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The Biggest Stars Who Never Won an Oscar

Feb06
2013 1 Comment Written by classicmovieguys

The list is long for those who haven’t won an Oscar.  But through the years, who have been the biggest and brightest stars who were passed over?

Hello, everybody.  Joe Morella and Frank Segers, your classic movie guys, dwelling today on the victims of one of life’s great injustices – first-rank performers snubbed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

In the 1950s and early sixties one of the biggest box office stars was Marilyn Monroe.  Although she gave some incredible performances in films such as Some Like It Hot and The Misfits, she was always considered somehow a studio-manufactured sexpot beneath Oscar consideration.

Others in the top ten box office list of the 50s who were ignored were Randolph Scott (he was very popular in Westerns then) and the comedy team of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Both had the misfortune of starring in genres, westerns and comedies, that the Academy rarely took seriously.

Comedy teams were often big box office but got little recognition by critics or the Academy.  For example, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were top ten box office draws throughout the 40′s and 50′s. But Oscar-worth performers?  Forgettaboutit.

Ditto Betty Grable, she of the million-dollar legs who became World War II’s most popular pinup. Aside from one dramatic turn in I Wake Up Screaming, she was in frothy musical comedies, not a favorite genre of Academy voters.

Even in the 1930s, three of the top ten box office draws were ignored by the Academy. Child star Shirley Temple (though she did receive an honorary baby Oscar), comedian Will Rogers, and figure skating star Sonja Henie. Yet, there is no question that all three were in various ways very big stars.

And, of course, one of the TOP box office draws of all time, who made the list in the 40s and 50s, Bob Hope, was never nominated and made it a focal point of his comedy act for decades.

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ROSEMARY CLOONEY- In A Wonderful Place.

Feb05
2013 Leave a Comment Written by classicmovieguys

She was never really “an actress.”  Her movie acting credits number less than 20, and all of them are in musical contexts.

Rosemary Clooney (perhaps best known today as George’s aunt) was a superb singer, though, with career parallels to another marginal actor, the immensely gifted vocalist by the name of Bing Crosby.

Hello, everybody. Joe Morella and Frank Segers, your classic movie guys, here to tell you that Rosemary’s legacy as a singer — and in perhaps one instance as an actress — lives on nicely today.

She is still a remarkably ”contemporary” singer to have come out of the gimmicky musical decade that was the 1950′s.  (Can the same be said of Frankie Laine?)

Rosemary grew up in the Southern Ohio-Kentucky area, and began professionally singing with younger sister Betty on Cincinnati radio station WLW in 1941 at the age of 13. After  high school, she sang with various bands including that of Tony Pastor’s.

Those of you of a certain age will immediately recall her hit solo recordings of the early-to-mid Fifties: Come On A My House (which Clooney not-so-privately disliked), Half As Much, Hey There and This Old House.

Her musical popularity was such that Paramount Pictures rushed her into a trio of movies including The Stars Are Singing and Here Come The Girls (with Bob Hope and Tony Martin) in 1953 and a musical western titled Red Garters a year later (Rosemary getting top-of-title star billing) with Jack Carson.

At about this time, Clooney married actor-director Jose Ferrer, the first of their two marriages (1953 to 1962 the first time; 1963 to 1967 the second).  The couple had five children.

It was 1954′s White Christmas opposite Crosby that remains Clooney’s movie signature. She and Vera-Ellen play sisters who get involved with Army buddies Crosby (and Danny Kaye) in a remote winter resort.  The director was Michael Curtiz (Casablanca) and Paramount used the occasion to unveil its VistaVision wide screen presentation.

Clooney was always in awe of Crosby, 25 years her senior.  Both vocalists in their own ways were aware that their musical interests and abilities were not confined to Hollywood musicals or period pop tunes. Their best work was found most often in jazz contexts, when both could unbutton and let loose.

Crosby, for example, recorded a lusty, unforgettable St. Louis Blues with the Duke Ellington Orchestra in the 1930′s. (No The Bells of St. Mary’s sanctimony here.) Ellington always had immense respect for Crosby’s abilities. He also knew that Clooney was pretty good in her own right.

