|
The Front Page
''The Front Page'' is a Broadway comedy about newspaper reporters on the police beat. Written by former Chicago reporters Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, it was first produced in 1928 and has been adapted for the cinema several times. Plot The play's single set is the dingy press room of Chicago's Criminal Courts Building, overlooking the gallows behind the Cook County Jail. Reporters from most of the city's newspapers are passing the time with poker and pungent wisecracks about the news of the day. Soon they will witness the hanging of Earl Williams, a white man and supposed Communist revolutionary convicted of killing a black policeman. Hildy Johnson, cocky star reporter for the ''Examiner'', is late. He appears only to say goodbye; he is quitting to get a respectable job and be married. Suddenly the reporters hear that Earl Williams has escaped from the jail. All but Hildy stampede out for more information. As Hildy tries to decide how to react, Williams comes in through the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht (; February 28, 1894 – April 18, 1964) was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, journalist, and novelist. A successful journalist in his youth, he went on to write 35 books and some of the most enjoyed screenplays and plays in America. He received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some seventy films. After graduating from high school in 1910, Hecht ran away to Chicago, where, in his own words, he "haunted streets, whorehouses, police stations, courtrooms, theater stages, jails, saloons, slums, madhouses, fires, murders, riots, banquet halls, and bookshops." In the 1910s and 1920s, Hecht became a noted journalist, foreign correspondent, and literary figure. In the late 1920s, his co-authored, reporter-themed play, ''The Front Page'', became a Broadway hit. The ''Dictionary of Literary Biography – American Screenwriters'' calls him "one of the most successful screenwriters in the history of motion pictu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Allen Jenkins
Allen Curtis Jenkins (born Alfred McGonegal; April 9, 1900 – July 20, 1974) was an American character actor and singer who worked on stage, film, and television. Life and career Jenkins was born on Staten Island, New York, on April 9, 1900. In 1959, Jenkins played the role of elevator operator Harry in the comedy ''Pillow Talk''. He was a member of Hollywood's so-called "Irish Mafia", a group of Irish-American actors and friends which included Spencer Tracy, James Cagney, Pat O'Brien and Frank McHugh. Jenkins later voiced the character of Officer Charlie Dibble on the Hanna-Barbera TV cartoon, ''Top Cat'' (1961–62). He was a regular on the television sitcom ''Hey, Jeannie!'' (1956–57), starring Jeannie Carson and often portrayed Muggsy on the 1950s-1970s Columbia Broadcasting Company, CBS series ''The Red Skelton Show''. He was also a guest star on many other television programs, such as ''The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'', ''Mr. & Mrs. North'', ''I Love Lucy'', ''Playhous ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Bordwell
David Jay Bordwell (; born July 23, 1947) is an American film theorist and film historian. Since receiving his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1974, he has written more than fifteen volumes on the subject of cinema including ''Narration in the Fiction Film'' (1985), ''Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema'' (1988), ''Making Meaning'' (1989), and ''On the History of Film Style'' (1997). With his wife Kristin Thompson, Bordwell wrote the textbooks ''Film Art'' (1979) and ''Film History'' (1994). ''Film Art'', currently being published in its 12th edition, is still used as a seminal text in introductory film courses. With aesthetic philosopher Noël Carroll, Bordwell edited the anthology ''Post-Theory: Reconstructing Film Studies'' (1996), a polemic on the state of contemporary film theory. His largest work to date remains ''The Classical Hollywood Cinema: Film Style and Mode of Production to 1960'' (1985), written in collaboration with Thompson and Janet Staiger. Several of his mor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dore Schary
