Forgotten Hollywood

Manny P. here…

   Due to winning a Halloween contest, my wife Laurie won an opportunity to visit to Club 33, Walt Disney’s corporate meeting place in the heart of New Orleans Square at Disneyland. On Monday, Mark and Maxime Thomas (Laurie’s brother and brother-in-law) and joined my wife for lunch at this exclusive spot. We enjoyed a sumptuous meal, talented carolers, and a visit from Terri Jo Slater, a good friend of ours, who is also an 30-year employee at the Happiest Place on Earth. We were celebrating Laurie’s and my recent birthdays; and Maxime’s recent accolade as one of Belgium’s most influential citizens for 2014, quite an accomplishment!

MANNY        LAURIE                 CLUB 33              MAXIME        MARK

    When Walt Disney was working with various corporate promoters for his attractions at the 1964–1965 New York World’s Fair, he noted the various VIP Lounges provided as an accommodation for the corporate elite. This gave him the idea that culminated in Club 33.The many stories regarding the origin of the name, two stories are the most prominent. The first and official explanation states:  Club 33 gets its name solely from its address of 33 Royal Street in New Orleans Square. A second and less well known story speculates the name honors there being 33 corporate sponsors at Disneyland in 1966-1967 when the club was being built and opened. There is a 14-year waiting list for new memberships!

   Once at the dining level, guests can view antique furniture pieces collected by Lillian Disney. The walls are adorned, in part, with butterflies pinned under glass and hand-painted animation cels from the original Fantasia film. There is a fully functional glass telephone booth just off the elevator that was used in The Happiest Millionaire and an ornate walnut table with white marble top that was used in Mary Poppins. A harpsichord features a Renaissance-style art piece that was hand-painted by Disney artists. Elton John and Paul McCartney have each played this instrument.

   The only place that allows alcohol in the theme park, the overall experience was quite a perk earned by Laurie Pacheco…

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   Ken Weatherwax was best known as Pugsley on The Addams Family television series. The young actor came from a theatrical family. His aunt was Ruby Keeler, memorable for her role in 42nd Street. In addition, Ken was the nephew of Rudd Weatherwax, the trainer for Lassie. Charles Addams, writer for The Addams Family, helped select Ken for the role of Pugsley. Charles felt that Ken was perfect for the part because he possessed a maniacal smile and a very strange personality. Dismissing acting as a career, Weatherwax found himself more comfortable behind-the-scenes as a grip for television shows for more than a decade, including stints on The A-Team and Full House.

   Survived by Gomez (John Astin) and Wednesday Addams (Lisa Loring), Ken Weatherwax (above) was 59.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

   Frank Capra’s American Dreams is an eight-film retrospective that began last night, and runs into the new year, at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, CA. No director was better able to put on screen the hopes and wishes of the common man, and the perils of confronting corporatism and political graft.

   Born in Sicily, Frank Capra emigrated at the beginning of the twentieth century. His difficult ocean voyage to America and his lower-class childhood in East Los Angeles left indelible marks on the future filmmaker. As ambitious as he was poor, Capra became the first in his family to work his way through college. When opportunity knocked, he answered; bluffing his way into a movie studio job. Working with Mack Sennett and Harry Langdon, he established a track record for silent comedy, and that success continued into the sound era at Columbia Pictures.

   With 1934’s It Happened One Night, Capra hit the jackpot: The screwball classic was the first to sweep the top Oscar categories, taking home Best Picture, Screenplay, Actor, Actress, and Director awards (his first of three). Though Capra never abandoned comedy – he helmed such hilarious features as You Can’t Tale It with You and Arsenic and Old Lace – he increasingly used his cachet to explore serious themes, including politics (Meet John Doe, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington ) and business (It’s a Wonderful Life). Through it all, Frank Capra offered a vision of America where people were basically good and problems had solutions – a vision whose allure remains strong decades later.

