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Ralph Dumke
Ralph Ernest Dumke (July 25, 1899 – January 4, 1964) was an American comedian and actor who had an active career from the early 1920s up until his death in 1964. He rose to fame as part of a comedy duo with Ed East, performing nationally in vaudeville on the B. F. Keith Circuit from 1922-1932 and then headlining the nationally popular daily afternoon radio program "Sisters of the Skillet" on NBC Radio. In the 1940s Dumke worked as a character actor in Broadway musicals, and from 1949-1964 he worked in American film and television. Biography Dumke was born in South Bend, Indiana. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame, where he was a varsity football player. He began his career in Chicago as a vaudeville entertainer in the early 1920s as part of a comedy duo with Ed East entitled "The Mirthquakers". The two men became stars on the B. F. Keith Circuit on which they toured for ten years. A capstone of "The Mirthquakers" performance run was being one of the leadin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
My Little Margie
''My Little Margie'' is an American television sitcom starring Gale Storm and Charles Farrell that alternated between CBS and NBC from 1952 to 1955. The series was created by Frank Fox and produced in Los Angeles, California, at Hal Roach Studios by Hal Roach Jr., and Roland D. Reed. ''My Little Margie'' premiered on CBS as a summer replacement for ''I Love Lucy'' on June 16, 1952, under the sponsorship of Philip Morris cigarettes (when the series moved to NBC for its third season in the fall of 1953, Scott Paper Company became its sponsor). In an unusual move, the series – with the same leads – aired original episodes on CBS Radio, concurrently with the TV broadcasts, from December 1952 through August 1955. Only 23 radio broadcasts are known to exist in recorded form. Synopsis Set in New York City, the series stars Gale Storm as 21-year-old Margie Albright and former silent film star Charles Farrell as her widowed father, 50-year-old Vern Albright. They share an ap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Show Boat
''Show Boat'' is a musical theatre, musical with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It is based on Edna Ferber's best-selling 1926 Show Boat (novel), novel of the same name. The musical follows the lives of the performers, stagehands and dock workers on the ''Cotton Blossom'', a Mississippi River showboat, show boat, over 40 years from 1887 to 1927. Its themes include racial prejudice and tragic, enduring love. The musical contributed such classic songs as "Ol' Man River", "Make Believe (Jerome Kern song), Make Believe", and "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man". The musical was first produced in 1927 by Florenz Ziegfeld. The premiere of ''Show Boat'' on Broadway theatre, Broadway was an important event in the history of American musical theatre. It "was a radical departure in musical storytelling, marrying spectacle with seriousness", compared with the trivial and unrealistic operettas, light Edwardian musical comedy, musical comedies and "Follies"-type musi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Waterfront (1955 TV Series)
''Waterfront'' is a syndicated half-hour American television drama series that starred Preston Foster as the captain of the harbor tug ''Cheryl Ann''. The series was filmed 1954–1955 by Roland Reed Productions, Inc., for the Ziv Company, in part on location at the Port of Los Angeles. Although Foster had been a Broadway, Vaudeville, and Hollywood actor since his 20s, he grew up in coastal cities in New Jersey, worked as a clerk for a shipping company when he was 20, and was an officer in the United States Coast Guard during World War II. He was quoted as insisting on authenticity where possible in the production. Production Preston Foster portrayed Captain John Herrick, a tugboat captain at Los Angeles Harbor, operating from Berth 14 in San Pedro, in 78 episodes, production of which concluded in 1955. It also starred Douglas Dick, Lois Moran, Willie BestTerrace, Vincent (2011). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010 (2nd ed.). Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
December Bride
''December Bride'' is an American sitcom that aired on the CBS television network from 1954 to 1959. It was adapted from the original CBS radio network series of the same name that aired from June 1952 through September 1953. Overview ''December Bride'' centered on the adventures of Lily Ruskin, a spry widow played by Spring Byington. Ruskin was not, in fact, a "December" bride (married late in life) but she very much desired to become one, if the right man were to come along. Aiding Lily in her search for this prospective suitor were her daughter, Ruth Henshaw (Frances Rafferty), her son-in-law, Matt Henshaw (Dean Miller), and her close friend Hilda Crocker (character actress Verna Felton). A next-door neighbor, insurance agent Pete Porter (Harry Morgan), frequently appeared. Married miserably, according to his constant complaints about his unseen wife, Gladys, Pete despised his own mother-in-law and envied Matt's happy relationship with Lily. The pilot episode premiered on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
I Love Lucy
''I Love Lucy'' is an American sitcom that originally aired on CBS from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes spanning six seasons. The series starred Lucille Ball and her husband Desi Arnaz, along with Vivian Vance and William Frawley, and follows the life of Lucy Ricardo (Ball), a young, middle-class housewife living in New York City, who often concocts plans with her best friends and landlords, Ethel and Fred Mertz (Vance and Frawley), to appear alongside her bandleader husband, Ricky Ricardo (Arnaz), in his nightclub. Lucy is depicted trying numerous schemes to mingle with and be a part of show business. After the series ended in 1957, a modified version of the show continued for three more seasons, with 13 one-hour specials, which ran from 1957 to 1960. It was first known as ''The Lucille Ball–Desi Arnaz Show,'' and later, in reruns, as ''The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour''. ''I Love Lucy'' became the most-watched show in the United States in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
The Bob Cummings Show
