Patricia Ellis and the Hagenbeck-Wallace Clown Alley (including Kinko Sunberry) who are in the film, along with Poodles Hanneford and another notable aerial clown who doubled for Joe E. Brown.
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A Blog For Thelma Todd Thelma Todd was a star of silent movies and later the talkies. She is remembered as much today for her mysterious death as she is for her films. In this blog, we take a look at Thelma Todd, her movies, and various commentaries.
Showing posts with label Joe E. Brown. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joe E. Brown. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Patricia Ellis And Circus Clowns
Patricia Ellis and the Hagenbeck-Wallace Clown Alley (including Kinko Sunberry) who are in the film, along with Poodles Hanneford and another notable aerial clown who doubled for Joe E. Brown.
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Friday, October 10, 2014
Lyda Roberti In WIDE OPEN FACES
Lyda Roberti's last movie was WIDE OPEN FACES ( 1938 ) with Joe E. Brown.
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Saturday, July 26, 2014
SON OF A SAILOR
This photo is identified as being from SON OF A SAILOR, with Joe E. Brown.
Thelma_Todd_Still_by_Elmer_Fryer_(1933-SON_OF_SAILOR-Lloyd_Bacon)
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Saturday, May 24, 2014
Suzanne Kaaren
The beautiful Suzanne Kaaren worked with the Three Stooges and appeared in other classic films.
Suzanne Kaaren
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Suzanne Kaaren | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | March 21, 1912 Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Died | August 27, 2004 (aged 92) Englewood, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Resting place | Chestnut Hill Cemetery, Salisbury, North Carolina |
| Occupation | Stage, film actress |
Education and athletics
Kaaren attended Erasmus Hall High School and Hunter College before being signed by 20th Century Fox in September 1933. In 1931 she won a high-jumping contest in a New York City school contest. Her parents refused to let her compete in the Olympic Games. She collected butterflies as a hobby and had several books filled with the insects.Career
Early career
She acted with stock companies and posed as a model for commercial painters and cigarette advertising. Kaaren appeared in dramatic parts in New York theaters and trained at the Hedgerow Theatre in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This was the same venue that produced actress Ann Harding.She was one of the original Rockettes. Kaaren performed on stage on December 27, 1932, the night Radio City Music Hall opened.
Movie actress
Kaaren left for Hollywood in October 1933. Her starting salary was $150 per week, and was eventually cast opposite Tim McCoy in Ridin' Gents, a Monogram Pictures production. She was then signed by Republic Pictures to play a character in From Rags To Riches. Ridin' Gents was filmed without either McCoy or Kaaren.She joined a troupe assembled by producer Walter Wanger, which also included Gloria Youngblood. The theatrical company was known as Trade Winds. The comedy When's Your Birthday? (1937) showcased the zany Joe E. Brown, with Kaaren among the supporting players in an RKO Radio Pictures movie about an astrologer.
Kaaren figured prominently in several Three Stooges comedy short films. They are Disorder in the Court, Yes, We Have No Bonanza, and What's the Matador?. In the latter, she depicts Dolores Sanchez, and has the fourth lead after Curly Howard, Larry Fine, and Moe Howard.
Miracles for Sale (1939) was based on the novel Death From A Tophat by Clayton Rawson. Kaaren plays a woman who is separated into halves and then joined together again suspensefully. The murder mystery has Robert Young and Florence Rice in prominent roles.
She starred opposite Bela Lugosi in The Devil Bat. The cult film of the horror film genre is a Poverty Row production released by Producers Releasing Corporation. In the movie Lugosi breeds giant bats to attack people.
Her final appearance on film is uncredited role as the Duchess of Park Avenue (Manhattan) in 1984's The Cotton Club.
