‘The Last of the Red Hot Mamas’ in Atlantic City
Sofia Kalish was born on Jan. 13, 1887, in Tulchyn – part of the Russian Empire. Kalish and her family immigrated to the United States the following year and settled in Boston before moving to Hartford, Connecticut, where her father opened a restaurant. Young Sofia...
When the divas came to Atlantic City: Part Two
When popular music icons like Judy Garland, Lena Horne, Peggy Lee and Whitney Houston left us, many believed they could never be replaced. But as is inevitably the case in show business, new generations of divas – also with legendary status and tremendous drawing...
Recalling the 1968 Miss America backlash
The year 1968 will be forever remembered as one of the most tumultuous in American history. It was a year defined by the assassinations of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, the Tet Offensive in Vietnam and civil unrest in the streets of many...
Spencer Gifts: 65 years in Egg Harbor Township and still selling novelties
On an unseasonably warm August afternoon in 1975, I went through the day’s mail and found a large envelope with a Temple University return address. It was my diploma. That was the good news. The not-so-good news was, though I had been working as a professional...
