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- Georgia Davis was born on 17 September 1921 in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, USA. She was an actress, known for Hoosier Holiday (1943). She was married to Red Skelton. She died on 10 May 1976 in Rancho Mirage, California, USA.
- Producer
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Edward Halperin was born on 12 May 1898 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was a producer and writer, known for Sky Bandits (1940), Bachelor Bait (1934) and She Goes to War (1929). He died on 2 March 1981 in Rancho Mirage, California, USA.- Director
- Writer
- Additional Crew
A successful child actor (on stage from 1907) and rather less successful romantic lead, baby-faced Norman Taurog found being behind the camera a more rewarding experience. Before becoming a director, he paid his dues as a prop man and editor. By 1919, he was put in charge of two-reel comedies, starring the comic Larry Semon. These films were made on the East Coast and it was not until 1926, that Taurog moved to Hollywood. His directing career really took off with the coming of sound, and he soon acquired a reputation as a specialist in light comedy. He also developed a singular penchant for working with children, often giving them chocolate rewards for good acting. They, in turn, called him 'Uncle Norman'. Taurog became the youngest-ever director to win an Oscar. This was for the film Skippy (1931), which featured child actor Jackie Cooper, his real-life nephew.
Taurog was under contract at Paramount from 1930 to 1936. The pick-of-the-bunch among his films - and a solid box office hit - was Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1934), starring the noted stage actress Pauline Lord, comedienne Zasu Pitts and the irrepressible, idiosyncratic W.C. Fields. On loan to David O. Selznick, he also did justice to Mark Twain by creating just the right atmosphere for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938), eliciting a strong performance from Jackie Moran in the role of Huck Finn. Initial footage had been in black & white, but Taurog discarded this and re-shot the film in Technicolor, which worked particularly well with art director Lyle R. Wheeler.
After a stint with Fox (1936-37), Taurog then had his best (and longest) spell with MGM (1938-51). His A-grade assignments for the studio included the iconic Boys Town (1938), the exuberant Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940) and the thoroughly entertaining Judy Garland musical Presenting Lily Mars (1943), based on a best-selling novel by Booth Tarkington. In 1952, he returned to Paramount, where he was utilised on the strength of his proven ability to make films economically and on time. Taurog made the most out of the feather-light scripts he was handed for a string of comedies with Dean Martin and/or Jerry Lewis. He was also a favorite of Elvis Presley, directing in total nine of his films.
As the law of diminishing returns applied, Taurog retired in 1968. He later taught at the University of California School of Cinema and remained a board member of the Director's Guild. He became blind towards the end of his life, but for his last years served as director of the Braille Institute in Los Angeles.- Actor
- Music Department
- Composer
Award-winning songwriter ("Stardust", "Ole Buttermilk Sky", "Georgia on My Mind"), composer, pianist, actor and singer, educated at Indiana University (LL.B). He played piano in the college bands, and later gave up a law practice for a career in songwriting. He joined ASCAP in 1931, and his chief musical collaborators included Mitchell Parish, Stuart Gorrell, Frank Loesser, Johnny Mercer, Sammy Lerner, Stanley Adams, Edward Heyman, Paul Francis Webster, Jack Brooks, Ned Washington, and Jo Trent.
His autobiographies are "The Stardust Road" and "Sometimes I Wonder". His other popular-song compositions include "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening" (Academy Award, 1951), "Washboard Blues", "Riverboat Shuffle", "Little Old Lady", "Lazybones", "Rockin' Chair", "One Morning in May", "Snowball", "Lazy River", "Thanksgivin'", "Judy", "Moonburn", , "Small Fry", "Ooh, What You Said", "The Rhumba Jumps", "Two Sleepy People", "Heart and Soul", "Skylark", "The Nearness of You", "When Love Walks By", "Daybreak", "Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief", "Ivy", "Memphis in June", "Hong Kong Blues", "I Get Along Without You Very Well", "Blue Orchids", "The Old Music Master", "How Little We Know", "The Lamplighter's Serenade", "I Walk With Music", "Come Easy Go Easy Love", "Can't Get Indiana Off My Mind", "I Should Have Known You Years Ago", "Baltimore Oriole", "Rogue River Valley", "Who Killed 'Er (Who Killed the Black Widder?)", "Moon Country", "When Love Goes Wrong", "Mediterranean Love", "Music, Always Music", "There Goes Another Pal of Mine", "Just For Tonight" and "My Resistance is Low".- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Jack Meakin was born on 28 September 1906 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. He was a composer, known for You Bet Your Life (1950), Tell It to Groucho (1961) and The Twonky (1953). He was married to Celeste Wingate Maypole. He died on 30 December 1982 in Rancho Mirage, California, USA.- Additional Crew
Harry Hansen was born on 23 March 1903 in Utah, USA. He is known for Who Is the Black Dahlia? (1975). He was married to Norma. He died on 9 October 1983 in Rancho Mirage, California, USA.- Actor
Murray Harris was born on 24 October 1921 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He was an actor. He died on 20 February 1985 in Rancho Mirage, California, USA.- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Phil Foster was born on 29 March 1913 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Laverne & Shirley (1976), Bang the Drum Slowly (1973) and Brooklyn Goes South (1952). He died on 8 July 1985 in Rancho Mirage, California, USA.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Broderick Crawford is best remembered for two roles: his Oscar-winning turn as Willie Stark in All the King's Men (1949) and as Chief Dan Mathews on the syndicated TV series Highway Patrol (1955). He was also memorable as Judy Holliday's vulgar partner in Born Yesterday (1950), roles both actors had originated on Broadway to great acclaim.
He was born William Broderick Crawford on December 9, 1911, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to vaudeville performers Lester Crawford and Helen Broderick. His mother had a brief movie career acting in Hollywood comedies. Broderick Crawford, large and burly, was no one's idea of a leading man due to his rough-and-tumble looks, but he broke through playing John Steinbeck's simple-minded giant Lenny in the Broadway adaptation of Steinbeck's novella "Of Mice and Men". After this Broadway success, Crawford moved to Hollywood and made his cinema debut in the comedy Woman Chases Man (1937), in a supporting role to stars Joel McCrea and Miriam Hopkins. When producer-director Lewis Milestone was casting the movie version of Steinbeck's classic (Of Mice and Men (1939)), he passed over Crawford and selected Lon Chaney Jr. to play Lenny.
After many supporting roles (including a memorable turn as a big but kindhearted lug in the comedy Larceny, Inc (1942)) and a stint in the military during World War II, Crawford had his breakthrough role in Robert Rossen's adaptation of Robert Penn Warren's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "All the King's Men". Crawford gave a masterly performance as the southern U.S. politician based on Louisiana's Huey Long. In addition to the Oscar, he also won the New York Film Critics' Award for Best Actor. All the King's Men (1949) was a hit, as was Born Yesterday (1950). (Crawford had also played the role on Broadway, succeeding Paul Douglas, who originated the role.) However, Crawford soon after became typecast as crude or brutish.