So it wasn’t coincidental that she found herself in a Los Angeles studio recording Blue Rose: Rosemary Clooney and Duke Ellington and his Orchestra for Columbia Records in 1956.  The process was interesting in that the Ellington band had earlier laid down instrumental tracks in a New York studio, while Clooney later performed to the pre-recordings on the West Coast (Clooney’s and Ellington’s schedules did not mesh, obviously).

It’s not a stretch to say that listening to the completed album, as Frank does often, will provide a Clooney as you’ve never heard her before. The songs, almost all Ellington compositions, are incomparable. Clooney sings them with greatest ease and assurance.

According to the album’s original liner notes (contained in the current CD reissue), Clooney was the perfect choice to sing the Ellington songs the way Duke likes them sung. Her long experience as a band singer, her admiration for Ellington and his music, and the special sort of supercharged satin in her voice all qualified her more than any other singer to make this unusual album.

Blue Rose: Rosemary Clooney and Duke Ellington and his Orchestra — seek it out.  You won’t be disappointed.

 

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WHO IS BOB HOPE’S CLASSY LEADING LADY?

Dec15
2011 1 Comment Written by Joe Morella and Frank Segers

Just who IS that elegant lady (above) sitting opposite an inebriated Victor Moore, and being nuzzled by the likes of Bob Hope?

Hello, everybody.  Joe Morella and Frank Segers, your classic movie guys, unearthing today one of the comedian’s older comedies, and marveling at the classy-looking actress who portrays his romantic interest.

In past months we’ve discussed many of Hope’s leading ladies.  No other comedian in film history starred opposite so many beauties.

From the 1930s to the 1970s Hope appeared with some of the screen’s most alluring women: Hedy Lamarr, Anita Eckberg, Virginia Mayo, Lana Turner, Jane Russell and, of course, Dorothy Lamour.

Today we thought we’d run a photo of one of Hope’s movie love interests who, though equally glamorous as the others mentioned, did not have a big film career.

Do you recognize her?  A few hints:

– She was born Eva Brigitta Hartwig in Berlin in 1917.

– She embarked on a highly successful ballet career at the age of 12, and later changed her name into something more exotic and Russian sounding.  She was often billed with only one name (her surname.)

– She was spotted in the London stage production of Rogers and Hart’s musical, On Your Toes, by Samuel Goldwyn, who signed her to a movie contract in 1937. She went on to star as a Russian prima ballerina in Warner Bros.’ 1939 movie version of the musical.

– Her first husband was America’s most celebrated choreographer. Her second was the powerful head of a major recording company.

– Her movie career spanned about 10 years.  By the late Forties, she was done with Hollywood.

– She was cast in the female lead in 1943′s For Whom The Bell Tolls, but was replaced by Ingrid Bergman early in the shooting.

– Her venture with Hope dates from 1941, a Paramount film version of a successful Irving Berlin Broadway musical satirizing sleazy politics in a southern state. (The movie won Oscar nominations for set decoration and cinematography.)

– Besides Hope, her leading men included two Georges, Raft and Brent.

– She later directed operas at the Sante Fe (New Mexico) Opera Company.

– She lived a long and creative life, expiring in 2003 at the age of 86.

Give us a shout if you can figure out who our mystery leading lady is. 

 

 

 

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DORIS DAY and SANTA (aka Hy Hollinger)

Oct26
2011 Leave a Comment Written by classicmovieguys

Hello, everybody.  Joe Morella and Frank Segers, your classic movie guys, here again with more ruminations on the entertaining world of old-fashioned Hollywood movie publicity.

Sometimes the publicity back then was more entertaining than the movie, but that’s a discussion for another day.

Today, we’ve invited a special guest — our longtime friend, veteran Hollywood trade journalist and former studio publicist Hy Hollinger – to join us in evoking a once-upon-a-time publicity adventure he vividly recalls to this day involving a young Doris Day (she was 24 at the time) at the very beginning of her movie career.

