1.
Anthology series
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An anthology series is a radio or television series that presents a different story and a different set of characters in each episode or season/series. Some anthology series, such as Studio One, began on radio, many popular old-time radio programs were anthology series. On some series, such as Inner Sanctum Mysteries, the constant was the host. One of the earliest such programs was The Collier Hour, broadcast on the NBC Blue Network from 1927 to 1932, as radios first major dramatic anthology, it adapted stories and serials from Colliers Weekly in a calculated move to increase subscriptions and compete with The Saturday Evening Post. Weird The Haunting Hour The Sealed Book Mystery in the Air The Weird Circle Quiet, the stars would own the studio and the program, as Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz had done successfully with Desilu studio. Powell had intended for the program to feature himself, Charles Boyer, Joel McCrea, when Russell and McCrea backed out, David Niven came on board as the third star. The fourth star was initially a guest star, CBS liked the idea, and Four Star Playhouse made its debut in fall of 1952. It ran on alternate weeks only during the first season, alternating with Amos n Andy and it was successful enough to be renewed and became a weekly program from the second season until the end of its run in 1956. Ida Lupino was brought on board as the de facto fourth star, though unlike Powell, Boyer, American television networks would sometimes run summer anthology series which consisted of unsold television pilots. Beginning in 1971, the long-run Masterpiece Theatre drama anthology series brought British productions to American television. k. a. Billy Roses Playbill Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre The Bold Ones Broadway Television Theatre Buick-Electra Playhouse Cameo Theatre Camera Three The Campbell Playhouse, Campbell Soundstage and Campbell Summer Soundstage Cavalcade of America CBS Playhouse CBS Summer Playhouse CBS Television Workshop CBS Workshop, a. k. a. CBS Repertoire Workshop Celanese Theatre Celebrity Playhouse Center Stage Cheer Television Theatre The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre a. k. a, Chevrolet on Broadway Chevron Hall of Stars Chevron Theatre Climax. Gruen Guild Theatre The Gulf Playhouse Hallmark Hall of Fame Hollywood Opening Night Hollywood Premiere Theatre, Hollywood Theatre Time International Playhouse John Waters Presents Movies That Will Corrupt You The Joseph Cotten Show, a. k. a. k. a. Max Liebman Presents Medallion Theatre, a. k. a, grimms Fairy Tale Classics Happily Ever After, Fairy Tales for Every Child The Harveytoons Show KaBlam. Late Night, Black and White Legends of Bikini Bottom Liquid Television The Looney Tunes Show Mickey Mouse Works Mickeys Mouse Tracks O Canada Off the Air Oh Yeah. Cartoons The Pink Panther Show The Popeye Show The Porky Pig Show Princes et princesses Random. M. k. a. Terribles House of Horrible The Eddie Cantor Comedy Theatre El Chapulín Colorado Ripping Yarns George Burns Comedy Week Good Heavens Human Remains Inside No. k. a. k. a. k. a. k. a, orson Welles Great Mysteries Out of the Fog Panic. Way of Life Family Theater Insight Lamp Unto My Feet Look Up, the Fisher Family Alcoa Presents, One Step Beyond Amazing Stories American Horror Story Are You Afraid of the Dark. L. k. a
Anthology series
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Lux Radio Theater ad art Joan Crawford
Anthology series
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Nelson Olmsted of NBC's Sleep No More fantasy series.
2.
James Mason
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James Neville Mason was an English actor. He was nominated for three Academy Awards and three Golden Globes, Mason was born in Huddersfield, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, to Mabel Hattersley and John Mason. His father was a textile merchant. He was educated at Marlborough College, and earned a first in architecture at Peterhouse, Mason had no formal training in acting and initially embarked upon it for fun. After Cambridge he made his debut in Aldershot in The Rascal in 1931. He joined The Old Vic theatre in London under the guidance of Tyrone Guthrie, in 1933 Alexander Korda gave Mason a small role in The Private Life of Don Juan but sacked him three days into shooting. From 1935-38, he starred in many British quota quickies, Mason became hugely popular for his brooding anti-heroes in the Gainsborough series of melodramas of the 1940s, including The Man in Grey and The Wicked Lady. He also starred with Deborah Kerr and Robert Newton in Hatters Castle and he then took the lead role in the popular The Seventh Veil, which set box office records in post-war Britain and raised him to international stardom. He followed it with a role as a mortally wounded IRA bank robber on the run in Odd Man Out and his first Hollywood film, exhibitors voted him the most popular star in Britain in each year between 1944 and 1947. They also thought he was the most popular star in 1946. He was the most popular star in Canada in 1948. Masons languid but impassioned vocal talent enabled him to play a villain as easily as his good looks assisted him as a leading man. His roles include Brutus in Julius Caesar, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in The Desert Fox, The Story of Rommel and The Desert Rats, in the 1950s, Mason was host of Lux Video Theatre on CBS television. In 1963 he settled in Switzerland, and embarked on a transatlantic career, one of his last roles, that of corrupt lawyer Ed Concannon in The Verdict, earned him his third and final Oscar nomination. Mason had been a neighbour and friend of the comedian. Having completed playing the role in Dr. This was to be Masons final screen performance, in the late 1970s, Mason became a mentor to up-and-coming actor Sam Neill. Mason was a lover of animals, particularly cats
James Mason
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Mason in The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)
James Mason
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Mason in North by Northwest (1959)
James Mason
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Mason and his family in 1957 in the television programme Panic!. From left, son Morgan with wife Pamela, daughter Portland, and Mason.
3.
Otto Kruger
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Otto Kruger was an American actor, originally a Broadway matinee idol, who established a niche as a charming villain in films, such as Hitchcocks Saboteur. He also appeared in CBSs Perry Mason and other TV series and he was the grandnephew of South African president Paul Kruger. Born in Toledo, Ohio, Kruger was of German descent and he was the son of Bernard Alben Kruger and Elizabeth Winers Kruger and the grandnephew of South African pioneer and president Paul Kruger. Otto was musically trained, but switched careers and became an actor, after studying engineering at the University of Michigan, he studied briefly at Columbia University. Making his Broadway debut at the age of fifteen, Kruger quickly became a matinee idol, though he started to get noticed in the early 1920s, it was the 1930s when his career was at its height. His screen debut came in Turn Back the Clock and he made an appearance in the film Chained, though he played the hero on occasion, for most of his career, he played the main villain or a charming or corrupt businessman. One of his best known roles was in the Douglas Sirk film Magnificent Obsession, Kruger played the supporting role of Judge Percy Mettrick, who unsuccessfully urges Will Kane to leave town in High Noon. Kruger is also remembered for playing the villain Tobin in Alfred Hitchcocks spy film Saboteur and his television roles included those of Dr. Jones. Kruger made four guest appearances on CBSs Perry Mason, in his first two appearances, The Case of the Grumbling Grandfather in 1961, and The Case of the Counterfeit Crank in 1962, he was cast as Masons client, and in both episodes was the title character. In his final appearance in 1964, he played Judge Norris in The Case of the Missing Button, on March 20,1920, Kruger secretly married Broadway actress Susan Sue MacManamy. Their daughter, Ottilie, was also an actress and was the first wife of pioneering cinematographer Gayne Rescher, Kruger died at the Motion Picture and Television Country House in Woodland Hills, California, on his 89th birthday. Kruger was granted two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for TV and one for film, Mr. Kruger appeared as Mr. Hardecker in After Dinner Story from the Suspense radio program series. Otto Kruger at the Internet Movie Database Otto Kruger at the Internet Broadway Database Otto Kruger at Find a Grave
Otto Kruger
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Otto Kruger
Otto Kruger
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Kruger in
Dracula's Daughter (1936)
4.
Gordon MacRae
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Albert Gordon MacRae was an American actor and singer, best known for his appearances in the film versions of two Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, Oklahoma. And Carousel, and playing Bill Sherman in On Moonlight Bay, prior to this, he attended Nottingham High School in Syracuse, New York. Winning a contest enabled MacRae to sing at the 1939 New York Worlds Fair with the Harry James and Les Brown orchestras and he made his Broadway debut in 1942, acquiring his first recording contract soon afterwards. Many of his hit recordings were made with Jo Stafford, in 1948, he appeared in his first film, The Big Punch, a drama about boxing. He soon began a partnership with Doris Day and appeared with her in several films. In 1950, he starred with Doris Day in Tea for Two, then in 1951, he starred again with Day in On Moonlight Bay and that same year, he also starred opposite Kathryn Grayson in the third film version of The Desert Song. This was followed by leading roles in two films of Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, Oklahoma. And Carousel, both films opposite Shirley Jones, on radio in 1945, his talents were showcased on the Gordon MacRae Show on the CBS network in collaboration with the conductor Archie Bleyer. Many of those programs were recorded later in popular studio cast albums, MacRae appeared frequently on television, on such programs as The Martha Raye Show and The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford, both on NBC. During Christmas 1958, MacRae and Ford performed the Christmas hymn O Holy Night, earlier in 1958, MacRae guest-starred on the short-lived NBC variety series, The Polly Bergen Show. Thereafter, MacRae appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Dinah Shore Chevy Show, The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, in the late 1960s, he co-hosted for a week on The Mike Douglas Show. He also toured in stock and appeared in nightclubs. In 1967, he replaced Robert Preston in the original Broadway run of the musical I Do, I Do. starring opposite Carol Lawrence, who had taken over her role from Mary Martin. He was married to Sheila MacRae from 1941 until 1967, the couple were the parents of four children, actresses Heather and Meredith MacRae, Two of the children, Meredith MacRae and Robert Bruce MacRae, predeceased their mother, Sheila. Gordon MacRae was married, secondly, to Elizabeth Lambert Schrafft on September 25,1967 and they remained married until his death. He was buried at the Wyuka Cemetery in Lincoln, Nebraska and he battled alcohol problems for many years although by the late 1970s he overcame them and in the 1980s helped people in a treatment centre who had similar addictions. MacRae suffered from cancer of the mouth and jaw, but ultimately died in 1986 of pneumonia, at his home in Lincoln, Nebraska, junior Miss Three to Make Ready Carousel Annie Get Your Gun Bells Are Ringing Guys and Dolls Bells Are Ringing Jerome Kerns Theatre Kismet Oklahoma. Golden Rainbow Milk and Honey Paint Your Wagon MacRae replaced Frank Sinatra on a program in 1943
Gordon MacRae
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MacRae in 1953.