Isadore "Dore" Schary (August 31, 1905 – July 7, 1980) was an American playwright, director, and producer for the stage and a prolific screenwriter and producer of motion pictures. He directed just one feature film, '' Act One'', the film biography of his friend, playwright and theater director Moss Hart. He became head of production at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and replaced Louis B. Mayer as president of the studio in 1951. Early life Schary was born to a Jewish family in Newark, New Jersey. Schary's father ran a catering business called the Schary Manor. Dore attended Central High School for a year but dropped out to sell haberdashery and buy china. When he finally returned to school, he completed his three remaining years of classwork in one year, graduating in 1923. Schary worked as a journalist, did publicity for a lecture tour by Rear Adm. Richard E. Byrd, and was an assistant drama coach at the Young Men's Hebrew Association in Newark. The head coach was Moss Hart.Staff"Dor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Osgood Perkins
James Ridley Osgood Perkins (May 16, 1892 – September 21, 1937) was an American actor. Life and career Perkins was born in West Newton, Massachusetts, son of Henry Phelps Perkins Jr., and his wife, Helen Virginia (née Anthony). His maternal grandfather was wood engraver Andrew Varick Stout Anthony. He was a graduate of Harvard College. Perkins made his Broadway debut in 1924 in the George S. Kaufman – Marc Connelly play ''Beggar on Horseback''. In the next 12 years, he would appear in 24 Broadway productions, including ''The Front Page'' and ''Uncle Vanya''. Despite his success as a leading man in the theatre, Hollywood viewed him as a character actor. He appeared in 12 silent films, including ''Puritan Passions'', before moving to talkies such as '' Scarface'' and ''Gold Diggers of 1937''. "The best actor I ever worked with was Osgood Perkins," Louise Brooks told Kevin Brownlow. "You know what makes an actor great to work with? Timing. You don't have to feel anything. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Barbier (actor)
George W. Barbier (November 19, 1864 – July 19, 1945) was an American stage and film actor who appeared in 88 films. Early life and education Barbier was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He entered the Crozer Theological Seminary in Upland, Pennsylvania to study for the ministry but gave it up to go on the stage. Career Barbier began his career in light opera and spent several years in repertory and stock companies. He eventually played on Broadway, where he appeared in seven productions between 1922 and 1930, among them ''The Hunchback of Notre Dame'', The Front Page and ''The Man Who Came Back''. He signed a contract with Paramount Pictures in 1929 and later worked as a character actor for most of the major studios. His first film was ''The Big Pond'' (1930). The weighty, white-haired Barbier often played pompous, but mostly kind-hearted businessmen or patriarchs in supporting roles. George Barbier appeared in 88 films until his death in 1945. Personal life Barbier ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frances Fuller
Frances Fuller (March 16, 1907 in Charleston, South Carolina – December 18, 1980 Manhattan, New York City) was an American actress. She is the grandmother of the actress Rachel Miner and the niece of the Supreme Court Justice and Secretary of State James Francis Byrnes (former Governor of South Carolina). Fuller graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City in 1928, and was a director and president there from 1954 to 1965. Her film career began with ''One Sunday Afternoon'' (1933). Fuller's Broadway credits include ''The Lady of the Camellias'' (1963), ''Home Is the Hero'' (1954), ''Excursion'' (1937), ''Stage Door'' (1936), ''Her Master's Voice'' (1933), ''I Loved You Wednesday'' (1932), ''The Animal Kingdom'' (1932), ''Five Star Final'' (1930), ''Cafe'' (1930), and ''The Front Page'' (1928). On television, Fuller was a member of the cast of ''Flame In The Wind'', a soap opera on ABC in the mid-1960s. Fuller was married to producer Worthingt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Claude Cooper (actor)
Claude Hamilton Cooper (September 4, 1880 – July 20, 1932) was an English-American character actor on stage, motion pictures, and radio. Biography Cooper was born to a stage manager father and an actress mother in London, England, in 1880. It is said he first appeared upon the stage in the arms of his mother, Mary Stafford Cooper, at the age of eighteen months when the comic opera ''Castle Grim'' was performed in Dublin. His family moved to the United States when he was eight, and he soon appeared on the American stage in the melodrama ''Silver King'' in 1889. Cooper was active in American stock and repertoire theater with Russ Whytal, Frederick Freeman Proctor, and Charles Dillingham's companies. By the time of his death, he had played five hundred thirty eight character and comedic roles on Broadway. His first big success was in 1903 as the General in ''Checkers'', which ran for three seasons on Broadway and then toured widely. Cooper's motion picture career began around 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dorothy Stickney
