Martha Wentworth
Verna Martha Wentworth (June 2, 1889 – March 8, 1974) was an American actress. Her vocal variety led to her being called the "Actress of 100 Voices". Biography Wentworth was born on June 2, 1889 in New York City. After graduating from public school, she attended the National School of Expression. She was one of Minnie Maddern Fiske's proteges and appeared in several stage productions, beginning when she was 17 years old. Wentworth's long radio career began in the early 1920s. She played The Wintergreen Witch on ''The Cinnamon Bear'' (1937) radio program, Annie Wood and Mrs. Littlefield on ''Crime Classics'' (1953), and Ma Danields on ''The Gallant Heart'' (1944). She portrayed Joe Penner's mother on ''The Park Avenue Penners''. She also had semi-regular roles on ''Broadway Is My Beat'', '' On Stage'', '' The Witch's Tale'', ''The Baby Snooks Show'', and ''The Abbott and Costello Show''. She voiced Mama Katzenjammer in the Katzenjammer Kids adaptation of ''The Captain ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Stagecoach To Denver
''Stagecoach to Denver'' is a 1946 American Western film and one of the Republic Pictures Red Ryder film series directed by R. G. Springsteen. Plot Red is working as a stagecoach driver with one of his passengers being Dickie, a recently orphaned young child travelling on his own. Red puts him on the inaugural stagecoach from Elkhorn to Denver, Colorado where he will meet his only surviving relative, an Aunt that he has never met. Dickie is riding with the Land Commissioner on his way to Denver to report the dishonest dealings of the town's boss Big Bill Lambert. Lambert owns the new Denver stagecoach line so he can control communications as the telegraph line to Denver has not been opened, and wants to ensure that the Land Commissioner does not make it to Denver. One of Big Bill's henchmen stops the stage on the excuse that the driver forgot a bag of US Mail. Once the driver places the bag of mail with the other mail sacks the henchman sabotages the horse harness that leads to ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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One Hundred And One Dalmatians
''One Hundred and One Dalmatians'' (also simply known as ''101 Dalmatians'') is a 1961 American animated adventure comedy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and based on the 1956 novel ''The Hundred and One Dalmatians'' by Dodie Smith. The 17th Disney animated feature film, it was directed by Hamilton Luske, Clyde Geronimi and Wolfgang Reitherman and written by Bill Peet, and features the voices of Rod Taylor, Cate Bauer, Betty Lou Gerson, Ben Wright, Lisa Davis, and Martha Wentworth. The film's plot follows a litter of Dalmatian puppies who are kidnapped by the villainous Cruella de Vil ("deVille"), who wants to make their fur into coats. Their parents, Pongo and Perdita, set out to save their puppies from Cruella, in the process of rescuing 84 additional ones that were bought in pet shops, bringing the total of Dalmatians to 101. The film was originally released in theaters on January 25, 1961, and was a box office success, pulling the studio out of the financial slu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Toby Tortoise Returns
''Toby Tortoise Returns'' is a 1936 animated Technicolor cartoon in Walt Disney's ''Silly Symphonies'' series. It was directed by Wilfred Jackson. It is a sequel to the 1935 short ''The Tortoise and the Hare'', and premiered on August 22, 1936. This time the plot revolves around a boxing match. The short features characters from other ''Silly Symphonies'', including Elmer Elephant and Tillie Tiger from '' Elmer Elephant'', Fifer Pig, Fiddler Pig, Practical Pig and the Big Bad Wolf from ''Three Little Pigs'', and Jenny Wren and the cuckoo from '' Who Killed Cock Robin?''. It was released in VHS, Laserdisc, and DVD formats in various countries. Plot Max Hare is boxing Toby Tortoise and beating him severely in round one. Between each round, Jenny Wren from “Who Killed Cock Robin?” tells Toby that she likes a man who takes his time, which seems to reinvigorate him. In round two, Max declares what the final blow should be, but Toby pulls into his shell to avoid Max's fists. Fee ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Merrie Melodies
