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- 'Baby' Carmen De Rue was born on 6 February 1908 in Pueblo, Colorado, USA. She was an actress, known for The Squaw Man (1914), Cheerful Givers (1917) and Jack and the Beanstalk (1917). She was married to Fred Vincent Schrott. She died on 28 September 1986 in North Hollywood, California, USA.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
'Little Billy' Rhodes was born on 1 February 1895 in Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for The Shadow of the Eagle (1932), Oh, Baby! (1926) and Polly of the Circus (1932). He died on 24 July 1967 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Writer
- Script and Continuity Department
- Soundtrack
A. Dorian Otvos was born on 11 October 1893 in Budapest, Hungary. A. Dorian was a writer, known for Merry-Go-Round of 1938 (1937), Flirting with Fate (1938) and Goodbye Broadway (1938). A. Dorian died on 30 August 1945 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.- A.E. van Vogt was born on 26 April 1912 in Edenburg, Manitoba, Canada. He was a writer, known for The Outer Limits (1995), Welcome to Paradox (1998) and Tales of Tomorrow (1951). He was married to Lydia Bereginsky Brayman van Vogt and E. Mayne Hull. He died on 26 January 2000 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Production Manager
- Director
A.F. Erickson was born on 3 May 1897 in Bloomington, Indiana, USA. He was an assistant director and production manager, known for Under Suspicion (1930), This Sporting Age (1932) and Rough Romance (1930). He died on 15 January 1956 in Hollywood, California, USA.- A.S. 'Pop' Byron was born on 30 January 1876 in Barnesville, Ohio, USA. He was an actor, known for Devil on Deck (1932), Madame Spy (1934) and Two for Tonight (1935). He was married to Kathryn Keys. He died on 5 February 1943 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Abby Berlin was born on 7 August 1907 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and assistant director, known for Mary Ryan, Detective (1949), Double Deal (1950) and Blondie's Big Moment (1947). He was married to Iris Meredith and Jean Joyce. He died on 19 August 1965 in North Hollywood, California, USA.- Actor
Abe Goldstein was born on 12 October 1896 in Ohio, USA. He was an actor. He died on 9 February 1990 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Abe Lastfogel was born on 17 May 1898 in New York, New York, USA. He was married to Frances Armhaus and Gussie Snow. He died on 25 August 1984 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Abe Reynolds was born on 21 January 1884 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Love at First Sight (1929). He died on 25 December 1955 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Ada Beecher was born on 24 November 1861 in Derry, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for The Strange Woman (1918) and Sunlight (1928). She died on 30 March 1935 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Adamae Vaughn was born on November 8, 1905 in Ashland, Kentucky. Her older sister Alberta had been born in 1904. After their parents divorced their mother remarried and the family moved to California. Both sisters decided to pursue show business careers. Adamae made her film debut in the 1921 comedy short Stop Kidding. Then she had a role in the drama The Courtship Of Myles Standish (she was sometimes billed as Ada Mae Vaugn). FBO signed her to a long term contract in 1926 and she was cast as Tom Tyler's leading lady in The Arizona Streak. She married Albert Hindman, a contractor, in May of 1926. They were divorced a year later with Adamae claiming he drank too much and abused her. The couple reconciled in 1927 but they broke up soon after. She was chosen to be one of the 1927 WAMPAS baby stars. The beautiful blonde was so excited that she fainted at the ceremony.
Unhappy with the way her nose looked she decided to have plastic surgery. On June 17, 1934 she married her longtime boyfriend, automobile executive Val D'Auvray. The couple had been engaged for more than five years. While her sister Alberta Vaughn had became a successful actress Adamae's career never took off. Her final role was a bit part in the 1936 Carole Lombard film Love Before Breakfast. For a while she worked as a stand-in for actress Gertrude Michael. She divorced her husband and moved in with her mother, Martha, in Studio City. In April of 1937 she underwent abdominal surgery which left her with multiple adhesion's. This eventually caused an intestinal blockage and she was hospitalized in 1943. Tragically on September 11, 1943 she died at the young age of thirty-seven. Adamae was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.- Adam Walsh was born on 14 November 1974 in Hollywood, Florida, USA. He died on 27 July 1981 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.
