The Mad Miss Manton
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The Mad Miss Manton
''The Mad Miss Manton'' is a 1938 American screwball comedy-mystery film directed by Leigh Jason and starring Barbara Stanwyck as fun-loving socialite Melsa Manton and Henry Fonda as newspaper editor Peter Ames. Melsa and her debutante friends hunt for a murderer while eating bonbons, flirting with Ames, and otherwise behaving like irresponsible socialites. Ames is also after the murderer, as well as Melsa's hand in marriage. This was the first of three screen pairings for Stanwyck and Fonda, the others being ''The Lady Eve'' and '' You Belong to Me''. Plot At 3:00 am, Melsa Manton takes her little dogs for a walk. Near a subway construction site, she sees Ronnie Belden run out of a house and drive away. The house is for sale by Sheila Lane, the wife of George Lane, a wealthy banker. Inside, Melsa finds a diamond brooch and George's dead body. As she runs for help, her cloak falls off with the brooch inside it. When the police arrive, the body, cloak, and brooch are gone. Melsa a ...
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Leigh Jason
Leigh Jason (July 26, 1904 – February 19, 1979) was an American film director and screenwriter. He was born in New York, New York, and died in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles. He married Ruth Harriet Louise in 1927 at Temple B'nai B'rith, with William Wyler as his best man. Louise was the first woman photographer active in Hollywood, and ran Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's portrait studio from 1925 to 1930. They had a son, Leigh Jr., who died of leukemia when he was six years old, and Louise died in 1940, along with their second son, in complications from childbirth. Filmography * ''The Price of Fear (1928 film), The Price of Fear'' (1928) * ''Wolves of the City'' (1929) * ''Eyes of the Underworld (1929 film), Eyes of the Underworld'' (1929) * ''The Tip Off'' (1929) * ''The Body Punch'' (1929) * ''Humanettes'' (1930) * ''High Gear (1933 film), High Gear'' (1933) * ''A Preferred List'' (1933) * ''Bubbling Over (film), Bubbling Over'' (1934) * ''The Knife of the Party'' (1934) * ''Apple ...
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Vicki Lester
Vicki Lester (born Dorothy Gertrude Day; April 7, 1915 – May 7, 2001) was an American actress. She is best known for appearing in ''Sky Giant'' (1938), ''The Mad Miss Manton'' (1938) and ''The Lone Rider and the Bandit'' (1942). Biography Born Dorothy Day, Lester took her stage name from Janet Gaynor's character in '' A Star Is Born'' (1937). The name change was suggested by Mervyn LeRoy and approved by David Selznick. Alas, she never made the grade as a 'star' in her own right. Lester attended schools in Manhattan and originally planned to design clothes for a career. She was a student of music and art, and she gained notability as a pianist. She became a model for artists and photographers, leading to her being named one of the "Twelve Most Photographed Girls in America". She was "seen in hundreds of advertisements and on scores of magazine covers". Lester died in May 2001 in Beverly Hills, California Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, Calif ...
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Byron Foulger
Byron Kay Foulger (August 27, 1898 – April 4, 1970) was an American character actor who over a 50-year career performed in hundreds of stage, film, and television productions. Early years Born in Ogden, Utah, Byron was the second of four children of Annie Elizabeth (née Ingebertsen) of Norway and Arthur Kay Foulger, a native of Utah who worked as a carpenter for the region's railroad company."Thirteenth Census of the United States: 1910Population", image of original enumeration page for Ogden City, Weber County, Utah, April 26, 1910, Bureau of the Census, Department of Commerce, Washington, D.C.; "Fourteenth Census of the United States: 1920Population", Ogden City, Weber County, Utah, January 13, 1920. Retrieved via online FamilySearch archives, August 22, 2022."The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Census Records (Worldwide), 19141960", database, household of Arthur Kay Foulger, 1914; FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah, Retrieved August 22, 2022. Byron complete ...