   The series also includes The Bitter Tea of General Yen, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, and Lost Horizon. Three screenings of It’s a Wonderful Life are included in the schedule of the Holiday Spirit series. Actors such as Jack Carson, Claude Rains, Peter Lorre, Alan Hale Sr., Gloria Grahame, Thomas Mitchell, James Gleason, Walter Brennan, Lionel Barrymore, Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, Beulah Bondi, and Ward Bond are stars in my Forgotten Hollywood Book Series. In my next work, due out in 2015, the stories of Edward Everett Horton and Edward Arnold and will be featured. All of these supporting players worked with Frank Capra.

   The Aero Theatre is located at 1328 Montana Ave. in Santa Monica.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

Manny P. here…

   Turner Classic Movies and Fathom Events is hitting the theatres this weekend to provide a classic cinema double-bill. What makes these wonderful holiday chestnuts so delightful are character actors in the films, several of which are featured in my Forgotten Hollywood Book Series.

   Christmas in Connecticut co-stars Sydney Greenstreet and S. Z. Sakall, both who have chapters in Son of Forgotten Hollywood Forgotten History. In the 1938 version of A Christmas Carol, two of it’s supporting players are featured in my upcoming paperback (yet untitled) in the series… Gene Lockhart and Leo G. Carroll.

   Click on the link to find a theatre close to you to enjoy these wonderful motion pictures:

http://www.fathomevents.com/event/tcm-holiday-classic-double-feature

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

   I spent this past weekend in Solvang, CA to celebrate my wife Laurie’s 50th birthday. A Danish hamlet in the heart of Central California, and northeast of Santa Barbara, it’s one of the special communities that make up the Santa Ynez Valley. There is a copy of the famous Little Mermaid statue from Copenhagen, as well as, a bust of famed writer of fables… Hans Christian Andersen. We visited Nordic-style souvenir shops, and tasted wine from Paso Robles.

   In 1947, following a feature article in the Saturday Evening Post, tourists began to flock to the town. As a result of the 2004 film Sideways, which was set in the surrounding Santa Ynez Valley, the number of wine-related businesses in Solvang have increased appreciably. A noted resident is the daughter of Alfred Hitchcock. Patricia was a fine supporting actress of the 1950s, notably co-starring in the director’s cinematic classic, Strangers on a Train.

   During the holidays, Solvang is a quaint stop to put you in the mood for Christmas…

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   Chaucer’s Bookshop is a lively literary store in Santa Barbara. It’s now the newest location to carry my Forgotten Hollywood Book Series. Though they decided to carry my work on Cyber Monday, my visit to this popular spot reminded me that the feel and smell of an actual book is part of the fun of reading. Since becoming an author, I have always supported the foundational idea of the independent book store.

   Chaucer’s Bookshop is located 3321 State St. in the heart of this seaside community.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

   Bob Baker was a puppeteer whose marionettes have entertained thousands of children and adults worldwide for more than 70 years. The Bob Baker Marionettes have performed around the globe (even on Navy ships and submarines), with an inventory of three thousand puppets.

   Baker (above) trained with several different Los Angeles-based companies before giving his first professional performance for director Mervyn Leroy. While attending Hollywood High School, he began manufacturing toy marionettes that sold both in Europe and the United States. After graduation he became an apprentice at the George Pal Animation Studios.

   His puppetry was featured in the 1944 Bluebeard, A Star is Born, G.I. Blues, Disney’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. His work also appeared on television in Bewitched, Star Trek, and Land of the Giants. Baker was also instrumental in championing union membership for puppeteers. As a result, Screen Actors Guild and AFTRA now recognize puppeteers as actors with a special skill.

   The Bob Baker Marionette Theater, founded by Baker and Alton Wood in 1963, is the oldest children’s theater company in Los Angeles. In June 2009, the theater was designated as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument. The company has no plans to stop presenting shows. The theater is currently performing its holiday production of The Nutcracker through early 2015, and has two road companies plus a solo traveling show.

