One of WB's brightest, Ann Sheridan, was born on this day.

Did it burn her to be billed so low in the cast of "The Opposite Sex2?

*Sex"

Did she like playing Noras?

R1, Ann Sheridan's heyday had come and gone by the time she did "The Opposite Sex." She was freelancing in supporting roles by the 1950s, so above the title fourth billing was better than below the title billing like the once mighty Joan Blondell.

On the one-sheet, Joan Collins' back was duplicated 4x and the other actresses' heads were sloppily tacked on, which is why Joan's over the shoulder pose is the only one that looks natural, while June Allyson fares the worst.

June didn't fare too well in this version either.

And Ann Sheridan played the small role of the dykey lady authoress in The Opposite Sex, a role not even in the title credits of The Women. So she was lucky to get the billing she did. She was originally named Nancy Blake by Clare Booth Luce but Amanda Penrose by whoever wrote the 1956 tripe.

She was inevitably a Mystery Guest on What's My Line? but didn't look too hot. I think she died a couple of years later.

Sheridan is responsible for William Travilla coming to Warners when she saw some of his paintings at Dom the Beachcomber's. He designed several of her films including Nora Prentiss, The Unfaithful, Silver River, Good Sam and Appointment in Honduras. He also designed her wardrobe for her two stage productions of Kind Sir and Odd Man In. In 1957, she helped him launch his private label by having numerous fashion shows at the department store she'd bought in Bakersfield.

And Sheridan is on the list of major stars who are virtually forgotten today, including Robert Taylor, Veronica Lake and Cornell Wilde.

I think the reason is because certain stars never made a movie that is still watched today. If it wasn’t for I Love Lucy I don’t even think I would know who Cornell Wilde even was.

Love The Unfaithful, which recycles the loft penthouse Bette Davis had in Deception. With Eve Arden in the penthouse!

Well.....I would guess that Sheridan's THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER would be at least one film that's still remembered and celebrated, if only because of its yearly Christmas showings.

And Robert Taylor has CAMILLE, probably remembered as Garbo's most famous film.

Veronica Lake made a few classic films including SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS, THE BLUE DAHLIA, THIS GUN FOR HIRE and I MARRIED A WITCH and if they're not well-remembered, it's the fault of those with bad memories.

Ann comes on half way through the classic "Kings Row" and completely tales over. I also like her in the WWII drama "Edge of Darkness".

Yes, you’re right about Veronica Lake, but certainly Ann Sheridan and Robert Taylor are two very big stars with virtually no presence today.

Veronica Lake's peek-a-boo look has given her screen immortality.

In the large ensemble cast of The Man who Came to Dinner, Ann Sheridan does not exactly stand out.

Since y'all brought it up, here's my take on that tacky trainwreck, "The Opposite Sex," where none of the stars are shown to an advantage. But as camp, this remake of "The Women" is so bad, it's a good watch...

Here's my take on "Sex"

...and Sheridan indeed takes over, once she appears as Randy in "Kings Row." Ann gives the most real performance of the young stars. Reagan and Cummings are mannered and mediocre as usual, and Betty Field way over the top. Sheridan really shines here.

Director Vincent Sherman had wanted Ann Sheridan for the role of the beautiful Fanny Trellis in "Mr. Skeffington," but once Bette Davis heard about the part, she demanded it and got it. Despite Davis' Oscar nomination, Sherman still believed Ann was better suited for the role.

Paramount had a "talent" contest to find an unknown and offer her a contract - "The Search for Beauty". They received thousands of pictures - including one from the sister of Clara Lou Sheridan from Denton, Texas.

Instead of going through all the photos, the scouts just kept throwing them in the air and ones that landed face up, they kept in the competition. It finally got down to about 10 photos......up in the air they went and only Clara Lou's landed face up.....so she got the screen test, the bit part, and a contract.

She went to Warner Bros. after a few pictures.....

When Ann was told the story of how she happened to be chosen she is said to have replied: "And I've been on back ever since....."

"...on MY back..."

Ugh.

I love Ann Sheridan in THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT where she is a waitress who marries George Raft and has to deal with nuthouse rat Ida Lupino.

