From my collection: Peter Garey

Peter Garey, from Albert Lea, MN, arrived in Hollywood in 1944 with some background on stage having supported Mady Christians in “Return Engagement,” which closed on Broadway after a total of 8 performances in November of 1940, and, much more successfully, Lunt & Fontanne in the hit play “The Pirate” (1942-'43). Alas, Garey's Hollywood career proved disappointing and he later became a carnival barker touring with Raynell's Girl Show. The latter, which among other places, stopped by the 1955 Indiana State Fair, featured according to one account “a handful of bored, sleepy 'Glamour Girls,'” including the notorious Wild Girl of Wonga Wonga, who, Garey promised the crowd, came “straight from the Folies Bergere in Paris.”

“Well, it kills you, these fairs,” Garey admitted to the Logansport-Pharos Tribune. “You put in 16 hours a day, but it's a good living and it's exciting.”

The veteran performer passed away at the actor's home at the age of 82 in Englewood, NJ in 1999.

From my collection: Robert Holton, Daral Hudson

The following was submitted to the Imdb by Denise Inglis:

Born in Dallas, Texas, the son of Church of Christ preacher, A. R. Holton, Robert Wilson Holton [1919-1996] attended Abilene Christian College (Abilene, Texas) where he majored in Speech and Drama. He got his first big break in freshman year when he entered a MGM Search for Talent contest and won a screen test in Hollywood. Despite his early successes he elected to finish college and graduated from the University of Texas. After graduation he worked at WFAA in Dallas and then returned to Hollywood, using the stage name "Robert Wilson". He is known for having portrayed Jesus Christ in several movies including "Family Theatre: I Beheld His Glory" (1953) (as Robert Wilson), "Family Theatre" (1949)'s episode "I Beheld His Glory (1953)", The Living Christ Series (1951) (a 12-episode film series) and also on stage in "The Pilgrimage Play". After 16 years in Hollywood he returned to Abilene, Texas to work as announcer and host of the "Herald of Truth" radio and TV program. He passed away in Abilene in 1996 and is buried there. He was a member of the Highland Church of Christ.

Acting Talent in Hollywood By HAROLD HEFFERNAN HOLLYWOOD [1945-4-21]—Sights and sounds:

There never need be a black market in movie acting talent. So says George Seaton, youngest director at 20th Century-Fox, who has just finished making Junior Miss, starring Peggy Ann Garner. It was one of that studio's most expensive story purchases. "I attended our little-theater presentation of 'Doughgirl' the other night," says Seaton, "and I came away with the thought that if I were a star under contract I'd never let down for a second. I'd keep pitching for all I was worth in the knowledge that the studio has a million dollars in talent ready to jump in and take my place. "There was a big young ex-soldier named Daral Hudson. I'd say he was ready right now to play leads opposite top stars. There was an ex-marine, John Russell— just six feet, four— who will read his name in lights within a year. And there was a girl, Colecn Grey— I'd like to own part of her contract." In the opinion of Seaton, [t]here is no need to seek acting talent. ”The talent is here, an unending supply,” he says. Well, George Seaton was partially correct regarding John Russell and Coleen Gray, who became B-list stars on television and in noir movies respectively, but, sadly, dead wrong when it came to Daral Hudson who, though as handsome as the next guy, only managed the usual walk-ons. Hudson earned his best chances playing police officers in two Universal serials, The Royal Mounted Rides Again (1945) and The Mysterious Mr. M. (1946), the latter ending the studio's four decades in the chapterplay producing business.

From my collection: Clark Kuney, war hero turned prof. "corpse"; Robert Kendall, "Sabu of Michigan"

From gossip columnist Erskine Johnson:

Hollywood. Jan. 1 [1946]—A Hollywood casting office can expect: wild orders from producers fur anything rom a talking bird to a dancing worm, but casting director Menifee Johnstone of Monogram Studio did a double take when Producer Jeffrey Bernerd said: ”Menifee, what have you done about my corpse?”
"The prop department has a big selection of dummies," replied Menifee.
"But the dead man is the title role of my picture, Face of Marble,” said Producer Bernard. "I want something special. I want a real live corpse."
So Menifee auditioned six actors for the role of the corpse. A fellow named Clark Kuney got the part. The studio was so pleased with his quiet performance that he was even given a bonus.

