My Life , My Blog

  Trivia of Mae West (17 August 1893 - 22 November 1980) *Mary Jane West a.k.a Mae West began entertaining people right from the time she was only 5 years old.Her professional on-stage performance began in 1907 at Hal Clarendon Stock Company. At this time, she was 14 years old and had the professional on-stage name “Baby Mae.”She made her Broadway debut as a singer and acrobatic dancer in the revue A la Broadway in 1911. *Mae is credited with single-handedly saving movie studio Paramount. They were close to filing for bankruptcy when Mae signed a contract with them. Her first film, She Done Him Wrong (1933), cost them $200,000 and made $2 million. This would be over $140 million in today’s money. *During World War II, United States Navy and Army pilots named their inflatable life vests after Mae, supposedly because of her curvy figure. The term ‘Mae West’ for a lifejacket continues to this day. *Despite her glamour style, Mae was no party girl.She hated big crowds, didn’t drink or ...

  Trivia of Norma Shearer (11 August 1902 - 12 June 1983) *Was meticulous about her appearance. Early in her career, she spent money she could barely afford on the services on an eye doctor, who trained her to strengthen a weak eye. She swam everyday, had massages to firm her figure, and dieted religiously. She experimented with make-up until she decided on a light tone that would illuminate her face on screen. *Norma Shearer once made an embarrassing mistake by mistaking the Vice President of Louis B. Mayer Pictures, Irving Thalberg, for an office boy.Irving Thalberg who had seen Norma Shearer early acting efforts didn't mad of her mistake, rather gave her a five year contract. Thalberg and Shearer married in 29 September 1927. Thalberg thought she should retire after their marriage, but she wanted bigger parts. They made movie projects together, including : Let Us Be Gay (1930), Strange Interlude (1932), and Marie Antoinette (1938). *Norma Shearer casted by her for the role Eliz...

  Trivia of Dorothy Malone (29 January 1924 - 19 January 2018) *Was one of five children. Two older sisters died very young of complications from polio, and another younger brother was struck and killed by lightning while on a Dallas golf course. When she won the Oscar for Written on the Wind (1956), she dedicated the award to her late brother. *She originally considered becoming a nurse.While performing in a play at Southern Methodist University,she was spotted by a talent scout, Eddie Rubin,who had been looking to find and cast a male actor.Malone was signed by RKO at age 18 as Dorothy Maloney and made her film debut in Gildersleeve on Broadway (1943). *When RKO lost interest of her, Warner Bros stepped up to the plate and offered the actress a contract. She billed as Dorothy Malone with the studio finally injected some adrenaline into her floundering young career.She earned the small role of a seductive book clerk in the Bogart/Bacall classic The Big Sleep (1946). Director Howar...

  Trivia of Janet Gaynor (6 October 1906 - 14 September 1984) *Gaynor got her start in films through her sister, a secretary for movie producer Hal Roach. In 1925-1926, she appeared in a number of shorts (including several Glenn Tryon Westerns) and as an extra in features. Her first break was a supporting role in "The Johnstown Flood" (1926). *In her early career, Gaynor was romantically involved with friend and frequent co-star Charles Farrell during their work together.She and Charles Farrell were in twelve films together: 7th Heaven (1927), Street Angel (1928), Lucky Star (1929), Happy Days (1929), Sunny Side Up (1929), High Society Blues (1930), The Man Who Came Back (1931), Merely Mary Ann (1931), Delicious (1931), The First Year (1932), Tess of the Storm Country (1932), and Change of Heart (1934). *She was the first actress to win the Academy Award as best actress. In the early years, actors could receive one Oscar for several films. Gaynor won for Sunrise: A Song of Tw...

  Trivia of Arlene Dahl (11 August 1925 - 29 November 2021) *As a child, Dahl took elocution and dancing lessons and was active in theatrical events at school.After graduating from high school, she held such jobs as performing in a local drama group and briefly working as a model for department stores.She then traveled to New York and worked as a model for the Walter Thornton Model Agency, where she successfully auditioned for a part in the broadway musical Mr. Strauss Goes to Boston (1945). *Dahl was selected to be a Rheingold Beer Girl for an ad campaign, and studio head Jack Warner spotted her and signed her to a contract at Warner Bros. She had an uncredited part in the William Powell starrer Life With Father (1947). *After play in some uncredited role in Warner Bros, she moved to MGM and promoted to leading lady in My Wild Irish Rose (1947) with Dennis Morgan, a big hit that led to an offer from MGM for a long-term contract.Play as Rose Donovan, this is Arlene Dahl’s first cre...