As we discussed in a previous blog, getting newspapers to publish a studio-manufactured publicity still was a key objective back in the Forties when print media ruled the media roost. Sometimes the studios would lend their stars to inventive photo ideas dreamed up by the newspapers themselves.

This is where Hy comes in, so let him tell it:

There’s a color photo somewhere in the archives of the New York Daily News showing me – as Santa Claus – pinning a necklace on Doris Day.

That photo was taken in late 1948, when I, as a junior publicist at Warner Bros. in New York City, escorted her to the News building to launch a promotional effort for her first movie, “Romance on the High Seas.”

The News photo editor wanted a shot for the Christmas issue of the Sunday magazine section. Thus, I was dispatched to Brooks theatrical costumes to be fitted with the Santa garb. 

The high-spirited Doris made no fuss during the Santa Claus business. (“Romance”) was her first movie following a career as a band singer, including touring with the Les Brown band and entertaining the troops with Bob Hope. A screen test landed her a contract with Warner Bros. Nobody signed me to play Santa Claus.

The studio pulled out all stops to introduce their new movie queen. Her costars were Jack Carson (clowning with Doris in the top photo), Janis Paige and Don Defore, and the cast included such recognizable supporting players as Oscar Levant, S.Z. Sakall, Eric Blore and Franklin Pangborn.

Michael Curtiz produced and directed, Julius J. Epstein and I.A. Diamond wrote the screenplay, and Julie Styne and Sammy Cahn provided the music, including the Oscar-winning song “It’s Magic.”

Working for a movie company and playing Santa Claus way back in 1948 launched a Bronx-born hick’s career as a fringe observer of the quirks of movie stars and moguls.

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That Sexy Blonde Rock Hudson Loved

Aug17
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Joe Morella and Frank Segers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A couple of weeks ago we ran a picture and identification of one-time character actor Stanley Clements. And, of course, for the last few weeks we’ve been discussing Bob Hope and the fetching female costars he played opposite in his long career.

Well, in classic Hollywood style their paths professionally crossed. In Hope’s 1953 comedy “Off Limits,” Bob plays the manager of a young fighter billed as Bullets Bradley portrayed by Clements.

And in typical Hope fashion of the era he starred opposite one of the sexiest leading ladies of the day, blonde Marilyn Maxwell. (The cast also includes Mickey Rooney and Eddie Mayehoff. And, oh yeah, a bit by Tom Harmon, Mark Harmon’s Dad.)

It was Hope and Maxwell’s second outing together. They had done “Lemon Drop Kid” in 1950. But let’s — as this blog will — concentrate on Maxwell.  Many stars of her period certainly did concentrate on Maxwell, notably Rock Hudson.

What, you ask?

Wasn’t Hudson, by the time he died of AIDS in 1985, an out-of-the-closet gay man whose sole marriage — to Phyllis Gates, his agent’s secretary; it lasted less than three years — was arranged expressly to conceal his homosexuality?

Good question. Also, where does Maxwell come in?

Born Marvel Marilyn Maxwell in Clarinda, Iowa in 1920, she was groomed very early by her parents for a show biz career, first as singer with the Buddy Rogers and Ted Weems orchestras. After a period studying acting at the Pasadena Playhouse, Marilyn landed her first movie role in 1942, opposite Robert Taylor in “Stand By For Action.” In later movies, Maxwell’s costars included Van Johnson, Lionel Barrymore, Kirk Douglas, Clark Gable, George Raft and, of course, Hope.

Marilyn was an adept comedienne, and proved to be a sexy foil to the likes of  Jerry Lewis and Jack Benny. But she made her boldest career imprint as a curvaceous straight woman to Hope during a series of the comedian’s celebrated USO tours around the world. Hope would ignite audiences having the well-stacked Maxwell decked out in a tight sweater singing “I Want To Love You” to the troops.

As for the occasional comparisons to Marilyn Monroe, Maxwell would comment: “Hey, I’m the blond with her clothes on.”

