ginnyfan

Danny is doing a fabulous job reporting these events. And the photos are excellent. It would be nice if Weidler, Blyth and Withers all had some sort of day on TCM later this year or next year. Blyth especially could be a Star of the Month. Danny has been a godsend. One of the other members early on wrote me that she "knew this guy" she thought would love what I was doing and put us together. It's great in that he shares my passion for the subject and has the access and contacts that I don't have. On that other item, from your keyboard to programming's eyes.

Here's another update from VWRS reposter Danny Miller: "I wasn't able to talk to Jane Withers and Ann Blyth again personally but heard both speak before the screenings of their films yesterday ("Giant" and "Mildred Pierce"). The two are good friends and get together for lunch a few times a year with Joan Leslie and one other actress that I forget. Jane Withers is such a delight and talks like a character out of one of her films, saying things like "Honest Injun!" She cried talking about James Dean who was a close friend and who she saw the morning before he died. She had retired from films when George Stevens persuaded her to take the part in "Giant" to the approval of her three young children. Blyth was very sweet, Robert Osborne couldn't say enough good things about her. She said that Joan Crawford was always very nice to her, during the shoot and for the rest of her life. Again, she mentioned she didn't know about all the other people testing for Veda (including Ginny) until years later. She's great in that part but after seeing it on the big screen I can SO see Ginny in that role. She and Blyth actually looked a lot alike back then (Veda's often wearing that big white flower in her hair, I wonder if that's when Ginny started doing that). I'm wondering if her great scene with Joan Crawford in "The Women" worked against her--I can see that they wouldn't want to remind people of Crystal Allen and Little Mary but might have wanted someone new. But, with all due respect to the lovely Ann Blyth, I think Ginny would've brought a lot more to that role. Off to one more full day of movies (on three hours sleep), God help me.

Fred Allen is my all time favorite radio comedian. If only he could have found a medium to hold him when radio died...

LOVE IS A HEADACHE is a high-concept programmer from MGM about a fading actress (Gladys George) who adopts two street urchins as a publicity stunt. The urchins are portrayed by Mickey Rooney and Virginia Weidler, who they give the movies one of its better sibling relationships. Franchot Tone is in on the set-up. It's nice to see him in more of a 'family'-type comedy. Sorry to be commenting days after the post. I saw this film once about five or six years ago on TCM and thought it to be a bit of a hidden gem. The entire cast was good, it was a good first full time MGM effort for Weidler and gave a strong hint as to the chemistry she and Rooney would have together. It is a pity that Gladys George was as fading as her character at this point, for she was quite good as well.

It's a double dose of TIG since I didn't post Friday's earlier today. On Friday, first up was the fine writer Anita Loos (1888). She started out writing shorts and scenarios about 100 years ago and ended up writing GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES and GENTLEMEN MARRY BRUNETTES. She wrote the titles for INTOLERANCE in 1916. Her connection to Virginia is the screenplay for THE WOMEN. Harry Cording (1891) had a type, at least when it came to films with Virginia. He was a guard in PETER IBBETSON and then a...guard in MAID OF SALEM. The British born Cording regularly showed up as various criminals in the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes series and also did his share of Errol Flynn films. Frances Robinson (1916) was an actress who played mainly in the "B"s throughout her film career. Unlike a lot of the actresses who show up on TIG, she didn't get out in the 1940s, but found even more roles as guests on series television. I'm going to mention that she played Martha in KITTEN WITH A WHIP just because I've always wanted to mention KITTEN WITH A WHIP in a TIG entry. Interestingly, she appeared in both Ginny's version of LADDIE as well as in the 1927 silent version which was made when she was 11. Dorothy Sebastian (1903) was an ingenue at the end of the silent era, but by the time she was in a Weidler film she was limited to smaller roles. She played Saleswoman Pat in THE WOMEN and can be seen here a decade earlier playing beach football with her WOMEN co-star Joan Crawford. Cecilia Parker (1914) found a role and the role defined her entire career. She was, and always will be, Marian Hardy in the Hardy Family series. She was in a lot of other films, at least prior to the Hardy craze. She even had a small role in FRANKENSTEIN. She did a fair number of oaters and jungle films and retired around the same time in the early 1940s that Virginia left the screen. She did come back to make a Hardy reunion film in 1958 and even appeared on American Playhouse on PBS in the 1980s. Here Marion is meeting Jake for the first time in OUT WEST WITH THE HARDYS. For Saturday, TODAY IN GINNY features two actors from the pre-MGM era. Lumsden Hare (1875) was an Irish born stage actor who primarily played authority figures, usually British, in films. He had roles in some pretty big productions, like THE LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER, REBECCA, THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE, and GUNGA DIN. He played James McLean in Freckles. Kitty Kelly, not Kitty Kelley, (1902) had a fairly solid character career in the 1930s, which turned toward uncredited parts as she got older. She continued to work, though, and stayed in the game with TV roles right up until the year of her death. In an odd coincidence, she died two days before Ginny. She played Martha Ransom, Peggy's mother, in MEN WITH WINGS. The photo is of Peggy trying to revive Martha after the news that Peggy had flown in the boys' kite made mom faint.

