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Ben Thau
Benjamin Thau (15 December 1898 – 5 July 1983) was an American businessman who became vice-president of the Hollywood film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), a subsidiary of the Loew's theater chain. From 1928 he was in charge of casting, in the business of discovering and developing talented performers. He was known for his quiet and calming influence with often temperamental stars. Towards the end of his career he was head of the studio from 1956 to 1958. Casting director Born to a Jewish family, Thau started his career as a vaudeville booking agent for Keith's and the Orpheum Circuit. In 1927 he joined Loews as a head booker for their theatres. In 1932 he joined MGM as a casting director. He worked closely with Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg and eventually became Mayer's assistant. Thau had a pleasant nature and was regarded with affection by many of the workers at MGM, but wielded considerable power. Thau belonged to Mayer's executive team, called "the college of cardi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world's most populous megacities. Los Angeles is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Southern California. With a population of roughly 3.9 million residents within the city limits , Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic and cultural diversity, being the home of the Hollywood film industry, and its sprawling metropolitan area. The city of Los Angeles lies in a basin in Southern California adjacent to the Pacific Ocean in the west and extending through the Santa Monica Mountains and north into the San Fernando Valley, with the city bordering the San Gabriel Valley to it's east. It covers about , and is the county seat of Los Angeles County, which is the most populous county in the United States with an estim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Colacello
Bob Colacello (born 1947) is an American writer. Born in Bensonhurst, New York, and raised in Plainview, Long Island, he graduated from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in 1969, and also has an MFA degree in film criticism from Columbia University Graduate School of the Arts. Early endeavors and ''Interview'' magazine Colacello began his writing career around 1969, when he began publishing film reviews in the ''Village Voice'' weekly. As a graduate student in the Film department at Columbia University in New York, his first publications doubled as his class essays and homework assignments. In 1970, Colacello wrote a review of Andy Warhol's film ''Trash'', which he hailed as a "great Roman Catholic masterpiece". This review garnered the attention of Warhol, and Paul Morrissey, the director of many of Warhol's films, who approached Colacello to write for ''Interview magazine'', a new art/film/fashion magazine Warhol had recently begun to publis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nancy Reagan
Nancy Davis Reagan (; born Anne Frances Robbins; July 6, 1921 – March 6, 2016) was an American film actress and First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989. She was the second wife of president Ronald Reagan. Reagan was born in New York City. After her parents separated, she lived in Maryland with an aunt and uncle for six years. When her mother remarried in 1929, she moved to Chicago and later was adopted by her mother's second husband. As Nancy Davis, she was a Hollywood actress in the 1940s and 1950s, starring in films such as '' The Next Voice You Hear...'', ''Night into Morning'', and ''Donovan's Brain''. In 1952, she married Ronald Reagan, who was then president of the Screen Actors Guild. He had two children from his previous marriage to Jane Wyman and he and Nancy had two children together. Nancy Reagan was the first lady of California when her husband was governor from 1967 to 1975, and she began to work with the Foster Grandparents Program. Reagan becam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lassie Come Home
''Lassie Come Home'' is a 1943 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Technicolor feature film starring Roddy McDowall and canine actor Pal, in a story about the profound bond between Yorkshire boy Joe Carraclough and his rough collie, Lassie. The film was directed by Fred M. Wilcox from a screenplay by Hugo Butler based upon the 1940 novel ''Lassie Come-Home'' by Eric Knight. The film was the first in a series of seven MGM films starring "Lassie." The original film saw a sequel, ''Son of Lassie'' in 1945 with five other films following at intervals through the 1940s. A British remake of the 1943 movie was released in 2005 as ''Lassie'' to moderate success. The film has been released to VHS and DVD. In 1993, ''Lassie Come Home'' was included in the annual selection of 25 motion pictures added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and recommended for preservation. Plot Set in Depression-era Yorkshire, Eng ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was a British-American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. She then became the world's highest paid movie star in the 1960s, remaining a well-known public figure for the rest of her life. In 1999, the American Film Institute named her the seventh- greatest female screen legend of Classic Hollywood cinema. Born in London to socially prominent American parents, Taylor moved with her family to Los Angeles in 1939. She made her acting debut with a minor role in the Universal Pictures film ''There's One Born Every Minute'' (1942), but the studio ended her contract after a year. She was then signed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and became a popular teen star after appearing in ''National Velvet'' (1944). She transitioned to mature roles in the 1950s, when she starred in the comedy ''Father of the Bride'' (195 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Torch Song (1953 Film)
