"What The Picture Did For Me" (September 29, 1934)

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What The Picture Did For Me - "Motion Picture Herald' (September 29, 1934)

Reviews written by theater owners and managers for other theaters . 

Zasu Pitts better known to the audience than Patsy Kelly at the time. The series with Patsy Kelly continued to be a success, but the replacement of Zasu Pitts with Patsy Kelly would have been seen as something of a decline.

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Jeanette MacDonald

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 Here we see Marie Wilson with Thelma Todd and Patsy Kelly as well as Jeanette MacDonald at a Hollywood party in 1935.

The only Jeanette MacDonald movie I ever saw on local television was SAN FRANCISCO ( 1938 )..Jeanette MacDonald was a star in the thirties, who is best known for working with Nelson Eddy, but none of those movies were ever run here*.

The fact that those movies were not being run here does not mean that there is no interest in them or that these stars have been forgotten. Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy are still popular. There is still a fan club for them which has been publishing a fanzine**, . 

 and it's even possible to get back issues of their fanzine.reprinted in book form.

.The popularity of stars does not depend entirely on how recenty or how often their movies have been run on television. It depends more on whether anyone actually likes the movies, something which could be related to their availability, but which does not depend entirely on that.

*A PBS documentary on Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy was run here, but not the movies themselves..

**I have seen this fanzine at a local auction, so someone in this area was getting it, and what I have written is not theoretical. It is a description of things as I know them to have been at that time.


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1937 Convention Film

Paul Mular posted this on facebook:

"Oliver Hardy attending the 1937 MGM Convention for theater circuit owners. Note that off-screen he wore eyeglasses, a detail missed in the current Docu-drama “Stan & Ollie”.
Craig Calman noticed Patsy Kelly walking with Hal Roach just before Ollie.
TRIVIA NOTE: Louis B. Mayer had his crews film everybody arriving & listening to speeches with Metro-Tone news cameras (which record the sound right on the film with the picture). As everyone sat down to eat, the films were rushed to the lab, processes immediately, and returned to MGM for a quick edit and then shown to all attendees after they ate.
Louis thought he would impress everyone with this “instant” film presentation, but it really meant the audience had to sit through Louis’ speech a second time."




Lyda Roberti may be seen walking next to Oliver Hardy. She had replaced Thelma Todd in the series with Patsy Kelly at the Hal Roach studio.



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EVERY NIGHT AT EIGHT

EVERY NGHT AT EIGHT was a movie Patsy Kelly was in along with Alice Faye, Frances Langford, and George Raft.

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Hollywood And The Underworld

Gangster films were very popular during the thirties. And Hollywood had many dealings with the underworld in that period. The studios paid protection money to prevent sabotage of the theaters. There was more to it than that. The gangsters became involved in supplying the studios with different things, not all of them legal. Some of the studio bosses liked to gamble with the gangsters. Some stars frequented the speakeasies and gambling joints in the area that were controlled by the underworld. Some of the girls in comedies were somehow linked to gangsters.



Thelma Todd had trouble with gangsters. There were extortion notes ( some were said to be the work of a crazy fan, but later ones might not have been ) and problems related to the Sidewalk Café. They thought that the gangsters might have killed her. But they don't seem to have said much of anything about the gangsters at the time. Later writers attributed the problems to Lucky Luciano, but some more recent writers have cast doubt on that story.

What about Lucky Luciano? Was he actually involved? Could Thelma Todd have been connected to him in some way?


Here we see Pat DeCicco, Gene Malin, Thelma Todd, and Lois Wilson at the club New York in Hollywood in 1932.

In New York, Gene Malin had worked at the Club Abbey, a queer joint that was run by Dutch Schultz.  Dutch Schultz was involved with Lucky Luciano, but eventually Luciano had him killed... as has been said, the authorities watched Luciano after that, and he was not in California with Thelma Todd. But because of Gene Malin, Thelma Todd was linked to Luciano, if only indirectly.

