Susan Peters in Sign of the Ram (1948)

Born in the troublesome sign of the title, a wheelchair-bound Cornish writer (Susan Peters) will do anything to keep her husband and children for herself, including ruining her daughter's new romance and driving her son's fiancée to suicide. For no obvious reasons, she then ends it all by wheeling off a cliff to certain death. Columbia Pictures presented "The return to the screen of Miss Susan Peters" in Sign of the Ram but sadly failed to give the star-crossed starlet much to do or say. On top of a turgid screenplay, Peters and the rest of the cast had to assume fake English accents in order to make belieable the drama's Cornish setting. It was not, alas, a memorable screen swan song for Miss Peters who probably deserved better.

Dark-haired Susan Peters (1921-1952)earned a 1942 Academy Award nomination for playing Greer Garson's daughter in the World War I soaper Random Harvest and was voted a "Star of Tomorrow" the following year. A graduate of Max Reinhardt's School of Dramatic Art, the former Suzanne Carnahan also scored as Mary Astor's daughter in Young Ideas (1943) but MGM’s careful buildup of her came to a tragic end when she was permanently paralyzed on a 1945 New Year's duck hunting trip with her husband, Richard Quine. She reportedly went to retrieve a rifle when it accidentally discharged. The bullet lodged in her spine and Peters was paralyzed from the waist down. Although her services were retained for several years due to her husband's status as a rising young director, the studio was eventually forced to let her go. To the rescue came Columbia Pictures, who recognized the public’s interest in her plight and cast her as a crippled wife desperately using her handicap to hold on to a husband in The Sign of the Ram (1948). In real life, or so the story goes, Peters actually divorced Quine in order not to become a burden. Hollywood found no further use for the handicapped actress but she continued to perform on stage and even starred in a local Philadelphia television series as a wheelchair-bound attorney. But the effects of the accident lingered, and according to at least one romantic writer, Hollywood's foremost hard-luck girl lost the will to live less than a year later.

Gwili Andre in No Other Woman (RKO 1933)

When I wrote about Gwili Andre for my first book, Strangers in Hollywood (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1994) I managed to view both of the lady's starring films for RKO, Roar of the Dragon and Secrets of the French Police (both 1932) but I somehow failed to scare up a copy of her third, and final, appearance under this original contract, No Other Woman. As it turns out, I didn't miss much. Whereas Gwili in her first, leading, roles were obviously RKO's answer to Marlene Dietrich - what with exotic locales and heavy breathing scripts - in this co-starring role she was really more Tala Birell than Marlene Dietrich. And not even good Tala Birell at that. Frankly, Miss Andre (nee Gurli Andresen and hailing from Copenhagen) couldn't act her way out of a wet paper bag. That was true in 1933 as well as in 1943 when she made her final film, a Falcon mystery entry that had reunited her with RKO. But here is the big surprise: Gwili Andre, who prior to her brief starring career was publicized as "Amerca's most beautiful model," had a nose job in the meantime. Now this may sound catty - and is frankly meant to be - but Andre's much vaunted beauty leaves something to be desired. That original nose of hers appears in No Other Woman like a seafearing vessel at full sail. Irene Dunne, no shrinking violet herself when it came to a prominent proboscis, should really only have had to worry about Gwili Andre for the sake of plot; in reality she is prettier than Miss Andre and actually possesses a personality. What I am saying here is that No Other Woman ably demonstrates, if nothing else, why "Americas most beautiful model" didn't appear at all on screen between 1933 and 1937.

(Gwili Andre and leading man Charles Bickford in No Other Woman)

Ula Holt was in reality Florence Watson.

