Letter of Introduction

Andrea Leeds (Actor) .. Katherine 'Kay' Martin

Born: August 18, 1914
Died: May 21, 1984

Trivia: After briefly attending UCLA, doll-faced brunette actress Andrea Leeds entered films as a bit player. Billed under her given name of Antoinette Lees, she played her first leading roles in the short-subject vehicles of Hal Roach comedian Charley Chase. As Andrea Leeds, she was brilliant as the neurotic, suicidal aspiring actress in Stage Door (1937), earning the unqualified praise of her co-workers (which included such tough judges as Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers) as well as an Academy Award nomination. Leeds was signed by Samuel Goldwyn in 1938, appearing as antiseptic heroines in The Goldwyn Follies (1938), They Shall Have Music (1939) and The Real Glory (1939). Unlike her Stage Door character, Andrea Leeds was more than willing to give up acting when opportunities for good roles began drying up; she retired from films completely upon marrying wealthy sportsman Robert S. Howard.

Adolphe Menjou (Actor) .. John Mannering

Edgar Bergen (Actor) .. Himself

Born: February 16, 1903
Died: September 30, 1978

Trivia: Edgar Bergen was still in grammar school when he sent away for a 25-cent ventriloquism instruction book. By the time he was 11, Bergen was driving his family crazy with his prankish voice-throwing. While attending medical school at Northwestern University, Bergen paid his tuition by performing a small-time ventriloquist act; it wasn't long before he dropped out of college to hit the vaudeville and tent-show circuit. After a tour of Europe and South America, Bergen filmed a series of one-reel short subjects for Vitaphone between 1930 and 1935; even in these early efforts, top billing went not to Bergen but to his creation, the impish, top-hatted dummy Charlie McCarthy. From time-to-time Bergen would test out other wooden alter egos, including hayseed Mortimer Snerd and man-hungry Effie Clinker, but Charlie would remain his star attraction. After gaining nationwide fame through his appearances on Rudy Vallee's radio program, Bergen launched his own radio series, The Charlie McCarthy Show, a top-rated endeavor which ran from 1937 through 1955. Bergen and Charlie made their feature film debuts in The Goldwyn Follies (1938). They went on to appear together in eight more films between in 1938 and 1948; curiously, however, Charlie McCarthy came across better on radio than he did on screen--partly due to the inescapable fact that Bergen tended to move his lips while throwing his voice. At his peak, Bergen was pulling down $10,000 weekly from his radio series and an additional $100,000 from Charlie McCarthy toys and merchandise. He was also the recipient of the only wooden Academy Award in history, a special Oscar bestowed upon himself and the pine-headed Charlie. On his own, Bergen co-starred in I Remember Mama (1948) as the shy Norwegian suitor of spinster Ellen Corby; he also played supporting parts in Captain China (1949) and Don't Make Waves (1965). After the cancellation of their radio series, Bergen and Charlie played nightclubs, summer stock and state fairs. They also hosted the 1956 TV quiz show Do You Trust Your Wife?. Emerging from a long professional slump, Bergen made a triumphant Las Vegas comeback in 1978--the evening before his death at the age of 75. His last screen appearance was in Jim Henson's The Muppet Movie (1979), which was dedicated to his memory. Edgar Bergen was the husband of actress Frances Bergen, and the father of film and TV star Candice Bergen.

George Murphy (Actor) .. Barry Paige

Born: July 04, 1902
Died: May 03, 1992

Trivia: A Yankee Doodle dandy born on the fourth of July, actor George Murphy was the son of an Olympic track coach. He tried the Navy at age 15, but soon returned home to complete his high school and college education. He never finished college, choosing instead to pursue a dancing career. In 1927, Murphy and his partner-wife Julie Johnson made it to Broadway; by the early 1930s Mrs. Murphy had retired and George had become a star solo dancer. He made his screen bow in support of Eddie Cantor, Ethel Merman, and Ann Sothern in Kid Millions (1934). Never a major star, Murphy was an agreeable presence in several big-budget musicals of the 1930s and 1940s, and later essayed straight dramatic parts in such films as Border Incident (1949) and Battleground (1949). He also crossed paths with two of his future fellow Republican politicos, dancing with Shirley Temple in Little Miss Broadway (1938) and playing the father of Ronald Reagan (nine years Murphy's junior!) in This Is the Army (1943). Like Reagan, Murphy was a Democrat until becoming involved in intra-Hollywood politics. Changing to Republicanism in 1939, Murphy worked to cement relationships between local government and the movie industry, and in 1945 he served the first of two terms as President of the Screen Actors Guild (Reagan was, of course, one of his successors). After his last film, an odd MGM second feature about mob mentality titled Talk About a Stranger (1952), Murphy retired from show business to devote his full time to political and business activities. He was instrumental in getting Desilu Studios, the TV factory created by Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball, off the ground in the late 1950s, serving for several years on its board of directors. Murphy became one of the first actors to throw his hat into the political arena in 1964 when he was elected to the U.S. Senate. Despite throat surgery which prevented him from speaking above a hoarse whisper, Murphy remained active in Republican circles into the 1970s, helping smooth the path to several elections of increasing importance for his old pal Ronald Reagan.

Rita Johnson (Actor) .. Honey

Born: August 13, 1913
Died: October 31, 1965

Trivia: A former pianist and radio actress, Rita Johnson was on Broadway from 1935 and in films from 1937. An extraordinarily versatile performer, Johnson managed to play virtually every sort of role open to an actress of above-average beauty and intelligence in the 1940s. Portraying standard heroines in such films as Edison the Man (1940) and My Friend Flicka (1943), Johnson brought far more warmth and humanity to the parts than the scripts provided. She was equally as persuasive as haughty murderess Julia Farnsworth in Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941) and as the hissable "other woman" in films like The Major and the Minor (1944). It is positively criminal that no Academy Award came Johnson's way for her astonishing portrayal of the born-to-be-killed wife of unscrupulous Robert Young in 1947's They Won't Believe Me. Johnson's film career came to a screeching halt after a 1948 accident that required delicate brain surgery; thereafter, her screen time was extremely limited, in keeping with her radically reduced mobility and powers of concentration. Fifty-three-year-old Rita Johnson died of a brain hemorhage in her Hollywood home in 1965.