''Merrie Melodies'' is an American animation, animated series of comedy short films produced by Warner Bros. starting in 1931, during the golden age of American animation, and ending in 1969. Then some new cartoons were produced from the late 1970s to the late 1990s, as well as other made productions beginning in 1972. As with its sister series, ''Looney Tunes'', it featured cartoon characters such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and Elmer Fudd. Between 1934 and 1943, the ''Merrie Melodies'' series were distinguished from the black-and-white, Buddy (Looney Tunes), Buddy or Porky Pig–starring ''Looney Tunes'' shorts by an emphasis on one-shot stories in color featuring Warner Bros.–owned musical selections. After Bugs Bunny became the breakout recurring star of ''Merrie Melodies'', and ''Looney Tunes'' went to color in the early 1940s, the two series gradually lost their distinctions and shorts were assigned to each series more randomly. ''Merrie Melodies'' was originally ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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I Love To Singa
''I Love to Singa'' is a 1936 Warner Bros. ''Merrie Melodies'' animated cartoon directed by Tex Avery. The short was released on July 18, 1936. Plot ''I Love to Singa'' depicts the story of an owlet (singing voice of Jackie Morrow, speaking voice of Tommy Bond) who wants to sing jazz, instead of the classical music that his German-accented parents wish him to perform. The plot is a tribute to Al Jolson's film ''The Jazz Singer''. The owlet's disciplinarian violinist father, Professor Fritz Owl (voiced by Billy Bletcher), kicks him out of the family's home after catching him singing jazz instead of "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes" to the pump organ accompaniment of his mother (voiced by Martha Wentworth). While wandering, he encounters a radio amateur contest (clearly a takeoff of the ''Major Bowes Amateur Hour''), hosted by "Jack Bunny" (a pun on Jack Benny and later used in ''Goofy Groceries'', voiced by Tedd Pierce). Billing himself as "Owl Jolson" (a reference to Al Jolson ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Prison Shadows
''Prison Shadows'' is a 1936 American crime film directed by Robert F. Hill and starring Edward J. Nugent, Lucille Lund and Joan Barclay.Pitts p.440 Plot Gene Harris, a prizefighter, is sentenced to five years in prison after killing an opponent in the ring. Gene's trainer Moran is suspicious of promoter George Miller, whose accomplice Claire Thomas is pretending to be in love with Gene while double-crossing him. Gene is paroled after three years. He returns to boxing, supported by Mary Comstock, a girl from Miller's office who believes in Gene's innocence, even after another foe dies while fighting him. They discover that an undetectable poison is being used on the fighters' towels. Overhearing a plot to kill him the same way, Gene plays dead and is carried out, setting a trap with the police that the villains fall into right after the fight. Cast *Edward J. Nugent as Gene Harris *Lucille Lund as Claire Thomas * Joan Barclay as Mary Comstock *Forrest Taylor as George Mi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Looney Tunes
''Looney Tunes'' is an American Animated cartoon, animated comedy short film series produced by Warner Bros. starting from 1930 to 1969, concurrently with its partner series ''Merrie Melodies'', during the golden age of American animation.Looney Tunes . ''www.bcdb.com'', April 12, 2012 Then some new cartoons were produced from the late 1980s to the mid 2010s as well as other made productions beginning in 1972. The two series introduced a large List of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies characters, cast of characters, including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Porky Pig. The term ''Looney Tunes'' has since been expanded to also refer to the characters themselves. ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' were initially produced by Leon Schlesinger and animators Harman and Ising, Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising from 1930 to 1933. [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Blow Out
''The Blow Out'' is a 1936 Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' animated short film directed by Tex Avery. The short was released on April 4, 1936, and is the first Porky Pig solo cartoon. Plot As the cartoon opens, a hooded figure appears at the doorway of a building and leaves behind an alarm clock that suddenly starts smoking. At the next second, the clock explodes, blowing the building to smithereens. Afterwards, newspaper headlines explain that the figure, known as the Mad Bomber, has been terrorizing the entire city by placing time bombs at different buildings to blow them up. As a result, the police are making every effort to search the city and offer a cash reward of $2,000 to anybody who can capture the fiend. In the Mad Bomber's hideout, the Mad Bomber is seen making his next time bomb. He does this by taking apart an alarm clock, stuffing it full of various explosives (dynamite, a black bomb, skyrockets, and firecrackers), and puts the alarm clock back together, to make a bom ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bottles (film)
