ginnyfan
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It's a really short TODAY IN GINNY featuring two honorees.
First, Polly Bailey (1882) is a two-time TIGer, appearing as a woman at the train station in YOUNG TOM EDISON and a governess in THE YOUNGEST PROFESSION. If I accept Polly's IMDb listing, she had two careers. From 1917-1925 she worked as Polly Van, usually in shorts. In 1934, she reappears under her own name in character roles that are usually uncredited. She was a Janitress in THE THIN MAN, a landlady in THE GAY FALCON, an old woman in the Durbin-O'Connor feature SOMETHING IN THE WIND.
The other guy was a much bigger star, but his role in a Ginny film was just as small-and Ginny, well Joan anyway, slept through the whole thing. William Powell (1892) debonair yet comical star of romantic whodunits played William Powell in the final scene of THE YOUNGEST PROFESSION. Powell was nominated for three Oscars for THE THIN MAN, MY MAN GODFREY, and LIFE WITH FATHER, but never won. He did win a Best Actor nod from the New York Film Critics Circle Awards in 1947 for his roles in both LIFE WITH FATHER and THE SENATOR WAS INDISCREET.
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It's never too late to post a TODAY IN GINNY!
It isn't a good percentage of photo success Sunday as I only found two of five subjects-and one of those is my own screen cap!
First, actress Ruth Cherrington (1878) was known as Aunt Birdie to family and friends based on her real name of Bertha M. Ebert Miller. The birth name makes me wonder about her relationship to the two of the most important movie critics to hail from Chicago. She played dowagers. Are there still dowagers today? Dowager, concert goer, matron, stout lady, reads the record. She was billed as just "Woman" in THE YOUNGEST PROFESSION. She has a second connection to Virginia. Ruth's family considers her to be of of the founders of Christian Science. There is no confirmation anywhere of this and based on the fact that Mary Baker Eddy was already teaching Christian Science to others around the time of Ruth's birth, I would contest this. It may well be, however, that Ruth was one of those spreading the faith within the film colony in the early 20th century. I found no photo.
Clive Morgan (1897) played British military types almost exclusively. He played a clerk in PETER IBBETSON and a non-commissioned officer in MAID OF SALEM. No photo.
Brick Sullivan (1899) played a phone operator in BORN TO SING. He played bartenders and barflies and a few deputies in westerns and lots of policemen in non-westerns. He was an umpire, a kind of policeman in IT HAPPENS EVERY SPRING. The photo is from one of his several appearances with Abbott and Costello.
Eddie Lee (1899) was really typecast, playing stereotypical Chinese roles in the 1930s, Chinese and Japanese military types in the 1940s and expanding into playing Koreans as well by the 1950s. Mr. lee was a Chinese Office in TOO HOT TO HANDLE. No photo.
Finally, Lois Kent (1926) was one of several child actors put under contract at Paramount around the same time as Virginia. She appeared in support of Virginia in two films. She played Marilyn Smith in SCANDAL STREET and was the Nellie Oleson-type character, Claire Rogers, in GIRL OF THE OZARKS. In this photo, Ginny's Edie is trying to pull Claire's hair out by the roots after Claire used a ruler and pin to do some long distance stabbing of Edie. Three guesses who was punished by the teacher. Lois only had six credits on IMDb and the two films with Ginny were her biggest parts by far.
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Now for a quick hitting TODAY IN GINNY. Quick hitting in that it's late and I only have two honorees.
First, Donald Crisp (1882) had to have been in something you've seen. Probably a lot of what you have seen. MARY OF SCOTLAND, THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE, MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY, KNUTE ROCKNE, ALL-AMERICAN are just a few. He was also in a film that you almost certainly have NEVER seen; he played Mr. Pryor in Ginny's 1935 version of LADDIE. Donald's final role was in 1963 when he played family patriarch Zebulon Spencer in SPENCER'S MOUNTAIN. Almost a decade later, that family would have its name changed to Walton, be relocated to Virginia from Wyoming and Will Geer would be playing the role weekly after Edgar Bergen had made one stab at it.
Next up, Natalie Moorhead (1898) is a three time TIGer even though I'd have been hard pressed to recognize it. She was at her most successful when she first started in Hollywood, playing platinum blonde vamps in her early roles. She was Phyllis Mersey Royds in LONG LOST FATHER, the one time her role was bigger than Ginny's. After a fairly prominent role in the Reginald Denny mystery, DANCING MAN and a created role as Julia Wolf in THE THIN MAN, Natalie's parts would get smaller and smaller. Five years later, she would be a woman in the Modiste Salon in THE WOMEN and the following year a lady at the theatre in ALL THIS AND HEAVEN TOO.
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This morning while doing my TODAY IN GINNY research, I was watching THE FALCON'S ADVENTURE with Tom Conway, Madge Meredith and Edward S. Brophy on my DVR. Since I didn't know Ms. Meredith, I looked her up.
Boy did I get a shock.
From IMDb:
On June 30, 1947, Madge Meredith was convicted and sentenced to prison for 5 years to life for complicity in an assault of her former manager, Nicholas D. Gianaclis, and his bodyguard, Verne V. Davis. Gianaclis and Davis testified that were beaten, kidnapped, and robbed by a group of men as they neared Meredith's home in the Hollywood Hills. In March 1951, the California Assembly Interim Committee on Crime and Corrections issued an official report concluding that Meredith had been framed. The case was handled sloppily in court and inconsistent allegations by the perpetrators were overlooked by police. In July 1951, Gov. Earl Warren commuted her sentence to time served and issued a statement of disgust at how her trial had been handled. Mr. Gianaclis was found to have set-up Miss Meredith to gain ownership of her home. Following her release from Tehachapi, prison, Meredith the court found for her receiving back ownership of her home from her accuser. Mr. Gianaclis, an immigrant from Greece, was denied U.S. citizenship by the Immigration Service.