Didn't he, Randolph Scott-like, renounce all interest in acting in any film that wasn't a Western, after about 1950 or so? Yes, I think he claimed that he thought that genre was all he had ever been good in. He was wrong, of course. I liked WICHITA, in answer to the OP's question.

Since I liked Payne and Mohr in westerns, I'd probably like these three together in one of those.

> {quote:title=TopBilled wrote:}{quote} > *RAIDERS OF THE SEVEN SEAS *(1953)..United Artists..John Payne, Donna Reed, Gerald Mohr > > From bkoganbing at the IMDB: > > This looks like a project that would have fit Tyrone Power a whole lot better than John Payne. Even though the two looked similar and I've always believed that Payne was signed by 20th Century Fox to take Power's place in musicals, Payne just doesn't quite have the proper élan to be a swashbuckling pirate. > > The story has Payne escaping from the Barbary Coast and taking over a slave ship that was sitting idle in calm waters. The cargo of would be slaves provide a very willing crew as they were to be sent to the Spanish West Indies as plantation help. > > Despite a miscast Payne, this is a pleasant enough average adventure drama. I think I've mentioned in Flynn threads that I've never been a swashbuckling fans, but this film features three of my favorite actors. Mohr was often the easygoing rogue in films, a bad guy you kind of liked.

TODAY IN GINNY for Friday will probably come Saturday morning, but I wanted to supply an update on VWRS intrepid reporter Danny Miller's very productive visit to the TCM Film Festival. I don't think Danny will mind my quoting his informal post to the VWRS page concerning talks with Ginny's friend Jane Withers and her "rival" Ann Blyth on Thursday. " Just back from the amazing opening night gala of the TCM Classic Film Festival where happily I DID get a chance to talk with both Jane Withers and Ann Blyth (seen here with Leonard Maltin on the red carpet tonight). Both were delightful. Jane teared up when I mentioned Ginny and talked about going to her birthday parties and how much she loved her and how talented she was. She said that she wasn't always very well and how scared they all were that she wasn't getting the medical treatment they thought she needed because they were Christian Scientists (she seemed to blame that mostly on Margaret Weidler). She was thrilled when I mentioned the short ("Peeks on Hollywood") that she made with Virginia and when she walked away she shouted "Thank you for bringing her up with me," she seemed genuinely moved to be talking about her. Ann Blyth said that she was only aware that Ginny (and others) were auditioning for Veda after the fact--she was clueless at the time and didn't know anyone else was up for that role. Hopefully I got both conversations on audio and will add more when I can see straight. Must get some sleep and be back there in seven hours!"

When I tried to recommend 'Oh God' to some people back then, there were several who refused to watch a movie with that title. Said "it isn't right to make a movie like that". I suspect that there might be a bigger protest today about a movie like that one. We've gotten a lot more sensitive in the last thirty+ years rather than less.