Five years after copping the Academy Award, TV producer Frederick W. Ziv hired Crawford to play the lead role in his syndicated police drama "Highway Patrol". The show ran for four seasons. Crawford's career, moribund in the early 1950s, revived, but he generally eschewed the big screen, preferring television, for the remainder of his career. He continued to act almost up until his death in Rancho Mirage, California, on April 26, 1986, at age 74, following a series of strokes.- Producer
- Additional Crew
- Actor
Legendary producer Hal B. Wallis was born in Chicago and moved to Los Angeles when he was in his early 20s. He got a job managing a theater owned by Warner Bros., and his success at the job caught the eye of studio head Jack L. Warner, who gave him a job in the studio's publicity department. Within a few months Wallis had worked his way up to head of the department. He was named studio manager in 1928 and production manager shortly thereafter, but was pushed aside by another legendary producer, future 20th Century-Fox studio head Darryl F. Zanuck. In 1933 Zanuck left Warner and Wallis moved back to his old position. He oversaw the production of many of Warners' most famous films, including Little Caesar (1931), I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932), Captain Blood (1935), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) and Casablanca (1942). In 1944 Wallis left Warner and formed his own production company, and achieved even more success, being responsible for such films as The Rose Tattoo (1955), Becket (1964), and a string of Elvis Presley movies, most of which were economically produced and all of which made a fortune. Wallis' last picture was the John Wayne western Rooster Cogburn (1975).- Writer
- Additional Crew
- Producer
George Tibbles was born on 7 June 1913 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for My Three Sons (1960), Hello, Larry (1979) and Lolita (1997). He died on 14 February 1987 in Rancho Mirage, California, USA.- The huckster, TV commercial pioneer, automaker and electronics manufacturer--and, as some have called him, marketing genius--Earl Muntz was born on Jan. 3, 1904, in Elgin, IL. He showed an early interest in electronics, and at age 8 had already built his first radio (a few years later he built a radio for his parents' car). He dropped out of high school and went to work in his parents' hardware store in Elgin. At age 20 he opened up a used-car lot in town and actually made a go of it. A few years later, however, on a trip to California, he noticed that used cars were selling for far higher prices than they were in Elgin, so he opened up a lot in Glendale, CA. In the late '30s he had an opportunity to pick up a dozen right-hand-drive cars for next to nothing--they had been made for customers in Asia, but were unable to be shipped there due to the Japanese takeover of most of Asia just prior to WW 2 (one was a custom-made Lincoln built for Chinese dictator Kai-Shek Chiang). Muntz got local newspapers to write some articles about these unique cars, and within two weeks he had sold all of them for a handsome profit. Realizing that L.A. was where the money was, he closed his Elgin lot and relocated permanently to California.
Having made a considerable amount of money because of what was basically a publicity stunt, Muntz decided to go even further over the top. He developed the persona of "Madman" Muntz, a somewhat crazed used-car salesman who dressed in outrageous costumes and performed wild stunts (he once featured an old clunker as a "manager's special" and claimed that if the car didn't sell, he'd smash it to pieces on TV with a sledgehammer. It didn't sell, of course, and he kept his promise), on a series of quirky, humorous--and wildly successful--TV commercials that blanketed the Los Angeles area, making him the predecessor of such well-known used-car pitchmen as Cal Worthington ("If I can't sell you a car I'll eat a bug!" and Ralph Williams ("Hi friends, Ralph Williams here!"). He caught the imagination of L.A. television viewers, who took him to their hearts, and "Madman" Muntz quickly became a local celebrity. People would come to his used-car lot not to buy a car but to see him, and at one point his lot was rated by a local travel agency as the 7th most visited site in Southern California.
In 1948 race-car driver Frank Kurtis developed and marketed a new two-seater sports car, but only sold 16 vehicles over the next two years. He sold the company and rights to Muntz in 1950. Muntz immediately retooled the car, redesigned it, lengthened it into a four-seater, renamed it the "Muntz Jet" and put it on the market. Although it was a well-built, reliable car and sold fairly wellk for its price (about $5,000), Muntz's improvements in design and amenities--it had aluminum body panels, a removable fiberglass top, a Cadillac (later Lincoln) V8 engine and the back armrests contained a full cocktail bar--increased production costs, and after selling about 400 cars, and losing about $400,000, he ceased production in 1954.
If there was one thing Muntz was really known for, however, it was manufacturing TV sets. He made his first one in 1946. A self-taught electrical engineer, he saw that the few TV sets available at the time were big, bulky, complicated, heavy, had small screens and were expensive. By taking apart and examining the various makes of TVs on the market, he figured out how to build a good set, using a minimum amount of parts but delivering a good picture, for less than $100 (the average 12-inch TV set went for about $450). He also included a built-in aerial in his sets, a major innovation--most TVs had to use an aerial that attached to the roof of the building in order to get reception, and apartment buildings at the time often had rules prohibiting the use of aerials on their roofs, so many apartment residents didn't have TVs, making them prime customers for Muntz's sets. He marketed his TVs with the same types of outrageous TV commercials and radio and newspaper ads as he did with his cars, and the sets sold like wildfire. In 1951 alone his company grossed almost $50 million. Unfortunately, by the mid-1950s color TV was introduced and the market for black-and-white TVs like Muntz's shrank precipitously. In 1953 his company lost almost $1.5 million. He hung on for a few more years, but by 1959 Muntz's TV operation was forced to declare bankruptcy and shut its doors.
Not one to let adversity get him down, Muntz turned to another market--car stereos. He invented the Stereo-Pak four-track tape cartridge, a direct predecessor to the famous eight-track tape cartridge so popular in the 1960s and 1970s. Muntz chose to make it in stereo because many more records were being recorded in stereo than in monaural, and he believed that mono was on its way out. Before Muntz's Stereo-Pak system, the only units that could play pre-recorded music in an automobile were actual record players designed for that purpose--several higher-end cars such as Cadillac and Lincoln offered them as options--but they would skip when the car hit a bump or pothole, often scratching and ruining the record that was being played. Muntz's tape player was called the Autostereo--the manufacturing of which he contracted out to a Japanese company--and could play an entire album from start to finish with no bumps, skips and eliminating the need to flip over the record to play the other side. Muntz also made a deal with the major record companies to license their catalogs and then manufactured the tapes himself, to be sold in his own chain of electronics stores alongside the tape players.
Aircraft engineer Bill Lear, who had just developed the LearJet, contracted with Muntz to install his tape players in Lear's aircraft. Lear was so impressed with the unit that he did what Muntz earlier did to TV sets--he took it apart and looked for a way to improve it. He wound up developing his own tape player, the Lear 8-Track. It was wildly successful and demand for Muntz's 4-Track units slipped substantially. In addition, Muntz had not counted on the large number of cartridges returned from dealers when a particular album ran its course, and the credits he had to issue to them for returned merchandise greatly ate into his profits. If that wasn't bad enough, a fire in 1970 at his main office caused severe damage to the facility. All these factors contributed to Muntz closing down his tape player/cartridge business that year.
As usual, though, Muntz didn't stay idle for long. He entered the burgeoning home-video market. In the mid-'70s he took a Sony 15-inch color TV, equipped it with a special lens and mirror he had developed, then projected the enlarged image onto an even bigger screen, enclosing the entire unit in a large wooden console. What he had done was to develop one of the first, if not the first, widescreen projection TVs designed for home use. By 1977 he was selling millions of dollars worth of these units every year. Two years later he decided to sell VCRs and blank tapes at bargain prices--usually less than it cost him to buy them--in order to lure people into his showroom so he could sell them the more expensive projection systems. As it turned out, he sold so many VCRs and tapes that he actually wound up making money on them.
