Timelines for year 1948
Sharon Tate
Lived in Pasadena, Texas from 1948 to 1951 and attended St. Pius V Catholic School from kindergarten to the second grade (1948-1951).
Tommy Bond
Bond played Jimmy Olsen in the first live-action Superman movies: Superman (1948) and Atom Man vs. Superman (1950), both chapter serials. But he turned down the role of Olsen in the TV series, "Adventures of Superman" (1952), starring George Reeves.
Robert J. Flaherty
Didn't take up film seriously until the age of 38, but in 1948, NY Times writer J. Donald Adams called Flaherty the "only creative genius yet to appear" in cinematography.
Dick Merrill
The following is the CAB report summary of the incident involving pilot Dick Merrill on 07 FEB 1948: Time: 13:09 Type: Lockheed L-649 Constellation Operator: Eastern Air Lines. Registration: NC112A. c/n / msn: 2533 First flight: 1947 Total airframe hrs: 1522 Captain: Dick Merrill. Crew: Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 6. Passengers: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 63. Total: Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 69. Airplane damage: Substantial. Location: 250 km (156.3 mls) ESE of Brunswick, GA (United States of America). Phase: En route. Nature of flight: Domestic Scheduled Passenger. Departure airport: New York-La Guardia Airport, NY (LGA/KLGA), United States of America. Destination airport: West Palm Beach International Airport, FL (PBI/KPBI), United States of America. Flightnumber: 611. Narrative: Flight 611 originated at Boston, for Miami, with stops scheduled at LaGuardia Field, N. Y., and West Palm Beach. The Constellation departed LaGuardia at 10:09. The aircraft climbed to the planned cruising level of 20,000 feet. At about 1309, No. 3 propeller failed and a portion of one blade was thrown through the fuselage. It entered the lower right side at the galley section, severing control cables, electrical wires and engine controls, came up through the floor, fatally injuring a purser and left through the upper left side. The cabin depressurized, heavy vibration was felt and all of the flight and engine instruments became either inoperative or impossible to read. Power was reduced and a rapid descent was started. An attempt was made to feather No. 3 engine and orders were given to prepare for ditching. An estimated one or two minutes after the failure of the No. 3 propeller the front portion of No. 3 engine and some of its cowling fell free of the aircraft. Concurrently the heavy vibration stopped. A fire followed in No. 3 nacelle but quickly extinguished itself. Near the coast low clouds prevailed and the aircraft was let down visually to about 1,000 feet altitude, as most of the flight instruments remained inoperative. Bunnell Airport, FL was sighted and an emergency landing was carried out. PROBABLE CAUSE: "The Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the failure of a propeller blade due to high stresses induced by accumulative engine malfunctioning." Sources: CAB File No. 1-0010.
Carl Brashear
From 1948 to 1979 served in the United States Navy in the rate of Boatswain Mate under the service number 288 08 15. Retired as a Master Chief Petty Officer with the warfare specialty of Master Diver.
Seaman Recruit (E-1) through Boatswain's Mate First Class (E-6), 1948-1955 Chief Boatswain's Mate (E-7), 1960-1966 Senior Chief Boatswain's Mate (E-8), 1966-1971 Master Chief Boatswain's Mate (E-9), 1971-79
Joel Chandler Harris
Pictured on a 3¢ US postage stamp in the Famous Americans/Authors series, issued 9 December 1948.
T.S. Eliot
Was awarded the 1948 Nobel prize in literature.
Appointed a Member of the Order of Merit in 1948.
Barbara Lawrence
After dating for only a couple of weeks, she eloped at age 18 in January of 1947 with a young contract actor named John Fontaine, aka Jeffrey Stone. They both appeared in the Fox musical movie You Were Meant for Me (1948). The marriage was kept secret until June 28, 1947, when her mother gave Barbara a church wedding in Beverly Hills. The marriage was over a year later.
Abraham Polonsky
Critic Andrew Sarris said Force of Evil (1948), Polonsky's directorial debut, is "one of the great films of the modern American cinema." Blacklisted for nearly two decades after 20th Century-Fox fired him for refusing to "name names" before the House Un-American Activies Committee (HUAC), Polonsky continued to work--and earn even more money than he had before--using various pseudonyms, such as John O. Killens, for co-writing Odds Against Tomorrow (1959). In 1996, the Writers Guild restored his real name and credits.
Bob Feller
Member of 1948 World Series Champion Cleveland Indians team. Member of 1954 American League Champion Cleveland Indians team.
Monica Lewis
Was one of the first person to appear on "Toast of the Town" (1948) (aka "The Ed Sullivan Show").
Starred on Ed Sullivan's very first "Toast of the Town" (1948) broadcast, along with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis and Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Her brother, Marlo Lewis, created the show and produced it for several years.
Cyb Barnstable
Father, Dale Barnstable, played basketball at the University of Kentucky as one of coach Adolf Rupp's Fab Five, winning NCAA Championships 1948-1949 and won the gold medal in the Olympics.
Martha Stewart
Cites Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948), 'Round Midnight (1986), and Choose Me (1984) as her must-have movies.
Florence Lake
The best known of Edgar Kennedy's screen wives in his series of short domestic comedies. After his death in 1948, she continued to appear in minor film roles and many television parts.
Lloyd Bentsen
Lawyer, businessman, and Democratic politician, in 1948 he was elected as the youngest member of the 80th Congress. He quit Congress in 1954, moved to Houston, and established Lincoln Consolidated, a holding company that owned Lincoln Liberty Life Insurance Co. Bentsen went on to build a vast corporate empire including directorships in Lockheed Aircraft, Continental Oil, Panhandle Eastern Pipeline, Trunkline Gas, and the Bank of the Southwest in Houston, becoming like his father a multimillionaire. In 1970 he returned to politics and defeated George Bush for a seat in the U.S. Senate, which he held until 1992. Bentsen unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976 and served as Michael Dukakis' running mate in the 1988 presidential campaign. As a Senator, he voted for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Equal Rights Amendment and supported health insurance, federal funding for medical education, scientific research, preventive health care, bilingual education (he was fluent in Spanish), and public works jobs. Chair of the Senate Finance Committee from 1987 to 1992, he also served as a member of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, the Joint Committee on Taxation, and the Joint Economic Committee. President Bill Clinton appointed him as Secretary of the Treasury on January 20, 1993, which Bentsen served until his resignation December 22, 1994, choosing to return home to Texas.