Born Today January 17: Grant Withers

 1905-1959

Born Granville G. Withers in Pueblo, Colorado; the actual year of his birth differs in various sources, but his grave marker states 1905.  Apparently he had always wanted to break into movies; but worked as an oil company salesman and as a newspaper reporter before breaking into films in the well into the 1920's.  His first appearance in film came in 1925 with a bit part in a comedy short featuring the, by then, overdone theme of The Vamp entitled So Long Bill.  By 1926 he had steady work.  For an actor with no stage training or appearances, he is rare example of someone who successfully made the transition to talking roles with no formal training.  His first sound film came in 1929.  The Greyhound Limited was one of those films that had both a silent version and full talking version, with sound by Western Electric with Vitaphone technology.  The film that he made next was his first in mono.  Saturday's Children also had sound provided by Western Electric with the soundtrack and sound effects on one track and the mono talking sequences on another; this film, too, had a silent alternative version.  His following film The Divine Lady (1929), reverted back to the partial silent sound mix, with the dialog being silent and the soundtrack and effects manufactured with the Western Electric Apparatus.  Madonna of Avenue A (1929) was his first full sound film, with the sound mix being Vitaphone. It was directed by Michael Curtiz, who would go on to direct Casablanca. His last film in the 1920's was Tiger Rose (1929), a Canadian Mounty adventure film.  He continued to work right up to the time of his death in 1959 at the age of 54.  On the 27th of March he committed suicide in North Hollywood by taking a deliberate overdose of barbiturates and left a short suicide note apologizing to his family.  He had increasingly been suffering from serious health issues, including horrible back pain that kept getting worse.  He is interred at the Great Mausoleum at the famous Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in Glendale.  In all, he appeared in over 200 films.

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Born Today January 16: Harry Carey

1878-1947

Born Harry DeWitt Carey II was born on this date in the New York borough of The Bronx.  He was the son of prominent judge who served on the New York Supreme Court.  He grew up in one of the only high-scale areas of The Bronx:  City Island.  In higher education, he first attended Hamilton Military Academy; then he studied law at NYU.  By the time he made it into his first movie, he had been a real cowboy, railway superintendent, a playwright & author, and had practiced law.  He first got into acting after writing he first play while recuperating from pneumonia; he then spent the next three years touring the country performing it.  The play was quite the success.  However, his next play flopped.  After being introduced to Fort Lee director D. W. Griffith, his film career started.  Griffith knowing his background as a cowboy, immediately began to give him rolee in the earliest of westerns.  Carey made his film debut in 1909 in Griffith's western short Bill Sharkey's Last Game.  The vast majority of the films that he made were in the silent era; even the last film he made in the 1920's was fully silent:  The Border Patrol (1928).  In fact, the only film he made in the 1920's that had sound, was a partial sound film:  The Trail of '98 (1928), with soundtrack and sound effects provided by both Movietone and Western Electric Sound System.  Having taught himself how to act live on a stage, he made a very successful transition to talking films, and did so in 1931 in Trader Horn, his first full sound film, ironically in English and Swahili.  He was nominated for one Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, for his role as President of the Senate in the famous 1939 film Mr. Smith Goes To Washington starring James Stewart.  Carey passed away on the 21st. of September 1947 at the age of 69 from coronary thrombosis as a complication from emphysema and lung cancer in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles.  Some list the cause of his deadly coronary thrombosis as coming from a bee sting.  He worked right up until the time of his death, with two films he worked on being released in 1948.  He is entombed in a above ground mausoleum at Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, NYC.  

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Scare Me On Fridays: Speaking Of Ghost Stories...

Scare Me On Fridays: Speaking Of Ghost Stories...: Does This Remind Anyone Of Another Film?

Scare Me On Fridays: Ghosts: The Phantom Carriage (1921)

Scare Me On Fridays: Ghosts: The Phantom Carriage (1921): Yes the year reads right!  1921.  I have a great love silent film and I am over-joyed to be watching a fully restored version of th...

