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- Actor
- Writer
- Director
William Claude Dukenfield was the eldest of five children born to Cockney immigrant James Dukenfield and Philadelphia native Kate Felton. He went to school for four years, then quit to work with his father selling vegetables from a horse cart. At eleven, after many fights with his alcoholic father (who hit him on the head with a shovel), he ran away from home. For a while he lived in a hole in the ground, depending on stolen food and clothing. He was often beaten and spent nights in jail. His first regular job was delivering ice. By age thirteen he was a skilled pool player and juggler. It was then, at an amusement park in Norristown PA, that he was first hired as an entertainer. There he developed the technique of pretending to lose the things he was juggling. In 1893 he was employed as a juggler at Fortescue's Pier, Atlantic City. When business was slow he pretended to drown in the ocean (management thought his fake rescue would draw customers). By nineteen he was billed as "The Distinguished Comedian" and began opening bank accounts in every city he played. At age twenty-three he opened at the Palace in London and played with Sarah Bernhardt at Buckingham Palace. He starred at the Folies-Bergere (young Charles Chaplin and Maurice Chevalier were on the program).
He was in each of the Ziegfeld Follies from 1915 through 1921. He played for a year in the highly praised musical "Poppy" which opened in New York in 1923. In 1925 D.W. Griffith made a movie of the play, renamed Sally of the Sawdust (1925), starring Fields. Pool Sharks (1915), Fields' first movie, was made when he was thirty-five. He settled into a mansion near Burbank, California and made most of his thirty-seven movies for Paramount. He appeared in mostly spontaneous dialogs on Charlie McCarthy's radio shows. In 1939 he switched to Universal where he made films written mainly by and for himself. He died after several serious illnesses, including bouts of pneumonia.- Was an only child, Rondo Hatton was born to Stewart and Emily Hatton in Hagerstown, Maryland. The family moved to Tampa, Florida, in 1912, when he was a high-school senior, and his father joined a family-owned business there. Rondo was apparently popular and a good athlete, especially in football.
After leaving high school, Rondo joined the Florida National Guard to pursue a military career. Rondo first saw battle in the Mexican border war and then in France in World War I. There, he was exposed to poison gas, was hospitalized with lung injury, and was subsequently medically discharged from service and consigned to a pension.
Returning to Tampa, he took employment as a reporter for the Tampa Tribune, where he worked until 1936 when he moved to Hollywood.
Sometime after his exposure to the poison gas, Rondo began to develop acromegaly, a slowly progressive medical condition, which brings after a person has matured physically, and reached their adult height.
Acromegaly (a disorder of the pituitary gland) causes deformation of bones in the head, hands and feet, and internal and external soft tissues. The body resumes production of growth hormone, but as the bone structure can no longer continue symmetric growth (as in giantism). According to all available sources, Rondo's acromegaly was a result of the poison gas he'd been exposed to, though it is almost always caused by a tumor on the pituitary.
In any event, Rondo's increasing disfigurement is thought to have led to his first divorce and certainly was responsible for his being noticed by director Henry King. who was shooting a movie, Hell Harbor (1930), near Tampa. Reporter Hatton was covering the filming, and King offered him a role.
Hatton continued his work as a reporter, until after his second marriage in 1934; in 1936, he and his new, more faithful wife moved to Hollywood. Thereafter, Hatton appears to have subsisted primarily on bit parts or extra roles, with an occasional role substantial enough to earn him cast acknowledgment, until being cast for the role of the "Hoxton Creeper" in Universal's The Pearl of Death (1944). Universal thereafter attempted to promote Hatton to horror film stardom because of his acromegalic appearance, including a burgeoning series about a spine-breaking maniac called "The Creeper."
Around Christmas, 1945, Rondo suffered a mild heart attack. (weakness, along with diabetes and blindness being common complications of acromegaly) and, seemingly recovered. But approximately one month later, Rondo suffered a major heart attack, which proved fatal.
Rondo's body was returned to Tampa for burial. In 1988, filmmaker Fred Olen Ray extensively researched Hatton's life, producing the sensitive article "Rondo Hatton: Monster Man" (referenced below), giving this man the graceful memorial he deserved. - Actor
- Additional Crew
Lionel Atwill was born into a wealthy family and was educated at London's prestigious Mercer School to become an architect, but his interest turned to the stage. He worked his way progressively into the craft and debuted at age 20 at the Garrick Theatre in London. He acted and improved regularly thereafter, especially in the plays of Henrik Ibsen and George Bernard Shaw. Atwill came to the US in 1915 and would appear in some 25 plays on Broadway between 1917 and 1931, but he was already trying his hand in silent films by 1918. He had a sonorous voice and dictatorial British accent that served him well for the stage and just as well for sound movies. He did some Vitaphone short subjects in 1928 and then his first real film role in The Silent Witness (1932) (also titled "The Verdict").
That voice and his bullish demeanor made Atwill a natural for a spectrum of tough-customer roles. As shady noblemen and mad doctors, but also gruff military men and police inspectors (usually with a signature mustache), he worked steadily through the 1930s. He had the chance to show a broader character as the tyrannical but unforgettable Col. Bishop in Captain Blood (1935). It's hard to forget his Inspector Krogh in Son of Frankenstein (1939), wherein he agrees to a game of darts with Basil Rathbone and proceeds to impale the darts through the right sleeve of his uniform (the character sported a wooden right arm). And he sends himself up with rolling and blustering dialogue as the glory-hog ham stage actor Rawitch in the classic To Be or Not to Be (1942) with Jack Benny. However, Atwill effectively ruined his burgeoning film career in 1943 after he was implicated in what was described as an "orgy" at his home, naked guests and pornographic films included--and a rape perpetrated during the proceedings. Atwill "lied like a gentleman," it was said, in the court proceedings to protect the identities of his guests and was convicted of perjury and sentenced to five years' probation.
He was thereafter kept employed on Poverty Row with only brief periods of employment by Universal Pictures, while the rest of Hollywood turned its collective back on him. He is more remembered for the horror films generally than for better efforts, but they have fueled his continued popularity and a bid by the Southern California Lionel Atwill Fan Club to petition for a Hollywood Blvd. star (he never received one).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Mae Busch can certainly claim career versatility, having successfully played Erich von Stroheim's mistress, Lon Chaney's girlfriend, Charley Chase's sister, James Finlayson's ex-wife and Oliver Hardy's wife! She was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1891; her parents were in the theater and when she was six years old the family moved to the US, arriving in San Francisco in 1897 before moving to New York. It is claimed Mae was placed in St. Elizabeth's Convent in New Jersey until at least the age of 12, when she joined her parents in vaudeville as part of the Busch Devere Trio (New York press articles confirm Mae as being part of the group in early 1908). Her big break came in March 1912 when she replaced Lillian Lorraine in the lead role in the Broadweay play "Over the River", with Eddie Foy. She continued in this role until the end of the season, when she joined one of Jesse L. Lasky's touring "girl" shows, where she stayed until signed by Mack Sennett for his Keystone Pictures in 1915. As she was performing on Broadway at the same time as "The Agitator" was filming in California, the claim that this was her first film is incorrect. Similarly, there is no evidence that she knew Mabel Normand prior to arriving in Los Angeles in 1915.
