|
Blithe Spirit (Ford Star Jubilee)
"Blithe Spirit" is a 1956 television play version of the play of the same name by Noël Coward. Coward directed and starred in the adaptation. It aired as an episode of ''Ford Star Jubilee''. Production Coward wrote in his diary that Colbert was "extremely tiresome" during rehearsals, not arriving at the first rehearsal knowing the words, being "exceedingly bossy", insisting on only being "photographed on one side of her face, so all grouping of scenes has to be arranged accordingly", constantly changing her mind over her dresses, and being "determined to play Ruth as a mixture of Mary Rose and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, and very, very slowly. I have already had two stand-up fights with her, not very edifying and a hideous waste of time." He thought Bacall "is charming and no trouble; also, unfortunately, no comedienne, but she moves beautifully, looks ravishing and is trying like mad". He wrote Mildred Natwick "is wonderful: true, subtle and hilariously funny without ever being i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ford Star Jubilee
''Ford Star Jubilee'' is an American anthology series that originally aired monthly on Saturday nights on CBS at 9:30 P.M., E.S.T. from September 24, 1955, to November 3, 1956, (With a summer hiatus). The series was approximately 90 minutes long, broadcast in black-and-white and color, and was typically telecast live. ''Ford Star Jubilee'' was sponsored by the Ford Motor Company. Format ''Ford Star Jubilee'' routinely featured major stars, such as Judy Garland, Betty Grable, Debbie Reynolds, Shirley Jones, Orson Welles, Julie Andrews (at the time that she was preparing for her starring role in ''My Fair Lady'' on Broadway), Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, Gordon MacRae, Lillian Gish, Charles Laughton, Jack Lemmon, Raymond Massey, Lauren Bacall, Claudette Colbert, Noël Coward, Nat 'King' Cole, Mary Martin, Eddie Fisher, Ella Fitzgerald, and Red Skelton. Instead of the usual live performance staged especially for ''Ford Star Jubilee'', the final episode on November 3, 1956 was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time (magazine), Time'' called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise"."Noel Coward at 70" ''Time'', 26 December 1969, p. 46 Coward attended a dance academy in London as a child, making his professional stage début at the age of eleven. As a teenager he was introduced into the high society in which most of his plays would be set. Coward achieved enduring success as a playwright, publishing more than 50 plays from his teens onwards. Many of his works, such as ''Hay Fever (play), Hay Fever'', ''Private Lives'', ''Design for Living'', ''Pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blithe Spirit (play)
''Blithe Spirit'' is a comic play by Noël Coward, described by the author as "an improbable farce in three acts". The play concerns the socialite and novelist Charles Condomine, who invites the eccentric medium and clairvoyant Madame Arcati to his house to conduct a séance, hoping to gather material for his next book. The scheme backfires when he is haunted by the ghost of his wilful and temperamental first wife, Elvira, after the séance. Elvira makes continual attempts to disrupt Charles's marriage to his second wife, Ruth, who cannot see or hear the ghost. The play was first seen in the West End in 1941 and ran for 1,997 performances, a new record for a non-musical play in London. It also did well on Broadway later that year, running for 657 performances. The play was adapted for the cinema in 1945; a second film version followed in 2020. Coward directed a musical adaptation, '' High Spirits'', seen on Broadway and in the West End in 1964. Radio and television presenta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lauren Bacall
Betty Joan Perske (September 16, 1924 – August 12, 2014), professionally known as Lauren Bacall ( ), was an American actress. She was named the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, 20th-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute. She received an Academy Honorary Award in 2009 in recognition of her contribution to the Golden Age of motion pictures. Bacall was one of the last surviving major stars from the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood cinema. Bacall began a career as a model for the Walter Clarence Thornton, Walter Thornton Model Agency before making her film debut at the age of twenty in ''To Have and Have Not (film), To Have and Have Not'' (1944) as the leading lady opposite Humphrey Bogart, whom she later married. She continued in the film noir genre with appearances alongside Bogart in ''The Big Sleep (1946 film), The Big Sleep'' (1946), ''Dark Passage (film), Dark Passage'' (1947), and ''Key Largo (film), Key Largo'' (194 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert (koʊlˈbɛər/ kohl-BAIR, born Émilie "Lily" Claudette Chauchoin (ʃoʃwɛ̃/ show-shwan); September 13, 1903 – July 30, 1996) was an American actress. Colbert began her career in Broadway theater, Broadway productions during the late 1920s and progressed to films with the advent of Sound film, talking pictures. Initially contracted to Paramount Pictures, Colbert became one of the few major actresses of the period who worked freelance; that is to say, independently of the studio system. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Colbert the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, 12th-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema. With her Good American Speech, Mid-Atlantic accent, versatility, witty dialogues, aristocratic demeanor, and flair for light comedy and emotional drama, Colbert became one of the most popular stars of the 1930s and 1940s. In all, Colbert acted in more than 60 movies. Among her frequent co-stars were Fred MacMurray in seven films (1935–1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brenda Forbes