Why didn't she write a book and why didn't Hollywood make a movie?
The photos are: Above-Meredith breaks down upon her release from Tehachapi Prison in 1951. The gentleman in the photo is reporter Harry Lang. Below-Madge Meredith in her ingenue days,
More info can be found at : http://derangedlacrimes.com/?tag=madge-meredith|http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fderangedlacrimes.com%2F%3Ftag%3Dmadge-meredith&h=MAQGAjpoC&s=1
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Another day, another TODAY IN GINNY.
Before we start the birthdays, My VWRS co-manager Danny has mentioned that he'd like to confirm that Virginia was actually in THE BIG BROADCAST OF 1936 since he hasn't seen a photo of her in it. I have one to add for the next time he visits the Academy, THE SPELLBINDER. By 1939 Virginia was, if not a regular lead, a featured player. And that's what makes THE SPELLBINDER so out of place in the record. A 1939 RKO film starring her Dugan partner Lee Tracy, it was released after that film by about two months. In SPELLBINDER, Ginny has an uncredited walk-on as "girl" reenacting her successes of 1931-33. It's possible that since she was already on loan to RKO that they just stuck her in a scene that needed a "girl" while she was there, but it would be nice to know for sure. I may be inducting a few false TIGers if she isn't in it.
Which brings us to Leona Roberts (1879). A fixture on the Broadway stage, Leona became a very busy screen actress from 1937 through 1940. 39 of her 45 film appearances take place in those years. And she usually was playing someone whose first name was "Missus". She played Mrs. Jenkins in THE SPELLBINDER. She's probably most famous for playing Mrs. Meade, wife of the doctor, in GONE WITH THE WIND.
Gracie Allen (1895, 1896, 1902, 1906) had an age problem. During her career, no one seemed to know what it was. It became a running joke that she really didn't know and husband George Burns didn't help by writing bits into their shows further confusing the issue. He even refused to clear it up in the wonderful book, Gracie:A Love Story. He used 1902 on her crypt and I'm pretty sure he used 1906 in the book. Most experts are sure the real date is either 1895 or 1896, making her about the same age as George. The idea that she had married an "old man" was also a running gag on the radio program. Anyway, she was in both THE BIG BROADCAST OF 1936 (as Gracie) and 1937 (as Mrs. Platt) with Virginia (we think). If you get the chance go look up a couple of Burns and Allen's early shorts. You'll get a really good sense of their vaudeville act from them.
George T. Clemens (1902) was the cinematographer on one of Virginia's most visually pleasing films, GIRL OF THE OZARKS. Shot on location at Big Bear Lake and Big Bear Valley in the San Bernardino National Forest, the film makes good use of the available views. George didn't have a lot of movie successes during his career, but in credited with giving THE TWILIGHT ZONE its distinctive look when he was Director of Photography for 117 episodes and actually won an Emmy for his work.
Wade B. Rubottom (1903) is not a Groucho Marx character name but instead was an associate art director. Rubottom was the AAD on three Ginnyfilms, THE WOMEN, THE PHILADELPHIA STORY and KEEPING COMPANY. In addition to his film work, Rubottom was one of the designers of Magic Mountain. In the photo of the design team, he's kneeling at the right.
Ralph Blane (1914) was a composer of 1940s musicals along with partner Hugh Martin, with whom he is pictured. The wrote the songs for BEST FOOT FORWARD and went from there to write most notably the music for MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS and less notably the Rooney-DeHaven musical SUMMER HOLIDAY. With Martin, he was nominated for an Oscar for THE TROLLEY SONG, with Martin and Roger Edens for PASS THAT PEACE PIPE. He and Martin won an award from ASCAP in 1989 for Most Performed Feature Film Standards for HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS.
If you knew her during her early career in shorts and walkons, she's Lorna Gray (1917). If you knew her later in westerns or as a villainess, she's Adrian Booth (still 1917). As Lorna, she appeared in three Ginnyfilms, in an undetermined role in SCANDAL STREET, as a secretary in OUTSIDE THESE WALLS, and as the Girl Michael runs into in Nightclub in THE LONE WOLF SPY HUNT. The photo is actually of Ms. Booth and not Ms. Gray.
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Welcome back, my friends, to the feature that never ends!
Ladies and gentlemen...TODAY IN GINNY!
Up first is a guy who I didn't realize was a TIGer. I grew up on his TV work (TO ROME WITH LOVE was a mistake, but I liked most of it) and later discovered his usually wonderful film work. Walter Brennan (1894) played Ossian Popham in MOTHER CAREY'S CHICKENS. I'm assuming that Ossian was Ginny's Lally Joy's father keeping with the tradition that Virginia's movie parents must always look like her grandparents, a trend first pointed out by TopBilled. In reality, Walter was almost a decade younger than Ginny's real father. Walter won three supporting Oscars in five years during this period, but somehow was not nominated for this one.
Johnny Hines (1895) played Parsons in TOO HOT TO HANDLE. Johnny played a character called Torchy in a series of 1920s shorts, wrote some of his own starring vehicles in that period, and was often directed by brother Charles. THTH was his last major feature.
Lester White (1907) was cinematographer on three Ginnyfilms, OUT WEST WITH THE HARDYS (I understand what MGM execs cut from that film was his best work), HENRY GOES ARIZONA (which looks a lot like OWWTH with Frank Morgan in the Mickey Rooney role), and BABES ON BROADWAY ( I believe he suggested to Busby Berkeley that the Robert E. Lee finale would photograph better if everyone was in mime makeup, but was overruled). Lester photographed a lot of the Hardy Family films, several Sherlock Holmes features, Spencer Tracy's THE MURDER MAN, and thirty eight episodes of Brian Donlevy's TV series DANGEROUS ASSIGNMENT. In the photo, Lester is right behind director George Sidney.
