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The Best Things In Life Are Free (film)
''The Best Things in Life Are Free'' is a 1956 American musical film directed by Michael Curtiz. The film stars Gordon MacRae, Dan Dailey and Ernest Borgnine as the real-life songwriting team of Buddy DeSylva, Lew Brown and Ray Henderson of the late 1920s and early 1930s; and Sheree North as Kitty Kane, a singer (possibly based on Helen Kane). In 1957, the year after the film was released, it received an Oscar nomination for Lionel Newman in the category of Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture. Plot Cast *Gordon MacRae as Buddy DeSylva *Dan Dailey as Ray Henderson *Ernest Borgnine as Lew Brown *Sheree North as Kitty Kane *Tommy Noonan as Carl Frisbee *Murvyn Vye as Manny Costain *Phyllis Avery as Maggie Henderson *Larry Keating as Winfield Sheehan * Tony Galento as Fingers * Norman Brooks as Al Jolson * Jacques d'Amboise as Specialty dancer *Roxanne Arlen as Perky Nichols *Byron Palmer as Hollywood star * Gordon Richards as Butler Reception Critical response Premiering i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 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 was nominated five times a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dorothy Spencer
Dorothy Spencer (February 3, 1909 – May 23, 2002), known as Dot Spencer, was an American film editor with 75 feature film credits from a career that spanned more than 50 years. Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing on four occasions, she is remembered for editing three of director John Ford's best known movies, including '' Stagecoach'' (1939) and '' My Darling Clementine'' (1946), which film critic Roger Ebert called "Ford's greatest Western". Career Spencer was born in Covington, Kentucky in 1909. She entered the film industry at age 15 when she joined Consolidated-Aller Lab in 1924. She moved to Fox, becoming a member of the editorial department. Worked at First National Studios assisting editors including Louis Loeffler and Irene Morra. At Fox, she and Loeffler were part of an editorial team that also included, at one time or another, Barbara McLean, Robert Simpson, William Reynolds and Hugh S. Fowler. In the 1940s, Spencer edited Alfred Hitchcock's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Byron Palmer
Byron Palmer (21 June 1920 – 30 September 2009) was an American film, television and stage actor under contract with 20th Century Fox. Early years Palmer was the second of four children of '' Harlan G. Palmer''; a politician, judge, and most notably the owner and publisher of the historic ''Hollywood Citizen News''. While attending ''Occidental College'', Palmer wrote obituaries for his father's paper and later joined CBS as a page eventually leading him to become a '' CBS'' radio news reporter and announcer. During World War II, Palmer joined the Army Air Forces and ran a radio station on an island in the Pacific. Between news broadcasts, he sang tenor on the air with a quartet called the Music Mates. Soldiers sent him fan mail that persuaded him to take voice lessons after the war. Film and stage Palmer made his debut in film in the 1953 film '' Tonight We Sing''. He starred with ''Jack Palance'' in '' Man in the Attic'', with ''Gordon MacRae'' in '' The Best Things in Life ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roxanne Arlen
Roxanne Arlen (January 10, 1931 – February 22, 1989) was an American film and stage actress and model active in the 1950s and 1960s. Filmography Feature films *'' The Loved One'' (1965) as Wispering Glades hostess *'' A House Is Not a Home'' (1964) as Hattie's girl *''Gypsy (1962) as Electra *'' Bachelor Flat'' (1962) as Mrs. Roberts *''Slim Carter'' (1957) as Cigarette girl *'' The Big Caper'' (1957) as Doll *'' The Young Stranger'' (1957) as Carhop *''The Best Things in Life Are Free'' (1956) as Perky Nichols *'' Everything but the Truth'' (1956) as Blonde *''Miracle in the Rain'' (1956) as Red-headed secretary *'' Bundle of Joy'' (1956) as Blonde *''Hot Rod Girl'' (1956) as Long Play *''Son of Sinbad'' (1955) as Raider *'' Battle Cry'' (1955) as Blonde *''Illegal Illegal, or unlawful, typically describes something that is explicitly prohibited by law, or is otherwise forbidden by a state or other governing body. Illegal may also refer to: Law * Violation of law * Crim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacques D'Amboise (dancer)
Jacques d'Amboise (born Joseph Jacques Ahearn, July 28, 1934 – May 2, 2021) was an American ballet dancer, choreographer, actor, and educator. He joined the New York City Ballet in 1949 and was named principal dancer in 1953, and throughout his time with the company he danced 24 roles for George Balanchine. He also made film appearances, including '' Seven Brides for Seven Brothers'' and ''Carousel''. He choreographed 17 ballets for the New York City Ballet and retired from performing in 1984. D'Amboise founded the National Dance Institute in 1976 to promote dance to children. His work with the institute was featured in the documentary, ''He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin''', which won an Academy Award and a Primetime Emmy Award. He received the MacArthur Fellowship in 1990, the Kennedy Center Honors in 1995, and the National Medal of Arts in 1998. Early life and training Joseph Jacques Ahearn was born on July 28, 1934, in Dedham, Massachusetts, to an Irish American father, A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al Jolson
Al Jolson (born Eizer Yoelson; June 9, 1886 – October 23, 1950) was a Lithuanian-American Jewish singer, comedian, actor, and vaudevillian. He was one of the United States' most famous and highest-paid stars of the 1920s, and was self-billed as "The World's Greatest Entertainer." Jolson was known for his "shamelessly sentimental, melodramatic approach" towards performing, as well as for popularizing many of the songs he sang. Jolson has been referred to by modern critics as "the king of blackface performers." Although best remembered today as the star of the first talking picture, '' The Jazz Singer'' (1927), he starred in a series of successful musical films during the 1930s. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, he was the first star to entertain troops overseas during World War II. After a period of inactivity, his stardom returned with '' The Jolson Story'' (1946), in which Larry Parks played Jolson, with the singer dubbing for Parks. The formula was repeate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Winfield Sheehan
