In Memoriam: Deaths in the 1950s
A list of famous people who died in the 1950s ranging from 1950 to 1959.
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James Byron Dean was born February 8, 1931 in Marion, Indiana, to Mildred Marie (Wilson) and Winton A. Dean, a farmer turned dental technician. His mother died when Dean was nine, and he was subsequently raised on a farm by his aunt and uncle in Fairmount, Indiana. After grade school, he moved to New York to pursue his dream of acting. He received rave reviews for his work as the blackmailing Arab boy in the New York production of Gide's "The Immoralist", good enough to earn him a trip to Hollywood. His early film efforts were strictly small roles: a sailor in the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis overly frantic musical comedy Sailor Beware (1952); a GI in Samuel Fuller's moody study of a platoon in the Korean War, Fixed Bayonets! (1951) and a youth in the Piper Laurie-Rock Hudson comedy Has Anybody Seen My Gal (1952).
He had major roles in only three movies. In the Elia Kazan production of John Steinbeck's East of Eden (1955) he played Cal Trask, the bad brother who could not force affection from his stiff-necked father. His true starring role, the one which fixed his image forever in American culture, was that of the brooding red-jacketed teenager Jim Stark in Nicholas Ray's Rebel Without a Cause (1955). George Stevens' filming of Edna Ferber's Giant (1956), in which he played the non-conforming cowhand Jett Rink who strikes it rich when he discovers oil, was just coming to a close when Dean, driving his Porsche Spyder race car, collided with another car while on the road near Cholame, California on September 30, 1955. He had received a speeding ticket just two hours before. At age 24, James Dean was killed almost immediately from the impact from a broken neck. His very brief career, violent death and highly publicized funeral transformed him into a cult object of apparently timeless fascination.- Actor
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Humphrey DeForest Bogart was born in New York City, New York, to Maud Humphrey, a famed magazine illustrator and suffragette, and Belmont DeForest Bogart, a moderately wealthy surgeon (who was secretly addicted to opium). Bogart was educated at Trinity School, NYC, and was sent to Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, in preparation for medical studies at Yale. He was expelled from Phillips and joined the U.S. Naval Reserve. From 1920 to 1922, he managed a stage company owned by family friend William A. Brady (the father of actress Alice Brady), performing a variety of tasks at Brady's film studio in New York. He then began regular stage performances. Alexander Woollcott described his acting in a 1922 play as inadequate. In 1930, he gained a contract with Fox, his feature film debut in a ten-minute short, Broadway's Like That (1930), co-starring Ruth Etting and Joan Blondell. Fox released him after two years. After five years of stage and minor film roles, he had his breakthrough role in The Petrified Forest (1936) from Warner Bros. He won the part over Edward G. Robinson only after the star, Leslie Howard, threatened Warner Bros. that he would quit unless Bogart was given the key role of Duke Mantee, which he had played in the Broadway production with Howard. The film was a major success and led to a long-term contract with Warner Bros. From 1936 to 1940, Bogart appeared in 28 films, usually as a gangster, twice in Westerns and even a horror film. His landmark year was 1941 (often capitalizing on parts George Raft had stupidly rejected) with roles in classics such as High Sierra (1940) and as Sam Spade in one of his most fondly remembered films, The Maltese Falcon (1941). These were followed by Casablanca (1942), The Big Sleep (1946), and Key Largo (1948). Bogart, despite his erratic education, was incredibly well-read and he favored writers and intellectuals within his small circle of friends. In 1947, he joined wife Lauren Bacall and other actors protesting the House Un-American Activities Committee witch hunts. He also formed his own production company, and the next year made The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). Bogie won the best actor Academy Award for The African Queen (1951) and was nominated for Casablanca (1942) and as Captain Queeg in The Caine Mutiny (1954), a film made when he was already seriously ill. He died in his sleep at his Hollywood home following surgeries and a battle with throat cancer.- Music Artist
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Charles Hardin Holley, known as Buddy Holly, was an American singer and songwriter who was a central and pioneering figure of mid-1950s rock and roll. He was born in Lubbock, Texas, to a musical family during the Great Depression, and learned to play guitar and sing alongside his siblings. His style was influenced by gospel music, country music, and rhythm and blues acts, which he performed in Lubbock with his friends from high school.- Music Department
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The Big Bopper (real name: Jiles Perry Richardson Jr. ) was an American singer, songwriter, and disc jockey from Texas. His best known song compositions were" Chantilly Lace" (featuring a flirtatious phone conversation) and "White Lightning" (a rockabilly hit). Richardson was killed in an airplane crash in the winter of 1959, alongside fellow musicians Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens. He was only 28-years-old. Their death date on February 3, 1959 is remembered as "The Day the Music Died".
In 1930, Richardson was born in the small town of Sabine Pass, Texas. The town is primarily remembered as the location of two different battles in the American Civil War. It was annexed by the neighboring city of Port Arthur, Texas in 1978. Richardson's parents were the oil-field worker Jiles Perry Richardson (1905-1984) and his wife Elise Stalsby (1909-1983). Richardson was the eldest of three sons born to the family.
Richardson was primarily raised in Beaumont, Texas, and attended Beaumont High School. He graduated in 1947, at the age of 17. He was reportedly an athletic young man, and served as a defensive lineman in the American football team "Royal Purple". He received his college education at Lamar College in Beaumont, Texas (later renamed to Lamar University). He was a pre-law student.
During his college years, Richardson was a part-time worker at the radio station KTRM in his hometown of Beaumont Texas. In 1949, he was hired by the station as a full-time employee. He decided to drop out of college at that time. In 1952, Richardson married his girlfriend Adrienne Joy "Teetsie" Wenner (1936-2004). The new couple soon had their first daughter, Debra Richardson (1953-2006).
By 1954, Richardson had been promoted to the rank of supervisor of announcers at KTRM. In March 1955, Richardson was drafted into the United States Army. He completed his basic training at Fort Ord, California. He was then transferred to Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, where he spend his two years of army service as a radar instructor. He was discharged from the Army in March 1957, with the rank of corporal.
Richardson was immediately rehired by KTRM, and granted his own music show. Richardson had seen college students performing a dance called "The Bop". He decided to adopt the stage name "The Big Bopper" for his new show. His show run for 3 hours in the afternoons. He was also promoted, becoming the radio station's program director.
In May 1957, Richardson set a new record for length of on-air broadcasting. He performed a single continuous broadcast for a total of five days, two hours, and eight minutes, during which he played 1,821 different records. While he had become famous as a disc jockey, he soon started working as a songwriter. He composed notable songs for George Jones and Johnny Preston.
Richardson was interested in performing his own songs. He signed a contract with the record producer Pappy Daily (1902-1987), who specialized in promoting country acts. Richardson's first single, "Beggar to a King", was met with indifference by the public. Richardson had his first great hit with "Chantilly Lace" (released in June, 1958). It reached the 6th place on the pop charts, spending 22 weeks in the national Top 40. It established Richardson's new stage persona as a "good-natured caricature of a ladies' man".
Richardson had his second hit song with the novelty song "The Big Bopper's Wedding". The song's main character is about to get married, but gets cold feet at the altar. In January 1959, Richardson was ready to promote his music act with live performances. He signed up to participate in the concert tour "Winter Dance Party", alongside Buddy Holly (and his band-mates), Ritchie Valens, and the vocal group "Dion and the Belmonts". The tour was scheduled to cover twenty-four Midwestern cities in as many days, with no off days for the music performers.
On January 23, 1959, the tour started with a live performance in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. By February 2, the touring performers reached Clear Lake, Iowa, for their 11th performance. However, the tour was poorly planned and the musicians had run into problems. The tour "erratically zigzagged back and forth across" the Midwestern United States, with the musicians spending between ten to twelve hours each day in a tour bus. They faced "freezing mid-winter temperatures" and poorly maintained rural highways. The tour buses broke down frequently, and had to be replaced 5 times in 11 days. No road crew had been hired to assist the musicians with transporting their equipment. Both Richardson and Valens were sick, experiencing flu-like symptoms.
By the time the touring musicians reached Iowa, Holly was fed-up with the traveling conditions. He chartered a plane to fly himself and his band to Fargo, North Dakota, which was closer to their next destination at Moorhead, Minnesota. The plane was a single-engined, V-tailed Beechcraft 35 Bonanza, with enough space for three seated passengers and the pilot. Richardson asked to join the flight, as he was too ill to keep traveling by bus. Valens requested the third seated place in the flight, and won it in a coin toss with another musician.
The chartered plane took off from Mason City Municipal Airport on February 3, 1959, with weather conditions including light snowing and winds estimated as reaching the speed of 20 to 30 mph (32 to 48 km/h). The flight would prove fatal for all three passengers. The Bonanza impacted terrain at high speed in a nose-down attitude. Richardson's body was found at some distance from the the wreckage of the aircraft, thrown into a cornfield. A coroner determined that the cause of Richardson's death was "gross trauma to brain".
Richardson was buried in his home state of Texas. Two months following his death, Richardson gained a posthumous son by his wife. The son, Jay Perry Richardson (1959-2013), became a musician as well. He used the stage name "The Big Bopper, Jr." The elder Richardson's remains were transferred alongside his wife's grave in 2007, at the request of their son. The couple are buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery, located in Beaumont, Texas. A stainless steel monument to Richardson, Holly, and Valens was erected at the crash site in 1988.- Actor
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Ritchie, the 'California Kid' was from a family of poverty stricken fruit pickers and was the first rock star to originate from the West Coast and one of the innovators of 'Latino rock. In an eight month career he scored three hits with 'Come On Let's Go', 'Donna' and 'La Bamba' before being killed in an air crash on February 3rd 1959 which also took the lives of Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper.. He was just 17. Associate producer Daniel Valdez spent 2 1/2 years searching for Ritchie's family then discovered them living just 15 minutes from where he lived. He then spent months learning all about Ritchie before writing a script which he gave to the family for their approval and with it filming went ahead. The part of Ritchie went to the then 25 year old unknown Lou Diamond Phillips who put on 15lbs to get a chubbier face and learned how to sing and play the guitar after he'd past the audition. During the filming Lou married his own 'Donna' Julie Cyphers who was a production assistant on 'La Bamba'.- Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Kingdom of Württemberg, to a German Jewish family. He was the son of Pauline (Koch) and Hermann Einstein, a featherbed salesman. Albert began reading and studying science at a young age, and he graduated from a Swiss high school when he was 17. He then attended a Swiss Polytechnic, where he met his first wife. He graduated in 1900, and became a Swiss citizen in 1901. He began working at the Swiss Patent Office and continued his scientific studies. He taught at universities in Prague, Zurich, and Berlin, and continued his research in physics. The onset of World War II led him to move to the United States, and he was granted a post at the Institute for Advanced Study in New Jersey. Einstein was heavily involved in attempting to bring about world peace in his later life, and he continued his scientific research until his death in 1955.
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Jerome "Curly" Howard, the rotund, bald Stooge with the high voice was the most popular member of The Three Stooges. His first stage experience was as a comedic conductor for the Orville Knapp Band in 1928. Curly joined The Three Stooges in 1932, replacing his brother Shemp Howard. He made more than 100 film appearances with the team before a massive stroke on the set of Half-Wits Holiday (1947) forced him to retire. He recuperated enough to appear in Hold That Lion! (1947) and hoped to eventually return to the team. But another series of strokes deteriorated his health until he died at the age of 48.- Actor
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Shemp Howard was born Samuel Horwitz in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was also the brother of fellow stooges Moe Howard and Curly Howard. Larry Fine was not related to any of the other stooges.
When not working with The Three Stooges, Shemp made a lot of feature film appearances, such as The Bank Dick (1940) with W.C. Fields. Shemp, Moe, Larry and Curly appeared in only one short together -- Hold That Lion! (1947). In it, Curly appears as an uncredited train car passenger. Watch for the man with the hat on his face. This was a short, non-speaking cameo, due to a stroke Curly suffered the prior year.- Animation Department
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Fred Moore was born on 7 September 1911 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Dumbo (1941) and Alice in Wonderland (1951). He died on 25 November 1952 in Burbank, California, USA.- Actor
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Bela Lugosi was born Béla Ferenc Dezsö Blaskó on October 20, 1882, Lugos, Hungary, Austria-Hungary (now Lugoj, Romania), to Paula de Vojnich and István Blaskó, a banker. He was the youngest of four children. During WWI, he volunteered and was commissioned as an infantry lieutenant, and was wounded three times.