Theater
Kaaren stepped into the character usually played by Ann Thomas in a Broadway presentation of Chicken Every Sunday. Staged in September 1944, Thomas left the production to go to Hollywood. In July 1946, Kaaren's elder son, Brewster, was in the play with her as an eight-month-old. She was also joined by her husband on stage at the Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, Pennsylvania. In addition to Brewster, the Blackmers had another son, Jonathen. In April 1953 the Blackmers starred in Glad Tidings in Atlantic City, New Jersey. A month later the show moved to the Quarterback Theatre, also in Atlantic City.In 1959, Kaaren appeared in The Royal Family at the Hinsdale Summer Theater in Chicago, Illinois. Linda Darnell starred; Karyn Kupcinet and Stuart Brent were also in the cast. The theme was a famous family of the American stage.
Personal life
She married stage and screen actor, Sidney Blackmer, on June 13, 1943, in a civil ceremony in Santa Ana, California. Raquel Torres was a witness at the wedding. Blackmer was married previously to Lenore Ulric.By this time, Kaaren was under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The marriage was a turbulent one from the outset. The couple separated in September 1943 and Blackmer instructed his attorney to file for divorce in October, but the couple would remain together until Blackmer's death in 1973. The marriage produced two sons, Brewster and Jonathen.
Sidney Blackmer died in October 1973. The Blackmers had lived in his family home in Salisbury, North Carolina, until it was damaged by fire in 1984. Afterward, she resided in a rent-controlled Manhattan apartment at 100 Central Park South. According to her obituary, real estate developer Donald Trump bought the building and threatened to tear it down to build something more lucrative. Blackmer refused to budge, and, in 1998, a court ruled that Trump had to allow the rent-controlled tenants to remain.[1][2]
Suzanne Kaaren died from pneumonia in Englewood, New Jersey, in 2004, aged 92.
Notes and references
- Jump up ^ Obit in re Donald Trump
- Jump up ^ "Finally, a 'yes' on Blackmer house," Salisbury Post, June 23, 2012.
- Bismarck Tribune, New Browning Mystery Stars Suzanne Kaaren, September 9, 1939, Page 8.
- Fitchburg Sentinel, News and Comment Of Stage and Screen, October 2, 1937, Page 5.
- Long Beach Independent, Sidney Blackmer To Sue For Divorce, October 26, 1943, Page 2.
- New York Times, Screen Notes, September 27, 1933, Page 24.
- New York Times, Girl Athlete Gets Movie Job, November 11, 1933, Page 11.
- New York Times, News Of The Screen, March 22, 1938, Page 18.
- New York Times, Screen News Here And In Hollywood, August 29, 1938, Page 10.
- New York Times, Screen News Here And In Hollywood, June 26, 1941, Page 27.
- New York Times, Screen News Here And In Hollywood, October 24, 1941, Page 27.
- New York Times, Sidney Blackmer Marries, August 9, 1943, Page 10.
- New York Times, Three Plays Delay Broadway Debuts, September 15, 1944, Page 17.
- New York Times, Vera Allen Named By Theatre Wing, July 4, 1946, Page 23.
- New York Times, Atlantic City Bills Listed, April 17, 1953, Page 30.
- New York Times, Early-Season Attractions In Jersey, May 3, 1953, Page X17.
- Ogden Standard-Examiner, Photo Collector, February 4, 1934, Page 11.
- Olean Times-Evening Herald, All Ready? Then Get Your Eyes Ready For A New Screen Beauty!, November 11, 1933, Page 3.
- Suburbanite Economist, Linda Darnell Plays Hinsdale, August 5, 1959, Page 16.
- Syracuse Herald Journal. In Step With:The Rockettes, December 27, 1992, Page 182.
- Washington Post, Astrology, Boxing Bouts Mix In Latest Joe E. Brown Picture, March 4, 1937, Page 12.
- Washington Post, Sidney Blackmer, Noted Actor, Dies, October 7, 1973, Page B6.
External links
- Suzanne Kaaren at Find a Grave
- Suzanne Kaaren at the Internet Movie Database
- Suzanne Kaaren at AllRovi
* * *
Suzanne Kaaren was one of the original Radio City Music Hall Rockettes in 1932. But today she probably is best known for dancing in the courtroom in the Three Stooges' DISORDER IN THE COURT.
