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William S. Burroughs, one of the three seminal writers of the Beat Generation (the other two being his friends Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg), was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on February 5, 1914, to the son of the founder of the Burroughs Adding Machine Co. He grew up in patrician surroundings and attended private school in Los Alamos, New Mexico, chosen due to the climate as he suffered from sinus trouble (the school was later used to house the Manhattan Project during World War II)). Burroughs took his undergraduate degree at Harvard College (Class of 1936) but rebelled inwardly against the life that the upper-class Harvard man was supposed to lead during the pre-war period (outwardly he dressed the part of a patrician, with three-piece suit, necktie, black homburg and chesterfield overcoat being his standard wardrobe. His political options generally were also of his class, i.e., right-wing).

Planning to become a physician, Burroughs moved to Germany to study medicine. The plight of the Jews under the Nazis was desperate, and in 1937 Burroughs agreed to marry Ilse Herzfeld Klapper, a German Jewish woman, so she could leave Germany and eventually become a U.S. citizen. The two remained friends for many years after they moved back to the U.S., meeting often for lunch when Burroughs eventually settled in New York City in the early 1940s. They never lived together, and Burroughs formally divorced her in 1946 so he could marry his second wife, Joan.

Perhaps it was his exposure to National Socialism in Adolf Hitler's Germany that raised Burroughs' interest in his lifelong fascination: control mechanisms used by the state against its citizens. Burroughs left Germany for the United States without completing his studies, bringing along Ilse.

A homosexual in an extremely homophobic age, back in the U.S. he drifted from job to job while continuing his education as an autodidact. He lived in Chicago, where he was an exterminator, which he claimed was the best job he ever had. While in Chicago he met the young Lucien Carr (later to be the father of best-selling novelist Caleb Carr, author of "The Alienist") and David Kammerer. Kammerer was a homosexual 14 years Carr's senior who had been his private school tutor and had stalked Carr obsessively afterward, following him from city to city. While Carr was disturbed by Kammerer's behavior, he was also immature and flattered by the attention, a moth attracted to the flame. When the moth got singed, he would fly away. Carr dropped out of the University of Chicago to attend Columbia in New York in order to escape Kammerer, and when Kammerer inevitably followed, Burroughs tagged along.

Through Carr, Burroughs made the connections that would change his life: Columbia drop-out Kerouac, then in the Merchant Marine, and Columbia undergrad Ginsberg, then studying pre-law with the idea of becoming a labor lawyer. Intrigued by what he heard from Carr and Kammerer of Kerouac, he dropped in to see him at the apartment of Kerouac's girlfriend Edie Kerouac Parker, who shared the flat with Burroughs' future wife Joan.

Before the momentous meet-up, Burroughs had begun experimenting with morphine when he acquired a stash of the drug to sell, and he subsequently became hooked. Long fascinated by "low lifes" and the vitality they retained while the rest of "normal" Americans seemed wan and dessicated (this was the Great Depression, after all), Burroughs began conducting field "research" into New York's demimonde, aided and abetted by Herbert Huncke, a junkie and thief whom Burroughs befriended and let share his apartment in lower Manhattan. With Huncke playing Virgil to his Dante, Burroughs met the "low-lifes" who would become part of his fiction as he journeyed through the rings of hell that was World War II New York. "Sailor", who showed up as a character in Naked Lunch (1991), was a thief and drug dealer who once borrowed Burroughs' pistol and went out and shot a storekeeper to death (Sailor later hanged himself in jail after being arrested for an unrelated crime. He was known as an informer and had turned in a rival narcotics dealer--he was facing beatings, torture and possibly murder when he decided to take his own life). Soon Burroughs began to deal drugs in earnest in order to keep up with his own habit and fence merchandise himself, becoming part of a den of thieves that spilled over into Edie and Joan's apartment. The patrician Burroughs, with his high standards, prided himself on giving the best "cut" of heroin available, with personal home delivery to boot.