''Bottles'' is a 1936 '' Happy Harmonies'' animated cartoon directed by Hugh Harman and produced by Rudolf Ising for the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio. Plot On a dark and stormy night, an elderly pharmacist falls asleep at his stool while mixing poisonous chemicals in a glass bottle. After he falls asleep, the night takes a sudden fantastical turn as his poisonous bottle—topped with a " skull and crossbones" stopper as a warning label—suddenly springs to life, becoming a malevolent cackling skeleton. Laughing evilly, and screaming "Death walks tonight!", the skeleton douses the pharmacist with chemicals that mysteriously cause him to shrink. Waking up, the pharmacist sets out to explore his store in his new minuscule form and finds that ''all'' of the bottles in the pharmacy have similarly sprung to life, with most of them taking on colorful personalities based on their contents: three baby bottles become a trio of crying babies, a bottle of Scotch whiskey becomes a jo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mae West
Mae West (born Mary Jane West; August 17, 1893 – November 22, 1980) was an American stage and film actress, playwright, screenwriter, singer, and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned over seven decades. She was known for her breezy sexual independence, and her lighthearted bawdy double entendres, often delivered in a husky contralto voice. She was active in vaudeville and on stage in New York City before moving to Los Angeles to begin a career in the film industry. West was one of the most controversial movie stars of her day; she encountered problems especially with censorship. She once quipped, "I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it." She bucked the system by making comedy out of conventional mores, and the Depression-era audience admired her for it. When her film career ended, she wrote books and plays, and continued to perform in Las Vegas and the United Kingdom, on radio and television, and recorded rock 'n roll albums. In 1999, the American Film ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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ZaSu Pitts
Zasu Pitts (; January 3, 1894 – June 7, 1963) was an American actress who starred in many silent dramas, including Erich von Stroheim's epic 1924 silent film ''Greed'', and comedies, transitioning successfully to mostly comedy films with the advent of sound films. She also appeared on numerous radio shows. Her career as an entertainer spanned nearly 50 years, and she was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960. Her parents named her "ZaSu" as an amalgamation of the two maiden aunts she had been named for. Early life ZaSu Pitts was born in Parsons, Kansas, to Rulandus and Nelly (''née'' Shay) Pitts; she was the third of four children. Her father, who had lost a leg while serving in the 76th New York Infantry in the Civil War, had settled the family in Kansas by the time ZaSu was born. The names of her father's sisters, Eliza and Susan, were purportedly the basis for the name "ZaSu", i.e., to satisfy competing family interests. It has been (incorrectly) spelle ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Broken Toys (1935 Film)
''Broken Toys'' is an 8-minute 1935 animation by Disney in the Silly Symphonies series. The toys in the story include caricatures of W.C. Fields, Zasu Pitts, Ned Sparks and Stepin Fetchit. ''Broken Toys'' was originally scheduled to follow ''Elmer Elephant'' and '' Three Little Wolves'' but was moved ahead of these titles in order to have it ready for a Christmas release.Karl F. Cohen ''Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators'' 1476607257 - 2013 "An Internet-posted list of images cut from Disney films mentions that black dolls were cut from Broken Toys (1935), Midnight in a Toy Shop (1930), Night Before Christmas (1933), Santas Workshop (1932), and Three Orphan Kittens (1935)." Plot In the pile of overused and broken toys, a discarded sailor doll gives the other toys, including an Aunt Jemima and Stepin Fetchit doll, a plan on how they can be repaired and bring happiness to others during Christmas. Voice cast * Boy doll: Tommy Bupp * Girl doll: Leone ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |