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Leathernecking
''Leathernecking'' is a 1930 American musical comedy film directed by Edward F. Cline, from a screenplay by Alfred Jackson and Jane Murfin, adapted from the Broadway musical comedy '' Present Arms'', by Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart and Herbert Fields. Although based on a musical, it used only two of the original Rodgers and Hart songs from the Broadway hit, along with original songs, including three by Oscar Levant and Sidney Clare. An early part-color feature film with a Technicolor insert, this film was Irene Dunne's film debut. Plot Chick Evans is a Marine private in Honolulu, Hawaii. He falls for society girl Delphine Witherspoon, and begins to scheme as to how to win her over. His first plan involves impersonating an officer in order to get invited to a society party. However, when his Marine buddies decide to crash the party as well, his real rank is revealed, and so having the opposite effect on Delphine as he had planned. Despondent, he bares his soul to a mutual fri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Irene Dunne
Irene Dunne (born Irene Marie Dunn; December 20, 1898 – September 4, 1990) was an American actress who appeared in films during the Golden Age of Hollywood. She is best known for her comedic roles, though she performed in films of other genres. After her father died when she was 14, Dunne's family relocated from Kentucky to Indiana. She became determined to become an opera singer, but when she was rejected by The Met, she performed in musicals on Broadway until she was scouted by RKO and made her Hollywood film debut in the musical '' Leathernecking'' (1930). She later starred in the successful musical ''Show Boat'' (1936). Overall, she starred in 42 movies and was nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Actress—for her performances in the western drama '' Cimarron'' (1931), the screwball comedies ''Theodora Goes Wild'' (1936) and '' The Awful Truth'' (1937), the romance '' Love Affair'' (1939), and the drama '' I Remember Mama'' (1948). Dunne is considered o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wilhelm Von Brincken
Wilhelm von Brincken (May 27, 1881 – January 18, 1946), also known as Wilhelm L. von Brincken, William Vaughn, William von Brinken, and William Vaughan, was a German diplomat and spy during World War I, who went on to become an American character actor of the silent and talkie eras. Personal life Von Brincken was born on May 27, 1881 in Flensburg, Germany. His father was a German diplomat from Prussia, as well as being a baron. While a student at Military Telegraph School in Berlin, he engaged in a sword duel. While he won, the event left him with a permanent facial scar. He graduated from the University of Strasbourg, as well as the Potsdam War College. Von Brincken was an officer in the German cavalry, being a lieutenant in the Royal Saxon Cavalry. Von Brincken had a ranch near Sunnyvale, California. In 1910, he married Alice Roedel of San Mateo, in Blankenburg, Germany. They had one child, a son, Hans Frederich Wilhelm. The couple split up in December 1912, whe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fred Santley
Fred Santley (November 20, 1887 – May 14, 1953), also known variously as Freddie Santley, Fredric Santley, Frederick Santley, Frederic Santley, and Fredric M. Santley, was an American character actor of the silent and sound film eras, as well as an actor on the Broadway stage. Born in Salt Lake City, Utah on November 20, 1887, as Frederic Mansfield, the son of Laurene Santley, and the stepson of stage actor Eugene Santley. He was the brother of filmmaker and stage actor Joseph Santley, both of whom adopted the surname of their stepfather as their stage name. He would make his acting debut in a 1907 short, ''Pony Express'', and would continue to make shorts throughout the 1910s and 1920s. In addition, he would appear in numerous plays during this period, including more than a dozen Broadway productions. He would make his feature film debut with a small role in 1930's ''Leathernecking'', a musical comedy starring Irene Dunne. He would appear in over 90 more feature films durin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ken Murray (entertainer)
Ken Murray (born Kenneth Abner Doncourt, July 14, 1903 – October 12, 1988) was an American comedian, actor, radio and television personality and author. Early life Murray was born in New York City to a family of vaudeville performers. Many sources incorrectly give his birth name as Don Court. He had an older brother, Joseph. According to Murray's autobiography ''Life on a Pogo Stick'', as a teenager he learned that Joseph was actually his father and the couple who he thought were his parents were in fact his grandparents. The family withheld the truth from Murray because Joseph, who was also a vaudevillian, did not want the public to know that he had a young son. Joseph had divorced Murray's mother and decided that his parents would provide a more stable life than he was able to as a traveling performer. Murray also wrote of his quest to find his mother in his later years. Before embarking on a career in show business, Murray changed his name because he did not want to ride ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lilyan Tashman
Lilyan Tashman (October 23, 1896 – March 21, 1934) was an American actress. Tashman was best known for her supporting roles as tongue-in-cheek villainesses or playing the vindictive "other woman". She made 66 films over the course of her Hollywood career, and although she never obtained superstar status, her cinematic performances are described as "sharp, clever and have aged little over the decades." Tall, blonde, and slender with fox-like features and a throaty voice, Tashman freelanced as a fashion and artist's model in New York City. By 1914, she was an experienced vaudevillian, appearing in Ziegfeld Follies between 1916 and 1918. In 1921 Tashman made her film debut in ''Experience'', and over the next decade and a half she appeared in numerous silent films. With her husky contralto singing voice she easily navigated the transition to sound film. Tashman married vaudevillian Al Lee in 1914, but they divorced in 1921. She married actor Edmund Lowe in 1925, and her war ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fred Fleck
