|
Best Foot Forward (1943 Film)
''Best Foot Forward'' is a 1943 American musical film adapted from the 1941 Broadway musical comedy of the same title. The film was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, directed by Edward Buzzell, and starred Lucille Ball, William Gaxton, Virginia Weidler, Tommy Dix, Chill Wills, June Allyson, Gloria DeHaven, and Nancy Walker. The actors did their own singing, except for Lucille Ball, whose singing was dubbed by Gloria Grafton; Virginia Weidler, whose singing was dubbed by Jeanne Darrell; and Jack Jordan, whose singing was dubbed by Ralph Blane. Weidler, then 16 years old, retired from acting after this film was made, making ''Best Foot Forward'' her final screen appearance. Plot Lucille Ball is at a military academy full of frisky boys. Ball is the reluctant guest of a diminutive cadet, Bud Hooper, who wrote her a "mash note" and invitation to be his date at a school prom. Ball's publicity man, Jack O'Riley, seizes upon the situation as a perfect PR stunt, and convinces her to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Buzzell
Edward Buzzell (November 13, 1895 – January 11, 1985) was an American film actor and director whose credits include ''Child of Manhattan (film), Child of Manhattan'' (1933); ''Honolulu (1939 film), Honolulu'' (1939); the Marx Brothers films ''At the Circus'' (1939) and ''Go West (1940 film), Go West'' (1940); the musicals ''Best Foot Forward (1943 film), Best Foot Forward'' (1943), ''Song of the Thin Man'' (1947), and ''Neptune's Daughter (1949 film), Neptune's Daughter'' (1949); and ''Easy to Wed'' (1946). Born in Brooklyn, Buzzell appeared in vaudeville and on Broadway, and he was hired to star in the 1929 film version of George M. Cohan's ''Little Johnny Jones'' with Alice Day. Buzzell appeared in a few Vitaphone shorts and the two-strip Technicolor short ''The Devil's Cabaret'' (1930) as Satan's assistant. He wrote screenplays in the early 1930s and later produced the popular ''The Milton Berle Show'', which premiered on television in 1948. In 1926, Buzzell married ac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was founded on April 17, 1924, and has been owned by the Amazon MGM Studios subsidiary of Amazon (company), Amazon since 2022. MGM was formed by Marcus Loew by combining Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Pictures into one company. It hired a number of well-known actors as contract players—its slogan was "more stars than there are in heaven"—and soon became Hollywood's most prestigious filmmaking company, producing popular musical films and winning many Academy Awards. MGM also owned film studios, movie lots, movie theaters and technical production facilities. Its most prosperous era, from 1926 to 1959, was bracketed by two productions of ''Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Donald MacBride
Donald Hugh MacBride (June 23, 1893 – June 21, 1957) was an American character actor on stage, in films, and on television. MacBride launched his career as a chorister at St Thomas Fifth Avenue and then at Garden City Cathedral in New York. As a teenager, he recorded the earliest example of a solo recording by a chorister from the USA, on 15 November 1907, singing Handel's 'Angels Ever Bright and Fair'. He also performed in vaudeville and went on to be an actor in New York. Biography Donald MacBride was born 1893 in Brooklyn, New York. MacBride appeared in nearly 140 films between 1914 and 1955. His year of birth is given variously as 1889 or 1893 in the standard reference books. Motion pictures Beginning in 1930, like many New York-based, stage-trained actors, he found work at the Paramount, Vitaphone, and Educational studios, all of which had East Coast branches. He is clearly visible as a crowd extra welcoming Groucho Marx in the Paramount feature '' Animal Cracker ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sara Haden
Sara Haden (born Catherine Haden, November 17, 1898 – September 15, 1981) was an American actress of the 1930s through the 1950s and in television into the mid-1960s. She may be best remembered for appearing as Aunt Milly Forrest in 14 of the 16 entries in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Andy Hardy film series. Early life Some sources say she was born in 1898 in Center Point, Texas, while others claim she was born in Galveston, Texas.Axel Nissen's ''Accustomed to Her Face: Thirty-Five Character Actresses of Golden Age Hollywood'' gives her birthplace as Center Point, Texas. Career Haden first appeared on the stage in the early 1920s. As early as October 1920, she was appearing with Walter Hampden's acting troupe. Her Broadway debut came in ''Trigger'' (1927). She made her film debut in 1934 (one year after her mother's retirement) in the Katharine Hepburn vehicle ''Spitfire''. Haden later became a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player in the late 1930s and generally appeared in sm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry O'Neill
Henry O'Neill (August 10, 1891 – May 18, 1961) was an American actor known for playing gray-haired fathers, lawyers, and similarly dignified roles on film during the 1930s and 1940s. Early life Henry O'Neill was born in Orange, New Jersey on August 10, 1891 where he grew up before moving to Los Angeles, California. Career O'Neill began his acting career on the stage, after dropping out of college to join a traveling theater company. He served in the Navy in World War I, after which he worked at several jobs, including being an usher in a funeral home. Eventually, he returned to the stage. His Broadway debut came in ''The Spring'' (1921), and his final Broadway appearance was in ''Shooting Star'' (1933). He also acted with the Provincetown Players and the Celtic Players. In the early 1930s he began appearing in films, including ''The Big Shakedown'' (1934), the Western ''Santa Fe Trail'' (1940), the musical '' Anchors Aweigh'' (1945), '' The Green Years'' (1946), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beverly Tyler
Beverly Tyler (born Beverly Jean Saul, July 5, 1927 – November 23, 2005), was an American film actress and singer who was a minor MGM leading lady who appeared in mostly B movies in the 1940s and 1950s. Early years Tyler was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on July 5, 1927, the daughter of a secretary and factory employee, who secured piano and music lessons for their daughter at a young age. She was reared in adjacent Dunmore, Pennsylvania, attended Central High School; her parents and she were devout Methodists who were active in the Dunmore Methodist Church, where Beverly sang in the choir. When she was 14 years old, Tyler passed screen and voice tests and was informed, "you're a movie actress." Film and television Tyler debuted in films billed as Beverly Jean Saul in ''The Youngest Profession'' (1943). She worked in over 30 motion pictures between 1943 and 1957, including '' The Green Years'' (1946), '' My Brother Talks to Horses'' (1947), '' The Fireball'' (1950), '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Flight Of The Bumblebee
