Showing posts with label William Powell. Show all posts

Saturday, June 27, 2015

William Powell In NEVADA

From the Laurel And Hardy Archive on facebook.

Publicity shot for Nevada (Christian Anderson Collection).

Thursday, May 7, 2015

NEVADA Photos

Pictures from the 1927 Paramount production of the silent movie NEVADA.

Thelma Todd with Gary Cooper

Ladies' Wardrobe Department Photo

The back of the photo has a description of the dress Thelma Todd was wearing.

Ladies' Wardrobe Department Photo

The back of the photo has a description of the dress Thelma Todd was wearing.

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Esther Muir

Esther Muir worked with the Marx Brothers in A DAY AT THE RACES ( 1937 ). Some commentaries have referred to her as a substitute for Thelma Todd.

Esther Muir

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Esther Muir
Esther Muir (1940), in Misbehaving Husbands
Born	(1903-03-11)March 11, 1903 Andes, New York, U.S.
Died	August 1, 1995(1995-08-01) (aged 92) Mount Kisco, New York, U.S.
Years active	1931-1945
Spouse(s)	Sam Coslow (1933-1948) (divorced) 1 child Busby Berkeley (1929-1931) Richard Brown (?-?) (divorced)

Esther Muir (March 11, 1903 – August 1, 1995) was a character actress on Broadway and in Hollywood films.

Theatrical Reviews

Muir was born in Andes, New York and began modeling in New York City while still a high school student. She soon won a role in a show called Greenwich Village Follies. She participated in the Earl Carroll Vanities and in the International Review. The latter show starred Gertrude Lawrence. Her major break as a theatrical performer came when she landed the title role in My Girl Friday!, in 1929. While in London, England performing in a musical Esther became a favorite dancing partner of Edward VIII, then Prince of Wales. She befriended Wallis Warfield.

Movie Actress

Muir is probably best known today for her appearance with the Marx Brothers in A Day At The Races (1937). Muir toured with the Marxes in a stage version where material was crafted and rehearsed prior to filming. Muir described the Marx Brothers as diligent comic actors who sometimes worked days and weeks on a scene to perfect it. Her other screen credits include parts in I'll Take Romance (1937), City Girl (1938), and The Girl and the Gambler (1939). She continued in motion pictures until 1942. Her final role is Bonnie in X Marks The Spot. Her first motion picture appearance was in A Dangerous Affair in 1931.

Personal life

Muir was introduced by columnist Walter Winchell to Hollywood director and choreographer Busby Berkeley, whom she married. They were divorced in 1931. In the 1950s the former actress became a real estate developer in southern California. She supervised the construction of more than 400 tract homes. Muir married composer/producer Sam Coslow in Mexicali, Mexico on November 1, 1934. The couple repeated their wedding vows a year later in Ventura, California. The marriage ended in divorce in 1948. Her daughter, Jacqueline Coslow, became an actress and married actor Ted Sorel.^[1]
Esther Muir died in 1995 at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, New York, aged 92. She had lived in Somers, New York.

Notes

Jump up ^ "Theodore Eliopoulos obituary". San Francisco Chronicle. 2010-12-05. Retrieved 2010-12-12.

References

Fresno Bee, Marriage of Song Writer, Esther Muir Revealed, Wednesday, September 25, 1935, Page 6A.
The New York Times, Esther Muir, 92, Character Actress, August 9, 1995, Page D20.
The Oshkosh Northwestern, Hollywood Roundup, May 22, 1937, Page 10.

External links

Biography portal

Esther Muir at the Internet Movie Database
Esther Muir at the Internet Broadway Database
Esther Muir at Find a Grave

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Esther Muir appeared in many comedy films, so comparisons to Thelma Todd were almost inevitable. She appeared in movies with Buster Keaton, Harry Langdon, Andy Clyde, and Wheeler and Woolsey as well as the Marx Brothers. But today she is best known for her film with the Marx Brothers.

Glenn Mitchell's MARX BROTHERS ENCYCLOPEDIA states that "Her work in A DAY AT THE RACES included the pre-filming tour, during which she earned sufficient respect for the Marxes to insist on her being retained. She could take the knockabout gags and was even capable of bettering the comedians: she told FILMS IN REVIEW of having caught them asleep and bribing the chorus girls to paint the toenails red. The Marxes were left with the problem of explaining it to their wives".
They probably had to spend a lot of time explaining that one.

SAILOR'S LUCK ( 1933 )

SO THIS IS AFRICA ( 1933 ) with Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey

SO THIS IS AFRICA with Bert Wheeler.

THE GREAT ZIEGFIELD ( 1936 ) with Fanny Brice

With William Powell and Fanny Brice.

A DAY AT THE RACES ( 1937 ) with Groucho Marx

With the Marx Brothers.

Fun with wallpaper.

Watch a scene with Esther Muir from A DAY AT THE RACES.

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Tuesday, December 16, 2014

NEVADA Photos

NEVADA was based on a book by Zane Grey. Here we see Thelma Todd dressed as a cowgirl.

Thelma Todd with costars Gary Cooper and William Powell.

William Powell and Thelma Todd

Poster

Zane Grey

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Monday, October 27, 2014

William Powell And Thelma Todd In NEVADA

William Powell and Thelma Todd in NEVADA, a silent movie which came early in their careers.

