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Panama Hattie
''Panama Hattie'' is a 1940 American musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter and book by Herbert Fields and B. G. DeSylva. The musical is about a nightclub owner, Hattie Maloney, who lives in the Panama Canal Zone and ends up dealing with both romantic and military intrigue. The title is a play on words, referring to the popular Panama hat. The musical was adapted as the 1942 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical film '' Panama Hattie'', and again in 1954 as an episode of the CBS TV series '' The Best of Broadway''. Productions Pre-Broadway tryouts started at the Shubert Theatre, New Haven on October 3, 1940, and then at the Shubert Theatre, Boston on October 8, 1940."'Panama Hattie' production listing" sondheimguide.com, accessed January 11, 2011 The musical premiered on [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became Standard (music), standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway theatre, Broadway and in Hollywood films. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, Porter defied his grandfather's wishes for him to practice law and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn to musical theatre. After a slow start, he began to achieve success in the 1920s, and by the 1930s he was one of the major songwriters for the Broadway musical stage. Unlike many successful Broadway composers, Porter wrote the lyrics as well as the music for his songs. After a serious horseback riding accident in 1937, Porter was left disabled and in constant pain, but he continued to work. His shows of the early 1940s did not contain the lasting hits of his best work of the 1920s and 1930s, but in 1948 he made a triumphant comeback w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Betty Hutton
Betty Hutton (born Elizabeth June Thornburg; February 26, 1921 – March 12, 2007) was an American stage, film, and television actress, comedian, dancer, and singer. She rose to fame in the 1940s as a contract player for Paramount Pictures, appearing primarily in musicals and became one of the studio's most valuable stars. She was noted for her energetic performance style. Raised in Detroit during the Great Depression by a single mother who worked as a Rum-running, bootlegger, Hutton began performing as a singer from a young age, entertaining patrons of her mother's speakeasy. While performing in local nightclubs, she was discovered by orchestra leader Vincent Lopez, who hired her as a singer in his band. In 1940, Hutton was cast in the Broadway theatre, Broadway productions ''Two for the Show (musical), Two for the Show'' and ''Panama Hattie'', and attracted notice for her raucous and animated live performances. She relocated to Los Angeles in 1941 after being signed by Paramou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wendy Toye
Beryl May Jessie Toye, (1 May 1917 – 27 February 2010), known professionally as Wendy Toye, was a British dancer, stage and film director and actress. Life and career Toye was born in London. She initially worked as a dancer and choreographer both on stage and on film. She joined the Markova- Dolin Ballet Company as a soloist and was taken under the wing of Dame Ninette de Valois. She was soon collaborating with the likes of directors Jean Cocteau and Carol Reed. She first appeared on film as a dancer in Anthony Asquith’s film '' Dance Pretty Lady'' in 1931. In 1936 she was working on the opera film ''Pagliacci'' with the director Karl Grune, who, caught up in technical matters, asked Toye to direct the actors for him. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piccadilly Theatre
The Piccadilly Theatre is a West End theatre located at the junction of Denman Street and Sherwood Street, near Piccadilly Circus, in the City of Westminster, London. It opened in 1928. In its early years the theatre presented a wide range of productions, and was briefly a cinema. During the Second World War it presented productions ranging from the premiere of Noël Coward's '' Blithe Spirit'' to John Gielgud's lavish production of ''Macbeth''. Later productions in the 1940s and 1950s included Cole Porter's ''Panama Hattie'' (1943), Coward's revue ''Sigh No More (musical), Sigh No More'' (1945) and Peter Ustinov's ''Romanoff and Juliet (play), Romanoff and Juliet'' (1956). In 1964 the Piccadilly presented the British premiere of ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'', but by this time musicals had begun to outnumber non-musical plays at this theatre, with revivals of ''Oliver!'' and ''Man of La Mancha'', and later productions including ''Gypsy (musical), Gypsy'' (1973), ''A Funn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vera-Ellen
Vera-Ellen (born Vera-Ellen Rohe; February 16, 1921 – August 30, 1981) was an American dancer, actress, and singer. She is remembered for her solo performances as well as her work with partners Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Danny Kaye, and Donald O'Connor. She is best known for her starring roles in ''On the Town (film), On the Town'' (1949) with Kelly and ''White Christmas (film), White Christmas'' (1954) with Kaye. Early life Vera-Ellen Rohe was born in Norwood, Ohio, to Martin F. Rohe, a piano dealer, and Alma C. Westmeier. Both were descended from German immigrants. Her mother dreamed she would have a girl named Vera-Ellen, including the hyphen. She began dancing at age 10 and quickly became proficient. One of her fellow dance students at Hessler Studio of Dancing was Doris Day. At age 13, she was a winner on the ''Major Bowes Amateur Hour'' and embarked upon a professional career. Career file:Three Little Girls in Blue (1946) 1.jpg, upLeft to right: June Haver, Vera-Ellen, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucille Bremer
Lucille Bremer (February 21, 1917 – April 16, 1996) was an American film actress and dancer. Biography Bremer was born in Amsterdam (city), New York, Amsterdam, New York, but soon moved to Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she studied ballet. At age 12, she danced with the Philadelphia Opera Company. Pre-Hollywood career Once in New York, she danced in various specialty acts, most notably in the 1939 New York World's Fair "American Jubilee". She auditioned and began her career as a The Rockettes, Rockette at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, at age 16. She was voted as "most likely to succeed" by her Rockette peers. She was also known as "5th from the right" in the Rockettes line up. Bremer also auditioned as a dancer for various Broadway shows, along with fellow stars Vera-Ellen and June Allyson, appearing as a 'Pony Girl' in the Broadway musical ''Panama Hattie'' and also in ''Lady in the Dark''. Bremer's first attempt at a career in films was uns ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Betsy Blair