Her "New Year's Eve" picture was run in many newspapers in 1934.
Another New Year picture.
Bathing Beauty Suzanne
WOMEN MUST DRESS, 1935
DISORDER IN THE COURT, 1936
WHEN'S YOUR BIRTHDAY?, 1937
With Joe E. Brown
THE WOMEN ( 1939 )
Suzanne Kaaren, Joan Fontaine, Phyllis Povah, Norma Shearer, and Rosalind Russell.
DEVIL BAT, 1940
Cigarette cards
Watch DISORDER IN THE COURT
Watch DEVIL BAT
DISORDER IN THE COURT:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disorder_in_the_Court
Suzanne Kaaren:
http://www.westernclippings.com/interview/suzannekaaren_interview.shtml
http://immortalephemera.com/11208/suzanne-kaaren-blackmer-biography/
http://books.google.com/books?id=Vy41mDPFqYQC&pg=PA197&lpg=PA197&dq=disorder+in+the+court+suzanne+Kaaren&source=bl&ots=Qo6DksEfsf&sig=r3r7zzZwJ-xjgkhssiCd8hdy68Q&hl=en&sa=X&ei=BTsnU_e7E4a9qQHf6YGgBQ&ved=0CGsQ6AEwDA#v=onepage&q=disorder%20in%20the%20court%20suzanne%20Kaaren&f=false
Bela Lugosi:
http://www.belalugosi.com/
The Three Stooges:
http://www.threestooges.com/
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Saturday, April 19, 2014
Alice White Photos
Some pictures of Alice White.
An Easter picture, which could also be an Alice in Wonderland picture.
Alice White
A "baby star" would later be termed a "starlet".
Alice White in A VERY HONORABLE GUY
with Joe E. Brown
With Thelma Todd
SHOW GIRL IN HOLLYWOOD, 1930.
With her dog, Ching-A-Ling.
At the Brown Derby.
An early magazine cover.
The character DIXIE DUGAN was based on Louise Brooks, but Alice White played her in the movies.
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Saturday, September 14, 2013
THE STANDARD CASTING DIRECTORY For March 1929
In the edition for March of 1929, Jean Harlow is still listed as being under contract to Hal Roach, but not Thelma Todd. That was the way it was when the year began, but things would be different before the year was out.
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Friday, October 19, 2012
The Gladiator, Part 2
We aren't yet done with this subject. There are still a few more stout blows left to be dealt to the deceased steed of renowned speed.
Why should people like Roy Thomas and Alan Moore be the only ones to partake of this fine exercise?
And so I say that to me it sounds like Joe E. Brown in the movie THE GLADIATOR seems somewhat closer to Superman than the character in the book as Joe E. Brown goes from "mild-mannered" to "super", while Hugo Danner doesn't sound so mild, it sounds as if he was smugly superior all along and only was more sneaky to begin with.
The mild-mannered type was represented in the movies by Harold Loyd, who seems to have been another likely source of inspiration for Superman as he not only played daredevils who climbed buildings, but wore glasses and resembled Clark Kent. But the mild-mannered character was also frequently essayed by Joe E. Brown.
Joe E. Brown
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Joe E. Brown | |
|---|---|
 from the trailer for the film Bright Lights (1935) | |
| Born | Joseph Evans Brown July 28, 1891 Holgate, Ohio, USA |
| Died | July 6, 1973 (aged 81) Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, USA |
| Years active | 1928-1964 |
| Spouse(s) | Kathryn Francis McGraw (1915-1973; his death; 4 children) |
Joseph Evans Brown (July 28, 1891 – July 6, 1973)[1][2] was an American actor and comedian, remembered for his amiable screen persona, comic timing, and enormous smile. In 1902 at the age of nine, he joined a troupe of circus tumblers known as the Five Marvelous Ashtons who toured the country on both the circus and vaudeville circuits. Later he became a professional baseball player. After three seasons he returned to the circus, then went into Vaudeville and finally starred on Broadway. He gradually added comedy into his act and transformed himself into a comedian. He moved to Broadway in the 1920s first appearing in the musical comedy Jim Jam Jems.
