IMPRISON TRAITOR TRUMP.

Thursday, March 30, 2023

Rochelle Hudson - new biography by David C. Tucker


Rochelle Hudson is the subject of David C. Tucker’s latest book, “largely because she deserved one.”

Miss Hudson’s career began in 1930 when she was still in her teens.  A 1931 WAMPAS Baby Star, the bulk of her film work occurred in the 1930s, when her roles ranged from sadder-but-wiser gun molls, nice girls, young brides, young mothers, tricksters and vamps, in an array of gangster films, action films set from the big city to the jungle, comedies, convict stories, and melodramas.   A beautiful actress, who could also sing and dance, nevertheless her career dwindled in the 1940s and her starring roles were usually in B-pictures; her finer films usually saw her in supporting parts. 

The author notes, “Even during her lifetime, however, there was a sense that she had been underappreciated.  By the mid-1940s, when her career was past its peak, columnist Ed Sullivan lamented (in 1944) -- “Rochelle Hudson should have been a much huger success.  She had everything.”

It’s a forlorn thought, but when picking through her films, as Mr. Tucker does so well, we see there are gems to remember her by most fondly:  As Shirley Temple’s big sister in Curly Top (1935), paired romantically with John Boles, she sings “The Simple Things in Life.”



Other important roles occurred in Imitation of Life (1934) as Claudette Colbert’s daughter, Les Misérables (1935) as Cozette with Fredric March, and four films with Will Rogers, the last released just after his tragic death.  She has a minor role in Rebel Without a Cause (1955).

I found it delightful to discover that she also, at least on some occasions, supplied the cartoon voice of Honey in the series of Bosko cartoons in the early Looney Toons from Warner Bros.  I excitedly mentioned this to my cartoonist twin brother, but he already knew.  He always already knows anything about cartoons.  (We have a set of cute ceramic Pilgrim figures, a boy and a girl, purchased decades ago in Plymouth, Mass., and though they look nothing like the cartoon characters, John immediately dubbed them Bosko and Honey.  It never fails that, taking them out of the box every November, one or the other of us will shout, “Hel-l-o-o, Bosko!”)


Okay.  Back to Rochelle.

Mr. Tucker has written several Hollywood biographies (listed below), and the reader will always learn something new.  What I especially enjoy is examining the twists and turns of a Hollywood career through the nuts-and-bolts information on life in the film industry, including contemporaneous critical reviews of movies and a look at what was happening at the same time in Hudson’s life. Mr. Tucker is meticulous and thorough.

Miss Hudson also starred in a short-lived TV sitcom, That’s My Boy (1954-1955) and she noted in an interview on the sometimes difficult irony of pursuing a television career when at the same time her much younger self was being shown in old movies on TV.  It’s an issue I’ve often wondered about, how film stars of the Golden Age, still working, were almost in competition with their younger selves and always needing to measure up to that more glamorous image.

The book contains a complete and detailed filmography, preceded by a biography that includes information on her personal life, with many great photos.  It can be purchased here at the McFarland website.

Have a look below for my posts on David C. Tucker’s previous books on Gale Storm and S. Sylvan Simon.  Also below is a list of links where you can purchase Mr. Tucker’s other books.

 

Another Old Movie Blog: Review of Gale Storm: A Biography and Career Record by David C. Tucker

Another Old Movie Blog: An interview with author David C. Tucker - Gale Storm: A Biography and Career Record

Another Old Movie Blog: Review: S. Sylvan Simon, Moviemaker - David C. Tucker's new book

 

Other books by David C. Tucker: 


Gale Storm: A Biography and Career Record

Martha Raye: Film and Television Clown

Eve Arden: A Chronicle of All Film, Television, Radio and Stage, Performances

Shirley Booth: A Biography and Career Record

Joan Davis: America’s Queen of Film, Radio and Television Comedy

Lost Laughs of ‘50s and ‘60s Television

Pine-Thomas Productions: A History and Filmography

 

Have a look here at David C. Tucker’s blog


Thursday, March 23, 2023

Regis Toomey in 1930


This photo of Regis Toomey, by Dyar, is another in the 1930 book Stars of the Photoplay.  The book is fascinating for two points: first, to discover who was considered either at the top or up and coming in 1930 in the film industry; and second, because there seemed to be no distinction, at least in these pages, between star and supporting players.  They were deemed equally important as far as their fan base was concerned.