TODAY IN GINNY is a full slate, but let's start with some actual news about the search! You remember, the reason I started this thread over a year ago. I struck paydirt a few months ago when an LA based internet movie reviewer joined my group. He was such a help and became such a friend both to the cause and to me that he became the co-manager of the VWRS page. Well, we were fortunate that he got to book an interview with Bob Osborne prior to the TCM Film Festival. I'm not going to quote the interview because it belongs to Danny and his employer, but Bob did mention what a fan of Virginia he himself was and also mentioned that when he worked with Lucille Ball that she often mentioned Ginny fondly and expressed sadness that she had left the business. Mr. Osborne also mentioned his dismay with the suddeness of Virginia's leaving show business and the lack of information about her since. Danny has posted the transcript at our VWRS Facebook page ( https://www.facebook.com/VirginiaWeidlerRemembranceSociety?ref=hl) for the Ginny portion of the interview. To see Danny's published non-Ginny interview with Mr. Osborne, see http://social.entertainment.msn.com/movies/blogs/blog--interview-robert-osborne-returns-to-hollywood-with-the-tcm-classic-film-festival?_nwpt=1 First up in TIG is composer James Pierpont (1822). Pierpont is a really interesting fellow and I cannot do him justice in this forum. He wrote "The One Horse Open Sleigh" in 1857 and re-released it as "Jingle Bells, or The One Horse Open Sleigh" two years later. It wasn't a hit. That song was featured in YOUNG TOM EDISON. Please go to http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/Biographies/james_lord_pierpont.htm and read more about this gentleman. Sam Kress (1890) was costume department head at MGM and received credit for the costumes on THE YOUNGEST PROFESSION. Oddly, he only has three credits posted to IMDb. In the photo he's going over wardrobe choices with George Cokor and Lana Turner for A LIFE OF HER OWN. I guess his role was strictly supervisory because the costume credits went to Helen Rose and Rudi Gernreich. Screenwriter Dorothy Yost (1899) is officially declared by ginnyfan to be the chair of the Weidler Stock Company's writing department. She wrote the screenplays for what are thought to be three of Ginny's best performances, LADDIE, FRECKLES, and BAD LITTLE ANGEL. While the films themselves may not be classics-like most fans, I've only seen the one-she certainly proved she knew how to write for Virginia Weidler. Patsy, forlorn in the orphanage, is standing in for Ms. Yost. Editor Douglas Travers (1903) apparently had a specialty. He did montages for films. He did one for THE GREAT MAN VOTES. CITIZEN KANE, MURDER, MY SWEET, and IRENE were a few of his others. The Vance family is standing in today. There is one other birthday today. He doesn't merit a photo and was never fortunate enough to have met or spoken to the wonderful Virginia Weidler. He now spends several hours each day "with" Ginny and he hopes no one will be offended if he says that he considers her a treasured friend. After I posted TIG on the FB page this morning I received the following photo: Edited by: ginnyfan on Apr 25, 2013 5:46 PM Edited by: ginnyfan on Apr 25, 2013 8:50 PM to include links to Danny Miller's Robert Osborne interview.

Thaxter was a favorite of the Hitchcock TV people and she did some of their best episodes.

I missed two of my favorites the last couple of days, Phyllis Thaxter and Merry Anders. I've always thought Thaxter should have been a bigger star than she was, but I guess she wasn't quite glamorous enough. She has the tough role in THE BREAKING POINT. Garfield is Garfield and Neal gets one of those vixen role that are meant to shine. In the case of Anders, I mainly saw her on series TV but I think she really made light of her own abilities. The quote on IMDb is an example: "I come on the set with my lines learned and then I read them like Merry Anders. Usually that's enough, but if the director wants something more, then we go to work. After that the lines come out like Merry Anders working."