Ann Sheridan (Actor) .. Lydia Hoyt

Born: February 21, 1915
Died: January 21, 1967

Trivia: Ann Sheridan was born Clara Lou Sheridan, the name under which she was billed in 1934 and part of 1935. At 18 she won a "Search for Beauty" contest, and was rewarded with a bit part in a film by that name (1934). Signed to a contract, she appeared in small roles in more than 20 films throughout the next two years. She changed her first name and, in 1936, switched studios to Warner Bros., which launched a publicity campaign hyping her as the sexy "Oomph Girl." Sheridan went on to a very busy career in better roles, usually cast as a wise, practical girl; her work in King's Row (1942) best demonstrated her acting ability and opened the door to a wider variety of parts. She remained popular and busy through the early '50s, when available roles began drying up for her; by the mid '50s her screen career was over. She later starred in the TV soap opera "Another World" and on "live" TV dramatic shows, and also worked in stock. At the time of her death from cancer she was starring in the TV series Pistols 'n' Petticoats. She was married three times: to actors Edward Norris, George Brent, and Scott McKay.

Eve Arden (Actor) .. Cora Phelps

Born: April 30, 1908
Died: November 12, 1990
Birthplace: Mill Valley, California, United States

Trivia: Little Eunice Quedens' first brush with the performing arts came at age seven, when she won a WCTU medal for her recital of the pro-temperance poem "No Kicka My Dog." After graduating from high school, she became a professional actress on the California stock company circuit. Still using her given name, she played a blonde seductress in the 1929 Columbia talkie Song of Love then joined a touring repertory theater. After another brief film appearance in 1933's Dancing Lady, she was urged by a producer to change her name for professional purposes. Allegedly inspired by a container of Elizabeth Arden cold cream, Eunice Quedens reinvented herself as Eve Arden. Several successful appearances in the annual Ziegfeld Follies followed, and in 1937 Arden returned to films as a young character actress. From Stage Door (1937) onward, she was effectively typecast as the all-knowing witheringly sarcastic "best friend" who seldom got the leading man but always got the best lines. Her film roles in the 1940s ranged from such typical assignments as sophisticated magazine editor "Stonewall" Jackson in Cover Girl (1944) to such hilariously atypical performances as athletic Russian sniper Natalia Moskoroff in The Doughgirls (1944). In 1945, she earned an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Joan Crawford's sardonic but sympathetic business partner in Mildred Pierce. In July of 1948, she launched the popular radio situation comedy Our Miss Brooks, earning a place in the hearts of schoolteachers (and sitcom fans) everywhere with her award-winning portrayal of long-suffering but ebullient high school teacher Connie Brooks. Our Miss Brooks was transferred to television in 1952, running five successful seasons. Less successful was the 1957 TVer The Eve Arden Show, in which the star played authoress Liza Hammond. This failure was neutralized by her subsequent stage tours in such plays as Auntie Mame and Hello, Dolly! and her well-received film appearances in Anatomy of a Murder (1959) and Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1960). In 1967, she returned to TV to co-star with Kaye Ballard on the chucklesome The Mothers-in-Law which lasted two years. And in 1978, she became a favorite of a new generation with her performance as Principal McGee in the phenomenally successful film version of Broadway's Grease. In 1985, Eve Arden came out with her autobiography, The Three Phases of Eve.

Ernest Cossart (Actor) .. Andrews

Born: September 24, 1876
Died: January 21, 1951

Trivia: After a brief career as a wine-shop clerk, 20-year-old British actor Ernest Cossart made his first stage appearance in 1896. Cossart toured the provinces in stock, then in 1908 settled permanently in the U.S. He made a smattering of silent-film appearances, notably the 1916 serial The Strange Case of Mary Page, but would not turn to movies full-time until 1935. Along with such countrymen as Arthur Treacher, Charles Coleman, and Wilson Benge, Cossart became one of Hollywood's favorite butlers, bearing such character names as Bims, Brewster, Walton, Brassett, Syrette, Sidney, and Jeepers in such films as The Great Ziegfeld (1936), Three Smart Girls (1936), Never Say Die (1939), Charley's Aunt (1941), and Cluny Brown (1946). On occasion, he'd forego his waistcoats, striped trousers, and "veddy good, sir"s to play a twinkly eyed working stiff like Pop in Kitty Foyle (1940) and Monaghan in Kings Row (1942). He was also seen as a cleric or two, notably Father McGee in The Jolson Story (1946). Ernest Cossart retired in 1949, two years before his death at the age of 74.

