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Lew Payton
Lew Payton (June 27, 1874 – May 27, 1945) was an African American film actor, stage performer, and writer known for several films and stage productions including ''Chocolate Dandies'' with Josephine Baker, '' Smash Your Baggage'' (1932), ''Jezebel'' (1938), ''On Such a Night'' (1937), and ''Lady for a Night'' (1942) featuring John Wayne and Joan Blondell. In "Lady for a Night", he performed Napoleon, the Alderson Family's man servant for characters Stephen Alderson (played by Philip Merivale) and Katherine Alderson (played by Edith Barrett). Early life Payton was born on June 27, 1874, in Huntington, West Virginia. Film and stage career Payton performed as an actor in several films and stage productions. With Noble Sissle, Payton co-wrote and performed in Chocolate Dandies, a 1924 film that launched the career of Josephine Baker. Chocolate Dandies, The : "New Musical Comedy" by Noble Sissle and Lew Payton. Music and lyrics by Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake. Produced at the Col ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chocolate Dandies
''The Chocolate Dandies'' is a Broadway musical in two acts that opened September 1, 1924, at the New Colonial Theatre and ran for 96 performances – finishing November 22, 1924. Initial production The 1924 debut of ''The Chocolate Dandies'' was produced by Bertram Cecil Whitney (1870–1929). Eubie Blake composed the music; Noble Sissle wrote the lyrics and co-authored the book; Lew Payton was also co-author; Julian Mitchell staged it; Lorenzo C. Calduel ''(aka'' Lawrence Caldwell; born 1888, Mexico) scored the orchestral and vocal parts; John Newton Booth, Jr. (1890–1949), Kiviette, and Hugh Willoughby (1891–1973) designed the costumes; Tony Greshoff ''(né'' Anton Greshoff; 1870–1943) did the lighting design. Reviews See also * The Chocolate Dandies jazz combos, spin-offs from the musical production * Josephine Baker Josephine Baker (born Freda Josephine McDonald; naturalised French Joséphine Baker; 3 June 1906 – 12 April 1975) was an American-born ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ann Dvorak
Ann Dvorak (born Anna McKim; August 2, 1911 – December 10, 1979) was an American stage and film actress. Asked how to pronounce her adopted surname, she told ''The Literary Digest'' in 1936: "My fake name is properly pronounced ''vor'shack''. The ''D'' remains silent. I have had quite a time with the name, having been called practically everything from Balzac to Bickelsrock." Early years Dvorak was the daughter and only child of silent film actress Anna Lehr and director Edwin McKim. While in New York, she attended St. Catherine's Convent. After moving to California, she attended Page School for Girls in Hollywood. She made her film debut when she was five years old in the silent film version of '' Ramona'' (1916), credited as "Baby Anna Lehr". She continued in children's roles in '' The Man Hater'' (1917) and ''Five Dollar Plate'' (1920), but then stopped acting in films. Her parents separated in 1916 and divorced in 1920; she did not see her father again until 13 years ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Judy Garland
Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. While critically acclaimed for many different roles throughout her career, she is widely known for playing the part of Dorothy Gale in ''The Wizard of Oz'' (1939). She attained international stardom as an actress in both musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage. Renowned for her versatility, she received an Academy Juvenile Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Special Tony Award. Garland was the first woman to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, which she won for her 1961 live recording titled '' Judy at Carnegie Hall''. Garland began performing as a child with her two older sisters, in a vaudeville group "The Gumm Sisters" and was later signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a teenager. She appeared in more than two dozen films for MGM. Garland was a frequent on-screen partner of both Mickey Rooney and Gene Kelly and regularly collabora ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norman Taurog