In Hollywood things didn't begin so well for Mae. In order to get work, she falsely claimed to have lived in Tahiti and to be able to swim and dive. A high dive she took while filming The Water Nymph (1912) resulted in an injury and her returning to her parents in New York. It was only then when working in the theater again that she developed into leading-lady status.
Mae returned to Hollywood, and Keystone, in 1915. However, her friendship with Mabel ended abruptly when she was "caught" with Sennett, Mabel's fiancé, and Mae was forced to leave Keystone. Over the years she had substantial roles in quite a few films, such as von Stroheim's The Devil's Passkey (1920) and Foolish Wives (1922). Although 1927 was the year of her first movie with Stan Laurel and Hardy, it wasn't until Unaccustomed As We Are (1929) that she first played Mrs. Hardy, the role that she will always be remembered for. She was Mrs. Hardy again in Their First Mistake (1932), Sons of the Desert (1933), and The Bohemian Girl (1936). She also appeared in other Laurel and Hardy pictures but not as Mrs. Hardy, such as Charlie Hall's wife in Them Thar Hills (1934), and she only flirted with Hardy in Tit for Tat (1935).
Mae's Hollywood career lasted 30 years; she worked with many of the leading directors, actors and actresses of the time. After a long illness she died in 1946, aged 54. She was cremated and her ashes remained in a cardboard box at the Motion Picture Country Home Hospital for over 20 years until a proper interment and plaque was provided.- Actor
- Additional Crew
Barney Oldfield was born on 29 January 1878 in Wauseon, Ohio, USA. He was an actor, known for Blonde Comet (1941), The Speed Demon (1925) and The First Auto (1927). He was married to Bessie Gooby and Mrs. Hulda Rae Braden. He died on 4 October 1946 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Charles Butterworth was, before he came to Hollywood in 1930, a stage attraction on Broadway. In the '30s, he had his big successes as the hero's no-nonsense best friend. He made a practice of ad-libbing dry quips and bons mots during shooting, and screenwriters took advantage of this by writing only fragments of his scripts, hoping that he would fill in the missing lines. He didn't like that very much, however, and his star began sinking in the late '30s. In the '40s, he worked for smaller studios; Warner's A production, This Is the Army (1943), was a notable exception. Two years after his last movie, Dixie Jamboree (1944) for PRC, he died in a car crash.- Pete the Dog was born as Pal. He was known for Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde (1925), Bear Shooters (1930), The First Seven Years (1930), and Dog Heaven(1930). He of course is best known for playing Spanky's dog in The Little Rascalls. He died on January 28, 1946 in Los Angeles, Californians, USA.
- Writer
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Writer, born in Bromley, Kent. He was apprenticed to a draper, tried teaching, studied biology in London, then made his mark in journalism and literature. He played a vital part in disseminating the progressive ideas which characterized the first part of the 20th-c. He achieved fame with scientific fantasies such as The Time Machine (1895) and War of the Worlds (1898), and wrote a range of comic social novels which proved highly popular, notably Kipps (1905) and The History of Mr Polly (1910). Both kinds of novel made successful (sometimes classic) early films. A member of the Fabian Society, he was often engaged in public controversy, and wrote several socio-political works dealing with the role of science and the need for world peace, such as The Outline of History (1920) and The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind- Actress
- Writer
Dorothy Winnifred Brown was born at the home of her parents, Pauline Caroline Boesen Brown and John Brown on May 17, 1889 at 320 Willow Avenue in Hoboken, New Jersey. John Brown died while she was an infant and Leonard Gibson became her stepfather four years later. She had two siblings but both died in infancy. Later, Pauline and Dorothy moved to Manhattan.
In 1909 Dorothy met George Battier Jr. They were soon married, but the marriage was short-lived. Soon, she became an actress for Eclair Studios, making one-reelers. In 1912, she finished The Easter Bonnet (1912) and traveled to Europe. By April she was ready to return. On April 10, 1912, she and her mother boarded the Titanic in Southampton, England. They occupied a cabin on E-Deck. When the Titanic struck an iceberg at 11:40 p.m. on the 14th, she described it as "a long sickening crunch". She and her mother boarded the first lifeboat to leave with friends William Sloper and Fredrick Seward. She later appeared in the film, Saved from the Titanic (1912), a one-reel quickie. It was to be her last. She soon quit the business and married Jules Brulatour. This marriage was also short, lasting only two years.
In 1928 Dorothy left with her mother for Europe, never to see the States again. She lived in Italy and France. During World War II she was suspected of spying for the Nazis, but this is unsubstantiated. She died in Paris on February 17, 1946, found by a hotel maid.- Actor
- Soundtrack
One Hollywood stalwart whose screen incarnations more than lived up to his name was bald-domed character actor Donald Meek, forever typecast as mousy, timorous or browbeaten Casper Milquetoasts. He stood at 5 ft. 6 in. in his boots and weighed a mere 81 pounds. However, the little Glaswegian's personal history rather belied his gormless image on the silver screen. By the age of fourteen, Donald had joined an acrobatic team ("The Marvells") on the piano wire as a top mounter. He accompanied the troupe on their tour of the U.S. but sustained several compound fractures in a fall and had to quit. After spending six months on crutches, he joined the U.S. 6th Pennsylvania Regiment and saw action during the Spanish-American War in Cuba, was wounded and lost his hair after a bout of yellow fever. This did not deter him from re-enlisting at the onset of World War I. He went on to serve with the Canadian Highlanders as a corporal, but, to his consternation, never got any further than Toronto.
Donald had been infatuated with acting since early childhood. At the age of eight, he first performed publicly in the comic pantomime "Le Voyage en Suisse". Later, he toured Australia, South Africa, India and England in "Little Lord Fauntleroy". During his wartime sojourn in Cuba he had learned to "listen to those Yankees" and imitated their manner of speech, losing his Scottish accent in the process. When he was forced to abandon his career as an acrobat, he devoted more time to acting with various traveling stock companies and in New York. He made the first (of many) appearances on Broadway in 1903. Until the late 1920s, Donald remained quite gainfully employed in droll comical roles. Having flirted with screen acting since 1923, he made the move to the celluloid media by the end of the decade. Filmed at the Warner Brothers Eastern Vitaphone Studio in Brooklyn, he found himself an unlikely star, as amateur sleuth Dr. Amos Crabtree in The Clyde Mystery (1931), the first of eleven detective two-reelers, averaging just over twenty minutes in length. In 1933, Donald and wife Belle relocated to Hollywood.
