Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Born Today September 16: Isabel Jeans
1891-1985
A giant of the London stage, Jeans was an early Hitchcock muse. She was born in London and passed away there almost 94 years later on the 4 of September 1985 at 93. She had planned to become a singer, but instead wound up on the stage at the age of 15 in 1908, by 1915 she had made it to Broadway States side; but soon returned to London. Her first film appearance came in 1917, and she went on to make several films in the 1920's; at least one The Rat (1925) based on the play that she had a part in the preceding year at The Prince of Wales Theater in London. In all she appeared in three Alfred Hitchcock films, two of the them silent, the other being the 1941 Suspicion starring Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine. Her first marriage was to Claude Rains in 1913 which only lasted two years. She remarried to a well known British Barrister, whom she remained married to until his death in the 1960's. As couple they were famous for several couples activities, including being extremely good at poker.
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| In Hitchcock's Easy Virtue |
Her Early Film Work:
Tilly Of Bloomsbury (1921) (based on a play)
Romance and Reality (1921) (short)
The Rat (1925) (screenplay based on the stage production she starred the year before)
Windsor Castle (1926) (short, part of a haunted castles of England series, this was the third one)
The Triumph Of The Rat (1926) (sequel to The Rat)
Downhill (1927) AKA When Boys Leave Home (Hitchcock directed, available for free streaming over at Internet Archive)
Easy Virtue (1928) (Hitchcock directed, based on a Noel Coward play, her highest profile film appearance to date.)
The Return Of The Rat (1929) (second sequel of The Rat, had a synchronized music score, sound by British Acoustic.)
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Born Today September 15: Fay Wray
1907-2004
No introductions needed here! Every horror fan knows her as the original "scream queen"--mostly for her turn in King Kong 1933, but she was plenty "screamy" in other films she made around this time as well. My personal favorite of these is The Mystery Of The Wax Museum starring Lionel Atwill, directed by the great Michael Curtiz, also made in 1933, and up until the late 1960's was considered to be a lost film. So much is made of her appearances and noise in early talking horror films, that not much attention is paid to her silent career. Born Vina Fay Wray in Cardston, Alberta, Canada; the family soon relocated to Los Angeles here in the US. She began as an extra when she was barely into her teens, and was one of the few child actors that seemed to weather the transition to adult actor better than most. Far from being a silent horror star, she was in a number of short slapsticks early on. If she can be said to have specialized in any genre in the 1920 it was westerns ironically. She passed away at the age of 96 on the 8 of August 2004, in New York City. She is another very famous celebrity interred in the famous Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Her Early Film Work:
Gasoline Love (1923) (short)
Sweet Daddy (1924) (short)
Just A Good Guy (1924) (short)
The Coast Patrol (1925) (the first feature length film she was in.)
Sure-Mike! (1925) (short slapstick)
What Price Goofy? (1925) (short)
Isn't Life Terrible? (1925) (short with Charley Chase & Oliver Hardy)
Thundering Landlords (1925) (short, first featured credit in title cards)
Chasing The Chaser (1925) (short)
Madame Sans Jane (1925) (short written by Hal Roach)
No Father To Guide Him (1925) (short)
Unfriendly Enemies (1925) (short)
Your Own Back Yard (1925) (an Our Gang short)
A Lover's Oath (1925) (partially lost film)
Moonlight And Noses (1925) (partial lost short)
Ben-Hur (1925) (her slave girl appearance in this is still unconfirmed)
WAMPAS Baby Stars Of 1926 (the fist time she is credited with "self")
Our Wild Time (1926) (short)
Don Key (Son Of Burro) 1(926) (short)
The Snow Cowpuncher (1926) (short, part of the Mustang Western series)
Loco Luck (1927) (A Blue Streak Western)
A One Man Game (1927) (A Blue Streak Western)
Spurs And Saddles (1927) (A Blue Streak Western)
A Trip Through The Paramount Studio (1927) (as Herself)
The Legion Of The Condemned (1928) (lost film)
Street Of Sin (1928) (lost film)
The Wedding March (1928) (an Erich von Stroheim directed film)
The Honeymoon (1928) (another Stroheim film)
The Four Feathers (1929) (early talkie, William Powell and Noah Berry were in this, dialog by Western Electric, soundtrack and sound effects by MovieTone)
Thunderbolt (1929) (two versions circulated, one silent the other in mono, with sound by Western Electric)
Pointed Heels (1929) (early musical, sound by MovieTone, early two strip technicolor, with some parts in black and white)
