The Visit 1958 opening night premiere
Monday May 5th, Lunt-Fontanne Theatre 205 W 46th St, New York, NY 10036
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- Lynn Fontanne was a British actress of French and Irish descent. She spend most of her acting career in the United States, and she is considered among the great leading ladies of American theatre. She formed an acting duo with her husband Alfred Lunt (1892-1977). Fontanne had few film roles, but was once nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Fontanne was born in Woodford, Essex in 1887, which was at the time a suburb of London with an ever-growing population. Woodford was annexed to Greater London in 1965 as part of an administrative reform. It is currently part of the London Borough of Redbridge. Fontanne's parents were Jules Fontanne (of French descent) and Frances Ellen Thornley (of Irish descent).
Fontanne first gained fame in 1921, at the age of 34. She portrayed the protagonist character Dulcy in the farce play "Dulcy" by George Simon Kaufman (1889-1961) and Marc Connelly (1890-1980), and won acclaim as a comedy actress. She became known for her witty roles, and had roles specifically written for her by Samuel Nathaniel Behrman (1893-1973), Robert Emmet Sherwood (1896-1955), and Noël Coward (1899-1973).
Fontanne enjoyed further success with a leading dramatic role in "Strange Interlude" (1928) by Eugene O'Neill (1888-1953). Fontanne portrayed protagonist Nina Leeds, a woman who lost her original fiance in World War play. The grieving Nina then engages in a series of affairs, before marrying "amiable fool" Sam Evans. She is aware that madness runs in the Evans family, so she has a child with a lover and has Sam acknowledge it as his own. She then maintains secret affairs for the next twenty years, while still posing as a loving wife. Due to its content, the play was considered controversial in the 1920s, but it was a hit.
Fontanne made her film debut in the romantic comedy "Second Youth". She had her greatest success in the medium with the comedy "The Guardsman" (1931). In the film, a jealous husband creates a second identity to seduce his wife. Fontanne played the wife, who recognizes her husband but decides to play along. Fontanne was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for this role, but the Award was instead won by rival actress Helen Hayes (1900-1993).
Fontanne's most notable theatrical success in the 1930s was the risque play "Design for Living" (1933), involving bisexuality and a ménage à trois. Fontanne continued performing as a stage actress until her official retirement in 1958. During her last year as a stage actress, Fontanne and Lunt introduced their new theatrical house, Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.
Fontanne continued appearing regularly in television until the mid-1960s. She received an Emmy Award for her role in "The Magnificent Yankee" (1965), and was nominated for a second one for her role as Maria Feodorovna (1847-1928) in "Anastasia" (1967). Fontanne received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964.
Fontane continued living in retirement until 1983, residing in her summer home "Ten Chimneys" in Genesee Depot, Wisconsin. She was 95-years-old at the time of her death, one of the oldest living actresses. Following her death, Ten chimneys was converted to a house museum and social center for American theater. - Alfred Lunt was an American actor, particularly known for his professional partnership with his wife Lynn Fontanne (1887-1983). Lunt was one of Broadway's leading male stars.
Lunt was born in 1892 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His father Alfred D. Lunt was active in the lumber business, while his mother Harriet Washburn Briggs was a housewife. Lunt's ancestry in both Maine and Massachusetts dated back to the colonial era. He was a distant descendant of Henry Lunt, an early settler of Newbury, Massachusetts. Lunt's paternal grandmother was Scottish American. Lunt's maternal ancestors lived in New England since colonial times, and including a number of Mayflower arrivals.
Alfred D. Lunt died in 1893. The widowed Harriet married a Finnish-American physician, Dr. Karl Sederholm. The Sederholms eventually settled in Genesee Depot, Wisconsin, a small unincorporated community in Waukesha County, Wisconsin. Lunt was raised in Genesse Depot, along with three younger half-siblings, He attended Carroll College in nearby Waukesha, Wisconsin.
Lunt fist gained publicity in 1919, for his starring role in the comedy play "Clarence" by Booth Tarkington (1869-1946). He distinguished himself in a variety of theatrical roles, including in Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew" and Chekhov's "The Seagull ". On May 26, 1926, Lunt married actress Lynn Fontane. The two became the preeminent Broadway acting couple. Their successes included a play written specifically for them, the menage a trois-themed "Design for Living" (1932) by Noël Coward.
Lunt started acting in films in the 1920s. His film debut was the silent drama "Backbone" (1923) for Goldwyn Pictures. Subsequent films included the South Sea romance "The Ragged Edge" (1923), the romantic comedy "Second Youth" (1924), the circus-themed comedy "Sally of the Sawdust" (1925), and the comedy film "Lovers in Quarantine" (1925).
