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Gower Champion
Gower Carlyle Champion (June 22, 1919 – August 25, 1980) was an American actor, theatre director, choreographer, and dancer. Early years Champion was born on June 22, 1919, in Geneva, Illinois, as the son of John W. Champion and Beatrice Carlisle. He was raised in Los Angeles, California, where he graduated from Fairfax High School. He studied dance from an early age and, at the age of fifteen, toured nightclubs with friend Jeanne Tyler billed as "Gower and Jeanne, America's Youngest Dance Team". In 1939, "Gower and Jeanne" danced to the music of Larry Clinton and his Orchestra in a Warner Brothers & Vitaphone film short-subject, "The Dipsy Doodler" (released in 1940). Career During the late 1930s and early 1940s, Champion worked on Broadway as a solo dancer and choreographer. After serving in the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II, Champion met Marjorie Belcher, who became his new partner, and the two were married in 1947. In the early 1950s, Marge and Gower Champion ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marge Champion
Marjorie Celeste Champion ( Belcher; September 2, 1919October 21, 2020) was an American dancer and actress. At fourteen, she was hired as a dance model for Walt Disney Studios animated films. Later, she performed as an actress and dancer in film musicals, and in 1957 had a television show based on song and dance. She also did creative choreography for liturgy, and served as a dialogue and movement coach for the 1978 TV miniseries, ''The Awakening Land'', set in the late 18th century in the Ohio Valley. Early life Champion was born in Los Angeles, California, on September 2, 1919. Her father, Ernest, was a Hollywood dance director who taught Shirley Temple, Betty Grable, Ramon Novarro, Cyd Charisse, Fay Wray and Joan Crawford, as well as Champion's future husband Gower Champion; her mother was Gladys Lee Baskette (née Rosenberg). Champion had an older half sister, Lina Basquette, who began acting in 1916 in silent films. Lina was the daughter of her mother's first husband, Frank ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lovely To Look At
''Lovely to Look At'' is a 1952 American musical romantic comedy film directed by Mervyn LeRoy, based on the 1933 Broadway musical '' Roberta''. Plot Broadway producers Al Marsh, Tony Naylor, and Jerry Ralby are desperately searching for investors to back their new show. After being continuously denied for pitches, Al receives a letter from Paris, notifying him that his Aunt Roberta has died and left him half of her dress salon located in Paris. The three men and their "lady-friend" Bubbles, the person who funds their lengthy trip, then eagerly travel to Paris in hopes of profiting from the sale of Al's share in the shop. To their dismay, the men are met with a bankrupt shop that is in no shape to have shares sold. Here is when the film introduces the two other main characters in detail, the two other women who own the other half of the dress shop, Stephanie and Clarisse. From this point forward, the film develops in two main routes of plot: getting the shop into better shape to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldest film studio in the world, the second-oldest film studio in the United States (behind Universal Pictures), and the sole member of the Major film studio, "Big Five" film studios located within the city limits of Los Angeles. In 1916, film producer Adolph Zukor put 24 actors and actresses under contract and honored each with a star on the logo. In 1967, the number of stars was reduced to 22 and their hidden meaning was dropped. In 2014, Paramount Pictures became the first major Hollywood studio to distribute all of its films in digital form only. The company's headquarters and studios are located at 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, California. Paramount Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America, Motion Picture Associ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 and based in Beverly Hills, California. MGM was formed by Marcus Loew by combining Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Pictures into one company. It hired a number of well known actors as contract players—its slogan was "more stars than there are in heaven"—and soon became Hollywood's most prestigious film studio, producing popular musical films and winning many Academy Awards. MGM also owned film studios, movie lots, movie theaters and technical production facilities. Its most prosperous era, from 1926 to 1959, was bracketed by two productions of '' Ben Hur''. After that, it divested itself of the Loews movie theater chain, and, in the 1960s, diversified into television production. In 1969, Kirk Kerkorian bought 4 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jack Lemmon
John Uhler Lemmon III (February 8, 1925 – June 27, 2001) was an American actor. Considered equally proficient in both dramatic and comic roles, Lemmon was known for his anxious, middle-class everyman screen persona in dramedy pictures, leading ''The Guardian'' to coin him "the most successful tragi-comedian of his age." He starred in over sixty films and was nominated for an Academy Award eight times, winning twice, and received many other accolades, including six Golden Globe Awards (counting the honorary Cecil B. DeMille Award), two Cannes Film Festival Awards, two Volpi Cups, one Silver Bear, three BAFTA Awards, and two Emmy Awards. In 1988, he was awarded the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the American cinema. His best known films include '' Mister Roberts'' (1955, for which he won the year's Oscar for Best Supporting Actor), ''Some Like It Hot'' (1959), '' The Apartment'' (1960), '' Days of Wine and Roses'' (1962), ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Betty Grable
Elizabeth Ruth Grable (December 18, 1916 – July 2, 1973) was an American actress, pin-up girl, dancer, model, and singer. Her 42 films during the 1930s and 1940s grossed more than $100 million; for 10 consecutive years (1942–1951) she reigned in the Quigley Poll's top 10 box office stars (a feat only matched by Doris Day, Julia Roberts and Barbra Streisand, although all were surpassed by Mary Pickford, who was in for 13 times). The U.S. Treasury Department in 1946 and 1947 listed her as the highest-salaried American woman; she earned more than $3 million during her career. Grable began her film career in 1929 at age 12, after which she was fired from a contract when it was learned she signed up under false identification. She had contracts with RKO and Paramount Pictures during the 1930s, and appeared in a string of B movies, mostly portraying college students. Grable came to prominence in the Broadway musical '' DuBarry Was a Lady'' (1939), which brought her to the atte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Three For The Show