A distinguished stage actor in his native Hungary, Austria-Hungary, he began his stage career in 1901 and started appearing in films during World War I, fleeing to Germany in 1919 as a result of his left-wing political activity (he organized an actors' union). In 1920 he emigrated to the US and made a living as a character actor, shooting to fame when he played Count Dracula in the legendary 1927 Broadway stage adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel. It ran for three years, and was subsequently, and memorably, filmed by Tod Browning in 1931, establishing Lugosi as one of the screen's greatest personifications of pure evil. Also in 1931, he became a U.S. citizen. Sadly, his reputation rapidly declined, mainly because he had been blacklisted by the main studios and had no choice but to accept any part (and script) handed to him, and ended up playing parodies of his greatest role, in low-grade poverty row films. Due to shady blacklisting among the top Hollywood studio executives, he refused to sell out or to compromise his integrity, and therefore ended his career working for the legendary Worst Director of All Time, Edward D. Wood Jr..
Lugosi was married to Ilona Szmik (1917 - 1920), Ilona von Montagh (? - ?), and Lillian Arch (1933 - 1951). He is the father of Bela Lugosi Jr. (1938). Lugosi helped organize the Screen Actors Guild in the mid-'30s, joining as member number 28.
Bela Lugosi died of a heart attack August 16, 1956. He was buried in a Dracula costume, including a cape, but not the ones used in the 1931 film, contrary to popular--but unfounded--rumors.- Actor
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Lou Costello was born Louis Francis Cristillo in Paterson, New Jersey, to Helen (Rege) and Sebastiano Cristillo. His father was from Calabria, Italy, and his mother was an American of Italian, French, and Irish ancestry. Raised in Paterson, Costello dropped out of high school and headed west to break into the movies. He got a job as a carpenter at MGM and Warners. He went from there to stuntman and then to vaudeville as a comic. In 1931, while working in Brooklyn, his straight man became ill and the theater cashier, Bud Abbott, filled in for him. The two formed their famous comedy team and, through the 1930s, they worked burlesque, minstrel shows, vaudeville and movie houses. In 1938 they got national exposure through the Kate Smith Hour radio show, and signed with Universal Pictures the next year. They debuted in One Night in the Tropics (1940). Their scene-stealing performances in that film landed them their own picture the next year, Buck Privates (1941), with The Andrews Sisters. It was a runaway hit, grossing what was then a company record $10 million on a $180,000 budget. In 1942 they topped a poll of Hollywood stars. They had their own radio show (ABC, 1941-46, NBC, 1946-49) and TV show (The Abbott and Costello Show (1952)). After the war their movies shifted formula to one in which they met various monsters or found themselves in exotic locations. The team split up in 1957, with both winding up completely out of money after troubles with the Internal Revenue Service. After that Lou appeared in a few television shows and the movie The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock (1959), released a few months after he died.- Actor
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Al Jolson was known in the industry as "The World's Greatest Entertainer," for well over 40 years. After his death his influence continued unabated with such performers as Sammy Davis Jr., Elvis Presley, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Jackie Wilson and Jerry Lee Lewis all mentioning him as an inspiration.
Al Jolson was born Asa Yoelson in Seredzius, Lithuania, to a Jewish family, the son of Naiomi Etta (Cantor) and Moise Rubin Yoelson, who emigrated alone to Washington, D.C., to establish himself. After four years he sent for his family. Nine months later his wife died (apparently during childbirth), which devastated the eight-year-old Asa. Young Al would soon find his outlet in the theater. Soon he was singing with his older brother, Harry, for senators and soldiers. He entertained the troops that were headed for the Spanish-American War.
Jolson's career in vaudeville started with his brother in New York, but never really got off the ground. Different partners allowed Jolson to experiment, but it was as a solo act in San Francisco that he finally hit it big. He was signed eventually by Lew Dockstaders' Minstrels. It is important to note that, although performing in blackface, Dockstader's was not a minstrel show in the traditional sense of the "Tambo and Bones" variety of the previous century. It was a sophisticated, topical, Broadway-style revue. The myth lingers to this day that Jolson was a minstrel. He most certainly was not.
Jolson's stay in vaudeville was relatively short, as his talent was quickly recognized by the Shubert Brothers, who signed him to appear in the opening show of their new Winter Garden Theater on Broadway in April of 1912. Thus began what many consider to be the greatest career in the history of Broadway. Not a headliner initially, Jolson soon became "King of the Winter Garden," with shows specifically written for him. "Winter Garden" and "Jolson" became synonymous for close to 20 years. During that time Jolson received reviews that have yet to be matched. Audiences shouted, pleaded and often would not allow the show to proceed, such was the power of his presence. At one performance in Boston, the usually staid and conservative Boston audience stopped the show for 45 minutes! He was said to have had an "electric' personality, along with the ability to make each member of the audience believe that he was singing only to them.
In 1927 Jolson starred in the New York-shot The Jazz Singer (1927) and the rest is film history. But just before it was theatrically released, producer, Warner' His appearance in that film, nowadays considered a somewhat creaky, stodgy and primitive museum piece, electrified audiences and caused a sensation. Jolson was bigger than ever and Hollywood came a-calling. However, Jolson on film was a pale version of Jolson on stage. His screen appearances, with some exceptions, are stiff and wooden. Though he continued into the 1930s to star on radio, he was no longer quite the star he had been.
During World War II, Jolson entertained troops in Africa and Sicily but was cut short by a bout of malaria and pneumonia. Always a favorite with audiences, he continued to entertain in the United States when he met his fourth wife, Erle Chenault Galbraith, an x-ray technician.
By the mid-'40s, though. his stardom had faded quite a bit. Columbia Pictures, inspired by the success of Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), decided that a Jolson biography might work as well. In 1946 it released The Jolson Story (1946), with song-and-dance man Larry Parks miming to Jolson's vocals. It was the surprise smash hit of the season and the highest grossing film of the year. Parks received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Jolson was now as big, or bigger, than ever. So successful was the film that Columbia made a sequel, Jolson Sings Again (1949), which remains one of a few biography sequels in film history (Funny Girl/Funny Lady - the story of fellow Winter Garden performer Fannie Brice is another rare example). It was also quite successful at the box office. So big had Jolson's star risen that in 1948, when Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Perry Como were at their peaks, Jolson was voted "The Most Popular Male Vocalist" by a Variety poll.
In 1950, against his doctor's orders, Jolson went to Korea to entertain his favorite audience, American troops. While there his health declined and shortly after his return to the U.S. he suffered a massive heart attack and died.- Actor
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Although his parents were never in show business, as a young boy Oliver Hardy was a gifted singer and, by age eight, was performing with minstrel shows. In 1910 he ran a movie theatre, which he preferred to studying law. In 1913 he became a comedy actor with the Lubin Company in Florida and began appearing in a long series of shorts; his debut film was Outwitting Dad (1914). He appeared in he 1914-15 series of "Pokes and Jabbs" shorts, and from 1916-18 he was in the "Plump and Runt" series. From 1919-21 he was a regular in the "Jimmy Aubrey" series of shorts, and from 1921-25 he worked as an actor and co-director of comedy shorts for Larry Semon.
In addition to appearing in two-reeler comedies, he found time to make westerns and even melodramas in which he played the heavy. He is most famous, however, as the partner of British comic Stan Laurel, with whom he had played a bit part in The Lucky Dog (1921). in the mid-1920s both he and Laurel wee working for comedy producer Hal Roach, although not as a team. In a moment of inspiration Roach teamed them together, and their first film as a team was 45 Minutes from Hollywood (1926). Their first release for Roach through MGM was Sugar Daddies (1927) and the first with star billing was From Soup to Nuts (1928). They became a huge hit as a comedy team, and after several years of two-reelers, Roach decided to star them in features, their first of which was Pardon Us (1931).
They clicked with audiences in features, too, and starred in such classics as Way Out West (1937), March of the Wooden Soldiers (1934) and Block-Heads (1938). They eventually parted ways with Roach and in the mid-1940s signed on with Twentieth Century-Fox.
Unfortunately, Fox did not let them have the autonomy they had at Roach, where Laurel basically wrote and directed their films, though others were credited, and their films became more assembly-line and formulaic. Their popularity waned and less popular during the war years, and they made their last film for Fox in 1946.
Several years later they made their final appearance as a team in a French film, a troubled and haphazard production eventually, after several name changes, called Utopia (1950), generally regarded to be their worst film. Hardy appeared without Laurel in a few features, such as Zenobia (1939) with Harry Langdon, The Fighting Kentuckian (1949) in a semi-comedic role as a frontiersman alongside John Wayne and Riding High (1950), in a cameo role. He died in 1957.- Actor
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Errol Flynn was born to parents Theodore Flynn, a respected biologist, and Marrelle Young, an adventurous young woman. Young Flynn was a rambunctious child who could be counted on to find trouble. Errol managed to have himself thrown out of every school in which he was enrolled. In his late teens he set out to find gold, but instead found a series of short lived odd jobs. Information is sketchy, however the positions of police constable, sanitation engineer, treasure hunter, sheep castrator, ship-master for hire, fisherman, and soldier seem to be among his more reputable career choices. Staying one jump ahead of the law and jealous husbands forced Flynn to England. He took up acting, a pastime he had previously stumbled into when asked to play (ironically) Fletcher Christian in a film called In the Wake of the Bounty (1933). Flynn's natural athletic talent and good looks attracted the attention of Warner Brothers and soon he was off to America. His luck held when he replaced Robert Donat in the title role of Captain Blood (1935). He quickly rocketed to stardom as the undisputed king of adventure films, a title inherited from Douglas Fairbanks, though which remains his to this day. Onscreen, he was the freedom loving rebel, a man of action who fought against injustice and won the hearts of damsels in the process. His off-screen passions; drinking, fighting, boating and sex, made his film escapades seem pale. His love life brought him considerable fame, three statutory rape trials, and a lasting memorial in the expression "In like Flynn". Serious roles eluded him, and as his lifestyle eroded his youthful good looks, his career declined. Troubles with lawsuits and the IRS plagued him at this time, eroding what little money he had saved. A few good roles did come his way late in life, however, these were usually that of aging alcoholic, almost mirror images of Flynn. Regardless of any perceived similarity; he was making a name as a serious actor before his death.- Music Artist
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Hank Williams was born in September 1923 in a small Alabama farming community about 70 miles south of Montgomery. His father was a railroad engineer who was also a victim of shell shock after a year of fighting in France in 1918 during World War I and spent many years in veterans hospitals. Hank's mother, Lillian Skipper Williams, played the organ in their local church and taught him gospel songs when he was six. When Hank turned 10 he taught himself to play the guitar, mostly by watching other guitarists.
In his teens Hank learned to play and sing country songs that he heard on the family radio, and picked up some blues chords from a black friend who was a street musician named Tee-Tot (Rufe Payne). At the age of 14 Hank put together his own band, playing at hoedowns and other get-together, where he won a local talent contest competition with his composition "WPA Blues." At 17, Hank put together a group called 'Hank Williams' Original Drifting Cowboys' and they successfully auditioned for the manager of WSFS Radio in Montgomery, where they played regularly on the air. Hank met his first wife Audrey Williams during a traveling medicine show and they were married in December 1944 at an Alabama gas station. Audrey was a strong-willed woman who became Hank's booking agent, road manager and promoter. It was she who encouraged the stage-frightened Hank to perform on stage and helped book gigs outside of Alabama.
In 1946 Hank and Audrey traveled to Nashville to secure a music publishing contract with producer Fred Rose, head of the Acuff-Rose publishing firm, who asked Hank to write a song on the spot. The song, "Mansion on the Hill", landed Hank a publishing contract with Acuff-Rose. During the late 1940s Hank--a tall, thin man who alway wore a short-brimmed, white cowboy hat--had his peak years when MGM Records signed him for a recording contract and he became a regular on "Louisiana Hayride", a KWKH radio show in Shreveport, Louisiana. In 1949, after the birth of Hank and Audrey's son Hank Williams Jr., Hank was asked to join the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, where he made his stage debut on June 11, 1949.
From 1949 to 1950, Hank became country music's top artist, with hits like "Lovesick Blues," "My Bucket's Got a Hole in It," "Moanin' the Blues" and "Why Don't You Love Me." His 1951 hits included "Hey, Good Lookin'" "Cold, Cold Heart" and "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You)." Hits of 1952 were "Honky Tonk Blues," "Jambalaya," and "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive."
