Latest news with #Gilligan'sIsland
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Relying on teamwork, Naval Academy plebes conquer a 75-year tradition
May 14 (UPI) -- A lard-covered obelisk is more than a slippery slope for U.S. Naval Academy plebes, who view it as a rite of passage that changes them into midshipmen. Dozens of freshmen who are called "plebes" were tasked with climbing the 21-foot-tall Herndon Monument on Wednesday, with the mission being to replace a cap placed on top to mark the end of their first year at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. They accomplished the feat in 2 hours, 27 minutes and 31 seconds by using the kind of teamwork that is required to effectively operate vessels on the high seas like the U.S. Navy has done for almost 250 years, and as it today carries out missions on land and in the air, as well. The annual climb is a 75-year tradition that started in 1950 and scales the monument to Commander William Lewis Herndon, who went down with his ship when a hurricane sank it in 1857. The climb requires Naval Academy plebes to scale the obelisk after it has been covered with 200 pounds of lard, remove a "Dixie cup" placed on top and replace it with the hat of an upperclassman. The Dixie cup is not a reference to the paper cup that often is used at water dispensers. Instead, it is a reference to the "low-rolled brim, high-domed item constructed of canvas" cap that was created in 1886 and has represented the U.S. Navy throughout the 20th century and beyond. The Dixie cup cap is featured in the iconic photo of a sailor kissing a nurse in New York City's Times Square on Victory over Japan Day in 1945. It also was featured in many classic films and was worn by the S.S. Minnow's first mate Gilligan on television's "Gilligan's Island." Members of the Naval Academy's class of 2028 successfully undertook the task of replacing the Dixie Cup with the upperclassman's hat. The 2028 class has about 1,187 plebes, who now are referred to as "midshipmen" upon their completion of the annual rite of passage.
Fox News
08-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Fox News Entertainment Newsletter: 'Gilligan's Island' star's troubled childhood, Bill Murray snaps at man
Welcome to the Fox News Entertainment Newsletter. TOP 3: - 'Gilligan's Island' star Tina Louise suffered troubled childhood before Hollywood fame - Bill Murray snaps at man in New York movie theater, accuses him of assault - 'Duck Dynasty' star Phil Robertson's family gives 'tough' health update following Alzheimer's diagnosis SHOW ME THE HONEY - Meghan Markle's cash grab is royal family's biggest nightmare: expert. FUN IN THE SUN - 'Rocky' star Dolph Lundgren, wife Emma Krokdal soak up Miami sun after actor's years-long health battle. FOOL ME ONCE - Kevin Bacon is 'more careful' after losing money in infamous Ponzi scheme. 'LIFE-LONG FRIEND' - Jay North, 'Dennis the Menace' star, dead at 73. 'A NIGHTMARE' - 'Modern Family' star told he was dying 30 years after being hit by cement truck. 'NEW KIND OF LOVE' - Kelsea Ballerini reveals what she finds 'sexiest' about new boyfriend after painful divorce. 'HARD WORKIN' MAN' - Brooks & Dunn lead singer walks off stage during encore, leaving fans concerned for his health. LIKE WHAT YOU'RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS FOLLOW FOX NEWS ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Fox News
05-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
'Gilligan's Island' star Tina Louise suffered troubled childhood before Hollywood fame
Before Tina Louise found herself stranded on a tropical island, she was plagued with loneliness as a child in boarding school. The actress, who found fame as the glamorous Ginger Grant on the sitcom "Gilligan's Island," has recently released the audio version of her 1997 book, "Sunday: A Memoir." The star said that, for the first time, she finally felt free to discuss her painful childhood in depth. "I didn't live with my mother until I was 11," Louise told Fox News Digital. "I had a whole period of life without her… I kept all of that inside of me. And then, I developed anger. By the time I was picked up by my mother, she was with her third husband and had a different life. It was a very sophisticated life that she wanted for herself, so she found a very successful man." "I live in the present," Louise shared. "But I've never dealt with what happened to me. When the book first came out, my mother was alive. She didn't like it to the point that she said I made it up. I understood that as her not wanting to deal with it… She was the most dominant force in my life." When Louise, then Tina Blacker, was born, her mother was 18 and her father was 10 years older. By the time she was 4 years old, they were divorced. At 6 years old, she was sent away to a boarding school in Ardsley, New