Birth of a Ball

Born in Worcester, Massachusetts on July 10, 1921. Ball became an apprentice sign painter while attending Worcester South High School. After school, he studies fine arts at Worcester Art Museum School.

War Time

Serving in Asia and the Pacific during World War II, Ball was awarded the Bronze Star for Heroism. Ball served in the National Guard for the majority of his life, retiring in 1979.

The Beginning

After the war ended, he began working for an advertising company and started his own company, Harvey Ball Advertising. Harvey was contacted by State Mutual Life Insurance Company in his home town of Worcester in 1963. Promotional Director Joy Young wanted to boost morale after her company bought out competing Guarantee Mutual Insurance Company of Ohio. She wanted a design that would bring together the two companies as one.

Harvey Bell was hired to create a design that would fit on buttons. Ball sketched the simple design of the smiley face on the eye catching yellow background. Ball’s first attempt was just the smile, but he thought that people would misunderstand it as a frown because it could be turned around to look like it. He decided to add eyes to the smile and to add a human aspect to the drawing, he made the left eye bigger than the right. Harvey was paid $45 for the smile.

Starting as “Love and the Old Fashioned Father” on the popular series “Love, American Style”, Wait ‘Till Your Father Gets Home was a wildly popular cartoon that premiered on September 1, 1972 on CBS. It was the first cartoon featured in the primetime slot airing Thursdays at 8:30 pm. The show lasted forty nine episodes and ended on November 1, 1974. This animated sitcom was years ahead of cartoons like “The Simpsons”, who were only the second cartoon to be featured on primetime television history.

Photo credit: Hanna Barbera Studios

The Beginning

Wait ‘Till Your Father Gets Home began as an animated segment from “Love, American Style” in 1972. The show was highly rated and it was decided to create a series based on the characters. The pilot was picked up by NBC to fill the prime-time slot. Series creators Harvey Bullock and R.S. Allen built the show as a view into the real generation gap between parents and children in the 1970′s. The show focuses around Elm Street in the suburbs of Los Angeles, California.

The Boyle Family

The parents, Harry Boyle and his wife Erma try to understand their children, Chet, Alice, and Jamie and their changing society.

Harry Boyle (Tom Bosley)

Harry is your every man. He owns a restaurant supply company and is the sole provider for the family. He doesn’t understand the changes happening around him, but is willing to learn. HE is the true “Old fashioned father”.

Erma (Joan Gerber)

As with most women and mothers in that era, Erma is the stay-at-home mom that keeps things in order and keeps the peace in the house. Erma does show independence in spurts throughout the series.

Photo Credit: andertoons via Compfight cc

Chet (David Hayward and later, Lenny Weinrib)

As a 22-year-old college dropout or college graduate, depending on which episode you are watching, is constantly “finding himself”. Chet likes sleeping and asking his dad for money to fix his motorcycle. He does hit it big a few episodes, but nothing ever pans out the way he’d like.

Alice (Kristina Holland)

Sixteen year old Alice is the heavy (weight, not slang for “deep or emotional”) daughter of Harry and Erma. She is constantly teacher her mother about the “independent woman” and how her mom needs to find her own identity. Alice is constantly on a diet, yet is always eating.

Jamie (Jackie Earl Haley and Willie Aames)

Jamie is the nine year old and the capitalist of the family. He is always earning money from each family member and people in their neighborhood. Harry says Jamie has more money than he does.

According to the movies time travelling is fantastic. Sure, you might alter the course of history and almost destroy humanity in the process but just think about how much fun it always looks like. It’s a shame to think that time travelling isn’t as exciting as we are led to believe that it is. If you don’t believe me then take a look at this evidence.

Your Life Is, Was and Will Be Kind of Dull

Why would you want to go back and see what you did 10 years ago or what you are going to be doing in 10 years time? You are only going to get depressed when you see how boring your life was, will be and therefore surely is currently. I admit that zipping through the years might be mildly entertaining if you could relive that great time you went to the beach with Angelina Jolie or get a sneak preview of the night you become a national hero by scoring an unbelievably important goal or a home run or whatever. None of this happened or will happen though. Instead, you will see how you used to sit around doing nothing exciting and how in the future, well, guess what you do?