OOPS! Late Again! Wednesday's TIG featured the mother of a character actor all classic film fans have seen. Lillian Elliott (1874) was born in Canada and came to Hollywood around 1915. She appeared in 62 films over the next 28 years. Her casting list shows lots of "Mrs." roles along with two "Frau"s and a "Senora". ginnyfan likes her role of "Irish woman who doesn't know French" in GALLANT SONS. She played Mrs. Bagby in MRS. WIGGS OF THE CABBAGE PATCH. She is also the mother of more famous character actor, Lloyd Corrigan. Lillian and Lloyd make up a mother/son team of TIG members, although his day will be in the fall. Charles Sullivan (1899) was an all purpose bit part guy with over 500 roles to his credit. Cabbies, Cops, Gangsters, Bartenders, all were within his range. I guess he never found his type. He was a truck driver in BORN TO SING.

For the second time in a week I forgot to cross post TIG to this forum yesterday. Pretend it's Monday... TODAY IN GINNY: Virginia Weidler had absolutely no connection that I can find to V.I. Lenin, Immanuel Kant, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Jack Nicholson, Glen Campbell or Charlotte Rae, all of whom have birthdays today. I can also state for the record that I do not believe that she ever shouted, "Don't you know who I am?" at any police officer. Just sayin'. You can blame the current birthday dry spell for the above tirade. We do have three birthdays, though, so I shouldn't complain. Byron Haskin (1899) was a cinematographer, special effects man, and sometimes director. He was nominated for the Special Effects Oscar four straight years, 1940-43, but never won. He was responsible for special effects in ALL THIS AND HEAVEN TOO, so when Barbara O'Neil went after Bette Davis with that light saber, that was Haskin's work. He's seen here advising Sabu on a scene. ginnyfan's brother recently told him that when said brother was in the professional acting game he was once told to, "find your type, and stick to it". Walter Merrill (1906) followed that sage advice. He must have looked like a reporter, because he sure played a lot of them. He occasionally branched out and was a cameraman as well. He played "writer"-newspaper writer, maybe?-in OUTSIDE THESE WALLS. You be the judge of his type as he rides with actress Dorothy Mackaill. Vivian Dandridge (1921) was one of The Dandridge Sisters along with actual sister Dorothy and Etta Jones. She was also related by marriage to the Nicholas Brothers. The Dandridge Sisters did a specialty number in the BIG BROADCAST OF 1936. After Dorothy went solo in 1940, Vivian continued to find work in bit roles as dancers and singers as well as cartoon voice work. She and her mother Ruby did voice work in a Warner Brothers black version of Snow White. They also did a version of Goldilocks for WB. After her retirement from show business in 1953, Vivian lived in Seattle under the name Marina Rozell. Now for Tuesday... TODAY IN GINNY I am attempting to confirm the rumor that THIS TIME FOR KEEPS was actually based on an early work of William Shakespeare (1524). I'll let you know. Walter Ferris (1882) was an English professor at Yale who became a Hollywood screeenwriter in the 1930s. He wrote MAID OF SALEM as well as a couple of films that are being shown on TCM today. As far as photos go, this is the only one I found and it doesn't identify which one is Ferris. Character actor Monte Montague (1891) was also born Walter. He had 211 mostly uncredited roles and tended toward westerns. He appeared in two Ginny films, played Tom Hadley/Monte in THE ROOKIE COP and Dolan in BARNACLE BILL. About a half an hour after I posted today's TIG to the VWRS page I received the following photo in response.