Childhood
Joseph Evans Brown was born on July 28, 1891, in Holgate, Ohio, near Toledo. He spent most of his childhood in Toledo. He performed as a tumbler in vaudeville shots as a child. He was skilled baseball player and declined an opportunity to sign with the New York Yankees to pursue his career as an entertainer.
Film career
In late 1928, Brown began making films, starting the next year with Warner Bros.. He quickly shot to stardom after appearing in the first all-color all-talking musical comedy On with the Show (1929). He starred in a number of lavish Technicolor Warner Brothers musical comedies including: Sally (1929), Hold Everything (1930), and Song of the West (1930),"Going Wild (1930)". By 1931, Joe E. Brown had become such a star that his name began to appear alone above the title of the movies in which he appeared.
He followed in Fireman, Save My Child (1932), a comedy in which he played a member of the St. Louis Cardinals, with Elmer, the Great (1933) with Patricia Ellis and Claire Dodd, and Alibi Ike (1935) with Olivia de Havilland, in both of which he portrayed ballplayers with the Chicago Cubs.
In 1933 he starred in Son of a Sailor with Jean Muir and Thelma Todd. In 1934, Brown starred in A Very Honorable Guy with Alice White and Robert Barrat, and in The Circus Clown again with Patricia Ellis and with Dorothy Burgess and with Maxine Doyle in Six-Day Bike Rider. Brown was one of the few vaudeville comedians to appear in a Shakespeare film; he played Francis Flute in the Max Reinhardt/William Dieterle film version of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), and was highly praised for his performance. He starred in Polo Joe (1936) with Carol Hughes and Richard "Skeets" Gallagher, and Sons O' Guns. In 1933 and 1936, he managed to become one of the top ten earners in films. He was sufficiently well known internationally by this point to be depicted in comic strips in the British comic Film Fun for twenty years from 1933.
He left Warner Brothers to work for producer David L. Loew, starring in When's Your Birthday? (1937). In 1938, he starred in The Gladiator, a loose film-adaptation of Philip Gordon Wylie's 1930 novel Gladiator, which influenced the creation of Superman.[3] He gradually switched to making "B" pictures.
World War II
In 1939, Brown testified before the House Immigration Committee in support of a bill that would allow 20,000 German Jewish refugee children into the US, and he later adopted two refugee children.[4] In 1942 Brown's son, Captain Don E. Brown, was killed when his military plane crashed near Palm Springs, California.[5] During WWII, he spent a great deal of time entertaining troops, spending many nights working and meeting servicemen at the Hollywood Canteen. He wrote of his experiences entertaining the troops in his book Your Kids and Mine.
Joe E. Brown's own two sons were in the military service. At 50, he was too old to enlist. Likable and gregarious, Brown traveled thousands of miles at his own expense to entertain American troops. He was the first to do so, traveling to both the Carribean and Alaska before Bob Hope or the USO were organized.
On his return to the States he brought sacks of letters, making sure they were delivered by the Post Office Department. He gave shows in all weather conditions, many in hospitals, sometimes doing his entire show for a single dying soldier. He would sign autographs for everyone. Brown was one of only two civilians to be awarded the Bronze Star in WWII.
Postwar work
He had a cameo appearance in Around the World in 80 Days (1956), as a stationmaster talking to Fogg (David Niven) and his entourage in a small town in Nebraska. In the similarly epic film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), he cameoed as a union official giving a speech at a construction site in the climactic scene. He was the Mystery Guest on What's My Line? during the January 11, 1953 episode.
