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1-50 of 474
- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Charles Weston was born on 24 May 1886 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. He was a director and producer, known for The Hand at the Window (1915), The Seventh Day (1914) and For King and Country (1914). He was married to Alice Inwood. He died on 15 August 1919 in New York City, New York, USA.- Helen Tracy was born on 7 May 1850 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. She was an actress, known for Romeo and Juliet (1916), Twenty-One (1923) and The Net (1923). She died on 5 September 1924 in Staten Island, New York, USA.
- Cinematographer
George Eastman was born on 6 June 1900 in Jacksonville, Illinois, USA. He was a cinematographer, known for The Sin Sister (1929) and Cameo Kirby (1930). He died on 2 January 1930 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Edgar Connor grew up dancing for pennies on the streets of Jacksonville, Florida, when, in 1906, J. Rosamond Johnson and Bob Cole, two black vaudevillians, recruited him to sing and dance in two of their vaudeville productions, "The Shoo-Fly Regiment" and "The Red Moon." From there, he became a fixture in vaudeville both in the States, and abroad, appearing in dance revues on cruise ships as well as in nightclubs and theaters in France, particularly Cannes. He also headed the road show "Shuffle Along No. 2" for a number of years before going into movies.
- Florida Kingsley was born in 1867 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. She was an actress, known for The Turmoil (1916), Dangerous Business (1920) and Annabelle Lee (1921). She was married to Wright Huntington. She died on 19 March 1937 in Bay Shore, Long Island, New York, USA.
- Writer
- Music Department
- Composer
American poet, novelist and essayist James Weldon Johnson was born in Jacksonville, FL, in 1871. He came from a musically inclined family--his brother was noted composer and songwriter J. Rosamond Johnson--and received his B.A. from Atlanta University and his M.A. from that institution two years later, a significant accomplishment in an era when many blacks were prevented from getting any higher education at all.
He was hired as a teacher and the principal at an all-black school in Jacksonville. At the same time he was studying law and in 1897 he received his law degree and was admitted to the Florida bar, the first black attorney to do so since the end of the Civil War. In 1901 he relocated to New York City, where he joined his brother Rosamond and his partner in writing songs for both the stage and light opera, and the team was quite successful. One song was so popular that they cleared $13,000 from it--an astonishing sum at the time--and used that money to travel to France, where they spent several months partying and traveling before returning to the US.
He was soon appointed as the American Consul in Venezuela, and his tenure there was so productive he was appointed to the same position in Nicaragua, again with great success. In 1910 he married Grace Nail, and two years later produced his first novel, the (fictional) "Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man" (the subject was so sensitive at the time that the book was published with no writer's credit; it wasn't until 1927 that he was acknowledged as the author). He continued writing essays, books and songs and wrote the English libretto for the opera "Goyescas", which was presented at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1915. In addition, he served for many years as secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He returned to teaching in 1930--while still continuing his writing--and became Professor of Creative Literature at Fisk University. In 1934 he was named Visiting Professor of Literature at New York University.
On June 26, 1938, Johnson was driving through a railroad crossing near his summer home in Bar Harbor, ME, when his car was struck by a train. His wife was seriously injured but survived. Johnson was killed instantly.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Ray portrayed simple unaffected country bumpkins in silent rural melodramas. Unfortunately, Ray let Hollywood turn him into a headstrong egotist. Alienating most producers, he put up his own money to finance a major feature called The Courtship of Myles Standish (1923). The film was a miserable failure that wiped out Ray's fortune. Comeback attempts were hampered by the advent of the sound picture.- Actor
Art Berry Sr. was born on 25 August 1881 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. He was an actor. He died on 12 June 1945 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Joe Byrd was born on 12 April 1885 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. He was an actor, known for A Daughter of the Congo (1930) and Scandal (1933). He was married to Elsie Smith and Bonnie Windsor. He died on 9 October 1946 in Staten Island, New York, USA.
- Elizabeth Boyer was born on 16 June 1902 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. She was an actress, known for The Sport of the Gods (1921). She was married to Bob Sawyer. She died on 25 December 1946 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Mercedes Gilbert was born on 26 July 1894 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. She was an actress, known for Lights Out (1946), The Call of His People (1921) and Moon Over Harlem (1939). She was married to Arthur J. Stevenson. She died on 1 March 1952 in New York City, New York, USA.- Ruth Hart was born in August 1886 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. She was an actress, known for Two Women and a Man (1909), The Last Deal (1910) and To Save Her Soul (1909). She was married to Walter J. Moore. She died on 2 May 1952 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Director
- Actress
- Writer
Ruth Bryan Owen was born on 2 October 1885 in Jacksonville, Illinois, USA. She was a director and actress, known for Once Upon a Time (1922). She was married to Børge Rohde, Reginald Owen and William Homer Leavitt. She died on 26 July 1954 in Copenhagen, Denmark.- Music Department
- Actor
- Writer
J. Rosamond Johnson was born on 11 August 1873 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Infinite (2021), Do the Right Thing (1989) and Antebellum (2020). He was married to Nora Ethel Floyd. He died on 11 November 1954 in New York City, New York, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Skip Farrell was born on 9 October 1918 in Jacksonville, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for A Symposium on Popular Songs (1962), The Magical World of Disney (1954) and The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show (1956). He died on 8 May 1962 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Writer
- Animation Department
Pinto Colvig was the quintessential clown whose own identity was always hidden but whose innate warmhearted character always came through his many talents. His humor tickled the funny bone and touched the heart. Incredibly gifted in music, art and mime, he spoke to different generations in different roles: as a child clown playing a squeaky clarinet, as a full-fledged circus clown under the big top, as a newspaper cartoonist, as a film animator, as a mimic and sound effects wizard, and as the voice of dozens of well-known characters on film, records, radio and television.