I recently received a letter from Joy Jones, granddaughter of erstwhile serial starlet Ula Holt. Ms. Jones asked me to update my rovi all movie guide capsule bio for Ula Holt's husband, Ashton Dearholt with interesting new (to me at least) information. First, here is what I had originally submitted:

"A veteran of Universal melodramas of the mid-1910s, American actor/director/producer Ashton Dearholt later worked mainly outside the studio system. Having learned how to cut corners and save a dollar on a 1923-1924 series of Westerns starring Edmund Cobb, Dearholt would remain a presence in low-budget movie making through the 1930s. Occasionally accepting acting roles as Richard Holt, Dearholt became rather more famous for his long association with author and occasional film producer Edgar Rice Burroughs, the creator of Tarzan. The Burroughs-Dearholt relationship certainly had its ups and downs, however. Filming the serial The New Adventures of Tarzan (released 1935) on location in Guatemala, Dearholt fell in love with the leading lady, a local girl he himself had named Ula Holt. When Dearholt returned to Hollywood with Miss Holt in tow, Mrs. Dearholt, silent screen actress Florence Gilbert, was granted a divorce and quickly married longtime family friend Edgar Rice Burroughs! None of this offscreen melodrama seems to have seriously damaged the Burroughs-Dearholt partnership, which also spawned The Drag Net (1936) and Tarzan and the Green Goddess (1937), a re-edited feature version of the old Tarzan series."

And here are Ms. Jones' corrections:

"[Ula Holt] was born here in the States and was [in Guatamala] shooting a movie called Adventure Girl with [documentary filmmaker] Joan Lowell at the time.

"I have also read that she was an olympic swimmer. Although Herman Brix did help her with her swimming and she was a very good swimmer she was not an olympian.

"Her actual name was Florence Eugene Watson. She changed it after she married my grandfather to Jewel Watson Gleason. She passed away in 1982."


I thank Ms. Jones for her valuable information and it is with regret that I am no longer with AMG and therefore unable to make the corrections. The best I can do today is post in this little blog.

I'm back!

Dear readers,
I had almost given up on this blog. Google "updated" and I could no longer find my way in. I've been in password hell for more than a month now. What IS it with all these passwords? Yes, it is important when it comes to online banking or shopping or if you don't want your spouse visiting your porn sites - not that I personally wold know anything about that - but a silly little innocent blog like this?

Well, I finally got back in. Now I just have to find the motivation to actually write something. It'll come sooner or later. Until then, enjoy the old posts.

Sincerely,
Lightning Bryce

Stars of Public Domain: Hal Hackett

For those classic film fans who remembers sprightly Hal Hackett solely for his role as the hep student council chairman in the Andy Hardy comedy Love Laughs at Andy Hardy (1947), now in public domain, the following CBS press release from 1957 should be somewhat illuminating:

Accident Leads Hal Hackett
Into Entertainment Field

“Hal Hackett, now playing his first long-running dramatic role as Bob Lyle on CBS Radio's 'Ma Perkins' daytime serial, literally became an entertainer by accident.During World War II, when he was in his third year in pre-medical school at UCLA, he joined the U.S. Army and was assigned to the Division Surgeon's office. Beforethe end of his first month in France he was critically injured under fire and was sent back to Gardner General Hospital in Chicago. Lying in bed, encased in a cast from shoulders to knees waiting for his broken neck and back to mend, he whiled away the time singing. A Special Services officer heard him, learned the young soldier had won, a national music contest, baritone division, just before finishing high school in his native Madison S.D., and had refused three music scholarships, since his heart was set on a medical career. Next thing the avocational singer knew he was broadcasting locally three times a week, star of his own program, called 'A Soldier Sings.' Sophie Tucker heard him, came to the hospital to see him broadcast and asked him to 'guest' on her program. Following that he was signed to sing on the 'Chicago Theater of the Air.' An MGM talent scout saw the handsome young man, and although Hackett at that time was unable to walk, signed him to a contract. After release from the hospital he went to California where, still wearing a brace, he worked for two years. His film credits include Love Laughs at Andy Hardy, Summer Holiday, Under Cover, Campus Honeymoon and Cynthia's Secret.