Yes, it's laughable when the old man is knocked out by Bette Davis' beauty...

Don't they keep going on how beautiful she is in Mr. Skeffington? You keep wondering what the hell they're all talking about. It's like every one of them is blind. Sheridan would have suited the part a helluva lot more than Davis. But could she have pulled off that ending?

TCM is showing her movies today.

Fanny was a true beauty.

Always thought Vivien Leigh would have been a perfect Fanny Skeffington. Even Bette admitted that she was no beauty, and a bit old fpr the part at that. But what Bette wanted, Bette got... for awhile.

A very funny, if dated conefy, "The Doughgirls" stars Ann, Jane Wyman, Alexis Smith, Jack Carson and a very funny Eve Arden. Had Ann lived, I bet Jane would have arranged for her to guest star on "Falcon Crest" just like she did to get Eve Arden a 1 episode gig.

^ Conefy tonight! Oh dearing myself. Damn keyboard changing words again.

Ann was briefly married to Warner Bros' go-to leading man, George Brent. People who knew them both were surprised by the union because Ann was good-humored and vivacious, while Brent was dour and depressive, and some say anti-social. He grew jealous of her camaraderie with the fellow WB contract players and crew, whom she would lunch with at the commissary, so he demanded that she return home during breaks. Maybe the jealousy was warranted because the marriage supposedly ended after he caught her in bed with Errol Flynn.

Well who wouldn't prefer Errol Flynn?

I read the novel Mr. Skeffington last summer and enjoyed it quite a bit but it's somewhat different from the film. In the book, Fanny is a very wealthy middle aged wife who is worried to death of losing her good looks and youthful charm and decides to leave her husband before he loses interest in her. So she visits several different handsome suitors (fuckbuddies, actually) from different times of her life, only to be disillusioned by each one of them. When she ultimately returns to her husband she finds he's going blind and will never see her age. A great and very readable women's weeper of the 1930s.

Was George Brent the one with the wooden leg or was that Herbert Marshall?

When I was a boy I had a crush on her in Pistols and Petticoats. This was before I knew I wasn't supposed to.

[Quote] Fanny is a very wealthy middle aged wife who is worried to death of losing her good looks and youthful charm and decides to leave her husband before he loses interest in her. So she visits several different handsome suitors (fuckbuddies, actually) from different times of her life, only to be disillusioned by each one of them. When she ultimately returns to her husband she finds he's going blind and will never see her age. A great and very readable women's weeper of the 1930s.

It's a shame they didn't remake it for TV in the '80s with Brendad.

Like Ginger Rogers, Ann became rather jowly in middle age.

I love OP's poster of her. Wish there was an app that could turn photos into that quality.

I would have loved to have pal'd around with Ann, Joan Blondell and some of Warner Brothers character players like Ruth Donnelly and Louise Fazenda, not to mention their first big musical star, Winnie Lightner. Their female stars for the most part seemed very approachable and real. Donnelly worked up to the 70's, playing the sassy maid Pauline in No No Nanette on tour, and possibly on Broadway during Patsy Kelly's vacation.

Booze and cigs took their toll.

I was never "real" r37, nor would I have "pal'd around" with the likes of you.

Did Ann have a Buccal Fat removal?

r39 - Don't you mean "weal", Kay?

Ann was slowly dying of esophageal cancer when she started production on "Pistols and Petticoats." She couldn't last an entire day's shoot and was frequently gone by noon. Yet her co-stars said she never complained and always treated everyone nice, calling everyone "sweetie" and "sweetheart." Then she stopped coming altogether with no announcement whatsoever, and then she died.

Caught this on YouTube last year. One of her better films with Errol Flynn as her fiancé.

Annie always seemed like a great broad, ala Carole Lombard...

George Raft is another one that was very big in his day, but seems more like a footnote now.

In his case, he had the misfortune of rejecting several roles that turned out to be iconic star-makers, such as Sam Spade in John Houston’s Maltese Falcon remake, still discussed and revered 80 years later.

Damn, some of her headshots were unflattering.

