Tag: film history

Calendar: August 18

 

A Year: Day to Day Men: 18th of August

The Shooter

August 18, 1933 is the birthdate of film director, Roman Polanski.

Roman Polanski attended the National Film School in Lodz, Poland. He began acting in the 1950s, appearing in Andrzej Wajda’s  1954 “A Generation”. During the same year, he was in Silik Sternfeld’s “Enchanted Bicycle”. Polanski’s directorial debut was the 1955 short film “Rower”, a semi-autobiographical feature film referring to a real-life violent altercation with a known Polish felon who severely beat and robbed Polanski. He graduated from the National Film School with recognition from his two films “Two Men and a Wardrobe” and “When Angels Fall”.

Polanski’s first feature-length film, “Knife in the Water”, was also one of the first significant Polish films after the Second World War that did not have a war theme. A dark and unsettling work, Polanski’s debut film subtly revealed a profound pessimism about human relationships with regard to the psychological dynamics and moral consequences of status, envy and sexual jealousy. “Knife in the Water” was a major commercial success in the West and gave Polanski an international reputation. The film also earned director Polanski his first Academy Award nomination, Best Foreign Language Film in 1963.

Polanski made three feature films in England, based on original scripts written by himself and Gerard Brach, a frequent collaborator. The 1965 film “Repulsion” was a psychological horror film focusing on a young Belgian woman living in London with her older sister. Its visual motifs and effects reflected the influence of early surrealist cinema as well as horror films of the 1950s. The 1966 “Cul-de-Sac” was a bleak nihilist tragic comedy. The third film was the 1967 “The Fearless Vampire Killers”, a parody of vampire films. Ironic and macabre, it was the first feature film of Polanski to be photographed in color which emphasized the striking visual fairy-tale landscapes of the film.

Roman Polanski made many famous films in his career, such as “Chinatown” and “The Ghost Writer”; however, the one that stands out for many is the 1968 “Rosemary’s Baby”, based on Ira Levin’s novel.  Paramount Studio had brought Polanski to the United States to direct “Downhill Racer”; but studio head Robert Evans wanted Polanski to see if a film could be made from Levin’s novel. Polanski read it non-stop through the night and the following morning decided he wanted to write as well as direct it. He wrote the 272-page screenplay for the film in slightly longer than three weeks.

Polanski’s film, “Rosemary’s Baby”, was a box-office success and became his first Hollywood production, thereby establishing his reputation as a major commercial filmmaker. The film, a horror-thriller set in trendy Manhattan, is about Rosemary Woodhouse, a young housewife who is impregnated by the devil. Polanski’s screenplay adaptation earned him a second Academy Award nomination for Best Writing for a screenplay form another medium.

Riz Ahmed, “Encounter”: Film History Series

Riz Ahmed as Malik Khan in “Encounter”, Directed by Michael Pearce, 2021

“Encounter” is a 2021 drama-thriller film directed by Michael Pearce from a screenplay written by Pearce and British screenwriter Joe Barton. It is a story of a recently paroled man, suffering from a mental disturbance, who abducts his two sons and flees on a road trip. The film stars Riz Ahmed as Malik Khan as the parolee, Janina Gavankar as  his wife Piya, and Lucian-River Chauhan and Aditya Geddada as the two sons, Jay and Bobby Khan. Misha Collins plays Dylan, the mother’s new partner, and Octavia Spencer plays Hattie Hayes, the federal law enforcer attempting to retrieve the children.

In October of 2018, Film4 Productions and Raw, both British film production companies, agreed to produce the film. The principal photography began in October of 2020; by November of that year, all the cast members had joined the production. Amazon Studios became the distributor. “Encounter had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival and an international premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. It was later screened at film festivals in London, Chicago, and Philadelphia. “Encounter” appeared on Amazon Prime Video on the 10th of December in 2021.