  Trivia of Gloria DeHaven (23 July 1925 - 30 July 2016) *DeHaven was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of actor-director Carter DeHaven and actress Flora Parker DeHaven, both former vaudeville performers. A 1983 newspaper article reported, "Miss DeHaven ... says that her real family name was O'Callahan before her father legally changed his name to DeHaven." *With her father's help (who was assistant director and a friend of Charles Chaplin), she began her career as a child actor with a bit uncredited part in Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times (1936).Her first visible role was in the Susan and God (1940) opposite Joan Crawford. *Before be a movie star, Gloria concentrated on her singing career. She developed her own nightclub act over the years and also enjoyed considerable success as a solo vocalist with the orchestras of Bob Crosby, Jan Savitt and Muzzy Marcellino. It was her singing which prompted Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to sign her under contract in 1940. ...

  Trivia of Agnes Moorehead (6 December 1900 - 30 April 1974) *She made her first public performance at the age of 3, when she recited the Lord's Prayer in her father's church.His father was a Presbyterian clergyman.When she become an actress, she often came to set with her script in one hand and her Bible in the other. *When her early career still unsteady, she met actress Helen Hayes, who encouraged her to try to enter films, but her first attempts were met with failure. Rejected as not being the right type, Moorehead entered to radio.She met Orson Welles and by 1937 she became a member of his Mercury Theater Group, along with Joseph Cotten. *Agnes Moorehead made her film debut in Orson Welles' Citizen Kane ( 1941 ). Despite only having a small part at the beginning of the film, Moorehead’s role as Charles Kane’s impoverished mother, Mary Kane was crucial to the movie, and would serve as an inventor of her future prominence in motion pictures. *After Citizen Kane, Agnes w...

  Trivia of Marion Davies (3 January 1897 - 22 September 1961) *Born Marion Cecilia Elizabeth Brooklyn Douras to a middle-class family in Brooklyn, Marion and her sisters soon changed their name to “Davies” because it sounded more British, which they thought would help them gain entry into the upper echelons of New York society. *While performing in the 1916 Ziegfeld Follies, the nineteen-year-old Marion met the fifty-three-year-old newspaper tycoon, William Randolph Hearst, and became his mistress for over 30 years. Hearst took over management of Davies's career and promoted her as a film actress. *She and Rudolph Valentino were crowned Queen of the Screen and King of the Screen, respectively, by theater owners at the Motion Picture Carnival in May 1924. *William Randolph Hearst reportedly tried to push MGM production boss Irving Thalberg to cast Davies in the title role in Marie Antoinette (1938), but Thalberg gave the part to his wife, Norma Shearer. Hearst had previously attemp...

  Trivia of Don Ameche (31 May 1908 - 6 December 1993) *His father, Felice Amici, was a bartender from Marche, Italy. His mother, Barbara Etta Hertel, was of Scottish, Irish, and German ancestry.He studied college dramatics at the University of Wisconsin, and when a lead actor for a stock company production of Excess Baggage did not turn up, a friend persuaded him to stand in for the missing actor. He enjoyed the experience and got a juvenile lead in Jerry For Short in New York. *Don Ameche got his first chance to work in a film in 1935, appearing as a prisoner in the film ‘Clive of India,’ and later that year had another appearance in the film ‘Dante's Inferno (1935)’. However, in both these films, he was not credited and had to wait for another year to get an official debut in the film industry. He appeared as ‘Karl Freyman / Mario Signarelli’ in the film ‘Sins of Man’ (1936). *He worked with Tyrone Power in Ladies in Love (1936), In Old Chicago (1938), Love Is News (1937) and Al...

