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Seven Sweethearts
''Seven Sweethearts'' is a 1942 musical film directed by Frank Borzage and starring Kathryn Grayson, Marsha Hunt and Van Heflin. In 1949, Hungarian playwright Ferenc Herczeg sued MGM, producer Joe Pasternak and screenwriters Walter Reisch and Leo Townsend for $200,000 alleging that they had plagiarized Herczeg's 1903 play ''Seven Sisters'', which Paramount Pictures had adapted into the 1915 film '' The Seven Sisters'', starring Madge Evans. The case was settled out-of-court for a "substantial" amount. Kathryn Grayson's real-life sister Frances Raeburn plays Cornelius. Plot Mr. Van Maaster is a hotelier in Little Delft, Michigan. By family tradition, the oldest of his seven daughters must marry first, but Regina wants to move to New York to become an actress. The youngest, Billie, has the sweetest singing voice. All seven sisters are married in the same ceremony. Cast * Kathryn Grayson as Billie Van Maaster * Marsha Hunt as Regina 'Reggie' Van Maaster * Cecilia Parker as Vi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Van Heflin
Emmett Evan "Van" Heflin Jr. (December 13, 1908 – July 23, 1971) was an American theatre, radio, and film actor. He played mostly character parts over the course of his film career, but during the 1940s had a string of roles as a leading man. Heflin won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in '' Johnny Eager'' (1942). He also had memorable roles in the westerns '' Shane'' (1953), '' 3:10 to Yuma'' (1957), and ''Gunman's Walk'' (1958). He portrayed a mentally disturbed airline passenger in the classic disaster film ''Airport'' (1970). Early life Heflin was born in Walters, Oklahoma, the son of Fanny Bleecker (née Shippey) and Dr. Emmett Evan Heflin, a dentist.Parker, John. ''Who's Who in the Theatre: Volume 17, Part 1.'' Pitman, 1952, p. 762. He was of Irish and French ancestry. Heflin's sister was Daytime Emmy-nominated actress Frances Heflin (who married composer Sol Kaplan). Heflin attended Classen High School in Oklahoma City. One source say ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie channel, movie-oriented pay television, pay-TV television network, network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown Atlanta, Midtown business district of Atlanta, Georgia. The channel's programming consists mainly of Golden age (metaphor), classic theatrically released feature films from the Turner Entertainment, Turner Entertainment Co. film library – which comprises films from Warner Bros. (covering films released before 1950), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (covering films released before May 1986), and the North American distribution rights to films from RKO Pictures, RKO Radio Pictures. However, Turner Classic Movies also licenses films from other studios and occasionally shows more recent films. Unlike its sister networks TBS (American TV channel), TBS, TNT (American TV network), TNT, and TruTV, TCM does not carry any sports cove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diegetic Music
Diegetic music, also called source music, is music that is part of the fictional world portrayed in a piece of narrative media (such as a film, show, play, or video game) and is thus knowingly performed and/or heard by the characters. This is in contrast to non-diegetic music, which refers to incidental music or a score that is heard by the viewer but not the characters, or in musical theater, when characters are singing in a manner that they would not do in a realistic setting. Etymology The term refers to diegesis, a style of storytelling. In her 1987 work '' Unheard Melodies'', Claudia Gorbman was influential in establishing the terms "diegetic" and "non-diegetic" (derived from narrative theory) for use in academic film music studies. From there, its usage spread to other disciplines. Film Source music was sometimes used as scores from the earliest days of Hollywood talkies, in some cases—such as '' The Public Enemy'' (1931)—using it to the exclusion of any underscor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Musical Film
Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate "production numbers". The musical film was a natural development of the musical theater, stage musical after the emergence of sound film technology. Typically, the biggest difference between film and stage musicals is the use of lavish background scenery and locations that would be impractical in a theater. Musical films characteristically contain elements reminiscent of theater; performers often treat their song and dance numbers as if a live audience were watching. In a sense, the viewer becomes the diegesis, diegetic audience, as the performer looks directly into the camera and performs to it. With the Sound film, advent of sound in the late 1920s, musicals gained popularity with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louise Beavers
Louise Beavers (March 8, 1900 – October 26, 1962) was an American film and television actress who appeared in dozens of films and two hit television shows from the 1920s to 1960. She played a prominent role in advancing the lives of black Americans through her work and collaborated with fellow advocates to improve the social standing and media image of the black community. Early life Beavers was born in Cincinnati, Ohio to school teacher Ernestine (Monroe) Beavers and William M. Beavers, who was originally from Georgia. Her mother's illness caused the family to move to Pasadena, California. In Pasadena, she attended school and engaged in several after-school activities, such as basketball and church choir. Her mother also worked as a voice teacher and taught her how to sing. In 1920, Beavers graduated from Pasadena High School (Pasadena, California), Pasadena High School. She then worked as a dressing-room attendant for a photographer and served as a personal maid to film st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Donald Meek
Thomas Donald Meek (14 July 1878 – 18 November 1946) was a Scottish-American actor. He first performed publicly at the age of eight and began appearing on Broadway in 1903. Meek appeared in the films '' You Can't Take It with You'' (1938) and ''Stagecoach'' (1939). He posthumously received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960. Early years Meek was born in Glasgow to Matthew and Annie Meek. In the 1890s, the Meek family emigrated to Canada and then to the United States. By 1900, they were living in Philadelphia, where Meek was employed as a dry goods salesman, according to the United States census of that year. Career Meek's Broadway credits include ''The Minister's Daughters'' (1903), ''Going Up'' (1917), ''Nothing But Love'' (1919), ''The Hottentot'' (1920), ''Little Old New York'' (1920), ''Six-Cylinder Love'' (1921), ''Tweedles'' (1923), ''The Potters'' (1923), ''Easy Terms'' (1925), ''Fool's Bells'' (1925), ''Love 'em and Leave 'em'' (1926), ''The Shelf'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isobel Elsom
