Born Today October 2: Groucho Marx

1890-1977

Born Julius Henry Marx in New York City, he is absolutely the most recognized member of the Marx Brothers by a long shot.  His parents where of German Jewish and French Jewish families.  He is often thought to have been the eldest of that highly successful comedic family, when in fact, both Harpo and Chico were older then he was, he was also the longest lived of the Marx Brothers. He was also certainly the most high profile of the group, doing a lot of television and appearing on a lot talk shows.  In the 1950's he was really famous for for being a participant on You Bet Your Life.  As to the history of The Marx Brothers, they started as a vaudeville act in the 1910's.  They were all urged on the stage by their mother because of a uncle that was acting in theater.  His older brother "Chico" (that would be Leonard by birth name) was the first to take to the stage.  Individually, under his birth name Julius, he first took to the stage as "boy singer" in vaudeville in 1905. He must have been hilarious from the beginning; he claimed at one point that his vaudevillian acting as "hopelessly average."  A wisecrack clearly meant to poke at his actual talent.  

Early Stage Vaudevillians Marx Bros. With Parents

In regards to Hollywood there is not a lot to write about in the 1920's.  As with our birthday subject man from yesterday, the venerable Stanley Holloway, because they were solidly theater people, the silent medium didn't really work for them.  They did make one silent film in 1921, a short comedic film Humor Risk, that had only one public showing, and is now sadly lost.  Groucho later claimed "it wasn't very good." So when full blown talkies started to become the norm in 1929 we have what is widely believed to be the very first Marx Brothers movie, The Cocoanuts.  

Julius "Groucho" Marx passed away in on the 19th of August 1977 from complications due to pneumonia.  As a point of just pure trivia:  apparently he was a reader/fan of Horatio Alger in his early years.  I have sometime fellow blogger on my live blog Scare Me On Fridays site Musik Hund to thank for finding the following "Dick Cavett Moment" embeded below.

For More:

Wikippedia

IMDb

Name The Actor

Guess Who This Is?

Scare Me On Fridays: Currently Watching: The Hunger

Scare Me On Fridays: Currently Watching: The Hunger: Famously stars Catherine Deneuve opposite both David Bowie & Susan Sarandon, with an early "how bout it lady" role f...

Reblogged from Scare Me spot because of Bessie Love

Promotional for The Lost World (1925) 

"Scream Queens" in the silent era were packing!!

Born Today October 1: Stanley Holloway

1890-1982

Born Stanley Augustus Holloway (OBE) in Manor Park, London, he enjoyed a very long and extremely varied career, which started out on the stage as both an actor and a song and dance man.  Though he is extremely well known for much later film work, one of his most famous was the 1964 hit My Fair Lady, he only has two film credits from the 1920's, oddly, they are pretty far apart, one in 1921 and the other in 1929 in a very early talkie.  I suppose as a stage man, the "antic acting" required in silent cinema just wasn't his thing.  When fully talking cinema come along, he never looked back.  Starting in the 1960's he also did quite a lot of television work.  Since this is the first day of The Countdown To Halloween, it's worth mentioning that managed to get himself parts simply credited as "gravedigger" in at least two films, one in the the great Laurence Olivier's Hamlet in 1944 and one much later on in The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes (1970), he stared in at least one horror film, a musical version, if you can believe it, of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1973).  He was also the father of actor Julian Holloway, who has a varied a career as his father did; and the grandfather of actress Sophie Dahl (daughter of Julian).  He passed away on the 30 January 1982 in Littlehampton, England, U.K. Visit his IMDb page here.

As "Andre" in the 1920 musical comedy A Night Out.