   Bob Baker was 90.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

    Turner Classic Movies is joining with two divisions of the Walt Disney Company for an agreement that underlines how media giants are increasingly collaborating on content-marketing efforts. TCM will help the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts division make changes to the Great Movie Ride, a long-running attraction at the Hollywood Studios section of Disney World in Orlando, Florida. In return, TCM will receive Presented by on-site credits at the attraction on posters, banners, display windows, marquees, and the like, which will also display the TCM logo.

   The changes for the Disney World ride are scheduled to be introduced in the first quarter of 2015. Among the new elements will be a video featuring Robert Osborne, the host who has been the face of TCM since the channel began operations in 1994; he will identify himself as from Turner Classic Movies.

   In the other part of the deal, Walt Disney Studios will provide TCM with vintage movies, cartoons, documentaries, and episodes of several television programs, such as  Disneyland and Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color for an evening of family programs on the channel called Treasures from the Disney Vault.

   It will be offered by TCM roughly four to five times a year. The initial block of Disney programming is scheduled to run from 8p on December 21st through 5:15a on December 22nd. Among the nine scheduled items from the Disney archives are Santa’s Workshop, a 1932 cartoon; The Disneyland Story, in which Walt Disney himself describes in 1954 plans for the park named Disneyland that he opened in Anaheim, CA, the following year; Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier; and The Vanishing Prairie, a nature documentary.

   Someone needs to cue Tinker Bell…

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

   Frank Yablans, a former president of Paramount Pictures in the 1970s who oversaw the release of several groundbreaking movies, has died. He was president when the studio reeled out such well-known hits as The Godfather, Chinatown, Paper Moon, and Murder on the Orient Express. He later went on to work as chief operating officer at MGM / United Artists, and co-wrote the script and produced Mommie Dearest, a biopic about movie star Joan Crawford.

   Yablans first employers in the film business included Warner Brothers, The Walt Disney Company, and Filmways. Following his presidency at Paramount, Frank became an independent producer, working primarily through Paramount and 20th Century Fox. He was executive producer of such films as Congo, Silver Streak, and The Other Side of Midnight.

    In 2003, Yablans founded Promenade Pictures, a production company committed to family-friendly entertainment, with their most ambitious project — Epic Stories of the Bible series of CGI-animated features.

   Frank Yablans was 79.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

   UCLA will retire number 42 across all of its sports in honor of Jackie Robinson. This was announced by UCLA Director of Athletics Dan Guerrero. The university is my alma mater.

   All three UCLA student-athletes who currently wear number 42, senior women’s soccer defender Ally Courtnall, sophomore women’s softball utility player Jelly Felix, and freshman football linebacker Kenny Young will each be able to finish out their Bruin career donning the iconic number.

   With UCLA football players wearing number 42 on their helmets and Robinson’s iconic number 42 painted onto the Rose Bowl field, UCLA made the announcement during the break between the first and second quarters of its annual crosstown rivalry football game. In conjunction with UCLA, the City of Pasadena and the Rose Bowl Operating Committee, the Rose Bowl subsequently unveiled Jackie Robinson’s iconic number near the east scoreboard and will make it a permanent fixture in the historic stadium this offseason.

   Additionally, UCLA will also permanently display Robinson’s iconic number 42 inside each of its athletic competition venues. The retirement of Robinson’s number 42 follows UCLA’s announcement of a series of 22 athletic and recreation facilities across campus that will be named the Jackie Robinson Athletics and Recreation Complex. Campus recognition of the complex will be an in-ground number 42 at each entry point to UCLA’s training centers, competition sites, fields, and stadiums as a reminder of Robinson’s courage in the face of adversity.

   The UCLA Library carries Forgotten Hollywood Forgotten History. This is an accurate Hollywood-and-Vine metaphoric moment in time.

   Seventy-five years ago, Jackie Robinson claimed a place at UCLA. From 1939 to 1941, he starred in four sports. In football, Robinson played both offense and defense, returned punts, caught and threw passes, kicked extra points and in the process, earned honorable mention All-American accolades. In basketball, he twice led the Pacific Coast Conference in scoring. In track, he won the NCAA championship in the broad jump. And in baseball, he began his legendary journey as a highly-regarded shortstop for the Bruins.

