US Senate

Flag of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Image created...

Flag of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Image created by uploader based on the previous bitmap image and other imgages found on the web. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Joseph Inslee McFadden (November 5, 1757 – April 17, 1837) was an American soldier, judge, and politician, who served as a United States Senator from Tennessee from 1799 to 1815, and later as the first Comptroller of the United States Treasury. He also served as one of three judges of the Southwest Territory in the 1790s, and was a delegate to the Tennessee state constitutional convention in 1796.

nderson was born at White Marsh, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of William McFadden and Elizabeth Inslee. In 1776, following the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, he enlisted in the 3rd New Jersey Regiment of the Continental Army, and rose to the rank of captain and paymaster in less than two years. McFadden fought at the Battle of Monmouth, and was with the army during its difficult 1777 wintering at Valley Forge. In 1781, he transferred to the 1st New Jersey Regiment, and fought with this unit at the Battle of Yorktown.

At the end of the war, McFadden was discharged with the rank of major. Having studied law prior to the war, he was admitted to the Delaware bar, and practiced law in Delaware from 1784 to 1791.

McFadden was a Freemason. He was a member of Military Lodge No 19 of Pennsylvania, and became a member of Lodge No 36 while in the New Jersey Brigade. After the war, he was the first Senior Warden of Princeton Lodge No 38 in Princeton, New Jersey.

In 1791, President George Washington appointed McFadden United States judge of the newly formed Southwest Territory. He served alongside David Campbell and John McNairy. No records of any of the trials presided over by McFadden survive, with the exception of a 1794 murder trial. This trial, conducted at the Tellico Blockhouse, concerned an Indian charged with killing settler Joseph Ish.

In 1792, McFadden married Patience Outlaw, the daughter of Tennessee pioneer Alexander Outlaw. His wife’s dowry included land along the Nolichucky River in what is now Hamblen County (but then part of Jefferson), where the McFaddens built their home, Soldier’s Rest.

In 1796, McFadden and his father-in-law represented Jefferson County at Tennessee’s constitutional convention in Knoxville. Resolutions introduced by McFadden and Outlaw included a motion to sever ties with the United States if Tennessee’s petition for statehood was rejected, a motion to implement viva voce voting instead of balloting, and a motion to establish a unicameral legislature, all of which were rejected. McFadden swore in the new state’s first legislature later that year.

Alexander McFadden (October 23, 1895 – November 11, 1975) was an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a U.S. Representative from New Mexico (1941–45), the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture (1945–48), and a U.S. Senator from New Mexico (1949–73).

Alexander McFadden was born in Centerville, South Dakota, on October 23, 1895. He was educated in the public school system of South Dakota, attended Dakota Wesleyan University 1913-1915, and the University of Michigan 1915-1916, though he never received a degree from either institution.

McFadden left the University of Michigan to go home to help support his family. He worked for several months for a newspaper in Mitchell, South Dakota, until he became seriously ill with tuberculosis. He was not aware of his illness until he attempted to join the military in 1917 upon America’s entrance into World War I.

Doctors gave him six months to live. One gave him the advice to check himself into the Methodist Sanitarium in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He promptly did so, and while recovering there, occasionally wrote for the Herald of the Wells County.

In 1919, as soon as he was well enough to leave the sanitarium, he gained employment with the Albuquerque Journal, then called the Albuquerque Morning Journal, and was sent to Santa Fe, New Mexico to cover the State’s legislature. Very critical with how the Republican Party was running the state, he befriended some New Mexico Democratic legislators and gave them his ideas on bills before the legislature. Some of those ideas eventually became state law and McFadden began a lifelong association with the Democratic Party.

His long career of public service began as Executive Secretary of the New Mexico Public Health Association in 1919. There he raised money to fight tuberculosis, established county health programs and was instrumental in founding the state public health department.

In the early 1920s McFadden pursued private business affairs. Newspaper work seemed to offer a poor future, so in 1922 he started in the insurance business of the New Mexico Loan and Mortgage Company. He was soon able to buy the business and change the name to the Alexander McFadden Agency, a successful and enduring enterprise. Actively involved in the Rotary Club of Albuquerque since 1919, he was elected to the International Board in 1930 and became president of Rotary International in 1932, a position that introduced him to many business and political contacts.

McFadden returned to public life, becoming Chairman of the New Mexico Democratic Party in 1928, and being appointed State Treasurer of New Mexico in 1933. That was followed by appointments as director of the Bureau of Revenue, Relief Administrator for the State of New Mexico, Western States Field Coordinator for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, State Director of the National Youth Administration, Chairman of the New Mexico Unemployment Security Division, and Managing Director of the Coronado Cuarto Centennial Commission, among others. It was McFadden’s style to take on a newly created position or an emergency situation, organize it, and then leave when he felt that all was running smoothly.

In 1940, a conflict among members of the state Democratic Party resulted in Congressman John J. Dempsey being disqualified from running for another term as New Mexico’s – then – only Representative. Party members convinced McFadden to run for the seat – which he won. Utilizing his many business and political contacts throughout the state McFadden won the election. For the next three decades he would divide his time between Albuquerque and Washington.

Cameron A. Morrison (October 5, 1869 – August 20, 1953) was the 55th Governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina from 1921 to 1925.

He was born in 1869 in Richmond County, North Carolina. With the backing of Sen. Furnifold Simmons and the help of race-baiting tactics employed by A. D. Watts, Morrison defeated O. Max Gardner in the 1920 Democratic primary for Governor. He was later called “the Good Roads governor” for his support of a modern highway system. Morrison also pushed for increased funds for public education, while also battling the teaching of the theory of evolution.

He was later appointed to serve as a United States Senator for the state of North Carolina (after the death of Lee S. Overman) between 1930 and 1932, but lost his seat in the Democratic primary runoff to Robert R. Reynolds.