TODAY IN GINNY we have two birthdays. One of them was a regular member of the Weidler Stock Company in her last two years in Hollywood. The other is a former member of OUR GANG. Cliff Danielson (1913) looks to me like a leading man type who never quite found a place to play the lead. He had 29 credits between 1939 and 1943, almost all uncredited. His biggest role was probably as Martin Leyden, Victor's Beau in SEVEN SWEETHEARTS (1942). No, it wasn't ahead of its time. All the gals in SEVEN SWEETHEARTS had boy names. Victor was played by Cecilia Parker. This is a film that had Ginny in it when first announced-or at least rumored-but both she and Ann Rutherford were long gone from the cast when it was shot. His only other credited role was as a Dr. Jordan in DR. KILDARE GOES HOME. He appeared in three films Ginny actually did make, playing a reporter in BORN TO SING and a "Man" in THE YOUNGEST PROFESSION. He also played Lee White's buddy Steve in THIS TIME FOR KEEPS. Lee calls Steve up to go batcheloring for one night, and Steve certainly can't go. In addition to the TTFK screen capture, the lower left pic is also Mr. Danielson. Rex Downing (1925) was a child actor in the 1930s who hung on until he was a young adult in the late 1940s. In the 1930s he was one of OUR GANG when the Weidler Brothers appeared in THE PINCH SINGER. As a child actor, he was Heathcliff as a child in WUTHERING HEIGHTS. After four years out of Hollywood and in the military, he came back in 1946 to make GAS HOUSE KIDS, a film that mixed OUR GANG (Alfalfa and Rex) with the DEAD END KIDS (Billy Halop). It would become a short lived series, but Rex and Billy were absent from the others. He retired in 1948, but came back almost sixty years later to appear in HARVEST OF REDEMPTION.

This is a first for TIG...a shutout! I got nuthin'. I hope that if I overlooked someone because I was researching birthdays, listening to the Marsha Hunt benefit and keeping one eye on the Boston coverage yesterday, that someone will pick me up and post the missing birthday on my behalf. Still, I've become lax about posting the Ginny premieres and I believe we've missed two of them since I last talked premieres. On April 7, 1941, BARNACLE BILL starring Wallace Beery, Marjorie Main, and Virginia Weidler was released. We've talked about it here before. I think Ginny was really good in it, but don't I always. Switching films with that other actress who gets a whole day later this week-and that other film in the switch, KATHLEEN, is going to be shown, BTW-gave Ginny the chance to stretch out her acting a bit. The character Ginny in that film is a lot more idealistic and trusting and slightly less clever than the usual screen Ginny. She greatly wants to believe in the Bill of her dreams and not the one she sees and it leaves her vulnerable. Not wussy, mind you, just softer. The other April premiere I missed was THE OUTCASTS OF POKER FLAT on April 19, 1937. Screenwriters John Twist and Harry Segall did a mashup of Bret Harte's "Outcasts" and "Luck of Roaring Camp" to come up with a story that makes Luck, played by Virginia Weidler, a pivital character in a story she wasn't supposed to be in, or be a she, either. The reviews at IMDb are a little mixed. Some don't like the direction and others don't like a minimalist photographic style, but everyone seems to like the performances, especially of Virginia and Van Heflin as the preacher. In the photo below we see Luck, on Oakhurst's lap, shuffling cards while the preacher gives a sermon off camera.

