Bernard Gorcey And ABIE'S IRISH ROSE

Bernard Gorcey was in the stage version of ABIE'S IRISH ROSE. And the movie version. But was Thelma Todd?

Abie's Irish Rose (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Abie's Irish Rose
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Victor Fleming
Produced by	B. P. Schulberg
Written by	Jules Furthman Julian Johnson, Herman Mankiewicz (titles)
Based on	Abie's Irish Rose by Anne Nichols
Starring	Charles "Buddy" Rogers Nancy Carroll Jean Hersholt J. Farrell MacDonald
Music by	J. S. Zamecnik
Cinematography	Harold Rosson
Editing by	Eda Warren
Studio	Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	November 3, 1928 (1928-11-03)
Running time	12 reels (10,471 feet)
Country	USA
Language	English

Abie's Irish Rose is a 1928 early talking (part-talkie) film directed by Victor Fleming, based on the play Abie's Irish Rose by Anne Nichols. It tells the story of a Jewish boy, Abie Levy, who falls in love with and secretly marries Rosemary Murphy, an Irish Catholic girl, but lies to his family, saying that she's Jewish. The fathers of both bride and groom are at first religiously bigoted toward the other but with the birth of twin grandchildren their antagonism fades. Only reels 3-6 and 9-12 survive of this film in a silent incomplete copy. There may also be an incomplete copy of reel 8, unverified. All of the surviving reels of the film are held at The Library of Congress in Washington D.C..^[1]

Cast

• Charles "Buddy" Rogers as Abie Levy
• Nancy Carroll as Rosemary Murphy
• Jean Hersholt as Solomon Levy
• J. Farrell MacDonald as Patrick Murphy
• Bernard Gorcey as Isaac Cohen
• Ida Kramer as Mrs. Isaac Cohen
• Nick Cogley as Father Whalen
• Camillus Pretal as Rabbi Jacob Samuels
• Rosa Rosanova as Sarah

References

1. ^ Abie's Irish Rose at silentera.com database

External links

• Abie's Irish Rose at the Internet Movie Database
• Abie's Irish Rose at Virtual History

I'll give credit where credit is due. Jamie Evangelista showed me the "Abie's Irish Rose" pictures to begin with, and Dave Stevenson said that he thought Thelma Todd was probably only in some publicity pictures, not in the movie itself. He didn't say it to me, but I saw it on yahoo afterwards.

Later, a picture turned up with a caption on the back that said that Thelma Todd was greeting Bernard Gorcey as he arrived in Hollywood.

 

 

 

So that probably is all there was to it.

 

 

Another version, where the blonde menace menaces.

 

 

 

And another again, which is simply the same picture flipped. You see that a lot.

 

 

 

 

The woman in the picture is Ida Kruger, another cast member of ABIE'S IRISH ROSE who came out to Hollywood to work on the movie version. In real life Bernard Gorcey actually was a jewish man married to an Irish woman, as in the play. She had underworld connections, not too unusual in show business at the time, particularly in the New York area. Their sons Leo and David Gorcey would become famous as "Dead End Kids", another stage property that made it into the movies.

 

 

Another picture of Bernard Gorcey from this period :

 

 

 

 

 

Buddy Rogers had come from the same Paramount acting school as Thelma Todd and they made their first movie together, FASCINATING YOUTH. Nancy Carroll was a popular star at the time and Thelma Todd would work with her as well.

 

 

The publicity made much of Nancy Carroll

 

 

 

And Buddy Rogers,

 

 

 

 

But Bernard Gorcey was also featured on some of the posters.

 

 

 

Close-up

 

 

 

This poster symbolically depicts Nancy Carroll as a rose.

 

 

 

 

 

In 1940, Bernard Gorcey was in Charlie Chaplin's first talking ( in the sense that he had dialogue ) picture, THE GREAT DICTATOR.

 

 

In 1942, Bernard Gorcey would make the movie BLACK DRAGONS, a fictional story involving the Black Dragon Society that in real life had plotted to asassinate Charlie Chaplin. His son Leo Gorcey would then make another movie with the Black Dragon Society as villians, LET'S GET TOUGH. The Black Dragon Society was topical at the time as they were partly responsible for the start of World War II.

 

 

In the 1940's, Bernard Gorcey began working with son Leo Gorcey in the popular "East Side Kids" films, a series that had developed out of the old Dead End Kids movies of the 1930's. The series  would eventually become "The Bowery Boys".

 

 

 

NEWS HOUNDS, Bernard Gorcey to the left of Leo Gorcey at center.

 

 

Bobby Jordan is at left, David Gorcey and Huntz Hall at right.

 

 

NEWS HOUNDS also featured the beautiful Christine McIntyre, best known for her work with the Three Stooges. She also starred in a Stan Laurel production of 1938, THE RANGER'S ROUNDUP.

 

 

 

 Bernard Gorcey always played the same character in this series, "Louie Dumbrowski", who was the owner of "Louie's Sweet Shop", where the gang hung out.

David Gorcey, Bernard Gorcey, Billy Bennedict, Leo Gorcey, and Huntz Hall

 

 

This can be seen as similar to "Pop Tate's" Soda Shop in Archie comics. The old jalopy that the bowery boys drove around in was also similar to Archie's car in the comics of that period. The Dead End Kids were basically still playing teenagers here.

 

Bernard Gorcey died in a traffic accident in 1955, leading Leo Gorcey to leave the series. The Bowery Boys films would only continue a short time afterwords before coming to an end.

 

 

ABIE'S IRISH ROSE At The Internet Broadway Database:
http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=1064


ABIE'S IRISH ROSE At The Internet Movie Database:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0018613/

Bernard Gorcey On Broadway:
http://www.ibdb.com/person.php?id=81015

The Bowery ( Yahoo Group )
http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/thebowery/

Bowery Gallery At The Age Of Comedy:
http://theageofcomedy.com/bowgall.html

Christine McIntyre:
http://taillefer.tripod.com/ChristineMcIntyre/index.html

Christine McIntyre Westerns:
http://www.b-westerns.com/ladies19.htm

Thelma Todd Club:
http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/thelmatoddclub/


Special thanks to Jamie Evangelista for all her help with the "Thelma Todd Club" and for having started "The Bowery" club on yahoo.

 

 Jamie Evangelista standing with the clothes Chaplin wore in Modern Times.