Born Today December 19: George L. Aiken

 

 1830-1876

 

American playwright and actor George L. Aiken was born on this day in Boston. Although Aiken is best known for his plays, his writing career started as novelist. He was adept at writing intriguing stories quickly, supporting himself by getting his work published as inexpensive paper backs, even as he turned to the theater and became an actor.  He was introduced to the work by a cousin who was an owner of a theatrical troupe.  Though he wrote completely original plays, it was his adaptation for the stage of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852 for which he is remembered today.  His would not be the only adaptation of the novel for the stage, but it was the first (as the book was itsel also published in 1852), and Aiken's adaptation is far and away the most popular stage adaptation.  His specific reworking of the book was itself adapted for the motion picture screen by Edward McWade in 1914.  That film, was directed by William Robert Daly  for Selznick's World Film.  The lead was played by Sam Lucas, famed for his minstrelsy. It was the only time, that is credited at least, that his adaptation was made into a film, though his version of the play continued to be performed live on the stage well into the 1930's.  Aiken himself retired from the stage in 1867 at just the age of 37.  He also died young, at just the age of 45, some nine years later on the 27th of April in Jersey City, New Jersey.  He was buried back in his home state, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, at Cambridge's famed Mount Auburn Cemetery (note: Find A Grave obviously has him mixed up with someone else with the same name--they erroneously have him buried in Bay Minette, Alabama).

A handwritten page from his adaptation of Uncle Tom's Cabin

Wikipedia

 

The George C. Howard & Family Collection: Harry Ransom Center

     (Howard was Aiken's theatrical cousin who gave him his start on the stage)

     

Born Today December 5: Ben Carré

Life magazine photo of Carré at work sketching the begginings of a back drop paiting--I believe on the MGM backlot

1883-1978

Painter and film art director Benjamin S. Carré was born on this day in Paris, France.  Classically trained, Carré studied at the French Atelier Amable and became a professional scene painter for the Paris Opera and moved on to the Comédie-Francais.  In addition to scene painting, he was a prolific watercolor artist and painted all through the earliest days of his career, and exhibited the paintings throughout his lifetime.  Wanting to get into the film business he managed to find work at Pathé-Gaumont--he worked on several films while still in France, but his name has not survived in the credits to date (perhaps a catalog will turn up with these credits).  He came to the United States in 1912 looking for work in the studio system in the New York area.  He eventually landed at World Film (& Eclair) working on set painting at the Peerless Studio location.  The first film to bear his name for art work was the Clara Kimball Young drama Hearts In Exile in 1915, followed closely by the Albert Capellani film of Dumas' Camille.  Once he started working in the business, he had steady work and moved with the studios when they moved west.  Most of his career was film was spent during the silent era, though he did work on set into the sound era.  He also worked in various aspects of artistic production--costumes to camera work, but mostly he stuck to scene painting, for which he had a tremendous talent.  The last silent film that he worked on was the 1929 A. F. Erikson melodrama The Women From Hell staring Mary Astor and Dean Jagger (he had also worked on the Alan Dwan film The Iron Mask --a partial silent--in 1929).  He would be away from film for two years, showing back up as art director on the 1931 Charlie Chan film The Black Camel.  He would further take off time from film, staying away from film for a full 5 years.  He returned in 1936 to serve as art director for three more films, the last being the early film noir Great Guy starring James Cagney.  He then retired from the film business and concentrated on his individual paintings. Though he is not credited any later film work, he, according to The New York Times designed the Mount Rushmore backdrops in Hitchcock's North by Northwest, as well art work on Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo.  As a member to the Hollywood community, he was also a founding member of the Motion Picture Academy of Art & Sciences.  Probably his most famous work was as the designer and painter of the catacombs for the set of the Lon Chaney horror of 1925: The Phantom of the Opera (though, officially, he went uncredited on the project). Carré and his wife Anne, herself a retired performer, stayed in the California for their official retirement. He passed away there on the 28th of May in Santa Monica. For such a high profile member of the earliest Hollywood film crowd, I can find no information as to his burial or cremation. Highly collectable and in demand, many of his paintings are still sold at auctions. He also penned a memoir of his time in the film business.  

