Born Today December 15: Melva Cornell (Not So Silent edition)

 

1904-1960

 

 Almost completely unheard of actress and later long time employee at 20th Century Fox Melva Frances Cornell was born on this day in Santa Barbara. Both of her parents worked for the Santa Barbara based studio The American Film Company, so it is little surprise that growing up around the burgeoning film industry, Cornell would get bitten by the acting bug. She did appear on the stage on both coasts in a few plays, but she is formally listed as acting in only one film: Fox Movietone Follies of 1929, the musical celebrating Fox the studio and it's new all sound films (the film is also thought lost).  Her role is not named, though she does get a full credit (Google for some reason returns a search result that she was in the also lost full talkie from Fox The Girl from Havana in 1929, I combed through every source I could find online and found nothing--without time to check other sources this will just have to remain a question mark for the time being).  After she lost her husband and her son within a few years of each other in the early 1940's, she reportedly went to work at 20th Century Fox; so she stayed in the film industry--just behind the scenes. It affords the rare opportunity to praise the hundreds of people who work in jobs like these that make our viewing pleasures possible! She died at just the age of 55 in Los Angeles on the 19th of January in 1960. She is buried under her married name of Lachmann, next to her young son at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale. 

 

[Source: Romper90069 (Find A Grave)]

 

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Born Today September 15: Jackie Cooper (Not So Silent Edition)

1922-2011

Well known actor of the large and small screen, Jackie Cooper, born John, was a child actor and a member of the Our Gang cast in the late 1920's. He was born on this day in Los Angeles. While he actually made his film debut as a small boy in an tiny film appearances when he was as young as three--appearing with his grandmother--and he apparently appeared in short comedies under the name of "Leonard," there is scant information at this time on this part of his life. We do know that he appeared in the Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 in an uncredited part; his actual proper debut came that same year in the all talking Our Gang short Boxing Gloves in the role of "Jackie," which is how he got the nickname that stayed with him for life.  Cooper appeared in three more late 20's Little Rascals shorts in 1929: Bouncing Babies (where he went uncredited again), Moan & Groan, Inc. (where he is again playing Jackie) and Sunny Side Up (again, uncredited).  Over the next couple of years he appeared in multiple Little Rascals films, including a couple of Spanish language productions. His first credit outside the franchise came pretty early though. He is credited as Jackie Cooper in the role of Skippy Skinner, taking top billing in Norman Taurog's 1931 family comedy Skippy (he reprised the role later that year in Sooky). Cooper wound up being one of the most prolific child film actors to date. All of this was due to his family involvement in the business. His uncle (mother's brother) was a screenwriter and his maternal aunt was actress Julie Leonard who was the first wife of Taurog (himself a a former child actor), making him Jackie's uncle at the time Skippy was made [Taurog actually won the Oscar for Best Director for the film, making him the youngest director to do so]. After his father abandoned the family when he was 2 years of age, his mother--a theatrical musician--married a studio man, a production manager. So young John/Jackie was surrounded by movie workers in his immediate family completely. Given those circumstances, and owed to his very real acting talent, it is no surprise that he would go on to have a very long, varied and successful career. In just the early years of the 1930's alone he appeared in films with the likes of Wallace Beery (whom Cooper as good reason not to like), Oscar Apfel, Irene Rich, Lewis Stone, Lionel Barrymore and Richard Dix.  By the time he was 18, he was already occupying adult roles and in 1940 appeared along side Henry Fonda and Gene Tierney in The Return of Frank James.  Cooper took time off to serve in the Navy during World War II, and he served in the Naval Reserves until 1982, retiring with a rank of Captain.  His first post war role came in the 1947 comedy Stork Bites Man.  Cooper made his television debut just two years later in an episode The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre (Jinxed)--an anthology series which aired live (talk about pressure!).  This would be the beginning of a career on the small screen that would last over 40 years.  In the decades that followed he would appear some of the most successful series of their times; including (but, of course, not limited to!):  Danger, Studio One in Hollywood (the 1950's) The Twilight Zone, The Dick Powell Theater (the 1960's); Hawaii Five-O, Ironside, Columbo, Kojak, The Rockford Files (the 1970's); St. Elsewhere and Murder, She Wrote (the 1980's).  He also had the lead in  Hennesey as Lt. Charles "Chick" Hennesey--a Navy physician (a role, so obviously close to his heart).  The series ran for three seasons between 1959 and 1962 for 95 episodes.  Cooper was introduced to a whole new generation of young movie goers as the character Perry White, who appeared in all four Superman films starring Christopher Reeve (between 1978 and 1987).  His last film role came in the comedy Surrender starring Sally Field and Michael Caine in 1987. His last acting role(s) came in two episodes of the short lived series Capital News in 1990.  Cooper retired from acting and devoted the rest of his life to training racing horses (he was also an avid auto-racer). He passed away at the age of 88 in Santa Monica on the 3rd of May in 2011. For his life-long naval service, he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.  

 

 

[retrieved from Pinterest]

[source: Anne W (Find A Grave)]

 

 

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Born Today May 21: Lola Lane (Not So Silent Edition)

1906-1981

American singer, actress and member of the Lane Sisters, Lola Lane was born on this day in Macy, Indiana.  Her birth name was Dorothy Mullican.  She was the second eldest of the Lane Sisters.  In all there were five sisters, but one--Martha--did not enter show business.  Their father was a doctor, and the family grew up in Indianola, Indiana.  Her first job that had anything to do show business, was a job playing piano in the local silent film house.  She was then sent to Des Moines to study music at Simpson College, but was expelled for cutting classes--this was fine with her, as she had not wanted to go in the first place.  There are two versions of what happened next, so there is no need to speculate; suffice to say that somehow she and her older sister wound up in New York.  Still using her birth name, she was given a $450 a week vaudeville contract there.  It was at this time that she and her sisters decided to change their surname to "Lane," and the Lane Sisters were born. Not liking her first name, she chose to change that as well. She then went a the tour circuit with Gus Edwards "Ritz Carlton Nights" and made her Broadway debut in 1928.  She caught the attention of film director Benjamin Stoloff and he gave her a part in his up coming talkie Speakeasy (1929) [yet another lost film :-(].  She would appear in two more films in 1929, both of them talkies.  The first of these was a exhibition reel from Fox to taut the MovieTone sound system that they had decided would be there choice for bringing full sound to their films:  Fox Movietone Follies Of 1929 is unfortunately also lost.  She next appeared in another Stoloff film The Girl From Havana, which is, you guessed, another lost film. All of these were victims of the tragic 1937 Fox film vault fire.  The first film that she had a role in that is not lost is The Big Fight (1930).  Though not as famous as an actress as a couple of her other sisters, Lola did, none the less, have steady work in films until she decided to retire in 1946.  The last film she appeared in was They Made Me A Killer (1946).  Lola Lane died of arterial disease at the age of 75 in Santa Barbara, Ca. on the 22 of June 1981.  She is buried there in Calvary Cemetery, along with her 5th husband of many years under her married name Lola Hanlon.

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