Lunt's most successful film effort was the comedy film "The Guardsman" (1931). In the film, A jealous husband creates a second identity in order to woo his wife, and she plays along. Lunt played the role of the husband, and Lynn Fontane the role of the wife. It was a critical success, but not particularly successful at the box office. Lunt was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for this role, but the Award was instead won (in a tie) by Wallace Beery and Fredric March.
Lunt returned to being mostly a theatrical actor. He had a cameo in the World War II film "Stage Door Canteen" (1943), and appeared as himself in the documentary film "Show Business at War" (1943). During the 1940s, Lunt and and Fontane starred in several radio dramas. In the 1950s and the 1960s, they appeared frequently on television.
Lunt officially retired from the stage in 1958, at the age of 66. His last film appearance was the television film "The Magnificent Yankee" (1965), where he played the United States Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841-1935).
Lunt spend his last years in retirement at his summer home "Ten Chimneys" in in Genesse Depot. He died in August 1977, about a week before his 85th birthday. The cause of death was cancer. Fontane remained in "Ten Chimneys" until her own death in 1983. Ten Chimneys was afterwards converted into a house museum, and a resource center for theater. - Clifton Daniel was born on 19 September 1912 in the USA. He was an actor, known for Burning Vengeance (1989), Matlock (1986) and Bubblegum Crisis (1987). He was married to Margaret Truman. He died on 20 February 2000 in New York City, New York, USA.
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Ruth Elizabeth Davis was born April 5, 1908, in Lowell, Massachusetts, to Ruth Augusta (Favor) and Harlow Morrell Davis, a patent attorney. Her parents divorced when she was 10. She and her sister were raised by their mother. Her early interest was dance. To Bette, dancers led a glamorous life, but then she discovered the stage, and gave up dancing for acting. To her, it presented much more of a challenge.
After graduation from Cushing Academy, she was refused admittance to Eva Le Gallienne's Manhattan Civic Repertory. She enrolled in John Murray Anderson's Dramatic School and was the star pupil. She was in the off-Broadway play "The Earth Between" (1923), and her Broadway debut in 1929 was in "Broken Dishes". She also appeared in "Solid South". Late in 1930, she was hired by Universal, where she made her first film, called Bad Sister (1931). When she arrived in Hollywood, the studio representative who went to meet her train left without her because he could find no one who looked like a movie star. An official at Universal complained she had "as much sex appeal as Slim Summerville" and her performance in "Bad Sister" didn't impress.
In 1932, she signed a seven-year deal with Warner Brothers Pictures. Her first film with them was The Man Who Played God (1932). She became a star after this appearance, known as the actress that could play a variety of very strong and complex roles. More fairly successful movies followed, but it was the role of Mildred Rogers in RKO's Of Human Bondage (1934) that would give Bette major acclaim from the film critics. She had a significant number of write-in votes for the Best Actress Oscar, but didn't win. Warner Bros. felt their seven-year deal with Bette was more than justified. They had a genuine star on their hands. With this success under her belt, she began pushing for stronger and more meaningful roles. In 1935, she received her first Oscar for her role in Dangerous (1935) as Joyce Heath.
In 1936, she was suspended without pay for turning down a role that she deemed unworthy of her talent. She went to England, where she had planned to make movies, but was stopped by Warner Bros. because she was still under contract to them. They did not want her to work anywhere. Although she sued to get out of her contract, she lost. Still, they began to take her more seriously after that.
Returning after losing her lawsuit, her roles improved dramatically. In 1938, Bette received a second Academy Award win for her work in Jezebel (1938) opposite the soon-to-be-legendary Henry Fonda. The only role she didn't get that she wanted was Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939). Warners wouldn't loan her to David O. Selznick unless he hired Errol Flynn to play Rhett Butler, which both Selznick and Davis thought was a terrible choice. It was rumored she had numerous affairs, among them George Brent and William Wyler, and she was married four times, three of which ended in divorce. She admitted her career always came first.
She made many successful films in the 1940s, but each picture was weaker than the last and by the time her Warner Brothers contract had ended in 1949, she had been reduced to appearing in such films as the unintentionally hilarious Beyond the Forest (1949). She made a huge comeback in 1950 when she replaced an ill Claudette Colbert in, and received an Oscar nomination for, All About Eve (1950). She worked in films through the 1950s, but her career eventually came to a standstill, and in 1961 she placed a now famous Job Wanted ad in the trade papers.
