Bette Davis at the Hollywood Canteen

This page from Screen Guide of March 1943 is only a humble notice in a huge and glorious endeavor by Hollywood stars to support not only our military, but the Allied forces on our shores during World War II.   

Started by three liberal Democrats: Bette Davis, John Garfield, and Dr. Jules Stein, and supported by the volunteer work of several industry trade unions, the project was embraced by the Hollywood's film community no matter their political stripe.  Country, in its hour of greatest need, came first.  Not only were the servicemen, including members of the Coast Guard, paid their salary, but they also got doughnuts and autographs.  

Some of your favorite actors and actresses may be on the list of volunteers:

Bud Abbott & Lou Costello Iris Adrian Fred Allen June Allyson Brian Aherne Don Ameche Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson The Andrews Sisters Dana Andrews Eve Arden Louis Armstrong Jean Arthur Fred Astaire Mary Astor Roscoe Ates Lauren Bacall Lucille Ball Tallulah Bankhead Theda Bara Lynn Bari Jess Barker Binnie Barnes Diana Barrymore Ethel Barrymore Lionel Barrymore Count Basie Anne Baxter Warner Baxter Louise Beavers Wallace Beery William Bendix Constance Bennett Joan Bennett Jack Benny Edgar Bergen Ingrid Bergman Milton Berle Julie Bishop Mel Blanc Joan Blondell Ann Blyth Humphrey Bogart Ray Bolger Beulah Bondi William Boyd Charles Boyer Clara Bow Eddie Bracken El Brendel Walter Brennan Fanny Brice Joe E. Brown Les Brown Billie Burke George Burns & Gracie Allen Spring Byington James Cagney Cab Calloway Rod Cameron Eddie Cantor Judy Canova Kitty Carlisle Jack Carson Adriana Caselotti Charlie Chaplin Marguerite Chapman Cyd Charisse Charles Coburn Claudette Colbert Jerry Colonna Ronald Colman Betty Compson Perry Como Chester Conklin Gary Cooper Joseph Cotten Noël Coward James Craig Bing Crosby Joan Crawford George Cukor Xavier Cugat Cass Daley Dorothy Dandridge Linda Darnell Bette Davis

Doris Day Yvonne De Carlo Gloria DeHaven Dolores Del Rio William Demarest Olivia de Havilland Cecil B. DeMille Andy Devine Marlene Dietrich Walt Disney Jimmy Dorsey Tommy Dorsey Irene Dunne Jimmy Durante Deanna Durbin Nelson Eddy Duke Ellington Faye Emerson Dale Evans Jinx Falkenburg Glenda Farrell Alice Faye Louise Fazenda Stepin Fetchit Gracie Fields Barry Fitzgerald Errol Flynn Kay Francis Jane Frazee Joan Fontaine Susanna Foster Eva Gabor Ava Gardner Judy Garland Greer Garson Lillian Gish James Gleason Betty Grable Cary Grant Kathryn Grayson Sydney Greenstreet Paulette Goddard Samuel Goldwyn Benny Goodman Leo Gorcey Virginia Grey Jack Haley Margaret Hamilton Phil Harris Moss Hart Helen Hayes Dick Haymes Susan Hayward Rita Hayworth Sonja Henie Paul Henreid Katharine Hepburn Portland Hoffa Darla Hood Bob Hope Hedda Hopper Lena Horne Edward Everett Horton Marsha Hunt Ruth Hussey Betty Hutton Frieda Inescort Harry James Gloria Jean Anne Jeffreys Allen Jenkins Van Johnson Al Jolson Jennifer Jones Marcia Mae Jones Boris Karloff Danny Kaye Buster Keaton Ruby Keeler Gene Kelly Evelyn Keyes Andrea King Gene Krupa Kay Kyser Alan Ladd Bert Lahr