Moving from studio to studio (his only long-tern tenure was at MGM from 1940 to 1944), Donald Meek quickly emerged as one of the most prolific, sought-after character players in the business. Invariably, he was respectability personified, all prim and proper. The role of eccentric toy maker Mr. Poppins in You Can't Take It with You (1938) was specially written for him. Other memorable performances included the nervy little whiskey salesman Samuel Peacock, losing his samples to Thomas Mitchell in Stagecoach (1939) ("the cutest coach rider in the wagon", according to a New York Times review); shady gambler Amos Budge in My Little Chickadee (1940); Mr. Wiggs thinking himself to sleep in Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1934); the eccentric little bee-keeper Bartholomew, helping the crime fighting exploits of Nick Carter, Master Detective (1939); and the intoxicated food taster and mince-meat enthusiast Hippenstahl of State Fair (1945). On odd occasions, Donald managed to step out of character, notably as the courageous Scottish prospector McTavish standing up to the villains of Barbary Coast (1935); scene-stealing, as miserly financier Daniel Drew in The Toast of New York (1937); as a rather loony citizen determined to collect a reward by unmasking Edward G. Robinson in The Whole Town's Talking (1935); or as tough railroad executive McCoy in Jesse James (1939) and The Return of Frank James (1940).
Donald Meek crammed more than 120 screen roles into a mere one and a half decades. His performances were consistently a joy to watch. He was never able to realise his ambition of retiring to raise hybrid roses, dying in November 1946 at the age of 68. Fourteen years later, he was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Respected character actor of the silent and early sound period, specializing in cruel villains. The son of Kansas City policeman Noah Webster Beery and Frances Margaret Fitzgerald Beery, Noah Nicholas Beery and his younger brother Wallace Beery both left home in their teens, each seeking a career as a performer. Noah made his stage debut at the age of 16 and worked steadily in the theatre until his early 30s. Following his brother into films, he quickly established himself as a competent player and a familiar heavy in all sorts of films, particularly westerns. He never achieved the great fame of his younger brother, but succeeded in carving a memorable niche for himself in the history of film. His son Noah Beery Jr. became equally familiar as a character actor, though usually in more genial roles.- Renée Jeanne or Maria Falconetti, born in Pantin (not in Sermano, Corsica, as many film dictionaries wrongly attest) on July 21, 1892 and died in Buenos Aires on December 12, 1946, is a French actress of theater and cinema. Joining the troupe of the Odeon theater in 1916, she made her debut in "l'Arlésienne", and played the heroines of Saint-Georges de Bouhélier "The Life of a Woman", 1919. She made a short passage at the Comédie Française (1924-1925), where she plays Rosine among others in "La Dame aux camélias" and "Lorenzaccio". His last role before a long stay in South America will be that of Andromache in "The Trojan War will not happen", Jean Giraudoux. She remains world famous for having embodied in the cinema the main role of "The Passion of Joan of Arc" by Carl Theodor Dreyer.
- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
One of the oldest actors on the screen in the 1920s and 1930s, George Arliss starred on the London stage from an early age. He came to the United States and starred in several films, but it was his role as British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli in Disraeli (1929) that brought him his greatest success.- Primula Rollo was born on 18 February 1918 in London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Her Man Gilbey (1944). She was married to David Niven. She died on 21 May 1946 in Beverly Hills, California, USA.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1892, rustic-looking George "Slim" Summerville possessed one of those malleable mugs that made you laugh even before he opened his mouth. Young Slim ran away from home as a youth and lived a rather wanderlust life until a chance meeting with Mack Sennett through his comedian friend Edgar Kennedy changed everything.
Slim broke into silent films at age nineteen as one of Sennett's pie-hurling Keystone Kops and became part of the stock company of players. Making an unbilled appearance in Keystone's first feature film Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914), Summerville's gangly build and naive innocence, not to mention his potato-like nose, mournful mug, and slim, curling upper lip, helped set him apart -- so much so that Summerville eventually branched out into his own short vehicles.
Much more comfortable in rumpled clothes and overalls than a suit and tie, he later learned the ropes of directing and in the 1920s helmed a string of short films for both Fox and Universal studios. He refocused on acting come the advent of sound and made a rather easy transition, standing out in a number of commercial films, both comedic and dramatic, including the mammoth war epic All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), the landmark musical film King of Jazz (1930), Hecht-MacArthur's classic The Front Page (1931), the Shirley Temple vehicles Captain January (1936) and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938), and John Ford's Tobacco Road (1941). In addition, Slim scored in a series of short comedies opposite Zasu Pitts, and a slew of supports in Hoot Gibson westerns.
Usually playing much older than he was, the sleepy-eyed, slow-drawling Summerville played his last role in The Hoodlum Saint (1946), before dying of a stroke on January 5, 1946, at the not-so-old age of 53. He left a strong enough legacy, however, to be remembered as one of the screen's more reliable comedians. He was survived by his wife Eleanor and son Elliot.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
A storybook hero, the original screen cowboy, ever forthright and honest, even when (as was often the case) he played a villain, William S. Hart lived for a while in the Dakota Territory, then worked as a postal clerk in New York City. In 1888 he began to study acting. In 1899 he created the role of Messala in "Ben-Hur", and received excellent reviews for his lead part in "The Virginian" (1907). His first film was a two-reeler, His Hour of Manhood (1914). In 1915 he signed a contract with Thomas H. Ince and joined Ince's Triangle Film Company. Two years later he followed Ince to Famous Players-Lasky and received a very lucrative contract from Adolph Zukor. His career began to dwindle in the early 1920s due to the publicity surrounding a paternity suit against him, which was eventually dismissed. He made his last film, Tumbleweeds (1925), for United Artists and retired to a ranch in Newhall, CA. By that time audiences were more interested in the antics of a Tom Mix or Hoot Gibson than the Victorian moralizing of Hart. He is buried in Greenwood Cemetery, NY.- Fern Emmett was born on 22 March 1896 in Oakland, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Ten Nights in a Bar-Room (1931), Cinderella Swings It (1943) and Scattergood Baines (1941). She was married to Henry Roquemore. She died on 3 September 1946 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Brecher was a 1900 graduate of the University of Heidelberg in Germany and then toured Austria and Germany acting on the stage. He also served as the chief director of the Stadts Theatre in Vienna before going to the U.S. in 1921. He became a naturalized American citizen on 9 May, 1927, along with his wife Essie and 8-year-old daughter Suse. In 1929, Brecher moved to Hollywood and appeared in foreign language versions of American films. He played in a number of horror films and espionage films during the 30s and 40s. Probably best remembered for his role in So Dark the Night (1946), Brecher died of a heart attack that same year.
- Alfred Stieglitz is undoubtedly one of the most significant contributors to the history of photography. He contributed not only scientific and artistic photographic studies, but also introduced modern art to America and furthered the theory of photography as art. Stieglitz was born in Hoboken, New Jersey on January 1, 1864.
