Ellen Hall

Ellen Hall was an American actress and showgirl. She was introduced to the film industry when her mother, Ella Hall, got an uncredited cameo as a nurse in the 1930 Universal production ''All Quiet on the Western Front''.

In 1943, Hall joined the Goldwyn Girls, a musical stock company of female dancers formed by Samuel Goldwyn, based on the Ziegfeld Girls. In 1944, 20th Century Fox invited her to join the newly formed Diamond Horseshoe Girls.

During her career, she acted in Westerns, a popular genre in the 1940s, as well as family comedies and musicals. In 1951, she appeared in the television series ''The Cisco Kid''.

Hall performed her last acting role in 1952, when she was .

Early years

Ellen Hall's mother was the actress Ella Hall, and her father was actor-turned-director Emory Johnson. The couple married in a private ceremony in 1917. After their honeymoon, the newlyweds moved into Johnson's Los Angeles residence, which they shared with his mother, Emilie Johnson. The oldest of Hall's siblings, Emory Waldemar Johnson Jr, was born on January 27, 1919. The Johnson's second child, Alfred Bernard Johnson, was born on September 26, 1920. Ellen Hall was born Ellen Joanna Johnson on April 19, 1923.

In 1924, Ellen's mother filed for divorce, though the couple reconciled in late 1925. In March 1926, a truck fatally struck the five-year-old Alfred while the kids were crossing a busy street in Hollywood. The Johnson couple subsequently had another child, Diana Marie, on October 27, 1929.

Hall's parents eventually divorced in 1930, and Ella and her three children found residence with Ella's mother, who lived in North Hollywood. Ella got work at the upscale department store I. Magnin. In 1932, Emory Johnson declared bankruptcy to reduce his financial obligations towards Ella and their children.

Career

Hall appeared in her first large-scale production when she was seven. Her mother secured roles for her and her ten-year-old brother, Waldmar, in the 1930 Universal production ''All Quiet on the Western Front''.

According to another newspaper account, Hall made her first appearance in front of the cameras at age nine, with an uncredited role in Mary Pickford's '' Secrets'', released in 1933.

Comedies, glamour, and musicals

At the age of 18, Hall was chosen to play one of the background autograph seekers in the 1941 musical comedy '' The Chocolate Soldier''.

At 21, in 1943, Hall became one of the thirty-four Goldwyn Girls, created by Sam Goldwyn. This led her to appear in the 1944 Samuel Goldwyn Productions musical '' Up in Arms''. Her promotional photo from the shoot states, In 1944, she appeared in '' Here Come the Waves''; in 1945, ''Wonder Man''; and in 1946, '' Cinderella Jones''. This role would be her last in a musical. In late 1944, Hall was selected by 20th-Century Fox producer William Perlberg to join the fourteen Diamond Horseshoe Girls.

Westerns

Although she had work in other genres, Hall found her acting niche in B movie Westerns. Out of her filmography of twenty movies, eight were Westerns. In 1943, the 20-year-old actress got her first female lead in the Monogram Pictures production '' Outlaws of Stampede Pass''. Hall would act in five Westerns in 1944: in January, she got top female billing in '' Raiders of the Border''; in April, she appeared in ''Lumberjack''; in June, '' Range Law''; and in July, '' Call of the Rockies'' and ''Brand of the Devil''.

Following her 1944 marriage, Hall began accepting fewer film roles. In 1946, she acted in '' Thunder Town'', and in 1949, she accepted her final role in a Hollywood Western, in '' Lawless Code''.

Other genres and mediums

Interspersed with her 1944 Western roles, Hall also landed a role as the long-dead wife of Bela Lugosi in the 1944 film ''Voodoo Man''. After getting married, she acted in six more movies, and in 1951, she appeared in three episodes of the Western television series ''The Cisco Kid''. Her final Hollywood production was the 1951 film '' Bowery Battalion'', and her last recorded film is the 1952 PFC production ''The Congregation''. She retired from making films at the age of .

Personal life

Marriage

In February 1944, Hall was working with actress Ann Sheridan on a scene for the Warner Bros. production ''Shine On, Harvest Moon''. While on set, Sheridan introduced Hall to Lee Langer, a Marine fighter pilot who had seen action in the Guadalcanal campaign. Hall and Langer immediately connected, and two weeks later, on March 13, 1944, they announced their engagement. Hall was years old, while Langer was . The couple married on December 3, 1944, in North Hollywood. Rickie VanDusen was Hall's maid of honor. Hall's mother, Ella, was friends with Mary Pickford, who arranged for the wedding reception to be held at the Hollywood home of her friend Frances Marion. Along with Hall's mother, Pickford was in the receiving line. A newspaper article describing the wedding referenced Hall's father as "the late Emory Johnson"; father and daughter were estranged at the time.

After the wedding, Langer remained on active duty. The couple moved into a three-bedroom Spanish stucco-style home in Los Angeles. The military discharged Langer from active service on February 21, 1946. A son was born to the couple on March 4, 1949. They would remain married until Langer's death, in 1995.

Retirement

By 1952, Hall had retired from acting. She was a Motion Picture & Television Fund volunteer group member and served as its volunteer president from 1969 to 1970.

Langer became a restaurateur, managing the upscale Encore Cafe on La Cienega Boulevard. In 1951, he also became a major in the Marine Reserves.

Death

The couple eventually retired to Rosarito Beach, Mexico. Langer died in 1995 in San Ysidro, San Diego, at the age of 76. The couple had been married for 50 years. After Langer's death, Hall moved to Bellevue, Nebraska. On March 24, 1999, she died of complications from a stroke while residing in Bellevue's Hillcrest Care and Rehabilitation Center. She was 75 at the time of her death. Her ashes were transported west and interred with her mother and sister at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. Her estranged father is buried a block away.

Filmography

Television

Gallery

EmoryJohnsonColorized1925.jpg, Emory Johnson
Father
1925
EllaHall1915.png, Ella Hall
Mother
1915
EllaHallWithKidsOct1924.jpg, Bernard, Ellen, Ella, and Waldemar
1924
Richard Emory 1952.jpg, Emory Waldemar Johnson
Richard Emory
1952
Ellen Hall.jpg, Ellen Joanna Johnson
Ellen Hall
1944


Outlaws of Stampede Pass 1943.jpg, '' Outlaws of Stampede Pass''
1943
Raiders Of The Border.jpg, '' Raiders of the Border''
1944
Voodoo Man lobby card 1944.JPG, ''Voodoo Man''
1944
Range Law.jpg, '' Range Law''
1944
Call of the Rockies.jpg, '' Call of the Rockies''
1944
Brand of The Devil1944.jpg, ''Brand of the Devil''
1944
Ellen Hall in Thunder Town.jpg, '' Thunder Town''
1946
Lawless Code.jpg, '' Lawless Code''
1949

Notes

References

Bibliography

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External links

Ellen Hall
at the American Film Institute Catalog

Ellen Hall
at AllMovie
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Ellen Hall
at the TCM Movie Database

"Those obscure objects of desire" – Ellen Hall

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Ellen
Actresses from Los Angeles
American television actresses
American film actresses
1922 births
1999 deaths
Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)
20th-century American actresses
People from Bellevue, Nebraska