 

 

 

IMDb

Wikipedia

Born Today August 7: Sam Lucas

 

1848 (or 1850)-1916

Ground breaking African-American performer Sam Lucas was born on this day (it is thought) as either Samuel Lucas Milady or Samuel Mildmay Lucas in Washington Court House, Ohio to freed black parents (sources also cite Washington D.C. as his birth place). Lucas only appeared (that we know of) in two films in his life time, but his performance career during this particular span of time was almost larger than life.  He showed significant musical talent as a young child and started playing at a local job, reportedly a barber shop, in slow business hours.  This gained him a quick reputation and he moved on to traveling black minstrel shows. He was one of the first performers to cross the race barrier, largely using comedy and song as a vehicle. To say this was not small task, is a monumental understatement!  It meant that, even as a black man, he had to perform in black face. His involvement in Minstrel shows and his penning of several songs that stereotyped black people has been a source of criticism, especially in modern times--though his body of work taken as a whole is far less controversial than others involved in the same line of performance.  Nonetheless, he was huge talent of his time and was a multi-talented performer and an excellent singer--he was also wildly popular. He reportedly had committed to memory 100's of black spirituals; more importantly he composed many himself that became extremely popular (many of his works have even been recorded in the classical genre, applied with operatic singing styles). During his lifetime he traveled extensively with minstrel shows, even performing internationally in the Caribbean. Though he branched out at various times into musical and even dramatic stage work, his mainstay up until the 1890's was Minstrelsy .  In the 1890's he joined Sam T. Jack's  The Creole Show a full on vaudeville/burlesque show.  After the turn of the century he garnered the lead in several stage productions, having been a part of the Bob Cole's all black (from the writers to the actors, props artists to director) production in 1898.  By this time he was famous across racial lines, especially for his singing. He was also wealthy; and in 1908 he became a member of the extremely influential group The Frogs.  In terms of films he is known for sure to have acted in two films, the first of which went unfinished and unreleased until MoMA hosted a restored special screening in 2014, more than 100 years after it's filming.  Lime Kiln Club Field Day was filmed in 1913, was about 3/4ths complete; Lucas playing one of several "club members" had just a small role.  Footage of the film was first discovered in 1939, MoMA undertook printing some of the footage back in 1976, but it's wasn't given the full restoration treatment until after the turn of the century. It has since been selected for preservation by the National Film Registry.  His only film appearance to be released in his lifetime (that we know of) was World Film's version of Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1914.  He was one of the first (though not the very first) black actors to play the lead in a film version of the story; but way back in 1878, he was an important first. During that year, he became the very first black actor to play the part in a major stage production of Cabin, so he was a real "get" for Selznick's production house in this regard.  Like Lime Kiln, Uncle Tom's Cabin has also been added to the National Film Registry.  In addition to being a first rate actor, Lucas was also a first rate songwriter (and writer of other mediums as well). Lucas had been dealing with liver complaints for years, this left him in a weakened state, so when he contracted pneumonia in late 1915, he was unable to fight it off. The condition claimed his life on the 5 of January 1916 in New York City.  Because his birth year has variously been listed as 1939, 1840, 1841, 1848 and 1850 (with the last two the most numerous) it is impossible to say with any accuracy what he age was at the time of his death, but he was at least 65 years old.   Some sources say that he himself was a freed slave, but that appears not to be the case. His parents however, were.  I can find no information on his resting place. 

 

    

Wikipedia   

The Songs of Sam Lucas                   

IMDb

Born Today October 24: Ben Landeck

Ben Landeck

1864-1928

British playwright Benjamin Landeck was born on this day in London.  Almost nothing is known about his life (a Google book search turns up a few indexes that list a few of his plays in both the UK and the US--that is it).  He did start writing plays in the 19th century and his plays ran in both London and New York.  Several of his plays had runs on Broadway, yet not even their database lists information on him beyond run times.  His plays were certainly popular enough to be used for film scenarios starting in 1908 with Saved From The Sea.  As has been previously mentioned, the play was written with the equally obscure English writer Arthur Shirley (I) (not to be confused with the Australian Arthur Shirley (II)).  In fact, he and Shirley were writing partners and a great number of films made from Landeck's writing were also co-penned by Shirley.  Though, Landeck did write plays and stories on his own and several films using these works were also produced.  In all, 13 films have been produced using his writing as source material; all of them in the silent era; and nearly all of them productions in the United Kingdom (The Model from 1915 was a World Film production).  The last film using his (and Shirley's) work came in 1928, the year of his death, with What Money Can Buy. Landeck died in London at the age of 63 on the 6th of January.  As with all the other unknown aspects of this writer's life, his burial or interment are not known.  

 

 

IMDb