"Flight of the Bumblebee" () is an orchestral interlude written by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908) for his opera ''The Tale of Tsar Saltan'', composed in 1899–1900. This perpetuum mobile is intended to musically evoke the seemingly chaotic and rapidly changing flying pattern of a bumblebee. Despite the piece's being a rather incidental part of the opera, it is today one of the more familiar classical works because of its frequent use in popular culture. The piece closes Act III, Tableau 1, during which the magic Swan-Bird changes Prince Gvidon Saltanovich (the Tsar's son) into an insect so that he can fly away to visit his father (who does not know that he is alive). Although in the opera the Swan-Bird sings during the first part of the "Flight", her vocal line is melodically uninvolved and easily omitted; this feature, combined with the fact that the number decisively closes the scene, made easy extraction as an orchestral concerto piece possible. Overview Following ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harry James
Harry Haag James (March 15, 1916 – July 5, 1983) was an American musician who is best known as a trumpet-playing band leader who led a big band to great commercial success from 1939 to 1946. He broke up his band for a short period in 1947, but shortly after he reorganized and was active again with his band from then until his death in 1983. He was especially known among musicians for his technical proficiency as well as his Tone (musical instrument), tone, and was influential on new trumpet players from the late 1930s into the 1940s. He was also an actor in a number of films that usually featured his band. Early life James was born in Albany, Georgia, United States, the son of Everett Robert James, a bandleader in a traveling circus, the Mighty Haag Circus, and Myrtle Maybelle (Stewart), an acrobat and horseback rider. He started performing with the circus at an early age, first as a contortionist at the age of four, then playing the snare drum in the band from about the age ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Publicity Stunt
In marketing, a publicity stunt is a planned event designed to attract the public's attention to the event's organizers or their cause. Publicity stunts can be professionally organized, or set up by amateurs. Such events are frequently utilized by advertisers and celebrities, many of whom are athletes and politicians. Stunts employing humour and pranks have been regularly used by protest movements to promote their ideas and campaigns as well as challenge opponents. Organizations sometimes seek publicity by staging newsworthy events that attract media coverage. They can be in the form of groundbreakings, world record attempts, dedications, press conferences, or organized protests. By staging and managing these types of events, the organizations attempt to gain some form of control over what is reported in the media. Successful publicity stunts have news value, offer photo, video, and sound bite opportunities, and are arranged primarily for media coverage. It can be dif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ralph Blane
Ralph Blane (July 26, 1914 – November 13, 1995) was an American composer, lyricist, and performer. Life and career Blane was born Ralph Uriah Hunsecker in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. He attended Tulsa Central High School. He studied singing with Estelle Liebling in New York City. He began his career as a radio singer for NBC in the 1930s before turning to Broadway, where he was featured in ''New Faces of 1936'' (1936), '' Hooray for What!'' (1937), and ''Louisiana Purchase'' (1940). In 1940 he formed a vocal quartet ("The Martins") with his friend Hugh Martin which performed on radio and in nightclubs. Martin and Blane formed a songwriting partnership. Together they wrote music and lyrics to '' Best Foot Forward'' (1941) and '' Three Wishes for Jamie'' (1952). The duo penned many American standards for the stage and MGM musicals. The team's best-known songs include " The Boy Next Door", " Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and " The Trolley Song", all written for the 194 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nancy Walker
Nancy Walker (born Anna Myrtle Swoyer;Often mistranscribed as "Smoyer" May 10, 1922 – March 25, 1992) was an American actress and comedian of stage, screen, and television. She was also a film and television director (lending her talents to ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'', on which she also made several guest appearances). During her five-decade-long career, she had long-running roles as Mildred on '' McMillan & Wife'' and as Ida Morgenstern on several episodes of ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' and on the spinoff series '' Rhoda'' as a prominent recurring character. Early life She was born Anna Myrtle Swoyer in Philadelphia to vaudevillian parents, the elder of two daughters. When she was 10 months old, she made her debut in vaudeville alongside her parents. She decided to become an actress at the age of 10. Acting career In 1937, as "Nan Barto", Walker appeared on the NBC radio programs ''Coast to Coast on a Bus'' and ''Our Barn.'' She made her Broadway debut in 1941 in '' Bes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gloria DeHaven
Gloria Mildred DeHaven (July 23, 1925 – July 30, 2016) was an American actress and singer who was a contract star for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Early life 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." Film She began her career as a child actor with a bit part in Charlie Chaplin's '' Modern Times'' (1936). She was signed to a contract with MGM. She had featured roles in such films as '' Best Foot Forward'' (1943), '' The Thin Man Goes Home'' (1944), '' Scene of the Crime'' (1949) and ''Summer Stock'' (1950), and was voted by exhibitors as the third most likely to be a "star of tomorrow'" in 1944. She portrayed her own mother, Flora Parker DeHaven, in the Fred Astaire film '' Three Little Words'' (1950). After ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