Born in December of 1982, Riz Ahmed is a British actor and rapper. He has won multiple awards for his acting, including a London Film Critics’ Circle Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two British Independent Film Awards. He was also nominated for two Golden Globes, an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Ahmed appeared in the 2016 action film “Jason Bourne”, the Star Wars anthology film “Rogue One” as the character Bodhi Rock, the 2018 film “Venom” as Carlton Drake, and Ruben Stone in the 2020 “Sound of Metal”, which earned him his second Golden Globe nomination and his first Academy Award nomination.

Calendar: August 15

A Year: Day to Day Men: 15th of August

Behind Door One

August 15, 1939 marks the Hollywood premier of the film “The Wizard of Oz”.

In January 1938, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer bought the rights to L. Frank Baum’s novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” from Samuel Goldwyn, who had toyed with the idea of making the film as a vehicle for Eddie Cantor who would play the Scarecrow. The final draft of the script was completed on October 8, 1938, following numerous rewrites from many screenwriters; Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, and Edgar Allan Woolf received the film credits.

In his book “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”, Frank Baum describes Kansas as being “in shades of gray”.  Effectively, the use of monochrome sepia tones for the Kansas sequences was a stylistic choice that evoked the dull and gray countryside. Much attention was given to the use of color in the production, with the MGM production crew favoring some hues over others. Consequently, it took the studio’s art department almost a week to settle on the final shade of yellow used for the yellow brick road.

Though Judy Garland was set for the part, Nicholas Schenck, head of Loew’s Inc., MGM’s controlling parent company, felt box-office security in the person of Shirley Temple was needed to ensure a financial return against Oz‘s big budget. At an unofficial audition, MGM musical mainstay Roger Edens listened to Temple sing and reported that she lacked the robust vocal chops required for the extravaganza being prepared. So, the part of Dorothy remained Judy Garland’s, as intended.

Gale Sondergaard, a recent Academy Award winner, was originally cast as the Wicked Witch; however, she  became unhappy when the witch’s persona shifted from sly and glamorous into the familiar “ugly hag”. She turned down the role and was replaced on October 10, 1938, just three days before filming started, by MGM contract player Margaret Hamilton. After the filming of “The Wizard of Oz”, both Hamilton and Garland started filming  the Busby Berkeley musical “Babes in Arms” with Hamilton playing a role similar to the Wicked Witch.

An extensive talent search produced over a hundred little people to play Munchkins. They were each paid over 125 dollars a week, equivalent to 2200 dollars today. The MGM costume and wardrobe department, under the direction of costume designer Adrian Greenberg, had to design over 100 costumes for the Munchkin sequences. They then had to photograph and catalog each Munchkin in his or her costume so that they could correctly apply the same costume and makeup each day of production.

The Hollywood premiere was on August 15, 1939 at Grauman’s Chinese Theater. While the earnings for the film were considerable, the high production cost, in association with various distribution and other costs, meant the movie initially recorded a loss of over one million dollars for  the studio. It did not show what MGM considered a profit until a 1949 re-release earned an additional $1.5 million. The film has been inducted into National Film Registry of the Library of Congress and is listed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register.

Calendar: August 14

A Year: Day to Day Men: 14th of August

Tropical Paradise

August 14, 1951 was the release date for the film “A Place in the Sun”.

“A Place in the Sun” is a 1951 American drama film based on the 1925 novel “An American Tragedy” by Theodore Dreiser. It was directed by George Stevens from a screenplay by Harry Brown and Michael Wilson. The starring roles were played by Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor and Shelley Winters; supporting actors included Anne Revere and Raymond Burr.

This noir masterpiece merges suspense and romantic tragedy with director George Stevens composing each shot and scene with an eye for detail. Montgomery Clift plays George Eastman, a financially poor but personable young man, who lands a job in his wealthy uncle’s business. He begins dating Alice, played by Shelley Winters, who works on the factory floor. Clift, however, falls in love with a beautiful socialite, played by Elizabeth Taylor, and must rid himself of the affections of Alice. Her death ensues from a boating trip and the detective, played by Raymond Burr, appears with questions.

