March 28, 1944
It’s Tuesday in 1944, which means we have:
— Brian Aherne is the guest on “Burns and Allen.” Listen for the Frank Sinatra jokes. Courtesy of Otrrlibary.org via Archive.org.
— The Great Gildersleeve visits “Fibber McGee and Molly.” Courtesy of Archive.org.
March 28, 1944
HOLLYWOOD, March 27 — If you’ve seen “Oklahoma” you’ll remember the red-haired American named Marc Platt, who dances with the grace of Fred Astaire. Well, Marc has been signed by Columbia and is heading for Hollywood to play opposite Rita Hayworth and Janet Blair in “Tonight and Every Night.” Not bad for a newcomer to get two such beauteous co-stars.
The story about young Platt is an amusing one. He studied ballet and took the name of Patnoff when he joined the Ballet Russe. His Russian nom de plume was quickly dropped when he went into the Americania musical “Oklahoma.”
March 28, 1944
The Magic Lantern: “See Here, Private Hargrove” is loaded with familiar comedy gags, but it’s got so doggone much good feeling that you skip the stencils. Besides, it’s got a pair of likable lads — Robert Walker and Keenan Wynn — as the rookies and Donna Reed as the lookie… “The Fighting Seabees” means to be a back-slap for that useful arm of the military, but sometimes the praise gets gibbery. The thing is too Hollywood-flavored to look like war … “The Heavenly Body” does not refer to Hedy Lamarr, who’s in it. The title comes from William Powell’s monkeying with the stars. Sometimes the going gets funny, but too often you can almost hear Powell’s suspenders give from the strain of carrying the frail tail. .. “Tunisian Victory,” action shots by the U.S.A. and British cameras, records some lovely shots of the Rats on the run, than which there is nothing more entertaining.
Now that I have your attention, please take a little survey on where the blog goes from here.
A lobby card for “Too Late for Tears,” listed on EBay as Buy It Now for $75.
For 16 years at Hollywood’s Egyptian Theatre, the Film Noir Foundation has been presenting Noir City, a dedicated look at the evil underbelly of the human psyche, not only in Southern California, but now, all over the world. As usual, the festival pairs up films to highlight actors, locations, themes or interesting dichotomies and this year travels the world to reveal human depravity around the globe.
This year’s opening weekend films focused on petty crooks, slimy slicksters, two-faced plotters and double dealings, all featured in glorious shades of black and white, both in delicious 35-millimeter film prints and pristine digital restorations.
Opening night, March 21, showcased the shady shenanigans of droopy-eyed Dan Duryea and his fellow fraudsters. Long sought after by noir aficionados, “Too Late for Tears” opened the Hollywood Fest after a five-year search and rescue operation by the Film Noir Foundation. The film was carefully restored from a multitude of sources for its physical rebirth.
Mary Mallory’s “Hollywoodland: Tales Lost and Found” is available for the Kindle.
March 27, 1944: Landing craft 220 transports troops to an Italian beach, while LCI 226 lands troops in New Guinea and New Britain, the subject of a profile by John Hersey. Universal movie studios photographer Ray Jones gives a lesson in how to pose a glamour shot, with Elyse “Mummy’s Tomb” Knox. The featured photographer is Alfred Eisenstaedt and this week’s movie is “See Here, Private Hargrove.” Courtesy of Google. Continue reading
March 27, 1944
HOLLYWOOD, March 26 — A lawsuit that may completely upset one of M-G-M’s most important pictures, starring Susan Peters and Robert Young, looms potent on the horizon. Today, by wire, Pauline Leader Brand, former wife of Millen Brand, author of “The Outward Room,” confirmed information she is preparing to sue M-G-M for $500,000. She is alleging the main feminine character in the movie (now titled “Secrets in the Dark”) is she and that it would damage her because there is an illicit love affair and a baby born out of wedlock.
The picture is nearly finished and at M-G-M they tell me they have not been notified of the suit. Of course, I wonder if Mrs. Brand knows there isn’t a chance of an illicit love affair nor an illegitimate baby in any movie these days? Papa Hays and his office would say” No! No!”
March 27, 1944
She was once taken to a New York nightclub on New Year’s Eve and didn’t enjoy herself … She believes everything she reads in the movie mags… The only time she stays up all night is when she has a toothache … Marriage, in her opinion, is something sacred, not just a breathing spell between gigolos … She thinks Lucius Beebe is the name of a perfume … If she wasn’t true to the guy she cared about most, she’d never be able to sleep. It would worry her too much. When she sees a girl snubbing others or being insulting, she doesn’t consider it being sophisticute, but downright rude.
March 27, 1944
Rep. Martin Dies (D-Texas), the head of the House un-American Activities Committee, goes on the radio to accuse Walter Winchell of being used by “one of the most sinister forces this nation ever faced.”
Dies called this shadowy group “a highly organized and well financed enterprise to destroy by vilification the character of any public man who gets in the way of the objectives of the groups who manage and finance this offensive.”
Dies and Winchell spoke from separate studios of WMAL in Washington and met after the broadcasts, where they “exchanged acid remarks.”
Winchell again asked Dies to subpoena him to appear before Congress, to which Dies replied “All in good time.”
Winchell explained that his sponsor, the Andrew Jergens Co., had forbidden him to make any new charges against Dies until the lawmaker “had a chance to answer what had already been said.”
A note accompanying Winchell’s column about Dies states that it was not distributed to his syndicate, although it was published in the New York Mirror.
July 1, 1949
Former Marine Maj. Gen. William A. Worton becomes Los Angeles police chief. On his way to his office with Mayor Fletcher Bowron, he visits the press room:
“I cannot do this job without the press. The public is entitled to know what is going on in the Police Department and it is through the press that they must be informed,” Worton says.
