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 September 14: Charles Dana Gibson

 

 

1867-1944 

 

Famed American artist/illustrator and "Gibson Girl" creator Charles Dana Gibson was born on this day in Roxbury, Massachusetts.  Talented and interested in art from an early age, he was for two years a student at New York's prestigious Art Students League.  His specialty quickly became ink illustrations, which first appeared in Life magazine in the 1880's (he would go to work for the publication well after the turn of the century). Penning stylized ink drawings of bust figures, he is especially famous for his illustration of whimsical feminine elegance, inspired by his own wife and sisters-in-law, though he also flirted with illustrations of turn of the century men in high dress and even cartoons. After a time, his illustrations of women became known as "Gibson Girls," and were wildly popular right up to and through most of the first World War. [Probably the most famous of these today is Evelyn Nesbit--she is certainly the most infamous.]  While his illustrations appeared in all the biggest east coast magazine publications of his day, it is his illustrations for novels that bring him directly into the world of film.  The most famous of these novels to contain original illustrations by Gibson is without a doubt The Prisoner of Zenda, originally published in 1894. The novel was first adapted for the stage; and it subsequently became a VERY popular source for adaptation for multiple films, starting with the very first film in 1913 by the Famous Players studio. Around this same time, himself quite famous by sight, Gibson participated in a little spoof film by IMP starring other famous people of the time. That film--Saved by Parcel Post--was only 5 minutes long and was released in March of 1913. Gibson also had a Broadway credit already in his column from 1905 for play that writer Augustus Thomas wrote based on a narrative series of drawings Gibson had produced; that play was made into a film in 1914 as The Education of Mr. Pipp, and was a production of the All Star Film Corp.  Gibson continued to work through the 1920's and part of the 1930's; retiring in 1936 at the age of 69. He passed away in his beloved New York City, 8 years later on the 23rd of December, 1944 of a heart complaint at the age of 77. Despite that he spent all of his adult life in New York and died there, he was buried back in his birth state of Massachusetts at the historic Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge. One other note: the Gibson cocktail was said to be named for him, as he is known to have preferred to order martinis with pickled onions as a garnish (and, it's also one of my favorites!)--so next time you see pickled onions in a mixer section....give a thought to Charles and is Gibson Girls.

 

[source: Ginny M (Find A Grave)]

[source: Find A Grave]

 

 

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Most of the following examples of the Gibson's work were retrieved from Wiki sources (three are from Twitter & and one is Pinterest)

 

Born Today September 12: Alice Lake

1895-1967

Comedy actress Alice Lake was born on this day in Brooklyn, New York. In her acting heyday, she was the star of Mack Sennett's shorts opposite Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. But before this, she was a dancer in New York and worked for a touring company. The little James Young comedy short The Picture Idol, a Vitagraph production from 1912, is listed as her film debut, despite that her appearance is unconfirmed at this time. She absolutely appears in How to Do It and Why; or, Cutey at College (another Vitagraph short), released in December of 1914.  She stayed with the studio through the year 1915. After making one film with Thanhouser (The Fifth Ace), she signed with Keystone. Her first film with them was the Arbuckle directed farce The Moonshiners starring his nephew Al St. John released in May of 1916.   She first starred with Arbuckle himself in her very next film The Waiter's Ball  (1916).  She would go on to appear in some the pair's most famous shorts after the addition to the studio of one Buster Keaton; including:  Oh Doctor!, Coney Island, Out West, The Bell Boy and The Cook (a formerly lost film, rediscovered in 1999--well all but the last minute and a half).  A goodly number of these films were filmed in the New York area; but by 1918, the operations had moved west and Arbuckle had started his own production company Comique, which Lake went to work for. Despite that in the late teens she occasionally made films with Mack Sennett productions, she stayed with Arbuckle's company until 1920. Her first major film outside this stable of comics came in the Rex Ingram film Shore Acres. She signed with Metro Pictures and became a bonafide movie star; taking first billing in a series of melodramas, many directed by Wesley Ruggles.  By 1923, she had left Metro and made a series of films from multiple genres and various other production houses. Her star was also beginning to fade, and by the end of the year she had not only lost her top billing status, she was lucky to land major supporting roles. She was albe to regain a top billing status by the middle of the decade, but the films that she starred in were lower budget affairs by small independent production companies. And, finally, by the end of the decade, the number of roles that she landed were fewer and fewer. Her first appearance in a film with sound was the 1929 First National comedy Twin Beds -- a full talkie.   Her last film of the decade was the Fox talkie Frozen Justice, a vehicle for Broadway super star Lenore Ulric.  While she is listed in an uncredited bit part in Universal's 1930 romance Young Desire , her first major film of the new decade was Fox's "prison melodrama" Wicked (1931) where she is one of two actresses listed simply as "Prisoner" (the other is Lucille Williams). She appeared in just 11 more films after this, most of her these went uncredited. Her last credited role came in  the Universal melodrama Glamour in 1934. The last film in which she actually appeared was in a tiny role in the Wallace Beery's 1934 turn as P. T. Barnum in 20th Century Fox's The Mighty Barnum; while the very last film that she worked on was Hollywood's take on itself in Paramount's Hollywood Boulevard in 1936--though her role was left on the cutting room floor.  Defeated, she left the movie business for good, but remained in the Los Angeles area for the rest of her life. She died in poverty and forgotten on the 15th of November in 1967 of a heart attack at the age of 72. She is buried in an unmarked grave at Valhalla Memorial Park in North Hollywood. 