Warner Bros had Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Crawford, Olivia de Havilland, Jane Wyman, Ida Lupino, Lauren Bacall, Alexis Smith, Geraldine Fitzgerald, and Eleanor Parker all around same time as Ann and Jack Warner wasn't exactly a big spender, so competition was fierce. Ann had said she had to fight for her roles, and she left WB in '48 because she wasn't satisfied with any of the scripts she was given.

[quote]TCM is showing her movies today.

One that was shown today was "George Washington Slept Here," a 1942 adaptation of one of George Kaufman and Moss Hart's lesser stage comedies. The plot is basically "Green Acres," about a man who's tired of city life and buys a ramshackle house in the country, to the chagrin of his wife. New York is where she'd rather stay. The couple are played in the movie by Jack Benny and Ann Sheridan. But, for the film, they gave all of the husband's dialogue to Ann Sheridan and the wife's to Jack Benny, so it's Ann who drags Jack to the country. Obviously the change was made because Benny was always funnier when he was reacting to the craziness around him.

Cornel Wilde is unknown/forgotten? I like his films and, of course, his hotness. I especially like his 1970 film No Blade of Grass, which is crazy and disturbing (and with a very young Wendy Richard of Are You Being Served? and Eastenders fame). Have any DLers seen it?

R48 GW Slept Here is great! A forerunner to The Egg and I as well, featuring the future Pa Kettle, Percy Kilbride!

Thanks for this thread, OP, and for the anecdotes throughout.

Cary Grant and Ann Sheridan made a fun comedic team in "I Was a Male War Bride" for Howard Hawks.

I was just going tom mention that great film, r52! Loved watching it with my folks back in the day on The Late Late Show. A truly forgotten gem and Ann's dry wit is put to great use.

She hated being called the Oomph Girl. She said that was the sound a fat man makes when he sits down.

[quote]Cornel Wilde is unknown/forgotten?

Cornel Wilde certainly isn't forgotten by anyone who's seen Cecil B. DeMille's "The Greatest Show of Earth," in which he plays an aerialist who suffers an unfortunate accident, causing co-star Betty Hutton to observe, "He's tied to a dead arm for the rest of his life! A claw hand!" One of the worst movies ever to win the Oscar as Best Picture, it's actually quite enjoyable as high camp.

Wow. Hedy Lamarr and Merle Oberon both turned down MR. SKEFFINGTON. Bette was not the first choice, it seems. But I cannot see anyone else in the role. Bette wasn't a great beauty (though she was attractive), so, like Meryl Streep in SOPHIE'S CHOICE, she willed herself to be beautiful and pulled it off.

[quote]R48 GW Slept Here is great! A forerunner to The Egg and I as well, featuring the future Pa Kettle, Percy Kilbride!

Percy Kilbride reprises the role he played in the original Broadway production.

Honestly, neither Lamarr nor Oberon were good enough actresses to pull that role off, despite their beauty.

[quote]Cornel Wilde certainly isn't forgotten by anyone who's seen Cecil B. DeMille's "The Greatest Show of Earth,"

Oops. "The Greatest Show on Earth." Where's that edit function?

I'd certainly call LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN a very memorable classic film and Cornel Wilde is the sexy male lead, lusciously photographed in Technicolor at his prime.

[quote]she willed herself to be beautiful and pulled it off.

Yes, r56, Perc and Orry had *nothing* to do with it.

Where's her WML clip??

Just watched Sheridan on TCM in the noir “Woman on the Run” (1950). Didn’t mean to, but it was so good I got hooked. She’s terrific, playing a hardboiled wife, searching for her artist husband, after he witnesses a murder. Fascinating to see her character soften as she gradually learns more details about the man she took for granted. One of the few noirs from a woman’s point of view. Well worth seeing.

No idea who this is. I looked her up, she died three years before I was born. I'm 51 - the age she was when she kicked it.

Rockin' a snood...

[R63] here: Forgot to add a funny touch in “ Woman on the Run.” When he witnesses the murder at the beginning of the film, Sheridan’s artist husband is out walking his dog. As Sheridan later explains, her husband named the dog “Rembrandt,” because, “It’s the only Rembrandt we’ll ever own.”