I wandered down to “New York Street” (Spring Street between 4th and 6th in downtown Los Angeles) last night and saw this Hollywood version of an NYPD patrol car.
L.A. Becomes N.Y.
Million Dollar Theatre | Street Scene | CSI: NY | Subway Entrance at 4th and Spring
March 26, 1944
It’s Sunday in 1944, which means we have:
— Rochester sings the current hit song “Besame Mucho” on “The Jack Benny Show.” Courtesy of Otrrlibrary.org via Archive.org.
— Ed Gardner of “Duffy’s Tavern” is Fred Allen’s guest on a very funny episode of “Texaco Star Theater.” The Brooklyn Dodgers start spring training! Courtesy of Archive.org.
March 26, 1944
It’s Sunday in 1944:
— Eric Sevareid reports from Naples on fighting in Italy on CBS’ “World News Today.” Courtesy of Archive.org.
— Winston Church speaks on the BBC. Courtesy of Archive.org.
March 26, 1944
Louella Parsons interviews Danny Kaye and his wife, Sylvia Fine, and writes: I have seldom met two such idealistic young people. To see blond Danny, who makes funny faces and sings eccentric songs, you get no idea of what goes on in that busy brain of his. You have to talk with him to realize how serious he is about his work and how much he wants to be a creative artist — which, of course, he is at this moment.
Over the decades, motion picture producers have unknowingly documented historic and outstanding architecture surrounding Hollywood and Los Angeles while filming their movies. These visual representations often stand as the only documentation of long-gone buildings, residences and businesses, a celebration of the historic built environment and daily lives of ordinary citizens of bygone days.
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) salutes this sometimes forgotten but hallowed past in an engaging three-hour bus tour of movie locations, highlighting classic and contemporary films, as a way to celebrate its 20th anniversary on-air. The free tour, offered once a day through co-sponsor Starline Tours, celebrates the joys of moviemaking and movie-going as it travels the streets of Hollywood and Los Angeles.
Mary Mallory’s “Hollywoodland: Tales Lost and Found” is available for the Kindle.
March 25, 1944
It’s Saturday in 1944, which means we have:
— Jim is wounded while fighting the Japanese in Malaya in “The Adventures of Jungle Jim.” Courtesy of Otrrlibrary.or via Archive.org.
— Don Ameche is the host with Carmen Miranda, Fay Mckenzie and Roy Rogers on “Command Performance.” Courtesy of Archive.org.
— “Drums of Death or Nick Carter and the Mystery of the White Witch Doctor” on “Nick Carter: Master Detective.” Courtesy of Archive.org.
March 25, 1944
HOLLYWOOD, March 24 — The ink was hardly dry on the galley proofs of Mrs. Irving Berlin’s book “The Land I Have Chosen” when Jack Warner bought it. Ellin wrote the book, a story of the American way of living and the importance of sound democracy after the war, while Irving was in England with “This Is the Army.” Doubleday-Doran plans to bring the book out May 19. There is a strong possibility Ellin will come here to work on her story, but that depends on whether Irving again goes overseas.
Jack says there are two strong women characters, and these two roles will probably go to Ida Lupino and Barbara Stanwyck. At the time Ellin married Irving the newspapers were full of the romantic story of the heiress and the songwriter who got his start in life on the East Side. Her father was bitterly opposed to the match. But he couldn’t intimate that Irving was interested in the Clarence Mackay fortune for Irving said he could give his bride a million dollars if she wanted it.
March 25, 1944
Mel Diamond files this report from Italy:
Ernie Pyle was with us for about six weeks and a simpler and more unpretentious celebrity I have never known. In fact, if you didn’t happen to know that he was a newspaper personage he’d strike you, if at all, as being an obscure private with an inferiority complex. He says very little, and is scrupulous about minding his own business. He’s courteous to a fault and shy. Perhaps that’s why it came as a jolt to most of us when he walked up to Doris Fleeson during our Christmas night supper and kissed her square on the mouth. He may have been feeling emotionally high, which would account for it, but whatever it was it certainly started something. Six other correspondents gleefully lined up and followed suit. For the record, let it be cited that Doris was the only lady present at our shindig that night, she was very flushed, and very beautiful.
This is “Mr. Wu,” directed by William Nigh, starring Lon Chaney, with Louise Dresser, Renee Adoree, Ralph Forbes and …
“Mr. Wu” was based on a play by Henry Maurice Vernon and Harold Owen, adapted by Lorna Moon with titles by Lotta Woods. Designed by Cedric Gibbons and Richard Day, with costumes by Lucia Coulter and edited by Ben Lewis and photographed by John Arnold.
This isn’t the first time I have criticized a score added to a silent movie (I did hear from a Robert Israel fan who took me to task about my comments), but the score by Maria Newman is just awful.
To add authenticity, some of the titles are apparently in Chinese. These go by pretty fast, so I’m not even sure I have them in the correct order.
Samuel S. Hinds, courtesy of Mary Mallory.
Some people are lucky enough to work in a profession doing something they love, offering both pleasure and satisfaction. Others work at jobs that allow them to make a living while pursuing hobbies and passions. Samuel S. Hinds ended up doing both, performing in theatrical productions as a passionate hobby before turning it into his avocation and career.
Born on April 4, 1875, Hinds grew up in an educated, successful family. His father, Joseph, a lifelong friend of Mark Twain and Thomas Alva Edison, owned and operated a successful printing and lithography business in New York, later serving as president of the United States Playing Card Co. and the lithography company Russell-Morgan in Cincinnati. His New York printing company became the first business illuminated with electric lights by Edison in 1881. The senior Hinds proudly exhibited one of the three first lighted globes in his Pasadena house.
Mary Mallory’s “Hollywoodland: Tales Lost and Found” is available for the Kindle.
ladailymirror.com 