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Laura La Plante
Laura La Plante (born Laura Laplante; November 1, 1904 – October 14, 1996) was an American film actress, whose more notable performances were in the silent era. Early life La Plante was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on November 1, 1904, the daughter of William A. Laplante and Elizabeth E. Turk. Her father taught dancing. After her parents were divorced, her mother took Laura and her sister Violet to live in San Diego, California. In her teens, Laura stayed with a cousin, Mary MacMahon, in Hollywood during a summer vacation and replied to a newspaper ad asking for children for moving pictures, and she was hired. Silent film career La Plante made her acting debut at age 15, and in 1923 she was named as one of that year's WAMPAS Baby Stars. During the 1920s, she appeared in more than 60 films. Her early films include ''Big Town Round-Up'' (1921), with cowboy star Tom Mix, the serials ''Perils of the Yukon'' (1922), ''Around the World in Eighteen Days'' (1923), and several movies wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Woodland Hills, California
Woodland Hills is a neighborhood bordering the Santa Monica Mountains in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Geography Woodland Hills is in the southwestern region of the San Fernando Valley, which is located east of Calabasas and west of Tarzana. On the north it is bordered by West Hills, Canoga Park, Winnetka, and Reseda, and on the south by the Santa Monica Mountains. Some neighborhoods are in the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains. Running east–west through the community are U.S. Route 101 (the Ventura Freeway) and Ventura Boulevard, whose western terminus is at Valley Circle Boulevard in Woodland Hills. History The area was inhabited for around 8,000 years by Native Americans of the Fernandeño-Tataviam and Chumash-Venturaño tribes, who lived in the Santa Monica Mountains and Simi Hills and close to the Arroyo Calabasas (Calabasas Creek) tributary of the Los Angeles River in present-day Woodland Hills. The first Europeans to enter th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smouldering Fires (film)
''Smouldering Fires'' is a 1925 Universal silent drama film directed by Clarence Brown and starring Pauline Frederick and Laura La Plante. The movie's plot is similar to the 1933 talking picture ''Female'', starring Ruth Chatterton. Copies of this film are archived by UCLA and George Eastman House. In 1953, the film entered the public domain in the United States because the claimants did not renew its copyright registration in the 28th year after publication. It is available on video, and numerous prints exist in private collections. Plot As described in a film magazine, Jane Vale (Frederick), a forty year old business woman who ran a great industrial plant left to her by her father, awoke to the realization that she was in love with Robert Elliott (McGregor), a youth scarcely more than half her age. This lad first attracted her attention by opposing her policy in a matter of production. She was passing at the time and heard him refer to her executive staff as "yes" men. Her ge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Curtiz
Michael Curtiz ( ; born Manó Kaminer; since 1905 Mihály Kertész; hu, Kertész Mihály; December 24, 1886 April 10, 1962) was a Hungarian-American film director, recognized as one of the most prolific directors in history. He directed classic films from the silent era and numerous others during Hollywood's Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age, when the studio system was prevalent. Curtiz was already a well-known director in Europe when Warner Bros. invited him to Hollywood in 1926, when he was 39 years of age. He had already directed 64 films in Europe, and soon helped Warner Bros. become the fastest-growing movie studio. He directed 102 films during his Hollywood career, mostly at Warners, where he directed ten actors to Oscar nominations. James Cagney and Joan Crawford won their only Academy Awards under Curtiz's direction. He put Doris Day and John Garfield on screen for the first time, and he made stars of Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, and Bette Davis. He himself ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
God's Gift To Women
''God's Gift to Women'' is a 1931 American pre-Code romantic musical comedy film directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Frank Fay, Laura LaPlante, and Joan Blondell. The film, based on the play ''The Devil Was Sick'' by Jane Hinton, was originally completed as a musical film; however, because of audience dislike for musicals at that time, all the songs were cut in American prints. The full film was released intact in other countries, where there was no such decline in popularity. Plot Wealthy French playboy Toto Duryea ( Frank Fay) is irresistible to women, but is in love with none of them. According to Monsieur Rancour (Armand Kaliz), for Toto, "every woman is like a new dish to be tasted." When he is finally and instantly smitten with American Diane Churchill ( Laura LaPlante), he has great difficulty proving to her and her father (Charles Winninger) that he truly loves her. Finally, he convinces her that he is sincere; Mr. Churchill insists that Toto give up his women and caro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King Of Jazz
'' King of Jazz'' is a 1930 American pre-Code color musical film starring Paul Whiteman and his orchestra. The film title refers to Whiteman's popular cultural appellation. At the time the film was made, "jazz", to the general public, meant jazz-influenced syncopated dance music heard on phonograph records, on radio broadcasts, and in dance halls. In the 1920s Whiteman signed and featured white jazz musicians including Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang (both are seen and heard in the film), Bix Beiderbecke (who had left before filming began), Frank Trumbauer, and others. ''King of Jazz'' was filmed in the early two-color Technicolor process and was produced by Carl Laemmle Jr. for Universal Pictures. The film featured several songs sung on camera by the Rhythm Boys (Bing Crosby, Al Rinker and Harry Barris), as well as off-camera solo vocals by Crosby during the opening credits and, very briefly, during a cartoon sequence. ''King of Jazz'' still survives in a near-complete color print ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Technicolor
Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films running through a special camera (3-strip Technicolor or Process 4) started in the early 1930s and continued through to the mid-1950s when the 3-strip camera was replaced by a standard camera loaded with single strip 'monopack' color negative film. Technicolor Laboratories were still able to produce Technicolor prints by creating three black and white matrices from the Eastmancolor negative (Process 5). Process 4 was the second major color process, after Britain's Kinemacolor (used between 1908 and 1914), and the most widely used color process in Cinema of the United States, Hollywood during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Technicolor's #Process 4: Development and introduction, three-color process became known and celebrated for its highly s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edna Ferber
Edna Ferber (August 15, 1885 – April 16, 1968) was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels include the Pulitzer Prize-winning '' So Big'' (1924), ''Show Boat'' (1926; made into the celebrated 1927 musical), '' Cimarron'' (1930; adapted into the 1931 film which won the Academy Award for Best Picture), ''Giant'' (1952; made into the 1956 film of the same name) and ''Ice Palace'' (1958), which also received a film adaptation in 1960. Life and career Early years Ferber was born August 15, 1885, in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to a Hungarian-born Jewish storekeeper, Jacob Charles Ferber, and his Milwaukee, Wisconsin-born wife, Julia (Neumann) Ferber, who was of German Jewish descent. The Ferbers had moved to Kalamazoo from Chicago, Illinois in order to open a dry goods store, and her older sister Fannie was born there three years earlier. Ferber's father was not adept at business, and the family moved often during Ferber's childhood. From Kalamazoo, they ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Show Boat (1929 Film)
''Show Boat'' is a 1929 American romantic drama film based on the 1926 novel ''Show Boat (novel), Show Boat'' by Edna Ferber. The film initially did not use the Show Boat, 1927 stage musical of the same name as a source, but scenes were later added into the film incorporating two of the songs from the musical as well as other songs. This version was released by Universal Studios, Universal in two editions, one a silent film for movie theatres still not equipped for sound, and one a part-talkie with a sound prologue. The film was long believed to be lost, but most of it has been found and released on LaserDisc and shown on Turner Classic Movies. A number of sections of the soundtrack were found in the mid-1990s on Vitaphone records, although the film was made with a Movietone sound system, Movietone soundtrack. Two more records were discovered in 2005. Plot The eighteen-year-old Magnolia meets, falls in love with, and elopes with riverboat gambler Gaylord Ravenal. After her ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Wyler
William Wyler (; born Willi Wyler (); July 1, 1902 – July 27, 1981) was a Swiss-German-American film director and producer who won the Academy Award for Best Director three times, those being for ''Mrs. Miniver'' (1942), ''The Best Years of Our Lives'' (1946), and '' Ben-Hur'' (1959), all of which also won for Best Picture. In total, he holds a record twelve nominations for the Academy Award for Best Director. Born in Alsace, then in Germany, but later part of France, Wyler was a troublemaker in the schools of his youth. He immigrated to United States in 1921, working first for Universal Studios in New York before moving to Los Angeles. By 1925, he was the youngest director at Universal, and in 1929 he directed '' Hell's Heroes'', Universal's first sound production filmed entirely on location. In 1936, he earned his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director for '' Dodsworth'', starring Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton and Mary Astor, "sparking a 20-year run of alm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reginald Denny (actor)
Reginald Leigh Dugmore (20 November 189116 June 1967), known professionally as Reginald Denny, was an English actor, aviator, and UAV pioneer. Acting career Born Reginald Leigh Dugmore on 20 November 1891 in Richmond, Surrey, England (part of Greater London since 1965), he came from a theatrical family; his father was actor and opera singer W.H. Denny. In 1899, he began his stage career in ''A Royal Family'' and starred in several London productions from age seven to twelve. He attended St. Francis Xavier College in Mayfield, Sussex, but, at 16, he ran away from school to train as a pugilist with Sir Harry Preston at the National Sporting Club. He also appeared in several British stage productions touring the music halls of England of ''The Merry Widow''. In 1911, he went to the United States to appear in Henry B. Harris's stage production of ''The Quaker Girl'', then joined the Bandmann Opera Company as a baritone touring India and the Far East India where he performed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skinner's Dress Suit (1926 Film)
''Skinner's Dress Suit'' is a 1926 American silent comedy film produced and distributed by Universal Pictures and starring Reginald Denny. William Seiter was the director of the film which was based on the 1916 novel of the name by Henry Irving Dodge. Laura La Plante and Hedda Hopper co-star in this comedy which has seen video and DVD releases. A previous silent film based on this story had been made in 1917 directed by Harry Beaumont for the Essanay Company. Plot As described in a review in a film magazine, Honey (La Plante) idolizes her husband Skinner (Denny) and makes him demand a raise which is refused as Jackson (Braham), the biggest customer, has withdrawn his business. Honey has already told friends about the raise and Skinner has not the heart to tell her the truth. She starts spending the "raise" by making him buy a dress suit made by a Jewish tailor (Strauss). This new suit opens the way to social triumph which, of course, means more spending. At work, the ploddin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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