She received an Oscar nomination for her role as a demented former child star in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). This brought about a new round of super-stardom for generations of fans who were not familiar with her work. Two years later, she starred in Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964). Bette was married four times.
In 1977 she received the AFI's Lifetime Achievement Award and in 1979 she won a Best Actress Emmy for Strangers: The Story of a Mother and Daughter (1979). In 1977-78 she moved from Connecticut to Los Angeles and filmed a pilot for the series Hotel (1983), which she called Brothel. She refused to do the TV series and suffered a stroke during this time.
Her last marriage, to actor Gary Merrill, lasted ten years, longer than any of the previous three. In 1985, her daughter Barbara Davis ("B.D.") Hyman published a scandalous book about Bette called "My Mother's Keeper." Bette worked in the later 1980s in films and TV, even though a stroke had impaired her appearance and mobility. She wrote a book, "This 'N That", during her recovery from the stroke. Her last book was "Bette Davis, The Lonely Life", issued in paperback in 1990. It included an update from 1962 to 1989. She wrote the last chapter in San Sebastian, Spain.
Sadly, Bette Davis died on October 6, 1989, of metastasized breast cancer, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France. Many of her fans refused to believe she was gone.- Actor
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Two-time Oscar-winner Melvyn Douglas was one of America's finest actors, and would enjoy cinema immortality if for no other reason than his being the man who made Greta Garbo laugh in Ernst Lubitsch's classic comedy Ninotchka (1939), but he was much, much more.
Melvyn Douglas was born Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg on April 5, 1901, in Macon, Georgia. His father, Edouard Gregory Hesselberg, a noted concert pianist and composer, was a Latvian Jewish emigrant, from Riga. His mother, Lena Priscilla (Shackelford), from Clark Furnace, Tennessee, was from a family with deep roots in the United States, and the daughter of Col. George Taliaferro Shackelford. Melvyn's father supported his family by teaching music at university-based conservatories. Melvyn dropped out of high school to pursue his dream of becoming an actor.
He made his Broadway debut in the drama "A Free Soul " at the Playhouse Theatre on January 12, 1928, playing the role of a raffish gangster (a part that would later make Clark Gable's career when the play was adapted to the screen as A Free Soul (1931) ). "A Free Soul" was a modest success, running for 100 performances. His next three plays were flops: "Back Here" and "Now-a-Days" each lasted one week, while "Recapture" lasted all of three before closing. He was much luckier with his next play, "Tonight or Never," which opened on November 18, 1930, at legendary producer David Belasco's theater. Not only did the play run for 232 performances, but Douglas met the woman who would be his wife of nearly 50 years: his co-star, Helen Gahagan. They were married in 1931.
The movies came a-calling in 1932 and Douglas had the unique pleasure of assaying completely different characters in widely divergent films. He first appeared opposite his future Ninotchka (1939) co-star Greta Garbo in the screen adaptation of Luigi Pirandello's As You Desire Me (1932), proving himself a sophisticated leading man as, aside from his first-rate performance, he was able to shine in the light thrown off by Garbo, the cinema's greatest star. In typical Hollywood fashion, however, this terrific performance in a top-rank film from a major studio was balanced by his appearance in a low-budget horror film for the independent Mayfair studio, The Vampire Bat (1933). However, the leading man won out, and that's how he first came to fame in the 1930s in such films as She Married Her Boss (1935) and Garbo's final film, Two-Faced Woman (1941). Douglas had shown he could play both straight drama and light comedy.
Douglas was a great liberal and was a pillar of the anti-Nazi Popular Front in the Hollywood of the 1930s. A big supporter of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he and his wife Helen were invited to spend a night at the White House in November 1939. Douglas' leftism would come back to haunt him after the death of FDR.
Well-connected with the Roosevelt White House, Douglas served as a director of the Arts Council in the Office of Civilian Defense before joining the Army during World War II. He was very active in politics and was one of the leading lights of the anti-Communist left in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Helen Gahagan Douglas, who also was politically active, was elected to Congress from the 14th District in Los Angeles in 1944, the first of three terms.
Returning to films after the war, Douglas' screen persona evolved and he took on more mature roles, in such films as The Sea of Grass (1947) (Elia Kazan's directorial debut) and Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948). His political past caught up with him, however, in the late 1940s, and he - along with fellow liberals Edward G. Robinson and Henry Fonda (a registered Republican!) - were "gray-listed" (not explicitly blacklisted, they just weren't offered any work).
