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Manhattan Merry-Go-Round (film)
''Manhattan Merry-Go-Round'' is a 1937 American comedy film directed by Charles Reisner. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Art Direction by John Victor Mackay. The film is also known as ''Manhattan Music Box'' in the United Kingdom. Plot summary A group of gangsters take over a record company, now they strong-arm various celebrities into making records. Cast * Phil Regan as Jerry Hart *Leo Carrillo as Tony Gordoni *Ann Dvorak as Ann Rogers *Tamara Geva as Madame "Charlie" Charlizzini *James Gleason as Danny The Duck * Ted Lewis and His Orchestra as Themselves *Cab Calloway and His Cotton Club Orchestra as Themselves * Kay Thompson and Her Ensemble as Themselves *Joe DiMaggio as Himself - the Baseball Player *Henry Armetta as Spadoni *Luis Alberni as Martinetti, the Impresario *Max Terhune as Himself, Alibi - the Ventriloquist *Smiley Burnette as Frog - Accordion Player *Louis Prima and His Band as Themselves *Gene Autry as Himself - the Cowboy Star Louis Prima, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Hummert
Edward Frank Hummert, Jr. (June 2, 1884 – March 12, 1966), professionally known as Frank Hummert and sometimes credited as E. Frank Hummert, was an American advertising agent originally but was best known for writing/producing episodes of nearly 100 daytime/primetime radio dramas and soap opera serials between the 1930s and the 1950s. Hummert, along with his wife Anne Hummert, became the monarchs of daytime radio with dramas such as ''Just Plain Bill'' (1932–55), ''The Romance of Helen Trent'' (1933–60), ''Ma Perkins'' (1933–60), and ''Backstage Wife'' (1935–59). After the success of these dramas, the Hummerts formed Hummert Radio Productions. Under Hummert Productions, creating the basic plots and assigning an assembly line of writers to complete the scripts, they produced more than 40 radio shows, including the soap operas '' Stella Dallas'' (1938–55) and ''Young Widder Brown'' (1938–56); the mystery shows '' Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons'' (1937–54), and ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Gleason
James Austin Gleason (May 23, 1882 – April 12, 1959) was an American actor, playwright and screenwriter born in New York City. Gleason often portrayed "tough-talking, world-weary guys with a secret heart-of-gold." Life and career Gleason was born in New York City, the son of Mina (née Crolius) and William L. Gleason. Coming from theatrical stock, as a schoolboy he made stage appearances while on holiday. He began earning his living at the age of thirteen, being a messenger boy, printer's devil, assistant in an electrical store and a lift boy. He enlisted in the United States Army at age 16 and served three years in the Philippines. On discharge, he began his stage career, later taking it up professionally. He played in London for two years and following his return to the United States, he began in films by writing dialogue for comedies. He wrote a number of plays, several of which were performed on Broadway. He also acted on Broadway, including in a couple of his own play ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anna Demetrio
Anna Demetrio (1890–1959) was an Italian-born American film actress.McLaughlin p.170 Speaking English with a heavy accent, she often played stock foreign characters in a series of supporting roles. In 1950 she starred in the sitcom '' Mama Rosa'' in which she played the title character. Selected filmography * ''Too Much Harmony'' (1933) * ''Manhattan Merry-Go-Round'' (1937) * '' In Old Mexico'' (1938) * '' Escape to Paradise'' (1939) * ''Young Buffalo Bill'' (1940) * ''Miss V from Moscow'' (1942) * ''Submarine Base'' (1943) * '' Dragon Seed'' (1944) * ''Call of the South Seas'' (1944) * ''Appointment with Murder'' (1948) * ''September Affair ''September Affair'' is a 1950 American romantic drama film directed by William Dieterle and starring Joan Fontaine, Joseph Cotten, and Jessica Tandy. It was produced by Hal B. Wallis. Plot Marianne "Manina" Stuart (Joan Fontaine), a prominent c ...'' (1950) References Bibliography * McLaughlin, Robert. ''We'll Always Have the Movies ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stanley Blystone
