Posts tagged Marilyn Monroe

BOGART QUIZ ANSWERS

May01
2013 Leave a Comment Written by classicmovieguys

He’s one star who hasn’t faded. In fact this week down in Key Largo, Humphrey Bogart’s son, Stephen, will host the first Humphrey Bogart Film Festival. 

Hello Everybody. Morella and Segers here with the answers to some of those questions about one of the durable stars Hollywood ever produced.

How did you do with our Humphrey Bogart Quiz?

We deliberately tried to avoid slam-dunk questions, and tried to genuinely test your knowledge about the most enduring star to emerge from the classic Hollywood studio era.

Like the weekly cliff-hanging movie serials of old, we’ll try to draw this question-answer exercise out a bit to keep up the suspense. We’ll run the answers to our first 3 questions in today’s blog, and then you’ll have to wait to find out the answers to the remaining questions.  So, by all means, stay tuned.

Here we go:

QUESTION: Alan Ladd was legendarily short for a Hollywood leading man, but wasn’t Humphrey Bogart even shorter?  Exactly how tall was Bogie?

ANSWER:  If you guessed 6 feet tall, you are wrong.  Not just Bogie but also Robert Redford and Tom Cruise are shorter than that. As for Alan Ladd, few major studio stars – excluding 5-foot-2 inch Mickey Rooney — possess less stature than the 5-foot-6-1/4 inch Ladd.  (No wonder Alan had to be artificially elevated in love scenes.)

Bogie was a fully-grown 18-year-old when he enlisted in the Navy in 1917. The particulars at the time of his induction physical include the notation that he stood 5-feet-8 inches in height, “weighing 136 pounds, with brown eyes and hair and no remarkable scars,” according to “Tough Without A Gun: The Life and Extraordinary Afterlife of Humphrey Bogart” by Stefan Kanfer. So that made Bogie one inch taller than Cruise and one inch shorter than Redford.

Question:What’s the famous line associated with Bogart’s early days on stage?

ANSWER:  ”Tennis Anyone?  or was it “Anyone for tennis?”

Question: Name Bogart’s last two wives.

Answer: Meyo Method and Lauren Bacall (above with Bogie and Monroe). His first two were actresses Helen Menken and Mary Philips.

QUESTION: What famous actor was originally scheduled to take the costarring Bob Curtin role with Bogie’s Fred C. Dobbs in 1948’s “Treasure of the Sierra Madre” but pulled out at the last minute? (The role went, thank goodness, to Tim Holt.)  Hint: this famous actor became even more famous in another public arena.

ANSWER:  We may have already given this one away, but you deserve the break.  Ronald Reagan was scheduled to take the part of the relatively even-tempered Bob Curtin, the essentially good-hearted ballast of the odd-fellow trio of gold prospectors in Mexico rounded out by Bogie’s violently deranged Fred C. Dobbs and the super-grizzled prospecting veteran, Howard, memorably portrayed by Walter Huston, father of the movie’s director John Huston.

It’s not clear today exactly why Reagan bowed out. The reason might have something to do with the fact “The Treasure of Sierra Madre” was one of the first American movies to be made completely on location outside the U.S. — in Tampico and Jungapeo, Mexico. Reagan may not have relished the idea of spending weeks in mountainous Mexican wilderness.

While Reagan would have certainly been sufficient in the role of Bob Curtin, Tim Holt was magnificent in it. It’s his best movie performance outside of his brilliant turn as the insufferably spoiled George Amberson in Orson Welles’ brilliant 1942 movie, “The Magnificent Ambersons.”

Did you like this? Share it:
Posted in Rare Photos - Tagged , , , , ,

Audrey Hepburn Quiz — The Answers

Apr12
2013 Leave a Comment Written by classicmovieguys

As we mentioned in a previous blog, it seems to us that if any Hollywood actresses have a claim on eternal public life, they would have to include (in no special order) Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Audrey Hepburn.

Hepburn’s image still has great currency, and currently adorns the May issue of Vanity Fair.

The Vanity Fair piece, adapted from the forthcoming coffee-table book, Audrey In Rome coauthored by her son Luca Dotti, is loaded with wonderful period shots taken during the actress’ 17-year residence in Rome dating from 1969, after the bulk of her movie career was over.

We were inspired by the article, and put together an Audrey Hepburn quiz to find out just how much you really know about this “iconic” personality. Ok, how much did you know? Check out these answers to find out.