Winfield R. Sheehan (September 24, 1883 – July 25, 1945) was a film company executive. He was responsible for much of Fox Film Corporation's output during the 1920s and 1930s. As studio head, he won an Academy Award for Best Picture for the film ''Cavalcade'' and was nominated three more times. Most famously, he nurtured the budding stardom of then-child star Shirley Temple, in such films as '' Stand Up and Cheer!'' and ''Curly Top''. A native of Buffalo, New York, Sheehan served in the Spanish–American War as a teen. After working as a cub reporter he became a police reporter for New York's ''The Evening World'' in the early 1900s. In 1910, Sheehan became the fire commissioner's secretary and in 1911 performed similar duties for the police commissioner. In the latter capacity, he helped the newly established studio of William Fox, stay afloat in the face of increasing pressure to fold from the Motion Picture Patents Company, which routinely absorbed, intimidated, and ultimat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Academy Award For Best Original Score
The Academy Award for Best Original Score is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer. Some pre-existing music is allowed, though, but a contending film must include a minimum of original music. This minimum since 2021 is established in 35% of the music, which is raised to 80% for sequels and franchise films. Fifteen scores are shortlisted before nominations are announced. History The Academy began awarding movies for their scores in 1935. The category was originally called Best Scoring. At the time, winners and nominees were a mix of original scores and adaptations of pre-existing material. Following the controversial win of Charles Previn for '' One Hundred Men and a Girl'' in 1938, a film without a credited composer that featured pre-existing classical music, the Academy added a Best Original Sc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Academy Awards
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment industry worldwide. Given annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), the awards are an international recognition of excellence in cinematic achievements, as assessed by the Academy's voting membership. The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette as a trophy, officially called the "Academy Award of Merit", although more commonly referred to by its nickname, the "Oscar". The statuette, depicting a knight rendered in the Art Deco style, was originally sculpted by Los Angeles artist George Stanley from a design sketch by art director Cedric Gibbons. The 1st Academy Awards were held in 1929 at a private dinner hosted by Douglas Fairbanks in The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The Academy Awards cere ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Helen Kane
Helen Kane (born Helen Clare Schroeder, August 4, 1904 – September 26, 1966) was an American singer and actress. Her signature song was " I Wanna Be Loved by You" (1928), featured in the 1928 stage musical ''Good Boy''. The song was written for ''Good Boy'' by the songwriting team Kalmar and Ruby. Kane's voice and appearance were thought to be a source for Fleischer Studios animators when creating Betty Boop. Kane attempted to sue the studio for claims of stealing her signature "boop-oop-a-doop" style, but the judge decided that the proof of this was insufficient, thus dismissing the case. Early life Kane attended St. Anselm's Parochial School in The Bronx, New York City. She was the youngest of three children. Her father, Louis Schroeder, a German immigrant, was employed intermittently as a wagon driver; her Irish-immigrant mother, Ellen (born Dixon) Schroeder, worked in a laundry. Kane's mother reluctantly paid $3 for her daughter's costume as a queen in Kane's first theatri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ray Henderson
Ray Henderson (born Raymond Brost; December 1, 1896 – December 31, 1970) was an American songwriter. Early life Born in Buffalo, New York, United States, Henderson moved to New York City and became a popular composer in Tin Pan Alley. He was one third of a successful songwriting and music publishing team with Lew Brown and Buddy De Sylva from 1925 through 1930, responsible for several editions of the revue called ''George White's Scandals'' and such book musicals as '' Good News'', '' Hold Everything!'', and ''Follow Thru''. After De Sylva's departure, Henderson continued to write with Brown through 1933. Then, he worked with other partners. In 1934, he composed the musical '' Say When'' with lyricist Ted Koehler. Music Henderson's biggest hit songs included "Annabelle" (1923), " Bye Bye Blackbird", " Has Anybody Seen My Girl?" (a/k/a "Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue"), "I'm Sitting on Top of the World", "Don't Bring Lulu" (all 1925), "The Birth of the Blues" (1926), "The Varsi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lew Brown
Lew Brown (born Louis Brownstein; December 10, 1893 – February 5, 1958) was a lyricist for popular songs in the United States. During World War I and the Roaring Twenties, he wrote lyrics for several of the top Tin Pan Alley composers, especially Albert Von Tilzer. Brown was one third of a successful songwriting and music publishing team with Buddy DeSylva and Ray Henderson from 1925 until 1931. Brown also wrote or co-wrote many Broadway shows and Hollywood films. Among his most-popular songs are "Button Up Your Overcoat", " Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree", "Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries", " That Old Feeling", and "The Birth of the Blues". Early life and family Brown was born December 10, 1893, in Odessa, Russian Empire, part of today's Ukraine, the son of Etta (Hirsch) and Jacob Brownstein. His family was Jewish. When he was five, his family immigrated to the United States and settled in New York City. He attended DeWitt Clinton High School but, at the suggestion of a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