  Trivia of Judy Holliday (21 June 1921 - 7 June 1965) *Her first job was as an assistant switchboard operator at the Mercury Theatre, which was administered by Orson Welles and John Houseman.Holliday began her show business career in 1938 as part of a nightclub act called The Revuers. The Revuers filmed a scene for the Carmen Miranda movie Greenwich Village (1944). Although the Revuers' performance was cut, Holliday was an unbilled extra in another scene. The group disbanded in early 1944. *In her first film role, Holliday played an airman's wife in Twentieth Century Fox’s version of the U.S. Army Air Forces' play Winged Victory (1944). She made her Broadway debut on March 20, 1945, at the Belasco Theatre in Kiss Them for Me, and was one of the recipients that year of the Clarence Derwent Award for Most Promising Female Actress. *In her early monologue scene with Katharine Hepburn, Judy Holliday can be seen trembling. This was not acting, but nervousness. The inexperience...

  Trivia of Gloria Stuart (4 July 1910 - 26 September 2010) *Gloria Stuart was born on a dining room table on 4th Street in Santa Monica, California on July 4, 1910. Her early roles as a performing artist were in plays she produced in her home as a young girl. She was the star of her senior class play at Santa Monica High School in 1927. Attending the University of California, at Berkeley, she continued to perform on the stage. *Her Hollywood career began after talent scouts for both Paramount and Universal saw her perform in Pasadena Playhouse in 1932. In a famous dispute, the heads of the two studios flipped a coin and Universal won. Then, she played lead roles for director James Whale, including The Old Dark House (1932) opposite Boris Karloff.During the production Gloria Stuart was rather dismissive of the British members of the cast, regarding them as "aloof" and "snooty." Indeed, she remarked that Boris Karloff was the most unpleasant of them all, spurring unn...

  Trivia of Sandra Dee (23 April 1942 - 20 February 2005) *Her parents divorced when she was a child; she lived with her mother and was brought up in Russian Orthodox faith.Her mother remarried while she was still young. Unfortunately, Sandra was sexually abused by her stepfather in childhood. *A shy and frail person, Dee had never wanted to be neither a model nor an actress, but was "bullied" into both by her domineering parents and, as a result, spent most of her adolescence and adult life in mental anguish and abject misery.Her son, Dodd Mitchell, penned a book about his parents, Dream Lovers: The Magnificent Shattered Lives of Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee, in 1994. In the book, he chronicled his mother's anorexia, and her drug and alcohol problems. *She landed her first role in Hollywood as a voice actor in the animated film ‘The Snow Queen (1957)’ voicing the character ‘Gerda’ in the English version of the movie.Her onscreen debut was in the 1957 MGM film Until They Sa...

  Trivia of Tallulah Bankhead (31 January 1902 - 12 December 1968) *Bankhead's famously husky voice (which she described as "mezzo-basso") was the result of chronic bronchitis due to childhood illness.As a child, Bankhead was described as "extremely homely" and overweight, while her sister was slim and prettier. Her parents were William Brockman Bankhead and Adelaide Eugenia ‘Ada’ Bankhead. She had an elder sister, Eugenia. Her father belonged to the Bankhead-and-Brockman political family and was the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1936 to 1940.Her mother died of blood poisoning just three weeks after Tallulah’s birth. After her mother’s death, her father suffered from depression and alcoholism. As a result, her paternal grandmother took care of her and her sister. *When Tallulah Bankhead was 15, she sent her photo to a ‘Picture Play’ contest, which promised a trip to New York and a role in a movie to the winners. Although she forgot t...

  Trivia of Ida Lupino (4 February 1918 - 3 August 1995) *Ida Lupino was born at London, to actress Connie O'Shea (also known as Connie Emerald) and music hall comedian Stanley Lupino.Her father built a backyard theatre and her sister Rita (1921–2016), who also became an actress and dancer.Ida Lupino also cousin of actor Richard Lupino and Lauri Lupino Lane. *She wrote her first play at age seven and toured with a travelling theatre company as a child.By the age of ten, Lupino had memorised the leading female roles in each of Shakespeare's plays.She wanted to be a writer, but in order to please her father, Lupino enrolled in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She excelled in a number of "bad girl" film roles, often playing prostitutes.Lupino did not enjoy being an actress and felt uncomfortable with many of the early roles she was given. *Ida Lupino's first contract came in 1932 after she made her debut in British film 'Her First Affairs'. In 1934 young Id...

