1.
Ernst Lubitsch
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Ernst Lubitsch was a German American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywoods most elegant and sophisticated director, as his prestige grew, in 1946, he received an Honorary Academy Award for his distinguished contributions to the art of the motion picture. Ernst Lubitsch was born on January 29,1892 in Berlin, Germany, the son of Anna and Simon Lubitsch and his family was Ashkenazi Jewish, his father born in Grodno in the Russian Empire and his mother from Wriezen, outside Berlin. He turned his back on his fathers tailoring business to enter the theater, in 1913, Lubitsch made his film debut as an actor in The Ideal Wife. He gradually abandoned acting to concentrate on directing and he appeared in approximately thirty films as an actor between 1912 and 1920. His last film appearance as an actor was in the 1920 drama Sumurun, opposite Pola Negri and Paul Wegener, in 1918, he made his mark as a serious director with Die Augen der Mumie Ma, starring Pola Negri. Lubitsch alternated between escapist comedies and large-scale historical dramas, enjoying international success with both. His reputation as a master of world cinema reached a new peak after the release of his spectacles Madame Du Barry. Both of these films found American distributorship by early 1921 and they, along with Lubitschs Carmen were selected by The New York Times on its list of the 15 most important movies of 1921. With glowing reviews under his belt, and American money flowing his way, Lubitsch formed his own production company, however, with World War I still fresh, and with a slew of German New Wave releases encroaching on American movie workers livelihoods, Lubitsch was not gladly received. He cut his trip short after little more than three weeks and returned to Germany, but he had already seen enough of the American film industry to know that its resources far outstripped the spartan German companies. Lubitsch finally left Germany for Hollywood in 1922, contracted as a director by Mary Pickford, settling in America, Lubitsch established his reputation for sophisticated comedy with such stylish films as The Marriage Circle, Lady Windermeres Fan, and So This Is Paris. But his films were only marginally profitable for Warner Brothers, and Lubitschs contract was dissolved by mutual consent, with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. His first film for MGM, The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg, was well regarded, the Patriot, produced by Paramount, earned him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Directing. Lubitsch seized upon the advent of talkies to direct musicals, with his first sound film, The Love Parade, starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald, Lubitsch hit his stride as a maker of worldly musical comedies. The Love Parade, Monte Carlo, and The Smiling Lieutenant were hailed by critics as masterpieces of the emerging musical genre. Lubitsch served on the faculty of the University of Southern California for a time and his next film was a romantic comedy, written with Samson Raphaelson, Trouble in Paradise. Later described as amoral by critic David Thomson, the cynical comedy was popular both with critics and with audiences
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Irving Thalberg
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Irving Grant Thalberg was an American film producer during the early years of motion pictures. He was called The Boy Wonder for his youth, innate commercial instincts, Thalberg had little interest in films as an art form, he notoriously remarked that filmmakers are like servant girls, they need a good slap on the backside now and then. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and as a child was afflicted with a heart disease that doctors said would kill him before he reached the age of thirty. After graduating from school he took night classes in typing. Among the films he produced was The Hunchback of Notre Dame and he then partnered with Louis B. Mayers studio and, after it merged with two studios, helped create Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He was made head of production of MGM in 1925, at the age of twenty-six, and after three years MGM became the most successful studio in Hollywood as a result of his supervision. During his twelve years with MGM, until his death at age 37, he produced four hundred films, most of which bore his imprint. Among those innovations were story conferences with writers, sneak previews to gain early feedback, in addition, he introduced horror films to audiences and coauthored the “Production Code, ” guidelines for morality followed by all studios. During the 1920s and 1930s, he synthesized and merged the world of stage drama, Thalberg created numerous new stars and groomed their screen images. He had the ability to combine quality with commercial success, and was credited with bringing his artistic aspirations in line with the demands of audiences. After his death, Hollywoods producers declared him to have been, despite his young age, President Roosevelt wrote, The world of art is poorer with the passing of Irving Thalberg. His high ideals, insight and imagination went into the production of his masterpieces, the Irving G. Thalberg was born in Brooklyn, to German-Jewish immigrant parents, William and Henrietta. Shortly after birth, he was diagnosed with blue baby syndrome, the prognosis from the family doctor, and from specialists years later, was that he would possibly live to age twenty, or at most, age thirty. During his high school years in Brooklyn, he began having attacks of chest pains, dizziness and this affected his ability to study, though until that time he was a good student. When he was 17, he contracted fever, and was confined to bed for a year. His mother, Henrietta, to prevent him falling too far behind other students, brought him homework from school, books and she also hoped that the schoolwork and reading would distract him from the tantalizing sounds of children playing outside his window. With little to him, he read books as a main activity
3.
Leo Stein
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Leo Stein was an American art collector and critic. He was born in Allegheny City, the brother of Gertrude Stein. He became a promoter of 20th-century paintings. Beginning in 1892, he studied at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the following year, he traveled the world with his cousin, Fred. In 1897, he transferred to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, Stein spent a number of years living in Paris with his sister. In 1914, the two due to Leos resentment of Gertrudes infatuation with Alice B. Toklas, whom he described as a kind of abnormal vampire, Stein returned to America to work as a journalist but eventually settled near Florence, Italy, with his long-time love interest, Nina Auzias. Stein died of cancer in 1947 in Florence, Auzias committed suicide two years later. New York, Boni & Liveright,1927, sister Brother, Gertrude and Leo Stein. Four Americans in Paris, The Collections of Gertrude Stein and Her Family, new York, Museum of Modern Art,1970
4.
