Newspaper columnist Kiernan fills in
for Melville Cooper for this week only.
[Stephen Shacora, Jr] from Whippany, NJ: “I
won the Irish Sweeptsakes [sic]”
In a time when most lotteries were
illegal in the United States, the Irish Sweepstakes (which ran in some form from
1930 to 1987) captured the public imagination and showed up often in popular
culture. Although tickets were
technically illegal outside Ireland, millions of Americans found ways to buy
them. Jackpots were nowhere close to the
multi-millions of today’s lotteries, but winners in the US received plenty of
attention, not to mention a hefty tax bill from the IRS. Officially called the “Irish Hospitals’
Sweepstake,” the controversial program did in fact make money for Irish
hospitals, but also made its private organizers quite wealthy in the
process. Mr. Shacora won $69,000 in
1950. Also see
E87
and
E520
.
[Harvey Doyle] of Brooklyn: “I found my wife
on the subway.”
Wacky matrimony.
Special Guest Gloria Swanson: “I was kicked in
the movies by Charlie Chaplin”
Swanson was one of the biggest stars
of the silent era. After a long absence
from the public eye, the now-classic film Sunset
Boulevard (1950) had returned her to the limelight. Her Secret referred to an incident in 1914,
back when she was a mere extra in pictures, but her somewhat confusing
explanation seems to suggest that the incident did not happen on film.
Mrs. H: “My daughter is Gypsy Rose Lee”
Rose Hovick had two famous daughters: the striptease artist [
E245
] and film actress June Havoc [E33], who is
mentioned here in passing. At the time
of this Secret, few people outside of show business knew of Mrs. Hovick, but Lee's 1957 memoir,
and especially the 1959 musical adaptation Gypsy,
portrayed her as the ultimate “stage mother”.
The character of “Mama Rose” in Gypsy is today considered one of the great roles
in musical theatre, played by such stage legends as Ethel Merman, Angela
Lansbury, Bernadette Peters and Patti LuPone.
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