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The Great Magoo
''The Great Magoo'' was an unsuccessful 1932 Broadway play written by Ben Hecht and Gene Fowler. A womanizing songwriter, Nicky, has fallen hard for Julie, a dancer and ambitious entertainer. Both lovers are Olympic-caliber boozers who swan dive into the gutter at the least hint of a romantic reversal. The Coney Island dancehall girl becomes, briefly, a celebrity as a singer on the radio with her boyfriend's song, "It's Only a Paper Moon". The song is frequently reprised by the voice of the leading lady. The song's music is by Harold Arlen and lyrics by Yip Harburg and Billy Rose. The play debuted at the Selwyn Theatre on Broadway on December 2, 1932, produced by Billy Rose and directed by George Abbott, starring Claire Carleton and Paul Kelly but was not well received by critics and closed after 11 performances. Brooks Atkinson of ''The New York Times'' praised the director and the performers but called it "rather stale and malodorous." The play was filmed as ''Shoot the Works'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Broadway Theatre
Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences), 130 of the 144 extant and extinct Broadway venues use (used) the spelling ''Theatre'' as the proper noun in their names (12 others used neither), with many performers and trade groups for live dramatic presentations also using the spelling ''theatre''. or Broadway, are the theatrical performances presented in the 41 professional theatres, each with 500 or more seats, located in the Theater District and the Lincoln Center along Broadway, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Broadway and London's West End together represent the highest commercial level of live theater in the English-speaking world. While the thoroughfare is eponymous with the district and its collection of 41 theaters, and it is also closely identified with Times Square, only three of the theaters are located on Broadway itself (namely the Broadwa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Claire Carleton
Claire Carleton (September 28, 1913 – December 11, 1979) was an American actress whose career spanned four decades from the 1930s through the 1960s. She appeared in over 100 films, the majority of them features, and on numerous television shows, including several recurring roles. In addition to her screen acting, she had a successful stage career. Early life Carleton was born in New York City. She began acting on the stage, eventually making it to Broadway, where she made her debut as Lucy in the short-lived play, ''Blue Monday'' in June, 1932. Career Although she made her film debut in a small role in a 1933 film short, ''Seasoned Greetings'', and continued to occasionally make shorts for the remainder of the decade, she concentrated on her stage career during the 1930s. She made her first appearance in a feature film in 1940's ''Millionaire Playboy'', starring Joe Penner, Linda Hayes, and Russ Brown. During her film career she was often cast as the "other woman", or i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dorothy Dell
Dorothy Dell (born Dorothy Dell Goff; January 30, 1915 – June 8, 1934) was an American film actress. She died in an auto accident at the age of 19. Early life and career Born Dorothy Dell Goff in Hattiesburg, Mississippi to entertainers, she moved with the family to New Orleans, Louisiana, at age 13. She was born into a socially prominent family, and her mother was a descendant of Jefferson Davis. Initially desiring to become a singer, she was discovered by composer Wesley Lord, and soon signed a radio contract. She began entering and winning beauty pageants and at the age of 17 won the title of "Miss New Orleans" in 1930. That same year she attended the International Pageant of Pulchritude in Galveston, Texas, and won the title of ''Miss Universe'' (not to be confused with the later Miss Universe founded in 1952). With this success, she established a successful vaudeville act. Although she had received better offers, she decided to enter the vaudeville circuit, because sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ben Bernie
Benjamin Anzelwitz, known professionally as Ben Bernie (May 30, 1891 – October 23, 1943),DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). ''Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 32. was an American jazz violinist, bandleader, and radio personality, often introduced as "The Old Maestro". He was noted for his showmanship and memorable bits of snappy dialogue, being part of the first generation of "stars" of American popular music, alongside other artists such as Paul Whiteman (a fellow violinist and bandleader), Ted Lewis and Al Jolson. Career Early years Bernie was born Bernard Anzelevitz (another source says Benjamin Anzelevitz) in Bayonne, New Jersey. He attended Columbia University and the New York College of Music. By the age of 15 he was teaching violin, but this experience apparently diminished his interest in the violin for a time. Bernie performed in vaudeville, appearing with Charles Klass as The Fiddle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jack Oakie
Jack Oakie (born Lewis Delaney Offield; November 12, 1903 – January 23, 1978) was an American actor, starring mostly in films, but also working on Theatre, stage, radio and television. He portrayed Napaloni in Charlie Chaplin, Chaplin's ''The Great Dictator'' (1940), receiving a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Early life Jack Oakie was born in Sedalia, Missouri, Sedalia, Missouri, at 522 W. Seventh St. His father, James Madison Offield (1880–1939), was a grain dealer, and his mother, Evelyn Offield (''nee'' Jump) (1868–1939), was a psychology teacher. When he was 5, the Offield family moved to Muskogee, Oklahoma, the source of his "Oakie" nickname. His adopted first name, Jack, was the name of the first character he played on stage. Young Lewis/Jack grew up mostly in Oklahoma but also lived for periods of time with his grandmother in Kansas City, Missouri. While there he attended Woodland Elementary and made spending money as a paperboy for '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wesley Ruggles