His best known postwar role was that of aging millionaire Osgood Fielding III in Some Like It Hot (1959), the comedy directed by Billy Wilder. Fielding falls for Daphne (Jerry), played by Jack Lemmon in drag, and gets to say one of the most celebrated punchlines in film history. Another of his notable postwar roles was that of "Cap'n Andy Hawkes" in MGM's 1951 remake of Show Boat, a role that he reprised onstage in the 1961 New York City Center revival of the musical, and on tour. The musical film version included such prominent costars as Ava Gardner, Howard Keel and Kathryn Grayson. Brown performed several dance routines in the film, and famed choreographer Gower Champion appeared along with first wife Marge.
Brown was a sports enthusiast, both in film and personally. Some of his best films were the "baseball trilogy" which consisted of Fireman, Save My Child (1932), Elmer the Great (1933) and Alibi Ike (1935). He was also a television and radio broadcaster for the New York Yankees in 1953. His son, Joe L. Brown, inherited an interest in baseball, becoming the general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates for more than twenty years. Brown also spent Ty Cobb's last days with him before he died, discussing his life.
Brown's sports enthusiasm also led to him becoming the first president of PONY Baseball and Softball (at the time named Pony League) when the organization was incorporated in 1953. He continued in the post until late 1964 when he retired. Later he traveled additional thousands of miles telling the story of PONY League, hoping to interest adults in organizing baseball programs for young people. He was also a fan of Thoroughbred horse racing, a regular at Del Mar Racetrack and the races at Santa Anita.
In popular culture
He was caricatured in the Disney cartoons Mickey's Gala Premiere (1933), Mother Goose Goes Hollywood (1938), and The Autograph Hound (1939). All of them contain a scene in which he is seen laughing so loud that his mouth opens extremely wide.
He was impersonated by Daws Butler for the title character of the Peter Potamus cartoon.
Later life, family, and legacy
He had four children: two sons, Don Evan Brown (December 25, 1916 — October 8, 1942, Captain United States Army Air Force, killed during pilot training) and Joe LeRoy "Joe L." Brown (September 1, 1918 — August 15, 2010), and two daughters, Mary Katherine Ann (b. 1930) and Kathryn Francis (b. 1934). Both daughters were adopted as infants.
His final film appearance was in The Comedy of Terrors (1964). Weeks earlier he had appeared with Joan Blondell and Buster Keaton in an episode of Jack Palance's ABC circus drama, The Greatest Show on Earth. Brown died at his home in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California from arteriosclerosis on July 6, 1973. He began having heart problems in 1968 after suffering a severe heart attack and underwent cardiac surgery.
Bowling Green State University dedicated one of its three theaters to him (the one in which he appeared in Harvey in the 1950s) as The Joe E. Brown Theatre.
Joe E. Brown has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1680 Vine Street.[7]
Selected filmography
- Hit of the Show (1928)
- The Circus Kid (1928)
- Take Me Home (1928)
- Maybe It's Love (1930)
- The Lottery Bride (1930)
- The Circus Clown (1934)
- Earthworm Tractors (1936)
- When's Your Birthday? (1937)
- Fit for a King (1937)
- The Gladiator (1938)
- Casanova in Burlesque (1944)
- Some Like It Hot (1959)
- It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963)
Books published
- Your Kids and Mine (1944)
- Laughter is a Wonderful Thing (1956)
Death
Brown died in 1973 in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, three weeks before his 82nd birthday.[8] He is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.References
- ^ California Deaths, 1940–1997 Joe E. Brown
- ^ The Grave of Joe E. Brown, separate monument and family monument pictured together, separate monument up close, family monument up close (Find a Grave)
- ^ Jones, Gerard. Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book. New York: Basic Books, 2004 (ISBN 0465036562), p.80. Also see Moskowitz, Sam Explorers of the Infinite: Shapers of Science Fiction, Cleveland, Ohio: The World Publishing Co., 1963 (ISBN 0-88355-130-6), pp.278–295
- ^ The Holocaust Chronicle. Publications International Ltd., 2000 (ISBN 0-7853-2963-3), p.162
- ^ "Capt. Don Brown, Actor's Son, Dies In Bomber Crash.". Chicago Tribune. October 9, 1942. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/468627642.html?dids=468627642:468627642&FMT=CITE&FMTS=CITE:AI&date=Oct+09%2C+1942&author=&pub=Chicago+Daily+Tribune&desc=CAPT.+DON+BROWN%2C+ACTOR'S+SON%2C+DIES+IN+BOMBER+CRASH&pqatl=google. Retrieved 2008-04-17.
