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Gift Of Gab (film)
''Gift of Gab'' is a 1934 black-and-white film released by Universal Pictures. Edmund Lowe stars as a man with the "Gift of Gab"—he can sell anyone anything. The film costars Ruth Etting, Ethel Waters, Victor Moore, and Gloria Stuart, and features Boris Karloff and Béla Lugosi. The film's sets were designed by the art director David Garber. Ruth Etting sings "Talking to Myself" and "Tomorrow, Who Cares?" Originally the Three Stooges were signed to appear in the film, but they had just signed with Columbia Pictures for '' Woman Haters'', the first of their short subjects, so three look-alike actors replaced them in ''Gift of Gab''. Cast * Edmund Lowe – Phillip "Gift of Gab" Gabney * Gloria Stuart – Barbara Kelton * Ruth Etting – Ruth * Phil Baker – absent-minded doctor * Ethel Waters – Ethel * Alice White – Margot * Alexander Woollcott – cameo appearance * Victor Moore – Colonel Trivers * Hugh O'Connell – Patsy * Helen Vinson – nurse * Gene ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Karl Freund
Karl W. Freund, A.S.C. (; January 16, 1890 – May 3, 1969) was a German Bohemian and American cinematographer and film director. He is best known for photographing ''Metropolis'' (1927), ''Dracula'' (1931), and television's ''I Love Lucy'' (1951–1957), and for directing '' The Mummy'' (1932). Freund was an innovator in the field of cinematography, often noted for pioneering the unchained camera technique, arguably the most important stylistic innovation of the 20th century, setting the stage for some of the most commonly used cinematic techniques of modern contemporary cinema. Early life Karl Freund was born in Dvůr Králové, Bohemia. When he was 11 his family moved to Berlin. His career began in 1905 when, at age 15, he was hired as an apprentice projectionist for Alfred Duskes films. In 1907, he began work at the International Cinematograph and Light Effect Society. Freund was drafted by the Imperial Army to fight in World War I but was released from duty after only t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Art Director
Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and unify the vision of an artistic production. In particular, they are in charge of its overall visual appearance and how it communicates visually, stimulates moods, contrasts features, and psychologically appeals to a target audience. The art director makes decisions about visual elements, what artistic style(s) to use, and when to use motion. One of the biggest challenges art directors face is translating desired moods, messages, concepts, and underdeveloped ideas into imagery. In the brainstorming process, art directors, colleagues and clients explore ways the finished piece or scene could look. At times, the art director is responsible for solidifying the vision of the collective imagination while resolving conflicting agendas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sterling Holloway
Sterling Price Holloway Jr. (January 14, 1905 – November 22, 1992) was an American actor who appeared in over 100 films and 40 television shows. He did voice acting for The Walt Disney Company, playing Mr. Stork in ''Dumbo'', Adult Flower in ''Bambi'', the Cheshire Cat in ''Alice in Wonderland (1951 film), Alice in Wonderland'', Kaa (The Jungle Book), Kaa in ''The Jungle Book (1967 film), The Jungle Book'', Roquefort the Mouse in ''The Aristocats'', and Winnie the Pooh (Disney character), the title character in ''Winnie the Pooh (franchise), Winnie the Pooh'', among many others. Early life Born in Cedartown, Georgia, on January 14, 1905, Holloway was named after his father, Sterling Price Holloway, who, in turn, was named after a prominent Confederate States of America, Confederate general, Sterling Price, Sterling "Pap" Price. His mother was Rebecca DeHaven Boothby. He had a younger brother named Boothby. The family owned a grocery store in Cedartown, where his father served ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Armetta
Henry Armetta (born Enrico Armetta; July 4, 1888 – October 21, 1945) was an American character actor who appeared in at least 150 American films, beginning in silent movies. His last film was released posthumously in 1946, the year after his death. Biography Armetta was born in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. At the age of 14, he stowed away on a boat to America. The immigration authorities were prepared to send him back, but he found an Italian family to act as his sponsor. He settled in New York City where he delivered groceries, sold sandwiches and pizzas and performed other menial tasks to get by. He eventually ended up working as a pants presser at a well known club where he was befriended by actor/producer Raymond Hitchcock. Hitchcock got him a chorus part in his play ''A Yankee Consul''. After a friend told him about southern California's mushrooming film industry, Armetta hitchhiked to Hollywood in 1920 and soon found work in films as a stereotypical Italian, often playing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gene Austin
Lemeul Eugene Lucas (June 24, 1900 – January 24, 1972), better known by his stage name Gene Austin, was an American singer and songwriter, one of the early " crooners". His recording of " My Blue Heaven" sold over 5 million copies and was for a while the largest selling record of all time. His 1920s compositions " When My Sugar Walks Down the Street" and " The Lonesome Road" became pop and jazz standards. Early life Austin was born as Lemeul Eugene Lucas in Gainesville, Texas (north of Dallas), to Nova Lucas and the former Serena Belle Harrell. He took the name Gene Austin from his stepfather Jim Austin, a blacksmith. Austin grew up in Minden, Louisiana. In Minden, he learned to play piano and guitar. He ran away from home at 15. He attended a vaudeville act in Houston, Texas, where the audience was allowed to come to the stage and sing. On a dare from his friends, Austin took the stage and sang for the first time since singing as a Southern Baptist choir boy. The audience re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Helen Vinson
