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Shopworn
''Shopworn'' is a 1932 American pre-Code romantic drama film directed by Nick Grinde and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Regis Toomey. Written by Jo Swerling and Robert Riskin, based on a story by Sarah Y. Mason, the film is about a poor hardworking waitress who meets and falls in love with a wealthy college student. His mother objects to the union and has the waitress framed as a sex worker. After serving her time, the waitress enters show business and becomes a star. Plot Waitress Kitty Lane and wealthy David Livingston fall in love. However, his overly protective mother Helen does not approve and does everything she can to break them up. She has her friend Judge Forbes first try bribery; when that fails, he arranges to have her jailed on a bogus morals charge. Meanwhile, Mrs. Livingston convinces her son that Kitty took the $5000 bribe. As the years pass, Kitty becomes a successful showgirl, with numerous admirers, while David is a doctor. When their paths cross again, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maude Turner Gordon
Maude Turner Gordon (November 10, 1868 – January 12, 1940) was an American actress who appeared in 81 films between 1914 and 1938. Biography Born in Franklin, Indiana, Gordon was the daughter of Alexander and Nancy (Wright) Turner. She was educated in the schools in Franklin. In the early 1900s, Gordon performed in repertory theatre with the Neill Stock Company in California. She appeared in a number of Broadway productions from 1908 to 1925 including: ''Glorious Betsy'', ''The American Maid'', ''A Full House'', ''Elsie'', and ''Big Boy''. She appeared onstage in ''Mrs. Holmes, Detective'', which was produced by her own company. Her elder sisterEmma Harper Turner served from 1890 to 1893 as Grand President of Pi Beta Phi, an international women's fraternity. Another sister, Nelle Turner, was a member of Pi Beta Phi. Family She eloped and married John C. Gordon on December 19, 1885, in Johnson County, Indiana. Their daughter, Dorothy, an alumna of the Fauquier In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pre-Code Hollywood
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] |
Clara Blandick
Clara Blandick (born Clara Blanchard Dickey; June 4, 1876 – April 15, 1962) was an American character, film, stage and theater actress who portrayed Aunt Em in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's '' The Wizard of Oz'' (1939). As a character actress, she often played eccentric elderly matriarchs. Early life She was born on June 4, 1876, in Clara Blanchard Dickey, the daughter of Isaac B. Dickey and Harriet "Hattie" Dickey (née Mudgett), aboard the ''Willard Mudgett'' – an American ship captained by her father (named after one of her maternal relatives), and docked in Victoria Harbour, British Hong Kong. She was delivered by Captain William H. Blanchard, whose ship, ''Wealthy Pendleton'', was anchored nearby. His wife, Clara Pendleton Blanchard, was also present. To thank the Blanchards, Captain and Mrs. Dickey named their daughter Clara Blanchard Dickey. When she became successful as an actress, she took the first syllable of "Blanchard" and the first syllable of "Dickey" to create ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edwin Maxwell (actor)
Edwin Maxwell (9 February 1886 – 13 August 1948) was an Irish character actor in Hollywood movies of the 1930s and 1940s, frequently cast as businessmen and shysters, though often ones with a pompous or dignified bearing. Prior to that, he was an actor on the Broadway stage and a director of plays. Early life Maxwell was a native of Dublin. Career In the late 1920s, Maxwell directed and acted in plays with the New York Theater Guild Repertory Company. From 1939 to 1942, Maxwell served as the dialogue director for the films of epic director Cecil B. DeMille. He was often uncredited for many of his film appearances. Maxwell appeared in four Academy Award-winning Best Pictures: '' All Quiet on the Western Front'' (1930), '' Grand Hotel'' (1932), '' The Great Ziegfeld'' (1936) and '' You Can't Take It with You'' (1938). Personal life Maxwell married actress Betty Alden. Maxwell died following a stroke. Filmography * '' The Taming of the Shrew'' (1929, film debut) as Ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom London
Tom London (born Leonard T. Clapman; August 24, 1889 – December 5, 1963) was an American actor who played frequently in B-Westerns. According to ''The Guinness Book of Movie Records'', London is credited with appearing in the most films in the history of Hollywood, according to the 2001 book ''Film Facts'', which says that the performer who played in the most films was "Tom London, who made his first of over 2,000 appearances in '' The Great Train Robbery, 1903''. He used his birth name in films until 1924. Life and career Born in Louisville, Kentucky, London got his start in movies as a props man in Chicago, Illinois. His debut was in 1915 in the Western ''Lone Larry'', performing under his own name. The first film in which he was billed under his new name was '' Winds of Chance'', a World War I film, in which he played "Sgt. Rock". London was a trick rider and roper, and used his trick skills in scores of Westerns. In the silent-film era, he often played villainous roles, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wallis Clark
Wallis Hensman Clark (2 March 1882 – 14 February 1961) was an English stage and film actor. Biography Clark was born in Bolton, Lancashire, England, the son of William Wallis Clark (1854 - 1930), an engineer. Prior to acting, Clark was an engineer. He began his stage career in Margate, Kent, in 1908. He moved to the United States and acted in numerous plays on the stage, including at the Little Theatre in Philadelphia, for years before moving on to the screen in 1932. He appeared in supporting roles in 136 films between 1931 and 1954. Five of these films won Best Picture: ''It Happened One Night'' (1934), ''Mutiny on the Bounty'' (1935), ''The Great Ziegfeld'' (1936), '' You Can't Take It with You'' (1938), and ''Gone with the Wind'' (1939). In four of these five films, Clark was uncredited. In ''Mutiny on the Bounty'', he is credited in the role of Morrison. Selected filmography * ''Elusive Isabel'' (1916) - Prince D'Abruzzi * ''20,000 Leagues Under the Sea'' (1916) - Pen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucien Littlefield