5.
CBS
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CBS is an American commercial broadcast television network that is a flagship property of CBS Corporation. The company is headquartered at the CBS Building in New York City with major facilities and operations in New York City. CBS is sometimes referred to as the Eye Network, in reference to the iconic logo. It has also called the Tiffany Network, alluding to the perceived high quality of CBS programming during the tenure of William S. Paley. It can also refer to some of CBSs first demonstrations of color television, the network has its origins in United Independent Broadcasters Inc. a collection of 16 radio stations that was purchased by Paley in 1928 and renamed the Columbia Broadcasting System. Under Paleys guidance, CBS would first become one of the largest radio networks in the United States, in 1974, CBS dropped its former full name and became known simply as CBS, Inc. In 2000, CBS came under the control of Viacom, which was formed as a spin-off of CBS in 1971, CBS Corporation is controlled by Sumner Redstone through National Amusements, which also controls the current Viacom. The television network has more than 240 owned-and-operated and affiliated stations throughout the United States. The origins of CBS date back to January 27,1927, Columbia Phonographic went on the air on September 18,1927, with a presentation by the Howard Barlow Orchestra from flagship station WOR in Newark, New Jersey, and fifteen affiliates. Operational costs were steep, particularly the payments to AT&T for use of its land lines, in early 1928 Judson sold the network to brothers Isaac and Leon Levy, owners of the networks Philadelphia affiliate WCAU, and their partner Jerome Louchenheim. With the record out of the picture, Paley quickly streamlined the corporate name to Columbia Broadcasting System. He believed in the power of advertising since his familys La Palina cigars had doubled their sales after young William convinced his elders to advertise on radio. By September 1928, Paley bought out the Louchenheim share of CBS, during Louchenheims brief regime, Columbia paid $410,000 to A. H. Grebes Atlantic Broadcasting Company for a small Brooklyn station, WABC, which would become the networks flagship station. WABC was quickly upgraded, and the relocated to 860 kHz. The physical plant was relocated also – to Steinway Hall on West 57th Street in Manhattan, by the turn of 1929, the network could boast to sponsors of having 47 affiliates. Paley moved right away to put his network on a financial footing. In the fall of 1928, he entered talks with Adolph Zukor of Paramount Pictures. The deal came to fruition in September 1929, Paramount acquired 49% of CBS in return for a block of its stock worth $3.8 million at the time
CBS
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Paley's management saw a twentyfold increase in gross income in his first decade.
CBS
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Wholesome
Kate Smith, Paley's choice for La Palina Hour, was unthreatening to home and hearth
CBS
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When
Charlie Chaplin finally allowed the world to hear his voice after 20 years of mime, he chose CBS's airwaves to do it on.
CBS
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CBS west coast headquarters reflected its industry stature while hosting its top Hollywood talent.
6.
NBC
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The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcast television network that is the flagship property of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. The network is part of the Big Three television networks, founded in 1926 by the Radio Corporation of America, NBC is the oldest major broadcast network in the United States. Following the acquisition by GE, Bob Wright served as executive officer of NBC, remaining in that position until his retirement in 2007. In 2003, French media company Vivendi merged its entertainment assets with GE, Comcast purchased a controlling interest in the company in 2011, and acquired General Electrics remaining stake in 2013. Following the Comcast merger, Zucker left NBC Universal and was replaced as CEO by Comcast executive Steve Burke, during a period of early broadcast business consolidation, radio manufacturer Radio Corporation of America acquired New York City radio station WEAF from American Telephone & Telegraph. Westinghouse, a shareholder in RCA, had an outlet in Newark, New Jersey pioneer station WJZ. This station was transferred from Westinghouse to RCA in 1923, WEAF acted as a laboratory for AT&Ts manufacturing and supply outlet Western Electric, whose products included transmitters and antennas. The Bell System, AT&Ts telephone utility, was developing technologies to transmit voice- and music-grade audio over short and long distances, the 1922 creation of WEAF offered a research-and-development center for those activities. WEAF maintained a schedule of radio programs, including some of the first commercially sponsored programs. In an early example of chain or networking broadcasting, the station linked with Outlet Company-owned WJAR in Providence, Rhode Island, AT&T refused outside companies access to its high-quality phone lines. The early effort fared poorly, since the telegraph lines were susceptible to atmospheric. In 1925, AT&T decided that WEAF and its network were incompatible with the companys primary goal of providing a telephone service. AT&T offered to sell the station to RCA in a deal that included the right to lease AT&Ts phone lines for network transmission, the divisions ownership was split among RCA, its founding corporate parent General Electric and Westinghouse. NBC officially started broadcasting on November 15,1926, WEAF and WJZ, the flagships of the two earlier networks, were operated side-by-side for about a year as part of the new NBC. On April 5,1927, NBC expanded to the West Coast with the launch of the NBC Orange Network and this was followed by the debut of the NBC Gold Network, also known as the Pacific Gold Network, on October 18,1931. The Orange Network carried Red Network programming, and the Gold Network carried programming from the Blue Network, initially, the Orange Network recreated Eastern Red Network programming for West Coast stations at KPO in San Francisco. The Orange Network name was removed from use in 1936, at the same time, the Gold Network became part of the Blue Network. In the 1930s, NBC also developed a network for shortwave radio stations, in 1927, NBC moved its operations to 711 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, occupying the upper floors of a building designed by architect Floyd Brown
NBC
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The
Comcast Building in
New York City (or the GE Building, originally the
RCA Building) serves as the headquarters of NBC.
NBC
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National Broadcasting Company
NBC
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Radio City West was located at
Sunset Boulevard and
Vine Street in Los Angeles until it was replaced by a bank in the mid-1960s.
NBC
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Entrance at the GE Building.
7.
Black-and-white
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Black and white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, and hyphenated black-and-white when used as an adjective, is any of several monochrome forms in visual arts. Black-and-white images are not usually starkly contrasted black and white and they combine black and white in a continuum producing a range of shades of gray. Even when most studios had the capability to make color films they were not heavily utilized as using the Technicolor process was expensive, for the years 1940–1966, a separate Academy Award for Best Art Direction was given for black-and-white movies along with one for color. Television, Television program was first transmitted in black-and-white, scottish inventor John Logie Baird demonstrated the worlds first color television transmission on July 3,1928 using a mechanical process. Some color broadcasts in the US began in the 1950s, with color becoming common in industrialized nations during the late 1960s. In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission settled on a color NTSC standard in 1953, color television became more widespread in the U. S. between 1963 and 1967, when the CBS and ABC networks joined NBC in broadcasting full color schedules. Canada began airing color television in 1966 while the United Kingdom began to use a different color system from July 1967 known as PAL. The Republic Of Ireland followed in 1970, in China, black and white television sets were the norm until as late as the 1990s, color TVs not outselling them until about 1989. While seldom used now, many consumer camcorders have the ability to record in black-and-white. Photography, Photographs were either black-and-white or shades of sepia, color photography was originally rare and expensive and again often containing inaccurate hues. Color photography became more common from the mid-20th century, Today, black-and-white is a niche market for photographers who use the medium for artistic purposes. This can take the form of film or digital conversion to grayscale. For amateur use certain companies such as Kodak manufactured black-and-white disposable cameras until 2009, also, certain films are produced today which give black-and-white images using the ubiquitous C41 color process. Printing press, Most American newspapers were black-and-white until the early 1980s, The New York Times, some claim that USA Today was the major impetus for the change to color. In the UK, color was only introduced from the mid-1980s. Even today, many newspapers restrict color photographs to the front, similarly, daily comic strips in newspapers were traditionally black-and-white with color reserved for Sunday strips. Sometimes color is reserved for the cover, magazines such as Jet magazine were either all or mostly black-and-white until the end of the 2000s when it became all-color. Manga are typically published in black-and-white although now it is part of its image, many school yearbooks are still entirely or mostly in black-and-white
Black-and-white
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A black-and-white photo of a
breadfruit, c. 1870
Black-and-white
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Black-and-white photography of Frankfurt central station
Black-and-white
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Contemporary photo of a
Galápagos tortoise (
Chelonoidis nigra) on
Santa Cruz Island.
8.
