Q: Is stage/screen legend Mary Martin the mother of Larry Hagman or Corbin Bernsen? — T.R.H., Woodruff, Wis.
A: For those who don’t know, Mary Virginia Martin (1913-1990) was an American actress and singer. By age 17 she was married, pregnant and expelled from finishing school. Her marriage to Benjamin Jackson Hagman lasted from 1929 until 1936. They had a son, Larry Hagman, who went on to create a name for himself as an actor (including as J.R. Ewing on “Dallas”).
In 1940, Martin married producer Richard Halliday. The following year she gave birth to a daughter, Heller Halliday, who also turned to acting as a career.
Mary Martin appeared in nine films in her career, but it is her stage performances that brought her fame. She won a Tony Award for “Peter Pan” and an Emmy for the same role on television. She also received Tonys for “South Pacific” and “The Sound of Music.” She died from cancer at age 76 on Nov. 3, 1990, at her home in Rancho Mirage, Calif.
Actor Corbin Bernsen was born in 1954. His father was film/TV producer Harry Bernsen, and his mother was veteran soaps star Jeanne Cooper.
Q: Along any highway you will find tire remnants. Is there a name for these road hazards? — J.F., Johns Creek, Ga.
A: They are commonly called “road alligators.”
Q: A major earthquake hit Northern California before the start of a World Series game. I recall a bridge partially collapsing and a car driving off of it. When was this earthquake? What was the name of the bridge? — L.S., Gallatin, Mo.
A: At 5:04 p.m. on Oct. 17, 1989, a major earthquake struck the San Francisco Bay area of California. The magnitude 6.9 quake, known as the Loma Prieta earthquake, was the largest temblor to occur on the San Andreas Fault since the great San Francisco earthquake of April 1906. The 1989 quake claimed 63 lives and caused 3,757 injuries.
The earthquake occurred during warm-ups for the third game of the World Series, which was being played between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics. Fewer than half of the more than 62,000 fans had reached their seats at the time.
I suspect the bridge you are referring to was the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. A 76-by-50-foot section of the upper deck crashed like a trapdoor onto the deck below. One car drove into the void, killing the driver.
Q: I have asked this question many times and have never received a decent answer. I hope you can help me. Christopher Columbus is said to have “discovered” America. Did he ever land on any mainland? Why is the New World named America after Amerigo Vespucci? — J.B., Gardena, Calif.
A: Your first question is relatively easy. Columbus made four voyages to the Americas, beginning with the first in 1492. He did not actually reach the mainland until his third voyage, in 1498, when he explored a section of South America. On the fourth voyage, in 1502, he reached Central America.
Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512) was an Italian explorer, financier, navigator and cartographer. In 1499, playing the role of an observer, Vespucci participated in the first of several voyages to the new lands. It was Vespucci who realized that this was, in fact, the New World and not part of Asia, as Columbus had believed.
Vespucci purportedly wrote two letters describing his travels that were later published and widely distributed in Europe. In 1507, German scholar Martin Waldseemuller, who had read of Vespucci’s accounts, decided to create a new map embracing the newly discovered land. In what is present-day Brazil he wrote the name AMERICA.
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