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Song Of Russia
''Song of Russia'' is a 1944 American war film made and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The picture was credited as being directed by Gregory Ratoff, though Ratoff collapsed near the end of the five-month production, and was replaced by László Benedek, who completed principal photography; the credited screenwriters were Paul Jarrico and Richard J. Collins. The film stars Robert Taylor, Susan Peters, and Robert Benchley. Plot American conductor John Meredith (Robert Taylor) and his manager, Hank Higgins (Robert Benchley), go to the Soviet Union shortly before the country is invaded by Germany. Meredith falls in love with beautiful Soviet pianist Nadya Stepanova (Susan Peters) while they travel throughout the country on a 40-city tour. Their bliss is destroyed by the German invasion. Cast Production MGM Pictures rapidly greenlit a war film set in the Soviet Union in 1942 after the United States Office of War Information encouraged films positively portraying the Alli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gregory Ratoff
Gregory Ratoff (born Grigory Vasilyevich Ratner; russian: Григорий Васильевич Ратнер, tr. ; April 20, c. 1893 – December 14, 1960) was a Russian-born American film director, actor and producer. As an actor, he was best known for his role as producer "Max Fabian" in ''All About Eve'' (1950). Biography Ratoff was born in Samara, Russia, to Jewish parents. His mother was Sophie (née Markison) who claimed to have been born on September 1, 1878, but was married on June 14, 1894, when she would have been 15, to Benjamin Ratner (born 1864), with whom she had four children, the eldest of whom was Grigory, whose date of birth she gave as April 7, 1895 but later April 20 was cited as Gregory Ratoff's birthdate, and the year given as 1893, 1896 and 1897, variously. Sophie Ratner later adopted her son's stage surname (Ratoff) when she herself became a naturalized United States citizen. Sophie Ratoff died on August 27, 1955. Her date of birth is given as September ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after Frederick Barbarossa ("red beard"), a 12th-century Holy Roman emperor and German king, put into action Nazi Germany's ideological goal of conquering the western Soviet Union to repopulate it with Germans. The German aimed to use some of the conquered people as forced labour for the Axis war effort while acquiring the oil reserves of the Caucasus as well as the agricultural resources of various Soviet territories. Their ultimate goal was to create more (living space) for Germany, and the eventual extermination of the indigenous Slavic peoples by mass deportation to Siberia, Germanisation, enslavement, and genocide. In the two years leading up to the invasion, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed political and economic pacts for st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Government Of The Soviet Union
The Government of the Soviet Union ( rus, Прави́тельство СССР, p=prɐˈvʲitʲɪlʲstvə ɛs ɛs ɛs ˈɛr, r=Pravítelstvo SSSR, lang=no), formally the All-Union Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, commonly abbreviated to Soviet Government, was the executive and administrative organ of state in the former Soviet Union. It had four different names throughout its existence; Council of People's Commissars (1923–1946), Council of Ministers (1946–1991), Cabinet of Ministers (January – August 1991) and Committee on the Operational Management of the National Economy (August–December 1991). It also was known as Workers-Peasants Government of the Soviet Union. The government was led by a chairman, most commonly referred to as " premier" by outside observers. The chairman was nominated by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and elected by delegates at the first plenary session of a newly elected Supreme Sovi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Allies Of World War II
The Allies, formally referred to as the United Nations from 1942, were an international military coalition formed during the Second World War (1939–1945) to oppose the Axis powers, led by Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Fascist Italy. Its principal members by 1941 were the United Kingdom, United States, Soviet Union, and China. Membership in the Allies varied during the course of the war. When the conflict broke out on 1 September 1939, the Allied coalition consisted of the United Kingdom, France, and Poland, as well as their respective dependencies, such as British India. They were soon joined by the independent dominions of the British Commonwealth: Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Consequently, the initial alliance resembled that of the First World War. As Axis forces began invading northern Europe and the Balkans, the Allies added the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Greece, and Yugoslavia. The Soviet Union, which initially had a nonaggression pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Office Of War Information
The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a United States government agency created during World War II. The OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and other forms of media, the OWI was the connection between the battlefront and civilian communities. The office also established several overseas branches, which launched a large-scale information and propaganda campaign abroad. From 1942 to 1945, the OWI revised or discarded any film scripts reviewed by them that portrayed the United States in a negative light, including anti-war material. History Origins President Franklin D. Roosevelt promulgated the OWI on June 13, 1942, by Executive Order 9182. The Executive Order consolidated the functions of the Office of Facts and Figures (OFF, OWI's direct predecessor), the Office of Government Reports, and the Division of Information of the Office for Emergency Management. The Foreign Information Servi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tamara Shayne
Tamara Shayne (25 November 1902 – 23 October 1983), also known as Tamara Nikoulina, was a Russian-born actress and long-time resident in the United States. Early life Tamara Shayne was born Tamara Veniaminovna Olkenitskaya on 25 November 1902 in Perm, Russia, to the family of a Jewish actor Veniamin Olkenitsky-Nikulin (aka Benjamin Nikulin). Her older brother Konstantin was also an actor.Doug McClelland ''Blackface to blacklist: Al Jolson, Larry Parks, and The Jolson story'', Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1998, pg. 154 Career Shayne appeared in European films before migrating to the United States in 1927 with her future husband, the actor Akim Tamiroff;"Tamara Shayne, 80, Actress; Was Jolson's Mother in Films" '' |