Monaural
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Monaural or monophonic sound reproduction is intended to be heard as if it were a single channel of sound perceived as coming from one position. Monaural recordings, like stereo, customarily use multiple microphones, fed into multiple channels on a recording console, in some cases the multitrack source is mixed down to a one track tape becoming one signal. However, today monaural recordings are usually mastered to be played on stereo and multi-track formats, monaural sound has been replaced by stereo sound in most entertainment applications. However, it remains the standard for communications, telephone networks. A few FM radio stations, particularly talk radio shows, choose to broadcast in monaural, as a monaural signal has a slight advantage in signal strength over a stereophonic signal of the same power. Monaural sound is normal on, Phonograph cylinders Disc records made before 1958, such as made for playing at a speed of 78 rpm and earlier 16 2⁄3, 33 1⁄3. Some FM radio stations that broadcast only spoken word or talk radio content in order to maximize their coverage area, examples of this would be the CBC Radio One stations on the FM dial. Sometimes listeners will not be convinced that the signal is strong since there is no ST or STEREO LED lit, subcarrier signals for FM radio, which carry leased content such as background music for businesses or a radio reading service for the blind. Background music services such as Seeburg 1000, satellite broadcasts by Muzak as well as the public systems such services are intended to be used with. At various times artists have preferred to work in mono, either in recognition of the limitations of the equipment of the era or because of simple preference. Many of Stanley Kubrick and Woody Allens movies were recorded in mono because of their directors preferences, monaural LP records were eventually phased out and no longer manufactured after the early 1970s, with a few exceptions. For example, Decca UK had a few double issues until the end of 1970-the last one being Tom Joness I Who Have Nothing, during the 1960s it was common for albums to be released as both monaural LPs and stereo LPs, occasionally with slight differences between the two. This was because many people owned mono record players that were incapable of playing stereo records, on 9 September 2009, The Beatles re-released a remastered box set of their mono output spanning the Please Please Me album to The Beatles. The set, simply called The Beatles in Mono, also includes a summary of the mono singles, B-sides. Also included were five tracks originally mixed for an unissued mono Yellow Submarine EP, Bob Dylan followed suit on October 19,2010 with The Original Mono Recordings, a box set featuring the mono releases from Bob Dylan to John Wesley Harding. When the initial run of the box set sold out, no more were pressed, unlike the Beatles, sometimes mono sound or monaural can simply refer to a merged pair of stereo channels - also known as collapsed stereo or folded-down stereo. Over time some devices have used mono sound amplification circuitry with two or more speakers since it can cut the cost of the hardware, some consumer electronics with stereo RCA outputs have a microswitch in the red RCA output that disables merging of stereo sound into the white RCA output. Common devices with this are VCRs, DVD/Blu-ray players, information appliances, set-top boxes, video game consoles sometimes have male RCA ends of cables with a proprietary multi-A/V plug on the other end, which prevents automatic stereo merging unless adapters are used
Monaural
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Contents
9.
Lux Radio Theater
–
Lux Radio Theatre, sometimes spelled Lux Radio Theater, a long-run classic radio anthology series, was broadcast on the NBC Blue Network, CBS Radio, and NBC Radio. Initially, the series adapted Broadway plays during its first two seasons before it began adapting films and these hour-long radio programs were performed live before studio audiences. The series became the most popular anthology series on radio, broadcast for more than 20 years. The primary sponsor of the show was Unilever through its Lux Soap brand, broadcasting from New York, the series premiered at 2,30 p. m. October 14,1934, on the NBC Blue Network with a production of Seventh Heaven starring Miriam Hopkins, the host was the shows fictional producer, Douglass Garrick. Doris Dagmar played another character, Peggy Winthrop, who delivered the Lux commercials. Each show featured a session with Garrick talking to the lead actors. Anthony appeared as Garrick from the premiere 1934 episode until June 30,1935, Garrick was portrayed by Albert Hayes from July 29,1935 to May 25,1936, when the show moved to the West Coast. DeMille took over as the host on June 1,1936 and that initial episode with DeMille featured Marlene Dietrich and Clark Gable in The Legionnaire and the Lady. On several occasions, usually when he was out of town, he was replaced by various celebrities. Lux Radio Theatre strove to feature as many of the stars of the original stage and film productions as possible. In 1936, when sponsor Lever Brothers moved the show from New York City to Hollywood, the first Lux film adaptation was The Legionnaire and the Lady, with Marlene Dietrich and Clark Gable, based on the film Morocco. That was followed by a Lux adaptation of The Thin Man, featuring the stars, Myrna Loy. Though the show focused on film and its performers, several classic radio regulars appeared in Lux Radio Theatre productions. Jim and Marian Jordan, better known as Fibber McGee and Molly, appeared on the show twice, bryan, made a few Lux appearances as well. Bandleader Phil Harris, a regular on Jack Bennys radio program and his wife Alice Faye. Fred Allen, Jack Benny, George Burns and Gracie Allen were among the radio stars who were invited to do Lux presentations as well. At least once Lux Radio Theatre offered a presentation without any known performers, a famous urban legend claimed that actor Sonny Tufts was slated to appear as a guest alongside Joan Fontaine for a production of The Major and the Minor on Lux Radio Theatre
Lux Radio Theater
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Performing before a studio audience in 1948
Lux Radio Theater
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Cecil B. DeMille, host of Lux Radio Theatre (1936–1945)
Lux Radio Theater
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A studio audience gathers prior to a live production at Hollywood's Lux Radio Playhouse, located one block south of Hollywood and Vine at 1615 North Vine Street.
10.
NBC Blue Network
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The Blue Network, and its immediate predecessor, the NBC Blue Network, were the on-air names of the now defunct American radio production and distribution service, which ran from 1927 to 1945. The Blue Network can be dated to 1923, when the Radio Corporation of America acquired WJZ, Newark from Westinghouse and moved it to New York City in May of that year. When RCA commenced operations of WRC, Washington on August 1,1923, Radio historian Elizabeth McLeod states that it would not be until 1924 that the Radio Group formally began network operations. The core stations of the Radio Group were RCAs stations WJZ and WRC, the Westinghouse station WBZ, then in Springfield, Massachusetts, and WGY, RCAs principal rival prior to 1926 was the radio broadcasting department of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company. AT&T, starting in 1921, had been using this department as a test-bed for equipment being designed and manufactured by its Western Electric subsidiary, nevertheless, the WJZ network sought to compete toe-to-toe with the AT&T network, which was built around WEAF. For example, both stations sent announcer teams to cover the 1924 Democratic National Convention, which was held in Madison Square Garden in New York City. RCA were to receive a break in 1926, when AT&T made a decision to exit the broadcasting business. The first step by AT&T was to create the Broadcasting Company of America on May 15,1926, the Oakland Tribune stated that 4/5ths of the purchase price of WEAF could be attributed to good-will and the line access. On July 28,1926, the Washington Post reported in a story that RCA had acquired WCAP. The Oakland Tribune reported the day that WCAP had departed the field, and WRC would be operating on the frequency that they had shared. It is also announced that this opening Victor program inaugurates a new system to be operated by the National Broadcasting Company. This new chain, which will be known as the network, will allow simultaneous broadcasting from WJZ through WBZ, Springfield and Boston, KDKA, Pittsburgh. For broadcasting of the first program, therefore, the network will be joined with the red network, as the WEAF chain is designated. The Red and Blue Networks shared a pool of engineers and facilities. There are two examples, from the biggest news events of 1927. On May 20,1927, both of the NBC networks covered the return of Charles Lindbergh to America from his trans-Atlantic flight, star announcer Graham McNamee doing the honors. Three months later, a combined hookup of 67 stations on the two presented the second Dempsey–Tunney fight, broadcast by McNamee and NBC colleague Phillips Carlin. See Elizabeth McLeods discussion of surviving NBC broadcast material from this era, during the 1932–1933 season, Standard Oil of New Jersey sponsored an unusual program, the Five-Star Theater, which each weeknight presented a show in a different format
NBC Blue Network
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Advertisement placed by the Enna Jettick Shoe Company promoting the appearance of
Sir Harry Lauder on its NBC Blue program, December 1, 1929. Note that the text implies that the NBC Blue, NBC Orange (West Coast) and NBC Red networks were all participating in the broadcast.
NBC Blue Network
–
Blue Network
NBC Blue Network
–
Advertisement advertising the debut of the
Lux Radio Theatre, which had a brief run on NBC Blue in 1934-5 before moving for a long run on CBS.
NBC Blue Network
–
This 1944 advertisement, while it dates from after the sale by NBC of the Blue Network, shows how the Blue Network continued to have access to NBC facilities; in this case, the famed radio studios at
Rockefeller Center in New York City
11.
Lux (soap)
–
LUX is a global brand developed by Unilever. The range of products includes beauty soaps, shower gels, bath additives, hair shampoos, Lux started as “Sunlight Flakes” laundry soap in 1899. In 1925, it became the first mass-market toilet soap in the world and it is noted as a brand that pioneered female celebrity endorsements. As of 2009, Lux revenue was estimated at €1 billion, today, Lux is the market leader in countries like India, Pakistan, Brazil, Thailand and South Africa Developed by Unilever, Lux is now headquartered in Singapore. The brand was founded by the Lever Brothers in 1899 and now known as Unilever. The name changed from “Sunlight Flakes” to “Lux” in 1900, a Latin word for “light” and suggestive of “luxury. ”Lux toilet soap was launched in the United States in 1925 and in the United Kingdom in 1928. Subsequently, Lux soap has been marketed in several forms, including handwash, shower gel, lux’s early advertising campaigns aimed to educate users about its credentials as a laundry product and appeared in magazines such as Ladies Home Journal. By the early 1920s, it was a successful brand and in 1924. Introduced in the United States in 1924, Lux became the world’s first mass market toilet soap with the tagline “made as fine as French Soap”, in the first two years of launch, Lux concentrated on building its beauty soap credentials. Advertisements offered consumers “a beauty soap made in the French method” at an affordable price, made with fine-texture, rich in fragrance, and manufactured using a method created in France, the first Lux toilet soap was sold for 10 cents apiece. This era saw key launches of LUX in the UK, India, Argentina, the brand concentrated on building its association with the increasingly popular movie world, focusing more on movie stars and their roles rather than on the product. In 1929, advertising featured 26 of the biggest female stars of the day and this was followed by Hollywood directors talking about the importance of smooth and youthful skin. This pioneered the trend of celebrity product endorsements, in 1931, Lux launched a campaign with older stars, “I am over 31”. The series of print ads had stars talking about preserving youthful skin, while still retaining the star element, the focus shifted to the consumer and the role of the brand in her life. Advertising commercials showed ordinary looking women with direct references to leading ladies from the movies such as Deanna Durbin, in the 1960s, advertising was shifted to product stories and the romanticizing of brand through its “sensorial & emotional” dimensions. This was the era of film star feeling’ and the ‘Golden Lux’, featuring stars such as Sandra Dee, Diana Rigg. The bathing ritual, the element that has been the imagery of Lux, was created in this era. The brand also moved forward with launching LUX in the Middle East, the executions were more of ‘a day in the life’ of the stars with focus on their ‘natural beauty’
Lux (soap)
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Lux Print ads - Early 20s
Lux (soap)
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Lux beginnings
Lux (soap)
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Lux Building beauty soap credentials
Lux (soap)
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Lux 9 out of 10 stars use Lux
12.