[quote]Just watched Sheridan on TCM in the noir “Woman on the Run” (1950).

The other Warner film Travilla designed her costumes for.

Caballero

A warm contralto like Alice Faye.

To anyone who hasn't already read it, I highly recommend John Kobal's excellent "People Will Talk". The book is a series of interviews that the author conducted with Golden Age Hollywood superstars, also-rans, bit-players, directors, costume designers, photograhers, etc.

Ann's interviews were conducted at a dive bar, towards the end of her life in the mid 60s. The interviewer John Kobal (a great writer but a bit of an asshole) said that Ann was a tough yet warm & hilarious woman. During their interviews the author said that Ann looked haggard, wore no makeup, plain clothes and had grey streaks running throughout her messy hair. At one point the author even made a remark about Ann's appearance to her face, which she was kind enough to ignore.

For Miss Sheridan's last interview with the author she insisted that he meet her at one of her favorite restaurants. When he arrived, Ann was dressed TO THE NINES, with full makeup and a gorgeous wig. Kobal said she laughed and told him, "I did this for you, Darlin'. I knew you'd love it!"

Ann Sheridan was dead within a few months of that last interview. What the author didn't know is that she had been in the process of fighting cancer and was in horrific pain. She never said one word about it during their time together.

"Torrid Zone" is great fun, with Cagney, Pat O' Brien, and Sheridan running with the funny script. Sheridan's role is sort of a precursor to Bacall in "To Have and Have Not."

Fun Fact: Ann Sheridan had a 6 month run on the (now defunct) NBC soap opera, "Another World" during the second year in 1965 / 1966. Ann (who played Kathryn Corning) left the soap to begin work on the CBS sitcom "Pistols 'n' Petticoats"; where she remained until she passed away in 1967.

Actually, one of her best movies was one of her last. Called COME NEXT SPRING, it's really charming and Ann is great in it, but it was made by Republic, which basically tossed it away. Check it out the next time it comes on TCM.

I haven’t given Ann Sheridan much thought in many years, but this thread has piqued my interest.

Another data lounge success story

Laura Wagner was supposed to be writing a book on Ann but it has not materialised.

WML.

Ann with Frank Sinatra, Ross Hunter, and Betty Bacall.

My favorite photo of Ann, shot by George Hurrell.

One of my fave Ann movies is The Unfaithful. She has lovely long hair but even at the age of 31 she looks tired.

Peg in City For Conquest is my favorite AS performance. She was great opposite Cagney.

I also LOVE Woman on the Run- those wisecracks come at you like a machine gun! Great script, good acting, fantastic noir all around.

and it features that side show laughing woman.

Ann and Cagney

but also a climax where Ann is forced to ride a roller coaster with obvious use of rear screen projection.

WOTR is on YouTube. It's worth a wtach.

In "The Man Who Came To Dinner", Bette Davis has the thankless role of the "sensible" girl looking for true love. Ann Sheridan doesn't even appear for the first half of the film, but when she makes her flamboyant entrance, she steals the picture from everyone but Monty Wooley.

I think I read once that Ann Sheridan and Ronald Reagan were the original choices for the leads in "Casablanca".

R86, the studio wanted Ann Harding to star in Casablanca.

Lorraine Sheldon was supposed to be based on Gertrude Lawrence.

I think she turned down Mildred Pierce. But Ann was known to be very picky with roles and put on suspension a lot.

[quote] One of the worst movies ever to win the Oscar as Best Picture, it's actually quite enjoyable as high camp.

Quite possibly THE worst.

High Noon, Ivanhoe, Moulin Rouge and The Quiet Man were the other nominees that year. High Noon should've won.

R89, Ann was offered "Mildred Pierce" after Bette Davis and Rosalind Russell turned it down. Ann also declined, so Michael Curtiz set his sights on Barbara Stanwyck, but Crawford begged and pleaded and even offered to audition for the role.

Ann was also set to do "The Strawberry Blonde," in a role especially created for her, but she was embroiled in a contract dispute with Warner Bros and refused, saying "I'd played too many parts like that one." The role went to Rita Hayworth, on loan from Columbia.

