Judy Lewis, actress and daughter of Loretta Young and Clark Gable, passed on 25 November 2011 at the age of 76. The cause was cancer.
Judy Lewis was conceived during a brief affair that the single Loretta Young and the married Clark Gable had while working on Call of the Wild (1935). Concerned that a child out of wedlock could damage her career, Loretta Young went to Europe for several months before returning to the United States. Miss Lewis was born on 6 November 1935 in Loretta Young's home in Venice, California. She spent her first 19 months with various caretakers until Miss Young picked her up, leaking the story to gossip columnist Louella Parsons that she had "adopted" Judy.
Judy Lewis attended Marymount, a Catholic girl's school in Los Angeles. In 1958 she made her television acting debut in an episode of Mackenzie's Raiders. She was a regular on the TV Western Outlaws and the soap operas The Secret Storm and General Hospital. She guest starred on such shows as The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Highway Patrol, Perry Mason, 77 Sunset Strip, Surfside 6, Search, The F.B.I., The Streets of San Francisco, and One Day at a Time. She appeared in the movies Operation Bikini (1963), Thunder in Dixie (1964), Airport 1974 (1974), and Southern Double Cross (1976). On Broadway she appeared in the play Mary Mary in 1964. In 1992 Judy Lewis became a licensed, clinical psychologist, working with troubled children.
Judy Lewis was 31 before a confrontation with her mother Loretta Young in 1966 revealed the truth behind her birth--that she was the daughter of Miss Young by Clark Gable. In 1994 she published a memoir, Uncommon Knowledge, which revealed the truth of her parentage to the world. For the next three years she and her mother were estranged. Miss Young would not acknowledge Miss Lewis's parentage except in her autobiography Forever Young, which was to be published only after her death. It was published in 2000, only a few months after Loretta Young's death.
Journalist and novelist Tom Wicker died on 25 November 2011 at the age of 85. The cause was a heart attack.
Tom Wicker was born in Hamlet, North Carolina on 18 June 1926. It was when he was working on his high school newspaper that he decided to become a journalist. He served in the United States Navy during World War II. Afterwards he attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He served at various North Carolina newspapers. Eventually he became the Washington, D.C. correspondent for The Winston-Salem Journal. In 1959 he became associate editor on The Nashville Tennessean. In 1960 James Reston hired him as one of The New York Times' Washington bureau. In 1964 he was named chief of The New York Times' Washington bureau. In 1968 Tom Wicker became an associate editor at The New York Times.
Tom Wicker also wrote several books. He wrote ten non-fiction books, the first being Kennedy Without Tears: The Man Beneath the Myth in 1964. His other non-fiction books included On Press (1978), One of Us: Richard Nixon and the American Dream (1991), and Shooting Star: The Brief Arc of Joe McCarthy (2006). He also wrote ten novels. His first novel, Get Out of Town, was published under the pen name Peter Connolly. He published two more novels under the pseudonym. His first novel published under his given name was The Kingpin (1953). His 1961 novel The Judgement would provide the basis for the controversial episode of Bus Stop "A Lion Walks Among Us." His novel Facing the Lions (1973) would spend 18 weeks on The New York Times list. His 1984 novel Unto This Hour spent 15 weeks on the list.
Ten years ago today on 29 November 2001 George Harrison, of The Beatles and The Travelling Wilburys, died. It is a significant day in my life, not simply because George was a Beatle, but because after John Lennon he was my second favourite Beatle. Many of my favourite Beatles songs were written by George Harrison: "Think for Yourself," "Taxman," "I Want to tell You," "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "I, Me, Mine," and many others. What is more, I had somewhat of a connection with George Harrison that I never had with the other Beatles, not even John Lennon. George's sister Louise Harrison lived for many years in Benton, Illinois, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. George Harrison was the only Beatle to have been to the United States before the group's historic appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. He visited his sister in Benton, having flown in from England to Lambert Field in St. Louis. Unlike the other Beatles, then, George had a link to the Missouri/Illinois border area. It's even feasible some of my relatives might have met him, not knowing they were meeting someone who would one day be part of the greatest rock band of all time.