- She survived the death of her husband in 1905, the San Francisco earthquake in 1906 and raising four children with no money. In 1926, when she was 64 she became one of the most mature freshman ever to enter the University of California. She graduated 6 years later with her B.A. degree. In 1940 she went to Hollywood, where she began her acting career. Best known for her role in Shirley Temple's Storybook production of "Sleeping Beauty", although she is probably seen most often in "Going My Way" as Father Fitzgibbon's elderly mother.
- Costume Designer
- Costume and Wardrobe Department
- Additional Crew
Adrian Adolph Greenburg, born in Naugatuck, Connecticut, March 3, 1903, to Gilbert and Helena (Pollack) Greenburg. He began his professional career while still attending the New York School for Fine and Applied Arts by contributing to the costumes for "George White's Scandals" in 1921. He is credited for that production by his created name of Gilbert Adrian, a combination of his father's first name and his own. He transferred to NYSFAA's Paris campus in 1922 and while there was hired by Irving Berlin. In the fall of 1922 he returned to New York and began work on Berlin's 1922-1923 edition of "The Music Box Revue". Adrian continued to work on the Berlin reviews as well as other theatrical and film projects.
His big film break was designing costumes for Mae Murray in her first M.G.M. film, The Merry Widow (1925). He was then hired by Natacha Rambova to design for the independent films of her husband, Rudolph Valentino. In mid-1925, after designing costumes for the prologue of "The Gold Rush" at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, Adrian was hired by Cecil B. DeMille to become head of the wardrobe department at his new studio. When DeMille moved to M.G.M. in 1928, Adrian moved there also. When his DeMille contract expired, Adrian signed with M.G.M. and remained with that studio until 1942.
He opened his own very successful couture business and continued to do some films until such time as his business expanded, with a salon in New York as well as Beverly Hills. His fashions were sold in department stores around the U.S. and he was the recipient of the 1944 Coty Award for Fashion. He also received a Lord & Taylor award for his work on Marie Antoinette (1938) in 1938 and a special award from Parsons, the successor to NYSFAA. His last film was Lovely to Look At (1952). He retired from the fashion industry in 1952 after a heart attack. He relocated to Brazil with his wife (since 1938) actress Janet Gaynor and their son, Robin. He returned to the U.S. to do "Grand Hotel", a musical with Viveca Lindfors and Paul Muni and his last career credit was the costume design for the Broadway musical "Camelot". He was working on this production when he died of a heart attack on September 13, 1959. Adrian never received an Oscar.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Adrienne D'Ambricourt was born on 2 June 1878 in Paris, France. She was an actress, known for The Eagle and the Hawk (1933), Paris Underground (1945) and The Cat and the Fiddle (1934). She died on 6 December 1957 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Director
Agostino Borgato was born on 30 June 1871 in Venice, Italy. He was an actor and director, known for Il ponte dei sospiri (1921), Supremo olocausto (1918) and Il cuore di Musette (1919). He died on 14 March 1939 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Aileen Manning was born on 20 January 1886 in Boulder, Colorado, USA. She was an actress, known for Main Street (1923), The Third Alarm (1930) and Beauty's Worth (1922). She died on 25 March 1946 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Ainslie Pryor was born on 1 February 1921 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. He was an actor, known for The Left Handed Gun (1958), Walk the Proud Land (1956) and Medic (1954). He died on 27 May 1958 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Production Manager
- Actor
Al Alleborn was born on 12 February 1892 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. He was an assistant director and production manager, known for I Was a Communist for the F.B.I. (1951), My Dream Is Yours (1949) and Sincerely Yours (1955). He died on 14 June 1968 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Al Christie began his career in 1909 with the Nestor Company. In 1912 he was put in charge of production for a series of westerns. By 1916 he had set up his own production company that produced comedy two-reelers and occasionally a full-length feature. He was the brother of producer/director Charles Christie. In 1926 Christie, along with Vera Steadman and H. Prevost, Marie Prevost's mother, was in a car accident in Florida that left Mrs. Prevost dead from a broken spine. Steadman and Christie suffered cuts and bruises.