(photo above: Jenny Lou Law and Hackett promoting the Broadway bound “Lend an Ear”)

Having established his acting ability, Hackett decided to try the stage, and signed with a musical that came east but unfortunately closed in Philadelphia before reaching Broadway. Back on the coast he joined another musical, 'Lend An Ear.' The day he signed the contract to come to New York he was hospitalized and spent nine months curing a rheumatic heart. Immediately after release he hastened to rejoin the show in New York for its last six months on Broadway which was followed by a nine months run in Chicago. There he resigned from the cast in order to enter the University of North Carolina to get a degree in physics. At the University, Al Templeton heard him and brought him back to New York to do a radio show. This led to a tour of night clubs across the country.

On the West coast he signed with the production of 'Kismet,' and again came to New York to enjoy a long and successful run. His voice is heard on the Columbia
Records album of the musical.

During the past summer he appeared in summer stock in 'Picnic,' 'Rainmaker, 'Tender
Trap,' 'Solid Gold Cadillac,' 'Seven Year Itch' and 'Wonderful Town' on the east coast, and in 'Carousel' on the west coast. Now settled in a midtown apartment near the CBS Radio studios, he continues his study of voice, piano and acting. Each day he exercises by swimming at a nearby YMCA or rides in Central Park. Versatile as the young bachelor is, he admits he can't cook.”

Sadly, Hal Hackett died at the young age of 43 in New York, NY, December 4, 1967.

HAROLD PIPER

Recently, I discovered that Hal Hackett was listed under his real name, Harold Piper, in the 1946 Academy Players (actual listing punctured below). According to the 1958 TV-Radio Times, the reason for the name change was his appearance in a bit part in the 1946 MGM release The Show-Off, a comedy starring Red Skelton as a character named "Aubrey Piper." Metro honcho Louis B. Mayer thought that was one Piper to many and demanded the name change. Which suggests that Piper/Hackett's role as a radio technician may originally have been more important. As is, he wasn't credited at all and the whole name confusion thus moot. 

                                       

From my collection: Kenny or Kevin? O'Morrison

Kenny O'Morrison played one of the GIs in the delightful 1947 William Holden-Joan Caulfield comedy Dear Ruth (Holden Caulfield you say? yes, it was a marquee promoting this film that inspired the name of J.D. Salinger's protagonist in his classic “Catcher in the Rye”!), and he actually starred in Footlight Rhythm (1948), the second of Paramount's Musical Parade shorts. O'Morrison took time out in 1949 to explain, in exhaustive detail, to UPI scribe Patricia Clary how cumbersome a name like O'Morrison could been. Explained Miss Clary:

An actor who's been known during his short life by six different names says you folks who are born and remain John Jones are lucky. This man was born Kenny O'Morrison. But nobody believes it. Not even the nurse who made out his birth certificate. 'I'm legally registered,' he said, 'as Kenneth Eugene Morrison. That name was entirely the idea of the recording nurse at the hospital. When my father said ”Kenny O'Morrison,” she thought he was too excited to know what he was telling her." The 'O' before the 'Morrison,' he added, throws more people than just the nurse at the hospital. 'People won't question O'Shea or O'Donnell,' he said, 'but when you say O'Morrison, they think it's your middle initial.' , Kenny, he adds, is not a diminutive for Kenneth. It's a good Irish clan name.

Name Changed

When Kenny was four, the father who named him was killed in World War I. His mother married again and the boy became Kenny Elliot In school, he added, teachers called him Kenneth, even though it wasn't his name. Later his mother married another man named Mandel. Kenny became Kenny Mandel. By the time he got to high school his mother was divorced and had resumed her maiden name of Adams. Kenny became Kent Adams. 'These troubles were nothing,' he says, 'compared to trying to explain to the army why I called myself Kenny O'Morrison when my birth certificate said Kenneth Eugene Morrison.' It took the government five weeks to adjust to the situation. Now he is working in Filmakers' 'Never Fear,' produced and directed by Ida Lupino, under the name of Kevin O'Morrison. 'Richard Conte suggested the name,' he said. 'I hope it's the last one I have.'”