Nan Grey (1918) was younger than I thought. I say this because she played Miss Priscilla Adams, an administrator at the Penguins' summer camp in THE UNDER-PUP, where many actresses her same age played Ginny's sister in other films. Nan was the love interest with Bob Cummings in that film. Nan was best known for being, along with Deanna Durbin and Barbara Read, one of Universal's THREE SMART GIRLS. Helen Parrish replace Read in the sequel, THREE SMART GIRLS GROW UP. I'm guessing that Universal thought putting her in its new Durbin's-Gloria Jean's-first film might be good luck. Nan would move into a sister role in Gloria's non-sequel sequel to PUP, A LITTLE BIT OF HEAVEN. Nan's final feature would be a starring role in a crime drama B, UNDER AGE, directed by Edward Dmytryk. I chose a photo of Nan with fellow TIGer Tom Brown just because.
Without any animus for the next TIGers personally, I hate that the next two are TIGers. Louanne Hogan (1919) came to Hollywood looking for a career as a singer and found one almost entirely off-screen. She played the singing voice of Jeanne Crain several times, singing for Jeanne in STATE FAIR, CENTENNIAL SUMMER, MARGIE and APARTMENT FOR PEGGY. She also sang for Joan Leslie and Virginia Mayo in films. She also sang the title song to I'LL BE SEEING YOU entirely off camera as well. She even hummed for Faye Emerson and Sophia Loren in films. She spent several years as a member of THE PIED PIPERS. Why is she a TIGer? Because IMDb claims she is the person who dubbed the very capable singer Virginia Weidler in BEST FOOT FORWARD. BTW, even this is in dispute. Another website, http://www.barbaralea.com/Dubbers/dubberslist.html, claims the dubber was not Luanne but Jeanne Darrell. I guess there is no one left for us to ask. Which brings us to...
Jeanne Darrell (no birth date shown) is one of the two disputed dubbers for Virginia in BEST FOOT FORWARD. Her career, according to IMDb, consists of two small credits, She was a member of the Music Maids in both BROADWAY MELODY of 1940 and in HOOSIER HOLIDAY. A photo of the Music Maids when they were appearing on the Burns and Allen radio show will represent although I can't tell you if Jeanne is in there or not.
Joanne Lybrook (1926) was another of the Penguin Girls in THE UNDER-PUP. After PUP, Joanne had small roles in SWING PARADE OF 1946, BLUE SKIES, and EVERY GIRL SHOULD BE MARRIED and wrapped up her career at the ripe old age of 22. The Penguins en masse will represent.
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It's time for TODAY IN GINNY!
Actress Grace Hayle (1888) was a character type. In the movies she was frequently cast as "Fat Woman", "Chubby Woman", "Plump Hostess", "Overweight Woman", and even "Fat Book Club Member". She was a cyclist in THE WOMEN and she made me scan that danged film again!
Virgil Johanson (1894) is another part timer as far as IMDb is concerned as they've only credited him 10 times during a 21 year career. He was in the Ballad for Americans scene of BORN TO SING. He was also Santa in DOUBLE DYNAMITE which gives me an excuse to post a photo of Sinatra and Marx, the Co-chairmen of the Board, from that film.
Paul Kruger (1895) did not have 13.5 QB sacks last year. He did appear in three Ginny films during a career lasting from 1927-1960. He played a reporter in MEN WITH WINGS, a policeman in TOO HOT TO HANDLE, and a detective in BORN TO SING. He's seen here from an appearance on THE RIFLEMAN.
Lee Arnaud (1904) was the orchestrator on BEST FOOT FORWARD. His claim to fame is that he wrote a song called Bugler's Dream which ABC renamed Olympic Fanfare. Maybe you've heard it?
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It's still TODAY IN GINNY even though by the time you see it it will be yesterday...or something like that!
Actor Allen D. Sewall (1882) managed to be in 19 uncredited roles over a 26 year period. I wonder what else he was doing in those years. He was a townsman in MAID OF SALEM (wasn't everyone?). He was also one of many policemen chasing Dr. Hackenbush in A DAY AT THE RACES so a poster from that film will represent.
Aileen Pringle (1895) had success in films in the silent era and became a supporting player in talkies. A three time TIGer, she played Mrs. McArthur in TOO HOT TO HANDLE (see photo), Miss Carter in THE WOMEN, and Miss Farwood in THE YOUNGEST PROFESSION. She was a darling of the literary set and was romantically linked to H.L. Mencken in the 1920s and briefly married to author James M. Cain in the 1940s. Of Cain she said, "If I had remained married to that psychotic Cain, I would be wearing a straitjacket instead of the New Look." She remained an important figure in New York society after her movie career.
Writer Dale Van Every (1896) received a screenplay credit along with Grover Jones for SOULS AT SEA. A successful author, he also shared credit for CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS, adapting the screenplay of TALK OF THE TOWN, and the Marion Davies version of MARIANNE.
ANN AYARS (1918) played Susan Thayer, the secretary Joan mistakenly thinks in having an affair with her father (thanks to Agnes Moorhead) in THE YOUNGEST PROFESSION. Hers was a short career consisting of eight films and a handful of TV appearances. After TYP, Ann appeared in THE HUMAN COMEDY, then did nothing more until 1951 when she appeared in the Oscar nominated THE TALES OF HOFFMANN. Her final role was in an episode of the family western THE MONROES, of which ginnyfan was a loyal viewer. The photo is of TYP's "Love Triangle". Ayars is seen with Edward Arnold and Marta Linden.