Jonathan Hale (Actor) .. Lou Woodstock

Born: January 01, 1891
Died: February 28, 1966

Trivia: Once Canadian-born actor Jonathan Hale became well known for his portrayal of well-to-do businessmen, he was fond of telling the story of how he'd almost been a man of wealth in real life--except for an improvident financial decision by his father. A minor diplomat before he turned to acting, Hale began appearing in minor film roles in 1934, showing up fleetingly in such well-remembered films as the Karloff/Lugosi film The Raven (1935), the Marx Brothers' A Night at the Opera (1935) and the first version of A Star is Born (1937). In 1938, Hale was cast as construction executive J. C. Dithers in Blondie, the first of 28 "B"-pictures based on Chic Young's popular comic strip. Though taller and more distinguished-looking than the gnomelike Dithers of the comics, Hale became instantly synonymous with the role, continuing to portray the character until 1946's Blondie's Lucky Day (his voice was heard in the final film of the series, Beware of Blondie, though that film's on-camera Dithers was Edward Earle). During this same period, Hale also appeared regularly as Irish-brogued Inspector Fernack in RKO's "The Saint" series. After 1946, Hale alternated between supporting roles and bits, frequently unbilled (e.g. Angel on My Shoulder, Call Northside 777 and Son of Paleface); he had a pivotal role as Robert Walker's hated father in Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train (1951), though the part was confined to a smidgen of dialogue and a single long-shot. Hale worked prolifically in television in the '50s, with substantial guest roles in such series as Disneyland and The Adventures of Superman. In 1966, after a long illness, Jonathan Hale committed suicide at the age of 75, just months before the TV release of the Blondie films that had won him prominence in the '30s and '40s.

Frank Jenks (Actor) .. Joe

Born: January 01, 1902
Died: May 13, 1962

Trivia: From 1922 through 1934, Iowa-born performer Frank Jenks was a song and dance man in vaudeville. He began picking up day work in Hollywood films in 1933, and by 1937 had worked his way up to a contract with Universal Pictures. Jenks was seen in sizeable character roles in films ranging from the sumptuous Deanna Durbin vehicle 100 Men and a Girl to several entries in the Crime Club B-series. He portrayed sardonic sleuth Bill Crane (a creation of mystery writer Jonathan Latimer) in the Crime Club entries The Westland Case (1937) and Lady in the Morgue (1938). Jenks' familiar Hibernian grin and salty delivery of dialogue graced many a feature of the '40s and '50s; most of the roles were supporting, though Jenks was allowed full leads in an informal series of PRC detective films of the mid '40s. Frank Jenks' most conspicuous assignment of the '50s was as Uthas P. Garvey, the Runyonesque assistant of lovable con artist Alan Mowbray on the TV series Colonel Humphrey Flack, which ran live in 1953-54 and was resurrected for 39 filmed episodes in 1958.

Walter Perry (Actor) .. Backstage Doorman

Born: September 14, 1868
Died: January 22, 1954

Trivia: From A Corner in Colleens (1916) to Kathleen Mavourneen (1930), Walter Perry portrayed the quintessential Irishman. A veteran stage actor, minstrel player, and vaudevillian, the San Francisco-born Perry reportedly entered films in 1915 after visiting Inceville (Thomas H. Ince's Santa Monica plant) while on a vaudeville tour. Very busy through the 1920s, the gray-haired character actor was less active after the changeover to sound.

Frances Robinson (Actor) .. Hatcheck Girl

Born: January 01, 1915
Died: January 01, 1971

Constance Moore (Actor) .. Autograph Seeker

Born: January 18, 1919
Died: September 16, 2005

Trivia: Blonde leading lady Constance Moore started in films as a contract player at Universal. She appeared as Wilma Deering in the 1938 serial Buck Rogers, and was Edgar Bergen's love interest in the W.C. Fields vehicle You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939). A band singer before and after her Universal sojourn, Moore briefly forsook films to star in the 1942 Broadway musical comedy By Jupiter, then returned to Hollywood as the star of a string of above-average Republic musicals. She virtually retired from filmmaking in 1947, making unexpected return appearances in 1951's The Thirteenth Letter and 1967's Spree. Sporadically active on TV in the 1960s, Constance Moore was a regular on the 1961 Robert Young "dramedy" Window on Main Street and the 1965 soap opera The Young Marrieds.

Eleanor Hansen (Actor) .. Stagestruck Girl

Raymond Parker (Actor) .. Call Boy

Born: January 01, 1916
Died: January 01, 1987

May Boley (Actor) .. Mrs. Meggs

Born: January 01, 1881
Died: January 01, 1963

Armand Kaliz (Actor) .. Jules the Barber

Born: October 23, 1892
Died: February 01, 1941

Trivia: Actor Armand Kaliz was a reasonably successful vaudeville performer when he made his first film appearance in The Temperamental Wife (1919). Kaliz would not return to filmmaking on a full-time basis until 1926. At first, he enjoyed sizeable screen roles: along with most of the cast, he essayed a dual role in Warners' Noah's Ark (1928), and was given featured billing as DeVoss in Little Caesar (1930). Thereafter, Armand Kaliz made do with minor roles, usually playing hotel clerks, tailors and jewelers.

Russell Hopton (Actor) .. Process Server

Born: February 18, 1900
Died: April 07, 1945

Trivia: Stage actor Russell Hopton made his first screen appearance in a bit role in 1926's Ella Cinders. Hopton came into his own in the early 1930s, playing glowering, sarcastic characters who often bear such ill-suited names as Smiley and Happy. One of his largest roles was phony elocution expert Jerry Daniels in Once in a Lifetime, the famed 1932 satire of Hollywood's early-talkie days. In 1935 and 1936, Hopton directed a handful of "B" pictures for producer Maurice Conn. Russell Hopton spent the last eight years or so of his life as an RKO contract player, essaying villainous or disreputable supporting roles in both feature films and 2-reel comedies.

Mark Daniels (Actor) .. Kibitzer

William B. Davidson (Actor) .. Mr. Raleigh

Born: June 16, 1888
Died: September 28, 1947

Trivia: Blunt, burly American actor William B. Davidson was equally at home playing gangster bosses, business executives, butlers and military officials. In films since 1914, Davidson seemed to be in every other Warner Bros. picture made between 1930 and 1935, often as a Goliath authority figure against such pint-sized Davids as James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson. In the early '40s, Davidson was a fixture of Universal's Abbott and Costello comedies, appearing in In the Navy (1941), Keep 'Em Flying (1941) and In Society (1944). In Abbott & Costello's Hold That Ghost (1941), Davidson shows up as Moose Matson, the dying gangster who sets the whole plot in motion. An avid golfer, William B. Davidson frequently appeared in the all-star instructional shorts of the '30s starring legendary golf pro Bobby Jones.

