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Laugh Clown Laugh
''Laugh, Clown, Laugh'' is a 1928 American silent drama film starring Lon Chaney and Loretta Young (her film debut). The movie was directed by Herbert Brenon and produced by Irving G. Thalberg for MGM Pictures. A sound version of this film was released in the second half of 1928 and featured a synchronized musical score with sound effects. The film was written by Elizabeth Meehan, based on the 1923 Broadway stage production ''Laugh, Clown, Laugh'' by David Belasco and Tom Cushing, which in turn was based on the 1919 play ''Ridi, Pagliaccio'' by Fausto Maria Martini. Stills exist which show Chaney in his clown make-up. The sets were designed by Cedric Gibbons. The film was in production from December 19, 1927, to February 2, 1928, and cost $293,000 to make. The worldwide box office gross was $1,102,000. ''Laugh, Clown, Laugh'' is readily available today on DVD. The existing print, however, is not 100% complete; it is missing reel #4, but the missing footage does not severely ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Herbert Brenon
Herbert Brenon (born Alexander Herbert Reginald St. John Brenon; 13 January 1880 – 21 June 1958) was an Irish-born U.S. film director, actor and screenwriter during the era of Silent film, silent films through 1940. Brenon was among the early filmmakers who, before the rise of corporate film production, was a genuine "auteur", controlling virtually all creative and technical components in crafting his pictures. The quality of Brenon's artistic output rivaled that of film pioneer D. W. Griffith. Brenon was among the first directors to achieve celebrity status among moviegoers for his often spectacular cinematic inventions. Among his most notable films are ''Neptune's Daughter (1914 film), Neptune's Daughter'' (1914), ''Peter Pan (1924 film), Peter Pan'' (1925), ''A Kiss for Cinderella (film), A Kiss for Cinderella'' (1925), and the original film version of ''Beau Geste (1926 film), Beau Geste'' (1926). Early life Brenon was born at 25 Crosthwaite Park, in Kingstown (now D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1928)
''Laugh, Clown, Laugh'' is a 1928 American silent drama film starring Lon Chaney and Loretta Young (her film debut). The movie was directed by Herbert Brenon and produced by Irving G. Thalberg for MGM Pictures. A sound version of this film was released in the second half of 1928 and featured a synchronized musical score with sound effects. The film was written by Elizabeth Meehan, based on the 1923 Broadway stage production ''Laugh, Clown, Laugh'' by David Belasco and Tom Cushing, which in turn was based on the 1919 play ''Ridi, Pagliaccio'' by Fausto Maria Martini. Stills exist which show Chaney in his clown make-up. The sets were designed by Cedric Gibbons. The film was in production from December 19, 1927, to February 2, 1928, and cost $293,000 to make. The worldwide box office gross was $1,102,000. ''Laugh, Clown, Laugh'' is readily available today on DVD. The existing print, however, is not 100% complete; it is missing reel #4, but the missing footage does not severely ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Belasco Theatre
The Belasco Theatre is a Broadway theater at 111 West 44th Street, between Seventh Avenue and Sixth Avenue, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. Originally known as the Stuyvesant Theatre, it was built in 1907 and designed by architect George Keister for impresario David Belasco. The Belasco Theatre has 1,016 seats across three levels and has been operated by The Shubert Organization since 1948. Both the facade and interior of the theater are New York City landmarks. The main facade on 44th Street is made of red brick in Flemish bond, with terracotta decorative elements. The ground floor contains the entrance, while the upper stories are asymmetrical and topped by a pediment. Belasco and his company had their offices in the western wing of the theater. A ten-room duplex penthouse apartment occupies the top of the eastern wing and contained Belasco's collection of memorabilia. The interior features Tiffany lighting and ceiling p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Irene Fenwick