However, Hank's unprecedented success came with a price. A heavy drinker since his late teens, Hank proved to be an undependable performer when be began showing up for concerts drunk, and sometimes didn't show up at all. When Audrey divorced him in 1951 due to their constant fights over his drinking, his band began to become disillusioned with him, too, and the Grand Ole Opry suspended him from appearing at live shows. In October 1952 Hank married his second wife, 19-year-old Billie Jean Jones, who was no more successful than Audrey in protecting Hank from himself. Also, the Drifting Cowboys departed that same month due to Hank's violent mood swings and unpredictability. He was still in demand for live performances, though.
On the early morning hours on New Year's Day 1953, while traveling through West Virginia on the way to a show in Canton, Ohio, Hank Williams died in his sleep in the back seat of his Cadillac limousine at the age of 29.- Actor
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Frank Graham was born on 22 November 1914 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Cosmo Jones in the Crime Smasher (1943), The Three Caballeros (1944) and Horton Hatches the Egg (1942). He died on 2 September 1950 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Soundtrack
Harry McClintock was born on 8 October 1882 in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. He was married to Bessie. He died on 24 April 1957 in San Francisco, California, USA.- Actor
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Arthur Quirk Bryan was an American actor from Brooklyn, New York City. He is primarily remembered as a voice actor for radio and animation. His best known roles were the wisecracking physician and surgeon Dr. George Gamble in "Fibber McGee and Molly" (1935-1959), and the inept hunter Elmer Fudd in "Looney Tunes". Bryan voiced Fudd from 1940 to 1959, the heyday of the character in theatrical animation. When playing Fudd, Bryan nearly always vocalized consonants [r] and [l], pronouncing them as [w] instead. This became one of the character's main traits. Following Bryan's death in 1959, Hal Smith voiced Fudd in two animated shorts. In 1962, the production crew decided to cease using Fudd as a character. The character would later be revived, with most subsequent voice actors imitating Bryan's performance in the role.
In 1899, Bryan was born in Brooklyn. In his early years, he sang in a number of churches in the New York City area. He had aspirations to become a professional singer. In 1918, the teen-aged Bryan was hired as an as insurance clerk for the Mutual Life Insurance Company. In 1926, Bryan was hired as a singer by the New York City-based radio station WINS.
In 1928, Bryan was hired as a tenor soloist by the radio station WFAN, which was also located in New York City. From 1929 to 1931, Bryan worked as an announcer for the New Jersey-based radio station WOR. In the autumn of 1931, Bryan moved to Philadelphia to work as an announcer for the radio station WCAU. In 1933, he started working for the radio station WTEL, which was also based in Philadelphia. In 1934, Bryan moved back to New York City. He was hired by the radio station WHN.
In 1936, Bryan moved to Los Angeles. He was initially hired as a screenwriter for Paramount Pictures. He soon transitioned into acting roles, frequently portraying supporting characters in B Movies. He portrayed newspaper editor Joe McGinty in the horror film "The Devil Bat" (1940). His later roles included an unnamed Philistine merchant in the Biblical drama "Samson and Delilah" (1949), two appearances in the film series "Road to ...", and a single appearance in an "Ozzie and Harriet" feature film.
From 1938 to 1940, Bryan was a regular cast member in the radio talk show "The Grouch Club". The show featured radio stars who voiced their frustrations with the recurring problems of everyday life. Vitaphone produced a short film series based on the show, with Bryan depicting unfortunate souls who struggled with taxation, with the vote registry, and with the lack of available parking places.
In 1940, Bryan was asked to voice Elmer Fudd for the animated short film "Elmer's Candid Camera". The film introduced an entirely new design for the character, following a few years of appearances by prototype versions of Fudd. Previous versions of the character had been voiced by Mel Blanc, Danny Webb, and Roy Rogers. But it Bryan's voice for the character who made Fudd a hit with the audience of the time. Bryan would continue to portray Fudd for 19 years. Fudd would serve as the main antagonist for another hit character of the "Looney Tunes" film series, Bugs Bunny.
Bryan was increasingly famous as a voice actor in the early 1940s. He was hired to portray semi-regular character Lucius Llewellyn in the radio sitcom "The Great Gildersleeve" (1941-1958), using the same voice as Elmer Fudd. In 1942, Bryan used his natural voice to portray the barber Floyd Munson in the same series. In 1943, writers Don Quinn and Phil Leslie decided to create a role for Bryan in their radio series "Fibber McGee and Molly", based on what they liked about Bryan's previous performances. His new role was Dr. George Gamble, who would exchange creative insults with the main character Fibber McGee (voiced by Jim Jordan).
Bryan was also hired to portray protagonist Major Hoople in a radio adaptation of the comic strip "Our Boarding House" (1921-1984). Hoople was portrayed as a "retired military man of dubious achievement", who would boast of the adventures of his youth. He has been described as a modernized version of Falstaff. The radio adaptation was not particularly successful, only lasting from June 1942 to April 1943. No recordings of this series have survived.
From 1948 to 1949, Bryan was a regular panelist on the television quiz show "Quizzing the News". The panelists had to identify events in the news based on spoken clues and drawings. During the 1950s, Bryan regularly appeared on television, though mostly in one shot roles. He portrayed history teacher Professor Warren in the short-lived sitcom "The Halls of Ivy" (1954-1955), his only recurring role in this medium.
In November 1959, Bryan died of a sudden heart attack. He was 60 years old at the time of his death. He was buried in Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery, located in North Hollywood. His final appearance as Fudd was the posthumously released short "Person to Bunny" (April 1960), a parody of the interview show "Person to Person" (1953-1961). Bryan was initially replaced by Hal Smith as Fudd's voice actor, but the production crew decided to cease using Fudd as a character in 1962. Decades following his death, Bryan is still remembered as one of the most prominent voice actors of his era.- Actor
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Ned Sparks proved himself a top character support whose style would be imitated for decades to come. Although less remembered now, he was an inimitable cinematic player back in 1930s Hollywood. The nasal-toned, deadpan comedian Sparks was born Edward A. Sparkman in Guelph, Canada, and was raised for a time in St. Thomas, Ontario. He attended the University of Toronto and, after a period of soul-searching, decided upon acting. He began, believe it or not, as a honky-tonk balladeer in Dawson Creek, Alaska. In 1907, he went to New York and developed his stone-faced reputation in comic outings. His first film in 1915 did not lead to other offers, particularly during a black-balling incident as a one of the founding members of Actors Equity. In 1922, his movie career headed full steam, but it was the advent of sound with Ned's cynical tones, raspy whines and sour disposition that sparked a comfortable film niche, making close to 100 films in all. Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), Going Hollywood (1933), the Caterpillar in the all-star Alice in Wonderland (1933), the Claudette Colbert and Louise Beavers version of Imitation of Life (1934) were just a few of his more noticeable roles. His cigar-chomping puss became so well-known at Warner Bros., in fact, that Walt Disney's short animated film Broken Toys (1935) had a Jack-in-the-Box character based exclusively on Ned's image. A few years later, when Disney made Mother Goose Goes Hollywood (1938), Ned's caricature played The Jester. In 1939, Tex Avery portrayed him as a hermit crab in Fresh Fish (1939). A radio favorite over the years, he performed alongside Bing Crosby quite frequently. His last disagreeable Hollywood role would be alongside James Stewart in Magic Town (1947). In 1957, he died of an intestinal blockage.- Writer
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Animator, gag writer, storyboard artist and director Ben Hardaway is fondly remembered for his important contributions to Warner Brothers cartoons and as co-creator (with Walter Lantz) and voice (1944-1949) of Woody Woodpecker. Hardaway started out as a cartoonist for the Kansas City Star in 1910. He saw military service as an artillery sergeant under the command of Captain Harry S. Truman during World War I. During this time he acquired the nickname 'Bugs'. After demobilization, he resumed working for various mid-West newspapers. In 1922, Hardaway was hired by the Kansas City Film Ad Company and became closely acquainted with the famous pioneer animator Ub Iwerks. Iwerks eventually moved to Hollywood, and, in 1931, employed Hardaway as a story writer. He stayed on for two years, then had a brief spell with Disney. Eventually, he settled at Leon Schlesinger's animation factory at Warner Brothers, a studio which permitted artists substantially greater artistic freedom.
The superb humor and satirical quality of his writing (for example, Confederate Honey (1940), a hilarious send-up of Gone with the Wind (1939), featuring Elmer Fudd as 'Nett Cutler' romancing 'Crimson O'Hairoil') ensured Hardaway's rapid advancement to head of the story department. He also filled in as co-director of several Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies episodes during Friz Freleng's three-year long stint at MGM. Many of these featured Porky Pig. One of them, Porky's Hare Hunt (1938), had as chief protagonist an unnamed white rabbit created by Robert Clampett. It looked nothing like Bugs Bunny and sounded and acted rather like Daffy Duck. Before long, the rabbit reappeared in Hare-um Scare-um (1939) -- now in familiar colors, but with relatively short ears, wide buck teeth (and still sounding suspiciously like Daffy). On a corner of the model sheet with the original drawing by Charles Thorson, Hardaway wrote the name 'Bugs'. It stuck ,and thus the famous rabbit got its name -- albeit officially only after the release of A Wild Hare (1940). Hardaway found himself demoted after Freleng's return from MGM and departed Warner Brothers to head up the story department for Walter Lantz working on Andy Panda and Woody Woodpecker cartoons.- Actor
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George Reeves was born George Keefer Brewer in Woolstock, Iowa, to Helen Roberta (Lescher) and Donald C. Brewer. He was of German, English, and Scottish descent. Following his parents' divorce and his mother's remarriage to Frank J. Bessolo, Reeves was raised in Pasadena, California, and educated at Pasadena Junior College.
He was a skilled amateur boxer and musician. He interned as an actor at the famed Pasadena Playhouse, performed in dozens of plays, and was discovered there by casting director Maxwell Arnow. He was cast as Stuart Tarleton in Gone with the Wind (1939). While shooting the film, he appeared in another play at the Pasadena Playhouse and was seen there and signed by Warner Bros. studios. Over the next ten years he was contracted to Warners, Fox and Paramount.
He achieved near-stardom as the male lead in So Proudly We Hail! (1943), but war service interrupted his career, and after he returned it never regained the same level. While in the Army Air Corps he appeared on Broadway in "Winged Victory," then made training films. Career difficulties after the war led him to move to New York for live television. It was television where he achieved the kind of fame that had eluded him in films, as he was cast in the lead of the now-iconic Adventures of Superman (1952). He got a few film roles in the early 1950s, but he was mostly typecast as Superman, and other acting jobs soon dried up. His career had slid to the point where he was considering an attempt at exhibition wrestling when he committed suicide by shooting himself.
Controversy still surrounds his death, due mainly to the fact of his longtime affair with Toni Mannix (aka Toni Mannix), the wife of MGM executive E.J. Mannix. Many of Reeves' friends and colleagues didn't believe that he had committed suicide but that his death was related to the Mannix situation. However, no credible evidence has ever been produced to support that contention.- Dink Trout was born on 18 June 1898 in Beardstown, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Alice in Wonderland (1951), Scattergood Baines (1941) and Cinderella Swings It (1943). He died on 26 March 1950 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Larry Grey was born on 23 March 1895 in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Mr. Celebrity (1941). He was married to Carlotta Dale Garrison. He died on 5 May 1951 in Oakland, California, USA.