William Stanley Blystone (August 1, 1894 – July 16, 1956) was an American film actor who made more than 500 films appearances between 1924 and 1956. He was sometimes billed as William Blystone or William Stanley. Early years Blystone was born in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. He was a steel production engineer and worked in ore mines before he became an actor. Career Blystone is best known for his appearance in Charlie Chaplin's '' Modern Times'', playing Paulette Goddard's father, and several short films starring The Three Stooges. Some of his more memorable roles were in the films ''Half Shot Shooters'', '' False Alarms'', ''Goofs and Saddles'', ''Three Little Twirps'' and '' Slaphappy Sleuths''. His final appearance with the trio was ''Of Cash and Hash'' in 1955. He also appeared in several Laurel and Hardy films. Personal life and death Blystone was married to Hollywood starlet Alma Tell. They had no children. Blystone's brother John G. Blystone was a film director in Hol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dorothy Arnold (actress)
Dorothy Arnold (born Dorothy Arnoldine Olson; November 21, 1917 – November 13, 1984) was an American film actress and the first wife of baseball star Joe DiMaggio. Her 20-year movie career began with 1937's ''Freshies'' and ended with 1957's ''Lizzie''. Early life She was born as Dorothy Arnoldine Olson in Duluth, Minnesota, of Norwegian heritage. By the age of 12 she was performing on amateur nights at Duluth's Lyric Theater and with the local Salvation Army Band. She graduated from Denfeld High School in 1935. Her first theatrical job was with the Band Box Revue, traveling out of Chicago. She studied at Paramount School in New York and played bits in pictures as a dancer. Career Arnold tested twice with Paramount Pictures, but it was Universal Studios that offered her a stock contract. She appeared in 15 films between 1937 and 1939. Her most memorable roles were as the imperiled heroine Jean Drew in ''The Phantom Creeps'' (with Bela Lugosi and Robert Kent) and Gloria DeVe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gene Autry
Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American singer, songwriter, actor, musician, rodeo performer, and baseball owner who gained fame largely by singing in a crooning style on radio, in films, and on television for more than three decades beginning in the early 1930s. Autry was the owner of a television station, several radio stations in Southern California, and the Los Angeles/Anaheim/California Angels Major League Baseball team from 1961 to 1997. From 1934 to 1953, Autry appeared in 93 films, and between 1950 and 1956 hosted ''The Gene Autry Show'' television series. During the 1930s and 1940s, he personified the straight-shooting hero—honest, brave, and true. Autry was also one of the most important pioneering figures in the history of country music, considered the second major influential artist of the genre's development after Jimmie Rodgers. His singing cowboy films were the first vehicle to car ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis Prima
Louis Leo Prima (December 7, 1910 – August 24, 1978) was an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, and trumpeter. While rooted in New Orleans jazz, swing music, and jump blues, Prima touched on various genres throughout his career: he formed a seven-piece New Orleans-style jazz band in the late 1920s, fronted a swing combo in the 1930s and a big band group in the 1940s, helped to popularize jump blues in the late 1940s and early to mid 1950s, and performed frequently as a Vegas lounge act beginning in the 1950s. From the 1940s through the 1960s, his music further encompassed early R&B and rock 'n' roll, boogie-woogie, and Italian folk music, such as the tarantella. Prima made prominent use of Italian music and language in his songs, blending elements of his Italian and Sicilian identity with jazz and swing music. At a time when ethnic musicians were discouraged from openly stressing their ethnicity, Prima's conspicuous embrace of his Sicilian ethnicity opened the doors ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smiley Burnette
Lester Alvin Burnett (March 18, 1911 – February 16, 1967), better known as Smiley Burnette, was an American country music performer and a comedic actor in Western films and on radio and TV, playing sidekick to Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and other B-movie cowboys. He was also a prolific singer-songwriter who is reported to have played proficiently over 100 musical instruments, sometimes more than one simultaneously. His career, beginning in 1934, spanned four decades, including a regular role on CBS-TV's ''Petticoat Junction'' in the 1960s. Biography Lester A. Burnett (he added the final "e" later in life) was born in Summum, Illinois, on March 18, 1911, and grew up in Ravenwood, Missouri. He began singing as a child and learned to play a wide variety of instruments by ear, yet never learned to read or write music. In his teens, he worked in vaudeville, and starting in 1929, at the state's first commercial radio station, WDZ-AM in Tuscola, Illinois. Burnette came by his ni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Max Terhune