Kathleen Howard (Actor) .. Aunt Jonnie

Born: July 17, 1880
Died: April 15, 1956

Trivia: Described by film historian William K. Everson as "that supercilious martyr" (he was of course referring to her on-screen personality), Canadian character actress Kathleen Howard usually comported herself before the cameras in a most operatic fashion. And who with better right? Howard was a Metropolitan opera star from 1916 through 1928, turning to film acting only after her voice broke. She was also an accomplished writer, serving on the executive staff of Harper's Bazaar. She made her first movie appearance, appropriately cast as an Italian grande dame, in Death Takes a Holiday (1934). Generations of W.C. Fields fans have doted upon Howard's full-blooded portrayals of Fields' virago wife in It's a Gift (1934) and The Man on the Flying Trapeze (1935). Toning down her screen mannerisms a bit, Kathleen Howard spent her last decade in films in such supporting roles as the melancholy schoolmistress in Deanna Durbin's First Love (1939) and the wry lady judge in One Night in the Tropics (1940).

Esther Ralston (Actor) .. Mrs. Sinclair

Born: September 17, 1902
Died: January 14, 1994

Trivia: In vaudeville with her parents from childhood, blonde, silent-movie leading lady Esther Ralston was in films from 1916. Her first important role was the heroine in the 12-chapter Universal serial The Phantom Fortune. A major star at Paramount in the 1920s, Ralston was touted as "The American Venus" after appearing (with a bare-minimum wardrobe) in a 1926 film of the same name. Ever seeking out a variety of parts, Ralston played Rose Maylie in Oliver Twist (1923), Mrs. Darling in Peter Pan (1924), and the Fairy Godmother in A Kiss for Cinderella (1925); she was at her best when exuding an air of highly defendable virtue in films like Old Ironsides (1926). Ralston prepared for talkies by training at Edward Everett Horton's California-based stock company. She continued playing worthwhile roles in features of various importance until her first retirement in 1941, and thereafter briefly acted on radio soap operas. After the breakup of her marriage, Ralston found the financial going rough and took whatever jobs she could; in the mid-'50s she toiled as a Manhattan department store saleswoman, denying that she was Esther Ralston to customers who thought they recognized her. Also in that decade, she briefly managed the career of her daughter, a nightclub singer. Esther Ralston returned before the cameras on the 1962 NBC TV daytime drama Our Five Daughters.

Irving Bacon (Actor) .. Reporter

Born: September 06, 1893
Died: February 05, 1965

Trivia: Irving Bacon entered films at the Keystone Studios in 1913, where his athletic prowess and Ichabod Crane-like features came in handy for the Keystone brand of broad slapstick. He appeared in over 200 films during the silent and sound era, often playing mailmen, soda jerks and rustics. In The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938) it is Irving, as a flustered jury foreman, who delivers the film's punchline. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Irving played the recurring role of Mr. Crumb in Columbia's Blondie series; he's the poor postman who is forever being knocked down by the late-for-work Dagwood Bumstead, each collision accompanied by a cascade of mail flying through the air. Irving Bacon kept his hand in throughout the 1950s, appearing in a sizeable number of TV situation comedies.

Ray Walker (Actor) .. Reporter

Born: August 10, 1904
Died: October 06, 1980

Trivia: Lightweight American leading man Ray Walker moved from stage work to films in 1933. While he would occasionally earn a lead in a big-studio film -- he was Alice Faye's vis-à-vis in Music Is Magic (1935) -- Walker could usually be found heading the cast of programmers filmed at Hollywood's B-picture outfits. One of Walker's best screen roles was in Monogram's The Mouthpiece (1935), in which he was ideally cast as a swell-headed radio personality, brought down to earth by the loss of both his sponsor and his girlfriend (Jacqueline Wells). By the early '40s, Walker had eased into minor and supporting roles, even accepting the occasional short subject (he shows up as Vera Vague's ex-husband in the 1946 two-reeler Reno-Vated). Still, Ray Walker's previous reputation assured him a comfortable living; for his single scene as luggage shop proprietor Joe in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life, Walker received his standard asking price of 1,000 dollars per day.

Leonard Mudie (Actor) .. Critic

Born: April 11, 1884
Died: April 14, 1965

Trivia: Gaunt, rich-voiced British actor Leonard Mudie made his stage bow in 1908 with the Gaiety Theater in Manchester. Mudie first appeared on the New York stage in 1914, then spent the next two decades touring in various British repertory companies. In 1932, he settled in Hollywood, where he remained until his death 33 years later. His larger screen roles included Dr. Pearson in The Mummy (1932), Porthinos in Cleopatra (1934), Maitland in Mary of Scotland (1936), and De Bourenne in Anthony Adverse (1936). He also essayed dozen of unbilled bits, usually cast as a bewigged, gimlet-eyed British judge. One of his more amusing uncredited roles was as "old school" actor Horace Carlos in the 1945 Charlie Chan entry The Scarlet Clue, wherein he explained his entree into the new medium of television with a weary, "Well, it's a living!" Active well into the TV era, Leonard Mudie showed up memorably in a handful of Superman video episodes and was a semi-regular as Cmdr. Barnes in the Bomba B-picture series.

Doris Lloyd (Actor) .. Charlotte

Born: July 03, 1896
Died: May 21, 1968

Trivia: Formidable stage leading lady Doris Lloyd transferred her activities from British repertory to Hollywood in 1925. She was prominently cast as an alluring spy in George Arliss' first talkie Disraeli (1929); one year later, at the tender age of 30, she was seen as the matronly Donna Lucia D'Alvadorez in Charley's Aunt. Swinging back to younger roles in 1933, Lloyd was cast as the tragic Nancy Sykes in the Dickie Moore version of Oliver Twist. By the late 1930s, Lloyd had settled into middle-aged character roles, most often as a domestic or dowager. Doris Lloyd remained active until 1967, with substantial roles in such films as The Time Machine (1960) and The Sound of Music (1965).