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British leading man of primarily American films, one of the great stars of the Golden Age. Raised in Ealing, the son of a successful silk merchant, he attended boarding school in Sussex, where he discovered amateur theatre. He intended to attend Cambridge and become an engineer, but his father's death cost him the financial support necessary. He joined the London Scottish Regionals and at the outbreak of World War I was sent to France. Seriously wounded at the battle of Messines--he was gassed--he was invalided out of service scarcely two months after shipping out for France. Upon his recovery he tried to enter the consular service, but a chance encounter got him a small role in a London play. He dropped other plans and concentrated on the theatre, and was rewarded with a succession of increasingly prominent parts. He made extra money appearing in a few minor films, and in 1920 set out for New York in hopes of finding greater fortune there than in war-depressed England. After two years of impoverishment he was cast in a Broadway hit, "La Tendresse". Director Henry King spotted him in the show and cast him as Lillian Gish's leading man in The White Sister (1923). His success in the film led to a contract with Samuel Goldwyn, and his career as a Hollywood leading man was underway. He became a vastly popular star of silent films, in romances as well as adventure films. The coming of sound made his extraordinarily beautiful speaking voice even more important to the film industry. He played sophisticated, thoughtful characters of integrity with enormous aplomb, and swashbuckled expertly when called to do so in films like The Prisoner of Zenda (1937). A decade later he received an Academy Award for his splendid portrayal of a tormented actor in A Double Life (1947). Much of his later career was devoted to "The Halls of Ivy", a radio show that later was transferred to television The Halls of Ivy (1954). He continued to work until nearly the end of his life, which came in 1958 after a brief lung illness. He was survived by his second wife, actress Benita Hume, and their daughter Juliet Benita Colman.- Writer
- Animation Department
Sam Cobean was born on 28 December 1913 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA. Sam was a writer, known for Willoughby's Magic Hat (1943), The Cocky Bantam (1943) and Dizzy Newsreel (1943). Sam died on 2 July 1951.- Actor
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Tyrone Power was one of the great romantic swashbuckling stars of the mid-twentieth century, and the third Tyrone Power of four in a famed acting dynasty reaching back to the eighteenth century. His great-grandfather was the first Tyrone Power (1795-1841), a famed Irish comedian. His father, known to historians as Tyrone Power Sr., but to his contemporaries as either Tyrone Power or Tyrone Power the Younger, was a huge star in the theater (and later in films) in both classical and modern roles. His mother, Helen Emma "Patia" (née Reaume), (Mrs. Tyrone Power), was also a Shakespearean actress as well as a respected dramatic coach.
Tyrone Edmund Power, Jr., (also called Tyrone Power III) was born at his mother's home of Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1914. His ancestry included English, Irish, German, French Huguenot, and French-Canadian. A frail, sickly child, he was taken by his parents to the warmer climate of southern California. After his parents' divorce, he and his sister Anne Power returned to Cincinnati with their mother. There he attended school while developing an obsession with acting. Although raised by his mother, he corresponded with his father, who encouraged his acting dreams. He was a supernumerary in his father's stage production of 'The Merchant of Venice' in Chicago and held him as he died suddenly of a heart attack later that year.
Startlingly handsome, young Tyrone nevertheless struggled to find work in Hollywood. He appeared in a few small roles, then went east to do stage work. A screen test led to a contract at 20th Century Fox in 1936, and he quickly progressed to leading roles. Within a year or so, he was one of Fox's leading stars, playing in contemporary and period pieces with ease. Most of his roles were colorful without being deep, and his swordplay was more praised than his wordplay. He served in the Marine Corps in World War II as a transport pilot, and he saw action in the Pacific Theater of operations.
After the war, he got his best reviews for an atypical part as a downward-spiraling con-man in Nightmare Alley (1947). Although he remained a huge star, much of his postwar work was unremarkable. He continued to do notable stage work and also began producing films. Following a fine performance in Billy Wilder's Witness for the Prosecution (1957), Power began production on Solomon and Sheba (1959). Halfway through shooting, he suffered a heart attack during a dueling scene with George Sanders and died before reaching a hospital.
His three children, including his namesake, Tyrone William Power IV (known professionally as Tyrone Power Jr.), have all followed him in the family acting tradition.- Actor
- Writer
By the time that he was 20, Lewis Stone had turned prematurely grey. He enlisted to fight in the Spanish American War and when he returned, he returned to be a writer. This turned to acting and he began to appear in films during the middle teens. His career was again interrupted by war as he served in the cavalry during World War I. After the war, he returned to films and quickly graduated to lead roles. With his distinguished look and grey hair, he was able to play the roles of well mannered romantic men. In 1921, Lewis starred in Don't Neglect Your Wife (1921). In the next year, he starred with Alice Terry, who played the heroine, and Ramon Novarro in The Prisoner of Zenda (1922) and Scaramouche (1923). In 1924, Metro merged into the new MGM where Lewis remained for the rest of his career. He was busy over the next few years and garnered an Academy Award nomination for The Patriot (1928). In 1928, he appeared in the first of a series of pictures with Greta Garbo. In A Woman of Affairs (1928) he played the older doctor, a friend of the family. But two years later in Romance (1930), he played her lover.
Lewis made the transition from silent to sound with The Trial of Mary Dugan (1929), which starred Norma Shearer. Sound did not cause Lewis any problems and he continued to be busy with his roles as the distinguished lead. The Big House (1930) was highly successful for MGM and he appeared in other popular movies such as The Phantom of Paris (1931) with John Gilbert and Red-Headed Woman (1932) with Jean Harlow. He appeared with Garbo in Inspiration (1931), Mata Hari (1931), Grand Hotel (1932) and Queen Christina (1933). In the late 30s he took on a role for which he was long remembered - the role of Judge James Hardy who had a son named Andy. Judge Hardy was the father audiences wanted in the late 30s early 40s. He was kind, intellectual, fair and as patient as he had to be with Andy, played by Mickey Rooney. This series occupied most of his screen time until it ended and he did slow down during the late 40s. In the 50s he continued to appear in a number of pictures including remakes of the two he had made 30 years before with Alice Terry. He suffered a heart attack and died in 1953 after appearing in over 200 films.- Producer
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William Randolph Hearst was the greatest newspaper baron in the history of the United States and is the person whom Citizen Kane (1941), widely regarded as the greatest film ever made, is primarily based on. While there are many similarities between Charles Foster Kane, as limned by the great Orson Welles and his screenwriter, Herman J. Mankiewicz (who knew Hearst), there are many dissimilarities also.
He was born on April 29, 1863, in San Francisco, California, the only child of the multi-millionaire miner George Hearst and his wife, Phoebe Apperson Hearst. Mrs. Hearst was a former school-teacher with refined manners who was over 20 years her husband's junior. Phoebe spoiled William Randolph, who was raised with personal tutors and sent to the most elite prep schools back East. He attended Harvard College but was expelled in 1885.
When he was 23 years old, William Randolph asked his father if he could take over the daily operation of the "San Francisco Examiner," a newspaper that George had acquired as payment for a gambling debt. His father relented and William Randolph took over, styling himself as its "Proprietor." The "Examiner," which he grandly called "The Monarch of the Dailies" on its masthead, was the first of many newspapers that the young Hearst would come to run, and the first where he indulged his appetite for sensationalistic, attention-getting, circulation-boosting news stories.
When his father George died, Phoebe Hearst liquidated the family mining assets to fund her son's acquisition of the ailing "New York Morning Journal." (The family continued to own forest products and petroleum properties.) Ruthless and driven, the aggressive Hearst willed the "Morning Journal" into becoming the best newspaper in New York City, hiring the best executives and finest reporters from the competition. In the style of yellow-news baron Joseph Pulitzer, with whom he now went into direct competition, Hearst introduced an in-your-face, outrageous editorial content that attracted a new market of readers. Though the term "Yellow Journalism" was originally coined to describe the practices of Pulitzer, Hearst proved adept at it. Hearst responded to the request of illustrator Frederic Remington, who had been detailed to Havana in 1898 in anticipation of something big, to return to the States with a terse message: "Please remain. You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war."
After the U.S.S. Maine was blown-up in Havana Harbor on February 15, 1898, Hearst called the Journal city desk and demanded that the front page prominently play up the incident as the sinking of the American battleship meant war. The Journal began immediately running banner headlines proclaiming "War? Sure!" to inflame the public and pressure the government of President William McKinley to proclaim war against Spain. (Some critics accused Hearst of being indirectly responsible for McKinley's assassination as he had published a poem by Ambrose Bierce that seemed to call for such an act.)
The Spanish-American War became the Journal's war just as Vietnam was the television network's war. Ernest L. Meyer wrote about Hearst's journalistic standards: "Mr. Hearst in his long and not laudable career has inflamed Americans against Spaniards, Americans against Japanese, Americans against Filipinos, Americans against Russians, and in the pursuit of his incendiary campaign he has printed downright lies, forged documents, faked atrocity stories, inflammatory editorials, sensational cartoons and photographs and other devices by which he abetted his jingoistic ends."
Hearst added Chicago to his domain, acquiring the "Chicago American" in 1900 and the "Chicago Examiner" in 1902. The "Boston American" and the "Los Angeles Examiner" were acquired in 1904, firmly establishing the media empire that in its heyday during the 1920s, consisted of 20 daily and 11 Sunday newspapers in 13 cities, the King Features syndication service, the International News Service, and the American Weekly (Sunday syndicated supplement). One in four Americans in the '20s read a Hearst newspaper daily. His media empire also included International News Reel and the movie production company Cosmopolitan Pictures, plus a number of national magazines, including "Cosmopolitan," "Good Housekeeping" and "Harper's Bazaar." In 1924, he opened the "New York Daily Mirror," a racy tabloid that was an imitation of the innovative "New York Daily News," which ran many photographs to illustrate its lurid reporting.
Unlike Charles Foster Kane, Willaim Randolph Hearst never married the niece of the president of the United States. The closest he got to a president other than socializing with one was marrying Millicent Wilson, who shared the name of Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921). The nuptials took place the day before he turned 40. His family opposed his marriage to Millicent, who was a 21-year-old showgirl whom he had known for many years. Before Millicent, he had been involved with Tessie Powers, a waitress he had financially supported since he had attended Harvard and trysted with her while still sporting the college's beanie. Hearst's personal life often was featured in stories that his competitors, the tabloid newspapers, ran during his lifetime, the kind of press he would have no moral qualms about if the proverbial shoe were on the other foot and it was someone else's other than his ox being gored. (So much for his moral outrage over Citizen Kane (1941).) He and Millicent had five sons, but Hearst took another showgirl, 20-year-old Marion Davies of the Ziefgeld Follies, as his mistress. She was 34 years his junior. It was a relationship that lasted until the end of his life.
Hearst used his media power to get himself twice elected to Congress as a member of House of Representatives (1903-1905; and 1905-1907) as a progressive, if not radical Democrat. However, he failed in his two bids to become mayor of New York City in 1905 and 1909, and was defeated by the Republican candidate Charles Evans Hughes in his attempt to become governor of New York State in (1906). He supported the Spanish-American War - many observers believe he even was the casus belli of that conflict - but opposed the U.S. entry into World War One as he despised the British Empire. He also opposed President Wilson's formation of the League of Nations and American membership in the organization.
By the time of the First World War, his political ambitions frustrated, he decided to live openly with Davies in California and at a castle he bought in Wales. His wife and children remained in New York, where Hearst became known as a leading philanthropist, creating the Free Milk Fund for the poor in 1921. They officially separated in 1926.
Hearst spent many years and a fortune promoting Marion Davies' film career. According to the great critic Pauline Kael, Davies was a first-rate light comedienne, but Hearst wanted her to play the classical roles of a tragedienne, with the result that he pushed her into movies that were ill-suited for her, and that made her look ridiculous. She was not, however, the talentless drunk that Charles Foster Kane's second wife, Susan Alexander was. (Orson Welles said that his only regret over Citizen Kane (1941) was the backlash and grief caused to Davies, who was a woman adored by everyone who knew her. Davies nephew actually was the step-father of Welles' first child.)
Phoebe Hearst died in 1919, and Hearst moved onto the family's 268,000-acre San Simeon Ranch in southern California. On 127 acres overlooking the California coast north of Cambria, he built what is now called Hearst Castle but that he called "La Cuesta Encantada." Starting in 1922, and not finished until 1947, the 165-room mansion was built by an army of craftsmen and laborers. The mansion -- which cost approximately $37 million to build -- was not ready for full-time occupancy until 1927, and additions to the main building continued for another 20 years. At La Cuesta Encantada, Hearst entertained the creme de la creme of Hollywood and the world, whom he treated to his hospitality among his personal art collection valued at over $50 million, the largest ever assembled by any private individual. He could live openly in California with Davies.
Along with his sensationalism and jingoism, William Randold Hearst was a racist who hated minorities, particularly Mexicans, both native-born and immigrants. He used his newspaper chain to frequently stir up racial tensions. Hearst's newspapers portrayed Mexicans as lazy, degenerate and violent, marijuana-smokers who stole jobs from "real Americans." Hearst's hatred of Mexicans and his hyping of the "Mexican threat" to America likely was rooted in the 800,000 acres of timberland that had been confiscated from him by Pancho Villa during the Mexican revolution.
The Great Depression hurt Hearst financially, and he never recovered from it. At one point, his financial distress was so great, his mistress, Marion Davies, had to pawn some of her jewels to get him the cash to keep him afloat. The Hearst media empire has reached its zenith in terms of circulation and revenues the year before the Stockmarket Crash of October 1929, but the huge over-extension of the Hearst media empire eventually cost him control of his holdings. Hearst's newspaper chain likely had never been profitable, but had been supported by the income from his mining, ranching and forest products interests. All of Hearst's business interests were adversely affected by the economic downturn, but the newspapers were hit particularly hard due to the decline in advertising revenues, the life's blood of any newspaper. His bellicose and eccentric behavior only made matters worse.