Norman Rae Taurog (February 23, 1899 – April 7, 1981) was an American film director and screenwriter. From 1920 to 1968, Taurog directed 180 films. At the age of 32, he received the Academy Award for Best Director for ''Skippy'' (1931). He is the second youngest person ever to win the award after Damien Chazelle, who won for '' La La Land'' in 2017. He was later nominated for Best Director for the film '' Boys Town'' (1938). He directed some of the best-known actors of the twentieth century, including his nephew Jackie Cooper, Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Deanna Durbin, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Deborah Kerr, Peter Lawford, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, and Elvis Presley. Taurog directed six Martin and Lewis films, and nine Elvis Presley films, more than any other director. For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Taurog has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1600 Vine Street. Early life Norman Taurog was born February 23, 1899, in Chicago, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Presenting Lily Mars
''Presenting Lily Mars'' is a 1943 American musical comedy film directed by Norman Taurog, produced by Joe Pasternak, starring Judy Garland and Van Heflin, and based on the novel by Booth Tarkington. The film is often cited as Garland's first film playing an adult type role (although '' For Me and My Gal'', released the previous year, is also often credited thus). Tommy Dorsey and Bob Crosby appear with their orchestras in this Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer production. __TOC__ Plot Lily Mars (Judy Garland) is a small-town girl with big-city ambitions. She contrives to audition for a Broadway producer whose father was the local physician and whose family piano her father also happened to tune. However, the producer wants nothing to do with her. She then heads to Broadway hoping to convince him to cast her, but after a series of disappointments, the best she can manage is an understudy job. Cast * Judy Garland as Lily Mars * Van Heflin as John Thornway * Fay Bainter as Mrs. Thornway * Ric ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Douglas Fairbanks Jr
Douglas Elton Fairbanks Jr., (December 9, 1909 – May 7, 2000) was an American actor, producer and decorated naval officer of World War II. He is best known for starring in such films as ''The Prisoner of Zenda'' (1937), '' Gunga Din'' (1939) and '' The Corsican Brothers'' (1941). The son of Douglas Fairbanks and stepson of Mary Pickford, he was first married, briefly, to actress Joan Crawford. Early life Douglas Elton Fairbanks Jr. was born in New York City; he was the only child of actor Douglas Fairbanks and his first wife, Anna Beth Sully, the daughter of wealthy industrialist Daniel J. Sully. Fairbanks' father was one of cinema's first icons, noted for such swashbuckling adventure films as '' The Mark of Zorro'', ''Robin Hood'' and '' The Thief of Bagdad''. Fairbanks had small roles in his father's films '' American Aristocracy'' (1916) and '' The Three Musketeers'' (1921). His parents divorced when he was nine years old, and both remarried. He lived with his mot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Sun Never Sets (film)
''The Sun Never Sets'' is a 1939 American drama film directed by Rowland V. Lee and starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Basil Rathbone and Barbara O'Neil. Plot The Randolph family have a tradition of working in the British colonial service. Clive comes home from a mission in the Gold Coast of Africa accompanied by his wife Helen. He discovers his younger brother John, who is in love with Phyllis is not keen on following in his footsteps. John is persuaded to try colonial service by his grandfather Sir John. John goes to the Gold Coast. He is accompanied by Clive who has been sent to investigate the source of a series of radio broadcasts that are sewing unrest throughout the world. These may be linked to Hugo Zurof, a man plotting to rule the world. Clive leaves his pregnant wife Helen behind to go on a mission. Zurof tricks John into calling his brother back, causing Clive to be sent home in disgrace, despite the fact that Clive and Helen's child dies in childbirth. John goes to Z ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Raft
George Raft (born George Ranft; September 26, 1901 – November 24, 1980) was an American film actor and dancer identified with portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s. A stylish leading man in dozens of movies, Raft is remembered for his gangster roles in '' Quick Millions'' (1931) with Spencer Tracy, '' Scarface'' (1932) with Paul Muni, '' Each Dawn I Die'' (1939) with James Cagney, '' Invisible Stripes'' (1939) with Humphrey Bogart, Billy Wilder's comedy '' Some Like It Hot'' (1959) with Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon, and as a dancer in ''Bolero'' (1934) with Carole Lombard and a truck driver in '' They Drive by Night'' (1940) with Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino and Bogart. Raft said he never regarded himself as an actor. "I wanted to be me," he said. Early life and career George Raft was born in Hell's Kitchen, New York City, to a family of German descent, the son of Eva (''née'' Glockner), a German immigrant, and Conrad Ranft, who was born in Mas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Lady's From Kentucky
