October 28 - Elsa Lanchester

On this day, in 1902, Elsa Sullivan Lanchester was born in Lewisham, London, England. As the daughter of severely Bohemian parents, Elsa was born into a life with theatrical leanings. Her older brother Waldo would start his own marionette company. Prior to World War I, Elsa spent time in Paris studying dance under Isadora Duncan. She hated it so much that she was probably the only person who wasn't terribly sad that war broke out and closed the school. Not that she was done with dance.

During the Great War, as it was then known, 12 year old Elsa began earning extra money for her family by teaching little girls in her South London neighborhood how to dance. And not just how to dance, but how to dance like Isadora Duncan. She wasn't even a teenager yet and she'd already learned how to give the people what they want.

After the Great War ended, Elsa continued in her entrepreneurial vein and started a children's theater and then a nightclub, Cave of Harmony. In the Cave, she performed in both plays and a cabaret act, singing everything from old Victorian ballads to modern tunes. Elsa gained enough notoriety that Columbia Records made a couple of 78 recordings of her (one of the songs being "Please Sell No More Drink to My Father").

Elsa began doing more serious work in the theaters of London. An appearance in a 1927 play called Mr. Prohack introduced her to a fellow cast member she found intriguing, Charles Laughton. Within two years, the pair was married and would act together on stage and screen throughout their lifetimes, including a turn in 1936 when Elsa played Peter Pan to Laughton's Captain Hook.

Elsa made her first film appearance in 1925 in The Scarlet Letter. She continued doing British movies throughout the remainder of the Twenties and the beginning of the Thirties. Sometimes she appeared with her husband, sometimes she worked with the likes of Laurence Olivier or H.G. Wells. By 1935, Laughton had begun appearing in American films and Elsa joined him in Hollywood. After a couple of minor roles, she landed the most iconic role of her career: the title character in 1935's Bride of Frankenstein.

During the Forties, Elsa took on all sorts of supporting roles in multiple films, playing everything from a housekeeper to an artist. She was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar as a nativity scene painter in 1949's Come to the Stable. As the Fifties rolled on, Elsa continued to work steadily with people like Danny Kaye, Shelley Winters and Jerry Lewis. In 1957, she appeared with her husband in Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution, for which they both earned Academy Award nominations and she won a Golden Globe.

Elsa's first job with Disney was as the beleaguered departing nanny, Katy Nanna, at the beginning of Mary Poppins. She would then play Mrs. MacDougall in That Darn Cat! with Dean Jones and Emily Stowecroft in Blackbeard's Ghost, with Jones and Peter Ustinov. Later she would be Mrs. Formby for two episodes of Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color entitled "My Dog, the Thief."

For the remainder of her career, Elsa would do everything from memorable guest appearances on I Love Lucy to singing a duet with Elvis in Easy Come, Easy Go. You might see her on The Man From U.N.C.L.E. on your television set and then go to the movies and see her with Ernest Borgnine in Willard. The last thing you would have watched her in was the film Die Laughing, which also starred the voice of the Beast, Robbie Benson.

In 1983, Elsa published her autobiography, Elsa Lanchester Herself, detailing her 64 year career in entertainment and her 33 year marriage to Charles Laughton. Sadly, several months after the release of her book, Elsa would suffer a stroke followed by another one the next year. Left completely incapacitated, she would be confined to bed until her passing on December 26, 1986. She was 84.

Also on this day, in American history: Macy's Department Store

September 1 - Dean Jones

On this day, in 2015, Dean Carroll Jones passed away from Parkinson's disease in Los Angeles, CA.

Born on January 25, 1931 in Decatur, AL, Dean started in professional show business while attending Riverside High School. He could be heard on the local radio station in his very own show, "Dean Jones Sings".

From the success of that show, Dean left school and began traveling, working odd jobs, looking for a new gig. He found one in New Orleans for the grand salary of $3/hour plus all he could eat. Maybe the teen-aged Dean ate too much though, because the club went out of business and he returned home to finish school.

After graduation, Dean enrolled in Asbury College near Lexington, Kentucky as part of the class of 1953. He wouldn't graduate, however, as the call of the Korean War enticed him to move to San Diego, California and join the Naval Air Corps.  After an honorable discharge in the summer of 1954, Dean began performing in a show at the Bird Cage Theater at Knott's Berry Farm. This show led to a contract with MGM, where, as Dean put it, they were grooming him to become the next James Dean. Although he would have a near fatal motorcycle accident later in life, that plan did not gain much traction.

After a series of minor film roles, working with such stars as Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra, Dean made his Broadway debut in 1960's "There Was a Little Girl" with Jane Fonda. That show only lasted for 16 performances, but later that year he would star as Dave Manning in the comedy "Under the Yum-Yum Tree". Dean's sophomore Broadway effort would run for over 170 performances and he would reprise the role in the 1963 film version alongside Jack Lemmon.

Various roles on television led to Dean getting cast in an NBC sitcom, "Ensign O'Toole", as the title character. As luck would have it, "Ensign" was the lead in show for "The Wonderful World of Color" and Dean caught the eye of one of the producers of "Color", Walt Disney.

Based on Dean's work in "Ensign O'Toole" and "Under the Yum-Yum Tree", Walt thought he would be perfect for FBI agent Zeke Kelso in "That Darn Cat". Dean's first picture with Disney would also be costar Haley Mills' last. Audiences so enjoyed Dean's performance, that Walt would use him again in 1966's "The Ugly Dachshund". After Walt's death, Dean would continue to be a regular for the studio throughout the rest of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s. He appeared in:

Monkeys,Go Home with Maurice Chevalier

Blackbeard's Ghost with Peter Ustinov

The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit with a young Kurt Russell

The Million Dollar Duck with Sandy Duncan

Snowball Express with Nancy Olsen and Harry Morgan

The Shaggy D.A. with Tim Conway

The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, a 1995 Wonderful World of Disney remake of the 1969 original

Dean's biggest hit with the Disney Studio was easily 1968's "The Love Bug". Starring as Jim Douglas, the owner and driver of a surprisingly active Volkswagen racing Beetle named Herbie, Dean helped create the year's third highest grossing film. He would go on to reprise the role in one of the film's four sequels, "Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo",  in a short lived television series in the early 1980s and as a cameo in a 1997 television remake of the original film.

Outside of Disney, Dean returned to Broadway in 1970, originating the role of Bobby in Stephen Sondheim's Company. He was only able to perform the role for a month because of bitter divorce proceedings he was going through at the same time.

 Dean became a born again Christian in the mid 1970s which caused him to put the brakes on his acting career. As he put it, he limited his opportunities so he could live with himself, turning down a number of "cheapo films with graphic sex." He appeared in a handful of films after that: "Other People's Money", "Beethoven" (uncharacteristically as the villain), and a number of Christian movies. He also did a variety of guest appearances on television, shows like "The Love Boat" and "Murder, She Wrote." In 1998, Dean founded the Christian Rescue Committee to provide a "way of escape to Jews, Christians and others persecuted for their faith."

In 1995, Dean was made a Disney Legend for his legacy of contributions to the studio's film history.