Did You Know…First Edition 2025

Actress Mariska Hargitay better known as Olivia Benson on Law and Order: Special Victim’s Unit, is the daughter of actress Jayne Mansfield and Body Builder, Mickey Hargitay.

She was 3 years-old in 1967 when her mother at 34 along with two others (and Jayne’s pet chihuahua, Brody) were killed in a fiery car crash. 

 Mariska along with her two older brothers, Miklos and Zoltan, survived, asleep in the back seat.

 They were then raised lovingly by her dad and his third wife, Ellen.

When John F. Kennedy was killed in 1963, journalist Jimmy Breslin working for the New York Herald Tribune, rather than hang around the White House like his peers, went to Arlington National Cemetery to interview Clifford Pollard, the man who dug the late President’s grave.

  It turned into in an essay called The Gravedigger published November 26, 1963, one of the most poignant pieces of journalism ever written.

 Pollard, every time someone mentioned having to work so suddenly on a Sunday, he’d say…“But don’t you see, it’s an honor.”

Abraham Lincoln, who had great empathy for all soldiers often fought with his Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton arguing that soldiers weren’t deserters, just his homesick boys, often commuting their sentences.

  Abe’s last act of compassion was for Patrick Murphy pardoning him on April 14, 1865 the day John Wilkes Booth ended his life at the age of 56.

 Patrick Murphy was later awarded The Medal of Honor for Bravery at The Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864.

  The actress Celeste Holm charged one dollar for anyone wanting her autograph she’d then donate to charity.

Audrey Hepburn had a pet baby deer called Pippin. 

In 1974, the actor Freddie Prinze reluctantly moved to Hollywood to film his groundbreaking TV show, Chico and the Man. He was so uncomfortable with his rapid success, rather than an apartment, slept in the car he drove from the Washington Heights section of Manhattan where he grew up.

 He never did get used to his quick rise to fame dying of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at 22. 

Little Texas, Theodore Roosevelt’s beloved horse he rode up San Juan Hill, is buried in the pet cemetery at Sagamore Hill, the Roosevelt’s family home one can visit, in the town of Oyster Bay on the North Shore of Long Island.

  Margaret Mitchell’s husband said to her, “For God’s sake Peggy, can’t you write a book instead of reading thousands of them?” She took his advice and wrote Gone With The Wind.

  Rumor has it, Scarlet O’Hara was modeled after Teddy’s mother, Martha Bulloch  Roosevelt known as Mittie.

   It rings true since she was an avid southern sympathizer during the American Civil War with a brother and brother-in-law fighting for the Confederacy.

A young Teddy.

Speaking of mothers, Princess Diana broke tradition by bringing baby William whenever she and Prince Charles traveled causing quite a stir at the Palace.

 Charles, painfully neglected as a child, also broke tradition by not caring what anyone thought including his parents.

Elizabeth Taylor also kept her children near, no matter where she happened to be. Richard Burton, her fifth husband wanted them all sent to boarding school, but Liz refused.

  Same with her beloved dogs.

  To avoid England’s quarantine laws, she lived on a yacht rather than in a hotel proving…

love always has the last say.     

 SB