I missed one TIG and almost missed two straight. I need an alarm clock or something. First up, April 18. It's a small TIG today. Three birthdays and the one I think has the biggest Ginny connection is one who never appeared in a film with her or on stage in all likelihood. Russian born Leonid Kinskey (1903) played Russians, other Europeans, even South Americans in a long career. I mainly remember him from those Fox musicals starring either Alice Faye or Betty Grable that were always set in Latin America, but he was most famous for playing Sascha in CASABLANCA. He was a prisoner in PETER IBBETSON, a Russian in the BIG BROADCAST OF 1937, and Harry Beldon (how did that one slip in?) in THE SPELLBINDER. I'm sure he was proudest of his role as Enzo Cannaloni on THE GIRL FROM U.N.C.L.E.. Wendy Barrie (1912) is an actress I see in those Falcon and Saint movies I like to watch. She had a solid decade long Hollywood career which, time wise, matches Virginia's. Also like Virginia, she was the host of an early television daytime show. She played Sue in the BIG BROADCAST OF 1936. Deadpanned singer Virginia O'Brien (1919) never appeared in a film with our Ginny and I have no knowledge of them working on stage together either. She never quite made stardom at MGM but she was one of those company actresses who made every film she was cast in better. Virginia Weidler, as I have told you dozens of times, did an impression of O'Brien singing "Rock-A-Bye Baby" as the showstopper of her vaudeville act. The photo here is of O'Brien performing the number in THE BIG STORE. Next, April 19. TODAY IN GINNY features a host of players and someone who was in one of our VWRS quizzes recently. Al Ferguson (1888) was a character actor who was featured in 318 titles, mostly westerns. He did cross over into other fare, such as BRIGADOON and SCANDAL AT SCOURIE. His last role was in THE LAW AND JAKE WADE. His Ginny connection is that he was a vigilante in THE OUTCASTS OF POKER FLAT. The photo is from SUNSET BLVD. William Axt (1888) was a staff composer at MGM. He was responsible for music for THE THIN MAN, DINNER AT EIGHT, and LIBELED LADY. He composed some of the MGM stock music used in HENRY GOES ARIZONA. Arthur "Pat" West (1888) played a lot of bartenders, countermen, and even a couple of ring announcers. He was in two Weidler movies, playing a stage manager in the BIG BROADCAST OF 1937 and a photographer in MEN WITH WINGS. I didn't find a photo, so we'll let young Peggy from MEN WITH WINGS represent. Leonard Smith (1894) was a cinematographer who served as President of the American Society of Cinematographers from 1943 to 1947. He worked on two Marx Brothers films, two Lassie films, and Ginny's BEST FOOT FORWARD. He also was cinematographer on NATIONAL VELVET. The photo shows him working on his final film, THE YEARLING, for which he won the Oscar just months before his death. Betsy Ross Clarke (1896) spent twenty years in Hollywood from 1920 to 1940. She replaced Sara Haden as Aunt Millie for the third and fourth Hardy Family movies (Haden returned for Ginny's OUT WEST). She was a featured player during the silent era but moved to character roles in the 1930s. She played Hulda's mother in TOO HOT TO HANDLE. She's to the right with Myrna Loy and Virginia in the photo. Lina Basquette (1907) was known as "The Screen Tragedy Girl". Off camera, she had nine marriages, and couple of suicide attempts, a publicized affair with boxer Jack Dempsey and many lawsuits, apparently. She was once married to Sam Warner. As for films, she was the star of the Lina Basquette Featurettes as a child actress and then came back in the talkie era to appear in westerns and adventure films. She was a Brunette in the Saloon in SOULS AT SEA. After her career, she found peace as a Great Dane breeder and dog show judge. Cora Sue Collins (1927) appeared recently on the VWRS page in a quiz. She had a career roughly the same length as Ginny's. Like Ginny, she played the lead character in her younger days in several films and was in several high profile projects, like ANNA KARENINA and MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION. She got to play the piano and sing Brahms' Lullaby with William Powell in EVELYN PRENTICE. Her Ginny appearances include playing Louise de Rham in ALL THIS AND HEAVEN TOO and Clarabella Dodd in BAD LITTLE ANGEL. Don't look for her in BLA, however; MGM edited her out of the final film. Like Ginny she moved into teen roles in 1942, appearing in GET HEP TO LOVE with Gloria Jean, Donald O'Connor and Peggy Ryan and JOHNNY DOUGHBOY with Jane Withers. Her last starring role was as the juvenile delinquent in YOUTH ON TRIAL. She retired in 1945.