Maxwell married three times, the last time (1954 to 1960) to writer-producer Jerry Davis, a union that produced a son.

And this is where Hudson comes in. “Rock and Marilyn had met in the early fifties and had been instantly attracted to each other, but they did not become romantically involved until 1961, when she broke up with her husband, Jerry Davis, and started spending time with Rock,” according to “Rock Hudson: His Story,” published a year after the actors’s death, and written by Hudson himself with Sara Davidson.

“People who saw them together said they laughed and played ‘like little kids.’ … She’d get him on the floor and tickle him, and they’d wrestle like bear cubs, laughing until tears were streaming down their cheeks.” Hudson called Maxwell “Max” and she called him “Big Sam.” Hudson also became close to Maxwell’s son, Matthew, and threw the boy a sixth birthday party at his house complete with a real merry-go-round and clowns on the lawn.

Hudson even nursed Maxwell back to health following surgery for a ruptured ovarian cyst. “He really, literally saved my life,” Maxwell later said.  ”He is without question the best friend I ever had.” The friendship deepened to something else for Maxwell, a romance that turned physical.

In “Rock Hudson: His Story,” Maxwell’s longtime (26 years) secretary is quoted thusly: “I know for a fact they were having an affair. Marilyn confided everything in me, and she talked about it in detail. She was in love with him. She said he always told her he loved her but wasn’t in love with her.”

When Maxwell suggested marriage, Hudson agreed on the condition that “you have to let me have my other life too. If you can put up with that…” Marilyn thought it over, finally concluding that “it would make her miserable if Rock was also seeing men.”

Maxwell was found dead in March of 1972 (of a heart attack; she was only 51), slumped on the floor of a closet in her Beverly Hills home. Her body was discovered by her son, then 15. Paramedics arrived, and told the teenager that “your mother’s gone.” Hudson was notified, and rushed to the house to find the teenager slumped in a chair, speechless.

The story goes that Rock Hudson picked Matthew Davis up in his arms, carried him out to his car and brought him home  A doctor was summoned, a sedative was administered to the distraught teenager and Hudson took over and made plans for Maxwell’s last rites. Honorary pallbearers at Maxwell’s funeral were Hope, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Jack Benny — and Rock Hudson.

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BOB HOPE and ECSTASY!

Jul19
2011 Leave a Comment Written by classicmovieguys

 

When Bob Hope arranged for Hedy Lamarr to co-star with him in 1951′s “My Favorite Spy,” Hedy was fresh off a huge hit, “Samson and Delilah,” but not in the good graces of her bosses at Paramount.

(She had refused for familiar reason$ to do a promotional tour on behalf of the Biblical epic.)

Hello everybody.  Joe Morella and Frank Segers back to discuss another of Hope’s alluring leading ladies.

Hope, like all the other filmgoers of his era had seen Hedy posed with top leading men.


Hope loved being in that company. What Hope hadn’t thought of was Hedy’s real co-star (see below).

But Hedy and Hope were friends.  She’d been on his radio show. She actually had a keen sense of humor off-camera, and liked his brand of comedy. When Hope offered her a role in “My Favorite Spy,” the third of the comedian’s “My Favorite….” trilogy, Hedy jumped at the chance.

Lamarr impressed Hollywood — and Hope — with her strikingly mature beauty. When Hedy came to Hollywood in 1937, she had already been heralded as “the most beautiful girl in the world.” She also became in short order the most glamorous of glamour queens.

According to Stephen Michael Shearer’s biography, “Beautiful: The Life of Hedy Lamarr,” she was to be paid $125,000 for 10 weeks work on the picture. Hope’s salary was his then standard per-picture fee of $150,000.  In 1951, that was a lot of money for both.

Hope wound up dominating “My Favorite Spy,” and Hedy was not ecstatic about the result. The picture was a commercial success (earning about $2.6 million int the U.S., as per Shearer) because of Hope’s popularity.

