Born Today March 1: Lois Moran

 

1909-1990

 

American actress of the stage and silver screen Lois Moran was born  Lois Darlington Dowling on this day in Pittsburgh. Her birth father was tragically killed in an auto accident when she was just one; while she was a toddler, her mother remarried a doctor whose surname was Moran, explaining how she came by the name for which she is known today (unfortunately, she also lost him at the age of just 9, a blow to her as she was closer to him than any other relative). A great aunt (her mother's aunt) provided funds for a move all the way to France when Lois was just 12; she was taken out of the arts and dance school that she had been attending in Pennsylvania for the move. Her studies in song and dance, however, continued in Paris. She made her debut at the Paris National Opera the following year at just the age of 13.  She later debuted on Broadway (and was involved in at least three major productions in the 1930's).  She made her film debut in the Jacque Catelain directed joint French/Spanish production La galerie des monstres in 1924 (Catelain was an actor, not a director--the film was the second of only two films that he directed himself in).   Her next film appearance is famous, she appeared as Laurel Dallas to Belle Bennett and Ronald Colman's Stella and Stephen Dallas in the Goldwyn production Stella Dallas in 1925. The film represents her official debut onto the big screen.  She thereafter made steady work of film acting during the of the decade. Her next film saw her in a leading role, opposite Richard Barthelmess, for the first time in the romantic drama Just Suppose (January 1926).  She then went to act along side Noah Beery, Owen Moore, Jack Mulhal, and Florence Turner in 1926; in addition to making another film with Belle Bennett. She played Lon Chaney's daughter in Tod Browning's The Road to Mandalay (June) and appeared with Paul Robeson, and writers Anita Loos and Sinclair Lewis in the short film Camille; all also in 1926. By 1927, she was a big enough name to headline and see her name splashed on print posters. The Whirlwind of Youth (April 1927) was one such film; a Paramount film, she appeared with Russian born actress Vera Voronina and Donald Keith.  She then moved on to star opposite heart-throb leading man George O'Brien in Sharp Shooters and opposite Lawrence Gray in  Love Hungry both Fox productions released in 1928. Also in 1928 she appeared in her first sound film at Fox: The River Pirate, a partial silent that starred Victor McLaglen.  Her first full sound film was a short The Belle of Samoa, intended by Fox to be a part of it's Fox Movietone Follies of 1929, but edited out for time. While her first full sound feature was the Irving Cummings directed mystery Behind That Curtain (June 1929); the film features one Boris Karloff as a cast member in an early speaking role for him. Her last film of the decade was a dramatic musical A Song of Kentucky, filmed on location at Churchill Downs. She obviously had no trouble with the transition to sound and had musical talent to boot, so it is not surprising that her first film of the 1930's is the excellently made, though now controversial, Al Jolson film Mammy (controversial for obvious reasons: blackface, minstrelsy and the title itself). But, she would only appear in eight more features during the decade before retiring for a time.  Her last feature was the John Gilbert MGM production West of Broadway in 1931; she was also the star of the 20 minute comedy Ladies Not Allowed in 1932. Moran was married in 1935 and had a son; she stayed out of acting for family reasons (her husband was involved with federal government work and that meant lots of travel). She did return to acting for a short time in the 1950's, acting in television.  She was given a starring role in the cast of the adventure series "Waterfront," which ran for two seasons and starred Preston Foster; she appeared in 31 episodes.  Moran's last film came in a tiny role amongst the cast of Wim Wenders' 1974 New York set drama Alice in the Cities.  She retired to Arizona and died there in a Sedona nursing facility after failing terminally ill with cancer. She passed away on the 13th of July in 1990 at the age of 81.  At her request, she was cremated and her ashes were scattered in Red Rock.  In addition to having been a movie star for a time in life, she is also known for having had a short very intense affair with the married F. Scott Fitzgerald, who modeled the character of Rosemary Hoyt in his novel Tender is the Night on her.

Moran in God Gave Me Twenty Cents in 1926

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Born Today September 9: Max Reinhardt

 

1873-1943 

Max Reinhardt was primarily a man of theater; he did it all from acting to directing to producing. He is today regarded as one of the, if not the most accomplished director of German language theater and he was a life-long devotee to all aspects theatrical performance and manegement--he tirelessly advocated for it, working right up his death day. And.. he did make a small number of films.  Born Maximilian Goldmann in Baden in what is now the independent country of Austria to Hungarian Jewish immigrant parents who were in the merchant import/export business, young Max was captivated by the theater from a very young age.  Despite taking acting lessons while still in school, when he finished school he went to work in a bank instead of the theater. His love of the theater was always paramount with him, but he most likely feared for his day job, when in 1890 he made his acting debut in a private setting under the name Max Reinhardt. Three years later, he made his formal public debut when the Salzburg City Theater was re-opened to performances. In 1894, he left Austria for Germany, settling--of course--in Berlin. He was accepted to join the prestigious Deutsches Theater. By 1901, he was a theater owner. He would go on to own and operate several theaters--including, eventually the Deutsches itself (he also professionally managed theaters at the same time--busy and successful!). Today his only film that has any name recognition not only was made in the 1930's, it was also made in Hollywood. But in 1910, Reinhardt (who legally changed his name in 1904) entered the film industry in Germany. His first foray into film was naturally as a director. Sumurûn was a film version of one his successful plays staged in Germany and that same production then toured the U.S. after the film's release. It was one of only four films that he directed (three of which were silents). His other two silent films were  Die Insel der Seligen dating from 1913, and the experimental film A Venetian Night filmed in Venice and released in April of 1914. Additionally, one of his directed plays of the time period was likewise made into two films.  The first of which was The Miracle, which was co-directed by French director Michel Carré and experimental photographer and cinematographer Cherry Kearton (of the Brothers Kearton fame). The second was a film by Romanian born actor/director Mime Misu--that film was Das Mirakel and was released in December of 1912.  Reinhardt had a contract to make two more films that were never even staged, never mind filmed.  Much later on, Reinhardt appeared in two films--both shorts. Only one of them--Camille--did he actually act in. It was a strange little film--a version of what we would call a home movie today--featuring some of the biggest names in Hollywood. It dates from 1926, though it was never released in it's day (it does however survive and has since been publicly screened). The other short is an installment of the little Life in Hollywood series; Reinhardt appeared in No. 5 which came out in 1927.  Reinhardt would eventually come to the United States to stay, owed to his Jewish ancestry and the rise to power of the Nazi's in 1933. When he fled with his actress wife Else Heims (and young son who would also become a director), he had to leave behind his beloved residence Schloss (Castle) Leopoldskron which he had purchased in 1918 and lovingly renovated over the 20 years that he lived there.  In Hollywood, he would make the film that he is famous for today. Like many things that he did in life, it was unconventional to say the least. A Midsummer Night's Dream was a playful take on one of Shakespeare's more whimsical plays, and it sported a VERY disparate cast that included: Olivia de Havilland, Dick Powell, Ian Hunter, Jean Muir and...wait for it...James Cagney. Though Reinhardt thereafter divided his time between the east and west coasts yearly, he went back to theater and, once again very successfully, and stayed there. He died suddenly (most probably from a stroke) on Halloween of 1943 in New York City at the age of 70. He is buried in a very ornate stand alone mausoleum at the posh Westchester Hills Cemetery, located in Hastings-on-Hudson in Westchester county, New York.  

[source: Wikipedia]

[source: Ginny M (Find A Grave)]

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Born Today January 25: W. Somerset Maugham

1874-1965

British writer William Somerset Maugham was born in Paris, France--inside the British Embassy there.  He was a writer of novels, plays and short stories--even some non-fiction.  His father was a lawyer, who handled legal affairs at the Embassy, arranged for his birth to take place inside the Embassy, therefore on British soil, because French law stated that all children born on French ground could later be conscripted into the French military.  He was born into a family of very distinguished lawyers, later in his parents life (his mother had TB when she gave birth to him); it was assumed that any boys would follow that path in life.  However, all Somerset's siblings were so much older than him (already in boarding school when he was born), he was basically an only child being raised in Paris.  He lost both of his parents at a young age:  his mother when he was 8, who succumbed to tuberculosis; his father when he was 10 to cancer.  The death of his mother traumatized him and he reportedly kept a photo of her at his bedside for the rest of his life.  After his father's death, he was sent back to the UK, to be taken in by his uncle, the Vicar of Whitstable.  This further traumatized the young man, because of his uncle's emotional neglect.  He was then sent off to boarding school, The King's School, Canterbury, were his emotional troubles deepened, as his was teased by the other boys, especially for his English pronunciation--as French had been his first language.  His sexual orientation didn't help.  This day and age, we would say that he was bisexual; but in his day, he would have been considered fully homosexual (something that he later became self loathing over).  This caused him to develop a stammer that would stay with him for life; though it would only come out in times of stress.  All this pushed him to inadvertly develop quite a talent of making clever wounding remarks to those who displeased or bothered him.  Unbeknownst to him, this was the beginning of his writing career; as many of his characters possessed this ability.  He began writing by the age 15.  At 16, he convinced his uncle to let him leave boarding school and study at Heidelberg University in Germany.  While there, he wrote his first book; a biography of Giacomo Meyerbeer, an opera composer.  When he returned to Britain, he considered a number of different career paths, none of which he or his uncle fely satisfied with.  He finally settled on studying medicine; and he did qualify as a physician; but he had been writing all during this time, and he published his first novel Liza of Lamberth in 1897 before he could go into practice.  It sold out so rapidly, that he quit medicine to devout his life to writing full time.  By the 1930's he was widely believed to be the highest paid author in the world.  His medical training did come in handy,however, in the first World War, however, where he served in the Red Cross' ambulance corps.; before actually being recruited as a war time spy.  As an ambulance physician, he was part of the "Literary Ambulance Drivers," a group of 24 well known writers that included some Americans; including the likes of E. E. Cummings and Ernest Hemingway.  As far as film is concerned, he did not actually work on screenplays in Hollywood until well after the silent era; but starting 1915, films based on his work were being produced.  The first of these was The Explorer (1915), based on one of his novels.  The first film based on his work that was a full sound early talkie came in 1929 with The Letter, starring Reginald Owen.  In all 17 films based on his work were made during the silent era, the last three of which were in mono.  He even has one acting credit in a silent short, Camille (1926), based on the Dumas play.  In the era of early television, there was even a Somerset Maugham TV Theater, of which he was the host; it ran for 3 seasons during 1950-1951.  The latest film based on his work came in 2014 in an independent short entitled W. Somerset Maugham's The Bum.  He died in Nice, France on 15 December 1965 at the age of 91 from pneumonia.  He was cremated and his ashes were scattered near the Maugham Library (obviously named for him) at The King's School, Canterbury (the school he hated so early on in life...).  One of his greatest admirers was director Alfred Hitchcock.  

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