Morgan Wallace (Actor) .. Editor

Born: July 26, 1888
Died: December 12, 1953

Trivia: After considerable experience on the New York stage, Morgan Wallace entered films at D.W. Griffith's studio in Mamaroneck, Long Island. Wallace's first screen role of note was the lecherous Marquis de Praille in Griffith's Orphans of the Storm (1921). Thereafter, he specialized in dignified character parts such as James Monroe in George Arliss' Alexander Hamilton (1931). A favorite of comedian W.C. Fields (perhaps because he was born in Lompoc, CA, one of Fields' favorite comic targets), Wallace showed up as Jasper Fitchmuller, the customer who wants kumquats and wants them now, in Fields' It's a Gift (1934). Morgan Wallace retired in 1946.

Richard Tucker (Actor) .. Gossip

Born: June 04, 1884
Died: December 05, 1942

Trivia: Prosperous-looking American actor Richard Tucker went from the stage to the Edison Company in 1913, where he played romantic leads before the cameras. Even in his youth, the tall, regal Tucker exuded the air of corporate success, and was best suited to roles as bankers and stockbrokers. After World War I service, Tucker resumed his film career as a character man. In talkies, the newly mustachioed, grey-haired Tucker was seen in innumerable small authoritative roles. His two best-known assignments from this period were in the 1936 serial Flash Gordon, in which he played Flash's scientist father; and in the 1932 Laurel and Hardy feature Pack Up Your Troubles, wherein Tucker was the bank president who turned out to be Mr. Smith, the grandfather of the orphan girl Stan and Ollie were protecting. Actor Richard Tucker's hundreds of film credits are often erronously attributed to latter-day Metropolitan Opera star Richard Tucker, who was born several years after the earlier Tucker had already established himself.

George Humbert (Actor) .. Musician on Stage

Born: January 01, 1881
Died: May 08, 1963

Trivia: Immense, sad-eyed character actor George Humbert made his first film appearance in 1921. Humbert almost always played an Italian restaurateur, waiter, chef or street vendor. His screen characters usually answered to such names as Tony, Luigi, Mario, and Giueseppi. A rare digression from this pattern was his portrayal of "Pancho" in Fiesta (1947). George Humbert made his last appearance as Pop Mangiacavallo (his name was longer than his part!) in The Rose Tattoo (1955).

Frank Reicher (Actor) .. Doctor

Born: December 02, 1875
Died: January 19, 1965

Trivia: Launching his theatrical career in his native Germany, actor/director Frank Reicher worked in London before coming to the US in 1899. His entree into the movies was as co-director of the 1915 production The Clue; he continued to direct in Hollywood before returning to the stage in 1921. At the dawn of the talkie era, Reicher was brought back to California to direct German-language versions of American films. For his acting bow before the microphones, Reicher was cast in the title role of Napoleon's Barber (1928) a Fox Movietone two-reeler which represented the first talkie for director John Ford. Reicher specialized at this time in humorless, wizened authority figures: college professors, doctors, scientists, cabinet ministers. In 1933 he was cast as Captain Engelhorn in the classic adventure fantasy King Kong; director Ernest Schoedsack later characterized Reicher as "the best actor we had" in a cast which included Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot and Fay Wray. He repeated the Engelhorn role, with a modicum of uncharacteristic humor added, in Son of Kong (1933). The remainder of Reicher's film career was devoted to brief character roles, often as murder victims. He was killed off at least twice by Boris Karloff (Invisible Ray [1936] and House of Frankenstein [1944]), and was strangled by Lon Chaney Jr. at the very beginning of The Mummy's Ghost (1944) (When Chaney inadvertently cut off his air during the feigned strangulation, Reicher subjected the star to a scorching reprimand, reducing Chaney to a quivering mass of meek apologies). During the war, Reicher's Teutonic name and bearing came in handy for the many anti-Nazi films of the era, notably To Be or Not to Be (1942) and Mission to Moscow (1944). In 1946, Reicher had one of his largest parts in years as the general factotum to hypnotist Edmund Lowe in The Strange Mr. Gregory (1946); that the part may have been written for the venerable actor is evidenced by the fact that his character name was Reicher. Frank Reicher retired in 1951; he died fourteen years later, at age 90.

Theodore Von Eltz (Actor) .. Doctor

Born: November 05, 1894
Died: October 06, 1964

Trivia: The son of a Yale language professor, actor Theodore Von Eltz was all geared up for a medical career when he succumbed to the siren song of the theatre. Starting his New York stage career at age 19, Von Eltz became a popular silent film leading man in the '20s. He eased into character roles in the talkie era, and also began appearing with regularity on radio. From 1954 through 1955, Von Eltz played Father Barbour on the TV version of the long-running radio soap opera One Man's Family. One of Theodore Von Eltz' last assignments was as narrator of the 1956 documentary film, Animal World.

Chester Clute (Actor) .. Doctor

Born: January 01, 1891
Died: April 05, 1956

Trivia: For two decades, the diminutive American actor ChesterClute played a seemingly endless series of harassed clerks, testy druggists, milquetoast husbands, easily distracted laboratory assistants and dishevelled streetcar passengers. A New York-based stage actor, Clute began his movie career at the Astoria studios in Long Island, appearing in several early-talkie short subjects. He moved to the West Coast in the mid '30s, remaining there until his final film appearance in Colorado Territory (1952). While Chester Clute seldom had more than two or three lines of dialogue in feature films, he continued throughout his career to be well-served in short subjects, most notably as Vera Vague's wimpish suitor in the 1947 Columbia 2-reeler Cupid Goes Nuts.