Dorothy Stickney (June 21, 1896 – June 2, 1998) was an American film, stage and television actress, best known for appearing in the long running Broadway hit ''Life with Father''. Early years Stickney was born in Dickinson, North Dakota, but because of a medical condition, she was unable to go into bright places and spent most of her childhood indoors to protect her sensitive eyes. Her introduction to reading came from family members who read the classics to her. Because she had difficulty reading, she focused on skills like dancing and elocution. She was fond of going to the theater with her family, and this sparked her interest in being an actress. Because of several eye surgeries, by her teens, Stickney was able to continue her education and pursue a career in the theater. Stickney attended the North Western Dramatic School in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Career Stickney sang and danced as one of the four Southern Belles in vaudeville and began acting in summer stock compani ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lee Tracy
William Lee Tracy (April 14, 1898 – October 18, 1968) was an American stage, film, and television actor. He is known foremost for his portrayals between the late 1920s and 1940s of fast-talking, wisecracking news reporters, press agents, lawyers, and salesmen. From 1949 to 1954, he was also featured in the weekly radio and television versions of the series '' Martin Kane: Private Eye'', as well as starring as the newspaper columnist Lee Cochran in the 19581959 British-American crime drama '' New York Confidential''. Later, in 1964, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and a Golden Globe for his supporting role in the film '' The Best Man''. Early life and stage career Born in 1898 in Atlanta, Georgia, Tracy was the only child of Ray (née Griffith) and William L. Tracy, a railroader."Fourteenth Census of the United States: 1920", digital copy of original enumeration page, family of William L. Tracy in Sayre, Pennsylvania, 17 January 1920; Bureau of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eduardo Ciannelli
Eduardo Ciannelli (30 August 1888 – 8 October 1969), was an Italian baritone and character actor with a long career in American films, mostly playing gangsters and criminals. He was sometimes credited as Edward Ciannelli. Early life Ciannelli was born in Lacco Ameno, on the island of Ischia, where his father, a doctor, owned a health spa. He studied surgery at the University of Naples, and worked briefly as a doctor, but his love of grand opera and the dramatic stage won out and he became a successful baritone, singing at La Scala and touring Europe. He went to the United States from the Port of Naples as a first cabin saloon passenger on board the steamship ''San Guglielmo'', which arrived at the Port of New York on 19 March 1914. In New York, he appeared on Broadway in Oscar Hammerstein II's first musical '' Always You'' and later in ''Rose-Marie''. He appeared in Theatre Guild productions in the late 1920s, co-starring with the Lunts (Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne), and Ka ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Baldwin
Walter Smith Baldwin Jr. (January 2, 1889 − January 27, 1977) was an American character actor whose career spanned five decades and 150 film and television roles, and numerous stage performances. Baldwin was born in Lima, Ohio, into a theatrical family: his father Walter S. Baldwin Sr. and mother Pearl Melville (a sister of Rose Melville) were both actors. He joined his parents' stock company, and in 1915 married fellow actor Geraldine Blair. He was probably best known for playing the father of the disabled sailor in ''The Best Years of Our Lives''. He was the first actor to portray "Floyd the Barber" on ''The Andy Griffith Show''. Prior to his first film roles in 1939, Baldwin had appeared in more than a dozen Broadway plays. He played Whit in the first Broadway production of ''Of Mice and Men'', and also appeared in the original ''Grand Hotel'' in a small role, as well as serving as the production's stage manager. He originated the role of Bensinger, the prissy Chicago Tr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
_poster_1.jpg "Click for more on -> George Barbier (actor)")