Fred Fleck (June 6, 1892 – November 9, 1961), also known as Fred A. Fleck, Frederick Fleck, or Freddie Fleck, was an American assistant director and production manager. Born in New York City on June 4, 1892, he broke into the film business as an assistant director on the 1928 silent film, ''The Riding Renegade'', directed by Wallace Fox. During his 30-year career, he would work on some notable films, with some notable directors. Some of those films include: the epic '' Hell's Angels'' (1930), directed by Howard Hughes; King Vidor's '' Bird of Paradise'' (1932); the Ginger Rogers' 1941 vehicle, '' Tom, Dick and Harry'', directed by Garson Kanin; 1942's '' The Magnificent Ambersons'', directed by Orson Welles, and starring Joseph Cotten and Anne Baxter; '' Born to be Bad'' (1950), starring Joan Fontaine and Robert Ryan; and Josef von Sternberg's '' Jet Pilot'' (1957), starring John Wayne. Fleck was also one of the aerial cameramen on George Archainbaud's classic 1932 film, ''Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Present Arms (musical)
''Present Arms'' is a Broadway musical comedy that opened April 26, 1928, with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, and book by Herbert Fields. It was produced by Lew Fields with musical numbers stage by Busby Berkeley. It ran for 155 performances at the Lew Fields' Mansfield Theatre, which today is known as the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. ''Present Arms'' was filmed in 1930 with Irene Dunne, with its title changed to ''Leathernecking''. The film is presumed lost. Plot The show starred Charles King, Flora Le Breton, Joyce Barbour and Busby Berkeley. A man from Brooklyn is serving as a buck private in Pearl Harbor. He flirts with an English Peer's daughter; however, she is being pursued by a German, who raises pineapples in Hawaii. The Brooklynite pretends to be a Captain in order to make an impression, but he is found out, booted out, and loses out on the girl, until he proves himself in a shipwreck. Songs Act One * "Tell It to the Marines" * "You Took Advanta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RKO 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 ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Benny Rubin
Benny Rubin (February 2, 1899 – July 15, 1986) was an American comedian and film actor. Born in Boston, Rubin made more than 200 radio, film and television appearances over a span of 50 years. Career In 1929, Rubin went to Hollywood, where he began working as a supporting actor in films and began developing his ethnic characters. His film debut was in ''Naughty Baby''. Rubin was known for his ability to imitate many dialects. He performed in vaudeville with routines that included "English That's Different". Rubin demonstrated his dialect talents as a panelist on the joke-telling radio series, '' Stop Me If You've Heard This One''. He also provided the voice for Joe Jitsu throughout the television cartoon series, ''The Dick Tracy Show''. In 1963, he played the second Indian Chief on an episode of “The Beverly Hillbillies.” On radio, he played Professor Kropotkin on ''My Friend Irma'', was a co-host of ''Only Yesterday'', and was a member of the cast of '' The Bickersons'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rita La Roy
Rita La Roy (born Ina La Roi Stuart; October 2, 1901 – February 18, 1993) was an American actress and dancer, beginning her career in 1929, and having her last significant role in 1940. Career La Roy appeared in over 50 films, the best known of which was '' Blonde Venus'', which starred Marlene Dietrich. After her acting career, she had a school for models in Hollywood. Early life While the studio publicity machine claimed she had been born in Paris, France, she was actually born in the small town of Bonners Ferry, Idaho in 1901. Her early years saw her work as both a dress designer and a stock company actress, before moving onto vaudeville, where she became a dancer. Performing on the Pantages and Orpheum theater circuits, she was known for erotic acts, which included dances such as the "frog dance", the " peacock dance" and the "cobra dance" in which her feet and legs were tied together under a stylized snakeskin so that she danced by undulating her torso." Film car ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louise Fazenda
Louise Fazenda (June 17, 1895 – April 17, 1962) was an American film actress, appearing chiefly in silent comedy films. Early life Fazenda was born in her maternal grandparents' house in Lafayette, Indiana, the daughter of merchandise broker Joseph A. Fazenda, who was born in Mexico, and Nelda T. Schilling Fazenda, a Chicago native. She was of Portuguese, French, and Italian descent on her father's side and of German descent on her mother's. The Fazenda family relocated to California, where Joseph Fazenda opened up a grocery store. Louise attended Los Angeles High School and St. Mary's Convent and kept busy with a number of after-school jobs, one of which was delivering groceries for the family business via a horse-drawn wagon. Career Fazenda was discovered by a scout employed by Mack Sennett in a high school comedy show. She made her first film in 1913. She was best known as a character actor in silent films, playing roles such as a fussy old maid and a blacksmith. Sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ned Sparks
Ned Sparks (born Edward Arthur Sparkman, November 19, 1883 – April 3, 1957) was a Canadian-born character actor of the American stage and screen. He was known for his deadpan expression and comically nasal, monotone delivery. Life and career Sparks was born in Guelph, Ontario, but moved to St. Thomas, Ontario, where he grew up. He left home at 16 and attempted prospecting in the Klondike Gold Rush. After running out of money, he began performing. Billed as a "Singer of Sweet Southern Songs" and costumed in a straw hat, short pants and bare feet, he won a spot as a singer on a traveling musical company's tour. At 19, he returned to Canada and briefly attended a Toronto seminary. He then worked for the railroad and in theater in Toronto. In 1907, he moved to New York City to try his hand in the Broadway theatre, where he appeared in his first show in 1912. On Broadway, Sparks developed his trademark deadpan expression while portraying a hotel clerk in the play ''Little Miss Br ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
