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1-11 of 11
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Perky, brunette Joyce Reynolds was another doe-eyed hopeful who had a brief flirtation with Hollywood stardom in the 1940s. The daughter of Joel B. Reynolds and his wife Mary (née Dunn) attended the University of California before being 'discovered' by a talent scout during an amateur stage performance of Alice in Wonderland. A successful audition led to a contract with Warner Brothers. As luck would have it, Joyce bumped into the director Michael Curtiz during her first visit to the studio lot. Curtiz, suitably impressed with what a reviewer later described as her 'cute and cuddly personality', assigned her a small role in the blockbuster musical Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), starring James Cagney. Joyce then played the famous author's daughter Clara Clemens (1874-1962) in The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944), before Curtiz directed her again -- but this time in a starring role -- as the eponymous bobby-soxer Janie (1944). Panned by critics, this sugary comedy about teenage mentality in the 40s did well enough at the box-office.
Joyce next played herself in the star-studded piece of nostalgia that was Hollywood Canteen (1944). She also got another lead role (opposite Robert Hutton) as a cinema buff who inherits a million dollars from a dying millionaire who then recovers and decides to reclaim the fortune in Always Together (1947). The picture is now chiefly notable for a number of cameos by top-shelf Warner's contract stars, including Humphrey Bogart and Errol Flynn. Joyce again co-starred with Hutton in Wallflower (1948), as one of two sisters (the other being Janis Paige) vying for the affections of the same man.
In 1945, Warners had already given notice that Joyce's contract was to be rescinded, ostensibly for the actress to continue her education at a private university in North Carolina. This was also given as the reason why she was dropped for the Janie sequel Janie Gets Married (1946) (Joan Leslie ending up playing the part). She had, by then, married a Marine Corps pilot and given birth to a daughter. Her swansong as a free-lance actress -- five years later -- was to be Girls' School (1950), a second feature melodrama for Columbia. And that was it for Joyce Reynolds. She got married a second time in 1947 to Don Gallery, the adopted son of actress Zasu Pitts and the actor Tom Gallery. This union also ended in divorce. Apparently, Joyce reinvented herself as a teacher and disappeared from public view. She married thrice more. Her last husband, Arthur George White, predeceased her in 1980. At the time of her own death in September 2019, she was known as 'Helen Joyce White'.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
James Nelson was born December 15, 1928 in Chicago, middle child of James and Winifred Nelson. In 1938 Jimmy's Aunt Margaret gave him his first ventriloquist "dummy" as a birthday gift, something that she had won as a bingo prize, which he named Dummy Dan/Danny Dum. He used that figure, which his father modified for better movement; until he asked Frank Marshall construct a new Danny in 1945. Marshall had a penchant for trying to make the hand carved wooden figures look like the performer that would be using them so the folks could see to them as related. Nelson was very pleased with the figure and gave his figure an Irish name, like Edgar Bergen's "Charlie McCarthy" and his mentor Bob Evan's "Jerry O'Leary" had before him, by adding O'Day. Two years later in 1947 Jimmy married his high school sweetheart Margot Humphries in Buffalo N.Y.
It was at that time that Danny started to need a little T.L.C. so Jimmy returned to Frank Marshall to have a duplicate made. However the figure "Just didn't look like Danny" said Nelson "but I didn't have the heart, or the nerve, at the age of nineteen to tell Frank that I wasn't a hundred percent satisfied." By 1949 the Nelsons were back in Chicago with their two boys. Talent Agent Louis Cohan got Jimmy better bookings than he was able to get in New York and Jimmy Nelson and Danny O'Day were now in the big time! So Jimmy added the new figure to his act, as the highly cultured Humphrey Higsbye and he became the foil to Danny much like Mortimer Snerd was for Charlie McCarthy. Jimmy went on to host Chicago's Hollard's Happy House on WGN-TV. In 1950 Nelson and Danny appeared for the first time on the Ed Sullivan Show and were a great success with the audience as well as with Sullivan.
That same year Nelson had Marshall construct a dog character and named him "Farfel" after an item on a hotel menu, he brought that new figure with him as he joined the troupe on Milton Berle's "Texaco Star Theater." Nineteen-fifty-one saw the Nelson marriage come to an end and Jimmy moved to New York with his three sons on their own until 1956 when he married the pretty girl singer, Betty Norman, who worked as his supporting act.
The year before his nuptials Jimmy, Danny and Farfel began the Nestlé's campaign that made them even more of a house hold name, if that is possible, than they were on the Milton Berle show.
The facts in this short biography are from Jimmy Nelson himself and Kelly Asbury's book "Dummy Days" where you can find more on Jimmy Nelson, Danny O'Day and Farfel, as well as the four other most well known ventriloquists in American history.- Della Penna grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the son of Italian immegrants. He grew up a fan of auto racing and idolized five-time world champion 'Juan Fangio'. He moved to the United States in 1969 to pursue a racing career, but after only modest success, retired in 1984 and concentrated on team ownership. Della Penna helped launch the careers of Willy T. Ribbs, Juan Fangio II and Jimmy Vasser. After his team won the Toyota-Atlantic championship, he progressed to the top North American open-wheel racing series, CART, where his teams were always competitive, but without a lot of luck. He left CART as an owner after the 2000 season, but occasionally works behind the camera as a commentator for Spanish television.
- Barbara Bolton was born on 10 December 1925 in Sioux City, Iowa, USA. She was an actress, known for Empire of the Sun (1987), Lux Video Theatre (1950) and American Playhouse (1980). She was married to Norman Dello Joio and Robert Costello. She died on 24 September 2019 in Greenport, Long Island, New York, USA.
- Art Department
- Producer
Sven Thomas Weber was born on 15 March 1987 in Germany. He was a producer, known for Too Macabre: The Making of Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (2018) and Project Genesis: Crossclub 2 (2011). He died on 24 September 2019 in Friedeburg, Germany.- Director
- Art Department
- Writer
Mordicai Gerstein was born on 24 November 1935 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was a director and writer, known for Long Ago and Far Away (1989), A Nose (1966) and The Berenstain Bears' Christmas Tree (1979). He was married to Susan Yard Harris and Sandra MacDonald. He died on 24 September 2019 in Westhampton, Massachusetts, USA.- Geraldine Richards was an actress, known for Holy Shit (2015). She died on 24 September 2019 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.
- Music Department
Keith Bennett was born on 25 February 1955 in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Keith is known for Christmas Inheritance (2017). Keith died on 24 September 2019 in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.- Camera and Electrical Department
Wolfgang Krolow is known for Schluckauf (1992), Himmelsheim (1988) and The Girlfriend (1988). He died on 24 September 2019 in Berlin, Germany.- Actor
- Writer
Virgilio Fantuzzi was born on 15 February 1937 in Mantua, Lombardy, Italy. He was an actor and writer, known for Late Summer (2010), La pacificazione (2009) and La Roma di Rossellini (2007). He died on 24 September 2019 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Ramil Azimov was born on 8 December 1978. He was an actor, known for Presumed Consent (2011), Przedwiosnie (2001) and Przedwiosnie (2003). He died on 24 September 2019.