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Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter
''Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?'' is an original stage comedy in three acts and four scenes by George Axelrod. After a try-out run at the Plymouth Theatre in Boston from 26 September 1955, it opened at the Belasco Theatre on Broadway on 13 October, starring Jayne Mansfield, Walter Matthau and Orson Bean. Directed by the author and produced by Jule Styne, it closed on 3 November 1956 after 444 performances. The play is a Faustian comedy about a fan magazine writer who sells his soul to the Devil (in the guise of a literary agent) to become a successful screenwriter. The character of Rita Marlowe (played by Jayne Mansfield) is a vapid blonde sex symbol, an exaggerated lampoon of Marilyn Monroe (who had starred the previous year in the film version of Axelrod's play ''The Seven Year Itch''). The surname Marlowe is an homage to 16th century playwright Christopher Marlowe, who wrote the 1604 drama '' The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus'', the plot that served as the inspira ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Axelrod
George Axelrod (June 9, 1922 – June 21, 2003) was an American screenwriter and producer. His play '' The Seven Year Itch'' (1952), was adapted into a film of the same name starring Marilyn Monroe. Axelrod was nominated for an Academy Award for his 1961 adaptation of Truman Capote's '' Breakfast at Tiffany's'' and also adapted Richard Condon's '' The Manchurian Candidate'' (1962). Early life and family Axelrod was born in New York City, the son of Beatrice Carpenter, a silent film actress, and Herman Axelrod, a Columbia graduate who had worked on the school's annual Varsity Show with Oscar Hammerstein and who later went into real estate. His father was Russian Jewish and his mother was of Scottish and English descent. He was the father of lawyer Peter Axelrod; Steven Axelrod, painting contractor and writer; Nina Axelrod, actress; and stepfather of screenwriter Jonathan Axelrod (who married the actress Illeana Douglas). George Axelrod is the grandfather of actor Talie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Art Carney
Arthur William Matthew Carney (November 4, 1918 – November 9, 2003) was an American actor and comedian. A recipient of an Academy Awards, Academy Award, a Golden Globe Awards, Golden Globe Award, and six Primetime Emmy Awards, he was best known for his role as Ed Norton on the sitcom ''The Honeymooners'' (1955–1956). His film roles include ''Harry and Tonto'' (1974), ''The Late Show (film), The Late Show'' (1977), ''House Calls (1978 film), House Calls'' (1978), ''Going in Style'' (1979), ''Firestarter (1984 film), Firestarter'', ''The Muppets Take Manhattan'' (both 1984), ''Last Action Hero'' (1993), and the ''Star Wars Holiday Special''. Early life Carney, the youngest of six sons (his brothers were Jack, Ned, Robert, Fred, and Phil), was born in Mount Vernon, New York, the son of Helen (née Farrell) and Edward Michael Carney, a newspaperman and publicist. His family was Irish American and Catholic. He attended Mount Vernon High School (New York), A.B. Davis High School ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Merry Anders
Merry Anders (born Mary Helen Anderson; May 22, 1934 – October 28, 2012) was an American actress who appeared in a number of television programs and films from the 1950s until her retirement from the screen in 1972. Early life Anders was born in Chicago in 1934, the only child of Charles, a contractor, and Helen Anderson. Anders was of German, Irish and Swedish descent. In 1949, Anders and her mother visited Los Angeles for two weeks. They decided to remain in Los Angeles permanently while Charles Anderson remained in Chicago. While she was a student at John Burroughs Middle School (Los Angeles), John Burroughs Middle School, Anders met former actress Rita Leroy who encouraged her to begin a modeling career. While working as a junior model, Anders began studying acting at the Ben Bard Playhouse. It was there that a talent scout from 20th Century Fox spotted her and signed her to a film contract in 1951. Career Anders made her film debut in the 1951 musical ''Golden Girl (1951 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mamie Van Doren