Welcome To The Countdown To Halloween--Silent Style

Born Today September 23: Mickey Rooney

1920-2014

Born Joseph Yule Jr. in New York City to vaudevillian parents, he was literally born into "the business."  At the time of his birth, to a Scottish immigrant father, and an American mother of English ancestry, his parents were literally appearing in a Brooklyn production of A Gaiety Girl.  So basically he was a child actor, even an infant actor, as his first stage appearance came at the age of 17 months of age (one account puts him at 15 months).  During his acting career, he acted and on and in vaudeville, the Stage--including Broadway, radio, films and television.  He appeared in over 300 films.  He is listed in the Guinness Book Of World Records as having the longest movie career at 86 years of any other actor (male or female); if one were inclined to add his earliest work on, he might have the longest acting career in history.  As to how he came to the name "Mickey Rooney" from Joe Yule Jr. actually applies to the subject of this blog--the silents.  Obviously, being born in 1920 means that he was a seriously young child actor in that decade.  After his parents separated, his mother moved him to Hollywood (after moving from New York to Kansas City where she had relocated during a vaudeville slump, with husband traveling for work).  She took him to an audition call from Fox Fontaine for a dark haired child actor (according to legend she couldn't afford to have his hair dyed, so she rubbed his hair down with burnt cork), he got the part and his first role came in 1926 as Mickey McBan, a barely disguised version of the character he came to play formed from a strip cartoon (in that he is credited with same name as the character McBan).  This led to a contract for a series of short films based on the actual character named "Mickey McGuire," the cartoon character that Fox was, well, ripping off to begin with the McBan credit.  Because of this, Fox convinced his mother to have his name legally changed to the character's name, in a disgustingly slimy move on their part to get around paying royalties to the cartoon strip writers--his mother changed her last name to McGuire as well.  There was a very nasty law suit filed against the studio that they lost, which, I guess meant he was legally returned to his birth name (not at all sure about this, it's vague and the ligation was messy).  Well, there comes the "Mickey" part--and these are the movies that will be featured below in this post.  As to the "Rooney" part, that came when there was a series interruption of Mickey McGuire shorts which came in 1932 and his mother wanted to take him out on a touring vaudevillian Show, she wanted to bill him as "McGuire," and Fox was compelled to sue her to keep her from doing that because it was part of the legal settlement that he not be allowed to use the name in any way whatsoever.  So she suggested Looney, since he was known as a comedic actor, but the kid had enough sense to suggest "Rooney" instead, reminding his mother about lawsuits--it would have been a copyright infringement on Warner's Looney Tunes. Hence Mickey Rooney was born when he was 12 years of age.  Fatherless, a number early Hollywood big shots took on fatherly like roles as he appeared in films with them, people like Wallace Beery and Lionel Barrymore, but it was Louie B. Mayer that became the most important man in his younger life.  From there on, he had one hell of a reputation, if one is inclined to delve, you don't have to go too deep to find some truly dark stuff!  He was well known to have a terrible gambling problem and was married 8 times--none of them successful (he was separated from his last wife at the time of his death), but that's about as far I will go here, especially given that it's his child work in the 20's that this blog is concerned with.  On the other hand, it has to be pointed out that he worked right up to his death, not something often seen with actors in very advanced years.  Clearly he truly loved the entertainment business--he came in the world an actor and he left it the same way.  He died on the 6th of April 2014 at the staggering age of 93.  Vanity Fare called him "the original Hollywood train wreck."  Like so many other famous people in Hollywood, he is buried in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

The 1920's Mickey McGuire Shorts:

Not To Be Trusted (1926) (credited to Mickey McBan)

Orchids and Ermine (1927)

Mickey's Circus (1927)

Mickey's Circus (1927)

Mickey's Pals (1927)

Mickey's Eleven (1927)

Mickey's Battle (1927)

Mickey's Parade (1928)

Mickey In School (1928)

Mickey's Nine (1928)

Mickey's Little Eva (1928)

Mickey's Wild West (1928)

Mickey In Love (1928)

Mickey's Triumph (1928)

Mickey's Babies (1928)

Mickey's Movies (1928)

Mickey's Rivals (1928)

Mickey The Detective (1928)

Mickey's Athletes (1928)

Mickey's Big Game Hunt (1928)

Mickey's Great Idea (1929)

Mickey's Menagerie (1929)

Mickey's Last Chance (1929)

Mickey's Brown Derby (1929) (partial silent)

Mickey's Northwest Mounted (1929)

Mickey's Initiation (1929)

Mickey's Midnite Follies (1929)

Mickey's Surprise (1929) (full mono)

Mickey's Mix-Up (1929) (full mono)

Mickey's Big Moment (1929) (full mono)

Mickey's Strategy (1929) (full mono)

