1.
Paulette Goddard
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Paulette Goddard was an American actress. A child fashion model and a performer in several Broadway productions as a Ziegfeld Girl and her most notable films were her first major role, as Charles Chaplins leading lady in Modern Times, and Chaplins subsequent film The Great Dictator. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in So Proudly We Hail and her husbands included Chaplin, Burgess Meredith, and Erich Maria Remarque. They married in 1908 and separated while their daughter was very young, according to Goddard, her father left them, but according to J. R. Levy, Alta absconded with the child. Goddard was raised by her mother, and did not meet her again until the late 1930s. In a 1938 interview published in Colliers, Goddard claimed Levy was not her biological father, in response, Levy filed a suit against his daughter, claiming that the interview had ruined his reputation and cost him his job, and demanded financial support from her. In a December 17,1945, article written by Oliver Jensen in Life Magazine, Goddard admitted to having lost the case, to avoid a custody battle, her mother and she moved often during her childhood, even relocating to Canada at one point. Goddard began modelling at an age to support her mother and herself, working for Saks Fifth Avenue and Hattie Carnegie. An important figure in her childhood was her great-uncle, Charles Goddard and he played a central role in Goddards career, introducing her to Broadway impresario Florenz Ziegfeld. In 1926, she made her debut as a dancer in Ziegfelds summer review, No Foolin. Ziegfeld hired her for musical, Rio Rita, which opened in February 1927. It was, however, a flop and closed only three days following its premiere in Atlantic City. Soon after the closed, Goddard was introduced to Edgar James, president of the Southern Lumber Company, located in Asheville, North Carolina. Aged 17, considerably younger than James, she married him on June 28,1927, in Rye and it was a short marriage, and Goddard was granted a divorce in Reno, Nevada, in 1929, receiving a divorce settlement of $375,000. Goddard first visited Hollywood in 1929, when she appeared as an extra in two films, the Laurel and Hardy short film Berth Marks, and George Fitzmaurices drama The Locked Door. Following her divorce, she briefly visited Europe before returning to Hollywood in late 1930 with her mother and her second attempt at acting was no more successful than the first, as she landed work only as an extra. In 1932, she signed her first film contract with producer Samuel Goldwyn to appear as a Goldwyn Girl in The Kid from Spain. However, Goldwyn and she did not get along, and she began working for Hal Roach, the year she signed with Goldwyn, Goddard began dating Charlie Chaplin, a relationship that received substantial attention from the press
2.
Paramount Pictures
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Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film studio based in Hollywood, California, that has been a subsidiary of the American media conglomerate Viacom since 1994. In 1916, film producer Adolph Zukor contracted 22 actors and actresses and these fortunate few would become the first movie stars. Paramount Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America, in 2014, Paramount Pictures became the first major Hollywood studio to distribute all of its films in digital form only. Paramount is the fifth oldest surviving studio in the world after the French studios Gaumont Film Company and Pathé, followed by the Nordisk Film company. It is the last major film studio headquartered in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. Paramount Pictures dates its existence from the 1912 founding date of the Famous Players Film Company, hungarian-born founder, Adolph Zukor, who had been an early investor in nickelodeons, saw that movies appealed mainly to working-class immigrants. With partners Daniel Frohman and Charles Frohman he planned to offer feature-length films that would appeal to the class by featuring the leading theatrical players of the time. By mid-1913, Famous Players had completed five films, and Zukor was on his way to success and its first film was Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth, which starred Sarah Bernhardt. That same year, another aspiring producer, Jesse L. Lasky, opened his Lasky Feature Play Company with money borrowed from his brother-in-law, Samuel Goldfish, the Lasky company hired as their first employee a stage director with virtually no film experience, Cecil B. DeMille, who would find a site in Hollywood, near Los Angeles, for his first feature film. Hodkinson and actor, director, producer Hobart Bosworth had started production of a series of Jack London movies, Paramount was the first successful nationwide distributor, until this time, films were sold on a statewide or regional basis which had proved costly to film producers. Also, Famous Players and Lasky were privately owned while Paramount was a corporation, in 1916, Zukor maneuvered a three-way merger of his Famous Players, the Lasky Company, and Paramount. Zukor and Lasky bought Hodkinson out of Paramount, and merged the three companies into one, with only the exhibitor-owned First National as a rival, Famous Players-Lasky and its Paramount Pictures soon dominated the business. It was this system that gave Paramount a leading position in the 1920s and 1930s, the driving force behind Paramounts rise was Zukor. In 1926, Zukor hired independent producer B. P. Schulberg and they purchased the Robert Brunton Studios, a 26-acre facility at 5451 Marathon Street for US$1 million. In 1927, Famous Players-Lasky took the name Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation, three years later, because of the importance of the Publix Theatres, it became Paramount Publix Corporation. In 1928, Paramount began releasing Inkwell Imps, animated cartoons produced by Max, the Fleischers, veterans in the animation industry, were among the few animation producers capable of challenging the prominence of Walt Disney. The Paramount newsreel series Paramount News ran from 1927 to 1957, Paramount was also one of the first Hollywood studios to release what were known at that time as talkies, and in 1929, released their first musical, Innocents of Paris
3.