By the time Franklin D. Roosevelt exerted himself over the U.S. economy, Hearst had become a reactionary. He had produced a film, Gabriel Over the White House (1933) starring Walter Huston as a presidential messiah, but Roosevelt, apparently, wasn't his kind of Christ-figure. In the movie, President 'Judd' Hammond exercised near dictatorial powers, including apparently ordering summary executions of gangsters; this may have gone over well in corporate America, but hardly was a management paradigm for a working democracy. However, Roosevelt's attempts to centralize power in government and industry cartels to combat the Depression were eventually repudiated by Hearst. His anti-Roosevelt stance, trumpeted by his papers, proved unpopular with the common man who was his primary readership.
Once, he had served as the self-appointed tribune of the common man, and his progressive politics was denounced by the plutocrats as radical, but by the 1930s, Hearst was flirting with Fascism. The Hearst papers carried paid-for columns by both Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, though Hearst claimed that he was only an anti-Communist. However, during a continental tour with Marion Davies, Hearst actually attended the Nuremberg rally of 1934. He later completed a newsreel deal with Hitler during the trip. Franklin D. Roosevelt, of course, was as staunchly anti-fascist as Hearst was anti-communist. His pro-intervention policies on the side of Britian during the early days of World War Two rankled the philo-German Hearst.
Hearst had a complicated relationship with Roosevelt, whom he helped obtain the 1932 Democratic presidential nomination (as a moderate). Hearst fluctuated between endorsing and attacking F.D.R. and his New Deal. In public, Roosevelt, on his part, would woo Hearst with invitations to the White House, obtaining a temporary truce, while in private, Roosevelt complained of Hearst's power and had his income taxes investigated. In 1934, Hearst launched a virulent anti-communist witch-hunt that would last for 20 years in which he tarred New Deal supporters as reds, then ended up labeling F.D.R. himself a communist. In response to his red-baiting, liberals and leftists retaliated with a boycott of Hearst newspapers.
Hearst had become a major liability to the Hearst Corp. by the mid-1930s as he became more noxious. He had started out as a populist, but had veered right in the 1920s, then tacked left in the early 1930s, only to veer to the far right beginning in the mid-'30s. Always a maverick, Hearst might have been psychologically unable to maintain a constant position; unable or unwilling to reign in his ego and support those in power, he could never stay allies with anyone for long, and thus regularly shifted positions. As Roosevelt went left, Hearst went right. Apparently, as his flirtation with fascism elucidates, he had cast himself as the savior of America in his own mind.
The economic result of Hearst's shift to the right (which also may have been influenced by his need to cajole financiers, who decidedly were anti-Roosevelt) was that advertising sales and circulation declined, just as millions in debt came due and had to be refinanced. In 1936, Hearst's efforts to raise more capital by floating a new bond issue was stymied by his creditors, with the result that he was unable to service the Hearst Corp.'s debts. The Hearst Corp. went into receivership and was reorganized, and William Randolph Hearst was reduced to the status of an employee, with a court-appointed overseer. A liquidation of Heart Corp. assets began, and newspapers were shed, Cosmopolitan Pictures was terminated, and there was an auctioning off of his art and antiquities. Hearst, the media baron of unparalleled power, was through as a major independent power in American politics and culture.
However, he still retained enough clout with his remaining newspapers (and their ability to publicize movies) in the early 1940s to make life miserable for Orson Welles after the supreme insult of his roman a clef Citizen Kane (1941). Allegedly, Hearst wasn't so much incensed at Welles as he was at Mankiewicz, a friend who had betrayed his secrets. ("Rosebud," the name of the Charles Foster Kane's childhood sled that supposedly is the key to his psychology but is actually a "McGuffin" around which to structure the movie's plot, was allegedly Hearst's nickname for Davies' private parts.)
The economic recovery that came with war production during World War II (which he opposed, just as he had America's entry into the First World War) buoyed the Hearst newspapers' circulation and advertising revenues, but he never returned to the prominence he had enjoyed in the old days. He did, still, have the love of Marion Davies, who was with him to the end, steadfast in her love. Hearst died in 1951, aged eighty-eight, at Beverly Hills, California, and is buried at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, California.
More than 50 years after his death, Hearst's stature has diminished while the reputation of Citizen Kane (1941) remains secure. Interestingly, Hearst's own current, largely negative image has largely been shaped by the film, which is considered a landmark in cinematic innovation. Perhaps it was just a case of Hearst living too long, of outliving his own innovative period. As a newspaper publisher, Hearst promoted innovative writers and cartoonists despite the indifference of his readers. George Herriman, the creator of the comic strip "Krazy Kat," was a Hearst favorite; Hearst even produced Krazy Kat movie shorts. "Krazy Kat" was not especially popular with readers, but it is now considered to be a classic and a watershed of that increasing respected art form. On the negative side, the sensationalistic, border-line fabricated, over-hyped journalistic paradigm that Hearst championed through his perfection of modern yellow journalism, a paradigm he made standard newspaper fare for over half-a-century, lives on in today's media.- Writer
- Director
- Animation Department
Milt Gross was born on 4 March 1895 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer and director, known for Puddin' Head (1941), Rookies on Parade (1941) and The Ghost and the Guest (1943). He died on 29 November 1953 in Los Angeles County, California, USA.- Actor
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Carl Switzer was an American child actor, singer, dog breeder, and hunting guide from Paris, Illinois. He became famous for portraying Alfalfa in the film series "Our Gang" during the 1930s. His character was one of the most memorable characters ever portrayed in the series. Later in his career, Switzer's acting roles were limited to bit parts and appearances in B-movies. He supported himself through other lines of work. Switzer was fatally shot by an acquaintance over a money dispute. The circumstances of his death are disputed, due to contradictory accounts by the shooter and by an eyewitness.
In 1927, Switzer was born in Paris, Illinois. A small city located about 165 miles (266 kilometers) south of Chicago and 90 miles (140 kilometers) west of Indianapolis. Switzer was the youngest of four children born to George Frederick "Fred" Switzer (1905-1960) and his wife Gladys Carrie Shanks (1904-1997). Switzer's older brother was the child actor Harold Switzer (1925-1967).
In the early 1930s, the Switzer brothers were locally famous in their hometown for their music performances. In 1934, the Switzer family traveled to California. They visited the Hal Roach Studios (1914-1961) while sightseeing. The Switzer brothers gave an impromptu performance in the the Our Gang Café, the studio's open-to-the-public cafeteria. They were both offered contracts by producer Hal Roach (1892 -1992), who wanted them to appear in the film series "Our Gang" (1922-1944). The long-running series featured a large group of child actors.
Switzer made his film debut in the "Our Gang" short film "Beginner's Luck" (1935), where his character performs as the "Arizona Nightingale". By the end of the year, Alfalfa (Switzer) had become one of the series' main characters. His brother Harold was relegated to performing background characters in the series. In 1937, Switzer surpassed George McFarland in popularity. At the time, McFarland was the nominal star of the "Our Gang" series. Switzer had a difficult relationship with his co-stars, as he enjoyed playing cruel jokes on them.
Switzer's performances in "Our Gang" ended in 1940. His last appearance as Alfalfa was in the short film "Kiddie Kure" (1940), where the gang members attempted to convince a hypochondriac that his pills were unnecessary. Switzer was 12-years-old at the time of the film's production, making him the oldest member of the main cast. The production team considered him too old to keep playing a child.
Switzer initially found more work in films of the time. He played a young boy scout in the comedy film "I Love You Again" (1940). He next appeared in "Barnyard Follies" (1940), a B-Movie depicting efforts to raise funds for a rural orphanage. Switzer had a leading role in the comedy film "Reg'lar Fellers" (1941), a feature-film adaptation of the long-running comic strip "Reg'lar Fellers" (1917-1949) by Gene Byrnes.
Switzer was reduced to a supporting role in "Henry and Dizzy" (1942), his first appearance in the-then popular film series about the Aldrich Family (1939-1944). The films were adaptations of a long-running radio sitcom of the same name, which lasted from 1939 to 1953. Switzer played a younger member of the Twine family in "There's One Born Every Minute" (1942), a comedy about false advertising. The Twine family profits from marketing their puddings as containing the fantastic Vitamin Z, with the press failing to realize that this vitamin does not exist. A local scientist is persuaded to act as a shill for their product.
Switzer had a minor role in the musical comedy "Johnny Doughboy" (1942), which featured a plot about fictionalized versions of "has-been" child stars. Several other real-life former child stars had roles in this film, including Baby Sandy, Bobby Breen, and George McFarland. The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Musical Score.
Switzer had the uncredited role of Auggie in "The Human Comedy" (1943), a comedy-drama film about life in the home front of World War II. His character was a friend of Ulysses Macauley (played by Jackie Jenkins). Over the following few years, Switzer would frequently appear in uncredited roles, in films such as "Going My Way" (1944) and "Courage of Lassie" (1946).
Switzer had his first leading role in years when cast as Sammy Levine in "Gas House Kids" (1946). The film depicted the life of unruly youths from the Gas House District of New York City. It was partly inspired by the forced relocation of the District's residents in the 1940s, to make way for an urban renewal project. About 600 buildings were razed, and 3,100 families were forced to relocate. The real-life tragic conditions had inspired the popular culture of the time. The film was successful enough to have its own sequels, "Gas House Kids Go West" (1947) and The "Gas House Kids in Hollywood" (1947). Switzer had leading roles in both sequels, his last leading roles in any film.
During the 1950s, Switzer had a few significant supporting roles in films. He played a co-pilot in the aviation adventure "Island in the Sky" (1953), a pilot in the disaster film "The High and the Mighty" (1954), and a Native American ranch hand in the Western film "Track of the Cat" (1954). He had a minor part in the comedy film "Dig That Uranium" (1956), where the Bowery Boys seek an uranium mine in the Wild West. Switzer also had several appearances in television, serving as a recurring guest star in "The Roy Rogers Show".
Switzer's film career was not particularly lucrative during his adult years. He supplemented his income by breeding and training hunting dogs, and by serving as a guide to hunting expeditions. His most notable clients were Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, James Stewart, and Henry Fonda. In 1954, Switzer married his girlfriend Diantha "Dian" Collingwood (1930-2004). She was the heiress of the company Collingwood Grain, which specialized in the construction of grain elevators. The marriage was a rather hasty decision, as the couple had only met 3 months prior to the wedding.
In 1956, Switzer was broke and his wife Dian was pregnant. Switzer's mother-in-law offered them the administration of a farm near Pretty Prairie, Kansas, and Switzer took the offer. His only, son Justin Lance Collingwood Switzer, was born later that year. Switzer had a reunion with his former co-star George McFarland in 1957. McFarland recalled that Switzer seemed restless, and he got the impression that Switzer was bored with his life as a farmer. He figured that this life "wasn't going to last" for Switzer.
Switzer received a divorce in 1957, and lost custody of his son. In January 1958, Switzer was mysteriously shot in the upper right arm while sitting in his parked car, in front of a bar in Studio City, Los Angeles. The bullet smashed through the car's window. The shooter was never found, and no motive was ever established.
In December 1958, Switzer was arrested by the authorities. He had been cutting trees in the Sequoia National Forest, with the intention to sell them as Christmas trees. This practice was illegal. He was sentenced to pay a fine of 225 dollars, and was also sentenced to one year's probation. This left him in financial trouble for the last month of his life.
In 1959, Switzer was hired to train a hunting dog by Moses Samuel "Bud" Stiltz. Switzer and Stiltz had been business associates for years, having met each other at the Corriganville Movie Ranch. During the dog's training, the dog ran off to chase after a bear. Stiltz demanded that Switzer had to either relocate his dog or pay him the equivalent of the dog's value. Switzer placed a reward for the relocation of the dog and the safe return of the animal. When the dog was found, Switzer rewarded the rescuer with 35 dollars in cash, and the worth of 15 dollars in alcoholic beverages. The reward money pushed Switzer further into poverty.
In late January, 1959, Switzer had an emotional conversation about his financial troubles with photographer Jack Piott. The two figured that Stiltz had to reimburse Switzer for the finder's fee. The two of them headed together to Stiltz's home in Mission Hills, where they got into an argument with him. After being struck on the left side of his head, Stiltz proceeded to threaten the two men with a loaded a .38-caliber revolver.