Vance DeBar Colvig was born in Jacksonville, Oregon, on September 11, 1892. His school friends nicknamed him after a spotted horse named "Pinto" because of his freckled face - and just like his freckles, the name stuck for his entire life.
Pinto's childhood home was filled with music and laughter, and he was a clown from birth. As the youngest of seven children, he would do anything to get attention. He learned to make people laugh by making faces and playing pranks. He also spent hours mimicking the sounds around him: a rusty gate, farm animals, sneezes, wind, cars, trains, etc. He and his brother Don put on song-and-dance minstrel shows at local functions. Along the way he picked up his instrument of choice, the clarinet, and soon played well enough to join the town band.
It was the clarinet that got Pinto into show business when he was 12. Visiting Portland's "Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition" with his father William, he was magnetized by "The Crazy House" on the Midway where a huckster attracted the crowd with a bass drum and shouts of "Hubba Hubba!" Pinto told the man he could play "squeaky" clarinet and ran back to the hotel to get his instrument. He was hired on the spot and given some oversized old clothes and a derby and, for the first time, white makeup and a clown face. The man told Pinto, "Now you look like a real bozo" ("bozo" was a name given to hobo or tramp clowns in those days). Pinto's act was to play a screechy clarinet while distorting his face and crossing his eyes at the high notes. He later recalled, "I never was able to get circuses and carnivals out of my blood after that."
He went to school during the winter and worked in the circus and vaudeville in the spring. While studying art at Oregon Agricultural College (now Oregon State University) and playing with the college band, he became known for his clever cartoons in student publications, his funny "chalk talk" performances improvising a monologue while quickly sketching cartoons, and his unconventional lifestyle. He never took his class courses seriously and his college career ended abruptly in the spring of 1913 when he accepted an offer to do his chalk talks for the prestigious Pantages vaudeville circuit and wound up in Seattle, Washington. There he joined a circus band and traveled throughout the country struggling to make ends meet.
In 1914 he landed a job as a newspaper cartoonist at the "Nevada Rockroller" in Reno, and later the "Carson City News" in Carson City. By the spring of 1915 his cartooning was going well but the lure of the circus was too strong. When the Al G. Barnes Circus came through Carson City, Pinto dropped everything and joined the troupe, once again clowning and playing his clarinet in the circus band.
In those days circuses closed down each winter and Pinto returned to newspaper cartooning wherever he could find a job. While working on a Portland newspaper between seasons in 1916, he met and married Margaret Bourke Slavin, putting an end to his vagabond life as a circus performer. With a family to support, Pinto and Margaret moved to San Francisco, where he returned to the newspaper business writing and drawing cartoons full-time at "The Bulletin" and later the "San Francisco Chronicle". His cartoon series, "Life on the Radio Wave," which poked fun at the way the newly introduced radio was influencing people's lives, was syndicated nationally by United Features Syndicate. He greatly enjoyed cartooning and considered it another form of clowning. "A cartoonist," he said, "is just a clown with a pencil."
While Pinto toiled daily to meet newspaper commitments, he began to spend evenings experimenting with the animation of cartoons and eventually set up his own studio, Pinto Cartoon Comedies Co., where he created one of the first animated silent films in color called "Pinto's Prizma Comedy Revue (1919)". In 1922, after realizing that San Francisco was not the place to break into the movie business, he moved his family to Hollywood. There he would be able to continue his animation work and find a wealth of other things that he could do. He was overjoyed one day to get an offer to join Mack Sennett, the reigning king of movie comedies, who had developed one of the most successful studios of the day, the Keystone Film Co., home of the famous Keystone Kops, Charles Chaplin and many others. Sennett needed an experienced animator for his own films, but Pinto soon found himself also writing and acting in comedies and dramas. In 1928 he teamed up with his friend Walter Lantz to create an early talking cartoon, "Bolivar, the Talking Ostrich (1928)", but unlike Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie (1928), it failed to become a hit. Pinto and Lantz, who would later be the voice of Woody Woodpecker, gave up and went to larger studios.