The renowned photographer Stieglitz first studied photochemistry with Hermann Wilhelm Vogel at the Technische Hochschule in Berlin, from 1882-1886, and took his first photographs in 1883. He continued to travel and photograph in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland until 1890, when he returned to New York City. From 1890 to 1895 he was a partner in a photogravure firm. During this time he concentrated on photographing the streets of New York City. In 1894, Stieglitz travelled to Europe and was elected a member of the Linked Ring, a pictorialist society in London. In 1902, Stieglitz founded the Photo-Secession Movement which attempted to prove that pictorialist photography was a fine art form. From 1903 to 1917, Stieglitz was publisher and director of Camera Work magazine.
The graphic section was run by Edward Steichen (1879-1973). In 1905, Stieglitz opened the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession "291" on Fifth Avenue in New York City with Steichen. Along with the other original members, Gertrude Kasebier and Clarence H. White, they formulated their mission to secede from conventional expectations and explore the creative potential of photography from both a theoretical and scientific point of view. Needing space to gather, work and exhibit, the gallery was open to and exhibited such paintings by Cezanne, Picasso, Braque and Matisse. The gallery was also a gathering place for writers, philosophers and musicians.
Georgia O'Keeffe and Stieglitz began their relationship in 1917; she eventually became his wife. Over the next twenty years together, Stieglitz made more than 300 images of O'Keeffe.
Accomplished photographic scientist, photographer, gallery owner, art dealer, collector and writer, Stieglitz was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum in 1971. Throughout his life, until his death in 1946, he fought for the art and science of photography. A great, fearless fight. And if he were alive today he would still be fighting. Photography as a respected art form is still not accepted by some today. - Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Additional Crew
Henry Bergman was born on 23 February 1868 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor and assistant director, known for Modern Times (1936), City Lights (1931) and The Gold Rush (1925). He died on 22 October 1946 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Etta McDaniel was born on 1 December 1890 in Wichita, Kansas, USA. She was an actress, known for The Great Man's Lady (1941), What a Man! (1944) and The Pittsburgh Kid (1941). She died on 13 January 1946 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Amon Göth was born on 11 December 1908 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now Austria]. He died on 13 September 1946 in Kraków, Poland.
- Actor
- Casting Department
- Composer
Ben Carter was born on 10 February 1911 in Fairfield, Iowa, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for Crash Dive (1943), The Harvey Girls (1946) and Maryland (1940). He died on 12 December 1946 in New York City, New York, USA.- Joe Keaton and wife Myra were grade-Z vaudeville performers in the early 1900s. Their son Buster joined the act when he was only a few months old. The act was a rough-and-tumble one, with Buster being thrown around on stage most of the time. As the years went by, Joe Keaton became an alcoholic, which forced Buster to quit the act by the time he was a teenager. However, after he hit it big in silent film, Buster provided Joe with small parts in several movies. Myra and Joe split up long after Buster had become an adult. She'd had it with the constant verbal and physical abuse Joe put her through. He lived alone in a Hollywood hotel for many years and was said to have stopped drinking after becoming a Christian Scientist. Buster said Joe died as a result of being run over by a passing car.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Hermann Göring was born on January 12, 1893, in Rosenheim, Bavaria, the son of a prominent judge. He entered the German Royal Military Academy at Gross Lichterfeide outside Berlin in his teens and graduated in 1911. At the beginning of World War I he saw service as an infantry lieutenant but soon transfered to the air corps. During the war he racked up 22 aerial kills, earning the coveted Blue Max and a promotion to commanding officer of Manfred von Richthofen's "Flying Circus" in 1918 after that famous ace was killed in action. In the years following World War I Göring became one of Adolf Hitler's most devoted followers. The former war hero was named head of Hitler's private army, the Brownshirts, a Nazi paramilitary organization similar to the Blackshirt fascist group in Italy commanded by Benito Mussolini, in 1922. Göring took part in the unsuccessful "Beer Hall Putsch" attempt to overthrow the Bavarian state government in 1923, was wounded and spent some time in prison. In 1933, after Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany, Göring became commissioner for aviation and in 1935 commander in chief of the newly established German Air Force (the Luftwaffe). By the opening days of World War II, Göring had built the Luftwaffe into the largest air force in the world. His planes performed superbly in the "blitzkrieg" campaigns against Poland, the Low Countries, Norway and France. In recognition of his work, Göring was promoted to Reichsmarschall (a rank above field marshal) on June 19, 1940. The tall, heavyset Göring became well known for his garish, colorful uniforms and his devotion to the war aims of the Nazi party, rivaled only by Hitler's. Göring didn't confine his efforts on behalf of the Nazi party to purely military matters, however; he also developed much of Nazi Germany's anti-Jewish legislation.
Unfortunately for Göring, his hour of military triumph was short-lived. He seriously botched the Battle of Britain in August and September of 1940 by overestimating the Luftwaffe's capability for long-range combat and underestimating the resolve of Britain's Royal Air Force, which resulted in the loss of huge numbers of his aircraft in daily air raids against England, not to mention the death or capture of thousands of his most experienced bomber crews. During the invasion of the Soviet Union in June of 1941, the Luftwaffe first held the upper hand against the undertrained and underequipped Soviet Air Force. However, it wasn't long before the tide turned, and before long the Russians were turning out thousands of fighters and bombers and inflicting serious damage on the Luftwaffe, which could ill afford such losses. Starting in 1943 Allied bombers had turned the tide of the air war against Germany, and Göring's vaunted Luftwaffe began losing increasing numbers of planes, not to mention experienced pilots, to the US and British air forces, and Allied bombing campaigns smashed many more German aircraft on the ground in addition to destroying many aircraft factories. In April 1945, with the defeat of Germany a certainty, Göring suggested to Hitler that he make peace with the Allies before they brought total destruction to Germany. Enraged, Hitler ordered his arrest. Göring managed to escape from Nazi custody but was captured on May 2, 1945, by soldiers of the U.S. 7th Army. He was eventually tried, convicted and sentenced to death for crimes against humanity during the war crimes trials at Nuremberg late in 1945. His lawyers fought for time with appeals and requests to overturn his death sentence, but they were all denied. On October 15, 1946, just two hours before the former Reichsmarshall was to face the hangman to pay for his crimes, the 53-year-old Hermann Göring committed suicide in his jail cell by taking poison that he somehow had smuggled in with him.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
This versatile artist, who had spent his 20's in New Zealand farming sheep, became novelist, playwright and film exhibitor on his return to Britain in 1918. Eventually he would observe success with The First Born (1928), which he directed and acted in and which was based on his own novel and play. He is better remembered, however, for his character portrayals of oily types, many of them upper-crust cads - such as Cardinal Richelieu in The Three Musketeers (1939). (In his Hollywood debut, he had portrayed King Louis XIII in the 1935 version of that same Dumas classic.)- Actor
- Writer
Philip Merivale was born on 2 November 1886 in Rehutia, Manickpur, India. He was an actor and writer, known for The Stranger (1946), Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941) and This Above All (1942). He was married to Gladys Cooper and Viva Birkett. He died on 12 March 1946 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Orson Welles once called beloved French character star Raimu (né Jules Auguste Cesar Muraire) "the greatest actor who ever lived." It is hard to argue the compliment of one genius to another.
