1.
Anita Loos
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Anita Loos was an American screenwriter, playwright and author, best known for her blockbuster comic novel, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. She wrote film scripts from 1912, and became arguably the first-ever staff scriptwriter and she went on to write many of the Douglas Fairbanks films, as well as the stage adaptation of Colette’s Gigi. Anita Loos was born Corinne Anita Loos in Sisson, California, to Richard Beers Loos, Loos had two siblings, Gladys and Clifford, a physician and co-founder of the Ross-Loos Medical Group. On pronouncing her name, Loos is reported to have said, however, I myself pronounce my name as if it were spelled luce, since most people pronounce it that way and it was too much trouble to correct them. Loos father, R. Beers Loos, founded a tabloid for which her mother, while living in San Francisco, Loos followed her dissolute alcoholic father as they explored the citys underbelly. Together they would sit on the pier, fishing and making friends with the locals, feeding into Loos lifelong fascination with lowlifes, in 1897, at their fathers urging, she and her sister performed in the San Francisco stock company production of Quo Vadis. Gladys died, aged eight, of appendicitis while their father was on one of his drinking and philandering fishing trips, Anita continued appearing on stage, sometimes being the familys sole breadwinner. Eventually Beers Loos spendthrift ways caught up with them, and in 1903, there, Anita performed simultaneously in her fathers stock company, and under another name with the more legitimate stock company in town. It was around this time that she started shaving years off her true age, Loos had known she wanted to be a writer since she was six, and she also wanted to free herself of the shackles of stock performance. Her father had turned out some one-act plays for the stock company and she wrote The Ink Well, a successful piece for which she would receive periodic royalties. In 1911, the theater was running one-reel films after each nights performances, Anita would take a perfunctory bow and she sent her first attempt at a screenplay, He Was A College Boy, to the Biograph Company, for which she received $25. The New York Hat, starring Mary Pickford and Lionel Barrymore and directed by D. W. Griffith, was her third screenplay, by 1912, Loos had sold scripts to both the Biograph and Lubin studios. Between 1912 and 1915, she turned out 105 scripts, only four of which went unproduced and her mother had objected to Loos working in Hollywood. In 1915, trying to escape her influence, Loos married her first husband, Frank Pallma, Jr. the son of the band conductor. But Frank proved to be penniless and dull – after six months, Anita sent him out for hair pins, after that, Minnie rethought her position on a Hollywood career. Many of the scripts she turned out for Griffith went unproduced, some he considered unfilmable because the laughs were all in the lines, there was no way to get them onto the screen, but he encouraged her to continue, because reading them amused him. Her first screen credit was for an adaptation of Macbeth in which her billing came right after Shakespeares, when Griffith asked her to write the subtitling for his epic Intolerance, she traveled to New York City for the first time to attend its premiere. Instead of returning to Hollywood, Loos spent the fall of 1916 in New York and they had an instant rapport, and Loos would remain a Vanity Fair contributor for several decades
2.
William Powell
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William Horatio Powell was an American actor. A major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the Thin Man series based on the Nick and Nora Charles characters created by Dashiell Hammett. Powell was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor three times, for The Thin Man, My Man Godfrey, and Life with Father, an only child, Powell was born in Pittsburgh to Nettie Manila and Horatio Warren Powell, on July 29,1892. His father was born in West Middlesex, Pennsylvania, to William S. in 1907, he moved with his family to Kansas City, Missouri, where he graduated from Central High School in 1910. After high school, he left home for New York and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts at the age of 18, in 1912, Powell graduated from the AADA, and worked in some vaudeville and stock companies. Powells most famous role was that of Nick Charles in six Thin Man films, beginning with The Thin Man in 1934, Myrna Loy played his wife, Nora, in each of the Thin Man films. Their on-screen partnership, beginning alongside Clark Gable in 1934 with Manhattan Melodrama, was one of Hollywoods most prolific, Loy and Powell starred in the Best Picture of 1936, The Great Ziegfeld, with Powell in the title role and Loy as Ziegfelds wife Billie Burke. That same year, he received his second Academy Award nomination. In 1935, he starred with Harlow in Reckless, a serious romance developed between them, and in 1936, they were reunited on screen and with Loy and Spencer Tracy in the screwball comedy Libeled Lady. Harlow died from uremia at the age of 26 in June 1937 before they could marry and his distress over her death, as well as a cancer diagnosis, caused him to accept fewer acting roles. Powells career slowed considerably in the 1940s, although he received his third Academy Award nomination in 1947 for his role as the cantankerous Clarence Day and his last film was 1955s Mister Roberts. In 1915, he married Eileen Wilson who was born Julia Tierney, with whom he had his child, William David Powell. Powells son became a writer and producer before a period of ill health led to his suicide in 1968. On June 26,1931, Powell married actress Carole Lombard, the marriage lasted just over two years. They were divorced in 1933, though they, too, remained on good terms, Powell was devastated when he learned of her death in 1942. In 1937, Powell was diagnosed with cancer and he underwent surgery and experimental radium treatment which put the disease in full remission within two years. Given his own health and sorrow over Jean Harlows death, Powell did not undertake any film roles for over a year during this period, three weeks after they met, on January 6,1940, Powell married actress Diana Lewis, whom he called Mousie. Powell died in Palm Springs, California, on March 5,1984, at the age of 91 and he is buried at the Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California, near his son William David Powell and wife Diana Lewis
3.