Rosemary Clooney
–
Rosemary Clooney was an American singer and actress. She also had success as a jazz vocalist and she continued recording until her death in 2002. Rosemary Clooney was born in Maysville, Kentucky, the daughter of Marie Frances and she was one of five children. Her father was of Irish and German descent and her mother was of Irish and English ancestry, when Clooney was 15, her mother and brother Nick moved to California. She and her sister Betty remained with their father, the family resided in the John Brett Richeson House in the late 1940s. Rosemary and Betty became entertainers, whereas Nick became a newsman, in 1945, the Clooney sisters won a spot on Cincinnati, Ohios radio station WLW as singers. Her sister Betty sang in a duo with Rosemary for much of the early career. Clooneys first recordings, in May 1946, were for Columbia Records and she sang with Tony Pastors big band. Clooney continued working with the Pastor band until 1949, making her last recording with the band in May of that year and her first as a solo artist a month later, in 1950–51 she was a regular on the radio and television versions of Songs For Sale on CBS. In 1951, her record of Come On-a My House, produced by Mitch Miller and it was her first of many singles to hit the charts—despite the fact that Clooney hated the song passionately. She had been told by Columbia Records to record the song, Clooney recorded several duets with Marlene Dietrich and appeared in the early 1950s on Faye Emersons Wonderful Town series on CBS. Clooney also did several guest appearances on the Arthur Godfrey radio show and they did duets as he played his ukulele, and other times she would sing one of her latest hits. In 1954, she starred, along with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and she starred, in 1956, in a half-hour syndicated television musical-variety show The Rosemary Clooney Show. The show featured The Hi-Los singing group and Nelson Riddles orchestra, the following year, the show moved to NBC prime time as The Lux Show Starring Rosemary Clooney but only lasted one season. The new show featured the singing group The Modernaires and Frank DeVols orchestra, in later years, Clooney would often appear with Bing Crosby on television, such as in the 1957 special The Edsel Show, and the two friends made a concert tour of Ireland together. On November 21,1957, she appeared on NBCs The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford, in 1960, Clooney and Crosby co-starred in a 20-minute CBS radio program aired before the midday news each weekday. Clooney left Columbia Records in 1958, doing a number of recordings for MGM Records, finally, toward the end of 1958, she signed with RCA Victor Records, where she stayed until 1963. In 1964, she went to Reprise Records, and in 1965 to Dot Records, upon her recovery from a nervous breakdown in 1968, Clooney signed with United Artists Records in 1976 for two albums
Rosemary Clooney
–
Clooney in 1954
Rosemary Clooney
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John Brett Richeson House in Maysville
Rosemary Clooney
–
With
Bing Crosby in
White Christmas
Rosemary Clooney
–
Clooney performing in 1977
13.
Schlitz Playhouse
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Schlitz Playhouse of Stars is an anthology series that was telecast from 1951 until 1959 on CBS. Offering both comedies and drama, the series was sponsored by the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company, the title was shortened to Schlitz Playhouse, beginning with the fall 1957 season. Initially, the show was broadcast live, but starting in the summer of 1953, beginning with the 1956-1957 season, all of the shows were filmed. Between October 1951 and March 1952, the show was aired at 9 pm. In April 1952, the time was reduced from an hour to 30 minutes. The series moved to 9,30 pm in the 1955 fall season, two episodes served as pilots for later NBC Western series, The Restless Gun with John Payne and Tales of Wells Fargo with Dale Robertson. For the 1958-1959 season, the series alternated weeks with the Lux Playhouse, guest stars included the child actress Beverly Washburn, later on The New Loretta Young Show, who appeared in The Closed Door and One Left Over. Child actor Michael Winkelman, later of The Real McCoys, also appeared twice, as Joey Harlow in the 1955 episode Fast Break, phyllis Avery appeared six times, including the episodes The Girl Who Scared Men Off and Bluebeards Seventh Wife. Walter Coy appeared four times, including the role of Paul Hunter in Fool Proof in 1956, rodolfo Hoyos, Jr. played Colonel Louis Coca in the episode Little War at San Dede. Dayton Lummis appeared as editor Cartwright in The Last Pilot Schooner, tyler MacDuff made his television debut in the 1954 episode At the Natchez Inn. Nora Marlowe played Katherine in The Girl in the Grass, with fellow guest stars Ray Milland, james Dean made a rare television appearance in The Unlighted Road in 1955. Fred Astaire made his dramatic debut in The Life You Save in 1957. G. Vincent Price in The Human Touch, Lillian Gish in The Autobiography of Grandma Moses, Barbara Britton in Say Hello to Pamela, Dolores del Río in An Old Spanish Custom, most had multiple appearances throughout the series. In 1958, Paul Monash won an Emmy Award for Best Teleplay Writing - One Hour or Less for the episode The Lonely Wizard, episodes of the series were rerun during the summer under several titles. In 1958, repeats aired for two months as Adorn Playhouse, in 1960 and 1961, the summer reruns aired as Adventure Theater. Schlitz Playhouse of Stars at the Internet Movie Database Schlitz Playhouse of Stars at TV. com Schlitz Playhouse of Stars at CVTA with episode list
Schlitz Playhouse
–
Dan O'Herlihy and Peggy Creel in "Log the Man Innocent", 1955.
14.
Anna Lee
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Anna Lee, MBE (born Joan Boniface Winnifrith was a British-born American actress. Lee trained at the Royal Albert Hall, then made her début with a bit part in His Lordship and she played a number of minor, often uncredited, roles in films during the early 1930s. She gradually began to get more prominent roles in quota quickies and she became known for her roles in films set amongst the wealthy particularly in Chelsea Life, in which she starred with Louis Hayward. The film was set in the community of Chelsea. On the strength of her performances in films, in 1934 Lee signed a contract with Gainsborough Pictures. She appeared in the 1935 Jessie Matthews musical First a Girl as the other woman. In 1937 she starred in one of the studios large-budget productions and she had met her first husband, the director Robert Stevenson while shooting The Camels are Coming on location in Egypt. During 1938 she took time off from acting to give birth to her first child, in 1939 she and her husband switched to Ealing Studios which was now being run by Michael Balcon the former head of Gainsborough. Her final film in Britain was Return to Yesterday about a young theatre actress who falls in love with a Hollywood star she meets while touring in a small seaside town. With the Second World War imminent, she and Stevenson then went to the United States and she remained supportive of the British war effort and in 1943 appeared alongside other British actors in Forever and a Day, which was made to raise money for British charities. When she and her husband moved to Hollywood she became associated with John Ford, appearing in several of his films, notably How Green Was My Valley, Two Rode Together and she co-starred with John Wayne and John Carroll in Flying Tigers. She worked for producer Val Lewton in the horror/thriller Bedlam and had a role opposite Brian Donlevy. A wartime thriller about the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich and she made a guest appearance on Perry Mason as Crystal Durham in The Case of the Unsuitable Uncle. In 1958 she returned to Britain to appear in John Fords Gideons Day, in which she played the detectives wife. She had a small, but memorable, role as Sister Margaretta in The Sound of Music, one of the two nuns who thwarted the Nazis by removing car engine parts, allowing the Von Trapps to escape. Lee appeared in the 1962 classic What Ever Happened to Baby Jane. in a role as Mrs. Bates. In 1994, Lee took the role in the feature film What Can I Do. According to fellow GH actress Leslie Charleson, Lee was promised a job for life by former GH executive producer Wendy Riche, Leslie Charleson said in 2007, The woman was in her 90s
Anna Lee
–
Anna Lee as
Lila Quartermaine on
General Hospital
15.
Julie Adams
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Julie Adams is an American actress, primarily in television. She starred in a number of films in the 1950s, including Bend of the River and she is also known for her roles as Paula Denning on Capitol and as Eve Simpson on Murder, She Wrote. Julie Adams was born as Betty May Adams on October 17,1926 in Waterloo and her family moved a great deal, the longest she lived in one town was eight years in Blytheville, Arkansas. Adams worked as a secretary and began her film career in B-movie westerns. In 1946, at the age of 19, she was crowned Miss Little Rock and then moved to Hollywood, California to pursue her acting career. She used her name until 1949, when she began working for Universal Pictures. She then became Julia and eventually Julie, in 1954, she explained the latter change, The studio picked Julia, but I never have felt comfortable with it. I just like the name Julie better, and the studio has given me permission to make the change and her first movie role was a minor part in Red, Hot and Blue, followed by a leading role in the Lippert western The Dalton Gang. Adams was featured as the bathing beauty Kay Lawrence in 1954s classic science-fiction film Creature from the Black Lagoon. In 1955, Adams co-starred with Rory Calhoun, subsequently of the CBS western television series, The Texan, in the film The Looters, part of the picture was filmed about Tarryall Creek at what is now Eleven Mile State Park in Park County in central Colorado. The advertising poster reads, Five desperate men, and a girl who didnt care. Trapped on a mountain of gale-lashed rock, Adams also starred in 1957s Four Girls in Town, a romantic comedy about four young women competing for the leading role in a new movie, featuring an international cast. She appeared with Elvis Presley in the musical-comedy Tickle Me in 1965, Adams thought highly of her co-star, noting, Despite his status as a superstar singer and stage performer, Elvis took his acting very seriously. He was always prepared, and did a job in the roles he was given. When he did his musical numbers in Tickle Me, sometimes walking from table to table in a nightclub set, on television in 1962, Adams portrayed Mary Simpson, a county nurse and romantic interest of Sheriff Andy Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show. In 1965, she played the role of defendant Pat Kean in The Case of the Fatal Fortune, Adams appeared on The Rifleman as a dubious vixen and romantic interest of lead character Chuck Connors. She guest-starred in five episodes of 77 Sunset Strip, on Alfred Hitchcock Presents three times, and on Maverick twice. More guest-star roles in popular TV series followed, including McMillan & Wife, Police Woman, The Streets of San Francisco, Cannon, Quincy, M. E. Adams co-starred with James Stewart in The Jimmy Stewart Show on NBC in 1971-1972
Julie Adams
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Adams with
Andy Griffith, in 1962 card
Julie Adams
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Julie Adams and
Jack Kelly in
Maverick
Julie Adams
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Julie Adams was famously menaced by the Gill-man in the 1954 horror classic Creature from the Black Lagoon
16.