Samson Raphaelson
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Samson Raphaelson was a leading American playwright, screenwriter and fiction writer. While working as an executive in New York, he wrote a short story based on the early life of Al Jolson, called The Day of Atonement. This would become the first talking picture, with Jolson as its star and he then worked as a screenwriter with Ernst Lubitsch on sophisticated comedies like Trouble in Paradise, The Shop Around the Corner, and Heaven Can Wait, and with Alfred Hitchcock on Suspicion. His short stories appeared in The Saturday Evening Post and other leading magazines, Raphaelson was born in New York. He had become an advertising executive in New York when his secretary encouraged him to convert his short story “The Day of Atonement” into a play. Showing him the manuscript of a play, she pointed out how few words were on each page and she volunteered to take dictation over the weekend. The result, by Sunday evening, was a draft of The Jazz Singer. Raphaelson’s second play, Young Love, was banned in Boston when authorities found it too racy and it starred Dorothy Gish, one of the leading actresses of the day. S. They were Accent On Youth, Skylark and Jason, Accent On Youth was a critical and popular success both on Broadway and in London’s West End, where the young Greer Garson played the leading role. Skylark, another hit, starred Gertrude Lawrence. Jason was less successful commercially but won praise from the New York critics. One called it “the best play of the season” and added that it contained “some of the finest writing to grace a stage in several years. Raphaelson is the first to do the thing successfully. ”In 1948 and he recorded the experience in a book, The Human Nature of Playwriting. The introduction expresses Raphaelson’s deep regard for language so visible in his writing, whether you write or not after you finish school means nothing to me as a teacher. In fact, I don’t think it is important from any viewpoint, but whether you live or not is important, and how you live. You may become businessmen or women, office workers, farmers, or wives and that culture is largely expressed by creative writers through the written word. In the 1940s many Raphaelson short stories appeared in Ladies Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, in later years, as a result of Raphaelson’s newly found passion for photography, he wrote a variety of articles for the leading photographic magazines. Some of his thousands of photos ran in the magazines, both as accompaniments to his articles and independent of them, in 1983 the University of Wisconsin Press published Three Screen Comedies by Samson Raphaelson with an introduction by Pauline Kael
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Maurice Chevalier
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Maurice Auguste Chevalier was a French actor, cabaret singer and entertainer. He is perhaps best known for his songs, including Louise, Mimi, Valentine. His trademark attire was a hat, which he always wore on stage with a tuxedo. He made his name as a star of comedy, appearing in public as a singer and dancer at an early age before working in menial jobs as a teenager. In 1909, he became the partner of the biggest female star in France at the time, Fréhel. Although their relationship was brief, she secured him his first major engagement, as a mimic, in 1917, he discovered jazz and ragtime and went to London, where he found new success at the Palace Theatre. After this, he toured the United States, where he met the American composers George Gershwin and Irving Berlin and he developed an interest in acting and had success in Dédé. When talkies arrived, he went to Hollywood in 1928, where he played his first American role in Innocents of Paris, in 1957, he appeared in Love in the Afternoon, which was his first Hollywood film in more than 20 years. In 1958, he starred with Leslie Caron and Louis Jourdan in Gigi, in the early 1960s, he made eight films, including Can-Can in 1960 and Fanny the following year. In 1970, he made his contribution to the film industry where he sang the title song of the Disney film The Aristocats. He died in Paris, on January 1,1972, aged 83, Chevalier was born in Paris, France. His father was a French house painter and his mother, Joséphine van den Bosch, was French of Belgian descent. He worked a number of jobs, an apprentice, electrician, printer. He started in business in 1901. He was singing, unpaid, at a café when a member of the theatre saw him, Chevalier made a name as a mimic and a singer. His act in lAlcazar in Marseille was so successful, he made a triumphant rearrival in Paris, in 1909, he became the partner of the biggest female star in France, Fréhel. However, due to her alcoholism and drug addiction, their liaison ended in 1911, Chevalier then started a relationship with 36-year-old Mistinguett at the Folies Bergère, where he was her 23-year-old dance partner, they eventually played out a public romance. In 1917, Chevalier became a star in le Casino de Paris and played before British soldiers and he discovered jazz and ragtime and started thinking about touring the United States
6.
Jeanette MacDonald
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Jeanette Anna MacDonald was an American singer and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier and Nelson Eddy. During the 1930s and 1940s she starred in 29 feature films, four nominated for Best Picture Oscars and she later appeared in opera, concerts, radio, and television. MacDonald was one of the most influential sopranos of the 20th century, introducing opera to movie-going audiences, MacDonald was born June 18,1903, at her familys Philadelphia home at 5123 Arch Street. She was the youngest of the three daughters of Anna Mae and Daniel MacDonald and she had Scottish, English, and Dutch ancestry. Starting at an age, she took dancing lessons with Al White, imitated her mothers opera records. She performed at church and school functions and began touring in kiddie shows and she was the younger sister of character actress Blossom Rock who is most famous as Grandmama on the TV show Addams Family. In 1920 she appeared in two musicals, Jerome Kerns Night Boat as a replacement, and Irene on the road as the second female lead. Shipman once remarked that MacDonald did not have the legs for a chorus girl. In 1921 MacDonald played in Tangerine, as one of the Six Wives, in 1922 MacDonald was a featured singer in a Greenwich Village revue, Fantastic Fricassee. Good press notices brought her a role in The Magic Ring, MacDonald played the second female lead in this long-running musical which starred Mitzi Hajos. In 1925 MacDonald again had the female lead opposite Queenie Smith in Tip Toes. The following year found her still in a female lead in Bubblin Over. MacDonald finally landed the role in Yes, Yes, Yvette. Planned as a sequel to producer H. H. Frazees No, No, Nanette, MacDonald also played the lead in her next two plays, Sunny Days, her first show for producers Lee and J. J. Shubert, for which she received rave reviews, and Angela and her last play was Boom Boom, with her name above the title. While MacDonald was appearing in Angela, film star Richard Dix spotted her and had her screen-tested for his film Nothing, the Shuberts wouldn’t let her out of her contract to appear in the film, which starred Dix and Helen Kane, the Boop-boop-a-doop girl. In 1929, famed film director Ernst Lubitsch was looking through old screen tests of Broadway performers and he cast her as the leading lady in his first sound film, The Love Parade, which starred the Continental sensation Maurice Chevalier. In the first rush of sound films, 1929–30, MacDonald starred in six films and her first, The Love Parade, directed by Lubitsch and co-starring Chevalier, was a landmark of early sound films and received a Best Picture nomination