Not all of his business ventures were successful, though. In the 1980s he invested a lot of money in Technicolor's Compact Video Cassette (CVC), a system intended to compete with Sony's Betamax and the VHS and Super-8 systems. The CVC system tanked big-time and Muntz lost his entire investment and then some. He was forced to close his electronics store shortly afterwards.
Not long before his death from lung cancer in 1987 he got into the cellular phone business. By the time he died he was the biggest cellular phone dealer in Los Angeles. - Additional Crew
- Writer
- Producer
Jack Guss was born on 11 May 1919 in Russia. He was a writer and producer, known for Channing (1963), Switch (1975) and Medical Center (1969). He died on 2 December 1987 in Rancho Mirage, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Billy Regis was an actor, known for Zero Hour! (1957) and Rhythm with Regis (1957). He died on 18 February 1988 in Rancho Mirage, California, USA.- Producer
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Sidney Harmon was born on 30 April 1907 in Poughkeepsie, New York, USA. Sidney was a producer and writer, known for The Talk of the Town (1942), Man Crazy (1953) and Men in War (1957). Sidney died on 29 February 1988 in Rancho Mirage, California, USA.- Toby Reed was born on 25 December 1912 in Seattle, Washington, USA. He was an actor, known for The Lieutenant (1963) and The Woody Woodbury Show (1967). He was married to Mary Elizabeth (Bette) Reed and Virginia Lee Meves. He died on 3 March 1988 in Rancho Mirage, California, USA.
- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Additional Crew
Lucien Ballard, the cinematographer best known for his collaboration with director Sam Peckinpah on such films as The Wild Bunch (1969), was born in Miami, Oklahoma. Ballard became a wanderer after dropping out of the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania and the University of Oklahoma, journeying to China in search of opportunity. When he returned to the United States after not finding any, Ballard gained employment in the lumber business, working in a mill sawing trees and surveying land.
Near the end of the decade known as the Roaring Twenties, Ballard visited a woman friend who worked as a script clerk at Paramount, and that was the connection that brought him into show business. He was hired by Paramount as a manual laborer loading trucks and worked his way onto a camera crew, starting as a camera assistant. He eventually served a five year apprenticeship, during which he moved his way up the hierarchy to camera operator, the member of the camera crew second-in-seniority to the cinematographer (or lighting cameraman, also known as the director of photography) that actually operates the camera, working with directors Victor Milner, Charles Rosher, and others. He also became experienced as as a film editor at Paramount. Ballard eventually was assigned to the cinematography unit assigned to director Josef von Sternberg, who used him as a camera operator and later as a lighting cameraman. (It was on the set of Von Sternberg's Morocco (1930) that Ballard first worked with Henry Hathaway, then an assistant director but who later, as a director, used Ballard extensively.)
Von Sternberg, who oversaw and constructed the visuals on his early films, was credited as cinematographer for The Devil Is a Woman (1935). Though Ballard did not receive credit as a lighting cameraman on the film, this is usually credited (despite the non-credit) as his first film as a director of photographer (a more honored title for a lighting cameraman; just as "Written By" is a privilege for screenwriters to be credited with, so is "Director of Photography" for the cinematographer). Indeed, Ballard and Von Sternberg jointly were cited by the 1935 Venice Film Festival award for "Best Cinematography" for The Devil Is a Woman (1935), though officially, Ballard received his first credit for cinematography on B.P. Schulberg's production of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment (1935), which also was directed by Von Sternberg.
Ballard and Von Sternbereg collaborated once more on the musical The King Steps Out (1936), but parted ways after falling out, likely over control of the visuals. Ballard moved over to Columbia in 1935, where he worked as a director of photography for five years, primely for the B-movie unit on their less-prestigious low-budgeted "B-pictures" and on two-reel shorts. After quitting Columbia in 1940, he went to work for Howard Hughes on the eccentric multi-millionaire's attempted-smut fest, The Outlaw (1943). Hughes wanted to show off the twin assets of Jane Russell, which -- for his taste -- required innovative camera angles of her cleavage, one of the then-wonders of the then (natural) world. Ballard shot test scenes for the flick and worked as an assistant on the first-unit crew of the great cinematographer Gregg Toland and as the lighting cameraman on the second unit. Though the film was shot in 1940 and 1941, due to Hughes' perfectionism and censorship troubles, the film, though completed and screened in 1943, was be distributed until after World War II, in 1946.
After Hughes, Ballard shot two pictures for R.K.O., and then moved on to 20th Century Fox for the war period (1941-45). It was at Fox, working on A-pictures, that Ballard first established his reputation, as a master of motion pictures shot on studio sets. On the set of the 1944 movie The Lodger (1944), Ballard met actress Merle Oberon, whom he married in 1945. After Oberon sustained facial scarring after a near-fatal automobile accident, Ballard invented a key light to be mounted by the side of the camera. The light, nicknamed the "Obie" after his wife, directed light onto the subject's face to wash out blemishes and wrinkles so they would not be caught on film. Ballard and Oberon divorced in 1949.
After the war, Ballard spent two years at Universal and another two years at R.K.O. (working again for Hughes, who now owned the studio), before returning to 20th Century Fox for a six-year stint. Fox chief Darryl F. Zanuck had committed the studio to turning out pictures shot in the widescreen CinemaScope process and in Technicolor. The widescreen anamorphic process based on the the "hypergonar" lens called "Anamorphoscope" that 20th Century-Fox bought and redubbed "CinemaScope" had actually been invented by the Frenchman 'Henri Chrétien' in the late 1920s.
It was at Fox that Ballard gained his renowned experience in shooting both widescreen and color, particularly with his Westerns, establishing his reputation as a first-rate D.P. anew in these "new" media. His mastery of the wide-screen was fully evident when he shot +The Wild Bunch), a film in which he completely used the widescreen frame. (By the mid-1970s, due to the insistence of television, most widescreen films were shot by bunching the main action in a center frame approximating the Academy aperture of 4:3, thus obviating the expense of creating "pan and scan" movies for TV-broadcast. This eventually led to faux widescreen, when the industry jettisoned the entire use of the frame, which was squeezed onto the negative, and merely masked a camera, producing a simulation of widescreen without the need for squeezing that did not use the full frame. Thus, a film could be shown theatrically by masking a screen at the theater, and the unmasked film could be shown on TV in the 4:3 aspect. However, men like Ballard and Freddie Young were masters of the "true" widescreen.)
