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Don Locke: Lookin’ Thru Bifocals

Things you may not have known about some celebrities, in no particular order:

Before Charlie Pride became a country-music singing star, he was a pitcher in the minor baseball league. He once struck out the baseball great, Henry (Hank) Aaron.

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If you look closely, you may detect a slight limp in James Arness’ walk. Before he was Matt Dillon in the TV Western Gunsmoke, he was wounded in the leg in invasion of Italy in World War Two.

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Cowboy movie actor Ben Johnson was a cowhand on a ranch in Oklahoma, when his boss sent him on a train with a load of horses, to Hollywood. The horses were for the movie "The Outlaw", staring actress Jane Russell.

This was in the late 1940s. Ben stayed. He became a stunt man in the movies and was cast in a role in a non-western movie, "The Last Picture Show." He won an Oscar in film for best actor.

Ben played many side roles and character roles in John Wayne movies. He was never again cast in a starring role.  He was content just to be a movie cowboy. He never lost his Oklahoma accent.

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Both presidents Harry Truman and Richard Nixon were very good pianists. When he was in the White House, President Nixon was invited to play piano on the Grand Ole Opry. He obliged.

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Once President Truman, along with his wife, Bess, and daughter Margaret, was showing some friends around the White House grounds.

“The reason our flowers are so beautiful,” the President said, “we fertilize them with horse manure.”  

Margaret told her mother in private, “I wish you could get Daddy to use a word other than manure.”

Bess replied, “honey, don’t you know how long it took me to get him to say manure!?”

Kindest Regards…

 

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