- Al Hallett was born on 28 February 1867 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He was an actor, known for Midnight Faces (1926), Dangerous Odds (1925) and The Passing of Wolf MacLean (1924). He was married to Gertrude Elizabeth Zahn and Agnes Johns (actress). He died on 3 April 1935 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Al Hart was born on 6 December 1875 in Liverpool, England, UK. He was an actor, known for As No Man Has Loved (1925), The Power and the Glory (1918) and The Beautiful Mrs. Reynolds (1918). He was married to Rose ?. He died on 10 January 1940 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Al Kaufman was born on 25 September 1888 in North Dakota, USA. He was an actor, known for Daredevil Jack (1920), God's Gold (1921) and The New Champion (1925). He was married to Annette Seelos. He died on 7 April 1957 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Costume Designer
- Costume and Wardrobe Department
Al Lehman was born on 15 June 1924 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a costume designer, known for Murder, She Wrote (1984), Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979) and Simon & Simon (1981). He died on 17 December 2001 in North Hollywood, California, USA.- Actor
Al Luttringer was born on 16 November 1878 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor. He died on 8 June 1953 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Writer
- Director
- Additional Crew
Al Martin was born on 1 January 1897 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. He was a writer and director, known for What Price Crime (1935), Rio Grande Romance (1936) and Invisible Ghost (1941). He died on 10 October 1971 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Camera and Electrical Department
Al Roberts was born on 11 October 1902 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was married to Peggy Shannon, Olive Esther White and Viola Mabel McIntyre. He died on 30 May 1941 in North Hollywood, California, USA.- Producer
- Production Manager
- Additional Crew
Al Rockett was born on 24 September 1889 in Vincennes, Indiana, USA. He was a producer and production manager, known for The Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln (1924), Just Another Blonde (1926) and Soup to Nuts (1930). He was married to Laura Eugenia McLean (Lottie). He died on 30 August 1960 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Actor
- Production Manager
Al Rosen was born on 9 May 1910 in Maryland, USA. He was an actor and production manager, known for Cheers (1982), Love of Life (1951) and L.A. Law (1986). He died on 2 August 1990 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Writer
- Script and Continuity Department
Al Schwartz was born on 29 November 1910 in Passaic, New Jersey, USA. He was a writer, known for The Red Skelton Hour (1951), Big John, Little John (1976) and Petticoat Junction (1963). He was married to Mimi Schwartz. He died on 25 March 1988 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Al Silvani was born on 26 March 1910. He was an actor and assistant director, known for Rocky (1976), Rocky II (1979) and Rocky III (1982). He died on 10 January 1996 in North Hollywood, California, USA.- Al Szathmary was born on 26 April 1909 in Quincy, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for The Don Knotts Show (1970). He was married to Leila Marie Pond. He died on 9 June 1975 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Director Alan Crosland was born in New York City on August 10, 1894, into an upper-middle class family, which soon moved to East Orange, NJ, where Alan was reared. His family's finances allowed for him to spend part of his elementary education in England, where he acquired a curious Anglo-American accent that he would affect for the rest of his life. With a restless personality that was complemented by a sharp intellect and a smooth tongue, Crosland had an uncanny ability to befriend even the most disagreeable people around him (a talent he would put to good use in Hollywood). He attended Dartmouth College but left before graduation, deciding he wanted to become a journalist, and eventually landed a job with the New York Globe, writing articles and short stories on the side for movie magazines. From 1912 he began to moonlight with the nearby Edison Company as an actor and stage manager. He performed a variety of duties there, eventually directing the studio's last feature, The Unbeliever (1918), shortly before being drafted into the US Army during World War I. He served out the Great War in the Army Photo Service. After the armistice he signed with a smaller independent company, Select, one he had briefly worked with prior to the war, remaining with them on ten more pictures through 1922. During this period he gained an enviable reputation for effectively directing some of the most temperamental stars of the day. He was of the few directors who actually liked Erich von Stroheim and obtained effective performances from the notoriously hammy (yet undeniably talented) Lionel Barrymore.