His old friend Henry Hathaway, now a major director, used Ballard extensively in the early 1950s. They collaborated on Diplomatic Courier (1952), O. Henry's Full House (1952), and Prince Valiant (1954) in that decade, though by 1956, Ballard was sufficiently established to go freelance. This meant their next collaborations did not come until the 1960s: The Sons of Katie Elder (1965), Nevada Smith (1966), and True Grit (1969). Ballard was also able to establish a long-time collaboration -- and friendship -- with director Budd Boetticher, shooting the director's The Magnificent Matador (1955), The Killer Is Loose (1956) (1956), the pilot episode for the television show Maverick (1957), and the Randolph Scott Buchanan Rides Alone (1958). In 1959, he shot The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960), Boetticher's last film before the quixotic director pursued his monumental cinema biography of the Mexican matador Carlos Arruza, a decade-long labor of love. Boetticher later told of how when the "Legs Diamond" producer saw the flat look Ballard had created for the film, after discussions with Boetticher, to recreate an authentic look and feel of the 1920s by mimicking the cinematography of that era, the producer criticized Ballard's footage. Not understanding what they were after, he complained to Boetticher, "I thought you said Ballard was a good cameraman!"
In addition to much of the bull-fighting footage contained in the docudrama Arruza (1972), Ballard shot Boetticher's last feature film, A Time for Dying (1969). As a favor to his friend, Ballard also shot Boetticher's documentary about his horse farm, My Kingdom for... (1995), after having retired seven years before.
One collaboration that didn't stick was with Stanley Kubrick, who was 20 years Ballard's junior, though their joint effort produced a memorable look and atmosphere for Kubricks's breakthrough work, the seminal crime drama The Killing (1956). (This film was the true inspiration for the time-shifts favored by '90s cinema wunderkind 'Quentin Tarrantino' .) The experienced and respected Ballard returned to his Black + Whites roots as the cinematographer on The Killing (1956), but Kubrick always experienced friction with his directors of photography as he, a very talented photographer, essentially considered himself his own D.P.
The relationship that Ballard is most famous for was with Sam Peckinpah. They first worked together on the 'Brian Keith' TV series _The Westerner (1960)_ , which had been created by Peckinpah but only lasted half-a-season, and then on the classic 'Randolph Scott' -Joel McCrea Western Ride the High Country (1962). However, it was their next collaboration, The Wild Bunch (1969), that elevated Peckinpah into the pantheon of great directors and made Ballard well-known outside the small circle of professional cinematographers and cult cineastes. Ballard also shot The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970), The Getaway (1972), and Junior Bonner (1972) for Peckinpah, becoming a principle collaborator with the emotionally troubled and producer-plagued director during the period of his greatness.
Surprisingly, though he worked as director of photography on almost 130 films during his career as a lighting cameraman from 1935 to 1978, Lucien Ballard was nominated just once for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography, in 1964 for for his Black + White work on The Caretakers (1963). The oversight is inexplicable, particularly as there were two awards for cinematography (B+W and color) during the bulk of his career. In 1970, he was honored by the National Society of Film Critics with its "Best Cinematography" for his great widescreen work on Peckinpah's epic masterpiece The Wild Bunch (1969), which somehow failed to generate an Oscar nomination. (The American Society of Cinematographers was a tightly controlled clan that provided the bulk of the voters for the Oscar nominations. The Oscar voters also inexplicably blackballed the great Gordon Willis during his career.)
Lucien Ballard died near his Rancho Mirage, California, home in a car accident on October 1, 1988. He was 80 years old.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Marcia Ralston was born on 19 September 1906 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. She was an actress, known for Sh! The Octopus (1937), Call It a Day (1937) and Paris Calling (1941). She was married to Phil Harris. She died on 23 November 1988 in Rancho Mirage, California, USA.- Music Department
Irv Cottler was born on 13 February 1918 in New York, USA. He is known for The Pleasure of His Company (1961), The Hollywood Palace (1964) and Frank Sinatra in Japan: Live at the Budokan Hall, Tokyo (1985). He died on 8 August 1989 in Rancho Mirage, California, USA.- Production Manager
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Ken Stump was born on 1 February 1950 in Iowa, USA. He was a production manager and producer, known for Insight (1960), Good Times (1974) and Who's the Boss? (1984). He died on 1 January 1990 in Rancho Mirage, California, USA.- Music Department
- Composer
- Producer
Jimmy Van Heusen was inarguably one of the most accomplished songwriters in history. Claiming four "Oscars" and one Emmy award among his credits he also wrote more songs (85) recorded by Frank Sinatra, his long time friend, than any other composer. He also composed the songs for another good friend, Bing Crosby for six of the seven Crosby/Hope Road pictures. In spite of such accolades he personally felt one of his biggest honors was being elected by his peers as one of the original inductees to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1971. Most of his songs were written with two lyricist partners Johnny Burke (1940 to 1953) and then Sammy Cahn.
Jimmy was born Edward Chester Babcock on January 26, 1913 in Syracuse New York to Ida and Arthur Babcock. His close friends called him Chester or "Chet". From early on he was always entertaining audiences with his wit and musical skill though not always gaining the support of all. He was once expelled from Central High in Syracuse after performing the satire song "My Canary Has Circles Under His Eyes." The student body loved the song but the teachers thought otherwise.
During his early years he worked as a disc jockey for a local radio station and would invite people to send in lyrics. He felt every man and woman in the United States wanted to be a songwriter and for a trifling ten dollars he would compose a complete piano part to go along with the lyrics. This all coincided with birth and infancy of radio and as such he was able to also get airplay for some of his songs.
It was around 1928 when Chester Babcock was working as a DJ that his childhood friend helped him come up with his stage name. Ralph Harris was looking out the window of the 11th floor of the Hotel Syracuse and saw a billboard for Van Heusen collars. The last name was now solved. Chester then asked Ralph- well how about my first name? Ralph mentioned he had a favorite cousin named James and that is how the name James Van Heusen came about. But as hard as he worked to plug his own work he realized that to have a shot at real success he needed to go to New York City. Soon he was working in Tin Pan Alley, the Mecca of popular music in the early 20th century.
Through his friendship with Harold Arlen's (Music for Wizard Of Oz) brother Jerry several of his songs were featured in one of the Cotton Club revues in Harlem. His first big hit came in 1939 with Darn That Dream, a song written for Benny Goodman. The following year they followed up with more hits: Polka Dots and Moonbeams, All This and Heaven Too, Imagination and Shake Down the Stars. In the year 1939-1940 Jimmy published 60 songs, nearly all of them receiving radio play.
In the same season he teamed up with lyricist Johnny Burke and began writing songs for Paramount Pictures. It was with Johnny at Paramount that he composed many songs for Bing Crosby movies. Together they wrote the scores for Road to Zanzibar, Road to Morocco, Dixie, and Going My Way, among others. Van Heusen and Burke were, in the words of Sammy Cahn, " The A Team"; writing hit after hit for Bing Crosby the most popular singer in the world at the time. It was with Johnny Burke that Jimmy received his first Oscar in 1944 for the song "Swinging on a Star" from the movie "Going My Way", a Bing Crosby classic. All together Jimmy Van Heusen composed songs for 23 Crosby Movies.
One of the other accomplishments during this time era was Jimmy's flying. He flew as a test pilot during WWII for Lockheed in California while at the same time composing songs.