Monday, September 14, 2015
Born Today September14: Robert Florey
1900-1979
Born in Paris, Florey developed an obsession with Hollywood very early on in life. He actually grew up in a part of Paris that was very near the Melies studio. His first job in the world of cinema came when he managed to get job as an assistant to one of the most influential silent film directors of the feature length and serial motion pictures in France of the 1910's Louis Feuillade, [I had a little piece that a wrote up about him during a Countdown To Halloween in 2011...looking forward to this year's Countdown BTW.] in his studio in Nice. He managed to work his way up into some acting roles in some of Feuillade's later films. He wanted to immigrate to the United States, and did so, but seems to have done so by way of Switzerland, where he said he produced some one-reels; very little or anything is known about them--they were likely lost very soon after production (or perhaps they didn't exist at all). In Hollywood he became an assistant to another giant of the silent age Josef von Sternberg, himself an immigrant. Some of Florey's earliest important work came at the end of the silent era, one with his co-direction of an experimental short with Slavko Vorkapic (a Serbian immigrant) in 1928 and his own experimental Skyscraper Symphony shot in Manhattan NYC in 1929. His biggest personal influence was German Expressionism, he also, curiously had a fascination with New York City that seemed to work on the avant-garde part of his mind (I guess Hollywood, the place, must have been a bit of let down in appearance). His Hollywood career really started for real with a full on directorial debut in 1927, and he went on to have one of the longest most prolific directorial careers in Hollywood, transitioning to directing television episodes, amongst them for Alfred Hitchcock, the first Twilight Zone series and the first Outer Limits series. He directed comedy giants The Marx Brothers early on in their film appearances in the later 20's. But his talents were not limited to directing, producing and acting; he was also a prolific writer and contributed significant part to the script treatment of Frankenstein (1931) which he was slated to direct. It was he that interviewed Bela Lugosi for the part of the monster and actually screen tested him. He went seriously uncredited because of differences that arose within the studio system--I'm not going to wade too far into these waters, that would warrant a whole other post on one the most famous early talking features in history! He did, however go on to direct Lugosi in Murders In Rue Morgue in 1932, just a year after his appearance in Dracula. This, is after all this is a blog devoted (mostly) to the silents. In terms of his writing, however, he did actually author a number of books and is considered a first rate Hollywood historian. He is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills.
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| A shot from his Love Of Zero (1927) showing the invluence of German Expressionism on his work. In this case, obviously, by The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari. |
Note: This is numerically listed, not by credit (many of these he has multi-credits on for writing)
Parisette (1921) (A serial, a specialty of Feuillade!)
Robin Hood (1922) (a Douglas Fairbanks penned film under pseudo-name Elton Thomas, stars Wallace Beery, currently on Amazon Prime)
The Big Parade (1925) (VERY early soundtrack sequenced film, sound provided by Western Electric)
The Magic Flame (1927) (partially lost film)
One Hour Of Love (1927) (Hollywood directorial debut, it very unfortunately a lost film)
Johann The Coffinmaker (1927) (one of his experimental films, often regarded as a horror film.)
The Life And Death Of 9431, A Hollywood Extra (1928) (co-directed with Vorkapic as "Vorkapich"--Florey as multi-credits on this important experimental avant-garde film.)
Hello New York (1928) (a real strange one that featured Maurice Chevalier and wife, arriving by boat and "poking" around NYC.)
Pusher-in-the-Face (1929) (F. Scott Fitzgerald penned the screenplay from his own story for this.)
The Hole In The Wall (1929) (listed on yesterday's Born On post for Claudette Colbert)
The Cocoanuts (1929) (The Marx Brothers!!, early musical talkie with sound by Western Electric)
Night Club (1929) (early musical short, partially lost for sure. There is some question as to whether this is a separate exhibition film from a film by the same name from 1929. If that is the case, then the full length film is completely lost--this sort of confusion doesn't happen very often,)
Batter Of Paris (1929) (early talkie)
Skyscraper Symphony (1929) (this is a short film that I have a great deal of affection for! But, I too, am an NYC lover!)
