What ever became of…? Google & Wikipedia changed the game.

There used a series of books that helped nostalgia buffs find out "What Ever Became of...," Ruth Etting, Billy Gilbert, Edna Mae Oliver and the like. The author was Richard Lamparski, and I knew about this witty little series filled with stories about these faded stars of yesteryear — celebrities who would be considered D-list today only appearing in a cable channel reality show) because the first friend I made in Gay Youth was Michael Knowles, who did legwork, research and photography for Richard and receives credits in a number of the volumes.

Today of course, new books would be redundant. Just the other day I was curious about an 80s alternative rock group I loved called Human Sexual Response . I went directly to Wikipedia. Lo and behold, there was a complete entry on them along with follow ups of what became of members of the band after they broke up. For that matter, there is a website devoted to photographs of the graves of the famous, the infamous and the almost forgotten celebrities of the past. Pere Lachaise comes to the web.

And then there’s Google. We all know the guilty pleasure of Googling oneself. Or the disappointment. But what is really interesting is the way we find each other. Last year found a man I hadn’t seen since 1981 when I moved to Japan. He had returned to live in the town in Tennessee where he grew up, and by Googling his name, eventually I came across an entry that had to be him. And just yesterday I received an email out of the blue from a woman I hadn’t seen or heard of since 1981. Of course, there is also the weird experience of finding other people with your name on Google and their very different lives. While my old colleague did reach me by email, she also thought she had heard me on a podcast she downloaded from another site created by a man with the same name as me, another Mark Horn who also happens to write about advertising and business among other things!

At the moment, I am looking for a lot of people I've lost touch with because Gay & Lesbian Youth New York, or Gay Youth when I was a member, is holding a reunion on November 3rd for all the people who were ever in the group, from its inception in 1969. Sad to say, the first place I check for a name that I don’t have a contact for is the Social Security Death Index. Last night though, I was speaking on the phone to someone who had been in the group with me and who I hadn’t spoken to since 1994. He told me that one person I was looking for was listed in the Manhattan phone book. I laughed, because I’d gotten out of the habit of looking in it. And in fact when I went to check I realized that I didn’t have a phone book anymore. Except there really is no replacement online for the local white pages.

By the way, if you’re wondering whatever became of Richard Lamparski, today he lives in Montecito and recently published two new books of memoir material: Manhattan Diary and Hollywood Diary.

And if you know anyone who was either in GY or GLYNY, send them to the GLYNY board for information on the reunion.

Comments

[Ray]

I am a sucker for "Where are they now" segments, which are all over cable on E! or VH1.
It's good to know that Mindy Cohn who played Natalie Green on Facts of Life is now the voice of Velma on the new Scooby Doo cartoon.

and Happy Birthday!

[Robert]

Mark! How weird (my) reality is nowadays. Not only do I lay eyes on you yesterday evening for the first time since 1978, but my watch stopped 20 minutes ago--and that really threw me for a loop. When you were living in Japan, I was living in North Africa . . . but I think the moral of the story is that, with or without Wikipedia, we all sooner or later have to return to New York, if we actually want to see each other--my Gay Youth came back to me like it was yesterday!