He signed with Goldwyn-Cosmopolitan in 1923, where the reviews for Under the Red Robe (1923) placed him solidly in the ranks of Hollywood's top directors. He became the first director a studio wanted when shooting a big-budget, prestigious historical drama, especially if it starred a difficult actor that might be inclined to spin costs out of control. With his reputation growing, Crosland lived life to the hilt, thoroughly enjoying the 1920s Hollywood lifestyle; he was frequently seen around town looking always dapper in the latest flashy cars and inside the latest hot spot with a dazzling starlet.
After a brief stint at Paramount, Crosland signed with Warner Brothers and was assigned to projects by Darryl F. Zanuck just when the studio was in the midst of a make-or-break gamble on sound with its Vitaphone sound-on-disk system. At that time Warner Brothers was considered almost a "Poverty Row" studio, well below the ranks of MGM, Universal and Paramount. It had acquired an unenviable reputation in Hollywood as having only two major stars, one of whom was a German Shepherd named Rin-Tin-Tin and the other the temperamental, hard-drinking John Barrymore, who was hauled out for its few prestige pictures. One of the five combative brothers who ran the studio, Sam Warner, saw sound as the way to eliminate the need for theatrical orchestras and establish what he felt was Warner's rightful place within the film industry. Crosland's reputation for handling both spectacle and difficult stars made him the obvious choice to direct the studio's first tentative stab at sound, Don Juan (1926), which was the first film to contain synchronized music and sound effects. It was a moderate success and he was picked for an even more ambitious project, The Jazz Singer (1927), a part-talkie, on which the studio's entire fortunes rested. Crosland was chosen to direct the maudlin story largely on his ability to work with the notoriously difficult Al Jolson, after George Jessel (who had starred in the Broadway production) walked out over a pay dispute. The $500,000 production had only 281 spoken words (mostly incidental to the songs and ad-libbed by Jolson) but it ignited the public's voracious appetite for talkies and grossed $3,000,000, a blockbuster in those days.
Hollywood was soon caught up in a war between competing sound technologies: Warner's Vitaphone and Fox's superior Western Electric sound-on-film process. Meanwhile, studios faced enormous conversion costs and uncertainties over their stars' abilities to transition to sound. By 1928 the silent film had reached the pinnacle of its artistic achievement and the early talkies, by comparison, appeared crude. While some studios--most notably MGM (whose parent Loew's faced monumental costs related to converting its extensive theater network)--adopted a wait-and-see attitude toward both the public acceptance of sound and choosing a system, Warner's saw talkies in the form of its Vitaphone as its salvation. In Crosland's world of 1927-29, it should be remembered that sound cameras were fixed and muffled, large microphones had to be cleverly hidden and actors were often justifiably terrified of how their voices would be received. Unfortunately the Vitaphone process seriously limited the ability to edit a film, resulting in stagy long takes, and with its cumbersome electro-mechanical hardware and fragile records that would often break in transit, it was soon obvious that Fox's sound-on-film system was vastly superior (Warner's would quietly admit technological defeat in 1931 and convert).
