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The Circus Clown
''The Circus Clown'' is a 1934 American Pre-Code comedy film about a man who wants to join the circus against the wishes of his ex-circus clown father. It stars Joe E. Brown and Patricia Ellis. Plot Young Happy Howard (Joe E. Brown) has been secretly practising the skills of a circus clown like his father was. His father, however, has put the circus behind him and discourages him from joining the circus. When the circus comes to town, Happy runs away with it, taking menial jobs while hoping for a chance to perform. Happy becomes infatuated with Alice (Patricia Ellis), a young aerialist, helping her take care of her nephew. Alice arranges for a place in her aerial act for her alcoholic brother Frank who is recovering from the loss of his wife. On the day of the aerial act's first performance, Happy catches the brother drinking As he tries to stop him from drinking, the sister comes into the room and Happy pretends it is his liquor and drinks it all. Happy is discovered drunk by t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ray Enright
Ray Enright (March 25, 1896 – April 3, 1965) was an American film director. He directed 73 films between 1927–53, many of them for Warner Bros. He oversaw comedy films like Joe E. Brown vehicles, five of the six informal pairings of Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell, and later directed a number of Western (genre), Westerns, many featuring Randolph Scott. Enright was born in Anderson, Indiana, and died in Hollywood, California, from a myocardial infarction, heart attack. Partial filmography As director *''Tracked by the Police'' (1927) *''Jaws of Steel'' (1927) *''The Girl from Chicago (1927 film), The Girl from Chicago'' (1927) *''Domestic Troubles'' (1928) *''Song of the West (film), Song of the West'' (1930) *''Golden Dawn (film), Golden Dawn'' (1930) *''Dancing Sweeties'' (1930) *''Scarlet Pages'' (1930) *''Play Girl (1932 film), Play Girl'' (1932) *''Blondie Johnson'' (1933) *''Tomorrow at Seven'' (1933) *''Havana Widows'' (1933) *''I've Got Your Number (film), I've ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gordon Westcott
Gordon Westcott (born Myrthus Hickman, November 6, 1903 – October 30, 1935) was an American film actor. Biography Born in St. George, Utah, in 1903, Westcott studied architecture at the University of Chicago, where he was also lightweight boxing champion of the university. Westcott was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Westcott acted on stage in New York, Utah, and California, before he made the move to film. He became a contract player with Warner Brothers and appeared in 37 films between 1928 and 1935, starring alongside such up and comers as Bette Davis, Loretta Young and James Cagney. After appearing in a string of Pre-Code productions, and working with such directors as William A. Wellman, Busby Berkeley and William Dieterle, his film career ended with his death on October 30, 1935 from a skull fracture sustained in a polo accident that occurred three days earlier. He was 31 years old and survived by his second wife and two children. Fa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comedy Films About Clowns
Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term originated in ancient Greece: in Athenian democracy, the public opinion of voters was influenced by political satire performed by comic poets in theaters. The theatrical genre of Greek comedy can be described as a dramatic performance pitting two groups, ages, genders, or societies against each other in an amusing ''agon'' or conflict. Northrop Frye depicted these two opposing sides as a "Society of Youth" and a "Society of the Old". A revised view characterizes the essential agon of comedy as a struggle between a relatively powerless youth and the societal conventions posing obstacles to his hopes. In this struggle, the youth then becomes constrained by his lack of social authority, and is left with little choice but to resort to ruses which eng ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Circus Films
A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclists as well as other object manipulation and stunt-oriented artists. The term ''circus'' also describes the performance which has followed various formats through its 250-year modern history. Although not the inventor of the medium, Philip Astley is credited as the father of the modern circus. In 1768, Astley, a skilled equestrian, began performing exhibitions of trick horse riding in an open field called Ha'Penny Hatch on the south side of the Thames River, England. In 1770, he hired acrobats, tightrope walkers, jugglers and a clown to fill in the pauses between the equestrian demonstrations and thus chanced on the format which was later named a "circus". Performances developed significantly over the next fifty years, with large-scale theat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Comedy Films
American comedy films are comedy films produced in the United States. The genre is one of the oldest in American cinema; some of the first silent movies were comedies, as slapstick comedy often relies on visual depictions, without requiring sound. With the advent of sound in the late 1920s and 1930s, comedic dialogue rose in prominence in the work of film comedians such as W. C. Fields and the Marx Brothers. By the 1950s, the television industry had become serious competition for the movie industry. The 1960s saw an increasing number of broad, star-packed comedies. In the 1970s, black comedies were popular. Leading figures in the 1970s were Woody Allen and Mel Brooks. One of the major developments of the 1990s was the re-emergence of the romantic comedy film. Another development was the increasing use of " gross-out humour". History 1895–1930 Comic films began to appear in significant numbers during the era of silent films, roughly 1895 to 1930. The visual humour of many of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Black-and-white Films
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 * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1934 Comedy Films
Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 Nepal–Bihar earthquake strikes Nepal and Bihar with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''), killing an estimated 6,000–10,700 people. * January 26 – A 10-year German–Polish declaration of non-aggression is signed by Nazi Germany and the Second Polish Republic. * January 30 ** In Nazi Germany, the political power of federal states such as Prussia is substantially abolished, by the "Law on the Reconstruction of the Reich" (''Gesetz über den Neuaufbau des Reiches''). ** Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States, signs the Gold Reserve Act: all gold held in the Federal Reserve is to be surrendered to the United States Department of the Treasury; immediately following, the President raises the statutory gold price from US$20.67 per ounce to $35. * February 6 – French ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1934 Films
The following is an overview of 1934 in film, including significant events, a list of films released and notable births and deaths. Top-grossing films (U.S.) The top ten 1934 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows: Events *January 26 – Samuel Goldwyn (formerly of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) purchases the film rights to ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' from the L. Frank Baum estate for $40,000. *February 19 – Bob Hope marries Dolores Reade. *April 19 – Fox Studios releases ''Stand Up and Cheer!'', with five-year-old Shirley Temple in a relatively minor role. Shirley steals the film and Fox, which had been near bankruptcy, finds itself owning a goldmine. *May 18 – Paramount releases '' Little Miss Marker'', with Shirley Temple, on loan from Fox, in the title role. *June 13 – An amendment to the Production Code establishes the Production Code Administration, and requires all films to obtain a certificate of approval before being released. *July 28 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ward Bond
Wardell Edwin Bond (April 9, 1903 – November 5, 1960) was an American film character actor who appeared in more than 200 films and starred in the NBC television series ''Wagon Train'' from 1957 to 1960. Among his best-remembered roles are Bert the cop in Frank Capra's ''It's a Wonderful Life'' (1946) and Captain Clayton in John Ford's ''The Searchers'' (1956). Early life Bond was born in Benkelman in Dundy County, Nebraska. The Bond family, John W., Mabel L., and sister Bernice, lived in Benkelman until 1919 when they moved to Denver, Colorado, where Ward graduated from East High School. Bond attended the Colorado School of Mines and then went to the University of Southern California and played football on the same team as future USC coach Jess Hill. At 6' 2" and 195 pounds, Bond was a starting lineman on USC's first national championship team in 1928. He graduated from USC in 1931 with a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering. Bond and John Wayne, who as Marion Rober ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Earle Hodgins
Earle Hodgins (October 6, 1893 – April 14, 1964) was an American actor. Career Early in his career, Hodgins was active in stock theater, including working in the Ralph Cloninger troupe of Salt Lake City, Utah, and the Siegel Stock company of Seattle, Washington. He appeared in more than 330 films and television shows between 1932 and 1963. He specialized in playing fast-talking con men—often in westerns, such as ''The Lone Ranger'', ''Judge Roy Bean'', ''The Cisco Kid'', ''The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok'', '' Rawhide'', ''Maverick'' (in the episode "Shady Deal at Sunny Acres" with James Garner and Jack Kelly), '' Lawman'', ''The Rifleman'', ''Cheyenne'', ''Have Gun – Will Travel'', ''Gunsmoke'' (Title role in “Uncle Oliver”, where he ambushes and shoots “Chester”), and ''Hopalong Cassidy''. In 1959 Hodgins appeared as Mr. Fane on '' Lawman'' in the episode "The Outsider." In the 1960–1961 season, he appeared in three episodes of Joanne Dru's ABC sitcom, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom Dugan (actor, Born 1889)
Tom Dugan (1 January 1889 – 7 March 1955) was an Irish-American film actor. He appeared in more than 260 films between 1927 and 1955. He was born in Dublin, Ireland and died in Redlands, California, after injuries sustained in a road accident. Life and career At an early age, Tom Dugan's family moved to Philadelphia where he was educated at the Philadelphia High School. After leaving school, he tried three trades (shoe cutting, neck tie cutting and paper hanging) in quick succession but he had a good tenor voice, so he decided on show business. He appeared in a travelling medicine show, then a minstrel troupe before going on stage. He was a headliner for the Keith Circuit in America for several years. He also played in musical comedies in New York City and in vaudeville theatres like Earl Carroll's Vanities. He eventually became a Broadway comedian. Dugan appeared in nearly 270 films between 1927 and 1955 and had also some television roles near the end of his life. He sup ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spencer Charters
Spencer Charters (March 25, 1875 – January 25, 1943) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 220 films between 1920 and 1943, mostly in small supporting roles. Biography Charters was born in Duncannon, Pennsylvania. Until around 1890 he worked as a machinist for the Chesapeake Nail Works in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and had little interest in acting. He soon appeared on stage after leaving school with a walk-on part, but it wasn't long before he was being given fair-sized roles. He played on Broadway between 1910 and 1929 and was a busy character actor in films during the 1930s and early 1940s. He often portrayed somewhat befuddled judges, doctors, clerks, managers, and jailers. Charters was married to actress Irene Myers until her death December 22, 1941. He died by suicide from a mix of sleeping pills and carbon monoxide poisoning. He is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California Glendale is a city in the San Fernando Valley and Verd ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