Born Today September 22: Erich von Stroheim

1885-1957

Born Erich Oswald Stroheim to observant Jews in Vienna Austria, he immigrated on his own to the US, entering through the famous Ellis Island where he claimed that his name was Count Erich Oswald Hans Carl Maria von Stroheim und Nordenwall, claiming to be the son of Austrian notability (which is amusing because non-Jewish Austrians (or Austro-Hungarians), like my own grandfather for example, spell "Carl" with a K [Karl], Jewish Germanics spell it with a C--that should have be a bit of a give away, that's quite apart from the whole "Stroheim"....it's a great name though!!)  He entered the country essentially as that character type and went on to basically play that character in is early silent acting roles.  He seems to have been somewhat of a trickster sort, rather than a deliberate fraud.  In later speaking roles he spoke German with an American sounding accent; and fashion photographer Helmet Newton, himself a German speaker from birth, claimed that von Stroheim spoke "a very special kind of Prussian officer lingo, it's very abrupt, it's very, very funny."  He, personally claimed to have forgotten is native tongue on more than one occasion, who knows??  Sounds like quite the character me!  Most people who knew him ordinary situations claimed that he atcually had a "lower-class Austrian accent."  Below in an embed of radio comments he made upon the death of D. W. Griffith--listen for yourself and you decide. [nevemind tje prognaistic natire pf tje peiece] Though most remember him as a director and  for his auteur directorial style rather than as an actor--of which he did much more of than actual directing.  His first acting role dates from 1915, but it was his getting noticed by directorial giant D. W. Griffith that eventually lead to much larger roles; roles such as those mentioned above.  Of course, to be a director in the auteur style, he would by necessity have to also be a screenwriter (and producer and editor), but he went on to have credits in a number of different areas of film making including:  Costume designer, Art Department, Soundtrack performance, Wardrobe Assistant, Production designer.  He also has a number a of (un)credits as an assistant director, the most infamous of which would have to be Birth Of A Nation (1916) One of his "epics" Greed is infamous because his insistence that it be shot in Death Valley.  At least one person was hospitalized in fairly serious condition--if memory serves, several animals died.  Cameras had to be wrapped in ice towels just for shooting short bits at a time.  In his personal life--he was married three times, made one film in France with his "secretary" and had two sons:  that went on to work in the film industry.  By the time of his death in Paris, on 2 May 1957 at the age of 71, had been living in France for some time.  Have a funny little birthday notice for him over on my Scare Me site. Stroheim is buried in France in the village cemetery of Maurepas (Cimetére de Maurepas), Department of Yvelines.

[Source: Michel SCHIREIBER (Find A Grave)]

Silent Era Work:

The Country Boy (1915) (lost film)

Captain Macklin (1915)

The Failure (1915)

Ghosts (1915)

Birth Of A Nation (1916) (on both Amazon Prime and Internet Archive--find soft things to throw at your telly!  Don't break the TV....)

Farewell To Thee (1915)

Old Heidelberg (1915)

His Picture In The Paper (1916)

The Flying Torpedo (1916)

MacBeth (1916)

Intolerance (1916) (this can be streamed from Internet Archive)

The Social Secretary (1916)

Less Than The Dust (1916)

Panthea (1917) (lost film)

In Again, Out Again (1917)

For France (1917)

Draft 258 (1917)

Reaching For The Moon (1917)

Sylvia Of The Secret Service (1917)

Blind Man's Luck (9117)

Who Goes There (1917)

The Unbeliever (1918)

Heart Of The World (1918)

The Hun Within (1918)

The Heart Of Humanity (1918)

The Fall Of Babylon (1919)

Blind Husbands (1919) (this Stroheim directed silent is currently on Amazon Prime)

The Devil's Passkey (1920) (lost film)

Foolish Wives (1922)

Screen Snapshots, Series 3, No.14 (1922) (as Himself)

Merry-Go-Round (1923)

Souls For Sale (1923)

C-V News: Filming Greed (1923) (not to toot my own horn, but I was the person who got IMDb to add this--it took two tries, despite that it is the print is archived as survived and the bloody thing is on DVD...ah IMDb!  Stroheim did almost get a lot people killed filming this in Death Valley!)

Greed (1924) (not to be confused with the 1917 film of the same title--this one almost got him into serious legal hot water--over, literally, hot temperatures!)

Screen Snapshots, Series 4, NO.10 (1924) (as Himself)

The Merry Widow (1925)

1925 Studio Tour(1925)

A Trip Through The Paramount Studio (1927)  (a TON of silent films stars on in this one!)

The Wedding March (1928) (partial silent, with soundtrack and sound effects by Western Electric)

The Honeymoon (1928) (early talkie)

Tempest (1928) (this was either a partial silent or there were two versions, with the other being in mono. This is also currently on Amazon Prime)

Queen Kelly (1929) (partial silent/mono or two version distrubuted.  Currently on Amazon Prime)

The Great Gabbo (1929) (Western Electric early talkie--and a personal favorite.  This can be streamed or cast from Internet Archive.  He sings in this one...)