Gloria DeHaven (1925?) went on to a fine career after her time as a TIGer. In her early MGM days she was Ginny's big sister Evelyn in KEEPING COMPANY and Minerva in BEST FOOT FORWARD, a film where she and Ginny were two of the few contract players in a film filled with Broadway cast members. She would remain a major player at MGM through the 1940s and would continue to have an impact on film and television for several decades.
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Now for our daily TODAY IN GINNY feature.
We continue our run of actresses from THE WOMEN. This frustrates me greatly as I really don't want to look at that danged film again for a long time since it is a film and a role that stifled Virginia greatly and is the only example of her work that TCM seems to want anyone to see...WEEKLY. Don't get me wrong, I do think she good in it. Little Mary is, however, a pretty thankless role.
Anyway, Sibyl Harris (1883) was the Fashion Show commenter in THE WOMEN. She just missed by seconds being in color. She was also Mlle. Maillard in ALL THIS AND HEAVEN TOO so I guess I could have scanned that film to find her, but I knew she'd be easier to spot in THE WOMEN, so I scanned through it again. Sibyl was also in THE HOUSE OF SEVEN GABLES and a total of 22 films during a four year span from 1936 to 1940. ATAHT and her final film, UNTAMED were both realeased after her death in May 1940.
Eddie Arden (1907) played bellhops, lots of bellhops. And elevator operators and copy boys, and page boys, and messenger boys. Maybe I shouldn't assume this but I'm guessing he was a small man. I scanned TOO HOT TO HANDLE to see if I could spot him as a cycle messenger, but I didn't.
Luana Walters (1912) was an actress who worked a lot in equestrian roles. I think we had another of those recently. Because of this talent, she ended up becoming a major ingenue in westerns of the late 1930s and early 1940s. In the '40s, she branched out into horror, noir, and even superhero films. She's listed on IMDb as playing Eloise in SOULS AT SEA, but her Wikipedia page (which is better than Virginia's and I probably should do something about that) says she was cut out of that film. For TIG purposes, we know she was there so she counts.
Last but certainly not least is Ada Leonard (1915), the Dita Von Teese of bandleaders. Hers was the band in Ginny's All-American Girl Revue during the 1943 War Bond trip. IMdb credits Ada with six films and a short. In one of the films, MY DREAM IS YOURS, she played herself and appeared with Ginny's former sister-in-law, Doris Day. In an earlier effort, MEET THE MISSUS with Victor Moore, Helen Broderick and Anne Shirley, Ada played Princess Zarina, a stripper.
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TODAY IN GINNY will do the birthday thing a little later.
TODAY IN GINNY we actually have something that happened on this date to...Ginny!
On July 22, 1943, seventy years ago TODAY, at 9:45AM Virginia Weidler visited the Century Theater in downtown Baltimore MD, a mere 25 miles or so from VWRS Central. It was a War Bond rally and Ginny was representing the Treasury Department!
In case you are wondering, Hochschild-Kohn's (pronounced HO-shul, BTW) was a large area department store that went out of business in the 1980s, I believe.
This is the Century Theater in Baltimore as it looked just a few years after Virginia's visit. COPACABANA came out in 1947, the year Ginny got married.
In addition to Groucho and Carmen Miranda, Ginny's old castmate Gloria Jean was also in the film.
The Century was a tad ahead of its time. A sister theater, the Valencia, sat right above it.
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Sunday's TODAY IN GINNY features six honorees, but only four photos.
The guy at left in the first photo was born in 1899 and it is rumored that he was lucky enough to meet Virginia while both lived in Cuba. I don't know if Virginia ever met the guy on the right, but if she did let's hope he got the Leo Gorcey treatment.
C. Aubrey Smith (1863) graduated from Cambridge, was knighted in 1944 and was the captain of the Hollywood Cricket Club (does that still exist?) He wasn't called to the stage until age 30 and didn't find his way into films until age 52. While some say he was the epitome of the stiff upper-lipped Englishman, he was equally at home playing quirky fatherly and grandfatherly types, as he did in one of his Ginny films, THE UNDER-PUP. His other TIGworthy appearance was of the upper crust type as Count Reichendorf in SURRENDER.
Phyllis Povah (1893) had an oddly short film career. She was 46 in 1939 when it started with her role as Edith Potter in THE WOMEN and it ended 20 years and only eight films later. She continued to be a regular Broadway fixture throughout her film days, though.
Charles Marshall (1898) was a Hollywood specialist, an aerial cinematographer. All of his credits except for his first were for that work. He worked with Fred MacMurray twice on MEN WITH WINGS and again on DIVE BOMBER. I found no photo.
Allyn Joslyn (1901) was always the other guy in films. If not an out and out cad, he was at least the outclassed runner-up when it came to getting the girl. He's in that role again here as Joel Archer, a literary agent with more on his mind than Marsha Hunt's book in THE AFFAIRS OF MARTHA. One of his actual leads is in a film TCM shows regularly, DANGEROUS BLONDES. In that one, he and Evelyn Keyes are a husband-wife crime solving team in the Nick and Nora tradition. It was a B feature at Columbia.
William Pawley (1905) was the brother of character actor Edward Pawley and it appears they both were pretty good at it. While very far down the cast lists, Pawley was in some pretty good films, like THE GRAPES OF WRATH, JOHNNY APOLLO, and THE RETURN OF FRANK JAMES. He played Gourrut in SURRENDER. Every photo I found was of his son with Liz Taylor.
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We have a threesome TODAY IN GINNY.
