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Mae Clark
Mae Clarke (born Violet Mary Klotz; August 16, 1910 – April 29, 1992) was an American actress. She is widely remembered for playing Henry Frankenstein's bride Elizabeth, who is chased by Boris Karloff in ''Frankenstein'', and for being on the receiving end of James Cagney's halved grapefruit in ''The Public Enemy''. Both films were released in 1931. Early life Mae Clarke was born in Philadelphia. Her father was a theatre organist. She studied dancing as a child and began on stage in vaudeville and also worked in night clubs. In 1922, at the age of 12, she marched in the Miss America Pageant Parade on the Atlantic City Boardwalk dressed as a lobster. She returned to the Boardwalk Parade again in 1940 as a featured guest, riding atop a white limousine convertible. Career Clarke started her professional career as a dancer in New York City, sharing a room with Barbara Stanwyck. She starred in many films for Universal Studios, including the original screen version of ''The F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 1,603,797 in the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The city is the urban core of the Philadelphia metropolitan area (sometimes called the Delaware Valley), the nation's Metropolitan statistical area, seventh-largest metropolitan area and ninth-largest combined statistical area with 6.245 million residents and 7.379 million residents, respectively. Philadelphia was founded in 1682 by William Penn, an English Americans, English Quakers, Quaker and advocate of Freedom of religion, religious freedom, and served as the capital of the Colonial history of the United States, colonial era Province of Pennsylvania. It then played a historic and vital role during the American Revolution and American Revolutionary ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monte Brice
Monte Brice (July 12, 1891 – November 8, 1962) was an American writer, producer, and director of films. Biography Born in 1891 in New York City, Brice wrote his first screenplay in 1920. In 1926, he was promoted from scenario writer to director and given a five-year contract with Famous Players–Lasky. A 1928 article states he had left Paramount Pictures and was freelancing. In the later years of his decades long career in film he worked with Bob Hope. Brice was best known as gag writer who worked on Hope's radio and film scripts. He married Doris Hill. Brice had two daughters and three grandchildren. He died in London in 1962 while working with Hope on film projects. Partial filmography * '' Riders Up'' (1924) * ''Brewster's Millions'' (1926), screenplay by Monte Brice, Lloyd Corrigan and Harold Shumate * '' Hands Up!'' (1926), co-written by Monte Brice and Lloyd Corrigan * ''Casey at the Bat'' (1927), director * '' Fireman, Save My Child'' (1927), co-wrote with Thomas J. G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phillips Holmes
Phillips Raymond Holmes (July 22, 1907 – August 12, 1942) was an American actor. For his contributions to the film industry, he was posthumously given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960. Early life, education and career Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the son of Edna Phillips and stage star Taylor Holmes, Holmes enjoyed a privileged childhood and received his education at Trinity College, Cambridge in England, the University of Grenoble in France, and a year at Princeton University where he was spotted in the undergraduate crowd during the filming of Frank Tuttle's ''Varsity'' in 1928 and offered a screen test. In the early 1930s, he became a popular leading man, playing leads in a few important productions, notably in Josef von Sternberg's ''An American Tragedy (film), An American Tragedy'' (1931) and Ernst Lubitsch's ''Broken Lullaby'' (1932). At Paramount Pictures, Paramount, he starred in melodrama and comedy. In 1933, his contract with Paramount ran out and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margaret Lindsay
Margaret Lindsay (born Margaret Kies; September 19, 1910 – May 9, 1981) was an American film actress. Her time as a Warner Bros. contract player during the 1930s was particularly productive. She was noted for her supporting work in successful films of the 1930s and 1940s such as '' Baby Face'', ''Jezebel'' (1938) and '' Scarlet Street'' (1945) and her leading roles in lower-budgeted B movie films such as the ''Ellery Queen'' series at Columbia in the early 1940s. Critics regard her portrayal of Nathaniel Hawthorne's Hepzibah Pyncheon in the 1940 film ''The House of the Seven Gables'' as Lindsay's standout career role. Early life Margaret Kies (pronounced "keys") was born in Dubuque, Iowa, the eldest of six children of a pharmacist father who died in 1930. According to Tom Longden of the ''Des Moines Register'', "Peg" was "a tomboy who liked to climb pear trees" and was a "roller-skating fiend". She graduated in 1930 from Visitation Academy in Dubuque. Her 1945 resumé lists ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lady Killer (1933 Film)
''Lady Killer'' is a 1933 American pre-Code crime drama film starring James Cagney, Mae Clarke, and Margaret Lindsay, based on the story "The Finger Man" by Rosalind Keating Shaffer. The picture was directed by Roy Del Ruth. Plot After being fired as a theater usher for gambling and other issues, Dan Quigley tracks down Myra Gale to her apartment and returns the purse she dropped. He then sits in on a poker game with her "brother-in-law", Spade Maddock, Duke, Smiley and Pete. After he loses all his money, he leaves, only to run into another person trying to return Myra's purse. Realizing he has been conned, he threatens to go to the police ... unless they let him join them, telling them he has some profitable ideas. He is as good as his word. Eventually, they are running a nightclub and casino, a perfect cover to scout the rich as burglary targets. Dan stages a car accident so a passing "doctor" can persuade Mrs. Marley to let him rest for a while in her nearby mansion. This ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Gilbert (actor)
John Gilbert (born John Cecil Pringle; July 10, 1897 – January 9, 1936) was an American actor, screenwriter and director. He rose to fame during the silent era and became a popular leading man known as "The Great Lover". His breakthrough came in 1925 with his starring roles in ''The Merry Widow'' and '' The Big Parade''. At the height of his career, Gilbert rivaled Rudolph Valentino as a box office draw. Gilbert's career declined precipitously when silent pictures gave way to talkies. Though Gilbert was often cited as one of the high-profile examples of an actor who was unsuccessful in making the transition to sound films, his decline as a star had far more to do with studio politics and money than with the sound of his screen voice, which was rich and distinctive. Early life and stage work Born John Cecil Pringle in Logan, Utah, to stock-company actor parents, John George Pringle (1865–1929) and Ida Adair Apperly Gilbert (1877–1913), he struggled through a childhood of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fast Workers
