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...

  "JUST WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW! A great big beaming picture that's all you wish in entertainment...all you love in life!" Na al het verliezen van al zijn geld tijdens de Grote Depressie, wordt Penny Hale's vader een onderhoudsmonteur. Maar armoede deert Penny niet en ze raakt bevriend met een lokale miljonair die de familie te hulp schiet... Hier is een middelmatige Shirley Temple-inzending met een pakkend liedje dat de hele film door wordt afgespeeld. De film bevat een stel aardige personages. De "slechteriken" in deze film - een snotterige vrouw, haar butler en een chagrijnige "Uncle Sam" - zijn niet overdreven gemeen en hebben geen grote rollen in deze film, dus de sfeer is over het algemeen erg gemoedelijk. Naast het hoofdlied ("This Is A Happy Little Ditty," een erg pakkend liedje), is er een goed productienummer tegen het einde van de film. Beide nummers bevatten Shirley en Bill Robinson. Het was altijd leuk om die twee samen te z...

  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...

Shirley Temple's zang en dans betovert een Amerikaans vissersdorp in een van haar geliefdste films. De vierjarige Star (Shirley Temple) woont bij kapitein January (Guy Kibbee) sinds hij haar gered heeft bij een schipbreuk toen ze nog een baby was. Er dreigt echter een einde te komen aan hun gelukkige leventje wanneer een overijverige schoolinspecteur haar bij de kapitein weg wil halen en in een internaat wil stoppen. Dit is het soort film dat iedereen een SHIRLEY TEMPLE-fan maakt. Hier is de kleine meid opnieuw een wees, maar dit keer voedt een goedhartige vuurtorenwachter (Guy Kibbe) haar op als zijn eigen kind. Problemen ontstaan ​​wanneer de plaatselijke schooljuf besluit dat Shirley een betere opleiding en opvoeding nodig heeft. Shirley zingt niet alleen een paar vrolijke deuntjes, maar heeft ook een grote dansscène op de kade met Buddy Ebsen - compleet met ingewikkelde taps en allerlei soorten wervelingen terwijl ze dansen op "At the Codfish Ball". Dit en haar openin...

  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...

 Het is de droom van ieder kind: op een dag krijg je te horen dat je erfgenaam bent van een fortuin. Dat gebeurt de kleine Cedric, die krijgt te horen dat zijn opa een Britse edelman is en dat hij de enige erfgenaam is van diens fortuin. Cedric verhuist naar Engeland en wordt door zijn grootvader omgetoverd van een straatschoffie in een kleine 'Lord'. Graaf van Dorincourt  : Liefste, Ceddie is dol op mij. Maar ik ben dol op hem. Ik kan niet zeggen dat ik ooit van iemand heb gehouden. Maar hij beviel me vanaf het begin. Ik ben een oude man en ik was mijn leven zat. Maar hij heeft me iets gegeven om voor te leven. Meer dan dat - meer dan dat, ik ben trots op hem. Ik was tevreden met de gedachte dat hij op een dag mijn plaats als hoofd van de familie zou innemen. Ik ben ellendig. Ellendig! Dit is een goede bewerking van het verhaal van "Little Lord Fauntleroy", met een zeer goede cast die de personages op een geloofwaardige en vermakelijke manier tot leven brengt. Naast ...

  Een Amerikaan die auto's verkoopt in Engeland, ontvangt een mysterieuze uitnodiging van een oude, excentrieke miljonair om zijn huis te bezoeken waar hij met zijn tweelingbroer woont. In deze tweede verfilming van JB Priestleys' boek speelt Tom Poston Tom Penderel, een Amerikaan die in Londen woont en zijn brood verdient als autoverkoper. Hij deelt een appartement met Caspar Femm (Peter Bull), die het appartement overdag gebruikt terwijl Tom er 's nachts slaapt. Op een dag smeekt Caspar Tom om hem te komen bezoeken op het landgoed Femm, dat te koop staat. Tom wordt dan gedwongen om elke avond met de gekke familie Femm af te rekenen. Je zou verwachten dat een samenwerking tussen gimmick-meester William Castle en Britains' legendarische Hammer Studios leuker zou zijn. Het is meer een komedie dan een horrorfilm, en slechts een af ​​en toe grappige. Er zijn een paar grappige grappen, maar het valt gewoon vaak tegen. Het dient in feite om de spot te drijven met het hele ...

 Professor Harim vertrekt naar Engeland voor een studieproject en zijn familie is enthousiast over het verblijf in een echt kasteel. Virginia, hun dochter, ontmoet al snel een spook genaamd Simon de Canterville, dat al vierhonderd jaar in het kasteel rondwaart. Zij is de enige die hem kan zien en hij blijkt vriendelijk te zijn. Ze worden vrienden en Simon helpt Virginia met haar ontluikende liefde voor buurjongen Francis. Daarnaast weet Virginia Simon te helpen door een einde te maken aan zijn eeuwige verdoemenis om in het kasteel te spoken. Oscar Wilde's korte verhaal is hier bijgewerkt en heeft een glanzende make-over gekregen in deze Amerikaanse tv-film die mede is geproduceerd door hoofdrolspeler Patrick Stewart. Wilde's verhaal is enigszins aangepast, ongetwijfeld voor moderne consumptie, maar het verhaal van de klagende geest, achter wiens bluf een verlangen naar verlossing en eeuwige rust schuilgaat, komt nog steeds naar voren in wat een aangenaam en kijkbaar stuk famili...

  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...

  In 1959 zijn Sir  Alfred Hitchcock  (Sir Anthony Hopkins) en zijn vrouw,  Alma Reville  (Dame Helen Mirren), op het toppunt van hun creatieve spel als filmmakers te midden van verontrustende insinuaties dat het tijd is om met pensioen te gaan. Om de artistieke durf van zijn jeugd terug te vinden, besluit Sir Alfred dat zijn volgende film de lugubere horrorroman "Psycho" zal verfilmen, ondanks ieders bedenkingen. Helaas verliest Alma, terwijl Sir Alfred zichzelf financiert en aan deze film werkt, uiteindelijk zijn geduld met zijn dwalende blik en controlerende gewoontes met zijn actrices. Wanneer een ambitieuze vriend haar verleidt om samen te werken aan een eigen werk, kleurt de resulterende huwelijkse spanning Sir Alfreds werk, zelfs terwijl de inspiratie van de roman zijn dromen achtervolgt. "Wat als iemand die echt goed is een horrorfilm zou maken." Na het succes van North By Northwest zocht Alfred Hitchcock (Hopkins) naar zijn volgende film om te regissere...

  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...