Irene Fenwick (born Irene Frizell; September 5, 1887 – December 24, 1936) was an American stage and silent film actress. She was married to Lionel Barrymore from 1923 until her death in 1936. Fenwick has several surviving feature films from her productions for the Kleine-Edison Feature Film Service, which also has numerous surviving shorts in the Library of Congress. Years before marrying Lionel, Irene had dated Lionel's brother, John. Life Frizell was born in Chicago and began acting in local theater. She had a few chorus roles in London, including one in a musical comedy that won critics praise for her "nearly natural performance". In New York she met Broadway producer Charles Frohman who gave her the stage name Fenwick and the ingénue role in ''The Brass Bottle'' (1910). A vivacious redhead, adept at both drama and comedy, she had a forceful stage presence that belied her tiny stature of 4'11". She continued on stage in 1912 opposite Douglas Fairbanks in ''Hawthorne o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lionel Barrymore
Lionel Barrymore (born Lionel Herbert Blyth; April 28, 1878 – November 15, 1954) was an American actor of stage, screen and radio as well as a film director. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in '' A Free Soul'' (1931) and is known to modern audiences for the role of villainous Mr. Potter in Frank Capra's 1946 film '' It's a Wonderful Life''. He is also particularly remembered as Ebenezer Scrooge in annual broadcasts of ''A Christmas Carol'' during his last two decades. He is also known for playing Dr Leonard Gillespie in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's nine Dr Kildare films, a role he reprised in a further six films focusing solely on Gillespie and in a radio series titled ''The Story of Dr Kildare''. He was a member of the theatrical Barrymore family. Early life Lionel Barrymore was born Lionel Herbert Blyth in Philadelphia, the son of actors Georgiana Drew Barrymore and Maurice Barrymore (born Herbert Arthur Chamberlayne Blyth). He was the elder brother ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mickey McBan
Mickey McBan (February 27, 1919 – October 30, 1979) was an American child actor. He was born in Spokane, Washington to British theatrical parents. McBan began his acting career at the age of four in '' Poor Men's Wives'' and specialized in portraying the everyday youngster in many films. In ''The Moving Picture Boy,'' John Holmstrom describes him as "mid-way between Jackie Cooper and John Howard Davies: mousier than the one, spunkier than the other, with an amused, reassuring expression." McBan never made the transition to portraying adults and his screen career was already over by 1929. Partial filmography * '' Poor Men's Wives'' (1923) *'' Daytime Wives'' (1923) *'' Not a Drum Was Heard'' (1924) *'' The Dawn of a Tomorrow'' (1924) *'' Untamed Youth'' (1924) *'' Hot Water'' (1924) *''Peter Pan'' (1924) *'' The Unholy Three'' (1925) *'' The Splendid Road'' (1925) *'' The Splendid Crime'' (1926) * ''Somebody's Mother'' (1926) *''Beau Geste'' (1926) *'' Moonland'' (1926) *'' Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emmett King
Emmett Carleton King (May 31, 1865 – April 21, 1953) was an American actor of the stage and screen. Biography King began his acting career on stage. His first Broadway appearance was in 1899, in the farce, ''The Father of His Country'', which he wrote and starred in. He would appear in several more Broadway productions over the next 15 years, including '' Mary Jane's Pa'' in 1908–09, and the 1911 production of Ben-Hur. His screen career was mostly as a character actor, and spanned both the silent and sound film eras. He began his film career with a featured role in the 1917 silent film, ''Mary Jane's Pa'', reprising the role he had played on Broadway almost a decade earlier. Other notable films in which he appeared include: the 1921 silent version of ''Little Lord Fauntleroy'', starring Mary Pickford; 1922's ''The Beautiful and Damned'', starring Marie Prevost and Kenneth Harlan; ''The Prisoner of Zenda'' (1937), starring Ronald Colman; James Whale's version of '' The Man in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leo Feodoroff
Leo Feodoroff (1867 - November 23, 1949) was a Russian opera impresario, singer and silent film actor. Feodoroff was born in Odessa in the Russian Empire in 1867. At a young age, he left home to travel with an opera company. He sang bass in various groups until 1917. In March, 1917, a group of Russian opera stars met at Feodoroff's home in Yekaterinburg following the start of the Russian Revolution. The Revolution had caused many in the group to lose their jobs, and some were there to escape bombings, starvation, or threats. The group, led by Feodoroff, formed a new opera company called the Russian Grand Opera. As owner and director of the Russian Grand Opera he led the company's tour of Russia and the Far East until the early 1920s. The company traveled to the United States in 1922, first landing in Seattle. During a tour in Mexico, a revolution caused the group to lose their money and equipment. When the company returned from the tour to the United States, it disbanded from a l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gwen Lee