Because George Harrison had been a significant part of my life and because I had something of a personal connection to him, however small, I can remember very well the day he died. Indeed, George Harrison was the first rock star from one of my favourite bands whose death I learned from the internet. I read the news of his passing in Yahoo News. And while I had known that he had cancer for years and I know the prognosis for him was not good, the tears still began. They would last, on and off, for a few days. I remember listening to George's songs (both with The Beatles and on his own) over and over. And I remember the local television stations talked to Louise Harrison about her younger brother and his legacy.
George Harrison was born on 25 Feburary 1943 in Liverpool in the district known as Wavertree. He was twelve years old when he became interested in music. He had been riding his bicycle down the street when he heard "Heartbreak Hotel" by Elvis Presley playing in a nearby house. From that moment on George devoted his life to music. In fact, it was while at Liverpool Institute that with his older brother Peter and his friend Arthur Kelly (later an actor who appeared in Bergerac and The Bill) that George founded a skiffle band called The Rebels. It was also at Liverpool Institute that George would meet someone who would change his life forever, a fellow rock 'n' roll aficionado. His name was Paul McCartney.
Of course, Paul McCartney was a member of the skiffle band known as The Quarry Men, founded by John Lennon. Beyond the fact that Paul introduced George to John and the other Quarry Men, the exact circumstances and even the date of that first encounter are not clear. From Paul McCartney to John's friend Pete Shotton to George himself, accounts of that first meeting tend to vary Regardless, while John and the other Quarry Men considered George to be too young to join the band, they did permit him to tag along with them. In 1958, at the age of 15, George Harrison, the kid with a gift for playing guitar, officially became one of The Quarry Men, replacing Eric Griffiths as lead guitarist. George would leave school at 15 and would work as an apprentice electrician at local department store Blacklers for a short time.
In the meantime The Quarry Men, the band of which George Harrison was lead guitarist, would evolve into The Beatles. It was on 5 May 1960 that the band once known as The Quarry Men would become The Silver Beatles. On 18 August of that same year, they became The Beatles. It was when The Beatles were offered a job playing in Hamburg, Germany, 17 year old George Harrison would accompany them. In Germany The Beatles would receive musical training like no other, playing show after show, night after night. When they returned to Liverpool they were very well trained musicians. Once one of several bands in Liverpool, The Beatles soon became one of the top Merseyside bands. Eventually The Beatles were signed to EMI. They released their first single, "Love Me Do," in October 1962. It proved a moderate success. Their next single, "Please Please Me," also proved to be a moderate hit. Their next single, "From Me to You," would do even better, but ti was their fourth single which would establish The Beatles as the most successful band in the United Kingdom. "She Loves You" became the fastest selling single in the history of the UK charts and the biggest song ever in the UK for years.
While The Beatles' earliest hits were written by John Lennon and Sir Paul McCartney, George Harrison's skilled guitar work was responsible for much of their success. And while John and Paul would write many of the band's early singles, George Harrison was also a composer. In fact, his first song, "Don't Bother Me," appeared on The Beatles' second album, With The Beatles. Sadly, John and Paul would generally restrict George anywhere from one to three songs per album. Despite this George proved a very skilful composer, writing some of The Beatles' best remembered songs. It was while The Beatles were still together that George Harrison would launch his solo career, with the soundtrack to the movie Wonderwall, Wonderwall Music, in 1968. After The Beatles broke up he would have a fairly successful solo career and would also play with the supergroup The Travelling Wilburys (in addition to Harrison, the members were Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, and Tom Petty).
Sadly, I have always thought that George was under appreciated as both a composer and a Beatle. In most rock bands the lead guitarist is the undisputed star, the equivalent of a quarterback on a football team or the handsome leading man in a movie. In a band that featured not one, but two impressive and often vocal composers (John Lennon and Paul McCartney), it was all too easy for the more quiet and reserved George Harrison to be overlooked. Indeed, while Beatles fans are all too aware of George's contributions to the band, as lead guitarist, as a composer, and, well, as George, the general public has always seemed to treat him as just The Beatles' lead guitarist. Like many Beatles fans and George Harrison fans, this strikes me as wrong, and for several reasons.