When Hedy saw the final release she was upset. Some of her best comedic moments in the picture were cut.  Hedy never forgave Hope, and he never forgave her for not doing PR before the film’s release.” Said Hedy, “I didn’t think we made that great of a teaming. We didn’t look right together.”

So much for ecstasy. But by 1965 they had apparently forgotten their tiff and Lamarr appeared on one of Hope’s TV specials.

By the way, we’ve referred to “ecstasy” in our headline and in today’s blog.  The word has special signficance in Hedy Lamarr’s career.  Can you tell us why?

Meanwhile, we can promise more on Hedy and “ecstasy” soon on Classic Movie Chat.

 

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PIRATES BEFORE THE CARIBBEAN — Yes, VIRGINIA, There was HOPE

Jun27
2011 Leave a Comment Written by classicmovieguys

He was the top film comedian of the time.  She was a budding blonde sex symbol of great promise. It was natural to pair them in a film.

Joe Morella and Frank Segers, your Classic Movie guys back again to note that the indie producer Samuel Goldwyn often borrowed stars from other studios to perform opposite his contract players.

Who better than Bob Hope to showcase the producer’s newest talent acquisition, the 24-year-old former chorus girl with a peaches and cream complexion pictured above? She was quite a “princess” (that’s a hint!).

Despite her relative inexperience, our actress (born Virginia Jones in St. Louis) held her own nicely in her 1944 comedy pairing with Hope. You might be able to figure out the title of the picture by pondering the headline of today’s blog.

The movie was a smash hit, launching the starring career of our actress covering appearances in a wide range of films including a famous film noir featuring James Cagney’s most explosive screen performance. (Huge hint: film noir fans could also check her out in 1950′s “Red Light.” Our actress was costarred this time opposite George Raft.)

Can you name name her?

Meanwhile, we are interested to know if you identified the buxom blonde in last week’s photo with Hope.

Yes, that is Swedish star Anita Ekberg, one of the reigning international sexpots of the Fifties and Sixties.

Like so many American actresses in films Ekberg started out as a beauty contest queen, a Scandinavian one. She was chosen Miss Sweden in 1950, and unsuccessfully bid for the 1951 Miss Universe title.

Malmo-born (in the fall of 1931) Kerstin Anita Ekberg grew up in a large Swedish family than included seven brothers and sisters.  After her unsuccessful Miss Universe bid, she decided to stick around Hollywood and do some modeling. Standing 5-foot-6-1/2 inches and endowed with 39-1/2-inch bust line, Anita was hard to overlook.

She caught the eye of — who else? — notorious womanizer Howard Hughes, who signed Anita to contract at his RKO studio. (She later claimed that Hughes at the time had proposed marriage.) Her RKO career went nowhere, and she wound up at Universal five years later. She made her movie debut in 1953 as a Venusian maiden in “Abbott and Costello Go To Mars.”

After appearing in several forgettable comedies including 1956′s “Hollywood Or Bust” with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Anita decided to take off for Rome where the red-hot Italian movie industry afforded more opportunities.  It was director Federico Fellini’s film, “La Dolce Vita” (The Sweet Life), that propelled Anita to international stardom.

She appears opposite Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni as a fantasy image of idealized womanhood, highlighting her performance with a languorous dip — while still in evening dress — in Rome’s Fountain of Trevi.  The image of her sensuous fountain escapade has been evoked countless times over the years in movie posters and in ad of all sorts. Anita’s “La Dolce Vita” image lives on — including in this blog (see photo below).

Her first comedy with Hope, 1958′s “Paris Holiday,” has Anita playing a mysterious European woman dogging Hope and the great (and now mostly forgotten) French movie comedian Fernandel.  She was 27 at the time; Hope was 55.  Not a match made in heaven.

In their second movie together, 1963′s “Call Me Bwana,” Anita is stuck playing yet another super agent of shady European backround.  She was starting to put on weight by this time, and at age 60, Hope was pushing his comic lothario screen image almost to the limit. Skip this one.