1) Question. Although she’s thought of as the product of an aristocratic European family, Hepburn experienced poverty as a young girl.  True or false?

Answer. True. Hepburn was born in 1929 to a British banker father and a Dutch baroness.  Her parents split up, and for various logistical reasons a teenage Audrey found herself in Holland during the German occupation.  Food was in short supply and she suffered from malnutrition, an experience she never forgot.

2) Question. Can you identify the profession of her Italian second husband, Dr. Andrea Dotti? He was a) an actor with a PHD; b) a podiatrist; c) a proctologist; or d) a psychiatrist?

Answer. d) a psychiatrist.

3) Question.  Which of these movies starring Audrey was NOT filmed in Rome? a) 1956′s War and Peace; b) 1953′s Roman Holiday; c) 1954′s Sabrina; or d) 1959′s The Nun’s Story.

Answer. c) Sabrina, in which Audrey costarred with Humphrey Bogart and William Holden. This very entertaining romantic comedy was filmed at Paramount’s Hollywood studios and on New York’s Long Island.

4) Question. Which of these actor-costars was Hepburn’s first husband. a) Eddie Albert, b) Helmut Dantine; c) Mel Ferrer; or d) Jacques Marin?

Answer. c) Ferrer, to whom Hepburn was married from 1954 to 1968.

5) Question. Which of Hepburn’s movie roles was her favorite? a) As the princess on the loose in Roman Holiday; b) as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s; c) as the upper class daughter of a prominent surgeon who decides to enter a convent in The Nun’s Story; or d) as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady?

Answer. c) The Nun’s Story. Directed by Fred Zinneman and costarring Peter Finch, this was a prestige title that really resonated with Audrey and won her a New York Film Critics best-actress award.  Her character was born in Belgium, was determined to lead her own life from and early age, and possessed spiritual depth — aspects all that applied to Hepburn herself. To top it all off, the movie was made in her favorite city, Rome.

6) Question. When she lived in Rome, Hepburn raged and fulminated at the pesky ”paparazzi,” the Italian photographers who dogged her every public step.  True or false?

Answer. False.  Hepburn was her usual composed self in public despite the hubbub of surrounding photographers.  In fact, she had her favorites among the “paparazzi” and blessed them with special photo-ops — that made her look especially good, of course.

7) Question. Not present during the Rome period was Hepburn’s final male companion, who despite not being married to her, lived with the actress until she died.  Can you identify this man? a) Walter Matthau; b) Dino De Laurentiis; c) Robert Wolders; or d) Mickey Rooney?

Answer. c) Robert Wolders, a handsome former actor born in the Netherlands who was seven years younger than Audrey and who had once been married to Merle Oberon.

8) Question. Although she loved living in the Eternal city, Hepburn did not die in Rome.  Where did she die and what killed her?

Answer.  Hepburn died in Switzerland of cancer in 1993.

9) Question.  What accounted for Hepburn’s ramrod posture and her physical composure in almost all settings?  a) her early training in marital arts; b) a back deformity which was cured through long term exercise; c) ballet practice; or d) a stint in the military.

Answer. c) ballet practice.  As an adolescent, Hepburn worked very hard to prepare for a career in ballet before modeling and then acting intervened.

10) Question. Although immaculately turned out all her life, Hepburn had her share of fashion quirks. Which of the following did she adopt? a) not wearing undergarments; b) carrying a small basket to be used as a purse;  c) never wearing sunglasses; or d) wearing  pearls with everything?

Answer. c) Audrey often carried in public a small picnic basket that doubled as her purse. With her, it was tres chic.

Did you like this? Share it:
Posted in Rare Photos - Tagged , , ,

Audrey Hepburn Quiz — The Questions.

Apr09
2013 Leave a Comment Written by classicmovieguys

It seems to us that if any Hollywood actresses have a claim on eternal public life, they would have to include (in no special order) Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Audrey Hepburn.

Monroe remains the subject of periodic fascination, often expressed in photographs, books and, perhaps, with a PHD thesis or two. Taylor’s estate still brings in a fortune from the proceeds of products the star launched in her lifetime.

Hello, everybody.  Joe Morella and Frank Segers, your classic movie guys, back with another star quiz. So sharpen those wits, and get ready.