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George Chandler
George Chandler (June 30, 1898 – June 10, 1985) was an American actor who starred in over 140 feature films, usually in smaller supporting roles, and he is perhaps best known for playing the character of Uncle Petrie Martin on the television series '' Lassie'', and as the unfortunate young man who drank '' The Fatal Glass of Beer''. Early years He was born in Waukegan, Illinois, on June 30, 1898. During his infancy, his family moved to Hinsdale, Illinois. Early in his career, he had a vaudeville act, billed as "George Chandler, the Musical Nut," which featured comedy and his violin. He made his debut in film in 1929. Career George Chandler had a plain, unassuming face, allowing him to play incidental and background roles in dozens of movies. His outstanding facial feature was a wide, toothy smile. Today's audiences may know him from the Mack Sennett comedy '' The Fatal Glass of Beer'' (1933) starring W. C. Fields. In this absurd satire of antique Yukon melodramas, ...
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Olin Howland
Olin Ross Howland (February 10, 1886 – September 20, 1959) was an American film and theatre actor. Life and career Howland was born in Denver, Colorado, to Joby A. Howland, one of the youngest enlisted participants in the Civil War, and Mary C. Bunting. His sister was stage actress Jobyna Howland. From 1909 to 1927, Howland appeared on Broadway in musicals, occasionally performing in silent films. The musicals include ''Leave It to Jane'' (1917), ''Two Little Girls in Blue'' (1921) and ''Wildflower'' (1923). He was in the film ''Janice Meredith'' (1924) with Marion Davies. With the advent of sound films, his theatre background proved an asset, and he concentrated mostly on films thereafter, appearing in nearly two hundred movies between 1918 and 1958. Howland often played eccentric and rural roles in Hollywood. His parts were often small and uncredited, and he never got a leading role. He was a personal favorite of David O. Selznick, who cast him in his movies '' Not ...
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John Qualen
John Qualen (born Johan Mandt Kvalen, December 8, 1899 – September 12, 1987) was an American character actor of Norwegian heritage who specialized in Scandinavian roles. Early years Qualen was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, the son of immigrants from Norway; his father was a Lutheran minister and changed the family's original surname, "Kvalen", to "Qualen" – though some sources give Oleson, later Oleson Kvalen as Qualen's earlier surnames. His father's ministering meant many moves and John was 20 when he graduated from Elgin (Illinois) High School in 1920. For four years, Qualen attended the University of Toronto, but he left there to join a Toronto-based traveling troupe as an actor. Career In a ''Milwaukee Journal'' interview he said he needed to start working and did so with the Chautauqua Circuit. He drove stakes for the tent used for presentations until a night in Ripon, Wisconsin, when the scheduled principal lecturer did not arrive. Qualen replaced the mi ...
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Grady Sutton
Grady Harwell Sutton (April 5, 1906 – September 17, 1995) was an American film and television character actor from the 1920s to the 1970s. He appeared in more than 180 films. Early years Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Sutton was raised in Florida where he attended St. Petersburg High School. Career Sutton began his career during the silent film era and made the transition to sound films with the college themed shorts ''The Boy Friends''. He moved on to countless character roles, where he frequently played dimwitted country boys. His best-known roles were as Frank Dowling, Katharine Hepburn's dancing partner, in '' Alice Adams'' (1935) and as a foil to W.C. Fields in four films, '' The Pharmacist'' (1933), ''Man on the Flying Trapeze'' (1935), ''You Can't Cheat an Honest Man'' (1939), and ''The Bank Dick'' (1940). Film historian William J. Mann characterizes Sutton as a typical "Hollywood Sissy," that is as a homosexual actor who ordinarily portrayed an effeminate ch ...
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Miles Mander
Miles Mander (born Lionel Henry Mander; 14 May 1888 – 8 February 1946), was an English character actor of the early Hollywood cinema, also a film director and producer, and a playwright and novelist. He was sometimes credited as Luther Miles. Early life Miles Mander was the second son of Theodore Mander, builder of Wightwick Manor, of the prominent Mander family, industrialists and public servants of Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England. He was the younger brother of Geoffrey Mander, the Liberal Member of Parliament. He was educated at Harrow School, Middlesex (The Grove House 1901- Easter 1903), Loretto School (in Canada) and McGill University in Montreal. He soon broke away from the predictable mould of business and philanthropy. He was an early aviator, a pioneer pilot, flying his Louis Blériot at Pau in 1909 and at the first all-British aviation meeting in July 1910. He won the cup for the first official flight at Brooklands in 1910, and acquired and built Hendon Ae ...