But, alas, when Ida Lupino's drama was released, Kenny O'Morrison had become Kevin O'Morrison, yes, another name, and he remained Kevin for a screen and television career that lasted well into the 1990s and included such more recent comedy hits as Funny Farm (1988) and Sleepless in Seattle (1993). Along the way, the actor had a much publicized and very much un-scripted, brawl in a Chicago hotel lobby with Dewey Martin, a fellow actor with whom he had just appeared in The Golden Gloves Story (1950) which, perhaps not coincidentally, was a movie about prizefighters. The two had been in the Windy City to promote the film but refused to even be on the same train going back to Hollywood. Reeks a bit of publicity stunt, don't you think?

O'Morrison, who in the meantime had penned several television episodes, turned to play writing in the 1970s and his plays are still being performed today. The former actor even has a webpage: http://www.kevin-omorrison.com.

From my collection: Nancy Millard & Cathie Merchant

In 1952, socialite/singer/actress Nancy Millard appeared with Frank Fay, the famed emcee and former husband of Barbara Stanwyck, at Hollywood's swanky Mocambo nightclub. Next time we hear anything from Miss Millard is in 1955 when she reportedly refuses a 7-year contract with Paramount because the studio won't guarantee her an immediate screen role. Well then! The following year, she was mentioned as the socialite who turned writer-producer Polan Banks away from screen star Linda Darnell. So there! But Perhaps Nancy should have accepted that Paramount contract back in '55; her actual movie career was reduced to a walk on in Wake Me When It's Over (1960), a dreary service comedy starring Ernie Kovacks.

Another singer, Cathie Merchant, at least earned a good role as Vincent Price's erstwhile lover turned witch in the Roger Corman classic The Haunted Palace (1963) and she graced both Gunsmoke and The Untouchables. But that was really that for Cathie, who disappears from cast-lists after a couple of Alfred Hitchcock Hours in 1964.

From my collection: More hopefuls of 1961:

According to Hedda Hopper in 1949, Muriel Maddox, of Washington, D.C., was seen about town with writer Sy Bartlett. Muriel was, it appears, what we today call an “army brat,” the daughter of Captain and Mrs. Charles Maddox, and when she made her screen debut opposite Marlon Brando and Theresa Wright in The Men, it was a paper in Oil City, PA, that could proudly call her the “hometown” girl. Actually, when it came down to it, Muriel's role, if you can call it that, is listed in the cast as “woman in street,” i.e. she was an extra. A few other roles followed most notably the Guy Madison vehicle Red Snow (1952), a Cold War exploitation melodrama set in Alaska in which she played a nurse. She began dating another bit player, Bert Arnold, while filming this, her final film, married him and retired. Why she listed herself available for screen work as late as 1961 is anyone's guess. Later in life she became a popular writer of romance novels, some of which are even available today on Kindle. Born in San Diego in 1921 and passed away at Bel Air, CA, April 30, 2010.

Much more prolific on screen than Miss Maddox, Jeanne Manet was originally from France, the daughter of a banker. By 1936 she was squired around Paris by pugilist Jack Doyle and the following she was seen, stateside, on the arm of another boxer, Tommy Farr. She left the latter in the pursuit of cinematic fame but would instead be embroiled in a colorful court case the press would nickname “The Loves of Jack Doyle.” The boxer/troubadour's wife, screen starlet Judith Allen, a Joan Crawford lookalike, sued Mrs. Delphine Dodge Cromwell Baker Godde of the society pages for “alienation of affections” to the hefty tune of $2.000.000. Now stick with me here as this will get complicated. I'll let a syndicated news item explain the further court shenanigans:

“Still on the stage but into the background [is] Elinor Troy who dances seminude in a fish bowl. She apparently got into the scrambled drama by proxy, although her press agent insists she is a good friend of Doyle's and 'they spent a very pleasant evening together.' That Doyle was nighclubbing all hours with the shapely Miss Troy was denied by J.B. [last name unintelligible], who described himself as a friend of Doyle and Mrs. Godde. Waiting for her cue was French actress Jeanne Manet, who arrived in town today, said in Hollywood to have been Doyle's heart interest last year ...”