Natalie Moorhead (Actor) .. Mrs. Maud Raleigh

Born: July 27, 1901
Died: October 06, 1992

Trivia: Statuesque, platinum-blonde American actress Natalie Moorhead entered films in 1929; by the end of the next year, she had nearly a dozen movies to her credit. Moorhead was most effectively cast in vampish roles, notably her turn as one of the suspects in The Thin Man (1934). She also proved an excellent foil for such slight-statured comedians as Wheeler and Woolsey (Hook, Line and Sinker, 1930) and Buster Keaton (Parlor Bedroom and Bath, 1931). Natalie Moorhead went on to play lady-outlaw Belle Starr in Heart of Arizona (1938), then continued appearing in supporting roles and bits until the mid-'40s.

Crauford Kent (Actor) .. Mr. Sinclair

Born: January 01, 1881
Died: May 14, 1953

Trivia: Elegant British leading man Crauford Kent launched his American film career in 1915. Kent's more notable movie roles included Lolius in Mary Garden's 1917 filmization of Faust, and plot-motivating producer Hal Bentley in both the 1925 and 1929 screen versions of the George M. Cohan/Earl Derr Biggers stage hit Seven Keys to Baldpate. As the district attorney in the all-talking version of The Unholy Three (1930), it was Kent who exposed the true gender of "sweet little old lady" Lon Chaney Sr. Thereafter, Kent played featured roles as doctor, military officers, "other men" and the like in both features and 2-reel comedies. Busy right up to his death at the age of 72, Crauford Kent continued to essay such supporting parts as the Astrologer in Cecil B. DeMille's Samson and Delilah (1949).

Bill Elliott (Actor) .. Backgammon Man

Born: October 15, 1903
Died: November 26, 1965

Trivia: Western star "Wild Bill" Elliott was plain Gordon Elliott when he launched his stage career at the Pasadena Playhouse in 1928. Under his given name, he began appearing in dress-extra film roles around the same time. While he had learned to ride horses as a youth and had won several rodeo trophies, movie producers were more interested in utilizing Elliot's athletic skills in dancing sequences, in which the still-unbilled actor showed up in tux and tails. Beginning in 1934, Elliot's film roles increased in size; he also started getting work in westerns, albeit in secondary villain roles. In 1938, Elliot was selected to play the lead in the Columbia serial The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok, in which he made so positive an impression that he would be billed as "Wild Bill" Elliott for the remainder of his cowboy career, even when his character name wasn't Bill. Elliott's western series for Columbia, which ran from 1938 through 1942, was among the studio's most profitable enterprises. Fans were primed to expect an all-out orgy of fisticuffs and gunplay whenever Elliott would face down the bad guy by muttering, "I'm a peaceable man, but..." Elliott moved to Republic in 1943, where he continued turning out first-rate westerns, including several in which he portrayed famed fictional do-gooder Red Ryder. In 1945, Elliott began producing his own films, developing a tougher, more jaded characterization than before. A longtime admirer of silent star William S. Hart, Elliott successfully emulated his idol in a string of "good badman" roles. The actor's final western series was a group of 11 above-average actioners for Monogram in the early 1950s, in which Elliott did his best to destroy the standard cowboy cliches and unrealistic Boy Scout behavior symptomatic of the Roy Rogers/Gene Autry school. During his last days at Monogram (which by the mid-1950s had metamorphosed into United Artists), Elliott appeared in modern dress, often cast as hard-bitten private eyes. In 1957, Bill Elliott retired to his huge ranch near Las Vegas, Nevada, where he spent his time collecting western souvenirs and indulging his ongoing hobby of geology.

Sam Hayes (Actor) .. Announcer

Born: January 01, 1904
Died: January 01, 1958

Wade Boteler (Actor) .. Policeman

Born: January 01, 1891
Died: May 07, 1943

Trivia: In films from 1919 onward, stocky American actor Wade Boteler hit his stride in talking pictures. Blessed with a pit-bull countenance, Boteler was in practically every other "B" western made between 1930 and 1935, often cast as a hard-hearted sheriff or crooked land baron. Affecting an Irish brogue, Boteler was also in demand for policeman roles, notably as Inspector Queen in the 1936 Ellery Queen opus The Mandarin Mystery. His most effective lovable-Irishman stint was as conclusion-jumping cop Michael Axford in the 1940 serial The Green Hornet; in fact, when fans of the Green Hornet radio version would ask Detroit station WXYZ for a picture of Axford, the station would send off an autographed photo of Boteler, even though Gil O'Shea essayed the part on radio. Frequently on call for bit parts at 20th Century-Fox studios, Boteler was seen in such Fox productions as In Old Chicago (1938) and A-Haunting We Will Go (1942). Wade Boteler's final film was Warner Bros.' prophetically titled The Last Ride (1944), released one year after Boteler's death.

Don 'Red' Barry (Actor) .. Man at Party

Born: January 11, 1912
Died: June 17, 1980

Trivia: A football star in his high school and college days, Donald Barry forsook an advertising career in favor of a stage acting job with a stock company. This barnstorming work led to movie bit parts, the first of which was in RKO's Night Waitress (1936). Barry's short stature, athletic build and pugnacious facial features made him a natural for bad guy parts in Westerns, but he was lucky enough to star in the 1940 Republic serial The Adventures of Red Ryder; this and subsequent appearance as "Lone Ranger" clone Red Ryder earned the actor the permanent sobriquet Donald "Red" Barry. Republic promoted the actor to bigger-budget features in the 1940s, casting him in the sort of roles James Cagney might have played had the studio been able to afford Cagney. Barry produced as well as starred in a number of Westerns, but this venture ultimately failed, and the actor, whose private life was tempestuous in the best of times, was consigned to supporting roles before the 1950s were over. By the late 1960s, Barry was compelled to publicly entreat his fans to contribute one dollar apiece for a new series of Westerns. Saving the actor from further self-humiliation were such Barry aficionados as actor Burt Reynolds and director Don Siegel, who saw to it that Don was cast in prominent supporting roles during the 1970s, notably a telling role in Hustle (1976). In 1980, Don "Red" Barry killed himself -- a sad end to an erratic life and career.