What happened next is uncertain. Stiltz testified that Switzer pulled a knife on him, and that he had shot him in self-defense. Tom Corrigan (Stiltz's adolescent stepson) later testified that Switzer had decided to end the fight and to leave empty-handed, but Stiltz shot him anyway. In any case, the bullet damaged one of Switzer's arteries and caused massive internal bleeding. Switzer had already died by the time his body was transferred to a hospital. He was 31-years-old at the time of his death.
Switzer was buried in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, located in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. His gravestone depicts the image of a hunting dog, to commemorate that he trained hunting dogs for a living. His death initially attracted little attention from the press, but the controversial circumstances of his death have become the subject of true-crime articles and documentaries. Switzer is still remembered as one of the better child actors of his era, and as a reliable actor in supporting roles.- Actor
- Writer
Harry Lang was born on 29 December 1894 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Who's Who? (1929), Bad Boy (1939) and Soldiers Three (1951). He died on 3 August 1953 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Bull Montana was born on 16 May 1887 in Voghera, Lombardy, Italy. He was an actor, known for Victory (1919), Laughing at Danger (1924) and The Lost World (1925). He was married to Mary Mathews. He died on 24 January 1950 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Director
- Actor
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Renowned director Rex Ingram started his film career as a set designer and painter. His directorial debut was The Great Problem (1916). A true master of the medium, Ingram despised the business haggling required in the Hollywood system. He was also unhappy with the level of writing he found in American writers. This led him to work with such foreign writers as Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, which resulted in the first major role for the young Rudolph Valentino. Ingram was a great friend of Erich von Stroheim who, like Ingram, was a great filmmaker but often went way over budget. In 1924 Ingram moved to Nice, France, where, in his own studios, he directed films of his own choosing, often with his then-wife Alice Terry. In his later career he acted as a mentor to the young Michael Powell.- Writer
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Rupert Hughes was born on 31 January 1872 in Lancaster, Missouri, USA. He was a writer and director, known for Souls for Sale (1923), True As Steel (1924) and Look Your Best (1923). He was married to Patterson Dial, Mrs. Rupert Hughes and Agnes Wheeler Hedge. He died on 9 September 1956 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Actor
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Erich von Stroheim was born Erich Oswald Stroheim in 1885, in Vienna, Austria, to Johanna (Bondy), from Prague, and Benno Stroheim, a hatter from Gleiwitz, Germany (now Gliwice, Poland). His family was Jewish.
After spending some time working in his father's hat factory, he emigrated to America around 1909. Working in various jobs he arrived in Hollywood in 1914 and got work in D.W. Griffiths' company as a bit player. America's entry into WW1 enabled him to play sadistic monocled German officers but these roles dried up when the war ended. He turned to writing and directing but his passion for unnecessary detail such as Austrian guards wearing correct and expensively acquired regulation underwear which was never seen in 'Foolish Wives' caused the budget to reach a reported $1 million. Although the film became a hit the final edit was given to others resulting in a third of his footage being cut. Irving Thalberg fired him from 'Merry Go Round' which was completed by Rupert Julien. He then started on 'Greed', which when completed was unreleasable being 42 reels with a running time of 7 hours. It was eventually cut down to 10 reels which still had a striking effect on audiences. 'The Wedding March' was so long that even in it's unfinished state it was released as two separate films in Europe. Gloria Swanson fired him from her production of 'Queen Kelly' when with no sign of the film nearing completion the costs had risen to twice the budget partly due to him re-shooting scenes that had already been passed by the Hays office. She then had to spend a further $200,000 putting the footage into releasable state. It was the end for him as a director, but he made a reasonable success as an actor in the talkies.- Born the son of an Opium Agent in Bengal, Eric Blair was educated in England (Eton 1921). The joined the British Imperial Police in Burma, serving until 1927. He then travelled around England and Europe, doing various odd jobs to support his writing. By 1935 he had adopted the 'pen-name' of 'George Orwell' and had written his first novels. He married in 1936. In 1937, he and his wife fought against the Fascists in the Spanish Civil War. He produced some 3000 pages of essays and newspaper articles as well as several books and programs for the BBC.
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Famed actor, composer, artist, author and director. His talents extended to the authoring of the novel "Mr. Cartonwine: A Moral Tale" as well as his autobiography. In 1944, he joined ASCAP, and composed "Russian Dances", "Partita", "Ballet Viennois", "The Woodman and the Elves", "Behind the Horizon", "Fugue Fantasia", "In Memorium", "Hallowe'en", "Preludium & Fugue", "Elegie for Oboe, Orch.", "Farewell Symphony (1-act opera)", "Elegie (piano pieces)", "Rondo for Piano" and "Scherzo Grotesque".- Ethel Barrymore was the second of three children seemingly destined for the actor's life of their parents Maurice and Georgiana. Maurice Barrymore had emigrated from England in 1875, and after graduating from Cambridge in law had shocked his family by becoming an actor. Georgiana Drew of Philadelphia acted in her parents' stage company. The two met and married as members of Augustin Daly's company in New York. They both acted with some of the great stage personalities of the mid Victorian theater of America and England. The Barrymore children were born and grew up in Philadelphia. Though older brother Lionel Barrymore began acting early with his mother's relatives in the Drew theater company, Ethel, after a traditional girl's schooling, planned on becoming a concert pianist.
The lure of the stage was perhaps congenital, however. She made her debut as a stage actress during the New York City season of 1894. Her youthful stage presence was at once a pleasure, a strikingly pretty and winsome face and large dark eyes that seemed to look out from her very soul. Her natural talent and distinctive voice only reinforced the physical presence of someone destined to command any role set before her. After the opportunity to appear on the London stage with English great Henry Irving in "The Bells" (1897) and later in "Peter the Great" (1898), she returned to New York to star in the Clyde Fitch play "Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines" (1901) (produced by her friend and benefactor Charles Frohman), which brought her initial American acclaim. Lead roles, such as Nora in Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House" (1905) and starring in "Alice By the Fire" (also 1905), "Mid-Channel" (1910) and "Trelawney of the Wells" (1911) proved her popularity as a warm and charismatic star of American stage. In the meantime she married stockbroker Russell Griswold Colt in 1909 and gave birth to three children while continuing her acting career.
Although the stage was her first love, she did heed the call of the silver screen, and though not achieving the matinée idol image that younger brother John Barrymore garnered in silent movies after similar chemistry on stage, she won over audiences from her first film appearance in The Nightingale (1914). However, her early film roles, steady through 1919, took a back seat to continued stage triumphs: "Declassee" (1919), her impassioned Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet" (1922), "The Second Mrs. Tanqueray" (1924) and, especially, "The Constant Wife" (1926).
She harnessed her considerable talents in the role of an activist as well, being a bedrock supporter of the Actors Equity Association and, in fact, had been a prominent figure in the actors strike of 1919. By 1930 she was entering middle age and her movie roles reflected this. Except for Rasputin and the Empress (1932) with her brothers, the roles were elderly mothers and grandmothers, dowager ladies and spinster aunts. Perhaps wisely she put off Hollywood for over a decade, with stage work that included her most endearing role in "The Corn is Green" (a tour that lasted from 1940 to 1942). She finally moved to Southern California in 1940.
Yet the consummate actress glowed still in the films that came steadily in the mid-'40s and through much of the 1950s. As the mother of Cary Grant in the pensive None But the Lonely Heart (1944) she started off her late film career brilliantly by receiving the Oscar for Best Actress in a supporting role, though she was not satisfied with that effort. Her engaging wit and humanity stood out in even supporting roles, such as, the politically savvy mother of Joseph Cotten in The Farmer's Daughter (1947) and, once again with Cotton, as sympathetic art dealer Miss Spinney, with those eyes, in the haunting screen adaptation of Robert Nathan's novel Portrait of Jennie (1948). There was also a mingling of some TV work to round out her last movies in the late 1950s. In 1955 she saw her book "Memories, An Autobiography" see publication. For the enduring legacy she had already begun years before, a theater named for her was dedicated in New York in 1928. When she passed away in 1959, she was interred near her brothers at Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles. - Additional Crew
- Producer
- Actor
Mayer was born Lazar Meir in the Ukraine and grew up in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada after his parents fled Russian oppression in 1886. He had a brutal childhood, raised in poverty and suffering physical and emotional abuse from his nearly-illiterate peddler father. In the early 1890s, he changed his name to Louis and fudged his birth date to reflect the more "patriotic" date of July 4, 1885. He moved to Boston in 1904 and struggled as a scrap-metal dealer until he was able to purchase a burlesque house. Although he made large sums by showing films (he made a sizable fortune off The Birth of a Nation (1915)), his early business ventures favored legitimate theater in New England. As his theater empire expanded, he had acquired and refurbished enough small movie theaters that he was able to move his business to Los Angeles and venture into movie production in 1918. Along with Samuel Goldwyn and Marcus Loew of Metro Pictures, he formed a new company called Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).
Over the next 25 years, MGM was "the Tiffany of the studios," producing more films and movie stars than any other studio in the world. Mayer became the prime creator of the enduring Hollywood of myth, home to stars like Clark Gable, Judy Garland, Joan Crawford, and Jean Harlow. Mayer became the highest-paid man in America, one of the country's most successful horse breeders, a political force and Hollywood's leading spokesman. Both he and MGM reached their peaks at the end of World War II, and Mayer was forced out in 1951. He died of leukemia in 1957.- Actor
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Former stage actor and playwright - he wrote over 150 plays and vaudeville sketches - Hugh Herbert went, in the early 1930s to Hollywood, as a comedian. In the 1930s he worked mostly for Warner Bros., impersonating often eccentric millionaires, tycoons and dimwitted professors. In a few movies he collaborated on the screenplays, e.g. on "Gold Diggers of 1935" and "Hit Parade of 1941".- He initially worked in a shipping company before, thanks to various scholarships, he was able to begin studying medicine at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in Paddington in 1901. In 1906 Fleming completed his final exams. He then qualified as a surgeon. From 1908 Fleming began to work scientifically, initially in the hospital's vaccination laboratory with the microbiologist Sir Almroth Edward Wright. In 1921 Fleming became deputy head of the institute. In the same year he was able to identify and isolate lysozyme, an enzyme that has strong antibacterial properties. In 1928 he received the chair of bacteriology at the University of London. In September 1928, the discovery that made him world famous was blown directly onto his laboratory workstation: the air was used to transfer a mold spore to one of Fleming's culture dishes in which he was cultivating staphylococci. Actually an annoying event, because the bacterial colony was no longer usable for further investigations.
But Fleming found that the bacteria had, so to speak, dissolved near the mold. He had thus observed the bacteria-destroying power of penicillin. Fleming first used the name "Penicillin" on March 7, 1929. It goes back to the mold that belongs to the genus Penicillium. However, Fleming was not the first to make this significant observation. A number of scientists had previously found that Penicillium fungi inhibit the growth of bacteria. However, no one has investigated the causes of the observed effect or investigated the phenomenon further. Fleming submitted a report on his discovery to the British Journal of Experimental Pathology on May 10, 1929, which was published the following June. Although Fleming had recognized that the bacteria-killing effect of penicillin could effectively combat a number of infections such as suppuration, pneumonia or meningitis, the cure was initially denied a final breakthrough.
The problem was obtaining sufficient quantities to treat patients beyond the experimental phase. In addition, Fleming probably could not fully appreciate the significance of his discovery at the time. It was only shortly before the start of the Second World War that science remembered Fleming's work. From 1940 onwards, attempts were made to produce penicillin in larger quantities on the initiative of the researchers Sir Ernest Boris Chain and Lord Howard Walter Florey. The two traveled to the USA in 1941 to initiate everything necessary there. In 1944, highly concentrated penicillin was finally produced on an industrial scale. Fleming was knighted in 1944, and in 1945 he received the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine together with Chain and Florey. In 1946, Fleming became director of the Vaccination Institute at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School, which was renamed the Wright-Fleming Institute two years later. He retired in 1948.
