Princess of Tap

Pollyanna

Chester Next: Sebastian Cabot or William Demarest

Barbara Stanwyck Next: intellectual

Edmund Gwenn wanted to push Joel McCrea out of a church steeple window in Foreign Correspondent.

Mary Pickford

Best Supporting Actress of 1936 1) Jessie Ralph-- After the Thin Man 2) Spring Byington-- Theodora Goes Wild 3) Elisabeth Risdon-- Theodora Goes Wild 4) Elissa Landi-- After the Thin Man 5) Alison Skipworth-- The Princess Comes Across Honorable Mention Alice Brady - - My Man Godfrey Gail Patrick - - My Man Godfrey Best Supporting Actor of 1936 1) Humphrey Bogart - - Petrified Forest 2) James Stewart--After the Thin Man 3) Eugene Pallette-- My Man Godfrey 3) Thomas Mitchell--Theodora Goes Wild 4) Mischa Auer - - My Man Godfrey 5) Robert Young-- Secret Agent & Peter Lorre - - Secret Agent

You must be talking about Oscar Levant in Vincente Minnelli's the Bandwagon. He was always threatening to have a heart attack. But I remember him in I love Louisa so maybe it was the Triplets number that he got himself out of. It was a rather painful because they had to do it on their knees and their legs were strapped behind them. Poor Nanette Fabray had just split her leg on the Louisiana hayride hay and she was in a lot of pain. If you look at Oscar during the That's Entertainment number, he looks like he's having a heart attack right there. You gotta love Oscar!

Looking at your examples, they're all simply marvelous. I think this was a great idea. I picked the 1930s because that's how I got hooked! Thanx loads for your work.

Bogie, I had a dilemma with Sylvia Scarlett. I seem to be getting different dates on this movie. Years ago I remember there was some controversy about this film and I wonder if that has something to do with why the release dates are so skewed. Anyway, I wanted to include Katharine Hepburn on my actress list, but I wasn't sure what to do. So I substituted Mary of Scotland for her.

In 1980 I went to a Chicago Film Festival event where they were honoring Gloria Swanson at the famous or infamous-- it depends on how you feel about it-- Biograph Theater where Dillinger was watching Manhattan Melodrama, starring Clark Gable, and was shot down by the FBI, as he left the theater. Miss Swanson was interviewed and thoroughly discussed her entire career, but halfway through she went into a rampage of rancor and victrolic invective over her first husband actor Wallace Beery. Then when you thought that was over she still had some of the same left over for Joe Kennedy. At that time she was about 81 years old. She died several years later. I guess some things stay with you forever.

Brigitte Bardot Next: a serious absent-minded professor

Doris-- More of my kind of singing Next: Andy Williams or Mel Torme

Talking about Hollywood and the presidents - - I know JFK dated Gene Tierney and Marilyn Monroe. But I don't know if any other presidents were involved with movie stars or Broadway actresses. The closest I can come up with is Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau dated Barbra Streisand. Although I know that Mrs. Truman was very angry about Harry playing the piano while Lauren Bacall was sitting on top of it.LOL

I started following Tracy and Hepburn about the time of the movie Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. 1968. I really like all the stories about the Irish mafia. You might check James Cagney's autobiography for information. That's where I got most of my information about them. You have a lot of good information there. But if you can't graf, you might just try double space. I hope your enthusiasm is catching.

Today I'm going to start with Performances of 1936--Best Actor and Best Actress But before that I'm going to list my top 15 movies for 1936 because all of my best acting categories come from these movies and it might give you a concise view about my cinematic outlook. 1) San Francisco-- WS Van Dyke--MGM 2) Fury - - Fritz Lang-- MGM 3) My Man Godfrey-- Gregory LaCava-- Universal 4) Mr. Deeds Goes to Town-- Frank Capra-- Columbia 5) After the Thin Man-- WS Van Dyke-- MGM 6) The General Died at Dawn--Lewis Milestone-- Paramount 7) Camille-- George Cukor-- MGM 8) Theodora Goes Wild-- Richard Boleslawski--Columbia 9) The Walking Dead-- Michael Curtiz-- Warner Brothers 10) Secret Agent - - Alfred Hitchcock--Gaumont-British 11) Swing Time - - George Stevens - - RKO 12) The Princess Comes Across- William K Howard - - Paramount 13) Petrified Forest-- Archie Mayo - - Warner Brothers 14) Born To Dance - - Roy Del Ruth- - MGM 15) Sylvia Scarlett -- George Cukor - - RKO Actor 1) Spencer Tracy - - Fury 2) William Powell - - My Man Godfrey 2) Boris Karloff - - The Walking Dead 3) Leslie Howard - - Petrified Forest 4) Gary Cooper - - Mr. Deeds Goes to Town 5) Spencer Tracy - - San Francisco Actress 1) Carole Lombard - - My Man Godfrey 2) Greta Garbo--Camille 3) Jean Arthur - - Mr. Deeds Goes to Town 4) Irene Dunne - - Theodora Goes Wild 5) Katharine Hepburn - - Sylvia Scarlett

First it looked like Keith Richards & you scared me--But Kim Fields is not scary Next: Stanley Livingston or Barry Livingston?

Jerome Kern wrote Showboat with Oscar Hammerstein.

Al Pacino Next: Somebody's Aunt

Waterloo Bridge

Lav, I was getting ready to give a hint, but obviously you didn't need one. Lav, it's all yours--

Thanx, Lawrence. I declare this thread is open.

Hollywood insiders of yesteryear always did a toss-up between either Singing in the Rain or The Bandwagon as being their favorite musical. At any rate, among the pros, those two were considered to be the top MGM Arthur Freed movie musicals.

Nip-- I studied film history in College. We were taught that DW Griffith's The Birth of a Nation was a film that he directed in 1915 and one of the most popular films of the day. However, I first saw this film on television in the 1960s. It was for its time the most technically advanced example of American Cinema and that some of the techniques that were used or created by DW Griffith and his cinematographer Billy Bitzer were unique artistic achievements. It starred Lillian Gish, Griffith's number one actress and it was about the birth of the Ku Klux Klan. The film is based on a novel by Thomas Dixon Jr called The Clansman. The Birth of a Nation is a landmark in American Cinema and in American history. The NAACP believed that many black men were lynched as result of the popularity of this film. Nip-- of course, this was a silent movie.

Democrat Woodrow Wilson's favorite movie was Birth of a Nation. He screened it many times at the White House. He described it as "history written with lightning". About another Democratic President-- I always heard that Jack Kennedy liked the movie PT 109, but really thought that Warren Beatty would have been the best actor to portray him. As for Broadway musicals-- I don't know about Camelot - - but reportedly Finian's Rainbow was Jack Kennedy's favorite musical.

Groucho played around with Margaret Dumont's feminine sensitivities in A Night at the Opera.