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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of feature films and television programs. Its headquarters are in Beverly Hills, California and it is one of the worlds oldest film studios. In 1971, it was announced that MGM would merge with 20th Century Fox, over the next thirty-nine years, the studio was bought and sold at various points in its history until, on November 3,2010, MGM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. MGM Resorts International, a Las Vegas-based hotel and casino company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MGM, is not currently affiliated with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1966, MGM was sold to Canadian investor Edgar Bronfman Sr. whose son Edgar Jr. would later buy Universal Studios, the studio continued to produce five to six films a year that were released through other studios, mostly United Artists. Kerkorian did, however, commit to increased production and a film library when he bought United Artists in 1981. MGM ramped up production, as well as keeping production going at UA. It also incurred significant amounts of debt to increase production, the studio took on additional debt as a series of owners took charge in the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1986, Ted Turner bought MGM, but a few later, sold the company back to Kerkorian to recoup massive debt. The series of deals left MGM even more heavily in debt, MGM was bought by Pathé Communications in 1990, but Parretti lost control of Pathé and defaulted on the loans used to purchase the studio. The French banking conglomerate Crédit Lyonnais, the major creditor. Even more deeply in debt, MGM was purchased by a joint venture between Kerkorian, producer Frank Mancuso, and Australias Seven Network in 1996, the debt load from these and subsequent business deals negatively affected MGMs ability to survive as an independent motion picture studio. In 1924, movie theater magnate Marcus Loew had a problem and he had bought Metro Pictures Corporation in 1919 for a steady supply of films for his large Loews Theatres chain. With Loews lackluster assortment of Metro films, Loew purchased Goldwyn Pictures in 1924 to improve the quality, however, these purchases created a need for someone to oversee his new Hollywood operations, since longtime assistant Nicholas Schenck was needed in New York headquarters to oversee the 150 theaters. Mayer, Loew addressed the situation by buying Louis B. Mayer Pictures on April 17,1924, Mayer became head of the renamed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, with Irving Thalberg as head of production. MGM produced more than 100 feature films in its first two years, in 1925, MGM released the extravagant and successful Ben-Hur, taking a $4.7 million profit that year, its first full year. Marcus Loew died in 1927, and control of Loews passed to Nicholas Schenck, in 1929, William Fox of Fox Film Corporation bought the Loew familys holdings with Schencks assent. Mayer and Thalberg disagreed with the decision, Mayer was active in the California Republican Party and used his political connections to persuade the Justice Department to delay final approval of the deal on antitrust grounds
8.
The Merry Widow
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The Merry Widow is an operetta by the Austro-Hungarian composer Franz Lehár. The operetta has enjoyed international success since its 1905 premiere in Vienna. Film and other adaptations have also been made, well-known music from the score includes the Vilja Song, Da geh ich zu Maxim, and the Merry Widow Waltz. The play was adapted into German as Der Gesandschafts-Attaché and was given several successful productions. In early 1905, Viennese librettist Leo Stein came across the play and he suggested this to one of his writing collaborators, Viktor Léon and to the manager of the Theater an der Wien, who was eager to produce the piece. They asked Richard Heuberger to compose the music, as he had a hit at the Theatre an der Wein with a Parisian-themed piece. He composed a draft of the score, but it was unsatisfactory, the theatres staff next suggested that Franz Lehár might compose the piece. Lehár had worked with Léon and Stein on Der Göttergatte the previous year, although Léon doubted that Lehár could invoke an authentic Parisian atmosphere, he was soon enchanted by Lehars first number for the piece, a bubbly galop melody for Dummer, dummer Reitersmann. The score of Die Lustige Witwe was finished in a matter of months, both stars were so enthusiastic about the piece that they supplemented the theatres low-budget production by paying for their own lavish costumes. During the rehearsal period, the theatre lost faith in the score and asked Lehár to withdraw it, the piece was given little rehearsal time on stage before its premiere. It was a success, receiving good reviews and running for 483 performances. The production was toured in Austria in 1906. The operetta originally had no overture, Lehár wrote one for the 400th performance, the Vienna Philharmonic performed the overture at Lehárs 70th birthday concert in April 1940. The embassy in Paris of the poverty-stricken Balkan principality of Pontevedro is holding a ball to celebrate the birthday of the sovereign, Baron Zeta has in mind Count Danilo Danilovitsch, the First Secretary of the embassy, but his plans are not going well. Danilo is not at the party, so Zeta sends Njegus, Danilo finally arrives and meets Hanna. It emerges they were in love before her marriage, but his uncle interrupted their romance because Hanna had absolutely nothing to her name. Although they still love each other, Danilo refuses to court Hanna because of her fortune, meanwhile, Baron Zetas wife Valencienne has been flirting with the French attaché to the embassy, Count Camille de Rosillon, who writes I love you on her fan. Valencienne puts off Camilles advances, saying that she is a respectable wife, however, they lose the incriminating fan, which is found by embassy counsellor Kromow, who jealously fears the fan belongs to his wife, Olga, and gives it to Baron Zeta
9.
George Barbier (actor)
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George W. Barbier was an American film and stage actor. Barbier entered Crozier Seminary to study for the ministry but gave it up to go on the stage and he began his career in light opera and spent several years in repertory and stock companies. He eventually played on Broadway, where he appeared in seven productions between 1922 and 1930, among them The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Man Who Came Back. He signed a contract with Paramount Pictures in 1929 and later worked as an actor for most of the major studios. His first film was The Big Pond, the weighty, white-haired Barbier often played pompous, but mostly kind-hearted businessmen or patriarchs in supporting roles. George Barbier appeared in 88 films until his death in 1945, George Barbier at the Internet Movie Database George Barbier at the Internet Broadway Database George Barbier at Find a Grave
10.