Disney, who was making "Mickey Mouse" and "Silly Symphony" cartoons, signed Pinto to a contract in 1930. Pinto worked on stories, co-wrote songs such as the lyrics to "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" and was the original voice of animated characters such as Goofy and Pluto, Grumpy and Sleepy in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and the Practical Pig in "Three Little Pigs." Disney cartoonists copied many of Pinto's facial expressions while drawing animal characters for the cartoons. He left Disney in 1937 following a fallout with Walt and Disney proceeded to reuse his old voice tracks. Meanwhile, Pinto freelanced voices and sound effects for Warner Bros. cartoons, sang for some of the Munchkins during Dorothy's arrival scenes in MGM's The Wizard of Oz (1939), and also joined Max Fleischer Studios in Miami, where he did the voice of Gabby in Gulliver's Travels (1939) and the blustering of Bluto in "Popeye the Sailor" cartoons. He returned to Disney in 1941 and continued to freelance for them and on radio programs for others. He was the original Maxwell automobile on Jack Benny's show, the hiccuping horse for Dennis Day, and a variety of voices for "Amos 'n Andy." His live radio experience and contacts introduced him to the recording industry. He did several albums before encountering one of his best-known characters, Bozo the Clown.
It was 1946 when Capitol Records in Hollywood hired Alan Livingston as a writer/producer. His initial assignment was to create a children's record library, for which he came up with the soon-to-be-legendary Bozo character. He wrote and produced a popular series of storytelling record-album and illustrative read-along book sets, beginning with the October 1946 release of "Bozo at the Circus." His record-reader concept, which enabled children to read and follow a story in pictures while listening to it, was the first of its kind. The Bozo image was a composite design of Livingston's, derived from a variety of clown pictures and then given to an artist to turn into comic-book-like illustrations. Livingston then hired Pinto to portray the character. "Pinto came in," Livingston recalls, "and turned out to be a very jolly, likable fellow with the kind of warm, folksy voice I wanted. He didn't talk down to children." Not only did Livingston get a perfect Bozo voice in Pinto, he also got most of the animals and odd creatures under the sea and in outer space, all for the price of one. On some of the records, Pinto provided as many as eight other voices. The series turned out to be a smash hit for Capitol, selling over eight million albums in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The character also became a mascot for the record company and was later nicknamed "Bozo the Capitol Clown." Pinto, as Bozo, also starred in the very first Bozo television series, Bozo's Circus (1951) on KTTV-Channel 11 (CBS) in Los Angeles, made numerous guest appearances on radio and personal appearance tours all over the country. He especially enjoyed his visits to children's hospitals and orphanages, according to Pinto, "doin' my silly stuff to make them laugh."
Pinto's Bozo days came to an end by 1956, when Livingston left Capitol and Larry Harmon acquired the rights to Bozo (excluding the record-readers) in 1957. In 1958 Jayark Films Corp. began distributing Bozo limited-animation cartoons to television stations, along with the rights for each to hire its own live Bozo host. Harmon produced and provided the voice of the character in the cartoons. On January 5, 1959, Bozo returned to television with a live half-hour weeknight show on KTLA-Channel 5 in Los Angeles starring Pinto's son, Vance Colvig Jr. as the live Bozo host. Vance's portrayal and the KTLA show lasted for six years, at which time Harmon bought out his partners and continued to market the character through his Larry Harmon Pictures Corporation.
If Pinto had any dark years, they were during World War II. Four of his five sons were of eligible age and his wife felt the dread that millions of mothers felt, which may have complicated an illness that made her a semi-invalid for several years. Pinto took care of her until her death in 1950.
Throughout his life Pinto was upbeat and cheerful, convinced that laughter was the world's best medicine. "Sure, there have been kicks in the pants and occasionally an empty gut," he once said, "but those are the jolts what pushes a guy upward and onward!" His letters, though touching on his philosophy, were never serious but always funny and filled with odd typing effects, extraneous capitalization, underlining, misspellings and strange made-up words. He also lavished his letters and envelopes with outrageous cartoons and balloons filled with gags. He kept regular correspondence with clown legends Felix Adler, Emmett Kelly, Lou Jacobs and Otto Griebling, and visited "clown alley" whenever a circus came to the Los Angeles area.
In 1963 Pinto received a letter from Oregon Senator Maurine Neuberger thanking him for supporting her bill requiring warning labels on cigarette packages. It was a controversial idea at a time when nonsmoking areas were just a dream and America was blue with secondhand smoke. With lungs ravaged by a lifetime of heavy smoking, Pinto did his part to help others become aware of the problem. On October 3, 1967, Vance Debar "Pinto" Colvig died of lung cancer at the age of 75 in Woodland Hills, California.