Born Today September 20: Victor Sjöström

1879-1960

Born Victor David Sjöström in Silbodal Sweden, he is primarily known as a very prolific director of films, but, in fact, he was also a prolific actor as well, often directing himself in his own films.  He is well known as "The Father Swedish Film" and is regarded as one of the very best film directors ever.  He directed some very famous and influential silent films, especially in the 1920's that includes one of my favorite silent horror films of all time The Phantom Carriage (which he also wrote) in 1921.  Though born in Sweden he was only one year old when his father Olof moved the family the New York; when 6 years later his mother died, at just the age of 7 he returned alone to Sweden to live with relatives in Stockholm.  He started down the path toward making films, when at the age of 17 he started acting with a touring theater company. He left the stage to make his first film in 1912 and continued to direct films through the year 1937. In all he made 41 films in Sweden, many are probably and  sadly lost.  Though he started directing in Sweden, he made the move to Hollywood in the 1920's at the invitation Louis B. Mayer, where he went on to direct the likes fellow Swede Greta Garbo, Lillian Gish, Lon Chaney Sr. and John Gilbert, just to name a few. When in Hollywood he was credited as "Victor Seastrom." He made only two talkies in the US, with only one A Lady To Love (1930) actually made for US consumption.  Though his next film Die Sehnsucht jeder Frau (1930) was produced by MGM, it was in the German language and debuted in Finland; on this one he insisted that his real name be credited as director.  This marked his end in Hollywood, when he returned to Sweden to direct a further two films.  His last film Under The Red Robe (1937) was made in England, where he was once again credited as Seastrom (it is currently on Amazon Prime).  He then stopped directing films and returned to the theater in Stockholm.  He did, however, continue acting in movie, with his last role coming in the year 1957 in no less than the Ingmar Bergman directed Wild Strawberries.  In addition to being an incredibly talented actor and director, he was also very good writer of screenplays.  He passed away in Stockholm on the 3 of January in 1960 at the age of 80 and it interred at Norra begravningsplatsen (Northern Cemetery), where a number of other famous Swedes are buried including actress Ingrid Bergman is also buried.

In Hollywood with Lillian Gish and Lars Hanson, amongst other on an outdoor shoot.

His Very Prolific Silent Era Work:

Ett hemligt giftermål (1912)

Trädgårdsmästaren (1912) (a formerly lost film, it was also a banned film)

De svarta maskerna (1912)

I livets vär (1912)

Äktenskapsbyrån (1913)

Löjen och tårar (1913)

Lady Marions sommarflirt (1913)

Blodets röst (1913)

Livets konflikter (1913) (lost film)

Ingeborg Holm (1913)

Halvblod (1913)

Miraklet (1913)

Barnet (1913) (short)

Vampyren (1913) (short)

När käleken dödar (1913) (lost film)

Kälek starkare än hat eller skogsdotterns hemlignet (1914)

Prästem (1914)

Dömen icke (1914)

Strejken (1914)

Bra flicka reder sig själv (1914)

Gatans barn (1914)

Högfjällets dotter (1914)

Hjärtan som mötas (1914)

För sin kärleks skull (1914)

Havsgamar (1915) (short)

En av de många (1915)

Sonad skuld (1915)

Det var i maj (1915)

Landshövdingens döttrar (1915)

Skomakare, bliv vid din läst (1915)

I prövningens stund (1915)

Judaspengar (1915)

Skepp som mötas (1916)

Hon segrade (1916)

Dödskyssen (1916) (partially lost film)

Therése (1916)

Terje vigen (1917)

Tösen från Stromyrtorpet (1917)

Thomas Graals bästa film (1917)

Berg-Ejvind och hans hustru (1918)

Thomas Graals bästa barn (1918)

Ingmarssönerna (1919)

Hans nåds testamente (1919)

Klostret i Sendomir (1920)

Karin ingmarsdotter (1920) (a sequel)

Mästerman (1920)

Körkarlen [The Phantom Carriage] (1921)

Vem dömer (1922)

Det omringade huset (1922)

Eld ombord (1923)

Name The Man (1924) (his first Hollywood film)

He Who Gets Slapped (1924) (this will be aired on TCM on the 28th of this month)

Confessions Of A Queen (1925) (partially lost film)

The Tower Of Lies (1925) (set in Sweden, filmed in California, I believe the above still may be a cast photo from this film.)

1925 Studio Tour (2015) (a Himself)

The Scarlet Letter (1926)

The Divine Woman (1928) (here he directed Garbo, it such a shame that only 9 minutes of this film survives!  At least we have the one reel!)

