America’s 40th President Ronald Wilson Reagan was born
in Tampico, Illinois, on this day in history, Feb. 6, 1911.
Prior to his presidency, he served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 to 1975 and was the president of the
Screen Actors Guild from 1947 to 1952 and from 1959 until
1960.
Stanley Rubin (second from the right) holds his Emmy award
for "The Necklace" at the first Emmy Awards, Los Angeles.
The first Emmy Awards ceremony was held on January 25, 1949
at the Hollywood Athletic Club. The awards recognize excellence
in television (which in the 1940s was a novel medium).
Hollywood’s first television academy had been founded three
years earlier by Sid Cassyd, a former film editor for Frank Capra
who later worked as a grip at Paramount Studios and an
entertainment journalist.
At a time when only about 50,000 American households had TV
sets, Cassyd saw the need for an organization that would foster productive discussion of the fledgling entertainment medium.
The academy’s membership grew quickly, despite the lack of
support from the Hollywood motion-picture establishment,
which perhaps understandably felt threatened by TV and its
potential to keep audiences entertained at home (and away
from the theaters).
President John F. Kennedy introduced a new era of White
House communications when he hosted the first live
televised presidential press conference on this day in
history, Jan. 25, 1961.
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William W. (Bill) Schonely (June 1, 1929 – January 21, 2023)
Bill Schonely was local sports broadcaster who was the play-
by-play announcer for the Portland Trail Blazers for almost
three decades, from the team’s launch in 1970 until 1998.
The Trail Blazers organization retired Schonely’s microphone
on November 3, 2003.
In 1999, Schonely was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of
Fame for Broadcasting.
In 2012, Schonely was awarded the Curt Gowdy Media Award
from the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Earl Boen ( August 8, 1941 – January 5, 2023)
Earl Boen, best known for his roles in the Terminator movies,
passed away Thursday in Hawaii.
Alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger, Boen appeared in three
of the Terminator films. According to Variety, the voice and
character actor was 81 years old and had been diagnosed
with stage four lung cancer in the fall. Boen was an actor
who wasn’t a household name for many, yet he worked
consistently in film and television. Boen retired from on-
camera work in 2003 but nevertheless continued to do voice-
over until he officially retired from all acting work in 2017.
Boen as criminal psychologist Dr. Peter Silberman in The Terminator (1984)