Sunday, September 13, 2015
Born Today September 13: Claudette Colbert
1903-1996
Born Emilie Claudette Chauchoin in Saint-Mande', Val-de-Marne, France to French parents who had some Channel Islands ancestry, hence her often being referred to as a French/English actress in Hollywood. Though she was immediately nicknamed "Lily" because an older relative shared her first name. Her family moved to the United States when she was just 3 years old, settling in New York City in a 53rd street walk-up. It was at this time that her parents legally changed her name to Lily Emilie Chauchoin. She later attended Washington Irving High School in New York, which apparently had a large arts program even for schools of the day, this is where her artistic talents were first discovered. She made her Broadway debut in 1923 in a play entitled "The Wild Wescotts." After she began stage work, she herself again legally changed her name to Lily Claudette Chauchoin. Apparently this is when she adopted her screen name that we all know her by today. By 1927 she had received critical acclaim on Broadway, and event that was sure to draw the attention of Hollywood (some say she made the move herself because of The Great Depression, this make no sense, because her first film role came in the same year she broke through on Broadway--1927). Her first appearance on the silver screen was in a film that did not do well at the box office and is now, sadly, amongst a whole host of lost film. Such a pity, no matter who "bad" the film may have been. Such a giant of Hollywood's first screen appearance should be around for viewing, if for just historical reasons. She passed away at the ripe old age of 92 on the 30th of July 1996 in Barbados from complications after a series of strokes. There is no need to for me to "over biographicalize" her here, since she was such a well known actress of Hollywood's golden age and here work in the 1920's film industry is short. She is interred with her last husband at Godings Bay Church Cemetery in the country of Barbados.
For More:
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| Serious flapper look here! |
Work In 1920's Film:
For The Love Of Mike (1927) (a Frank Capra directed box office flop, and lost film, this was also apparently a terrible experience for her)
The Hole In The Wall (1929) (early talkie, sound by MovieTone)
Saturday, September 12, 2015
Born Today September 12: Dickie Moore (RIP!)
1925-2015
This is a sad one for me!! Mr. Moore only passed away this past Monday in Wilton, Conn. and the age of 89; and today would have been his 90th birthday (crying a bit while writing this). I would have loved nothing more than to wish him a very happy 90th! Though reports of cause of death have been dementia, so I'm not sure it would have been so happy. Born John Richard Moore, Jr. exactly 90 years ago today in Los Angeles, he like, Wally Albright (also born in 1925) was an early credited child actor and also a member of the Our Gang Little Rascals. His first acting credit came in 1927 when he was not just two years of age. Past his teens, he has only one (that I can find) moving picture acting credit in his twenties and then he quit acting, though his pursuits in life where not far from the theatrical world. He even appeared on Broadway before his acting retirement. He served in WWII and wrote for stars and stripes, a skill that would become helpful later in life when he found transitioning from child actor to adult acting basically unbearable (something that so many child actors can attest to--just ask Macaulay Culkin). He became a active in the actors union in the New York area and founded a successful public relations firm called Dick Moore and Associates to represent actors. It is still in business and it was their president that announced his death this week. He became known as an inside man in the entertainment biz and (I'm jealous) reportedly had his own booth at famed New York restaurant Sardis. He is also known for writing an important book on child actors of his era entitled Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (But Don't Have Sex or Take The Car) published in 1984, in which he recounted his own difficulties as a child actor at the time and interviewed several contemporary child actors for the book, one of the most memorable reportedly with Shirley Temple (as a point of trivia, Temple received her first on screen kiss form Moore). He also interviewed actress Jane Powell, herself born in 1929, for the book; it was their first meeting, but not their last. The two were married in 1988 and she is now his widow. Condolences go out to his family--he had one son, who has children--associates and friends. It is also with great sadness that I report and that another Our Gang star Jean Darling passed away Friday week ago--Sept. 4, at the ripe old age of 93 in Germany. Condolences to her friends and family as well. May the both be at peace. [Added note here, Internet Movie Database has his date of death wrong, for anyone looking up the movies from links here. Hopefully it will be corrected.]