Sheridan was embroiled in another contract dispute with WB, when she lost out to Stanwyck for "Meet John Doe."

Then Humprey Bogart asked for Ann for "To Have And Have Not," but Jack Warner said "No, get a new face!" So Howard Hawks brought in Bacall, and the rest is history.

Lastly, Ann was scheduled to do "Flamingo Road," but read the script and walked... right out of her contract with Warner Bros. Joan Crawford stepped in, although like Ann she was too old to play a carnival dancer.

Flamingo Road is so bad it's great. Joan at some of her camp best, and of course she was WAY too old for the part.

Thanks to those who have mentioned "The Man Who Came to Dinner".

Ann Sheridan's interaction with Jimmy Durante in the last act is absolutely hilarious. Monte Wooley just sits and watches them and laughs.

Wooley's antics in this movie, once seen (for me), was enough.

But Sheridan and Durante? Delightfully wild and outrageous.

Warner Bros spent lots of money acquiring the rights to the hit play, "The Philadelphia Story," which was owned by its star Katharine Hepburn (bought for her by Howard Hughes), and came with Hepburn as a package deal. Jack Warner, however, tried to ditch Miss Box Office Poison for Ann Sheridan, but failed. I don't know if the film would've been the same with Ann in the Tracy Lord role.

I turned on TCM late this evening, but the Ann Sheridan portion of the day's programming had ended, so instead I got sucked into watching "A Summer Place." DL icon Constance Ford certainly is a bitch in that movie.

I have a FB writer buddy who's about 60 percent done writing an Ann Sheridan biography. He's previously written one on Margaret Sullivan. When it comes out, will share. I've missed a few of the latter day Ann Sheridan flicks, will have to check out!

I read that she wore flats in scenes with Bogart, Cagney and Raft to make them appear taller.

R96 - is that Michael Rinella?

Yes, Michael Rinella. I look forward to reading his take on Sheridan's life and career.

I am surpised the publisher agreed to let him do Margaret Sullavan. I know another author who asked to do a book on her and they rejected the idea saying there was no public interest in her.

Funny, I proposed a book to a small entertainment publisher with the best of my film reviews over the decades. The publisher was pleasant, but said there was little interest for film review compilations. And guess what one of his new books was the following month?

I'm a rabid WML fan and have often noticed that when the Mystery Guest is asked if they were particularly associated with one studio, the Guest usually answered NO, even when, as in Ann Sheridan's case, they certainly were. I imagine most of the old stars didn't like to give their former home studio much credit for their careers. Interesting!

Also: could Hal Block be any stupider or less funny?

R102, Did you ever see the WML? with Bette Davis as the MG and she recoiled when Hal Block leaned in and kissed her?

Yes, r103! Hal was always slobbering over the female guests.

"After a rocky start, What's My Line? became one of the top-rated shows on television. Critics praised his work; the Chicago Sun-Times called Hal Block the "freshest new personality in TV."

However, his humor could be risqué, which antagonized some conservative 1950s viewers. He once risked the sponsor's wrath, referring to their deodorant with the line "Make your armpit a charmpit." In early 1953, Block was suspended and then fired. ".

Even with the help of all of the best designers, stylists and make up artists in Hollywood Bette Davis could not be within hailing distance of the great beauty all the men of New York society keep talking about. And the film is long and lumbering. Still when you get to the end it's a very satisfying melodrama.

[R63] here again. One of my first jobs as a nurse was at a longterm care facility in Sun City, AZ. There was a sweet old lady there who was 103, but didn’t look a day over 90. I used to greet her, saying she looked “just like Ann Sheridan!” She always got a big kick out of that. I’d hear her repeat, “Ann Sheridan,” chuckling. Sweet lady.

Truth, r58. Merle Oberon was adequate under the right direction, but no more. Hedy was a rotten actress. But gorgeous enough that audiences paid little attention to her acting.

Hedy only succeeded at playing an enigma, Garbo without the emotion.