Mary Astor
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Mary Astor was an American actress. She is best remembered for her role as Brigid OShaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon, Astor began her long motion picture career as a teenager in the silent movies of the early 1920s. At first her voice was considered too masculine and she was off the screen for a year and she appeared in a play with friend Florence Eldridge, and the film offers came in, so she was able to resume her career in talking films. Four years later her career was destroyed due to scandal. In 1936 Astor was later branded an adulterous wife by her ex-husband, Astor was a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player through most of the 1940s and continued to work in film, television and on stage until her retirement in 1964. Astor was the author of five novels and her autobiography was a bestseller, as was her later book, A Life on Film, which was about her career. Astor was born in Quincy, Illinois, the child of Otto Ludwig Langhanke. Both of her parents were teachers and they married on August 3,1904 in Lyons, Kansas. Astors father taught German at Quincy High School until the U. S. entered World War I, later on, he took up light farming. Astors mother, who had wanted to be an actress, taught drama. Astor was home-schooled in academics and was taught to play the piano by her father and her piano talents came in handy when she played piano in her films The Great Lie and Meet Me in St. Louis. In 1919, Astor sent a photograph of herself to a beauty contest in Motion Picture Magazine, when Astor was 15, the family moved to Chicago, Illinois, with her father teaching German in public schools. Astor took drama lessons and appeared in amateur stage productions. The following year, she sent another photograph to Motion Picture Magazine and her father then moved the family to New York City, in order for his daughter to act in motion pictures. He managed her affairs from September 1920 to June 1930, a Manhattan photographer, Charles Albin, saw her photograph and asked the young girl with haunting eyes and long auburn hair, whose nickname was Rusty, to pose for him. The Albin photographs were seen by Harry Durant of Famous Players-Lasky and her name was changed to Mary Astor during a conference between Paramount Pictures chief Jesse Lasky, film producer Walter Wanger, and gossip columnist Louella Parsons. Astors first screen test was directed by Lillian Gish, who was so impressed with her recitation of Shakespeare that she shot a thousand feet of her. She made her debut at age 14 in the 1921 film Sentimental Tommy and she then appeared in some movie shorts with sequences based on famous paintings
Mary Astor
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In Convention City, 1933
Mary Astor
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A 1924 publicity photo of Astor from Stars of the Photoplay
Mary Astor
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A 1931 publicity photo of Astor for Argentinean Magazine
Mary Astor
–
With
Clark Gable in
Red Dust (1932)
17.
Anne Bancroft
–
Anna Maria Louisa Italiano, known professionally as Anne Bancroft, was an American actress associated with the method acting school, having studied under Lee Strasberg. Respected for her acting prowess and versatility, Bancroft was acknowledged for her work in film, theatre and she won one Academy Award, three BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globes, two Tony Awards and two Emmy Awards, and several other awards and nominations. She won both an Oscar for her work in the film, and a Tony for the role in the play. On Broadway in 1965, she played a medieval nun obsessed with a priest in John Whitings play The Devils and she was perhaps best known as the seductress, Mrs. Robinson, in The Graduate, a role that she later stated had come to overshadow her other work. Bancroft received several other Oscar nominations and continued in lead roles until the late 1980s, in 1987, she starred with Anthony Hopkins in 84 Charing Cross Road. In the 1990s she returned to supporting roles in films, and she received Emmy and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, for The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, as well as an Emmy nomination for 2001s Haven. Bancroft was born Anna Maria Louisa Italiano in the Bronx, New York, Bancrofts parents were both children of Italian immigrants. In an interview, she stated her family was originally from Muro Lucano and she was raised in the Belmont neighborhood of the Bronx, later moving to 1580 Zerega Ave. and graduated from Christopher Columbus High School in 1948. She later attended HB Studio, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, the Actors Studio, after appearing in a number of live television dramas under the name Anne Marno, she was told to change her surname for her film debut in Dont Bother to Knock. In 1958, Bancroft made her Broadway debut as lovelorn, Bronx-accented Gittel Mosca opposite Henry Fonda in William Gibsons two-character play Two for the Seesaw, for Gittel, she won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play. She took the role to Hollywood, and won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She had returned to Broadway to star in Mother Courage and Her Children, so Joan Crawford accepted Bancrofts Oscar on her behalf, Bancroft is one of the few actors to have won an Academy Award and a Tony Award for the same role. Bancroft co-starred as a medieval nun obsessed with a priest in the 1965 Broadway production of John Whitings play The Devils, produced by Alexander H. Cohen and directed by Michael Cacoyannis, it ran for 63 performances. Bancroft received a second Academy Award nomination in 1965 for her performance in The Pumpkin Eater and her best-known role during this period was Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate, for which she received a third Academy Award nomination. In the film, she played a married woman who seduces a family friend. In the movie, Hoffmans character later dates and falls in love with her daughter, Bancroft was ambivalent about her appearance in The Graduate, she stated in several interviews that the role overshadowed all of her other work. Despite her character becoming an archetype of the older woman role, a CBS television special, Annie, the Women in the Life of a Man, won Bancroft an Emmy Award for her singing and acting. Bancroft is one of few entertainers to win an Oscar, an Emmy
Anne Bancroft
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Bancroft in 1964
Anne Bancroft
–
Bancroft with
Patty Duke in the stage production of
The Miracle Worker, 1960
Anne Bancroft
–
Bancroft with
Mel Brooks at the
1991 Cannes Film Festival.
18.
William Bendix
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William Bendix was an American film, radio, and television actor, who typically played rough, blue-collar characters. He is best remembered in films for the role in The Babe Ruth Story. He also memorably portrayed the clumsily-earnest aircraft plant worker Chester A. Riley in radio and he received an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor for Wake Island. Bendix, named William after his grandfather, was born in Manhattan. His uncle was composer, conductor, and violinist Max Bendix, in the early 1920s, Bendix was a batboy for the New York Yankees and said he saw Babe Ruth hit more than a hundred home runs at Yankee Stadium. However, he was fired after fulfilling Ruths request for an order of hot dogs and soda before a game. In 1927, Bendix married Theresa Stefanotti and he worked as a grocer until the Great Depression. Bendix began his career at age 30 in the New Jersey Federal Theatre Project. He made his debut in 1942. He played in supporting roles in dozens of Hollywood films, usually as a gangster, detective. He began with appearances in film noir, including a performance in The Glass Key and he soon gained attention after appearing in Alfred Hitchcocks Lifeboat as Gus, a wounded and dying American sailor. He played Nick the bartender in the version of William Saroyans The Time of Your Life starring James Cagney. Bendix had appeared in the version, but in the role of Officer Krupp. He was also cast in The Blue Dahlia, starring for the time alongside Ladd. In 1949, Bendix starred in an adaptation of his radio program The Life of Riley. It was Bendixs appearance in The McGuerins of Brooklyn, playing a rugged blue-collar man, the show began as a proposed Groucho Marx radio series, The Flotsam Family, but the sponsor balked at what would have been essentially a straight head-of-household role for the comedian. Then creator and producer Irving Brecher saw Bendix as taxicab company owner Tim McGuerin in Hal Roachs The McGuerins from Brooklyn, Brecher stated, He was a Brooklyn guy and there was something about him. I thought, This guy could play it, hed made a few films, like Lifeboat, but he was not a name
William Bendix
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Bendix in 1960.
William Bendix
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Bendix as Riley with
Sterling Holloway, 1957.
19.
Joan Blondell
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Rose Joan Blondell was an American actress who performed in movies and on television for half a century. After winning a beauty pageant, Blondell embarked upon a film career, establishing herself as a sexy, wisecracking blonde, she was a Pre-Code staple of Warner Bros. pictures, and appeared in more than 100 movies and television productions. She was most active in films during the 1930s, and during time, she co-starred with Glenda Farrell in nine films. Blondell continued acting in film roles for the rest of her life. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her work in The Blue Veil, Blondell was seen in featured roles in two films — Grease and The Champ — released shortly before her death from leukemia. Rose Joan Blondell was born in New York to a vaudeville family and her father, known as Ed Blondell, was born in Indiana in 1866 to French parents, and was a vaudeville comedian and one of the original Katzenjammer Kids. Blondells mother was Kathryn Cain, born April 13,1884, in Brooklyn and her younger sister, Gloria Blondell, also an actress, was briefly married to film producer Albert R. Broccoli. Blondell also had a brother, Ed Blondell, Jr and her family comprised a vaudeville troupe, the Bouncing Blondells. Joan had spent a year in Honolulu and six years in Australia and had much of the world by the time her family, who had been on tour, settled in Dallas, Texas. Around 1927, she returned to New York, joined a company to become an actress. In 1930, she starred with James Cagney in Penny Arcade on Broadway, Penny Arcade lasted only three weeks, but Al Jolson saw it and bought the rights to the play for $20,000. He then sold the rights to Warner Bros. with the proviso that Blondell, placed under contract by Warner Bros. she moved to Hollywood, where studio boss Jack L. Warner wanted her to change her name to Inez Holmes, and she began to appear in short subjects, and was named as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars in 1931. During the Great Depression, Blondell was one of the individuals in the United States. In 1937, she starred opposite Errol Flynn in The Perfect Specimen, by the end of the decade, she had made nearly 50 films. She left Warner Bros. in 1939, in 1943, Blondell returned to Broadway as the star of Mike Todds short-lived production of The Naked Genius, a comedy written by Gypsy Rose Lee. She was also featured prominently in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, in 1948, she left the screen for three years and concentrated on theatre, performing in summer stock and touring with Cole Porters musical, Something for the Boys. Blondell returned to Hollywood in 1950 and her performance in her next film, The Blue Veil, earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Joan Blondell
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Joan Blondell circa 1936
Joan Blondell
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Blondell in the trailer for the 1932 film
Three on a Match
Joan Blondell
–
This 1932 promotional photo of Blondell was later banned under the now unenforceable
Motion Picture Production Code.