Actress Mary Cecil (1883) only made five films over 25 years or so, concentrating on her stage and radio work. She made two films in the 1910s, took a couple of decades off from film work and made three films in 1939-40. She died in December 1940. The first of her three sound pictures was THE WOMEN, in which she played Maggie. Her final film was DR. KILDARE GOES HOME, which featured no fewer than eightother TIGers among its cast (I finally stopped counting).Composer Gregory Stone (1900) came to America from Russia shortly after the revolution. After a time arranging music for Broadway, he ended up writing stock music for Paramount and his work was featured in THE BIG BROADCAST OF 1937, SOULS AT SEA, and SCANDAL STREET. In the 1940s, he would work for several studios with much of his work being for Columbia. During those years, he was also the principal conductor for Ice Capades. After he retired from Hollywood, Stone founded the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra in 1969. Stone would later retire to Spain where he died in 1991 just one month short of age 91.
Muriel Evans (1910) was the love interest in scores of B westerns of the 1930s. She would occasionally crossover into non-oater work, such as a series of shorts she made with comedian Charley Chase. Another crossover for her was Ginny's THE ROOKIE COP, where she played Fern, Joey's Girl.
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We only have two honorees TODAY IN GINNY.
Robert A. Golden (1897) spent an entire career as a second director, a job he performed for GOLD RUSH MAISIE. His record shows he was lead director exactly once, for the 1928 film HONEYMOON. Someone at IMDb claims he was also director Joseph A. Golden, but for that to be true he would have had to start directing at age ten. I'm betting they aren't the same guy. It's has been determined by reputable sources, however, that he was also a regular double for Harold Lloyd in the 1920s. He is also one of two TIGer known to have died by choking on food. Ray McDonald is the other. Jubie Davis from GRM fills in for Golden here.
Barbara Bedford (1903) was a regular character actor for MGM while Ginny was there. As a result, she appeared in five different films with Virginia. She was MacArthur's secretary in TOO HOT TO HANDLE, Mrs. Dodd (scenes deleted) in BAD LITTLE ANGEL, Mrs. Crainen, the matron in BABES ON BROADWAY, Woman at Accident Scene in BORN TO SING, and a chaperone at the dance in BEST FOOT FORWARD. She was in 203 films over 25 years and during the last ten was almost never in a credited role. She did, however, apparently have some popularity in the silent era.
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First a note to Musical Novelty: The birthday party, according to the notes with the photo say it was Peggy Ryan's birthday so it would have been late August 1943. Over at the VWRS we were trying to figure out if Virginia would have been invited as she was quite the social butterfly at that time. We're fairly sure Virginia was still on her very long vaudeville/War Bond tour.
Now, TODAY IN GINNY!
We have a father-daughter TIG team officially. Gene Lockhart (1891) is the father of our friend June Lockhart and a wonderful character actor in his own right. You know you've seen him in something. Bob Cratchit in the 1938 version of A CHRISTMAS CAROL, Charles Ogden Roper in the spy-noir, THE HOUSE ON 92ND STREET and, most memorably, Judge Henry X. Harper in MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET. His final appearance, in the film JEANNE EAGELS, was released four months after his death. He played Mr. Hellman in KEEPING COMPANY, the film where Virginia's Harriet was always trying to get ice cream.
M.K. Jerome (1893) was a composer who supplied "The War of the Roses", "Loti's Song" and "Lullaby" for ALL THIS AND HEAVEN TOO. He wrote songs on his own that were later adapted to films as well as writing songs and stock music directly for certain productions, usually for Warner Brothers. He's not the only TIGer who also worked with Bugs, Daffy, and the gang-Jack Benny is a TIGer and he worked with "them" almost weekly-but certainly one of the few.
When I was a kid, Chill Wills (1902), Andy Devine and Slim Pickens seemed like the same guy. They certainly showed up on my 1960s TV with similar regularity. Wills, however, became a TIGer early in his career, playing Chester Short in Virginia's final film, BEST FOOT FORWARD (Devine will also be saluted as a TIGer in the coming months). Wills would appear in several MGM features after that, ones Ginny might have been in had she stuck around at the studio. These include MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, THE HARVEY GIRLS, and two Pvt./Cpl. Hargrove features, the second featuring Ginny's pal Jean Porter as a French girl. You may know him as the voice of Francis, The Talking Mule for all of those films except for the last one, when he and Donald O'Connor were replaced by voice expert Paul Frees and...Mickey Rooney.
Thomas Scott (1909) was the editor for Ginny's MEN WITH WINGS. The best film he probably worked on was BEAU GESTE. In the TV era, he worked on multiple episodes of MEET CORLISS ARCHER, THE CISCO KID, HIGHWAY PATROL, THE TWILIGHT ZONE, and THE VIRGINIAN. A pooped Peggy from trying to help the boys get their kite aircraft aloft in the film MEN WITH WINGS represents Scott.
Mildred Coles (1920) played a debutante in THE WOMEN. Mildred had been a beauty queen and went on to have her biggest roles in westerns as her career went on. She, like Ginny, also appeared in a Hardy family picture, in her case ANDY HARDY GETS SPRING FEVER.
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> {quote:title=TopBilled wrote:}{quote}
> *STRANGE BARGAIN *(1949)..RKO..Jeffrey Lynn, Martha Scott, Henry (Harry) Morgan
>
> From bmacv at the IMDB:
>
> A sedate thriller built upon the insecurities of the newly emergent white-collar class, STRANGE BARGAIN offers solid production values and brisk direction. Jeffrey Lynn (who looks like a solution of Ray Milland and Bruce Bennett) is a hard-working family man who earns his keep as an accountant. One morning when the milk bill comes due he screws up his courage to ask for a raise; when he does, his boss tells him that the firm's at the brink of bankruptcy, and lets him go.