Then there was the theater. Douglas made many appearances on Broadway in the 1940s and 1950s, including in a notable 1959 flop, making his musical debut playing Captain Boyle in Marc Blitzstein's "Juno." The musical, based on Sean O'Casey's play "Juno and the Paycock", closed in less than three weeks. Douglas was much luckier in his next trip to the post: he won a Tony for his Broadway lead role in the 1960 play "The Best Man" by Gore Vidal.
Douglas' evolution into a premier character actor was completed by the early 1960s. His years of movie exile seemed to deepen him, making him richer, and he returned to the big screen a more authoritative actor. For his second role after coming off of the graylist, he won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar as Paul Newman's father in Hud (1963). Other films in which he shined were Paddy Chayefsky's The Americanization of Emily (1964), CBS Playhouse (1967) (a 1967 episode directed by George Schaefer called "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night", for which he won a Best Actor Emmy) and The Candidate (1972), in which he played Robert Redford's father. It was for his performance playing Gene Hackman's father that Douglas got his sole Best Actor Academy Award nod, in I Never Sang for My Father (1970). He had a career renaissance in the late 1970s, appearing in The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979), Being There (1979) and Ghost Story (1981). He won his second Oscar for "Being There."
Helen Gahagan Douglas died in 1980 and Melvyn followed her in 1981. He was 80 years old.- Actor
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Although he appeared in approximately 100 movies or TV shows, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. never really intended to take up acting as a career. However, the environment he was born into and the circumstances naturally led him to be a thespian. Noblesse oblige.
He was born Douglas Elton Fairbanks, Jr. in New York City, New York, to Anna Beth (Sully), daughter of a very wealthy cotton mogul, and actor Douglas Fairbanks (born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman), then not yet established as the swashbuckling idol he would become. Fairbanks, Jr. had German Jewish (from his paternal grandfather), English, and Scottish ancestry.
He proved a gifted boy early in life. To the end of his life he remained a multi-talented, hyperactive man, not content to appear in the 100 films mentioned above. Handsome, distinguished and extremely bright, he excelled at sports (much like his father), notably during his stay at the Military Academy in 1919 (his role in Claude Autant-Lara's "L'athlète incomplete" illustrated these abilities). He also excelled academically, and attended the Lycéee Janson de Sailly in Paris, where he had followed his divorced mother. Very early in his life he developed a taste for the arts as well and became a painter and sculptor. Not content to limiting himself to just one field, he became involved in business, in fields as varied as mining, hotel management, owning a chain of bowling alleys and a firm that manufactured popcorn. During World War II he headed London's Douglas Voluntary Hospital (an establishment taking care of war refugees), was President Franklin D. Roosevelt's special envoy for the Special Mission to South America in 1940 before becoming a lieutenant in the Navy (he was promoted to the rank of captain in 1954) and taking part in the Allies' landing in Sicily and Elba in 1943. A fervent Anglophile, was knighted in 1949 and often entertained Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in his London mansion, "The Boltons".
His film career began at the age of 13 when he was signed by Paramount Pictures. He debuted in Stephen Steps Out (1923) but the film flopped and his career stagnated despite a critically acclaimed role in Stella Dallas (1925). Things really picked up when he married Lucille Le Sueur, a young starlet who was soon to become better known as Joan Crawford. The young couple became the toast of the town (one "Screen Snapshots" episode echoes this sudden glory) and good parts and success followed, such as the hapless partner of Edward G. Robinson in Little Caesar (1931) a favorably reviewed turn as the villain in The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) or more debonair characters in slapstick comedies or adventure yarns. The 1930s were a fruitful period for Fairbanks, his most memorable role probably being that of the British soldier in Gunga Din (1939); although it was somewhat of a "swashbuckling" role, Fairbanks made a point of never imitating his father. After the World War II, his star waned and, despite a moving part in Ghost Story (1981), he did not appear in a major movie. Now a legend himself, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. left this world with the satisfaction of having lived up to the Fairbanks name at the end of a life nobody could call "wasted".- Writer
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Ferber initially studied acting. She then worked as a reporter in Milwaukee and Chicago. Travels through America and Europe followed. Ferber became the author of interesting novels with a cultural-historical background. She often designed the plot in such a way that a female figure was in the foreground. In her works she depicts changing environments and American life in a realistic style. Her books often reveal a socially critical attitude. She expanded her narrative approach to create broad family and homeland novels that she linked to the history of the USA or the respective regions. It features the lower Mississippi region in the early 19th century, the time of the fur trade in Seattle, the run on oil in Oklahoma and the settlement of Texas.