R94 The Philadelphia Story was purchased by and produced at MGM, although LB certainly wasn't happy about having the use Hepburn.

And yet LB ultimately offered Hepburn a long term contract, paired her with Spencer Tracy and produced some of their most beloved films.

R111 as Elizabeth Taylor once said: "There is no deodorant like success."

I didn't know Barbara Stanwyck was under contract to WB. I always thought she was a rarity and not under any studio contract. She kind of free lanced, no?

Stanwyck would sign short term contracts with studios. I think that this may have cost her the Oscar.

Ann fooled the What's My Line? panel with her "Spanish" voice, perfected in bed with, of all people, Rodolfo Acosta (who played slimy pimps in Mexican "cabaret" flicks). They appeared together in APPOINTMENT IN HONDURAS (53).

[quote]He once risked the sponsor's wrath, referring to their deodorant with the line "Make your armpit a charmpit." In early 1953, Block was suspended and then fired.

Don't fuck with Dr. Jules Montenier.

R22, it's amazing, the difference between 1942 Bette and 1944 Bette. She's brilliant and sympathetic in Now, Voyager and by Skeffington she's a movie star idea of a dramatic actress. Mr. Skeffington's fun (although about 7 hours too long) but she's not the same person. Did her alcoholism really take over, or was her ego (always outsized) just getting out of hand? Old Acquaintance was a hit, but it's flat. In fact, until Warner threw her ass off the lot she really just walked through most of her assignments. She bounced back with All About Eve but her work was never the same, to what she did in the late 30s and early 40s.

You're the reason the word *insane* was invented, r117.

What an offbase comment, r118.

I like the 1950's story - when Bette Davis was out on the road doing something, probably that poetry reading stuff or something.....a man came backstage and told her that Jack Warner wanted her to play the mother of Ann Blyth in The Helen Morgan Story.

Bette thought he was full of shit - but wired Jack Warner: "Hear you're interested in me as mother in Helen Morgan Story. BD"

Warner wired back: "No Bette. We never even thought of you. JW"

And now back to the lively Ann Sheridan.

When I watched Come Next Spring - the music was so familiar. It made me crazy until I realized it was the music that was used for the old Yancy Derringer television show.....starring Jock Mahoney.

Your post was offbase, r119.

Hedy Lamarr turned down a lot of movies that became classics: Casablanca, Laura, Gaslight, and Mr. Skeffington. Thank God. As for Bette, I think she did just fine until Deception. Pregnant, tired, in a bad marriage, and she and Warner's squabbles over roles became more pronounced until it came to a head with Beyond the Forest.

In that WML clip she reminds me of Joan Bennett.

She's great with Cagney. She's just as smart and just as tough.

Ann is like a more glamorous but equally down-to earth Joan Blondell, the ultimate 1930s Warners broad.

[quote]Lastly, Ann was scheduled to do "Flamingo Road," but read the script and walked... right out of her contract with Warner Bros. Joan Crawford stepped in, although like Ann she was too old to play a carnival dancer.

Another film that Travilla designed the costumes for.

Ann Sheridan was just one of many WB stars who sued or fought to get out of their contracts with Jack. Even sweet Joan Leslie!

If you're going to do it, r126, do it right.

R122, Hedy was at one point engaged to hunky George Montgomery, but they broke up and George began dating future wife Dinah Shore.

For the record, r87 is wrong. Ann Sheridan was indeed the original thought for the lead in Casablanca.

Ann Harding was already 40 when it was shot, and her career had seriously waned. She hadn’t done a film since 1937, but did Jake a comeback as a character actress that same year (1942).

Ann Harding is great in a major role from the first season of Burke’s Law in the 1960s.

r117 Bette's husband Arthur Farnsworth died suddenly just before Mr. Skeffington started filming. Davis lost her damn mind for awhile (who wouldn't?) and by her own admission she was a mess during filming.

I agree with you about Bette in the early 40s vs. the late 40s. In the late 40s her films just weren't as good. The Corn Is Green was a boring sludge, imho. I've never been able to watch the whole thing. Decades later, the film was adapted into a musical called Miss Moffat that was probably one of the worst musicals ever made and was a total disaster.