First and foremost, in my humble opinion George Harrison was nearly the equal, if not the equal of John Lennon and Sir Paul McCartney as a composer. Indeed, he wrote some of The Beatles' best known songs, songs that are every bit as good as anything composed by John Lennon and Paul McCartney: "Taxman," ""If I Needed Someone," "Love You To," "Only a Northern Song," "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Here Comes the Sun," "I, Me, Mine," and many others. No less than Frank Sinatra himself referred to "Something" as the "...greatest love song ever written." Indeed, in many ways I think George may have been a better composer than Sir Pal McCartney over all. Granted, Paul's best songs tended to be better than George's best songs with but a few exceptions ("Taxman," "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"), but then George's worst songs ("Within You, Without You") were fare superior than Paul's worst songs ("Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da," "Silly Love Songs"). With the exception of a few songs George may have never reached the dizzying heights of "Eleanor Rigby" or "Yesterday," but then he never reached the low points that Paul did with "Mother Nature's Son" or "Wild Honey Pie." While John and Paul are deservedly lauded as composers, then, it seems to me that George Harrison should be as well.
Indeed, it seems to me that not only did George make considerable contributions as a composer to The Beatles, but he may have also had the best solo career of any of The Beatles except John Lennon. All Things Must Pass may have been the single best solo album released by any Beatle after the break up of the band. As a solo artist George wrote and recorded a number of songs that are memorable to this day: "Isn't It a Pity," "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)," "Crackerbox Palace," "Not Guilty," All Those Years Ago," and many others. As a solo artist George Harrison wrote songs and recorded albums that were consistently good and in some instances even better than those he had recorded with The Beatles.
Not only do I think George has always been underestimated as a composer, but I also think his contributions to The Beatles have been not been recognised by the general public as well. Indeed, George Harrison's contributions went far beyond that of most lead guitarists to their respective bands. It was George Harrison who first proposed that The Beatles stop performing live concerts. Ever the musician, George felt that the screaming crowds at their concerts made playing well nearly impossible. Of course, it is generally believed that in abandoning live concerts The Beatles were able to concentrate on recording, not only making advancements in recording techniques but allowing them to make even more sophisticated songs.
Indeed, George would have an even more direct impact on The Beatles' recordings. Ever on the look out for new and more sophisticated means of recording, it was George Harrison who introduced The Beatles to such new innovations as the Moog synthesiser. It was through his fascination with Indian culture that George Harrison discovered a sitar, an instrument that found its way into such Beatles songs as "Norwegian Wood."
As much as I admire George Harrison (and the rest of The Beatles, for that matter), I realise all too well that he was not perfect. George was known to have a very severe temper. His temper was so great that early in The Beatles' career he was known to get into fights with photographers and even police officers. George Harrison could be a perfectionist when it came to his music, testing the patience of even his producers. He was not always the most faithful husband, at times cheating on first wife Patti Boyd and second wife Olivia Harrison. George Harrison was also sued for copyright infringement because of similarities between his song "My Sweet Lord" and The Chiffons' song "He's So Fine." A United States district court would rule that George did not deliberately commit plagiarism, but instead he subconsciously did so without realising it. Given George's personality, I tend to believe that he was indeed a victim of cryptomnesia and did not initially realise that he was copying "He's So Fine." That having been said, one would think that given how often "He's So Fine" was probably played in 1969 (and still is) sooner or later he would have heard the song and then changed "My Sweet Lord" so the two were not so similar.
While George Harrison had more than his fair share of flaws, he remains a man I admire and one whose life had a very large impact on my own. As I said, after John Lennon, George Harrison was my favourite Beatle. Known as "the Quiet Beatle" and even referred to as "the Great Stone Face" by Ringo Starr, George taught me that there could be strength in silence. That is, one could sometimes accomplish more by saying little and remaining reserved than by making a verbal commotion of things. George Harrison proved that the English stereotype of "maintaining a stiff upper lip" can actually be a strength.
And while I would never follow George Harrison into Hinduism (my religious views are rather more Western in outlook), I cannot deny that his spirituality had an impact on me. George proved that one could be a deeply spiritual individual without forcing one's choice of religion down other's throats. Like so much in his life, George's religious views were a quiet, reserved affair. Everyone knew his religious beliefs, everyone knew he was a deeply spiritual individual, and yet one never felt that he was flaunted his religion. Indeed, in many ways George felt like a much more spiritual, more more religious person because of that.
