Grand National Films Inc.
Grand National Films, Inc (or Grand National Pictures, Grand National Productions and Grand National Film Distributing Co.) was an American Poverty Row motion picture production-distribution company in operation from 1936 to 1939. The company had no relation to the British Grand National Pictures (although the British firm used the American company's logo). History and releases Edward L. Alperson, a film exchange manager, founded Grand National in 1936 on the basis of First Division Pictures, of which he was on the board of directors. What United Artists was to major independent producers, First Division was to low-budget producers: a convenient releasing outlet for individual pictures, and successful within its own market. In April 1936 Alperson took over First Division's film exchanges, existing product line, and contracts, the company now functioning as Grand National Film Distributing Company. By the summer, he had begun development of a California-based production entity, G ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Astor Pictures
Astor Pictures was a motion picture distribution company in the United States from 1930 to 1963. It was founded by Robert M. Savini (29 August 1886 – 29 April 1956). Astor specialized in film re-releases. It later released independently made productions, including some of its own films made during the 1950s. History During its first decade, Astor, located at 130 West 46th Street in New York City, primarily invested in other companies' films to acquire capital, and became parent company to Savini's first business, Atlantic Pictures, a film distribution exchange system located throughout the Southern United States. In 1939, Savini acquired the rights to other companies' motion pictures for profitable national re-release and put these out under the Astor name and logo. Among the first titles were revised sound versions of "Wings" and "Tumbleweeds" which Astor prepared, along with the complete library of Educational Pictures short subjects, Poverty Row westerns of the 1930s, a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Eleanor Hunt
Eleanor Hunt (January 10, 1910 – June 12, 1981) was an American film actress. She starred opposite John Wayne in the 1934 '' Blue Steel''. Personal life She was married to actor Rex Lease for "a few months" before their September 1931 divorce and to Dr. Frank G. Nolan from November 1933 until June 14, 1935. She later married George Hirliman George Hirliman (1901–1952) was a film producer. Biography Hirliman was born September 8, 1901, in Fort Lee, New Jersey. He married Eleanor Hunt, an actress. The couple adopted Georgelle Hirliman in 1936, and later gave birth to daughter ..., with whom she adopted a daughter, Georgelle, as an infant. Filmography References External links * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hunt, Eleanor 1910 births 1981 deaths American film actresses Actresses from New York City 20th-century American actresses Western (genre) film actresses ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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RKO Radio Pictures
RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum (KAO) theater chain and Joseph P. Kennedy's Film Booking Offices of America (FBO) studio were brought together under the control of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in October 1928. RCA chief David Sarnoff engineered the merger to create a market for the company's sound-on-film technology, RCA Photophone, and in early 1929 production began under the RKO name (an abbreviation of Radio-Keith-Orpheum). Two years later, another Kennedy holding, the Pathé studio, was folded into the operation. By the mid-1940s, RKO was controlled by investor Floyd Odlum. RKO has long been renowned for its cycle of musicals starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the mid-to-late 1930s. Actors Katharine Hepburn and, later, Robert Mitchum ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the multinational conglomerate Sony. On June 19, 1918, brothers Jack and Harry Cohn and their business partner Joe Brandt founded Cohn-Brandt-Cohn (CBC) Film Sales Corporation, which would eventually become Columbia Pictures. It adopted the Columbia Pictures name on January 10, 1924 (operating as Columbia Pictures Corporation until December 23, 1968) went public two years later and eventually began to use the image of Columbia, the female personification of the United States, as its logo. In its early years, Columbia was a minor player in Hollywood, but began to grow in the late 1920s, spurred by a successful association with director Frank Capra. With Capra and others such as the most successful two reel comedy series The Three Stooges, C ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an American film production and distribution company owned by Comcast through the NBCUniversal Film and Entertainment division of NBCUniversal. Founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, Robert H. Cochrane, and Jules Brulatour, Universal is the oldest surviving film studio in the United States; the world's fifth oldest after Gaumont, Pathé, Titanus, and Nordisk Film; and the oldest member of Hollywood's "Big Five" studios in terms of the overall film market. Its studios are located in Universal City, California, and its corporate offices are located in New York City. In 1962, the studio was acquired by MCA, which was re-launched as NBCUniversal in 2 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Earle W
Earle may refer to: * Earle (given name) * Earle (surname) Places * Earle, Arkansas, a city in Crittenden County, Arkansas, US * Earle, Indiana, an unincorporated town in Vanderburgh County, Indiana, US * Earle, Northumberland, a settlement in Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland, England * Naval Weapons Station Earle, a US Navy base on Sandy Hook Bay in New Jersey See also * * Earl Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. The title originates in the Old English word ''eorl'', meaning "a man of noble birth or rank". The word is cognate with the Scandinavian form ''jarl'', and meant " chieftain", particu ... * Earles (other) {{disambiguation, geo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Victor Schertzinger
