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Robert Bray
Robert E. Bray (October 23, 1917 – March 7, 1983) was an American film and television actor known for playing the forest ranger Corey Stuart in the CBS series '' Lassie'', He also starred in ''Stagecoach West'' and as Mike Hammer in the movie version of Mickey Spillane's novel '' My Gun Is Quick'' (1957). Life and career Bray entered films in 1946 under contract to RKO. He was marketed as the "next Gary Cooper" but appeared in B Westerns like 1949's '' Rustlers''. In the 1950s, the then freelancing actor appeared in a varied number of roles including the 1952 episode "Thunder Over Inyo" of the syndicated western television series ''The Adventures of Kit Carson''. In 1954, he portrayed bandit Emmett Dalton in an episode of Jim Davis's syndicated western '' Stories of the Century''. That same year, he guest-starred in Reed Hadley's CBS crime drama, ''The Public Defender''. On December 4, 1955, he was cast as petroleum pioneer Pattillo Higgins in " Spindletop – The First ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lassie
Lassie is a fictional female Rough Collie dog and is featured in a short story by Eric Knight that was later expanded to a full-length novel called ''Lassie Come-Home''. Knight's portrayal of Lassie bears some features in common with another fictional female collie of the same name, featured in the British writer Elizabeth Gaskell's 1859 short story "The Half Brothers". In "The Half Brothers", Lassie is loved only by her young master and guides the adults back to where two boys are lost in a snowstorm. Published in 1940, Knight's novel was filmed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1943 as ''Lassie Come Home'', with a dog named Pal playing Lassie. Pal then appeared with the stage name "Lassie" in six other MGM feature films through 1951. Pal's owner and trainer, Rudd Weatherwax, then acquired the Lassie name and trademark from MGM and appeared with Pal (as "Lassie") at rodeos, fairs, and similar events across America in the early 1950s. In 1954, the long-running Emmy-winning television ser ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre Setting (narrative), set in the American frontier and commonly associated with Americana (culture), folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred to as the "Old West" or the "Wild West" and depicted in Western media as a hostile, sparsely populated frontier in a state of near-total lawlessness patrolled by outlaws, sheriffs, and numerous other Stock character, stock "gunslinger" characters. Western narratives often concern the gradual attempts to tame the crime-ridden American West using wider themes of justice, freedom, rugged individualism, Manifest Destiny, and the national history and identity of the United States. History The first films that belong to the Western genre are a series of short single reel silents made in 1894 by Edison Studios at their Edison's Black Maria, Black Maria studio in West Orange, New Jersey. These featured vet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harold Robbins
Harold Robbins (May 21, 1916 – October 14, 1997) was an American author of popular novels. One of the best-selling writers of all time, he wrote over 25 best-sellers, selling over 750 million copies in 32 languages. Early life Robbins was born Harold Rubin in New York City, the son of Frances "Fannie" Smith and Charles Rubin. His parents were well-educated Jewish emigrants from the Russian Empire, his father from Odessa and his mother from Neshwies (Nyasvizh), south of Minsk. Robbins later falsely claimed to be a Jewish orphan who had been raised in a Catholic boys' home. Instead he was raised by his father, a pharmacist, and his stepmother, Blanche, in Brooklyn. Robbins dropped out of high school in the late 1920s to work in a variety of jobs, including errand boy, bookies' runner, and inventory clerk in a grocers. He was employed by Universal Pictures from 1940 to 1957, starting off as a clerk and rising to an executive. Work His first book was ''Never Love a Stranger'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Never Love A Stranger
