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Ann Stephens
Ann Stephens (21 May 1931 – 15 July 1966) was a British child actress and singer, popular in the 1940s. She was born in London. In July 1941 she recorded several songs, including a popular version of "The Teddy Bears' Picnic", " Dicky Bird Hop" (with Franklin Engelmann) and a setting by Harold Fraser-Simson of one of A. A. Milne's verses about Christopher Robin, "Buckingham Palace," which was often featured on the BBC Light Programme's Children's Favourites. In the same year Stephens had made her recording debut as Alice in musical adaptations of Lewis Carroll's ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' and ''Through the Looking Glass''. She was chosen for this role from some 700 applicants auditioned by the record company His Master’s Voice. Later in the 1940s, Stephens appeared in several films, including ''In Which We Serve'' (1942), '' Fanny By Gaslight'' (1944), ''The Upturned Glass'' (1947) and '' Your Witness'' (1950). In the 1950s she turned her attention to television ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
IMDb
IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, plot summaries, trivia, ratings, and fan and critical reviews. IMDb began as a fan-operated movie database on the Usenet group "rec.arts.movies" in 1990, and moved to the Web in 1993. It is now owned and operated by IMDb.com, Inc., a subsidiary of Amazon. the database contained some million titles (including television episodes) and million person records. Additionally, the site had 83 million registered users. The site's message boards were disabled in February 2017. Features The title and talent ''pages'' of IMDb are accessible to all users, but only registered and logged-in users can submit new material and suggest edits to existing entries. Most of the site's data has been provided by these volunteers. Registered users with a prov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pathé
Pathé or Pathé Frères (, styled as PATHÉ!) is the name of various French people, French businesses that were founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France starting in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world's largest film equipment and production company, as well as a major producer of phonograph records. In 1908, Pathé invented the newsreel that was shown in cinemas before a feature film. Pathé is a major film production and distribution company, owning a number of cinema chains through its subsidiary Les Cinémas Pathé Gaumont and television networks across Europe. It is the second-oldest operating film company behind Gaumont Film Company, which was established in 1895. History The company was founded as Société Pathé Frères (Pathé Brothers Company) in Paris, France on 28 September 1896, by the four brothers Charles Pathé, Charles, Émile, Théophile and Jacques Pathé. During the first part of the 20th century, Pathé became the large ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Franchise Affair (film)
''The Franchise Affair'' is a 1951 British thriller film directed by Lawrence Huntington and starring Michael Denison, Dulcie Gray, Anthony Nicholls and Marjorie Fielding. It is a faithful adaptation of the novel '' The Franchise Affair'' by Josephine Tey. Plot In a quiet English town, 14-year-old schoolgirl Betty Kane (Ann Stephens) claims that the owners of an isolated house ("The Franchise"), spinster Marion Sharpe (Dulcie Gray) and Marion's mother (Marjorie Fielding), kidnapped and beat her. The police believe Betty's story, but local lawyer Robert Blair (Michael Denison), a bachelor, is sceptical. Risking ostracism from the community, Blair quietly sets about proving the innocence of the two women. The community begin to shun the women as they have already effectively been tried by the local press. Attacks on the house begin: breaking windows and painting graffiti on the walls. A local garage mechanic (Kenneth More) offers to help guard the house. It eventually emerges tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
No Room At The Inn
''No Room at the Inn'' is a 1945 play by Joan Temple that became a 1948 film directed by Daniel Birt. Both play and film are presented in flashback mode and share the same subject matter – cruelty, neglect and mental and physical abuse meted out to evacuee children during World War II. Temple's attack on those who turn a blind eye to child abuse, be they public officials or private individuals, was considered frank and uncompromising in its time. Plot As part of the mass evacuation of children in the early months of World War II, teenage Mary O'Rane is billeted with Mrs Agatha ('Aggie') Voray in an unthreatened area in the north of England. Mary soon discovers that, behind her respectable front, Mrs Voray forces her evacuee charges (five in all) to live in squalor and semi-starvation while spending the money intended for their upkeep on alcohol and personal fripperies. Yet when Mary is visited by her father, Mrs Voray easily convinces him that Mary's allegations are groundless ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
They Were Sisters
''They Were Sisters'' is a 1945 British melodrama film directed by Arthur Crabtree for Gainsborough Pictures and starring James Mason and Phyllis Calvert. The film was produced by Harold Huth, with cinematography from Jack Cox and screenplay by Roland Pertwee. ''They Were Sisters'' is noted for its frank, unsparing depiction of marital abuse at a time when the subject was rarely discussed openly. It was one of the Gainsborough melodramas. Background Unlike most of the hugely successful melodramas made by Gainsborough during the mid-1940s, ''They Were Sisters'' has a near-contemporary rather than a costume setting, spanning the years from the end of the First World War, to the late 1930s. The screenplay was developed by Pertwee from a popular novel of the same name by Dorothy Whipple, published in 1943. ''They Were Sisters'' features the spouses of both Mason and Calvert; Pamela Mason (billed under her maiden name Pamela Kellino and playing Mason's daughter, despite being onl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dear Octopus (film)