Of the three luminaries mentioned above, Hepburn is now the closest to Hollywood sainthood. Her fashion model chic — termed her “iconic style” — has a posthumous appeal of its own, so it’s no surprise that her image currently adorns the May issue of Vanity Fair.

Although she’s been dead for 20 years now, her visual appeal remains refreshingly contemporary.  The Vanity Fair piece, adapted from the forthcoming coffee-table book, Audrey In Rome coauthored by her son Luca Dotti, is loaded with rarely seen period photos taken during the actress’ 17-year residence in Rome dating from 1969, after the bulk of her movie career was over.

Hepburn looks great and is — even while walking the dog — dressed in high-fashion impeccability. We were inspired by the article, and put together this Audrey Hepburn quiz to find out just how much you really know about this “iconic” personality. So here we go.

1) Question. Although she’s thought of as the product of an aristocratic European family, Hepburn experienced poverty as a young girl.  True or false?

2) Question. Can you identify the profession of her Italian second husband, Dr. Andrea Dotti? He was a) an actor with a PHD; b) a podiatrist; c) a proctologist; or d) a psychiatrist?

3) Question.  Which of these movies starring Audrey was NOT filmed in Rome? a) 1956′s War and Peace; b) 1953′s Roman Holiday; c) 1954′s Sabrina; or d) 1959′s The Nun’s Story.

4) Question. Which of these actor-costars was Hepburn’s first husband. a) Eddie Albert, b) Helmut Dantine; c) Mel Ferrer; or d) Jacques Marin?

5) Question. Which of Hepburn’s movie roles was her favorite? a) As the princess on the loose in Roman Holiday; b) as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s; c) as the upper class daughter of a prominent surgeon who decides to enter a convent in The Nun’s Story; or d) as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady?

6) Question. When she lived in Rome, Hepburn raged and fulminated at the pesky ”paparazzi,” the Italian photographers who dogged her every public step.  True or false?

7) Question. Not present during the Rome period was Hepburn’s final male companion, who, despite not being married to her, lived with the actress until she died.  Can you identify this man? a) Walter Matthau; b) Dino De Laurentiis; c) Robert Wolders; or d) Mickey Rooney?

8) Question. Although she loved living in the Eternal city, Hepburn did not die in Rome.  Where did she die and what killed her?

9) Question.  What accounted for Hepburn’s ramrod posture and her physical composure in almost all settings?  a) her early training in marital arts; b) a back deformity which was cured through long term exercise; c) ballet practice; or d) a stint in the military.

10) Question. Although immaculately turned out all her life, Hepburn had her share of fashion quirks. Which of the following did she adopt? a) not wearing undergarments; b) carrying a small basket to be used as a purse;  c) never wearing sunglasses; or d) wearing  pearls with everything?

Ok, there you have it.  No peeking at internet references.  Answers this week.

 

 

 

Did you like this? Share it:
Posted in Rare Photos - Tagged , , ,

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.

Did you like this? Share it:
Posted in Rare Photos - Tagged , , ,

ELSA MAXWELL — A Movie Star At 50?

Jan09
2013 Leave a Comment Written by classicmovieguys

If the words, Elsa Maxwell, mean anything to you, we are betting that you have hit the mid-century mark or older.

Younger readers may scratch their collective head, but for those that DO remember, Maxwell surely was (using an over abused world) a “unique” phenomenon.  There was and is just no one else like her.

Hello, everybody.  Joe Morella and Frank Segers, your classic movie guys, who confess that they only came to know Maxwell towards the end of her life (she died in the fall of 1963) thanks to her many appearances on Jack Paar’s late-night tv talk show in the late Fifties.

Ok, then, who was Maxwell, and why all the fuss?

She was a short, homely, gnomish woman who (born in 1883) came out of Belle Epoque San Francisco, and went on to conquer international high society as the world’s premiere party giver. She knew everyone. From Monroe (above) to Cole Porter (below)

Her soirees were no ordinary Saturday night drop-ins.  No, they were highly expensive (always paid for by someone else; Elsa pleaded fashionable poverty her whole life) and highly orchestrated affairs that drew the creme de la creme of American and European society from the 1920′s into the 1960′s. Royalty, business magnates, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, the whole expensively turned-out crew.

A woman of assorted talents, Elsa was also a capable pianist, a smart composer, an interesting journalist (her society column ran for years), a keen opera savant, an avid Francophile, a witty conversationalist, public lecturer and, by all accounts, a loyal generous hostess and friend.