Gene Malin's wife was involved with prostitution, like DeCicco, which could be another connection.* But Patsy Kelly was more closely associated with Gene Malin than Thelma Todd and Pat DeCicco. She was with Malin when he accidently drove his car off a pier into the ocean and drowned in 1933.




Geneva Mitchell was in NIGHT LIFE OF THE GODS ( 1935 ) with Pat DiCicco, 

Pat DiCicco as Perseus in the rear at left, Geneva Mitchell as Hebe at center in front.

Today she is probably best known as the dance instructor in the Three Stooges comedy HOI POLLOI. History also tells us that she had some complaints about the underworld.

In 1932 she gave testimony in court that gangsters had kidnapped her brother. 

Kidnapping was in the news that year as the son of Lindbergh had been kidnapped. A number of movie stars received kidnap threats in the thirties. Thelma Todd and Mae West were both the recipients of kidnap threats that were said to have been the work of lone individuals rather than members of a gang. Bebe Daniels and her family went to live in England to escape this threat.

Doris Houk also worked with the Three Stooges. Today she is probably best known as the brunette who tried to pressure Shemp into marrying her in BRIDELESS GROOMS.

Reblogged from https://monstermoviemusic.blogspot.com/2016/02/brideless-groom-three-stooges-1947.html

 She married Fred Otash, a Los Angeles detective alleged to have underworld connections who was involved in a number of scandals. He was also associated with CONFIDENTIAL magazine, a publication that was noted for being scandalous.


June Brewster of the "Blondes and the Redheads" series at RKO married Guy McAfee, who was head of the vice squad. While in that position he owned brothels and gambling joints in Los Angeles.** Later he relocated to Los Vegas, where that stuff was legal, and she went with him.

Reblogged from http://derangedlacrimes.com/?tag=guy-mcafee - which has June Brewster confused with McAfee's previous wife, who had been a Los Angeles madam.

June Lang was in BONNIE SCOTLAND ( 1935 ) with Laurel and Hardy, and later made ZENOBIA with Harry Langdon and Oliver Hardy. 

In 1940 she married mobster Johnny Roselli, who was involved in the Chicago mob's extortion of millions of dollars from the motion picture industry. Roselli had also dated Lina Basquette, who was one of Thelma Todd's friends.


Lona Andre ( left ) and Iris Ardian ( right ) with Laurel and Hardy in OUR RELATIONS ( 1936 ).

Iris Adrian mentioned having been around Lucky Luciano in the 1930's. Although that was when she was in New York. She mentioned Stan Laurel being in New York during that period, too.

Here we see Dorothy Appleby and Barbara Pepper with George Raft and Edgar G. Robinson in MANPOWER ( 1943 ). Dorothy Appleby and Barbara Pepper appeared in many comedies. Dorothy Appleby was engaged for a time to a lawyer named Sidney Korshak who was linked to gangsters. George Raft had underworld connections and is frequently mentioned in connection with Pat DeCicco. Raft was also associated with gangster Bugsy Siegel, who he knew from New York. Bugsy Siegel and George Raft Bugsy Siegel was associated with Lucky Luciano, who is said to have sent him out west. Some people have thought Siegel was around Thelma Todd. He was in Hollywood during the last years of her life, and was around some of the same people. Thelma Todd made her last public appearance at the Trocadero, a Hollywood night club owned by William Wilkerson. William Wilkerson later became involved with Bugsy Siegel in building the Flamingo hotel in Las Vegas. Bugsy Siegel is frequently mentioned in connection with Jean Harlow, who appeared in Laurel and Hardy comedies before she was a star.                      Stan Laurel, Jean Harlow, and Oliver Hardy in DOUBLE WHOOPEE ( 1929 ) Frequently their association is said to have been friendly, but there were also stories of a less pleasant nature. Some people said that he was extorting money from her. Evidently Siegel had a habit of "borrowing" large sums from people which they were afraid to ask him to pay back. Virginia Hill was another woman who was associated with Bugsy Siegel. Reblogged from https://www.al.com/expo/news/erry-2018/07/c0bffcff0d2972/virginia_hill_went_from_lipsco.html She wasn't a movie star, but people sometimes thought that she was. She hung out with the stars. She was considered to be something of a celebrity herself.

