Trivia: Actor Jack Carson was born in Canada but raised in Milwaukee, which he always regarded as his hometown. After attending Carroll College, Carson hit the vaudeville trail in an act with his old friend Dave Willock (later a prominent Hollywood character actor in his own right). Carson's first movie contract was at RKO, where he spent an uncomfortable few years essaying bits in "A" pictures and thankless supporting parts in "B"s. His fortunes improved when he moved to Warner Bros. in 1941, where after three years' apprenticeship in sizeable secondary roles he achieved his first starring vehicle, Make Your Own Bed (44); he was cast in this film opposite Jane Wyman, as part of an effort by Warners to create a Carson-Wyman team. While the studio hoped that Carson would become a comedy lead in the manner of Bob Hope, he proved himself an able dramatic actor in films like The Hard Way (43) and Mildred Pierce. Still, he was built up as Warners' answer to Hope, especially when teamed in several films with the studio's "Bing Crosby", Dennis Morgan. Continuing to alternate comic and dramatic (sometimes villainous) roles throughout the 1950s, Carson starred in his own Jack Benny-style radio series, appeared successfully as a stand-up comedian in Las Vegas, and was one of four rotating hosts on the 1950 TV variety series All-Star Revue. Carson was married four times (once to Lola Albright) Shortly after completing his role in the Disney TV comedy Sammy the Way Out Seal, Carson died of stomach cancer on January 2, 1963 (the same day that actor/producer Dick Powell succumbed to cancer).

Trivia: The son of German pianist Artur Schnabel, Stefan Schnabel prepared for a theatrical career at the University of Bonn and London's Old Vic. Schnabel made his Broadway debut in 1937 as a member of Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre, playing meaty roles in such ambitious Mercury efforts as Julius Caesar and Shoemaker's Holiday. He made his first film appearance in the Welles-produced Journey Into Fear (1942), and thereafter was seen in roles calling for Teutonic bombast. Back on Broadway in the 1950s and 1960s, Schnabel essayed one of his best-loved roles: Papa Yoder in the musical Plain and Fancy. In the late 1960s-early 1970s, he was seen in a number of off-Broadway productions, including Tango and In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer. On television, Stefan Schnabel spent several years in the role of Dr. Steven Jackson in the CBS daytimer The Guiding Light, and in 1959 played "Firebeard" in the syndicated adventure weekly Tales of the Vikings.