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Myrna Dell
Myrna Dell (born Marilyn Adele Dunlap; March 5, 1924 – February 11, 2011) was an American actress, model, and writer who appeared in numerous motion pictures and television programs over four decades. A Hollywood glamour girl in the early part of her career, she is best known today for her work in B-pictures, particularly film noir thrillers and Westerns. Early life and career Dell's mother was silent-film actress Carol Price. Dell entered show business when she was 16 as a dancer with the Earl Carroll Revue in New York. Her film debut came in '' A Night at Earl Carroll's'' (1940), after which she appeared in ''Ziegfeld Girl'' (1941), ''Raiders of Red Gap'' (1943), 'and ''Up in Arms'' (1943). She found work at Monogram Pictures, a "budget" studio specializing in inexpensive entertainments for double-feature theaters. She appeared as an ingenue in a B-western, ''Arizona Whirlwind'' (1944), with silent-screen veterans Ken Maynard, Hoot Gibson, and Bob Steele. She sign ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world's most populous megacities. Los Angeles is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Southern California. With a population of roughly 3.9 million residents within the city limits , Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic and cultural diversity, being the home of the Hollywood film industry, and its sprawling metropolitan area. The city of Los Angeles lies in a basin in Southern California adjacent to the Pacific Ocean in the west and extending through the Santa Monica Mountains and north into the San Fernando Valley, with the city bordering the San Gabriel Valley to it's east. It covers about , and is the county seat of Los Angeles County, which is the most populous county in the United States with an estim ... [...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] |
Ding Dong Williams
''Ding Dong Williams'' is a 1946 American comedy film directed by William Berke, and written by Brenda Weisberg and M. Coates Webster. The film stars Glen Vernon (under his real name, Glenn Vernon), Marcy McGuire, Felix Bressart, Anne Jeffreys, and James Warren. It was released on April 15, 1946 by RKO Radio Pictures. Plot Hollywood's Sunrise Studios is producing a film about a heartbroken composer who creates a modern rhapsody. The head of the music department, Hugo Meyerhold (Felix Bressart), and his young secretary Angela Jones (Marcy McGuire) engage jive clarinetist Ding Dong Williams (Glenn Vernon). However, Ding Dong's musical skills are limited to improvisation; he can't read or write music and just plays music the way he feels at the moment. Angela tries various schemes to induce Ding Dong to play something sad and soulful, including a fake romance with the studio's cowboy star, but all of her attempts fail. Ding Dong, dressed down by the studio boss and disillusioned by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tommy Noonan
Tommy Noonan (born Thomas Noone; April 29, 1921 – April 24, 1968) was a comedy genre film performer, screenwriter and producer. He acted in a number of high-profile films as well as B movies from the 1940s through the 1960s, and he is best known for his supporting performances as Gus Esmond, wealthy fiancé of Lorelei Lee (Marilyn Monroe) in '' Gentlemen Prefer Blondes'' (1953), and as the musician Danny McGuire in '' A Star Is Born'' (1954). He played a stockroom worker in the film ''Bundle of Joy'' (1956) with Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds. Early years Born in Bellingham, Washington, Noonan was the younger half-brother of actor John Ireland (actor), John Ireland. Noonan was the son of Michael James Noone and Gracie Ferguson. His father was a vaudeville comedian and a native of Garrafrauns, Dunmore, Galway County, Ireland. His mother, a piano teacher, was from Glasgow, Scotland. He attended New York University. Career In 1934, Noonan and Ireland made their stage de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Destination Murder
''Destination Murder'' is a 1950 American crime film noir directed by Edward L. Cahn. The drama features Joyce MacKenzie, Stanley Clements and Hurd Hatfield. Plot During a five-minute movie intermission, Jackie Wales leaves a theater, gets into a car, changes into a messenger's outfit, rings the doorbell of Arthur Mansfield, shoots him, then rushes back to the theater and his date. After her father is shot, Laura Mansfield sees the killer hurdle the house's gate. At the police station, she looks at suspects in a lineup. One of them is Jackie, whom she chats with outside the station, not revealing who she is. Laura lets him drive her home, then sees Jackie hurdle the gate as her dad's murderer did. s Police Lt. Brewster, the lead homicide investigator, ignores her tip and charges Arthur Mansfield's business competitor, Frank Niles, with the crime. Laura begins dating Jackie to keep an eye on him. He loses money gambling and goes to the Vogue nightclub to get a payoff from the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Locket (1946 Film)
''The Locket'' is a 1946 American psychological thriller with noirish undertones directed by John Brahm, starring Laraine Day, Brian Aherne, Robert Mitchum, and Gene Raymond, and released by RKO Pictures. The film is based on a screenplay by Sheridan Gibney, adapted from "What Nancy Wanted" by Norma Barzman, wife of later-blacklisted writer Ben Barzman. It is noted for its complex and confusing use of layered flashbacks within flashbacks to give psychological depth to the narrative. Plot A respectable looking man appears unannounced and uninvited at an upper crusty wedding at a Park Avenue residence in Manhattan. He asks for the groom, John Willis (Raymond), to be summoned. The sobriety of his appearance, speech, and manner yield acquiescence. After a cordial greeting, Harry Blair, a psychiatrist, recounts in a series of nested flashbacks a tale of Willis’ fiancé and his ex-wife Nancy (Day) being not only a kleptomaniac, inveterate liar, and murderess but unpunished for any o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nocturne (1946 Film)