Sir Alexander Fleming died on March 11, 1955 in Chelsea (London). - Music Department
- Composer
- Producer
W.C. Handy was born on 16 November 1873 in Florence, Alabama, USA. He was a composer and producer, known for Scarface (1932), The Thirteenth Floor (1999) and The Great Gatsby (2013). He was married to Irma Louise Logan and Elizabeth Virginia Price. He died on 29 March 1958 in New York City, New York, USA.- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Charles Christopher Parker Jr. was born on August 29, 1920, in a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri, to Charles Parker Sr. and his 18-year-old wife Addie. His father ran out on the family when Charlie was just a little boy. When he was 11 his mother bought him an alto saxophone for his birthday. By the time he was 15 Charlie was working as a musician in the flourishing Kansas City jazz scene. He also began drinking heavily and using drugs, which were also a part of the KC jazz scene, as were illegal after-hours gambling casinos.
Charlie became more experienced by playing with various bands, including those of Lawrence Keyes and Harlan Leonard, before joining Jay McShann's band in 1940. The band was widely heard on radio across the country, so Charlie's saxophone playing became well known, even though people didn't know his name, so he became known as the Yardbird, or just The Bird. While still in Kansas City, Charlie reached a breakthrough: tired of playing solo with the same scales, he discovered that if he used a higher interval of the chords from a popular song or melody line, with a pianist or guitarist adding the appropriate new chords, he finally could play the sound he always had been hearing in his head. Essentially turning the melody line inside out, he began experimenting with this new style, which became known as "bebop".
Charlie played with McShann in New York City until 1942, when he left for brief stints with the bands of pianist Earl 'Fatha' Hines and singer Billy Eckstine. The association with the Hines Orchestra was a significant one because of the other musicians, who included trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. By 1945 Charlie was back in New York and leading his own small groups. He got married, but continued to live like a nomad, traveling from place to place and spending almost every other night in a hotel or boarding house. He also became a drug addict, and as his addiction increased so did his appetite, and he began putting on weight.
Charlie took part in the first bebop recording session in 1945. With Gillespie and Miles Davis, he recorded songs like "Billie's Bounce" and "Koko" for Savoy Records. Not long afterward, he recorded such classic songs as "A Night in Tunisia" and "Yardbird Suite" for another small label, Dial Records. In the late 1940s Charlie toured Europe, where he was received like visiting royalty. He made several tours of Cuba, where he began experimenting with large string sections and Afro-Cuban rhythms. After a few years of relative stability, however, Charlie began a downward slide. He got hooked back on drugs again (heroin was his favorite), he began nodding out on bandstands, getting into fistfights and pawning his saxophones for drug money. Aware of the effects of drug use, he chastised younger sax players who emulated his heroin use.
By the early 1950s Charlie's drinking and drug use made him gray and prematurely lined. His self-abuse began to infringe on his musical ability. During this time, Charlie was befriended by a wealthy European baroness who was living in New York, loved his jazz music and helped him out when he needed it. In early 1955, on his way to a gig in Boston, Charlie stopped by her apartment for a visit. Alarmed by his obvious ill health, she had her personal doctor examine him, which revealed that he had stomach ulcers and many other health problems, the result of his years of drinking and drug use. The doctor recommended hospitalization, but the stubborn Charlie refused to consider it. The baroness got him to rest at her place for a few days.
On March 12, 1955, the baroness found Charlie Parker dead, slumped over in an easy chair in front of the TV set in her apartment. He was 34 years old. An autopsy revealed such damage to the inside of his body that the doctor who performed the autopsy thought Charlie was a man at least 50 years old. Charlie Parker's legend grew even larger after his death. Fans scrawled "Bird Lives!" on walls of jazz clubs from New York, to Los Angeles, to Paris, France. To this day, more than 40 years after his death, Bird remains jazz's single most venerated figure.- Music Department
- Composer
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Prokofiev was a multi-talented man and an innovative composer. He learned piano from his mother and chess from his father. He always had a chess set on his piano, and was able to play against the chess champions of his time. He studied music with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, graduated with highest marks from the St. Petersburg Conservatory (1914), and was rewarded with a grand piano. He emigrated from Russia after the revolution, and made successful concert tours in Europe and the U.S. In 1918 in New York he met Spanish singer Carolina Codina (Lina Llubera), they married in Paris, in 1923, and had two sons.
Prokofiev's radiant optimism and his childlike personality shines in his popular orchestral suite "Peter and the Wolf" and in the "Classical Symphony". His humorous irony and wit is popping up in piano pieces named "Sarcasms", also in his five piano concertos, ballets and film scores, all written in his instantly identifiable musical language. He wrote film scores for The Czar Wants to Sleep (1934), Alexander Nevsky (1938), Cinderella (1961), and the two-part Ivan the Terrible, Part I (1944), directed by Sergei Eisenstein.
All of his music, that he created while outside of the Soviet Union, was sometimes criticized as cosmopolitan and anti-Soviet. Prokofiev divorced his wife in 1948. His ninth sonata, dedicated to Svyatoslav Richter, was welcomed warmly, but another official critic on his music and life started in 1948. He died in 1953, the same day of Joseph Stalin.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Fanny Brice was a popular and influential American comedienne, singer, theatre and film actress, who made many stage, radio and film appearances but is best remembered as the creator and star of the top-rated radio comedy series, The Baby Snooks Show. Thirteen years after her death, she was portrayed on the Broadway stage by Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl. The show was made into a musical film in 1968. Born Fania Borach, in New York City, she was the third child of Rose (Stern) and Charles Borach, relatively well-off saloon owners of Hungarian Jewish descent. In 1908, she dropped out of school to work in a burlesque revue, and two years later she began her association with Florenz Ziegfeld, headlining his Ziegfeld Follies from 1910 into the 1930s. In the 1921 Follies, she was featured singing "My Man" which became both a big hit and her signature song. She made a popular recording of it for Victor Records. The second song most associated with her is "Second Hand Rose". She recorded nearly two dozen record sides for Victor and also cut several for Columbia. She is a posthumous recipient of a Grammy Hall of Fame Award for her 1921 recording of "My Man". Her films include My Man (1928), Be Yourself! (1930) and Everybody Sing (1938) with Judy Garland. Brice, Ray Bolger and Harriet Hoctor were the only original Ziegfeld performers to portray themselves in The Great Ziegfeld (1936) and Ziegfeld Follies (1946). For her contribution to the motion picture industry, she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at MP 6415 Hollywood Boulevard.- Actress
- Additional Crew
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Carmen Miranda was born Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha on February 9, 1909, near Porto, Portugal, in the town of Marco de Canavezes. Not long after her birth her family moved to Brazil, where her father was involved in the produce business. The family settled in the then-capital city of Rio de Janeiro. ' After leaving school, Carmen got a job at a local store, and often began singing on the job. Before long she was discovered and got a singing job on a local radio station. She ultimately got a recording contract with RCA. By 1928 she was a genuine superstar in Brazil. As with other popular singers of the era, she eventually made her way into the film world. She made her debut in the Brazilian documentary A Voz do Carnaval (1933). Two years later she appeared in her first feature film, Alô, Alô, Brasil (1935).
However. it was Estudantes (1935) that seemed to solidify Carmen in the minds of the Brazilian movie audiences. Now they realized she could act as well as sing. Although there was three years between "Alo, Alo Carnaval" and Banana-da-Terra (1939), Carmen continued to churn out musical hits in Brazil. The latter film would be the last in her home country.
In late 1939 Carmen arrived, with much fanfare in the press, in New York City. She was now ready to capture Americans' hearts with her talent. She appeared in some musical revues on Broadway and, just as everyone thought, was a huge hit. In 1940 Carmen was signed to appear in the Twentieth Century-Fox production Down Argentine Way (1940), with Betty Grable and Don Ameche. The only complaint that critics had was the fact that Carmen was not on the screen enough.
In 1941 she was, again, teamed with Ameche in addition to Alice Faye in That Night in Rio (1941). The film was extremely popular with the theater patrons. Her unique songs went a long way in making her popular. It was after Week-End in Havana (1941) that American cartoon artists began to cash in on Carmen's ever-growing popularity. In the 1930s and 1940s cartoons were sometimes shown as a prelude to whatever feature film was showing. Sure enough, the cartoon version of Carmen came wriggling across the screen, complete with her trademark fruit hat and wide, toothy grin.
In 1942 Carmen starred in Springtime in the Rockies (1942) with Betty Grable and Cesar Romero, both of whom she had worked with before. It was shortly after this that America began adopting her style of dress as the latest fad. 1944 saw her in three films: Something for the Boys (1944), Four Jills in a Jeep (1944) and Greenwich Village (1944). The first two did well at the box-office, but the last one left a lot to be desired. It was her last busy year in film. Carmen made one film each in 1945, '46, '47 and '48. After that she didn't make a film for two years, until Nancy Goes to Rio (1950), a production for MGM. Once again didn't make a film for several years, returning with Scared Stiff (1953).
She did stay busy, singing on the nightclub circuit and appearing on the relatively new medium of television. However, "Scared Stiff" was her final performance on the silver screen. On August 4, 1955, she suffered a heart attack, although she didn't realize it at the time, during a video taping of The Jimmy Durante Show (1954). She went home after attending a party.
Early the next morning, on August 5, Carmen suffered a fatal heart attack. She was just 46 years old. Her body was flown to her adopted country of Brazil, where her death was declared a period of national mourning.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Christian Rub was born on 13 April 1886 in Graz, Styria, Austria. He was an actor, known for You Can't Take It with You (1938), Peter Ibbetson (1935) and Girls' Dormitory (1936). He was married to Amy. He died on 14 April 1956 in Santa Barbara, California, USA.- Editor
- Actor
- Writer
Lew Lehr performed in vaudeville and on the musical stage until about 1930, when he began narrating and writing shorts for educational and other series entries such as "Tintypes", "Adventures of a Newsreel Cameraman", "Magic Carpet" series and "Lew Lehr's Unnatural History" series. He was also the editor, writer and commentator for Fox Movietone News, beginning in 1932, for the sequences within their newsreels called "The Dribble-Puss Parade". Whatever the subject, Lew Lehr's character had a sardonic and slightly-sour outlook on it, especially when it involved footage from old Edison films that Fox Movietone News would insert about once a month to lighten up their Newsreels. In 1946, he wrote, edited and starred in a stand-alone series of "Drizzle Puss Parade(s)", distributed by 20th Century-Fox, that usually found him casting a jaded eye on various activities he found in his travels around the United States. The man's voice and/or face was heard and/or seen in at least 300 shorts or newsreels for over 25 years beginning in 1932. Writer, editor, performer.- Producer
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His parents Henry C. DeMille and Beatrice DeMille were playwrights. His father died when he was 12, and his mother supported the family by opening a school for girls and a theatrical company. Too young to enlist in the Spanish-American War, Cecil followed his brother William C. de Mille to the New York Academy of Dramatic Arts, making his stage debut in 1900. For twelve years he was actor/manager of his mother's theatrical company. In 1913, Jesse L. Lasky, Samuel Goldwyn and DeMille formed the Lasky Film Company (which years later evolved into Paramount Pictures), and the next year went west to California and produced the successful six reeler, The Squaw Man (1914), of historical significance as the first feature length film produced in Hollywood. He championed the switch from short to feature-length films and is often credited with making Hollywood the motion picture capital of the world. Rather than putting his money into known stars, he emphasized production values. He also developed stars, notably Gloria Swanson. He produced and directed 70 films and was involved in many more. Many of his films were romantic sexual comedies (he is supposed to have believed that Americans were curious only about money and sex). His best-known were biblical/religious epics: Joan the Woman (1916), The Ten Commandments (1923), The King of Kings (1927), The Sign of the Cross (1932), The Crusades (1935), Samson and Delilah (1949), and The Ten Commandments (1956). From 1936 to 1945 he hosted and directed the hour-long "Lux Radio Theatre", which brought the actors and stories of many movies to the airwaves and further established him as the symbol of Hollywood. He appeared as himself in the classic Sunset Boulevard (1950) with his former star Gloria Swanson as the fictitious disturbed former silent film actress Norma Desmond. His niece Agnes de Mille was the acclaimed choreographer of both the original Broadway production and film version of Oklahoma! (1955).- Wally Maher was born on 4 August 1908 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. He was an actor, known for Mystery Street (1950), The Reformer and the Redhead (1950) and Hollywood Hotel (1937). He was married to Molly Bruno. He died on 27 December 1951 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
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Legendary saxophonist, conductor, songwriter and composer ("I'm Glad There Is You" and "Contrasts" [his theme]), educated in public schools and a cornet student of his father. Through the 1920s he was a saxophonist in orchestras including those of Paul Whiteman, Red Nichols, and the California Ramblers. He formed an orchestra with his brother, Tommy Dorsey, lasting from 1933 to 1935, and then led his own orchestra, rejoining Tommy's orchestra in 1953 and taking over the orchestra at Tommy's death. He made many records. Joining ASCAP in 1941, his chief musical collaborators included Larry Clinton, Paul Mertz, and James Van Heusen. His other popular-song and instrumental compositions include "Oodles of Noodles", "John Silver", "Beebe", "Dusk in Upper Sandusky", "Waddlin' at the Waldorf", "It's the Dreamer In Me", and "Two Again".- Actor
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Tommy Dorsey was born on November 19, 1905 in Mahanoy Plane, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a musician and a bandleader, whose music appeared in such films as Annie Hall (1977), Ship Ahoy (1942) and The Human Stain (2003). He also occasionally appeared as himself, frequently with his band, in a variety of films. He was previously married to Jane Karl New, Patricia Dane and Mildred Ann Kraft. He died on November 26, 1956 in Greenwich, Connecticut, USA.- Actor
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After growing up in a small Arkansas town, Bob Burns qualified as a civil engineer, but also worked as a salesman, farmed peanuts, and in World War I was a Marine sergeant and champion rifleman. His great interest from boyhood was music, and from 1911 his main career was in entertainment. He played musical instruments including his trademark "bazooka", led bands, and did blackface comedy in vaudeville, carnivals, and appeared in early talking films. In 1931 he began a long career in radio, his first real success in 1935 leading to a six year stint on Bing Crosby's Kraft Music Hall show and ultimately (1941-47) his own program, playing the bazooka and telling tall tales about mythical hillbilly relatives like Uncle Fud and Aunt Doody. His association with Crosby led to a long-term movie contract at Paramount, for 12 popular films beginning with Rhythm on the Range (1936). His film character was a slow talking, philosophical, bazooka-playing hillbilly or bumpkin who may have looked gullible, but eventually outwitted the city slickers. Despite this stereotyped character, Bob did draw the line somewhere; he and Paramount parted ways after he refused to appear in a proposed 1941 film which he felt would ridicule "the people of his native hills". He made a few films for other studios, then retired from the entertainment field in 1947. Land investment had made Bob rich, and he spent his last years on his 200-acre model farm in Canoga Park, California.- Writer
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Jack Cole was born on 14 December 1914 in New Castle, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a writer, known for Justice League Action Shorts (2017), Batman: The Brave and the Bold (2008) and Justice League Action (2016). He died on 15 August 1958 in Cary, Illinois, USA.- Writer
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Alan Alexander Milne (signing with the initials A. A. ) was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, and playwright from London. He is primarily remembered for creating Winnie-the-Pooh and his supporting characters. He set their stories in the "Hundred Acre Wood", a fictionalized version of Ashdown Forest in East Sussex. Milne owned a country home near the forest, and resided there for about 3 months of the year. He depicted Winnie in the short story collections "Winnie-the-Pooh" (1926) and "The House at Pooh Corner" (1928), and the poetry collections "When We Were Very Young" (1924) and "Now We Are Six" (1927). All four books were illustrated by Ernest Howard Shepard (1879 - 1976). The Winnie stories have received several adaptations, and were the basis of a Disney media franchise introduced in 1966.