''Fast Workers'', also known as ''Rivets'', is a 1933 pre-Code comedy-drama film starring John Gilbert and Robert Armstrong as construction workers and romantic rivals for the character played by Mae Clarke. The film, which is based on the unproduced play ''Rivets'' by John McDermott, was directed by an uncredited Tod Browning. The supporting cast features Virginia Cherrill and Sterling Holloway. Plot ''Fast Workers'' is set in the early 1930s, in the time of the film's release. It portrays the freewheeling lives and romantic escapades of two friends who work as riveters on high-rise construction projects. Gunner Smith ( John Gilbert) is a rake who loves women but hates the notion of emotionally committing to any of his romantic conquests. His close friend Bucker Reilly, however, is just the opposite, often losing his heart to the various "dames" he meets and quickly becoming entangled with them. Gunner therefore sees it as his ongoing duty as a pal to save Bucker from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Raft
George Raft (né Ranft; September 26, 1901 – November 24, 1980) was an American film actor and dancer identified with portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s. A stylish leading man in dozens of movies, Raft is remembered for his gangster roles in ''Quick Millions (1931 film), Quick Millions'' (1931) with Spencer Tracy, ''Scarface (1932 film), Scarface'' (1932) with Paul Muni, ''Each Dawn I Die'' (1939) with James Cagney, ''Invisible Stripes'' (1939) with Humphrey Bogart, and Billy Wilder's comedy ''Some Like It Hot'' (1959) with Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon; and as a dancer in ''Bolero (1934 film), Bolero'' (1934) with Carole Lombard and a truck driver in ''They Drive by Night'' (1940) with Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino and Bogart. Early life and career Raft was born at 415 West 41st Street in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York City, the son of Eva ( Glockner), a German immigrant, and Conrad Ranft, who was born in Massachusetts ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hedda Hopper
Elda Furry (May 2, 1885February 1, 1966), known professionally as Hedda Hopper, was an American gossip columnist and actress. At the height of her influence in the 1940s, more than 35 million people read her columns. A strong supporter of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings, Hopper named suspected Communist Party USA, Communists and was a major proponent of the Hollywood blacklist. Hopper continued to write her gossip column until her death in 1966. Her work appeared in many magazines and later on radio. She had an extended feud with Louella Parsons, an arch-rival and fellow gossip columnist. Early life Hopper was born Elda Furry in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Margaret (née Miller; 1856–1941) and David Furry, a butcher, both members of the German Baptist Brethren. Her family was of Pennsylvania Dutch (German) descent. The family moved to Altoona, Pennsylvania, Altoona when Elda was three. Career Acting She eventually ran away to New Yor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lew Ayres
Lewis Frederick Ayres III (December 28, 1908 – December 30, 1996) was an American actor whose film and television career spanned 65 years. He is best known for starring as German soldier Paul Bäumer in the film ''All Quiet on the Western Front (1930 film), All Quiet on the Western Front'' (1930) and for playing Dr. Kildare in nine films. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in ''Johnny Belinda (1948 film), Johnny Belinda'' (1948). Early life and career Ayres was born in Minneapolis to Irma Bevernick and Louis Ayres, who divorced when he was four. Louis, an amateur musician and court reporter, remarried soon afterwards. As a teen, he and his mother moved with his step-father, William Gilmore, and half brother and sister to San Diego, California. Leaving high school before graduating, he started a small band which traveled to Mexico. He returned months later to pursue an acting career, but continued working full-time as a musician. He play ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Night World (1932 Film)
''Night World'' is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film featuring Lew Ayres, Mae Clarke, and Boris Karloff. The supporting cast includes George Raft and Hedda Hopper (before she became a noted gossip columnist). The film was directed by Hobart Henley and features an early Busby Berkeley music number, "Who's Your Little Who-Zis".Everett Aaker, ''The Films of George Raft'', McFarland & Company, 2013 p 26 Although Karloff is a villain, he plays a charming man, quite unlike most of the parts he was allowed to play at the time. Plot On a cold winter's night outside Happy's Nightclub, Irish-American police officer Ryan (Robert Emmett O'Connor) chats with African-American doorman Tim Washington (Clarence Muse), who is worried about his critically ill wife. Inside, club owner Happy (Boris Karloff) is arguing with his shrewish but glamorous wife Jill (Dorothy Revier) and welcoming frequent customers Ed Powell (George Raft), a crooked gambler, and Michael Rand (Lew Ayres). Rand is a w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pre-Code
Pre-Code Hollywood was an era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry that occurred between the widespread adoption of sound in film in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines (popularly known as the Hays Code) in 1934. Although the Hays Code was adopted in 1930, oversight was poor, and it did not become rigorously enforced until July 1, 1934, with the establishment of the Production Code Administration. Before that date, film content was restricted more by local laws, negotiations between the Studio Relations Committee (SRC) and the major studios, and popular opinion than by strict adherence to the Hays Code, which was often ignored by Hollywood filmmakers. As a result, some films in the late 1920s and early 1930s depicted or implied Innuendo, sexual innuendo, romantic and sexual relationships between white and black people, mild profanity, Recreational drug use, illegal drug use, promiscuity, prostitut ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
