In the 1950s afternoon TV was made up of soap operas (some like “General Hospital” are still on the air), cheapy game shows like “Queen for a Day,” Liberace’s daily show, and lots of old black and white movies from the 1930s and 1940s.

One day a movie came on called “According to Mrs. Hoyle” starring Spring Byington (”December Bride”). I was overjoyed and so excited. I couldn’t wait until it came on. The actual movie was very short (one hour), wasn’t really that good, and I can’t remember anything about it except for Miss Byington wearing those dowdy clothes and hats that older women wore in those days. In spite of those facts, I still enjoyed watching it with my mother. I’ve not seen it again and do not know that it even exists any longer.

I often wondered if other kids that had relatively unusual names felt the same way.

I asked my mother if we might have been related to the person shown in the movie. No, she said, it was just a fictional character and a made up story that used a catchy title based on the famous saying, “According to Hoyle.”

Even though the movie was basically a time waster, I was still excited that our family name was in the title of a Hollywood movie. For years later, every time I saw Spring Byington in a TV show or movie, I would immediately be reminded of that wonderful afternoon watching TV with Mom.