Born Today January 15: Torin Thatcher (Not So Silent Edition)

1905-1981

Born Torin Herbert Erskine Thatcher in Bombay, British India (now Mumbai) to English parents.  He was educated in Britain and later attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts; and would go on to become a school teacher and school master.  He made his stage debut in 1927.  Most biographies have him starting in the British film industry in 1934, well into the talking era; but he did however appear in a film short based on Shakespeare in 1927.  The Merchant Of Venice,  a very, very early talkie.  He next appeared in the film in 1933, not 1934, but continued to do stage work during the 1930's; even appearing with Lawrence Olivier  and Vivian Leigh at the Old Vic, in a production of Hamlet.  During World War II, he served with the Royal Artillery, ending with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.  He would later go on to be one of the most recognizable character actors in the both the UK and the US; where he did a lot of television work.  He also had a prolific career on Broadway.  In 1947 he co-founded the Society for Theater Research and served as it's Vice-Chairman for the Committee.  He passed away on 4 March 1981 of cancer at the age of 76 in Thousand Oaks, California.  He was cremated and his ashes were then urned.

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Born Today January 13: Kay Francis (Not So Silent Eidition)

1905-1968

Born Katherine Edwina Gibbs in Oklahoma City to a mother who had been a stage actress as a young woman and later went on to found vocational schools for women.  During her childhood, however, her mother was still on the stage as an actress and singer under the name of Katherine Clinton; and being the child of a working single mother made her upbringing rather rough. She grew up constantly on the road with her mother, only attending school in intervals.   At the age of 17 she got engaged to a man named James Dwight Francis; the two married in 1922; hence her last name.  The marriage did not last.  In 1925 she actually traveled all the way to Paris, France in order to obtain a divorce.  When back in the United States she suddenly decided to follow her mother onto the stage; having the good fortune (due to real talent) to make her Broadway debut in 1925 in a modernized version of Shakespeare's Hamlet.  She claimed that she got the part (probably as a tongue and cheek joke) by "lying a lot, and to the right people."  One of these people was one Stuart Walker, who hired her to perform in his Portmanteau Theater Company in Dayton, Indiana and in Cincinnati.  In 1927 she returned to Broadway, in the play Crime, in which a teen aged Sylvia Sidney claimed the lead role.  Sidney later joked that Frances stole the show. She was encouraged to try out for a role in the full sound film Gentlemen of the Press (1929), which she got; but the audition brought her to attention of The Marx Brothers.  They gave her a part in their film The Cocoanuts (1929), which came out before Gentlemen.  Thus she technically made her film debut with The Marx Brothers.  In all, she made 5 films in 1929 all of them some form of early talkie.  Ironically, the last film she made, not the first, in 1929, The Marriage Playground, was only a partial talkie.  In this she played at character called "Lady Wrench."  She became known as the tallest leading lady in the business in the 1930's--standing at 5'9".  During World War II, she did extensive touring in support of American troops.  She passed away after a two year battle against breast cancer on the 16th of August in 1968 at the age of 63.  She was cremated and her ashes were scattered.  

On a USO tour with Mitzi Mayfair during WWII.

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Born Today January 12: Jack London

1876-1916

Writer Jack London was born John Griffith Chaney in San Francisco on this date. In addition to being a prolific novelist and writer of short stories, he was also a journalist and a very vocal social activist.  He got his last name that he is known by today from his step-father John London.  His life and writing were greatly influenced by his "colorful" young adult life that included working in an cannery, becoming a oyster pirate, and actually "hoboing" around the country, homeless for a time.  He was greatly influenced by his foster mother Virginia (Jenny) Prentiss, who was African-American and a former slave. In 1893 he began writing short stories, the first of which was entitled "Typhoon off the Coast of Japan" based on his sailing experiences.  His managed to get the story published that same year; yet by 1894 he was homeless again.  He was arrested for vagrancy, and spent a horrible month in jail in which he wrote that he was witness to the "awful abysses of human degradation."  After this, he devoted his time to intensive self-education; spending vast amounts of time in the Oakland Public Library.  He did manage to get into the University of California, Berkeley, but had to leave a year later due to financial reasons.  In 1897 he joined the Klondike Gold Rush.  During this time he wound up suffering from a whole host of health hardships from frostbite to scurvy; all of this left his health seriously and permanently impaired.  His struggles to survive during this time inspired the story  "To Build A Fire."  After this, his writing took off and, he managed to become the most prolific and highest paid author of his time.  He was part of the radical literary group in San Francisco known as "The Crowd."  He was also very active and passionate advocate for rights of workers and unionization; and an outspoken advocate for socialism.  After 1905, he became a self-educated "earth friendly" rancher.  He was also an animal rights activist; focusing (far ahead of his time) on the cruelty shown to circus animals (something that is still an issue today).