For more on all this, we suggest picking up the highly readable new biography by Sam Staggs, Inventing Elsa Maxwell: How an Irrepressible Nobody Conquered High Society, Hollywood, the Press and the World.  

Elsa’s world comprised New York, Paris, Venice, Rome, London, Monte Carlo, provincial France, the Greek Islands, and on and on. As Staggs’ book title suggests, Maxwell also had a Hollywood connection. It began in the early 1930′s — when Maxwell was approaching the mid-century mark herself  – and lasted little more than a decade.

As Staggs writes:

Given that every day in Elsa’s life was tops…it is difficult to assign one period more importance than another. And yet her beachhead in Hollywood stands out because that rich province …capitulated overnight….Elsa arrived in Hollywood not starry-eyed but silver tongued…Like Mae West, Elsa was no little girl in a big town; she was a big girl from a big town comin’ to make good in a little town. 

Hollywood parties, she decreed, were just “plain dull.”

Maxwell regarded studio bosses as equals, at the very least. She borrowed money from Jack Warner. David O. Selznick sought her out as a lushly paid “consultant” on his pictures. Producers Walter Wanger and Sam Goldwyn were also interested.

She regarded Gary Cooper as a faithful old chum. She was screen tested by MGM as possible substitute for the deceased Marie Dressler. Director George Cukor offered her a supporting role in a picture starring Greta Garbo.

Elsa later said it was Twentieth Century Fox boss Darryl Zanuck who “discovered” her, according to biographer Staggs.  He told her, “You have a warm personality that will project well on the screen. How about making a picture for me?”

The result was 1939′s Hotel For Woman, starring Ann Sothern, which marked most notably the screen debut of a very young Linda Darnell. Then came director Gregory Ratoff’s Public Deb. No. 1, which Maxwell correctly characterized as “a real flop.”

The early Forties brought three short features, Riding Into Society, The Lady and the Lug and, suitably enough, Throwing A Party. And, then, after an appearance in 1943′s Stage Door Canteen, Maxwell’s movie “career” came to (in her eyes) a triumphant conclusion.

 

Did you like this? Share it:
Posted in Rare Photos - Tagged , ,

Monday’s Quizzes — The Answers At Last

Dec17
2012 Leave a Comment Written by classicmovieguys

Hey, we apologize.

For the last two Mondays (Dec. 3 and Dec. 10) we posed several questions in challenging readership quizzes. And, naughty us, we have not — until today — published the answers.

Hello, everybody.  Joe Morella and Frank Segers, your classic movie guys, ready to relieve all those of you left hanging by your thumbs (as the old radio comedy team, Bob and Ray, used to put it) awaiting our answers. So, here we go.

On Dec. 10, we asked you to identify not only the stars pictured (the easy part) but also the titles of the last pictures they made. The stars pictured were Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Alan Ladd and Marilyn Monroe.

In the case of Gable and Monroe, the question of their last movie is a bit tricky.

That’s because they costarred in director John Huston’s The Misfits, about wild horse wranglers coping with a seductive visitor.  The film was shot in the hot Nevada desert, and Gable did a lot of his own stunts. He was 59 at the time, and the rigorous action took its toll.  Soon after the movie was completed, he collapsed and died of a heart attack.

The Misfits came out in 1961, and it was the last completed movie that Gable and Monroe ever made. Monroe didn’t die for another year, but before she did she began her infamously troubled starring role in director George Cukor’s Something’s Got To Give at Twentieth Century Fox.

Monroe was psychologically unglued at this point. Although she looks absolutely smashing in those poolside photos shot during the ill-fated production, her erratic behavior got her fired from the picture and then rehired.  To no avail.  Something’s Got To Give  was never completed.

Ladd was very touchy about how short he was –at 5-foot-6-1/4-inches, the fully-grown actor was indeed one of the shortest leading male figures in Hollywood history. Towards the end of his life he battled his own demons. A longtime marriage dissolved followed by short term affairs and substance abuse.

He died in 1964 in Palm Springs, California, of an alcohol-barbiturate overdose. He was just 50 years old. His last role in his last movie was as “Nevada Smith” in Paramount’s screen adaptation of the Harold Robbins’ potboiler, The Carpetbaggers.  His costars were George Peppard and Carroll Baker.  Ladd deserved better.