She also wrote social comedies as stage plays, which were successful, as well as short stories, dramas and her autobiography. Some of her novels have been made into films. The most famous example is probably "Giant", the film of the same name, in German: "Giganten". It was made into a film in 1956 by director George Stevens with stars such as James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, Dennis Hopper and Rock Hudson. The film became a box office hit worldwide. Edna Ferber also provided the book for the musical "Show Boat" (premiered in 1927). It is about a critical attitude towards segregation and prejudices against blacks. This adaptation brought this socially critical, previously taboo topic to the musical stage for the first time. "Cimarron", a film title from 1960, is also based on the book title of the same name by Edna Ferber.
Her works include "Dawn O'Hara" (1911, German 1916), "Buttered Side Down" (1912), "Fanny Herself" (1917, German 1930: "This is Fanny"), "Half Portions " (1920), "The Girls" (1921, German 1928), "So Big" (1924, German 1927, "A Woman Alone" from 1962), "Show Boat" (1926, German 1929: "That Comedian Ship"), "Mother Knows Best" (1927), "The Royal Family" (1928, German 1931). This was followed by "American Beauty" (1931, German 1957: "The House of the Fathers"), "Dinner at Eight" (1932), "They Brought Their Women" (1933), "Come and Get it" (1935), "Stage Door" (1936), "A Peculiar Treasure" (191939), "Saratoga Drunk" (1941, German 1947), "The Land is Bright" (1941), "Great Son" (1945, German 1950) , "Bravo" (1948), "Ice Palace" (1958) and "Kind of Magic" (1963).- Actress
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Undoubtedly the woman who had come to epitomize what we recognize today as "celebrity," Zsa Zsa Gabor, is better known for her many marriages, personal appearances, her "dahlink" catchphrase, her actions, gossip, and quotations on men, rather than her film career.
Zsa Zsa was born as Sári Gabor on February 6, 1917 in Budapest, Hungary, to Jolie Gabor (née Janka Tilleman) and Vilmos Gabor (born Farkas Miklós Grün), both of Jewish descent. Her siblings were Eva Gabor and Magda Gabor. Zsa Zsa studied at a Swiss finishing school, was second runner-up in the fifth Miss Hungary pageant, and began her stage career in Vienna in 1934. In 1941, the year she obtained her first divorce, she followed younger sister Eva to Hollywood.
A radiant, beautiful blonde, Zsa Zsa began to appear on television series and occasional films. Her first film was at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in Lovely to Look At (1952), co-starring Kathryn Grayson and Red Skelton. She next made a comedy called We're Not Married! (1952) at 20th Century Fox with Ginger Rogers. It was far from a star billing; she appeared several names down the cast as a supporting actress. But in 1952 she broke into films big time with her starring role opposite José Ferrer in Moulin Rouge (1952), although it has been said that throughout filming, director John Huston gave her a very difficult time.
In the following years, Zsa Zsa slipped back into supporting roles in films such as Lili (1953) and 3 Ring Circus (1954). Her main period of film work was in the 1950s, with other roles in Death of a Scoundrel (1956), with Yvonne De Carlo, and The Man Who Wouldn't Talk (1958) with Anna Neagle; again, these were supporting roles. By the 1960s, Zsa Zsa was appearing more as herself in films. She now appeared to follow her own persona around, and cameo appearances were the order of the day in films such as Pepe (1960) and Jack of Diamonds (1967). This continued throughout the 1970s.
She was memorable as herself in The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991), in which she humorously poked fun at a 1989 incident where she was convicted of slapping a police officer (Paul Kramer) during a traffic stop. She spent three days in jail and had to do 120 hours of community service. Such infamous incidents contributed to her becoming one of the most all-time recognizable of Hollywood celebrities, and sometimes ridiculed as a result. She was also memorable to British television viewers on The Ruby Wax Show (1997).
In 2002, Gabor was reported to be in a coma in a Los Angeles hospital after a horrifying car accident. The 85-year-old star was injured when the car she was traveling in hit a utility pole in West Hollywood, California. The reports about her coma eventually proved to be inaccurate.