Montgomery Clift reached the peak of his Hollywood career with Steven’s “A Place in the Sun”, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. His physical beauty and the emotional intensity of his performance as the doomed lover, especially in his scenes with costar Elizabeth Taylor, confirmed his status as a romantic screen idol. Clift’s performance is regarded as one of his signature method acting performances. He worked extensively on his character. For his character’s scenes in jail, Clift spent a night in a real state prison to seek the right mood.

Although the film was released in 1951, it was shot in 1949. Paramount Studios had already released its blockbuster “Sunset Boulevard” in 1950 when this film wrapped. The studio did not want another possible blockbuster competing for Oscars with “Sunset Boulevard” so it waited until 1951 to release “A Place in the Sun”. This wait actually pleased director George Stevens as he would use the extra time to edit the film. His painstaking methods of producing resulted in more than 400,000 feet of film to edit. Stevens and editor William Hornbeck worked on cutting the footage for more than a year.

The film “A Place in the Sun” was a critical and commercial success, winning siX Academy Awards and the first-ever Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture-Drama. However to many, the film’s acclaim did not completely hold up over time. Reappraisals of the film find that much of what was exciting about the film in 1951 is not as potent now. Critics cite the soporific pace, the exaggerated melodrama, and the outdated social commentary as qualities present in “A Place in the Sun” that are not present in the great films of the era, such as those by Hitchcock and Kazan, although the performances by Clift, Taylor, and Winters continue to receive praise.

Calendar: August 12

A Year: Day to Day Men: 12th of August

Key to Life

August 12, 1927 was the release date of “Wings”, the only silent film to win an Oscar.

The American silent war film “Wings” was a romantic action-war movie set during the First World War. It starred Clara Bow, Charles”Buddy” Rogers and Richard Arlen. The film was shot on location at Kelly Field, a military facility in San Antonio, Texas, from September of 1926 to April of 1927 on a budget of two million dollars.

Producers Lucien Hubbard and Jesse L. Lasky hired director William Wellman as he was the only director in Hollywood at the time who had World War I combat pilot experience. Actor Richard Arlen and writer John Monk Saunders had also served in World War I as military aviators. Arlen was able to do his own flying in the film and actor Charles Rogers, a non-pilot, underwent flight training during the course of the production, so that, like Arlen, Rogers could also be filmed in closeup in the air. Director Wellman was able to attract War Department support and involvement in the project, and displayed considerable prowess and confidence in dealing with planes and pilots onscreen.

Primary scout aircraft flown in the film were Thomas-Morse MB-3s standing in for American-flown SPADs and Curtiss P-1 Hawks painted in German livery. Developing the techniques needed for filming closeups of the pilots in the air and capturing the speed and motion of the planes onscreen took time, and little usable footage was produced in the first two months. Wellman soon realized that Kelly Field did not have the adequate numbers of planes or skilled pilots to perform the needed aerial maneuvers, and he had to request technical assistance and a supply of planes and pilots from Washington.

Hundreds of extras were brought in to shoot the picture, and some 300 pilots were involved in the filming. If possible, Wellman attempted to capture footage in the air in contrast to clouds in the background, above or in front of cloud banks to generate a sense of velocity and danger. During the delays in the aerial shooting because of weather conditions, Wellman extensively rehearsed the scenes for the Battle of Saint-Mihiel over ten days with some 3500 infantrymen. A large battlefield with trenches and barbed wire was created on location for the filming. Wellman took responsibility for the meticulously-planned explosions himself, detonating them at the right time from his control panel. At least 20 young men, including cameraman William Clothier, were given hand-held cameras to film anything and everything during the filming.

On May 16, 1929, the first Academy Award ceremony was held at the Hotel Roosevelt in Hollywood to honor outstanding film achievements of 1927–1928. “Wings” was entered in a number of categories and was the first film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture; Roy Pomercy, the special effects artist for the film, won Best Engineering Effects for that year. For many years, “Wings” was considered a lost film until 1992 when a print was found in the film archive of Cinémathèque Française in Paris. It was quickly copied form nitrate film to safety film stock and is shown again in theaters, sometimes accompanied by Wurlitzer pipe organs.