 Included in the photo are- Ava Gardner, Mickey Rooney, Groucho Marx, Ann Rutherford and Virginia Hill (yes the mob queen) in Hollywood.

The story is that Virginia Hill was introduced to Bugsy Siegel by Pat DiCicco. And Bugsy Siegel was associated with Lucky Luciano. Although Luciano was in prison by the time that DeCicco made the introduction.

Luciano allegedly had Bugsy Siegel killed, just as he'd allegedly had Dutch Schultz eliminated. They said it had something to do with the Flamingo Hotel, on which Siegel had spent vast sums of money after taking the project away from William Wilkerson. Like many other stories about Luciano it was never really proven, but accepted as fact nonetheless.


*Luciano eventually controlled all the prostitution in New York, which was also what he was convicted of, and imprisoned for, in 1936.

**Guy McAfee ran the Clover Club, a Sunset Strip gambling casino that Thelma Todd is known to have gone to.



Iris Adrian:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0012441/


Dorothy Appleby:
http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2012/08/dorothy-appleby.html

The Man Who Kept The Secrets ( Sidney Korshak ) - Dorothy Appleby mention
http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/features/1997/04/The-Man-Who-Kept-The-Secrets

Newspaper article announcing engagement:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=336&dat=19350918&id=H5NOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=y7UDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6675,1660600



June Brewster:
http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2014/09/june-brewster.html


Pat DeCicco:
https://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2018/08/pat-decicco-and-his-pals.html


Gangsters' extortion of money from the studios:
http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/how-the-chicago-outfit-made


Jean Harlow ( Official site ):
https://www.jeanharlow.com/


Doris Houck:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0171723/?ref_=nmbio_bio_nm

http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2014/06/doris-houck.html



Laurel And Hardy:
http://www.laurel-and-hardy.com/



Lucky Luciano:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Luciano


Gene Malin and Patsy Kelly:
http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2012/09/patsy-faces-death.html


Guy McAfee:
http://www.onlinenevada.org/articles/guy-mcafee


Geneva Mitchell:
http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2015/07/geneva-mitchell_11.html

Geneva Mitchell ( Denny Jackson's Glamour Girls Of The Silver Screen ):
http://www.glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com/show/689/Geneva+Mitchell/index.html



Fred Otash:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0652756/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Otash



George Raft:
benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2013/10/george-raft.html



Johnny Roselli:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Roselli

Johnny Roselli and Lina Basquette:
https://books.google.com/books?id=LQsB66qPGmgC&pg=PA208&lpg=PA208&dq=johnny+roselli+william+donati&source=bl&ots=asev3Jw4P1&sig=S65XOKJ__rimr_PuF0QjQO8QguQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwirkbjTh7bdAhVQ5awKHcY0D-oQ6AEwB3oECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=johnny%20roselli%20william%20donati&f=false


Bugsy Siegel and Virginia Hill:
http://filmstarfacts.com/2016/05/02/bugsy-and-virginia-a-hollywood-romance/



William Wilkerson:
http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2012/10/william-wilkerson.html





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the Investigation - Collage

Collage made up from photos of people figuring in the investigation of the death of Thelma Todd.

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Hal Roach Studios' 20th Anniversary Party

Jorge Finkielman posted this translation of a Spanish language article on facebook. It isn't too clear in places, and I had delayed publishing it because of that. But seeing that it is still here and I still hadn't done anything with it, I'll go ahead and put it through. Some more work might still be done on it at a later date.


Hal Roach Studios' 20th anniversary party by Gilberto Souto - CINEARTE, March 15, 1934. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil


This is a partial translation of the article dealing with the party, omitting the opening dealing with the history of the studio. The grammatical structure of the original text was not really good but I tried to keep it anyway. Apologies for mistakes and necessary changes to make this as comprehensible as possible in English


In the meantime all of you, my dear readers, do you want to know a bit about the party isn't that true? I will drop here a few of my own impressions.