Due to Johnny Burke's poor health Van Heusen later joined forces with composer Sammy Cahn. In 1957 the Van Heusen/Cahn team won an Oscar for their song "All the Way," from the movie "The Joker Is Wild", the second for both Cahn and Van Heusen. After that the successes kept coming with another Oscar in 1959 for "High Hopes," from the film "A Hole in the Head", and again in 1963 for the song "Call Me Irresponsible," from "Papa's Delicate Condition". They also received Academy Award nominations for their songs "To Love and Be Loved," "Second Time Around," "My Kind of Town," "Where Love Has Gone," "Thoroughly Modern Millie," "A Pocketful of Miracles," and "Star." "Love and Marriage", written for the 1955 television show "Our Town", featuring Frank Sinatra, garnered the duo an Emmy Award. With other hits that year like "The Tender Trap" everyone wanted Van Heusen and Cahn. Riding on their numerous successes they later produced "The Frank Sinatra Show", a series of four television spectaculars from 1959 to 1960, the first one winning the Sylvania TV Award as the outstanding variety program of the year.
They also wrote many of the songs for some of the most successful Frank Sinatra albums. Among them were "Come Fly With Me", "Only the Lonely", "Come Dance with Me", "No One Cares", "All the Way" and "Ring a Ding Ding". And in 1960 "High Hopes" became John F. Kennedy's theme song and was sung by Frank Sinatra at the convention center.
In 1961 a newspaper writer, seeking out Hollywood bachelors to write about, had the following to say: "Jimmy Van Heusen does not however, personify the image of the genius composer, temperamental, moody and tense, who shuts himself away from the world to "create". He is, in fact, quite the opposite. He is charming, personable and witty, with laughing eyes and a great sense of humor. He could, as he says, "work in a boiler factory" and has more than once composed a new melody on a tablecloth in a crowded restaurant. Jimmy divides his time between his North Hollywood bachelor apartment, his home in Palm Desert and his Manhattan apartment. He owns and flies his own plane, and had been known to drop whatever he has been doing to fly a friend cross country for the sheer fun of piloting the plane. He genuinely likes people, parties, traveling, flying and last, but by no means least, women."
In total Jimmy Van Heusen was nominated 14 times for Academy Awards. Of those 14 nominations he won 4 times. He was also nominated for an Emmy and won. He was also nominated for a Grammy Award, three Golden Globe Awards and two Tony awards.
Although Van Heusen wrote a great deal about love and marriage he remained a bachelor until 1969 when he finally got the marriage bug. He married Bobbe Brock, former wife of the late producer Bill Pearlburg. She sang in a musical revue in the early thirties as one of the Brox sisters. ( Irving Berlin renamed the revue to spice it up) She remained by his side to the day he passed away on February 6, 1990.- Make-Up Department
Fred Williams was born on 10 April 1922 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is known for What's Up, Doc? (1972), The Terminal Man (1974) and Report to the Commissioner (1975). He died on 11 May 1990 in Rancho Mirage, California, USA.- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Producer
Originally a dance instructor, she came to Broadway during the Depression to begin her career as a professional actress. A daughter of Texas, she originally began work as a dance instructor until a local evangelical-adherent burned down her studio citing her work as being too sinful for human nature. Coming to New York City, she appeared on Broadway introducing the song "My Heart Belongs to Daddy". She later made a name for herself in several Hollywood musicals during the 1940s and later in her career enjoyed huge success as Peter Pan, which she cited as her favorite role.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Kiel Martin was born on 26 July 1944 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for Hill Street Blues (1981), The Panic in Needle Park (1971) and The Ray Bradbury Theater (1985). He was married to Joanne Marie Lapomarda, Christina Montoya and Claudia Martin. He died on 28 December 1990 in Rancho Mirage, California, USA.- Composer
- Actor
- Music Department
Curt Massey was born on 3 May 1910 in Midland, Texas, USA. He was a composer and actor, known for The Strawberry Roan (1948), Mystery Science Theater 3000 (1988) and Sons of New Mexico (1949). He was married to Edythe Williams. He died on 20 October 1991 in Rancho Mirage, California, USA.- Leonard Kibrick was born on 6 September 1924 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. He was an actor, known for It's a Wonderful World (1939), Dimples (1936) and Hill Street Blues (1981). He died on 4 January 1993 in Rancho Mirage, California, USA.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Ruby Keeler started as a dancer on Broadway. After her marriage to Al Jolson she moved to Hollywood and become a star in Warners musicals opposite Dick Powell. After her divorce from Jolson she retired for almost 30 years, until she appeared in "No No Nanette" on Broadway in 1971 under the direction of Busby Berkeley.- Frank Jameson was born on 3 July 1924 in Corona, California, USA. He was married to Eva Gabor and Phyllis Edith Dockeray. He died on 16 May 1993 in Rancho Mirage, California, USA.
- Producer
- Director
- Actor
Marlo Lewis (1916-1993) was an American executive producer for variety and comedy shows for CBS and is well-known for creating and co-producing the famous "Ed Sullivan Show", initially known as The Ed Sullivan Show (1948). The premiere broadcast featured Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis and Marlo's sister, Monica Lewis.
Lewis was the son of a concert pianist and an opera singer. In the mid-1940s, he became an executive of the Blaine Thompson Advertising agency, where he created and produced, together with his wife, Mina Bess, the daily radio talk show, "Luncheon at Sardi's".
In 1948, Lewis co-created the The Ed Sullivan Show (1948) program with Ed Sullivan, who he had met through his sister, singer Monica Lewis. In 1955, the TV classic was renamed "The Ed Sullivan Show". Together with Sullivan, Lewis personally set the appearance time of each act for the show. In 1956, Elvis Presley appeared on the show, but he was censored because of his wild pelvic gyrations and, therefore, Lewis and Sullivan decided to shoot the singer only from the waist up during his TV performance.
Apart from this show, Lewis also helped to launch The Jackie Gleason Show (1952), The Dinah Shore Chevy Show (1956) and The Phil Silvers Show (1955).
After 12 years, he left the Sullivan Show in order to set up an independent production company. One of his first projects was the ballet, The Nutcracker, for an ABC Christmas special in 1961. In the mid-1960s, he produced several musical specials for Perry Como. In 1967, Lewis joined the Norman, Craig & Kummel agency and was elected vice-chairman, a year later.
In 1979, he published, together with his wife, a book entitled "Prime Time", which includes many backstage stories from the author's times as a producer.
Lewis was also a founder of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. In 1992, Lewis was elected to the Television Producers Hall of Fame.
In 1993, he died of heart failure at his home in Rancho Mirage, Calif. He is survived by his wife and two children.- Veronica Pataky was born on 3 October 1918 in Budapest, Hungary. She was an actress, known for The Miracle of the Bells (1948), Ramar of the Jungle (1952) and Front Page Detective (1951). She died on 2 September 1993 in Rancho Mirage, California, USA.
