Born in Jacksonville: The Famous and Infamous
By Ken Deutsch

Outstanding athletes, Playboy Playmates, Hollywood insiders, singers, a brutal killer and a male prostitute. What do they have in common? They all hail from Jacksonville, a town that has certainly produced its share of celebrities.

I'm typing this on a personal computer (PC), and you may be reading it on one. A Jacksonville native, Philip Donald Estridge, was instrumental in developing this indispensable device. In the 1950s and 60s, computers were monstrous devices that filled a room with tubes, wires and arcane control panels that only scientists understood. According to NationMaster.com, an online encyclopedia, it was Estridge's belief that computer designers should ditch the technical programming languages and operate using English. His other breakthrough was the development of an "open" operating system, meaning that anyone could access the codes and invent new applications. After joining IBM in 1959, he finally launched the PC in 1981. As a result of what he and his team accomplished, today's home and office computers are so user-friendly that even kids can operate them. Unfortunately Estridge and his wife were killed in an airplane mishap in 1985.

A. C. Lyles is not a household name, but you have probably watched his many westerns like Stage to Thunder Rock and Young Fury on The Late Show. Born in 1918, he worked in movies and TV with James Cagney, Judy Garland, Lon Chaney Sr. and Jr. as well as John Wayne. What you may not know is that this hometown boy also produced an infamous 1972 cinematic stink bomb called Night of the Lepus in which giant bunny rabbits (yes, giant bunny rabbits) threatened the population of a small town. Rent it if you dare!

Merian Cooper, another JaxTown boy, directed the original 1933 King Kong, using a two-foot fur-covered flexible model to bring the world's best known primate to life. Cooper's ground-breaking animation techniques and his ability to combine miniatures with full-size actors influenced filmmakers like Ray Harryhausen and Steven Spielberg over the next six decades.
Jacksonville was home to another Hollywood man who mastered in makeup, creating scary faces for six episodes of The Twilight Zone and toiled on more than one hundred movies. William Tuttle's career began in 1935 with "Mark of the Vampire" starring Bela Lugosi, but over his long showbiz run he alternated between horror and mainstream fare as one of the busiest behind-the-sceners in Tinseltown.

But before there were movies, there was vaudeville. Vaudeville was a genre of entertainment that marked the early 20th century from the 1880s until the early 1930s. One could say it was the equivalent to the modern-day variety show consisting of several unrelated acts including dancers, comedians, musicians, magicians, trained animals, impersonators, athletes and actors, as well as short movies and plays. A true Jacksonville original was S.A. "Buddy" Austin, who worked the stage in the 1920s and 1930s. He also owned the Strand Theatre in town and later was an employee of the Afro-American Life Insurance Company, according to a book called African American Life in Jacksonville, by Herman "Skip" Mason, Jr. Another notable black showbiz star made his mark in Jacksonville, Cecil L. Limbrick, a radio personality of the 1940s. Son of local preacher Zacharia Limbrick, Cecil worked at WRHC(AM) and hosted the popular "Sweet Chariot" program as well as a series of live shows sponsored by Pepsi at the Roosevelt Theater on Ashley Street. That area of town and that theater in particular catered to a primarily black audience. The WRHC call letters disappeared from the dial in Jacksonville and now belong to a Spanish-language station near Miami.

Does the name "Yoanna House" ring a bell? It should if you were a fan of America's Next Top Model in 2004. Born in 1980, Ms. House's sultry good looks can probably be credited to her mother who was of Mexican descent. Yoanna is currently the host of The Look for Less on the Style Channel.

Surprisingly, a second America's Next Top Model winner also hails from Jacksonville. She is "plus-sized" Whitney Thompson who won the 10th season of that show. As I gaze at some pictures of this attractive blonde, she doesn't seem "plus-sized" so much as what used to pass for "normal." However she certainly looks healthier then the emaciated waifs petulantly strutting the runways in the pages of Vogue. Can I get an "amen," guys?

Music Music Music

The music-scene on the First Coast has been hot for decades, producing notable artists across genres. Several nationally-known singers hail from Jacksonville, including Pat Boone, who switched from country to pop upon the advice of his buddy Roy Orbison when the two went to college together in Texas. According to rock and roll expert "Radio Dave" Milberg of Long Boat Key, Boone was a direct descendent of frontiersman Daniel Boone.

Hoyt Axton, a musician and songwriter, wrote hits for the Kingston Trio, Steppenwolf and Ringo Starr. His mother Mae wrote "Heartbreak Hotel" for Elvis Presley!