Joan Blondell
–
With
James Cagney in
Footlight Parade (1933)
20.
Richard Boone
–
Richard Allen Boone was an American actor who starred in over 50 films and was notable for his roles in Westerns and for the TV series Have Gun – Will Travel. Boone was born in Los Angeles, California, the child of Cecile and Kirk E. Boone. His father was a descendant of Squire Boone, brother to frontiersmen Daniel Boone and his mother was Jewish, the daughter of immigrants from Russia. Richard Boone graduated from Hoover High School in Glendale, California and he attended Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, where he was a member of Theta Xi fraternity. He dropped out prior to graduation and went to work in oil-rigging, bartending, painting, in his youth, Boone had attended the San Diego Army and Navy Academy in Carlsbad, California, near Oceanside. There, Boone was introduced to theatre under the tutelage of Virginia Atkinson, robert Walker, another Academy graduate and member of the school’s theatre club, Masque & Wig, became a close acquaintance of Boones. After the war, Boone used the G. I, bill to study acting at the Actors Studio in New York. Serious and methodical, Boone debuted on the Broadway theatrical scene in 1947 with the play Medea and then appeared in Macbeth, elia Kazan used Boone to feed lines to an actress for a film screen-test done for director Lewis Milestone. Milestone was not impressed with the actress, but he was impressed enough with Boones voice to him to Hollywood. In 1950, Boone made his debut as a Marine officer in Milestones Halls of Montezuma. In 1953, he played Pontius Pilate in the first Cinemascope film released and he had only one scene in the film, in which he gives instructions to Richard Burton, who plays the centurion ordered to crucify Christ. When he was ordered to appear in film for Fox made at the same time as The Robe. During the filming of Halls of Montezuma he befriended Jack Webb, the writer of Dragnet was preparing a series about a doctor for NBC. From 1954 to 1956, Boone became a face in the lead role of that medical drama, titled Medic. While on Medic, he also guest-starred as the character Everett Brayer on NBCs Frontier anthology series, Boone also appeared in the 1954 Dragnet film based on Webbs series. The show had first been offered to actor Randolph Scott, who turned it down, the show ran from 1957 to 1963, with Boone receiving two more Emmy nominations, in 1959 and 1960. Boone starred in three movies with John Wayne, The Alamo as Sam Houston, Big Jake, and The Shootist, during the 1960s, Boone appeared regularly on other television programs. He was an occasional guest panelist and also a mystery guest on Whats My Line, the Sunday night CBS-TV quiz show
Richard Boone
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Boone in 1967 film, Hombre
21.
Ernest Borgnine
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Ernest Borgnine was an American film, television, character and voice actor whose career spanned more than six decades. He was noted for his gruff, yet calm voice, Machiavellian eyebrows, a popular performer, he had also appeared as a guest on numerous talk shows and as a panelist on several game shows. He also played the lead in many films, winning the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1955 for Marty. Borgnine earned an Emmy Award nomination at age 92, for his work on the series ER and he was also known for being the original voice of Mermaid Man on SpongeBob SquarePants, a role he played from 1999 until his death in 2012. Ermes Effron Borgnino was born on January 24,1917, in Hamden and he was the son of Anna, who emigrated from Carpi to the United States, and Camillo Borgnino, who emigrated from Ottiglio. Borgnines parents separated when he was two old, and his mother and he lived in Italy for about 4 1⁄2 years. By 1923, his parents had reconciled, the name was changed from Borgnino to Borgnine. Ernest had a sister, Evelyn Borgnine Velardi, the family settled in New Haven, Connecticut, where he graduated from James Hillhouse High School. Borgnine took to sports while growing up, but showed no interest in acting, Borgnine joined the United States Navy in October 1935, after graduation from high school. He served aboard the destroyer/destroyer minesweeper USS Lamberton and was discharged from the Navy in October 1941. In January 1942, he reenlisted in the Navy after the attack on Pearl Harbor, during World War II, he patrolled the Atlantic Coast on an antisubmarine warfare ship, the USS Sylph. In September 1945, he was discharged from the Navy. He served a total of almost ten years in the Navy and his military awards include the Navy Good Conduct Medal, American Defense Service Medal with Fleet Clasp, American Campaign Medal with 3⁄16 bronze star, and the World War II Victory Medal. In 1997, Borgnine received the United States Navy Memorial, Lone Sailor Award, on December 7,2000, Borgnine was named the Veterans Foundations Veteran of the Year. In October 2004, Borgnine received the title of chief petty officer from Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Terry D. Scott. The ceremony for Borgnines naval advancement was held at the U. S. Navy Memorial in Washington and he received the special honor for his naval service and support of the Navy and navy families worldwide. On February 5,2007, he received the California Commendation Medal, Borgnine returned to his parents house in Connecticut after his Navy discharge without a job to go back to and no direction. In a British Film Institute interview about his life and career, he said, After World War II, I didnt even want to be a Boy Scout
Ernest Borgnine
–
Borgnine at the TCM Classic Film Festival on April 22, 2010.
Ernest Borgnine
–
Borgnine wearing a chief petty officer's cap in October 2004.
Ernest Borgnine
–
Borgnine and
Betsy Blair in
Marty trailer in 1955
Ernest Borgnine
–
Borgnine as Commander McHale in
McHale's Navy in 1963
22.
Eddie Bracken
–
Edward Vincent Eddie Bracken was an American actor. During this era, he also had success on Broadway, with performances in plays like Too Many Girls, brackens later movie roles include National Lampoons Vacation, Oscar, and Rookie of the Year. Bracken was born in Astoria, Queens, New York, the son of Catherine, Bracken performed in vaudeville at the age of nine and gained fame with the Broadway musical Too Many Girls in a role he reprised for the 1940 film adaptation. He had performed in a film series called The Kiddie Troupers prior to that. In 1936, Bracken enjoyed success on Broadway with his run in the Joseph Viertel play So Proudly We Hail. The military drama, co-starring Richard Cromwell, opened to much fanfare, in the 1940s, director Preston Sturges cast Bracken in two of his best-loved films, The Miracle of Morgans Creek, opposite Betty Hutton, and Hail the Conquering Hero. Due to the popularity of films, Eddie Bracken was a household name during World War II. He made numerous radio broadcasts during this era, notably on The Eddie Bracken Show and he appeared on Broadway in Shinbone Alley, Hello, Dolly. The Odd Couple and Sugar Babies and his last appearance on Broadway was in the musical Dreamtime, directed by David Niles at the Ed Sullivan Theater at the age of 77. Duncan in Home Alone 2, Lost in New York, Bracken also had a long career with Papermill Playhouse in New Jersey, starring in dozens of productions in the 1980s–early 2000s. One high point was their production of Show Boat in which he played Capn Andy Hawkes and this production was broadcast on PBS in 1990. He also played a cameo in Patrick Read Johnsons 1994 film, Babys Day Out, Bracken has acted in films with two actors who later became U. S. Presidents, these were Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump. On November 14,2002, Bracken died in Glen Ridge, New Jersey and his wife of 63 years, Connie, a former actress, died in August 2002, just three months before his death. Connie was his leading lady in the Broadway production of What a Life in 1938, together Eddie and Connie had five children, two sons and three daughters. For his contributions to radio and television, Bracken has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 1651 Vine Street and 6751 Hollywood Boulevard respectively. Eddie Bracken at the Internet Broadway Database Eddie Bracken at the Internet Movie Database Eddie Bracken at AllMovie Eddie Bracken at Find a Grave
Eddie Bracken
–
Eddie Bracken
23.
Scott Brady
–
Scott Brady was an American film and television actor best known for his roles in western films and as a ubiquitous television presence. His acting career spanned 1948 -1984, Brady was born in Brooklyn, New York to Lawrence and Maria Tierney, his father was chief of the New York aqueduct police force. His older and younger brothers were fellow actors Lawrence and Edward Tierney, Edward subsequently left acting to become a building contractor, and Scott financed some of his projects. Brady was reared in suburban Westchester County, New York and he was nicknamed Jerry in his youth. He attended Roosevelt and St. Michaels high schools where he lettered in basketball, football and he aspired to become a football coach or a radio announcer but instead enlisted in the United States Navy before his graduation from high school. During World War II, he served in the United States Navy as an aviation mechanic overseas on the USS Norton Sound. Discharged in 1946, Brady headed to Los Angeles, California, where his older brother Lawrence was already making some progress as an actor. First taking menial jobs as a cab driver and a lumberjack, there he studied acting and did vocal training to eliminate his thick Brooklyn accent. Brady had two brushes with scandal, in 1957, he was arrested for narcotics possession, but charges were dropped and he always maintained that he was framed. In 1963, he was barred by the New York State Harness Racing Commission from participation in the due to his association with known bookmakers. Brady specialized in roles in films like He Walked by Night, Canon City. From 1953 to 1956, Brady appeared four times in different roles on the anthology series, in 1955, he portrayed Ted Slater in Man in the Ring of NBCs anthology series, The Loretta Young Show. From 1953 to 1956, he appeared five times on the NBC anthology series, in 1955 and 1957, Brady was twice cast on another anthology program, Studio 57. Early in 1957, he was cast in The Barbed Wire Preacher of the anthology series. On December 26,1957, he played the frontier figure William Bent in the episode Lone Woman of CBSs anthology, Playhouse 90, with Raymond Burr cast as his brother, the plot involved the establishment in Bents Old Fort on the Arkansas River in southeastern Colorado. Kathryn Grayson played the Lone Woman, a Cheyenne Indian, from 1955 to 1959, Brady appeared five times on CBSs anthology series Schlitz Playhouse, including as the roles of Reno Cromwell in Night of the Big Swamp and Calvin Penny in Papa Said No. The Schlitz Playhouse episode The Salted Mine became the pilot for Bradys own western series, Shotgun Slade. In addition to Shotgun Slade, Brady appeared in other television westerns, including Dick Powells Zane Grey Theater, The High Chaparral, Lancer, Dirty Sally, The Virginian
Scott Brady
–
Brady in
Shotgun Slade, 1960
Scott Brady
–
Scott Brady and
Andy Griffith in
Broadway musical version of
Destry Rides Again (1959)
24.
