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Strike Me Pink (film)
''Strike Me Pink'' is a 1936 American musical comedy film directed by Norman Taurog, starring Eddie Cantor and Ethel Merman, and produced by Samuel Goldwyn. Cantor plays a nebbishy employee of an amusement park, forced to assert himself against a gang of slot-machine racketeers. The climax involves a wild chase over a roller coaster and in a hot-air balloon, filmed at The Pike in Long Beach, California. The film's sets were designed by the art director Richard Day. The film was Eddie Cantor's sixth of six films for Goldwyn, all produced and released within seven years. The story derives from the novel ''Dreamland'' by the once-popular writer Clarence Budington Kelland, reworked as a 1933 stage musical comedy by Ray Henderson for Jimmy Durante. Cast * Eddie Cantor as Eddie Pink * Ethel Merman as Joyce Lennox * Sally Eilers as Claribel Higg * Harry Parke as Parkyakarkus (as Parkyakarkus) * William Frawley as Mr. Copple * Helen Lowell as Hattie 'Ma' Carson (as Helene Lowell) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norman Taurog
Norman Rae Taurog (February 23, 1899 – April 7, 1981) was an American film director and screenwriter. From 1920 to 1968, Taurog directed 180 films. At the age of 32, he received the Academy Award for Best Director for '' Skippy'' (1931). He is the second youngest person ever to win the award after Damien Chazelle, who won for ''La La Land'' in 2017. He was later nominated for Best Director for the film '' Boys Town'' (1938). He directed some of the best-known actors of the twentieth century, including his nephew Jackie Cooper, Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Deanna Durbin, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Deborah Kerr, Peter Lawford, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, and Elvis Presley. Taurog directed six Martin and Lewis films, and nine Elvis Presley films, more than any other director. For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Taurog has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1600 Vine Street. Early life Norman Taurog was born February 23, 1899, in Chicago, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporated in 1897, Long Beach lies in Southern California in the southern part of Los Angeles County. Long Beach is approximately south of downtown Los Angeles, and is part of the Gateway Cities region. The Port of Long Beach is the second busiest container port in the United States and is among the world's largest shipping ports. The city is over an oilfield with minor wells both directly beneath the city as well as offshore. The city is known for its waterfront attractions, including the permanently docked and the Aquarium of the Pacific. Long Beach also hosts the Grand Prix of Long Beach, an IndyCar race and the Long Beach Pride Festival and Parade. California State University, Long Beach, one of the largest universities in California b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Brophy
Edward Santree Brophy (February 27, 1895 – May 27, 1960) was an American character actor and comedian, as well as an assistant director and second unit director during the 1920s. Small of build, balding, and raucous-voiced, he frequently portrayed dumb cops and gangsters, both serious and comic. He is best remembered as the sidekick to The Falcon in the Tom Conway film series of the 1940s, and for voicing Timothy Q. Mouse in Walt Disney's ''Dumbo'' (1941). Early life Edward Santree Brophy was born on February 27, 1895 in New York City and attended the University of Virginia.Katz, Ephraim (1979). ''The Film Encyclopedia: The Most Comprehensive Encyclopedia of World Cinema in a Single Volume''. Perigee Books. . P.171. Career His screen debut was in ''Yes or No?'' (1920). In 1928, with only a few minor film roles to his credit, Brophy was working as a production manager for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer when he was on location with Buster Keaton for the feature film ''The Camerama ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dona Drake