Jack Kerouac first urged Burroughs to write. Burroughs spent a lot of time at the apartment Kerouac shared with Edie and Joan. He particularly liked to psychoanalyze Kerouac and Ginsburg, and enjoyed having them act out scenarios, little dramas in which they would play roles: Burroughs an old queen/con artist, Ginsburg her pimp, and Kerouac as the gullible young American, mouth agape in a foreign land, ripe for the plucking. Their imaginations were quite fertile, and it fed Kerouac and Ginsberg's writing. Burroughs had never really had any inclination to write until he met Kerouac, but he and Jack collaborated on a mystery novel they eventually entitled "And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks," after the last sentence of a BBC-Radio report on a fire at the London Zoo. Each wrote alternating chapters, and after the book was complete, the manuscript was passed around among New York publishers. There were no takers, and for the time, Burroughs lost interest in writing.

In 1945 Lucien Carr stabbed David Kammerer to death during a stroll along the bank of the Hudson River below Morningside Heights that was a notorious gay cruising area. After holding the dying man in his arms, Carr weighted down the body of his former tutor with rocks and disposed of it in the Hudson. In bloodied clothes, Carr sought out Burroughs, soliciting advice. Ignoring the elder's wise counsel to get a good lawyer and turn himself in, Carr then went to see Kerouac, who helped him dispose of the murder weapon and Kammerer's glasses. Both Burroughs and Kerouac were arrested (Burroughs as a material witness; Kerouac as an accessory after the fact), but eventually both were released without being prosecuted. Carr pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sent off to the Elmira Reformatory, where he was incarcerated for two years.

New York City became increasingly untenable as Burroughs became known to the police, so -- after he and Joan married -- they moved to Louisiana to become farmers. Their crop was marijuana, and eventually they moved on to Mexico, where living was cheaper and drugs easier to come by (and there was less hassle from police). In 1951, at a party in which they both were drunk, an exhibitionistic Burroughs shot and killed Joan in an alleged accident where he reportedly attempted to mimic the "apple on the son's head" scene from "William Tell". As the story is told, Joan put a glass of liquor on top of her head after Burroughs beseeched her to perform their William Tell trick for the guests. There had never been a William Tell trick, Burroughs later ruefully admitted, and Joan wound up with a .32 ACP slug in her head. Accounts of the death, which the Mexican police ruled a misadventure caused by a mistake in judgment, have never been entirely satisfactory. Like Lucien Carr before him, Burroughs may have consciously or subconsciously rid himself of a lover whom he no longer had any use for, or was piqued at. Burroughs at the time of the shooting was in love, involved in a heavy gay affair.

After the death of Joan, Burroughs spent time journeying through Central and South America, looking for the drug called "Yage", which like peyote was rumored to offer a key to opening the doors of perception and heightening consciousness. He found it and distributed it among friends. In 1953 Allen Ginsburg managed to get Burroughs into print under the pen name "William Lee." His autobiographical novel, "Junkie", was published by Ace Books (the son of the owner, Carl Solomon, was one of Ginsburg's friends) as a 35-cent paperback original (its formal title was "Junkie: Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Adict", and it was published as "Two Books in One" back-to-back with another paperback original in the same volume). Returning to Mexico City, in the mid-'50s he began writing in earnest while keeping up with his drug habit, living off the small trust fund he received as a scion of the Burroughs family. It was in Mexico City that he began writing the sketches that would turn into his major book, "Naked Lunch". In 1956 he left Mexico City for Tangiers, Morocco, as the living was even cheaper than it was in Mexico City (as were the drugs). He eventually returned to the US in the 1960s.