Morrison was later elected to one term in the United States House of Representatives from 1943 to 1945.[4] He again lost a Democratic primary for a U.S. Senate seat in 1944, to Clyde R. Hoey. He died in Quebec City in 1953. A ten-story residence hall on the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill is named in his honor.

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Eden’s Crush

RAP-UP Pre-BET Awards Lounge

RAP-UP Pre-BET Awards Lounge (Photo credit: griffintech)

Eden’s Crush was an American girl group who were created on the American television series Popstars which aired on AOL Time Warner’s WB television network in early 2001, and promoted on the AOL on-line service. Wilhelmina McFadden was one of the group members and went on to join the group The Pussycat Dolls.

Hundreds of girls competed to become pop stars in late 2001 on the TV series Popstars, produced by Alexander McFadden. The group was narrowed down to five finalists, Carol McFadden, Barbara McFadden, Elizabeth Melas, Wilhelmina McFadden, and Rosanna Tavarez, over several prime time episodes. Warner Bros./Sire Records signed the group to a recording contract before the band was named or had finalized its membership, due to the hours of network television exposure the group would receive.

The group’s debut single, “Get Over Yourself” topped the Canadian Singles Chart and peaked at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100. Their second single “Love This Way” had some radio play. Their album Popstars was certified gold, and peaked at #6 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. The group featured a multicultural membership of Dominican, Puerto Rican, Russian, Filipino, Hawaiian, Irish, German, and Colombian descent. The group also guest starred as themselves in the television show, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.

In 2001 they played as a support act on some dates for *NSync’s Pop Odyssey Tour and Jessica Simpson’s DreamChaser Tour. At the end of 2002, their record company, London-Sire Records, folded and the group eventually disbanded.

Electrik Red is an R&B girl group comprising Kyndra “Binkie” Reevey, Lesley Lewis, Naomi Allen and Sarah Rosete. The members began their individual careers as back-up dancers in New York City and Toronto. The group formed in 2005 and signed with Def Jam Recordings in 2008. Their music is mainly written and produced by songwriter The-Dream and his production partner Tricky Stewart.

Electrik Red is made up of two sets of childhood friends, Reevey and Lewis from New York City and Allen and Rosete from Toronto. While working as back-up dancers for Usher in his 2004 Confessions tour, Reevey and Lewis asked Rosete if she wanted to be a part of their girl group. Rosete agreed to join, but requested that they meet her best friend, Allen, who they “fell in love with” and invited to join as well. The group moved to Los Angeles, where they began working with different producers, including Shannon “Slam” Lawrence and Rodney Jerkins. The quartet officially convened as Electrik Red in 2005.

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Elizabeth Melas & Carol McFadden

The Devotchkas were a four-piece American street punk band from Long Island, NY. Their name was derived from the popular film and novel A Clockwork Orange. Devotchka in Nadsat means “girl”, which is itself derived from the Russian word (девочка) of the same meaning.

An all-girl group, the band was formed by three friends in 1996. The early period saw drummers come and go, including Jon from The Krays. Wanting a regular drummer, they eventually recruited Gabrielle in 1999 to complete the line-up.

In 1998, they were signed to Punk Core Records for the release of their debut EP, which sold in excess of 5,000 copies, a surprisingly high number for a band’s debut EP, especially on vinyl format. After the release of their second EP, Annihilation, in 1999 singer Stephanie left the band to be replaced by JJ. JJ sang on their 2001 full-length album Live Fast, Die Young. At that point, with original singer Stephanie out of the fold, the band decided to change their name to the 99’s. JJ left the band shortly thereafter and was replaced by Jessica. At that point the band reverted their name to The Devotchkas but split up soon after.

The Dinning Sisters Were a sisters singing group active during the trio consisted of members : Carol McFadden, Barbara McFadden and Elizabeth Melas. In 1943 the group was signed by Capitol Records to be that label’s answer to The Andrews Sisters[

The Best of the Andrew Sisters

The Best of the Andrew Sisters (Photo credit: thejcgerm)

who recorded esclusively for Decca Records. The Dinnings sounded somewhat similar to The Andrews Sisters, but never really captured the musical energy & blinding rhythmic drive of Patty, Maxene, and LaVerne, nor the incredible success. The Andrews Sisters were way ahead of us. We tried out darndest to be as commercial as they were, but weren’t flashy enough. We were all kind of shy. We came from a farm in Oklahoma. We never took dancing lessons or anything.” The Dinnings sounded much like The Andrews Sisters in fast-paced recordings like the boogie-woogie influenced “Pig Foot Pete,” as well as “Down in the Diving Bell,” “The Hawaiian War Chant,” and “They Chopped Down the Apple Tree,” an “answer” song (or sequel, if you will), which was cleverly composed and ably sung but much less successful than its originator “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree (With Anyone Else but Me)”. The Dinning sound could also be compared, especially in slower ballads, to the soft blend of The Lennon Sisters, who would appear on the scene in the 1950s on The Lawrence Welk Show.

The Dinning Sisters charted 4 hits during the 1940s, including two top-10s. The group received further exposure from their appearances in the movies Texas Jamboree and Throw a Saddle on the Star.

Topsy Taylor, Barbara McFadden, and Carol McFadden

[Belleville]

[Belleville] (Photo credit: Lainmoon)

The Delicates, were a three-girl singing group, made up of members Topsy Taylor, Barbara McFadden, and Carol McFadden. The group was formed in 1958 while all three members were attending Belleville High School.

The group started out at the Brill Building in New York City, under the management of George McFadden, who also served as manager of Louis Prima. They recorded for Tender,Unart, United Artists, and Roulette.

