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 February 9: Ronald Colman

1891-1958

English born stage and screen actor Ronald Charles Colman was born on this day in Richmond, Surrey into a family of merchants. The family was fairly well off due to his father's merchant business dealing in silks; this made it possible for him to receive an education at a boarding school. He was reportedly a shy boy in school, but became interested in drama there nonetheless.  Once bitten with the "acting bug," it stayed with him and even provided a career path when his chosen path was blocked by family financial woes. When his father died suddenly, leaving the family without the income that it had grown accustomed to, Ronald's plan to attend Cambridge were no longer feasible.  He turned instead to acting, at first merely as an unpaid amateur--working in other fields to support himself, but in 1914, he turned professional. In the meantime, he had been a soldier in the London Scottish in the first World War. Seriously wounded in the fall of 1914, he was discharged from service in 1915; he would deal with ankle and foot problems for the remainder of his life.  By 1916 however, he was sufficiently recovered to return to the stage in London; and in 1917 he made his motion picture debut in a tiny little film (now, sadly, lost) written, directed and produced by George Dewhurst called The Live Wire.  After this he didn't appear in many film productions until 1919, when he starred in The Toilers--a the film based on the work of French writer Victor Hugo (only a portion of the film remains, it has been restored, and a large part of his performance survives, but the film's original plot is missing.).  He appeared in a few other film productions in the UK in 1919 and 1920, but continued the bulk of his work on the stage.  It is worth noting, that one of those films was the Cecil M. Hepworth production Anna the Adventuress in 1920; he was then receiving close to top billing in the United Kingdom films in which he appeared, before making his way to Hollywood.  In 1920, a play in which he was appearing toured the United States and he made the decision to stay in America, rather than return to the British film industry.  The first U.S. production that he found a role in was far from a starring role: Handcuffs or Kisses.  A late Fort Lee Selznick production directed by George Archainbaud, it starred Elaine Hammerstein and Julia Swayne Gordon and featured Colman is a small supporting role; but it was his first American film and his foot was solidly in the door of Hollywood.  By the time he made his next American film appearance, he was in the male lead, and it was two years later.  In the meantime, he had worked on the stage in New York in top supporting and lead roles and that got him noticed. Director Henry King (fresh off of giving up acting himself) managed to talk Colman into the lead male role of the Lillian Gish production The White Sister (released in September of 1923), despite that it meant a return to Europe, as it was mostly shot on locations in Italy (his only other appearance in a film that year was as an extra in George Fitzmaurice's The Eternal City).  His film acting thereafter picked up considerably, starting the new year in the supporting section of the cast, finishing the year as a solid leading a man, and a rising movie star with sex appeal.  His turn in Henry King's Romola, released at the end of the year, along side William Powell and the Gish sisters, solidified his place in film. Over the next two years, he would appear in some of the most expensive productions made during the time. He had real star appeal and was placed in lead after lead in romantic drama after romantic drama, next to a list of leading ladies that included: Blanche Sweet, Doris Kenyan, Norma and Constance Talmadge, Vilma Bánky, Belle Bennett, May McAvoy and Lili Damita.  Bánky in particular would be a frequent co-star in the later 1920's, especially in adventure type films, including the western genre.  Colman was, it turned out, an excellent horseman and was also eager to perform his own stunts, leading to more action roles as time went on. He appeared in The Dark Angel (September 1925) with Bánky, acting with her for the first time. He then appeared as Stephen Dallas opposite Belle Bennett, in Henry King's rendition of Stella Dallas in 1925.  Next appearing as Lord Darlington in Ernst Lubitsch's excellent production of Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan, also in 1925.  Finally (after a role in Norma Talmadges Kiki), he was cast in the lead role in Herbert Brenon's war hit Beau Geste, released in August 1926, at the same time as Brenon's other big production of that year The Great Gatsby; actor Neil Hamilton, later of "Batman" fame, appeared in both of them (Brenon, in fact, had three films in theaters at the same time in 1926!). His first film with sound came on one version of the dual released historical action drama Two Lovers in 1928, the partial sound version containing a musical score and sound effects by Western Electric.  His first full talkie came in The Rescue, a romantic adventure, in 1929 opposite Damita.  Everyone who had seen Colman on the stage, or even knew him, was aware that, never mind his dark good "Latin-like" looks, his best feature was his voice: smooth, well enunciated and...you, know...English! He was now able to utilize this, his best acting tool, for the first time in films.  Colman took the lead in two more features in 1929, both of which he was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role for the Academy Awards in 1930 (despite this, the Oscar went to George Arliss for Disraeli).  The two films couldn't have been more different: Condemned! was a prison drama and, of course, Bulldog Drummond is a mystery thriller.  He next appeared as A.J. Raffles in the light crime thriller Raffles, playing (fittingly) a British nobleman who is also a crack jewel thief--released in July of 1930, the Colman voice had arrived.  It is not surprising that he was largely typecast as the suave Brit in films of the 1930's, albeit it in a number of different sort of roles from doctors to penniless cur, to MP's. He returned as Bulldog Drummond in 1934 in Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back, this time opposite Loretta Young; and later appeared in the first sound version of The Prisoner of Zenda, produced by David Selznick, in 1937.  Colman made only a handful of films during the war years of the 1940's, but it was in no way surprising that he got into radio work that same decade.  He was again nominated for a the Best Actor Oscar for his performance in the 1947 George Cukor directed A Double Life and won.  He also did some work on television in the 1950's. making his small screen debut in the October 1952 episode of "Four Star Playhouse," The Lost Silk Hat.  He would go on to appear in multiple episodes between 1952 and 1954.  He even had his own series, "The Halls of Ivy" (1954-1955) in which he played an amiable doctor married to a former actress, who was played by Colman actual wife Benita Hume. The series was a reprise of a radio series that the couple had starred in earlier in the 1950's.  Colman had a very bad lung infection for which he had surgery in 1957, when he was diagnosed with emphysema. The disease quickly got worse, he was (under contract to RKO) set to star in The Village of the Damned (which was eventually released in 1960) at the time of death on the 19th of May in 1958. He was 67 years old. His last film wound up being his role in Irwin Allen's strange 1957 historical/science fiction drama  The Story of Mankind.  Colman died in Santa Barbara and he is buried there at the Santa Barbara Cemetery. 