The jowly, cigar-chomping comedian was born in Toulon, France on December 17, 1883 of very humble means, his father making ends meet as an upholsterer. Raimu began his stage career at age 16 as a music hall extra imitating famous French comic idols. Using the stage name of Raimut (he later dropped the "t"), he eventually gained a following in dance halls, cafe concerts, nightclubs and pubs as an entertainer but cemented his reputation on the Parisian comedy stages. Around this time, he also began to appear in minor roles in silent film shorts (1911-1917), but nothing much came from them and he left the screen.
Continuing to thrive on the live stage, Raimu's serious intentions as an actor were solidified with the 1929 stage production of the Marcel Pagnol play "Marius," which told story of a wanderlust sailor, his wife Fanny and father César. Raimu transferred the role of César brilliantly to the film trilogy Marius (1931), Fanny (1932) and César (1936) all co-starring Pierre Fresnay as Marius and Orane Demazis as Fanny. He went on to work with Pagnol quite frequently.
Closely identifying himself with the iron-willed working class, Raimu swayed quite effectively from humor to great pathos in characters that reminded one in looks and flavor of a grubby, weary-looking Honoré de Balzac. Immortalized in Pagnol's trilogy, arguably celebrated as the greatest series ever put together, Raimu continued to charm in primarily 1930's social comedies. His star role with leads in Le blanc et le noir (1931), La petite chocolatière (1932), Mam'zelle Nitouche (1931), Théodore et Cie (1933), the title roles in Charlemagne (1933) and Tartarin de Tarascon (1934), The King (1936), Let's Make a Dream (1936), Confessions of a Newlywed (1937), Heroes of the Marne (1938), Monsieur Brotonneau (1939) and Noix de coco (1939). For his superb work in both Julien Duvivier's Life Dances On (1937) and Pagnol's The Baker's Wife (1938), he won the National Board of Review award.
Along the way Raimu worked with a host of legendary directors including Marc Allégret, Henri Decoin, Alexander Esway and Sacha Guitry. His film popularity continued to soar into the war years with roles in Pagnol's The Well-Digger's Daughter (1940), as well as The Man Who Seeks the Truth (1940), Strangers in the House (1942), Midnight in Paris (1942), Little Nothings (1941), The Heart of a Nation (1943) and the title role in Balzac's Le colonel Chabert (1943). He also returned to the theatre in such productions as "The Bourgeois Gentleman" and "The Imaginary Invalid."
Raimu returned to filming following the war with Hoboes in Paradise (1946) co-starring Fernandel. In March of 1946, while shooting his next post-war film The Eternal Husband (1946), he was involved in a car accident that would require some surgery. The 62-year-old actor died of a heart attack on September 20th following an allergic reaction to anesthesia while on the table for a minor leg operation. The outpouring of grief felt by his native country was monumental.
Survived by wife (from 1936) Esther Metayer (1905-1977) and daughter, Paulette Brun (1925-1992). Raimu was laid to rest in a cemetery in the town where he was born. In 1961, the French government placed his image on an honorary postage stamp.- One of the industry's most versatile character actors, in his almost 30-year career Harry Semels appeared in hundreds of films. Adept at playing everything from Spanish waiters to German soldiers to Italian villagers--and even a haughty District Attorney from time to time--his stocky build and droopy mustache were a familiar sight to moviegoers, especially in the '30s and '40s, his peak years. He often worked for Columbia Pictures, and in that capacity appeared as a foil for The Three Stooges on many occasions, most notably in Disorder in the Court (1936), where he was a District Attorney on the receiving end of the trio's antics during a murder trial.
- Writer
- Actor
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Born out of wedlock in Manhattan, Kansas, but grew up in Denver. A close friend of fellow New York sportswriter--and former western gunfighter--William Barclay 'Bat' Masterson, who knew the Runyan family in Denver. In the late teens and early 1920s both Ed Sullivan and Walter Winchell worked as Runyon's leg men. Buried in New York's Woodlawn Cemetery.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Heinrich George was born on 9 October 1893 in Stettin, Pomerania, Germany [now Szczecin, Zachodniopomorskie, Poland]. He was an actor and producer, known for Metropolis (1927), Burning Hearts (1945) and Die Degenhardts (1944). He was married to Berta Drews. He died on 25 September 1946 in Soviet Special Camp No. 7, Oranienburg, Brandenburg, Germany.- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Roy William Neill was born on 4 September 1887 in ship off Ireland. He was a director and producer, known for Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), The Scarlet Claw (1944) and Murder Will Out (1939). He was married to Betty MacLaglen. He died on 14 December 1946 in London, England, UK.- Actor
- Stunts
Born Sigsbee Maine Geary in Salt Lake City, Utah, on February 15, 1898, ace stuntman Bud Geary began appearing in films in 1920, and it wasn't long before the strapping (6'1"), athletic young man was strutting his stuff with such action players as Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood (1922) (in which Geary played Will Scarlett) and Buck Jones in The Arizona Romeo (1925). The coming of sound put the brakes on Geary's burgeoning acting career and he wound up playing a succession of henchmen, gangsters, cops and other bit parts until he hit his stride in a string of serials at Republic Pictures in 1939, and stayed there until 1946, as both an actor and stuntman. He doubled most of the studio's top western and action stars, in addition to freelancing at other studios. He gained a reputation as one of the industry's most fearless and inventive stunt men.
Bud Geary was killed in an automobile accident outside San Fernando, California, on Feb. 22, 1946, when his car left the road at a high rate of speed and rolled over.- Jack Johnson, one of the greatest professional boxers in history and the first African American to wear the world's heavyweight championship belt, is one of the seminal figures in sports and American social history as he was both a mirror on and lightning rod for racism. Many white Americans could not accept the fact that an African American occupied the cat bird's seat in the world sports hierarchy as the world's heavyweight championship then, as it was throughout most of the 20th Century, was the ultimate athletic accomplishment. In his prime, Johnson was as tough and indomitable in the ring as the young Mike Tyson (the last great true undisputed champ before the title fragmented into a kaleidescope of competing titles) and as controversial as Muhammad Ali, the Black Muslim convert who won the title under his birth name Cassius Clay and was stripped of his title after refusing to be inducted into the U.S. military. It took a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to keep Ali out of jail while many states enacted laws to prevent the recognition of mixed-race marriages due to Jack Johnson, who married three white women, violating one of the ultimate taboos in America.