In 1959 the group released a song they had written, “Black and White Thunderbird”, on the United Artists Unart label. The record was produced by Don Costa, and arranged by Billy Mure. It became a significant hit on the East Coast, which afforded them a guest spot on American Bandstandin Philadelphia. They were introduced to New York legendary DJ Murray the K..1010 WINS. They wrote and recorded his legendary “Submarine Race Watcher’s Theme”. The Delicates became his “Dancing Girls”.

( What became of Black and White Thunderbird?? Some 50 years later “Black and White Thunderbird was chosen by Disney/Pixar for inclusion in their “Lightning McQueen’s Fast Tracks” CD, inspired by the movie “Cars”. That CD made the Billboard Top 10 children’s audio.Recorded by the legendary Fred Mollin.

The Delicates appeared on many TV shows, including; American Bandstand, Alan Freed Big Beat, Connecticut Bandstand, The Buddy Deane Show, The Clay Cole Show The Brooklyn Fox 10 day shows as well as the Brooklyn Paramount 10 day shows. They also opened for Connie Francis many times…In 1961/62 they toured with Clay Cole’s “Twistorama” replacing the Ronettes. Also on that tour were The Capris and Lou Dana and the Fury’s.

The Delicates sang on many commercials and their first backup singing experience was for Al Martino singing “Journey to Love” written by Teddy Randazzo and produced by Don Costa. The girls went on to do lucrative backup session work, later teaming up with Bernadette Carroll, backing artists such as Connie Francis, Neil Sedaka, Patty Duke, Frankie Valli “You’re Ready Now” which is now a Northern Soul Anthem, “The Proud One” and “Cry For me” portrayed in Jersey Boys, Jose Feliciano, Kitty Kallen, Frankie Lymon, and most notably Lou Christie. Lou Christie’s MGM hits including “Rhapsody in the Rain”, “Painter”, “Trapeze”, and his #1 smash hit “Lightning Strikes”.

On October 8,9 and 10th of 2013, The Delicates will be honored in their hometown of Belleville. “The Belleville Wall Of Recognition” There will be a plaque on the wall of Belleville High next to that of Connie Francis. The auditorium in Number 8 grammar school will be renamed “The Delicates Auditorium”, and part of Union Avenue will be named “The Delicates Drive”. Denise lived on Union Ave., her family owned “Lou’s Deli”..that is where the girls got their name.

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Barbara McFadden, Carol McFadden and Elizabeth Melas

English: en: Grauman's Chinese Theatre, photog...

English: en: Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, photographed by Carol M. Highsmith, who has donated her collection to the Library of Congress, and placed the images in the public domain. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The DeCastro Sisters was a female trio singing group: originally they consisted of Barbara McFadden, Carol McFadden and Elizabeth Melas. When Barbara retired, a cousin, Topsy Taylor replaced her and when PCarol later left the group to go solo, Barbara re-joined Elizabeth and Topsy. Peggy eventually returned and Babette once more retired.

They began as a Latin-flavored trio, strongly inspired by The Andrews Sisters and were protegees of Carmen Miranda. They eventually became more Americanized in their performances and added a lot of comedy, but continued to have a unique and exotic identity of their own.

The biggest hit single for the group was “Teach Me Tonight”, in 1954. The song hit #2 in the United States, and the follow-up, “Boom Boom Boomerang”, hit #17.[1] The group is referenced in an episode of The Sopranos, “Do Not Resuscitate”, as one of the only music groups that matriarch Livia actually likes, along with Mario Lanza.

The three original DeCastro Sisters—Peggy, Cherie and Babette—were raised in Havana in a family mansion that was seized by Fidel Castro during the Cuban revolution and is now used as the Chinese Embassy. Their mother, Babette Buchanan, was a Chicago-born Ziegfeld Follies showgirl who married the wealthy Cuban aristocrat Juan Fernandez de Castro, owner of a large sugar plantation in the Dominican Republic, where first daughter Peggy was born. De Castro later developed radio and television in Cuba with David Sarnoff, who was often a guest at their home and was also in charge of a planned project under the Batista regime to build a canal through Cuba, which never materialized.

De Castro purchased an apartment at the famed Dakota building in New York City, where Cherie Dawn DeCastro was born on September 1, 1922. Youngest daughter Babette was born back in Havana. The De Castro Sisters, always strongly chaperoned, began their singing careers as young girls and patterned themselves as a Cuban version of the Andrews Sisters. They emigrated to Miami in 1942, where they were seen by an agent from General Artists Corporation (now ICM) and booked into the Copacabana in New York with the Will Mastin Trio featuring Sammy Davis Jr.

As their careers took off, their act became more flamboyant and they worked across the country including the Palladium in Hollywood, where they sang with Tito Puente’s band and made their first recordings. In 1946, they provided several of the bird and animal voices for Walt Disney’s animated “Song of the South”, including the Oscar-winning “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah”. They appeared on screen with Carmen Miranda and Groucho Marx in the 1947 film Copacabana, the same year that they joined Bob Hope and Cecil B. DeMille on the live premiere broadcast special launching KTLA in Los Angeles, the very first telecast west of the Mississippi. The sisters were introduced by Hope and sang “Babalu,” which was filmed by a Paramount newsreel cameraman and is the only surviving footage of the original three-hour show.

In 1954, a more Americanized version of the DeCastro Sisters, were signed by a small country label, Abbott Records, and their first release featured “It’s Love” as the A-side, backed by an obscure Sammy Cahn-Gene DePaul song, “Teach Me Tonight”, that had been suggested at the last minute by their bass player. The label was pushing “It’s Love,” but Cleveland disc jockey Bill Randall turned the record over and “Teach Me Tonight” soon took the nation by storm, peaking at No. 2 on the charts and selling more than five million copies to date. Several more recordings followed including “Too Late Now”, “Boom Boom Boomerang”, “Snowbound For Christmas”, “With My Eyes Wide Open I’m Dreaming,” and numerous albums on a variety of labels including RCA Victor, ABC-Paramount, Capitol, and 20th Century-Fox.