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Born Today September 11: Arthur White

1881-1924

British born actor of just a few silent shorts Arthur White (born William Arthur Stewart White) was born on this day in the United Kingdom.  His life and career would more than likely be lost to history if it had not been for his appearance in a now well know Edison short from 1903 (actually staged and shot in 1902 and bearing a large similarity to a UK picture from 1901 Fire!); and his life is pretty obscure even with this information.  White is one of three actors in the short known as Life Of An American Fireman dating from 1903 (this is the first of three films--the other two from 1904 & 1905 actual remakes--with this same title). White is credited with work on just one other motion picture in 1903, as Edwin S. Porter's production assistant on Uncle Tom's Cabin (the very first film adaptation of Beecher's novel). [Note: another adaptation also dates from 1903 made by Lubin].  It's unclear (as of this writing) what else White did in the film industry aside from acting.  It is obvious, that whatever his acting "career" consisted of, he also worked in other capacities for Edison's film studio.  He only has four more film acting credits to his name: two in 1910 (for Essanay) and two in 1913 (for Vitagraph).  From this information, it appears that he did indeed have acting experience outside that of appearing in the narrative film's infancy.  We do know that he eventually moved to Hollywood/Los Angeles, because he died there. This would suggest that he stayed for some time in the film industry; whom he worked for there and what he did, I can not uncover in research as of this writing. Hope springs eternal that more information will surface from records of the era. White passed away in Los Angeles on 27th of September, just weeks after his 43rd birthday. We do know that he was had three children from one marriage. We may know when and where he passed, but we do not know were he was interred or had ashes scattered. On another note: it is an interesting fact that one of the first actors to portray a firefighter in film was born on Sept. 11. A day when so many FDNY firefighters lost there lives to terror attacks 120 years after his birth and 98 years after the release of the film. Here's to the memory of all. 

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Born Today September 10: Tala Birell

