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Dow Hour Of Great Mysteries
''The Dow Hour of Great Mysteries'', was a series of seven television specials from March to November 1960, hosted by Joseph Nye Welch on NBC Television, and sponsored by Dow Chemical. Welch died on October 6, 1960, bringing the series to an end. Episodes *Episode 1: '' The Bat'' by Mary Roberts Rinehart (31 March 1960) with Helen Hayes, Jason Robards, and Margaret Hamilton *Episode 2: '' The Burning Court'' by John Dickson Carr (24 April 1960) with George C. Scott and Barbara Bel Geddes *Episode 3: '' The Woman in White'' by Wilkie Collins (23 May 1960) with Walter Slezak, Siobhán McKenna and Lois Nettleton *Episode 4: ''The Datchet Diamonds'' by Richard Marsh (20 September 1960) with Rex Harrison and Tammy Grimes *Episode 5: '' The Cat and the Canary'' by John Willard (27 September 1960) with Andrew Duggan, Telly Savalas, and Collin Wilcox (actress) *Episode 6: ''The Inn of the Flying Dragon'' by Sheridan Le Fanu (18 October 1960) with Farley Granger, Barry Morse, and Hugh G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gower Champion
Gower Carlyle Champion (June 22, 1919 – August 25, 1980) was an American actor, theatre director, choreographer, and dancer. Early years Champion was born on June 22, 1919, in Geneva, Illinois, as the son of John W. Champion and Beatrice Carlisle. He was raised in Los Angeles, California, where he graduated from Fairfax High School. He studied dance from an early age and, at the age of fifteen, toured nightclubs with friend Jeanne Tyler billed as "Gower and Jeanne, America's Youngest Dance Team". In 1939, "Gower and Jeanne" danced to the music of Larry Clinton and his Orchestra in a Warner Brothers & Vitaphone film short-subject, "The Dipsy Doodler" (released in 1940). Career During the late 1930s and early 1940s, Champion worked on Broadway as a solo dancer and choreographer. After serving in the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II, Champion met Marjorie Belcher, who became his new partner, and the two were married in 1947. In the early 1950s, Marge and Gower Champi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Burning Court
''The Burning Court'' (1937) is a famous locked room mystery by John Dickson Carr. However, it contains neither Gideon Fell nor Henry Merrivale, Carr's two major detectives. It was published in the United States, and was highly controversial upon its first printing, due to its unorthodox ending. Today, it is hailed as Carr's best non-series novel. Plot summary Edward Stevens, an editor at Herald and Son's publishing house, is on the train home, recounting the story of the death of the rich uncle of his neighbor, Mark Despard. Uncle Miles had succumbed to gastroenteritis, which had left him bedridden for days. Although this was considered death from natural causes, two strange things were reported surrounding it. A housemaid had spied into Miles's room, around the shade of one of the glass doors leading in, and reported that a woman had been visiting him, who left through a door that had been bricked up for years. And after he died, under his pillow was found a strange piece of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Willard (playwright)
John Willard (November 28, 1885 – August 30, 1942) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and actor. Biography Willard's most famous work is '' The Cat and the Canary'' (1922), which was made into the influential silent film of the same name in 1927. Also, the work was filmed in 1930, in 1939 (starring Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard) and in 1979 (by Radley Metzger). Willard also co-wrote '' The Blue Flame'' (1920) with George V. Hobart. Willard worked as a miner and a reporter, and he was also a published novelist. He also appeared as one of the actors in the Broadway production of ''The Cat and the Canary''. His other acting on Broadway began with ''George Washington, Jr.'' (1906) and ended with ''The Mikado'' (1936). He was born in San Francisco, California, a son of portrait painter John Willard Clawson and Mary Alice Clawson. Born Willard Wesley Clawson, and known locally as Wesley Clawson, he began his career as a baritone singer and actor. His performance in ''P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Cat And The Canary (play)