Vance Jr. donated his and his father's memorabilia to the Southern Oregon Historical Society in Pinto's hometown of Jacksonville in 1978. Vance Jr. passed away in 1991.
In 1993, the Walt Disney Company honored Pinto Colvig as a "Disney Legend." On May 28, 2004, he was inducted into the International Clown Hall of Fame in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Cora La Redd was born on 4 August 1908 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. She was an actress, known for That's the Spirit (1933). She died on 21 March 1968.- Maurice Stephens was born on 13 December 1903 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. He was a writer, known for Motorboat Mamas (1928), Hubby's Weekend Trip (1928) and Calling Hubby's Bluff (1929). He was married to Veneda Greta Baumgartner and Ethel Blakeley. He died on 11 May 1970 in San Mateo, California, USA.
- Blaine Cordner was born on 21 August 1895 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. He was an actor, known for Before Morning (1933), Kraft Theatre (1947) and The Philco Television Playhouse (1948). He died on 29 March 1971 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Producer
- Writer
- Additional Crew
In 1920, Merian C. Cooper was a member of volunteer of the American Kosciuszko Squadron that supported the Polish army in the war with Soviet Russia, where he met best friend and producing partner Ernest B. Schoedsack. On 26 July 1920, his plane was shot down, and he spent nearly nine months in the Soviet prisoner-of-war camp. He escaped just before the war was over. He was decorated by Marshall Jozef Pilsudski with the highest military decorations: Virtuti Military. He had a successful career in the military and in the movie business.- Helen Matthews Altman was born on 30 November 1893 in Jacksonville, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for Pot au feu (1967). She died on 23 June 1974 in Overland Park, Kansas, USA.
- Rory Harrity was born on 26 May 1933 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. He was an actor, known for One Step Beyond (1959), Where the Boys Are (1960) and Not for Hire (1959). He was married to Marguerite Lamkin. He died on 23 July 1974 in Klosters, Graubünden, Switzerland.
- Linda Danson was born on 13 September 1926 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. She was an actress, known for Combat Squad (1953), Captain Midnight (1954) and Ramar of the Jungle (1952). She died on 14 March 1975 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Composer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Ronnie Van Zant was born on January 15, 1948 in Jacksonville, Florida. He was the oldest son of six children (3 sisters and 2 brothers - musicians Donnie and Johnny). Ronnie attended Lee High School in Jacksonville with fellow band members Gary Rossington and Allen Collins. They soon formed what would become Lynyrd Skynyrd. At the height of their fame, on October 20, 1977, their chartered plane crashed. Ronnie was killed along with band members Steve Gaines and his sister Cassie. His signature songs are "Free Bird" and "Sweet Home Alabama".- Actress
- Soundtrack
Dorothy Shay was born on 11 April 1921 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. She was an actress, known for The Waltons (1972), Matinee Theatre (1955) and Comin' Round the Mountain (1951). She was married to Dick Looman. She died on 22 October 1978 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Script and Continuity Department
- Actor
- Director
Harry Harvey Jr. was born on 9 October 1929 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Forbidden Planet (1956), Mannix (1967) and Convoy (1978). He died on 8 December 1978 in Panorama City, California, USA.- Actress
Judy Schenz was born on 24 September 1941 in Jacksonville, Illinois, USA. She was an actress. She died on 31 January 1981 in Tarrant County, Texas, USA.- Born Dixie Wanda Hendrix in Jacksonville, Florida to a logging camp boss (Max Sylvester Hendrix) and his wife (Mary Bailley), wholesome, green-eyed, dark-haired Wanda Hendrix was involved in her hometown's little theater group when she was "discovered" by a passing talent agent and signed up by Warner Bros. Her family moved to California.
Forgoing bit parts, the petite and lovely up-and-comer was immediately featured in featured roles in both Confidential Agent (1945) and Nora Prentiss (1947) for Warner Bros. and Welcome Stranger (1947) for Paramount. Signing up with Paramount, she earned one of her best film roles with Ride the Pink Horse (1947), in which there was talk of an Oscar nomination, and appeared elsewhere in the light comedy Miss Tatlock's Millions (1948) and the melodrama My Own True Love (1949).
After appearing on the cover of Coronet magazine, decorated WWII hero-turned-Universal star Audie Murphy took notice and arranged a meeting with her. They married on February 8 1949, and she co-starred with him a year later in one of his western vehicles, Sierra (1950). The marriage had problems from the beginning. Audie, who wanted her to give up her career, suffered from flashbacks and paranoia from his traumatic war-time experiences and often held her at gunpoint during violent episodes. The frightened woman left him after only seven months and divorced him soon after, charging him with mental cruelty. The final decree came on April 14, 1950.