Lucien Littlefield (August 16, 1895 – June 4, 1960) was an American actor who achieved a long career from silent films to the television era. He was noted for his versatility, playing a wide range of roles and already portraying old men before he was of voting age. Life and career Lucien Littlefield was born in San Antonio, Texas and attended Staunton Military Academy. He started his movie career in 1913 and worked as an actor until his death in 1960. He usually portrayed comedic supporting characters, often much older than himself. His role of the doctor in '' The Cat and the Canary'' (1927) is one of his more notable performances. The character actor appeared with Laurel and Hardy, first as an eccentric professor in '' Dirty Work'' and finally as a veterinarian in '' Sons of the Desert'', both made in 1933. He also played Mary Pickford's father in ''My Best Girl'' in 1927. Other roles include the western '' Tumbleweeds'' with William S. Hart, the comedy '' Ruggles of Red ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ZaSu Pitts
ZaSu Pitts (; January 3, 1894 – June 7, 1963) was an American actress who, in a career spanning nearly five decades, starred in many silent film drama film, dramas, such as Erich von Stroheim's 1924 epic ''Greed (1924 film), Greed'', along with comedies, before moving into sound films, mostly comedy roles. She also appeared on numerous radio shows and, later, on television. She was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 at 6554 Hollywood Blvd. Early life ZaSu Pitts was born in Parsons, Kansas, the third of four children of Rulandus and Nelly (''née'' Shay) Pitts. Her father, who had lost a leg while serving in the 76th New York Volunteer Infantry, 76th New York Infantry in the American Civil War, Civil War, had settled the family in Kansas before ZaSu's birth. The names of her father's sisters, Eliza and Susan, were purportedly the basis for the name "ZaSu", i.e., to satisfy competing family interests. It has been (incorrectly) spelled as Zazu Pitts in some fil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nick Grinde
Nick Grinde (January 12, 1893 – June 19, 1979) was an American film director and screenwriter. He directed 57 films between 1928 and 1945. Biography Born Harry A. Grinde in Madison, Wisconsin but nicknamed "Nick", Grinde graduated from the University of Wisconsin. He later moved to New York and worked in Vaudeville. Grinde became a Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film writer and director in the late 1920s, and was often assigned to familiarize Broadway theatre, Broadway stage directors with the techniques of film making. As a director, he is considered one of American cinema's early B film specialists. Notable films include ''The Man They Could Not Hang, The Man they Could Not Hang'' with Boris Karloff, and Ronald Reagan's first motion picture: ''Love Is on the Air, Love is on the Air'' (1937). As a screenwriter, he is credited as a co-writer of Laurel and Hardy's ''Babes in Toyland (1934 film), Babes in Toyland'' (1934). Throughout his career, Grinde was a writer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gene Havlick
Gene Havlick (March 16, 1894 in Enid, Oklahoma, USA – May 11, 1959 in Los Angeles, California) was an American film editor. He was nominated for three Academy Awards, winning one. He worked on over 100 films during his 30-year career. Early life Eugene Charles Havlicek was born in Enid, Oklahoma to Frank Havlicek and Agnes Petricka, of Czech descent. His parents married in Heidelberg, Minnesota. Frank was a cabinet-maker, and later, an undertaker. By 1900, the family went by "Havlick". Filmography * '' The Crimson Canyon'' (1928) * '' Beauty and Bullets'' (1928) * '' Grit Wins'' (1929) * ''The Border Wildcat'' (1929) * '' The Fall of Eve'' (1929) * '' The Smiling Terror'' (1929) * ''The Ridin' Demon'' (1929) * '' The College Coquette'' (1929) * '' Song of Love'' (1929) * '' A Royal Romance'' (1930) * ''Sisters'' (1930) * ''Brothers'' (1930) * '' Madonna of the Streets'' (1930) * '' The Last Parade'' (1931) * '' The Sky Raiders'' (1931) * ''Lover Come Back'' (1931) * '' Fif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Regis Toomey
John Francis Regis Toomey (August 13, 1898October 12, 1991) was an American film and television actor. Early life Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he was one of four children of Francis X. and Mary Ellen Toomey, and attended Peabody High School. He initially pondered a law career, but acting won out and he established himself as a musical stage performer. Career Educated in dramatics at the University of Pittsburgh, where he became a brother of Sigma Chi, Toomey began as a stock actor and eventually made it to Broadway. Toomey was a singer on stage until throat problems (acute laryngitis) while touring in Europe stopped that aspect of his career. In 1929, he appeared in his first films, starting out as a leading man, but finding more success as a character actor, ''sans'' his toupee. In 1941, Toomey appeared in '' You're in the Army Now'', With Jane Wyman. In the same year, Toomey appeared in '' Meet John Doe'' where he makes a key speech in front of Gary Cooper. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jo Swerling
Jo Swerling (April 8, 1897 – October 23, 1964) was an American theatre writer, lyricist, and screenwriter. Early life and early career Born Joseph Swerling in Berdichev, Ukraine, Swerling was one of a number of Jewish refugees from the Tsarist regime. He grew up on New York City's Lower East Side, where he sold newspapers to help support his family. He worked as a newspaper and magazine writer in the early 1920s. He wrote the Marx Brothers' ''The Cinderella Girls'', which was a failure, and he also wrote their first movie, the unreleased silent comedy short film '' Humor Risk'' (1921). He scored a major success with the book and lyrics for the musical revue ''The New Yorkers'' (1927) and the play ''The Kibitzer'' (1929), the latter co-written with actor Edward G. Robinson. In Hollywood Swerling was brought to Hollywood by Columbia Pictures chief Harry Cohn to work on the screenplay for Frank Capra's '' Ladies of Leisure'' (1930), the first of several collaborations with the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