Myrna Loy
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Myrna Loy was an American film, television and stage actress. Trained as a dancer, Loy devoted herself fully to a career following a few minor roles in silent films. She was originally typecast in roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent. During World War II, Loy served as assistant to the director of military and she was later appointed a member-at-large of the U. S. While the height of her popularity was during the 1930s and 40s, she continued to pursue stage, television. Loy was born in Helena, Montana, the daughter of Adelle Mae and rancher David Franklin Williams and she had a younger brother, David Williams. Loys paternal grandparents were Welsh, and her grandparents were Scottish and Swedish. Her first name was derived from a stop near Broken Bow, Nebraska. Her father was also a banker and real estate developer and the youngest man elected to the Montana state legislature. Her mother studied music at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, during the winter of 1912, Loys mother nearly died from pneumonia, and her father sent his wife and daughter to La Jolla, California. Loys mother saw great potential in Southern California, and during one of her husbands visits, among the properties he bought was land he later sold at a considerable profit to Charlie Chaplin so the filmmaker could construct his studio there. Although her mother tried to persuade her husband to move to California permanently, he preferred ranch life and the three eventually returned to Montana. Loys father died on November 7,1918, of Spanish influenza, and Loys mother was able to realize her dream to permanently relocate her family to California. Loy attended the exclusive Westlake School for Girls in Los Angeles, California, when her teachers objected to her participating in theatrical arts, her mother enrolled her in Venice High School, and at 15, she began appearing in local stage productions. In 1921, Loy posed for Venice High School sculpture teacher Harry Fielding Winebrenner for the central figure Inspiration in his sculpture group Fountain of Education. Completed in 1922, the group was erected in front of the campus outdoor pool in May 1923 where it stood for decades. Fountain of Education can be seen in the scenes of the 1978 film Grease. Loy left school at the age of 18 to help with the familys finances and she obtained work at Graumans Egyptian Theatre, where she performed in elaborate musical sequences that were related to and served as prologues for the feature film
4.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of feature films and television programs. Its headquarters are in Beverly Hills, California and it is one of the worlds oldest film studios. In 1971, it was announced that MGM would merge with 20th Century Fox, over the next thirty-nine years, the studio was bought and sold at various points in its history until, on November 3,2010, MGM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. MGM Resorts International, a Las Vegas-based hotel and casino company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MGM, is not currently affiliated with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1966, MGM was sold to Canadian investor Edgar Bronfman Sr. whose son Edgar Jr. would later buy Universal Studios, the studio continued to produce five to six films a year that were released through other studios, mostly United Artists. Kerkorian did, however, commit to increased production and a film library when he bought United Artists in 1981. MGM ramped up production, as well as keeping production going at UA. It also incurred significant amounts of debt to increase production, the studio took on additional debt as a series of owners took charge in the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1986, Ted Turner bought MGM, but a few later, sold the company back to Kerkorian to recoup massive debt. The series of deals left MGM even more heavily in debt, MGM was bought by Pathé Communications in 1990, but Parretti lost control of Pathé and defaulted on the loans used to purchase the studio. The French banking conglomerate Crédit Lyonnais, the major creditor. Even more deeply in debt, MGM was purchased by a joint venture between Kerkorian, producer Frank Mancuso, and Australias Seven Network in 1996, the debt load from these and subsequent business deals negatively affected MGMs ability to survive as an independent motion picture studio. In 1924, movie theater magnate Marcus Loew had a problem and he had bought Metro Pictures Corporation in 1919 for a steady supply of films for his large Loews Theatres chain. With Loews lackluster assortment of Metro films, Loew purchased Goldwyn Pictures in 1924 to improve the quality, however, these purchases created a need for someone to oversee his new Hollywood operations, since longtime assistant Nicholas Schenck was needed in New York headquarters to oversee the 150 theaters. Mayer, Loew addressed the situation by buying Louis B. Mayer Pictures on April 17,1924, Mayer became head of the renamed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, with Irving Thalberg as head of production. MGM produced more than 100 feature films in its first two years, in 1925, MGM released the extravagant and successful Ben-Hur, taking a $4.7 million profit that year, its first full year. Marcus Loew died in 1927, and control of Loews passed to Nicholas Schenck, in 1929, William Fox of Fox Film Corporation bought the Loew familys holdings with Schencks assent. Mayer and Thalberg disagreed with the decision, Mayer was active in the California Republican Party and used his political connections to persuade the Justice Department to delay final approval of the deal on antitrust grounds
5.
