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Leslie Goodwins
Leslie Goodwins (17 September 1899 – 8 January 1969) was an English film director and screenwriter. He directed nearly 100 films between 1926 and 1967, notably 27 features and shorts with Leon Errol, including the Mexican Spitfire series. His 1936 film ''Dummy Ache'' was nominated for an Academy Award in 1936 for Best Short Subject (Two-Reel). ''Dummy Ache'' was preserved by the Academy Film Archive and the Library of Congress in 2013. His 1937 film ''Should Wives Work?'' (starring Errol) was also nominated for an Academy Award in the same category. He was born in London, England and he died in Hollywood, California. Goodwins began his screen career in the waning years of silent films, as a gag writer and then director. He directed comedy stars Snub Pollard and Ben Turpin for the low-budget Weiss Brothers studio. In 1936 producer Maurice Conn hired Goodwins to direct features for Ambassador Pictures starring Pinky Tomlin or Frankie Darro. That same year he joined the two- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hollywood, California
Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios, such as Columbia Pictures, Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., and Universal Pictures, are located near or in Hollywood. Hollywood was incorporated as a municipality in 1903. It was consolidated with the city of Los Angeles in 1910. Soon thereafter a prominent film industry emerged, having developed first on the East Coast. Eventually it became the most recognizable in the world. History Initial development H.J. Whitley, a real estate developer, arranged to buy the E.C. Hurd ranch. They agreed on a price and shook hands on the deal. Whitley shared his plans for the new town with General Harrison Gray Otis, publisher of the ''Los Angeles Times'', and Ivar Weid, a prominent businessman in the area. Daeida Wilcox, who donated land to help ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ben Turpin
Bernard "Ben" Turpin (September 19, 1869 – July 1, 1940) was an American comedian and actor, best remembered for his work in silent films. His trademarks were his cross-eyed appearance and adeptness at vigorous physical comedy. Turpin worked with notable performers such as Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy, and was a part of the Mack Sennett studio team. He is believed to have been the first filmed "victim" of the pie in the face gag. When sound came to films, Turpin chose to retire, having invested profitably in real estate, although he did do occasional cameos. Personal life Turpin was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on September 19, 1869,His birth date was given as September 19, 1869, but other years were used at various times in his Hollywood publicity material. In the 1900 United States Census he used the year "1869", and his death certificate used "1869", and that year will be used here. ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' wrongly lists the year of his birth as "1874 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
With Love And Kisses
''With Love and Kisses'' is a 1936 American musical comedy film directed by Leslie Goodwins and starring Pinky Tomlin, Toby Wing and Kane Richmond. It was produced on Poverty Row as a second feature for release by Ambassador Pictures.Pitts p.32 Synopsis Homer 'Spec' Higgins, a songwriter from rural Arkansas heads to New York City to make his fortune. However he is tricked by a radio star Don Gray who steals his song and claims it as his own. Further complications ensue when Higgins is backed by an ex-racketeer to produce more hit songs, but is unable to do so without Minnie his Jersey cow from back home. He also became entangled with Blues singer Barbara Holbrook and her drunken lawyer brother. Cast * Pinky Tomlin as Homer 'Spec' Higgins * Toby Wing as Barbara Holbrook * Kane Richmond as Don Gray * Arthur Housman as Gilbert Holbrook * Russell Hopton as Flash Henderson * Jerry Bergen as himself * Billy Gray as himself * Peters Sisters as Themselves * Chelito and Gabriel as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gilligan's Island
''Gilligan's Island'' is an American sitcom created and produced by Sherwood Schwartz. The show's ensemble cast features Bob Denver, Alan Hale Jr., Jim Backus, Natalie Schafer, Tina Louise, Russell Johnson and Dawn Wells. It aired for three seasons on the CBS network from September 26, 1964, to April 17, 1967. The series follows the comic adventures of seven castaways as they try to survive on an island where they are shipwrecked. Most episodes revolve around the dissimilar castaways' conflicts and their unsuccessful attempts to escape their plight, with Gilligan usually being responsible for the failures. ''Gilligan's Island'' ran for 98 episodes. All 36 episodes of the first season were filmed in black and white and were later colorized for syndication. The show's second and third seasons (62 episodes) and the three television film sequels (aired between 1978 and 1982) were filmed in color. The show received solid ratings during its original run, then grew in popularit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
F Troop
''F Troop'' is a satirical American television sitcom Western about U.S. soldiers and Native Americans in the Wild West during the 1860s that originally aired for two seasons on ABC. It debuted in the United States on September 14, 1965, and concluded its run on April 6, 1967, with a total of 65 episodes. The first season of 34 episodes was broadcast in black-and-white, and the second season was in color. The series relied heavily on character-based humor, verbal and visual gags, slapstick, physical comedy, and burlesque comedy. The series played fast and loose with historical events and persons, and often parodied them for comical effect. Some indirect references were made to the culture of the 1960s, such as a "Playbrave Club" (a parody of a Playboy Club) and two rock and roll bands (one which performs songs written in the 1960s). Setting and story ''F Troop'' is set at Fort Courage—a fictional United States Army outpost in the Old West, from near the end of the Americ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
My Favorite Martian
