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Manhattan Parade
''Manhattan Parade '' is a 1931 American pre-Code musical comedy film photographed entirely in Technicolor. It was originally intended to be released, in the United States, early in 1931, but was shelved due to public apathy towards musicals. Despite waiting a number of months, the public proved obstinate and the Warner Bros. reluctantly released the film in December 1931 after removing all the music. Since there was no such reactions to musicals outside the United States, the film was released there as a full musical comedy in 1931. The film pokes fun at Al Jolson, who had suffered a downturn in his career due to the public aversion to musical pictures. He had been released from his contract to Warner Bros. late in 1930. Cast *Winnie Lightner as Doris Roberts * Charles Butterworth as Herbert T. Herbert * Joe Smith as Lou Delman of the Avon Comedy Four (as Smith) *Charles Dale as Jake Delman of the Avon Comedy Four (as Dale) * Dickie Moore as Junior Roberts *Bobby Watson as Pais ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lloyd Bacon
Lloyd Francis Bacon (December 4, 1889 – November 15, 1955) was an American screen, stage and vaudeville actor and film director. As a director he made films in virtually all genres, including westerns, musicals, comedies, gangster films, and crime dramas. He was one of the directors at Warner Bros. in the 1930s who helped give that studio its reputation for gritty, fast-paced "torn from the headlines" action films. And, in directing Warner Bros.' ''42nd Street (film), 42nd Street'', he joined the movie's song-and-dance-number director, Busby Berkeley, in contributing to "an instant and enduring classic [that] transformed the musical genre." Early life Lloyd Bacon was born on December 4, 1889 in San Jose, California, the son of actor/playwright Frank Bacon (actor), Frank Bacon - the co-author and star of the long-running Broadway show Lightnin' (play), Lightnin' (1918) - and Jennie Weidman. Lloyd Bacon was not, contrary to some accounts, related to actor Irving Bacon, althoug ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Conroy (actor)
Frank Parish Conroy (14 October 1890 – 24 February 1964) was a British film and stage actor who appeared in many films, notably ''Grand Hotel'' (1932), '' The Little Minister'' (1934) and ''The Ox-Bow Incident'' (1943). Career Born in Derby, England, Conroy began acting on stage in 1908. He acted in Shakespearean plays in England from 1910 until he came to the United States in 1915. He was responsible for building the Greenwich Village Theatre which opened in 1917, and he directed productions of the repertory theater there for three years. He appeared in more than 40 Broadway plays, beginning with ''The Passing Show of 1913'' (1913) and ending with ''Calculated Risk'' (1962). He won a Tony Award for best supporting actor for his performance in Graham Greene's ''The Potting Shed'' (1957). Conroy's work on television included appearances on ''Kraft Theater'' and ''The Play of the Week''. Personal life and death Conroy had a wife, Ruth, and a son, Richard. He died of heart di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1930s Color Films
Year 193 ( CXCIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Sosius and Ericius (or, less frequently, year 946 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 193 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * January 1 – Year of the Five Emperors: The Roman Senate chooses Publius Helvius Pertinax, against his will, to succeed the late Commodus as Emperor. Pertinax is forced to reorganize the handling of finances, which were wrecked under Commodus, to reestablish discipline in the Roman army, and to suspend the food programs established by Trajan, provoking the ire of the Praetorian Guard. * March 28 – Pertinax is assassinated by members of the Praetorian Guard, who storm the imperial palace. The Empire is auctioned off ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1931 Musical Comedy Films
Events January * January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics. * January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa. * January 22 – Sir Isaac Isaacs is sworn in as the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia. * January 25 – Mohandas Gandhi is again released from imprisonment in India. * January 27 – Pierre Laval forms a government in France. February * February 4 – Soviet leader Joseph Stalin gives a speech calling for rapid industrialization, arguing that only strong industrialized countries will win wars, while "weak" nations are "beaten". Stalin states: "We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or they will crush us." The first five-year plan in the Soviet Union is intensified, for the industrialization and collectivization of agriculture. * February 10 – O ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1931 Films
The following is an overview of 1931 in film, including significant events, a list of films released and notable births and deaths. Top-grossing films (U.S.) The top ten 1931 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows: Events * January 5: RKO acquires the producing and distribution arm of Pathé for $4.6 million. * June 20: Monogram Pictures releases its first film, ''Ships of Hate''. * July 7: Anti-competitive practices disclosed about certain distributors and producers in Canada. * November 17: E. R. Tinker elected president of Fox Films replacing Harley L. Clarke. * December 14: RKO refinancing plan approved. Best money stars ''Variety'' reported the following as the biggest male stars in the U.S. in alphabetical order although grouped George Arliss and Ronald Colman together as having equal ranking. The following were the biggest women names in the U.S. in alphabetical order but again grouped two actresses together to denote they were ranked t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Early Color Feature Films
This is a list of early feature-length color films (including primarily black-and-white films that have one or more color sequences) made up to about 1936, when the Technicolor three-strip process firmly established itself as the major-studio favorite. About a third of the films are thought to be lost films, with no prints surviving. Some have survived incompletely or only in black-and-white copies made for TV broadcast use in the 1950s. Background The earliest attempts to produce color films involved either tinting the film broadly with washes or baths of dyes, or pains-takingly hand-painting certain areas of each frame of the film with transparent dyes. Stencil-based techniques such as Pathéchrome were a labor-saving alternative if many copies of a film had to be colored: each dye was rolled over the whole print using an appropriate stencil to restrict the dye to selected areas of each frame. The Handschiegl color process was a comparable technique. Because transparent dyes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isham Jones