''The Lady's from Kentucky'' is a 1939 film directed by Alexander Hall and starring George Raft and Ellen Drew. It was written by Malcolm Stuart Boylan from a story by Rowland Brown. The screenplay involves a failing bookie (Raft) who becomes half owner of a racehorse, with a Kentucky lady (Drew) owning the other half. ZaSu Pitts plays a supporting role. Plot A gambler, Marty Black, wins a fifty percent interest in a thoroughbred owned by Penelope "Penny" Hollis, a prim and proper Kentucky horsewoman. Marty can't wait to wager on his new possession, Roman Son, but the health of the horse is foremost to Penny, who would rather nurture it than race it. After he enters Roman Son in a race without her knowledge, Marty sees the horse's condition deteriorate. Penny permits him to run Roman Son in the Kentucky Derby and a romance develops after the horse's victory, particularly when Marty agrees to retire Roman Son rather than race any more. Cast * George Raft as Marty Black *Ellen D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda (May 16, 1905 – August 12, 1982) was an American actor. He had a career that spanned five decades on Broadway and in Hollywood. He cultivated an everyman screen image in several films considered to be classics. Born and raised in Nebraska, Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor and made his Hollywood film debut in 1935. He rose to film stardom with performances in films like '' Jezebel'' (1938), ''Jesse James'' (1939), and '' Young Mr. Lincoln'' (1939). His career further progressed with his portrayal of Tom Joad in '' The Grapes of Wrath'' (1940), receiving a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. In 1941, Fonda starred opposite Barbara Stanwyck in the screwball comedy classic '' The Lady Eve''. Book-ending his service in WWII were his starring roles in two highly regarded Westerns: '' The Ox-Bow Incident'' (1943) and ''My Darling Clementine'' (1946), the latter directed by John Ford, and he also starred in Ford's Western '' Fort Apac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress with a career spanning more than 50 years and 100 acting credits. She was noted for playing unsympathetic, sardonic characters, and was famous for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical films, suspense horror, and occasional comedies, although her greater successes were in romantic dramas. A recipient of two Academy Awards, she was the first thespian to accrue ten nominations. Bette Davis appeared on Broadway in New York, then the 22-year-old Davis moved to Hollywood in 1930. After some unsuccessful films, she had her critical breakthrough playing a vulgar waitress in '' Of Human Bondage'' (1934) although, contentiously, she was not among the three nominees for the Academy Award for Best Actress that year. The next year, her performance as a down-and-out actress in '' Dangerous'' (1935) did land Davis her first Best Actress nominati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Karen Morley
Karen Morley (born Mildred Linton; December 12, 1909 – March 8, 2003) was an American film actress. Life and career Born Mildred Linton in Ottumwa, Iowa, Morley lived there until she was 13 years old. When she moved to Hollywood, she attended Hollywood High School. She went on to attend the University of California, but she dropped out to join the Los Angeles Civic Repertory Theatre and the Pasadena Playhouse. After working at the Pasadena Playhouse, she came to the attention of the director Clarence Brown, at a time when he had been looking for an actress to stand in for Greta Garbo in screen tests. This led to a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and roles in films such as ''Mata Hari (1931 film), Mata Hari'' (1931), ''Scarface (1932 film), Scarface'' (1932), ''The Phantom of Crestwood'' (1932), ''The Mask of Fu Manchu'' (1932), ''Arsène Lupin (1932 film), Arsene Lupin'' (1933), ''Gabriel Over the White House'' (1933), and ''Dinner at Eight (1933 movie), Dinner at Eight ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
