The Helen Morgan Story
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The Helen Morgan Story
''The Helen Morgan Story'', released in the UK as ''Both Ends of the Candle'', is a 1957 American biographical film directed by Michael Curtiz starring Ann Blyth and Paul Newman. The screenplay by Oscar Saul, Dean Riesner, Stephen Longstreet, and Nelson Gidding is based on the life and career of torch singer/actress Helen Morgan, with fictional touches liberally added for dramatic purposes. This turned out to be Blyth's final film role. Another version of Morgan's life story, '' Helen Morgan'', was produced as a live television drama on '' Playhouse 90'', with Polly Bergen as Morgan. Despite requests to delay the television version, it aired five months before the release of the motion picture. Plot Helen Morgan begins her career as a Chicago carnival dancer. She catches the eye of fast-talking, double-dealing Larry Maddux, whose promotion catapults her to fame as a Broadway performer in ''Show Boat'' and a headliner in her own nightclub. Helen is involved in two romantic re ...
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Michael Curtiz
Michael Curtiz ( ; born Manó Kaminer; since 1905 Mihály Kertész; hu, Kertész Mihály; December 24, 1886 April 10, 1962) was a Hungarian-American film director, recognized as one of the most prolific directors in history. He directed classic films from the silent era and numerous others during Hollywood's Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age, when the studio system was prevalent. Curtiz was already a well-known director in Europe when Warner Bros. invited him to Hollywood in 1926, when he was 39 years of age. He had already directed 64 films in Europe, and soon helped Warner Bros. become the fastest-growing movie studio. He directed 102 films during his Hollywood career, mostly at Warners, where he directed ten actors to Oscar nominations. James Cagney and Joan Crawford won their only Academy Awards under Curtiz's direction. He put Doris Day and John Garfield on screen for the first time, and he made stars of Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, and Bette Davis. He himself ...
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Playhouse 90
''Playhouse 90'' was an American television anthology series, anthology drama series that aired on CBS from 1956 to 1960 for a total of 133 episodes. The show was produced at CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California. Since live anthology drama series of the mid-1950s usually were hour-long shows, the title highlighted the network's intention to present something unusual: a weekly series of hour-and-a-half-long dramas rather than 60-minute plays. Background The producers of the show were Martin Manulis, John Houseman, Russell Stoneman, Fred Coe, Arthur Penn, and Hubbell Robinson. The leading director was John Frankenheimer (27 episodes), followed by Franklin J. Schaffner (19 episodes). Other directors included Sidney Lumet, George Roy Hill, Delbert Mann, and Robert Mulligan. With Alex North's opening theme music, the series debuted October 4, 1956 with Rod Serling's Forbidden Area (Playhouse 90), adaptation of Pat Frank's novel ''Forbidden Area (Playhouse 90), Forbidden Area ...
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Boxoffice (magazine)
''Boxoffice Pro'' is a film industry magazine dedicated to the movie theatre business published by BoxOffice Media LP. History It started in 1920 as ''The Reel Journal'', taking the name ''Boxoffice'' in 1931 and still publishes today, with an intended audience of theatre owners and film professionals. In 2019, its name was changed to ''Boxoffice Pro''. ''Boxoffice Pro'' is the official publication of the National Association of Theatre Owners, a role it took on in 2006. In 1937 the magazine began to publish box office reports; it ended its publication of movie reviews in 2012. The magazine was originally published every Saturday by Associated Publications. Box office performance was expressed as a percentage of normal performance with normal being expressed as 100%. A Barometer issue was published in January with a review of the year including the performance of movies for the year. ''Boxoffice'' was acquired by Webedia Webedia is a global company specializing in onli ...