Edward Everett Horton
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Edward Everett Horton was an American character actor. He had a career in film, theater, radio, television. Horton was born in Brooklyn, twelve years before New York City was consolidated, to Isabella S. and Edward Everett Horton and his mother was born in Matanzas, Cuba to Mary Orr and George Diack, immigrants from Scotland. He attended Boys High School, Brooklyn and Baltimore City College and he began his college career at Oberlin College in Ohio. He was asked to leave after an incident where he climbed to the top of the Service Building, later, he attended college at Brooklyn Polytechnic and Columbia University, where he was a member of Phi Kappa Psi. Horton began his career in 1906, singing and dancing and playing small parts in vaudeville. In 1919, he moved to Los Angeles, California, where he began acting in Hollywood films and his first starring role was in the comedy Too Much Business, but he portrayed the lead role of an idealistic young classical composer in Beggar on Horseback. In the late 1920s he starred in silent comedies for Educational Pictures. As a stage trained performer, he found more film work easily, Horton initially used his given name, Edward Horton, professionally. His father persuaded him to adopt his name professionally, reasoning that there might be other actors named Edward Horton. Horton soon cultivated his own variation of the time-honored double take. In Hortons version, he would smile ingratiatingly and nod in agreement with what just happened, then and he is best known, however, for his work as a character actor in supporting roles. His last role was in the comedy film Cold Turkey, in which his character communicated only through facial expressions, Horton continued to appear in stage productions, often in summer stock. His performance in the play Springtime for Henry became a perennial in summer theaters, from 1945-47, Horton hosted radios Kraft Music Hall. An early television appearance came in the play Sham, shown on The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre on 13 December 1948, during the 1950s, Horton worked in television. One of his best remembered appearances is in an episode of CBSs I Love Lucy, in which he is cast against type as a frisky, amorous suitor, broadcast in 1952. In 1960, he guest starred on ABCs sitcom The Real McCoys as J. Luther Medwick, in the story line, Medwick clashes with the equally outspoken Grandpa Amos McCoy. In 1962, he portrayed the character Uncle Ned in three episodes of the CBS television series Dennis the Menace, in 1965, he played the medicine man, Roaring Chicken, in the ABC sitcom F Troop
11.
Una Merkel
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Una Merkel was an American stage, film, radio, and television actress. Merkel was born in Kentucky and acted on stage in New York in the 1920s and she went to Hollywood in 1930 and became a popular film actress. Two of her performances are in the films 42nd Street. She won a Tony award in 1956, and was nominated for an Academy Award in 1961, Una Merkel was born in Covington, Kentucky, but in her early childhood, she lived in many of the Southern United States due to her fathers job as a traveling salesman. At the age of 15, her parents and she moved to Philadelphia and they stayed there a year or so before settling in New York City, where she began attending the Alviene School of Dramatic Art. Because of her resemblance to actress Lillian Gish, Merkel was offered a part as Gishs youngest sister in a silent film called World Shadows. Unfortunately, the public never saw the film because funding for it dried up, Merkel went on to appear in a few silent films during the silent era, several of them for the Lee Bradford Corporation. She also appeared in the two-reel Loves Old Sweet Song, which was made by Lee DeForest in his Phonofilm sound-on-film process and starred Louis Wolheim and Helen Weir. Not making much of a mark in films, Merkel turned her attention to the theater and her biggest triumph was in Coquette, which starred her idol, Helen Hayes. Invited to Hollywood by famous director D. W. Griffith to play Ann Rutledge in his Abraham Lincoln, with her Kewpie-doll looks, strong Southern accent, and wry line delivery, Merkel enlivened scores of films in the 1930s. She even had the distinction of playing Sam Spades secretary in the original 1931 version of The Maltese Falcon, Merkel was a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player from 1932 to 1938, appearing in as many as 12 films in a year, often on loan-out to other studios. She was also often cast as leading lady to a number of actors in their pictures, including Jack Benny, Harold Lloyd, Franchot Tone. In 42nd Street, Merkel played a show girl who was Ginger Rogers characters buddy. In the famous Shuffle Off to Buffalo number, Merkel and Rogers sang the verse, shell be wanting alimony in a year or so. /Still they go and shuffle, shuffle off to Buffalo. Merkel appeared in both the 1934 and the 1952 film versions of The Merry Widow, playing different roles in each and she played the elder daughter to the W. C. Fields character, Egbert Sousé, in the 1940 film The Bank Dick and her film career went into decline during the 1940s, although she continued working in smaller productions. In 1950, she was leading lady to William Bendix in the baseball comedy Kill the Umpire and she made a comeback as a middle-aged woman playing mothers and maiden aunts, and in 1956 won a Tony Award for her role on Broadway in The Ponder Heart. She had a part in the MGM1959 film The Mating Game as Paul Douglas wife and Debbie Reynoldss mother
12.
Minna Gombell
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Minna Gombell was an American stage and film actress. She had a successful stage career as Winifred Lee, from 1912 before being signed by the Fox Film Corporation in the late 1920s. Her first film was Doctors Wives in which she played under the name Nancy Gardner, after this, she spent a time coaching several young actresses before returning to film under her real name. She appeared in some fifty Hollywood films including, Laurel and Hardys Block-Heads, The Merry Widow, The First Year, Boom Town, High Sierra, Hoop-La, The Thin Man, gombells third husband was the film writer, producer and director Myron Coureval Fagan. Minna Gombell at the Internet Movie Database
13.