Jean Harlow, who was called “Sis” by Clark Gable, her frequent costar, died at the ripe age of 26 while making MGM’s romantic comedy, Saratoga in 1937. She fell ill during filming, and the crew and cast, assuming she would recover in due course, continued the production. Then word of her death came.

What to do?  The decision was made to complete the picture with Harlow’s stand in carefully photographed, with dialogue dubbed in post production.  Some viewers and critics to this day find it a tad creepy to watch the result.

On Dec. 3, we asked you to name the hometowns of Susan Hayward, Frank Sinatra and James Cagney.

Born Edythe Marrenner on June 30, 1917, Hayward was nurtured in “poverty and bred to insecurity,” writes Beverly Linet in her 1980 biography of the star, Susan Hayward: Portrait of a Survivor.

Throughout her life, the famously Brooklyn-born, red-headed 5-foot-3 actress had “to battle for happiness.  For over three decades, she dazzled audiences and critics with portrayals of tragic, stormy women – a gallery of winners, losers, fighters and survivors – and she knew then well, because they were all her,” Linet writes in fevered prose style.

Cagney came from New York’s Lower East Side, a was proud of it.

A while ago, we published familiar (to hardcore Sinatra fans) mug shots that were taken when Frank Sinatra was a young man, just starting his career. What puzzled us initially was that the singer’s Hoboken, New Jersey birthplace is located in Hudson County. But the mugg shots were taken in New Jersey’s neighboring Bergen County.

So what DID happen that resulted in these shots?

It turns out that this is an early case of cherchez la femme in Sinatra’s life. The year is 1938, and Sinatra was 23 years old.  He somehow got himself involved with a young woman who lived in Lodi, New Jersey, which is in Bergen County.

According to law enforcement records, “on the second and ninth days of November 1938 at the Borough of Lodi” and “under the promise of marriage” Sinatra “did then and there have sexual intercourse with said complaintaint (the lass from Lodi), who was then and there a single female of good repute.”

Sinatra was charged with “seduction and adultery,” which sounds like an Italian movie title of the Sixties. Yes, reneging on a promise to marry was then considered a legal offense. Bergen County authorities were therefore dispatched to Hoboken to make the arrest.

As it turned out, the charges against Sinatra were later dismissed.

 

 

Did you like this? Share it:
Posted in Rare Photos - Tagged , , ,

WAS MARILYN MONROE EVER A CONTRACT PLAYER? You Bet !

Dec09
2011 Leave a Comment Written by classicmovieguys

And that was eons before My Week With Marilyn.

Hello, everybody. Joe Morella and Frank Segers, your classic movie guys, here to report back about those two Fox ‘contract players‘ we asked you to identify in our Nov. 24 blog.

Almost everyone in the world would recognize the star in the first picture above, but how many of you recognized the other actress?  Now, c’mon. Be honest!

Frank swore it was Terry Moore.  Reader Stefano Iovinelli  (Stefy56), who emailed on Dec. 7 with the correct identification, knew better.  Thanks Stefano.

Of course that is Marilyn Monroe posing (above) outside of what appears to be a bay-side hotel restaurant. What an inane setting!

Marilyn looks great. She’s meticulously made up, and for a bathing suit shot, is elegantly dressed.  Dig those earrings and provocative shoes.

The photo dates from the early Forties during Marilyn’s first tour at Fox, which ended later in the decade when studio boss Darryl F. Zanuck, in one of his most boneheaded personnel calls, fired her.

She was subsequently hired by Columbia Pictures (at a reported weekly salary of $175), and plopped into role of a singing dancer in 1948′s Ladies of the Chorus. But when her six-month option there was up, Columbia’s Harry Cohn declared, “the girl can’t act,” and he fired her. (After she became a star back at repentant Fox, Cohn was never allowed to forget that he had dismissed Marilyn Monroe.)

Tony Curtis recalls in his American Prince: A Memoir falling in love with Monroe shortly before this publicity shot of her was taken.

“Marilyn had been spending time at the (Fox) studio. She was changing her style, her look, even her persona. When we first started going out, she spoke in a normal voice, plainly and directly….By the end of our relationship she was beginning to talk with that breathy, sexy affectation that became her trademark. She also had changed her hair color from red to platinum blond.

Curtis also wrote of their affair that Marilyn was the first woman I felt truly close to. … No other woman I’ve known made me feel that way until I met my (sixth and final) wife Jillie almost fifty years later. (So much for first wife Janet Leigh.)