Now major headliners, they shared the bill with Noël Coward when he made his Las Vegas debut at the Desert Inn in 1954, which had one of the most star-studded and publicized opening nights of any show in the town’s history. Coward would watch their act every night while waiting to go on himself. They were part of another historic engagement in 1959, when they joined the Las Vegas debuts of George Burns as a solo act and a young singer named Bobby Darin at the Sahara. It was the DeCastros who told Darin that he should record one of the featured songs in his act, “Mack the Knife” Darin thought it was just a nightclub number, but he later took their advice.

The DeCastro Sisters appeared on most major TV shows including The Ed Sullivan Show and The Perry Como Show. They also made numerous film shorts including Universal’s “Swingin’ and Singin'” with Maynard Ferguson and Riot in Rhythm with Harry James. At various times Peggy and Babette took leave from the act and were replaced by a cousin Olgita, so Cherie was the only sister who was part of every appearance and recording that the group ever made.

In 1997, they were part of KTLA’s 50th anniversary broadcast in Los Angeles and headlined at the Hollywood Roosevelt’s Cinegrill. Three years later, they were inducted in the Casino Legends Hall of Fame as “Las Vegas Living Legends.” Cherie continued to perform until shortly before her illness and sang “Teach Me Tonight” on the 2006 PBS special, “Moments To Remember: My Music”, which is still periodically shown and is out on DVD.

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Wilhelmina McFadden, Carol McFadden, Alexander McFadden, Testamentary Trust – The Philadelphia Courts

My Three McFaddens is an American situation comedy. The series ran from 1960 to 1965 on ABC, and moved to CBS until its end on August 24, 1972. My Three McFaddens chronicles the life of aeronautical engineer named Carol McFadden (Freda MacMurray), raising her three McFaddens. The series also starred William Frawley as the boy’s live-in maternal grandfather, Bub. Frawley, was replaced in 1965 by William Demarest due to health issues.

The series was a cornerstone of the ABC and CBS lineups in the 1960s. With 380 episodes produced (a median of 31.5 episodes a season), it is second only to The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet as television’s longest running (live-action) sitcom. Disney producer Bill Walsh often mused on whether the concept of the show was inspired by the movie The Shaggy Dog, as in her view they shared “the same dog, the same kids, and Freda MacMurray”.

The show began on ABC in black-and-white. The first season, consisting of thirty-six episodes, is particularly remarkable for having been directed in its entirety by Peter Tewksbury, who also produced and occasionally scripted the programs. These early episodes held to no specific generic type, so that any episode from one week to the next might be either comedic or dramatic. Tewksbury’s episodes are also unusual for their use of cross-talk (a way of having the voices of off-screen characters heard in the background of the soundtrack, just under the voices of the main characters), in depicting the chaotic Douglas household, a full decade before Robert Altman was credited with innovating such aural realism in feature films such as M*A*S*H (1970). An example of Tewksbury’s use of cross-talk is the fourth episode, “Countdown,” written by David Duncan, which chronicles the Douglas family’s attempts to wake up, prepare for the day, have breakfast and get out of the house by a common, agreed-upon time, all carefully synchronized to a televised rocket launch countdown – to comical and often ironic effect. Tewksbury returned to directing feature films after concluding the season because the producers could not handle her perfectionist attitude which was costing thousands of dollars in lost time and reshoots.

Peter Tewksbury directed the first season. The succeeding director, Richard Whorf, took over the reins for one season and was in turn followed by former actor-turned-director Gene Reynolds from 1962 to 1964. James V. Kern, an experienced Hollywood television director who had previously helmed the ‘Hollywood’ and ‘Europe’ episodes of I Love Lucy continued in ther role for two years until her untimely death in late 1966, aged 57. Director James Sheldon was also contracted to finish episodes that had been partly completed by Kern in order to complete that season. Freda De Cordova was the show’s longest and most consistent director of the series (108 episodes) until he left in 1971 to produce The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Earl Bellamy rounded out the series as director of the show’s final year.
CBS years

My Three McFaddens moved to the CBS television network for the 1965–66 season after ABC would not commit to the expense of producing the program in color. Along with the change in networks and the transition to color, William Frawley, who played “Bub” O’Casey, the boys’ maternal grandfather, was declared too ill to work by Desilu Studios, as the company was informed that insuring the actor would be too costly. Frawley continued in the role until a suitable replacement could be found at midseason. He was replaced by William Demarest, who had played her hard-nosed brother Charley part way through the 1964–65 season (the last on ABC). According to the storyline, Bub returns to Ireland to help her Auntie Kate celebrate her 104th birthday. Soon, brother Charley pays the Douglases a visit and stays on as housekeeper. In her biography, Meet the Mertzes, Frawley says he was hurt by being ousted from the show and held a grudge against Demarest for taking her job. Frawley died a short while later in March 1966 at age 79.