Betsy Blair (born Elizabeth Winifred Boger; December 11, 1923March 13, 2009) was an American actress of film and stage, long based in London. Blair pursued a career in entertainment from the age of eight, and as a child worked as an amateur dancer, performed on radio, and worked as a model, before joining the chorus of Billy Rose's ''Diamond Horseshoe'' in 1940. There she met Gene Kelly; they were married the following year, when she was age 17 and divorced sixteen years later in 1957. After work in the theatre, Blair began her film career playing supporting roles in films such as '' A Double Life'' (1947) and '' Another Part of the Forest'' (1948). Her interest in Marxism led to an investigation by the House Un-American Activities Committee, and Blair was blacklisted for some time, but resumed her career with a critically acclaimed performance in '' Marty'' (1955), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She continued her career with regula ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constance Dowling
Constance Dowling (July 24, 1920 – October 28, 1969) was an American model turned actress of the 1940s and 1950s. Early life and career Born in New York City, Dowling was a model and chorus girl before moving to California in 1943. She had two brothers, Richard Dowling and Robert Smith Dowling, and was the elder sister of actress Doris Dowling. She attended Wadleigh High School for Girls in New York City. Dowling was a dancer at the Paradise nightclub in New York City, a job that she obtained by lying about her age to her employer and lying about the job to her mother. Stage Prior to her move to Hollywood, she appeared in several Broadway productions, including '' Quiet City'', ''Liliom'', '' Panama Hattie'' (with sister Doris), ''Hold On To Your Hats'', and ''The Strings, My Lord, Are False''. Film Dowling—promoted by press agents of producer Samuel Goldwyn as three-dimensional ("she can sing, she can dance and she can act") —began her screen career appearing in '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Doris Dowling
Doris Dowling (May 15, 1923 – June 18, 2004) was an American actress of film, stage and television. Best known for the films '' The Crimson Key'' (1946) and '' Bitter Rice'' (1949). Also known for playing Irene Adams on '' My Living Doll'' (1964-1965) and other TV show appearances such as ''The Andy Griffith Show'', '' Perry Mason'', and '' The Incredible Hulk''. Early years Dowling was born in Detroit, Michigan, but grew up in New York City with siblings Robert, Richard, and Constance (who also became an actress). After graduating from Hunter College High School, she spent a short time with a Folies Bergère group in San Francisco before her mother brought her back to New York to attend Hunter College. Film After her time as a chorus girl on Broadway, Dowling followed her elder sister Constance to Hollywood. Her first credited film role was that of Gloria, an apparent escort who takes a shine to Ray Milland in the 1945 film ''The Lost Weekend''. She next appeared in '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
June Allyson
June Allyson (born Eleanor Geisman; October 7, 1917 – July 8, 2006) was an American stage, film, and television actress. Allyson began her career in 1937 as a dancer in short subject films and on Broadway in 1938. She signed with MGM in 1943, and rose to fame the following year in '' Two Girls and a Sailor''. Allyson's "girl next door" image was solidified during the mid-1940s when she was paired with actor Van Johnson in six films. In 1951, she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her performance in ''Too Young to Kiss''. From 1959 to 1961, she hosted and occasionally starred in her own anthology series, '' The DuPont Show with June Allyson'', which aired on CBS from 1959 to 1961. In the 1970s, she returned to the stage, starring in '' Forty Carats'' and '' No, No, Nanette''. In 1982, Allyson released her autobiography ''June Allyson by June Allyson'', and continued her career with guest starring roles on television and occasional film appearances. She later es ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pat Harrington Sr
Daniel Patrick Harrington Sr. (February 6, 1901 – September 2, 1965) was a Canadian actor. Biography Born Daniel Patrick Harrington in Montreal, Quebec, he made his Broadway debut in '' Panama Hattie'' in 1940. Additional Broadway credits included the patriotic revue ''Star and Garter'' (1942), '' The Front Page'' (1946), '' Call Me Madam'' (1950) and ''Sunday in New York ''Sunday in New York'' is a 1963 American romantic comedy film directed by Peter Tewksbury from a screenplay by Norman Krasna, based on Krasna's 1961 play of the same name. Filmed in Metrocolor, the film stars Cliff Robertson, Jane Fonda, a ...'' (1961). He also appeared on the early television series ''A Couple of Joes'' (1949) and '' Wonderful John Acton'' (1953). He was the father of actor Pat Harrington Jr. He died in East Islip, New York on September 2, 1965. References External links * * * 1901 births 1965 deaths Canadian male stage actors Canadian male television actors Mal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rags Ragland
Rags Ragland (born John Lee Morgan Beauregard Ragland, August 23, 1905 – August 20, 1946) was an American comedian and character actor. Personal life Ragland was born on August 23, 1905, in Louisville, Kentucky, to parents Adam Joseph Ragland and Stella Petty. As a youth, he worked as a truck driver, boxing, boxer, and movie projectionist in Kentucky. He was briefly married to Sabina Elizabeth Vanover and they had one child, a son named John Griffin Ragland (1925–1990), before they divorced in 1926. The following year, at the age of 22, Ragland moved to Los Angeles. Career Ragland made his show business reputation in burlesque. He quickly became known for his wild ad-libs, unpredictable intrusions into other comics' acts, and a "healthy off-stage libido". Eventually he worked his way up to "top banana" at Minsky's Burlesque, Minsky's, the dominant burlesque house. Minsky striptease star Georgia Sothern remembered him fondly in her 1971 memoir, saying she considered Ragl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