Regis Toomey is quoted as once saying that he preferred the life of a character actor because their careers were longer, and he certainly proved that point with something like 200 movies and a few decades of TV appearances in his resume.

The caption above erroneously states he was born in California (he was born in Pennsylvania) and does not note that he apparently gave up singing early on due to severe laryngitis that threatened a singing career.  Nevertheless, here he is in 1930 at 32 years old with the whole world ahead of him.

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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star. and Movies in Our Time - Hollywood Mirrors and Mimics the Twentieth Century and Hollywood Fights Fascism.  Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

Thursday, March 16, 2023

Porky Pig in "The Wearing of the Grin"


The Wearing of the Grin (1951) seems to have been Porky Pig's last starring role before being relegated to a mere supporting player.  It's one of my favorites, and though the above video is only a clip and not the entire cartoon, you get the idea of St. Patrick's Day, the trope of the scary deserted castle suggesting a horror film, but there's something else we don't see until farther along in the cartoon:  a brilliant parody of The Red Shoes (1948).  Only in this case, of course, they're green.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star. and Movies in Our Time - Hollywood Mirrors and Mimics the Twentieth Century and Hollywood Fights Fascism.  Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

 

Tuesday, March 7, 2023

Anniversaries, time marches on.


A couple of anniversaries this week:  the 16th anniversary of Another Old Movie Blog, and most poignant for many of us, the first anniversary of the passing of our dear friend and classic movie blogger, Paddy Nolan-Hall, aka The Caftan Woman.  I think of her often, especially but not only while watching classic films.

Thank you, if I don't say it enough, not only to readers of this blog but to all other classic film bloggers for being a wonderful, special family.

Here are some past posts about The Caftan Woman:

Another Old Movie Blog: The Caftan Woman Blogathon -- NOW SHOWING

Another Old Movie Blog: The Case of Charlie Chan and The Caftan Woman

Another Old Movie Blog: Patricia Nolan-Hall, a.k.a. The Caftan Woman - Requiescat in Pace

Another Old Movie Blog: Paddy Nolan-Hall, a.k.a. The Caftan Woman

Another Old Movie Blog: A Canadian's Perspective: A Visit from Paddy Nolan-Hall

Visit Paddy's own blog, The Caftan Woman, here.

Thursday, March 2, 2023

The Moving Picture Girls series


The advent of silent movies had a profound effect on society in just about every way one could imagine.  While we classic film fans are well familiar with by-products of the film industry in the form of memorabilia and fads, I recently came across a series of children’s books published during the Silent Era called The Moving Picture Girls.

I’ve been researching, for too many years that I care to count, a book I’m working on (off and on) about children’s chapter books written during World War II with the war as a background.  These include the Dave Dawson series, the Cherry Ames series, and many, many that are lesser knowns today that reflected the anxieties of the youth of that time and were intended to involve them in a world at war and to inspire them.  In the process, I stumbled upon this interesting series for girls of an earlier generation.


I would think the Moving Picture Girls series might have inspired a few girls to head for Hollywood in those early, heady days; for the most part, they were reflective of a new medium, a new industry, a new art form, and a new career for young women.

The author is Laura Lee Hope, which is actually a pseudonym for a team of writers, whose most famous series might have been The Bobbsey Twins. The seven original books in the series were published from 1914 to 1916.  These are the books in order:

The Moving Picture Girls
The Moving Picture Girls at Oak Farm
The Moving Picture Girls Snowbound
The Moving Picture Girls Under the Palms
The Moving Picture Girls at Rocky Ranch
The Moving Picture Girls at Sea

The Moving Picture Girls in War Plays


In the first book, stage actor Hosmer DeVere struggles to find work and support his two teenage daughters, Ruth and Alice, when he has lost his voice and needs rest and medical treatment.  He accepts a job working in silent films, where he does not have to speak.  He accepts reluctantly, because, of course, he thinks the flickers are vulgar and beneath the stature of a stage actor. 

His daughters become involved in mysteries and hijinks traveling with him on location shoots through the series, and even become film actresses themselves.


Now in public domain, you can read these books through the Project Gutenberg website, or purchase in eBook here at Barnes & Noble, or you will probably find a few old copies on eBay, if your bent is collecting.  Have a look at this website for more descriptions of each book.




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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star. and Movies in Our Time - Hollywood Mirrors and Mimics the Twentieth Century and Hollywood Fights Fascism.  Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

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