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> But wait-- there's more! The boss plans to kill himself but make it look like murder so his wife can collect the insurance; for helping, he offers Lynn $10,000. Lynn tries to prevent the suicide but arrives too late, finding his boss already dead. Enter a police detective (Harry Morgan) whose instincts tell him all is not as it seems (not only to him, but to us as well).
>
> The story works itself out neatly and holds your interest. Too polite and middle-class to be true noir, STRANGE BARGAIN nontheless delivers what it promises.
STRANGE BARGAIN was the subject of a redo by MURDER SHE WROTE. They got some of the original cast, intercut clips from the original film and had Angela Lansbury solve the case. It was pretty clever.
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Wednesday was a pretty big TODAY IN GINNY (Yes, I'm behind again!).
Lyricist Edward Madden (1878) wrote "By the Light of the Silvery Moon" which was sung in BABES ON BROADWAY. It was also the title of a film starring Ginny's former sister-in-law, Doris Day. He also wrote "On Moonlight Bay", which was also lifted for a Day movie title. gf notices a trend. If Madden wrote a song called, "Move Over, Darling", I'm calling the cops.
Frank Whitbeck (1882) was MGM's Chief of Publicity/Exploitation. gf still can't believe they once thought that title sounded positive. As the chief, he oversaw preparation of all publicity material. He also personally narrated a lot of MGM's trailers and shorts. He narrated briefly at the end of YOUNG TOM EDISON to remind you to look for EDISON, THE MAN coming soon! I have no photo, but one of the lovely Tannie Edison will have to do.
Edward Gargan (1902), newly minted TIGer, shares his birthday with younger brother William, non-TIGer. Gargan played Jake in FIXER DUGAN and Tom the Taxi Driver in THE SPELLBINDER. From what I can tell while Ginny was loaned to RKO for FIXER, she wound up doing another appearance as "girl" in SPELLBINDER, strictly a walk on. Gargan mainly played policemen and was Detective Bates, a dim-witted policeman in the Falcon series.
gf is shocked that he found a photo of Virginia Kami (1903). Kami was in exactly three films and nothing is written about her that I can find. She had a "bit role" in SOULS AT SEA, her final film. Googling virginia and kami will reap several photos of Kami Cotler of THE WALTONS, BTW.
John Carroll (1906) is an actor I know, but when faced with saying what he's "famous" for I'm at a loss. He had a steady career of credited roles, unlike most of the guys we profile, yet there is nothing that jumps out at me. I guess the second lead in FLYING TIGERS might be his most memorable role. He had a few B leads. He played Terry Turner, the love interest in the Marxes' GO WEST. He's a TIGer because he played Mr. Hercules in THE YOUNGEST PROFESSION.
Barbara O'Neil (1910) would be no one's candidate for mother of the year based on her role as Duchesse de Praslin in ALL THIS AND HEAVEN TOO. She got prime roles from the start, she was fourth billed in her first film, STELLA DALLAS. At age 28, she played Scarlett's mother in GONE WITH THE WIND and followed that up with the performance in ATAHT. As her biography on IMDb states, she made a career out of playing either neurotic or sweetly dependable wives.
Finally, Betty Jane Graham (1923) was one of the classroom girls in ALL THIS AND HEAVEN TOO. Betty Jane had been in film since age four in mostly small uncredited roles. She would leave the business in 1944, just shortly after Virginia. I had trouble finding a photo other than of her as a small child since a New York model took over the name in Hollywood as soon as our Betty Jane retired and worked under it for two years. I'm pretty sure this one is of our Betty Jane, though. It's a birthday party in 1943 and Betty Jane is in there. From left to right are birthday girl Peggy Ryan, Gwen Carter (soon to be Mrs. Donald O'Connor), Betty Jane Graham, Judy Garland, Marcie Mae Jones.
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> {quote:title=TopBilled wrote:}{quote}THE GREAT MAN VOTES is another Weidler gem that deserves airplay on TCM.
Thank you. I was quite careful not to use either the V word, the W word or even the G word in my post, but I'm glad to see one in yours.
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It's a fairly brief TODAY IN GINNY but at least it's occurring on the right day for once.
Actor Edward Earle (1882) played an officer in MEN WITH WINGS. Earle had over 400 credits, but his biggest roles were during the 1920s when he tended to fall in the middle of the cast list. His parts were smaller in the sound era, where he played judges, lawyers, bankers. He was a doctor in THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE and Jed Adams in THE HARVEY GIRLS.
Actor Lew Davis (1884) is our only other honoree today. He played a heavy in THE LONE WOLF SPY HUNT. Waiters and stewards were his specialty, but he also played his share of henchmen and con men. He was a high school teacher in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE and was in several Three Stooges shorts. The photo is one his role in the Stooges' PLAYING THE PONIES.
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> {quote:title=LonesomePolecat wrote:}{quote}Gotta say I love Virginia Wiedler best in THE PHILADELPHIA STORY. "I can tell something is in the air because I'm being taken away!"
MGM started putting lines like that in all the films where they had her playing that same curious character. In THE AFFAIRS OF MARTHA it's, "Why do I get the funny feeling there's something going on that I don't know about?"
The best of the "fake Dinahs" is probably in THIS TIME FOR KEEPS when she says,"I know, you want to say something you don't want me to hear. Always sending me someplace. No wonder I'm skinny!"
I'm glad TB used THE WOMEN photo to give voice to our plight of being overdosed on Little Mary and because I spent a whole ten minutes when I made up that photo.
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I'm no Caron expert, but I cetainly enjoyed her in THE MAN WITH A CLOAK.
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TODAY IN GINNY, actually *TODAY* IN GINNY, is a list of only four honorees.
