Mel Berns
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Mel Berns
Mel Berns (September 27, 1897 - May 7, 1977) was an American make-up artist. He was the Head of Makeup at RKO Pictures for more than twenty years. Career Berns began his career in the entertainment industry while working as an agent at the William Morris Agency. Later he became the Head of Makeup at RKO Pictures for more than twenty years, creating the makeup for Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and Katharine Hepburn's screentest. He was a lifelong friend of Ginger Rogers, who makes ample reference to their friendship in her autobiography: ''Ginger: My Story''. He worked extensively in television after leaving RKO, notably the ''Perry Mason (1957 TV series), Perry Mason'' series. "The crew is giving it the best of Hollywood's techniques," Burr told columnist Erskine Johnson. The crew included veteran make-up artist Berns. The baseball player Babe Ruth had severe scarring from acne on his face. Mel Berns developed makeup for Ruth so that Ruth could feel more comfortable in public. ...
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Make-up Artist
A make-up artist, also called a makeup artist, and often shortened to MUA, is an artist whose medium is the human body, applying makeup and prosthetics on others for theatre, television, film, fashion, magazines and other similar productions including all aspects of the modeling industry. Awards given for this profession in the entertainment industry include the Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling, and entertainment industry awards such as the Emmy Awards, and the Golden Globes. In some countries professional licenses are required by agencies in order for them to hire the MUA. Bigger production companies have in-house makeup artists on their payroll although most MUA's generally are freelance and their times remain flexible depending on the project. Makeup techniques Fashion Fashion makeup is used in magazine photography as well as on the fashion runway. Avant-garde makeup is also an applicable technique used for projects that require experimental themes. Fashion mak ...
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Christopher Strong
''Christopher Strong'' (also known as ''The Great Desire'' and ''The White Moth'') is a 1933 American pre-Code romantic drama film produced by RKO and directed by Dorothy Arzner. It is a tale of illicit love among the English aristocracy and stars Colin Clive and Katharine Hepburn (in her second screen role). The screenplay by Zoë Akins is an adaptation of the 1932 British novel ''Christopher Strong'' by Gilbert Frankau. Plot In London, Monica Strong (Helen Chandler) and her married lover, Harry Rawlinson, attend a scavenger hunt party given by Monica's aunt, Carrie Valentine. Carrie announces a tie-breaking challenge: Women must find a man married more than 5 years and faithful, and men must find a woman over 20 who has never had a love affair. Monica departs to find her father, Sir Christopher Strong (Colin Clive), who is devoted to her mother. Harry follows on a motorbike and crashes. Lady Cynthia Darrington (Katharine Hepburn), a famous aviator, helps him, and goes alon ...
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American Make-up Artists
American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, people who self-identify their ancestry as "American" ** American English, the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States ** Native Americans in the United States, indigenous peoples of the United States * American, something of, from, or related to the Americas, also known as "America" ** Indigenous peoples of the Americas * American (word), for analysis and history of the meanings in various contexts Organizations * American Airlines, U.S.-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas * American Athletic Conference, an American college athletic conference * American Recordings (record label), a record label previously known as Def American * American University, in Washington, D.C. Sports teams Soccer * Ba ...
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Roberta (1935 Film)
''Roberta'' is a 1935 American musical film by RKO starring Irene Dunne, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and Randolph Scott. It was an adaptation of the 1933 Broadway musical ''Roberta'', which in turn was based on the novel ''Gowns by Roberta'' by Alice Duer Miller. It was a solid hit, showing a net profit of more than three-quarters of a million dollars. The film kept the famous songs " Yesterdays", "Let's Begin" (with altered lyrics), and "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" from the play, along with a fourth song, "I'll Be Hard to Handle". Three songs from the play were dropped—"The Touch of Your Hand", "Something Had to Happen" and "You're Devastating". Two songs were added to this film, "I Won't Dance" (resurrected from the flop Kern show '' Three Sisters'') and "Lovely to Look At", which both became #1 hits in 1935. The latter addition was nominated for the Best Song Oscar. The songs "I Won't Dance" and "Lovely to Look At" have remained so popular that they are now almost always in ...
