Celebrities in the news — before fame struck

Larry Bird. Jane Pauley, John Mellencamp. Charles Manson. Some Hoosiers' names are household words.

We know these people. Reams of published reports have been devoted to them.

But before their celebrity was their anonymity. Before Tony Kiritsis took a man hostage in a three-day standoff in Indianapolis, he was just a guy trying to sell Pontiacs. Before Mellencamp was a rock star, he was simply, as the Star reported September 26, 1976, "a 1970 graduate of Seymour High School" and "the son of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Mellencamp."

IndyStar combed its way-back machine, its archives, and found these early media mentions of now famous — and infamous — people.

We tried to answer the question: Who were they then?

What if all headlines were so prescient 

This story ran Sept. 26, 1976. Cougar, as Mellencamp, would go on to become a Grammy Award-winning rock star, writing and performing hits like "Jack and Diane," "Pink Houses" and "Hurts So Good." His first hit was "I Need a Lover" in 1979. He has released 22 albums and in 2008 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Along the way, he moved from Seymour to Bloomington.

Jim Jones schedules a miracle for 2:30 p.m. 

This advertisement ran Jan. 7, 1956, and appears to have succeeded. The charismatic Jones attracted a large, devoted flock to his Indianapolis church. In the mid-1960s, he led them to California and then to the South American nation of Guyana. By then, though, he had become unhinged. In 1978 at the group's Guyana compound, called Jonestown, his followers at his insistence committed mass suicide by drinking a cyanide-laced beverage. The expression "drinking the Kool-Aid," which suggests slavish devotion to muddled leadership, came from that incident. Jones died that day of a gunshot wound to the head, possibly self-inflicted.

Quite a 'gal'

Answer to this March 4, 1973, query: Yep. Pauley later became one of the nation's most respected TV journalists, co-anchoring the "Today" show and "Dateline." Now, she hosts "CBS Sunday Morning."

Kicking tires with Tony Kiritsis

This classified ad ran Sept. 28, 1968. Nine years later, Kiritsis, feeling cheated in a business deal, took banker Richard O. Hall hostage. He abducted Hall from an office building in Downtown Indianapolis. He wired a shotgun to Hall's neck, marched him down the sidewalk, commandeered a police car and forced Hall to drive him to his west-side apartment. There, he kept Hall prisoner for three days. During the ordeal, Kiritsis granted the press access, parading Hall in front of reporters and ranting profanely on live television. Kiritsis finally released Hall, and in the subsequent trial Kiritsis was found not guilty by reason of insanity.

At his pretrial hearing, as he was brought into the courtroom — on a gurney, strapped down, ranting — Kiritsis looked up and saw Skip Hess, an Indianapolis News reporter. "Skip, you son of a bitch," Kiritsis said. "You never came back and bought that car."

Hess was perplexed, but later realized what Kiritsis was talking about. Nine years earlier, Hess had come onto the car lot and kicked the tires on a 1968 LeMans convertible. Kiritsis was his sales representative. Two days later, Hess came back to buy the car, but Kiritsis was not on the lot. So Hess gave the business to another rep. Kiritsis had a memory.

Retro Indy: Tony Kiritsis was a very angry man

Evan Bayh might have been a football star

This story ran June 20, 1975. Evan Bayh had played football at his high school in Washington, D.C., and he had some size. He was 6-2 and 180 pounds. He was enrolled at Indiana University. Then-IU coach Lee Corso encouraged Bayh to try out for the team, even though Corso "usually is not enthusiastic to walk-on applicants," the Star story said. Corso said he told Bayh that "he should think about tight end with us." Bayh did not, in the end, play college football. But he did later become a two-term Indiana governor and later represented the state in the U.S. Senate as his father had.

Charles Manson, age 16, trouble early

This story ran Feb. 15, 1951. Charles Manson was 16. He and another teen, Wiley F. Senteney Jr. of Indianapolis, had been arrested in Utah, where  they had reached in a stolen car. They had gone on a petty crime rampage, burglarizing gas stations. They had escaped from the Indiana Boys School in Plainfield, Central Indiana's juvenile prison. In an interview with The Star following their capture, both boys claimed the guards at Plainfield routinely beat them and others "for smoking, for being smart or just anything," Manson said. He said he had been beaten "11 or 12 or 13 times — I've lost track."

The Star story went on: "Manson said he also had been forced to hold other boys who were being thrashed. 'You haven't got much choice when they tell you to do it,' he said. 'But you'd rather take it yourself than hold them.' A boy who refuses to hold another boy for a beating receives a beating himself, Manson said."

Manson in 1969 shocked and frightened the nation after masterminding the bloody murders of seven people, including actress Sharon Tate. He remains imprisoned in California.

John Wooden has the mumps

This story ran March 24, 1928. Wooden recovered from the mumps, dropped the "Bob" and went on to become the most famous basketball coach of all time, one of the most revered sports icons of all time and somebody who had wisdom (not to mention the subject of one of the strangest sculptures of all time, at Meridian and Georgia streets in Downtown Indianapolis).

'More classroom work than he wanted to do'

This story ran Sept. 17, 1974. Bird landed on his feet.

The Star story that led Federico Fellini to her

This story ran Sept. 29, 1974. A few days later, 7-5 Sandy Allen began her unusual journey as the world's tallest woman. She was contacted by the Guinness Book of World Records, the National Enquirer, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus and a producer from Tom Snyder's TV talk show, "Tomorrow." In 1976 she appeared in Federico Fellini's film "Casanova." She played a woman who arm-wrestled in bars. Her health later failed, and she died in 2008 at age 53.

Before he was Babyface he was Kenny

This story ran April 21, 1978. Kenny Edmonds had joined the Indianapolis funk band Manchild when he was a year out of high school (North Central, Class of 1976). Manchild had a hit almost right away, and, as the story indicates, drew the attention of Indianapolis' mayor, William Hudnut.

Later, Edmonds became Babyface and as such has won 11 Grammy awards.

Call IndyStar reporter Will Higgins at (317) 444-6043. Follow him on Twitter: @WillRHiggins.

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