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| Moore and Powell--Happy Couple |
His Silent Era Work:
The Beloved Rogue (1927) (a John Barrymore film)
Object: Alimony (1928) (Roscoe Karns starred in this)
Blue Skies (1929) (partial silent, soundtrack and sound effects by MovieTone)
Madame X (1929) (early talkie, sound by Western Electric. Lionel Barrymore directed)
Friday, September 11, 2015
Born Today September 11: Erville Alderson
1882-1957
Born in Kansas City, Missouri on the 11 Sept. 1882, Alderson began his career as a character actor (that had to have been some sort of first)--literally he started out as "the old man" character type and stayed that way throughout the span of his career. His first appearance in film came in 1918 with the character "Old Man" McBrian at the age of 36. In addition to his acting, he has one credit for assistant director. He worked literally right up to the time of the his death on the 4 of August 1957 at the age of 74. He is one of many silent era actors to be interred in the famous Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
His Silent Era Work:
Her Man (1918) (directed by two of "The Brothers Ince")
The Good-Bad Wife (1920) (one of the first films directed by a woman Vera McCord, who was most certainly the first female director to have her own production company)
The White Rose (1923) (directed by D. W. Griffith)
The Exciters (1923) (this is probably a lost film, though not listed as such, I can find no evidence of the continued existence unfortunately, but the fact that the lone review on IMDb is by the infamous F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre certainly raises the odds that it no longer exists.)
America (1924) (another Griffith epic on this country, curiously yesterday's featured "Born On" entry Bessie Love was also in this film, and as this is Sept. 11, were are marking the day the frights of history today over at my Scare Me On Fridays blogspot. Alas, we are travailing the entirety of the HBO John Adams (2008) mini-series. I do not, however, think we will be dipping into Griffith's take on things today though....but to those we lost 14 years ago, and through true defense of the country since before founding--we remember you!)
Isn't Life Wonderful (1924) (another Griffith film, "Commissioner Gordon" Neil Hamilton was also in this film.)
Sally Of The Sawdust (1925) (yet another Griffith film, that also starred W. C. Fields. This is the film for which Alderson was an assistant director. [Note: if you have an Amazon Prime account it can currently be watched rental free.])
The Fortune (1927) (Syd Chaplin also starred, it was one of the first silents films with a mono musical score)
The Heart Of Maryland (1927) (also stars of Myrna Loy, amongst a whole host of others, a partial print survives in the Library of Congress; but yet another film that the late "MacIntyre" claimed to have seen in it's entirety.)
A Girl From Chicago (1927) (also starred Myrna Loy)
Fazil (1928) (a very early Howard Hawks directed film, soundtrack and sound effects by MovieTone)
Speakeasy (1929) (early talkie, sound by Western Electric, lost film)
Aquitted (1929) (early talkie)
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Born Today September 10: Bessie Love
Bessie Love 1898-1986
Born Juanita Horton in Midland TX to a Anglo cowboy father and (I believe) a Tejana mother, the family first moved to Arizona and finally to Hollywood, where her mother actually sent her to Biograph Studios' location, then barely an outpost of the New York based studio company, to recommend herself to be in films because the family needed money. Apparently her father's new chosen profession of chiropractor wasn't going very well! It seems, that because her father was a former cowboy who got to know actor Tom Mix, Hollywood's very first famous movie cowboy (at the time he was way more influential and John Wayne would ever become). Mix saw Juanita and told her mother that she should be in films, so off to Biograph she went and at just the right time, as directorial giant D. W. Griffith had made the move west to Hollywood from Fort Lee, N.J. She met Griffith and he agreed that she would be good for motion pictures despite that she was still in high school. He name, on the other hand, he didn't think was star material, so it was his idea to change it to "Bessie Love." Her first film credit comes in 1915, but that has a HUGE question mark over it (I will get to below). Certainly she actually did appear on the screen for the first time for real in 1916 after 7 acting jobs, at least three of which her name appears on the poster--one as an equal star--Griffith gave her a small role in his epic Intolerance. At that point she dropped out of Los Angeles High School to pursue full time stardom (incidentally, she did