George Harrison also taught me a good deal about approaching one's own death. Like George, my father had died of lung cancer, so I knew something of what George was going through. Throughout George's illness, however, I never remember reading in the news that he complained about having developed cancer, wallowed in self pity, or blamed others. Even to the very end he faced death with dignity and even cheerfulness. Indeed, George even took responsibility for his own death. I remember reading an interview with him not long before his death in which he pointed out that developing cancer was his own fault. If he had never taken up smoking or had given it up long ago, he would most likely have never developed lung cancer.
More than anything else, however, George Harrison taught me to treat other people with respect. George viewed all of us as unique and special, and yet at the same time irrevocably connected to each other. It was a thought that often surfaced in his songs. As much as I dislike "Within You, Without You," I must admit hat its lyrics carry an important message. Essentially it is up to us to make a difference, and that difference is to treat others with the love and respect with which we ourselves would like to be treated. George Harrison's final words were “Love one another.” Those three simple words summed up what he had been saying since the days of The Beatles. If I am even half the man I should be, if I am better than that what I could have been, it is in a large part due to George Harrison.
It is then that I will spend today listening to George Harrison's songs. It is also the reason that I will shed not a few tears today. George Harrison had an impact on me more than most musicians in history, more than most artists in history. In fact, it is possible that only John Lennon had more of an influence on me. To a large degree, then, I owe George Harrison for almost everything I am and everything I ever will be.
Mark Hall, who co-founded the animation studio Cosgrove Hall and co-created Danger Mouse, passed on 17 November 2011 at the age of 74. The cause was cancer.
Mark Hall was born on 17 May 1936 in Wakefield, West Yorkshire. As a child he would put on his own puppet shows for his friends. It was while he was at the Regional College of Art, Manchester that he met Brian Cosgrove. In 1969 Mark Hall and Brian Cosgrove founded Stop Frame Animations. Initially the studio created commercials for the magazine Look-In and The TV Times. It was in 1971 that they produced their first series, The Magic Ball. In 1972 they produced and Mark Hall directed the television animated movie Captain Noah and His Floating Zoo. Stop Frame Animations' last series was Noddy in 1975. Stop Frame Animations folded in 1975, but from its ashes Mark Hall and Brian Cosgrove founded Cosgrove Hall as a subsidiary of Thames Television. In 1976 they produced the series Jamie and The Magic Torch.
Cosgrove-Hall then produced the seies Chorlton and The Wheelies in 1976. This was followed by the programmes Captain Kremmen and Cockleshell Bay. It was in 1981 that Cosgrove Hall would produce their greatest success. Danger Mouse, a parody of spy fiction and spy movies featuring the title mouse who was a secret agent. Danger Mouse would not only prove to be a smash hit in the United Kingdom, where at its height it had 21.5 million viewers, but around the world as well. Indeed, while it was not the first British cel animated series to air in the United States (Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings, Ludwig, and Paddington Bear had preceded it), it was by far the most successful. With British wit, plenty of parody, and a tendency to bizarre plots, Danger Mouse proved appealing not only to youngsters, but to adults as well.
Cosgrove Hall would go onto produce more successful animated series including The Wind in the Willows, Count Duckula (a spin off from Danger Mouse), Oh! Mr. Toad, Fantomcat, Noddy's Toyland Adventures, and Captain Star. Cosgrove Hall also produced television movies, including The Pied Piper of Hamelin and The Reluctant Dragon, as well as the feature film adaptation of Roald Dahl's The BFG (1989).
To some degree Mark Hall is a legend in television animation and with good reason. It would be enough if he had simply co-created Danger Mouse, one of the most successful animated series of all time, but he and Brian Cosgrove did much more. Although often shot on minuscule budgets, the Cosgrove Hall programmes were always very well done. Indeed, the series The Wind in the Willows is one of the few adaptations to successfully capture the feel of Kenneth Grahame's novel. With Brian Cosgrove, Mark Hall left behind a legacy in animation that will be long remembered.
Science fiction and fantasy writer Anne McCaffrey passed on 21 November 2011 at the age of 85. The cause was a stroke.