York, where she wondered if her parents would ever come back for her. WATCH: ELVIS PRESLEY'S STEPBROTHER SAYS HE SPOKE OF GOD'S FORGIVENESS BEFORE HIS DEATH: 'IN TOUCH WITH THE LORD' "I didn't want to be there right from the start," she explained. "We were all just a bunch of angry little girls. It was like 'Lord of the Flies' — nobody wanted to be there. And there were gangs of little girls. You were always going to find someone to pick on. I was told that my job was to hit this little girl. It was ridiculous. I never figured out why they chose me." "I remember I kept trying to catch a very bad cold so that I could hardly speak, so I could leave this place," Louise shared. "They kept giving me hot milk. I was asked to call my mother. I told her I wanted to come to her, but I was told it wasn't the time to get out. I learned she was with her second husband, and he didn't want a little girl in the house. He just wanted to be alone with his beautiful wife." One student stabbed Louise in the wrist with a pencil. A faint scar is still present, she said. When she was caught chatting with another little girl at night, Louise claimed a teacher made her stand alone in a pitch-black bathroom with spiders crawling on the ceiling. She described being slapped when she struggled to run a bath. Her closest friends were caterpillars she hid in a box under her bed. They were taken away, she said. "They took everything away," Louise recalled. "My mother once brought me a doll, and that was immediately taken away in the night. I don't remember ever getting it back. You don't remember things like that. You just remember that it was taken away." Louise always prayed for Sundays. It was visiting day. She always waited for her parents that day, but they didn't always come. "I yearned for hugs," she said. "I don't think I knew what was going on. I just knew that it was painful." It wouldn't be until Louise was 8 years old that she was able to move in with her father and his new wife. She was elated. But her happiness wouldn't last long. At age 11, her mother, who had married a wealthy doctor, the third of what would be four husbands, wanted her to live with them in a fancy New York City townhouse. Louise admitted that, for years, she was angry at her father for not being willing to fight for her in court. She wouldn't see him until right before Hollywood came calling. "I was very upset," she said. "I could never even say his name. It couldn't come out of my mouth… I just expected him to do something about it. When I went to live with my mother, I couldn't believe that I had to tell him that I couldn't see him anymore. It's very strange, a strange thing, to put something like that on me because I wanted to see him." At age 22, a grown-up Louise, who had started acting, went out in search of her father. "We had to establish a new relationship," she said. "It wasn't easy… but we had to rebuild." Her relationship with her mother was complicated. "She was a vivacious person, but she had lost her mother when she was 3," Louise explained. "So she had her problems… She couldn't have imagined that, at age 18, she would have a child. She didn't have a mother. My grandfather, who I only saw twice, put his children in an orphanage for a while. Then he got a nanny." "My mother had her dream world," she reflected. "She wanted to live a certain way and be surrounded by certain people. She was very beautiful. She loved the arts. But she lost her temper a lot with people… I don't think she realized it herself… But she did go along with the fact that I wanted to study acting. And that was very exciting." Louise would later escape from her past as a castaway. She catapulted to stardom on the '60s sitcom "Gilligan's Island." Over the years, it would continue to find new viewers, thanks to reruns and streaming platforms. Louise insisted the show didn't make the cast rich. She previously told Forbes that she hasn't received residuals. "Nobody was getting them at that time — nobody," she told Fox News Digital. "I read somewhere that [co-star] Dawn [Wells] was able to get something through a lawyer. But that's just what I read. I don't remember. But we never did. The people that owned it earned a lot of money, that's for sure. I'm just amazed that it's still on!" In 1996, Louise read another article, one about the drop in students' ability to read, The New York Times reported. It prompted her to join Learning Leaders, a nonprofit that trained volunteers to tutor public school students throughout New York City. According to the outlet, she quietly worked with students for the next two decades. The outlet noted that after the organization lost its funding a few years ago, Louise began helping out on her own. It's something she still does today. "It gives me so much joy," she said. "Helping students and giving them hope."