The negative publicity that came out of their stormy marriage did little to enhance Wanda's status in Hollywood and, after a few standard oaters and war yarns, the more notable ones being Captain Carey, U.S.A. (1949) co-starring Alan Ladd, The Highwayman (1951) with Charles Coburn, and Roger Corman's Highway Dragnet (1954) with Richard Conte, her career waned. The actress retired completely from pictures in 1954 to marry millionaire playboy and sportsman James L. Stack, Jr., brother of actor Robert Stack. She earlier appeared with her famous brother-in-law in the films Miss Tatlock's Millions (1948) and My Outlaw Brother (1951).
The career sacrifice did little to help the marriage and the couple divorced in 1958. Returning to acting, she made a comeback on stage, film and TV but experienced little progression. Overlooked in her three 1960s films, her last film roles were filmed in the early 1970s. "Mystic Mountain Massacre", co-starring Ray Danton, was never released, and the Civil War horror One Minute Before Death (1972), based on a short story "The Oval Portrait" by Edgar Allan Poe, in which she co-starred with Barry Coe and Gisele MacKenzie, died a quicker death than even the title suggests.
In 1969, she married a third and last time, to oil company executive Steve La Monte in Las Vegas. At one point, she considered collaborating with author Douglas Warren on an autobiography of her first husband, Audie Murphy, but it never came to fruition. Divorced from her third husband in 1980, Wanda died shortly thereafter at age 52 of double pneumonia in Los Angeles. She had no children. - Actor
- Soundtrack
Clay Randolph was born on 13 November 1927 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. He was an actor, known for Belles on Their Toes (1952), Tales of Wells Fargo (1957) and Bronco (1958). He died on 12 February 1981 in New York, New York, USA.- Ramon Romero was born on 25 December 1904 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. He was a writer, known for City Beneath the Sea (1953), The Apache (1928) and Tropic Madness (1928). He was married to Gloria Grey. He died on 4 July 1981 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- George Byron was born on 29 July 1908 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. He was an actor, known for Ice Capades Revue (1942), Thumbs Up (1943) and Chatterbox (1943). He died on 27 May 1982 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Larry Breeding was born on 28 September 1946 in Jacksonville, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for It's Not Easy (1982), The Last Resort (1979) and Hart to Hart (1979). He died on 28 September 1982 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Al Dexter was born on 4 May 1905 in Jacksonville, Texas, USA. He was a writer, known for Radio Days (1987), Pistol Packin' Mama (1943) and 12 Monkeys (2015). He died on 28 January 1984 in Denton, Texas, USA.- Charles Stone was born on 18 July 1943 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. Charles was a director, known for ABC News Nightline (1980). Charles died on 11 February 1984 in Falls Church, Virginia, USA.
- Lee Roy was one of the best superspeedway drivers in NASCAR history. He joined Junior Johnson's race team in 1967, and it was a perfect match. "Lee Roy had the most raw talent I've ever seen." said Junior. Unfortunately, injuries he received in a crash shortened his career. He died in an institution while battling alcholism in 1984.
- Very little is known about Alice Elizabeth Nunn with the exception that she appeared in one of the 1980s most famous films, Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985), as the infamous truck driver, 'Large Marge'.
She was born on October 10, 1927 in Jacksonville, Florida to parents N.G. Nunn and Alice Bush. After the acting bug bit, she eventually made her way westward, and television shows, Camp Runamuck (1965) and Petticoat Junction (1963) were her first Hollywood acting jobs. She went on to appear in dozens of films and television shows, with some of her more memorable roles being in Mommie Dearest (1981) as 'Helga', Who's That Girl (1987), alongside Madonna as a Parole Board Official, and her last film role as 'Nurse Palmer' in Three O'Clock High (1987).
After battling breast cancer for several years, she suffered a stroke and passed away days later of cardiac arrest in her West Hollywood, California apartment on Friday, July 1, 1988. She was survived by her longtime companion, Martha Harris. Alice was cremated her ashes were interred with her parents back in her native Jacksonville.
Even though Alice didn't live long enough to bask in the late fame she so duly earned in the mid-late 1980s, in which she has since attained pop culture status, she did, however, run into Paul Reubens, not long after Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985) premiered in theaters, and remarked to him the recognition she got from children which had truly touched her.