Gwen Lee (born Gwendolyn Lepinski; November 12, 1904 – August 20, 1961) was an American stage and film actress. Lee began her career as a model before being discovered and signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. She was typically cast in supporting roles. Lee appeared in over 60 films, and she retired in 1938. Acting career Born to Mriette (née Kennedy) and Frank B. Lepinski in Hastings, Nebraska, Lee began her career as a department store model. She was discovered by director Monta Bell while appearing in a stage production. She signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1925. The same year, she made her film debut in '' Lady of the Night'', starring Norma Shearer. She followed with roles in '' Pretty Ladies'', starring Zasu Pitts, '' His Secretary'', and '' The Plastic Age'', starring Clara Bow. In 1926, Lee was cast in ''The Lone Wolfe Returns'', starring Bert Lytell and Billie Dove. In 1928, she was named a WAMPAS Baby Star. Lee continued her career with supporting role ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cissy Fitzgerald
Cissy Fitzgerald (born Mary Kate Kipping; 1 February 1873 – 10 May 1941) was an English-American vaudeville actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in numerous silent film, silent and sound film, sound films. Fitzgerald acted in a popular ''Gaiety Girl'' show beginning in 1894 and was filmed in the role in 1896 in a self-titled short film shot by Thomas Edison's film company. She did not appear in films again until 1914 where she signed with the Vitagraph Studios, Vitagraph company and was quite popular in feature films and her own series of ''Cissy'' short films. Very little of Fitzgerald's silent material survives except her comic backup role in the 1928 Lon Chaney Sr., Lon Chaney vehicle ''Laugh, Clown, Laugh''. Fitzgerald claimed to have been the first woman in motion pictures, on 50 feet of film at the Edison labs in New Jersey in 1896. However, Annabelle Whitford had been filmed in 1894 by Edison engineer W. K. L. Dickson and the Lumiere Brothers, Lumières in France we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bernard Siegel (actor)
Bernard Siegel (April 19, 1868 – July 9, 1940) was an Austro-Hungarian born American character actor, whose career spanned both the silent film era, as well as carrying over into the beginning of sound pictures. His career spanned over 25 years, during which time he performed in over 50 films. Life and career Siegel was born in the city of Lemberg (today known as Lviv, Ukraine), in the province of Galicia in the Austria-Hungarian Empire on April 19, 1868. His film career began with a small featured role in the 1913 silent film, ''The Third Degree'' (which would be remade in 1919, and again in 1926, the latter film being the first film directed by Michael Curtiz). Over the next 26 years he would appear in almost 70 films, most of those films taking place during the silent era. He would only act in thirteen sound films. In 1940 Siegel, age 72, died of a heart attack in Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in Cali ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tightrope Walking
Tightrope walking, also called funambulism, is the skill of walking along a thin wire or rope. It has a long tradition in various countries and is commonly associated with the circus. Other skills similar to tightrope walking include slack rope walking and slacklining. Types Tightwire is the skill of maintaining balance while walking along a tensioned wire between two points. It can be done either using a balancing tool (umbrella, fan, balance pole, etc.) or "freehand", using only one's body to maintain balance. Typically, tightwire performances either include dance or object manipulation. Object manipulation acts include a variety of props in their acts, such as clubs, rings, hats, or canes. Tightwire performers have even used wheelbarrows with passengers, ladders, and animals in their act. The technique to maintain balance is to keep the performer's centre of mass above their support point—usually their feet. Highwire is a form of tightwire walking but performed at much ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