''Never Love A Stranger'' is a 1958 crime and gangster film that is based on Harold Robbins' 1948 debut novel with the same title. The film was shot in black and white starring John Drew Barrymore and Robert Bray, and featuring a young Steve McQueen. Plot Frankie Kane (Barrymore) is brought up in a Catholic orphanage. He befriends a Jewish law student named Martin Cabell (McQueen) and becomes romantically involved with Cabell's maid, Julie (Lita Milan). Kane learns later that he is also Jewish, and when told he will be removed from the orphanage and moved to a Jewish home he runs away and turns to a life of crime. Later, after joining a major crime syndicate, he reconnects with Julie, finally deciding to join Martin, now a district attorney, in shutting down the syndicate. Main cast * John Drew Barrymore as Frankie Kane * Lita Milan as Julie, maid to the Cabell Family * Steve McQueen as Martin Cabell * Robert Bray as "Silk" Fennelli * Salem Ludwig as Moishe Moscowitz * R. G. Armstr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
You Are There (series)
''You Are There'' is a 1947–1957 American historical educational television and radio series broadcast over the CBS Radio and CBS Television networks. Radio Created by Goodman Ace for CBS Radio, it blended history with modern technology, taking an entire network newsroom on a figurative time warp each week reporting the great events of the past. Reporters included John Charles Daly, Don Hollenbeck, and Richard C. Hottelet. The series was first heard on July 7, 1947, under the title ''CBS Is There''. Its final broadcast was on March 19, 1950, under the title ''You Are There''. According to author/historian Martin Grams, actor Canada Lee was a guest in episodes 32 and 60. Martin Gabel appeared in character in episode 82. The first 23 broadcasts went under the title ''CBS Is There'' and beginning with episode 24, the title changed to ''You Are There''. A total of 90 episodes were broadcast. Only 75 episodes are known to exist in recorded form. Television The radio program mad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spindletop
Spindletop is an oil field located in the southern portion of Beaumont, Texas, in the United States. The Spindletop dome was derived from the Louann Salt evaporite layer of the Jurassic geologic period. On January 10, 1901, a well at Spindletop struck oil ("came in"). The Spindletop gusher blew for 9 days at a rate estimated at of oil per day., Texas State Historical Association Gulf Oil and Texaco, now part of Chevron Corporation, were formed to develop production at Spindletop. The Spindletop discovery led the United States into the oil age. Prior to Spindletop, oil was primarily used for lighting and as a lubricant. Because of the quantity of oil discovered, burning petroleum as a fuel for mass consumption suddenly became economically feasible. The frenzy of oil exploration and the economic development it generated in the state became known as the Texas oil boom. The United States soon became the world's leading oil producer. __TOC__ History Pattillo Higgins sought a so ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pattillo Higgins
Pattillo Higgins (December 5, 1863 – June 5, 1955) was an American businessman and a self-taught geologist. He earned the nickname the "Prophet of Spindletop" for his endeavors in the Texas oil business, which accrued a fortune for many. He partnered to form the Gladys City Oil Gas and Manufacturing Company, and later established the Higgins Standard Oil Company. Early life Pattillo Higgins was born to Roberto James and Sarah (Raye) Higgins on December 5, 1863, in Sabine Pass, Texas. His family moved to Beaumont when he was six years old. He attended school until he reached the fourth grade, after which he apprenticed as a gunsmith under his father’s direction. In his youth, he was a violent troublemaker, pulling pranks and harassing African Americans.Tracé Etienne-Gray.Higgins, Pattillo" ''Handbook of Texas Online.'' Accessed October 9, 2006. When he was seventeen, he pulled a prank on a black Baptist church that got the attention of a sheriff's deputy. The deputy fired a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Public Defender (TV Series)