1907-1958

Romanian born actress Tala Birell was born Natalia Bierle to an German family living in Bucharest on this day (her mother was from a Polish aristocratic family of Galician stock). She said that she studied drama while attending a private school during the first World War. She made her stage debut in Germany sometime in the mid-1920's and her first appearance in a film came in an uncredited bit part in a Pabst film starring Werner Krauss: Don't Play With Love in 1926.  Her first actual film credit came the next year in Ich habe im Mai von der Liebe geträumt  (roughly I Dreamed of Love in May), a Franz Seitz directed picture.  This was the extent of her involvement in films of the 1920's, but her involvement with silents. She stepped away from film acting for a number years, choosing to concentrate on the stage instead. She next appears in a film in 1930 in the late Austrian silent Die Tat des Andreas Harmer (The Deed of Andreas Harmer). Her first appearance is a full sound film came in a British made German language film featuring Conrad Veidt in the the leading role The Love Storm (Menschen im Käfig). The film was directed by Eswald André Dupont and part of a pair of films, one for the German audience and the other--Cape Forlorn (also called The Love Storm)--for British distribution. It is likely that her appearance in this film that first earned her the notice of film makers in America.  If it wasn't, then her touring of the U.S. in a German language staging of the film The Boudoir Diplomat, certainly was!  She did return to make films in Germany, but also made a bit of a sub-specialty in appearing in German language versions of Hollywood films like The Doomed Battalion (1932). By 1933, she was lured to Hollywood full time due to the popularity in the States of Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich. Her first Hollywood production Nagana in 1933 opposite Melvyn Douglas was a lower budget African adventure film.  She appears in a fair number of films in the mid to late 1930's, the most famous of which is Bringing Up Baby in 1938.  She also continued to work on the stage while living in the United States--appearing in Broadway productions, meaning that she divided her time between Los Angeles and New York City. She remained in the U.S. during World War II, appearing in a number of films in the early 1940's with a decidedly anti-Nazi bent; yet she clearly was becoming home-sick. In late 1948-early 1949 she moved back to Germany, desiring to help with the reconstruction effort. Settling first in Munich and then, in 1951, back to Berlin. Her last American film production was Women in the Night, though Homicide for Three was released later, in 1948. I first encountered her acting when I was kid watching Friday night/Saturday afternoon re-runs of old horror films; she appears in 1944's b-grade The Monster Maker.  Diagnosed with cancer in her late 40's, she succumbed to the disease in Landstuhl on the 17th of February. She was only 50 years of age. She was laid to rest in a family tomb located the cemetery of Marquartstein, which is located in Bavaria.

 

[Source: Bauer Ute (Find A Grave)]

 

[Source: Bauer Ute (Find A Grave)]

 

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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 September 8: Queenie Smith

1898-1978

Queenie Smith is remembered by generations of people from her numerous television appearances as an "auntie/grandmother" figure in guest roles on shows as different from one another as the original Hawaii Five-O to Little House on the Prairie.  Before embarking on a long career in television in the 1950's, she had a career in films in the 1930's and 1940's.  Before that, she was on the stage: first in the Metropolitan Opera Company productions of the 1910's and later in Broadway musicals of the 1920's. Smith was born on this day most likely in Texas; though many sources cite New York City, which is certainly where she was schooled. Obviously talented from a young age, she attended operatic and ballet instruction very early in her life; by her early teenage years, she was proficient in both. She is reported to have been a frequent dancer/performer in her teens in the teens of the 20th century.  It is therefore possible, though not probable, that she had a secondary unit bit part in little UK film that was John Halifax, Gentleman in 1915, released in England in June of that year.  The production was filmed on location in two places in Tewkesbury and was directed by George Pearson. While footage from New York may have been used in the little film, it's not likely; yet she is still credited with an appearance in the picture (all sources I've consulted list her). While it's possible that she traveled to England around this time, it is much more likely that another actress with the same name Queenie Smith is the credit in question. Of course I could be wrong!  But I am happy to have a chance to write a little about here about her. I remember her from re-runs of shows I watched after school as a kid.  Much later on, finally putting a name to face, I was able to enjoy her in classics that I love like James Whale's Show Boat (1936).  Any excuse right?!  Queenie Smith worked almost to the day she died. She appeared in five roles in 1978, despite battling cancer, the last of which was in the comedy Foul Play with Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase in the lead. The film was released roughly 2 and 1/2 weeks before her death. She passed away on the 5 of August in Burbank, California; she was nearly 80 and never out of work! She is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills location.

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Born Today September 7: Josephine Ditt Ricketts (Mrs. Tom Ricketts)

 

