Lamparski has gotten into a nice groove with his "Whatever became of ... ?" series, profiling hundreds of once-famous people, be they actors, musicians, politicians, athletes and the notorious.

Each entry lists the once famous, what they got up to at their peak and what they were up to when this book was published 40 years ago. This edition features luminaries ranging from Drew's father John Barrymore Jr (love the "Now" photo for him) to Lita Grey (who was Charlie Chaplin's 15 year-old pregnant bride-to-be) to spy Francis Powers and Burt Ward (the chap who played Robin in TVs "Batman").

Reading through the series you can see a few themes emerge: a lot of former stars became highly religious (particularly Christian Science) and the black entertainers covered seemed to have the hardest hard luck stories. As to who had the best outcome; Burt Ward is reported as living with a former Miss France and her mother on the California coast. There's no indication whether it was a ménage a trois but it seems an idyllic existence no matter what. ( )

Who are all these people? Gail Patrick, Miss America of 1942, Jose Iturbi, Perle Mesta etc etc.