Clark Kuney was actually Lt. Clark Kuney, U.S. Marines, ret., a genuine war hero from Chicago who had seen action in the Pacific and was wounded in battle. All of which did little for a screen career that petered out after a couple of walk-ons. But at least he didn't have to play any more corpses.

Too young to have have served in the war, Robert Kendall (1927-2009) reportedly came to Hollywood as the winner of a contest that, sadly, turned out to be bogus. Kendall still earned a movie contract with Universal, who saw in the exotic-looking youngster a resemblance to Sabu and Turhan Bey. Unfortunately, wartime escapism had given way to post-war realism and Robert Kendall never became a star. He did play Baby Face Nelson, though, in Ma Barker's Killer Brood (1960) and later published a book about his time teaching inner city kids. Late in life Robert Kendall reminisced in such publications as Classic Images about his days of playing exotics in Yvonne de Carlo movies.

From my collection: Jacques Villon, Lee Slater, Grant Maiben

Perhaps you have been confused by the name Jacques Villon turning up playing ”waiter” in The Razor's Edge (1946), “clerk” in Crime Doctor's Gamble (1947) and, even more obscurely, “newsboy” in Arch of Triumph (1948)? Did the French painter, and acknowledged inventor of Cubism actually appear as something “boy” in a Hollywood film, even one with a lofty provenance? Of course not, and to distance himself from his world famous namesake, this Jacques Villon actually billed himself as “Jacque Villon” in his 1946 Academy Players listing. And here, pictured right, is the proof: there actually was a Jacques Villon in Hollywood films and he looked nothing like the artists.

Another fleeting name in Hollywood cast lists of the mid-1940s who turned up as various “boys” – e.g. “elevator boy” in Love, Honor and Goodbye (1945), “boy,” plain and simple, in An Angel Comes to Brooklyn (1945) – was Lee Slater, who left as little a trace for us to follow today as Jacque Villon.

A 1940 Salt Lake City East High School Christmas performance of George Kaufman and Moss Hart's Broadway comedy hit “Stage Door” featured one Patricia Swaner in “the all-important role of Terry. “Others in the large cast who demand special commendation,” the Salt Lake Tribune allowed, “are Ned Williams, Peggy Bonnion, Georgia Ostler […] and Grant Maiben.” The last mentioned actually made a go at a professional acting career in Hollywood, turning up in an unbilled bit in Lewis Milestone's terrific war drama A Walk in the Sun (1945). Or was Grant merely a furloughed soldier moonlighting? In any case, the film appears to have been his sole Hollywood role. But at least this young man played a character named “Smith” and not mere “boy”! (But poor Grant Maiben; because he appeared in this one film and because of the constant mining of Imdb content by mindless sites of all nationalities, he is now a “name” on more than 1000 websites. Including a “celebrity star sign” page.)

From my collection: Duff Whitney

In 1944 marine sergeant Duff Whitney, of Sacramento, CA escorted Lana Turner to a benefit and someone from Lana's entourage encouraged the handsome soldier to “come to the studio after the war.” In 1946, Whitney did just that -- and was met with apparent apathy. The male acting drought was of course over now that Hollywood's established heroes had returned safely to home and hearth and young Duff was just another pretty face on the lot. As the Imdb reveals, Whitney became an extra. In fact, we don't hear about the former marine until 1951, when veteran producer Harry Sherman, of Hopalong Cassidy fame, announced that Duff Whitney, “a Gregory Peckish-looking newcomer,” would play Beau Tyler, “Hashknife Hartley” by any other name, in a western movie series based on W.C. Tuttle's sagebrush stories. Sadly, Sherman died shortly thereafter and nothing came of the project. Whitney instead turned up as a bit player in A Star is Born (1954). And that, as they say, was that.

Also arriving in Hollywood in 1944, but as far as can be determined, not in uniform of any kind, Lane Watson was under contract to International Pictures in 1946. Prior to that, Watson had been another bit player/extra but the affiliation with a rising company like International boded well. The production entity, founded by Louis B. Mayer's son-in-law William Goetz, operated out of Universal City and would actually merge with that company in 1947 to become Universal-International, only to be swallowed whole by Lew Wasserman's MCA. Not that any of these behind-the-scenes shenanigans did anything for Lane Watson, who disappears from view around the same time. Except, that is, for advertizing Carling's Red Cap Ale, “Better Than Beer,” alongside the likes of television personality Betty Oakes.