''The Bob Cummings Show'' (also known in reruns as ''Love That Bob'') is an American sitcom starring Bob Cummings, which was broadcast from January 2, 1955, to September 15, 1959. The program began with a half-season run on NBC, then ran for two full seasons on CBS, and returned to NBC for its final two seasons. The program was later rerun on ABC daytime and then syndicated under the title ''Love That Bob''. A similar (but less successful) follow-up series, '' The New Bob Cummings Show'', was broadcast on CBS during the 1961–62 television season. Overview The series stars Cummings as dashing Hollywood photographer, Air Force reserve officer, and ladies' man, Bob Collins. The character's interest in aviation and photography mirrored Cummings' own, with his character's name the same as the role he played in the 1945 film '' You Came Along''. The series also stars Rosemary DeCamp as his sister Margaret MacDonald. In some episodes, Cummings also doubled as Bob and Margaret' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Invasion Of The Body Snatchers
''Invasion of the Body Snatchers'' is a 1956 American science-fiction horror film produced by Walter Wanger, directed by Don Siegel, and starring Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter. The black-and-white film was shot in 2.00:1 Superscope and in the film noir style. Daniel Mainwaring adapted the screenplay from Jack Finney's 1954 science-fiction novel '' The Body Snatchers''.Warren 1982 The film was an independent production, but distributed by Allied Artists Pictures as a double feature with the British science-fiction film '' The Atomic Man'' (and in some markets with ''Indestructible Man''). The film's storyline concerns an extraterrestrial invasion that begins in the fictional California town of Santa Mira. Alien plant spores have fallen from space and grown into large seed pods, each one capable of producing a visually identical copy of a human. As each pod reaches full development, it assimilates the physical traits, memories, and personalities of each sleeping person ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Daddy Long Legs (1955 Film)
''Daddy Long Legs'' (1955) is a musical comedy film set in France, New York City, and the fictional college town of Walston, Massachusetts. The film was directed by Jean Negulesco, and stars Fred Astaire, Leslie Caron, Terry Moore, Fred Clark, and Thelma Ritter, with music and lyrics by Johnny Mercer. The screenplay was written by Phoebe Ephron and Henry Ephron, loosely based on the 1912 novel '' Daddy-Long-Legs'' by Jean Webster. This was the first of three consecutive Astaire films set in France or with a French theme (the others being ''Funny Face'' and ''Silk Stockings''), following the fashion for French-themed musicals established by ardent Francophile Gene Kelly with ''An American in Paris'' (1951), which also featured Kelly's protégée Caron. Like ''The Band Wagon'', ''Daddy Long Legs'' did only moderately well at the box office. Plot Wealthy American Jervis Pendleton III has a chance encounter at a French orphanage with cheerful 18-year-old resident Julie André. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
The War Of The Worlds (1953 Film)
''The War of the Worlds'' (also known in promotional material as ''H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds'') is a 1953 American science fiction thriller film directed by Byron Haskin, produced by George Pal, and starring Gene Barry and Ann Robinson. It is the first of several feature film adaptations of H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, 1898 novel of the same name. The setting is changed from Victorian era England to 1953 Southern California. Earth is suddenly invaded by Martian (War of the Worlds), Martians, and American scientist Doctor Clayton Forrester searches for any weakness to stop them. ''The War of the Worlds'' won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and went on to influence other science fiction films. In 2011, it was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress, who deemed it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Plot A large object crashes near the small town of Linda Rosa, California. At t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
The Breaking Point (1950 Film)
''The Breaking Point'' is a 1950 American film noir crime drama directed by Michael Curtiz and the second film adaptation of the 1937 Ernest Hemingway novel '' To Have and Have Not'', the first one having featured Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. It stars John Garfield in his penultimate film role and Patricia Neal. Plot Harry Morgan (John Garfield) is a sport-fishing boat captain whose business is on the skids and whose family is feeling the economic pinch. He begins to work with a shady lawyer, Duncan (Wallace Ford), who persuades him to smuggle eight Chinese men from Mexico into California in his boat, the Sea Queen. Harry also meets a woman by the name of Leona Charles (Patricia Neal). When his plan with Duncan goes wrong, Harry comes even more under the influence of the lawyer, who blackmails him into helping the escape of a gang of crooks, who pull a racetrack heist, by using his fishing boat to get them away from authorities. Harry convinces himself that his illegal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
All The King's Men (1949 Film)
''All the King's Men'' is a 1949 American political drama film written, produced, and directed by Robert Rossen. It is based on Robert Penn Warren's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1946 novel of the same name. It stars Broderick Crawford, John Ireland, Mercedes McCambridge, and Joanne Dru. The film centers on the rise and fall of an idealistic-but-ruthless politician in the American South, patterned after Louisiana Governor Huey Long. Released by Columbia Pictures on November 8, 1949, the film received widespread acclaim from critics, and was a commercial success. At the 22nd Academy Awards the film was nominated for seven Oscars and won three; Best Picture, Best Actor for Crawford, and Best Supporting Actress for McCambridge, making an impressive film debut. The film also won five Golden Globes, and was nominated for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. In 2001, ''All the King's Men'' was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Films Noir
Film noir (; ) is a style of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Crime film, crime dramas that emphasizes cynicism (contemporary), cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American film noir. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key lighting, low-key, black-and-white visual style that has roots in German expressionist cinematography. Many of the prototypical stories and attitudes expressed in classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Great Depression, known as noir fiction. The term ''film noir'', French for "black film" (literal) or "dark film" (closer meaning), was first applied to Hollywood films by French critic Nino Frank in 1946, but was unrecognized by most American film industry professionals of that era. Frank is believed to have been inspired by the French literary publishing imprint Série noire, founded in 1945. Cinema hist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