Walter Brennan
–
Walter Andrew Brennan was an American actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1936,1938 and 1940, Brennan was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, less than two miles from his familys home in Swampscott. He was the second of three born to William John Brennan and the former Margaret Elizabeth Flanagan (June 4,1869 in Charlestown, Massachusetts – February 1,1955. His parents were both of Irish descent, the elder Brennan was an engineer and inventor, and young Walter studied engineering at Rindge Technical High School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. While in school, Brennan became interested in acting and he began to perform in vaudeville at the age of 15. While working as a clerk, he enlisted in the United States Army. After the war, he moved to Guatemala and raised pineapples before settling in Los Angeles, during the early 1920s, he made a fortune in the real estate market, but he lost most of his money during the 1925 real estate slump. Brennan also had bit parts in The Invisible Man, Girl Missing, the Three Stooges short Woman Haters, in the 1930s, he began appearing in higher-quality films and received more substantial roles as his talent was recognized. This culminated with his receiving the first Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Swan Bostrom in the period film Come, two years later, he portrayed town drunk and accused murderer Muff Potter in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Throughout his career, Brennan was frequently called upon to play characters older than he was. The loss of teeth in a 1932 accident, rapidly thinning hair, thin build. He used these features to great effect, in many of his film roles, Brennan wore dentures, in Northwest Passage – a film set in the late 18th century – he wore a dental prosthesis which made him appear to have rotting and broken teeth. Brennan played the lead in Swamp Water, the first American film by the director Jean Renoir. In Sergeant York, he played a preacher and dry-goods store owner who advised the title character. Brennan and Cooper appeared in six films together, in 1942, he played the reporter Sam Blake, who befriended and encouraged Lou Gehrig in Pride of the Yankees. He was particularly skilled in playing the sidekick of the protagonist or the old man in films such as To Have and Have Not. From 1957 to 1963, he starred in the ABC television series The Real McCoys, after five years on ABC, The Real McCoys switched to CBS for a final season. Brennan joined with the creator, Irving Pincus, to form Brennan-Westgate Productions
Walter Brennan
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Brennan in a publicity photo, 1958
Walter Brennan
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Brennan in
Affairs of Cappy Ricks
Walter Brennan
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Brennan in the trailer of
Rio Bravo
Walter Brennan
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Grave of Walter Brennan at San Fernando Mission Cemetery
25.
Barbara Britton
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Barbara Britton was an American film and television actress. Barbara Maurine Brantingham was born September 26,1919, in Long Beach and her involvement with stage productions began when she was 14. She attended Polytechnic High School and Long Beach City College, majoring in speech with the intention of working as a speech, while in school she began to show an interest in acting and began working on local stage productions. In 1941, while appearing in a Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade, a talent scout took notice, and she was soon signed to a Paramount Pictures contract. That same year, she appeared in her first two films, the William Boyd western Secrets of the Wasteland and Louisiana Purchase starring Bob Hope and her first major film appearance was in a small role in the John Wayne film Reap the Wild Wind. During the 1940s Britton starred in three films for which she is most recognized today, two of which co-starred Randolph Scott, the first was the 1945 film Captain Kidd with Scott, followed by The Virginian in 1946 opposite Joel McCrea. The third was the 1947 Randolph Scott film Gunfighters and she teamed with Scott again in the 1948 western Albuquerque, and that same year she starred opposite Gene Autry in Loaded Pistols. In total, she starred or appeared in 26 films during that decade, Britton starred in the 1950s television show Mr. and Mrs. North, a Thin Man-like mystery show, with Richard Denning and Francis De Sales. She was probably best known for being the spokesperson for Revlon products in the 1950s and 1960s, appearing in ads and she also portrayed Laura Petrie in Carl Reiners Head of the Family, the 1959 pilot for the later Dick Van Dyke Show. One of Brittons last roles was on the television soap opera One Life to Live in 1979. Over a 24-month span, Brittons picture appeared on more than 100 magazine covers, including those of Ladies Home Journal, Womans Home Companion, and McCalls. In 1949, an article reported, Today, Barbara Brittons picture has appeared on more national magazine covers than any other motion picture actress in the world. Reportedly, in 1944, Britton suffered from exhaustion due to overwork and was advised to seek the help of physician. Britton and Czukor, who was 22 years her senior, were married on April 2,1945, at one time, the couple had a home on Victoria Drive in Laguna Beach, California. They moved to New York City in 1957, for many years Britton and her husband lived in a rambling, red shingled farmhouse in the Fairfield County town of Bethel, Connecticut. Later, following their love of antiques, they opened a shop in an early American barn in the enclave of Woodbury. They had two children, Ted and Christina, and their marriage lasted for 34 years until Brittons death and she died of pancreatic cancer in New York City on January 17,1980, at the age of 60. In 1948, Britton was given a key to the City of Long Beach, on February 8,1960 she received a star for television on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, her star is located at 1719 Vine Street
Barbara Britton
–
Britton in 1953
26.
Charles Bronson
–
Charles Bronson was an American film and television actor. He starred in such as Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, Rider on the Rain, The Mechanic. He was often cast in the role of an officer, gunfighter. He had long collaborations with film directors Michael Winner and J. Lee Thompson, in 1965, he was featured as Major Wolenski in Battle of the Bulge. His father was a Lithuanian immigrant and his mother was an American of Lithuanian descent and his father, Valteris P. Bučinskis, hailed from the town of Druskininkai. Bronsons mother, Mary Valinsky, whose parents were from Lithuania, was born in the mining town of Tamaqua. He learned to speak English when he was a teenager, before that, Bronson was the first member of his family to graduate from high school. When Bronson was 10 years old, his father died, Young Charles went to work in the coal mines, first in the mining office and then in the mine. He later said he earned one dollar for each ton of coal that he mined and he worked in the mine until he entered military service during World War II. His family was so poor that at one time, he said and he flew 25 missions and received a Purple Heart for wounds received in battle. After the end of World War II, Bronson worked at odd jobs until joining a theatrical group in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He later shared an apartment in New York City with Jack Klugman while both were aspiring to play on the stage, in 1950, he married and moved to Hollywood, where he enrolled in acting classes and began to find small roles. Bronsons first film role — an uncredited one — was as a sailor in Youre in the Navy Now in 1951, other early screen appearances were in Pat and Mike, Miss Sadie Thompson and House of Wax. In 1952, Bronson boxed in a ring with Roy Rogers in Rogers show Knockout and he appeared on an episode of The Red Skelton Show as a boxer in a skit with Skelton playing Cauliflower McPugg. He also had a part credited as Charles Buchinsky in a western named Riding Shotgun, in 1954, Bronson made a strong impact in Drum Beat as a murderous Modoc warrior, Captain Jack, who relishes wearing the tunics of soldiers he has killed. In 1957, Bronson was cast in the Western series Colt.45 as an outlaw named Danny Arnold in the episode Young Gun. He scored the lead in his own ABCs detective series Man with a Camera, in which he portrayed Mike Kovac, Bronson starred alongside Elizabeth Montgomery in a Twilight Zone episode. He appeared in five episodes of Richard Boones Have Gun – Will Travel, in 1958, he was cast in his first lead film role in Roger Cormans Machine-Gun Kelly, followed by the lead role in the World War II film When Hell Broke Loose later the same year
Charles Bronson
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Publicity photo, 1966
Charles Bronson
–
Bronson's star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame
Charles Bronson
–
At the 1987
Cannes Film Festival
27.