From my collection: Christopher Adams, John Anders, Cliff Austin

Vanguard Films, Inc. was a production company formed in 1945 by David O. Selznick and producing newcomer Dore Schary. The company, which was located at Selznick's famous plantation-style headquarters on Washington Blvd. in Culver City, lasted until 1951 and is perhaps best remembered for the would-be Gone With the Wind blockbuster Duel in the Sun (1946) starring Selznick's wife, Jennifer Jones. Miss Jones wasn't the only performer under contract with the company, which also employed the likes of Shirley Temple, Joseph Cotten, Guy Madison, and Rhonda Fleming. But although he probably considered himself a star-maker par excellence, David O. Selznick could also strike out. He certainly did with Christopher Adams (above right), who was under contract to Vanguard in 1944-1946 but apparently only showed up in the home-front drama Since You Went Away (1944).

John Anders did even worse, appearing in nothing at all while his name remained on the contract roster 1945-1946.

Cliff Austin likewise failed to make a single movie while allowing the Messieurs Selznick and Schary to pay him for being under exclusive contract. As always, I would dearly love to know what became of these and other gentlemen listed in the various Academy Players guide but not, as far as can be determined, in few, if any, actual cast lists

From my collection: Carl Kent

Like most of the young performers profiled in these pages, Carl Kent probably did not consider his tenure as an RKO contract player the most important part of his life. The Akron, OH, native spent a total of five years in Hollywood, two of them under contract to RKO, where he was seen playing soldiers, marines, baggage clerks and, yes, even dog trainers in films ranging from My Pal Wolf (1944) to Zombies on Broadway (1945). Prior to that, he had served in WWII as an infantry officer. The son of an Akron physician, Carl Kent had graduated from Kentucky Military School and had begun a career as a radio announcer while attending Ohio State. That led to his screen career and, after relocating to Arizona in 1960, a lengthy stint in advertizing that included becoming television spokesman for Westward Pontiac and chairman of the board of Bozell and Jacobs, Inc. Carl Kent died of cancer at the age of 51 in Scottsdale, AZ, on June 4, 1970.

From my collection: Robert Cornell, Robert Ford, James Engler

Gossip queen Louella Parsons was there to report it when former child star Jane Withers began to date. In her September 9, 1941 column, the irrepressible Miss Parsons noted that Jane had been out with her newest leading man, Robert Cornell, no less than five times, nights of presumed revelry demurely chaperoned by Mama Withers. The movie the two young lovebirds was making at the time was Young America, “a gay story of a big city girl who made good in the country.” Robert Cornell remained on contract with 20th Century-Fox throughout his war service and beyond but further starring roles seem to have eluded him.

Other young Fox contract players of the mid-1940s included Robert Ford (above), who turned up in bit parts in Guadalcanal Diary (1943), Margie (1946) and The Razor's Edge (1946);

and James Engler, who, it appears, failed to crack any known cast list at all.

From my collection: Basil Walker, Frank Wolf

Basil Walker was a photographer's and clothes model (arrow collar?) prior to obtaining a contract with 20th Century-Fox in late 1940. Amusingly, a casting notice picked up by the wire services mistook the gender of Mr. Walker. Which led to the following statement: “Another hopeful clothes model has left New York for Hollywood. Miss Walker [sic] has signed a contract with 20th Century-Fox, which studio will attempt to build her up to starring proportions.” That, of course, never happened but Mr. Walker was still under contract with Fox when the portrait above was listed in the 1946 Academy Players guide. The question remains though: Why would anyone think that anyone named Basil Walker would be a girl, Sidney Fox notwithstanding?

Frank Wolf (who spells his name “Wolfe” in his Academy Players listing) was under contract to 20th Century-Fox as well in 1946 but he did even less than Basil Walker, “playing” bellboy, nightclub patron and “minor role” in his three listed movies respectively: Three Little Girls in Blue (1946), The Razor's Edge (1946) and The Shocking Miss Pilgrim (1947).