Destry Rides Again
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Destry Rides Again is a 1939 western starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart, and directed by George Marshall. The supporting cast includes Mischa Auer, Charles Winninger, Brian Donlevy, Allen Jenkins, Irene Hervey, Billy Gilbert, Bill Cody, Jr. Lillian Yarbo, and Una Merkel. Although the title comes from Max Brands popular novel, which inspired the earlier screenplay with Tom Mix, in 1996, Destry Rides Again was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. Saloon owner Kent, the boss of the fictional Western town of Bottleneck, has the towns sheriff, Mr. Keogh. Kent and Frenchy, his girlfriend and the dance hall queen, now have a stranglehold over the local cattle ranchers. The crooked towns mayor, Hiram J. Slade, who is in collusion with Kent, appoints the town drunk, Washington Dimsdale, as the new sheriff, assuming that he will be easy to control and manipulate. Destry confounds the townsfolk by refusing to strap on a gun in spite of demonstrating that he is an expert marksman and he still carries out the letter of the law, as deputy sheriff, and earns their respect. A final confrontation between Destry and Kents gang is inevitable, but Frenchy is won over by Destry and changes sides, a final gunfight ensues where Frenchy is killed in the crossfire, and the rule of law wins the day. Famed Western writer Max Brand contributed the novel, Destry Rides Again, in the original work, Harrison Destry was not a pacifist. As filmed in 1932, with Tom Mix in the starring role, the film was James Stewarts first western. The story featured a ferocious cat-fight between Marlene Dietrich and Una Merkel, which caused a mild censorship problem at the time of release. Internationally, the film was released under the alternate titles Femme ou Démon in French, Destry Rides Again was generally well accepted by the public, as well as critics. It was reviewed by Frank S. Nugent in The New York Times, Stewarts contribution was similarly treated, turning in an easy, likable, pleasantly humored performance. Universal Pictures released a version, also titled Destry Rides Again, directed by Benjamin Stoloff and starring Tom Mix. An almost shot-for-shot remake of the 1939 production, Destry, was directed by George Marshall and stars Audie Murphy. A Broadway musical version of the story, Destry Rides Again, opened in New York at the Imperial Theater on April 23,1959, and played 472 performances. Produced by David Merrick, the show had a book by Leonard Gershe, music and lyrics by Harold Rome, ABC aired a short-lived television series in 1964, Destry, based on the first two films, starring John Gavin as the son of the movies title character
4.
Fred Clark
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Frederick Leonard Clark was an American film and television character actor. Born in Lincoln, California, Clark made his debut in 1947 in The Unsuspected. His 20-year film career included nearly seventy films and numerous television appearances, in 1942 during World War II Clark joined the United States Navy and served as a pilot. He later transferred to the United States Army and served with the Third Army in Europe until the end of the war, among his films were Ride the Pink Horse, Mr. Clark had a regular but short-lived role in the 1966 ABC sitcom The Double Life of Henry Phyfe as the Central Intelligence Service boss of a hapless conscripted spy played by comedian Red Buttons. Clark was married to actress Benay Venuta from 1952–1962, then model Gloria Glaser from 1966 until his death from disease in Santa Monica. Clark has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in television, Fred Clark at the Internet Movie Database Fred Clark at Find a Grave
5.
Frank Faylen
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Frank Faylen was an American film and television actor. Born Frank Ruf in St. Louis, Missouri, he began his career as an infant appearing with his vaudeville-performing parents on stage. The family lived on a showboat, after traveling with his showbisiness parents through his childhood, Faylen became a stage actor at 18, and eventually began working in films in the 1930s. He began playing a number of bit parts for Warner Bros. then freelanced for other studios in gradually larger character roles. He appeared as Walt Disneys musical conductor in The Reluctant Dragon, Faylen and Laurel and Hardy supporting player Charlie Hall were teamed briefly by Monogram Pictures. Faylens breakthrough came in 1945, where he was cast as Bim, in the following year, he played Ernie Bishop, the friendly taxi driver in Frank Capras 1946 film Its a Wonderful Life. Faylens career also stretched to television, playing long-suffering grocer Herbert T. Gillis on the 1950s-60s television sitcom The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, in 1968, he had a small part in the Barbra Streisand film Funny Girl. Faylen appeared in almost 200 films and he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Faylen was married to Carol Hughes, an actress and he died from pneumonia in 1985. He was interred in the San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Mission Hills, Los Angeles and his two daughters, Catherine and Carol, are retired actresses. Catherine Kay Faylen was Regis Philbins first wife, Frank Faylen at the Internet Movie Database Frank Faylen at Find a Grave
6.
Taylor Holmes
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Taylor Holmes was an actor who appeared in over 100 Broadway plays in his five-decade career. However, he is probably best remembered for his film roles, in one of his earliest films, he starred in A Pair of Sixes, produced by George K. Spoor. Holmes was born on May 16,1878, in Newark, Holmes began his stage career in vaudeville and made his first professional appearance at Keiths Theatre in Boston in 1899. In 1900, Holmes appeared George Bernard Shaws Candida in Chicago, noted British theater critic William Archer saw the production and encouraged Holmes to go to London to further his career. Holmes sought out Archer in London some months later and joined the company founded by Olga Nethersole and he achieved only middling success before returning to the American stages. He made his Broadway debut in February 1900 in the controversial play Sapho, Holmes played Rosencrantz with E. H. Sothern in a production of Hamlet and toured with Robert Edeson. He appeared in hits such as The Commuters, The Music Master. Early film appearances included Efficiency Edgars Courtship and Fools for Luck, by the 1940s, he was working more on film than on stage. He also played Ebenezer Scrooge in what is considered a notoriously bad half-hour television version of Charles Dickenss A Christmas Carol. Only months after the release of his film, Sleeping Beauty, as King Stefan, Taylor Holmes died on September 30,1959. He was married to actress Edna Phillips and was the father of actors Phillips Holmes, Madeleine Taylor Holmes, Holmes has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His interment was is in Culver Citys Holy Cross Cemetery
