"In the Spotlight"

[bansi4]

Vallo and Christine, I to share your dismay over the fact that movie star Robert Ryan didn't get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame during his lifetime. It's just plain ludicrous!

[vecchiolarry]

Bill,

 

I'm depressed too but my anger and resentment do take over when I hear that talented, good looking people like Robert Ryan and Barbara Nichols don't have Stars.........

 

You can join Mongo, Dolores, Lynn, Kyle and me in digging up Hollywood Boulevard and putting the real, deserving stars there. We know who's who in Starland and it ain't ugly old Donald Trump.

 

Larry

[bansi4]

Larry, whenever your ready I got my pick and shovel.

[knitter45]

Didn't one of "youse guys" go out to visit with the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce recently about this issue? What was the outcome? And would an actual petition do any good, especially for those stars who are deceased? I will help! (I'm a GREAT follower..)

[vallo13]

Larry, I couldn't have said it better.....

Mongo, count me in I'll rent the payloader...

 

 

vallo

[vecchiolarry]

Hi Knitter 45,

 

I was the one who had a meeting with the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce in September 2005.

I submitted applications for Marjorie Main, Connie Gilchrist, Mary Treen and Mary Wickes to get posthumous stars.

They wrote back that the first two would be voted on in 2006 but I never heard any more about it. Did they vote? Were Marjorie and Connie approved? Are the people I spoke with still there?

I did get a free lunch out of them though.

 

Larry

[knitter45]

so, would a write-in campaign do any good? or emails to the Chamber? There are so many out here who watch this thread, and have voiced dismay over the lack of real stars on the walk. Or is this just wishful thinking that we might be able to make a difference?

Nancy

[bansi4]

Interesting story about the movie "Tender Comrade" (1943) starring Ginger Rogers and Robert Ryan:

 

When RKO producer David Hempstead began his search for a male lead for Ginger Rogers in "Tender Comrade", he spotted favorable preview cards of Ryan's performances in "Bombardier," "The Sky's the Limit", and "Behind the Rising Sun".

He suggested him to Rogers, who was at first unimpressed after screening parts of three of his pictures. She thought he was too big, and that he looked mean....Hempstead went back to his desk, and bounced around in his mind several actors who might be appropriate for the role of the young man who was to have the enviable position of doing 17 love scenes with Ginger Rogers.

A week later, when Rogers visited Hempstead at his office, he was busily going through preview cards of "The Sky's the Limit", and he showed her some of them. What Rogers looked at were reviews of Ryan's performance, and they were all favorable.

Time was running out for the search for a leading man for Rogers, so she decided to have another look at him. Ryan was conveniently waiting in a nearby office for just such a possibility...Hempstead picked up his phone and spoke briefly to his secretary. Less than a minute later, Ryan appeared at Hempstead's door. For a few moments the three talked, then Rogers unobtrusively slipped Hempstead a small piece of paper. On it she had written, "I think this is the guy."

Today, that same piece of paper hangs on the wall in plain sight above Cheyney Ryan's (Ryan's son) desk, in his study.

[bansi4]

Ryan & Rogers in "Tender Comrade"

 

 

story below

[ayresorchids]

Thanks, Mongo! As a fan of The Sky's the Limit as well as Ginger, that was great fun for me to read.

[bradtexasranger]

Hello again Nancy,

 

I honestly don't know the answer to that question.

Do these people even read their mail or E-Mails or whatever?? I wrote twice last year and, as I said, never heard diddily squat.....

In my last letter, I asked for a reply - yea or nay to the results - and nothing.

 

I've personally given up. My solution of digging up the Boulevard and installing our own stars is actually looking pretty good to me.

When they give a star to Dick Cheney, I'll shoot someone!!!!!!

 

Larry

 

Message was edited by:

bradtexasranger

[bradtexasranger]

Hi,

 

What happened here??

Why is my posting under Brad's name???

 

Larry

[bradtexasranger]

I'd like to know that too :0

[knitter45]

Well, "Texas/Larry", looks like we're headed for Sunny CA with shovels, pickaxes, etc. If anyone ever comes up with a solution, I seriously will add whatever help is needed.