Ray Harryhausen, “Twenty Million Miles to Earth”: Film History Series

“Twenty Million Miles to Earth”, 1957

Ray Harryhausen’s original design for the monster was a giant cyclops, similar to the one he later used in the 1958 “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad”. He discarded the idea after making a clay model of it, and eventually settled on the reptilian Ymir. The Ymir roars in the film are variations of elephant roars sped up and modulated in pitches at different rates.

Since he planned to use a real elephant for some of the footage in the zoo, Ray Harryhausen asked for one that was 15 feet tall, but the film studio was only able to procure an eight-foot-tall one for him. In order to make the elephant look much bigger, a 4’6″ actor was cast to play the zookeeper.

Reblogged with thanks to http://ensalada-de-lengua-de-pajaritos.tumblr.com

Calendar: August 7

A Year: Day to Day Men: 7th of August

Roses and Arrows

August 7, 1927 was the birthdate of American singer and actor, Carl Dean Switzer, best known for his character “Alfalfa”.

As a child, Carl Switzer and his brother Harold became famous in their hometown for their musical talent and performances. Both of them could sing and play a number of instruments. In 1934, while the family traveled to California to visit relatives, they did some sight seeing at the Hal Roach Studios. After the tour and at the studio’s public cafeteria, Carl and Harold gave an impromptu performance which was seen by Hal Roach. Roach signed both brothers to appear in the studio’s “Our Gang” series. Harold was given the nicknames “Slim” and Deadpan”; Carl was dubbed “Alfalfa”.

Carl Switzer’s first appearance was in the 1935 “Our Gang” short film titled “Beginner’s Luck”. At the end of 1935, Carl, as Alfalfa with his hair in a cowlick, was one of the main characters; his brother Harold was relegated to a background actor. Although Carl was an experienced singer and musician, his character Alfalfa was often called upon to sing off-key renditions of popular songs, most often those of the popular singer Bing Crosby.

By the end of 1937, Carl Switzer as Alfalfa had surpassed George “Spanky” McFarland, the series’ nominal star, in popularity. While the boys got along, the two stars’ fathers argued constantly over their sons’ screen time and salaries. However, Carl Switzer was known for being abrasive and difficult on the set. He would often play cruel jokes on the other actors and hold up filming with his antics.

Carl Switzer’s role in the “Our Gang” series of films ended in 1940, when he was twelve. He continued to appear in films in various supporting roles including the 1944 movies “Going My Way”, which won Best Picture award for the year, and “The Great Mike”, in the role of eight-year old “Speck”, the movie hero’s dim-witted friend. He reprised his ‘Alfalfa’ character in the “Gas House Kids” comedies produced in 1946 and 1947. Switzer had a small role in the 1946 Christmas film “It’s A Wonderful Life” playing the dance date of Mary Hatch, performed by Donna Reed, in the film’s beginning.

In 1953 and 1954, Carl Switzer co-starred in three William Wellman directed films: “Island in the Sky” and “The High and the Mighty” both starring John Wayne, and “Track of the Cat” starring Robert Mitchum. In 1956 he co-starred in the “Bowery Boys” film “Dig That Uranium” followed by a small part in “The Ten Commandments”. His final film role was in the 1958 drama “The Defiant Ones”.

Besides acting, Carl Switzer bred and trained hunting dogs and guided hunting expeditions Among his clients were Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, James Stewart and Henry Fonda. Switzer was fatally shot in January of 1959 in a dispute over a fifty dollar reward for a returned missing hunting dog. The shooting was very controversial but was officially judged to be self-defense. Later testimony by a third witness brought up questions of murder; but the case was never reopened. Carl Switzer is interred at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Ishirō Honda, “Mothra” ; Film History Series

Promotional Poster for Ishirō Honda’s “Mothra”, Columbia Pictures, 1962

A kaiju is a Japanese film genre that features giant monsters, usually attacking major cities and engaging the military and other monsters in battle. It is a subgenre of tokusatsu entertainment, which deals with science fiction, fantasy, or horror.