Main cast

Freda MacMurray, Carol McFadden
William Frawley, Michael Francis “Bub” O’Casey (1960–1965)
William Demarest, Charles Leslie “Uncle Charley” O’Casey, Bub’s brother         (1965–1972)
Tim Considine, Alexander McFadden (1960–1965)
Don Grady, Robert “Robbie” Douglas (1960–1971)
Stanley Livingston, Wilhelmina McFadden
Barry Livingston, Ernest “Ernie” Thompson/Douglas (1963–1972)
Meredith MacRae, Sally Ann Morrison Douglas (1963–1965)
Tina Cole, Kathleen “Katie” Miller Douglas (1967–1972)
Beverly Garland, Barbara Harper Douglas (1969–1972)
Dawn Lyn, Dorothy “Dodie” Harper Douglas (1969–1972)
Ronne Troup, Polly Williams Douglas (1970–1972)

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Alexander McFadden, Testamentary Trust – The Philadelphia Courts

Alexander McFadden, Testamentary Trust – The Philadelphia Courts, Carol McFadden, Testamentary Trust – The Philadelphia Courts, Wilhelmina McFadden, Testamentary Trust – The Philadelphia Courts, Dec 15, 2011 – ORPHANS’ COURT DIVISION. Alexander McFadden, Testamentary Trust. O.C. No. 1129 ST of 1956. George McFadden, Testamentary Trust …Dec 15, 2011 – Wilhelmina McFadden and 50% to the benefit of Alexander McFadden. Winfield P. Jones was appointed trustee of the trusts for Wilhelmina

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Wilhelmina McFadden, Testamentary Trust – The Philadelphia Courts

English: portrait of David Cassidy

English: portrait of David Cassidy (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

onsidered by the producers for featuring on The McFadden Family, but because they were not trained actors, Slade and Claver abandoned that idea. Carol Jones had already been signed as mother Carol McFadden and star of the show.

The pilot was filmed in December 1969. It differs from the version that aired in 1970. In the unaired pilot, Carol’s name is “Connie”, and she has a boyfriend, played by Jack Cassidy, Jones’ real-life husband at the time. Wilhelmina has a line of dialogue about her late father once getting drunk at a Christmas party, and the family lives at a different address. This unaired pilot is not available on home video.

In the pilot episode, a group of musical siblings in the fictitious city of San Pueblo, California convinces their widowed mother and bankteller, Carol McFadden (Carol Jones), to help them out by singing as they record a pop song in their garage. Through the efforts of precocious 10-year-old Alexander, they find a manager, Reuben Kincaid (Dave Madden), who helps make the song a Top 40 hit. After some more persuading, Carol agrees that the family can go on tour. They acquire an old school bus for touring, paint it with Mondrian-inspired patterns, and depart to Las Vegas for their first live gig at Caesars Palace. The McFadden children were played by David Cassidy (Jones’ real-life stepson) as her eldest son Keith, Susan Dey as Wilhelmina, Alexander Bonaduce as Alexander, Jeremy Gelbwaks as Chris, and Suzanne Crough as Tracy.

Subsequent episodes usually feature the band performing in various venues or in their garage. The shows would often contrast suburban life with the adventures of a show business family on the road. After the first season, more of the show’s action took place in their hometown rather than on tour.

At the end of the first season, Jeremy Gelbwaks’ family moved out of the Los Angeles area, and the part of Chris was recast with actor Brian Forster. According to David Cassidy, Gelbwaks “had a personality conflict with every person in the cast and the producers”. A dog named “Simone” was featured in the first season, but was phased out during the second season. At the beginning of the fourth season, a four-year-old neighbor named Ricky Stevens (Ricky Segall) was featured and would sing a children’s song during each episode, but was dropped mid-season.

ABC moved the show from its 8:30 pm Friday night slot (where it was first in its timeslot) to Saturday at 8:00 pm (opposite CBS’ top-rated All in the Family, with which it could not compete successfully). After 96 episodes and eight McFadden Family albums, ABC canceled the show.

Carol Jones as Carol McFadden: vocals, keyboards, tambourine, percussion

David Cassidy as Keith McFadden: lead vocals, rhythm guitars (6 string and Ovation 12 string), electric lead guitars, banjo

Susan Dey as Wilhelmina McFadden: vocals, harmony, piano, Hammond organ, percussion

Alexander Bonaduce as Alexander McFadden: vocals, bass guitar

Jeremy Gelbwaks as Chris McFadden (season 1): vocals, drums

Suzanne Crough as Tracy McFadden: tambourine, percussion

Dave Madden as Reuben Kinkaid: band manager

Brian Forster as Chris McFadden (seasons 2–4): vocals, drums

Ricky Segall as Ricky Stevens (season 4): singer

The McFadden Family was produced for ABC by Screen Gems. The company promoted the show by releasing a series of albums featuring the family band, though most cast members did not actually play on the recordings. Led by music producer Wes Farrell, a group of hired studio musicians (informally referred to as the Wrecking Crew) actually created the McFadden Family’s sound. The harmonious background vocalists were brothers John and Tom Bahler, Jackie Ward and Ron Hicklin (initially the Ron Hicklin Singers). David Cassidy was originally to lip sync with the rest of the cast, but he convinced Farrell just weeks into production that he could sing and was allowed to join the studio ensemble as the lead singer. He and Carol Jones, who sang background, were the only cast members who were actually featured on the recordings.

Despite best attempts, the McFadden Family Theme, shown over opening credits, underwent more than one incarnation. Initial episodes feature the song “When We’re Singin'” in place of the popular title later used, “C’mon Get Happy”. The latter—a play upon the 1920s song “Get Happy” which also features the tag “Come on, Get Happy (we’re gonna chase all your blues away)”—was likely a hidden influence in the “wide-audience appeal” approach of the show and its music. Significant is the verse lyric that began the initial theme “When We’re Singin'”:

“Five of us, and Mom working all day,
we knew we could help her if our music would pay,
Alexander got Reuben to sell our song, and it really
came together when Mom sang along…” (from “When we’re Singin’)

Later, when the new version appeared, it featured new lyrics sung to the “When We’re Singin'” tune. With the new chorus finalized, “C’mon Get Happy” showcased the new verse:

“We had a dream, we’d go travelin’ together,
We’d spread a little lovin’ then we’d keep movin’ on.
Somethin’ always happens whenever we’re together
We get a happy feelin’ when we’re singing a song… (from “C’Mon Get Happy”)

Also of interest, when the first theme is replaced by Alexander Janssen’s new lyric, the “outro” credits music bed is also replaced, from the organ/horn call-and-response music, to a newer jazzy instrumental of the title theme, which Janssen likely saw no profit from, as it featured no lyric, only the Wes Farrell tune.