It seems to happen in TIG way more often than any coincidence. We'll have a birthday one day and then a closely related birthday the next (or the next). A couple of days ago we celebrated the birthday of the actor who played one of the butlers in THE PHILADELPHIA STORY. So, of course, we have the other one today. British born Lionel Pape (1877) actually didn't play that many butlers during his long career. He usually went in the other direction and played royalty and high ranking military men. ginnyfan is intrigued by his having played Lord Droopy in the BIG BROADCAST OF 1938, but no matter. He played Edward in THE PHILADELPHIA STORY and is seen here looking surprised that we remembered. Eva Dennison (1878) played 22 small roles on film after her stage career. She was apparently a Dumont type as most of her portrayals were society matrons. She played Old Girl in THE WOMEN and the photo is from a turn of the century stage play. She's on the right and a Canadian actress named Rose Stahl is on the left. Anne Shirley (1918) is, like May Wynn and Gig Young, an actress who took her professional name from a role she played. As a child actress from age 4 to 16 she was Dawn O'Day. Her real name was Dawn Paris, so I don't know why she ever changed it. She never quite made it to stardom, but did have some memorable roles. She was daughter Laurel in Stella Dallas, Anne Shirley (of course) in ANNE OF GREEN GABLES and, in her final role, Ann Grayle in MURDER, MY SWEET. She retired after she married for a second time and it later became known that she only stayed in the acting game as long as she did to please mom. She was Nancy Carey in MOTHER CAREY'S CHICKENS (1938) and either her role or Ruby Keeler's was originally slated for Katharine Hepburn who refused it. The photo is from the film. William Jackie (1890) is mainly known as a top Hollywood talent scout. He and his wife, Ruth Dwyer, founded the Ruth Dwyer Agency which specialized in lining up local talent for all the bit roles in Hollywood. He played "Prospector Hearing of Free Land" in GOLD RUSH MAISIE and a quick scan of the film has me guessing that this is him. Although the IMDb bio says he was a slient screen actor, the credit list only shows four talkie roles for him. Leonid Raab (1900) was a company orchestrator for MGM and was credited for four different Weidler productions. Ginny got to show off her ballet skills in one of them, THIS TIME FOR KEEPS. He also worked on THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, BARNACLE BILL, and BORN TO SING. He has a credit list of 348 films. His last was THE WAR WAGON in 1967.

We have an event today. THE PHILADELPHIA STORY runs on Turner Classic Movies at 6PM (ET). I haven't made a big deal about it at the VWRS because I figure that almost every single person who joined did so because of THAT MOVIE. So it isn't an event when TCM does show it several times every year and the real diehards already have a copy. It is an interesting movie to watch strictly for "The Ginny", though. Looking up scenes in the film for screen captures, I've started really noticing extra little nuances in her performance. And you do notice them here more than in any other of her films. Was it Cukor? Or just Virginia Weidler rising to the occasion based on who she was teamed with? I have no idea. She's a master of the "knowing-but-not-really-knowing" look in this movie and she uses it to devastating effect. So if you are in the one percent who was not initially drawn to Virginia Weidler by her portrayal of Dinah Lord (I was part of that one percent myself at one time), watch the film tonight and watch it carefully. DVR and then watch it so you can slow and savor each little piece of what should have been an Oscar nominated performance.