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Iris Adrian
Iris Adrian Hostetter (May 29, 1912 – September 17, 1994) was an American stage, film actress and dancer. Life and career Adrian was an only child, born in Los Angeles, California, to Florence (née Van Every) and Adrian Earl Hostetter, who wed in 1909 in Los Angeles. She was raised by her single mother in Los Angeles. She was a graduate of Hollywood High School. Adrian won a beauty pageant, worked with the Ziegfeld Follies, and performed with Fred Waring before she entered films at the end of the silent era in ''Chasing Husbands'' (1928) and appeared as an extra or chorus girl in early sound films like ''Paramount on Parade'' (1930). During the 1930s she specialised in playing hard-boiled gals, glamorous gold-diggers, and gangsters' "molls". She played supporting roles in numerous features. She played "Gee-Gee Graham" in ''Lady of Burlesque''. In the Jerry Lewis comedy, ''The Errand Boy'', she played a glamorous movie star "Anastasia Anastasia", whose on-set birthday party ...
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Juanita Moore
Juanita Moore (October 19, 1914 – January 1, 2014) was an American film, television, and stage actress. She was the fifth black actor to be nominated for an Academy Award in any category, and the third in the Supporting Actress category at a time when only one black actor, Hattie McDaniel in ''Gone with the Wind'' (1939), had won an Oscar. Her most famous role was as Annie Johnson in the film '' Imitation of Life'' (1959). Early life and career Juanita Moore was born in Greenwood, Mississippi, the daughter of Ella (née Dunn) and Harrison Moore. She had seven siblings (six sisters and one brother). Her family moved in the Great Migration to Los Angeles, where she was raised. Moore first performed as a dancer, part of a chorus line at the Cotton Club The Cotton Club was a New York City nightclub from 1923 to 1940. It was located on 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue (1923–1936), then briefly in the midtown Theater District (1936–1940).Elizabeth Winter"Cotton Club of ...
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Virginia Vincent
Virginia Vincent (May 3, 1918 – October 3, 2013) was an American film, television and theatre actress. She was known for playing the role of "Jennie Blake" in the 1958 film ''The Return of Dracula''. Vincent died in October 2013, at the age of 95 in United States. Partial filmography *''California Passage'' (1950) - Mazie (uncredited) *''The Company She Keeps'' (1951) - Annabelle Bird (uncredited) *''Taxi (1953 film), Taxi'' (1953) - Hortense (uncredited) *''The Helen Morgan Story'' (1957) - Sue *''The Return of Dracula'' (1958) - Jennie Blake *''The Black Orchid (film), The Black Orchid'' (1958) - Alma Gallo *''I Want to Live!'' (1958) - Peg *''Perry Mason - The Case of the Green-Eyed Sister'' (1958) - Harriet Bain *''Never Steal Anything Small'' (1959) - Ginger *''The Real McCoys'' (1962) - Nancy Templeton *''Love with the Proper Stranger'' (1963) - Anna *''Navajo Run'' (1964) - Sarah Grog *''Tony Rome'' (1967) - Sally Bullock *''Sweet November (1968 film), Sweet Nov ...
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Cara Williams
Cara Williams (born Bernice Kamiat; June 29, 1925 – December 9, 2021) was an American film and television actress. She was best known for her role as Billy's Mother in ''The Defiant Ones'' (1958), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and for her role as Gladys Porter on the 1960–62 CBS television series ''Pete and Gladys'', for which she was nominated for the Emmy Award for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy. At the time of her death, Williams was one of the last surviving actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Personal life Williams was born Bernice Kamiat to a Romanian Jewish mother and an Austrian Jewish father.She began making impersonations of all the screen stars she watched in the movies there, and knew she wanted to be an actress. Her parents divorced, and her mother relocated her to Los Angeles, where she chose Cara Williams as her stage name and attended the Hollywood Professional School. Soon she began performing in radio, a ...
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Alan King
Alan King (born Irwin Alan Kniberg; December 26, 1927 – May 9, 2004) was an American actor and comedian known for his biting wit and often angry humorous rants. King became well known as a Jewish comedian and satirist. He was also a serious actor who appeared in a number of films and television shows. King wrote several books, produced films, and appeared in plays. In later years he helped many philanthropic causes. Early life King was born in New York City, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants Minnie (née Solomon) and Bernard Kniberg, a handbag cutter. He had one older sister, Anita Kniberg. He spent his first years on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Later, King's family moved to Brooklyn. King used humor to survive the tough neighborhoods. King performed impersonations on street corners for pennies. When he was fourteen, King performed "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" on the radio program ''Major Bowes Amateur Hour''. He lost first prize but was invited to join a nation ...