Helen Vinson (born Helen Rulfs, September 17, 1907 – October 7, 1999) was an American film actress who appeared in 40 films between 1932 and 1945. Early life Vinson was born in Beaumont, Texas, the daughter of oil man Edward Rulfs. She developed a passion for horses during her youth. She studied at the University of Texas at Austin. Theater In Austin, she met March Culmore, director of the Little Theater in Houston, Texas. Culmore took her as a pupil and she was soon playing lead roles with the theater. From Texas, she moved quickly to Broadway, where her credits included ''Los Angeles'' (1927), ''Death Takes a Holiday'' (1931), ''Berlin'' (1931), and ''The Fatal Alibi'' (1932). A succession of performances followed and led to a contract with Warner Bros. Later, she regretted her quick leap to Hollywood and motion pictures, saying, "If I'd stayed in New York longer, I'd be getting a much bigger salary out here now." Film career Vinson's pre-Code screen roles often f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hugh O'Connell
Hugh O'Connell (August 4, 1898 – January 19, 1943) was an American film actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ... and performed on Broadway.Fleming p. 265 Filmography References Bibliography * Fleming, E.J. Carole Landis: A Tragic Life in Hollywood''. McFarland, 2005. External links *Internet Broadway Database 1898 births 1943 deaths Am ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Woollcott
Alexander Humphreys Woollcott (January 19, 1887 – January 23, 1943) was an American drama critic for The New York Times and the New York Herald, critic and commentator for ''The New Yorker'' magazine, a member of the Algonquin Round Table, an occasional actor and playwright, and a prominent radio personality. Woollcott was the inspiration for two fictional characters. The first was Sheridan Whiteside, the caustic but charming main character in the play '' The Man Who Came to Dinner'' (1939) by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart,Oscar Levant, '' The Unimportance of Being Oscar'', Pocket Books 1969 (reprint of G.P. Putnam 1968), p. 81. . later made into a film in 1942. The second was the snobbish, vitriolic columnist Waldo Lydecker in the novel '' Laura'', later made into a film in 1944. Woollcott was convinced he was the inspiration for his friend Rex Stout's brilliant, eccentric detective Nero Wolfe, an idea that Stout denied. Early life and education Alexander Humphreys Woo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alice White
Alice White (born Alva White; August 25, 1904Katz, Ephraim (1979). ''The Film Encyclopedia: The Most Comprehensive Encyclopedia of World Cinema in a Single Volume''. Perigee Books. , pg. 1228. – February 19, 1983) was an American film actress. She first came to the public’s attention during the late silent era as a rival to Clara Bow, before starring in First National Pictures, First National/Warner Brothers films ''Broadway Babies'', ''Naughty Baby (film), Naughty Baby'', ''Hot Stuff (1929 film), Hot Stuff'', and ''Sweet Mama (film), Sweet Mama''. Early years Alice White was born in Paterson, New Jersey. Her mother was a chorus girl and Alice was raised by her maternal grandparents. She moved to California with her grandparents when a teenager and attended Hollywood High School for secretarial classes. Film After leaving school, White became a secretary and "script girl" for director Josef Von Sternberg, Josef von Sternberg. She also worked as a switchboard operat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phil Baker (comedian)
Phil Baker (August 26, 1896 – November 30, 1963) was an American comedian and emcee on radio. Baker was also a vaudeville actor, composer, songwriter, accordionist and author. Biography He was born on August 26, 1896, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Baker went to school in Boston, and his first stage appearance was in a Boston amateur show. Baker began in vaudeville playing the piano for violinist Ed Janis, and he was 19 when he teamed with Ben Bernie for the vaudeville act "Bernie and Baker." This originally was a serious musical act with Baker on accordion and Bernie on violin but eventually ended up with comic elements. After breaking with Bernie shortly after World War I, Baker partnered with Sid Silvers up until 1928. Baker went on to pursue a successful solo career. His solo act included him singing, playing the accordion, telling jokes and being heckled by a planted audience member called Jojo. With this act, Baker played the Palace Theatre (New York City), Palace ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Short Subjects
A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film organizations may use different definitions, however; the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, for example, currently defines a short film as 45 minutes or less in the case of documentaries, and 59 minutes or less in the case of scripted narrative films (it is not made clear whether this includes closing credits). In the United States, short films were generally termed short subjects from the 1920s into the 1970s when confined to two 35 mm reels or less, and featurettes for a film of three or four reels. "Short" was an abbreviation for either term. The increasingly rare industry term "short subject" carries more of an assumption that the film is shown as part of a presentation along with a feature film. Short films are often scre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Woman Haters
''Woman Haters'' is a 1934 musical short subject directed by Archie Gottler starring American slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges ( Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Jerry Howard). It is the inaugural entry in the series released by Columbia Pictures starring the comedians, who ultimately starred in 190 short subjects for the studio between 1934 and 1959. Plot The Stooges are staunch members of the Woman Haters Club, dedicated to eschewing romantic entanglements with women. However, their resolve is swiftly tested when Jim (Larry Fine) succumbs to the charms of Mary and proposes marriage. His comrades, Tom (Moe Howard) and Jack (Jerry Howard (Curly)), initially dissuade him from the union, citing their oath to the club. Things escalate when Mary's formidable father coerces Jim into marrying her, recounting a tale of familial honor and coercion. Reluctantly, Jim acquiesces to the marriage, leading to tension and confrontation aboard a train journey. Mary, utilizing her femini ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
