Friday, January 8, 2016

OLLY OF THE MOVIES




OLLY OF THE MOVIES was a comic strip by Julian Ollendorff about the adventures of a young girl who won a beauty contest and went to Hollywood. Named Olive Lane, her friends called her "Olly" for short. "Lane" reminds me of the Lane sisters, but they weren't big stars when the strip began, although Lola Lane was already making movies and Leota Lane had made THREE HOLLYWOOD GIRLS in 1931.

Julian Ollendorff himself had been in the movie industry in the 1920's and claimed to have based the comic strip on it:
During my fifteen years’ experience in the motion picture business I gradually became known in the trade as ”Olly” (an abbreviation of Ollendorff) and eventually as “Olly of the Movies,” and from this characterization I coined and originated a comic strip called “Olly of the Movies.”

This strip was primarily based upon my experience in the production of motion pictures, fictionalized and added to from my own imagination.

 The strip ran from January 22, 1934 to 1938. 



Recognizable in this promotional piece are Oliver Hardy, Stan Laurel, Joan Crawford, Mae West, Jimmy Durante, and Marie Dressler.


Reblogged from http://strippersguide.blogspot.com/



1934_01_26 Julian Ollendorff New York Sun




Ginsberg was the name of the general manager of the Hal Roach studio, which  may or may have been coincidental. It's a Jewish name, and there were a lot of Jews in Hollywood.





















"Baby Star" was used at that time to describe young women who were newcomers to the motion picture industry. The term "starlet" replaced it later on.














Julian Ollendorff:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0647305/


OLLIE OF THE MOVIES in FAMOUS FUNNIES:
http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/index.php?cid=224


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1 comment:

  1. Zasu Pitts and Thelma Todd were teamed as a sort of "female Laurel and Hardy" at the Hal Roach studio and I think they tried to have Thelma Todd act like Oliver Hardy sometimes, which could be coincidental.

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