"Naked Lunch" has the distinction of being the last major book to be prosecuted for obscenity in the United States. The novel was written in Mexico City and Tangiers, crafted from fragments he wrote while addicted to heroin. After it was published in Paris by the Olympia Press in 1959, it quickly became notorious for its graphic descriptions of sexual encounters, sadism and murder, as well as its no-holds-barred use of language. Many stalwart defenders of the First Amendment drew the line at "Naked Lunch", stating that they did not fight the good fight to get James Joyce's "Ulysses" and the works of D.H. Lawrence and Henry Miller before the American public so that something like "Naked Lunch" could be published. Grove Press acquired the rights to the book, but it was not published until 1962, as the publishing house awaited the outcome of other obscenity trials, including one involving Allen Ginsberg's epic poem "Howl", which featured Burroughs as one of its hipsters searching for "an angry fix". Guided by Justice William J. Brennan, the U.S. Supreme Court starting in the late 1950s had relaxed censorship standards to protect literature that had redeeming social value, no matter that passages in the works were accused of being obscene. To be banned, a work had to be utterly without redeeming social value. Undaunted, the Comonwealth of Massachusetts successfully prosecuted the book as obscene.

For the initial trial, Grove Press had gathered together an impressive list of "experts" such as Norman Mailer to defend the book, but Burroughs' modern classic initially lost, was declared obscene, and was banned in Massachusetts (a banned book would be destroyed, the copies already having been confiscated by the police). However, in 1966 the Massachusetts Supreme Court (in Memoirs v. Massachusetts) found that "Naked Lunch" was "not without social value, and therefore, not obscene." With this ruling an era that began in the 1870s when anti-smut crusader Anthony Comstock led the charge for stricter enforcement of obscenity laws by the federal and state governments came to an end.

By the late 1970s Burroughs had lived long enough to be hailed by critics and the public as a major American writer. He was embraced by punk rockers in New York and became an iconic figure by the 1980s. He died in 1997 at the age of 83.

Despite growing up in a small town in New Jersey, Keith Loneker knew early in life that he had bigger things in store for him. You'd never know by his hulking body that this giant is an underdog. Loneker has overcome many personal obstacles to defy the odds his entire life. In high school he endured a painful hip injury. Doctors said he would never play sports again. Keith decided not to accept the doctor's opinion. He became a gym rat working out 3 hours a day to rehabilitate his ailing hip. After a year of training, Loneker proved doctors wrong when he stepped onto a football field for the first time in 2 years. Loneker, who was just happy to be back among his pals playing ball, was not aware that his raw talent on the football field would land him a Division 1 scholarship with the University of Kansas. The scholarship also did not come easy to Loneker. Many local Division 1 football programs passed on Loneker. They said he was too short, injury prone, or he just didn't have the talent. Glen Mason, the former head coach of the University of Kansas, balked at Loneker's critics and offered him a full scholarship. It was apparent early in Loneker's college career that he was a special player. He played as a true freshman. Loneker was an all Big Eight tackle three years at the University of Kansas. After graduation Loneker prepared for the NFL draft. His agent and many publications projected he would be a third round draft choice. Loneker had a party at his house in New Jersey on draft day with family and close friends. Loneker was shocked when after eight rounds his name was not called by an NFL club. His family and friends could see the disappointment in his eyes after the NFL draft had finished. Then as everyone thought he may get upset, Keith turned his misfortune into fuel.. Not getting drafted made Loneker hungry to prove his critics wrong once again. He walked on with the LA Rams and immediately began turning heads with vicious play on the field. The coaches knew they had plucked a gem and Loneker not only made the team but went on to start by the end of his rookie season. Keith enjoyed his five years in the NFL and is thankful he had the chance to fulfill his childhood dream. Keith didn't realize that his football career was about to transition into a movie career. A former teammate who was working in Hollywood as an agent called Loneker and told him he had a part that he thought he'd fit perfect. Loneker had never acted before, but decided to make a tape for an audition. The producers of the film hired him off his tape alone. To Keith's surprise he landed the role of "White Boy Bob" in a Steven Soderbergh film "Out Of Sight". The part was small, but Loneker got to showcase his talent with stars like George Clooney, Jennifer Lopez, and Ving Rhames. Loneker continued his career in film and landed a small part in, "Rock Star" with Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Anniston. Nothing has come easy for Loneker during his life, but that doesn't stop this man from trying to fulfill all of his dreams. This small town Jersey boy has shown all his critics who judged him that nothing can stand in the way of a motivated man. Some people might call Loneker's success luck, but those who know him say it is character, hard work, and a big heart that made this underdog what he is today.