''Three for the Show'' is a 1955 Technicolor and in CinemaScope musical comedy remake of '' Too Many Husbands''. It stars actress Betty Grable, in her last musical, opposite Jack Lemmon, Gower Champion and Marge Champion. It is based on the 1919 play ''Home and Beauty'' by W. Somerset Maugham, which was retitled to ''Too Many Husbands'' when it came to New York. Plot Singing-and-dancing stage star Julie (Betty Grable) is told that husband Marty ( Jack Lemmon) is reported missing in action during the Korean War. After a long waiting period, she makes plans to marry Vernon (Gower Champion), who is Marty's best friend. After the marriage, Marty (who crashed but survived on an island) turns up at one of Julie's shows. Upon discovering Julie's new marriage, Marty demands his rights as her first husband. Julie finds that she is legally married to both Marty and Vernon. She soon realises that she must choose who she wants to be with, if only to avoid being branded a bigamist. But Ju ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Esther Williams
Esther Jane Williams (August 8, 1921 – June 6, 2013) was an American competitive swimmer and actress. She set regional and national records in her late teens on the Los Angeles Athletic Club swim team. Unable to compete in the 1940 Summer Olympics because of the outbreak of World War II, she joined Billy Rose's Aquacade, where she took on the role vacated by Eleanor Holm after the show's move from New York City to San Francisco. While in the city, she spent five months swimming alongside Olympic gold-medal winner and ''Tarzan'' star Johnny Weissmuller. Williams caught the attention of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer scouts at the Aquacade. After appearing in several small roles, and alongside Mickey Rooney in an Andy Hardy film and future five-time co-star Van Johnson in '' A Guy Named Joe'', Williams made a series of films in the 1940s and early 1950s known as "aquamusicals", which featured elaborate performances with synchronised swimming and diving. Every year from 1945 to 1949, Wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jupiter's Darling (film)
''Jupiter's Darling'' is a 1955 American Eastman Color musical romance film released by MGM and directed by George Sidney filmed in CinemaScope. It starred Esther Williams as the Roman woman Amytis, Howard Keel as Hannibal, the Carthaginian military commander and George Sanders as Fabius Maximus, Amytis's fiancé. In the film, Amytis helps Hannibal swim the Tiber River to take a closer look at Rome's fortifications. The film features many historical characters, including Roman generals Fabius Maximus and Scipio Africanus who appears briefly, in addition to Hannibal. Carthaginians Mago Barca and Maharbal also appear. ''Jupiter's Darling'' was based on Robert E. Sherwood's anti-war comedy play '' The Road to Rome'' (1927). The film was the last of three films Williams and Keel made together, the other two being '' Pagan Love Song'' (1950) and '' Texas Carnival'' (1951). He later said he felt it was the best picture they made together.Keel p 179 The movie was a huge financia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Fosse
Robert Louis Fosse (; June 23, 1927 – September 23, 1987) was an American actor, choreographer, dancer, and film and stage director. He directed and choreographed musical works on stage and screen, including the stage musicals ''The Pajama Game'' (1954), '' Damn Yankees'' (1955), ''How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying'' (1961), '' Sweet Charity'' (1966), ''Pippin'' (1972), and '' Chicago'' (1975). He directed the films '' Sweet Charity'' (1969), ''Cabaret'' (1972), ''Lenny'' (1975), '' All That Jazz'' (1979), and ''Star 80'' (1983). Fosse's distinctive style of choreography included turned-in knees and " jazz hands". He is the only person ever to have won Oscar, Emmy, and Tony awards in the same year (1973). He was nominated for four Academy Awards, winning Best Director for ''Cabaret'', and won the Palme D'Or in 1980 for ''All That Jazz.'' He won a record eight Tonys for his choreography, as well as one for direction for ''Pippin''. Early life Fosse was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Debbie Reynolds
Mary Frances "Debbie" Reynolds (April 1, 1932 – December 28, 2016) was an American actress, singer, and businesswoman. Her career spanned almost 70 years. She was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer for her portrayal of Helen Kane in the 1950 film '' Three Little Words''. Her breakout role was her first leading role, as Kathy Selden in ''Singin' in the Rain'' (1952). Her other successes include '' The Affairs of Dobie Gillis'' (1953), ''Susan Slept Here'' (1954), ''Bundle of Joy'' (1956 Golden Globe nomination), '' The Catered Affair'' (1956 National Board of Review Best Supporting Actress Winner), and '' Tammy and the Bachelor'' (1957), in which her performance of the song " Tammy" reached number one on the '' Billboard'' music charts. In 1959, she released her first pop music album, titled ''Debbie''. She starred in ''Singin' in the Rain'' (1952), '' How the West Was Won'' (1962), and '' The Unsinkable Molly Brown'' (1964), a biographical film a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Give A Girl A Break
''Give a Girl a Break'' is a 1953 American musical romantic comedy film directed by Stanley Donen, starring Debbie Reynolds and the dance team of Marge and Gower Champion. A young Bob Fosse has a featured role. As Martin Gottfried wrote in his book, ''All His Jazz: The Life and Death of Bob Fosse'', "There were residual elements of the big project it had once been, a score by Burton Lane and Ira Gershwin heir only collaboration for instance, direction by Stanley Donen and musical supervision by Saul Chaplin. The screenwriters, Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, were estimable too, although in this instance they had written a slender story involving three unknown actresses competing for a Broadway role that becomes available when the star walks out." The third lead actress, Helen Wood, had a performing background before being signed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, but would eventually leave Hollywood for stage work in New York, including dancing at Radio City Music Hall. Under the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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