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Odette Myrtil
Odette Myrtil (born Odette Laure Clotilde Quignarde; June 28, 1898 – November 18, 1978) was a French-born American actress, singer, and violinist. She began her career as a violinist on the vaudeville stage in Paris at 14. She expanded into acting and singing and had her first major success at 18 on the London stage in the 1916 musical revue ''The Bing Boys Are Here''. She was a staple in Broadway productions from 1924 to 1932, after which she returned only periodically to Broadway through 1960. She also appeared on the stages of Chicago, London, Los Angeles, and Paris several times during her career. From 1923 to 1972, Myrtil appeared as an actress in a total of 28 feature films, most of which were made from the mid-1930s through the mid-1950s. Not a leading lady on camera, she specialized in character roles and was often used for her gifts as a singer. She made only one television appearance during her career: in the Studio One in Hollywood 1953 episode "The Paris Feelin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Firefly (operetta)
''The Firefly'' was the first operetta written by composer Rudolf Friml, with a libretto by Otto Harbach. The story concerns a young Italian girl, who is a street singer in New York. She disguises herself and serves as a cabin boy on a ship to Bermuda, where she falls in love. Complications arise, and eventually, she becomes a grand opera diva. After tryouts at the Empire Theatre in Syracuse, New York beginning in October 1912, the operetta premiered on Broadway on December 2, 1912 at the Lyric Theatre, transferring after Christmas to the Casino Theatre. It was warmly received and ran for an encouraging 120 performances. The piece became one of the more frequently revived Friml works but was not given a complete recording until 2006. A 1937 MGM film version used most of the songs but had a new plot set in Spain during the time of Napoleon. It starred Jeanette MacDonald and Allan Jones. Roles Background and productions One of the most popular theatrical forms in the ea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harold Arlen
Harold Arlen (born Hyman Arluck; February 15, 1905 – April 23, 1986) was an American composer of popular music, who composed over 500 songs, a number of which have become known worldwide. In addition to composing the songs for the 1939 film '' The Wizard of Oz'' (lyrics by Yip Harburg), including " Over the Rainbow", Arlen is a highly regarded contributor to the Great American Songbook. "Over the Rainbow" was voted the 20th century's No. 1 song by the RIAA and the NEA. Life and career Arlen was born in Buffalo, New York, the child of a Jewish cantor. His twin brother died the next day. He learned to play the piano as a youth, and formed a band as a young man. He achieved some local success as a pianist and singer before moving to New York City in his early twenties, where he worked as an accompanist in vaudeville and changed his name to Harold Arlen. Between 1926 and about 1934, Arlen appeared occasionally as a band vocalist on records by The Buffalodians, Red Nichols, Joe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Uncertain Glory (1944 Film)
''Uncertain Glory'' is a 1944 war crime drama film, directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Errol Flynn and Paul Lukas. Walsh later called the movie a "quickie". François Truffaut admired the film. The title is a reference to a line from Shakespeare's play ''Two Gentlemen of Verona'' (Act 1, Scene 3): "O, how this spring of love resembleth/ The uncertain glory of an April day,/ Which now shows all the beauty of the sun,/ And by and by a cloud takes all away!" Plot In ''Vichy'' Paris of World War II, career criminal Jean Picard (Errol Flynn) awaits execution. French Sûreté Inspector Marcel Bonet (Paul Lukas) has followed Picard for 15 years, apprehending him this final time for murder. An air raid delivers a direct hit to the prison when Picard is at the guillotine. He flees to the apartment of his best friend, Henri Duval (Sheldon Leonard), unsubtly threatening exposure to the police in return for forged papers and 5,000 francs. While Duval is gone Picard seduces his willing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Palm Beach Story
''The Palm Beach Story'' is a 1942 screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, and starring Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor and Rudy Vallée. Victor Young contributed the musical score, including a fast-paced variation of the ''William Tell Overture'' for the opening scenes. Typical of a Sturges film, the pacing and dialogue of ''The Palm Beach Story'' are very fast. Plot Inventor Tom Jeffers and his wife Gerry are down on their luck financially. Married for five years, the couple are still waiting for Tom's ship to come in. Anxious for the finer things in a life she's no longer enjoying, Gerry decides that they both would be better off if they split. Before she can act she ends up entangled with the Wienie King, a strange old man being shown round her apartment with his wife by a building manager anxious to rent it out from beneath his delinquent tenants. Sympathetic to her plight - and utterly taken by her youth and charm - the man gives her $700 f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yankee Doodle Dandy
''Yankee Doodle Dandy'' is a 1942 American biographical musical film about George M. Cohan, known as "The Man Who Owned Broadway". It stars James Cagney, Joan Leslie, Walter Huston, and Richard Whorf, and features Irene Manning, George Tobias, Rosemary DeCamp, Jeanne Cagney, and Vera Lewis. Joan Leslie's singing voice was partially dubbed by Sally Sweetland. The film was written by Robert Buckner and Edmund Joseph, and directed by Michael Curtiz. According to the special edition DVD, significant and uncredited improvements were made to the script by the twin brothers Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein. The film was a major hit for Warner Brothers, and was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Picture, winning three. In 1993, ''Yankee Doodle Dandy'' was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", and in 1998, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
I Married An Angel (film)