New York Times
18-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
For Tina Louise, Escape, Finally, From ‘Gilligan's Island'
The green-eyed TV star with the beauty mark on her cheek shows up at a school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan every Wednesday. For an hour, Ms. Tina, as the students and teachers call her, devotes herself to a pair of 7-year-olds who are struggling with reading. They'll go through whatever books the teacher gives her, like 'All Aboard!' or 'How to Catch a Witch.' When her time is up, she'll head home. None of the children will have any idea that Ginger from 'Gilligan's Island' — in real life, the actress Tina Louise — just spent the best 60 minutes of her week with them. Ms. Louise does not like to talk about the television show that made her a household name. She has no desire to revisit the years between 1964 and 1967, when she was marooned with six oddballs and a trunk full of slinky, sequined gowns. Through its run of 98 episodes, 'Gilligan's Island' was a prime-time success and became a Gen X touchstone in reruns. (The question of 'Ginger or Mary Ann?' can still evoke passionate debate among men of a certain age.) As for Ms. Louise, she can barely utter the name of the program, referring to it as 'G.I.' or 'The Series.' It's not that she regrets it, although she and the cast never received residuals. 'I'm very grateful for all the things that have happened to me and the opportunities that I've had,' she said in a recent conversation from her modest one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan. She is the show's last living cast member, and she recently celebrated a birthday she'd prefer not to discuss. ('I'm 29,' she said coyly.) She still has the signature beauty that made her famous, now on display in jeans and a black T-shirt instead of fancy gowns. There were few signs that her apartment was the home of a TV icon. There were three paintings of her from her 'Island' days and a glamorous shot at her wedding to the radio announcer and TV host Les Crane (they divorced in 1971, and he died in 2008). But the shelves were mainly lined with photos of her daughter, the novelist Caprice Crane, and twin grandchildren. She regularly receives fan mail, which she appreciates, and she's often recognized on the street. Still, she refuses to be defined by her Marilyn-Monroe-meets-Lucille-Ball-meets-Jessica-Rabbit role. 'I'd like to be known for other things,' she said. Those other things include a role in the 1958 drama 'God's Little Acre,' for which she won a Golden Globe; a solo album, 'It's Time for Tina,' in which she breathily sang classics like 'I'm in the Mood for Love' and 'Embraceable You'; studying with Lee Strasberg as a member of the Actors Studio; five Broadway plays, including 'Fade Out — Fade In,' with Carol Burnett (which Ms. Louise left to join 'The Series' in 1964). Post-'Gilligan,' she appeared in the original 'The Stepford Wives' in 1975, and later wrote two children's books. She also published a memoir, 'Sunday,' in 1997. (The audiobook version, which she read, came out in 2023.) It is not a gossipy dish on life in Hollywood; she's not interested in that. 'You can write whatever you want about me when I'm dead,' she said. Instead, 'Sunday' covers three very unhappy years a girl named Tina Blacker spent in the Ardsley Heights Country School and Camp for Girls, a boarding school in Ardsley-on-Hudson, N.Y. The place seems Dickensian at best. When Tina is caught talking with a friend late at night, a teacher makes her stand alone in a dark bathroom with spiders crawling on the ceiling. Her closest friends may be the caterpillars she hides in a box beneath her bed. She recounts the time another student stabbed her in the wrist with a pencil, leaving a faint scar she still has. 'We were just little angry girls that were put in this place, and nobody wanted to be there,' she said. Her mother, Sylvia Horn, was 18 when Tina was born; her father, Joseph Blacker, was 10 years older. By the time Tina was 4, her parents had divorced. Unable to care for her, her mother sent her to Ardsley. Sunday, visiting day, was the only bright spot, but her parents didn't always come. Once, they arrived on the same day and a vicious fight ensued. Tina's loneliness was palpable. 'I didn't have hugs,' she said. 'I didn't have loving situations.' She left Ardsley at 9 and moved in with her father and his new wife. She was happy. It was her first real home, and she longed to stay there. But when Tina was 11, her mother, who by that time had married a wealthy doctor — the third of her four husbands — wanted her to live with them in their fancy townhouse on the Upper East Side. 'It was like going from 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn' to 'Eloise at the Plaza,'' said Ms. Louise, adding that she had no memory of living with her mother before that point. Once she settled in, her mother had her call her father and tell him that it was best that they not get together anymore. Tina didn't see him again until 'God's Little Acre' came out, by which time she was now Tina Louise, a starlet on the verge. She never forgave her father for not fighting for her. 'I was mad at him because he didn't go to court,' she said. She has a better understanding of her mother, whose own mother died when she was 3. 'She didn't have the loving that she needed,' she said. 