Sterling Holloway
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Sterling Price Holloway Jr. was an American actor and voice actor who appeared in over 100 films and 40 television shows. He was also an actor for The Walt Disney Company, well known for his distinctive tenor voice. Born in Cedartown, Georgia, Holloway was named after his father, Sterling Price Holloway and he had a younger brother named Boothby. The family owned a store in Cedartown, where his father served as mayor in 1912. After graduating from Georgia Military Academy in 1920 at the age of fifteen, he left Georgia for New York City, while there, he befriended actor Spencer Tracy, whom he considered one of his favorite working colleagues. A talented singer, he introduced Manhattan in 1925, and the following year sang Mountain Greenery and he moved to Hollywood in 1926 to begin a film career that lasted almost 50 years. His bushy red hair and high pitched voice meant that he almost always appeared in comedies and his first film was The Battling Kangaroo, a silent picture. Over the following decades, Holloway would appear with Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Lon Chaney Jr, Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Bing Crosby, and John Carradine. In 1942, during World War II, Holloway enlisted in the United States Army at the age of 37 and was assigned to the Special Services. He helped develop a show called Hey Rookie, which ran for nine months, in 1945, Holloway played the role of a medic assigned to an infantry platoon in the critically acclaimed film A Walk in the Sun. During 1946 and 1947, he played the sidekick in five Gene Autry Westerns. Walt Disney originally considered Holloway for the voice of Sleepy in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, holloways voice work in animated films began in 1941 when he was first heard in Dumbo, as the voice of Mr. Stork. Holloway was the voice of the adult Flower in Bambi, the narrator of the Antarctic penguin sequence in The Three Caballeros and the narrator in the Peter and he is perhaps best remembered as the voice of Winnie the Pooh in Disneys Winnie-the-Pooh featurettes through 1977. He was honored as a Disney Legend in 1991, the first one to receive the award in the Voice category. In the late 1940s, he could be heard in various roles on NBCs Fibber McGee and his distinctive tenor voice retained a touch of its Southern drawl and was very recognizable. Holloway was chosen to narrate many childrens records, including Uncle Remus Stories, Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes, Walt Disney Presents Rudyard Kiplings Just so Stories and Peter, Holloway easily made the transition from radio to television. He appeared on the Adventures of Superman as Uncle Oscar, an eccentric inventor, during the 1970s, Holloway did commercial voice-overs for Purina Puppy Chow dog food and sang their familiar jingle, Puppy Chow/For a full year/Till hes full-grown. He also provided the voice for Woodsy Owl in several 1970s and 1980s United States Forest Service commercials, in 1982 he auditioned for the well known comic book character Garfield but lost to Lorenzo Music
14.
Donald Meek
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Donald Meek was a Scottish character actor. He was well known for his nervous and fearful supporting roles. Donald Meek first worked as an actor and later became a film actor, starring in several movies including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Little Miss Broadway. Before becoming an actor, he fought in the Spanish–American War in the United States Army, from 1931 through 1932 Meek was featured as criminologist Dr. Crabtree, in a series of twelve Warner Brothers two-reel short subjects written by S. S. Van Dine. A prolific film actor in over 100 Hollywood movies during its Golden Age, originally buried in California, his body was later moved to Fairmount Cemetery mausoleum in Denver, Colorado, USA. Donald Meek at the Internet Movie Database Donald Meek at the Internet Broadway Database Donald Meek at Find a Grave Portraits of Donald Meek from Stagecoach by Ned Scott
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Herman Bing
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Herman Bing was a German-American character actor and voice actor. Herman Bing was born in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany and died in Los Angeles and he was production chief of films in Germany before he went to America with director F. W. Murnau as Murnaus assistant director. He acted in more than 120 films and he provided the voice for the Ringmaster in Walt Disneys Dumbo, and Von Hamburger in Daffy Duck in Hollywood. Many of Bings parts were uncredited, the type of comedy he was known for became outdated in the years following World War II. He became increasingly depressed in the mid-1940s, as he was unable to work in Hollywood. Herman Bing at the Internet Movie Database Herman Bing at Find a Grave
16.
Akim Tamiroff
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Akim Mikhailovich Tamiroff was an ethnic Armenian actor. Tamiroff was born in Tiflis, Russian Empire, of Armenian ancestry and he trained at the Moscow Art Theatre drama school. He arrived in the U. S. in 1923 on a tour with a troupe of actors, Tamiroff managed to develop a career in Hollywood despite his thick Russian accent. Tamiroffs film debut came in 1932 in a role in Okay. He performed in several uncredited roles until 1935, when he co-starred in The Lives of a Bengal Lancer. He also appeared in the lavish epic China Seas in 1935 with Clark Gable, Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow, Rosalind Russell and Robert Benchley. The following year, he was cast in the role in The General Died at Dawn with Gary Cooper. He was also spoofed in a 1969 episode of the TV show H. R. Pufnstuf entitled The Stand-in in which a frog named Akim Toadanoff directs a movie on Living Island, Tamiroff died on September 17,1972 from cancer. He was mentioned in J. D. Salingers Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut He is also mentioned in Walker Percys 1961 novel The Moviegoer
17.
Fifi D'Orsay
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Fifi DOrsay was a Canadian-born actress. Fifi dOrsay was born Marie-Rose Angelina Yvonne Lussier in Montreal, as a young typist filled with the desire to become an actress, she went to New York City. There, she found work in the Greenwich Village Follies after an audition in which she sang the song Yes and we Have No Bananas in French. In a burst of creativity, she told the director she was from Paris, France. The shows impressed director hired her, billing her as Mademoiselle Fifi, while working in the show, she became involved with Ed Gallagher, a veteran actor who joined her in putting together a vaudeville act. Gallagher was half of the successful Broadway comedy team of Gallagher and Shean, after touring in vaudeville, she headed west to Hollywood. There, she adopted the surname DOrsay and began a career in movies, while never a superstar, she worked hard at her craft, headlining with the likes of Bing Crosby and Buster Crabbe. She was a contestant in the February 23,1956 television edition of Groucho Marxs You Bet Your Life, at the age of sixty-seven, she returned to the stage in the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, Follies. Fifi DOrsay died from cancer on December 2,1983 at the age of seventy-nine at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills and she was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. Saturday night she went to San Pedro and boarded the Dutch steamship Drechtdyk to bid some friends adieu, the steamship sailed at 9 oclock, and some time later, when she went to the deck, she saw the ocean where the gangplank had been. The next stop is Cristobal, Canal Zone, February 4 and they Had to See Paris Women Everywhere Hot for Paris Those Three French Girls On the Level Women of All Nations The Stolen Jools Young as You Feel Mr
18.