Max Terhune (February 12, 1891 – June 5, 1973) was an American film actor born in Franklin, Indiana. He appeared in nearly 70 films, mostly B-westerns, between 1936 and 1956. Among these, Terhune starred in ''The Three Mesquiteers'' and ''Range Busters'' series. Baseball Terhune worked as a tool maker and when he was 20 he played semi-pro baseball for teams in Minneapolis, Indianapolis, and Newark; he also spent the 1913 season playing Class-D baseball for the Vincennes Alices of the Kitty League. During this time he became friends with Kermit Maynard, a star university athlete who launched a career as a silent western movie star that continued into the sound era. Kermit's younger brother was Ken Maynard, a hugely popular western star from the early 1920s through the 1930s. Film career Terhune performed in 21 episodes of a popular Republic Studios western series called ''The Three Mesquiteers.'' His character, Lullaby Joslin, was launched by another popular characte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Luis Alberni
Luis Alberni (October 4, 1886 – December 23, 1962) was a Spanish-born American character actor of stage and films. Early years Alberni was born in Barcelona, Spain, on October 4, 1886. He acted in stock theater for four years in Marseille before he went back to Barcelona, earned a BA degree, and studied law. Career Alberni was acting in Bordeaux when American humorist Wilson Mizner and playwright Paul Armstrong invited him to come to the United States, offering their help. In April 1912, he sailed to New York City as a steerage passenger aboard the S/S ''Nieuw Amsterdam''. In New York, Alberni acted on both stage and screen. His first motion picture performance was in the 1915 Jewish drama, '' Children of the Ghetto''. On the stage, he appeared in more than a dozen Broadway plays between 1915 and 1928, including ''39 East'', ''Dreams for Sale'' and the original production of ''What Price Glory?'' in 1924–1925. In the sound film era, he had notable roles as Jacopo in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Armetta
Henry Armetta (born Enrico Armetta; July 4, 1888 – October 21, 1945) was an American character actor who appeared in at least 150 American films, beginning in silent movies. His last film was released posthumously in 1946, the year after his death. Biography Armetta was born in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. At the age of 14, he stowed away on a boat to America. The immigration authorities were prepared to send him back, but he found an Italian family to act as his sponsor. He settled in New York City where he delivered groceries, sold sandwiches and pizzas and performed other menial tasks to get by. He eventually ended up working as a pants presser at a well known club where he was befriended by actor/producer Raymond Hitchcock. Hitchcock got him a chorus part in his play ''A Yankee Consul''. After a friend told him about southern California's mushrooming film industry, Armetta hitchhiked to Hollywood in 1920 and soon found work in films as a stereotypical Italian, often playing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joe DiMaggio
Joseph Paul DiMaggio (November 25, 1914 – March 8, 1999), nicknamed "Joltin' Joe", "The Yankee Clipper" and "Joe D.", was an American baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career in Major League Baseball for the New York Yankees. Born to Sicilian immigrants in California, he is widely considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time, and is best known for setting the record for the longest hitting streak in baseball (56 games from May 15 – July 16, 1941), which still stands. DiMaggio was a three-time Most Valuable Player Award winner and an All-Star in each of his 13 seasons. During his tenure with the Yankees, the club won ten American League pennants and nine World Series championships. His nine career World Series rings is second only to fellow Yankee Yogi Berra, who won ten. At the time of his retirement after the 1951 season, he ranked fifth in career home runs (361) and sixth in career slugging percentage (.579). He was inducted into th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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