Francis Pierlot (1875) didn't start working in films full time until he was age 63. He still managed to rack up 99 credits before his death in 1955. He played a decent number of ministers including one in BARNACLE BILL and in OUR VINES HAVE TENDER GRAPES. He also played a priest in A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN. In the photo, he winds up playing checkers with Ginny instead of having Sunday dinner since Bill hasn't come home.
Joseph Crehan (1883) played authority figures. Military leaders, Judges, Police officers. He was comfortable in big films like THE BIG SLEEP as well as serials. He played U.S. Grant NINE times. He played the first ad man in TOO HOT TO HANDLE. Late in his career, he played spectators and passersby who didn't have to do much of anything on TV shows such as PERRY MASON and THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW.
George Yohalem (1893) was the Assistant Director on Ginny's comeback film, AFTER TONIGHT. His record is really sparse, he spent some time as a second director, some time as a producer, then moved into production management, what ever that is. We'll let the smiling cutie stand in for him.
Burt Spurlin (1899) was the Assistant Director on BABES ON BROADWAY. He spent his entire career as an Assistant Director, backing up Berkeley, Richard Thorpe, Lesley Selander, and others. He finished his career being the number two for 86 episodes of OUR MISS BROOKS. We've decided to assume Busby was too busy with the stars during the Hoedown scene and that Spurlin was concentrating on Ginny and Ray, who are seen in the photo.
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We have both Saturday and Sunday's TIGers to celebrate now and Monday's coming later.
First TIGer for Saturday, July 13 is character actor Broderick O'Farrell (1882). O'Farrell connection is a little tenuous as he shows up on IMDb's cast list for BORN TO SING without an actual role. But the fact that people think he was in a Ginny film is good enough for me. O'Farrell appeared in 175 films from 1920 to 1949. His first was credited; he played Bill Lee in an oater called THE GOLDEN TRAIL (1920). The film was directed by actor Jean Hersholt who later played Dr. Christian on radio and in many films in the late 1930s and early 1940s. He played doctors, board members, ministers, several conductors. The photo is from his appearance with Laurel and Hardy in BEAU HUNKS. L&H and Three Stooges websites are the best sources for photos of obscure actors.
Frank M. Thomas (1889) is a double TIGer. He played Mr. Bedford, one of the upright citizens in THE OUTCASTS OF POKER FLAT (see left on the photo). He also played Police Chief Gordon H. Lane in THE ROOKIE COP. Thomas worked in Hollywood in films and television from 1917 through 1965 when he played a judge on the NBC soap, PARADISE BAY, which featured Marian Ross.
Clyde De Vinna (1890) was the cinematographer on BARNACLE BILL. He won an early Oscar for WHITE SHADOWS IN THE SOUTH SEAS. He photographed the 1925 version of BEN-HUR:A TALE OF THE CHRIST as well as several Tarzan films. He never settled at one studio and it is said he preferred independent work on location to studio processed films.
Finally. Bosley Crowther (1905) was the long time film reviewer for the New York Times and he was born in Lutherville Maryland about five miles from the campus of my college. He doesn't get in for that. He gets in for giving Virginia a bad review. It's bad until you read all of what he said and realize that it's actually a criticism of how Metro used her, not of her talents. The review was for her final film, BEST FOOT FORWARD, and Crowther, as a New Yorker who had seen the Broadway play wasn't buying how MGM adapted the role of Helen for her in what was otherwise a positive review for the film.
From his review:
For Metro, in its only serious slip up, has put Virginia Weidler in the role [replacing Broadway's Maureen Cannon-gf]-that of the little prom-trotter shoved aside by the flashy film star-then has prevented her from drawing any generous sympathy to herself. The result is an off-side lunge of emphasis. Miss Ball gets all the breaks-which, happily, she is able to make agreeable but which saps the story of some of its pristine charm.
ginnyfan, and others, have often said that Virginia seems like a guest in the film at times. I think Crowther understood why where I never did.
Now we move to Sunday's TODAY IN GINNY.
First up is the aptly named Donald Meek (1878). We've talked about him before. It is alleged that he had played over 800 roles on the stages of Britain and Australia before he ever came to the U.S.. In the movies, he was most at home as doctors and bookkeepers. A branch out role for him was as the surprisingly feisty Pop Cavendish, father of Marjorie Main, in BARNACLE BILL. He also was Hiram Wiggs in MRS. WIGGS,Mr. Slade in PETER IBBETSON, Ezra Cheeves in MAID OF SALEM, and Mr. Stone in BABES ON BROADWAY. In the early 1930s, Meek starred in a series of shorts written by S.S. Van Dine where he played a criminologist named Dr. Crabtree. Crabtree solved the crimes that baffled Police Inspector Carr played by John Hamilton. Carr actually got to solve one of the Van Dine mysteries. For some unknown reason, Meek wasn't in that one.
Edythe Elliott (1886) was the kindly orphanage director Mrs. Fletcher in FIXER DUGAN. Almost all of Elliott's roles were Mrs. Somebody. DUGAN was a rare credited role for her. She had roles in some pretty big films such as STELLA DALLAS and GONE WITH THE WIND while also working in the Blondie series and in B westerns.
Al Hill (1892) was a mail driver in MEN WITH WINGS. He was Rico's 'Butler' in LITTLE CAESAR and often played patrons, henchmen, bouncers.
LeRoy Prinz (1895) Was a writer, producer, actor, director, but mainly a choreographer. He was the dance director for MRS. WIGGS, THE BIG BROADCAST OF 1936 and 1937. He was really hot at the end of his career, with SOUTH PACIFIC, SAYONARA, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, LUCKY ME, and APRIL IN PARIS all in his final decade of regular work. He was nominated for Oscars three times, including for THE BIG BROADCAST OF 1936.
Randall Duell (1903) is an architect who also dabbled in art direction and sets. That dabbling led to three Oscar nominations. He was the Associate Art Director on OUT WEST WITH THE HARDYS. BTW, if you like to go to theme parks there is a good chance you've visited one designed by Duell and his company.
Writer John Twist (1898) was the screenwriter for THE OUTCASTS OF POKER FLAT and THE GREAT MAN VOTES. He pretty much split his career between RKO and WB and wrote a lot more B's than A's. He wrote THE BIG TREES, THE FBI STORY, and SO BIG among others. The Vance family from THE GREAT MAN VOTES subs for him.
Actor John Laing (1914) had a very small career of ten listed titles, although on his three TV credits-THE ADVENTURES OF JIM BOWIE, THE JACK BENNY PROGRAM, and MAKE ROOM FOR DADDY-he appeared multiple times. He was a concessionaire in FIXER DUGAN and Terry, the boxing champ of the midway, stands in for him.
Gene Howard (1920) is a guess on my part. Before becoming a publicist, Gene was a band singer with both Teddy Powell and Stan Kenton. Since he was with Teddy around the same time Teddy was on the vaudeville bill with Ginny and he was with Kenton around the time George and Warner joined up, I'm guessing Ginny met him. A bit of a stretch, but not a long one.
This last one is a sad one. Sally Martin (1930) played Timothy's sister Gay in TIMOTHY'S QUEST. She later appeared as Belinda in scenes deleted from BAD LITTLE ANGEL and as the second stooge in KEEPING COMPANY, her final film. Her mother died around that time and Sally, who always wanted to be a regular kid anyway, moved back to Chicago to live with her aunt. Sally grew up to be a medical technician and didn't return to acting until the mid-2000s. Sally, now Sally Marks, died of cancer on December 7, 2012. The photo is of her and Dickie Moore and was autographed to her by Dickie apparently years later, based on the handwriting.
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> {quote:title=FredCDobbs wrote:}{quote}I'm watching Virginia right now in THE WOMEN. She is so great in this film. !
Virginia takes lumps from some over how wimpy Little Mary seems, but I call that range. She wasn't going to play Little Mary the same way she played all the tough, clever kids she played in films.
The only problem I have with THE WOMEN is that TCM shows it once a week. Virginia was in 45 films and I want to see more of them!
We have a major catchup TODAY IN GINNY coming tonight, BTW.
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It was a wild day at the Facebook site of [The Virginia Weidler Remembrance Society|https://www.facebook.com/VirginiaWeidlerRemembranceSociety?ref=hl] as we started out talking about a Broadway play Virginia was tapped for that was never produced and passed through discussions of Happy Felton's Knot Hole Gang and Judy Garland's appearances in 1935 on radio's SHELL CHATEAU program. Still, I manged to finish TODAY IN GINNY.
Louis B. Mayer (1884) was the boss at MGM throughout Ginny's time there. Some loved him; Hepburn called him the most honest man she ever met in the business. The other side was that he was alleged to have said that Virginia wasn't built enough to be an adult actress at MGM, but I haven't found firm confirmation of that. The way women and children in MGM employ were treated by the studio he ran was pretty slimy. No further details tonight, but let's just say gf is not a louiefan. The photo is the only one I can find of Mr. Mayer and Virginia, where he's the starter for the kid's swimming race at Judy's 17th birthday. Ginny was by far the youngest and smallest in that "race".
Sam Lee (1891) was one half of the comedy team of Shaw and Lee and they were both in MRS. WIGGS. The photo is of them years earlier in THE BEAU BRUMMELS (1928).
Hunt Stromberg (1894) was the producer of THE WOMEN. He also produced the entire THIN MAN series. Independently, he also made some great noirs such as LURED, set in London, but shot in Hollywood with Lucille Ball as star and TOO LATE FOR TEARS with Lizbeth Scott.
Otto Meyer (1901) was the film editor on THE LONE WOLF SPY HUNT. He was nominated twice for Oscars for THEODORA GOES WILD and THE TALK OF THE TOWN. He worked on GOLDEN BOY and the underrated IT HAPPENED IN HOLLYWOOD and eventually wound up editing 122 episodes of GUNSMOKE. I have no photo.
Hugh Mc Dowell Jr. (1902) was the recordist on THE GREAT MAN VOTES. He also did sound for CITIZEN KANE (uncredited), several Crime Doctor features, TOP HAT, THE SEARCHERS and, in a crowning achievement, over 100 episodes of THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES. Once again, no photo.
John Cope (1903) was recordist on THE BIG BROADCAST OF 1036, MEN WITH WINGS and SOULS AT SEA. He did some other biggies, REAR WINDOW, SUNSET BLVD, SABRINA. He also did sound for Billy Lee's THE BISCUIT EATER. No photo.
Will Bradley (1912), born Wilbur Schwictenberg, made some sounds that Cope recorded in BB36. He played trombone in Ray Noble's Orchestra. He later had his own orchestra and the photo is one of his record covers. His orchestra, featuring drummer Ray McKinley, was famous for two boogie woogie hits, "Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar" and "Scrub Me Mama, with a Boogie Beat."
In search of...Virginia Weidler
in General Discussions
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It's one of the shortest TIGs on record as we have but one honoree.
Jimmy Robinson (1918) played Mose the newspaper office boy in MRS. WIGGS OF THE CABBAGE PATCH. Of his 34 credits on IMDb, 22 of the are for a single role. He played Hambone Johnson in the Mickey McGuire series that Mickey Rooney was in before he was even Mickey Rooney. Mr. Robinson was done in Hollywood in 1940, but did have a small role in the film THE BLACK KLANSMAN in 1966. He died in 1967.