Stop what you're doing! It's time for a long TODAY IN GINNY. Herbert Evans (1882) was another one of those butler actors. He played enough butlers that he probably could actually take on the role off-screen between pictures. He was Fagin, the Carson's butler in THE LONE WOLF SPY HUNT. From what I remember his only spoken line was from off-screen. He got to be a townsman in MAID OF SALEM. I guess Salem had no butlers in those days. And he had an "bit role" in Peter Ibbetson-I'm betting it was some sort of servant. He also played butlers in two different Gloria Jean films and played a chauffeur in CURLY TOP. William "Christy" Cabanne (1888) was a Hollywood director for almost forty years. His earliest work is LIFE OF VILLA (1912), one of two films he and Raoul Walsh shot with the General himself. He ended up directing a lot of oaters, some horror and a little comedy. He directed the 1934 version of JANE EYRE with Virginia Bruce and Colin Clive, a version that seems to be overwhelmingly hated. He was also the director on Guy Kibbee's Scattergood Baines series. He directed THE OUTCASTS OF POKER FLAT, another film that, like EYRE, gets downgraded a bit by critics for playing fast and loose with the original story. All I can tell you is that if you aren't judging it by it's faithfulness to Harte, OOPF is pretty entertaining and Ginny is quite good as the card dealing Luck, one of three women in love with the gambler Oakhurst. You are a struggling actress. You hit Broadway with what presumably is your birth name, have some success, and go to Hollywood. In Hollywood you make some B pictures, even have the female lead in a couple, but your career consists of 12 films and ends in 1943-four years after you got to town. Within a year of your departure, someone else who changed her name to yours begins to get noticed on stage and by the end of the 1940s, is heading for film superstardom. To add insult to injury, IMDb abandons their policy of putting (I) next to the name of the first person to act under a name and puts it next to hers! You are relegated to having (II) next to yours, even though you came first and it's your real name. I am writing about B actress Doris Day (1910). She played Freeman's secretary in THIS TIME FOR KEEPS (1942). Thanks to my having a copy of the film, this may be her first photo on the internet. Now imagine you are B actor Robert Ryan (1896). ginnyfan doesn't own a copy of BORN TO SING, the Weidler film in which you played a cop (the character you played in 90% of your films), and when he searches for you he only finds photos of that other guy. You, too, got demoted by IMDb to (II) status and on top of that you go photoless on TIG. Actress Jean Stevens (1914) is also photoless, but I went with the movie poster for RETURN OF THE DURANGO KID. Jean was the top billed female in the cast as "Paradise Flo". I guess that name kind of sums up the role. She had a bit role in FIXER DUGAN, probably as a background circus performer. Douglas Mc Phail (1914) is a real tragedy. Groomed as a new Nelson Eddy by MGM, he fell out of favor because the genre fell out of favor and MGM didn't need another Nelson Eddy. Dropped from the studio, his marriage to singing partner Betty Jaynes broke up, the Army discharged him for medical reasons and he took his own life in 1944. His final screen role was as Murray Saunders in BORN TO SING, where he got to lead the cast in the Ballad For Americans. Barry Nelson (1917) will always be James Bond to ginnyfan (look it up). He had a steady career in movies in the 1940s, but his career really took off on television. It seemed like he was on TV every week when I was a kid. He was even on an episode of DAVID CASSIDY-MAN UNDERCOVER. He played George Cooper when CBS tried to make a television version of Lucille Ball's radio series, MY FAVORITE HUSBAND, with Vanessa Brown in the Ball role. (Note: VWRS resident Lucille Ball expert John pointed out to me that Joan Caulfield was originally in the role, Brown replaced her.) He's seen here making Goo-Goo eyes at Marsha Hunt as Danny O'Brien in THE AFFAIRS OF MARTHA. Finally, Lola Jensen (1918) was a dancer and all around good looker in the late 1930s. She was one of those high heeled volleyball players in that one photo I've published at the VWRS a couple of times. She apparently had a small part as a party guest in THE LONE WOLF SPY HUNT. She took this trophy in a short with the Three Stooges.

The movie PUBLIC PIGEON NO.1 was made after Skelton made a TV version for the anthology series CLIMAX. The TV version also starred Ann Rutherford. Here's a synopsis: Red Skelton plays a lovable but naive dupe roped into helping a gang of confidence men. When the dupe is imprisoned, the crooks need him to get him out to get their money out of his safe deposit box You can actually see the TV version at archive.org. http://archive.org/details/ClimaxPublicPigeon1

Is there anyone else who wore as many hats as Chaplin in his films? Jerry Lewis? (I kid. Please no brickbats.)

Ok. But why INSTEAD of "A Face in the Crowd "? AFITC is a great movie. Vertigo, At the time TB started this thread, a lot of posters were discussing the films that had been overexposed by TCM in the previous year. AFITC was a leader on that list. TB's reference to that was based on those complaints, not a reflection of the quality of said film I believe. If he started a thread now about films that are going unseen while others were on constantly maybe he'd mention THE WOMEN, a very good film that TCM now seems to be scheduling semi-monthly (only a slight exaggeration.)

BREAKING THE ICE is the Dare film. She was a child skating prodigy.