Alice Nunn will always have a place in Hollywood history - even if it's just mostly being remembered as 'Large Marge' - about which she never complained. - Actor
- Soundtrack
Billy Daniels toiled obscurely for years before becoming a star in 1950. He began singing in his native Jacksonville, Florida, then moved to Harlem in 1932 and became a dishwasher, and later a singing waiter, as Dickie Wells' restaurant-club. He toured with the Erskine Hawkins band circa 1935-36, then returned to Harlem, which he loved, and sang virtually every day, sometimes just for food. He became a staple on local radio shows, and in 1941 he had a small record hit on Bluebird, "Diane"/"Penthouse Serenade." "Diane" became his trademark song at this stage of his career, when he sang tenor with no appreciable body movement. At this time he starred in Sepia Cinderella (1947). In 1948 he began to work permanently with pianist/backup singer Benny Payne, who also served as his musical director. About that time he began to make "That Old Black Magic," which he'd first sung in the summer of 1946 at the Club Harlem in Atlantic City, his new trademark. A 1948 extended appearance at New York's posh Park Avenue Restaurant began his climb to fame, which climaxed in 1950 with engagements at Hollywood's Mocambo and Bill Miller's Riviera in New Jersey, capped by his sensational appearance in the film When You're Smiling (1950). From then on he was a star. He appeared in three Broadway musicals: "Memphis Bound" (1945), "Golden Boy" (1964), and "Hello Dolly" (1975). Mercury Records was his main label, but before he signed with them he'd appeared on Vocalion, Bluebird, Victor (with Phil Moore), Savoy (with Stuff Smith), Decca (Andy Kirk), and Apollo. His film credits are sometimes confused with the dancer-choreographer-actor Billy Daniel,- Boobie Clark was born on 8 November 1950 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. He died on 25 October 1988 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA.
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Cinematographer
Otto Dyar was born on 25 July 1892 in Jacksonville, Oregon, USA. He was a cinematographer, known for Watch the Birdie (1950), The Bride Goes Wild (1948) and Human Hearts (1922). He died on 26 December 1988 in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.- Composer
- Soundtrack
Allen Collins was born on 19 July 1952 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. He was a composer, known for Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014), Straw Dogs (2011) and Speed Racer (2008). He was married to Kathy Evelyn Johns. He died on 23 January 1990 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA.- Don Bessent was born on 13 March 1931 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. He died on 7 July 1990 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA.
- Art Director
- Art Department
- Production Designer
McClure Capps was born on 20 November 1910 in Jacksonville, Illinois, USA. He was an art director and production designer, known for The Pride of the Yankees (1942), Ball of Fire (1941) and Tarzan and the Huntress (1947). He was married to Ruth Capps. He died on 23 August 1991 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actress
Janice Jarrett was born on 19 October 1914 in Jacksonville, Texas, USA. She was an actress. She was married to Thomas Deely and Alfred Urban Morrison. She died on 29 September 1991 in San Antonio, Texas, USA.- Composer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Eddie Hinton was born on 15 June 1944 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. He was a composer, known for Godzilla (2014), Elizabethtown (2005) and Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019). He died on 28 July 1995 in Birmingham, Alabama, USA.- Ottis Elwood Toole was a self-confessed serial killer and cannibal who admitted to many murders and was the suspect in many more unsolved murders, some of which he committed with his friend Henry Lee Lucas. Toole was convicted of murder twice and confessed to four more murders, for which he was convicted by a court of law. Toole admitted to the killing of Adam Walsh, the young son of John Walsh, the creator and host of the television program America's Most Wanted: America Fights Back (1988). Although never proven, Walsh believed that Toole was the murderer of his son.
Toole was raised in Jacksonville, Florida in a broken home. His father ran away when he was a child; his mother was a religious fanatic, and his grandmother was a satanist. While his sister dressed the young boy in girl's clothes to play with him, Toole's satanic granny allegedly involved him in various occult practices, including robbing graves for body parts to be used in her fiendish rituals. Grandma dubbed Ottis "the devil's child," an epithet he would live up to while still in his teens. Understandably, the young Toole repeatedly ran away from home.
Toole claimed to have begun his career as an amateur arsonist, beginning with the burning of abandoned homes, while still a youngster. He allegedly claimed his first murder victim at the age of 14, when he killed a traveling salesman who propositioned him for sex by running over him with his own car after they had trysted in the woods. The murder has never verified.
First arrested as an adult in 1964 on a charge of loitering, Toole had an IQ of 75, which is considered border-line retarded, though the low score might be the result of his being virtually illiterate. No charmer, Toole did manage to get himself married for a short-time, but his wife left him in a huff after realizing he was homosexual. A drifter, Toole would support himself as a male prostitute.
Fatefully, Toole met the one-eyed bisexual Henry Lee Lucas in a Florida soup kitchen in late 1976, when he was 29 years old and Lucas was 40. The two hit it off, becoming lovers and boon traveling companions; whether they actually were serial killers together is still clouded in mystery, though it likely is true.
In 1978, Toole and Lucas moved in with Toole's mother and sister in Jacksonville. Lucas fell in love with Toole's 10-year old female cousin, Frieda "Becky" Powell, whom he eventually adopted and lived with as husband and wife. But that lay in the future. Toole and Lucas went to work for a local roofing company, but they often missed work as they frequently went back on the road, two men born to ramble, spreading their version of hell along the highways and by-ways of America.
After Lucas had been arrested, he implicated Toole, who was serving time on a Florida arson charge, in mass murder. Toole then offered confessions of his own. By October 1983, police were sure that Toole and Lucas had committed at least 69 killings, which they announced at a press conference. The number was increased to 81 at a January 1984 press conference, and by March 1985, 90 murders had been attributed to Lucas in 20 states, and he and Toole were credited with a further 108 killings. Police would eventually claim over 200 murders were solved due to Lucas' confessions, as Lucas was taken to various states and had his memory prodded about unsolved killings.
