Monday, August 13, 2018

MORE RECENTLY UNEARTHED BITS & PIECES ABOUT CROTON NOTABLES: GLORIA SWANSON, PATRICIA BENOIT, BENJAMIN BOTKIN & CLIFFORD HARMON

Welcome to Everything Croton, a collection of all things Croton -- our history, our homes, our issues, our businesses, our schools -- in short, EVERYTHING CROTON.  

SOME MORE RECENTLY UNEARTHED BITS & PIECES ABOUT CROTON NOTABLES: GLORIA SWANSON, PATRICIA BENOIT SWIFT, BENJAMIN BOTKIN AND CLIFFORD B. HARMON--Click on the photos and links, all rights reserved.

First up, from 1955, Croton's Gloria Swanson and lots of fellow movie star company at the PEN & PENCIL, a private social club still in operation today. 

With the news that actress and former village resident Patricia Benoit (Swift) recently passed away (read about her Croton connection and obituary here), we thought you'd enjoy seeing this 1954 publicity still from the television show MISTER PEEPERS with Wally Cox. Wally Cox starred as Robinson J. Peepers, Jefferson City's junior high school science teacher. Others in the cast included Tony Randall as history teacher Harvey Weskit; Georgann Johnson as Harvey's wife, Marge; Patricia Benoit as county nurse Nancy Remington, later married to Peepers; Marion Lorne as oft-confused English teacher Mrs. Gurney; Jack Warden as athletic coach Frank Whip...read more about the show here

Photo Jerry Rosenthal
Next up, a great post on Croton's Ben Botkin

There's even a photo of his Croton-on-Hudson study.

It's called GROWING UP IN FOLKLORE, A Conversation with Dorothy Rosenthal and Daniel Botkin; read all about it here.

And finally, Croton's own CLIFFORD B. HARMON, whose real estate interests also involved....PELHAMWOOD!

COURTESY OF THE "HISTORIC PELHAM" BLOG:
During the spring of 1909, a newly-created company known as Clifford B. Harmon & Co., Inc. began grading and developing the neighborhood we know today as Pelhamwood.  While the company was new, its namesake had been involved for more than two decades in the creation of suburban developments throughout the northeast and along the Atlantic coast.  

READ AND SEE MORE HERE 

SEE THE LAST EDITION OF MORE RECENTLY UNEARTHED BITS & PIECES ABOUT CROTON NOTABLES: OSCAR BRAND, JACKIE GLEASON, GLORIA SWANSON and YALE JOEL HERE

2 comments:

  1. DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT HARMON'S INVOLVEMENT WITH PELHAM.

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  2. More about Wally Cox

    Wally Cox, who portrayed the meek schoolteacher Robinson Peepers on television in the early 50s, died of an apparent heart attack Thursday in his Bel-Air https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-wally-cox-19730216-story.htmlhome. He was 48.

    Patricia Cox, wife of the gentle comedian, discovered him lying fully clothed on their bed.

    "A detailed autopsy revealed severe coronary disease due to arteriosclerosis," said Coroner Dr. Thomas Noguchi. "The death appears to be the result of a heart attack."

    Although the bespectacled Cox made frequent television appearances in recent years, and was a regular on the NBC daytime panel show, The Hollywood Squares, it was for his role as the owlish Mr. Peepers that he was most remembered.

    During 110 episodes from 1952 to 1955, Cox charmed national audiences as a shy science teacher with a high-pitched, quavering voice.

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