|
Mantan Moreland
Mantan Moreland (September 3, 1902 – September 28, 1973) was an American actor and comedian most popular in the 1930s and 1940s. He starred in numerous films. His daughter Marcella Moreland appeared as a child actress in several films. Early years He was born in Monroe, Louisiana, to Frank, an old-time Dixieland bandleader, and Marcella. Moreland began acting by the time he was an adolescent; some sources say he ran away to join a minstrel show in 1910, at age eight, but his daughter told Moreland's biographer she doubts this date is correct. She and other sources agree it is more likely he left home when he was fourteen. Career After "nearly ten years of working the small, small time", Moreland gained an opportunity in 1927 when he was hired as a comedian in ''Connie's Inn Frolics'' in Harlem. He next worked in the musical revue ''Blackbirds of 1928'', which ran for 518 performances. By the late 1920s, Moreland had made his way through vaudeville, working with various sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Let's Go Collegiate
''Let's Go Collegiate'' is a 1941 American musical comedy film directed by Jean Yarbrough and produced by Monogram Pictures. It was released as ''Farewell to Fame'' in the United Kingdom. Plot summary Frankie (Frankie Darro) is the coxswain on the rowing team at Rawley University. His friend Tad (Jackie Moran) is a stroke on the crew, president of the Kappa Psi Delta fraternity, and leader of the campus swing band. Rawley's administrators are eagerly awaiting the arrival of renowned athletic star Bob Terry. Tad learns that Terry has been drafted to the army and will not be joining the crew, nor will he be attending the party welcoming him. Frankie and Tad don't have the hearts to tell their girlfriends Midge (Gale Storm) and Bess (Marcia Mae Jones), who have worked hard to prepare the party, and instead look for a replacement for Bob for the evening. They find truck driver Hercules "Herk" Bevans (Frank Sully) loading a safe onto his truck singlehanded. After some convincing, Her ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
One Dark Night (1939 Film)
''One Dark Night'' is an American film released in 1939. Also known as ''Night Club Girl''. It was directed by Leo C. Popkin. It was produced by Harry M. Popkin. The film features an African American cast including Mantan Moreland in a dramatic role. Cast *Mantan Moreland * Josephine Pearson * Betty Treadville * Jessie Coles Grayson Production and release Hattie McDaniel reportedly turned down the role played by Bette Treadville. The film was made by Million Dollar Productions and distributed by Sack Amusement Enterprises. It was produced by Clifford Sanforth. The film drew various black celebrities to a showing. Josephine Edwards performs two songs in the lost film. The film was re-released as ''Night Club Girl'' in 1944. It is categorized as a race film, and is now lost. The Yale University Library has a lobby card A film poster is a poster used to promote and advertise a film primarily to persuade paying customers into a theater to see it. Studios often print several ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ben Carter (actor)
Ben Carter (February 10, 1910/1907 – December 12, 1946) was an American actor and casting agent. He appeared in numerous Hollywood feature films including ''The Harvey Girls'', '' Dixie Jamboree'', and '' Born to Sing''. Early life Carter was born in Fairfield, Iowa. His father was a barber and his mother was a housemaid. He graduated from high school in Aurora, Illinois. Career Carter headed to Los Angeles to work in movies. As a booking agent he focused on African American performers in New York City and Los Angeles. He was one of the first African American performers to land a seven-year contract at 20th Century-Fox. He opened his agency office in 1935. Carter appeared in ''Gone With the Wind'' (1939) as well as casting all the other African American actors and actresses in it, ''Maryland'' (1940) and ''Tin Pan Alley'' (1940). Carter often performed in comic roles and in scenes which allowed him to display his singing ability such as in ''The Harvey Girls'' (1946) and '' A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan is a fictional Honolulu police detective created by author Earl Derr Biggers for a series of mystery novels. Biggers loosely based Chan on Hawaiian detective Chang Apana. The benevolent and heroic Chan was conceived as an alternative to Yellow Peril stereotypes and villains like Fu Manchu. Many stories feature Chan traveling the world beyond Hawaii as he investigates mysteries and solves crimes. Chan first appeared in Biggers' novels and then was featured in a number of media. Over four dozen films featuring Charlie Chan were made, beginning in 1926. The character, featured only as a supporting character, was first portrayed by East Asian actors, and the films met with little success. In 1931, for the first film centering on Chan, ''Charlie Chan Carries On'', the Fox Film Corporation cast Swedish actor Warner Oland; the film became popular, and Fox went on to produce 15 more Chan films with Oland in the title role. After Oland's death, American actor Sidney Tole ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chauffeur
A chauffeur is a person employed to drive a passenger motor vehicle, especially a luxury vehicle such as a large sedan or limousine. Originally, such drivers were often personal employees of the vehicle owner, but this has changed to specialist chauffeur service companies or individual drivers that provide both driver and vehicle for hire. Some service companies merely provide the driver. History The term ''chauffeur'' comes from the French term for stoker because the earliest automobiles, like their railroad and sea vessel counterparts, were steam-powered and required the driver to stoke the engine. Early petrol/gasoline-powered motor cars, before the advent of electric ignition, were ignited by 'hot tubes' in the cylinder head which had to be pre-heated before the engine would start. Hence the term ''chauffeur'' which, in this context, means something like "heater-upper". The chauffeur would prime the hot tubes at the start of a journey, after which the natural compression ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dick Tracy