Our second Fox ‘contract player’ at Fox was around for many years; after movie offers dried up in the Fifties, she worked in TV and on the stage until the 1960′s.

Although she starred opposite some of the top leading men of her day (including Henry Fonda and Don Ameche), she never attained top tier stardom. Among her some 150 movie credits is 1944′s The Bridge at San Luis Rey written by Thornton Wilder and costarring Francis Lederer, Louis Calhern, and one of our personal favorite character actors, the great Akim Tamiroff.

OK, enough of the foreplay. Our second mystery ‘contract player’ is Lynn Bari, born Margaret Schuyler Fisher in 1913, and died nearly 76 years later in Santa Barbara, California.  She was married to Sid Luft for seven years beginning in 1943.  That was before Luft (pictured below with Bari) wed Judy Garland.

With a head shot, it’s hard to appreciate perhaps her most notable attribute — her knockout figure.

Final note: there is no record of Bari having ever being romanced by Tony Curtis.

 

 

Did you like this? Share it:
Posted in Rare Photos - Tagged , , ,

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.

Did you like this? Share it:
Posted in Rare Photos - Tagged , , ,

Did Jane Russell Sleep With Howard Hughes?

Jun01
2011 Leave a Comment Written by classicmovieguys

Today’s question, posed in the headline above today’s picture, is not meant to be disrespectful or rude. Not at all.

It’s  just that this blunt question arises whenever you assess the career of Jane Russell, one of Hollywood’s biggest stars of the Forties and Fifties.

Hello everybody.  Joe Morella and Frank Segers, your classic movie guys here again.

Whatever Jane Russell”s acting skills — and Frank rates her higher in this category than most — she oozed sex onscreen.  Not the cuddly, baby-talking kind exuded by Marilyn Monroe, Russell’s costar in Howard Hawk’s wonderful  1953 rendition of the fortune-hunter romp, “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.”

No.  Russell’s eroticism was more direct, a lipcurling, no-nonsense, full figured approach that made amply clear the rewards of pleasing her were great, but those crossing her would be chewed up and spit out before breakfast.  Her figure was her claim to fame as Bob Hope, her costar in “The Paleface,” and its sequel,”The Son of Paleface,” would point out to the world when he’d  introduce her “as the two and only…”

Check her out in Josef von Sternberg’s 1952 thriller “Macao,” in which Jane was cast opposite Robert Mitchum as a sultry, worldly-wise nightclub singer at loose ends in the steamy Asian gambling capital now part of China. The chemistry between the two stars is evidently helped by the fact they were fast friends off-camera.

Both intensely disliked the Vienna-born von Sternberg (Marlene Dietrich’s svengali.)  During “Macao’s” less-than-smooth shooting, the director would turn to Mitchum and say: “Now we have to bolster this beautiful girl with no talent.”  This infuriated Mitchum, who would cut von Sternberg short — in more ways than one. (Von Sternberg was eventually taken off the picture to be replaced by a young Nicholas Ray.)

Getting back to our headline question, we felt compelled to search for the real Jane as expressed in her 1985 autobiography, “Jane Russell My Paths & My Detours.”

– Did Russell sleep  with  Howard Hughes, the studio mogul who made her an international sex symbol in her first movie, “The Outlaw”?

Jane says, absolutely not.  She found him likable, kooky and timid. “I often hollered at Howard, and I think in a funny kind of way I scared him.” Hughes would later confide to friends, “that woman terrified me.” Hughes did make one serious pass, according to Jane, but got nowhere.  Hughes did volunteer during the making of “The Outlaw” to design a special-fitted bra for Russell, but she didn’t wear it.  ”I found it uncomfortable and ridiculous.” The powerful agent Lew Wasserman, who represented Jane at one point, asked her: “Look, are you sleeping with this guy or what?” A stunned Jane responded, “No, Lew, my God! He’s my friend.”

There were rumors that Hughes lent, or gave Jane money when she found herself in financial straits late in her career.  This isn’t true,  but the eccentric mogul did provide financially for her after he sold the RKO studio and after completion of 1955′s “Underwater,” which Jane bluntly described as a “turkey.” Hughes offered what she described as a “unique” contract reserving his right to loan Jane out to any other studio (she was under contract to him at the time) for six pictures over a five-year period with her payments spread over 20 years. She could also make pictures on her own. Jane was guaranteed $1 million dollars, a pretty big payday 56 years ago. Agent Wasserman “helped Jimmy Stewart and many stars set up the same format, but mine was the first of its kind,” boasted Jane.