Zsa Zsa's life, spanning two continents, nine husbands, and 11 decades, came to an end on December 18, 2016, when she died of cardiac arrest in Los Angeles, California. She was 99.- Actress
This beautiful Broadway singer and actress appeared in only one film, portraying the forever-young ice goddess ("she who must be obeyed"), the title character in RKO's 1935 adaptation of H. Rider Haggard's tale, She (1935), opposite Randolph Scott. In the latter 1940s, having entered politics, she would serve two terms in the lower house of the U.S. Congress as a Representative from the state of California. (Her bid in 1950 for a seat in the upper house, the United States Senate, saw defeat at the hands of one Richard Nixon).- Actress
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Paulette Goddard was a child model who debuted in "The Ziegfeld Follies" at the age of 13. She gained fame with the show as the girl on the crescent moon, and was married to a wealthy man, Edgar James, by the time she was 17. After her divorce she went to Hollywood in 1931, where she appeared in small roles in pictures for a number of studios. A stunning natural beauty, Paulette could mesmerize any man she met, a fact she was well aware of. One of her bigger roles in that period was as a blond "Goldwyn Girl" in the Eddie Cantor film The Kid from Spain (1932). In 1932 she met Charles Chaplin, and they soon became an item around town. He cast her in Modern Times (1936), which was a big hit, but her movie career was not going anywhere because of her relationship with Chaplin. They were secretly married in 1936, but the marriage failed and they were separated by 1940. It was her role as Miriam Aarons in The Women (1939), however, that got her a contract with Paramount. Paulette was one of the many actresses tested for the part of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939), but she lost the part to Vivien Leigh and instead appeared with Bob Hope in The Cat and the Canary (1939), a good film but hardly in the same league as GWTW. The 1940s were Paulette's busiest period. She worked with Chaplin in The Great Dictator (1940), Cecil B. DeMille in Reap the Wild Wind (1942) and Burgess Meredith in The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946). She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in So Proudly We Hail! (1943). Her star faded in the late 1940s, however, and she was dropped by Paramount in 1949. After a couple of "B" movies, she left films and went to live in Europe as a wealthy expatriate; she married German novelist Erich Maria Remarque in the late 1950s. She was coaxed back to the screen once more, although it was the small screen, for the television movie The Female Instinct (1972).- Actor
- French-born Francine Larrimore arrived in the United States as a child and first appeared on stage at the age of 12 in 'Where There's a Will' in 1910. A member of the Adler dynasty of actors (cousin of Luther, Stella and Jay Adler), she had her first major theatrical successes in the Rudolf Friml musical 'Sometime' (1918) and in the comedy 'Nice People'(1921), with Tallulah Bankhead and Katharine Cornell. She was best known for her portrayals of exuberant 'pouty girls', but she could also dance, had a good singing voice and a talent for delivering humorous lines. At the height of her theatrical fame in 1926, Francine created the role of Chicago showgirl Roxie Hart at the Music Box Theatre in New York (a part played on screen by Ginger Rogers in 1942). Her one significant foray into talking pictures, John Meade's Woman (1937), was poorly received and Francine promptly returned to the stage. Her last performance was in 'Temporarily, Mrs. Smith', in 1946. Her first husband was the well-known songwriter Con Conrad.
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Originally a dance instructor, she came to Broadway during the Depression to begin her career as a professional actress. A daughter of Texas, she originally began work as a dance instructor until a local evangelical-adherent burned down her studio citing her work as being too sinful for human nature. Coming to New York City, she appeared on Broadway introducing the song "My Heart Belongs to Daddy". She later made a name for herself in several Hollywood musicals during the 1940s and later in her career enjoyed huge success as Peter Pan, which she cited as her favorite role.- Actress
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Patrice Munsel was born on 14 May 1925 in Spokane, Washington, USA. She was an actress, known for The Alcoa Hour (1955), The Red Skelton Hour (1951) and Melba (1953). She was married to Robert Schuler. She died on 4 August 2016 in Schroon Lake, New York, USA.- Suzy Parker was born on 28 October 1932 in Long Island City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Funny Face (1957), Circle of Deception (1960) and The Best of Everything (1959). She was married to Bradford Dillman, Pierre de la Salle and Charles Ronald Staton. She died on 3 May 2003 in Montecito, California, USA.