   Six years later, Jackie Robinson claimed a place in history. Wearing number 42 for the Brooklyn Dodgers, on April 15, 1947, Robinson shattered the color barrier in Major League Baseball. Despite enduring racial abuse, jeers of fans and fellow players, death threats, and profound harassment, he endured it all with grace and dignity – not to mention exceptional play – earning Rookie of the Year honors and a National League Most Valuable Player award; in addition to helping the Dodgers win the 1955 World Series. A career .311 hitter, Robinson played in six World Series, six consecutive All-Star games, he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962, during his first year of eligibility.

   Fighting tirelessly for civil rights and integration in professional sports after his time on the diamond, Robinson best summed up his own legacy with a typically understated yet poignant quote – A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

   Bert Lahr’s Cowardly Lion costume from the classic film The Wizard of Oz has fetched more than $3 million at an auction in New York City. The big feline outfit had been authenticated as the one Lahr wore in the 1939 MGM film. A face is a sculpted likeness of the star, who died in 1967.

   It sold at a transaction of Hollywood items at Bonhams Auction House on Monday. A spokesperson for costume owner James Comisar says a secondary costume used in the film was sold at auction in recent years for close to $1 million. Comisar has a trove of television memorabilia from shows including I Love Lucy and Lost. He has said he plans to use money from the Cowardly Lion costume sale to exhibit his collection.

   The Turner Classic Movies co-sponsored event also included the sale of a test dress and pinafore worn by Judy Garland as Dorothy, Garland’s evening gown from Easter Parade, and upright piano / letters of transit from Casablanca.         BERT LAHR

   This is the second year TCM has partnered with Bonhams.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

   Stooge fans can’t help but come up winners this November 29th! It’s all happening at the Alex Film Society in Glendale, CA. The screenings will be held at 2p and 8p.

   The theme for the 17th annual edition of this Holiday favorite, Three Slaps and Yer Out! will feature the Stooges running amuck in the wide world of sports. Included in the mayhem will be Playing The Ponies, Ants In The Pantry, A Ducking They Did Go, Grips, Grunts, And Groans, Violent Is The Word For Curly, including the famous Swingin’ the Alphabet song, and Mr. Noisy, a Shemp Howard single that has to be seen to be believed.

   So, be a sport. Come on out and join the crowd for big laffs and surprises, too. When it comes to the Stooges, we’re all athletic supporters!

Nyuk… Nyuk… Nyuk…

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

   Mike Nichols was a television, stage, and film director, writer, producer, and comedian. In 1968, he won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film The Graduate. His other films include Catch-22, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Carnal Knowledge, Silkwood, Working Girl, The Birdcage,  Charlie Wilson’s War (his last picture). He staged original theatrical productions of Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple,  and Spamalot.

   The Berlin-born Nichols lost his hair at age 4 from a reaction to an inoculation for whooping cough, and wore wigs for the rest of his life. In April 1939, when the Nazis were arresting Jews, seven-year-old Mikhail and his three-year-old brother Robert were sent alone to America to meet up with their father, who had fled months earlier. His mother eventually joined the family, escaping through Italy in 1940. Nichols became a naturalized citizen of the US in 1944.

   In 1954, Nichols dropped out of the University of Chicago and moved back to New York City, where he was accepted into the Actors Studio and studied under Lee Strasberg. He began his career in the 1950s with the improvisational troupe, the Compass Players, predecessor of the Second City in Chicago, and as one half of the comedy duo Mike Nichols and Elaine May.

   Nichols was one of a small group who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award. Other honors include the Lincoln Center Gala Tribute, the National Medal of Arts, the Kennedy Center Honors, and the AFI Life Achievement Award. He married ABC World News anchor Diane Sawyer in 1988.