Skippy (dog)
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Skippy was a Wire Fox Terrier dog actor who appeared in dozens of movies during the 1930s. Skippy is best known for the role of the pet dog Asta in the 1934 detective comedy The Thin Man, starring William Powell, due to the popularity of the role, Skippy is sometimes credited as Asta in public and in other films. Skippy was trained by his owners Henry East and Gale Henry East, in 1936, Skippy and several other movie dogs were profiled in the book Dog Stars of Hollywood by Gertrude Orr. At the time Skippy was said to be four and a years old. He was said to be one of the most intelligent of animal stars then working in pictures, in addition to verbal commands, he also worked to hand cues, essential for a dog performing in sound films. His training began when he was three months old, and he made his first professional appearances at the age of one year, in 1932–33. In Orrs book Skippy was shown in a series of publicity shots with Wendy Barrie in Its a Small World, Mae Clarke in The Daring Young Man and he became a star overnight in The Thin Man. Skippy also made a hit as Mr. Smith in the 1937 film The Awful Truth, in Bringing Up Baby, Skippy played George, the bone-hiding pup belonging to Katharine Hepburns aunt, and in Topper Takes a Trip, he was Mr. Atlas. The American Magazine detailed Skippys professional life in an August 1938 profile of the East kennels, titled A Dogs Life in Hollywood and they coo at him and murmur endearing terms in his ears. He takes it all in his stride, because, what with contracts, options, but if hes paid for it and given the proper cue he will snuggle in the arms of the loveliest of stars, gaze into her limpid eyes, and, if necessary—howl. Skippy, a smart little wire-haired terrier, is one of the stars in pictures. He leads a glamorous life—a dogs life de luxe and he is rated as one of the smartest dogs in the world, and when contracts are signed for his appearance in a picture he gets $200 a week for putting his paw-print on the dotted line. His trainer gets a mere $60 and his owner is Mrs. Gale Henry East, once a prominent movie comedienne. When Skippy has to water in a scene, the first time he does it he really drinks. If there are retakes and hes had all the water he can drink, hell go through the scene just as enthusiastically as though his throat were parched, if you watch closely youll see hes just going through the motions of lapping and isnt really picking up water at all. And, because he has a sense of humor, he loves it when you laugh and tell him youve caught him faking, treat a dog kindly and hell do anything in the world for you. At a time when most canine actors in Hollywood films earned $3.50 a day, Skippys weekly salary was $250.00. As a character in the movie The Thin Man, Asta was the pet dog of Nick and Nora Charles, tugging them around town on his walks, hiding from danger
6.