Technology issues aside, the Vitaphone propelled Warner Brothers solidly into the ranks of the A-list studios and, infused with cash, it acquired Fox's First National theatrical network by 1930, a crucial business move that greatly expanded the studio's distribution capabilities and enabled it to ride out huge losses it would incur from 1931-34. It was during this all-too-brief transition period that Alan Crosland was the most experienced sound director in town. He directed another part-talkie hit, Glorious Betsy (1928), starring Dolores Costello, a return to his favored costume spectacle.
By mid-1929 it became apparent that a movie could not solely depend on the novelty of sound; hits required production values and a degree of action, an uncomfortable situation given the restrictions of the equipment. At this point Crosland stumbled badly. A primitive attempt at color didn't help On with the Show! (1929), a creaky musical starring a badly miscast Betty Compson and Arthur Lake, a textbook example of claustrophobic filmmaking and Crosland's first real flop. He tripped again with Captain Thunder (1930), one of his worst films. His next two assignments delved into the opera genre with dismal box office returns. His personal life became rocky, with his first marriage to Juanita Fletcher failing in 1930. He hastily wed actress Natalie Moorhead, a union that would last less than five years. Although he would direct more than 20 features--some of them moderately successful--after his career triumph with "The Jazz Singer," Crosland fell from the ranks of A-list directors and settled into directing B-level pictures.
Early in the morning of July 10, 1936, he was driving on Sunset Boulevard when his car hit some road debris and he swerved off the road, flipping twice in a construction zone. He was rushed to the hospital with multiple broken bones and a suspected skull fracture. Within four days he contracted pneumonia and his condition was downgraded by his doctor. He died on July 16, 1936, just shy of his 42nd birthday. His last film, The Case of the Black Cat (1936), was completed by William C. McGann. Crosland was survived by his son (with Juanita Fletcher), Alan Crosland Jr., who became a very successful television director in the 1960s-'70s.- Actor
- Additional Crew
Tall, heavy-set character actor Alan Dinehart dropped out of school to join a repertory company. He had extensive stage experience (including some 27 appearances on Broadway) and, by the time he was signed by Fox in 1931, he had worked not only as an actor but as a stage manager and writer. On screen he appeared for the most part in "B" pictures, notable exceptions being the MGM musical blockbuster Born to Dance (1936) and the 20th Century-Fox classic family drama Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938). Dinehart specialized in portraying blustering or shifty businessmen, crooked politicians or racketeers. While he is usually described as a supporting player, he actually started out in the early 1930s playing leading roles opposite some of the major female stars of the period.
However, Dinehart's characters were rarely sympathetic. In Street of Women (1932) he essayed an architect who, bored with his society wife, indiscreetly keeps a mistress (Kay Francis) on the side. In Supernatural (1933) he was true to form as the phony spiritualist fleecing a wealthy socialite, played by Carole Lombard; and in Jimmy the Gent (1934) he was an urbane con artist in competition with James Cagney. On rarer occasions Alan found gainful employment as more benevolent characters, point in case his theatrical impressario Theodore von Eltz in Dance, Girl, Dance (1933). All of these performances attracted good reviews from Mordaunt Hall of the New York Times, ranging from "excellent" to "bearing up valiantly".