Toole, now on Florida's Death Row for murder, corroborated much of Lucas' confession, including his claims to have committed hundreds of murders, singly and as a duo.
In 1983, Toole claimed to have committed the 1981 abduction and murder of six-year-old Adam Walsh. Since he knew the store from whence the child was kidnapped, a fact that had been withheld from the public, and had claimed to have injured Adam in a way consistent with the physical evidence, Adam's father, John Walsh, believes to this day that Toole was the culprit. The negligence of the local police, who impounded Toole's car but lost the blood-stained carpeting that could have provided a forensic link to the murder, stymied any attempt to positively attribute the heinous murder to Toole. Cruelly, the cold-hearted Toole offered to take Walsh to the body of his dead son for a fee, but was turned down. Toole later recanted this confession, but Henry Lee Lucas insisted that Toole had killed the boy.
John Walsh became a crusader for victim's rights and the host of the TV program America's Most Wanted: America Fights Back (1988) after the tragic loss of his son.
In April 1984, Ottis Toole was convicted of murder for a 1982 arson incident in his hometown of Jacksonville, Florida that resulted in the death of an elderly man. He was sentenced to death, and received a second conviction and death sentence later that year for the 1983 murder of a 19-year-old girl from Tallahassee, Florida. Both death sentences were reduced to life in prison on appeal. In 1991, Toole pleaded guilty to four more murders and received four more life sentences.
Many officials who doubt the veracity of Henry Lee Lucas' confessions believed that Ottis Toole was a genuine serial killer, and a cannibal. In November 1983, police taped a jail-house telephone call between the two while Lucas was in the midst of his confession spree. Neither had seen or spoken to the other for more than half a year, making it impossible for them to fabricate a joint story congruent with their confessions for the purpose of fooling the authorities. Ottis Elwood Toole died of cirrhosis of the liver, in prison, in September 15, 1996. - Costume Designer
- Costume and Wardrobe Department
Illinois-born Marjorie Best moved to Los Angeles after graduating high school to attend the Chouinard Art Institute. She went to work as a designer for the renowned Western Costume Co. in 1926, then several years later moved to United Costumers. When Warner Bros. bought that company in 1936, she accepted a job in the studio's wardrobe department, and it wasn't long before she became one of the company's finest costume designers, noted for her work on men's costumes and period films. She won an Academy Award for her work on Adventures of Don Juan (1948), and was nominated for Oscars in Costume Design for Giant (1956), Sunrise at Campobello (1960) and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965).- Soundtrack
Phyllis Nelson was born on 3 October 1950 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. She died on 12 January 1998 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Liam Sullivan was schooled at Illinois College while having his first fling with the acting profession in regional theater. He then studied drama at Harvard, made his way to New York and first appeared on Broadway in "The Constant Nymph" in 1951. He later returned to the West Coast to perform in an LA stage production of "Mary Stuart". By the early 1950s, he began appearing in television, his Romanesque features and precisely modulated voice ideally suited to smoothly roguish, arrogant or cynical gents, adept at caustic or witty repartee. He was a familiar presence across all genres, from western to science fiction.
Among his many TV credits two stand out above all: his sadistic philosopher-king Parmen from the Star Trek (1966) episode "Plato's Stepchildren",; and his obnoxious social-climbing upstart Jamie Tennyson in "The Silence" (The Twilight Zone (1959)) who unwisely accepts a bet for a half-million dollars that he can remain silent for a year (based on a short story by Anton Chekhov, entitled "The Bet"). Liam appeared in another Twilight Zone episode, "The Changing of the Guard", but this time was overshadowed by Donald Pleasence, who delivered arguably the most poignant performance of his career.