- Music Department
- Writer
- Producer
Composer, songwriter ("Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White", "Bimbombey", "Blue and Sentimenta") and author, educated at Cornell University and St. John's University Law School. He wrote many themes for television and films. Joining ASCAP in 1934, his chief musical collaborators included Jerry Livingston, Al Hoffman, Alex Kramer, Joan Whitney, Frankie Carle, Count Basie, Burt Bacharach, Ernest Gold, Elmer Bernstein, Frank De Vol and Henry Mancini. His other popular-song compositions include "Oh, Oh, What Do You Know About Love?", "Just a Kid Named Joe", "Moon Love", "On the Isle of May", "Bermuda Buggyride", "Falling Leaves", "A Sinner Kissed an Angel", "It's Love, Love, Love", "Lili Marlene", "I'm Just a Lucky So-And-So", "Candy", "Spellbound", "Chi-Baba Chi-Baba", "At a Candlelight Cafe", "Sunflower", "La Vie en Rose", "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes", "I Don't Care If the Sun Don't Shine", "It Only Hurts for a Little While", "I Like It, I Like It", "The Call of the Faraway Hills", "My Own True Love", "Baby, It's You", "So This Is Love", "The Unbirthday Song", "The Willow", "Room for One More", "Take Me", and "Young Emotions".- Norman Bartold was born on 6 August 1928 in Berkeley, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Westworld (1973), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and The California Kid (1974). He was married to Sheila Bartold and Mary Virginia Bartold. He died on 28 May 1994 in Rancho Mirage, California, USA.
- Tay Dunn was born on 6 January 1911 in Qu 'Appelle, Saskatchewan, Canada. He was an actor, known for Crazy Knights (1944) and Danny Boy (1945). He died on 11 December 1994 in Rancho Mirage, California, USA.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Ginger Rogers was born Virginia Katherine McMath in Independence, Missouri on July 16, 1911, the daughter of Lela E. Rogers (née Lela Emogene Owens) and William Eddins McMath. Her mother went to Independence to have Ginger away from her husband. She had a baby earlier in their marriage and he allowed the doctor to use forceps and the baby died. She was kidnapped by her father several times until her mother took him to court. Ginger's mother left her child in the care of her parents while she went in search of a job as a scriptwriter in Hollywood and later to New York City. Mrs. McMath found herself with an income good enough to where she could send for Ginger. Lelee became a Marine in 1918 and was in the publicity department and Ginger went back to her grandparents in Missouri. During this time her mother met John Rogers. After leaving the Marines they married in May, 1920 in Liberty, Missouri. He was transferred to Dallas and Ginger (who treated him as a father) went too. Ginger won a Charleston contest in 1925 (age 14) and a 4-week contract on the Interstate circuit. She also appeared in vaudeville acts which she did until she was 17 with her mother by her side to guide her. Now she had discovered true acting.
She married in March 1929, and after several months realized she had made a mistake. She acquired an agent and she did several short films. She went to New York where she appeared in the Broadway production of "Top Speed" which debuted Christmas Day, 1929. Her first film was in 1929 in A Night in a Dormitory (1930). It was a bit part, but it was a start. Later that year, Ginger appeared, briefly, in two more films, A Day of a Man of Affairs (1929) and Campus Sweethearts (1930). For awhile she did both movies and theatre. The following year she began to get better parts in films such as Office Blues (1930) and The Tip-Off (1931). But the movie that enamored her to the public was Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933). She did not have top billing, but her beauty and voice were enough to have the public want more. One song she popularized in the film was the now famous, "We're in the Money". Also in 1933, she was in 42nd Street (1933). She suggested using a monocle, and this also set her apart. In 1934, she starred with Dick Powell in Twenty Million Sweethearts (1934). It was a well-received film about the popularity of radio.
Ginger's real stardom occurred when she was teamed with Fred Astaire where they were one of the best cinematic couples ever to hit the silver screen. This is where she achieved real stardom. They were first paired in 1933's Flying Down to Rio (1933) and later in 1935's Roberta (1935) and Top Hat (1935). Ginger also appeared in some very good comedies such as Bachelor Mother (1939) and Fifth Avenue Girl (1939), both in 1939. Also that year, she appeared with Astaire in The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939). The film made money but was not anywhere successful as they had hoped. After that, studio executives at RKO wanted Ginger to strike out on her own.
She made several dramatic pictures, but it was 1940's Kitty Foyle (1940) that allowed her to shine. Playing a young lady from the wrong side of the tracks, she played the lead role well, so well in fact, that she won an Academy Award for her portrayal. Ginger followed that project with the delightful comedy, Tom, Dick and Harry (1941) the following year. It's a story where she has to choose which of three men she wants to marry. Through the rest of the 1940s and early 1950s she continued to make movies but not near the caliber before World War II. After Oh, Men! Oh, Women! (1957) in 1957, Ginger didn't appear on the silver screen for seven years. By 1965, she had appeared for the last time in Harlow (1965). Afterward, she appeared on Broadway and other stage plays traveling in Europe, the U.S., and Canada. After 1984, she retired and wrote an autobiography in 1991 entitled, "Ginger, My Story".
On April 25, 1995, Ginger died of natural causes in Rancho Mirage, California. She was 83.- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
A bandleader of the 1940s and a radio, film, and TV actor who celebrated his Southern roots. He was a principal of long standing among the comedian Jack Benny's radio retinue, parlaying his popularity into his own radio series, in which his wife, Alice Faye, co-starred.
Linton, Indiana birthplace, but he spent much of his early years in Nashville, Tennessee, which helped explain his little Southern accent and, later on, the self-deprecating remarks of his radio persona. Harris started his musical career in San Francisco as a drummer. In the later 1920s, he formed an orchestra with Carol Lofner and began a lengthy residency at the St. Francis Hotel. When the collaboration came to an end in 1932, Harris formed and headed his own band, which was centered in Los Angeles. He wed actress Marcia Ralston in Sydney, Australia, on September 2, 1927. Phil Harris, Jr., the couple's adopted son, was born in 1935. Their divorce was finalized in September 1940.
Harris joined The Jell-O Show Starring Jack Benny (later renamed The Jack Benny Program) in 1936 as musical director. He sang, led his band, and, when his penchant for witty one-liners became apparent, joined the Benny ensemble as Phil Harris, a brash, hard-drinking, hipster-talking Southerner whose good nature overcame his ego. His jive-talk nicknames for the other people in Benny's orbit were his signature. Benny identified as "Jackson," but Harris's typical response was a jovial "Hiya, Jackson!" Strangely enough, given his true Hoosier origins, his signature song was "That's What I Like About the South."
In 1941, Harris wed Alice Faye, a second marriage for both (Faye had previously been briefly wed to singer-actor Tony Martin). Before Harris passed away, Faye and Harris were married for 54 years. During World War II, Harris and his band joined the United States Navy in 1942 and remained there until the end of the conflict. Faye had virtually given up on her cinematic career by 1946. After studio head Darryl F. Zanuck allegedly cut her scenes from Fallen Angel (1945) to boost his protégé Linda Darnell, she reportedly drove off the 20th Century Fox lot.
A radio show called The Fitch Bandwagon extended an invitation to Harris and Faye to join. Big bands, including Harris's own, used the event as a platform at first, but once Harris and Faye gained notoriety, it evolved into something very different. The couple's wish to raise their kids in Southern California without traveling about at the same time as Bandwagon gave rise to the well-known situation comedy, The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show. Elliott Lewis played layabout guitarist Frank Remley in the series, and Great Gildersleeve co-star Walter Tetley played annoying grocery boy Julius. Harris played the conceited, illiterate bandleader husband, and Faye played his acidic but devoted wife, helped by actresses playing their two young daughters. For eight years, the Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show was broadcast on NBC until radio succumbed to television.