- ^ 1948 Tony Award Winners
- ^ Hollywood Walk of Fame
- ^ "Joe E. Brown, Comedian Of Movies and Stage, Dies.". New York Times. July 7, 1973. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10B17FE3859137A93C5A9178CD85F478785F9. Retrieved 2007-08-21. "Joe E. Brown, the beloved elastic-mouth comedian, died at his home here today. He was 81 years old. Mr. Brown was incapacitated by a stroke several years ago, and he had also suffered from severe arthritis."
External links
 | Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Joe E. Brown |
 | Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Joe E. Brown |
- Joe E. Brown at the Internet Movie Database
- Joe E. Brown at AllRovi
- Joe E. Brown at the Internet Broadway Database
- Joe E. Brown at Find a Grave
- Literature on Joe E. Brown
- Joe. E. Brown Visits DePauw University; February 17, 1948
* * *
|
Lucien Littlefield
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Lucien Littlefield | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 16, 1895 San Antonio, Texas, United States |
| Died | June 4, 1960 (aged 64) Hollywood, California, United States |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1914–1960 |
| Spouse(s) | Constance Palmer (19?? - 19??) |
Lucien Littlefield (August 16, 1895, San Antonio, Texas — June 4, 1960, Hollywood, California) was an American actor in the silent film era. He later made numerous cameo appearances on television series.
His role of the doctor in The Cat and the Canary (1927) is one of his more notable performances. He appeared with Laurel and Hardy, first as an eccentric professor in Dirty Work, and finally as a vet in their classic feature Sons of the Desert, both made in 1933. He also played Mary Pickford's father in My Best Girl in 1927. Other roles include Tumbleweeds, with William S. Hart, Ruggles of Red Gap, with Charles Laughton, and Johnny Come Lately, with James Cagney.
He played an eccentric inventor in an early Adventures of Superman episode called "The Runaway Robot". Littlefield played many character roles in other TV shows of the 1950s, such as Blondie, Lassie, Dragnet and Peter Gunn.
He died of natural causes in 1960, and was buried in Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery.
Selected filmography
- Rose of the Rancho (1914) (uncredited)
- The Ghost Breaker (1914)
- The Warrens of Virginia (1915)
- A Gentleman of Leisure (1915)
- The Wild Goose Chase (1915)
- Kindling (1915)
- The Cheat (1915)
- Temptation (1915)
- The Golden Chance (1915)
- Joan the Woman (1917)
- Double Speed (1920)
- Why Change Your Wife? (1920)
- The Round-Up (1920)
- The Sheik (1921)
- Leap Year (1921)
- Crazy to Marry (1921)
- The Hell Diggers (1921)
- Her Husband's Trademark (1922)
- Across the Continent (1922)
- Manslaughter (1922)
- Three Wise Fools (1923)
- Feet of Clay (1924)
- Tumbleweeds (1925)
- Torrent (1926)
- The Cat and the Canary (1927)
- My Best Girl (1927)
- Drag (1929)
- No No Nanette (1930)
- High Society Blues (1930)
- Tom Sawyer (1930)
- Downstairs (1932)
- That's My Boy (1932)
- Dirty Work (1933)
- Sons of the Desert (1933)
- I Dream Too Much (1935)
- Man on the Flying Trapeze (1935)
- High, Wide, and Handsome (1937)
- Born to the West (1937)
- The Gladiator (1938)
- Unmarried (1939)
- The Westerner (1940)
- Whistling in Dixie (1942)
- Zorro's Black Whip (1944)
- Lady, Let's Dance (1944)
- Casanova's Big Night (1954)
External links
* * *
Lucien Littlefield had a long and distinguished career both as an actor and as a portrayer of mad scientists on screen. He was a mad doctor in THE CAT AND THE CANARY with Laura La Plante:
A mad scientist in DIRTY WORK with Laurel and Hardy:
And he finally even got a chance to do an actual Superman story as a mad scientist.
