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Loni Anderson

February 11, 2012 by · Comments Off on Loni Anderson 

Loni Anderson, Loni Kaye Anderson (born August 5, 1945) is an American actress who played the role of Jennifer Marlowe on the television sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati. Anderson was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, August 5, 1945, the daughter of Maxine Hazel (née Kallin), a model, and Klaydon Carl “Andy” Anderson, an environmental chemist and grew up in suburban Roseville.

As a senior at Alexander Ramsey Senior High School in Roseville in 1963, she was voted Valentine Queen of Valentine’s Day Winter Formal. She attended the University of Minnesota. As she says in her autobiography, My Life in High Heels, her father was originally going to name her “Leiloni,” but then realized to his horror that when she got to her teen years it was liable to be twisted into “Lay Loni.” So it was changed to just plain “Loni.”

Anderson’s most famous acting role came as receptionist Jennifer Marlowe on WKRP in Cincinnati. Her pinup photo in a bikini became one of the best-selling wall posters of the 1970s. She and husband Burt Reynolds made one film together, the 1983 stock-car racing comedy Stroker Ace, a huge box-office failure.

Shortly after her divorce from Reynolds, she appeared as a regular in the final season (1993-1994) on the NBC sitcom Nurses. Anderson portrayed actress Jayne Mansfield in a made-for-TV biopic with Arnold Schwarzenegger as her husband, Mickey Hargitay. She teamed with Lynda Carter in a 1984 television series, Partners in Crime.

Anderson made a series of cameo appearances on television shows in the late 1990s and early 2000s, such as the Spellmans’ “witch-trash” cousin on Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and Vallery Irons’ mother on V.I.P.

Smokey And The Bandit

February 11, 2012 by · Comments Off on Smokey And The Bandit 

Smokey And The Bandit, Did characters from the 1977 movie sensation “Smokey and the Bandit” pay Forest Lake a visit last week? Could it be possible?

While there have been no official sightings of actors Burt Reynolds and Sally Field, there was a black Pontiac Trans Am in town last week. It was fast and Forest Lake police could not catch it.

What started as a chase in downtown Forest Lake came to a quick end on northbound I-35 as local officers could not keep pace with the fast car which accelerated to speeds estimated at 140 miles an hour, according to Chief of Police Rick Peterson.

It all started at 9:15 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 3 when a city officer on patrol observed the black Pontiac Trans Am driving the wrong way in a one-way street on the north end of the municipal parking near Lakeside Memorial Park.

The officer was able to obtain the license plate number, Peterson said, but the number was not on file with state records. The officer followed the car as it turned west on 2nd Avenue NE and hurriedly turned south on Lake Street (US-61) pulling in front and cutting off a second vehicle that was also traveling south.

As the Trans Am moved through the Lake and Broadway roundabout and continued west on Broadway, speeds increased to 60-90 miles an hour, the chief said. The officer followed the fleeing car to northbound I-35 where the Trans Am gained speeds that were clocked at 140 miles an hour, Peterson added.

The Forest Lake officer continued the chase to north of Wyoming where the pursuit was called off. The Minnesota State Patrol and police agencies all along I-35 to the north of Forest Lake were alerted to the chase, but the car was not found, Peterson said.

Peterson said officers will work on tracking down the vehicle owner and will continue to pursue the license plate number to see if it can be traced to the vehicle owner.

2nd Area Pursuit

Media reports of a second high-speed chase that involved I-35 and the Forest Lake area did not involve city police officers, Peterson said.

Police in Minneapolis reportedly began chasing a car that had been stolen in North Minneapolis at about 6 p.m. Saturday evening. According to media reports, the chase continued north on I-35E and a number of police agencies were attempting to track the car.

Peterson said no Forest Lake officers were involved in the pursuit. Police attempting to catch the vehicle lost sight of the stolen car prior to it reaching Forest Lake, he said. Traffic was heavy at the time of the incident, he said.

“We never had a visual on the stolen car, nor do we know anything else about it,” Peterson said. He said the pursuit was cancelled by the Minneapolis Police Department and the Minnesota State Patrol when officers lost sight of the stolen vehicle.

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