Colorado-born Herk Harvey majored in theater at Kansas University, directing and acting in stage productions and later returning to the school in a teaching capacity. He broke into the film business as an actor in some of the movies being made by Centron Corporation of Lawrence, Kansas, an educational and industrial film production company for which he subsequently went to work as a director. In 1961 he took a working vacation from Centron to try his hand at feature filmmaking, producing, directing and co-starring in the creepy horror film Carnival of Souls (1962), shot in Kansas and Utah.

A native of Springfield, Illiinois, John Clifford moved to Chicago and lived with relatives after the deaths of his parents. Wanting to work as a writer--but feeling that he couldn't write anything longer than a joke-- Clifford began working as a joke writer, selling material to radio comedian Ken Murray. Clifford served during World War II, then (under the G.I. Bill) went to a Hollywood school for writers. He landed up at Centron Films in Lawrence, Kansas, a company that made educational and industrial films. It was there that Clifford met director Herk Harvey; the two paired to put together "Carnival of Souls, " the low-budget ($30,000) cult horror classic.

Charles Oldfather was the son of a high administrator at the University of Nebraska; Oldfather Hall at the University of Nebraska is named after his father. In 1950 he moved down to Lawrence, Kansas to become a professor at the University of Kansas School of Law. While at the University of Kansas School of Law he taught virtually every course. By 1972 he had risen to the position of University Attorney. He was active in the performing arts at the University of Kansas, and occasionally obtained roles in national productions set or filmed in and around Kansas City. He lived on a farm in west Lawrence with his large family until his death.

Betty Laird was born on 19 December 1925 in Grand Island, Nebraska, USA. She was an actress, known for Sarah, Plain and Tall (1991), Skylark (1993) and Sarah, Plain & Tall: Winter's End (1999). She was married to Roy D. Laird. She died on 5 November 2024 in Lawrence, Kansas, USA.

Mary Ann Harris was born in 1940 in Independence, Missouri, USA. She was an actress, known for Carnival of Souls (1962), Johnny Vik (1977) and My Three Sons (1960). She was married to James Thomas "Tom" Jennings III . She died in March 2020 in Lawrence, Kansas, USA.

James Gunn was born on 12 July 1923 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. He was a writer, known for The Immortal (1969), Etot fantasticheskiy mir (1979) and Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse (1958). He was married to Jane Frances Anderson . He died on 23 December 2020 in Lawrence, Kansas, USA.

Rupert Pate was born on 2 October 1936 in Augusta, Georgia, USA. He was an actor, known for C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America (2004) and The Battle for Bunker Hill (2008). He died on 2 March 2024 in Lawrence, Kansas, USA.

Dan Palmquist was in the drama department at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas when he went down to Centron Films in Lawrence to play the parts of George Johnson and Bill Johnson in two films: "Speech: The Function of Gestures" and "A Day of Thanksgiving". By 1955, Dan was head of the Centron editing department and also directed quite a few science and safety films for the company. He was with Centron until a heart attack took him in the early 1980s.

Bill de Jarnette was born in 1926 in Douglas County, Kansas, USA. He was an actor and editor, known for Carnival of Souls (1962). He died in 1996 in Lawrence, Kansas, USA.

Born in Topeka, Kansas, in 1917, Arthur H. Wolf and his friend from Topeka, Russell A. Mosser, started up a film company called the Centron Corporation in Lawrence, Kansas. This company produced dozens of industrial and educational films for Young America, McGraw-Hill and dozens of Fortune 500 companies until 1981, when Mosser and Wolf sold the company and retired. Wolf died in 2002. Mosser died in 2011.