Shorty Medlocke was well-known in bluegrass circles. (He died in 1982.) This banjo-picker used to dress up an old Model-T Ford with a big sign and flashing lights to promote weekend performances by his group, Shorty Medlocke and his Florida Plow Hands. Medlocke was featured on the Toby Dowdy Show in Jacksonville in the mid-1950s.

Beginning is a similar genre, Gary U.S. Bonds came into the music scene as a rhythm and blues and rock and roll singer and songwriter. "Quarter to Three" and "New Orleans" were Gary U.S. Bond's biggest top-40 hits. He was born in Jacksonville in 1939 as Gary Anderson, later to have his name changed at the suggestion of record producer Frank Guida to Gary "U.S." Bonds as an advertising ploy to possible get more airtime. Guida's idea was that the script might be mistaken for a PSA about government bonds. When he was touring Europe in 1963, the act that opened the show for him featured four scruffy musicians from England that no one had heard of. We would get to know them a little better in 1964: The Beatles. Bonds is an avid golfer and often appears in celebrity events.

Another singer from these parts is 60s crooner Johnny Tillotson, who while born in Jacksonville, was raised in Palatka, Florida. He began singing on a local radio show called "Young Folks Review," and then became a DJ himself at WWPF(AM), Palatka's first radio station. His big singing break came in 1957 when he was one of the winners of the "National Pet Milk Talent Contest." Useless trivia: Tillotson sang the theme for Sally Field's TV series, Gidget.

More current artists on the list include Lee Ann Womack, a Grammy® award-winning country singer from Jacksonville. Her dad was a country music DJ here in town and he let her pick out records to play on his show. Lee Ann went door-to-door trying to distribute her demo records, but that was years before she made it to the big time and sang "I Hope You Dance" at the 2004 Republican National Convention.
A more contemporary Jacksonville-born recording star is Fred Durst, front man for the oddly named rock group, "Limp Bizkit." His name at birth was William, but Frederick, being the middle name, became the front man's moniker. His family was so poor that for a time in his life, he lived on baby food. Before he crashed the national music scene, he worked in the fast food industry and became a tattoo artist.


Game On

At least two big names in sports hail from Jacksonville including major league baseball's Chipper Jones who played for the Atlanta Braves. He was the National League's Most Valuable Player, was often chosen to participate in the All-Star Game and was also known to confound opposing pitchers with his ability to switch-hit.

From the world of golf, Mark McCumber also hails from Jacksonville. Born in 1951, he won the PGA Tour several times during his career. Now he busies himself with his own golf course design firm.

This next group of ladies might not be athletes, at least in the traditional sense. But Jacksonville holds the distinction of being the birthplace of four Playboy "Playmates of the Month." They are: Henriette Allais (1980), Jennifer Rovero (1999), Nichole Van Croft (2000) and Tiffany Selby (2007). Several of these women have their own Web sites, and I hope my wife does not find out I was "researching" them, on a completely professional basis, of course. Really, dear.


The Odd Couple

There are two weird and wild people that must be included in this article, but I'm not sure how proud Jacksonville might be of them. The first is Ottis Toole, who according to IMDB.com, is a self-confessed cannibal and killer. More importantly, he is the man who murdered Adam Walsh, son of "America's Most Wanted" originator John Walsh. Two weeks after the young boy disappeared from a Sears store, his severed head was found in a Florida canal. Toole confessed to the crime, but years later recanted before dying in prison. On December 16, 2008, Jacksonville police officially declared Toole the culprit. If there is a silver lining to this ghastly crime, it occurred when President Bush signed House Resolution (HR) 4472, the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006.

Another "unusual" Jacksonville personage is Denham "Denny" Fouts (1914-1949), who was reportedly a male escort, and traveled easily in high society. He was a confident of the late Truman Capote and other writers. Not much is known about Fouts, but he is mentioned in several books written in Europe, where he spent part of his life. If one can believe Wikipedia, Fouts was described by Christopher Isherwood as "the most expensive male prostitute in the world." Said to have had an addiction to opium and other illegal substances, Fouts' outrageous behavior, including shooting flaming arrows from his hotel room down on the streets of Paris, got him in trouble with the law. Oddly, he had two things in common with Elvis Presley; both died young (Elvis was 42, Fouts was 30) and both allegedly died while seated on the toilet.

Like any other city, Jacksonville represents a cross-section of our nation. It has given birth to the noble and the needy, the cheaters and the champions, the beauties and the brutes. No matter how lofty their positions nor how spectacular their stumbles, they all are just people.

And they were all born right here in Jacksonville.

Ken Deutsch writes for several publications and pens a monthly column in this paper called "Where We're Going." He specializes in travel and gadgets.