The character of "Horatio Hinkle" was also used in the Superman comic strip and the radio show.
"Percival Popp" in THE SPECTRE appears to be another version of the same character.
While the cop on the right had been a character on the radio show, he doesn't seem to have been used in the comics.
Casting Man Mountain Dean in the movie version of GLADIATOR gave the hero a notable opponent to fight with in a contest, giving a reason for the title that seemed to be lacking in the original story.
Man Mountain Dean
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
He was born in New York City, the son of John McKenney and Henrietta N. (Decker) Leavitt. From childhood, Frank Leavitt was remarkably large in stature. This trait led to a lifelong interest in competitive sport, and also made it easy for him to lie about his age in order to join the Army at the age of fourteen. While enlisted he saw duty on the Mexican-U.S. border with John J. Pershing, and was later sent to France where he participated in combat during World War I. Also during this period (1914) he began his wrestling career using the ring name of "Soldier Leavitt".
After the war, Leavitt embarked on a career in athletics. Although signed for a brief time (1919–20) with the New York Brickley Giants of the National Football League, he concentrated most of his efforts toward the less lucrative field of professional wrestling. He competed in the ring for a time under the name "Hell's Kitchen Bill-Bill" (a "hillbilly" reference which was suggested to him by the writer Damon Runyon) but eventually settled on the moniker of "Stone Mountain".
Leavitt wrestled with limited success at first, and after an injury took a job as a police officer in Miami, Florida. It was here he met his wife, Doris Dean, who also became his manager. After her idea, he adopted the nickname "Man Mountain" and substituted the more Anglo-Saxon-sounding last name of Dean. At well over six feet in height and weighing in excess of 300 pounds, Dean was an imposing figure. To this he added a long, full beard as part of his ring persona. Dean was one of the first professional wrestlers to emphasize showmanship in the sport, and it worked to his advantage.
After a highly successful wrestling tour of Germany which had been booked by his wife, he was invited to take a job in the UK as stunt-double for Charles Laughton in the movie The Private Life of Henry VIII. This would be the beginning of a subsidiary movie career for Dean, who would appear in various roles in twelve other movies, playing himself in five of them. One of the movies in which he portrayed himself was the Joe E. Brown comedy The Gladiator, a 1938 adaptation of Philip Gordon Wylie's 1930 novel Gladiator.
Meanwhile he continued a fairly successful wrestling career, participating altogether in 6,783 professional bouts and commanding fees upwards of $1,500 for each match. In 1937 he retired from the ring to a farm outside of Norcross, Georgia.
Dean ran for a seat in the Georgia House of Representatives in 1938 but withdrew his candidacy, citing discomfort with the political process. During World War II he again joined the Army despite his age, and finally left with the rank of master sergeant. In the 1940s he was the First Sergeant of the Military Intelligence Training Center at Camp Ritchie, Md. Afterward he studied at the University of Georgia's school of journalism. He appeared as a guest on the December 29, 1944 episode of the radio program It Pays to be Ignorant. During the program, broadcast from New York City, Dean gave his weight as 280 pounds (127 kg).
He died of a heart attack in his home in Norcross, Georgia, at the age of 63 in 1953, and is buried in Marietta National Cemetery under a military marker bearing his birth name and an erroneous year of birth (1889)[citation needed].
In wrestling
- Signature moves
- Multiple suplex variations
External links
How he got to be a man mountain.
June Travis as the girlfriend is a great improvement to this version. Hugo Danner had no girlfriend in the original story.
June Travis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| June Travis | |
|---|---|
| Born | June Dorothea Grabiner August 7, 1914 Chicago, Illinois |
| Died | April 14, 2008 (aged 93) Chicago, Illinois |
| Other names | June Travis Friedlob |
| Years active | 1935-1965 |
| Spouse(s) | Fred Friedlob |
June Travis (August 7, 1914 – April 14, 2008) was an American film actress.