Dona Drake (born Eunice Westmoreland; November 15, 1914 – June 20, 1989) was an American singer, dancer and film actress in the 1930s and 1940s. Drake was mixed race by ancestry. She often presented herself as Mexican and went by the names Una Novella and Rita Novella, typically being cast in "ethnic" white roles including Latin American and Middle Easterners. As Mexican "Rita Rio", she led a touring all-girl orchestra in the early 1940s, also known as "Dona Drake and her Girl Band", among other names for her musical and dance acts. Early life Drake was born Eunice Westmoreland in Miami, Florida in 1914, one of five children of Joseph Westmoreland and his wife, Novella (née Smith). U.S. Census reports on her family history identify her grandparents as one black couple and one couple that was black/white. Career Entering show business in the 1930s, she used the names Una Velon (or Una Villon), Rita Rio and Rita Shaw. Una Villon She began performing in 1932, working under ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jack La Rue
Jack La Rue (born Gaspare Biondolillo; May 3, 1902 – January 11, 1984) was an American film and stage actor. Early years The son of Sicilian immigrants Pasquale and Concetta Biondolillo, La Rue was born in New York City. His father sailed to the port of New York as an emigrant steerage passenger on the steamer ''Olympia'', which sailed from the port of Naples in November 1895. According to the 1910 U.S. Census, Pasquale Biondolillo was employed as a piano varnisher. Stage La Rue went from high school to his first acting job in Otis Skinner's road company production of ''Blood and Sand''. He performed in Broadway plays from around 1923 to 1931. According to La Rue, while appearing in Mae West's play ''Diamond Lil'', he was spotted by Howard Hawks, who offered him a part in the film '' Scarface'' (1932), starring Paul Muni. Film He moved to Hollywood, where he appeared in numerous films. However, ''Scarface'' was not one of them. La Rue stated in a newspaper article t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brian Donlevy
Waldo Brian Donlevy (February 9, 1901 – April 6, 1972) was an American actor, noted for playing dangerous tough guys from the 1930s to the 1960s. He usually appeared in supporting roles. Among his best-known films are ''Beau Geste'' (1939), ''The Great McGinty'' (1940) and ''Wake Island'' (1942). For his role as the sadistic Sergeant Markoff in ''Beau Geste'', he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He starred as U.S. special agent Steve Mitchell in the radio/TV series ''Dangerous Assignment''. His obituary in ''The Times'' newspaper in the United Kingdom said, "Any consideration of the American 'film noir' of the 1940s would be incomplete without him". Early life Donlevy was born in 1901 in Cleveland, Ohio, to Irish parents Rebecca (née Parks) and Thomas Donlevy, originally from Portadown, County Armagh. Sometime between 1910 and 1912, the family moved to Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin, where Donlevy's father was a supervisor at the Brickner Wool ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gordon Jones (actor)
Gordon Wynnivo Jones (April 5, 1912 – June 20, 1963) was an American character actor, a member of John Wayne's informal acting company best known for playing Lou Costello's TV nemesis "Mike the Cop" and appearing as The Green Hornet in the first of two movie serials based on that old-time radio program. Career Iowa-born Jones had been a student athlete and star football guard ("Bull" Jones) at University of California, Los Angeles, and had also played a few seasons of professional football. He started out playing small roles in Wesley Ruggles' and Ernest B. Schoedsack's ''The Monkey's Paw'' (1933), his first credited role in Sam Wood's ''Let 'Em Have It'' (1935), and Sidney Lanfield's '' Red Salute'' (1935). By 1937, he had moved on to a contract at RKO Radio Pictures. In 1940, Jones had the title role in ''The Green Hornet'' but did not reprise the role in the sequel. Jones held a reserve commission in the Army and was called into the service after filming his roles as " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Helen Lowell
Helen Lowell born Helen Lowell Robb (1866–1937) was an American stage and film actress. Life Lowell was born in New York on June 2, 1866, to William and Mary Robb. In 1884 she debuted in the title role of Iolanthe at the Academy of Music in New York. At the age of 21 her mother died. She was known for playing the role of ''Mrs. Errol'' in Little Lord Fauntleroy. In 1895 she played Charlotte Corday. She appeared in J.M.Barrie's Quality Street creating the role of Susan Throssell in the first New York production with Maude Adams, who starred as Phoebe Throssell (ibdb.com). In October 1903 she appeared in the stage version Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch in Louisville, Kentucky. She was able to tour to Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and across America for the next seven years playing Miss Hazy "in the Cabbage Patch". She had a successful career as a stage comedienne, appearing on Broadway in ''The Torch-Bearers'' (1922), before she went to Hollywood in 1934 where she appeared ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Frawley