One of Russell’s best remembered films is”Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.”  The box office receipts and  the critical reviews were “great,” recalled Jane.  The picture was a highlight of her 27-year-career.

Did you like this? Share it:
Posted in Rare Photos - Tagged , , , , ,

BETTY GRABLE — the classic Pin Up

Apr25
2011 Leave a Comment Written by classicmovieguys

 

Hello everybody.  Joe Morella and Frank Segers again.

Take a good long look at the photo today.

You may not know it but you are peering at a pair of “million dollar legs.” They belonged to one Elizabeth Ruth Grable, born in St. Louis in 1916.

No kidding.  That’s what Betty Grable’s  gams were said to be worth to her employer, Twentieth Century-Fox, and to the world at large when this posed studio shot was taken in the early 1940s.

A Hollywood veteran of nearly 15 years (she had a pushy stage mother and made her first movie at 14, lying about her age) Grable was in her late 20s when this shot was taken, and rapidly on her way to becoming the most famous pinup of the World War II years.

This photo stoked GI libidos from Alaska to the Fiji Islands.

After a dead-end start at RKO and Paramount, Grable came to Fox at the behest of studio chieftain Darryl F. Zanuck as the intended replacement for the fading Alice Faye. Grable quickly supplanted Faye, and began a long a profitable reign as Fox’s official blond and musical star until Marilyn Monroe took over in the 1950′s.

This photo was carefully designed to capitalize on Grable’s wholesome sex appeal. Throughout her career, she was known as a more-or-less clean living straight shooter more devoted to family than to scandal.  That made her a likable figure (pun intended) to mainstream movie audiences.

In 1943 Betty was named the number one star by movie exhibitors and theater owners, the first woman to be so designated. 1943 was a big year for Grable since it also marked the beginning of a 22-year-marriage to her second and final husband, trumpeter-band leader Harry James.  Grable’s first husband was former child actor Jackie Coogan to whom she was married from 1937 to 1940.

After the above photo came out, Grable was no longer a mere movie star.  She was a national icon.  She remained Hollywood’s number one box office phenomenon all through the World War II years.

Thrilled by it all, Zanuck in 1944 rushed into production a piece of musical fluff titled, naturally enough, “Pin Up Girl,” teaming Betty with Martha Raye, Joe E. Brown and the Charlie Spivak Orchestra.  This concoction was supervised by one of our favorite director names, H. Bruce Humberstone. And, yes, it was a hit.

By the time the war ended, Grable was such a big a star that she achieved the lofty status as the highest-paid woman in the country, earning anywhere from $200,000 to $300,000 a year.  And that was back in the day when you could easily buy a very comfortable house for under $3,000.

And those “million dollar legs” were a considerable bargain.  Grable remained among the top 10 box office draws for a total of 13 years, a record unmatched by any other actress. At her career peak, she was said to have brought in at least $5 million annually to Fox coffers.

Her career at Fox was a lot more diverse that her pinup image suggests.  She was very good in the gritty 1941 film noir classic, “I Wake Up Screaming,” playing the wholesome sister of a shady murdered model. In the movie, Betty gives the cold shoulder to Victor Mature. (“I Wake Up Screaming” was also directed by none other than our H. Bruce Humberstone, and includes a marvelously creepy performance from one of our favorite character actors, Laird Cregar.)

Betty’s expensive legs also got a workout in one of two “How To…” capers she appeared in: Jean Negulesco 1953 comedy “How To Marry A Millionaire” alongside Lauren Bacall and Monroe, her eventual replacement as Fox’s studio blond.  She also appear in 1955′s “How To Be Be Very, Very Popular” with Sheree North (a lightweight Monroe clone) and Robert Cummings. In all, she appeared in more than 75 movies plus multiple tv appearances and stage work.

She and Harry James had two children.  After their divorce in 1965, Grable remained single until the day she died of lung cancer on July 2, 1973, five months shy of her 57th birthday.

For us she will always be the girl with the “million dollar legs.”

LAST FRIDAY’S PIC:  A scene from “The Breaking Point,” the 1950 drama from Warners based on a Hemingway story. Pictured were Victor Sen Yung, Wallace Ford, and John Garfield.

 

Did you like this? Share it:
Posted in Rare Photos - Tagged , , ,