Tokusatsu has its origins in early Japanes theater, specifically in kabuki with its action and fight scenes, and in bunraku, which utilized some of the earliest forms of special effects, specifically puppetry. Modern tokusatsu, however, did not begin to take shape until the early 1950s with the conceptual and creative birth of Godzilla, one of the most famous kaiju monsters of all time.

Mothra is a kaiju that first appeared in Toho Company’s 1961 film “Mothra”, developing into a recurring character in the Godzilla franchise. She is typically portrayed as a colossal sentient caterpillar or imago moth, accompanied by two miniature humanoids speaking on her behalf.

Unlike other Toho monsters, Mothra is a largely heroic character, having been variously portrayed as a protector of her own island culture, Japan, and the Earth. She became one of Toho’s most poputlar monsters, second only to Godzilla in its total number of film appearances.

Calendar: August 3

A Year: Day to Day Men: 3rd of August

Heart and Soul

August 3, 1995 marks the passing of Anglo-American actress Ida Lupino.

Dubbed “the English Jean Harlow”, Ida Lupino was discovered by Paramount in the 1933 film “Money for Speed”, playing a good girl/bad girl dual role. She was asked to try out for the lead role in the 1933 “Alice in Wonderland”. When she arrived in Hollywood, the Paramount producers did not know what to make of their sultry potential leading lady, but she did get a five-year contract.

Mark Hellinger, associate producer at Warner Bros., was impressed by Lupino’s performance in the 1939 film “The Light That Failed” and hired her for the femme-fatale role in the Raoul Walsh-directed “ They Drive by Night’, opposite stars George Raft, Ann Sheridan and Humphrey Bogart. The film did well and the critical consensus was that Lupino stole the movie, particularly in her unhinged Courtroom appearance. Warner Brothers offered her a contract which she negotiated to include some freelance rights. She worked with Raoul Walsh and Bogart again in the 1941 “High Sierra”, where she impressed critic Bosley Crowther of the New York Times in her role as “adoring moll”.

The 1949 film “Never Fear” was Ida Lupino’s first director’s credit.  After producing four more films about social issues, including “Outrage”, a 1950 film about rape, Lupino directed in 1953 her first hard-paced, all-male-cast film, “The Hitch-Hiker”, making her the first woman to direct a film noir. Lupino and her husband Collier Young formed their own film studio, The Filmmakers, which produce twelve feature films. Six of these Lupino either directed or co-directed; she wrote or co-wrote five of the screenplays, of which she acted in three and co-produced one. 

Lupino and Young’s studio produced films that dealt with unconventional and controversial subject matters other producers would not touch, including out-of-wedlock pregnancy, bigamy, and rape. Lupino described her independent work as “films that had social significance and were entertainment based on true stories, things the public could understand because they had happened or been of news value.” She focused on women’s issues for many of her films and liked strong characters.

Ida Lupino was the only woman working in the 1950s Hollywood studio system to become a pioneering director and producer. Her interests outside the entertainment industry included writing short stories and children’s books, and composing music. Her composition “Aladdin’s Suite” was performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in 1937. Lupino has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for contributions to the fields of television and film.

Calendar: July 28

A Year: Day to Day Men: 28th of July

Coffee and Morning Treat

July 28, 1932 was the release date of the film “White Zombie”.

“White Zombie” is a 1932 American pre-Code horror film independently produced by Edward Halperin and directed by Victor Halperin. The zombie theme was inspired by Kenneth Webb’s Broadway play titled “Zombie”. Webb sued the Halperin brothers for copyright infringement, but lost the case because the screenplay was not based upon his play. The film went into development in early 1932 with the hopes to cash in on the country’s interest in voodoo at that time.