All this talk about Travilla, he was also married to Dona Drake, infamous as Bette Davis' slovenly maid who glowered right back at Rosa Moline in "Beyond the Forest!"

R130, One of Bette's best late 1940s films was "Payment on Demand", which deserves to be better known.

[quote] Decades later, the film was adapted into a musical called Miss Moffat that was probably one of the worst musicals ever made and was a total disaster.

It was a disaster because Davis did her old role, then realized she didn’t have the stage chops to carry a huge musical like that at her advanced age, and “got sick” and withdrew. The show closed out of town.

MM...first preview

r131: And gorgeous multi-racial Dona was "passing", the knowledge of which probably cut short her time at Paramount.

Davis was in no shape to do eight shows a week at that time, that's true. All the years of booze took their toll. But the show was also a POS. This is an article about the whole debacle.

I have to agree about Bette's Warner Bros career. It took a plunge after NOW VOYAGER and never really recovered. I imagine Bette demanded too much control over every detail and Jack Warner got tired of fighting her and also didn't properly look after her. But I imagine he saw the writing on the wall and knew she'd soon be aging out of leading lady roles. And there were Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino and Alexis Smith right there on the lot.

True r137. Davis was in her mid-30s and back then that was a helluva lot older than it is now.

R134, Ginger Rogers later starred in a touring version.

Didn't Davis "sing" a trunk song Dolores Gray had introduced previously?

Ann Sheridan and Joan Bennett shared the same upper lip line in their lipstick stencil.

To hell with Oomph, I had Ping!

Let's go back two thousand years or more, perchance

Before Delilah. Before Godiva. Before Gypsy Rose Lee was alive-a.

A way, way back - before they ever heard of "Oomph girl"!

I want to marry r142 for knowing about Carole Landis and to know she was briefly dubbed "The 'Ping' Girl" (because "she makes you purr")

Landis thought the nickname was moronic.

[quote]Landis thought the nickname was moronic

Was it not?

Ann always was quick with a comeback for the boys of the press.

When the Harvard Hasty Pudding Club named her worst actress of the year: "I've heard of Harvard. It's where they used to play football."

When fashion designer Mr. Blackwell named her to his worst-dressed list: "Tell Blackwell to stay out of my closet and I'll stay out of his. "

^^ Actually, she was talking about another closet queen who dissed her, not Blackwell.

[quote]All this talk about Travilla, he was also married to Dona Drake, infamous as Bette Davis' slovenly maid who glowered right back at Rosa Moline in "Beyond the Forest!"

Travilla and Drake separated in 1956 and remained married until Drake's death in 1989, even though Travilla had entered into a relationship with his business partner William Sarris circa 1954. They remained together until the designer's death in 1990.

{quote]multi-racial Dona

Both of Drake's parents were Black.

Travilla and Drake's story would make a fascinating book.

WB had a number of interesting actresses that often just got the scraps. Aside from the top stars like Bette, Barbara, and later Joan C, then there was Olivia, Ida, Ann, and Jane Wyman. Then there were these young actresses like Joan Leslie, Lauren Bacall, Alexis Smith, Janis Paige, Virginia Mayo, Eleanor Parker, Ruth Roman, Patricia Neal, etc. Jack Warner didn't seem to know what to do with them, except toss them in anything to keep them working... That Ann Sheridan got any traction at all as a star is pretty amazing considering all the competition above her and the young ones coming along...

Jack Warner was a motherfucker, wasn't he?

R148, her parents were multiracial themselves, so wouldn't that make Dona multiracial as well?

[quote]Travilla and Drake's story would make a fascinating book.

Currently working on one.

Yes it would, r150.

That would make Dona Drake MGM.

[quote]To hell with Oomph, I had Ping!

[quote]Miss Landis

Before I clicked on the photo, my initial thought was, "Jessie Royce Landis had Ping?"

R149, are you saying you don’t consider Olivia one of WB’s top stars? Because she was.

No, I was dividing these WB women more according to age.

[quote][R148], her parents were multiracial themselves, so wouldn't that make Dona multiracial as well?