''The Cat and the Canary'' is a 1922 stage play by John Willard, adapted at least four times into feature films, in 1927, 1930, 1939, and again in 1979. The original stage play opened on Broadway February 7, 1922. Plot The story concerns the death and inheritance of old Cyrus West, a rich eccentric who felt that his relatives "have watched my wealth as if they were cats, and I — a canary". He decrees that his will be read 20 years after his death, at which point his relatives converge at his old family home, now a spooky old haunted mansion. The will reads that his most distant relative still bearing the name of West be sole heir, provided they are legally sane. The rest of the night spent in the house calls into question the sanity of Annabelle West, a fragile young woman who is legally Cyrus West's heir. Production Produced by Kilbourn Gordon and directed by Ira Hards, ''The Cat and the Canary'' premiered February 7, 1922, at the National Theatre. It ran 349 performances, c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tammy Grimes
Tammy Lee Grimes (January 30, 1934 – October 30, 2016) was an American film and stage actress. Grimes won two Tony Awards in her career, the first for originating the role of Molly Tobin in the musical '' The Unsinkable Molly Brown'' and the second for starring in a 1970 revival of ''Private Lives'' as Amanda Prynne. A former husband, Christopher Plummer, and their daughter, actress Amanda Plummer, are also Tony Award winners. She originated the role of Diana in the Broadway production of ''California Suite''. The role of Diana was played in the film by Maggie Smith, who won an Oscar for her performance. Grimes played the role of Elmire in the 1978 Broadway and television production of ''Tartuffe''. She originated roles in several works by Noël Coward, including Elvira in '' High Spirits'' and Lulu in ''Look After Lulu!'' In 1966, she starred in her own television series, ''The Tammy Grimes Show''. Grimes was also known for her cabaret acts. In 2003, she was inducted into t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rex Harrison
Sir Reginald Carey "Rex" Harrison (5 March 1908 – 2 June 1990) was an English actor. Harrison began his career on the stage in 1924. He made his West End debut in 1936 appearing in the Terence Rattigan play ''French Without Tears'', in what was his breakthrough role. He won his first Tony Award for his performance as Henry VIII in the play ''Anne of the Thousand Days'' in 1949. He won his second Tony for the role of Professor Henry Higgins in the stage production of ''My Fair Lady'' in 1957. In addition to his stage career, Harrison also appeared in numerous films. His first starring role was opposite Vivien Leigh in the romantic comedy '' Storm in a Teacup'' (1937). Receiving critical acclaim for his performance in ''Major Barbara'' (1941), which was shot in London during the Blitz, his roles since then included '' Blithe Spirit'' (1945), '' Anna and the King of Siam'' (1946), ''The Ghost and Mrs. Muir'' (1947), ''Cleopatra'' (1963), ''My Fair Lady'' (1964), reprising his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Marsh (author)
Richard Marsh (12 October 1857 – 9 August 1915) was the pseudonym of the English author born Richard Bernard Heldmann. A best-selling and prolific author of the late 19th century and the Edwardian period, Marsh is best known now for his supernatural thriller novel '' The Beetle'', which was published the same year as Bram Stoker's ''Dracula'' (1897), and was initially even more popular, outselling Dracula six times over. ''The Beetle'' remained in print until 1960. Marsh produced nearly 80 volumes of fiction and numerous short stories, in genres including horror, crime, romance and humour. Many of these have been republished recently, beginning with ''The Beetle'' in 2004. Marsh's grandson Robert Aickman was a notable writer of short "strange stories". Biography Richard Bernard Heldmann was born on 12 October 1857, in North London, to lace merchant Joseph Heldmann (1827–96) and Emma Marsh (1830–1911), a lace-manufacturer's daughter. Heldmann began publishing fiction dur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lois Nettleton
Lois June Nettleton (August 16, 1927 – January 18, 2008) was an American film, stage, radio, and television actress. She received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations and won two Daytime Emmy Awards. Early life Lois Nettleton was born on August 16, 1927 in Oak Park, Illinois to Virginia and Edward L. Nettleton. She was also raised by her maternal aunt's family. She attended Senn High School, where she was a classmate of Lee Stern, and Goodman School of Drama at the Art Institute of Chicago (now at DePaul University). She was Miss Chicago of 1948 and a semifinalist at the Miss America 1948 Pageant. After performing to favorable reviews with Geraldine Page in repertory theatre at the New Lake Zurich Playhouse (Lake Zurich, Illinois) in 1946 and with the Woodstock Players (Woodstock, Illinois) the following year, her professional acting career began in 1949. She understudied Barbara Bel Geddes in the original Broadway production of Tennessee Williams' '' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siobhán McKenna