Mamie Van Doren (; born Joan Lucille Olander; February 6, 1931) is an American actress, singer, and model. A Bombshell (slang), blonde bombshell, she is one of the "Three M's" along with Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield, who were friends and contemporaries. In 1953, Van Doren, then named Joan Lucille Olander, signed a seven-year contract with Universal Pictures, Universal, which hoped that she would be their version of Monroe. During her time at Universal, she starred in teen dramas, exploitation films, musical, and comedy films among other genres. She has married five times, and had intimate affairs with many other Hollywood actors. She was one of the leading Sex symbol, sex symbols in the 1950s. Van Doren was born and raised in Rowena, South Dakota, but her parents moved to Sioux City, Iowa and eventually to Los Angeles in 1942 before she married Jack Newman. In 1949, at the age of eighteen, she won Miss Palm Springs and Miss Eight Ball. As Miss Eight Ball, she was discovere ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tina Louise
Tina Louise (née Blacker; born February 11, 1934) is an American actress widely known for her career on stage, film and television, including her role as movie star Ginger Grant in the popular television situation comedy ''Gilligan's Island''. She began her career on stage in the mid-1950s before landing her breakthrough role in 1958 drama film '' God's Little Acre'' for which she received the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year. Louise had starring roles in '' The Trap'', '' The Hangman'', '' Day of the Outlaw'', and '' For Those Who Think Young''. Her other films include '' The Wrecking Crew'', '' The Happy Ending'', '' The Stepford Wives'', and '' Johnny Suede''. She also had a recurring role on the primetime soap opera ''Dallas''. Early life Louise was born Tina Blacker on February 11, 1934, in New York City. An only child, she was raised by her mother, Sylvia (née Horn, later Myers), a fashion model. Her father, Joseph Blacker, was a candy store owner in Bro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Saroyan
William Saroyan (; August 31, 1908 – May 18, 1981) was an Armenian-American novelist, playwright, and short story writer. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940, and in 1943 won the Academy Award for Best Story for the film ''The Human Comedy''. When the studio rejected his original 240-page treatment, he turned it into a novel, '' The Human Comedy.'' Saroyan wrote extensively about the Armenian immigrant life in California. Many of his stories and plays are set in his native Fresno. Some of his best-known works are '' The Time of Your Life'', '' My Name Is Aram'' and '' My Heart's in the Highlands''. His two collections of short stories from the 1930s, ''Inhale Exhale'' (1936) and '' The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze'' (1941), are regarded as among his major achievements and essential documents of the cultural history of the period on the American West Coast. He has been described in a Dickinson College news release as "one of the most prominent litera ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carol Grace
Carol Grace (September 11, 1924 – July 20, 2003) was an American actress and author. She is often referred to as Carol Marcus Saroyan or Carol Matthau. Biography Carol Grace was born in New York City's Lower East Side; her mother, who was sixteen when she gave birth, was a Russian Jewish immigrant who arrived in New York on August 20, 1913. Her parents arrived later. Grace never knew her biological father. Her mother, Rosheen "Ray" Marcus ( Brofman, formerly Shapiro), reportedly claimed it was actor Leslie Howard, who was killed during WWII. Young Carol was placed in foster care until the age of eight. In 1933, her mother married her second husband, Charles Marcus, who was some two decades Rosheen's senior. He was the wealthy co-founder of the Bendix Corporation. Grace took his last name as her own. They lived on Park Avenue in luxury, with servants. Two years after their wedding he learned that Rosheen was hiding the existence of another daughter, Elinor, who had been le ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom Poston
Thomas Gordon Poston (October 17, 1921 – April 30, 2007) was an American actor, appearing in television roles from the 1950s through the early to mid-2000s, reportedly appearing in more sitcoms than any other actor. In the 1980s, he played George Utley on the CBS sitcom '' Newhart'', receiving three Emmy Award nominations for the role. In addition he had a number of film roles and appeared frequently on Broadway and television game shows. Early life Poston was born on October 17, 1921 in Columbus, Ohio, to George and Margaret Poston. His father was a liquor salesman and dairy chemist. After completing high school, Poston attended Bethany College in West Virginia, but did not graduate. While there, he joined the Sigma Nu fraternity. He joined the United States Army Air Forces in 1941. Accepted to officer candidate school and then graduating from flight training, Poston served as a pilot in the European Theater in World War II; his aircraft dropped paratroopers for the N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shubert Theatre (Broadway)