Born on March 31, 1878 in Galveston, Texas, Jack was the son of former slaves. He dropped out of school after only five or six years to take a job as a stevedore. Johnson supposedly learned to box from the white boxer Joe Choynski after the two were incarcerated after a fight; at the time, prize fighting was illegal in Texas. Choyinski had fought some of the top heavyweights of his era, including future champs "Gentleman Jim (1942)" Corbett and James J. Jeffries. Jeffries would later come out of retirement to try to retake the heavyweight title from Johnson in a July 4th, 1910 title match that was dubbed "The Fight of the Century".
Eighteen months earlier, on Boxing Day 1908, Johnson had wrested the heavyweight title from Tommy Burns when he was awarded a TKO in the 14th round. The victory came five years after Johnson had won the World Colored Heavyweight Championship. Jeffries had refused to meet Johnson in a title match at the time, keeping the color bar in tact even though it already had been broken at a lower weight class. Joe Gans had become the first African American to win a title belt when he became lightweight champion in 1902, but Johnson becoming the heavyweight champ was different. Racist white Americans were outraged and the hunt for "The Great White Hope" was on.
Uninterested in assuming "The Great white Hope" mantle, Jeffries was not an avowed racist and really did not want to fight any more. However, the undefeated former champion was goaded into coming out of retirement to face Johnson by such people as the writer Jack London. Sources say he was offered an unprecedented $120,000 (approximately $2.8 million in 2012 dollars) to fight Johnson. The former champ was out-of-shape and had to burn off 100 lbs. to get down to fighting trim. In their match up on the Fourth of July in Reno, Nevada, Johnson knocked him to the canvas twice, something that had never before happened in his illustrious his career. Jeffries' corner threw in the towel at the start of the 15th round to prevent the former champ from the humiliation of being knocked out.
Johnson won a $65,000 purse (approximately $1.5 million in 2012 dollars) in his title defense. News of his victory touched off celebrations among black folk across the country and sparked race riots in 50 cities in 25 states. ("Race riot" at the time meant a white-on-black conflict, "riots" that were initiated by lynching-minded whites.) Twenty-three African Americans and two whites perished in the riots, and hundreds more injured.
A movie made of the match, "Jeffries-Johnson World's Championship Boxing Contest, Held at Reno, Nevada, July 4, 1910 (1910)", received wide distribution, but many local politicians stepped in to ban the movie from being shown in their bailiwicks, lest there be more violence. Even former President Theodore Roosevelt, a sports enthusiast, came out against the distribution of the movie in particular and boxing movies in general. (T.R. was friendly to the aspirations of colored people; at the time, the Republican Party -- the Party of Abraham Lincoln -- was the political home of African Americans.)
The political action taken against the Fight of the Century movie was a harbinger of things to come. For Jack Johnson was an unapologetic and boastful black man who did not hide the fact that he was a lover of white women. He violated what was, in most parts of the country, the ultimate taboo. Miscegenation and intermarriage was outlawed by many states (and would be until the Supreme Court struck down such laws in 1967) and many states had on their books the "one drop of blood" rule to determine a person's racial classification. Under the "one drop of blood" rule, if a person had one African American ancestor, even unto the fifth or sixth generation (or beyond), meaning they were only 1/32nd or 1/64th "black", they were classified as black and treated as third-class citizens, denied fundamental rights such as the franchise.
Jack Johnson married three white women and consorted with others. Six months after the Jeffries fight, he married Etta Terry Duryea, a Brooklyn socialite whom he physically abused and who killed herself in a fit of depression in September 1912. This was intolerable to bigots, and they moved against Johnson. They arrested him that October for violating the Mann Act, an anti-prostitution edict that forbade the interstate transportation of women for immoral purposes, for his relationship Lucille Cameron, a white woman who became his second wife in December. That a white woman would have a relationship with a black man equated in the bigot's eye with a harlot and Lucille was characterized as a prostitute. Her refusal to cooperate with the authorities led to the collapse of their case, but they tried again.
He was soon arrested after his second marriage, charged with violating the Mann Act yet again. This time, they had the right "witness", Belle Schreiber, an alleged prostitute whom he had allegedly had an affair with in 1909-10 who was cooperating with the feds. His relationship with Schreiber actually predated the passage of the Mann Act in 1910, but despite the Constitution forbidding ex post facto laws, an all-white jury convicted him in June 1913. One of the ironies of the trial was that the judge was himself to become a major figure in professional sports and a seminal figure himself in American racism. For the federal judge who oversaw Jack Johnson's trial was none other than the famed bigot Kenesaw M. Landis, a native Georgian who would, as the first Commissioner of Major League Baseball, keep African Americans out of the sport by enforcing the color bar.
Before being sentenced to a year and day in federal prison, Johnson skipped bail and fled the country with Lucille. In April 1915, in Havana, Cuba, he defended his title against the white 'giant' Jess Willard, a 33-year-old Kansas farmer who stood nearly 6'7" tall. Willard was six inches taller than Johnson, almost four years younger, and a counter-puncher of enormous power who in 1913 had killed Jack "Bull" Young with a blow to the head. Since Willard was a counter-puncher, Johnson was forced to do all the leading in the fight, and he tired in the heat of Havana after 20 rounds. Willard knocked him out in the 26th round and the reign of the first black champion was over.
There would not be another African American heavyweight champion until Joe Louis beat Jimmy Braddock (the Cinderella Man (2005) in 1937. Louis was careful to comport himself with what his handlers considered "dignity" (not being a rowdy, boastful stud like Jack Johnson, who verbally and physically abused white and black men alike and was fabled for his sexual prowess) so as not to incur the wrath of white bigots. (Though popular with whites, Louis was frequented caricatured on sports pages as an ape or monkey, common racist visual tropes employed in the mass media of his time.) And there would not be another transgressive black champ until Sonny Liston, the Mafia-owned heavyweight champ of the early '60s, who was bested in his transgressions by Muhammad Ali, the man who took his title belt away from him.
By the time Ali (then called Cassius Clay) beat Liston in 1964, Jack Johnson had been dead for 18 years. He died in a car crash in North Carolina on June 10, 1946, after allegedly leaving a restaurant in a huff after it refused to serve him for being a Negro. In the 31 years between the loss of his title and his death, Johnson had returned from his exile to the United States and served his prison sentence. He kept boxing far past his prime, into his 60s, in exhibition bouts, sanctioned fights, and unsanctioned smokers. During World War II, he used to fight exhibitions as part of the War Bond drives. (He had divorced Lucille in 1924 and married his third wife Irene Pineau in 1925. She told a reporter at his funeral, "I loved him because of his courage. He faced the world unafraid. There wasn't anybody or anything he feared.")