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The Gay Divorcee
''The Gay Divorcee'' is a 1934 American musical film directed by Mark Sandrich and starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. It also features Alice Brady, Edward Everett Horton, Eric Blore, and Erik Rhodes (actor, born 1906), Erik Rhodes. The screenplay was written by George Marion Jr., Dorothy Yost, and Edward Kaufman. Robert Benchley, H. W. Hanemann, and Stanley Rauh made uncredited contributions to the dialogue. It was based on the Broadway theatre, Broadway musical play, musical ''Gay Divorce'', written by Dwight Taylor (writer), Dwight Taylor, which had been adapted into a musical by Kenneth S. Webb and Samuel Hoffenstein from an unproduced play by J. Hartley Manners. The stage version included many songs by Cole Porter which were left out of the film, except for "Night and Day (song), Night and Day". Though most of the songs were replaced, the screenplay kept the original plot of the stage version. Three members of the play's original cast repeated their stage roles: Astair ...
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Spitfire (1934 Film)
''Spitfire'' is a 1934 American Pre-Code drama film based on the play ''Trigger'' by Lula Vollmer. It was directed by John Cromwell and starred Katharine Hepburn, Robert Young and Ralph Bellamy.''Harrison's Reports'' film review; March 10, 1934, page 39. Premise Two engineers building a dam in the mountains, John Stafford (Robert Young) and George Fleetwood (Ralph Bellamy), are attracted to local hillbilly "spitfire" Trigger Hicks (Katharine Hepburn) who is the local faith healer. Things come to a head when the locals think that she is a witch. Cast *Katharine Hepburn as Trigger Hicks * Robert Young as John Stafford *Ralph Bellamy as George Fleetwood *Martha Sleeper as Eleanor Stafford *Louis Mason as Bill Grayson *Sara Haden (as Sarah Haden) as Etta Dawson *Virginia Howell as Granny Raines *Sidney Toler as Jim Sawyer *Will Geer Will Geer (born William Aughe Ghere; March 9, 1902 – April 22, 1978) was an American actor, musician, and social activist, who was active in labo ...
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The Son Of Kong
''The Son of Kong'' (also known and publicized simply as ''Son of Kong'') is a 1933 American Pre-Code adventure monster film produced by RKO Pictures. Directed by Ernest Schoedsack and featuring special effects by Willis O'Brien and Buzz Gibson, the film stars Robert Armstrong, Helen Mack and Frank Reicher. The film is the sequel to ''King Kong'', being released just nine months after and is the second entry of the King Kong franchise. Plot A month after the destruction in New York City by Kong, filmmaker Carl Denham has been implicated in so many lawsuits that he is almost bankrupt. Denham leaves the city aboard the Venture with Captain Englehorn, who knows he too will be similarly prosecuted if he stays, but their efforts to make money shipping cargo around Asia are not very successful. After arriving in the Dutch port of Dakang, Denham and Englehorn attend a show of performing monkeys, which ends with a song ("Runaway Blues"), sung by a young woman, Hilda Petersen, whom Den ...
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Flying Down To Rio
''Flying Down to Rio'' is a 1933 American pre-Code RKO musical film famous for being the first screen pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, although Dolores del Río and Gene Raymond received top billing and the leading roles. Among the featured players are Franklin Pangborn and Eric Blore. The songs in the film were written by Vincent Youmans (music), Gus Kahn and Edward Eliscu (lyrics), with musical direction and additional music by Max Steiner. During the initial year that a Best Original Song was given during 7th Academy Awards, the film obtained a nomination for MUSIC (Song) – "Carioca," Music by Vincent Youmans; Lyrics by Edward Eliscu and Gus Kahn ame in 3rd Ironically, the song lost to "The Continental" from ''The Gay Divorcee'', the subsequent film of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers (the duo now top-billed) after ''Flying Down to Rio''. The black-and-white film (later computer-colorized) with, according to Arlene Croce's ''The Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers Book ...