From my collection: Leonard East, Ted Plummer

Leonard East joined William Brooks (Ching) and Milburn Stone as Jon Hall's trio of friends in the 1947 Universal-International western Michigan Kid, a sort of latter-day Three Mesqueteers plus one congregation. He was also in Danger Woman (1946) and Song of Sheherazade (1947), as a midshipman, but that seems to have been it for this Universal stock player.

The March 24, 1946 edition of the San Antonio Express proudly proclaimed that

LOCAL BOY GETS CONTRACT WITH 20TH CENTURY-FOX!


Ted Plummer, 22-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. T. E. Plummer, of 2435 Leal St., will soon begin a career as a motion picture actor with 20th Century-Fox Studios in Hollywood. Young Plummer's first acting role will be the portrayal of a gallant in the court of Charles II in ,the forthcoming costume epic, Forever Amber. A native of San Antonio, Plummer was recently discharged from the Royal Canadian Airforce with the rank of flight officer after participating in 35-combat missions
over Europe as a radio operator- gunner. While stationed in England, Plummer met Peggy Cummins, the Irish actress who will play
"Amber" in the film, at the Stagedoor Canteen in London. After Plummer's discharge from the R.C.A.F. and a short visit with his parents here, he went to Hollywood, where he signed up with a Little Theater.- Within a week he had received offers of acting contracts from three Hollywood studios. Because of his lack of acting experience, young Plummer is currently being trained in his new career by 20th Century-Fox drama coaches. Plummer graduated from Vocational and Technical High School in June, 1941, and shortly thereafter joined the R.C.A.F.

Ted Plummer should probably have chosen one of the other companies offering contracts: Neither he, nor indeed Miss Cummins, ended up in the released version of Forever Amber (1947), she deemed too inexperienced to play the wanton wench and the role instead going to more veteran contract player Lindas Darnell. What happened to young Plummer remains a mystery to this writer, alas.

Any information regarding these three performers from either themselves or surviving relatives will be very appreciated!

From my collection: Robert Andersen

Gossip columnist Bob Thomas, as keen an observer of Hollywood goings-on as anyone, berated the RKO powers-at-be in an August 1946 column for failing to award several actors the breaks they deserved when returning to the studio after their stint in the last war. Thomas named four contract players who were summarily dropped from the roster: Lee Bonnell, Robert Smith, Robert Manning and Robert Anderson [sic].

The correct spelling of the last mentioned is actually Robert Andersen, a radio singer who signed a contract with RKO in 1943. His biggest chance at the studio came when he tested for a major role in the Olivia de Havilland vehicle Government Girl (1943), the role, alas, going instead to Susan Hayward's then-husband Jess Barker. Instead, Andersen played bit in comedies featuring the radio phenomenon The Great Gildersleeve.

(The above mentioned Robert Andersen is probably not the Robert Anderson who appeared in scores of later television shows, and he certainly isn't the original Robert Andersen, the Danish-born silent screen petformer. He may be, and then again, may not be, the Robert Anderson who, as Robert Conway, earned a Fox contract and wed model/starlet Florence Lundeen. Alas, according to the Imdb, Robert Conway was born in 1908, a bit too early considering the much more youthful appearance in the portrait above.)

From my collection: Coulter Irwin

Followers of entertainment news could read the following morsel in early June of 1944:

“SEVEN NEW PROSPECTS COASTBOUND FOR TESTS”
The seven screen “discoveries from the Warner Bros. talent bureau in the East” were models Patricia Clark, June Fleming and Frances Chisholm; Evelyn McRae, “Miss Canada of 1943”; and George Lambert, Coulter Iwin and Miss Sammie Hill, “from the radio and theatrical fields.”

Of the seven, June Fleming, Frances Chisholm, Evelyn McRae, George Lambert and Sammie Hill made little or no impact on screen, at least in 1944, but Patricia Clark and Coulter Irwin stayed around long enough to actively fail becoming screen commodities. Miss Clark came closest when cast as the much hyped if little seen Mrs. Mona Mars in the Bogie-Bacall noir The Big Sleep (released 1946), but when the powers-at-be demanded new and better footage of the photogenic Miss Bacall, Patricia Clark was summarily replaced by another WB starlet, Peggy Knudsen. As compensation she earned a minor, but featured, role in the Spencer Tracy-Lana Turner failure Cass Timberlane (1947). And that, as they say, was that.