''Dick Tracy'' is an American comic strip featuring Dick Tracy (originally Plainclothes Tracy), a tough and intelligent police detective created by Chester Gould. It made its debut on Sunday, October 4, 1931, in the ''Detroit Mirror'', and it was distributed by the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate. Gould wrote and drew the strip until 1977,webpage notes villains and includes short bio of Chester Gould. and various artists and writers have continued it. Dick Tracy has also been the hero in a number of films, including Dick Tracy (1990 film), ''Dick Tracy'' in which Warren Beatty played the lead in 1990. Tom De Haven praised Gould's ''Dick Tracy'' as an "outrageously funny American Gothic", while Brian Walker described it as a "ghoulishly entertaining creation" which had "gripping stories filled with violence and pathos".Walker, Brian. ''The Comics: The Complete Collection''. New York: Abrams ComicArts, 2011. (pp. 189-191, 226-231, 259, 370) Comic strip Creation and ear ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ralph Byrd
Ralph Byrd (April 22, 1909 – August 18, 1952) was an American actor. He was most famous for playing the comic strip character Dick Tracy on screen, in serials, films and television. Early life and career The son of George and Edna May Byrd, Ralph Byrd was born in Dayton, Ohio. Before he began acting in films, he sang and danced in theatrical productions. He served in the United States Army during World War II, having been inducted into the service in San Pedro, California, in 1944. He married actress and model Virginia Carroll in 1936. The couple remained together until Byrd's death in 1952. Byrd was a good, all-purpose actor with a gift for delivering dialogue in a natural, ingratiating way. His screen characters could be breezy and affable or tough and authoritative, as the role required. He debuted in movies with a bit part in ''Red-Headed Woman'' in (1932). Once established in Republic Pictures' Dick Tracy serials (beginning in 1937), he was usually cast in act ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French Algeria
French Algeria (french: Alger to 1839, then afterwards; unofficially , ar, الجزائر المستعمرة), also known as Colonial Algeria, was the period of French colonisation of Algeria. French rule in the region began in 1830 with the invasion of Algiers and lasted until the end of the Algerian War of Independence in 1962. While the administration of Algeria changed significantly over the 132 years of French rule, the Mediterranean coastal region of Algeria, housing the vast majority of its population, was an integral part of France from 1848 until its independence. As one of France's longest-held overseas territories, Algeria became a destination for hundreds of thousands of European immigrants known as ''colons'', and later as . However, the indigenous Muslim population remained the majority of the territory's population throughout its history. Many estimates indicates that the native Algerian population fell by one-third in the years between the French invasion a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Senegalese Tirailleurs
The Senegalese Tirailleurs (french: Tirailleurs Sénégalais) were a corps of colonial infantry in the French Army. They were initially recruited from Senegal, French West Africa and subsequently throughout Western, Central and Eastern Africa: the main sub-Saharan regions of the French colonial empire. The noun ''tirailleur'', which translates variously as 'skirmisher', 'rifleman', or 'sharpshooter', was a designation given by the French Army to indigenous infantry recruited in the various colonies and overseas possessions of the French Empire during the 19th and 20th centuries. Despite recruitment not being limited to Senegal, these infantry units took on the adjective since that was where the first black African Tirailleur regiment had been formed. The first ''Senegalese Tirailleurs'' were formed in 1857 and served France in a number of wars, including World War I (providing around 200,000 troops, more than 135,000 of whom fought in Europe and 30,000 of whom were killed) and W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Drums Of The Desert (1940 Film)
''Drums of the Desert'' is a 1940 American romantic adventure film directed by George Waggner and written by Dorothy Davenport and George Waggner. The film stars Ralph Byrd, Lorna Gray, Mantan Moreland, George Lynn, Willy Castello and Jean Del Val. The film was released on October 7, 1940, by Monogram Pictures. Plot Prior to the Battle of France, French Foreign Legion Lt. Paul Dumont is sent to French North Africa. On board a liner crossing the Mediterranean, he meets and falls in love with Helene Laroche. However, an hour before their tryst the next morning, she leaves the ship to an unknown destination. Arriving in Africa, Paul's mission is to train a demonstration platoon of Senegalese Tirailleurs to be military parachutists of the Armee d' Afrique). The platoon is led by Sgt. 'Blue' Williams, a former American from Harlem. The two lovers meet again at a Legion fort when Lt. Dumont's platoon is to perform a demonstration of their parachute expertise for the Legion. Paul ... [...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] |
Monogram Pictures
Monogram Pictures Corporation was an American film studio that produced mostly low-budget films between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram was among the smaller studios in the golden age of Hollywood, generally referred to collectively as Poverty Row. Lacking the financial resources to deliver the lavish sets, production values, and star power of the larger studios, Monogram sought to attract its audiences with the promise of action and adventure. The company's trademark is now owned by Allied Artists International. The original sprawling brick complex which functioned as home to both Monogram and Allied Artists remains at 4376 Sunset Drive, utilized as part of the Church of Scientology Media Center (formerly KCET's television facilities). History Monogram was created in the early 1930s from two earlier companies; W. Ray Johnston's Rayart Productions (renamed Raytone when sound pictures came in) and Tre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
_-_Sidney_Toler_1.jpg "Click for more on -> Charlie Chan")