''Dear Octopus'' is a 1943 British comedy film directed by Harold French and starring Margaret Lockwood, Michael Wilding and Celia Johnson. It is based on a 1938 play ''Dear Octopus'' written by Dodie Smith. It was also released as ''The Randolph Family''. Plot Well-to-do couple Dora and Charles Randolph are celebrating their golden wedding, and three generations meet at the Randolph country home. As the relatives gather, each reveals his or her personal quirks and shortcomings. Caught in the middle is family secretary Penny Fenton (Margaret Lockwood), who has the unenviable task of sorting and smoothing out the family's deep-set hostilities and jealousies so that a good time can be had by all. Cast * Margaret Lockwood – Penny Randolph * Michael Wilding – Nicholas Randolph * Celia Johnson – Cynthia * Roland Culver – Felix Martin * Helen Haye – Dora Randolph * Athene Seyler – Aunt Belle * Jean Cadell – Vicar's wife * Basil Radford – Kenneth * Frederick Leister †... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Florence Desmond
Florence Dawson (31 May 1905 – 16 January 1993), better known by her stage name Florence Desmond, was an English actress, comedian and impersonator. Biography Early life and career Born in London in 1905, Desmond was educated at the Dame Alice Owen's School in Islington. Her brother, Fred Desmond, was a comedy acrobat from the "Desmond and Marks" double act. She began her stage career at the age of ten. Upon leaving school in 1920, she embarked on a long and successful career in the theatre, especially as an impersonator of famous stars. She appeared extensively in radio, theatre and occasionally in the cinema. Her recording of the risqué song "The Deepest Shelter in Town" has been featured in multiple World War II music compilations. She was the subject of ''This Is Your Life'' in 1959 when she was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at London's Adelphi Theatre. Personal life She was married twice, first to the aviator Tom Campbell Black from 1935–1936 and, after Black's de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Askey
Arthur Bowden Askey, (6 June 1900 – 16 November 1982) was an English comedian and actor. Askey was known for his short stature (5' 2", 1.58 m) and distinctive horn-rimmed glasses, and his playful humour incorporating improvisation and catchphrases including "Hello playmates!", "I thank you" (pronounced "Ay-thang-yaw") and "Before your very eyes". Askey achieved prominence in the 1930s in the BBC's first radio comedy series ''Band Waggon'' and subsequently starred in several Gainsborough Pictures comedy films during the Second World War including ''Charley's (Big-Hearted) Aunt'' (1940) and ''The Ghost Train (1941 film), The Ghost Train'' (1941). His Novelty song, novelty recordings for His Master's Voice include "The Bee Song" (1938), a lasting part of his act. From the 1950s, Askey was a prominent television presence and made regular appearances on the BBC's long-running music hall programme ''The Good Old Days (UK TV series), The Good Old Days''. Askey was made an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jimmy Kennedy
James Kennedy (20 July 1902 – 6 April 1984) was a Northern Irish songwriter. He was predominantly a lyricist, putting words to existing music such as "Teddy Bears' Picnic" and "My Prayer" or co-writing with composers like Michael Carr, Wilhelm Grosz and Nat Simon. In a career spanning more than fifty years, he wrote some 2000 songs, of which over 200 became worldwide hits and about 50 are popular music classics. Early life Kennedy was born in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. His father, Joseph Hamilton Kennedy, was a policeman in the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). While growing up in the village of Coagh, Kennedy wrote several songs and poems. He was inspired by local surroundings—the view of the Ballinderry River, the local Springhill House and the plentiful chestnut trees on his family's property, as evidenced in his poem ''Chestnut Trees''. Kennedy later moved to Portstewart, a seaside resort in County Londonderry. Kennedy graduated from Trinity College, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Walter Bratton
John Walter Bratton (January 21, 1867 – February 7, 1947) was an American Tin Pan Alley composer and theatrical producer who became popular during the era known as the Gay Nineties. Early life Raised by his grandmother, Mary Bratton, in New Castle, Delaware, near Wilmington, John Walter Bratton (sometimes spelled Bratten) was the son of John F. and Emma Bratton, of whom little is known. He was educated at the Harkness Academy in Wilmington and later attended the Philadelphia College of Music before embarking on a career as a baritone singer. Career John Bratton's career soon moved from performer to composer and producer. He began in the chorus of a show called ''Ship Ahoy'' for $18 a week and not before too long was selling songs written with his friend, lyricists Walter H. Ford, for as little as $10 a title. Over the years Bratton would collaborate on over 250 songs with Ford and Paul West.''The New York Times'' February 9, 1947 One of their earlier tunes was a tribute to vet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alice In Wonderland
''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatures. It is seen as an example of the literary nonsense genre. The artist John Tenniel provided 42 wood-engraved illustrations for the book. It received positive reviews upon release and is now one of the best-known works of Victorian literature; its narrative, structure, characters and imagery have had widespread influence on popular culture and literature, especially in the fantasy genre. It is credited as helping end an era of didacticism in children's literature, inaugurating a new era in which writing for children aimed to "delight or entertain". The tale plays with logic, giving the story lasting popularity with adults as well as with children. The titular character Alice shares her given name with Alice Liddell, a girl Carroll knew. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Geehl
Henry Ernest Geehl ronounced 'Gale'(28 September 188114 January 1961) was an English pianist, conductor, composer and arranger. Born in London in 1881, Geehl studied piano with Benno Schönberger and R. O. Morgan in London, and with Anton Schlieber in Vienna. He toured as a pianist and theatre conductor, and in 1919 joined the Trinity College of Music as a teacher, where he remained on staff as a teacher until a year before his death. His students included Eric Parkin, William Lovelock and Nicholas Temperley. He also became music editor for the Edwin Ashdown and Enoch publishing firm. In later life he lived at Coleshill, near Beaconsfield, Bucks, where he gave private lessons in piano, violin, and composition. Henry Geehl had an affinity with music written for brass bands. He arranged Gustav Holst's '' A Moorside Suite'' for brass band, made many other arrangements and transcriptions, and was the first composer to write serious symphonic music directly for brass band. His ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