Always referred to as “statuesque” and “voluptuous,” Ekberg drew less flattering descriptions (“erotic caricature” is one) in her weightier later years.  Still, she always insisted that “I’m very proud of my breasts.”

Here’s that Fountain of Trevi shot of a soaking wet Anita in “La Dolce Vita.”

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BOB HOPE and The SEX SYMBOLS

Jun21
2011 Leave a Comment Written by classicmovieguys

Many people may not recognize or remember the star (and her famous, ample equipment) but in the late 50′s and early 60′s she represented sex and Sweden. Naturally she starred in a picture with Bob Hope.

Hello everybody. Joe Morella and Frank Segers here with more detail on how Bob Hope in his long film career managed to co-star with the most sought after stars of the day.

But before we discuss the comedian’s film “Paris Holiday,” let’s go back to last week’s “favorite blonde.”  Were you able to identify that striking looking (and slightly goo-goo-eyed) woman pictured next to the gun-toting Hope in last Monday’s “Bob Hope’s Women”blog?

No?  Stumped were you?

Don’t feel so bad. Frank himself (but not Joe!) had some trouble coming up with her name. Shame on Frank, for the actress – Madeleine Carroll – is one of the most gracefully aristocratic performers ever to work at a Hollywood studio.

Author-critic David Thomson put it nicely: “The first English rose transplanted to America, Madeleine Carroll had all the regal beauty of the English leading lady.” How she wound up working with Hope, who always preferred a dash of down-and-dirty sexuality in his female costars, is a bit of a mystery.

Nonetheless, it was Carroll who was cast as Karen Bentley, a British secret agent linking up with a down-on-his-luck vaudevillian (Hope) — whose onstage partner is a roller-skating penguin by the name of Percy — in 1942′s “My Favorite Blonde,” a whacky concoction by writers Norman Panama and Melvin Frank.

The movie was the first of three “My Favorite…” titles made by Hope, who knew what he was doing when it came to costars.  Why not cast Carroll, born in England’s West Midlands in 1906, as a British World War II spy? (American movie fans tend to forget this, but Hope himself was born in London three years before.)

Carroll started making movies in 1928, and made an indelible impression as the first cool-blonde actress type that director Alfred Hitchock favored throughout his career (seeTippi Hedren, Grace Kelly, Kim Novack with a dye job, Eva Marie Saint, et al.). Thomson notes that “it was her two films for Hitchcock (produced by British Gaumont) that added a little spice to the blondeness.”

Madeleine was literally linked (via handcuffs) to Robert Donat in the 1935 version of “The 39 Steps” — what a great movie classic! — and costarred with Peter Lorre, Robert Young and John Gielgud in 1936′s “Secret Agent.”  Carroll was regarded at the time as the “Queen of British Cinema.”

Her popularity was such that she became the highest paid actress of her time, making a cool – remember, this is during the Great Depression — $250,000 in 1938.

Carroll’s subsequent Hollywood career that began with that glittering resume never quite matched her early U.K. successes among the general public.  Her studio output included such largely forgettable titles as 1936′s “The General Died At Dawn,” 1937′s “The Prisoner of Zenda,” and 1940′s ‘My Son, My Son!”

Madeleine was a woman of expansive cultural interests outside of the Hollywood studio machine; her father wanted her to be a French teacher rather than an actress.

After her sister was killed in a London bombing raid, she interrupted her acting career for a time to become a Red Cross nurse in the war effort, serving in England and France (for which she later received official recognition from the French government). By the mid-Forties, her Hollywood movie career was largely over. One of her later films, 1949′s “Lady Windermere’s Fan,” was directed by Otto Preminger.

Carroll’s personal life was turbulent.  She was married and divorced four times.  One of her husbands was the then ruggedly, handsome, 6-foot-5 actor Sterling Hayden (born in Montclair, New Jersey as John Hamilton).  Hayden was 10 years younger that Carroll, who used her influence to land him a studio contract.  The two costarred in director  Edward H.Griffith’s “Virginia” in 1940 and “Bahama Passage” in 1941.