During the latter stages of his life, Liam combined acting with writing and, just prior to his death, was working on a novel. He was also in the process of compiling a biographical history of the Eli Bridge Company who built the innovative 'Big Eli' Ferris Wheel in Jacksonville, Illinois in May 1900. Founded by his ancestor W.E.Sullivan, the business is still run by members of the Sullivan family. - Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Richard Mann Allan was born in Jacksonville, Illinois on June 22, 1923 to a farmer father Robert and a dietitian mother Edna. He grew up with two brothers, Edward and Robert Jr. and a sister Catherine. He began taking dance classes when he was seven years old, and he also loved going to see Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals. He partnered up with a little girl from his dancing class to do their own version of Fred and Ginger dances and became popular locally. He grew up to become a well-known dancer-singer-actor in Jacksonville. He then earned a scholarship to the University of Illinois, where he joined the Theatre Arts Department. However, he was soon drafted to the army unit in Italy where he was assigned the officers' laundry detail. Immediately upon his discharge from service, he went to New York City to audition professionally for the first time in the Broadway musical "The Red Mill" (1945). He landed a speaking part and stayed for its entire Broadway and national tour. Once that ended, he immediately landed another job, in the 1948 Los Angeles production of "Naughty Marietta" where he danced. He stayed behind in Los Angeles, determined to get into the movies. His tall, dark and handsome looks landed him a job as a double for Montgomery Clift in A Place in the Sun (1951), where Clift complimented him by saying that he should have been the star. However, Allan would spend his entire film career being overshadowed by his more famous leading ladies. He danced with Esther Williams in Neptune's Daughter (1949) and Duchess of Idaho (1950) and with Betty Grable in Wabash Avenue (1950), My Blue Heaven (1950), and Call Me Mister (1951), with Ava Gardner in The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952), with Academy Award winner Susan Hayward in With a Song in My Heart (1952), and with Mitzi Gaynor in Bloodhounds of Broadway (1952). He had signed a contract with Twentieth Century Fox (hereinafter Fox), and they cast him as Marilyn Monroe's passionate lover who tries to kill her husband for her in Niagara (1953). The film became a hit and he was on the movie's poster with Monroe, and he won a Photoplay citation as "One of America's Most Promising Newcomers" in 1953. "Niagara" remains his best known role. Nevertheless, he spent the next few years at Fox testing for many leads, but only securing small uncredited roles, such as when he was turned down for the lead role in The Egyptian (1954) which went to Edmund Purdom only to end up with a uncredited bit role. His career never went further at Fox, and he blamed "lousy, lousy management". The disappointing years at Fox took its toll on him. He was doing a hat dance with a star for a film, but the star found it too difficult to perform, so Fox had wanted to photograph Allan from a distance to accommodate the star. He refused, and the studio retaliated by dropping his contract. When it seemed like Tony Curtis might not be available to do The Defiant Ones (1958), the producers approached him wanting a Curtis lookalike, but Allan retorted "Tell them to call me when they want someone who looks like Richard Allan". (Curtis later did become available to take the role, for which he earned his sole Academy Award nomination.) Since Hollywood had nothing to offer him, Allan felt he had no choice but to take German star Caterina Valente's offer to come to Germany and act with her in several films. She had first seem him dance in The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952) and thought he had potential. He remained there long enough to make a few more films with other actors. Eventually, he returned to Hollywood where he teamed with Diane Hartman in a popular nightclub act called "Hartman & Allan", where they performed at Ciro's nightclub in Los Angeles. However, when Ciro's closed its doors as a nitery for the last time in 1961, it also took down its prominent marquee that had "Hartman & Allan", thus ending Allan's career as an entertainer. In 1964, a middle-aged Allan began earning a living as a masseur, and Kim Novak had initially recommended his masseur services to people in the entertainment industry. Over time, he had developed a clientele that had no connections to show business. He also stopped having any contact with show business people, including former friends Jeffrey Hunter and his then-wife Barbara Rush, explaining that "When you aren't successful, people just aren't comfortable with having you around". In the late 1980s, he moved to Prospect, Kentucky to be closer to his brother Robert Jr. He remained there until his death of of lung cancer on September 6, 1999 at the age of 76. After his death, his body was sent over to be buried in his family plot in Gillham Cemetery in Illinois.- Jackson "Jackie" Davis was born on December 13, 1920, in Jacksonville, Florida. At a very young age, Davis learned to play piano, and by the age of 8, he was playing with a local dance band. He attended Florida A&M College (now University), graduating in 1943 with a bachelor's degree in music. After serving in the Army, Davis worked as a piano accompanist for legendary jazz artists such as Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, and Billy Daniels.
Later becoming attracted to playing the organ, he bought his first Hammond electric organ in 1951. As a result, Davis became world renowned as the first musician to popularize jazz on the Hammond organ. By the mid-1950's, he began leading his own sessions, and in 1956, he released his first album 'Hi-Fi Hammond' on Capitol Records. Davis spent 5 years recording albums for Capitol before moving over to Warner Brothers Records in 1961, releasing his first album for the label, 'Easy Does It'.
In 1978, Davis was hired to accompany Ella Fitzgerald on her album 'Lady Time'. 1980 saw Jackie return to the studio to record his self-titled album for EMI Records, as well as making an appearance as Smoke Porterhouse in the classic comedy film 'Caddyshack' (1980). In his later years, he performed at various clubs, jazz festivals and restaurants throughout the country. Davis suffered financially and physically after the devastation of Hurricane Andrew in Florida in 1992. His home was completely destroyed in the storm, the experience contributing to a series of heart attacks and strokes. By 1997, he recovered enough to start performing again, but not long after, his health started to decline, and in November of 1999, Jackie Davis died a month before his 79th birthday, due to complications from a stroke while in a nursing home in his hometown of Jacksonville, Florida.