Elsa Lanchester Angela Lansbury Veronica Lake Hedy Lamarr Dorothy Lamour Carole Landis Frances Langford Charles Laughton Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy Peter Lawford Gertrude Lawrence Peggy Lee Pinky Lee Mervyn LeRoy Vivien Leigh Joan Leslie Ted Lewis Beatrice Lillie Mary Livingston Harold Lloyd June Lockhart Anita Loos Peter Lorre Myrna Loy Keye Luke Bela Lugosi Ida Lupino Diana Lynn Marie McDonald Jeanette MacDonald Fred MacMurray Marjorie Main Irene Manning Fredric March The Marx Brothers Herbert Marshall Ilona Massey Victor Mature Elsa Maxwell Louis B. Mayer Hattie McDaniel Roddy McDowall Frank McHugh Victor McLaglen Butterfly McQueen Lauritz Melchior Adolphe Menjou Una Merkel Ray Milland Ann Miller Glenn Miller Carmen Miranda Robert Mitchum Maria Montez George Montgomery Grace Moore Jackie Moran Dennis Morgan Patricia Morison Paul Muni Ken Murray The Nicholas Brothers Ramon Novarro Jack Oakie Margaret O'Brien Virginia O'Brien Donald O'Connor Maureen O'Hara Oona O'Neill Maureen O'Sullivan Merle Oberon Eugene Pallette Eleanor Parker Louella Parsons John Payne Gregory Peck Nat Pendleton Mary Pickford Walter Pidgeon Zasu Pitts Cole Porter Dick Powell Eleanor Powell Jane Powell William Powell Anthony Quinn George Raft

Claude Rains Basil Rathbone Martha Raye Donna Reed Bill "Bojangles" Robinson Edward G. Robinson Ginger Rogers Roy Rogers Cesar Romero Mickey Rooney Jane Russell Rosalind Russell Ann Rutherford Peggy Ryan S.Z. Sakall Olga San Juan Ann Savage David O. Selznick Hazel Scott Lizabeth Scott Randolph Scott Toni Seven Norma Shearer Ann Sheridan Dinah Shore Sylvia Sidney Phil Silvers Ginny Simms Frank Sinatra Red Skelton Alexis Smith Kate Smith Ann Sothern Jo Stafford Barbara Stanwyck Craig Stevens Leopold Stokowski Lewis Stone Gloria Swanson Elizabeth Taylor Shirley Temple Danny Thomas Gene Tierney Lawrence Tibbett Martha Tilton Claire Trevor Sophie Tucker Lana Turner Spencer Tracy Gloria Vanderbilt Beryl Wallace Nancy Walker Ethel Waters John Wayne Clifton Webb Virginia Weidler Johnny Weissmuller Orson Welles Mae West Bert Wheeler Alice White Paul Whiteman Margaret Whiting Esther Williams Warren William Chill Wills Marie Wilson Shelley Winters Jane Withers Teresa Wright Anna May Wong Constance Worth Jane Wyman Keenan Wynn Rudy Vallee Lupe Vélez Loretta Young Robert Young Darryl F. Zanuck Vera Zorina

We'll be discussing Hollywood Canteen (1944), and Stage Door Canteen (1943) next week.

Requiescat in pace - Carol Channing

Carol Channing, whom we lost this week at 97 years old, performs a hilarious skit on the downfall of a silent movie star.  God bless her.

Ten Classic Film Actors and Actresses from Your State

Dear Edna May Oliver, a formidable talent, and clearly fearless and unrepentant in her poses, is one of my favorite Massachusetts girls.

How about a game to start off the new year?  Name any 10 actors and actress from your state (or country, or Canadian province as the case may be).  Either list them in the comments below, or post them to your own blogs and come back and give me the link to your post so I can share it here.

I'm from Massachusetts, so here's my picks from my home state:

Edna May Oliver

Bette Davis

Eleanor Powell

Thelma Todd

Agnes Moorehead

Charles Bickford

Wendell Corey

Charles Farrell

Jack Lemmon

Lewis Stone

*******************

Here's a roster from New Jersey over at Kate Gabrielle's place. 

A team of greats from Missouri over at Terence's A Shroud of Thoughts blog.

Here at Hamlette's Soliloquy you'll find a top-notch gang from Iowa.

Update:  So far we have...

Massachusetts

New Jersey

West Virginia

Georgia

New York

(and specifically, Queens, and NYC)

Ontario, Canada

Kansas

Missouri

Alaska

Iowa

So far that's 9 U.S. states, and 1 Canadian province.  Keep them coming!

Office Christmas Party - The Desk Set and The Apartment

No one ever sings, “Oh, there’s no place like the office for the holidays…” but that is where we visit this Christmas, the office parties in two movies: The Desk Set (1957) and The Apartment (1960).