After the Thin Man
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After the Thin Man is a 1936 American film, starring William Powell, Myrna Loy, and James Stewart, that is the sequel to the film The Thin Man. The movie presents Powell and Loy as Dashiell Hammetts characters Nick, the film was directed by W. S. Van Dyke and also featured Elissa Landi, Joseph Calleia, Jessie Ralph, Alan Marshal, and Penny Singleton. This was actually the sixth pairing for Myrna Loy and William Powell, the two made 14 pictures together, six of them in the Thin Man series. Nick and Nora Charles return from vacation to their home in San Francisco on New Years Eve, Nick is despised by Noras Aunt Katherine, the family matriarch, as his immigrant heritage and experience as a flat foot are considered below Nora. The true reason for their invitation is that Noras cousin Selmas neer-do-well husband Robert has been missing, Nick is coerced into a little quiet detective work for the family. They easily find Robert at a Chinese nightclub, where hes been conducting an affair with Polly, Robert tries to extort money from Selmas unrequited love, David Graham, $25,000 and Robert will leave Selma alone permanently. Unknown to Robert, Polly and the owner, Dancer, plan to grift the money. After being paid off, and returning home for some clothes, David finds Selma standing over Robert and hurriedly disposes of her gun. Despite this, the police determine that shes the prime suspect, Selma insists that she never fired her gun, and Nick is now obliged to investigate and determine the true murderer. As suspects pile up, schemes and double-crosses are found and two murders occur, including Pollys brutal brother. Lt. Abrams readily accepts Nicks assistance, Nick follows a trail of clues that lead him to the apartment of a mysterious Anderson. As in the film, the film climaxes with a final interrogation. The murderer is revealed to be David, who has harbored a hatred of Selma after she passed him over to marry Robert. The cast is listed in order as documented by the American Film Institute, the films story was written by Dashiell Hammett, based on his characters Nick and Nora, but not a particular novel or short story. Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich wrote the screenplay, the film was nominated for an Oscar in 1937 for Best Writing, Screenplay. It is often referred to as the best of the Thin Man sequels, the film grossed a total of $3,165,000, $1,992,000 from the US and Canada and $1,173,000 elsewhere. It made a profit of $1,516,000
7.
The Three Stooges
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Their hallmark was physical farce and slapstick. In films, the Stooges were commonly known by their first names of Moe, Larry, and Curly or Moe, Larry, there were a total of six stooges over the acts run, with only three active at any given time. Moe and Larry were always present during the era throughout the ensembles run of more than forty years. The act began as part of a vaudeville comedy act, billed as Ted Healy and his Stooges, consisting of Healy, Moe Howard, his brother Shemp Howard. The four made one film, Soup to Nuts, before Shemp left to pursue a solo career. He was replaced by his brother, Jerome Curly Howard. Two years later, the trio left Healy, and signed on to appear in their own short subject comedies for Columbia Pictures, from 1934 to 1946, Moe, Larry, and Curly produced over ninety short films for Columbia. It was during this period that they were at their peak popularity, Curly suffered a debilitating stroke in May 1946, and Shemp returned, reinstating the original lineup, until his death of a heart attack on November 22,1955. Film actor Joe Palma was used as a temporary stand-in to complete four Shemp-era shorts under contract, Columbia contract player Joe Besser joined as the third Stooge for two years, departing in 1958 to nurse his ailing wife. Columbia terminated its shorts division and released its Stooges contractual rights to the Screen Gems production studio, Screen Gems then syndicated the shorts to television, whereupon the Stooges became one of the most popular comedy acts of the early 1960s. Comic actor Joe DeRita became Curly Joe in 1958, replacing Besser for a new series of theatrical films. With intense television exposure, the act regained momentum throughout the 1960s as popular kiddie fare, Fine died in 1975, after a further series of strokes. Attempts were made to revive the Stooges with longtime supporting actor Emil Sitka in Larrys role in 1970, and again in 1975, but this attempt was cut short by Moes death on May 4,1975. The Three Stooges began in 1928 as part of a vaudeville act called Ted Healy and His Stooges Moe Howard joined Healys act in 1921. In 1928, violinist-comedian Larry Fine and xylophonist-comedian Fred Sanborn also joined the group, in the act, lead comedian Healy would attempt to sing or tell jokes while his noisy assistants would keep interrupting him, causing Healy to retaliate with verbal and physical abuse. Ted Healy and His Stooges appeared in their first Hollywood feature film, Soup to Nuts, the film was not a critical success, but the Stooges performances were singled out as memorable, leading Fox to offer the trio a contract minus Healy. This enraged Healy, who told studio executives that the Stooges were his employees, Howard, Fine, and Howard learned of the offer and subsequent withdrawal and left Healy to form their own act, which quickly took off with a tour of the theater circuit. Healy attempted to stop the new act with legal action, claiming that they were using his copyrighted material, Healy tried to save his act by hiring replacement stooges, but they were inexperienced and not as well-received as their predecessors
8.
