Earl Holliman’s path to Hollywood is a compelling story of ambition and aspiration. At the age of 14 in 1943, he was resolute in his desire to become a movie star.
Raised in Oil City and Mooringsport, often mistakenly identified as Shreveport, he embarked on his journey to Hollywood through several stops along the way. His adventure began with a trip to visit relatives in Camden, Arkansas, followed by a bus ride to Texarkana, Texas. From there, he hitchhiked to Hollywood.
Having saved some money working as a theater usher and during the night shift at a café near Barksdale Air Force Base, Holliman had also connected with a serviceman who offered a lead on a place to stay. However, this turned out to be in El Monte, California, a significant distance from Hollywood. Looking back, Holliman acknowledges that it was a risky decision, one that wouldn’t be advisable in today’s world.
His initial foray into Hollywood didn’t pan out, prompting him to return home briefly before enlisting in the Navy. Nevertheless, his dream of becoming an actor remained alive. He eventually made his way back to Los Angeles, where he honed his craft at the Pasadena Playhouse and the University of California, Los Angeles.
Holliman’s determination paid off, leading to an impressive film career with notable roles in classics like “Giant” (1956), “Forbidden Planet”, “The Rainmaker”, and “The Sons of Katie Elder”. He also became well-known on television, especially for his work alongside Angie Dickinson in “Police Woman” and with Richard Chamberlain and Rachel Ward in “The Thorn Birds”.
He fondly reminisces about his early days in Hollywood, particularly his first morning in El Monte, when he wore a short-sleeved silk shirt and dark glasses while walking in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, fantasizing about being mistaken for a star. It was a moment filled with youthful dreams and innocence.
See below how Earl Holliman looks today at 96.
I Started Wearing “Terrible Wigs” at Work After They Banned My Pink Hair
A 29-year-woman was faced with a dilemma shortly after she took on a job offer. She was told she either had to cover up her pink hair or look for work elsewhere. She accepted the challenge and her amusing way of overcoming the restriction has gone viral.
Emily Benschoter turned to TikTok to share her journey at her new workplace, but with the twist that she can never show her pink hair while she’s on duty. She only found out the fact after she had already been interviewed and offered the position, a front-of-house role in the hospitality industry, because there was no prior contact with her employers in-person or over video chat during the hiring process.
Her manager then suggested she wore a wig and that’s when she decided to pick the funniest ones she could find. Her first TikTok video with the first wig went up on July 19, 2023, and it read: “When you have pink hair, but corporate does not approve, so you wear terrible wigs.”
Since then, people have become invested in her wig choices and her clips have been viewed millions of times. “The worse the wig, the better,” she admitted in an interview. “It is a way to open up the conversation with the customers who think it is insane that I have to cover my pink hair.”
In the same interview, Benschoter also took time to explain why she didn’t just simply dye her hair instead. “Dying my hair for a job I work at for 40 hours per week wasn’t an option,” she revealed. “I am a self-expressive person and I feel very confident with pink hair, so I came up with a solution to keep the job and my hair.”
Despite her having fun with the situation, she doesn’t approve of it. “It’s dehumanizing that I can’t be accepted at face value because my hair is a non-traditional color,” she said. “It’s so superficial that my hair color is an obstacle.”
As we’ve seen, job requirements when it comes to our physical appearance can be an issue for some. For a woman known as the “Dragon Girl,” it’s actually been an impossible task to overcome. Amber Luke chose to get over 600 tattoos to change her appearance, but now people refuse to employ her.
Preview photo credit emuhleeebee / TikTok, emuhleeebee / TikTok
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