In unlikely contrast to his self-styled image of "Hollywood's most versatile villain", Dinehart had strong comedic inclinations, co-authoring several comedy plays towards the later stages of his career. The last and most successful of these, "Separate Rooms" (1940-1941), with Dinehart top-billed alongside Glenda Farrell and Lyle Talbot, became one of the longest-running non-musical plays on Broadway at the time, finally closing after 613 performances. Alan's son, Mason Alan Dinehart, followed in his father's footsteps and also became an actor, featured in several westerns and on television from the late 1940's.- Producer
- Writer
Alan Gilbert was born on 14 November 1920 in the USA. He was a producer and writer, known for Let's Make a Deal (1963), Penny to a Million (1955) and Masquerade Party (1974). He died on 23 April 2005 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Actor
- Director
- Soundtrack
Alan Hale decided on a film career after his attempt at becoming an opera singer didn't pan out. He quickly became much in demand as a supporting actor, starred in several films for Cecil B. DeMille and directed others for him. With the advent of sound, Hale played leads in a few films but soon settled down into a career as one of the busiest character actors in the business. He was one of the featured members of what became known as the "Warner Brothers Stock Co.", a corps of character actors and actresses who appeared in scores of Warner Bros. films of the 1930s and 1940s. Hale's best-known role is probably in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), one of several films he made with his friend Errol Flynn, in which he played Little John, a role he played in two other films: Robin Hood (1922) and Rogues of Sherwood Forest (1950).- Director
- Writer
- Editor
Alan James was born on 23 March 1890 in Port Townsend, Washington, USA. He was a director and writer, known for Flying Lariats (1931), When a Man Sees Red (1934) and The Mystery Box (1925). He was married to Marguerite 'Myme' Foss. He died on 30 December 1952 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Alan Le May was a novelist, short-story writer and screenwriter, although today he may be best remembered for his novels which served as the basis for two classic westerns, The Searchers (1956) and The Unforgiven (1960). He started his career as a journalist before becoming a full-time author (he wrote 17 novels in all).- Alan Lipscott was born on 9 July 1894 in Pennsylvania, USA. He was a writer, known for The Life of Riley (1948), The Bob Cummings Show (1961) and Willy (1954). He died on 20 November 1961 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Alan Mowbray, the American film actor who was one of the founding members of the Screen Actors Guild, was born Ernest Allen on August 18, 1896, in London, England, to a non-theatrical family. He served in the British army during World War I and received the Military Medal and the French Croix De Guerre for bravery in action. He began as a stage actor in England, and in some accounts he gave of his life, claimed he was a provincial actor in England before his naval service. In other versions, he claimed he turned to acting after The Great War, as World War I was then known, as he was broke and had no other skills.
After acting in London's West End, Mowbray came to the United States, where he toured the country with the Theater Guild from 1923 to 1929. On the road with the Guild, he most enjoyed acting in the plays of Noël Coward and George Bernard Shaw. He made his Broadway debut in the play "Sport of Kings" at the Lyceum Theatre on May 4, 1926. He also appeared on Broadway in "These Modern Women" in February 1928 and in "The Amorous Antic" in December 1929.
On August 25, 1929, Mowbray's own play, "Dinner is Served," an original comedy he wrote, directed and starred in, made its debut at the Cort Theatre. The play was not a success, closing after just four performances. After "The Amorous Antic," Mowbray did not appear again on Broadway until 1963, when he was featured in "Enter Laughing," the hit stage adaptation of Carl Reiner's novel.
His relative lack of success on Broadway during the "Roaring Twenties" did not matter, as sound had come to Hollywood and the studios were looking for stage actors who could appear in the talkies. Blessed with excellent diction, and tall with a stiff posture and a patrician air, he was ideal for character parts in sound pictures. A member of the "stiff-upper lip" school of British acting, he was often cast as a British, European or upper-class American gentleman, or as an aristocrat or royalty. As he aged, roles as doctors or butlers were his forte.
Mowbray was praised by the critics for limning George Washington in the 1931 biopic Alexander Hamilton (1931) (he would once again play the Father of His Country, this time in a comic vein, in the 1945 musical Where Do We Go from Here? (1945)). He had a romantic lead role opposite Miriam Hopkins in Pioneer Films' Becky Sharp (1935), which was the first feature film made in three-strip Technicolor.
Mowbray had the distinction of appearing in movies with three screen Sherlock Holmeses: Clive Brook in Sherlock Holmes (1932), Reginald Owen in A Study in Scarlet (1933) and Basil Rathbone in Terror by Night (1946). He played the butler in the first two "Topper" films, and as a character actor had memorable turns in two John Ford pictures, My Darling Clementine (1946) and Wagon Master (1950). In the area of typecasting, Mowbray could be counted on as a "pompous blowhard" in such movies as My Man Godfrey (1936), or as "the surprise killer" in B-movie murder mysteries. One of his favorite roles was the con man in the television series Colonel Humphrey Flack (1953), which ran on the Dumont network in 1953.