  Trivia of Jane Wyman (5 January 1917 - 10 September 2007) *When she was age 15, Wyman landed a job as dancer in the chorus of Busby Berkeley's The Kid from Spain (1932) at MGM. Other dancers and unfamiliar actresses on the lot included Lucille Ball, Betty Grable and Paulette Goddard. *While she did manage to get some work in film, her first 20 appearances on screen went completely uncredited.Her first credited role was Dixie in film Smart Blonde (1937). *Jack Benny gave Jane her nickname of Minnie Mouse because he believed that she resembled what the Disney character would look life if human. *While being under contract at Warner Bros, she first met Ronald Reagan, on the set of Brother Rat (1938), in 1938. Wyman was 21, whilst Reagan was 27. The two had been married from 1940, until their divorce in 1949.She gave birth to their daughter, Maureen, in 1941. They later adopted their son, Michael. In 1947, a year before their divorce, they had a daughter, Christine who was born pre...

  Trivia of Jane Powell (1 April 1921 - 16 September 2021) *Suzanne Lorraine Burce (later Jane Powell) began dance lessons when she was 2 years old. By age 5,Suzanne had appeared on the Portland children's radio program Stars of Tomorrow. In 1943, Suzanne won a Hollywood talent show and signed a contract with MGM Theaters in Hollywood at the age of 14.She wanted to go back to high school and to university, but her mother forbade this as she was the only one making good money. *She got stage name Jane Powell from her first film, Song of the Open Road (1944), where she played the character of Jane Powell.Powell sang several songs in the film and made such an impression that MGM signed her to a contract to make a number of musical comedies for them, through the mid-1950s.Her co star who also comedian W.C Fields often made fun of singers and singing in general, but he had a fondness for the promising young singer Jane Powell and even referred to her as "little Janie Powell". ...

  Trivia of Rochelle Hudson (6 March 1916 - 17 January 1972) *She studied dancing, acting, piano, and singing from early age.Rochelle Hudson said that her mother arranged a screen test for her when she was thirteen years old. Within a few years she had minor, uncredited parts, and her first credited appearance as Rochelle Hudson came in 1930 in Fanny Foley Herself after signed a contract with RKO Pictures. *Rochelle Hudson was a voice-dubber for Bosko animation series produced by Warner Brothers and MGM from 1930 to 1937. She was the voice of Honey, Bosko's girlfriend, in thirty-two of the series's thirty-eight shorts. *Hudson appeared more than seventy features, some that remain well regarded films including 'She Done Him Wrong (1933) ' along Mae West & Cary Grant, where she played a naive young woman almost trucked into a life of shame. And film 'Imitation of Life (1934) ' along Claudette Colbert, where she played as Jessie, the daughter of Colbert's ...

  Trivia of Martha Hyer (10 August 1924 - 31 May 2014) *Hyer graduated from Arlington Heights High School and then from Northwestern University with a degree in drama.She was in the sorority Pi Beta Phi with actress Patricia Neal. She then moved to California to study at the Pasadena Playhouse, and soon after was signed to a film contract with RKO. She was married twice, first to producer C. Ray Stahl and later to producer Hal B. Wallis. *Once she finished her schooling, Martha Hyer debuted in film The Locket (1946) starred Robert Mitchum.She appeared in uncredited and bit roles in B-movies for the next few years, occasionally working on television, as well. *Blonde and glamour-elegant, Hyer was once labeled "Universal's answer to Grace Kelly. *She became Rock Hudson's leading lady in film Battle Hymn (1957) .But in her autobiography, Hyer confide she did not like working with Rock Hudson. She says that he was very self-centered, a man who was tall but who never grew up. ...

  Trivia of Hedda Hopper (2 May 1885 - 1 February 1966) *Hopper made her debut in the chorus of an opera company on ‘Broadway.’ However, she did not achieve much success. Broadway Impresario, Florenz Ziegfeld called her a "clumsy cow" and brushed off her pleas for a slot in his lavish Follies. Later, she joined the musical theater company of actor-singer and theatrical producer William DeWolf Hopper Sr. She toured with the company and appeared in the chorus. *In 1913, she married DeWolf Hopper and became his fifth wife. To avoid being mistaken for his previous wives, Hopper consulted a numerologist and changed her name to “Hedda.” *Her motion picture debut was in The Battle of Hearts (1916). In those days, actors were supposed to buy or wear their own costumes. For her 1918 movie ‘Virtuous Wives,’ she spent her entire paycheck of $5,000 on her costumes for the film. This was done to attract attention and to steal the show from the lead, and she succeeded in doing so. *Hopper ...