''Torch Song'' is a 1953 American Technicolor musical drama film distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and starring Joan Crawford and Michael Wilding in a story about a Broadway star and her blind rehearsal pianist. The screenplay by John Michael Hayes and was based upon the story "Why Should I Cry?" by I.A.R. Wylie in a 1949 issue of ''The Saturday Evening Post''. The film was directed by Charles Walters and produced by Sidney Franklin, Henry Berman and Charles Schnee. Crawford's singing voice was dubbed by India Adams. Crawford lip-syncs to the recording Adams originally made for Cyd Charisse in a number discarded from the 1953 film, ''The Band Wagon''. '' That's Entertainment III'' includes a segment presenting the two numbers side-by-side, in split screen. The film marked Crawford's return to MGM after leaving to studio to join Warner Bros. in 1944. Her original recordings for the soundtrack, which were not used in the film, have survived and have been included in home video ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur; March 23, ncertain year from 1904 to 1908was an American actress. She started her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway. Crawford was signed to a motion picture contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1925. Initially frustrated by the size and quality of her parts, Crawford launched a publicity campaign and built an image as a nationally-known flapper by the end of the 1920s. By the 1930s, Crawford's fame rivaled MGM colleagues Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo. Crawford often played hardworking young women who find romance and financial success. These "rags-to-riches" stories were well received by Depression-era audiences and were popular with women. Crawford became one of Hollywood's most prominent movie stars and one of the highest paid women in the United States, but her films began losing money. By the end of the 1930s, she was labeled "box office poison". After an absence of nearly two years fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blossoms In The Dust
''Blossoms in the Dust'' is a 1941 American biographical film directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Felix Bressart, Marsha Hunt, Fay Holden and Samuel S. Hinds. It tells the true story of Edna Gladney, who helped orphaned children find homes and began a campaign to remove the word "illegitimate" from Texas birth certificates, despite the opposition of "good" citizens. The screenplay was by Anita Loos, with a story by Ralph Wheelwright. The film was one of the biggest hits of 1941 for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and began the rise of Greer Garson as one of the largest stars of the decade. ''Blossoms in the Dust'' won an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color, and was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Garson), Best Cinematography, Color, and Best Picture. Plot The film is a fictionalized telling of the story of Edna Gladney, an early advocate for the rights of "illegitimate" children in Texas. Edna Kahly (Greer Garson) and he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greer Garson
Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson (29 September 1904 – 6 April 1996) was an English-American actress and singer. She was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer who became popular during the Second World War for her portrayal of strong women on the homefront; listed by the ''Motion Picture Herald'' as one of America's top-ten box office draws from 1942 to 1946. The fourth most-nominated woman for the Best Actress Oscar, Garson received seven Academy Award nominations, including a record-tying (with Bette Davis) five consecutive nominations (1941–1945) in the actress category, winning for her performance in the title role of the 1942 film ''Mrs. Miniver''. Early life Greer Garson was born on 29 September 1904Troyan, p. 8. in Manor Park, East Ham (then in Essex, now part of Greater London), the only child of Nancy Sophia "Nina" (née Greer; 1880–1958) and George Garson (1865–1906), a commercial clerk in a London importing business. Her father was born in London to Scottish pare ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greer Garson-publicity
Greer may refer to: People * Greer (surname) * Greer (given name) Places United States * Greer, Arizona, an unincorporated community and census-designated place * Greer, Idaho, an unincorporated community * Greer, Missouri, an unincorporated community * Greer, Ohio, an unincorporated community * Greer, South Carolina, a city * Greer, West Virginia, an unincorporated community * Greer County, Texas * Greer County, Oklahoma Antarctica * Greer Peak, Marie Byrd Land Other uses * Greer High School, Greer, South Carolina * Greer School, a former school for disadvantaged children in Dutchess County, New York * Greer Industries, a privately held producer of limestone, steel and other products based in Morgantown, West Virginia * USS ''Greer'' (DD-145), an American destroyer commissioned in 1918 * Herschel Greer Stadium, a baseball stadium located in Nashville, Tennessee * Greer Grant (or Tigra), fictional superheroine appearing in American Marvel Comics books * Carl W. Greer, the f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Screen Test
A screen test is a method of determining the suitability of an actor or actress for performing on film or in a particular role. The performer is generally given a scene, or selected lines and actions, and instructed to perform in front of a camera to see if they are suitable. The developed film is later evaluated by the relevant production personnel such as the casting director and the director. The actor may be asked to bring a prepared monologue or alternatively, the actor may be given a script to read at sight ("cold reading"). In some cases, the actor may be asked to read a scene, in which another performer reads the lines of another character. Types Screen tests can also be used to judge the suitability of costume, make-up and other details, but these are generally called costume or make-up tests. Different types of actors can have different tasks for each individual test. For example, a lead for a musical theater-type movie could be requested to sing a popular song or lear ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rosalind Russell
Catherine Rosalind Russell (June 4, 1907November 28, 1976) was an American actress, comedienne, screenwriter, and singer,Obituary ''Variety'', December 1, 1976, p. 79. known for her role as fast-talking newspaper reporter Hildy Johnson in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy ''His Girl Friday'' (1940), opposite Cary Grant, as well as for her portrayals of Mame Dennis in ''Auntie Mame'' (1958) and Rose in ''Gypsy'' (1962). A noted comedienne, she won all five Golden Globes for which she was nominated. Russell won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 1953 for her portrayal of Ruth in the Broadway show ''Wonderful Town'' (a musical based on the film ''My Sister Eileen'', in which she also starred). She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress four times during her career before being awarded a Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1973. In addition to her comedic roles, Russell was known for playing dramatic characters, often wealthy, dignified, and stylish women. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