The Wind (1928)

The Masks Of The Devil (1928) (sadly a lost film

Born Today September 19: Ricardo Cortez

1900-1977

You would think with a name like Ricardo Cortez and the fact that he was born in New York City, he would be  Cuban, Puerto Rican or of some other Caribbean Latin ancestry.  In fact he was born Jacob Krantz to recently immigrated Austrian Jewish parents.  He mother was heavily pregnant with him when the couple made the move to NYC, so many sources incorrectly list his birthplace as Vienna.  The reason for his name change had nothing to do with him personally. With the popularity of the "Latin Lover" type, first made a character type by Rudolph Valentino, who was Italian and other actual Latin actors coming in to fill out roles; due to his genuinely Semitic dark skin color, Hollywood executives actually changed his name (possibly without his knowing it, or at least with some protest) to place him in roles of that sort.  Certainly he was a truly handsome man, and he did bear resemblance to Valentino.  But the incident reminds me a bit of the joke in the Coen Brothers Barton Fink, where Tony Shalhoub's character Ben Geisler mistakes Barton (John Tuturro) for an actor, notices his dark skin and makes a remark about "Indians" (meaning Native Americans), and Barton replies that he's there because he's a writer and Geisler replies "Think about it Fink! Writers come and go, we always need Indians!" (Interesting to me as a side note, because both characters are themselves Jewish).  Before going to Hollywood, and having that abrupt name change, he worked in New York on Wall Street by day and as a amateur boxer by night.  After the move to Hollywood, press kits on him were circulated stating that he had Spanish ancestry, but it wasn't long before rumors arose about his ancestry (now I wonder, did he start them???), so the studios then said he was actually French, finally they admitted his "Viennese" origin, which is why the confusion of his place birth has persisted.  He was married to tragic silent film starlet Alma Rubens until her untimely death in 1931 from pneumonia; but the couple had separated due to her on going drug abuse and instability, she was released from jail just shortly before she caught the cold that eventually led to her death at the age of 33 (she may have been one of the Hollywood Studios first victims of enticed drug addiction--that is a truly dark subject, that was thought to have developed after the silent era).   In all he appeared in 100 films, he was also the second actor to assay the role of Perry Mason, with Warren William being the first.  He went on, to star in films with the likes of Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Al Jolson and one of the best horror actors of all time Boris Karloff.  Having worked on Wall Street before, when he retired from films he went back to New York and work as a stockbroker at the later infamous (as least for a while) Salomon Brothers.  As a moment of serendipity for me today, checking his credits, I found that archive footage of him was used in two Greta Garbo documentaries (both after his death)--her birthday was just a day before her, and I wrote about her just yesterday. He is interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx.

Circa 1935

The Non-Latin Romantic's Early Films

The Fringe Of Society (1927) (scenes deleted, this had to be a real let down for him!  This was to be his first film afterall.  Also has to be one of the earlier cutting room floor incidents in feature films.)

The Imp (1919)

The Gentleman From American (1923_

Sixty Cents An Hour (1923)

Children Of Jazz (1923)

The Call Of The Canyon (1923)

The Next Corner (1924) (Lon Chaney Sr.)

A Society Scandal (1924) (a Gloria Swanson film--love her!!)

The Bedroom Window (1924)

The City That Never Sleeps (1924)

Feet Of Clay (1924) (hey the first Jaws film and directed by Cecil D. DeMille to boot.  Take that Spielberg!)

This Woman (1924) (thankfully now a formerly lost film!)  

Argentine Love (1924)

The Swan (1925)

The Spaniard (1925)

Not So Long Ago (1925)

In The Name Of Love (1925) (also starred Wallace Beery.  Lost film)

The Pony Express (1925)

Torrent (1925) (this was Greta Garbo's first US film and the last time anyone was ever billed above her...that would by Ricardo Cortez)

Volcano (1928)

The Cat's Pajamas (1926)

The Sorrows Of Satan (1926) (not billed as a horror film, it was directed by D. W. Griffith--but it probably should have been.  Can be viewed as Christian propaganda these days.  At the time it was a over romanticized (surprised surprised) response to Theosophy.  It was adapted from a novel Check out the poster--it's awesome!)

The Eagle Of The Sea (1926)

New York (1927)

Mockery (1927) (also with Lon Chaney Sr.)

By Whose Hand?

The Private Life Of Helen Of Troy (1927) (partially lost film)

Woman Of Destiny (1928)

Ladies Of The Night Club (1928) (lost film)

Prowlers Of The Sea (1928)

The Grain Of Dust (1928) (lost film)

Excess Baggage (1928) (lost film)

The Gun Runner (1928) (lost film)

The Younger Generation  (1929) (Frank Capra directed)

New Orleans (1929) (lost film)

Midstream (1929) (lost film)--was a partial silent with sound effect and musical soundtrack by RCA Photophone System)

The Phantom In The House (1929) (early talkie, sound by RCA Photophone System)

The Lost Zeppelin (1929) (this is a partially lost film that has further footage that has been found--some claim that it complete.  I haven't been able to confirm that.  Would love it if were true.  It is on DVD, but some footage may still be missing due to strange issues with subplots.  Or maybe, it's just a bad script)