The Shubert Theatre is a Broadway theater at 225 West 44th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. Opened in 1913, the theater was designed by Henry Beaumont Herts in the Italian Renaissance style and was built for the Shubert brothers. Lee and J. J. Shubert had named the theater in memory of their brother Sam S. Shubert, who died in an accident several years before the theater's opening. It has 1,502 seats across three levels and is operated by The Shubert Organization. The facade and interior are New York City landmarks. The Shubert's facade is made of brick and terracotta, with sgraffito decorations designed in stucco. Three arches face south onto 44th Street, and a curved corner faces east toward Broadway. To the east, the Shubert Alley facade includes doors to the lobby and the stage house. The auditorium contains an orchestra level, two balconies, and a flat ceiling. The space is decorated with mythological mura ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Thourlby
William Leo Thourlby (January 22, 1924 – April 15, 2013) was an American actor, model and writer. He was known for his rugged, cowboy look when he appeared as the face of the Marlboro Man campaign in the 1950s. This ad campaign was one of the 20th century's most famous, redefining the Marlboro brand image from a cigarette for women to one for men. Early life and career William Thourlby was born on January 22, 1924, in Detroit, Michigan, the son of William H. Thourlby and Edith Thourlby. He had two siblings, both sisters; Margaret P. Thourlby and Gloria G. Thourlby. Thourlby started his modeling career by working for the pulp magazine covers. He was offered the Marlboro ad in 1953. He also began acting, appearing in the films ''The Manchurian Candidate'' (1962), ''The Creeping Terror'' (1964) as Dr. Bradford, and as Ben Wiley in ''Angel's Flight'' (1965). He was also the producer of ''Angel's Flight''. He was given the role of a Native American chief in a sportsmen's show in N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phyllis Gates
Phyllis Lucille Gates (December 7, 1925 – January 4, 2006) was an American secretary and interior decorator, known for her three-year marriage to the actor Rock Hudson. The story of their marriage was depicted in the TV film ''Rock Hudson'' (1990), starring Daphne Ashbrook as Gates and Thomas Ian Griffith as Hudson. Early life Gates was born in Dawson, Minnesota, to Leo Gates (1896–1970) and Mabel (née Johnson) Gates (1900–1999), and raised on a farm. She graduated from Clarkfield High School in June 1943. Early in her life, she worked as a sales clerk in a department store, flight attendant, and secretary for a New York City talent agent, before moving to Hollywood to work for talent agent Henry Willson, who represented actors Rock Hudson, Tab Hunter, and Rory Calhoun. Marriage to Rock Hudson Gates met Rock Hudson in October 1954. They started dating some time later and were married in Santa Barbara, California, on November 9, 1955, shortly after he finished fil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rock Hudson
Rock Hudson (born Roy Harold Scherer Jr.; November 17, 1925 – October 2, 1985) was an American actor. One of the most popular film stars of his time, he had a screen career spanning more than three decades, and was a prominent figure in the Golden Age of Hollywood. Hudson achieved stardom with his role in '' Magnificent Obsession'' (1954), followed by ''All That Heaven Allows'' (1955), and ''Giant'' (1956), for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Hudson also found continued success with a string of romantic comedies co-starring Doris Day: '' Pillow Talk'' (1959), ''Lover Come Back'' (1961), and '' Send Me No Flowers'' (1964). During the late 1960s, his films included ''Seconds'' (1966), ''Tobruk'' (1967), and '' Ice Station Zebra'' (1968). Unhappy with the film scripts he was offered, Hudson formed his own film production companies, first 7 Pictures Corporation, then later Gibraltar Pictures, to have more control over his roles; later he turned ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