Long Island
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Long Island is an island located just off the northeast coast of the United States and a region within the U. S. state of New York. Stretching east-northeast from New York Harbor into the Atlantic Ocean, the island comprises four counties, Kings and Queens to the west, then Nassau, more generally, Long Island may also refer collectively both to the main Island as well as its nearby, surrounding outer barrier islands. North of the island is the Long Island Sound, across from which lie the states of Connecticut, across the Sound, to the northwest, lies Westchester County on mainland New York. To the west, Long Island is separated from the Bronx and the island of Manhattan by the East River. To the extreme southwest, it is separated from the New York City borough of Staten Island and the U. S. state of New Jersey by Upper New York Bay, the Narrows, to the east lie Block Island and numerous smaller islands. Its population density is 5,595.1 inhabitants per square mile, Long Island is culturally and ethnically diverse. Some of the wealthiest and most expensive neighborhoods in the Western Hemisphere are located on Long Island, nine bridges and 13 tunnels connect Brooklyn and Queens to the three other boroughs of New York City. Ferries connect Suffolk County northward across Long Island Sound to the state of Connecticut, the Long Island Rail Road is the busiest commuter railroad in North America and operates 24/7. At the time of European contact, the Lenape people inhabited the western end of Long Island, giovanni da Verrazzano was the first European to record an encounter with the Lenapes, after entering what is now New York Bay in 1524. In 1609, the English navigator Henry Hudson explored the harbor, adriaen Block followed in 1615 and is credited as the first European to determine that both Manhattan and Long Island are islands. Native American land deeds recorded by the Dutch from 1636 state that the Indians referred to Long Island as Sewanhaka, sewan was one of the terms for wampum, and is also translated as loose or scattered, which may refer either to the wampum or to Long Island. The name t Lange Eylandt alias Matouwacs appears in Dutch maps from the 1650s, later, the English referred to the land as Nassau Island, after the Dutch Prince William of Nassau, Prince of Orange. It is unclear when the name Nassau Island was discontinued, the very first settlements on Long Island were by settlers from England and its colonies in present-day New England. Lion Gardiner settled nearby Gardiners Island, the first settlement on the geographic Long Island itself was on October 21,1640, when Southold was established by the Rev. John Youngs and settlers from New Haven, Connecticut. Peter Hallock, one of the settlers, drew the long straw and was granted the honor to step ashore first and he is considered the first New World settler on Long Island. Southampton was settled in the same year, Hempstead followed in 1644, East Hampton in 1648, Huntington in 1653, and Brookhaven in 1655. While the eastern region of Long Island was first settled by the English, until 1664, the jurisdiction of Long Island was split, roughly at the present border between Nassau County and Suffolk County. The Dutch founded six towns in present-day Brooklyn beginning in 1645 and these included, Brooklyn, Gravesend, Flatlands, Flatbush, New Utrecht, and Bushwick
9.
Ruth Hussey
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Ruth Carol Hussey was an American actress best known for her Academy Award-nominated role as photographer Elizabeth Imbrie in The Philadelphia Story. Hussey was born in Providence, Rhode Island, October 30,1911 and she was also known as Ruth Carol ORourke. Her father, George R. Hussey, died of the Spanish flu in 1918 when she was seven years old, ten years later, her mother married a family friend, William ORourke, who had worked at the familys mail-order silver enterprise. Following graduation from the Providence public schools, she went on to art at Pembroke College. She never landed a role in any of the plays for which she tried out at Pembroke and she then received a degree in theatre from the University of Michigan School of Drama, and worked as an actress with a summer stock company in Michigan for two seasons. She also attended Boston Business College and Michigan School of Drama, after working as an actress in summer stock, she returned to Providence and worked as a radio fashion commentator on a local station. She wrote the ad copy for a Providence clothing store and read it on the radio each afternoon and she was encouraged by a friend to try out for acting roles at the Providence Playhouse. The theater director there turned her down, saying the roles were cast only out of New York City. Later that week, she journeyed to New York City and on her first day there, in New York City, she also worked for a time as a model. She then landed a number of roles with touring companies. Dead End toured the country in 1937 and the last theater on the trip was at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. MGM signed her to a contract and she made her film debut in 1937. She quickly became a lady in MGMs B unit, usually playing sophisticated. In 1941, exhibitors voted her the third-most popular new star in Hollywood, Hussey also worked with Robert Taylor in Flight Command, Robert Young in H. M. Pulham, Esq. Van Heflin in Tennessee Johnson, Ray Milland in The Uninvited, in 1946, she starred on Broadway in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play State of the Union. Her 1949 role in Goodbye, My Fancy on Broadway caused a Billboard reviewer to write, Miss Hussey brings a splendid aliveness and warmth to the lovely congresswoman. She filled in for Jean Arthur in the 1955 Lux Radio Theater presentation of Shane, playing Miriam Start, alongside original film stars Alan Ladd, in 1960, she co-starred in The Facts of Life with Bob Hope. Hussey was also active in television drama
10.