Wesley Ruggles (June 11, 1889 – January 8, 1972) was an American film director. Life and work He was born in Los Angeles, California, younger brother of actor Charlie Ruggles. He began his career in 1915 as an actor, appearing in a dozen or so silent films, on occasion with Charlie Chaplin. In 1917, he turned his attention to directing, making more than 50 films—including a silent version of Edith Wharton's novel ''The Age of Innocence'' (1924)—before he won acclaim with '' Cimarron'' in 1931. The adaptation of Edna Ferber's novel '' Cimarron'', about homesteaders settling in the prairies of Oklahoma, was the first Western to win an Oscar as Best Picture. Ruggles followed this success with the light comedy '' No Man of Her Own'' (1932) with Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, the comedy ''I'm No Angel'' (1933) with Mae West and Cary Grant, '' College Humor'' (1933) with Bing Crosby, and ''Bolero'' (1934) with George Raft and Carole Lombard. He teamed with t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shoot The Works (film)
''Shoot the Works'' is a 1934 American pre-Code comedy film directed by Wesley Ruggles and written by Claude Binyon, Gene Fowler, Howard J. Green and Ben Hecht. It is based on the Gene Fowler and Harold Hecht 1932 play ''The Great Magoo'' (and not, despite the title, the 1931 musical revue ''Shoot the Works''). The film stars Jack Oakie, Ben Bernie, Dorothy Dell, Alison Skipworth, Roscoe Karns, Arline Judge and William Frawley. The film was released on June 29, 1934, by Paramount Pictures, preceding by two days the beginning of the most rigorously enforced version of the Hollywood Production Code, which came into effect on July 1, 1934. Plot Cast *Jack Oakie as Nicky Nelson *Ben Bernie as Joe Davis *Dorothy Dell as Lily Raquel *Alison Skipworth as The Countess *Roscoe Karns as Sailor Burke *Arline Judge as Jackie Donovan *William Frawley as Larry Hale *Lew Cody as Axel Hanratty *Paul Cavanagh as Alvin Ritchie *Monte Vandergrift as Man from Board of Health *Jill Dennett as Wand ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid digital subscribers. It also is a producer of popular podcasts such as '' The Daily''. Founded in 1851 by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones, it was initially published by Raymond, Jones & Company. The ''Times'' has won 132 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any newspaper, and has long been regarded as a national " newspaper of record". For print it is ranked 18th in the world by circulation and 3rd in the U.S. The paper is owned by the New York Times Company, which is publicly traded. It has been governed by the Sulzberger family since 1896, through a dual-class share structure after its shares became publicly traded. A. G. Sulzberger, the paper's publisher and the company's chairman, is the fifth generation of the family to head the pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brooks Atkinson
Justin Brooks Atkinson (November 28, 1894 – January 14, 1984) was an American theatre critic. He worked for ''The New York Times'' from 1922 to 1960. In his obituary, the ''Times'' called him "the theater's most influential reviewer of his time." Atkinson became a ''Times'' theater critic in the 1920s and his reviews became very influential. He insisted on leaving the drama desk during World War II to report on the war; he received the Pulitzer Prize in 1947 for his work as the Moscow correspondent for the ''Times''. He returned to the theater beat in the late 1940s, until his retirement in 1960. Biography Atkinson was born in Melrose, Massachusetts to Jonathan H. Atkinson, a salesman statistician, and Garafelia Taylor. As a boy, he printed his own newspaper (using movable type), and planned a career in journalism. He attended Harvard University, where he began writing for the ''Boston Herald.''"Atkinson, (Justin) Brooks." The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives. Ed. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Kelly (actor)
Paul Michael Kelly (August 9, 1899 – November 6, 1956) was an American stage, film, and television actor. His career survived a manslaughter conviction, tied to an affair, that caused him to spend time in prison in the late 1920s. Early life Paul Michael Kelly was born in Brooklyn, New York, to a Roman Catholic family of Irish descent, the ninth of 10 children. His father owned a saloon, Kelly's Kafe, in the shadow of Vitagraph Studios, on E. 14th St. in Midwood, Brooklyn. After his father's death, he began his career as a child actor at age seven and was appearing on the stage. In 1911, at age 12, Kelly began making silent films with Vitagraph Studios, where he was billed as Master Paul Kelly. Kelly was possibly the first male child actor to be given any starring roles in American films, antedating better-remembered child stars such as Bobby Connelly and Jackie Coogan. Career Kelly alternated between stage and screen as an actor. He was a handsome and popular male lead or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Abbott
George Francis Abbott (June 25, 1887 – January 31, 1995) was an American theatre producer, director, playwright, screenwriter, film director and producer whose career spanned eight decades. Early years Abbott was born in Forestville, New York, to George Burwell Abbott (May 1858 Erie County, New York – February 4, 1942 Hamburg, New York) and Hannah May McLaury (1869 – June 20, 1940 Hamburg, New York). He later moved to the city of Salamanca, which twice elected his father mayor. In 1898, his family moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming, where he attended Kearney Military Academy. Within a few years, his family returned to New York, and he graduated from Hamburg High School in 1907. In 1911 he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Rochester, Sweeney, Louise"Director George Abbott"''Christian Science Monitor'', January 6, 1983 where he wrote his first play, ''Perfectly Harmless'', for the University Dramatic Club. Abbott then attended Harvard University, to take a ... [...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] |
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