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Kay Sutton
Katherine Warburton "Kay" Sutton (June 14, 1915 – March 1, 1988) was an American actress. Personal life Sutton was married four times, Frederick Moulton Alger, Dan Topping (his fourth marriage), Clifton Stokes Weaver and Edward Cronjager. Partial filmography * ''Roberta (1935 film), Roberta'' (1935) - Fashion Model (uncredited) * ''Reckless (1935 film), Reckless'' (1935) - Woman with Paul in Audience (uncredited) * ''Old Man Rhythm'' (1935) - College Girl (uncredited) * ''Follow the Fleet'' (1936) - Telephone Operator (uncredited) * ''A Star Is Born (1937 film), A Star Is Born'' (1937) - (uncredited) * ''Night Spot'' (1938) - Allan's Wife (uncredited) * ''This Marriage Business'' (1938) - Bella Lawson * ''Vivacious Lady'' (1938) - Woman Exiting Train at Old Sharon (uncredited) * ''The Saint in New York (film), The Saint in New York'' (1938) - Fay Edwards * ''Having Wonderful Time'' (1938) - Camp Guest (uncredited) * ''I'm From the City'' (1938) - Marlene Martindale * ''Smash ...
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Leona Maricle
Leona Maricle (December 23, 1905 – March 25, 1988) was an American stage and film actress known for "distinctive characterizations of colorful ladies." Maricle was a graduate of the College of Industrial Arts. Her Broadway debut came in ''The Trial of Mary Dugan'' (1927). Her final appearance on Broadway was in ''Never Too Late'' (1962). In the mid-1930s, she and her husband were active in summer stock theatre in Skowhegan, Maine. Her husband Louis Jean Heydt was a character actor in films from the 1930s through the 1950s. They divorced. She did not remarry. On March 25, 1988, Maricle died of an apparent heart attack in her apartment in Manhattan. Her obituary in ''The New York Times'' gave her age as 81. She was survived by a cousin, Marijane Maricle of Manhattan, and a niece, Joan Hickman of Lake Charles, Louisiana. Selected filmography * ''O'Shaughnessy's Boy'' (1935) * ''Theodora Goes Wild'' (1936) * ''Women of Glamour'' (1937) * ''Woman Chases Man'' (1937) * ''The Lo ...
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Penny Singleton
Penny Singleton (born Mariana Dorothy McNulty, September 15, 1908 – November 12, 2003) was an American actress, singer, dancer and labor leader. During her 60-year career on stage, screen, radio and television, Singleton appeared as the comic-strip heroine Blondie (comic strip), Blondie Bumstead in a Blondie (1938 film), series of 28 motion pictures from 1938 until 1950 and the popular ''Blondie (radio), Blondie'' radio program from 1939 until 1950. Singleton also provided the voice of Jane Jetson in the animated series ''The Jetsons'' from 1962 to 1963. Behind the scenes, Singleton served two terms as president of the American Guild of Variety Artists, and testified before a Senate subcommittee in 1962 on the union's treatment of women variety workers. Early life Singleton was born in Philadelphia to Bernard J. "Benny" McNulty and Mary Dorothy McNulty. She began performing professionally as a child, and only completed sixth grade in her schooling. Career Singleton ...
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Paul Guilfoyle (actor, Born 1902)
Paul Guilfoyle (July 14, 1902 – June 27, 1961) was an American stage, film and television actor. Later in his career, he also directed films and television episodes. Guilfoyle was born in Jersey City, New Jersey. He started off working on stage, performing on Broadway in 16 plays according to the Internet Broadway Database, beginning with ''The Jolly Roger'' and ''Cyrano de Bergerac'' in 1923 and ending with ''Jayhawker'' in 1934. He appeared in many films that starred Lee Tracy in the 1930s. In the 1949 crime film ''White Heat'', he played (uncredited) a treacherous prison inmate murdered in cold blood by James Cagney's lead character. He died of a heart attack on June 27, 1961 in Hollywood. He had a son, Anthony. Guilfoyle was interred in Glendale, California's Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks & Mortuaries is an American corporation that owns and operates a chain of cemeteries and mortuaries in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside counties ...
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