'She always needed a man to lean on.' Her mother never wanted to talk about what happened to her at Ardsley. For years, Ms. Louise said, she felt as though she was gagged. But her time at Ardsley has also fueled her support for literacy and reading with children. In 1996, after seeing an article about a drop in students' ability to read, Ms. Louise joined Learning Leaders, a nonprofit that trained volunteers to tutor public school students throughout the five boroughs. For the next two decades Ms. Louise diligently worked with students, encouraging them in a mellifluous voice. Some of the teachers were familiar with her pedigree, but the students weren't. Ms. Louise recalled the young boy who raised his hand when the teacher asked if anyone knew who she was. 'She's the lady who talks to us and reads to us,' he said. 'I loved it, being anonymous, just being the person who read to the children,' Ms. Louise said. 'That was very important to me because nobody ever read to me.' After the organization lost its funding a few years ago, Ms. Louise reached out to the principal of the school where she attended seventh and eighth grade to see if there was any way she could help on her own. Ms. Louise goes to the school rain or shine. 'I love being in their presence for an hour. It's better than vitamins,' she said. 'I can't get back what I went through, but outside of being with my family, doing this is my special thing.' Her work with the children also inspired her to write two books: 'When I Grow Up' and 'What Does a Bee Do?' The bee book came after a conversation with some students. 'I asked them, 'Do you know what the bees do?' And everybody said, 'Sting!' And then I said: 'No, no, they don't. It's the wasp that stings. The honeybees don't do that. They feed us. They give us all these vegetables and fruits,'' she said. Unknowingly, Ms. Louise had drawn a link between her old and new lives. On an episode of 'Gilligan's Island,' Ginger, Mary Ann and Mrs. Howell formed a pop group called the Honeybees. Reminded of this, Ms. Louise was silent for a moment, then she giggled. 'That's funny,' she said. 'I forgot about that.'
Yahoo
04-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Fox Corp. Expects to Launch New Stand-Alone Streamer by End of 2025
Fox's Sunday-afternoon football games and Fox News host Jesse Watters may soon have a new digital home. Fox Corporation expects to launch a new stand-alone subscription-based streaming service by the end of 2025, as the company, which has resisted the call to plunge millions into developing premium content for broadband audiences, sees new allure in the business. The plan, said Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch, would be to launch a new broadband outlet that helps 'put our content in front of everybody who wants it on any platform,' and would be ''holistic of all of our content, sports and news.' More from Variety Fox Corp. Gets Q2 Profit Boost From Political Ads, Sports Will Cain Aims to Bring Freewheeling Video Podcasts to Cable News. Could Others Follow? Disney, Fox, Warner Bros. Discovery Scrap Venu Sports Streamer Murdoch said the company believed it could reach a new audience separate from the one that watches Fox properties via cable and broadcast. Fox has 'no intent' to drive linear audiences to the service, he said, but rather wanted to reach a demographic that does not subscribe to traditional TV. 'We see the traditional cable bundle as still the most value for our consumers and for the company,' Murdoch said, but the company feels an increasing need to reach 'a large population outside the cable bundle.' Launching the new outlet might create some overlap. Fox already operates Tubi, a free ad-supported streaming outlet that aims for younger audiences via a wide range of programming niches, and offers everything from 'Everybody Hates Chris' to 'Gilligan's Island.' Fox will give the service a massive boost later this week when it streams Super Bowl LIX on Tubi, a change in recent strategy that had the gridiron classic appear on Fox Sports' digital sites. Fox also backs Fox Nation, a subscription-based outlet that caters to Fox News fans with an increasing array of lifestyle content and documentaries, along with a store of programming from Fox News Channel that is made available after it appears on the cable network. The maneuver appears to be predicated on the demise of Venu, a streaming joint venture that was backed by Fox, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery. That outlet would have offered all three companies' sports line-ups, but was foiled by legal challenges, leaving all three backers to pursue their own strategies. Fox has been reluctant to make its portfolio of sports rights — which includes games from MLB and NFL as well as LIV Golf — available on streaming services, choosing not to upset the lines of revenue it generates from assembling linear audiences. Murdoch said the company had 'modest' expectations for the new stand-alone service, and said Fox would not ramp up investment in new rights or content. The service 'will package existing content and existing brands,' he said, and the cost will be 'relatively low.' Now dig into a VIP+ subscriber report … Best of Variety Grammy Predictions, From Beyoncé to Kendrick Lamar: Who Will Win? Who Should Win? New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week What's Coming to Netflix in February 2025