Siobhán McKenna (; 24 May 1922 – 16 November 1986) was an Irish stage and screen actress. Background She was born Siobhán Giollamhuire Nic Cionnaith in Belfast in the newly-created Northern Ireland into a Catholic and nationalist family. She grew up in Galway and in County Monaghan, speaking fluent Irish. Her father Eoghan McKenna (born Millstreet, County Cork, 1892) was Professor of Mathematics at University College, Galway (UCG). She was still in her teens when she became a member of an amateur Gaelic theatre group and made her stage debut at Galway's national Irish language theatre, An Taibhdhearc, in 1940. Career She is remembered for her English language performances at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin where she would eventually star in what many consider her finest role in the George Bernard Shaw play, '' Saint Joan''. While performing at the Abbey Theatre in the 1940s, she met actor Denis O'Dea, whom she married in 1946. Until 1970 they lived in Richmond Street Sou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Slezak
Walter Slezak (; 3 May 1902 – 21 April 1983) was an Austrian-born film and stage actor active between 1922 and 1976. He mainly appeared in German films before migrating to the United States in 1930 and performing in numerous Hollywood productions. Slezak typically portrayed wily and loquacious characters, often philosophical, and often with a taste for food, drink, and fine living. He played a crafty villain as a U-boat captain in Alfred Hitchcock's film ''Lifeboat'' (1944), a charming, two-timing major domo to a tycoon in ''Come September'' (1961), and a wandering gypsy in '' The Inspector General'' (1949). He stood out as shrewd, unscrupulous private investigators in film noir, as in '' Cornered'' (1945) and ''Born to Kill'' (1947). Early life Slezak was born in Vienna, the son of opera tenor Leo Slezak and Elisabeth "Elsa" Wertheim. He studied medicine for a time and later worked as a bank teller. His older sister Margarete Slezak was also an actress. Career Slezak was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wilkie Collins
William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist and playwright known especially for ''The Woman in White (novel), The Woman in White'' (1859), a mystery novel and early "sensation novel", and for ''The Moonstone'' (1868), which has been proposed as the first modern English detective novel. Born to the London painter William Collins (painter), William Collins and his wife, Harriet Geddes, he moved with them to Italy when he was twelve, living there and in France for two years, learning both Italian language, Italian and French language, French. He worked initially as a tea merchant. After ''Antonina'', his first novel, appeared in 1850, Collins met Charles Dickens, who became a friend and mentor. Some of his work appeared in Dickens's journals ''Household Words'' and ''All the Year Round''. They also collaborated on drama and fiction. Collins gained financial stability and an international following by the 1860s, but became addicted to the op ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Woman In White (novel)
''The Woman in White'' is Wilkie Collins's fifth published novel, written in 1859 and set from 1849 to 1850. It is a mystery novel and falls under the genre of "sensation novels". The story can be seen as an early example of detective fiction with protagonist Walter Hartright employing many of the sleuthing techniques of later private detectives. The use of multiple narrators (including nearly all the principal characters) draws on Collins's legal training, and as he points out in his preamble: "the story here presented will be told by more than one pen, as the story of an offence against the laws is told in Court by more than one witness". Collins also drew on memories of his father, the artist William Collins, in the creation of drawing master Walter Hartright, and populates his story with a number of Italian characters, likely inspired by two years spent in Italy during childhood. In 2003, Robert McCrum writing for ''The Observer'' listed ''The Woman in White'' number 23 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