The first to come to talk with me, giving me a cordial and kind salute, was the delightful Florine McKinney. She, in person, is more beautiful and more interesting than in her Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films. She danced all night with W.S. Van Dyke, the Metro director. And he was very apprehensive, looking at us laughing and lively talking, so she herself took me to him and officially introduced us... Now, Mr. Van Dyke!

Jean Harlow was brilliant. What a difference with the Jean that had spoken with me one year ago. She wasn't that mischievous child in pajamas... She had a very elegant outfit and was the attention of all eyes. She was the most fascinating, until Thelma Todd appeared with an even more elegant dress!

By the way of her hairstyle, everything in small pieces I think that she had to spent more than five hours to get ready for the big night!

And her dress, really, was giving the perfect impression of a fishing net... and how many people would not let caught... if it wasn't that there was also Pat de Cico, her husband, a taller guy than a goal-keeper and as strong as George O'Brien.

But, in truth he spent a long minutes in intimacy like Patsy Kelly, Thelma's new comedy partner and... in person the greatest person I met! You should see Patsy Kelly at a short distance. She is stupendous and really funny, specially, due to her way to say and describe misadventures.

Theda Bara and her husband, Charles Brabin, the famous director... Ruth Roland and Ben Bard, always kind and friendly to me. What a happy couple and since Ruth is still lovely despite the many years we saw her in serials. Harold Lloyd and Mildred Davies were seated in the same table with Ben Lyon and Bebe Daniels. It could be that Harold remembered his times when Bebe was his partner and both worked in that same studio?

Bebe changed a lot. She is still nice, a beauty -especially due to here very black and fascinating eyes... Ben Lyon looked like a college boy. He was always laughing and seemed to have a nice disposition. Bebe and Mildred, for a while, talked a lot -like any mother of this world- about their own kids and their things!

But - the highlight of the party arrived when Will Rogers and Groucho Marx decided to join a Hawaiian trio and perform old songs. A circle was formed around them!

Will is the most natural creature and without Hollywood stereotypes. Everybody was wearing a tuxedo - Will appeared with his blue coat and a black tie! It seems that he never combs his hair - just like Stan Laurel in his comedies; although off screen he spends a lot of grease to comb himself!

Kent Taylor, whom you'll see soon in Paramount's CRADLE SONG, is in person a nice and elegant guy, he was very happy. He partnered with a group and keep up with fashion. And today he is famous, nice and sentimental. The Last Round-Up, a typical western song, was performed by a trio to which everybody joined in the chorus. Laughter increased and the party turned more animated.

It wasn't a few more minutes when Stan Laurel joined a group headed by Will Rogers. He was enthusiastic and was asking to the circle what song did they wanted...

Stan Laurel was laughing hysterically. I have never such a happy comedian: he seemed to be dismissing the legend that said that comedians were serious gentlemen, devoted students of philosophy...

How many film celebrities... Raymond Griffith (remember him? what a great comedian?) danced several times with a wonderful blonde girl. I tried to figure out who was she. Finally, I found it - it was Sally Rand! That Sally was involved in several trials in Chicago due to her famous fan dance. Maybe you know about it... She danced but that meant nothing. The thing was that the puritan societies felt that the big feather fans that she used, hardly (ah!) as a dress, didn´t cover her enough!

But, looking at her so beautiful and elegant, who would not defend Sally Rand against any puritan society of this world?

Mother Harlow was as "platinum blond" as her daughter, that dangerous Jean, and - do you know how she treats to the beloved star? - Just by the name of Baby! O more than BABY! There were speeches! But, since Hollywood speeches are different - all with flair of jokes and good humor! Nobody attempted to say great sentences or to quote Latin or Greek writings! Will Rogers, who many people misunderstand the way he talks to the highest and more respected citizen, being sarcastic with Louis B. Mayer.