By Muhammad Ali's time, Jack Johnson was a symbol of black pride and black power to African Americans like Ali and Miles Davis, who put out an album in 1971, "A Tribute to Jack Johnson", inspired by his spirit. That the same year James Earl Jones was nominated for an Oscar playing a watered-down, white-washed version of Johnson in the film version of Howard Sackler's Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Great White Hope (1970), which was criticized by many, including critic Pauline Kael as trucking in white liberal clichés. Comedian Redd Foxx, who had been befriended by the elderly Jack Johnson, turned down a role in the film as its caricature of the great fighter bore little resemblance to the man he had known. Even in death, Johnson remained controversial, seemingly robbed again of his legacy by the white establishment. - Laurette Taylor was born on 1 April 1883 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Peg o' My Heart (1922), Happiness (1924) and One Night in Rome (1924). She was married to J. Hartley Manners and Charles A. Taylor. She died on 7 December 1946 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Charles Waldron was born on 23 December 1874 in Waterford, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Big Sleep (1946), Mademoiselle Fifi (1944) and Stranger on the Third Floor (1940). He was married to May King. He died on 4 March 1946 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Soundtrack
Patty S. Hill was born on 27 March 1868 in Anchorage, Kentucky, USA. Patty S. died on 25 May 1946 in New York City, New York, USA.- Producer
- Director
- Actor
Austrian-born Henry Lehrman entered the film industry in 1909 while working as a trolley conductor. Legend has it that he cornered director D.W. Griffith and claimed to be an agent for the French-based Pathe company, sent by them to work with Griffith. By the time Griffith found out that Lehrman's claims were untrue, he had already impressed Griffith with his talents as an actor and gagman; instead of firing him, Griffith made him a director, and Lehrman had earned the nickname "Pathe" Lehrman. He soon left Griffith and went to work as an actor, gagman and director for Mack Sennett at Keystone, appearing in (and directing) many entries in the Keystone Kops series. Lehrman struck out on his own and formed L-KO (Lehrman Knock-Out) Pictures, which made two-reel comedies for release by Universal. By 1917 Lehrman was working for Fox, directing the studio's Sunshine comedies. Although he was a major talent in his day, the thing he will probably be remembered for most is his involvement in the Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle scandal of the early 1920s. Lehrman was the boyfriend of actress Virginia Rappe, who died after a night of partying in a hotel room with Arbuckle.- Mary Maguire Alden was born in New York City on June 18, 1883. She appeared in her first film when she was 31 years old in the production of The Second Mrs. Roebuck (1914). From that point on, Mary was kept very busy in the studios in New York. When the film companies moved west, Mary went with them. She continued her torrid pace in filmmaking. Mary did make the switch from silent to sound movies, but she retired from work in 1935 after The Great Hotel Murder (1935). She died in Woodland Hills, California, on July 2, 1946.
- Enid was born in Monkseaton, Whitley Bay, Northumberland on the 12th June 1904 and educated as a boarder at Polam Hall School in Darlington between 1912 and 19. Success in a beauty contest while at school led her to study for the theatre. She made her theatrical debut in the chorus of 'A - Z' at the Prince of Wales theatre in London in 1922. Her film debut came in 1937 in 'Feather Your Nest'. She was also seen in 'Underneath the Arches' and 'The Wicked Lady'. She died on February 13th 1946 after falling at her home.
- Colonel General Alfred Jodl was Chief of Operations in the High Command of the Wehrmacht from 1940 until the end of the war. At the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials Jodl was charged with approving orders that violated the rules of war. He was found guilty and hanged on 16th October, 1946.
- Lillian Harmer was born on 8 September 1883 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for Alice in Wonderland (1933), Riffraff (1935) and Fugitive in the Sky (1936). She was married to Frederick A. Kaeber. She died on 15 May 1946 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Virginia Walker was born on 31 July 1908 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. She was an actress, known for Bringing Up Baby (1938) and The Caribbean Mystery (1945). She was married to William B. Hawks. She died on 23 December 1946 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Frank Fanning was born on 6 September 1885 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. He was an actor, known for The Affairs of Jimmy Valentine (1942), Dance Hall (1941) and Guilty? (1930). He died on 8 January 1946 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Paul Porcasi was born on 1 January 1879 in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. He was an actor, known for Red-Haired Alibi (1932), The Kid from Spain (1932) and Morocco (1930). He died on 8 August 1946 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Producer
- Additional Crew
- Production Manager
Until the advent of television in the late 1940's there were two distinct Hollywoods. Populated on one extreme were the major studios (many of which owned their own theater chains) with the glamor made possible with million dollar film budgets. On the other extreme, centered along Gower Street off Sunset, was Poverty Row, where innumerable independent producers of varying repute ground out three and four-day wonders costing next-to-nothing by comparison. It's films, most often westerns, featuring actors with vaguely familiar names in material written to satisfy undemanding, largely rural audiences. Lacking theater chains, these outfits sold their releases to a complex network of film exchanges which would rotate bills up to three times each week, keeping films circulating between theaters across the country for years. Any given film would drift up and down these theaters' double bills, ping ponging Saturday afternoon matinées, literally until the prints wore out. Gower Gulch saw scores of these companies come and go during it's two decade heyday. One studio, Columbia Pictures, managed to break into the ranks of the A-list studios (thanks to a wunderkind director, a crude-yet-crafty studio boss and unique relationships with MGM and Warner Brothers). Another, Republic, would briefly blur the definition of a B-studio by occasionally producing exceptional films. The rest would survive by eking out minuscule profits on a volume basis or fail miserably by rolling the dice on a few ill-conceived projects. Trem Carr spent the majority of his career in the latter of Hollywood's extremes. He's most closely associated with his close friend and partner, W. Ray Johnston. Together these two low-budget veterans successfully established Monogram Pictures, shelved it, only to resurrect it to even greater success... all within a span of less than 6 years. Ray had learned the film business from the ground up, having been the treasurer of Syndicate Pictures and a producer at Florida's Thanhouser Studio. Based on his experience, he saw the key to a company's success lay more in its distribution network than the actual films themselves. With the advent of talkies, he set about to build a tight knit distributor franchise and the first incarnation of Monogram was born in 1931. Trem had joined up with Ray just prior to the company's formation as production manager and operated through 1935 without any studio facilities of its own. Monogram entered into deals with independent producers (including Paul Malvern, M.H. Hoffman and I.E. Chadwick) to release their product under its banner while occasionally renting studio sound stages and producing their own product as well. Ray was the finance and distribution end and Trem was the hands-on production chief of Monogram Pictures from 1931-35. In late 1933, the pair were approached by serial-specializing Mascot Pictures' Nat Levine about joining forces under one banner at the recently foreclosed-upon Mack Sennett studio. Fearing the overhead, they refused. By 1935, Nat Levine's reputation had grown significantly since the release of his Tom Mix serial, The Miracle Rider (1935) and it's reported $1 million gross, an eye-popping accomplishment in Gower Gulch. Levine next approached the head of Monogram's film processing company, the wealthy, domineering Herbert J. Yates. As the owner of Consolidated Film