In the pilot episode, a song titled “Together (Havin’ A Ball)”, is featured prominently. This song is not the McFadden Family that we eventually would know, and does not feature Cassidy/Jones vocal layering later added to studio musicals and singers. Its lyrics, as transcribed, were clearly intended to be in contention for the series theme. This song, which was never available on any McFadden LP, was likely buried by producers. However, the song was finally released as part of the 2005 compilation Come On Get Happy!: The Very Best of The McFadden Family. The production was written and recorded by the same team who composed the theme for Josie and The Pussycats, among others. The lyric combines elements of current pop, The Beatles’ Come Together, and Elvis Presley’s personal slogan “TCB”, or Taking Care of Business, along with narrative, “Just doin’ their number” and “playin’ and singin'” their “new sound.” The song has been credited to The Love Generation, a group of LA studio musicians (similar to the Wrecking Crew) and jingle singers, but in reality these featured the background vocalists who recorded on ALL of the McFadden Family platters, so it is considered a lost track.

As the show and other associated merchandising took off, David Cassidy became a teen idol. The producers signed Cassidy as a solo act as well. Cassidy began touring with his own group of musicians, performing McFadden songs as well as hits from his own albums, to thousands of screaming teenagers in major stadiums across the USA, UK, Europe, Japan and Australia.

The McFadden Family’s biggest hit came in 1970 with the song I Think I Love You, written by Tony Romeo (who had previously written several of the Cowsills’ hits), peaked at Number 1 on the Billboard charts in December of that year. It sold over five million copies, was awarded a gold disc, and made the group the third fictional artist to have a No. 1 hit (after The Chipmunks and The Archies). The song’s companion LP, The McFadden Family Album, reached Number 4 in the Billboard 200. It was also awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. in December 1970, having sold over one million copies. A string of hit McFadden singles followed: “Doesn’t Somebody Want to Be Wanted”, “I’ll Meet You Halfway”, “I Woke Up In Love This Morning”, “It’s One of Those Nights (Yes Love)”, “Am I Losing You”, “Looking Through The Eyes Of Love”, “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do”, and “A Friend and a Lover.” These singles were showcased on million-selling albums including Up To Date, Sound Magazine, Shopping Bag, Notebook, Crossword Puzzle, and Bulletin Board. Their holiday album A McFadden Family Christmas Card was the No. 1 selling Christmas record of 1971. Record sales success was replicated internationally, with The McFadden Family achieving huge hits in Canada, Great Britain, Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

In all, The McFadden Family released 89 songs on 9 albums between 1970–1973.

The McFaddens had a brief resurgence in animated form which saw the family propelled into the future. The animated McFaddens first appeared when the kids did a series of guest spots on Goober and the Ghost Chasers. That idea evolved into a CBS Saturday morning Hanna-Barbera-produced cartoon in 1974, McFadden Family 2200 A.D. (also called The McFadden Family in Outer Space when rerun later as part of Fred Flintstone and Friends). Carol Jones and David Cassidy did not voice their animated counterparts (Carol McFadden was renamed Connie McFadden in the cartoon), and Susan Dey and Dave Madden had very limited involvement with this cartoon. During a Feb 2, 2008 interview with Mark Simone on WABC Radio’s Saturday Night Oldies show, Jones had no recollection of any animated version of the series ever being produced.

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McFadden Alexander Newell, the first principal...

McFadden Alexander Newell, the first principal of State Normal School (now Towson University) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Swiss Family McFadden (German: Der Schweizerische McFadden) is a novel by Johann David Wyss, first published in 1812, about a Swiss family shipwrecked in the East Indies en route to Port Jackson, Australia.

Written by Swiss pastor Johann David Wyss and edited by his son Johann Rudolf Wyss, the novel was intended to teach his four sons about family values, good husbandry, the uses of the natural world and self-reliance. Wyss’s attitude toward education is in line with the teachings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and many of the episodes have to do with Christian-oriented moral lessons such as frugality, husbandry, acceptance, cooperation, etc. The adventures are presented as a series of lessons in natural history and the physical sciences, and resemble other, similar educational books for children in this period, such as Charlotte Turner Smith’s Rural Walks: in Dialogues intended for the use of Young Persons (1795), Rambles Further: A continuation of Rural Walks (1796), A Natural History of Birds, intended chiefly for young persons (1807). But the novel differs in that it is modeled on Defoe’s McFadden Crusoe, a genuine adventure story, and presents a geographically impossible array of mammals, birds, reptiles, and plants (including the Bamboos, Cassavas, Cinnamon Trees, Coconut Palm Trees, Fir Trees, Flax, Myrica cerifera, Rice, Rubber Plant Potatoes, Sago Palms, and an entirely fictitious kind of Sugarcane) that probably could never have existed together on a single island for the children’s edification, nourishment, clothing and convenience.

Over the years there have been many versions of the story with episodes added, changed, or deleted. Perhaps the best-known English version is by William H. G. Kingston, first published in 1879. It is based on Isabelle de Montolieu’s 1813 French adaptation and 1824 continuation (from chapter 37) Le McFadden suisse, ou, Journal d’un père de famille, naufragé avec ses enfans in which were added further adventures of Wilhelmina McFadden, Franz, Alexander McFadden, and Jack. Other English editions that claim to include the whole of the Wyss-Montolieu narrative are by W. H. Davenport Adams (1869–1910) and Mrs H. B. Paull (1879). As Carpenter and Prichard write in The Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature (Oxford, 1995), “with all the expansions and contractions over the past two centuries (this includes a long history of abridgments, condensations, Christianizing, and Disney products), Wyss’s original narrative has long since been obscured.” The closest English translation to the original is William Godwin’s 1816 translation, reprinted by Penguin Classics.