''I Married an Angel'' is a 1942 American musical film based on the 1938 musical comedy of the I Married an Angel, same name by Rodgers and Hart. The film was directed by W. S. Van Dyke and starred Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, who were then a popular onscreen couple. Supporting cast members included Edward Everett Horton, Binnie Barnes, Reginald Owen, Douglass Dumbrille, Mona Maris, and Odette Myrtil. Cast * Jeanette MacDonald as Anna / Brigitta * Nelson Eddy as Count Palaffi * Edward Everett Horton as Peter * Binnie Barnes as Peggy * Reginald Owen as 'Whiskers' * Douglass Dumbrille as Baron Szigethy * Mona Maris as Marika * Janis Carter as Sufi * Inez Cooper as Iren * Leonid Kinskey as Zinski * Anne Jeffreys as Polly * Marion Rosamond as Dolly * Odette Myrtil as The Modiste (uncredited) Music It featured several additional songs not written by Rodgers and Hart. Romantic composer Eva Dell'Acqua's song "Villanelle" for coloratura soprano appeared on the soundtrack of the fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Out Of The Fog (1941 Film)
''Out of the Fog'' (working title: ''Danger Harbor'') is a 1941 American film noir crime drama directed by Anatole Litvak, starring John Garfield, Ida Lupino and Thomas Mitchell. The film was based on the play ''The Gentle People'' by Irwin Shaw. Plot Two aging men, Goodwin and Johnson (Mitchell and Qualen), are fishermen in their spare time. They are trying to buy a new boat, but their Brooklyn pier is controlled by Goff, a gangster (Garfield), who extorts "protection" money of $5 a week from them. Goodwin's daughter (Lupino) falls in love with Goff, who learns that Goodwin has tried to persuade her to holiday in Cuba. After he demands $190 from them, the sum Goodwin had promised his daughter, the fishermen plan to kill the gangster, but neither can go through with the act. The gangster attempts to strike one of them but falls into the sea and drowns. Goff turns out to have been a wanted man in five cities, and they recover the extorted money. Cast * John Garfield as Harold ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kitty Foyle (film)
''Kitty Foyle'', subtitled ''The Natural History of a Woman'', is a 1940 drama film starring Ginger Rogers, Dennis Morgan and James Craig, based on Christopher Morley's 1939 bestseller '' Kitty Foyle''. Rogers won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of the title character, and the dress she wore in the film became known as a Kitty Foyle dress. Plot Kitty Foyle (Ginger Rogers), a saleswoman in a New York boutique owned by Delphine Detaille (Odette Myrtil), faces a life-changing decision: marry her fiancé, a poor doctor named Mark Eisen ( James Craig), or run away to South America with a rich man she has loved for many years, the married Wyn Strafford (Dennis Morgan), who is about to leave his wife and young son. She is on the verge of choosing Wyn, but as she wrestles with her choice, the film flashes back to her youth in Philadelphia. As a teenager, Kitty gawks at the city's elite " Main Liners" in a parade that precedes their annual Assembly Ball. Her fat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television are named), it remains the most-read daily newspaper in the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region. It had the sixth-highest circulation for American newspapers in 2017. In the 1850s, under Joseph Medill, the ''Chicago Tribune'' became closely associated with the Illinois politician Abraham Lincoln, and the Republican Party's progressive wing. In the 20th century under Medill's grandson, Robert R. McCormick, it achieved a reputation as a crusading paper with a decidedly more American-conservative anti-New Deal outlook, and its writing reached other markets through family and corporate relationships at the ''New York Daily News'' and the ''Washington Times-Herald.'' The 1960s saw its corporate parent owner, Tribune Company, rea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dodsworth (film)
''Dodsworth'' is a 1936 American drama film directed by William Wyler, and starring Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton, Paul Lukas, Mary Astor and David Niven. Sidney Howard based the screenplay on his 1934 stage adaptation of the 1929 novel of the same name by Sinclair Lewis. Huston reprised his stage role. The center of the film is a study of a marriage in crisis. Recently retired auto magnate Samuel Dodsworth and his narcissistic wife Fran, while on a grand European tour, discover that they want very different things out of life, straining their marriage. The film was critically praised and nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Huston, and Best Director for Wyler (the first of his record twelve nominations in that category), and won for Best Art Direction. In 1990, ''Dodsworth'' was included in the annual selection of 25 motion pictures added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. being deemed "culturally, historically, o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Juanita Hall
Juanita Hall (née Long, November 6, 1901 – February 29, 1968) was an American musical theatre and film actress. She is remembered for her roles in the original stage and screen versions of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals '' South Pacific'' as Bloody Mary – a role that garnered her the Tony Award – and ''Flower Drum Song'' as Madame Liang. Early years Born in Keyport, New Jersey, to an African-American father and Irish-American mother, Hall (along with three siblings) was raised by her maternal grandparents after her mother's death. She attended Bordentown Industrial School and graduated from Keyport High School. She also received classical training at the Juilliard School. Career Soon after she finished high school, Hall worked in the Lincoln settlement house in East Orange, New Jersey, teaching music to children during the day and to an adult chorus at night. In the early 1930s, she was a special soloist and assistant director for the Hall Johnson Choir. A leadi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South Pacific (musical)
''South Pacific'' is a musical theatre, musical composed by Richard Rodgers, with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and Book (musical theatre), book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The work premiered in 1949 on Broadway theatre, Broadway and was an immediate hit, running for 1,925 performances. The plot is based on James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Pulitzer Prize–winning 1947 book ''Tales of the South Pacific'' and combines elements of several of those stories. Rodgers and Hammerstein believed they could write a musical based on Michener's work that would be financially successful and, at the same time, send a strong progressive message on racism. The plot centers on an American nurse stationed on a South Pacific island during World War II, who falls in love with a middle-aged expatriate French plantation owner but struggles to accept his mixed-race children. A secondary romance, between a U.S. Marine lieutenant and a young Tonkinese woman, explores his fears of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