Industries, Yates had amassed a fortune along Poverty Row by providing processing services and advancing raw film stock on credit to struggling producers, many of whom fail, leaving Yates free to sue and distribute their product at huge profit. In his years doing this, Yates had harbored a desire to become a legitimate movie mogul. While both Trem and Ray had rejected Levine's proposition previously, Yates' involvement made the deal worth serious reconsideration, since Monogram's debts to Yates would be extinguished as part of the deal. Monogram was shelved and the new company, Republic Pictures, was born. Yates made several similar offers to other small outfits that were rolled into the new studio, including Victory and Chesterfield. Under the original plan, Carr, Johnston and Levine were to rotate as production heads, unfortunately it soon became a test of wills; Yates' money bankrolled the operation and he held all the cards. Trem's management style severely clashed with the autocratic Yates and it soon became clear that the unequal partnership was unworkable. Trem was the one-time theoretical head of Republic and regarded Yates as a meddling interloper. Levine did his best to remain neutral, but ultimately sided with the money (ironically, he would be bought out by Yates in 1939 for $1 million in cash and would soon find himself broke and washed up in pictures). Their clashes with Yates escalating violently, Trem and Ray left Republic in 1937 and after a brief stint producing B-pictures for Universal Pictures they resurrected Monogram Pictures using rented offices there, managing to release a remarkable 20 low budget features that same year. With Trem as production manager and Ray as president, this "new" version of Monogram became a label for independent producers to group together largely for the convenience in distributing their product through its network of film exchanges - and the relative prestige of the Monogram name. This concept was virtually identical to United Artists, albeit on a comparatively minuscule budget (Monogram's published profits averaged less than $2,000 per release well into the 40's--- a laughable figure to most studios). For the 1938-39 season, Monogram announced its intention to release 26 features and 16 westerns. The company became known for its ability to quickly capitalize on topical news stories (Atlantic Flight (1937)), modest westerns starring Jack Randall and Tex Ritter and even managing to snag Boris Karloff for the "Mr. Wong" detective series. While none of these films could be considered classics, they were mostly above-par by prevailing Poverty Row standards and most importantly, profitable, an elusive goal for many of it's neighbors. An extremely efficient production manager, Trem continued to attract a number of equally efficient (meaning in most cases, extremely cheap) producers under the Monogram banner in the early 40s, and scooping up other studios' cast-off properties that he keenly sensed still had money left to wring out of them. Among these were former 20th Century Fox's Charlie Chan series (lifted nearly whole with it's aging star Sidney Toler, albeit with diminishing returns with each added entry) and getting tremendous mileage with Samuel Goldwyn's recently unemployed Dead End Kids (re-branded as the East Side Kids and later as the Bowery Boys for legendary skin flint producer Jan Grippo). Monogram maintained a heavy emphasis on cheaply produced westerns, through the war (tragically losing one of their biggest stars, Buck Jones, in the infamous Coconut Grove Fire in 1942). Trem and Ray made a fantastic business partnership and remained close friends. Ray was devastated when Trem died of a coronary in 1946 and the Monogram name gradually morphed into Allied Artists (a name more reflecting the concept of primarily distributing other producers' films) in the late 1940s. Despite the loftier sounding name, Allied would continue to release films with the same low-budget production values well into the 1950's. In retrospect, Monogram was neither the best poverty row studio (the title ironically befitting Republic) or the worst (inarguably, PRC), but largely thanks to Trem Carr, successful, resilient and remarkably prolific.- Actress
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- Director
Born in Boston to Evangeline Tomlinson and John Sinclair Macpherson. Jeanie Macperson was educated at Madame de Facq's school in Paris, the Kenwood Institute in Chicago and took dancing lessons from Theodore Kosloff. Her stage experience began when she got the lead in a school play and was awarded a gold medal by the Chicago Musical College. She made her professional debut in the musical show, "Havana", then had a part in William C. de Mille's "Strongheart", which was going out on the road. During her years as an actress Jeanie worked with Florence Lawrence and Mary Pickford. She later was given her own unit at Universal and wrote and directed as well as acted in two-reelers. After leaving Universal, she was signed by Cecil B. DeMille as a writer. According to the 1938-39 Motion Picture Almanac, she is also credited as having collaborated on Cleopatra (1934) (Paramount) and adapted "Lafitte the Pirate" (basis for The Buccaneer (1938) from Paramount). She went to Rome for direction and story supervision for ERA Productions, Vittorio Mussolini's company.- Actor
- Writer
Chuck Callahan was born on 2 August 1889 in Olean, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Selling Shorts (1931), Two Plus Fours (1930) and Parading Pajamas (1931). He died on 5 September 1946 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Rags Ragland was a boxer, then a burlesque comedian and then a Broadway performer before ending up in Hollywood to repeat his stage role as the boisterous sailor in Panama Hattie (1942), in which Ann Sothern played on film the part that had been played on Broadway by Ethel Merman. Ragland, typecast as a good-natured oaf with a knack for fracturing the English language, had as his sole movie employer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, in some two dozen of whose lighter vehicles he appeared, in the company of such MGM luminaries as Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Judy Garland and Gene Kelly.- Hans Frank was born in Karlsruhe, Germany, on May 23, 1900. At age 17 he joined the German army and fought in World War I. After the war he got involved in the "freikorps" movement, extreme right-wing paramilitary units that engaged in intimidation, extortion, street brawls and political murders (many of these groups were later absorbed into the SS when the Nazis came to power).
Frank joined the Nazi party and took part in the abortive "Beer Hall Putsch" of 1923, when Adolf Hitler and a small band of Nazi followers attempted, unsuccessfully, to overthrow the Bavarian government. Frank later became a lawyer and a legal advisor to both Hitler and the Nazi party. In 1930 he was elected to the German parliament (Reichstag). Upon Hitler's ascension to German Chancellor in 1933, Frank was appointed as Justice Minister in Bavaria. In 1934, when Hitler moved against Ernst Röhm and the "brownshirts" of the SA, whom he feared were planning to seize power from him, Frank apparently objected to the summary executions of many of the SA's leaders, but his objections were ignored and the executions were carried out. As a result, Frank lost much of what influence he had in the party organization.
When World War II broke out Frank was appointed Governor General of Poland, and under his administration the infamous death camps were utilized as part of the Nazis' "Final Solution" program of exterminating European Jews, which resulted in the death of millions of Jews, Gypsies and other "undesirables". Also under his administration, the SS and Gestapo were known to have committed horrific atrocities against Polish civilians whom they suspected of being involved with the Polish resistance, including mass rapes, liquidation of entire villages, massacres of women and children and wholesale deportations to concentration camps (at his trial after the war Frank denied any and all knowledge of those incidents and placed the blame on Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS).
Frank was captured by Allied forces in May of 1945 and placed on trial with other high Nazi officials at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, charged with, among other things, crimes against humanity. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. Before the sentence was carried out he converted to Roman Catholicism, and finally admitted his involvement in the carrying out of the Holocaust, among other things, and asked to be forgiven. He was hanged on October 1, 1946.