''Nocturne'' is a 1946 American film noir starring George Raft and Lynn Bari. The film was produced by longtime Alfred Hitchcock associate Joan Harrison, scripted by Jonathan Latimer, and directed by Edwin L. Marin. It was one of several medium budget thrillers Raft made in the late 1940s. Plot The film opens on Keith Vincent, a Hollywood composer, as he creates a new song called "Nocturne". As he plays his piano, a woman sits silently in the shadows and listens to the composer speak as he plays. But the mood changes a little when he says, "You're no longer the one," and encourages her to go away for a while. Moments later, as he alters the score with a pen, the composer is shot and killed. The police think it is suicide, but detective Joe Warne suspects murder. He encounters Vincent's housekeeper, Susan Flanders, who had been sleeping in the house but had been wearing ear-plugs because "she didn't like the music". They take her in for questioning. Warne begins looking for "Dol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom Conway
Tom Conway (born Thomas Charles Sanders, 15 September 1904 – 22 April 1967) was a British film, television, and radio actor remembered for playing private detectives (including The Falcon, Sherlock Holmes, Bulldog Drummond, and The Saint) and psychiatrists, among other roles. Conway played "The Falcon" in 10 episodes of the series, taking over from his brother, George Sanders, in ''The Falcon's Brother'' (1942), in which they both starred. He also appeared in several Val Lewton films. Early life Conway was born in St. Petersburg, Russia. His younger brother was fellow actor George Sanders. Their younger sister, Margaret Sanders, was born in 1912. At the outbreak of the Russian Revolution (1917), the family moved to England, where Conway was educated at Bedales School and Brighton College. He travelled to Northern Rhodesia, where he worked in mining and ranching, then returned to England, appearing in several plays with the Manchester Repertory Company and performing on BBC ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Falcon (fictional Detective)
The Falcon is the nickname for two fictional detectives. Drexel Drake (real name Charles H. Huff) created Michael Waring, alias the Falcon, a freelance investigator and troubleshooter, in his 1936 novel, ''The Falcon's Prey''. It was followed by two more novels – ''The Falcon Cuts In'', 1937, and ''The Falcon Meets a Lady'', 1938 – and a 1938 short story. Michael Arlen created Gay Stanhope Falcon in 1940. This Falcon made his first appearance in Arlen's short story "Gay Falcon" (aka "A Man Called Falcon"), which was originally published in 1940 in '' Town & Country'' magazine. The story opens with the words "Now of this man who called himself Gay Falcon many tales are told, and this is one of them." Arlen's Falcon is characterized as a freelance adventurer and troubleshooter – a man who makes his living "keeping his mouth shut and engaging in dangerous enterprises." Film appearances Arlen's Falcon was quickly brought to the screen by RKO Radio Pictures. The 1941 film ''Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zane Grey
Pearl Zane Grey (January 31, 1872 – October 23, 1939) was an American author and dentist. He is known for his popular adventure novels and stories associated with the Western genre in literature and the arts; he idealized the American frontier. '' Riders of the Purple Sage'' (1912) was his best-selling book. In addition to the success of his printed works, his books have second lives and continuing influence adapted for films and television. His novels and short stories were adapted into 112 films, two television episodes, and a television series, ''Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre''.Hulse 2007, pp. vii–x. Biography Early life Pearl Zane Grey was born January 31, 1872, in Zanesville, Ohio. His birth name may have originated from newspaper descriptions of Queen Victoria's mourning clothes as "pearl grey." He was the fourth of five children born to Alice "Allie" Josephine Zane, whose English Quaker immigrant ancestor Robert Zane came to the American colonies in 1673, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Show Business (1944 Film)
''Show Business'' is a 1944 movie musical film starring Eddie Cantor, George Murphy, Joan Davis, Nancy Kelly, and Constance Moore. The film was directed by Edwin L. Marin and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Cast * Eddie Cantor as Eddie Martin * George Murphy as George Doane * Joan Davis as Joan Mason * Nancy Kelly as Nancy Gae * Constance Moore Constance Moore (January 18, 1920 or January 18, 1921Additional on April 23, 2017. – September 16, 2005) was an American singer and actress. Her most noted work was in wartime musicals such as ''Show Business'' and ''Atlantic City'' and the ... as Constance Ford * Don Douglas as Charles Lucas Reception The film made a profit of $805,000.Richard B. Jewell, ''Slow Fade to Black: The Decline of RKO Radio Pictures'', Uni of California, 2016 References External links * 1944 films 1944 musical films American black-and-white films 1940s English-language films Films directed by Edwin L. Marin Films scored by Leigh Harline ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joan Davis
Josephine "Joan" Davis (June 29, 1907 – May 22, 1961) was an American comedic actress whose career spanned vaudeville, film, radio, and television. Remembered best for the 1950s television comedy ''I Married Joan'', Davis had a successful earlier career as a B-movie actress and a leading star of 1940s radio comedy. Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, she was the only child of LeRoy Davis and Nina Mae (née Sinks) Davis, who were married in St. Paul on November 23, 1910."Joan was born in St. Paul, Minnesota on June 29, 1907. Joan's birth certificate is interesting in that it was altered some 32 years after it was originally filed. It has been stamped with a notation along the bottom edge, reading “Amended by State Registrar pursuant to affidavit filed on _____,” with the date 2-11-44 written by hand. Asterisks indicate three areas of the document that were amended. The birth date, originally recorded as July 4, 1912, was crossed out by hand and changed to June 29. No middle name ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