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[Source: Chuck L. (Find A Grave)]

Born Today August 17: Samuel Goldwyn

1879-1974

For fans of film history and those who even casually watch silent films, Samuel Goldwyn needs no introduction! Goldwyn is the G in MGM. Born Shmuel (Schmuel) Gelfisz on this day in Warsaw, Poland when it was still a part of the Russian Empire (the year of his birth has been a matter up for question for decades--but for our purposes, 1879 will do). He grew up in a Hasidic household; he was the eldest child and his father was a struggling furniture dealer (mostly of second hand goods). After his father's untimely death--and the weight of the family fell to his young shoulders, he fled to Hamburg, Germany. The greater family had relatives living in the UK (England) and Shumel had plans to make his way to them. In the meantime, he trained as an apprentice to a local glove maker. Eventually saving up enough funds to make his way to his relatives in Birmingham, England--it was his relations there who changed his name to "Samuel Goldfish"--in part to disguise his origins. He didn't remain with them for long, before getting money (reportedly by any means necessary) to sail to the North American continent. He sailed out of Liverpool either for Canada or the east coast of the U.S. (probably the former) on the 4 of January 1899 (accounts of Goldwyn's time with his relatives in England vary--some having him in the country as early as 1895--though the later date of 1898 appears correct).  Goldwyn (Goldfish) arrived either in Canada or the US a couple of weeks later and was in Philadelphia by the 19th of the month. He then made his way into the upstate New York garment industry located around Glovesville (it was called that for a good reason, as it was the "capital" of glove-making in the U.S. at the time).  It turned out that Samuel had prodigious talents has a salesman and marketer. It did not take him long to rise in the company. He eventually was named vice-president of the Elite Glove Company, and after spending nearly five years in that position in upstate, his money allowed him to relocate to New York City. There is NO mystery as to how Goldfish made it into motion pictures. In 1910, he had wed one Blanche Lasky, who was the sister of...you guessed it....Jesse Lasky. Lasky had long been involved in performance, he had gone from being a popular vaudeville performer to successful Broadway producer, meeting the DeMille's along the way--it was only natural for Lasky and Cecil B. De Mille to want to venture into films....but they needed a capital investment--hence the involvement of his brother-in-law--the newly rich Samuel Goldfish (mind you, there are plenty of stories that have Samuel pressuring the two stage producers into films--either way, the rest is history).  The new company that was set up was The Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company.  Goldfish was involved in the film business years before any official credit came to his name. The ground breaking and history making film The Squaw Man, which lays serious claim to being the first feature length film made in Hollywood was the company's out of the gate picture--it was co-directed by De Mille and Oscar Apfel (another founder at Lasky Feature Play).  

Promotional put together by Samuel, bearing his original Anglicizied name and his titles at Lasky.

Way, way back in the day, the company that we now know as "Paramount" was in it's earliest days a fledgling distribution company--it was initially a exhibition house involved in nickelodeons, that got into film exchanges (or brokering) between companies. Ever the businessman and from rags to riches European immigrant himself, Adolph Zukor, had been in a film distribution deal with the company for some time. In June of 1914 Lasky also penned an agreement with with Paramount. As essentially the only production houses providing films to Paramount, it was only a matter time before the two companies merged. This occurred two years later in June, thus creating one the biggest actual film studios to thus far exist (it was more than likely this merger that put the nail in the coffin of the Edison film production house, which closed it's film making facilities for good in 1918). The company was Famous Players-Lasky, but Zukor, in a basically dirty tricks move had also been secretly purchasing stock in Paramount--he pulled a coup just before the merger of Player and Lasky. Ousting everyone at Paramount and replacing them with his own people, and putting the Lasky people in charge of the newly merged entity, it was also only a matter of time before tensions flared. Cutting a very long story a little short, this lead to Goldfish forming his own company and producing his own films. Again returning to Broadway to find capable producers and directors, he convinced the famous Selwyn brothers to come in with him forming Goldwyn Pictures. It was not long thereafter that Goldfish legally changed his name to Samuel Goldwyn (stuff of legends now, I suppose). Absolutely the most famous thing that Goldwyn Pictures introduced was is logo/marketing mascot "Leo the Lion."  One the production houses first films as Polly of the Circus in 1917; a Mae Marsh film, of which the newly "minted" Goldwyn was the executive producer.     

