The USS Potomac served as President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s famous “Floating White House” from 1936 to 1945. Elvis bought the yacht at an auction on January 30, 1964, for $55,000 (equivalent to over $500,000 today). He originally intended to donate it to the March of Dimes, but they declined the gift due to high maintenance costs. The public transfer took place on Valentine’s Day in Long Beach, California, where Elvis presented the keys and deed directly to Danny Thomas. St. Jude sold the vessel shortly thereafter for $75,000 to generate operating funds for the pediatric research facility.

“It doesn’t surprise me that Elvis Presley is making this gracious contribution,” Thomas said after the ceremony. “Elvis is a great humanitarian.”

Today, the fully restored USS Potomac is docked at Jack London Square in Oakland, California, where it serves as a US National Historic Landmark open for public tours.

She successfully moved into sound films despite a noticeable accent, which studios often framed as charming or international. Her peak Hollywood years ran roughly from the late 1920s into the early-to-mid 1930s; after that, roles became more limited and stereotyped as “exotic” or Latin types, and her box-office power declined toward the end of the decade.

She was frequently cast in romantic, musical, or exotic roles and was celebrated for her beauty (often called one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood). By the late 1930s opportunities had diminished, partly due to typecasting, changing industry tastes, and the stricter Production Code.

In 1930 she married Cedric Gibbons, the influential MGM art director (after the end of her first marriage to Jaime del Río and a professional/personal break from mentor-director Edwin Carewe). Gibbons designed an Art Deco home for them. The marriage lasted through much of the decade but was reportedly strained; del Río later had a relationship with Orson Welles (who had admired her on screen since Bird of Paradise). She also dealt with health issues (including a serious kidney infection early in the decade) and periods of depression.

The 1930s saw her as a stylish Hollywood star who navigated the talkie transition and maintained high visibility, even as her career trajectory shifted from the heights of the late silent era toward more constrained roles by decade’s end. She remained a fashion and beauty icon of the period before returning to Mexico in the early 1940s, where she became a major figure in that country’s Golden Age of cinema.

Hetfield popularized an incredibly fast, precise all-downpicking technique rather than alternate picking. This gave Metallica’s rhythm section a heavier, tighter, and more aggressive attack on tracks like “Master of Puppets” and “Creeping Death.” In 1983 (Kill ‘Em All), his vocals were high-pitched, raw shrieks influenced by NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal). By 1986–1988, his voice deepened into a commanding, guttural bark with melodic grit.

Alongside drummer Lars Ulrich, Hetfield composed the core structural arrangements, intricate multi-guitar harmonies, and lyrical themes spanning war, mental illness, addiction, and anti-establishment frustration. Aggressive and direct, Hetfield wore his guitar extremely low at hip level and approached the microphone with an intense, wide-legged stance.

Known for intense off-stage partying alongside bandmates Cliff Burton, Lars Ulrich, and Kirk Hammett during their early touring days. The tragic death of Burton in a September 1986 bus crash deeply impacted Hetfield and the band’s trajectory, accelerating a tougher, more intense emotional edge evident on …And Justice for All.

It dates from 1884 and was designed by William Lethaby (chief assistant to the house’s main architect, Richard Norman Shaw). Lethaby later became a leading figure in the Arts and Crafts movement. The fireplace is Classical Renaissance in style, extravagantly carved with Ionic columns, cherubs/putti, angels, and intricate swags of fruit and other motifs inspired by Italian classical architecture.

It was carved in London, shipped in pieces to the port of Amble on the Northumberland coast, transported by horse and cart to Cragside, and reassembled on site. Because of its immense weight and first-floor location, it is pinned deep into the underlying crag with steel girders.

The Drawing Room itself was created as a deliberate showpiece (in contrast to the more comfortable, homely rooms elsewhere in the house) for entertaining important guests, including clients of William Armstrong’s armaments and engineering businesses. Notable visitors included the Prince and Princess of Wales (the future Edward VII and Queen Alexandra) in 1884, shortly after the room’s completion, as well as the Shah of Persia and other foreign dignitaries. The room features an elliptical glass ceiling (allowing parties by moonlight), elaborate plasterwork, and a large original chenille/Axminster carpet.

Cragside, the Victorian Tudor Revival home of industrialist, inventor, and philanthropist William Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong (founder of Armstrong Whitworth), is famous as the first house in the world lit by hydroelectric power. It is a Grade I listed building owned by the National Trust and open to the public.

In recent years the fireplace suffered from salt efflorescence caused by moisture penetrating the building (linked to heavier rainfall overwhelming the original Victorian drainage). This risked causing the marble and plaster to crumble. Urgent conservation work began around 2021, involving stabilisation with specialised lime-based treatments (such as nano-limes or calcium hydroxide solutions) while the sources of water ingress were investigated and addressed. Funding included support from the Wolfson Foundation, the Culture Recovery Fund (via Historic England), and private donors. The work aimed to preserve this dramatic centrepiece for the long term.

The fireplace is widely regarded as spectacular and one of the house’s great highlights (sometimes described as one of the largest or most extravagant inglenooks of its kind), though opinions on its ornate Victorian style vary from admiring to finding it flamboyant.

Before becoming Hollywood’s quintessential “ideal wife” opposite William Powell in The Thin Man (1934), Loy was consistently typecast in late silent films and early talkies as an exotic, dangerous, or mystical temptress—an image reflected in this bohemian, rustic costume and theatrical pose.

During this pre-Code era of cinema, studio executives frequently cast her in exotic, “exotic-vamp” roles, a theme that Muray’s atmospheric lighting and styling beautifully captured. He was one of the era’s premier fashion and celebrity photographers, celebrated for his striking use of geometry, deep shadows, and theatrical staging.

Harrold began her professional career on the NBC daytime soap The Doctors (1976–1977), portraying Nola Dancy Aldrich. She quickly became a familiar television face, appearing in series such as Starsky & Hutch and The Rockford Files, where she played Dr. Megan Dougherty, a blind psychologist who develops a romantic relationship with Jim Rockford. Those episodes remain among her most memorable television performances.

Harrold’s film career took off in 1979 with the horror film Nightwing, but her breakthrough came the following year as Dotty in The Hunter (1980), the final film starring Steve McQueen. She followed with several notable starring roles: Modern Romance (1981), The Pursuit of D. B. Cooper (1981), The Sender (1982), Yes, Giorgio (1982), Into the Night (1985), and Raw Deal (1986). Although she never became a major box-office superstar, Harrold was respected as a dependable leading actress capable of handling drama, romance, thrillers, horror, and action.

Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Harrold remained active on television. She starred in MacGruder and Loud (1985), The Bronx Zoo (1987–1988), I’ll Fly Away (1991–1993), The Larry Sanders Show, where she played Francine Sanders. Later, she made guest appearances on series including Chicago Hope, The Practice, Judging Amy, CSI: NY, Desperate Housewives, and Greek.

Rather than remain in the entertainment industry, Harrold pursued graduate studies at Antioch University Los Angeles, earning a master’s degree. She became a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) in California and established a private counseling practice in Los Angeles, helping individuals and couples. She retired from acting around 2011 to focus on this new profession.