In 1882, Milne was born in Kilburn, London. It was a relatively new district of the London, with its first major building activity having started in 1819. Kilburn was named after Kilburn Priory, a small community of nuns who resided in the area from the 1130s to the 1530s. Milne's father was the educator John Vine Milne. He operated Henley House School, a small independent school in Kilburn. Milne and his family lived within the school building.
Milne was initially educated at his father's school. From 1889 to 1890, Milne's school teacher was the novelist H. G. Wells (1866- 1946). Milne received his secondary education at the Westminster School, a public school that had been operating since the 1540s. It had received royal patronage by both Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.
Milne received his college education at Trinity College, Cambridge. He entered the college with a mathematics scholarship, and graduated in 1903 with a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics. During his college years, Milne was a writer and editor for the student magazine "Granta" (1889-). The magazine often published works by students who aspired to professional writing careers. It was relaunched as a literary magazine in 1979.
In 1903, Milne started regularly contributing texts for publication to "Punch" (1841-1992), the leading humor magazine of the United Kingdom. Most of his early published work consisted of humorous verse and whimsical essays. In 1905, Milne published his debut novel "Lovers in London". He later grew to dislike it. In 1906, he officially joined the "Punch" magazine's staff. He soon started working as an assistant editor for the magazine.
In 1913, Milne married Dorothy "Daphne" de Sélincourt (1890-1971). At the start of World War I, Milne joined the the British Army. He initially served in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant (on probation) in February, 1915. His probationary status ended in late December 1915, when his commission was approved. Milne was transferred to the Royal Corps of Signals in 1916, as his health had declined during his military service. He returned from service in France to work as a signals instructor.
In 1917, Milne was transferred to Military Intelligence. He spend the rest of the war as a propaganda writer for MI7, an office of the Directorate of Military Intelligence with responsibilities for press liaison and propaganda. He was discharged from the army in February, 1919. He voluntarily relinquished his commission in February 1920, though he retained the rank of lieutenant. His son Christopher Robin Milne was born in August 1920.
During his war service, Milne had continued his writing career. In 1917, he published the fairy tale novel "Once on a Time". He tried to subvert the stereotypes of typical fairy-tales, by featuring morally grey "heroes" and "villains". He also portrayed Princess Hyacinth as a competent regent, rather than a damsel in distress.
In 1919, Milne published the comedy play "Mr. Pim Passes By". The play's female lead Olivia Marden is happily married to her second husband, following a miserable married life with her original husband Telworthy. Telworthy supposedly died abroad in Australia. Early in the play, Olivia learns from an elderly acquaintance that Telworthy may be still be alive, and that her second marriage is bigamous. How she tries to confirm whether Telworthy is alive forms the play's plot. The play had an initial run of total run of 246 performances in Manchester and London. It had several revivals during the 1920s, including a ran of 124 performances in Broadway, New York City. It firmly established Milne's reputation as a competent playwright.
In 1920, Milne was hired as a screenwriter by the film studio Minerva Films. It was co-owned at the time by the actor Leslie Howard (1893-1943) and the film director Adrian Brunel (1892-1958). Milne wrote the screenplays for the silent films "The Bump", "Twice Two", "Five Pound Reward", and "Bookworms".
In 1922, Milne published the mystery novel "The Red House Mystery", a "locked room" whodunit. In the novel, Mark Ablett is the owner of English country house. He already has several guests staying at his residence, and then he has an unexpected reunion with his long-lost brother Robert. Shortly after, Robert is murdered and Mark disappears. Amateur sleuth Tony Gillingham decides to find out what happened to the two brothers. Milne had been a long-time fan of mystery novels, and decided to write one of his own. The novel was a best seller, and remained in print for decades. However, Milne initially decided against writing another mystery novel.
Inspired by his relationship with his young son Christopher Robin, Milne started writing poems and short stories for children in 1924. Besides the Winnie-the-Pooh stories, he also published the short story collection "A Gallery of Children" (1925). He took inspiration from a series of illustrations by Henriette Willebeek le Mair (1889-1966), and wrote one short story to accompany each of the illustrations.
In 1928, Milne wrote the short story "In Which Christopher Robin and Pooh Come to an Enchanted Place, and We Leave Them There" as the finale of the Winnie series. In the story, an older Christopher Robin and Winnie bid farewell to each other, but Winnie promises never to forget his friend. Milne decided to quit writing children's stories by the end of the 1920s. He felt that his son was too old to enjoy them. He had also grown to dislike that the public expected him to write only children's stories, while he had diverse literary interests.
In December 1929, Milne introduced his theatrical play "Toad of Toad Hall". It was the first theatrical adaptation of the novel "The Wind in the Willows" (1908) by Kenneth Grahame. Milne introduced a frame story, where the 12-year-old girl Marigold listens to an animal fable by her nurse. The play enjoyed several revivals in the West End until 1935. It became popular again in the 1960s, and enjoyed annual West End revivals for two decades.
In 1933, Milne published the mystery novel "Four Days Wonder". In the novel, an obsessive young woman investigates the unexpected death of her aunt. While not one of Milne's most famous works, it was adapted into the American mystery film "Four Days' Wonder" (1936). In 1934, Milne published the non-fiction book "Peace With Honour" in order to express his pacifist political views. In 1939, he wrote his autobiography "It's Too Late Now: The Autobiography of a Writer".
During World War II, Milne served in the Home Guard (1940-1944). It was an armed citizen militia, and most of its volunteers were too old to join the regular armed services. Milne received the rank of captain, but he insisted to be called "Mr. Milne" by members of his platoon. He wrote the non-fiction book "War with Honour" (1940) to express the view that Britain needed to achieve victory over Nazi Germany. During the War, his son Christopher Robin served as a sapper in the Royal Engineers.
In 1946, Milne published his final novel, "Chloe Marr". It featured a beautiful socialite who regularly manipulated her suitors, but had a hidden agenda. Milne then published his final short story collections, "The Birthday Party" (1948) and "A Table Near the Band" (1950). They were met with little success, as Milne's popularity had declined. In his personal life, Milne was estranged with his son Christopher Robin. In 1948, Christopher Robin had married his maternal first cousin Lesley de Sélincourt, against the wishes of both his parents. Lesley's father was the hated brother of Daphne de Sélincourt, and the two siblings had been avoiding each other for 30 years.
In 1951, Milne published his final play, "Before the Flood". It was his first new play since the early 1940s. In 1952, Milne survived a stroke. Its effects reportedly invalidated him, and he was forced to retire from his writing career. By 1953, Milne looked older than his actual age . He was also increasingly depressed. He died on January 31, 1956, two weeks following his 74th birthday. His remains were cremated and his ashes "were scattered in a crematorium's memorial garden in Brighton".
In 1964, the University of Texas at Austin acquired a collection of Milne's manuscripts. It has also acquired fragments of Milne's correspondence, his legal documents, his genealogical records, and some of his personal effects. The original manuscripts for "Winnie-the-Pooh" and "The House at Pooh Corner" have been acquired by the Trinity College Library, Cambridge. In 1979, a memorial plaque was unveiled in Ashdown Forest. It commemorates the works of Milne and Shepard which granted worldwide fame to the Forest. While Milne is long gone, Winnie and his other famous characters have remained popular for nearly a century.- Actor
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Robert Newton was one of the great character actors -- and great characters -- of the British cinema, best remembered today for playing Long John Silver in Treasure Island (1950) and its sequel in 1954. His portrayal of Long John Silver and of Blackbeard, the Pirate (1952) created a persona that was so indelible that his vocal intonations created the paradigm for scores of people who want to "Talk Like a Pirate." The performance overshadows Newton's legacy, which is based on many first-rate performances in such movies as This Happy Breed (1944), Odd Man Out (1947) and Oliver Twist (1948), where his Bill Sykes is truly chilling. Oliver Reed, who played Sykes in the Oscar-winning movie musical Oliver! (1968) was influenced by Newton.- Artie Auerbach was born on 17 May 1903 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Jack Benny Program (1950), Here Comes Elmer (1943) and Some Time Soon (1937). He was married to Cleo Morgan and Doris. He died on 3 October 1957 in Van Nuys, California, USA.
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Harry Einstein was born on 6 May 1904 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Night Spot (1938), Badminton (1945) and The Yanks Are Coming (1942). He was married to Thelma Leeds, Lillian Anshen and Jennifer Ann Boyd. He died on 24 November 1958 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actress
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After working as early as the 1910s as a band vocalist, Hattie McDaniel debuted as a maid in The Golden West (1932). Her maid-mammy characters became steadily more assertive, showing up first in Judge Priest (1934) and becoming pronounced in Alice Adams (1935). In this one, directed by George Stevens and aided and abetted by star Katharine Hepburn, she makes it clear she has little use for her employers' pretentious status seeking. By The Mad Miss Manton (1938) she actually tells off her socialite employer Barbara Stanwyck and her snooty friends. This path extends into the greatest role of her career, Mammy in Gone with the Wind (1939). Here she is, in a number of ways, superior to most of the white folk surrounding her. From that point her roles unfortunately descended, with her characters becoming more and more menial. She played on the "Amos and Andy" and Eddie Cantor radio shows in the 1930s and 1940s; the title in her own radio show "Beulah" (1947-51), and the same part on TV (Beulah (1950)). Her part in Gone with the Wind (1939) won her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, the first African American actress to win an Academy Award, it was presented to her by Fay Bainter at a segregated ceremony, she had to sit at the back away from the rest of the cast.