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Little Women (1933 Film)
''Little Women'' is a 1933 American pre-Code drama film directed by George Cukor and starring Katharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett, Frances Dee and Jean Parker. The screenplay, written by Sarah Y. Mason and Victor Heerman, is based on the 1868-69 two-volume novel of the same name by Louisa May Alcott. This is the third screen adaptation of the book. It follows two silent versions, the first released in 1917 with Minna Grey and the second in 1918 with Dorothy Bernard. After this 1933 sound version came the 1949 '' Little Women'', with June Allyson, Elizabeth Taylor and Peter Lawford, the 1994 film '' Little Women'' starring Winona Ryder and the 2019 film '' Little Women'' featuring Saoirse Ronan. Plot Set in Concord, Massachusetts during and after the American Civil War, the film is a series of vignettes focusing on the struggles and adventures of the four March sisters and their mother, affectionately known as Marmee, while they await the return of their father, a colonel and a ch ...
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Rafter Romance
''Rafter Romance'' is an American 1933 pre-Code romantic comedy film directed by William A. Seiter and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The film, which was based on the 1932 novel of the same name by John Wells, stars Ginger Rogers, Norman Foster and George Sidney, and features Robert Benchley, Laura Hope Crews and Guinn Williams. Plot Mary Carroll (Ginger Rogers) is a young woman from upstate who came to New York City to find a job and a career, but whose money has almost run out. Both she and Jack Bacon (Norman Foster), an aspiring artist who lives in the same Greenwich Village building, are behind on their rent and their landlord, Max Eckbaum (George Sidney), a good-natured soul who nevertheless has expenses to meet, comes up with a solution: Move Mary into Jack's loft and have them share the apartment on a shift basis. They would never see each other or know who the other is, since Jack is out all night and sleeps during the day, and Mary is taking a job selling refrigerators ...
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Professional Sweetheart
''Professional Sweetheart'' is a 1933 American pre-Code romantic comedy directed by William A. Seiter from a screenplay by Maurine Watkins. It stars Ginger Rogers in her first film for RKO Radio Pictures, with Norman Foster, ZaSu Pitts and Frank McHugh. The film is a satire of the radio industry. Plot Glory Eden is the "Purity Girl" of the ''Ippsie Wippsie Hour'' radio program. The show's sponsor, Sam Ipswich, discovered the orphan and made her a star in three months. He needs her public image to match her pure radio persona to promote Ippsie Wippsie, "the washcloth of queens." However, Glory longs to be a party girl who frequents nightclubs where she can drink, dance and meet men. She listens with envy as her black maid Vera describes the nightlife in Harlem. Ipswich is eager for her to sign a new contract, but she throws a tantrum and refuses because it explicitly prohibits all the things that she wants to do. Along with everything else that Glory has missed, she wants a swee ...
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King Kong (1933 Film)
''King Kong'' is a 1933 American pre-Code adventure fantasy horror monster film directed and produced by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack. The screenplay by James Ashmore Creelman and Ruth Rose was developed from an idea conceived by Cooper and Edgar Wallace. It stars Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong and Bruce Cabot, and tells the story of a giant ape dubbed Kong who attempts to possess a beautiful young woman. It features stop-motion animation by Willis O'Brien and a music score by Max Steiner. It is the first entry in the King Kong franchise. ''King Kong'' opened in New York City on March 2, 1933, to rave reviews, and has since been ranked by Rotten Tomatoes as the greatest horror film of all time and the fifty-sixth greatest film of all time. In 1991, it was deemed "culturally, historically and aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. A sequel, titled ''Son of Kong'', was fast-tracked and rel ...
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