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Gene Evans
Eugene Barton Evans (July 11, 1922 – April 1, 1998) was an American actor who appeared in numerous television series, television films, and feature films between 1947 and 1989. Background Evans was born in Holbrook, Arizona and raised in Colton, California. Right after finishing high school, he began performing in summer stock at the Penthouse Theatre in Altadena, California. Evans served in the United States Army during World War II and achieved the rank of sergeant. He performed with a theatrical troupe of GIs in Europe. He made his film debut in the 1947 film '' Under Colorado Skies'' as Henchman Red, and appeared in dozens of films and television programs. He specialized in playing tough guys, such as soldiers and lawmen. Acting career Evans appeared in numerous films produced, directed, and written by Samuel Fuller. In his memoir, ''A Third Face'', Fuller described meeting Evans when casting his Korean War film ''The Steel Helmet'' (1950). Fuller threw an M1 Ga ...
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Florenz Ziegfeld
Florenz Edward Ziegfeld Jr. (; March 21, 1867 – July 22, 1932) was an American Broadway impresario, notable for his series of theatrical revues, the ''Ziegfeld Follies'' (1907–1931), inspired by the ''Folies Bergère'' of Paris. He also produced the musical ''Show Boat''. He was known as the "glorifier of the American girl". Ziegfeld is a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame. Early life Florenz Edward Ziegfeld Jr. was born on March 21, 1867, in Chicago, Illinois. His mother, Rosalie (''née'' de Hez), who was born in Belgium, was the grandniece of General Count Étienne Maurice Gérard. His father, Florenz Edward Ziegfeld, was a German immigrant whose father was the mayor of Jever in Friesland. Ziegfeld was baptized in his mother's Roman Catholic church. His father was Lutheran. As a child Ziegfeld witnessed the Chicago fire of 1871. Career His father ran the Chicago Musical College and later opened a nightclub, the ''Trocadero'', to profit from the 1893 World's ...
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Walter Winchell
Walter Winchell (April 7, 1897 – February 20, 1972) was a syndicated American newspaper gossip columnist and radio news commentator. Originally a vaudeville performer, Winchell began his newspaper career as a Broadway reporter, critic and columnist for New York Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloids. He rose to national celebrity in the 1930s with Hearst Communications, Hearst newspaper chain syndication and a popular radio program. He was known for an innovative style of gossipy staccato news briefs, jokes and Jazz Age slang. Biographer Neal Gabler claimed that his popularity and influence "turned journalism into a form of entertainment". He uncovered both Infotainment#Journalism, hard news and embarrassing stories about famous people by exploiting his exceptionally wide circle of contacts, first in the entertainment world and the Prohibition in the United States, Prohibition era underworld, then in law enforcement and politics. He was known for trading gossip, sometimes in re ...
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Bellevue Hospital Center
Bellevue Hospital (officially NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue and formerly known as Bellevue Hospital Center) is a hospital in New York City and the oldest public hospital in the United States. One of the largest hospitals in the United States by number of beds, it is located at 462 First Avenue in the Kips Bay neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Bellevue is also home to FDNY EMS Station 08, formerly NYC EMS Station 13. Historically, Bellevue was popularly associated with its treatment of mentally ill patients such that "Bellevue" became a local pejorative slang term for a psychiatric hospital. This is long past the case as the hospital since developed into a comprehensive major medical center over the years, including outpatient, specialty, and skilled nursing care, as well as emergency and inpatient services. The hospital contains a 25-story patient care facility and has an attending physician staff of 1,200 and an in-house staff of about 5,500. Bellevue is a safety n ...
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