These movies, made a few years apart in the “Man in the Gray Flannel Suit” (another movie) era of America’s booming economy on the shoulders of big business, reflect an age where large companies truly had a paternalistic hand in the lives of their employees.  It was the era of pensions, medical coverage, and moving up the ladder to covet the corner office.  Men benefited more than women in this old boys’ environment; they created the glass ceiling, but independent women, too, made careers in this fast-paced if regimented world.  Some, like Katharine Hepburn in The Desk Set rose to positions of responsibility and authority; some, like Shirley MacLaine, who failed her typing test and could not meet the requirements of a clerical worker, were relegated to the bottom rung as elevator operators.  Both women became involved in office romances and both ill-used by them.

For both men and women, in an era when suburbia was the ultimate goal and haven, the office remained the focus of their social contacts. 

The Christmas party scenes in these movies were all-out bacchanalias, where unleashed Yuletide revelry revealed the wanton excesses of the most regimented office worker.

Jack Lemmon’s corporate insurance office houses over 31,000 employees in New York City.  His desk on the 19^th floor is among rows of others in a seemingly endless pattern that illustrates the orderliness, the discipline, and the drudgery of their work.  Though the theme of The Desk Set, made three years earlier, is the introduction of a computer to replace office workers, the only reference made to computers in The Apartment is Lemmon’s joke at the Christmas party that drunken office workers are being ritually sacrificed and punched full of holes like the computer punch cards of the day.

On his desk is a phone, in-basket, and a large electric adding machine that makes a racket like a machine gun while performing calculations.  The transformation of his office from quiet soulless cavern to party central begins when we see a group of telephone operators abandon their switchboards when one of them yells, “There’s a swingin’ party on the 19^th floor!”

Suddenly, we are on the 19^th floor where riotous dancing on desks to a tribal chant of “Jingle Bells” and couples kiss in semi-private corners and the alcohol flows freely into paper cups from the break room.  

In The Desk Set, Katharine Hepburn’s department, the research room of a television network in what was really the RCA building has its own Christmas tree with presents exchanged by her staff: Joan Blondell, Dina Merrill, and Sue Randall.  Just as at Jack Lemmon’s office, the daily grind is called off this last working day before Christmas.  Each department has its fling, and the workers wander from one office to another like night club table hoppers.  Spencer Tracy, a visiting efficiency expert who is slated to bring a large computer to Hepburn’s research department, notes the obvious, “Nothing very much gets done around here today, does it?”

They present him with a long scarf of his old school colors, and their party is interrupted by phone calls asking for the names of Santa’s reindeer and Christmas trivia.  A piano is hauled up from one of the studios and Kate sings a verse of “Night and Day” while Spencer accompanies her on bongo drums.  I love her snorting laugh. The corks pop, the champagne flows into paper cups, and the office is the place to celebrate Christmas in a way no one does at home.

But in both movies, the celebration is rocked by sadness.  In the middle of his party, a slightly tipsy Jack Lemmon discovers that Shirley MacLaine, whom he loves, is romantically involved with his boss and having trysts in Lemmon’s own apartment.  He drowns his sorrows in a bar that Christmas Eve, and returns home to discover Shirley there, unconscious from a suicide attempt.  He saves her life, with the help of the doctor next door, and spends a quiet Christmas Day tending to her and worrying about her.  

In The Desk Set, their gaiety is a little forced, because when they return to work after the Christmas holiday, they know that Spencer Tracy will have his computer system installed by then, and they fear for their jobs.  “I understand thousands of people are losing their jobs because of these electronic brains.”

The enormous blinking, buzzing, punch card spitting EMERAC may mean the death knell for their careers and a cozy office life of doing work by hand, being able to work at their own pace, eating, drinking, and smoking in their office as if it were their living room at home, and the loss of a sense of ownership of their office.  EMERAC will rule the roost when they return.

It predicts the future in the American workplace in that respect, but from her worries about her career, Kate drifts to another worrisome topic, the romance with exec Gig Young that seems to go nowhere after years.  In the end, Spencer Tracy will shake up her world in more ways than one; and Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine have also, in a crazy way, been brought together by the office.