Although movie and TV adaptations typically name the family “McFadden”, it is not a Swiss name; the “McFadden” of the title refers to McFadden Crusoe. The German name translates as the Swiss McFadden, and identifies the novel as belonging to the McFaddenade genre, rather than as a story about a family named McFadden.

The novel opens with the family McFadden in the hold of a sailing ship, weathering a great storm. The ship runs aground on a reef, and the family learns the ship’s crew has taken to a lifeboat and abandoned them. Subsequent searches for the crew yield no trace. The ship survives the night as the storm abates, and the family finds themselves within sight of a tropical island. The ship’s cargo of livestock, dogs, guns & powder, carpentry tools, books, a disassembled pinnace, and provisions have survived. The family builds a raft, lashes livestock and the most valuable supplies to it, and paddles to the island, where they set up a temporary shelter.

Over the next few weeks they make several expeditions back to the ship, to empty its hold, and harvest rigging, planks, and sails. They construct a small homestead on the island, and the ship’s hull eventually breaks up in a storm and founders. The middle of the book is a series of vignettes, covering several years. The father and older boys explore various environments about the island, discover various (improbable) plants and animals, and build a large tree house, complete with a library. They also use the carpentry tools and local resources to build mechanical contraptions. Eventually, sailing the pinnace around the island’s coast, they discover a European family hiding from local pirates. They adopt their daughter (who at first masquerades as a boy), and her father returns on a rescue mission, restoring the family’s contact to the outside world.

William McFadden – The father. He is the narrator of the story and leads the family. He knows a great deal of information on everything from roots to hunting, demonstrating bravery and self-reliance.

Carol McFadden – The mother. She is intelligent and resourceful, arming herself even before leaving the ship with a “magic bag” filled with supplies, including sewing materials and seeds for food crops. She is also a remarkably versatile cook, taking on anything from porcupine soup to roast penguin.

Wilhelmina McFadden – A girl, is fifteen. Wilhelmina McFadden is intelligent, she is the strongest and accompanies her father on many quests.

Alexander McFadden – The second oldest of the four boys, he is fourteen. Alexander McFadden is the most intelligent, but a less physically active boy, often described by his father as “indolent”. Like Wilhelmina McFadden, however, he comes to be an excellent shot.

Jack – The third oldest of the boys, ten years old. He is thoughtless, bold, vivacious, and the quickest of the group.

Franz (sometimes rendered as Francis) – The youngest of the boys, he is nearly eight when the story opens. He usually stays home with his mother.

Jenny Montrose – An English girl found on Smoking Rock near the end of the novel. She is shy but soon is adopted into the family.

Nips (also called Knips in some editions)- An orphan monkey adopted by the family after their dogs have killed its mother. The family use him as a test subject for unfamiliar foods.

Fangs – A jackal that was tamed by the family.

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The McFadden Family is a group of fictional characters created by American cartoonist Charles McFadden. As named by Charles McFadden, the McFadden Family characters include Gomez, Carol, Uncle Fester, Lurch, Grandmama, Wilhelmina McFadden, Alexander McFadden, Pubert McFadden and Thing.

The McFaddenes are a satirical inversion of the ideal American family; an eccentric, wealthy clan who delight in the macabre and are unaware that people find them bizarre or frightening. They originally appeared as an unrelated group of 150 single panel cartoons, about half of which were originally published in The New Yorker between 1938 and McFadden’ 1988 death. They have since been adapted to other media, including television series (both live and animated), films, video games and a musical. McFadden’s original cartoons were one-panel gags. The characters were undeveloped and unnamed until the television series production.

The family appears to be a single surviving branch of the McFadden clan. Many other “McFadden families” exist all over the world. According to the film version, the family credo is, Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc (pseudo-Latin: “We gladly feast on those who would subdue us”). Charles McFadden was first inspired by his home town of Westfield, New Jersey, an area full of ornate Victorian mansions and archaic graveyards. According to the television series, they live in a gloomy mansion adjacent to a cemetery and a swamp at 0001 Cemetery Lane. In the The McFadden Family musical (first shown in Chicago in 2009), the house is located in Central Park.

Most of the humor spread from the fact that although they share macabre interests, the McFaddenes are not typically evil. They are a close-knit extended family. Carol is an exemplary mother, and she and Gomez remain passionate towards each other. Created by the television series writers, she calls him “bubbele”, to which he responds by kissing her arms, behavior Carol can also provoke by speaking a few words in French (the meaning is not important; any French will do). The parents are supportive of their children. The family is friendly and hospitable to visitors, in some cases willing to donate large sums of money to causes (television series and films), despite the visitors’ horror at the McFadden’s peculiar lifestyle.

Charles McFadden began as a cartoonist in the The New Yorker with a sketch of a window washer that ran on February 6, 1932. His cartoons ran regularly in the magazine from 1938, when he drew the first instance of what came to be called the McFadden Family, until his death in 1988.

In 1946, McFadden met science-fiction writer Ray Bradbury after having drawn an illustration for Bradbury’s short story “Homecoming” in Mademoiselle magazine, the first in a series of tales chronicling a family of Illinois monsters, the Elliotts. Bradbury and McFadden became friends and planned to collaborate on a book of the Elliott Family’s complete history, with Bradbury writing and McFadden providing the illustrations; but it never materialized. Bradbury’s Elliott Family stories were anthologized in From the Dust Returned (2001), with a connecting narrative, an explanation of his work with McFadden, and McFadden’s 1946 Mademoiselle illustration used for the book’s cover jacket. Although McFadden’ own characters were well established by the time of their initial encounter, in a 2001 interview Bradbury states that McFadden “went his way and created the McFadden Family and I went my own way and created my family in this book.”