Brenda Forbes (14 January 1909 – 11 September 1996) was a British-born American actress of stage and screen. Personal life Born as Dorothy Brenda Taylor in Wandsworth, London, the daughter of Ernest John and Ethel Louise Taylor. Her mother was actress Mary Forbes, and her elder brother was actor Ralph Forbes (né Ralph Forbes Taylor), she made her first film appearance in 1935 and her last in 1995. She appeared on Broadway between 1931 and 1985, mostly in revivals of classics. Career Forbes created the role of the outspoken maid, Wilson, in the original production of ''The Barretts of Wimpole Street'' opposite Katharine Cornell. She played the role in various revivals as well. She co-starred as Lady Vale in the 1967 musical '' Darling of the Day'' in which she and Peter Woodthorpe introduced the song ''Panache'' and appeared in the 1976 revival of ''My Fair Lady'' as Mrs. Higgins; also in that production was George Rose whom she starred with in the 1986 all star cast r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mildred Natwick
Mildred Natwick (June 19, 1905 – October 25, 1994) was an American actress. She won a Primetime Emmy Award and was nominated for an Academy Award and two Tony Awards. Early life Natwick was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the daughter of Mildred Marion (née Dawes) and Joseph Natwick of Wisconsin. Her father was a sawmill baron and dairy farmer who owned Dunloggin Dairy Farm. He established the farm on land that was cleared of its white oaks; the community of Dunloggin in Ellicott City, Maryland, was so named because Natwick was "done logging" the land. Her grandfather, Ole Natwick, was one of the earliest Norwegian immigrants to the United States, arriving in Wisconsin in 1847. Her first cousin was animator and cartoonist Grim Natwick. Natwick attended the Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore and later graduated from Bennett College. Career Natwick began performing on the stage at age 21 with "The Vagabonds", a non-professional theatre group in Baltimore. She soon joined the Univ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marion Ross
Marion Ross (born Marian Eileen Ross; October 25, 1928) is an American actress. Her best-known role is that of Marion Cunningham (Happy Days), Marion Cunningham on the American Broadcasting Company, ABC television sitcom ''Happy Days'', on which she starred from 1974 to 1984 and for which she received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Before her success on ''Happy Days'', Ross appeared in a variety of film roles, appearing in ''The Glenn Miller Story'' (1954), ''Sabrina (1954 film), Sabrina'' (1954), ''Lust for Life (1956 film), Lust for Life'' (1956), ''Teacher's Pet (1958 film), Teacher's Pet'' (1958), ''Some Came Running (film), Some Came Running'' (1958), ''Operation Petticoat'' (1959), and ''Honky (film), Honky'' (1971), as well as several minor television roles, one of which was on television's ''The Lone Ranger (TV series), The Lone Ranger'' (1954). She was also twice nominated successively in 1992 and 1993 for the Primetime Emmy Award for her performance on the CBS tel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philip Tonge
Philip Asheton Tonge (26 April 1897 – 28 January 1959) was an English actor. Born into a theatrical family, he was a child actor, making his stage debut at the age of five. Among the stars with whom he performed while he was a boy were Henry Irving, Herbert Beerbohm Tree, Ellen Terry and Johnston Forbes-Robertson. His colleagues as child actors included Hermione Gingold, Mary Glynne, Esmé Wynne-Tyson and Noël Coward. Tonge's adult acting career was in the U.S., where he and his parents settled after the First World War. He made numerous appearances in Broadway productions, including nine Coward plays. Among his films were '' Miracle on 34th Street'' (1947), ''Hans Christian Andersen'' (1952) and '' Witness for the Prosecution'' (1957). Life and career Early years Tonge was born in Hampstead, London, the son of the actor H. Asheton Tonge and his wife Lillian, ''née'' Brennard, an actressParker, p. 919–920 He made his first appearance on the stage at His Majesty's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, distribution, and education. It is sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and partially funded under the British Film Institute Act 1949. Activities Purpose The BFI was established in 1933 to encourage the development of the arts of film, television and the moving image throughout the United Kingdom, to promote their use as a record of contemporary life and manners, to promote education about film, television and the moving image generally, and their impact on society, to promote access to and appreciation of the widest possible range of British and world cinema and to establish, care for and develop collections reflecting the moving image history, heritage and culture of the United Kingdom. Archive The BFI maintain ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Letterboxd
Letterboxd ( ) is an online social cataloging service for film founded (partially with investment company Tiny since 2023) and owned by Matthew Buchanan and Karl von Randow in 2011, and headquartered in New Zealand. Members can rate and review films, keep track of which ones they have seen in the past and when, make lists of films, showcase their favorites, tag films using text keywords, and interact with other cinephiles. It has been described as "Goodreads for movies." Letterboxd's popularity spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic. It had over 17 million registered users as of January 2025. Although the website is generally limited to films, its leadership intends to add television shows in the future. History Development Seeking to develop a "Goodreads for film," web designers Matthew Buchanan and Karl von Randow launched a private version of the Letterboxd website at the Brooklyn Beta web conference in October 2011. The name "Letterboxd" is an allusion to letterboxing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plays By Noël Coward
Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * Play Mobile, a Polish internet provider * Xperia Play, an Android phone * Rakuten.co.uk (formerly Play.com), an online retailer * Backlash (engineering), or ''play'', non-reversible part of movement * Petroleum play, oil fields with same geological circumstances * Play symbol, in media control devices * Play (hacker group), a ransomware extortion group Concert residencies and tours * Play Tour, concert tour headlined by Spanish singer Aitana * Play (concert residency), 2022 Katy Perry concert residency Film * ''Play'' (2005 film), Chilean film directed by Alicia Scherson * ''Play'', a 2009 short film directed by David Kaplan * ''Play'' (2011 film), a Swedish film directed by Ruben Östlund * ''Play!'', a Japanese film directed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
