in the film, Munson’s career was stalemated by the acclaim she received from GONE WITH THE WIND; for the remainder of her career, she was typecast in similar roles. Two years later, she played a huge role as another madam, albeit a Chinese one, in Josef von Sternberg’s film noir THE SHANGHAI GESTURE. Her performance is so convincing that most people did not even recognize her as the same actress. Her last film was THE RED HOUSE released in 1947. She went on to perform on radio sporadically including co-starring (as Lorelei Kilbourne) with Edward G. Robinson on BIG TOWN.

Although she was married three times (to actor and director Edward Buzzell in 1926, to Federal Loan Administrator Stewart McDonald in 1941, and surrealist painter and set designer Eugene Berman in 1949) and had an affair with Ernst Lubitsch from 1932 to ’35, all of these have been termed "lavender" marriages.—i.e., a cover for stars concerned with keeping their homosexuality out of the public eye. They were intended to conceal her bisexuality and her affairs with women, including filmmaker Dorothy Arzner, Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich and playwright Mercedes de Acosta. Munson has been listed as a member of a group called the "sewing circle", a clique of lesbians organized by actress Alla Nazimova. 

In 1955, plagued by ill health, she committed suicide at the age of 51 with an overdose of barbiturates in her apartment in New York. A note found next to her deathbed read, "This is the only way I know to be free again...Please don't follow me."

For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Ona Munson has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6211 Hollywood Boulevard.

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Sybil Bruncheon's "WHO'Z DAT?"... GEMINI goes Hollywood!

Answers below!

(Clockwise from upper left: Russell Simpson; James Gleason; Basil Rathbone; Charles Coburn and Marilyn Monroe; Frank McHugh; Blanche Yurka; Herbert Marshall; Charles Winninger; Eleanor Parker and Lucile Watson; Robert Montgomery, Dame May Whitty, and Rosalind Russell; Cliff Edwards - Jiminy Cricket)

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Sybil Bruncheon's "WHO'Z DAT?"... Hollywood Birthdays in JUNE!

Answers below!

(Clockwise from upper left: Jane Russell, Charles Coburn, and Marilyn Monroe; Frank Morgan; Blanche Yurka; Ellen Corby; Irving Pichel; Mary Wickes; Peter Lorre; Basil Rathbone; Dame May Whitty; Walter Abel; Jack Albertson)

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Sybil Bruncheon's "Springtime Weddings from Here & There!"... Leavenworth, KS.

The wedding of Suzanne Switezer; Suzanne’s family had made their fortunes in a huge dairy empire they had built starting in the 1880s, and along with the thousands of cows they herded and milked, they had created a spectacularly successful cheese company, Switezer’s Swiss. Maybe that was why Suzanne’s parents were so disappointed when she decided to marry Billy Jay Jonquer, the infamous “Kansas Koosher”. He had bludgeoned seven elderly ladies over the course of a three year crime-spree. But Suzanne was devoted to him and all his prison mates too. That’s why she planned and catered a “Cheese Festival Wedding”. It was held right there in the top-security cafeteria, just off Death Row… and her bridesmaids were all fully armed with pepper spray… to celebrate Switezer’s newly released Pepper Jack Semi-Soft!

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Sybil Bruncheon's "Springtime Weddings from Here & There!"... Hookum, TX.

The wedding of Wendy Smoot; Like many weddings, the bride and groom don’t always agree on the theme. Wendy wanted a “Lavender and Lilac Fairyland” and Buck, her husband-to-be wanted a “Wild, Wild West” tribute to cowboys and the American frontier. They compromised… sort of. Wendy picked out everyone’s outfits, and Buck got the bridesmaids to carry red, white, and blue bouquets… and wear Dale Evans’ “Rancherette Stetsons”!… Only Peggy Gardner on the right there ended up with a migraine.

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Sybil Bruncheon's "Springtime Weddings from Here & There!"... Steversville, UT.

The wedding of Carl Pentaligon; Carl may have been the happiest groom that Steversville had ever seen. And why not? His ceremony was a joyous one at the Blesséd Blood of the Loving Lamb Church where he was married to four of the daughters of the congregation. On that same single day, four separate ladies became… um… “one with him” as their shared husband. Sadly, as at the photo session shortly after the ceremony, he stumbled backwards and impaled himself on a bench leg, as you can see here!... He moved to San Francisco later that week… and opened a bath house for single gentlemen.

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Sybil Bruncheon's "Springtime Weddings from Here & There!"... Munters Corners, WI.

The wedding of Patricia Kale; Patty Kale had been the popular captain of the cheerleader squad both in high school and later at the local Community College For Interior Design Sciences. Her brides’s maids included (standing from left) Janice Roland, Brenda Mae Connor, Patty herself, Tiffany Post, and kneeling, Katy Marie Kale, (her niece and flower girl), and Marcia Roth, her Maid-Of-Honor.

It was Patty’s Associate’s Degree in Merchandising that inspired the folks at Woolworth’s where she did their decorating for the Holidays. They were thrilled to store all the Christmas decorations in January and February, and have their Ladies’ Fine Fashion Department remake them all later into the bridal-wear for her Springtime wedding. Patty had gotten the idea from “Gone With The Wind” which was showing at the Munters Movie Revival Palace!... and the velvet and satin gowns were a perfect tribute to Scarlett O’Hara… no one even seemed to notice the holly‘n’spice scented candle spill on Janice Roland’s lap.

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