Anne McCaffrey was born on 1 April 1926 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She graduated from Radcliffe College with a degree in Slavonic languages and literature. In 1952 her first short story was published. It was in 1959 that her story "The Ship That Sang" was published. It would be succeeded by five more short stories that she would eventually weave into the novel The Ship Who Sang. It was in 1967 that the first novella in the series that would gain Miss McCaffrey lasting fame would be published. This novella and the second would become the novel Dragonflight (1968), the first of the "Dragonriders of Pern" series. In all 22 novels would be published in the series.
Although best known for The Ship Who Sang and "The Dragonriders of Pern," Anne McCaffrey would publish several other books, including Decision at Doona (1969), To Ride Pegasus (1973), The Crystal Singer (1982), Freedom's Landing (1995), and The Unicorn Girl (1997).
While I cannot say Anne McCaffrey was one of my all time favourite writers, I can say that I always enjoyed her books a good deal. She had a very brisk, easy to read style and tended to avoid the wordiness of many science fiction writers. She also had a gift for creating believable characters, in particular strong women, as well as a knack for creating believable worlds. She was a very talented writer and it is quite understandable why she developed a following over the years. In fact, I rather suspect she could be the most successful female science fiction writer of all time.
John Neville, who in his career played both Sherlock Holmes and Baron Munchausen, passed on 19 November 2011 ate age of 86. The cause was Alzheimar's disease.
John Neville was born on 2 May 1925 in Willesden, London. He was the son of a lorry driver. Mr. Neville attended Chiswick School for Boys. It was when his church choir went to see A Midsummer's Night Dream starring Sir Ralph Richardson and Vivien Leigh that his love for theatre began. He left school at age 16 to work as stores clerk at a garage, but his career would be set when a performance as Hamlet for a church production won him a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. During World War II John Neville served as a signalman in the British Royal Navy.
John Neville made his debut on the West End in 1947 in a small part in Richard III at the New Thaetre. In 1948 he took part in the Open Air Season at Regent's Park. He played Lysander in A Midsummer's Night Dream and Chatillon in King John. In 1949 he worked with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre where he played John Worthing in The Importance of Being Ernest. He later worked at the Old Vic, where he played Surface in The School for Scandal, Ferdinand in Love's Labour Lost, and Valentine in The Two Gentelmen of Varona.
In 1950 Mr. Neville made his debut on television in the teleplay Mrs. Dot. Throughout the Fifties he appeared on such shows as ITV Playhouse, ITV Play of the Week, Producer's Showcase, The Dupont Show of the Month, and BBC Sunday Night Theatre. In 1960 he made his film debut in Oscar Wilde. In 1953 he was once more at the Old Vic, where among other roles he appeared as Lewis the Dauphin in King John,Orsino in Twelfth Night, Macduff in Macbeth, and Berowne in Love's Labour Lost. In 1955 he received rave notices for his performance of the title role in Richard III. At the Old Vic he played roles ranging from Mark Antony in Julius Ceasar to Hamlet in the play of the same name. It was in 1959 he left the Old Vic. He directed The Importance of Being Ernest at the Bristol Old Vic and appeared as Nestor in Irma La Douce.
In the Sixties John Neville appeared in such films as I Like Money (1961), Billy Budd (1962), Unearthly Stranger (1964), and The Adventures of Gerard (1970). One of his most notable film roles came in 1965 when Mr. Neville played Sherlock Holmes in the movie A Study in Terror. On television he was a regular on both The Company of Five and The First Churchills. He appeared on the programmes Theatre 625 and Half Hour Story. On stage he directed Henry V at the Old Vic. He played the Stranger in The Lady from the Sea and other roles ranging form Macbeth to Faustus.
In the Seventies he appeared in such shows as Shadows of Fear, The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, Love Story, The Protectors, ITV Saturday Night Theatre, and Benjamin Franklin. On stage he appeared as Captain Macheath in The Beggar's Opera. He took an offer to direct The Rivals at the National Arts centre in Ottawa, Ontario. He would spend the rest of his life in Canada. Over the years, on stage he directed Much Ado About Nothing, Uncle Vanya, Mother Courage, Othello, The Three Sisters, and other plays. He appeared on stage in Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, Pericles, The Merchant of Venice, and Henry VIII.