Isham Edgar Jones (January 31, 1894 – October 19, 1956) was an American bandleader, saxophonist, bassist and songwriter. Career Jones was born in Coalton, Ohio, United States, to a musical and mining family. His father, Richard Isham Jones (1865–1945), was a violinist. The family moved to Saginaw, Michigan, where Jones grew up and started his first ensemble for church concerts. In 1911 one of Jones's earliest compositions "On the Alamo" was published by Tell Taylor Inc. (Taylor had formed a publishing company the year before when his song "Down by the Old Mill Stream" became a hit.) In 1915 Jones moved to Chicago, Illinois. He performed at the Green Mill Gardens, then began playing at Fred Mann's Rainbo Gardens. Chicago remained his home until 1932, when he settled in New York City. He also toured England with his orchestra in 1925. In 1917, he composed the tune "We're In The Army Now" (also known as "You're In the Army Now") when the United States entered World War I. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Runaround (1931 Film)
''The Runaround'' is a 1931 comedy-drama film that was photographed entirely in Technicolor. It was directed by William James Craft, from a screenplay by Alfred Jackson and Barney Sarecky, based on a story by Zandah Owen. The film stars Mary Brian, Joseph Cawthorn, Marie Prevost, Johnny Hines, and Geoffrey Kerr. Produced and directed by RKO Radio Pictures, it premiered in New York City on August 7, 1931, and was released national on August 22. It was the first film to be shot in a new Technicolor process which removed grain, resulting in a much improved color. The film was released in Great Britain as ''Waiting for the Bride''. Plot Millionaire playboy Fred White is attempting to make chorus girl Evelyn his latest conquest. Evelyn, on to Fred's scheming, has some scheming of her own, attempting to maneuver Fred into marriage. In a last ditch effort to get Evelyn into bed, Fred purchases a diamond bracelet, to which he has attached a key to the apartment he has leased as their ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Heart Of New York (film)
''The Heart of New York'' is a 1932 American pre-Code comedy film starring the vaudeville team of Smith & Dale and George Sidney. It was directed by Mervyn LeRoy and based on the Broadway play ''Mendel, Inc.'' by David Freedman. Plot The plumber Mendel Marantz, a passionate inventor, hasn't much luck and a family that doesn't understand him. He finally strikes it rich with a dishwashing machine he invented. He finds an investor, Gassenheim, and begins to make his way up in the world. But Mendel's troubles are not over; his family doesn't share his dream to become the landlord of the house where they live on New York's Lower East Side. They prefer to move uptown to Park Avenue and adapt to how rich people live. Mendel's ideas for the house are not forgotten. The men he once told how he wished to transform the building take on the work of renovating it, with every detail he planned. Neighbours and visitors come to see the house and the new, beautiful penthouse. His wife and his ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smith And Dale
Smith and Dale were a famous American vaudeville comedy duo. They consisted of Joe Smith (born Joseph Sultzer on February 17, 1884February 22, 1981) and Charlie Dale (born Charles Marks on September 6, 1881November 16, 1971), who both grew up in the Jewish ghettos of New York City at the end of the 19th century. Beginning in their adolescence, their career spanned the majority of their lives, with the two performing together continuously for more than seventy years. The duo were one of several famous comic performers of vaudeville, radio and movies that collectively originated from the same place and era. Other entertainers included Gallagher and Shean, George Burns, Eddie Cantor, George Jessel (actor), George Jessel and the Marx Brothers. Early life and work Sultzer and Marks met as teenagers in the fall of 1898, when they accidentally ran into each other while cycling. Joe was cycling north on Eldridge Street on Manhattan's Lower East Side, while Charlie was cycling east on Delan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lilian Bond
Lilian Bond (January 18, 1908 – January 25, 1991) was an English-American actress based in the United States. Life and career Bond was born in London and made her first professional stage appearance at the age of 14 in the pantomime ''Dick Whittington and His Cat''. Later she joined the chorus of ''Piccadilly Revels'' and continued on the stage when she relocated to the United States, where her performances included roles in ''The Earl Carroll Vanities'' and in various productions of the Ziegfeld Follies. Bond began working in films in 1929, initially in the drama ''No More Children'' for Cliff Broughton Productions. Between 1929 and 1931, she co-starred in eight additional films, most notably with Tom Tyler in the 1931 Western ''Rider of the Plains''. In 1932, she was named a WAMPAS Baby Star, along with Gloria Stuart, Ginger Rogers, and other young actresses rising in popularity with theater audiences. From 1932 to 1953, she had roles in 39 more films, ranging from l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greta Granstedt
Greta Granstedt (born Irene Louise Granstedt; July 13, 1907 – October 7, 1987) was an American film and television actress. Early life Irene "Greta" Granstedt was the second child of Theodore and Emma Granstedt, born in Scandia, Kansas. The Granstedt family was one of the five pioneer families from Sweden who settled in this north central Kansas community in 1867-68. The families left Sweden in response to the terrible conditions in the three years of misery in Sweden. Shooting of Harold Galloway Granstedt first gained notoriety and widespread media attention in April 1922 after she shot her 17-year-old boyfriend, Harold Galloway, with a pistol she borrowed from a friend. Granstedt, then only 14 years old, claimed in interviews that the shooting was accidental, a claim that coincided with Galloway's own story of the incident. That night I walked out to Busters house - it's a mile and a half out in the country. I took the gun with me because I guess I felt afraid to wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