Following the concert, Harris brought his music career back to life. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, he had multiple guest appearances on television shows, such as Hollywood Palace, The Dean Martin Show, Kraft Music Hall, and other musical variety shows. He performed as a voice actor and vocalist for animated movies. He played Baloo the Bear in The Jungle Book, Robin Hood as Little John, and The Aristocats as Thomas O'Malley.
In the years after his radio peak, The Jungle Book was his biggest hit. In addition to providing the character's voice, Harris performed "The Bare Necessities," one of the movie's biggest hits, which brought Harris's former status as a well-known radio star to the attention of a new generation of young admirers. Harris also performs a stunning scat-singing rendition of "I Wanna Be Like You" with Louis Prima. Harris made a brief comeback to Disney in 1989, this time to voice Baloo for the animated series TaleSpin, which was in development at the time. Regretfully, by that point he had become too old to pull off the voice. Actor Ed Gilbert later took his position. in the 1991 film Rock-A-Doodle directed by Don Bluth, in which he played the friendly, laid back farm dog Patou.
Some of Harris's best-known songs were from the early 1950s novelty album "The Thing." In the song, a foolish man discovers a box that holds a strange secret, and he tries to get rid of it. Harris also led a band that frequently performed in Las Vegas in the 1970s and early 1980s, frequently sharing bills with swing era icon Harry James.
Bing Crosby was another close friend and acquaintance of Harris's; in fact, upon Crosby's passing, Harris filled in for his friend, providing color commentary for the annual Bing Crosby Pro-Am Golf Tournament telecast. The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show's previous program opened with Harris recounting his victory in a previous competition.
Harris was a longtime resident and benefactor of Palm Springs, California, where Crosby also made his home. Harris was also a benefactor of his birthplace of Linton, Indiana, establishing scholarships in his honor for promising high school students, performing at the high school, and hosting a celebrity golf tournament in his honor every year. In due course, Harris and Faye donated most of their show business memorabilia and papers to Linton's public library.
Phil Harris died of a heart attack in 1995 at the age of 91, in Palm Springs after a heart attack. Three years later, Alice Faye passed away from stomach cancer. Harris was inducted into the Indiana Hall of Fame two years prior to his passing. In Riverside County, California, at Forest Lawn-Cathedral City, Harris and Faye are buried. While Alice Harris Regan was last known to be residing in New Orleans, Phyllis Harris was last known to be residing in St. Louis, where she had been with her mother by her father's bedside when he passed away.- Kem Dibbs was born on 12 August 1917 in Zahle, Lebanon. He was an actor, known for Paths of Glory (1957), The Ten Commandments (1956) and Buck Rogers (1950). He died on 28 March 1996 in Rancho Mirage, California, USA.
- She attended grammar school in Portland, Oregon until her family moved to Fort Worth, Texas, where she graduated from Fort Worth Polytechnic High School. Shortly afterward she proceeded to New York City to become a model. She graced the cover on many national magazines, and was selected as the model for the Chesterfield Girl, and her likeness appeared on Chesterfield ads and billboards across the United States. She won the "Miss America Aviation" crown in Birmingham, Alabama, which led her to being hired as a hostess/model for Trans-World Airlines (TWA) before being signed to a contract at Paramount Pictures.
- Writer
- Actor
- Producer
One of the most recognisable character actors of the 1950s, Boston Massachusetts-born Dick Wesson began his career with his older brother, Gene Wesson, in a comedy act that made the rounds of the nightclub circuit. He made his film debut in the sci-fi classic Destination Moon (1950), and spent his career specializing in playing the rambunctious, wisecracking smart alec, often in westerns and war films, easily recognizable by his big smile, crew-cut and amazing comedic timing. In addition to his film appearances, his extensive TV credits included The Bob Cummings Show (1955), The Danny Thomas Show (1953) (aka The Danny Thomas Show), Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers (1974) (aka The Paul Sand Show), The People's Choice (1955), just to name a few. In the 60s, his comedic talents took him to directing and producing in such shows as The Beverly Hillbillies (1962) and Petticoat Junction (1963).- As New York-born Worcester Van Eps, he was a meter reader who turned professional tennis player, In 1937, aged 25, however, he parlayed his fair-haired good looks and obvious athleticism into an acting career and changed his name to the friendlier and less ethnic marquee moniker (common during that time of Hollywood) of Willard Parker.
After a number of uncredited film roles and a couple of appearances on the Broadway stage with "Johnny Belinda" (1940) and "Lady in the Dark" (1943), Willard was signed by Columbia in the 1940s and moved into "B" movie leads and co-leads. A reliable player, most of his roles, which fell into the action adventure category, went by unnoticed, including the swashbuckling film The Fighting Guardsman (1945), and the western actioners Calamity Jane and Sam Bass (1949), Apache Drums (1951), The Great Jesse James Raid (1953), Lone Texan (1959) and his "Cole Younger" in Young Jesse James (1960). He also had a secondary non-singing role in his best-known movie, playing a bombastic Texan vying for the affections of Kathryn Grayson in the musical Kiss Me Kate (1953).
In the 1950s, Willard developed a semi-strong following partnered with Harry Lauter in the TV action show, Tales of the Texas Rangers (1955) (1955-1959). He eventually retired to sell real estate. Married twice, his second wife was beautiful blonde actress Virginia Field, who appeared with him in the British sci-fi flick, The Earth Dies Screaming (1964). They had no children together, but Willard did have a son by his previous marriage to former stage actress Marion Pierce.
In 1974, he suffered a stroke that effectively ended his career. He died at age 84, on December 4, 1996, of heart failure. - Actress
- Soundtrack
Diana Lewis was born on September 18, 1919 in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Her parents were vaudeville performers. The family moved to Hollywood and Diana, her sister Maxine, and her brother J.C. all went into show business. Diana made her film debut in the comedy It's a Gift (1934). At the age of sixteen she married actor Jay Faye. She landed a contract with MGM and appeared in movies like Andy Hardy Meets Debutante (1940) and Bitter Sweet (1940). While making Gold Diggers in Paris (1938) she became close friends with actress Carole Landis. Diana's marriage to Jay ended in 1939. That same year she met actor William Powell who was more than twenty years older than her. After a whirlwind courtship the couple eloped on January 6, 1940. Diana had supporting roles in the films Johnny Eager (1941) and Cry 'Havoc' (1943). She decided to quit acting in 1943 and devoted herself to being a full-time wife. By all accounts Diana and William enjoyed one of Hollywood's happiest marriages. He gave her the nickname "Mousie" because she was so petite. They had no children but Diana was very close to her stepson William David Powell. She spent much of her time doing charity work and playing golf. In 1984 William passed away at the age of ninety-one. Diana continued to live a quiet life in Palm Springs. She died from pancreatic cancer on January 18, 1997. Diana is buried with William at Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Charlita was born on 5 July 1921 in Lowell, Massachusetts, USA. She was an actress, known for Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla (1952), The Naked Dawn (1955) and Mission: Impossible (1966). She died on 28 January 1997 in Rancho Mirage, California, USA.- Dan Polier Jr. was born on 9 August 1918 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. He was a writer, known for California Fever (1979) and Young Love, First Love (1979). He died on 6 February 1997 in Rancho Mirage, California, USA.