In the Eighties John Neville played the title role in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) . He was a regular on the television programme Grand and appeared on the series Titans. In the Nineties he played the role of the Well-Manicured Man on The X-Files, a role he reprised in the 1998 movie. Mr. Neville was also a regular on Emily of New Moon and Amazon. He appeared on such television programmes as Avonlea, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Stark. He appeared in such films as The Road to Wellville (1994), Little Women (1994), The Fifth Element (1997), Urban Legend (1998), The Duke (1999), and Sunshine (1999). In the Naughts he appeared in such films as Time of the Wolf (2002), Hollywood North (2003), The Statement (2003), and Separate Lies (2005). He appeared in such television programmes as Odyssey 5, Bury the Lead, and Friends and Heroes His last role on screen was in the film Bradfordian Rain.
John Neville first came to my notice as Sherlock Holmes in A Study in Terror. In fact, he would prove to be my favourite Holmes besides Basil Rathbone. In the years since I would be impressed by the sheer diversity of roles which Mr. Neville played, everything from the colourful Baron Munchausen to Lt. Radcliffe in Billy Budd. John Neville was versatile to the point that I believe that he could play any role in the world. Indeed, it is for this reason that is career spanned over sixty years. He acted very nearly until his death. Not only could very few actors boast such a long career, but few could boast one that was as diverse and as well done as that of John Neville.
Comic book historian and novelist Les Daniels passed on 5 November at the age of 68. The cause was a heart attack.
Les Daniels was born on 27 October 1943 in Danbury, Connecticut. He grew up in Redding, Connecticut. He was only nine years old when the course of his career was determined. It was at that age that his mother threw his comic book collection out. He earned his bachelor's degree at Brown University. He received his master degree as well, writing his master's thesis on pulp horror writer H. P. Lovecraft.
Les Daniels would make his mark as a comic book historian with the book Comix: A History of the Comic Book in America, published in 1971. It was one of the earliest books on the medium, one which traced comic books from the first appearance of Superman to the moral panic over comic books in the early Fifties to the underground comics of the Sixties. In 1975 Mr. Daniels published Living in Fear: A History of Horror in Mass Media. The book covered nearly 1500 yeas of the genre, from Aeschylus' play Oresteia to horror novels and movies of the Seventies.
In 1978 Les Daniels published his first novel, The Black Castle. It was the first in a series of novels featuring Don Sebastian de Villanueva, a Spanish nobleman turned vampire. Mr. Daniels would write four more novels featuring Don Sebastian: The Silver Skull (1979), Citizen Vampire (1981), Yellow Fog (1986), and No Blood Spilled (1991).
Despite the Don Sebastian novels, it would be for his histories of comic books and comic book characters for which he would become best known. In 1991 he published Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics, which covered Marvel Comics from its origins in the late Thirties to the late Eighties. DC Comics: Sixty Years of the World's Favourite Comic Book Heroes, published in 1995, chronicled the history of DC Comics from its earliest beginnings. Les Daniels would also write histories of DC Comics' major characters: Superman, the Complete History: The Life and Times of the Man of Steel (1998), The Complete History: The Life and Times of the Dark Knight Batman (1999), and The Complete History: Wonder Woman (2000).
Les Daniels was not the first comic book historian, but he was arguably the greatest. Only two other books ever matched Mr. Daniels Comix: A History of the Comic Book in America: Jim Steranko's two volume History of Comics and Gerard Jones's Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book (2004). As to Mr. Daniels' other comic book histories, there were never anything quite like them. No one but Les Daniels ever covered Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman in such detail, and no one but Mr. Daniels ever wrote such detailed histories of the two major comic book companies in the industry. That he was also a successful novelist only makes Les Daniels even more impressive.
Indeed, I must confess I owe a great deal to Les Daniels. It is not simply that he wrote histories of a medium I love, comic books, but that he made chronicling pop culture respectable. Without Les Daniels and a few others as examples I might never have started writing about television, movies, music, comic books, and pulp magazines. To a large degree, A Shroud of Thoughts, then, owes its existence to Mr. Daniels. It's for that reason his passing saddens me more than that of many more famous individuals.