Louis B. Mayer is very tied with American politics. He was a friend and promoter of Hoover and his own friends are always politicians... Will talk, then, on the radio and said: "Oh, my dear listeners, what a great party we have here! Just movie people - the best simple people! Imagine that there is not among us a senator nor a representative. My friend, Louis B. Mayer, throws big parties. Just a few days ago, he made homage to Marie Dressler - but there were two senators, a governor... and another political figure... Here, no - just people and simple people like all of you! A splendid party! I came here to frankly talk many who are here, just to eat the desert of this feast... I may not have the guts to admit it! I came, also, because I was a Hal Roach employee... Yes, I made some films for him and I could still be here working if he would have not, one day, seen one of my films...

Polly Moran. Believe me, she never stopped for a second - and she was sad in the place when nobody talked to her. Polly was the first to push for conversation. She talked since she sat on the table. She laughed a lot and liked to tell her more or less peppered anecdotes! When they brought the big piece of the anniversary cake, she made a racket and screaming to the other side of the immense hall - she protested to Hal Roach because instead of cake they should have brought a "pie"!

Her husband does not laugh and talk much. Both were in front of my place. Among them, Ruth Roland, Ben Bard, Stan Laurel and other friends were seated. Mr. Malone is a nice guy. He possess as Polly's son, who should be by now forty and makes no secret of that. He seems to be the one who enjoys the most her jokes and feminine good humor. I was even thinking that he should have been a Polly Moran "fan" and in order to not spend money buying movie tickets to see her, he solved the issue in the best way - he married her!

Polly is one of the most popular figures among Hollywood professional photographers - since nobody else than her is in all of the nightly places of the movie city. Photographers, one by one, came to our table asking her to pose. Polly gets ready for the pose and - when one of them is about to shoot - she screams: "And be certain that my brilliants are appearing... I want my friends to see that I am making money now with my films...! And so, this is the way Polly Moran is, wild, talkative and inimitable in her pranks.

And the dances continued... with the sound of several orchestras that followed one to another, cocktails reached to the top of the heads... the laughter was prolonged... and the happiness reached its top... and the night was slowly ending... to give its place to a new day!

And the Hal Roach party left unforgettable memories, memories for all of those who were there...

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Sam Fuller Letter To Jimmy Star

A Sam Fuller letter that turned up on ebay.

Vintage, typed letter, 1 page, 8 1/2" x 11", February 5, 1938

to columnist Jimmy Starr (1910-1969)

Signed in pencil: "Sam Fuller"

Fuller sends Starr a book, "Murder at Malibu"  by James O'Hanlon, 

based on actress Thelma Todd.*

* Thelma Todd (1906-1935) was an American actress and comedienne, nicknamed 'Hot Toddy'. She appeared in 

some120 films between 1926 and 1935. On the morning of December 16, 1935 she was found dead in her car. 

Her death, at age 29, was determined to have been caused by carbon monoxide poisoning. But many have 

thought her death to be murder.

Sam Fuller (born Samuel Michael Fuller) was an American screenwriter and film director, known for

low-budget genre movies with controversial themes - Park Row (1952), Pickup on South Street (1953),

House of Bamboo (1955), Shock Corridor (1963). 

                                              *                            *                            *

Sam Fuller later made the movie THE NAKED KISS, which featured Patsy Kelly in the cast.


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Patsy Kelly Photos

Patsy Kelly

                         SING, BABY, SING with Ted Healy.

Reblogged from http://www.briansdriveintheater.com/patsykelly.html

With series star Cara Williams in a 1962 episode of the CBS situation comedy Pete and Gladys titled The Case of the Gossipy Maid

The old Thelma Todd and Patsy Kelly series moves to features, with Pert Kelton and Charley Chase.




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Pert Kelton Pictures

PAN HANDLERS ( 1936 ) with Patsy Kelly, in place of Thelma Todd.

Frame enlargements from PAN HANDLERS.

Pert Kelton and Zasu Pitts in SING AND LIKE IT, 1934.

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