complete the degree years later). Apparently possessed of a rather strong spirit, she almost immediately took an active role in her career, rare for female actors of the time, never mind one who was not even and adult. She promoted herself with live performances supporting military audiences (apparently some these involved a ukulele) and actively sought her own representation, finding a representative in Gerald C. Duffy who had been an editor of Picture-Play Magazine. In 1929, on January 29, she married William Hawks, brother a director Howard Hawks, on his birthday. Together they had a daughter in 1932, who, of course, also got into pictures. They divorced in 1936. She went on to work in talkies, so again, here is another untrained star from the silent era, who made a very successful transition into speaking role (one of the only women that I can think of that had a long career, who is still relatively unknown). She worked for the Red Cross during the Second World War. At some point she moved to London, England, where she passed away on the 26 April 1986 at the age of 87. One of the things that really puzzles me personally, is that people regarded her later in life as the old lady that you talked to about silent era Hollywood, despite that she did work consistently almost up to the time of her death and in no small films either. She was in three films alone in 1981: Lady Chatterley's Lover, Ragtime, and Reds. Oddly for such a horror buff like me, her very last role came in 1983 in one of my favorite vampire films The Hunger, starring David Bowie, Catherine Deneuve and Susan Sarandon, directed by Tony Scott (RIP!), brother of Ridley. Besides, she's my kind of lady, she stood all of 5 feet tall--well, like me! Her ashes were either scattered or buried there near a cedar tree and she is remembered with a plaque at the Breakspear Crematorium in Ruislip, Greater London, England.
Her Silent Era Work:
Georgia Pearce (1915) (Okay, this is truly a strange one! This is a title that no one can even find evidence that it was even made. Some people list it as a hoax; I do not think it is. It seems like a project that was planned and never filmed--there are a number of films that fall into a category of "unfinished" and do not belong to the "partially lost" category. Because the title has such a long history of being listed for the three actresses involved--I believe it must be some sort of aborted production. Either that, or it's a film that's been lost so long, like since 1917 or 1918 that no one has any clue that it ever really existed in the first place. It's "wierd" and probably deserves it's own post.)
Acquitted (1916) (this one we know she was in!)
The Flying Torpedo (1916) (appears to the first film on which her name appears on the poster. Also one of the first, if not the first, film to be set in the future....1921.)
Reggie Mixes In (1916) (Her first real starring role, opposite Douglas Fairbanks.)
The Mystery Of Leaping Fish (1916) (also with Fairbanks)
The Heiress At Coffee Dan's (1916) (Her first top billed role)
Wee Lady Betty (1917) (a haunted house drama)
The Great Adventure (1918) (Directed by Alice Guy, considered to be the world's very first female directors.)
The Midlanders (1920) (one of the first films co-directed by a man and a woman._
The Honor Of Ramirez (1921) (short)
The Spirit Of The Lake (1921) (short)
The Purple Dawn (1923) (lost film)
Mary Of The Movies (1923) (this is supposed to by the oldest surviving Columbia Pictures feature film.)
Human Wreckage (1923) (lost film)
The Eternal Three (1923) (lost film)
The Adventures Of Prince Courageous (1923) (a silent fantasy film)
Sundown (1924) (lost film, and makes me particularly sad, because it was released on the same day as what would many years later become my birthday--plus it's a western--my Dad would have loved it! ;-()
The Lost World (1925) (a giant in the silent science fiction film world. It was a major influence on the very young Ray Harryhausen--king of stop motion animation!! It was hand tinted and also theme color toned, but was also shown in black and white as well. If this had been a sound film, Bessie Love, and not Fay Ray, would have been the original scream queen!)
Lovey Mary (1926) (lost film)
Amateur Night (1927) (there is some dispute or debate as to whether she should be credited in this short film.)
The Matinee Idol (1928) (formerly lost film, directed by Frank Capra)
The Broadway Melody (1929) (Silent with a mono soundtrack by Western Electric one of the only musicals to have ever won the Best Picture Oscar--it is partially (slightly) lost)
The Idle Rich (1929) (early talkie, directed by William C. DeMille, sound by Western Electric)
The Girl In The Show (1929) (early talkie, sound by Western Electric)
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