[Marion Shore]

Your mission, should you choose to accept it:

Choose a famous person known by a name different from their real name. Write a poem in the form of a riddle, giving us only the name they were born with, and see if we can guess who it is.


For example:

Bernard Schwartz

As a hero, this guy walked the walk:
a swashbuckler, brave as a hawk--
who, though he looked striking
as prince, knight, or Viking,
always talked like he came from New Yawk.

[Frank Hubeny]

Reverend Dodgson

When you dream of white rabbits beware
That you don't follow any down there
Where you might lose your head
Should the mad queen see red,
Or see white. Hey, that cat will not care.

[Roger Slater]

Frances Ethel Gumm

Frances Gumm
could not just hum
...but also sang and acted.

She popped some pills.
They say pills kill.
...And sadly these in fact did.

[Roger Slater]

Marion Robert Morrison

Marion liked to ride horses
and praise, but not join, the armed forces.
...His true grit was false
...but they say he had balls,
and he's studied in film making courses.

[Barbara Godwin]

Caryn Elaine Johnson

There was a girl in the biz.
In stand-up she was a whiz.
The Color Purple was her start,
And Ted Danson broke her heart.

[Michael Cantor]

Bernard Schwartz, Redux

Some howled with malice
when they heard Bernie speak:
"Yonda's da palace
of my fadda, da sheik,"
but I liked all his honks,
cause we're both from the Bronx.


Frances Ethel Gumm, Redux

She lived on pills and Barleycorn,
but sang so well a star was borne.



[This message has been edited by Michael Cantor (edited March 31, 2008).]

[Michael Cantor]

Allen Konigsberg

A song of joy, a Klezmer clarinetist's tune
says I shall marry my step-daughter soon.

[Marion Shore]

Marion* Robert Morrison, redux

A rough and tough cowboy named Marion
who scattered the Wild West with carrion
said "Can anyone blame
me for changing my name--
Ma'am, I sure ain't nobody's librarian**."


*You cannot imagine how my sisters teased me about this one.

**got teased about this too.

[Michael Cantor]

Marion Robert Morrison, reduxiplex

I'm sorry to post a rebuke,
but you viewers should not be mistook:
jingoistic, simplistic
he duked out two-fistic
cartoons that would just made me puke.




[This message has been edited by Michael Cantor (edited April 01, 2008).]

[Marion Shore]

Virginia Katherine McMath

A performer of verve and appeal,
she got the raw end of the deal.
Yes, she should get more credit,
for everything Fred did,
she did backwards and wearing high heels.