If they were still alive today...

....these folks would be celebrating their birthday:

Italian master painter Michelangelo Buonaroti was born 536 years ago today.  Below, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel at St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican.  Left, a self- portrait  of the artist, which was included in his final painting in 1563 and only discovered recently.






Poetess Elizabeth Barrett Browning would be 205.  She was the object of husband and fellow poet, Robert Browning's undying love in their many odes to one another.











Comedian Lou Costello would be 105 today.  One half of the world-famous "Abbott and Costello," they were among the most popular film actors of the 1940's, enjoying enormous popularity--in fact, in 1942, they were the #1 box office attraction in the world, and remained in the top ten until 1952, a remarkable achievement in any time.  In truth, they couldn't stand one another and their act imploded in the 1950's and ended for good in 1959 with Lou's death of a heart attack at age 53.  Their style of humor has somewhat dilluted over the years and they're not as fondly remembered today as some comics of their time....an act that was truly "of its era".


The eternal "sidekick," Ed McMahon was born in Detroit 88 years ago.  His booming laughter and likable manner made him Johnny Carson's lifelong on-air partner.





Sports columnist/short story writer Ring Lardner was born in Niles, Michigan 126 years ago today.  He famously chronicled the 1919 "Chicago Black Sox" scandal, and his writing was strongly influential on both Ernest Hemingway's and F. Scott Fitzgerald's.



Beloved character actor of the 1930's, Guy Kibbee, would be 129.  He seemingly appeared in every other film made in the 1930's, most notably, most of the great Warner Brothers/Busby Berkeley musicals, in which he usually played a curmudgeonly rich sucker for a golddigging hoofer...and usually wore a monocle.