Mowbray occasionally was a screenwriter, but mostly concentrated on acting. In his personal life he was a member of the Royal Geographic Society and was active in several acting fraternities. He also was one of the founding members of the Screen Actors Guild. The Guild was formed in 1933, in the wake of the formation of the Screen Writers Guild, in reaction to a proposed 50% across-the-board pay cut implemented by the studios.
Actors Equity, the theatrical actors union, had tried to organize Hollywood after winning a contract and a closed shop on Broadway after World War I, but it had failed. Screen actors angered over the lack of contracts and the grueling work hours at the Hollywood studios founded the Masquers club in 1925 in a move towards unionization. After studio technicians won a collective bargaining agreement from the studios in 1926, MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer had the idea of heading off collective bargaining by the "talent" branches--the actors, writers and directors--by creating a company union. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences was created to serve as an intermediary between the studios and the talent branches and technicians, negotiating contract disputes. Proto-unions, such as the original Screen Writers Guild, folded in 1927 after the creation of the Academy.
By the announcement of the across-the-board cut in 1933, two previous rounds of cutbacks and lay-offs caused by the Great Depression had alienated most of the talent in Hollywood and had led to a strike by the technicians which had closed down the studios for a day. Losing faith in the company union that was the Academy, the talent began organizing their own guilds. In addition to the lack of contracts for many actors and the concerns over wages and hours, one of the new Screen Actors Guild's grievances was that Academy membership was by invitation-only.
In March 1933, SAG was founded by six actors: Berton Churchill, Charles B. Miller, Grant Mitchell, Ralph Morgan, Alden Gay and Kenneth Thomson. Three months later Mowbray was named to SAG's board of directors. He personally funded SAG when it was first founded. While many high-profile actors, already signed to seven-year contracts, refused initially to join SAG, they began to flock to the new union once the studios initiated an anti-raiding provision in the new National Industrial Relations Act code the industry had implemented after Franklin D. Roosevelt became US President and oversaw the enactment of his New Deal legislation in the first 100 days of his administration.
The NRA code the movie industry adopted created a situation for the talent similar to baseball's reserve clause, in which another studio was prevented from offering a contract to an actor, writer or director whose contract had lapsed until their old studio had finished with them and not picked up their option. The NRA code contained a pay ceiling for the talent and technicians, but not for executives. The talent was further enraged when it found out that the Academy, the "company union," had created a committee to investigate the feasibility of long-term contracts. Long-term contracts were the only island of stability in an industry that enhanced its profitability by cutting the wages of its employees and by working them long hours.
At a pivotal meeting at the home of Frank Morgan (the future "Wizard of Oz" and the brother of first SAG president Ralph Morgan), Eddie Cantor insisted that SAG's response to the new code--a collective bargaining agreement--should be in the interests of all actors, not just the already established ones. In the three weeks after the critical meeting, SAG membership rose from approximately 80 members to more than 4,000. Actors resigned from the Academy en masse to join SAG.
Cantor, a friend of President Roosevelt, took the occasion of his being invited to spend the 1933 Thanksgiving holiday with the Roosevelt family to point out the inequities in the new code that SAG found particularly noxious. By executive order, F.D.R. struck them down.
Finally, in 1937, after a long period of resistance, the studios recognized SAG as a collective bargaining agent for actors. Recognition of the Screen Writers Guild and the Screen Directors Guild eventually followed. Mowbray's financial support, in the crucial early days of the guild, had helped make a collective bargaining agreement for actors a reality.
Alan Mowbray married Lorayne Carpenter in 1927, and they had two children. He died on March 25, 1969, of a heart attack.- Alan Peterson was born on 13 June 1938 in New Jersey, USA. He was an actor, known for Xanadu (1980). He died on 30 December 1992 in West Hollywood, California, USA.
- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Alan Sues was born on 7 March 1926 in Ross, California, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1967), The Americanization of Emily (1964) and The Twilight Zone (1959). He was married to Phyllis Gehrig. He died on 1 December 2011 in West Hollywood, California, USA.- Additional Crew
- Producer
Albert A. Kaufman was born on 25 September 1888 in Devils Lake, North Dakota, USA. He was a producer, known for Courage (1921), Paramount on Parade (1930) and Not Guilty (1921). He was married to Rita Kaufman and Rita Krone. He died on 7 April 1957 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
British-born supporting actor, primarily in the films of Charles Chaplin, for whom Austin also worked as an assistant director and co-writer. His career paralleled that of Chaplin, but dwindled prior to the coming of sound. His brother, William Austin, had a lengthy Hollywood career as a character actor.- Actor
- Additional Crew
Albert Conti was born on 29 January 1887 in Trieste, Austria-Hungary [now Trieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy]. He was an actor, known for The Black Cat (1934), Plastered in Paris (1928) and Torch Singer (1933). He was married to Miriam Wherry (née Patricia Cross). He died on 18 January 1967 in Hollywood, California, USA.- A stage actor from 1927, Albert Dekker was an established Broadway star when he made his film debut ten years later. Tall and with rugged good looks, he often played aggressive character roles, a prime example being his double-crossing gang leader in the classic The Killers (1946). From 1944-46 he served a term in the California legislature representing the Hollywood district. As he got older Dekker, unlike many actors, turned to the stage rather than television, and achieved great success there and on the college lecture circuit. His last role, in The Wild Bunch (1969), was one of his most memorable: the tough railroad detective Harrigan, who hires a murderous group of bounty hunters to track down and kill a gang of outlaws who've been robbing his company's trains.
- Additional Crew
- Producer
- Cinematographer
Pioneering film producer and studio executive Albert E. Smith was born in Favershem, County Kent, England, on June 4, 1875, the son of a gardener. There were nine children in the Smith family--Albert, seven brothers and a sister--and when he was three years old the entire family emigrated to the US, eventually settling in Santa Barbara, CA. After a series of uneventful jobs, he took up a career as an illusionist, calling himself "The King of Entertainers". He eventually hooked up with another expatriate Brit, J. Stuart Blackton, and they formed an act and took it on the road. It was somewhat successful, but didn't offer quite the rewards they had envisioned. He and Blackton saw the potential in the burgeoning motion-picture business, and together with William T. Rock they formed the Vitagraph Company of America to produce and distribute films. While Blackton was the production head--involving himself in casting, writing, producing, directing, and pretty much every aspect of filmmaking--Smith largely confined himself to the financial end of the company, although he did on occasion assist Blackton in the actual filmmaking process. It was as a financial wizard that Smith was of greatest help to Vitagraph, however, and he developed a reputation as a savvy--some even described him as ruthless--businessman (Mary Pickford once met with Smith to discuss the possibility of her signing with Vitagraph, but she took such a dislike to him that she stormed out of the meeting shortly after it began). Smith's foresight and business acumen helped build Vitagraph into the premier motion-picture studio of the early silent era.
In 1925 Vitagraph was sold to Warner Brothers and, for all practical purposes, Smith retired. Married three times--the last to Jean Paige--Smith died in Hollywood on August 1, 1958.- Albert Godderis was born on 4 November 1880 in Belgium. He was an actor, known for Me and the Colonel (1958). He died on 2 February 1971 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Standing head and shoulders over the 'he-men' of the silent era, the diminutive 5' 5" Smith was never a pleasant person to encounter for any B-movie hero. Sneering and villainous, Smith played in a number of Westerns and serials from 1921 through 1937, most notably the serial "The Terror Trail" which played for 18-chapters. He later played the role of sheriff or deputy in a handful of films.