Philip Trent (Actor) .. Man at Party

Born: October 16, 1907

Dick Winslow (Actor) .. Elevator Boy

Born: January 01, 1915
Died: February 07, 1991

Trivia: A Hollywood child actor from 1927, Dick Winslow showed up in dozen of early talkies as page boys, messenger boys, and office boys. One of Winslow's few "named" roles was Joe Harper in the 1930 version of Tom Sawyer. Adept at several musical instruments, Winslow graced many a film of the 1940s and 1950s, playing everything from picnic accordion players to cocktail pianists. The apotheosis of this stage of Winslow's career was his one-man band in 1965's Do Not Disturb. A veteran of 60 years in the business, Dick Winslow made his last screen appearance as "the Old Man" in 1988's Fatal Judgment.

Rolfe Sedan (Actor) .. Fitter

Born: January 21, 1896
Died: September 16, 1982

Trivia: Dapper character actor Rolfe Sedan was nine times out of ten cast as a foreigner, usually a French maître d' or Italian tradesman. In truth, Sedan was born in New York City. He'd planned to study scientific agriculture, but was sidetracked by film and stage work in New York; he then embarked on a vaudeville career as a dialect comic. Sedan began appearing in Hollywood films in the late '20s, frequently cast in support of such major comedy attractions as Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chase, the Marx Brothers, and Harold Lloyd. He was proudest of his work in a handful of films directed by Ernst Lubitsch, notably Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938). Though distressed that he never made it to the top ranks, Sedan remained very much in demand for comedy cameos into the 1980s. Rolfe Sedan's television work included the recurring role of Mr. Beasley the postman on The Burns and Allen Show, and the part of Chef Boy-Ar-Dee in several TV commercials of the mid-'70s.

Alphonse Martell (Actor) .. Maitre d'

Born: March 27, 1890
Died: March 18, 1976

Trivia: In films from 1926, former vaudevillian and stage actor/playwright Alphonse Martell was one of Hollywood's favorite Frenchmen. While he sometimes enjoyed a large role, Martell could usually be found playing bits as maitre d's, concierges, gendarmes, duelists, and, during WW II, French resistance fighters. In 1933, he directed the poverty-row quickie Gigolettes of Paris. Alphonse Martell remained active into the 1960s, guest-starring on such TV programs as Mission: Impossible.

Sharon Lewis (Actor) .. Bridge Player

Edith Craig (Actor) .. Girl Singer

Born: January 01, 1907
Died: January 01, 1979

Kitty McHugh (Actor) .. Girl Singer

Born: January 01, 1902
Died: January 01, 1954

Claire Whitney (Actor) .. Nurse

Born: May 06, 1890
Died: August 27, 1969

Trivia: A former stock company actress who had toured vaudeville with a popular "playlet," blonde, aristocratic-looking Claire Whitney entered films in 1909 with the Biograph company in New York City. By 1912, she was starring for Madame Alice Guy-Blaché at Solax in New Jersey and in 1914, appeared with Stuart Holmes in Life's Shop Window, the very first feature film to be released by Fox. Already a supporting actress by 1916, she appeared opposite Theda Bara in both East Lynne (1916) and Under Two Flags and then settled into a long career playing mostly professional women: lawyers, matrons, nurses, and so on. She retired in 1950.

Sandy Sanford (Actor) .. Fireman

John Archer (Actor) .. Photographer

Born: May 08, 1915

Douglas Carter (Actor) .. Photographer

Charles Sherlock (Actor) .. Reporter

Trivia: American actor Charles Sherlock made his first film in 1935 and his last in 1952. Limited to bit roles, Sherlock showed up as reporters, photographers, longshoremen, cabbies, and doctors. Befitting his name, he also appeared as cops in such films as My Buddy (1944), In Society (1944), and The Turning Point (1952). Charles Sherlock enjoyed a rare credited role, again as a cop, in the 1945 Charlie Chan entry The Scarlet Clue.

Don Brodie (Actor) .. Reporter

Born: May 29, 1899
Died: January 08, 2001

Trivia: This callow, mustachioed American actor showed up in utility roles in films beginning in the early 1930s. Usually playing bits in features, Brodie was given a wider range in short subjects, notably as gentleman thief "Baffles" in the 1941 El Brendel 2-reeler Yumpin' Yiminy. Some of his more notable credits include his voiceover work in the Disney cartoon feature Dumbo and his subtly sleazy portrayal of the used car salesman in the noir classic Detour (1946). He also worked off and on as a dialogue director.

Kane Richmond (Actor) .. Man

Born: December 23, 1906
Died: March 22, 1973

Trivia: Stalwart, granite-jawed Kane Richmond was gainfully employed as a States' Rights film booker when he was invited to appear in films. Richmond's first acting assignment was Universal's The Leather Pushers, a long-running series of boxing two-reelers. Leather Pushers had made a major star out of Reginald Denny in the 1920s, but Richmond was not so lucky. He spent the first half of the 1930s playing bits in big studio films and heroes in basement-budgeted serials like Krellberg's The Lost Jungle (1935). In the latter part of the decade, he co-starred with juvenile actor Frankie Darro in a series of peppy action films produced variously at Ambassador and Monogram. By the 1940s, Richmond was firmly established as a serial leading man at Republic -- one of the very few of that breed who could act as well as take punches. Most fans of the chapter-play genre consider Richmond's dual role in Spy Smasher (1942) as his best work. Kane Richmond retired from films in 1948, then went on to make a fortune in the fashion business.