1868-1939

Born Josephine Ditt, and mostly credited as such, she also has credits as Josephine Ricketts (in some place Ditt is misspelled Dipp). She is listed in most sources from the time period simply as "Mrs. Tom Ricketts," a convention of those times that was old fashioned even at the turn of the 20th century.  Josephine was an actress born on this day in Chicago. She was undoubtedly a stage performer before her entrance into films, but biographical material on her life is hard to come by (strange considering that her husband has a lot of biographical stubs). Her credits as "Josephine Ditt" in film started in 1910 in the AFM western short Romantic Redskins.  The film was directed by British born director/actor Tom Ricketts, who was either then or was soon to become her husband (most likely they were already wed).  Though she is credited as Josephine Ditt in the film itself, in later sourced credits, she is listed as "Mrs. Tom Ricketts." She would not show back up again in a film for some two years, when she once again appeared in one of her husband's films:  The Unknown Model (March 1912), where she was credited as Josephine Ricketts.  The first film in which she acted that was not directed by her husband was the Al Christie melodramatic comedy Lottery Ticket Number 13 in 1912.  She also appeared films by Wallace Reid Harry A. Pollard (that's not "Snub") and B. Reeves Eason, though her husband and Henry Otto account for the largest number of directors of films in which she acted. Fittingly, the last film in which she appeared in 1915--The House of a Thousand Scandals --was directed by her husband.  She seems to have retired after this point.  Her husband continued to direct through 1919 and there after had a long acting career, working up until his death. His wife doesn't really show back up until news of his death in 1939 broke. Josephine had suffered a stroke in December of 1938 and was still hospitalized when Thomas, some 15 years her senior, died suddenly of pneumonia in January. She followed him on the 18th of October in Santa Monica, California, never having fully recovered. She was 71 years old. He was either buried in an unmarked grave or cremated and put in an unmarked niche at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery; her burial is listed as unknown--it is quite possible that she was placed with him there.

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Born Today September 3: Benjamin Webster

1797-1882

British stage actor, manager and playwright Benjamin Nottingham Webster was born on this day in Bath, England. He was born into a performance family and several of his children carried on the acting tradition after him.  He made his stage debut in 1829, and thereafter specialized in comedic roles.  He would later become a theatrical manager in his own right and retired in the year 1874. Throughout his career, he also penned stage plays. To date, only one film as been made from one of these plays.  In 1916, the Vitagraph company adapted his play "One Touch of Nature" into a dramatic short starring Leah Baird entitled The Bond of Blood.  The film was adapted from his play for the screen by A. Van Buren Powell and the film's director Van Dyke Brooke, who also took the male lead.  Webster died in London at the age of 84 on the 3rd of July (some sources cite the 8th). He is buried at London's historic Brompton Cemetery.  His grandson Ben Webster would go on to star in films and even worked and died in Hollywood; he was likewise married to actress May Whitty. Their daughter, Benjamin's great-granddaughter, was the celebrated theatrical actor/director/producer Margaret Webster.  

[Source: Wikipedia]

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Silents on TCM: September 2020

ALL TIMES IN EDT
Star of the Month:  Dorothy Dandridge
Every Tuesday: Women Make Film

9 Sept. 7:45AM [Year: 1926] Trailer

 

14 Sept. 1:15AM [Year: 1921] Film Information

 

21 Sept. 6AM [Year: 1926] Trailer

28 Sept. 12AM [Year: 1929] Clip (partial silent)

Other Goodies:

 

1 Sept. 6AM [Year: 1935] Trailer (Starts off a whole day of Alfred Hitchcock films 6AM thru 8PM]

 

1 Sept. 8PM & 10PM  [Year: 2019] Trailer (Kicks off the first prime time focus of the month "Women Make Film) 

 

1 Sept 9:15PM [Year: 1932] Clip (a film by Dorothy Azner) The other films screening this evening are:  Olivia (1951), Sleepwalking Land (2007), Seven Beauties (1975),  Je Tu Il Elle (1974), and very early in the sunlight Mädchen in Uniform (1931) & La Ciénaga (2001)

 

12 Sept. 10PM [Year: 1944] Trailer (kicks off a prime time tribute to director Jacques Tourneur) 

 

14 Sept. 8PM [Year: 1934] Film Information (Kicks of an evening of Leonard Maltin's Short Film Showcase) 

15 Sept. 9:15PM [Year: 1976] Official Trailer (a film by Barbara Kopple) 

 

16 Sept. 12:30AM [Year: 1999] Trailer (a film by Sofia Coppola) 

        

20 Sept. 8PM [Year: 1958] Clip (Kicks off a primetime lineup of Star of the Month: Dorothy Dandridge)

23 Sept. 8PM [Year: 1938] Trailer (Prime time celebration of the 100th birthday of Mickey Rooney)

28 Sept. 8PM [Year: 1938] Trailer (Kicks off a prime time celebration of the Americans With Disabilities Act)