Isobel Elsom (born Isabelle Reed; 16 March 1893 – 12 January 1981) was an English film, theatre, and television actress. She was often cast as aristocrats or upper-class women. Early years Born in Chesterton, Cambridge, Elsom attended Howard College, Bedford, England. Career She debuted on stage in London as a member of the chorus of ''The Quaker Girl'' (1911). Gilbert Miller promoted her to stardom in ''The Outsider''. Over the course of three decades, she appeared in 17 Broadway productions, beginning with ''The Ghost Train'' (1926). Her best-known stage role was the wealthy murder victim in '' Ladies in Retirement'' (1939), a role she repeated in the 1941 film version. Her other theatre credits included '' The Innocents'' and ''Romeo and Juliet''. Elsom made her first screen appearance during the silent film era (she frequently co-starred with Owen Nares) and appeared in nearly 100 films throughout her career. Elsom appeared as the leading lady for the Elitc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diana Lewis
Diana Lewis (September 18, 1919 – January 18, 1997) was an American film actress and a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player. Early years The daughter of vaudeville performers, Lewis was born in Asbury Park, New Jersey. She attended Fairfax High School in Los Angeles. Career Lewis was a singer with the orchestra led by Larry Leeds. She began her film career in ''It's a Gift'' (1934) and worked steadily over the next few years, usually in minor roles. Her more notable films include ''It's a Gift'', ''Gold Diggers in Paris'' (1938), '' Go West'' (1940), and '' Johnny Eager'' (1941). She was the love interest of Andy Hardy as Daphne Fowler in '' Andy Hardy Meets Debutante'' (1940). Marriage Lewis met actor William Powell, who was 27 years her senior, at MGM in 1939. They married at a dude ranch in Nevada on January 5, 1940, after a courtship of less than a month. She retired from acting in 1943. Lewis became known as Mousie Powell after her marriage. Death Lewis died from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dick Simmons
Richard Simmons (August 19, 1913 – January 11, 2003) was an American actor. Early life Simmons was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and his family later moved across the Mississippi River to Minneapolis. There, he attended West Side High School and then the University of Minnesota, where he studied drama. Simmons was a professional pilot. Career While attending the university, Simmons competed in fencing and swimming, and also acted in a few theater productions. Simmons left the Twin Cities in the 1930s to launch his film acting career in 1937. He soon became an MGM contract player. Many of his minor movie roles went uncredited through the 1940s. One even included his portrayal of a Mountie in ''King of the Royal Mounted'' produced by Republic Pictures. Starting in 1943, he began appearing in credited roles, beginning with his appearance in ''The Youngest Profession'', starring Virginia Weidler. From 1943 through 1949, he appeared in 17 films, of which 10 listed him in the c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Warren (actor)
James Warren (February 24, 1913 – March 28, 2001) was an film actor and artist. Early life Born James Pringle Wittlig in Marietta, Ohio, he was the son of Walter Wittlig, a watchmaker, and Florence Ione Pringle. He had two brothers, the oldest Laurence Pringle Wittlig and a younger brother, David Pringle Wittlig. The Wittligs had emigrated from Langenthal, Switzerland in the 1860s. However, James did not follow in the family watchmaking tradition. His first love was art, which took him to the Pratt Art Institute of New York where he became a watercolorist and an illustrator for various magazines. Film career Warren was sighted by an MGM talent scout, who offered him a contract. Changing his name to James Warren, he, his wife, Felice, and their six-week-old son moved to Hollywood, where over the course of several years he appeared in more than 30 movies. When his MGM contract expired, he moved to RKO. His first picture at RKO, filmed in the spring of 1945, was ''Ding Dong Wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carl Esmond
Carl Esmond (born Karl Simon; June 14, 1902– December 4, 2004) was an Austrian-born American film and stage actor, born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary. Although his age was given as 33 in the passenger list when he arrived in the USA in January 1938, in his naturalization petition his birth year is stated as 1902. His stage names were Willy Eichberger and Charles Esmond and finally Carl Esmond. He trained at Vienna's State Academy of Dramatic Arts, and made his film debut in the operetta '' The Emperor's Waltz'' (1933). He was active in the Viennese genre of shallow romantic comedies so popular in the Austria of the interwar period. Esmond fled Germany following the Nazi takeover, first to the UK and finally in January 1938 to the USA. Esmond continued to appear on stage as well as in British and American films. He appeared in over 50 films and numerous television programs. Death Esmond died in Brentwood, Los Angeles in 2004 at the age of 102. Filmography * '' The Emperor's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frances Rafferty
Frances Anne Rafferty (June 16, 1922 – April 18, 2004) was an American actress, dancer, World War II pin-up girl and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player. Early life Frances Anne Rafferty was born in Sioux City, Iowa, the daughter of Maxwell Lewis Rafferty and DeEtta Frances ( Cox) Rafferty. She was the younger sister of California educator and Republican politician Max Rafferty, whose wife was Frances (nee Longman) Rafferty. At 1931, At the age of nine she moved with her family to Los Angeles. At a young age, she studied dancing, and her physical attributes and dancing skills led to work in the film industry. Rafferty attended Miss Bryant's Day School and Bryant School while the family lived in Iowa. After moving to California, she graduated from University High School in Los Angeles. Career Signed by MGM Studios, Rafferty made her film debut in 1942. She appeared in minor and secondary roles, and although she had a part in the 1944 film '' Dragon Seed'' with Katharine H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