William Clement Frawley (February 26, 1887 – March 3, 1966) was an American vaudevillian and actor best remembered for playing landlord Fred Mertz in the American television sitcom ''I Love Lucy'', "Bub" O'Casey in the television comedy series ''My Three Sons'', and the political advisor to the judge character in the film ''Miracle on 34th Street''. Frawley began his career in vaudeville in 1914 with his wife, Edna Louise Broedt. Their comedy act, "Frawley and Louise", continued until their divorce in 1927. He performed on Broadway multiple times. In 1916, he signed with Paramount Studios and appeared in more than 100 films over the next 35 years.Deezen, Eddie. Early life Frawley was born in Burlington, Iowa, the second son of four children of Michael A. Frawley (1857–1907) and Mary E. (Brady) Frawley (1859–1921). He attended Catholic schools and sang in the choir at St. Paul's Catholic Church. As he got older, he played small roles in local theater productions at the Bur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harry Parke
Harry Einstein (May 6, 1904 – November 24, 1958), known professionally as Harry Parke and other pseudonyms, most commonly Parkyakarkus, was an American comedian, writer, and character actor. A specialist in Greek dialect comedy, he became famous as the Greek chef Nick Parkyakarkus on the Eddie Cantor and Al Jolson radio programs, and later on a program of his own. He appeared in eleven films (as Parkyakarkas or a close variant) from 1936 to 1945. He was also the father of comedians and actors Albert Brooks and Bob Einstein (who performed as Super Dave Osborne). Personal life and early career Einstein was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Sarah (née Klayman), who came from a Jewish family in Russia; and Charles Einstein, a Jewish pawnbroker from Austria, who had an importing business."Radio Comic 'Parky' Dies Amid Laughter." ''Boston Daily Record'', November 25, 1958, p. 30. Einstein attended The English High School in Boston. Einstein first worked as a newspaper rep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sally Eilers
Dorothea Sally Eilers (December 11, 1908 – January 5, 1978) was an American actress. Early life Eilers was born in New York City to a Jewish-American mother, Paula (or Pauline) Schoenberger, and a German-American father, Hio Peter Eilers (an inventor). She had one sibling, a brother, Hio Peter Eilers Jr. When Eilers was young, she moved to Los Angeles with her parents, and in 1927 she graduated from Fairfax High School. Career She made her film debut in 1927 in ''The Red Mill'', directed by Roscoe Arbuckle. After several minor roles as an extra, in 1927–1928 she found work with Mack Sennett as one of his "flaming youth" comedians in several comedy short subjects, along with Carole Lombard, who had been a school friend. In 1928, she was voted as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars, a yearly list of young actresses selected by publicity people in the film business, with selection based on the actresses' having "shown the most promise during the past 12 months." Eilers was a po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jimmy Durante
James Francis Durante ( , ; February 10, 1893 – January 29, 1980) was an American comedian, actor, singer, vaudevillian, and pianist. His distinctive gravelly speech, Lower East Side accent, comic language-butchery, jazz-influenced songs, and prominent nose helped make him one of America's most familiar and popular personalities of the 1920s through the 1970s. He often referred to his nose as ''the schnozzola'' ( Italianization of the American Yiddish slang word ''schnoz'', meaning "big nose"), and the word became his nickname. Early life Childhood Durante was born on the Lower East Side of New York City. He was the youngest of four children born to Rosa (Lentino) and Bartolomeo Durante, both immigrants from Salerno, Campania, Italy. Bartolomeo was a barber. Young Jimmy served as an altar boy at St. Malachy Roman Catholic Church, known as the Actor's Chapel. Early career Durante dropped out of school in seventh grade to become a full-time ragtime pianist. He first pl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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