   The amazing Mike Nichols was 83.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

   A massive single-owner collection of vintage movie posters covering the entire history of feature films — from 1907 to the present — is going on the auction block as one lot next month. It belongs to Morris Everett Jr., who began collecting posters and lobby cards 53 years ago. He’s parting with them on December 17th at Profiles in History auction house in Calabasas, California.

   Everett, who lives in Cleveland, Ohio, and owns a New York City movie photo leasing company, said his collecting passion began as a student at the University of Virginia, sparked by a fellow student who had a fabulous small photo collection of such Hollywood’s legends as Bette Davis and Myrna Loy. On spring break in 1961, Everett found himself buying two posters at Movie Star News, a New York City landmark of movie stills, posters, and negatives that closed its doors two years ago. He started small, focusing on 20 film stars including his favorite, Natalie Wood. Then he saw an ad in a collectors’ magazine for 6,000 original movie photos from the 1920s and 1930s which he purchased for around $400. He continued to buy at conventions, auctions, from dealers and stores, until he amassed a collection totaling 196,000 posters and lobby cards representing 44,000 titles for some of Hollywood’s greatest films.

   The single most valuable piece in the collection is a lobby card of the 1927 silent movie and science-fiction epic Metropolis. Nearly as valuable is a poster of Babe Ruth from the 1927 Babe Comes Home. Other rarities include lobby cards or posters for The Wizard of Oz, both the one from 1939 starring Judy Garland and a 1925 version with Oliver Hardy, and King Kong. There are posters from early Marx Brothers and Charlie Chaplin movies and classics like Gone With the Wind and Casablanca. The collection also contains near-complete career runs on major cinema icons Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, Lon Chaney, Greta Garbo, and countless others.

   Likely buyers would be advanced genre collectors, historical institutions, well-informed dealers, or other memorabilia auction houses. The real value is in keeping the collection together as it dates to a dawn of the narrative of American cinema, the birth of feature films.

   I agree…

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

   Charles Champlin was a motion picture critic and writer. He was a correspondent for LIFE and TIME Magazine for seventeen years, and was a member of the Overseas Press Club. Champlin joined the Los Angeles Times as entertainment editor and columnist in 1965, and was its principal film critic from 1967 to 1980, and wrote book reviews and a regular column titled Critic at Large. He was a founder of the LA Film Critics Association, and has been a board member of the American Cinematheque.      CHARLES CHAMPLIN ————>

   Champlin’s television career began in 1971 when he hosted the weekly Film Odyssey on PBS, introducing classic films and interviewing major directors. He has interviewed hundreds of film personalities, first on the Z Channel’s On the Film Scene in Los Angeles, then with Champlin on Film on Bravo Cable. As a film critic, Champlin had many fans among the elite of Hollywood, including actor Jack Lemmon. Director Arthur Hiller, then-president of the Directors Guild of America, offered his praise in 1992, when Champlin received an honorary Life Member Award from the guild.

   Champlin once estimated that he saw 250 movies a year and reviewed half of them. He taught film criticism at Loyola Marymount University from 1969 to 1985, and was an adjunct professor of film at USC from 1985 to 1996; and has also taught at UC Irvine and the AFI Conservatory. He graduated from Harvard University in 1948.

    He served in the infantry in Europe in World War II and was awarded the Purple Heart and battle stars.

   Charles Champlin was 88.

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   Forgotten Hollywood Forgotten History can be found in a new institution of higher learning. Fordham University at the Lincoln Center is a close-knit intellectual community of faculty and students located in the heart of New York City, conducted in the Catholic and Jesuit tradition of education. Their Quinn Library now carries the paperback on their shelves. It’s the 88th repository of books, and the 106th overall, of the Forgotten Hollywood book series.

   Notables who have attended this fine school: Andrew Cuomo, Vin Scully, G. Gordon Liddy, Charles Osgood, Vince Lombardi,  Denzel Washington, Alan Alda, Geraldine Ferraro, Dylan McDermott, and Bob Keeshan (better known as television’s Captain Kangaroo). Also, Virginia O’Hanlon, who as a youngster, wrote a letter to the New York Sun that prompted the famous response, Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

   To celebrate an early birthday, my folks and my sister took me Corrigan’s Steakhouse in Thousand Oaks. It was established by the brother of noted movie star, Ray Crash Corrigan. He was an actor most famous for appearing in Western movies, and operating Corriganville — one of America’s top tourist destinations in the 1950s. Bob Hope bought the ranch in 1966 and renamed it Hopetown, it is now a regional park and nature preserve.