Pauline Garon
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Pauline Garon was a Canadian-born American silent film, feature film and stage actress. Born in Montreal, Quebec as Marie Pauline Garon, the daughter of Pierre and Victoria Garon, she was of French, Garon attended this school for seven years. She was the first graduate of the institution to perform in the theater, Garon did not learn English until she was ten years old. Around age 20, Garon ran away to New York City where she began work on Broadway and she debuted in films in Remodeling Her Husband as a body double for Dorothy Gish. She was associated with D. W. Griffith when she first came to Hollywood in 1920, Garons first important role came in 1921s The Power Within. She also played the double for Sylvia Breamer in Doubling for Romeo. In 1923, she was hailed as Cecil B and he cast her in only two films. She was selected as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars in 1923, even before her discovery, Garon had been a steadily rising star. She appeared opposite Owen Moore in Reported Missing, Garon received much praise for her role in Henry Kings adaptation of Sonny. She had been chosen for this role by King after he saw her portray the role in the production on Broadway. She co-starred with Richard Barthelmess in the First National Pictures release, Garon was making at least five films a year after her popularity soared. She was playing lead roles in B movies and supporting roles in more glamorous films. She co-starred with Gloria Swanson and John Boles in The Love of Sunya, by 1928, Garons career began to decline dramatically. She appeared mostly in French renditions of Paramount Pictures movies and she was cast in less popular English films as well. By the early 1930s, Garon was given small uncredited roles, by 1934, she had vanished from film. Garon played a bit part in How Green Was My Valley and she wed Lowell Sherman in February 1926. Shermans influence led Garon to refuse a long-term contract with Paramount, in February 1928 Garon became a citizen of the United States. She separated from Sherman in August 1927, in February 1940 she eloped with radio star and actor, Clyde Harland Alban, to Yuma, Arizona
19.
American Film Institute
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The American Film Institute is an American film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the moving picture arts in America. AFI is supported by funding and public membership. The institute is composed of leaders from the film, entertainment, business, a board of trustees chaired by Sir Howard Stringer and a board of directors chaired by Robert A. Daly guide the organization, which is led by President and CEO Bob Gazzale. Prior leaders were founding director George Stevens, Jr. and Jean Picker Firstenberg. <ref>AFI Board of Trustees etc. American Film Institute. October 2014. Retrieved December 24,2014. </ref>Two years later, in 1967, AFI was established, supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Motion Picture Association of America and the Ford Foundation. The institute established a program for filmmakers known then as the Center for Advanced Film Studies. The institute moved to its current eight-acre Hollywood campus in 1981, the film training program grew into the AFI Conservatory, an accredited graduate school. AFI educates audiences and recognizes excellence through its awards programs and 10 Top 10 Lists. In 1969, the established the AFI Conservatory for Advanced Film Studies at Greystone. The first class included filmmakers Terrence Malick, Caleb Deschanel and Paul Schrader, mirroring a professional production environment, Fellows collaborate to make more films than any other graduate level program. Admission to AFI Conservatory is highly selective, with a maximum of 140 graduates per year, in 2013, Emmy and Oscar-winning director, producer and screenwriter James L. Brooks joined AFI as Artistic Director of the AFI Conservatory where he provides leadership for the film program. Brooks artistic role at the AFI Conservatory has a legacy that includes Daniel Petrie, Jr. Robert Wise. Award-winning director Bob Mandel served as Dean of the AFI Conservatory for nine years, jan Schuette took over as Dean in 2014. AFI Conservatorys alumni have careers in film, television and on the web and they have been recognized with all of the major industry awards – Academy Award, Emmy Award, guild awards, and the Tony Award. The AFI Catalog, started in 1968, is a web-based filmographic database, early print copies of this catalog may also be found at your local library. Each year the AFI Awards honor the ten outstanding films and ten outstanding television programs, the awards are a non-competitive acknowledgement of excellence. The Awards are announced in December and a luncheon for award honorees takes place the following January. The juries consisted of over 1,500 artists, scholars, critics and historians, with movies selected based on the films popularity over time, historical significance, citizen Kane was voted the greatest American film twice. AFI operates two film festivals, AFI Fest in Los Angeles, and AFI Docs in Silver Spring, Maryland, AFI Fest is the American Film Institutes annual celebration of artistic excellence
20.