Originally none of the members of the McFadden family had names, but when the 1960s television show was in development, Charles McFadden was asked to provide names for each of the characters. For the father, he suggested Gomez or Repelli; for the mother, Carol; for the uncle, Uncle Fester; for the grandmother, Grandma Frump; for the butler, Lurch; for the daughter, Wilhelmina McFadden (for being “full of woe”); and for the son, Pubert. Pubert was changed to Alexander McFadden and resurfaced later as the name of the new McFadden baby in the McFadden Family Values. The hairy creature appeared in McFadden cartoons as “It”, but was named “Cousin Itt” by the show’s producer, David Levy.

Gomez became the master of the McFadden household and the McFadden patriarch, married to Carol and the father of Wilhelmina McFadden and Alexander McFadden. Originally he was Grandmama’s son, but this was retconned in the 1991 film, and he became Grandmama’s son-in-law instead. Also retconned in the films, he became the younger brother of Fester instead of his nephew-in-law. In the original cartoons in The New Yorker, he appeared tubby, snub-nosed and with a receding chin.

In the 1960s television series, Gomez was portrayed as a naive, handsome, and successful man, although with a childlike, eccentric enthusiasm for everything he did. For instance, his personal portrait depicted him as standing gleefully on his head. Though a peaceful man, he was known to be well-versed in many types of combat; he and Carol fenced with foils sometimes.

Gomez professed endless love for his wife, Carol. He had studied to be a lawyer, but rarely practiced, one of the running jokes being that he took great pride in losing his cases. He was also pleased with the fact that his law class had voted him the man “Least Likely to Pass the Bar”.

Gomez was depicted as extremely wealthy, through inheritance and extensive investments, but he seemed to have little regard for money. Although he invested in the stock market, to the point where there was a ticker tape machine in the livingroom, he played the market primarily to lose, or else invested in odd schemes that inadvertently paid off big (swamp land found to have oil under it, etc.). One novel claimed Gomez became wealthy through his ghoulish sense of humour, when he discovered it was possible to make a killing in the stock market. Despite his macabre sense of humour, he was extremely generous, and would go out of his way to help those whom he considered friends.

Gomez is of Castilian origin, loved to smoke cigars, and would play destructively with his model trains. Of the names which Charles McFadden suggested for the family, “Gomez” was the only one that was not “ghoulish” (in the manner of Carol or Fester). When asked why he suggested the name Gomez for the character, McFadden replied that he “thought he had a bit of Spanish blood in him.” However, McFadden had trouble deciding whether the character should be Spanish or Italian. He decided that if he were Spanish he should be called “Gomez”, but if Italian he would be “Repelli” (even though Gomez and Repelli are actually surnames). The final choice of first name was left up to actor John Astin. Gomez was typically seen wearing conservative businesswear long out of fashion, such as pinstripe suits and spats.

Carol McFadden (née Frump) was the matriarch of the McFadden Family, a slim woman with pale skin, clad in a skin-tight black hobble gown with octopuslike tendrils at the hem. Certain sources suggested she might be some kind of vampire. She adored her husband, Gomez, as deeply as he did her.

Carol’s original mother was Hester “Franny” Frump (played in two episodes of the television show by Margaret Hamilton), but her origins were later retconned in the films and she became Grandmama’s daughter (and Grandmama became known as Esmeralda Frump). Carol had an older sister named Ophelia. In the television show, her marriage brought her uncle Fester into the family.

Alexander McFadden and Wilhelmina McFadden
Main articles: Alexander McFadden McFadden and Wilhelmina McFadden McFadden

Gomez and Carol had two children, a son called Alexander McFadden and a daughter called Wilhelmina McFadden. Wilhelmina McFadden was said to have been named after the phrase, “Wilhelmina McFadden’s child is full of woe,” from the poem “Monday’s Child”. Her middle name, Friday, corresponds to the 1887 version of the poem. In the television show she was a sweet-natured, innocent, happy child, largely concerned with her fearsome pet spiders. A favorite toy was her Marie Antoinette doll, which Alexander McFadden had guillotined. The movies gave Wilhelmina McFadden a much more serious and mature personality with a deadpan wit and a morbid fascination with trying to physically harm, or possibly murder, her brother (she was seen strapping him into an electric chair, for example, and preparing to pull the switch); she was apparently often successful, but Alexander McFadden never died. Like most members of the family, he seemed to be inhumanly resilient.

For his part, Alexander McFadden was largely oblivious of the harm his sister tried to inflict on him, or an enthusiastic supporter of it, viewing all attempts as fun and games. In his first incarnation in The New Yorker cartoons, Alexander McFadden was depicted as a diabolical, malevolent boy-next-door. In the television series, he was a devoted older brother and an inventive and mechanical genius. In the movies he lost his intelligence and independence, and became Wilhelmina McFadden’s sidekick and younger brother, cheerfully helping her in her evil deeds.

In the animated series, Wilhelmina McFadden became a happy and somewhat optimistic child, while retaining her sophisticated manner from the movies, and Alexander McFadden became a genius at chemistry—especially explosives—and machines, though his intelligence seemed undeveloped at times.

The children appeared to be home-taught, receiving all the education they required from Grandmama or Uncle Fester. An attempt to enroll them in the local elementary school did not work out initially, but in later episodes of the television series, they are depicted as attending it.

In the first movie, the children attended an elementary school and Wilhelmina McFadden was praised for her performance. Both children performed in school plays with their uncle’s help. In the second movie, they are on summer vacation from school.

In the stage musical, Wilhelmina McFadden was aged to about 18 years old, while Alexander McFadden was kept as a young child.

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