Thelma Todd: Joe Shuster

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Lola Lane and Lois Lane

Lola Lane was one of the famous Lane sisters. She played a girl reporter named "Torchy Blane" in the movies and it is thought that the character of "Lois Lane" is named after her. The name "Lola Lane" was even used for a daughter of Lois Lane and Superman in an "imaginary story" that was not part of the usual continuity.

Priscilla Lane, Rosemary Lane, Lola Lane, Gale Page

TORCHY BLANE

Torchy Blane was a girl reporter in a 1930's movie series. Jerry Siegel, who created Lois Lane and Superman with illustrator Joe Shuster, was so smitten with Torchy’s feisty charms that she became a model for Lois’ rough-and-tumble, no-nonsense attitude. He said as much in a letter to Time magazine that was meant to give credit where credit was due.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Torchy Blane is a fictional female reporter who appeared in a series of light "B" films during the late 1930s, which were mixtures of mystery, action, adventure and fun.
During the pre-war period, the job of newspaper reporter was one of the few movie role models that portrayed intelligent, career-oriented women. Of these role models, Torchy Blane was perhaps the best known. The typical plot has the resilient, very-fast-talking Torchy solving the crime before her less-than-perceptive beau, the loud mouthed police detective Steve McBride.
Torchy was loosely based on the male character Kennedy in the MacBride and Kennedy stories by Louis Frederick Nebel, although Torchy was more compatible with the Hays code than the drunkard Kennedy.
In all but two of the films, Torchy Blane was played by Glenda Farrell, and Steve McBride by Barton MacLane.
Lola Lane played Torchy in Torchy Blane in Panama with Paul Kelly as McBride. Torchy Blane was Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel's inspiration for the personality of the character of Lois Lane.^[1] Siegel based Lois Lane's name on Torchy actress Lola Lane.
In the final film of the series, Torchy Plays with Dynamite, Jane Wyman was Torchy, and Allen Jenkins Lt. Steve McBride.
The character of Torchy Blane appeared in the following Warner Brothers and First National films:

Released	Film title	Run time	Starring as
Released	Film title	Run time	Torchy Blane	Steve McBride
1937	Smart Blonde	59 min	Glenda Farrell	Barton MacLane
	Fly-Away Baby	60 min
	The Adventurous Blonde	61 min
1938	Blondes At Work	63 min
	Torchy Blane in Panama	59 min	Lola Lane	Paul Kelly
	Torchy Gets Her Man	63 min	Glenda Farrell	Barton MacLane
1939	Torchy Blane in Chinatown	58 min
	Torchy Runs for Mayor	60 min
	Torchy Blane ... Playing with Dynamite	59 min	Jane Wyman	Allen Jenkins

References

^ Letters to the Editor, Time magazine (May 30, 1988), pp. 6-7.

External links

Smart Blonde (1937) at the Internet Movie Database
Fly-Away Baby (1937) at the Internet Movie Database
The Adventurous Blonde (1937) at the Internet Movie Database
Blondes at Work (1938) at the Internet Movie Database
Torchy Blane in Panama (1938) at the Internet Movie Database
Torchy Gets Her Man (1938) at the Internet Movie Database
Torchy Blane in Chinatown (1939) at the Internet Movie Database
Torchy Runs for Mayor (1939) at the Internet Movie Database
Torchy Blane.. Playing with Dynamite (1939) at the Internet Movie Database
Thrilling detective

As of 2009, Turner Classic Movies have made a number of original trailers freely available online at their web site.

Also on wikipedia, under "Cultural References" on the "Lane Sisters" entry:

Lois Lane, Superman's girlfriend, was named after Lola Lane, who played "Torchy Blane" a fictional reporter who inspired Lois' character, in one of the 1930s films ( Footnote: Letters to the Editor, Time magazine (May 30, 1988), pp. 6-7. ) This presumably is the letter by Jerry Siegel that is mentioned above.

Glenda Farrell had actually played about the same girl reporter character in the movie MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM in 1933, some time before the Torchy Blane series began.

Fay Wray at left, Glenda Farrell center, Lionel Atwill at right.

Lola Lane as Torchy Blane

Lola Lane in the 1930's.

Autographed picture of Lola Lane at the Brown Derby.

Lola Lane later married Roland West, who had been the partner of Thelma Todd in her sidewalk cafe and continued to operate it after her death. After his death in 1952, Lola Lane became the owner of the sidewalk cafe.

Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Cafe

Thelma Todd at the Sidewalk Cafe.

Interior of Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Cafe.

LOIS LANE

The original Lois Lane by the original artist, Joe Shuster.

My brother Dale has said they used to draw Lois Lane to look like Judy Garland.

After Noel Neill started playing Lois Lane, they drew the character to look like her.

MAD parody of Superman with art by Wally Wood.

Here we see Noel Neill in the same costume Wally Wood drew Lois Lane in.

Bill Ward's blonde bombshell was named "Torchy", too. And her last name was "Todd". But she was really like another version of the "Irma" character that Marie Wilson played. Still, I wonder who she was named after.

Trailer for TORCHY BLANE IN PANAMA, with Lola Lane as Torchy Blane:

Before Lois Lane, Torchy Blane Got The Scoop:

http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2010/05/05/lois-lane-torchy-blane/

Discussion of origins of Lois Lane:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=315107

MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM on wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_of_the_Wax_Museum

Lane Sisters at wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lane_Sisters

Priscilla Lane fan club:
http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/Priscilla_Lane_Fan_Club/

My fan club for Noel Neill:
http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/The_Adventures_Of_Noel_Neill/

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Wheeler and Woolsey In Superman Comics

Wheeler and Woolsey were famous as movie comedians. They also appeared in SUPERMAN comic books as a couple of bumbling magicians named "Hocus" and "Pocus".

The characters as drawn in the comics are similar to Wheeler and Woolsey and even appear to be wearing similar costumes. Their rabbit can be seen as similar to Bugs Bunny, who was in animated cartoons and had already done a Superman parody in 1943.

Description from the "Supermanica" site:

Hocus and Pocus
The professional names employed by a pair of likeable, ingenuous, gullible fellows, their real names are Doc and Flannelhead, who start out as street corner salesmen of magic books, only to have their lives transformed when a series of bizarre coincidences convinces them that they have somehow become gifted with magical powers (Act No. 83, Apr 1945: "Hocus and Pocus... Magicians by Accident!").
Doc, better known as Hocus, is the brains of the outfit; he is a wiry little fellow with a moustache, eyeglasses, and an ever-present derby hat "who speaks like a college professor but has the trusting simplicity of a child!" His companion, Flannelhead, better known as Pocus, a brawny, dim-witted fellow who murders the King's English whenever he speaks, "has the strength of an ox...and about the same I.Q.!" Together with their "mascot," a white rabbit named Moiton (Act No. 88, Sep 1945: "The Adventure of the Stingy Men!"), the pair inhabit a furnished room in Mrs. Flaherty's Boarding House, somewhere in Metropolis (Act No. 83, Apr 1945: "Hocus & Pocus... Magicians by Accident!"). Superman No. 45/1 refers to them as "that hilarious pair of cuckoo conjurers" (Mar/Apr 1947: "Lois Lane, Superwoman!"), and, because their magical feats work only through either coincidence or the surreptitious intervention of Superman, they are frequently described as "magicians by accident" (Act No. 97, Jun 1946: "The Magician'™s Convention!"; and others).