Coulter Irwin, meanwhile, earned a breakthrough of sorts at Columbia Pictures playing the ingenue male lead in a Crime Doctor movie, Crime Doctor's Warning (1945), and that, too, was that. Except for unbilled bit parts in scores of other films and television shows. By the late 1950s, he had become an announcer on a local Long Beach, CA, radio station, famously surviving a 1959 heart attack on the air. He also proved a busy letters-to-the-editor writer, railing against the ever-present threat of communism. Coulter Irwin died on Christmas Eve 1998 in Las Vegas, NV. He was 80 years old.

From my collection: Bert Hicks

As the Imdb states, Bert Hicks was indeed the father of starlet Dolores Hart who very recently was back in the news as the ”Nun who starred with Elvis.” He was also a brother-in-law of MGM singing sensation Mario Lanza, who had married a sister, Betty. But what about Bert Hicks' own career? Well, the future MGM and 20th Century-Fox contract player was born in 1920 in Chicago, IL, where, according to his mother, Mrs. May Hicks of Evanston, IL, he produced and directed his own plays. Mrs. Hicks, who was a retired drama teacher herself, went on to describe how her son had been discovered by an MGM scout and moved to Los Angeles. One of his first films, according to Mrs. Hicks, was Reunion in France (1942), which starred Joan Crawford. Also according to the old dear, her son then “made some 14 pictures about the adventures of the Cisco Kid.” Well, actually no, unless Bert Hicks had changed his name to Duncan Renaldo.

Bert Hicks married his first wife in 1938 and became the father of future leading lady Dolores Hart. The couple divorced shortly thereafter and Hicks remained single until taking a second wife, Italian-born Liliana, in 1962. He had a son with her and, long retired from the movie business, worked as a salesman. Liliana, however, told reporters that her husband “used to talk quite frequently about his film career and periodically would look through his scrapbooks.” Daughter Dolores famously left Hollywood to take the veil in 1962 and her Bethlehem, CT, order actually prevented her from attending her father's funeral. She did, however, “send a beautiful wooden cross to be placed in her father's hands.” Bert Hicks died of a heart attack in his home in Arleta, CA, January 8, 1965. His was survived by his wife, Liliana, daughter Sister Judith, son Bert, Jr., mother May, father John W. Lynn of Chicago, a brother and three sisters.

From my collection: Michael Towne & Drew Miller

This will be the first in a series of posts that will have absolutely nothing to do with the blog's subject matter. Except that we are discussing classic Hollywood, that is. And that certainly should be reason enough, shouldn't it?

Naugatuck Daily News, Naugatuck, CT, July 24, 1948:
“Michael Towne who recently returned from Hollywood where he played in several motion pictures for Columbia Studios will appear in a role in the play “Pappa is All” at the Southbury Playhouse it was announced today by Jack Quinn, PR man for the theater. The play will open at the theater next Monday night. Mr. Towne is assigned to the role at the last minute, Mr. Quinn said, and is rehearsing with the cast this week. The play is a comedy by Patterson Green.”

Towne, the notice added, had gone to Hollywood in the early 1940s and had returned there after being discharged from the army. At one point in 1947, he was mentioned to play silent screen heart throb Rudolph Valentino under the direction of the veteran Archie Mayo. That project, however, was not realized until 1951 and with Anthony Dexter in the title-role directed by Lewis Collins. Hollywood offers apparently drying up, Towne arrived for this, his first summer play, with wife and child in tow, and expected to stay for the summer with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Klevman.“This fall,” the notice concluded, “Mr. Towne will do theater work in New York City, he reports.”

Handsome Drew Miller was one of the ex-GIs hired for the RKO drama “The Dream of Home,” which was finally released later in 1946 as Till the End of Time. According to RKO publicity, the studio bosses liked what they saw and wanted to hire the former air force master sergeant but he was nowhere to be found. After a bit of detective work the youngster was finally located pressing records at the Decca plant and,
“[n]ow he is being groomed for lead roles,” gossip columnist Bob Thomas promised. Alas, lead roles were not to be as Drew would turn up only in unbilled bits.