Holiday office parties tend not to be carried on with such wild abandon these days, most are likely nothing more than pizza in the break room during lunch hour.  In what has been termed our “gig economy,” millions will spend the Friday before Christmas alone at their computers in a home office, a library or coffee shop, on an iPad or a phone at a mall food court, wistfully thinking about the line, “There’s a swingin’ party on the 19^th floor!”

From my home office to yours, Merry Christmas!

Walter Abel

“Boy!  Are we happy!” Walter Abel yells during yet another clutch moment in Holiday Inn (1942) as the conniving, frenetic talent agent in a performance that is delightful and exhausting.  In contrast, his scene in So Proudly We Hail! (1943) as the chaplain is controlled and deeply emotional for being so.  Both roles leave us with a Christmas theme appropriate to this time of year.

This is my entry into the What a Character! Blogathon hosted by those wonderful classic film bloggers Aurora, Kellee, and Paula.  See the link for details and please visit the other great blogs participating in this fun event.

Walter Abel was in his forties at the time he

performed in those two films, with a long career of varied roles behind him.  His first film was in 1918, but he spent the 1920s on stage and appeared in many prestigious Broadway hits by the time the Great Depression rolled around, and Hollywood provided a safe haven for many out-of-work stage actors.

One of his most important roles in that period is in The Three Musketeers (1935), in which he played the swashbuckling and romantic D’Artagnan.  Those of us so used to seeing him in a variety of comic or quietly authoritative roles—which seemed to suit him equally like the toggling of switch, might well be surprised to see him as a young, athletic heartthrob.  He was worthy of lead roles, but he was one of those actors who managed to turn even a small character part into the lead for even just a few moments.

Take his scene in So Proudly We Hail, which we previously discussed here:  A group of Army nurses are on a ship bound for the Philippines during World War II, and he is the company chaplain.  On Christmas Eve, 1942, only a few weeks after the bombing of Pearl Harbor that has dropkicked civilian America, and its previously peacetime army, into a frightening new sphere, Walter Abel conducts a makeshift Christmas party on board ship.  Standing next to a goofy-looking rope Christmas tree in a lounge cabin cramped with service personnel, including rescued crew of a torpedoed ship, the chaplain starts off the party with a few words of encouragement, wrapped in a kind of prayer. 

“You must forgive me for being sentimental. We’re a sentimental people, and I think we’re proud of it. Despite the fact that our enemies deride us for it, it makes us stronger… All I want to say in the tragedy all about us is—have faith. Not a blind faith, but a faith in those things in which we believe.  We must have faith in these things, such faith in ourselves, such faith in mankind…that we will fight to the death to make those tender and sentimental beliefs like Christmas a reality forever.  Now, God Bless us, everyone.”

His delivery is measured, with a slightly wavering voice that is tender and emotional.  Later on in the movie, he will perform a marriage ceremony between Claudette Colbert and George Reeves in which his delivery and diction is so precise it sounds almost Shakespearian.

But the Christmas party speech, a kind of Cliff Notes of the “Wilcoxon Speech” from Mrs. Miniver (1942), is quickly followed, characteristically, by a rousing instrumental swing version of “Jingle Bells” just so we aren’t embarrassed.

In Holiday Inn, he must have dropped 20 pounds for all the running he does, and he illustrates his character’s excitement with his whole body, jerking, shrugging, throwing himself into double-takes.  One of my favorite lines is when he attempts to describe an arrangement of orchids he orders from a florist, “A dozen, loose, looking like they don’t care.”

And his covering for yet another lie, “But now I’m sincere!”

In the 1950s, Walter Abel, with that marvelous speaking voice, performed as a concert narrator for the Philadelphia Orchestra under conductor Eugene Ormandy in Aaron Copland’s Portrait of Lincoln.  I wish I could have seen that.  If anybody knows if that was recorded, let me know.

Please visit the other blogs participating in the What a Character! Blogathon hosted Aurora, Kellee, and Paula.  

Prelude to War - Requiescat in Pace, Greatest Generation

Tomorrow, December 7th, marks the 77th anniversary of the day America stood on the precipice of World War II, and a generation -- now referred to as The Greatest Generation, faced another moment of destiny.

Yesterday, we held a national day of mourning for former President George Herbert Walker Bush, who was our last president to have served in World War II.  Characteristically of that generation, he enlisted on his eighteenth birthday.

