Thelma Todd Sings In The Movies

Posted by John Muyres in the Thelma Todd Fan Group on facebook:


Films that Thelma sings at least part of a song:
Bohemian Girl (Heart of a Gypsy) 1936*
Sing Sister Sing (Short) (I Wake Up with a Song - uncredited) 
1935
Cockeyed Cavaliers (Dilly Dally - uncredited) 1934
Hips, Hips, Hooray! (Keep On Doin' What You're Doin' -
uncredited) 1934

Sitting Pretty (You're Such a Comfort to Me) 1933

Horse Feathers ( sings a scale for Chico ) 1932 

Speak Easily (Rock-a-Bye Baby - uncredited) 1932
Let's Do Things (Them There Eyes) 1931
Hurdy Gurdy 1929

*Thelma Todd's singing in this movie was dubbed.

                                                *                    *                     *

Recordings that Thelma Todd made that were never released. They recorded for an hour and 15 minutes for 3 songs. 

A

SITTING PRETTY

Some of the pretty girls that were in SITTING PRETTY.

What you go to the show for.




A

SITTING PRETTY

Here is a better copy of this picture of Thelma Todd and Jack Oakie.





























A

SITTING PRETTY Photo

Thelma Todd and Jack Oakie in SITTING PRETTY.









We've had this one before, but here it is without the watermark.










A

SITTING PRETTY Photo

SITTING PRETTY costarred Thelma Todd, Jack Oakie, Jack Haley, and Ginger Rogers. Here is a picture of Thelma Todd and Jack Haley from the movie.

A

Thelma Todd And The Fan Dance

Sally Rand became famous doing a fan dance at the World's Fair in 1933, but the fan dance was older than that.


 In 1927, Hommel took a series of pictures that depicted Thelma Todd as a fan dancer.

 

 

 

 Thelma Todd's association with the fan dance does not end there.

 

 

When Sally Rand made the fan dance famous in 1933, Thelma Todd was in a movie that capitalized on it, SITTING PRETTY.

 

 

The girls in this dance number all did a fan dance.

 

 

 

 Ginger Rogers in a publicity shot.

 

 

She had the fans in the film, too, but didn't actually do a fan dance.

 

 

 

 Some other girls did.

 

 

 

 

 

 Thelma Todd wore the same sort of outfit in a publicity shot.

 

But she didn't do a fan dance in the film.

Finally, we have Sally Rand doing the dance she made famous.





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

A

SITTING PRETTY Flyer

SITTING PRETTY was a musical starring Ginger Rogers right before she started working with Fred
Astaire and became a big star. Thelma Todd was the "Other Woman" again.

A

Thelma Todd Movie Ads

Ads from the fan magazines for Thelma Todd movies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

]

 

 

 

The girl here doesn't look that much like Thelma Todd. It looks as much like the illustrations in Thorne Smith books as anything, but then it's around the same time.

 

 

 

 

 Sally Rand was in the news, so they stuck fan dancing in this movie. Ginger Rogers was about to make a movie with Fred Astaire and become a big star, but at this time was an also-ran.

 

 

 

 

"It" was what they said Clara Bow had, but that was at the same studio.

 

 

 

 Thelma Todd was prominently featured in the publicity, but had only a small part in the movie.

 

 

Thelma Todd appeared in SCREEN SNAPSHOTS along with many others.





A

Patsy Faces Death

A number of movie stars died in automobile accidents in the thirties, including Dorothy Dell, Marjorie White, and Tom Mix. And it almost happened to Patsy Kelly. Patsy and Jean Malin were in a car that went into the ocean. She made it out and he didn't.

 

 

 

 

Publicity photo showing Patsy Kelly with a doctor and Thelma Todd, taken while Patsy Kelly was recovering from the accident.

 

 Original caption on the back of the photo.

 

Jean Malin used to work at the Club Abbey, a queer joint in New York. After it was shut down by the authorities following a shoot-out involving Dutch Schultz, he went to work at the Club New York in Hollywood and appeared in two films, ARIZONA TO BROADWAY and the Joan Crawford vehicle DANCING LADY; in the former movie, he portrayed "Ray Best", a female impersonator who dressed in the manner of Mae West and sang "Frankie and Johnny". Malin was cast in a third movie, "Double Harness" (1933), but his performance was discarded and he was replaced by another actor; the president of R.K.O., B. B. Kahane, disgusted by Malin's performance, remarking, "I do not think we ought to have this man on the lot on any picture—shorts or features."

 

 

In ARIZONA TO BROADWAY Jean Malin uses the line "You can be had", which Thelma Todd used around the same time in the movie SITTING PRETTY, where it also was intended to be a Mae West reference.

 

 

  

Pat DiCicco, Jean Malin, Thelma Todd, and Lois Wilson at the Club New Yorker in Hollywood, 1932. The wife of Jean Malin was involved in prostitution, as was DiCicco

 

 

 

 

 The Club New Yorker

 

 

 

 

Thelma Todd's friend Sally Eilers at right, next to Jean Malin and Harriet Parsons. This was around the time that Sally Eilers and Thelma Todd went to England together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some people said Patsy Kelly was bad luck. They said that she was followed around by a string of tragedies. Patsy Kelly herself said that she had a history of bad things happening to people who had been around her. "You see, something, darned if I know what it is, has happened to me since I came to this crazy town.  Every I loved, turned to, needed, has gone, just like Thelma.  It was Jean Malin, that swell New York actor and impersonator, first. I'd been a friend of Jean and his wife for years in New York. Then I went down to the Ship Cafe' that night of Jean's disappearence. I glanced up at the flashing sign over the door that said 'Jean Malin's last night', and as clearly as I'm hearing you, a voice said, 'Be careful, it is his last night.' He backed his car into the ocean off the end of a pier just one hour later.We were all submerged in the water. Adrenalin worked with me. It didn't with Jean." And then there was Thelma Todd: "Thelma. She gave me everything I needed. Got me on my feet. Gave me confidence and true friendship. And then she went. I had Ralph Farnum my agent left. He took my hand, fought my battles, and gave me advice. He went too, just a few weeks ago... but Thelma is always near me."

 

 In later years, Patsy Kelly often talked as if Thelma Todd were somehow still around her.

 

 

That's Carole Lombard on the cover.

 

 

I don't believe in things like curses on people, myself. Sometimes bad things just happen to people. And if they're famous, or infamous, you hear more about it than you would otherwise.

It's unfortunate that these misfortunes befell these people, but to say they were actually caused by someone because of bad luck is just superstition.

 

 

 

 

A glimpse of Patsy Kelly in New York in 1929.

 

 

 

 

Gene Malin:

http://felixinhollywood.blogspot.com/2010_05_01_archive.html

 

 

 

 

Patsy Kelly:

http://www.patsykelly.com/

 

 

Patsy Kelly In Accident:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1898&dat=19330811&id=QlcpAAAAIBAJ&sjid=EW4FAAAAIBAJ&pg=4355,3260833

 

 

Patsy Kelly and Thelma Todd:

http://www.movietone-news.com/2007/10/year-at-movies-5_8160.html

 

 

Prohibition Era Nightclubs:

http://nymag.com/nightlife/features/65625/

 

 

Dutch Schultz:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_Schultz

 

 

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