- Additional Crew
Jolie Gabor was born on 30 September 1896 in Budapest, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Budapest, Hungary). She is known for Captain Blackjack (1950), The Colgate Comedy Hour (1950) and All Star Revue (1950). She was married to Count Edmond de Szigethy, Peter Howard Christman and Vilmos Gabor. She died on 1 April 1997 in Rancho Mirage, California, USA.- Additional Crew
- Costume Designer
- Actor
Paul Zastupnevich was born on 24 December 1921 in Homestead, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a costume designer and actor, known for The Poseidon Adventure (1972), The Towering Inferno (1974) and When Time Ran Out... (1980). He died on 9 May 1997 in Rancho Mirage, California, USA.- Joan Alden was born on 7 March 1910 in Michigan, USA. She was an actress, known for The Call of the Heart (1928). She died on 15 June 1997 in Rancho Mirage, California, USA.
- Donald Montgomery Hutson was the first star wide receiver in NFL history. He is credited with creating many of the modern pass routes used in the NFL today. He is credited as the first to use the buttonhook, z-out, hook and go and countless other routes that have become staples of offensive football. Along with Jerry Rice, he is widely considered the greatest wide receiver in NFL history.
The All American played at University of Alabama with teammate Paul "Bear" Bryant at the other end position. The Crimson Tide team won the Rose Bowl in 1935 beating Stanford 29-13 with Hutson catching 6 passes for 165 yards and two touchdowns.
He joined the Green Bay Packers in 1935. Legendary coach Curley Lambeau wanted to isolate Hudson away from the defense by splitting him out away from the formation. Hense, the term "split end".
His first season Hutson scored his very first touchdown on an eighty-three yard pass from Arnie Herber. Many historians refer to this as, "the play that forever changed the game." In his eleven subsequent seasons, Hutson captured 18 major NFL receiving records. He had 488 receptions, by far the most productive of his era, and one of the most productive of all time. Don also led the league in scoring 5 consecutive and 8 seasons overall.
When he retired in 1945, he had 99 receiving touchdowns, a record that would stand for 44 years when Seahawk Steve Largent caught his 100th and last NFL TD.
As did almost all players in his day, Hutson played both offense and defense. On defense, Hutson was a very good safety who intercepted 30 passes over the final 6 years of his career. Hutson's highest season total was in 1943, when Hutson intercepted 8 passes in only 10 games. For many of his 11 seasons, Hutson was also the kicker for the Packers. He added 172 extra points and 7 field goals for another league record, 881 points.
In 1999, he was ranked number 6 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players, the highest-ranking Packer and the highest-ranking pre-World War II player.
The Green Bay Packer retired his #14. He was a charter member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. - Writer
- Actor
- Producer
The son of a former circus clown turned grocer and a cleaning woman, Red Skelton was introduced to show business at the age of seven by Ed Wynn, at a vaudeville show in Vincennes. At age 10, he left home to travel with a medicine show through the Midwest, and joined the vaudeville circuit at age 15. At age 18, he married Edna Marie Stilwell, an usher who became his vaudeville partner and later his chief writer and manager. He debuted on Broadway and radio in 1937 and on film in 1938. His ex-wife/manager negotiated a seven-year Hollywood contract for him in 1951, the same year The Red Skelton Hour (1951) premiered on NBC. For two decades, until 1971, his show consistently stayed in the top twenty, both on NBC and CBS. His numerous characters, including Clem Kaddiddlehopper, George Appleby, and the seagulls Gertrude and Heathcliffe delighted audiences for decades. First and foremost, he considered himself a clown, although not the greatest, and his paintings of clowns brought in a fortune after he left television. His home life was not completely happy--two divorces and a son Richard who died of leukemia at age nine--and he did not hang around with other comedians. He continued performing live until illness, and he was a longtime supporter of children's charities. Red Skelton died at age 84 of pneumonia in Rancho Mirage, California on September 17, 1997.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Sunny, lovable tenor Stubby Kaye with his butterball frame kept his real name a secret for his entire career. He was born Bernard Kotzin in New York and started off in the world of entertainment in 1939 after winning a radio contest. Touring as a comedian in vaudeville for over a decade, he also appeared regularly with the USO during the war years. He finally hit it big on Broadway in 1950 when he created the role of Nicely-Nicely Johnson in the smash musical hit "Guys and Dolls" singing his rousing show-stoppers "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat" and "Fugue for Tinhorns". He solidified his status a few years later as Marryin' Sam in "Li'l Abner" in 1956. He preserved both of these signature roles on film.
Other stage musicals sparked by his presence included "Fiddler on the Roof", "Good News" and "Grind". In the 60s Stubby had his own kiddie show and appeared to comical effect in other films as well, including The Cool Mikado (1963), Sex and the Single Girl (1964), Cat Ballou (1965), The Way West (1967) and Sweet Charity (1969). Nightclubs and TV were also an integral part of his career. He lived for a time in England, marrying Angela Bracewell, then a hostess on Val Parnell's Sunday Night at the London Palladium (1955), and established a growing list of fans there as well. His last featured role was in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). His final years were spent in ill health, dying in 1997 of lung cancer.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Harry Caray was born on 1 March 1914 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. He was an actor, known for Undercover Boss (2010), 1964 World Series (1964) and 1968 World Series (1968). He was married to Dolores "Dutchie" Goldmann, Marian Binkin and Dorothy Kanz. He died on 18 February 1998 in Rancho Mirage, California, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
As A&E's Biography put it, "She rose from the mean streets of New York's Hell's Kitchen to become the most famous singing actress in the world. When the pressures of fame became too much, she had the courage to leave Hollywood on her own terms". Alice Faye was born Alice Jeanne Leppert in NYC on May 5, 1915. She was to become one of Hollywood's biggest stars of the late 1930s and early 1940s. She started her career as a singer, but later gravitated to film roles. Alice's first role was in the film George White's Scandals (1934) in 1934 where she played "Mona Vale". Lilian Harvey was set to play the lead role in this film, but quit. Alice inherited the part. She went on to star in Tinseltown's popular and lucrative cookie-cutter musicals and, with her distinctive contralto, introduced several songs that became pop standards, notably "You'll Never Know" in the film Hello Frisco, Hello (1943) in 1943.
After filming Fallen Angel (1945) in 1945, in which she was very disappointed because many of her best scenes were cut, she walked out on her contract. Her life after Hollywood was charmingly simple. She was married to Hoosier Phil Harris from 1941-1995 in a union that produced two daughters. She had previously been married to Tony Martin for four years. Alice had always said that her family always came before her professional life. She went back to Hollywood to make State Fair (1962) in 1962. At that time, she said "I don't know what happened to the picture business. I'm sorry I went back to find out. Such a shame". Her last film was The Magic of Lassie (1978) in 1978 opposite James Stewart. Most of her films are big hits at revival theaters across the country, confirming the power she had in the wonderful performances she gave. Ironically, Alice is more popular in Britain than in the US. Four days after her birthday on May 9, 1998, Alice Faye died in Rancho Mirage, California. She was 83 years old.