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The German novelist Erich Maria Remarque was born in Osnabrück in 1898. His first novel, the famous anti-war epic All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), was written based on his experiences as a soldier in WWI, and published in 1929. He moved to Switzerland until 1939 and later emigrated to the US. He died in 1970 in Locarno, Switzerland.- Writer
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Isadore Schary had a long and checkered history in motion pictures. He was first employed as a screenwriter at then-lowly Columbia after a story editor was struck by the crispness of a writing sample. The editor also happened to think that the writer was a woman, mistaking Dore for Dora. By 1933 he'd been lured away to the first of a number of writing stints at MGM at $200 per week working under producer Harry Rapf. Schary and Rapf (known as "the anteater," he'd prove to be his lifelong nemesis), then in charge of MGM's B-productions (although Louis B. Mayer frowned on the term), didn't see eye to eye on a number of issues and fought continually. Schary soon left for work as a hired gun with a typewriter but found himself back at MGM writing a Spencer Tracy vehicle, Big City (1937), when he became intrigued in the story of Father Flanagan's Nebraska Boy's Town, envisioning Tracy for the role. But Tracy was weary at playing a series of priests and the script was shelved. On top of that he was unable to escape the irritating presence of Harry Rapf and he quit again. Boys Town (1938) was resurrected after Tracy reconsidered, becoming one of it's biggest hits of the year and co-writer Schary nailed an Oscar for best original screenplay. E.J. Mannix dangled more money at the now-hot property and he was back again at MGM developing Joe Smith, American (1942) with Mayer offering him a dream job as a producer, except that he'd be back working for Rapf. Sensing he could do more as a producer across a wide range of projects and undoubtedly drawn to a whopping salary increase, Schary accepted. He definitely favored scripts with liberal allegories, which represented the very antithesis of the ultra-right-wing Mayer. But even Mayer was impressed by the man's versatility and ability to deliver hits such as Lassie Come Home (1943) and Journey for Margaret (1942) which introduced the biggest box-office draw the studio ever had in a child: Margaret O'Brien. But a planned return to liberal allegory with a proposed project with Nobel prize winner Sinclair Lewis called "Storm of the West" failed to win Mayer's final approval and he quit once again in protest. At the end of 1943 Schary accepted an offer with David O. Selznick's new independent division, Vanguard. He soon moved to RKO where he enjoyed a brief period of total autonomy prior to it's purchase and ultimate ruination by eccentric millionaire Howard Hughes. Schary's textbook liberalism was called into question after he made a vigorous appeal on the behalf of the brilliant writer Edward Dmytryk and producer Adrian Scott, both RKO employees, before HUAC in 1947, but seemed to back pedal after helping draft the so-called Waldorf-Astoria declaration (the result of which, ironically would affect writer Maurice Rapf, his nemesis' son, profoundly), denouncing employment of known Communists. Coincidentally, it was during the HUAC hearings that he ran into Loew's Inc. (and MGM's parent) chief Nicholas Schenck on a train bound for New York. MGM itself had begun to feel the financial effects of changing public tastes by 1947, which could rightly be laid on the lap of the Victorian-minded Louis B. Mayer. While other studios were booming in the immediate post-war era, MGM's releases were rapidly losing their appeal. It truly was a dismal period for the studio, highlighted by the recent flops The Sea of Grass (1947), Lady in the Lake (1946) and what many film historians consider the nadir of big-budget MGM releases, Desire Me (1947), a film so awful it was released without a directorial credit (the two assigned directors disowned the film). The Tiffany of Studios had fallen into 4th place in profitability and the prospects for 1948 were decidedly mediocre (and would prove to be so, suffering a whopping $13.8 million slide from their peak in 1946). Schenck, who had ascended to his position after founder Marcus Loew's death in 1926 never enjoyed an ideal relationship with Mayer but tolerated their rancor in light the studio's enviable financial record. As a reward for its remarkable profitability during the Great Depression, Mayer became the highest paid executive in the country year after year. Schenck may not have initially envisioned Schary as Mayer's replacement, but he wanted to reinvigorate the studio with new (or at least, recycled) blood. Mayer first proposed his son-in-law, Selznick, who flatly refused to work for him. Schary, by then at RKO, was having his own troubles. His latest pet project, Battleground (1949) had been rejected by an increasingly invasive and erratic Howard Hughes, who felt the public was weary of war pictures. Schary, sensed his career had hit another brick wall and opted to jump back to MGM as production chief and took the project with him, purchasing the rights from RKO. Mayer's position at MGM by this time was considerably weakened but he counseled Schary against producing the picture, reiterating the opinion of the public's distaste for war stories, predicting it was doomed to failure. Mayer's veto of the project was overridden by Schenck, irritating Mayer to no end. Battleground came in under budget, largely thanks to casting numerous then-unknown contract players and became a huge hit. Schary's stock grew enormously in Schenck's eyes and undoubtedly further infuriated the aging Mayer. Schary announced a huge increase in MGM's 1949-50 production schedule, detailing some 67 projects, compared to it's meager 24 the previous season (many of which proved to be outright flops). With this new sense of vitality, the studio's profits rose 50% in 1949 but faced the looming threat of