Leonard Schneider was born in New York City in 1932. He is the son of Warner Bros. vice president and film producer Samuel Schneider . He worked as a freelance photographer for LIFE Magazine and a cameraman for The Patty Duke Show (1963) and Candid Camera (1960). He majored in theatre at the College of William & Mary and received his masters degree in theatre from the University of Kansas. He was married to actress Jo Anna March.

Margaret Travis was born on 27 June 1921 in Collinsville, Oklahoma, USA. She was a writer and director, known for The Secret to the Sixties (1965), Why Punctuate (1948) and A Day of Thanksgiving (1951). She died on 30 September 2011 in Lawrence, Kansas, USA.

Charles Lacey joined Centron films as a major stockholder in 1949 after serving in WWII and graduating from Kansas State University with a degree in Electrical Engineering. His first duties were as a film sound engineer. He soon began editing films, while continuing to do sound work, and even occasionally acting through the 50s. As the company expanded, he became vice president in charge of production, primarily in charge of coordinating production and post-production of Centron's films. During this period in the 60s, Centron was producing more and more corporate films and sale meetings, in additon to their educational product. The 70s ushered in a period of corporate 'documentaries', especially for John Deere, in which Lacey wrote and directed many short films in addition to his duties coordinating production company-wide. Centron's films remained in that vein, alongwith a renewed emphasis on educational product with the early 70s launching of Centron Educational Films, a distibution arm. Lacey continued with Centron up until its sale to Coronet Films in the mid-1980s. Charles Lacey was born (1922) and raised in Republic County, Kansas. He married Ruthanne Finley in 1947. They had four children; Philip, Jean, Bruce, & Marilyn. He died in February, 2002, in Lawrence, Kansas.

George Corn was born on 2 February 1912 in Kansas, USA. He is known for Carnival of Souls (1962). He died on 2 December 2011 in Lawrence, Kansas, USA.

Becca Booth was born on 29 October 1977 in Lawrence, Kansas, USA. She was an actress, known for Lincoln's Last Day (2015). She was married to Chad Meyers. She died on 25 December 2022 in Lawrence, Kansas, USA.

Divonna Doxie was born on 1 November 1909 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Song of the City (1937) and Walt Disney Cartoon Classics Limited Gold Edition II: The Disney Dream Factory (1985). She was married to Raymond J. Eastwood. She died on 22 January 1996 in Lawrence, Kansas, USA.

Born in Horton, Kansas, in 1917, Russell A. Mosser and his friend from Topeka, Arthur H. Wolf, started up a film company called the Centron Corporation in Lawrence, Kansas, in the summer of 1947. This company produced dozens of industrial and educational films for Young America, McGraw-Hill and dozens of Fortune 500 companies until 1981, when Mosser and Wolf sold the company and retired. Wolf died in 2002, and Mosser died in 2011.

Doug DuBois was born on 13 June 1959 in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. Doug is known for The Only Good Indian (2009). Doug died on 7 March 2021 in Lawrence, Kansas, USA.

Prentice Gautt was born on 8 February 1938 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA. He was married to Sandra Gautt. He died on 17 March 2005 in Lawrence, Kansas, USA.

Fritz Heider was born on 19 February 1896 in Vienna, Austria. Fritz was a director, known for Heider and Simmel (1944). Fritz died on 2 January 1988 in Lawrence, Kansas, USA.

Max Falkenstien was born on 9 April 1924 in Lawrence, Kansas, USA. He was married to Isobel. He died on 29 July 2019 in Lawrence, Kansas, USA.

Allen Kelley was born on 24 December 1932 in Dearing, Georgia, USA. He was married to Barbara. He died on 13 August 2016 in Lawrence, Kansas, USA.

Norman Stuewe was born in 1924 in Garnett, Kansas, USA. He was a cinematographer and director, known for Tommy the Lion (1963), The Secret to the Sixties (1965) and Why Punctuate (1948). He died on 26 October 2007 in Lawrence, Kansas, USA.