There are many ways to suffer a horrible evening and there are two particular fears of mine; being stuck somewhere alone with Tom Cruise or being forced to watch Mission Impossible. So which one would be worse? It looks like it is going to be a close one to call but let’s see if we can work it out.

The Boredom Factor

You would think that a multi millionaire actor who has worked with some of the most famous people on the planet and

travelled all over the place would be interesting, wouldn’t you? So why does Tom Cruise Mapother IV seem so dull? He just seems to be like a cardboard cutout person who only exists in his films, doesn’t he? I get the feeling that I wouldn’t be quite so bored watching Mission Impossible, mainly because of its so-bad-it’s-almost-but-not-quite-funny factor. I saw a little bit of it once and it was so unbelievably horrible that I started to laugh, just like I used to do with those old B-movies where the sets wobbled and you could see the normal shoes peeking out from under the monsters’ costumes.
This is a point for the film I think, although I could live to regret it.Then I stopped laughing. This is the stage where boredom is likely to set in quickly.  The bit I saw was one of those hackneyed, drawn out fight sequences where the bad guy died and the good guy turned away triumphantly. Oh look, he’s

not dead and now he’s killed the good guy. Except he’s not. Yawn.

Tom:0

Mission Impossible:1

Professional wrestling started as a carny or (carnival) act many years ago. As with the traditions of the carnival, there were odd and bizarre shows held to keep the customers entertained. One of the carnivals most popular acts was the freakshow. Freakshows featured mainstays like The Bearded Lady, Wolf Boy, the Two Headed Man, and always featured the tiniest person and the giant. Pro Wrestling brought that carny mentality to television in the 1950′s and featured many midget matches and the wondrous giants of the squared circle. There have been many giants of the ring and we feature many of the familiar ones that were in the prominent territorial wrestling companies and popular brands like WWE and WCW.

Giant Gonzalez, El Gigante

• Jorge Gonzalez
• 7 ft. 7 in.

Jorge Gonzalez was the real name of the tallest “known” professional wrestler in history. Going by the names “El Gigante” and “Giant Gonzalez”, Gonzalez was probably the worst giant in the wrestling ring. He was slow and lazy and never really seemed to care. As many times as he was pushed into main events with wrestlers such as Ric Flair and Undertaker, Gonzalez definitely showed he didn’t belong. Sadly, Jorge Gonzalez passed away in 2010.

Andre The Giant

• Andre’ Rene’ Roussimoff
• 7 ft. 2 in.

Billed as the 8th Wonder of the World by the WWF (WWE) and the first WWE Hall of Fame inductee. Andre The Giant was the first “real” giant that people recognized as a true wrestler and talent. In the 1980′s, Andre was a huge fan favorite until turning his back on the ultra-popular Hulk Hogan. Andre ripped the shirt and cross from Hulk’s chest on Piper’s Pit talk segment to set up their Wrestlemania 3 main event. The dominating giant was, in real life, quickly deteriorating and passed the torch to Hulk Hogan when he was pinned after a monstrous bodyslam and leg drop by Hogan to give the good guy the win! Andre left soon after and passed away in 1993. Andre has big part in the movie “Princess Bride”.

The Great Khali, Giant Singh

• Dalip Singh Rana
• 7 ft. 1.5 in.

Photo Credit: nWoSyxx via Compfight cc

The Great Khali is a current WWE talent. He is popular with the kids and dances around the ring with a little person named Hornswoggle. Khali is the tallest wrestler on the WWE roster and is always the tallest or second tallest active wrestler in the United States in any given time. His in-ring action consists of a chop and a kick once in awhile and his finisher is…The Brain Chop! Yes. A hand chop to the top of his opponents head. Yes. This is a true statement. Khali is probably most known for killing wrestler-in-training Brian Ong a few years ago during a wrestling class. To Khali’s credit, he wasn’t at fault in Ong’s death as he was told to perform his moves to the concussed Ong as Ong said he could continue. Khali is considered a superstar and is doing very well for himself in the WWE as he has a solid (yet small) fanbase and his fellow wrestlers like him immensely.