Background
Born as June Dorothea Grabiner, she was the daughter of Harry Grabiner, vice-president of the Chicago White Sox in the 1930s.
She had dark brown hair and green eyes. She stood 5'4" tall. She attended Parkside Grammar School in Chicago and later UCLA. When she returned to Illinois she matriculated at the University of Chicago.
Marriage
On January 3, 1940, June married Fred Friedlob. They had two daughters, Cathy and June. Friedlob died in May 1979 in Chicago.
Screen Actress
A Paramount Pictures vice-president noticed her in Miami, Florida at a White Sox exhibition game. He offered Travis a screen test when she came to Pasadena, California, where the major league baseball team trained. The first time she was presented with a screen contract, she suffered from screen fright and turned it down. She returned to Chicago and school. The next winter she accepted a film studio offer in Palm Springs, California.
Travis made her screen debut in Stranded (1935), a film which starred Kay Francis and George Brent. She played the role of "Mary Rand". She followed this with a part in Not On Your Life (1935), with Warren William and Claire Dodd. Howard Hawks directed her in Ceiling Zero (1936), a Warner Bros. feature. In preparation for her role, Travis learned flying, navigation, and parachute jumping from Amelia Earhart. The aviatrix gave her instructions in September 1935. The film co-starred James Cagney and Pat O'Brien. In 1936, she played secretary Della Street to Perry Mason as played by Ricardo Cortez in The Case of the Black Cat.
Her most notable film role was likely the one she played in The Star (1952) starring Bette Davis.
Travis became known as the Queen of the B-movies on the Warner Bros. lot. Later she said that if she had remained in Hollywood two more years, she would have been a star. However, following three years, she came home to Chicago for Christmas with her parents. She did not return to making motion pictures. She stopped regularly appearing in films after 1938, though she later had minor appearances in The Star and Monster a Go-Go.
Later Career-Stage Acting
By the late 1970s Travis was performing on stage.[citation needed] She admitted that the transition from acting on film was a difficult one.[citation needed]
Death
Travis died in 2008 in a hospital of complications from a stroke she suffered weeks earlier. She was 93 years old.
External links
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to: June Travis |
- June Travis at the Internet Movie Database
- June Travis at the TCM Movie Database
- June Travis at Find a Grave
- June Travis at Virtual History
June Travis co-starred with Joe E. Brown in EARTHWORM TRACTORS as well as THE GLADIATOR.
Carol Hughes ( left ) and Marie Wilson with June Travis. Carol Hughes was also in EARTHWORM TRACTORS, and later played Dale Arden in FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE. Marie Wilson is best known for MY FRIEND IRMA.
The old press photographers commonly used wide-angle lenses,
which presumably is why this photo looks distorted.
CEILING ZERO with Jimmy Cagney
With Amelia Earhart during the production of CEILING ZERO.
FINALLY,
Popeye, and not "The Gladiator" was the first superhero, and the first superhero in comics as well.
Popeye cover swipe of the first Superman comic book.
Superman would even meet a Popeye character in some of the more recent comics. So you could even say that the characters have met as well as having certain similarities.
You can do anything in comics. You can even have your characters go back in time and meet someone who is no longer among the living.
But somehow, I just don't think there would be much point in having Superman meet Hugo Danner.
THE END
Joe E. Brown Pictures:
http://photos.lucywho.com/joe-e-brown-photos-t53433.html
| LUCIEN LITTLEFIELD: DIRTY WORK: http://www.lordheath.com/index.php?p=1_231_Dirty-Work SONS OF THE DESERT: http://www.lordheath.com/index.php?p=1_239_Sons-Of-The-Desert MAN MOUNTAIN DEAN: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_Mountain_Dean Popeye In DC Comics: http://crossover.bureau42.com/zpopeye.html |
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