Here is archival footage of twenty-year-old  Lt. J.G. Bush being rescued after being shot down.

To keep faith with that Greatest Generation and the continuing gift of freedom they have left us, we need to remind ourselves of the reasons they had to give up their youth, in many cases, their lives, to a higher purpose.

Hollywood contributed a unique perspective and legacy of that era.  We classic film buffs are familiar with the wartime dramas, the musicals, the patriotic messages, as well as the number of actors who left their careers to enter the military and the hundreds of others who supported the nation's war mission by entertaining troops, appearing at bond drives, and volunteering in many ways.

We've discussed in this previous post about the Hollywood Commandos or the FMPU which produced wartime training films.  One of the most important projects made by this unit was director Frank Capra's Why We Fight series.  This was meant to inform, inspire, and provide the necessary background to the purpose of why the service personnel were required to fight.  Training them to use certain weapons, or how to act in certain situations was not the only important education they received in boot camp.  The fight against fascism was as intellectual and emotional as it was tactical.

The first film in that series, Prelude to War is up at the top of this post.  One hopes that in an era where fascism has found a foothold in our country, and young people know next to nothing about World War II, that an imperfect, decades-old training film, called "propaganda" today, is not so remote that it would not touch even the most stupid and cynical teenager posing for a class photo while giving the Nazi salute, or painting swastika graffiti, or draping a rope noose where it will be noticed.

Requiescat in pace, President Bush.  Requiescat in pace, Greatest Generation.

Movies in Our Time - On sale!

A holiday shopping announcement!

Now through December 31st, the eBook version of my collection of essays on classic film, Movies in Our Time - Hollywood Mirrors and Mimics the Twentieth Century, will be on sale for $2.99 on Amazon.

The book is also available in print.  

An Underdog Thanksgiving

When I was a child, I was a big fan of "ace reporter" Sweet Polly Purebread.  As an adult, I occasionally find myself singing the "Oh, where, oh where has my Underdog gone, oh where, oh where can he be?" when I am roaming around parking lots trying to remember where I left my car.

Admittedly, it I cannot say with certainty it has ever helped me find my car; and a flying dog wearing a red union suit never showed up to guide my way, but it did pass the time until I found it.

Underdog was always my favorite hero: brave, gallant, extremely humble and well-mannered, and spoke in rhyming couplets.  If he were real, I would have asked him to marry me.

When he became a balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1965, my world was complete.  He remained my favorite part of the parade until he was retired in 1984.  I still miss him.

The series Underdog ran from 1964 through 1967, and then in repeats in syndication for a few more years after that.  He did not outlive my childhood, and yet, he lives on in golden memory.  

Wally Cox voices Underdog, and Norma MacMillan is the career-woman, Sweet Polly Purebread.  She did a number of voice roles in cartoons, some television shows, but you may also remember her from Vaughn Meader's 1962 hit comedy album parodying President John F. Kennedy and his family, The First Family, where she voiced the children, John-John and Caroline Kennedy.  (The 22nd of November will invariably bring to mind other memories today.) She was also the mother of Alison Arngrim, who played Nellie on Little House on the Prairie.

The above episode is a Thanksgiving-themed adventure where one of show's villains, Simon Bar Sinister (whose speech is meant to mimic Lionel Barrymore. Another villain in the series, gangster Riff Raff, is meant to parody George Raft), tries to take over the city in another evil plot, but he can't get through the Thanksgiving parade.  So he invents a time travel device "a time bomb" - how clever is that -- to go back to the First Thanksgiving and cause discord between the Indians and the Pilgrims.

Of course, the Pilgrims do not sound like the Pilgrims of 1621, and their "fort" is rather grand; and the native Wampanoag people did not have teepees or sound like Jay Silverheels reading the part of Tonto on The Lone Ranger.  Still, it's a masterful plot with modern lessons of not so much brotherly love as the more practical advice of not allowing your enemy to divide you.  It's a lesson for our times (and pre-dates any elaborate plot on Pinky and the Brain by decades).

When you watch the above episode, you will not be transported, like Simon and his toady, Cad, to 1621 Massachusetts; you'll be sent back only as far as the mid-1960s of my early childhood.  

Happy Thanksgiving!