“White Zombie” was filmed in only eleven days in March of 1932 at the Universal Studios lot. Bela Lugosi, who was very popular at the time due to his role as Dracula, starred as the white Haitian voodoo master who turns actress Madge Ballamy, the film’s damsel in distress, into a zombie. Except for the addition of film star Joseph Cawthorn, the majority of the cast were silent film stars whose fame had diminished.

The music of “White Zombie” started with “Chant”, a composition of wordless vocals and drumming created by Guy Bevier Williams, a specialist in ethnic music who worked with Universal Studios. The music of the film was supervised by Abe Meyer, who had orchestras record new versions of works by Wagner, Liszt, Mussorgsky, and other symphonic composers. A piece of music expressly written for the bar room scene in “White Zombie” was a Spanish jota by arranger and band leader Xavier Cugat.

“White Zombie” was released in July of 1932 at the Rivoli Theater in New York City to many critical reviews. Most of the unfavorable reviews focused on the poor silent-era style acting, the stilted dialogue, and a story line that many found comedic instead of dramatic. Harrison’s Reports, a New York City-based motion picture trade journal, wrote that it was not up to the standards of “Dracula” and “Frankenstein”. When it was released in the United Kingdom, the film received the review of “not for the squeamish or the highly intelligent”.

The film “White Zombie”, despite the mixed box office reception and reviews, was a great financial success for an independent film at that time. Later in 1933 and 1934, the film had positive box numbers in small towns, as well as in foreign countries. “White Zombie” was one of the few American horror films approved by the Nazi party in Germany.

“White Zombie” is considered to be the first feature length zombie film and has been described as the archetype and model of all Zombie movies. Although not many early horror films followed the film’s Haitian origins style, other 1930s films borrowed themes of the zombie mythology, such as the blank-eyed stares, the voodoo drums, and zombies performing manual labor. This film, although now considered by some as a classic horror film, was not nominated for any Academy Awards.

Calendar: July 27

A Year: Day to Day Men: 27th of July

Hold

July 27, 1940 was the release date of the film “A Wild Hare”.

An early version of a Bugs Bunny-like character appeared in the 1938 “Porky’s Hare Hunt”. It was co-directed by Ben Hardaway and an uncredited Cal Dalton, who was responsible for the initial design of the rabbit. Porky Pig is cast as a hunter tracing his prey who is more interested in driving his pursuer insane rather than escaping. The white rabbit had an oval shaped head, a shapeless body, and was voiced by Mel Blanc.

This rabbit character appeared in “Prest-O Change-O”, directed by animator Chuck Jones and released in 1939. This version of the character was cool, graceful and controlled. He retained the laugh but was otherwise silent in the film. The third appearance of the rabbit was in the 1939 “Hare-um Scare-um” directed by Dalton and Hardaway. This time he was gray and had his first singing role.

“The Wild Hare” is considered to be the first official Bugs Bunny cartoon. It is the first film where both Elmer Fudd and Bugs, both redesigned by animator and developer Bob Givens, are shown in fully developed forms as hunter and tormentor. The film is the first in which Mel Blanc uses what becomes the standard voice for Bugs, and says Bugs’ famous catchphrase, “What’s up, Doc”. A huge success in the theaters, the film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Cartoon Short Subject.

Since Bugs’ debut in “ A Wild Hare”, Bugs appeared only in color Merrie Melodies films, alongside Elmer and his predecessors. Bugs made a cameo in the 1943 “Porky’s Pig Feet”, but that was his only appearance in a black-and-white Looney Tunes film. He did not star in a Looney Tunes film until that series made its complete conversion to only color cartoons beginning in 1944. “Buckaroo Bugs” was Bugs’ first film in the Looney Tunes series and was also the last Warner Bros. cartoon to credit Schlesinger, who had produced the film of the original rabbit. The Leon Schlesinger Productions studio was sold to Warner Brothers in1944 after the release fo “Buckaroo Bugs”.

