BEYOND VICTORY

Lew Cody and Marion Shilling in a publicity photo for BEYOND VICTORY.

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BEYOND VICTORY

Thelma Todd and Lew Cody in a publicity photo for BEYOND VICTORY.

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BEYOND VICTORY

BEYOND VICTORY was the first of several movies to team James Gleason with Zasu Pitts. Thelma Todd seems to have been considered for the movie as well.

  

Old Movie Teams - Zasu Pitts And James Gleason:
http://oldmovieteams.wordpress.com/zasu-pitts-herself-with-petulant-gleason/




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Newspaper Article - Thelma Todd - Fire At Brown Derby

G. D. Hamann sent me this item a number of years ago.






From: "G. d. hamann"

Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 13:16:21 -0700

  

One of the more interesting TT items I've run into recently.

 

8/28/1932 LAX FILM CELEBRITIES, EXECUTIVES FLEE BROWN DERBY FIRE

 Several score film celebrities, studio executives and scenarists were

driven from the Brown Derby Café, 1628 North Vine Street, by fire during   

the noon hour yesterday.   

 The flames started in the kitchen from an overheated flue and quickly

filled the famous restaurant with smoke, sending its patrons running into   

the street. More than 200 men and women were routed.   

 Those who fled included Tom Mix, Estelle Taylor, June Collyer, Carl

Laemmle Jr., Wallace Beery, Thelma Todd, Lew Cody, Ivan Lebedeff and   

Vivian Osborne.   

 The sudden outpouring of notables caused a large crowd to gather on the

sidewalk in a few minutes and tied up automobile traffic. Several squads   

of policemen were required to regulate the throng.   

                                      *                      *                      *

The Brown Derby was a famous restaurant in Hollywood, we have pictures of Thelma Todd that were taken there. Ivan Lebedeff was an actor whose name was linked to Thelma Todd's. Lew Cody was Buster Keaton's best friend, who had been married to Mabel Normand. He was in the movie SITTING PRETTY with Thelma Todd and Ginger Rogers. Wallace Beery was a famous actor who worked with Jean Harlow and Ted Healy, who was also alleged to have been one of the men who beat Ted Healy up shortly before his death. Tom Mix was a movie cowboy who was said to have been involved with Lupe Velez in private life. Carl Laemmle Jr. was the son of the founder of Universal Pictures. At the time that this article was written he was in charge of production there.


Wallace Beery:
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/12710%7C152971/Wallace-Beery/

Lew Cody:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lew_Cody

Carl Laemmle Jr.:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Laemmle,_Jr.

Ivan Lebedeff:
http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2012/08/ivan-lebedeff.html

Tom Mix:
http://www.b-westerns.com/tommix.htm



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Thelma Todd In PHOTOPLAY In The Twenties

Some early Thelma Todd publicity items from PHOTOPLAY.

August 1928

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lew Cody was one of Buster Keaton's best friends and he married Mabel Normand. There was supposed to be a boom in Florida real estate, the boom eventually went bust as did many others.

A little rhyme concerning Thelma Todd and Ivan Lebedeff, who was from Russia.

 Thelma Todd's "Scripture Cake".

Thelma Todd with her "Scripture Cake".

 

 

Photoplay and other fan magazines:
http://mediahistoryproject.org/fanmagazines/

Silent Movies:
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~pringle/silent/



Silent Movies:
http://silent-movies.com/



Silent Movies:
http://www.silentera.com/

SITTING PRETTY

The 1933 movie SITTING PRETTY featured Thelma Todd in a small part.

It also featured one of the Our Gang kids in a bigger role.

Jerry Tucker, center, between Jack Oakie and Ginger Rogers.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    

Jerry Tucker
Born	Jerome H. Schatz (1925-11-01) November 1, 1925 (age 86) Chicago, Illinois
Occupation	Film actor
Years active	1931-1939

Jerry Tucker (born November 1, 1925) is a former American child actor, most notable for appearing as the "rich kid" in the Our Gang short subjects series semi-regularly from 1931 to 1938. Tucker first appeared in the 1931 Our Gang short Shiver My Timbers. Then, he also appeared in many Our Gang episodes after that and left the series in the 1938 Our Gang short Three Men in a Tub.
In addition to his Our Gang appearances, Tucker appeared in the Marie Dressler film Prosperity, again as a spoiled rich kid. He also appeared as one of Mother Peep's children in the 1934 Laurel & Hardy feature film March of the Wooden Soldiers.

 Later years

Tucker went on to serve in the United States Navy during World War II and the Korean War. He later married his wife Myra and had a long successful career with RCA before retiring.
Tucker is one of the few living Our Gangers from the original series. Other surviving members are Mildred Kornman, Marianne Edwards, Jean Darling, Mickey Gubitosi, Sidney Kibrick, and Jackie Lynn Taylor.

 External links

• Jerry Tucker at the Internet Movie Database
• Jerry Tucker at AllRovi
• University of Maryland
• Prosperity (1932) Jerry played the part of Buster.

Marylin Bourne, Spanky McFarland, Jerry Tucker, Scotty Beckett, Stymie Beard

in MAMMA'S LITTLE PIRATE.

Here is a coming attractions slide for SITTING PRETTY, with Thelma Todd on the right.

Jack Oakie is at left, with Ginger Rogers next, and then Jack Haley.

 

 

 

Thelma Todd with Jack Oakie.

You see pictures like this occasionally with a spurious copyright notice.

 

 

Although Ginger Rogers posed for publicity photos that suggest that she was a fan dancer, she didn't actually do a fan dance in the movie. She did have a scene where she walked along holding a fan while being serenaded with the song "Did You Ever See A Dream Walking?"

The fan dance was in the news at the time, because Sally Rand did it at the Chicago World's fair in 1933. Here we see the genuine article with her fans. Compare it with the publicity photo of Ginger Rogers above.

Following Ginger Roger's scene, some other girls do a fan dance.

Helen Splane, Mae Madison and Peaches Jackson. Publicity had it that these three charmers were selected as the most beautiful chorus girls in Hollywood.

And here we have a publicity photo of Thelma Todd in the same costume. Which actually includes a pair of tights as well as the more obvious glittery parts. The things on the wrists help hide where they end at her wrists. You see that in movies in this period, the hula dancers in SONS OF THE DESERT wore tights, too.

I don't think Thelma Todd was actually among the fan dancers at the end of the movie. In SITTING PRETTY, she had about the same part she had in SPEAK EASILY, she was the vamp or other woman character who threatens the romance of the main girl in the story. It was actually the same part Thelma Todd had in a number of movies.

Another element that is related to Buster Keaton is the presence of Lew Cody in the cast.

Lew Cody was one of Buster Keaton's best friends. Here we see him, right, with Buster Keaton, his two sons, and Jimmy Durante with Keaton's "Land Yacht". This was a sort of mobile home that Buster Keaton was living in while he was working for MGM.

Lew Cody used to be married to Mabel Normand, who was famous for being in many comedies in the silent era.

Here's a publicity photo from the silent era of Thelma Todd doing a fan dance.

And here's a leftover picture I hadn't used anywhere else, so I'll just use it at the end. It sort of fits there anyway.

Watch SITTING PRETTY at youtube:

Jerry Tucker:
http://www.lib.umd.edu/LAB/COLLECTIONS/schatz.html

Ginger Rogers:
http://www.gingerrogers.com/

Jack Haley:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0355095/

Sally Rand:
http://www.yodaslair.com/dumboozle/sally/sallydex.html

Download SITTING PRETTY:
http://www.alluc.org/movies/watch-sitting-pretty-1933-online/367105.html