Her last husband, Andrew Heiskell, was chairman and CEO of Time Inc. After their marriage ended in 1965, Madeleine Carroll retired, presumably blissfully, as a single, ex-film-star, spending a lot of her time in Marbella, Spain where she died at 81 of pancreatic cancer in October 1987.

Here’s that photo from last week.  She looks appropriately frightened.

 

 

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BOB HOPE’S WOMEN

Jun13
2011 Leave a Comment Written by classicmovieguys

In thinking about Bob Hope’s film career it occurred to us that the comedian, unlike almost all film comics, starred opposite some of the most alluring women of his day.

Hello Everybody, Joe Morella and Frank Segers here again beginning of new week of classic movie chat.  Today we were discussing Joe’s book on Bob Hope which he co-authored with Ed Epstein and Eleanor Clark.

In his early films Hope seemed to be following the usual pattern– cast opposite another comic, such as Martha Raye, but after 1942′s “My Favorite Blonde” all of Hope’s leading ladies were stars with sex appeal, sometimes sizzling sex appeal.  We wonder: how exactly did that happen?

Even before “Blonde” the comedian had been paired with beauties such as Paulette Goddard and Vera Zorina (and of course Dorothy Lamour).  Not to mention that “Blonde” — which had Hope and a trained penguin caught up in an espionage ring –featured the woman pictured above , certainly a beauty in her own right.

After “Blonde” Hope insisted that he continue to be be cast opposite top notch romantic leading ladies. His home studio, Paramount Pictures, obliged.  No wonder his films continued to be big hits.

OK, today’s photo shows Hope with his favorite blonde.  (There’s a hint you could drive a truck through.)  Can you identify her?

Each Monday for the next few weeks we’ll discuss Bob Hope’s on-screen lovers. And along with you we shall try to figure out how and why the comedian was able to lure such beautiful females into his comedic lair.

Was it Hope’s sex appeal?  We don’t think so. Was it because so many movie sexpots secretly longed to do lighter movie fare with the reigning comedian of his time?  Perhaps? Or, was it purely a matter of studio commercial mandate — that is, Hope’s movies made money?

We’d welcome your thoughts, of course. In the meantime here are some hints we collected from the writings and great thoughts of two of Hope’s sexiest costars — Jane Russell and Hedy Lamarr.

In Lamarr’s case, some explaining is in order.

Her ticket to stardom was, of course, her beauty and her exotic European background (she was born in Vienna).  Probably her most remembered picture is 1949′s “Samson and Delilah,” director Cecille B. DeMille’s Old Testament extravaganza costarring Victor Mature, George Sanders and Angela Lansbury (as Hedy’s older sister, no less).

The picture was a big hit for Paramount — Hope’s home base —  but the studio was more than a little miffed when Hedy declined for financial reasons to go on a tour to promote the Biblical epic.

Cut to a chance meeting a while later between Hope and Lamarr outside her dressing room, as recounted by author Stephen Michael Shearer in his 2010 biography, “Beautiful: The Life of Hedy Lamarr:”

Hope to Lamarr:  ”Say, Hedy, are you available for a picture?”

Lamarr to Hope: “Not here (at Paramount). They hate me here because I wouldn’t do a personal appearance tour for them.”

Hope to Lamarr: “That’s crazy. No red blooded American male could hate you….Do you mind if I talk to (the Paramount brass)?”

A few days later, another meeting:

Hope to Lamarr: “You were right…they hate you. But I’ll fix that.”

And fix it Hope did since he and Lamarr went on to costar in 1951′s espionage spoof, “My Favorite Spy.” In fact, Hedy off camera had a keen sense of humor, loved jokes and very much enjoyed listening to Hope on the radio.   He was, you could say, her favorite comedian.

For Russell, working with Hope in 1948′s “The Paleface” was a step up for her. “Paramount was the first ‘family’ lot I’d worked on,” Jane recalled in her autobiography. “It was a big studio with all the executive building and stars dressing rooms circling a little park. My dressing room was next to Bob Hope’s.