London in 1914

The first film that was made from his work was a short made by the Kalem Company in 1907 and was based on his novel The Sea Wolf (film's title being the same of the novel).  London has one acting credit to his name, which came in 1913, in which he played a sailor in a remake of The Sea Wolf.  It was shot on location in his native San Francisco and was produced by Hobart Bosworth Productions.  The last silent film made that was based on his work, was made in 1929; the screenplay was an adaptation of one of his short stories, Smoke Bellew and was produced by Big 4 Film (which was a company that didn't survive long in the new talking era).  Films continue to be made using his material. The latest release came in July 2014, with A Thousand Death's.  Into The Void, based on his novel, in post-production and is set for release next year.  

London died prematurely at the age of 40 in Glen Ellen, California, in a cottage on his Beauty Ranch, in Sonoma County.  In addition to the lasting ill effects of his days in the Klondike gold run on his health, he had long suffered from serious alcoholism.  He had additionally picked up tropical infections from his traveling the south Pacific after he became a rich man.  At the time of his death, he was suffering from Uremia brought on by kidney stones, which is incredibly painful, for which he was taking morphine.  The official cause of the death was uremic poisoning brought on by renal colic (or kidney stones) and acute nephritis (or kidney failure).  Rumors of suicide swirled wildly around the time of his death (and speculation remains to this day owed to his taking morphine).  And, it's possible he may have actually died from an accidental overdose of morphine.  His was cremated, and his ashes were interred on his ranch; which is now part of the Jack London State Park, underneath a large boulder from the property.

Jack London Main Page

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Born Today January 10: Ray Bolger

1904-1987

Born Raymond Wallace Balcao in Dorchester area of Boston; he developed a yen for the entertainment industry by going to vaudeville shows when he was young.  He changed his Portuguese last name to the easier to pronounce "Bolger," and started an act called "Sanford & Bolger" with his dance partner.  By 1926 he had landed a dancing gig at the New York's prestigious Palace Theater, which at the time was the top of the line vaudeville destination in the country.  Technically speaking his film career did not begin until 1936 (well into the early talkies) when he appeared  in the still well known and respected film The Great Ziegfeld.  However, he did appear in a comedy short two reel film, based on a vaudeville theme, as a banker.  The film was The Berth Mark and dates from 1926.  He most definitely best known as The Scarecrow in the landmark 1939 film production of The Wizard Of Oz.  He had a long acting career afterward, a great deal of which of was on the stage.  Indeed, he spent much of his time during the "golden age" of film in prominent stage productions, many of which were on Broadway.  His later work came mostly in television appearances, rather than full length film.  His last acting appearance came in a episode of Different Strokes in 1984.  He passed away from bladder cancer on the 15th of January 1987, just five days after his 83rd birthday.  At the time of his death, he was the last surviving main cast member from The Wizard Of Oz.  Two days later, the Chicago Tribune ran a cartoon of the cast dancing into the emerald city, with only the scarecrow running to catch up with the rest of the cast.  He is interred, next to his wife, who survived him, at Culver City's Holy Cross Cemetery, a Roman Catholic resting place.  Bolger/Balcao had been born into a devout Roman catholic family, and was Irish/Portuguese in ethnicity.

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Scare Me On Fridays: On Now: The Aviator (Martin Scorsese 2004)

Scare Me On Fridays: On Now: The Aviator (Martin Scorsese 2004)

Not So Silent Wierdness:  Howard Hughes by Martin Scorsese

Happy New Year Everyone!

Image of Clara Bow welcoming the new year in 1928.