''My Favorite Martian'' is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from September 29, 1963, to May 1, 1966, for 107 episodes. The show stars Ray Walston as "Uncle Martin" (the Martian) and Bill Bixby as Tim O'Hara. The first two seasons, totaling 75 episodes, were in black and white, and the 32 episodes of the third and final season were filmed in color. John L. Greene created the central characters and developed the core format of the series, which was produced by Jack Chertok. Premise A human-appearing extraterrestrial in a one-man spaceship nearly collides at high altitude with the U.S. Air Force's rocket plane, the North American X-15. The spaceship's pilot is a 450-year-old anthropologist from Mars. Tim O'Hara, a young newspaper reporter for ''The Los Angeles Sun'', is on his way home from Edwards Air Force Base, where he had gone to report on the flight of the X-15. Returning home to Los Angeles, O'Hara spots the same silver spaceship coming down quickly, after which it cr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Cisco Kid (TV Series)
''The Cisco Kid'' is a 1950–1956 half-hour American Western television series starring Duncan Renaldo in the title role, the Cisco Kid, and Leo Carrillo as the jovial sidekick, Pancho. The series was syndicated to individual stations, and was popular with children.Brooks, Tim and Marsh, Earle, ''The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946–Present'', pp. 187, 188 (Seventh Edition), Ballantine Books, 1999 Cisco and Pancho were technically desperados wanted for unspecified crimes, but were viewed by the poor as Robin Hood figures who assisted the downtrodden when law enforcement officers proved corrupt or unwilling to help.Alex McNeil, ''Total Television'', New York: Penguin Books, 1996, 4th ed., p. 165 It was also the first television series to be filmed in color, although few viewers saw it in color until the 1960s. There were 156 half-hour episodes filmed between 1950 and 1956. The show was never run as a network series and was instead sold to local s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Topper (TV Series)
''Topper'' is an American fantasy sitcom television series based on the 1937 film '' Topper'', which was based on two novels ''Topper'' and ''Topper Takes a Trip'' by Thorne Smith. The series was broadcast on CBS from October 9, 1953, to July 15, 1955, and stars Leo G. Carroll in the title role. It finished at #24 in the Nielsen ratings for the 1954–1955 season. ''Topper'' also earned an Emmy nomination for Best Situation Comedy in 1954. Synopsis Sophisticated but stuffy Cosmo Topper (Carroll) is the vice president of City Bank, married to sweet but rather clueless Henrietta ( Lee Patrick). They live in a Los Angeles house they bought from the estate of a young couple, George and Marion Kerby (real life husband and wife Robert Sterling and Anne Jeffreys). The Kerbys died while skiing when they were buried by an avalanche. A St. Bernard dog, Neil, who attempted to rescue them also died with them. Topper discovers his new home is haunted by the ghosts of the former occupants a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Life Of Riley
''The Life of Riley'' is an American radio situation comedy series of the 1940s that was adapted into a 1949 feature film, a 1950s television series, and a 1958 comic book. Radio The radio program initially aired on the Blue Network (later known as ABC) from January 16, 1944, to July 8, 1945, it then moved to NBC, where it was broadcast from September 8, 1945, to June 29, 1951. Irving Brecher pitched the radio series for friend Groucho Marx under the title ''The Flotsam Family'', but the sponsor balked at what would have been essentially a straight head-of-household role for Marx. (Marx would get his own series '' Blue Ribbon Town'' instead.) Brecher then saw William Bendix as taxicab company owner Tim McGuerin in Hal Roach's ''The McGuerins from Brooklyn'' (1942). Radio historian Gerald Nachman quotes Brecher as stating, "He was a Brooklyn guy and there was something about him. I thought, this guy could play it. He'd made a few films, like ''Lifeboat'', but he was not a name ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jackie Gleason
John Herbert Gleason (February 26, 1916June 24, 1987) was an American actor, comedian, writer, composer, and conductor known affectionately as "The Great One." Developing a style and characters from growing up in Brooklyn, New York, he was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy, exemplified by his city-bus-driver character Ralph Kramden in the television series ''The Honeymooners''. He also developed ''The Jackie Gleason Show,'' which maintained high ratings from the mid 1950s through 1970. After originating in New York City, filming moved to Miami Beach, Florida, in 1964 after Gleason took up permanent residence there. Among his notable film roles were Minnesota Fats in 1961's ''The Hustler'' (co-starring with Paul Newman) and Buford T. Justice in the ''Smokey and the Bandit'' series from 1977 to 1983 (co-starring Burt Reynolds). Gleason enjoyed a prominent secondary music career during the 1950s and 1960s, producing a series of best-selling "mood music" albums. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RKO Radio 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 had their ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frankie Darro
Frankie Darro (born Frank Johnson, Jr.; December 22, 1917 – December 25, 1976) was an American actor and later in his career a stuntman. He began his career as a child actor in silent films, progressed to lead roles and co-starring roles in adventure, western, dramatic, and comedy films, and later became a character actor and voice-over artist. He is perhaps best known for his role as Lampwick, the unlucky boy who turns into a donkey in Walt Disney's second animated feature, ''Pinocchio'' (1940). In early credits, his last name was spelled Darrow. Early life Frankie Darro was born on Saturday, December 22, 1917, in Chicago, Illinois, as Frank Johnson, Jr. His parents, Frank Johnson, Sr. and his wife Ada, were known as ''The Flying Johnsons'', a acrobatics and tightrope walking act with the Sells Floto Circus; it was a profession that his father attempted to train him in, and he cured Frankie's fear of heights by having him walk on a length of tightrope wire, gradually rai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