 

Thanks

Nancy

[vallo13]

I thought you HAD a Split-PERSONALITY

 

 

vallo

[bansi4]

Ayres, glad that you enjoyed the article. It has always amazed me the clout that movie stars had when choosing their own co-stars. They had the power to actually make or break one of their own comrades.

[vecchiolarry]

Brad,

 

I recorded a 'concern' to the powers that be on this board about my invading your space (unintentionally, I assure you) and posting under your name.

I don't know how it happened as I don't know your password.

It was a big surprise to me when I saw your name there.

 

I apologize for whatever happened but since I'm truly a 'boob' about computers, I don't know what I did or didn't do to cause this.

 

Keep on truckin'......

 

Larry

[bradtexasranger]

No problem. It did freak me out because I knew I hadn't posted to this thread today :0 There's no telling what happened.

[bansi4]

Ryan in 'noir'

 

[drdoolittle]

Dear Mongol!

When you post a picture like that make sure you have drool cups for us ladies.

Christine

[bansi4]

Sorry, Christine. Next time I'll post a warning.

[drdoolittle]

That is a good picture of him.

[klondike]

As long as we're recognizing the performing acumen of Mr. Robert Ryan on this thread, did anyone else catch his fine performance in that fun little 50's film, "Inferno"?

I think TCM ran it just last week, Friday, maybe, I'm thinking; anyway, I started out just "looking at it", but very quickly got drawn right in; unusually creative, sympathetic role for RR (who did too many films as **** army officers and sadistic crooks!), and a rare villainous outing for Rhonda Fleming, not to mention a pearl of a character role at the climax for underrated Henry Hull.

Earned a "both thumbs up" from the ol' Sleddog!

[bansi4]

Klondike, the movie "Inferno" was a good departure for Robert Ryan. Other so called non-**** roles included "God's Little Acre" as Ty Ty, "Her Twelve Men" with Greer Garson, "About Mrs. Leslie" with Shirley Booth, and "Gangway for Tomorrow". Although his bread and butter roles were in film-noir.

[bansi4]

In the Spotlight: Hope Emerson

 

Hope Emerson was born in Hawarden, Iowa on October 29, 1897 (some sources list April 29th.).

Following her graduation from West High School in Des Moines in 1916, she moved to New York City where she performed in vaudeville.

 

In 1930, New York Theatrical Producer Norman Bel Geddes contracted her for the role of the amazonian Lampito in "Lysistrata" and was a hit. She made her film debut in "Smiling Faces" (1932) but then returned to theater work.

In the 1940s, Emerson was well known as the voice of Elsie the Cow in Borden Milk commercials on radio.

 

Towering 6 ft 2 and weighing 240 pounds, she towered over many of her male co-stars, and her size, brusque voice and stern demeanor typed her for a career in villainous roles, she was a force in both film and theater. She returned to Hollywood in 1946 and appeared in character parts.

Among her most memorable roles was as a wicked masseuse in "Cry of the City" (1948), an Italian Mama in "House of Strangers" (1949), "Thieves' Highway" (1949), circus strongwoman testifying in court in "Adam's Rib" (remembered in a wonderful scene raising Spencer Tracy in the air) and as a mail-order bride in "Westward the Women" (1952).

Her most famous role, as sadistic prison matron Evelyn Harper, in "Caged "(1950) garnered her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Also in "Roseanna McCoy", "Dancing in the Dark", "Copper Canyon", "Double Crossbones" as a pirate, "The Lady Wants Mink", "Casanova's Big Night", "Untamed", "All Mine to Give", etc.

 

She also did television work and had a regular role in "Peter Gunn" as Mother (1958, for which she received an Emmy nomination) and "The Dennis O'Keefe Show" (1959).

 

Miss Emerson who never married or had children died in 1960 of liver disease aged 62 in Hollywood, California. She was interred in Grace Hill Cemetery in her hometown.

 

Actress/singer of the 1930s Dorothy Dare (still living at age 90) left this message for her: "Hope, You had it all! Size, talent and grace! I miss our card games together gal. Till we meet and play again. Love always, Dorothy"

 

 

Well-loved by her peers she was a sweet, warm, kindhearted lady, who doesn't have a star.