The New York Times
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The New York Times is an American daily newspaper, founded and continuously published in New York City since September 18,1851, by The New York Times Company. The New York Times has won 119 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper, the papers print version in 2013 had the second-largest circulation, behind The Wall Street Journal, and the largest circulation among the metropolitan newspapers in the US. The New York Times is ranked 18th in the world by circulation, following industry trends, its weekday circulation had fallen in 2009 to fewer than one million. Nicknamed The Gray Lady, The New York Times has long been regarded within the industry as a newspaper of record. The New York Times international version, formerly the International Herald Tribune, is now called the New York Times International Edition, the papers motto, All the News Thats Fit to Print, appears in the upper left-hand corner of the front page. On Sunday, The New York Times is supplemented by the Sunday Review, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Magazine and T, some other early investors of the company were Edwin B. Morgan and Edward B. We do not believe that everything in Society is either right or exactly wrong, —what is good we desire to preserve and improve, —what is evil, to exterminate. In 1852, the started a western division, The Times of California that arrived whenever a mail boat got to California. However, when local California newspapers came into prominence, the effort failed, the newspaper shortened its name to The New-York Times in 1857. It dropped the hyphen in the city name in the 1890s, One of the earliest public controversies it was involved with was the Mortara Affair, the subject of twenty editorials it published alone. At Newspaper Row, across from City Hall, Henry Raymond, owner and editor of The New York Times, averted the rioters with Gatling guns, in 1869, Raymond died, and George Jones took over as publisher. Tweed offered The New York Times five million dollars to not publish the story, in the 1880s, The New York Times transitioned gradually from editorially supporting Republican Party candidates to becoming more politically independent and analytical. In 1884, the paper supported Democrat Grover Cleveland in his first presidential campaign, while this move cost The New York Times readership among its more progressive and Republican readers, the paper eventually regained most of its lost ground within a few years. However, the newspaper was financially crippled by the Panic of 1893, the paper slowly acquired a reputation for even-handedness and accurate modern reporting, especially by the 1890s under the guidance of Ochs. Under Ochs guidance, continuing and expanding upon the Henry Raymond tradition, The New York Times achieved international scope, circulation, in 1910, the first air delivery of The New York Times to Philadelphia began. The New York Times first trans-Atlantic delivery by air to London occurred in 1919 by dirigible, airplane Edition was sent by plane to Chicago so it could be in the hands of Republican convention delegates by evening. In the 1940s, the extended its breadth and reach. The crossword began appearing regularly in 1942, and the section in 1946
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IMDb
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In 1998 it became a subsidiary of Amazon Inc, who were then able to use it as an advertising resource for selling DVDs and videotapes. As of January 2017, IMDb has approximately 4.1 million titles and 7.7 million personalities in its database, the site enables registered users to submit new material and edits to existing entries. Although all data is checked before going live, the system has open to abuse. The site also featured message boards which stimulate regular debates and dialogue among authenticated users, IMDb shutdown the message boards permanently on February 20,2017. Anyone with a connection can read the movie and talent pages of IMDb. A registration process is however, to contribute info to the site. A registered user chooses a name for themselves, and is given a profile page. These badges range from total contributions made, to independent categories such as photos, trivia, bios, if a registered user or visitor happens to be in the entertainment industry, and has an IMDb page, that user/visitor can add photos to that page by enrolling in IMDbPRO. Actors, crew, and industry executives can post their own resume and this fee enrolls them in a membership called IMDbPro. PRO can be accessed by anyone willing to pay the fee, which is $19.99 USD per month, or if paid annually, $149.99, which comes to approximately $12.50 per month USD. Membership enables a user to access the rank order of each industry personality, as well as agent contact information for any actor, producer, director etc. that has an IMDb page. Enrolling in PRO for industry personnel, enables those members the ability to upload a head shot to open their page, as well as the ability to upload hundreds of photos to accompany their page. Anyone can register as a user, and contribute to the site as well as enjoy its content, however those users enrolled in PRO have greater access and privileges. IMDb originated with a Usenet posting by British film fan and computer programmer Col Needham entitled Those Eyes, others with similar interests soon responded with additions or different lists of their own. Needham subsequently started an Actors List, while Dave Knight began a Directors List, and Andy Krieg took over THE LIST from Hank Driskill, which would later be renamed the Actress List. Both lists had been restricted to people who were alive and working, the goal of the participants now was to make the lists as inclusive as possible. By late 1990, the lists included almost 10,000 movies and television series correlated with actors and actresses appearing therein. On October 17,1990, Needham developed and posted a collection of Unix shell scripts which could be used to search the four lists, at the time, it was known as the rec. arts. movies movie database
22.
Turner Classic Movies
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Turner Classic Movies is an American movie-oriented basic cable and satellite television network owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner. TCM is headquartered at the Techwood Campus in Atlanta, Georgias Midtown business district, historically, the channels programming consisted mainly of featured classic theatrically released feature films from the Turner Entertainment film library – which comprises films from Warner Bros. However, TCM now has licensing deals with other Hollywood film studios as well as its Time Warner sister company, Warner Bros. and occasionally shows more recent films. The channel is available in United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Latin America, France, Spain, Nordic countries, Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific. In 1986, eight years before the launch of Turner Classic Movies, concerns over Turner Entertainments corporate debt load resulted in Turner selling the studio that October back to Kirk Kerkorian, from whom Turner had purchased the studio less than a year before. As part of the deal, Turner Entertainment retained ownership of MGMs library of films released up to May 9,1986, Turner Broadcasting System was split into two companies, Turner Broadcasting System and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and reincorporated as MGM/UA Communications Co. The film library of Turner Entertainment would serve as the form of programming for TCM upon the networks launch. After the library was acquired, MGM/UA signed a deal with Turner to continue distributing the pre-May 1986 MGM and to begin distributing the pre-1950 Warner Bros. film libraries for video release. Turner Classic Movies debuted on April 14,1994, at 6,00 p. m. Eastern Time, the date and time were chosen for their historical significance as the exact centennial anniversary of the first public movie showing in New York City. The first movie broadcast on TCM was the 1939 film Gone with the Wind, at the time of its launch, TCM was available to approximately one million cable television subscribers. AMC had broadened its content to feature colorized and more recent films by 2002. In the early 90s AMC abandoned its format, leaving TCM as the only movie-oriented cable channel to devote its programming entirely to classic films without commercial interruption. In 1996, Turner Broadcasting System merged with Time Warner, which besides placing Turner Classic Movies, in March 1999, MGM paid Warner Bros. and gave up the home video rights to the MGM/UA films owned by Turner to Warner Home Video. In 2008, TCM won a Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting, in April 2010, Turner Classic Movies held the first TCM Classic Film Festival, an event – now held annually – at the Graumans Chinese Theater and the Graumans Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. In 2007, some of the films featured on TCM were made available for streaming on TCMs website. The networks programming season runs from February until the following March of each year when a retrospective of Oscar-winning and Oscar-nominated movies is shown, called 31 Days of Oscar. Turner Classic Movies presents many of its features in their original aspect ratio whenever possible – widescreen films broadcast on TCM are letterboxed on the standard definition feed. TCM also regularly presents widescreen presentations of films not available in the format on any video release
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AllMovie
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AllMovie is an online guide service website with information about films, television programs, and screen actors. As of 2013, AllMovie. com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by All Media Network, AllMovie was founded by popular-culture archivist Michael Erlewine, who also founded AllMusic and AllGame. The AllMovie database was licensed to tens of thousands of distributors and retailers for point-of-sale systems, websites, the AllMovie database is comprehensive, including basic product information, cast and production credits, plot synopsis, professional reviews, biographies, relational links and more. AllMovie data was accessed on the web at the AllMovie. com website and it was also available via the AMG LASSO media recognition service, which can automatically recognize DVDs. In late 2007, Macrovision acquired AMG for a reported $72 million, the AMG consumer facing web properties AllMusic. com, AllMovie. com and AllGame. com were sold by Rovi in August 2013 to All Media Network, LLC. The buyers also include the founders of SideReel and Ackrell Capital investor Mike Ackrell. All Media Network offices are located in San Francisco, California, AllMusic AllGame SideReel All Media Network Official website
24.