television. Like nearly every major studio in Hollywood (with the exception of Columbia and Paramount) MGM chose to fight TV's burgeoning popularity--- MGM reverted to what the box couldn't: provide spectacle. The result would become Mayer's last greenlighted hit, Quo Vadis (1951) and the cause of another one of many fissures in his relationship with Schary, who wanted to interject an anti-fascism allegory into the biblical plot. Innumerable production delays would mean it's success would be an empty victory for Mayer; he was ousted prior to it's release. One of the final straws would involve the production of The Red Badge of Courage (1951), when Mayer appealed to Schenck regarding his disapproval of the picture (Mayer's instincts here proved correct; the picture, although now considered a minor classic, failed financially). Inevitably Schary was played as a pawn by both Mayer and Schenck in a power gambit. Mayer, in a repeat of his 1934 falling out with Irving Thalberg, was irate over Schary being awarded 100,000 shares of stock without his consultation and threatened to quit. Schenck called his bluff and accepted his resignation on June 22, 1951 and the 46-year old Schary found himself in charge of MGM. At this point Schenck sought to solidify his position of overall control by reviving the old executive committee, his early concept of centralizing corporate management. But he oddly chose to retain Mayer loyalists within the command structure, who considered themselves higher up the Loew's corporate ladder than their new studio chief. This committee held MGM's purse strings and many of Schary's requests for production funding would be nixed by Benjamin Thau, whose office dealt with all of the studio's contracts. Athough MGM would appear to again thrive in 1952, the actions of the executive committee, the impending Supreme Court ruling demanding theater divestment (a subject worthy of a book itself), and the external threat of TV would ultimately threaten MGM's future. MGM/Loew's had fought theatrical divestment for over a decade but failed to take advantage of this temporary reprieve by corporate political in-fighting and a severe lack of industry vision. In retrospect, it should have embraced television production and re-invented itself as a media conglomerate in the later mold of Warner Brothers. Instead, austerity measures were enacted, UK production was increased (due to lower labor costs) at the expense of it's Hollywood operations and the studio drastically cut its roster of talent. The undeniable fact was that MGM was in irreversible decline, based primarily on the actions of Mayer, Schenck and Rapf in the preceding decade. But even Schary failed to grasp both the threat and promise of television and backed the board's decision to withhold it's massive film library from broadcast licensing. Schenck himself rebuffed NBC chief David Sarnoff's repeated offer of a MGM-NBC alliance. The studio finally approved a foray into television with MGM Parade (1955) on ABC, then an also-ran network. The series, featuring the somewhat bland career MGM contract star, George Murphy and largely consisting of old film clips, and gratuitously promoting upcoming MGM releases, was no great success. Another power struggle occurred within Loew's in late 1955 when Arthur Loew opted to assert familial control over his father's company. Schenck was kicked upstairs and the film library was finally made available to TV, bringing in an infusion of cash that glossed over worsening problems within the film industry and MGM in particular. Arthur Loew's tenure proved brief; he held no particular fondness for corporate politics and abruptly quit, reverting to his previous position as head of Loew's International and chairman of the board. Schenck's tenure as President of Loew's Inc. was marked by one pronounced gross oversight: he never groomed a replacement. A search for a new company president resulted in the ascendancy of career company man Joseph Vogel, who viewed Dore Schary as a plausible scapegoat for the under performance of MGM in the mid-1950's (among other things, the disappointing performance of the $1.9 million Forbidden Planet (1956)---originally conceived as a modest B-picture--- rankled the board). Vogel asked for Schary's resignation, which was refused; he wanted to be fired. Schary left his 20+ year on-again, off-again employment at MGM for the final time, pocketing $100,000 in cash and another $900,000 in a deferred salary package. In retrospect, Schary was probably ill suited for corporate world; too creative to effectively macro-manage and possessing a genuine desire to be liked even by those he disagreed with. Unlike Mayer, Schary had a second career after life at MGM. He'd wind down his career as a successful Broadway producer, director and playwright focusing much of his attention on the life of his personal hero, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (see "Other Works"). He died in 1980.- Actress
- Writer
Cornelia Otis Skinner was born on 30 May 1899 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She was an actress and writer, known for The Uninvited (1944), The Swimmer (1968) and Stage Door Canteen (1943). She was married to Alden Sanford Blodget. She died on 9 July 1979 in New York City, New York, USA.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
President of the Dramatic Club at Cornell University, Franchot Tone gave up the family business for acting, making his Broadway debut in "The Age of Innocence".
Tone then went into movies for MGM, making his film debut (at Paramount Pictures) in The Wiser Sex (1932). With his theatrical background, Tone became one of the most talented movie actors in Hollywood.- Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Margaret Truman was born on 17 February 1924 in Independence, Missouri, USA. She was an actress and writer, known for Margaret Truman's Capital Crimes, Matinee Theatre (1955) and Modern Romances (1954). She was married to Clifton Daniel. She died on 29 January 2008 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.