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John Archer (actor)
John Archer (born Ralph Bowman; May 8, 1915 – December 3, 1999) was an American actor. Early life Archer was born Ralph Bowman in Osceola, Nebraska, the son of Eunice Melba (née Crawford) and Joseph Emmett Bowman. Archer moved to California at the age of five. He attended Hollywood High School and the University of Southern California, where he studied cinematography, expecting work behind the camera. Radio When finding work in the field of cinematography proved difficult Archer drifted into acting, working as a radio announcer and actor, including one year (beginning in 1944DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). ''Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 14) in the starring role of Lamont Cranston in ''The Shadow'', a role originally played by Orson Welles. Stage Archer honed his acting skills in plays at the Ben Bard Playhouse. He appeared on Broadway in ''The Odds on Mrs. Oakley'' (1944), ''One-man ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Big Trees
''The Big Trees'' is a 1952 in film, 1952 lumberjack western film, Western film starring Kirk Douglas and directed by Felix E. Feist. It was Kirk Douglas's final film for Warner Brothers, a film he did for free in exchange for the studio agreeing to release him from his Studio system, long-term contract. The film has fallen into the public domain. Douglas plays a greedy timber baron who seeks to exploit the sequoia sempervirens, sequoia forest, while facing the protest of the Quaker colonists. Plot In 1900, lumberman Jim Fallon (Kirk Douglas) greedily eyes the big redwood trees in the virgin region of northern California. The land is already settled by, among others, a religious group led by Elder Bixby (Charles Meredith (actor), Charles Meredith) who have a religious relationship with the redwoods and refuse to log them, using smaller trees for lumber. Jim becomes infatuated with Bixby's daughter, Alicia (Eve Miller), though that does not change his plan to cheat the homestead ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gateway To Hollywood
''Gateway to Hollywood'' is an American old-time radio talent show. It was broadcast on CBS from January 8, 1939, to December 31, 1939. Like other programs from ''Major Bowes Amateur Hour'' to ''American Idol,'' the show sought to turn relatively unknown people into celebrities. The same title was used by an unrelated program that was broadcast on the Don Lee Network in the mid-1930s. Format Cities across the United States were sites for auditions for people who wanted to appear on ''Gateway to Hollywood''. Contestants auditioned in teams of one male and one female, with the ultimate winning team receiving a screen test from RKO Pictures. In addition to the screen test, each member of the winning couple received membership in the Screen Actors Guild and screen names that they would use in their acting careers. Judges were five people from RKO, with criteria for selection being "photographic potential, personality, and dramatic ability." Wrigley's gum was the sponsor. Contestant te ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Armstrong Circle Theatre
''Armstrong Circle Theatre'' is an American anthology drama television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ... which ran from June 6, 1950, to June 25, 1957, on NBC, and from October 2, 1957, to August 28, 1963, on CBS. It alternated weekly with ''The U.S. Steel Hour''. It finished in the Nielsen ratings at #19 for the 1950-1951 season and #24 for 1951-1952. The principal sponsor was Armstrong World Industries. Between July 8 and September 16, 1959, CBS aired reruns of six documentary dramas originally broadcast during the 1958–59 United States network television schedule, 1958–1959 season as episodes of ''Armstrong Circle Theatre'' under the title ''Armstrong by Request''.Brooks, Tim, and Earle Marsh, ''The Complete Directory to Prime-Time Network and Cable ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Science Fiction Theatre
''Science Fiction Theatre'' was an American science fiction anthology television series that was produced by Ivan Tors and Maurice Ziv and originally aired in syndication. It premiered on April 9, 1955 and ended on April 6, 1957, with a total of 78 episodes over the course of 2 seasons. General From 1955 to 1957, ''Science Fiction Theatre'', a semi-documentary television series, explored the what if's of modern science. Placing an emphasis on science before fiction, television viewers were treated to a variety of complex challenges from mental telepathy, robots, man-eating ants, killer trees, man's first flight into space and time travel. Hosted by Truman Bradley, a radio/TV announcer and 1940s film actor, each episode featured stories which had an extrapolated scientific or pseudo scientific emphasis based on actual scientific data available at the time. Typically, the stories related to the life or work of scientists, engineers, inventors, and explorers, the program concentrate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rescue 8
''Rescue 8'' is a syndicated American action adventure crime drama series about Los Angeles County Fire Department Rescue Squad 8. It premiered in 1958 and originally ran for two seasons with syndicated reruns continuing for almost a decade thereafter. It starred Jim Davis as fireman Wes Cameron (much later cast as Jock Ewing on CBS's ''Dallas''), and Lang Jeffries as the fireman Skip Johnson. Nancy Rennick and Mary K. Cleary each appeared in twenty-four episodes as Patty Johnson and Susan Johnson, the wife and daughter, respectively of Skip Johnson. The series was produced by Screen Gems, with directors Dann Cahn and William Witney. ''Rescue 8'' produced seventy-four half-hour episodes. The first season ran on Tuesday evenings, and the second season on Wednesdays. Selected episodes In the series premiere, "The Ferris Wheel" (September 23, 1958), the firemen must devise a plan to retrieve a woman, who was recently released from a mental institution (Jeanne Bates), and her you ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
How To Frame A Figg
''How to Frame a Figg'' is a 1971 comedy film about a bookkeeper's bungling assistant, Hollis Alexander Figg (played by Don Knotts), in the Dalton city hall, who finds himself framed for embezzlement. Plot Hollis Figg is an earnest if not too bright man whose devoted friend is a local sanitation worker, and whose girlfriend is the equally earnest Ema Letha, a pretty waitress at the diner across the street from City Hall, where Figg works as an accountant. When the Mayor, his staff, and Mr. Spaulding, the richest man in town, decide they need more cover for their shameless skimming from the city's coffers, they fire three of the four accountants in the basement and replace them with a giant computer named LEO (Large-Capacity Enumerating Officiator), keeping Figg whom they deem the dimmest of the three to run the computer that he barely comprehends. When Figg unexpectedly (and quite accidentally) stumbles upon discrepancies in a road works budget, they promote him to the "third f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blue Hawaii
''Blue Hawaii'' is a 1961 American musical romantic comedy-drama film directed by Norman Taurog and starring Elvis Presley. The screenplay by Hal Kanter was nominated by the Writers Guild of America in 1962 in the category of Best Written American Musical. The film opened at number two in box office receipts for that week and, despite mixed reviews from critics, finished as the 10th top-grossing film of 1961 and 14th for 1962 on the ''Variety'' national box office survey, earning $5 million. The film won a fourth place prize Laurel Award in the category of Top Musical of 1961. Plot Having been released from the Army, Chadwick "Chad" Gates is eager to return to Hawaii with his surfboard, his beach friends, and his girlfriend Maile Duval. His mother, Sarah Lee, wants him to follow in his father's footsteps and take over management at the Great Southern Hawaiian Fruit Company, the family business, but Chad is reluctant and goes to work as a tour guide at his girlfriend's agency. His ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Decision At Sundown
''Decision at Sundown'' is a 1957 American Western film directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Randolph Scott. It is one of seven Boetticher/Scott western collaborations, including '' Seven Men from Now'', '' The Tall T'', '' Buchanan Rides Alone'', '' Westbound'', '' Ride Lonesome'', and '' Comanche Station''. Boetticher said this film and ''Westbound'' were the only mediocre films he made as part of the Ranown cycle.Budd Boetticher: The Last Interview Wheeler, Winston Dixon. Film Criticism; Meadville Vol. 26, Iss. 3, (Spring 2002): 52-0_3. Plot Bart Allison and his true and faithful friend Sam ride into the town of Sundown. Blinded by hate, Bart has only one thing in mind: to seek revenge from Tate Kimbrough whom he believes had once immorally seduced and then abandoned his wife Mary, which finally led to her committing suicide. At least this is the story Allison believes. More probably his wife at that time had fallen out of love with him and intended to leave him, being ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ten Thousand Bedrooms
''Ten Thousand Bedrooms'' is a 1957 American romantic comedy film directed by Richard Thorpe and starring Dean Martin, Anna Maria Alberghetti, and Eva Bartok. Martin's first film in the wake of the dissolution of his partnership with Jerry Lewis in the team of Martin and Lewis, it was filmed in Metrocolor and CinemaScope. Plot Millionaire hotel mogul Ray Hunter flies to Rome to buy another property, the Regent. He is picked up at the airport by lovely Maria Martelli, who works for the hotel's owner, the Countess Alzani. Ray is reproached by the Countess for the impersonal way he buys up hotels this way, piling up "ten thousand bedrooms" and replacing employees without a second thought. He sincerely promises not to do so with the staff of the Regent. During the drive back into central Rome, Maria mocks Ray about his buying of numerous hotels. Instead of rebuking her, Ray appreciates her frankness, causing Maria to apologize and volunteer to be his translator that afternoon during ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
She Devil (1957 Film)
''She Devil'' is a 1957 American widescreen science fiction horror film, shot in RegalScope, from Regal Films, that was produced, written, and directed by Kurt Neumann. The film stars Mari Blanchard, Jack Kelly, and Albert Dekker and was theatrically released by 20th Century Fox on a double bill with Regal's '' Kronos''. ''She Devil'' is based on the science fiction short story "The Adaptive Ultimate" by Stanley G. Weinbaum. Plot Dr. Dan Scott has developed a serum that cures the ills of animals, although it did alter the color of a leopard used in one experiment. Eager to try it on a human being, despite his mentor Dr. Richard Bach's many concerns, Scott finds a consenting patient in Kyra Zelas, a woman with a meek personality who is dying of tuberculosis. The serum seems to cure her instantly. It also dramatically affects her personality. Kyra shows a flash of temper, then jumps out of a car and runs into a shop, where she steals a dress then disguises her identity by wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rock Around The Clock
"Rock Around the Clock" is a rock and roll song in the 12-bar blues format written by Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers (the latter being under the pseudonym "Jimmy De Knight") in 1952. The best-known and most successful rendition was recorded by Bill Haley & His Comets in 1954 for American Decca. It was a number one single for two months and did well on the United Kingdom charts; the recording also reentered the UK Singles Chart in the 1960s and 1970s. This is the first Rock and Roll record to top the Pop Charts in both the US and UK. (Bill Haley had American chart success with "Crazy Man, Crazy" in 1953, and in 1954, "Shake, Rattle and Roll" sung by Big Joe Turner reached No. 1 on the ''Billboard'' R&B chart). Haley's recording became an anthem for rebellious 1950s youth, particularly after it was included in the 1955 film ''Blackboard Jungle''. It was Number 1 on the pop charts for two months and went to Number 3 on the R&B chart. The recording is widely considered to b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Destination Moon (film)
''Destination Moon'' (a.k.a. ''Operation Moon'') is a 1950 American Technicolor science fiction film, independent film, independently produced by George Pal and directed by Irving Pichel, that stars John Archer (actor), John Archer, Warner Anderson, Tom Powers, and Dick Wesson (actor), Dick Wesson. The film was distributed in the United States and the United Kingdom by Eagle-Lion Classics. ''Destination Moon'' was the first major U.S. science fiction film to deal with the practical scientific and engineering challenges of space travel and to speculate on what a crewed expedition to the Moon would look like. Noted science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein contributed to the screenplay. The film's premise is that private industry will mobilize, finance, and manufacture the first spacecraft to the Moon, and that the U.S. government will be forced to purchase or lease the technology to remain the dominant power in space. Different industrialists cooperate to support the private ventu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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