The cartoon 1958 “Knighty Knight Bugs”, directed by Fritz Freleng, in which a medieval Bugs trades blows with Yosemite Sam and his fire-breathing dragon, won an Academy Award for Best Cartoon Short Subject, becoming the first Bugs Bunny cartoon to win that award. Three of Chuck Jones’ films —“Rabbit Fire”, “Rabbit Seasoning” and “Duck! Rabbit, Duck!”— compose what is often referred to as the “Rabbit Season/Duck Season” trilogy and are famous for originating the historic rivalry between Bugs and Daffy Duck.

Chuck Jones’ classic 1957 “What’s Opera, Doc?”, casts Bugs and Elmer Fudd in a parody of Richard Wagner’s opera “Der Ring des Nibelungen”. This cartoon was deemed “culturally significant” by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1992, becoming the first cartoon short to receive this honor.

Calendar: July 26

A Year: Day to Day Men: 26th of July

The Dock of the Bay

July 26, 1895 was the birthdate of American comedian Gracie Allen.

Gracie Allen, born in San Francisco, made her first appearance on stage at the age of three and was given her first role on the radio by Eddie Cantor. She attended the Star of the Sea Convent School, at which time she became a talented dancer. She soon began performing Irish folk dances with her three sisters, billed as “The Four Colleens”. In 1909, Allen joined her sister as a vaudeville performer.

At a vaudeville performance in 1923 in Union City, New Jersey, Gracie Allen met George Burns, a vaudeville performer who usually did a comedy routine  and a dance with a girl partner. The two immediately launched a new partnership called “Burns and Allen” with Gracie playing the role of the ‘straight man’ and George delivering the punchlines as the comedian. Burns knew something was wrong when the audience ignored his jokes but snickered at Gracie’s questions. Burns cannily flipped the act around.

Gracie Allen’s part was known in vaudeville as a “Dumb Dora” act, named after a very early film of the same name that featured a scatterbrained female protagonist, but her “illogical logic” style was several cuts above the Dumb Dora stereotype. She and George Burns took the act on the road, gradually building a following. The act was so consistently dependable that vaudeville bookers elevated them to the more secure “standard act” status, and finally to the Palace Theater in New York. After three years together, Gracie Allen married Burns in Cleveland, Ohio in January of 1926.

In the fall of 1949, Jack Benny convinced Gracie Allen and George Burns to join him in the move to the CBS network. The “Burns and Allen” radio show, which had run from the early 1930s, became part of the CBS lineup and a year later a television program. They played themselves, as television stars, bewildering the guest stars and their neighbors, Harry and Blanche Morton, with Gracie Allen’s illogical logic. Each show began with a brief monologue by George Burns about Gracie’s activities on that day. Audiences continued to love Allen’s character, who combined the traits of naivety, zaniness, and total innocence.

Gracie Allen retired in 1958 due to her health. She fought a long battle with heart disease, ultimately dying of a heart attack in Hollywood on August 27, 1964, at the age of 69. Her remains are interred in a crypt at the Freedom Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in Glendale, California.

Gracie Allen Quotes:

“I was so surprised at being born that I didn’t speak for a year and a half.”

“I read a book twice as fast as anybody else. First, I read the beginning, and then I read the ending, and then I start in the middle and read toward whatever end I like best.”

“You speak it the same way you speak English, you just use different words.”

Calendar: July 24

A Year: Day to Day Men: 24th of July

The Terrazzo Floor

July 24, 1952 marks the release date in the United States of the classic film “High Noon”.

“High Noon” is a 1952 American western film produced by Stanley Kramer, directed by Fred Zinnemann, and starring Gary Cooper. The plot, depicted in real time, revolves around a town marshal, who must face a gang of killers alone, torn between his sense of duty and love for his new bride. The film was mired in controversy with political overtones at the time of its release.

In 1951, during production of the film, Carl Foreman, the screenwriter of the movie, was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee during its investigation of “Communist propaganda and influence” in the Hollywood motion picture industry. He was labeled an “uncooperative witness” by the committee, making him vulnerable to blacklisting, the practice of denying employment to suspected Communists.