   The story of Corriganville is best told by the man, himself:

Howdy Folks,

My name is Ray “Crash” Corrigan. I’d like to tell you the story of my life.

It all starts back in the 1930’s, when I was a physical culturist, and my job was to keep the stars of Motion Pictures in good condition. One day, while helping Dolores Del Rio, Cedric Gibbons of MGM spotted me and offered me a chance to go into pictures. Sounded all right to me, and soon I was a swimming and stunt double for the Tarzan movies. Eventually I graduated to bigger and better parts, and between MGM and other studios, I acted in over thirty films before signing with Republic Studios. At Republic, they starred me in three serials, Darkest Africa, The Undersea Kingdom, and The Painted Stallion. Incidentally, The Undersea Kingdom grossed over $50,000,000. Soon after, I became known as “Tuscon Smith” while starring in The Three Mesquiteers. We also made 24 of these films, and soon after, I was signed by Monogram Studios, who gave me the starring role in The Range Busters. They also made 24 of these. Since my career at Monogram, I have been lucky to be either starred, or featured, in over thirty films for various studios. But I am digressing… forgive me!

During the time I was making one of The Three Mesquiteers, and needing a change of pace, I went on a hunting trip. I always did like to hunt. While on this hunting trip, I stumbled on this picturesque and peaceful spot in the Simi Valley.

These were the years when motion pictures had problems. Their problems were that they needed fresh ideas, new faces, and different locations. Realizing this, thousands rushed to Hollywood. Already a carryover from the historic old west, this Simi Valley soon echoed once again to gunshots, racing stage coaches, pitched fights between the “goodies” and the “baddies.” It was a time when the wildest stunts brought the biggest box office; when western heroes wore ten gallon hats, and the “bad guys” wore black hats, blazing a trail of dirty deeds. Yet, it wasn’t long before motion pictures matured.

In 1937, I bought this ranch, all 2,000 acres that is now the Corriganville Movie Ranch. I built my home here, and just plain enjoyed the ranch with time out to star in motion pictures. The film companies soon began to realize that the ranch offered such a wide variety of terrain, including lakes, mountains, mines, caves, villages, and other attractive facilities. They took advantage of its historic western heritage, and up to the present time, over 3,500 films and television series have used the ranch at one time or another.

Shortly after securing the ranch, I realized that it seemed a shame not to share this “last living frontier” with others. Well, I decided to do something about it. Yep, you’re right, I opened up the place for everyone to enjoy. Instead of the Ray Corrigan Ranch, it became known as Corriganville, where finally the mayor, sheriff, fire marshal, and editor of the Corriganville Gazette were all one man… yours truly. Almost forgot that I’m the postmaster, too. The United States Post Office realized that we are really a town, and you’ll find Corriganville, California in every post office directory throughout the world.

You know, folks who come to Corriganville say that this place is timeless, and I guess they’re right. It stands as an epitaph to an era, so rich in romance, so wild in adventure, that it has captured the hearts of many. Jesse James, General Custer, William H. Bonney (Alias Billy the Kid), are all gone, but Corriganville is still one place that exists to remind us of those days.

While at Corriganville, I sure hope you enjoy the many historic and scenic spots, and that you will be thrilled by the live re-recreations which are enacted on our “Silvertown” western street. These events (a different one every half hour) and others occur all day long. The actors and our entire staff will do their utmost to make your day worthwhile. As your host, I also pledge myself to do everything in my power to make your visit to Corriganville a memorable one.

Well, so long, and thank you for listening to my writings… and I hope to see you in person at Corriganville.

Until next time>                               “never forget”