Victor L. Schertzinger (April 8, 1888 – October 26, 1941) was an American composer, film director, film producer, and screenwriter. His films include '' Paramount on Parade'' (co-director, 1930), ''Something to Sing About'' (1937) with James Cagney, and the first two "Road" pictures '' Road to Singapore'' ( 1940) and '' Road to Zanzibar'' (1941). His two best-known songs are " I Remember You" and "Tangerine", both with lyrics by Johnny Mercer and both featured in Schertzinger's final film, '' The Fleet's In'' ( 1942). Life and career Schertzinger was born in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania, the child of musical parents of Pennsylvania Dutch descent, and attracted attention as a violin prodigy at the age of four. As a child of eight, he appeared as a violinist with several orchestras, including the Victor Herbert Orchestra and the John Philip Sousa band. In his teens, he attended the Brown Preparatory School in Philadelphia, and gave violin performances while touring America and E ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Something To Sing About (1937 Film)
''Something to Sing About'', (1937), re-released in 1947 as ''Battling Hoofer'',TCNotes/ref> is the second and final film James Cagney made for Grand National Pictures – the first being ''Great Guy'' – before mending relations with and returning to Warner Bros. It is one of the few films besides ''Footlight Parade'' and ''Yankee Doodle Dandy'' to showcase Cagney's singing and dancing talents. It was directed by Victor Schertzinger, who also wrote the music and lyrics of the original songs, as well as the story that Austin Parker's screenplay is based on. Cagney's co-stars are Evelyn Daw and William Frawley, and the film features performances by Gene Lockhart and Mona Barrie. The film, which is a satire on the movie industry's foibles, flopped in theaters, causing the just recently started "Poverty Row" independent Grand National,Landazuri, Margarit"Something to Sing About" (TCM article)/ref> which had gone significantly overbudget making the film, to close its doors ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Angels With Dirty Faces
''Angels with Dirty Faces'' is a 1938 American crime drama film directed by Michael Curtiz for Warner Brothers. It stars James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, The Dead End Kids, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, and George Bancroft. The screenplay was written by John Wexley and Warren Duff based on the story by Rowland Brown. The film chronicles the relationship of the notorious gangster William "Rocky" Sullivan with his childhood friend and now priest Father Jerry Connolly. After spending fifteen years in prison for armed robbery, Rocky intends to collect $100,000 from his co-conspirator Jim Frazier, a mob lawyer. All the while, Father Connolly tries to prevent a group of youths from falling under Rocky's influence. Brown wrote the scenario in August 1937. After pitching the film to a number of studios, he made a deal with Grand National Pictures, who wanted Cagney to star in the lead role. However, the film never came to fruition, owing to Grand National's financial troubles that led ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Great Guy
''Great Guy'' is a 1936 American crime film noir directed by John G. Blystone and starring James Cagney. In the film, an honest inspector for the New York Department of Weights and Measures takes on corrupt merchants and politicians. Plot After the Chief Deputy of the Department of Weights and Measures is nearly killed in a car accident engineered by corrupt politician Marty Cavanaugh, he enlists ex-boxer Johnny Cave (Cagney) to take over his position. Johnny learns from Joe Green, the chief deputy, that there are men who are higher up in the organization than Marty. As the new leader, Johnny reiterates to his team the importance of their department and warns them that corruption is an ongoing hazard. Johnny then goes out into the field with his naive partner, Patrick James "Aloysius" Haley, investigating merchants who are accused of using faulty measures and cheating the public. He ends up fining a market for adding lead weights to stewing chickens and fining a gas station for r ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Warner Bros
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. Founded in 1923 by four brothers, Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack Warner, the company established itself as a leader in the American film industry before diversifying into animation, television, and video games and is one of the "Big Five" major American film studios, as well as a member of the Motion Picture Association (MPA). The company is known for its film studio division the Warner Bros. Pictures Group, which includes Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema, the Warner Animation Group, Castle Rock Entertainment, and DC Studios. Among its other assets, stands the television production company Warner Bros. Television Studios. Bugs Bunny, a cartoon character created by Tex Avery, Ben Hardaway, Chuck Jones, Bob Givens and Robe ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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James Cagney
James Francis Cagney Jr. (; July 17, 1899March 30, 1986) was an American actor, dancer and film director. On stage and in film, Cagney was known for his consistently energetic performances, distinctive vocal style, and deadpan comic timing. He won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances. He is remembered for playing multifaceted tough guys in films such as '' The Public Enemy'' (1931), '' Taxi!'' (1932), '' Angels with Dirty Faces'' (1938), ''The Roaring Twenties'' (1939), '' City for Conquest'' (1940) and ''White Heat'' (1949), finding himself typecast or limited by this reputation earlier in his career. He was able to negotiate dancing opportunities in his films and ended up winning the Academy Award for his role in the musical '' Yankee Doodle Dandy'' (1942). In 1999 the American Film Institute ranked him eighth among its list of greatest male stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Orson Welles described Cagney as "maybe the greatest actor who ever appeare ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |