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John Payne (actor)
John Howard Payne (May 23, 1912 – December 6, 1989) was an American film actor who is mainly remembered from film noir crime stories and 20th Century Fox musical films, and for his leading roles in ''Miracle on 34th Street'' and the NBC Western television series ''The Restless Gun''. Early life Payne was born in Roanoke, Virginia. His mother, Ida Hope (''née'' Schaeffer), a singer, graduated from the Virginia Seminary in Roanoke and married George Washington Payne, a developer in Roanoke. They lived at Fort Lewis, an antebellum mansion that became a state historic property, but was destroyed by fire in the late 1940s. Payne attended prep school at Mercersburg Academy in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, and then went to Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia. He then transferred to Columbia University in New York City in the fall of 1930. He studied drama at Columbia and voice at the Juilliard School. To support himself, he took on a variety of odd jobs, including wrestling as "Alex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roanoke, Virginia
Roanoke ( ) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 100,011, making it the 8th most populous city in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the largest city in Virginia west of Richmond. It is located in the Roanoke Valley of the Roanoke Region of Virginia. Roanoke is the largest municipality in Southwest Virginia, and is the principal municipality of the Roanoke Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which had a 2020 population of 315,251. It is composed of the independent cities of Roanoke and Salem, and Botetourt, Craig, Franklin, and Roanoke counties. Bisected by the Roanoke River, Roanoke is the commercial and cultural hub of much of Southwest Virginia and portions of Southern West Virginia. History Timeline * 1835 - Town of Gainesborough incorporated. * 1838 - Roanoke County created. * 1852 - Big Lick Depot built near Gainesborough; Virginia & Tennessee Railroad begins operating. * 1865 - April: Big Lick settlement sa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roanoke College
Roanoke College is a private liberal arts college in Salem, Virginia. It has approximately 2,000 students who represent approximately 40 states and 30 countries. The college offers 35 majors, 57 minors and concentrations, and pre-professional programs. Roanoke awards bachelor's degrees in arts, science, and business administration and is one of 280 colleges with a chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. Roanoke is an NCAA Division III school competing in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. The college fields varsity teams in eleven men's and ten women's sports. Roanoke's athletic nickname is Maroons and the mascot is Rooney, a maroon-tailed hawk. History Early years A boys' preparatory school was founded by Lutheran pastors David F. Bittle and Christopher C. Baughmann. Originally located in Augusta County near Staunton, the school was named Virginia Institute until chartered on January 30, 1845, as Virginia Collegiate Institute. In 1847, the institute moved to Sale ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dodsworth (film)
''Dodsworth'' is a 1936 American drama film directed by William Wyler, and starring Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton, Paul Lukas, Mary Astor and David Niven. Sidney Howard based the screenplay on his 1934 stage adaptation of the 1929 novel of the same name by Sinclair Lewis. Huston reprised his stage role. The center of the film is a study of a marriage in crisis. Recently retired auto magnate Samuel Dodsworth and his narcissistic wife Fran, while on a grand European tour, discover that they want very different things out of life, straining their marriage. The film was critically praised and nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Huston, and Best Director for Wyler (the first of his record twelve nominations in that category), and won for Best Art Direction. In 1990, ''Dodsworth'' 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, o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sam Goldwyn
Samuel Goldwyn (born Szmuel Gelbfisz; yi, שמואל געלבפֿיש; August 27, 1882 (claimed) January 31, 1974), also known as Samuel Goldfish, was a Polish-born American film producer. He was best known for being the founding contributor and executive of several motion picture studios in Hollywood. He was awarded the 1973 Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award, the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award (1947) and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award (1958). Early life Goldwyn was likely born in July 1879, although he claimed his birthday to be August 27, 1882. He was born as Szmuel Gelbfisz in Warsaw to Polish Jewish Hasidic parents, Aaron Dawid Gelbfisz (1859–1894), a peddler, and his wife, Hanna Frymet (''née'' Fiszhaut ; 1860–1925). He left Warsaw penniless after his father's death and made his way to Hamburg. There he stayed with acquaintances of his family where he has trained as a glove maker. On November 26, 1898, Gelbfisz left Hamburg for Birmingham, England, whe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reginald Gardiner
William Reginald Gardiner (27 February 1903 – 7 July 1980) was an English actor on the stage, in films and on television. Early years Gardiner was born in Wimbledon, England, and he was a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.Katz, Ephraim (1979). ''The Film Encyclopedia: The Most Comprehensive Encyclopedia of World Cinema in a Single Volume''. Perigee Books. . pp. 465–466. His parents wanted him to be an architect, but he insisted on a career as an actor. Stage and radio Gardiner started as a ''super'' on stage and eventually became well known on the West End stage. "He appeared in British revues, plays and films before delighting Broadway audiences in 1935 with a wallpaper imitation act in ''At Home Abroad''." His other Broadway credits include ''Little Glass Clock'' and ''An Evening with Beatrice Lillie''. He was also well known to radio listeners, and was known on the air for his amusing train and car noises. Film Gardiner worked in almost 100 movies. He st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beatrice Lillie
Beatrice Gladys Lillie, Lady Peel (29 May 1894 – 20 January 1989), known as Bea Lillie, was a Canadian-born British actress, singer and comedic performer. She began to perform as a child with her mother and sister. She made her West End debut in 1914 and soon gained notice in revues and light comedies, becoming known for her parodies of old-fashioned, flowery performing styles and absurd songs and sketches. She debuted in New York in 1924 and two years later starred in her first film, continuing to perform in both the US and UK. She was associated with revues staged by André Charlot and works of Noël Coward and Cole Porter, and frequently was paired with Gertrude Lawrence, Bert Lahr and Jack Haley. During World War II, Lillie was an inveterate entertainer of the troops. She won a Tony Award in 1953 for her revue ''An Evening with Beatrice Lillie''. Early life and career Lillie was born in Toronto to Irish-born John Lillie and his wife Lucie Ann (née Shaw).Morley, Sheridan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eleanor Powell
Eleanor Torrey Powell (November 21, 1912 – February 11, 1982) was an American dancer and actress. Best remembered for her tap dance numbers in musical films in the 1930s and 1940s, she was one of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's top dancing stars during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Powell appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and most prominently, in a series of movie musical vehicles tailored especially to showcase her dance talents, including ''Born to Dance'' (1936), ''Broadway Melody of 1938'' (1937), '' Rosalie'' (1937), and ''Broadway Melody of 1940'' (1940). She retired from films in the mid-1940s and then began hosting a Christian children's TV show, but she resurfaced for the occasional specialty dance scene in films such as ''Thousands Cheer'' and eventually headlined a successful nightclub act in Las Vegas. She died from cancer at 69. Powell is known as one of the most versatile and powerful female dancers of the Hollywood studio era. Early life Powell was born in Springfield ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ethel Waters
Ethel Waters (October 31, 1896 – September 1, 1977) was an American singer and actress. Waters frequently performed jazz, swing, and pop music on the Broadway stage and in concerts. She began her career in the 1920s singing blues. Her notable recordings include "Dinah", " Stormy Weather", "Taking a Chance on Love", "Heat Wave", "Supper Time", " Am I Blue?", " Cabin in the Sky", "I'm Coming Virginia", and her version of "His Eye Is on the Sparrow". Waters was the second African American to be nominated for an Academy Award, the first African American to star on her own television show, and the first African-American woman to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. Early life Waters was born in Chester, Pennsylvania on October 31, 1896 (some sources incorrectly state her birth year as 1900) as a result of the rape of her teenaged African-American mother, Louise Anderson (1881–1962), by 17 year old John Wesley (or Wesley John) Waters (1878–1901), a pianist and family acq ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shubert Family
The Shubert family was responsible for the establishment of the Broadway district, in New York City, as the hub of the theater industry in the United States. They dominated the legitimate theater and vaudeville in the first half of the 20th century, promoting entertainment attuned to the popular taste. History The family's American history began with Duvvid Schubart (transliterated to "Shubert") and his wife Katrina (Gitel) Helwitz, who left their native town Vladislavov, Russian Empire (now Kudirkos Naumiestis, Lithuania) arriving in New York City from Hamburg, via England, on June 12, 1881 on the s/s ''Spain'' with their eight children. Two of them subsequently died. Later they settled in Syracuse, New York."Shubert Brothers" pbs.org, accessed August 29, 2009Kenrick, Joh [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Student Prince
''The Student Prince'' is an operetta in four acts with music by Sigmund Romberg and book and lyrics by Dorothy Donnelly. It is based on Wilhelm Meyer-Förster's play '' Old Heidelberg''. The piece has a score with some of Romberg's most enduring and beautiful tunes, including "Golden Days", "Drinking Song", "Deep in My Heart, Dear", "Just We Two" and "Serenade" ("Overhead the moon is beaming"). The plot has elements of melodrama but lacks the swashbuckling style common to Romberg's other works. It opened on December 2, 1924, at Jolson's 59th Street Theatre on Broadway and became the most successful of Romberg's works, running for 608 performances. It was staged by J. C. Huffman and was the longest-running Broadway show of the 1920s. Even the classic ''Show Boat'', the most enduring musical of the 1920s, did not play as long – it ran for 572 performances. "Drinking Song", with its rousing chorus of "Drink! Drink! Drink!" was especially popular with theatergoers in 1924, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rose Marie
Rose Marie (born Rose Marie Mazzetta; August 15, 1923 – December 28, 2017) was an American actress, singer, comedian, and vaudeville performer with a career ultimately spanning nine decades, which included film, radio, records, theater, night clubs and television. As a child performer during the years just after the silent film era, she had a successful singing career under the stage name Baby Rose Marie. Rose Marie was widely known for her role on the CBS situation comedy ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'' (1961–1966), as television comedy writer Sally Rogers, "who went toe-to-toe in a man’s world". Later, she portrayed Myrna Gibbons on ''The Doris Day Show'' and was a featured celebrity on ''The Hollywood Squares'' for 14 years. She is the subject of a 2017 documentary film, '' Wait for Your Laugh'', which includes interviews with her and her co-stars including Carl Reiner, Dick Van Dyke, Peter Marshall, and Tim Conway. Early life Rose Marie was born Rose Marie Mazzetta in Man ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Shubert Organization
The Shubert Organization is a theatrical producing organization and a major owner of theatres based in Manhattan, New York City. It was founded by the three Shubert brothers in the late 19th century. They steadily expanded, owning many theaters in New York and across the country. Since then it has gone through changes of ownership, but is still a major theater chain. History The Shubert Organization was founded by the Shubert brothers, Sam S. Shubert, Lee Shubert, and Jacob J. Shubert of Syracuse, New York – colloquially and collectively known as "The Shuberts" – in the late 19th century in upstate New York, entering into New York City productions in 1900. The organization produced a large number of shows and began acquiring theaters. Sam Shubert died in 1905; by 1916 the two remaining brothers had become powerful theater moguls with a nationwide presence. In 1907, the Shuberts tried to enter vaudeville with the United States Amusement Co. In the spring of 1920 they made a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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