Saturday, June 7, 2014

NEVADA Photos

NEVADA

Thelma Todd was one of the women in Gary Cooper's life. They made a movie together.

Nevada (1927 film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nevada
Lobby card
Directed by	John Waters
Produced by	Jesse L. Lasky Adolph Zukor
Written by	Gordon Rigby John Stone John W. Conway (intertitles)
Based on	Nevada (novel) by Zane Grey
Starring	Gary Cooper Thelma Todd William Powell
Cinematography	Charles Edgar Schoenbaum
Studio	Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release dates	August 1, 1927 (1927-08-01) (USA)
Running time	7 reels, 6,258 ft
Country	United States
Language	English intertitles

Nevada is a 1927 American Western silent film directed by John Waters and starring Gary Cooper, Thelma Todd, and William Powell.^[1] Based on the novel Nevada by Zane Grey, the film is about a former outlaw hired to protect a ranch owner's daughter, which angers the ranch foreman who is in love with the girl. The villainous foreman spreads a rumor of his rival's dark past to the sheriff, and the former outlaw is soon on the run again. Eventually he captures a gang of cattle rustlers led by the foreman, and with his reputation restored, he marries the girl.^[1] This lavish Western film was remade in 1944 as Nevada starring Robert Mitchum—the only time Cooper and Mitchum played the same role.
Nevada still survives in a complete copy, but the films appearance is not the best, due probably to poor preservation. It is possible to make out scenes, but not as well as other highly restored silent films. This was a very early Western role for Gary Cooper, but his fame in Westerns would be more noticeable in talking pictures.^[2]

Plot

A feared gunfighter named Nevada (Gary Cooper) breaks his friend Cash Burridge (Ernie Adams) from the Lineville jail. When they reach the town of Winthrop, the two men decide to take respectable jobs on a ranch owned by Ben Ide (Philip Strange), an Englishman they rescued from Cawthorne's gang of cattle rustlers. Fearing the rustlers, Ide hires Nevada to protect his sister, Hettie (Thelma Todd), angering the ranch foreman, Clan Dillon (William Powell), who is in love with Hettie.
The villainous foreman spreads a rumor of his rival's dark past to the sheriff, and soon Nevada and Cash join up with Cawthorne's gang in order to escape the sheriff. Unknown to Nevada, Cawthorne's gang takes its orders from Dillon, who is the leader of the rustlers. During a raid, Dillon shoots both Cash and Cawthorne, but Nevada learns of his treachery from his dying pal. Later in a confrontation, Nevada is wounded by Dillon but is saved by the arrival of the posse and the evidence given by the wounded Cawthorne against the leader. With his reputation restored, Nevada is free to marry Hettie.

Cast

Gary Cooper as Nevada
Thelma Todd as Hettie Ide
William Powell as Clan Dillon
Philip Strange as Ben Ide
Ernie Adams as Cash Burridge
Christian J. Frank as Sheriff of Winthrop
Ivan Christy as Cawthorne
Guy Oliver as Lineville Sheriff
Jim Corey as Bearded Henchman (uncredited)^[1]

References

^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c "Nevada (1927)". The New York Times. Retrieved September 16, 2012.
Jump up ^ "Nevada". Silent Era. Retrieved September 16, 2012.

External links

* * *

I read the book this movie was supposed to have been based on, and from what I remember it differed a great deal from the book. Actually the story had not yet been published in book form when the movie came out. Prior to the movie it had been serialized in THE AMERICAN MAGAZINE.

The story that Gary Cooper always told about Thelma Todd was that when he was a young man he was bashful and it was difficult for him to do a love scene with her. The director was able to solve the problem by telling him to think of Thelma as a "chicken dinner". This did the trick, according to Gary Cooper.

Thelma Todd's picture was later used on the cover of a magazine that had a story about "The women in Gary Cooper's life",

but she was not actually mentioned in that story. Thelma Todd doesn't seem to have had a lot to do with Gary Cooper after the filming of NEVADA, but he was involved with the Countess DiFrasso and Lupe Velez, both of whom have a part in histories of Hollywood's Unsolved Mysteries.

NEVADA:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0018199/

http://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=20393

http://www.westernclippings.com/silent/silentwesterns3.shtml

NEVADA ( Novel )
http://buddiesinthesaddle.blogspot.com/2012/12/zane-grey-nevada-1928.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevada_(Zane_Grey_novel)

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NEVADA Photos

A lot more stuff from a site for Gary Cooper.

Reblogged from http://garycooperscrapbook.proboards.com/thread/282/nevada-1927

This was one of Gary’s earliest leading roles and it costarred Thelma Todd and William Powell. This was also one of the first films where Gary had to kiss his leading lady on camera. He was mortified and didn’t think it was decent to kiss a woman he barely knew in front of a bunch of other people. When it came time to film it, he would barely put his arms around Thelma and the director had to keep telling him that she wouldn’t break and it was okay for him to squeeze her. When they got to the actual kiss part the director helped him work up to it by telling Gary to imagine that he was a starving man and Thelma was a nice juicy steak. Gary always had a big appetite and this strategy worked.

Read more: http://garycooperscrapbook.proboards.com/thread/282/nevada-1927#ixzz33sqJLyNr