“Bob Hope was a ball, another Gemini,” Jane continued.  ”He’s even funnier off screen than on, and everything’s relaxed except his chocolate eyes, which never stop darting, never missing a thing.” (Hope would later introduce the fully developed Russell as “the two and only.”)

Obviously, beautiful women enjoyed being around Bob Hope. More on this next Monday.

 

 

 

 

 

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THIS IS WHERE WE CAME IN!

Jun07
2011 Leave a Comment Written by classicmovieguys

 

The chant “going to the movies” for those of a certain age arouses nostalgic goose bumps. Do you get goosebumps at the prospect of patronizing today’s local multiplex? No?  We thought not.

Hi everybody.  Joe Morella and Frank Segers, your classic movie guys back again, and waxing nostalgic.

To help out, we’ve invited a special guest and longtime friend, veteran Hollywood trade journalist Hy Hollinger, to join us in recalling the once-upon-a-time special experience associated with “going to the movies.”

This may come as a surprise to our younger readers but local movie theaters right up into roughly the late 1950′s, did NOT operate like a dentist’s office — that is, customers showing up an an appointed time, paying a fee, and then leaving just as soon as the service purchased (watching the movie in this case) was over.

What fun is that, especially if the movie was lousy? And “going to the movies” back when was a lot of fun.

Before with the arrival of television in the 1950′s, “going to the movies” was THE dominant popular past time. Those living in under heated homes or apartments sought refuge in winter by heading for the toasty local Bijou. People got out of sweltering houses in summer and enjoyed air cooled movie houses (sometimes movie palaces) where the offerings included a main feature accompanied by a second-billed movie plus coming attractions, perhaps a short subject movie or two, a newsreel and a cartoon.

PLEASE NOTE: Showing intrusive commercials before the movie started was simply unheard of.

“Going to the movies” sometimes wasn’t strictly about watching the picture. As is the case today, for young people going to the movies was a convenient form of socializing with friends of both sexes outside the gaze of censorious parents. No wonder the title of the late Pauline Kael’s first collection of film reviews is titled, “I Lost It At The Movies.”

From the Great Depression up to the 1950′s movies represented the most accessible and cheapest form of entertainment, a diversion that attracted toddlers to nonagenarians. A bunch of guys or gals standing or sitting around wondering what to do would inevitable end up at the movies.

On top of that, it didn’t matter when you entered the theater:  You could come in at the beginning, middle or end of the main feature or low-budget secondary attraction, and leave at at the point you entered, Hy recalls.

The absence of scheduled show times meant that moviegoers could arrive and depart theaters as they pleased. Since the showing were continuous — think of one giant loop — a patron would nudge his or her companion and signal it was time to leave by announcing, THIS IS WHERE WE CAME IN!

Thus the heading for today’s blog.

Hollywood understood this, and orchestrated certain bits of plot recapitulation to be periodically spoken by cast members to clue in patrons arriving in the middle of the main feature.  This was done so blatantly that the movies even satirized the practice.  In “The Road to Morocco” Bob Hope tells Bing Crosby what the duo has endured for the first 45 minutes.  ” I know all that,”  snaps Crosby.  ”Yes, ” says Hope breaking the fourth wall and talking to the audience, “but the people who came in in the middle of the picture don’t.”

Hy recalls that moviegoers also had the option of remaining past the point of “this is where we came in,” and viewing the whole show over and over again until theater closing. And unlike today when theater owners are primarily in the real estate business, owners back then thought of themselves as “showmen.”

Hy tells us that while attending college in New York, he landed a job as an usher at the Valentine Theater on Fordham Road in the Bronx. (The pay was 24 cents an hour.)

And part of your ushering duties included serving as a barker, frequently on freezing nights with hardly anyone on the street.  Our barker uniform looked like a Russian army outfit. I still remember part of the spiel: “Go in in now. Seats without waiting.”  Then, a rundown of the main picture’s title and cast.

Sounds inviting. Those were the days when “going to the movies” was going to the movies.

 

 

 

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