  

 

Between 1917 and 1924, he racked up the vast majority of his direct production credits, with roughly the other 1/4 or 1/3 coming with his new independent company established in 1924. During the company's existence, a sampling of directors who worked for them include George Fitzmaurice, Tod Browning, George Loane Tucker, Wallace Worsley, Albert Parker, Allan Dwan and western specialist Clarence G. Badger. In 1924, Goldwyn Pictures was acquired Marcus Loew's company Metro in April--his company having already acquired a small production company out in California called "Mayer"--thus creating the famous MGM that we know today, despite his name in the company logo, Goldwyn himself never had any position with the famous company. Goldwyn, though, was never out of pictures however, not even for a day.  He established Samuel Goldwyn Production in 1923, it would become the premiere independent film production house in Hollywood's golden age.  

The company actually came "online" in 1923, before the finalized sale of Goldwyn Pictures to Metro. The first film produced was Potash and Perlmutter, directed by Badger, who had come with Goldwyn to his new company. While the company had most of it's biggest successes out of the silent era, it did have at least a couple of notable titles to it's name in the 1920's. Biggest among them was most certainly Stella Dallas in 1925 (in 1925 Goldwyn himself [not his company] was involved personally with the production of  Ben Hur). The company was also responsible for the reboot of Bulldog Drummond character, bringing the hard boiled literary character to sounded film for the first time in 1929 (Ronald Colman as Bulldog).  By 1926, a full studio facility had been built in Hollywood on Santa Monica Blvd. and films like the comedy Partners Again (1926) were filmed completely on site there.  Among the directors working for this new Goldwyn company were Fred Niblo, Henry King, Victor Fleming and Herbert Brenon. In fact it was a Fred Niblo film that first contained sound produced at the studio: Two Lovers, a historical romantic drama that contained sound effects and a musical score by Western Electric, the film starred Vílma Banky and Ronald Colman (in a funny bit of trivia--Colman's character uses an alias...."Leatherface" 😆).  The Herbert Brenon directed adventure romance (also starring Coleman) The Rescue was the first full talkie for the studio--released in January 1929.  The company's last release in the 1920's was a full on talking melodrama, filmed partially on location on the Santa Catalina Island and starring....yes...Ronald Colman.  Condemned! was released on the 3rd of November. 

         

There first release of the brand new decade (the company's most successful 10 years!) was the cat burglar "crime romance" Raffles, released in July of 1930 and starring....yes...Ronald Colman again. The studio also quickly got into the musical business starting with Whoopee! (October 1930) starring funny man Eddie Cantor; and added King Vidor to their list of directors who made pictures with them with Street Scene starring new-comer Sylvia Sidney being his first.  But it was with Arrowsmith  in 1931 that the studio hit pay-dirt, the film was directed by John Ford was nominated for 4 Academy Awards, including Best Picture (and...it starred, you guessed it! Ronald Colman).   It was the first of several films to be nominated thusly during the 1930's. The studio's best investment was in the hiring of director William Wyler, though he was replaced by Howard Hawks on Barbury Coast, his Dodsworth was not only nominated for 7 Oscars, it won for Best Art Direction. Other Goldwyn produced Wyler films that garnered Oscar nominations include Dead End (1937) again with Sylvia Sidney, Wuthering Heights (1938) with Merle Oberon (which won for Best Cinematography) & Little Foxes (1941) with Bette Davis. The production company also remade it's Stella Dallas in 1937, directed by Vidor--it too was nominated for Academy Awards. Goldwyn himself would go to be honored by the Academy in 1946 with the Irving B. Thalberg Memorial Award, an irony given that Thalberg was famous as head of production for MGM. Goldwyn was the 8th recipient of the award. His last production credit came in 1959 with Porgy And Bess starring Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Danridge, Pearl Bailey and Sammy Davis Jr.--nominated for 4 Academy Awards, it won for Best Score. Goldwyn's next-to-last producer credit came on his only foray into television on the made-for television science fiction film The Unexplained based on a Ray Bradbury story (teleplay by Raphael Hayes)--it aired on the 10th of July in 1956.  He then retired to his home on Laurel Lane. He died in the home on New Year's Eve in 1974 at the age of 94. He was buried in a sort-of unmarked grave (in Hasidic tradition) in a special private garden with no public access at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale.  Goldwyn's second marriage was to actress Frances Howard, who had a very short career. Their son followed his father into the business, as hae several grandchildren have gotten into the business in various capacities. Unfortunately, a number of his family members left behind in Poland died at the hands of the Nazi's during the Holocaust, despite the family's best efforts to get them out of Europe.                                    

[Source: Dennis Svoboda and Anneabe (Find A Grave)]

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