''The Public Defender'' is a 1931 American pre-Code crime film directed by J. Walter Ruben, starring Richard Dix and featuring Boris Karloff. Rich playboy Pike Winslow dons the mantle of 'The Reckoner', a mysterious avenger, when he learns that his lady friend Barbara Gerry's father has been framed in a bank embezzlement scandal. Using meticulous planning and split-second timing, Pike, along with his associates, the erudite 'Professor' and tough-guy scrapper 'Doc', attempt to find proof that will clear Gerry and identify the real culprits. Cast * Richard Dix as Pike Winslow * Shirley Grey as Barbara Gerry * Purnell Pratt as John Kirk * Ruth Weston as Rose Harmer * Edmund Breese as Frank Wells * Frank Sheridan as Charles Harmer * Alan Roscoe as Inspector Malcolm O'Neil * Boris Karloff as 'Professor' * Nella Walker as Aunt Matilda * Paul Hurst as 'Doc' * Carl Gerard as Cyrus Pringle * Robert Emmett O'Connor as Detective Brady * Phillips Smalley as Thomas Drake (as Phillip Smalley) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crime Drama
Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), drama or gangster film, but also include Comedy film, comedy, and, in turn, is divided into many sub-genres, such as Mystery film, mystery, suspense or Film noir, noir. Screenwriter and scholar Eric R. Williams identified crime film as one of eleven super-genres in his Screenwriters Taxonomy, claiming that all feature-length Narrative film, narrative films can be classified by these super-genres. The other ten super-genres are action, fantasy, horror, romance, science fiction, slice of life, sports, thriller, war and western. Williams identifies drama in a broader category called "film type", mystery and suspense as "macro-genres", and film noir as a "screenwriter's pathway" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reed Hadley
Reed Hadley (born Reed Herring, June 25, 1911 – December 11, 1974) was an American film, television and radio actor. Early life Hadley was born in Petrolia, Texas, to Bert Herring, an oil well driller, and his wife Minnie. Hadley had one sister, Bess Brenner. He was reared in Buffalo, New York, where he attended and graduated from Bennett High School. Career Before moving to Hollywood, he acted in ''Hamlet'' on stage in New York City, a last-minute substitute for the scheduled actor who failed to appear to portray Fortinbras. Radio In the 1950s, Hadley played Chad Remington on '' Frontier Town''. He also was one of the actors who portrayed cowboy hero ''Red Ryder'' on the ''Red Ryder'' series during the 1940s. On September 16, 1950, Hadley was on Tales of the Texas Rangers episode Candy Man. Television Hadley starred in two television series, ''Racket Squad'' (1950–1953) as Captain Braddock, and ''The Public Defender'' (1954–1955) as Bart Matthews, a fictional ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stories Of The Century
''Stories of the Century'' is a 39-episode Western historical fiction television series starring Jim Davis that ran in syndication through Republic Pictures between 1954 and 1955. Synopsis Jim Davis, who became famous decades later as the patriarch Jock Ewing in the ''Dallas'' television series, held a dual role as the show's narrator and Southwest Railroad detective Matt Clark. Mary Castle co-starred in twenty-six episodes as Clark's assistant, Frankie Adams; she was replaced by Kristine Miller, who appeared in thirteen episodes as Margaret "Jonesy" Jones. Clark and his female associates traveled the American West weekly, seeking to capture the most notorious badmen. They placed Clark at the right place and the right time to capture great moments in the history of the American Old West. Clark's appearances often seemed contrived, as when he appears just at the time young Robert Ford was assassinating Jesse James. Though Clark himself was fictional, the events he encou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jim Davis (actor)
Jim Davis (born Marlin Davis; August 26, 1909 – April 26, 1981) was an American actor, best known for his roles in television Westerns. In his later career, he became famous as Jock Ewing in the CBS primetime soap opera, ''Dallas'', a role he continued until he was too ill from a terminal illness to perform. Life and career Born in Edgerton in Platte County in northwestern Missouri, Davis attended high school in Dearborn, and the Baptist-affiliated William Jewell College in Liberty. At WJC, he played tight end on the football team and graduated with a degree in political science. He served in the United States Coast Guard during World War II. He was known as Jim Davis by the time of his first major screen role, which was opposite Bette Davis in the 1948 melodrama ''Winter Meeting'',. His subsequent film career consisted of mostly B movies, many of them Westerns, although he made an impression as a U.S. Senator in the Warren Beatty conspiracy thriller ''The Parallax Vie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