After Carl Foreman’s refusal to name names was made public, Foreman’s production partner Stanley Kramer, the producer of the film, demanded an immediate dissolution of their partnership. As a signatory to the production loan, Foreman remained with the “High Noon” project; but before the film’s release, he sold his partnership share to Kramer and moved to Britain, knowing that he would not find further work in the United States.

Gary Cooper played the lead role of Marshal Will Kane, even doing the fight scenes, despite ongoing problems with his back. He wore no makeup, to emphasize his character’s anguish and fear, which was probably intensified by pain from a recent ulcer surgery. Grace Kelly was given the part of the marshal’s wife, Amy Fowler Kane, despite the thirty-year age disparity with Gary Cooper, after producer Stanley Kramer saw her in an off-Broadway play.

The running time of the story almost precisely parallels the running time of the film itself, an effect heightened by the frequent shots of clocks, to remind the characters, and the audience, that the villain the marshal will have to fight will be arriving on the noon train. Thus the title “High Noon”. Upon its release, critics and audiences expecting chases, fights, spectacular scenery, and other common Western film elements were dismayed to find them largely replaced by emotional and moralistic dialogue until the climactic final scenes.

“High Noon” was criticized in the then Soviet Union as “glorification of the individual”. The American Left lauded it as an allegory against blacklisting and McCarthyism, but it gained respect in the conservative community as well. Now considered a classic western, the film was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won four: Best Actor, Best Editing, Best Music Score and Best Music Song. It also won four Golden Globe Awards in the categories of Actor, Supporting Actress, Score, and Black and White Cinematography.

Calendar: July 22

A Year: Day to Day Men: 22nd of July

Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright

July 22, 1947 was the birthdate of actor, comedian and producer Albert Brooks.

Albert Brooks led a new generation of self-reflective comics appearing on NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson”. His onstage persona was  that of an egotistical, narcissistic, nervous comic, one who tore himself down before an audience by disassembling his mastery of comedic routine. He once performed a humorless, five-minute stand up comedy routine on “The Tonight Show” in 1962 that didn’t produce a single laugh until the punchline – when he explained to the audience that he had been working as a stand up comic for five years and had run out of material. Johnny Carson swore the hilarity which followed this set-up lasted a full minute.

Brooks appeared in 1976 in his first mainstream movie role as Tom in Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver” , where Scorsese allowed him to improvise much of his dialogue. Brooks directed his first feature film, “Real Life”, in 1979, playing the lead role as a man obnoxiously filming a typical suburban family in an attempt to win an Oscar as well as a Nobel Prize. His film, “Lost in America”, released in 1985, was one of his best-received productions. It featured Brooks and Julie Hagerty as a couple of yuppies who drop out and travel in a motor home, meeting obstacles and disappointments in their dream.

Albert Brooks received good reviews for his films in the 1990s, showing his off-beat style and his seamless successions of shots in his filming. His “Defending Your Life” comedy with Meryl Streep portrayed an after-life trial of Brooks to determine his cosmic fate. Brooks received positive reviews for “Mother” in 1996 as a middle-aged writer moving back home to his mother, played by Debbie Reynolds. His 1999 film “The Muse” featured him as a Hollywood screenwriter who lost his edge and finds an authentic muse, played by Sharon Stone, to give him inspiration.

Brooks played an insecure, supremely ethical network television reporter in James L. Brooks’ hit “Broadcast News”. For this role he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He also appeared as the vicious gangster Bernie Rose, the main antagonist in the motion picture “Drive”, a role given much critical praise and positive reviews.

Albert Brooks did voiceover work in the Pixar film “Finding Nemo” in 2003, voicing the character of Marlin, one of the film’s protagonists. He reprised the role of Marlin in the 2016 sequel “Finding Dory”. Brooks also appeared as a guest voice on “The Simpsons” five times during its run, always under the name of A. Brooks, and is particularly known for his role as super-villain Hank Scorpio in the episode “You Only Move Twice”. He later also voiced the character of Russ Cargill, the central antagonist of “The Simpsons Movie”.