Sheldon Leonard
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Sheldon Leonard Bershad, known professionally as Sheldon Leonard, was an American film and television actor, producer, director and writer. Leonard was born as Sheldon Leonard Bershad, in Manhattan, New York City, the son of middle class Jewish parents Anna Levit and Frank Bershad. As an actor, Leonard specialized in playing supporting characters, especially gangsters or heavies, in such as Its a Wonderful Life, To Have and Have Not, Guys and Dolls. His trademark was his especially thick New York accent, usually delivered from the side of his mouth, in Decoy, Leonard uses his heavy persona to create the hard-boiled police detective Joe Portugal. On radio from 1945 to 1955, Leonard played an eccentric racetrack tout on The Jack Benny Program, ironically, as The Tout, he never gave out information on horse racing, unless Jack demanded it. One excuse the tout gave was Who knows about horses, Leonard was part of the cast of voice actors on the Damon Runyon Theatre radio show. He was part of the ensemble cast of the Martin and Lewis radio show and he also appeared frequently on The Adventures of the Saint, often playing gangsters and heavies, but also sometimes in more positive roles. Leonard was also a regular on the comedy series The Adventures of Maisie in the 1940s. During the 1950s, Leonard provided the voice of lazy fat cat Dodsworth in two Warner Bros, merrie Melodies cartoons directed by Robert McKimson. Later in the 1950s and 1960s, he established a reputation as a producer of television series, including The Danny Thomas Show, The Andy Griffith Show. The Dick Van Dyke Show, and I Spy and he also directed several TV series episodes, including four of the first eight episodes of the TV series Lassie. He also was briefly the star of his own television show Big Eddie, the show lasted for only ten episodes. The character of Andy Taylor was introduced in a 1960 episode of The Danny Thomas Show, Leonard also has the distinction of being one of the first two Miller Lite spokesmen. Using his trademark accent, he told the audience, I was at first reluctant to try Miller Lite, but then I was persuaded to do so by my friend, Large Louis. One of his last acting roles was a guest appearance on the TV series Cheers, in which he played Sid Nelson, Leonard died on January 11,1997, at the age of 89. He graduated from Syracuse University in 1929 and he was buried at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California. Bill Cosby, whom Leonard cast in I Spy, described Leonard as my last father when he dedicated an episode of Cosby to both Leonard and his slain son Ennis Cosby. Bill Cosby also included an impersonation of Sheldon Leonard in one track of his 1966 hit comedy album Wonderfulness, the track, Niagara Falls, describes Sheldon Leonards honeymoon at Niagara Falls
11.