Raymond Burr
–
Raymond William Stacy Burr was a Canadian-American actor, primarily known for his title roles in the television dramas Perry Mason and Ironside. He was prominently involved in multiple charitable endeavors, such as working on behalf of the United Service Organizations, Burrs early acting career included roles on Broadway, radio, television and in film, usually as the villain. His portrayal of the murderer in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Rear Window is regarded as his best-known film role. He won two Emmy Awards, in 1959 and 1961, for the role of Perry Mason, which he played for nine seasons and his second hit TV series, Ironside, earned him six Emmy nominations and two Golden Globe nominations. After Burrs death from cancer in 1993, his life came into question. In 1996, Burr was listed as one of the 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time by TV Guide, a 2014 study found that Burr was rated as the favorite actor by Netflix users, with the greatest number of dedicated microgenres. Raymond William Stacy Burr was born May 21,1917, in New Westminster, British Columbia and his father, William Johnston Burr, was a hardware salesman, his mother, Minerva Annette, was a pianist and music teacher who had been born in Chicago, Illinois. Burrs ancestry included Irish, English, Scottish, and German, when Burr was six, his parents divorced. Burrs mother moved to Vallejo, California, with him and his siblings, Geraldine. His father remained in New Westminster, Burr attended San Rafael Military Academy in San Rafael, California, for awhile and graduated from Berkeley High School. In later years, Burr freely invented stories of a happy childhood, in 1986 he told journalist Jane Ardmore that when he was 12 years old his mother sent him to New Mexico for a year to work as a ranch hand. He developed a passion for growing things and, while still a teenager, throughout his teenage years, he had some acting work, making his stage debut at age 12 with a Vancouver stock company. Growing up during the Great Depression, Burr hoped to study acting at the Pasadena Playhouse, a community theater and school in Pasadena, California. In 1934 he joined a theatre group in Toronto that toured throughout Canada, then joined another company that toured India, Australia. He briefly attended Long Beach Junior College and taught for a semester at San Jose Junior College, working nights as a radio actor and he also began his association with the Pasadena Playhouse in 1937. Burr moved to New York in 1940, and made his first Broadway appearance in Crazy With the Heat and his first starring role on the stage came in November 1942, when he was an emergency replacement in a Pasadena Playhouse production of Quiet Wedding, directed by Lenore Shanewise. He became a member of the Pasadena Playhouse drama faculty for 18 months and he returned to the Broadway stage for Patrick Hamiltons The Duke in Darkness, a psychological drama set during the French Wars of Religion. Burrs performance as the friend of the imprisoned protagonist led to a contract with RKO Radio Pictures
Raymond Burr
–
Raymond Burr (
Perry Mason) on the cover of
Look (October 10, 1961)
Raymond Burr
–
With
Kathleen Crowley in Perry Mason (1958)
Raymond Burr
–
Burr and
Victoria Shaw in
Ironside (1969)
Raymond Burr
–
Mariette Hartley and Burr in
Kingston: Confidential (1977)
28.
Hoagy Carmichael
–
Howard Hoagland Hoagy Carmichael was an American composer, pianist, singer, actor, and bandleader from Indiana. Carmichael composed several hundred songs, including fifty that achieved hit record status and he is best known for composing the music for Stardust, Georgia on My Mind, The Nearness of You, and Heart and Soul, four of the most-recorded American songs of all time. He also collaborated with lyricist Johnny Mercer on Skylark, Carmichaels Ole Buttermilk Sky was an Academy Award-nominee in 1946, In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening, with lyrics by Mercer, won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1951. Carmichael also appeared as an actor and musical performer in fourteen motion pictures. Born in Bloomington, Indiana, on November 22,1899, Hoaglund Howard Hoagie Carmichael was the first child and only son of Howard Clyde and his parents named him after a circus troupe called the Hoaglands that had stayed at the Carmichael house during his mothers pregnancy. Hoagy had two sisters, Georgia and Joanne. Because of Howards unstable job history, the family moved frequently, Hoagy spent most of his early years in Bloomington and in Indianapolis, Indiana. Carmichaels mother taught him to sing and play the piano at an early age, the Carmichael family moved to Indianapolis in 1916, but Hoagy returned to Bloomington in 1919 to complete high school. The piano was the focus of Carmichaels after-school life, for inspiration he would listen to ragtime pianists Hank Wells and Hube Hanna. At eighteen, the small, wiry, and pale Carmichael helped supplement his family’s meager income by working in jobs in construction, at a bicycle-chain factory. The bleak time was partly spelled by four-handed piano duets with his mother and by his friendship with DuValle, Carmichael earned his first money as a musician playing at a fraternity dance in 1918, marking the beginning of his musical career. The death of Carmichaels three-year-old sister in 1918 affected him deeply and he later wrote My sister Joanne—the victim of poverty. We couldn’t afford a doctor or good attention, and that’s when I vowed I would never be broke again in my lifetime. Joanne may have died from influenza, which had swept the world that year, Carmichael attended Indiana University in Bloomington, where he earned a bachelors degree in 1925 and a law degree in 1926. He was a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity, and played the piano around Indiana and Ohio with his band, around 1922 Carmichael first met Leon Bix Beiderbecke, a cornetist and sometime pianist from Iowa. The two became friends and played music together, under Beiderbecke’s influence Carmichael began playing the cornet, but found that he didnt have the lips for the instrument and played it only briefly. He was also inspired by Beiderbeckes impressionistic and classical music ideas, the song became a jazz staple. Carmichaels other early compositions included Washboard Blues and Boneyard Shuffle
Hoagy Carmichael
–
Carmichael in 1947
Hoagy Carmichael
–
Carmichael's house in
Bloomington,
Indiana (2011)
Hoagy Carmichael
–
Carmichael and
Harold Russell play a duet in
The Best Years of Our Lives as
Fredric March watches
Hoagy Carmichael
–
Carmichael sharing the Saturday Night Revue duties with
George Gobel
29.
Art Carney
–
Arthur William Matthew Art Carney was an American actor in film, stage, television and radio. Carney, youngest of six sons was born in Mount Vernon, New York, the son of Helen and Edward Michael Carney and his family was Irish American and Roman Catholic. He attended A. B. Davis High School, Carney was drafted into the United States Army as an infantryman and machine gun crewman during World War II. During the Battle of Normandy serving in the 28th Infantry Division, he was wounded in the leg by shrapnel, as a result of the injury, his right leg was 3/4-inch shorter than his left. Carney was a singer with the Horace Heidt orchestra, which was heard often on radio during the 1930s, notably on the hugely successful Pot o Gold. Carneys film career began with a role in Pot o Gold. Carney, a mimic, worked steadily in radio during the 1940s, playing character roles. In 1941 he was the comic on the big band remote series. One of his radio roles during the 1940s was the first Red Lantern on Land of the Lost, in 1943 he played Billy Oldham on Joe and Ethel Turp, based on Damon Runyon stories. He appeared on The Henry Morgan Show in 1946–47 and he impersonated FDR on The March of Time and Dwight D. Eisenhower on Living 1948. In 1950–51 he played Montagues father on The Magnificent Montague and he was a supporting player on Casey, Crime Photographer and Gang Busters. On both the radio and television versions of The Morey Amsterdam Show, Carneys character Charlie the doorman became known for his catchphrase, in 1950, Jackie Gleason was starring in a New York–based comedy-variety series, Cavalcade of Stars, and played many different characters. Gleasons regular characters included Charlie Bratten, a lunchroom loudmouth who insisted on spoiling a neighboring patrons meal, Carney, established in New York as a reliable actor, played Brattens mild-mannered victim, Clem Finch. Gleason and Carney developed a working chemistry, and Gleason recruited Carney to appear in other sketches. Carney gained lifelong fame for his portrayal of sewer worker Ed Norton, the success of these skits resulted in the famous filmed situation comedy The Honeymooners, and the Honeymooners revivals that followed. He was nominated for seven Emmy Awards and won six, presley introduced Carney in the audience during his dinner show on August 13,1970. Between his stints with Gleason, Carney worked steadily as a character actor and he guest-starred on NBCs Henry Morgans Great Talent Hunt, The Martha Raye Show, The Dinah Shore Chevy Show, and many others, including as a mystery guest on Whats My Line. Which he attended dressed as Ed Norton, Carney also had his own NBC television variety show from 1959 to 1960
Art Carney
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Carney in 1959
Art Carney
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Carney (middle) as Ed Norton in The Honeymooners'
Art Carney
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Carney in "The Man in the Dog Suit" from his own NBC television show in 1959. The character was a meek man until he put on the dog costume
Art Carney
–
Carney as The Archer on Batman
30.
Jack Carson
–
John Elmer Jack Carson was a Canadian-born American-based film actor. Carson was one of the most popular character actors during the age of Hollywood, with a film career spanning the 1930s, 1940s. Though he was used in supporting roles for comic relief, his work in films such as Mildred Pierce. He worked for RKO and MGM, but most of his work was for Warner Brothers. His trademark character was the wisecracking know-it-all, typically and inevitably undone by his own smug cockiness and he was born in Carman, Manitoba to Elmer and Elsa Carson. In 1914, the moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which he always thought of as his home town. He attended high school at Hartford School, Milwaukee and St. Johns Military Academy, Delafield, Carson became a U. S. citizen in California in 1949. Because of his size —6 ft 2 in and 220 lb, in the midst of a performance, he tripped and took half the set with him. A college friend, Dave Willock, thought it was so funny he persuaded Carson to team with him in a vaudeville act — Willock and Carson — and a new career was born. This piece of unplanned business would be typical of the sorts of things that tended to happen to Carson in many of his film roles, during the 1930s, as vaudeville declined from increased competition from radio and the movies, Willock and Carson sought work in Hollywood. Carson initially landed bit roles at RKO Radio Pictures in films such as Bringing Up Baby, starring Cary Grant, Radio was another source of employment for the team, starting with a 1938 appearance on the Kraft Music Hall when Bing Crosby hosted the show. This led to a number of other appearances culminating in Carsons own radio show, The New Jack Carson Show, from 1950-51, Jack was one of four alternating weekly hosts of the Wednesday evening NBC Television comedy-variety show Four Star Revue. The second season was his last with the show, when it was renamed All Star Revue and his success in radio led to the start of a lucrative film career. An early standout role for Carson was as a mock-drunk undercover G-Man opposite Richard Cromwell in Universal Picturess anti-Nazi action drama entitled Enemy Agent and this led to contract-player status with Warner Brothers shortly thereafter. While there, he was teamed with Dennis Morgan in a number of films, most of his work at Warner Brothers was limited to light comedy work with Morgan, and later Doris Day. Critics generally agree that Carsons best work was in Mildred Pierce, also in 1945, he played the role of Harold Pierson, the second husband of Louise Randall, played by Rosalind Russell, in Roughly Speaking. Another role which won accolades for him was as publicist Matt Libby in A Star is Born, one of his last film roles was as the older brother Gooper in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. His TV pilot, Kentucky Kid, was under consideration as a series for NBC
Jack Carson
–
from the trailer for the film
The Hard Way (1943).
Jack Carson
–
As "Gooper," with
Judith Anderson as "Big Momma" in
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958).