Inez Courtney (Actor) .. Woman at Party

Born: March 12, 1908
Died: April 05, 1975

Trivia: In films from 1930, comely actress Inez Courtney fluctuated between substantial second leads and bit parts for nearly a decade. While she had plenty of screen time in films like 1933's Hold Your Man, Courtney conversely played more than a few if-you-blink-you-miss-her parts in pictures like 1937's Hurricane (she's the well-dressed lady to whom Thomas Mitchell relates the film's plot in the opening scene). Under contract to Columbia from 1934 through 1940, Courtney appeared in everything from 2-reelers (Andy Clyde's It's the Cats) to series programmers (1939's Blondie Meets the Boss). Apparently, Inez Courtney and the film industry parted company in 1940.

Dorothy Granger (Actor) .. Woman at Party

Born: November 21, 1914
Died: January 04, 1995

Trivia: A beauty-contest winner at age 13, Dorothy Granger went on to perform in vaudeville with her large and talented family. Granger made her film bow in 1929's Words and Music, and the following year landed a contract with comedy producer Hal Roach. Working with such masters as Harry Langdon, Laurel & Hardy and Charley Chase, she sharpened her own comic skills to perfection, enabling her to assume the unofficial title of "Queen of the Short Subjects." During her long association with two-reelers, she appeared with the likes of W.C. Fields (The Dentist), the Three Stooges (Punch Drunks), Walter Catlett, Edgar Kennedy, Hugh Herbert and a host of others. She also appeared sporadically in features, playing everything from full leads to one-line bits. A favorite of director Mitchell Leisen, Granger essayed amusing cameos in such Leisen productions as Take a Letter, Darling (1942) and Lady in the Dark (1944). George Cukor wanted to cast Granger in the important role of Belle Watling in Gone with the Wind (1939), but producer David O. Selznick decided to go with Ona Munson, who had more "name" value. Granger is most fondly remembered for her appearances in RKO's long-running (1935-51) Leon Errol short-subject series, in which she was usually cast as Leon's highly suspicious spouse. She retired from films in 1963, keeping busy by helping her husband manage a successful Los Angeles upholstery store. Dorothy Granger made her last public appearance in 1993 at the Screen Actors Guild's 50th anniversary celebration.

Dummy: Charlie McCarthy (Actor) .. Himself

Trivia: The irrepressible Charlie McCarthy was born at the age of 11. More specifically, he was carved from a block of pine by an Illinois carpenter named Theodore Mack, then sold to aspiring teenage ventriloquist Edgar Bergen for 35 dollars. Created in the image of a Chicago newsboy named -- what else? -- Charlie, the little wooden head joined Bergen for a series of private parties, touring shows, and one-night stands, finally finding steady work on vaudeville. At first dressed as a street urchin, Charlie eventually adopted the tuxedo, top hat, and monocle that would one day become world famous. The story goes that one evening, while Bergen's act was bombing in front of a bored night club audience, Charlie suddenly turned to his partner and ad-libbed, "Who the hell ever told you you were a ventriloquist!" He then proceeded to insult each and every member of the audience, while Bergen, who up to this point had been suffering without complaint, sat by in helpless silence (except for his ever-moving lips). The "new," irreverent Charlie McCarthy scored an immediate hit with the audience, inspiring Bergen to continue venting his frustrations through his dummy in a similarly hilarious but better scripted fashion. In 1930, Charlie made his screen debut in a Vitaphone one-reeler, and within a few years was receiving billing over his mentor Bergen. Officially discovered for radio by Rudy Vallee in 1936, Bergen and McCarthy went on to star on the top-rated Chase and Sanborn Hour, later retitled The Charlie McCarthy Show. The duo made their first feature film appearance in The Goldwyn Follies (1938), then went on to star in a series of breezy comedies opposite such film and radio favorites as W.C. Fields, Lucille Ball, and Fibber McGee and Molly. After co-starring in the Disney feature Fun and Fancy Free (1947), Charlie and his fellow dummies Mortimer Snerd and Effie Klinker (together with Bergen, of course) moved into TV, where in the mid-'50s they co-hosted the comedy quiz program Do You Trust Your Wife? Even when his fortunes waned in the 1960s, Charlie continued to live in lavish splendor with the Bergen family, occupying a bedroom that was even larger than that of his "sister" Candice Bergen. Not long after making a cameo appearance in The Muppet Movie, Bergen and McCarthy made a spectacularly successful comeback appearance in Las Vegas -- a comeback cut short by Bergen's fatal heart attack at the age of 75. For all intents and purposes, Charlie McCarthy died right along with Bergen: Since retiring to the Smithsonian Institution in 1978, Charlie has uttered not one, single, solitary word.

Robert E. Homans (Actor)

Born: January 01, 1875
Died: July 28, 1947

Trivia: Actor Robert Emmett Homans seemingly had the map of Ireland stamped on his craggy face. As a result, Homans spent the better part of his film career playing law enforcement officers of all varieties, from humble patrolmen to detective chiefs. After a lengthy stage career, Homans entered films in 1923. A break from his usual microscopic film assignments occured in Public Enemy (1931), where Homans is given an opportunity to deliver reams of exposition (with a pronounced brogue) during a funeral sequence. And in the 1942 Universal horror programmer Night Monster, Robert Emmett Homans is alotted a sizeable role as the ulcerated detective investigating the supernatural goings-on at the home of seemingly helpless invalid Ralph Morgan.

Mortimer Snerd (Actor) .. Himself

Charlie McCarthy (Actor) .. Himself

9:00 pm - 10:30 pm, Saturday, December 6 on WNYE HDTV (25.1)