Carmen (1918 film)
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Carmen is a 1918 German silent drama film directed by Ernst Lubitsch and starring Pola Negri, Harry Liedtke and Leopold von Ledebur. It was based on the novella Carmen by Prosper Mérimée, the film was released with English intertitles in the United States in 1921 under the alternative title Gypsy Blood. The story is told by a man at a camp-fire who says that it took many years before. Don José was a Dragoon Sergeant in Sevilla who fell madly in love with Carmen, for her, he killed an officer and gave up his fiancée and his career in the army, and became a smuggler. But Carmens love did not last and she left him and went to Gibraltar where she fell in love with the famous bullfighter Escamillo. Back in Sevilla, Carmen rode triumphantly in Escamillos carriage on his way to a bullfight, at the end of the bullfight, José confronted Carmen and when she told him that she no longer loved him, stabbed her to death. Back at the camp-fire seen at the beginning, the man who told the story adds that some say that Carmen did not die ′for she was in league with the Devil himself, Carmen at the Internet Movie Database
25.
The Oyster Princess
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The Oyster Princess is a 1919 German silent film directed by Ernst Lubitsch. It is a comedy in 4 acts about an American millionaire’s spoiled daughter’s marriage that does not go as planned. The film earned fame from his use of style and sophistication in this film among others. The term for his style was later dubbed The Lubitsch Touch, the American oyster King dictates to a room full of typing writing women. He smokes a cigar held by one of his many butlers at his side. One butler scurrys in to say, “Your daughter is in a fit of raging madness” Ossi, Mister Quaker oddly jogs through the house to see Ossi on the other side of the mansion. When Mister Quaker peeps in, Ossi throws newspapers at him and he asks, “Why are you throwing those newspapers. ”And the brat replies with, “Because all of the vases are broken. ”Ossi is clearly angered, and in a big mess. She shows her father a newspaper that says the Shoe cream king’s daughter has married to a count and this is what Ossi is upset about. Mister Quaker is not impressed but tells Ossi that he buy her a prince. With this, Ossi can’t contain herself, jumps up, and she is so happy, she could smash the house with joy. We then meet Seligson, the matchmaker, who is dealing with a woman with a turned up nose and she complains about the price and how all of the bachelors have imperfections. As she exits, Ossi enters the room smiling and hands the matchmaker a note from Mister Quaker and it says, that because of the shoe cream king’s daughter is married, and because oysters are more important, then his daughter should be married too. She needs a man with a tree that is in accordance with the Oyster king’s. The matchmaker searches his wall full of bachelors and comes across Prince Nucki, Nucki lives high up in a building on the 47th floor, he has heavy debts, and is not inclined to marriage. With the great match, the matchmaker leaves instantly, meanwhile, Ossi is instructed in the ways or marriage which happen to be all about babies. Her instructor is a strict looking woman in black with thin glasses, Ossi bathes the doll and shakes it off to dry it. She is yelled at for not holding it correctly, and Ossi snaps back at the teacher, then, she is instructed to powder the baby, but unknowingly powders its face. Ossi is so confused about why she should powder its bottom that she exclaims, “that’s funny. ”She goes to touch the bottom but disgusted, tosses the naked doll behind her, across the room, and proceeds to throw powder puff at the instructor
26.
Sumurun
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Sumurun is a 1920 German silent film directed by Ernst Lubitsch based on a pantomime by Friedrich Freksa. A company of travelling performers arrive at a fictional oriental city and it includes the beautiful dancer Janaia, the hunchback clown Yeggar who is lovesick for Janaia and the Old Lady who loves Yeggar. The Slave Trader Achmed wants to sell Janaia to the Sheik for his harem, at the Palace, the Sheik finds out that his favourite, Sumurun, is in love with Nur al Din, the handsome clothes merchant. He wants to condemn her to death but his son obtains her pardon, after seeing Janaia dancing, the Sheik is keen to buy her. Yeggar is desperate and takes a pill which make him look dead. His body is hidden in a chest, the women from the harem come to Nur al Dins shop and hide him in a chest so that he can be brought into the Palace. The chest containing Yeggars body is brought to the Palace. The Sheik finds Janaia making love to his son and kills both of them and he then finds Sumurun making love to Nur al Din and wants to kill them but he is stabbed in the back by Yagger. The monumental sets were realised by Kurt Richter and Erno Metzner, the costumes were designed by Ali Hubert. This is the last film in which Ernst Lubitsch was starring, Sumurun was classified by the Film Censors Office as not suitable for minors. The première took place on 1 September 1920 in the Ufa-Palast am Zoo in Berlin and it concluded that, despite some shortcomings, it remained one of the years best pictures. The film was released in the US by Kino Lorber as part of the box set Lubitsch in Berlin in 2007 with English intertitles, Sumurun at the Internet Movie Database
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