Shemp Howard
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Shemp Howard was an American comedian and actor. He was called Shemp because Sam came out that way in his mothers thick Litvak accent, between his times with the Stooges, Shemp had a successful film career as a solo comedian. Shemp was born in Manhattan, New York, and raised in Brooklyn and he was the third-born of the five Horwitz brothers, the sons of their Lithuanian Jewish parents, Solomon Horwitz and Jennie Horwitz. Moe Howard and Curly Howard were his younger brothers, Shemps brother, Moe Howard, started in show business as a youngster, on stage and in films. Eventually, Moe and Shemp tried their hands as minstrel-show-style blackface comedians with an act they called Howard, meanwhile, they also worked for a rival vaudeville circuit at the same time, appearing without makeup. By the 1920s, Moe had teamed up with boyhood-friend-turned-vaudeville star Ted Healy in a roughhouse act, one day Moe spotted his brother Shemp in the audience, and yelled at him from the stage. Quick-witted Shemp yelled right back, and walked onto the stage, from then on he was part of the act, usually known as Ted Healy and His Stooges. His original stooges were the Howard brothers, and others came and went during 1925 -1928, on stage, Healy would sing and tell jokes while his three noisy stooges would get in his way. He would retaliate with physical and verbal abuse, Shemp played a bumbling fireman in the Stooges first film, Soup to Nuts, the only film in which he plays one of Healys gang. After a disagreement with Ted in August 1930, Moe, Larry and Shemp left to launch their own act, Howard, Fine & Howard, the three premiered at Los Angeles Paramount Theatre on August 28,1930. 1931, they added Three Lost Soles to the acts name, Moe, Larry and Shemp continued until July 1932, when Ted Healy approached them to team up again for the Shuberts Broadway revue Passing Show of 1932, and they readily accepted the offer. In spite of any differences, Moe knew that an association with the nationally-known Ted Healy provided opportunities the three comics were not achieving on their own, on August 16,1932, in a contract dispute, Healy walked out on the Shuberts revue during rehearsals. Shemp regrouped to form his own act and played on the road for a few months and he landed at Brooklyns Vitaphone Studios for movie appearance opportunities in May 1933. When he split from Healy, Shemp was immediately replaced by his, Shemp Howard, like many New York-based performers, found work at the Vitaphone studio in Brooklyn. Originally playing bit roles in Vitaphones Roscoe Arbuckle comedies, showing off his goofy appearance, he was entrusted with speaking roles and supporting parts almost immediately. He was featured with Vitaphone comics Jack Haley, Ben Blue and Gus Shy, then co-starred with Harry Gribbon, Daphne Pollard and Johnnie Berkes, a Gribbon-Howard short, Art Trouble, also features then unknown James Stewart in his first film role. Shemp would seldom stick to the script, and would liven up a scene with ad-libbed incidental dialogue or wisecracks and this became a trademark of his performances. In late 1935, Vitaphone was licensed to produce short comedies based on the Joe Palooka comic strip, Shemp was cast as Knobby Walsh, and though only a supporting character became the comic focus of the series, with Johnny Berkes and Lee Weber as his foils
12.
Dashiell Hammett
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Samuel Dashiell Hammett was an American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories, screenwriter, and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade, Nick and Nora Charles, in his obituary in The New York Times, he was described as the dean of the. Time magazine included Hammetts 1929 novel Red Harvest on its list of the 100 best English-language novels published between 1923 and 2005 and his novels and stories also had a significant influence on films. Hammett was born on a farm in Saint Marys County, Maryland and his parents were Richard Thomas Hammett and Anne Bond Dashiell, his mother belonged to an old Maryland family, whose name in French was De Chiel. Known as Sam, Hammett was baptized a Catholic, and grew up in Philadelphia and he left school when he was 13 years old and held several jobs before working for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. He served as an operative for Pinkerton from 1915 to February 1922, the agencys role in union strike-breaking eventually left him disillusioned. Hammett enlisted in the Army in 1918 and served in the Motor Ambulance Corps and he was afflicted during that time with the Spanish flu and later contracted tuberculosis. He spent most of his time in the Army as a patient at Cushman Hospital in Tacoma, Washington, where he met a nurse, Josephine Dolan, Hammett and Dolan had two daughters, Mary Jane and Josephine. Shortly after the birth of their child, Health Services nurses informed Dolan that due to Hammetts TB, she. Dolan rented a home in San Francisco, California, where Hammett would visit on weekends, the marriage soon fell apart, but he continued to financially support his wife and daughters with the income he made from his writing. Hammett was first published in 1922 in the magazine The Smart Set, known for the authenticity and realism of his writing, he drew on his experiences as a Pinkerton operative. Hammett wrote most of his fiction while he was living in San Francisco in the 1920s, streets. He said that All my characters were based on people Ive known personally, Raymond Chandler, often considered Hammetts successor, summarized his accomplishments in The Simple Art of Murder, Hammett was the ace performer. He is said to have lacked heart, yet the story he himself thought the most of and he was spare, frugal, hard-boiled, but he did over and over again what only the best writers can ever do at all. He wrote scenes that seemed never to have written before. In 1929 and 1930, he was involved with Nell Martin. He dedicated The Glass Key to her, and in turn, in 1931, Hammett embarked on a 30-year affair with the playwright Lillian Hellman. Though he sporadically continued to work on material, he wrote his novel in 1934