John Wengraf
John Wengraf (23 April 1897 – 4 May 1974) was an Austrian actor. Early years Wengraf was born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary. Career Wengraf became a matinee idol in the 1930s, and was director of the Vienna State Theatre. He emigrated to Britain in 1939 as the Nazis began their rise to power in Austria. While in London, he was involved with more than 100 plays as either director or actor. Wengraf appeared unbilled in a couple of films, as well as in some of the first BBC live-television shows ever presented. In 1941 he appeared on Broadway with Helen Hayes in ''Candle in the Wind'' and decided to stay in the US. His other Broadway credits included ''The Traitor'' (1949) and ''The French Touch'' (1945). The following year he settled in the Los Angeles area. He found himself invariably playing the very characters he detested. Some of his more nefarious nasties surfaced in such films as the Humphrey Bogart classic ''Sahara'' (1943), as well as ''The Boy from Stalingrad'' (1943), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Konstantin Shayne
Konstantin Shayne (born Konstantin Veniaminovich Olkenitski; russian: Константин Вениаминович Олькеницкий, November 29, 1888 – November 15, 1974) was a Russian-American actor. Biography Shayne was born in Kharkov, Russian Empire (now Kharkiv, Ukraine) to the family of Veniamin Olkenitsky-Nikulin, a Jewish actor. His siblings were actress Tamara Shayne and writers Lev and Yuriy Nikulin. World War I intervened before he could join the Moscow Arts Theatre, and during the conflict he fought with General Wrangel and the White Armies. Shayne was married two times and he also had children. Shayne emigrated to the United States in 1928, travelling as a second-class passenger on board the S/S ''Berengaria'', which arrived at the Port of New York on September 14, 1928. He was listed as Konstantin Schein, an artist residing in Berlin, Germany. As an actor, Shayne performed in movies such as '' None but the Lonely Heart'' (1944) and '' The Stranger'' ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vladimir Sokoloff
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Sokoloff (russian: Влади́мир Алекса́ндрович Соколо́в; December 26, 1889 – February 15, 1962) was a Russian-American character actor of stage and screen. After studying theatre in Moscow, he began his professional film career in Germany and France during the Silent era, before emigrating to the United States in the 1930s. He appeared in over 100 films and television series, often playing supporting characters of various nationalities and ethnicities. Early life and education Sokoloff was born in Moscow, Russian Empire, to a German Jewish family. He was raised bilingual, speaking both Russian and German. He studied theatre in Moscow, first at the Moscow State University and later at the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts, graduating in 1913. At one point a pupil of Constantin Stanislavski, he would later reject Method acting (as well as all other acting theories). Career Upon graduation, he joined the Moscow Art Theatre as a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joan Lorring
Joan Lorring (born Madeline Ellis; April 17, 1926 – May 30, 2014) was an American actress and singer known for her work in film and theatre. For her role as Bessy Watty in ''The Corn Is Green'' (1945), Lorring was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Lorring also originated the role of Marie Buckholder in '' Come Back, Little Sheba'' on Broadway in 1950, for which she won a Donaldson Award (an early version of the Tony Award). Personal life Lorring was born in Hong Kong. Her family fled Hong Kong in 1937 following the Japanese invasion in 1937 at the start of World War II, traveling by boat to Honolulu, and then landing in San Francisco. Soon after, they moved to Los Angeles and Madeleine (known by her nickname "Dellie") began working as a child actress in radio and film – she was credited as "Dellie Ellis" when she played the title role in the radio program ''A Date With Judy'' (1942). She eventually adopted ''Joan Lorring'' as her stage name. S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacqueline White
Jacqueline Jane White (born November 23, 1922) is an American former actress, who had a brief career in Hollywood motion pictures during the 1940s and early-1950s working as a contract player at both studios MGM and RKO, and perhaps best remembered for her roles in films ''Crossfire'' (1947) and ''The Narrow Margin'' (1952). She is one of the last surviving actresses from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Early years White was born on November 23, 1922, to Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Garrison White. Her cousin, Frank Knox, was a Secretary of the Navy. She was from Beverly Hills, California. She attended Beverly Hills High School and the University of California, Los Angeles. White and actress Lynn Merrick were childhood friends until White moved. They were reunited when both were in the cast of ''Three Hearts for Julia'' (1943). Career White's film debut resulted from her work in a drama class at UCLA. A casting director saw her in a production of ''Ah, Wilderness!'' and arranged for a s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Darryl Hickman
Darryl Gerard Hickman (born July 28, 1931) is an American former actor, screenwriter, television executive, and acting coach. He started his career as a child actor in the Golden Age of Hollywood and appeared in numerous TV serials as an adult. He appeared in films such as ''The Grapes of Wrath'' (1940) and ''Leave Her to Heaven'' (1945). He is the older brother of Dwayne Hickman, an actor, television executive, producer and director, and Deidre Hickman. Child actor in the 1930s and 1940s Hickman was born in Hollywood, California, to Milton and Katherine Hickman (née Ostertag). His father sold insurance and his mother was a housewife. His maternal grandfather, Louis Henry Ostertag, was a US Navy seaman on Commodore George Dewey's flagship, the cruiser USS ''Olympia'' (C-6), and present at the Battle of Manila Bay on May 1, 1898, for which he was awarded the Dewey Medal by Act of Congress. Per the 1940 Census, Darryl and his family were living with his grandparents at 950 Ken ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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