That claim was immediately dismissed by the next witness, who termed her a “casual acquaintance,” although the two allegedly had cohabited for a while. And on it went. We don't really know the outcome of the suit – and do we really care? – but Judith Allen received her divorce and good for her. Jeanne Manet, meanwhile, found that the movie studios had gone off on her and she didn't really do much in America until after the war when she turned up in the very appropriately titled Slightly French (1949) starring Adele Jergens. That was followed by television exposure until she emerged as one of the title characters in the circus melodrama The Flying Fontaines (1959), which was mainly an excuse for introducing to America a blonde Miss Denmark who was to become Mrs. James Darren, Evy Norlund.

In 1963 Paramount Pictures released Stopover in Hollywood, a 16 minutes short film depicting a young girl visiting various Hollywood landmarks including Grauman's Chinese and, eerily, Forest Lawn cemetery. The girl was played by Lori Lyons, whose main screen credit this would be. She was also in The Phantom Planet (1961), playing a radar operator no less, the year her photo graced this particular edition of the Academy Players guide. But that, it appears, was about it for Lori Lyons, who naturally is mentioned here entirely for the sake of completion. Now at least there is a photo out there of Lori Lyons. So there.

From my collection: Fresh faces of 1961

Here are four young performer who all aspired to Hollywood stardom. None of them really found it, though, but at least they were in there trying.

Michael Barrier appeared on The Rebel, The Untouchables, and, of course, Gunsmoke, as well as such feature films as The Satan Bug (1965). It wasn't much but at least Mr. Barrier, if he is still around, should be able to get an invite to a Star Trek convention having appeared in three episodes in 1967.

Phil Arthur, who Imdb states hailed from Plattsburgh, NY (born 1923) did very early television before appearing in four episodes of the Perry Mason show, all different characters, incidentally. Arnold had done his fair share of stock, including touring opposite legendary Hollywood star Miriam Hopkins with a 1960 version of “Look Homeward, Angel.”

John Edward Gersch, Jr. kindly reveals everything you could possibly wish to know about his late father John Brennan (ne John Edward Gerschefske, born 1933 in Oak Park, IL), who was one of those rowdy title charmers on spring break in the original Where The Boys Are (1964). A former Chicago disc jockey, Brennan, according to junior, parked cars and tended bars in Hollywood prior to landing a contract with MGM in 1959. He later worked for Disney in Florida before retiring to Arizona with his wife, a former Metro secretary. She died tragically after a car accident in 2005 and Brennan, unable to face a future without his wife of 46 killed himself by gunshot in 2007.

Our final hopeful, David Brandon, was in State Fair (1962), you know the one where Pat Boone sings a love song to a pig; and also turned up in the classic Mamie Van Doren blockbuster The Navy vs. the Night Monster (1966). Remember David, Mamie? Probably not. Along with Carol Christensen, David Brandon had won a contract with 20th Century-Fox in 1960 and would be schooled by the studio's drama teacher, famed Method guru Sanford Meisner. Carol and David were selected from a group of 300 hopefuls, 17 of which had earned a screen test.

From my collection: Robert Dane & Roger Cole (1946)

Neither Robert Dane nor Roger Cole did much in Hollywood apart from walk-ons and extra work. But here they both are, Dane (above) playing mostly military personnel and Cole (below) well-dressed men-about-town. Or at least that is what their character designations suggest.

But try to catch either gentleman in any of the pictures listed on the Imdb. Good luck! Of course, like many “names” appearing on these pages, Messrs. Dane and Cole are present here … well, because where else would you find them? 'Nough said. Any additional information on either would be appreciated, of course.