There really isn't any concrete proof of mixed race. Only the 1920 census lists the family as Mulatto. Her parents and their families are listed as Black on the 1900, 1910, 1930 and 1940 census reports. Quite possibly due to the "one drop" rule. Her father side was from Arkansas and her mother from Alabama, their names really don't give an indication of their race unfortunately.

When Drake was touring as the female bandleader Rita Rio, her mother Novella traveled with her and pretended to be her maid so that she could stay in the same hotel as her daughter, so I'm guessing she was rather dark. Novella was also mentioned in several 1941-42 fan stories and referred to as Drake's "girl" housekeeper which was code for Black.

I bet Novella had a book in her.

Rita Rio

You’re exhausting, r157.

[Quote] You’re exhausting, [R157].

What are you even doing in a thread for an old actress?

I've Got a Secret.

^ see Ann from 13.34.

Ann Sheridan was no Audrey Totter, that's for sure. Meh.

Audrey Totter was no Marie Windsor.

Correct me if I'm wrong but it seems to me Warner Bros in the 1930s/40s was truly a man's studio making macho films with their leading men, from the gangster films of Jimmy Cagney, Humphrey Bogart and Edward G Robinson to the swashbucklers of Errol Flynn. Even the short-lived Busby Berkeley musicals were rather crude and misogynistic.

Other than Bette Davis, but including Olivia de Havilland and Ann Sheridan, the actresses on the lot were mostly just paired up with the bigger male stars and expected to support them. Except for Davis, they rarely carried a film.

Davis obviously was the exception and I imagine part of her problem with Jack Warner was he hated dealing with a truly big female star and one with genuine talent and intelligence to boot. I suppose Kay Francis made important women's films at Warner's earlier in the 30s but they seemed, for the most part, to be popular soap operas that didn't require or receive the greatest care.

So I think Ann Sheridan suffered because she didn;t have the clout of

Joan Crawford too had leading roles at Warners in the 40s.

Strange! Ann Sheridan looks about10 years younger in the I've Got a Secret clip than she did in the WML clip but I think IGAS was actually a few hears later.

Ann's TV daughter said that Ann had a facelift just before production. If she was about 50, it may have even been her second facelift.

Wow, interesting, r169!

Why were facelifts so much more natural looking back then?

A "natural" facelift wasn't a given. Hedy Lamarr's facelift of the mid 50s was really obvious.

Kay Francis fought for better roles, sued WB to be let out of her contract, dropped her lawsuit, and was demoted to programmers. Bette Davis fought for better roles, sued WB to be let out of her contract, lost, returned to WB and got better roles. Olivia De Havilland sued WB to be let out of her contract after she had been informed that 6 months had been added to her 7-year contract for time spent on suspension, won her case, and got blacklisted for several years. Ann Sheridan fought for better roles and was placed on suspension several times before leaving WB in 1948. Practically all of Warner Bros female stars battled with Jack Warner.

[quote]Davis obviously was the exception and I imagine part of her problem with Jack Warner was he hated dealing with a truly big female star and one with genuine talent and intelligence to boot

That was Bette Davis's problem throughout that era. She was very intelligent and capable of pretty much anything, and the men of that era were very misogynistic. Hollywood today can be rough on women, but back then it was truly a nightmare. Davis really put up with a lot of insane shit, and that definitely had an impact on her mental health and dependence on alcohol as she got older.

Olivia de Havilland was hardly subordinate to a man in The Snake Pit, The Dark Mirror, To Each His Own and The Heiress.

Ann Sheridan, the original "Oomph Girl", had it all; beauty, great figure, great legs, and strong acting/comedic chops along with a well trained singing voice. IMHO WB just couldn't figure out what to do with AS.

trailer for The Unfaithful.

Ann Sheridan durned down Mildred Pierce, bad career move.

Whatever else they got up to Ann Sheridan and Errol Flynn were big time boozers by time they hooked up, then drifted apart. It was her love of drink combined with reaching the dreaded 30's (for Hollywood actress), that likely lead to Ann Sheridan's major film career slowly coming to an end.

wasn't Ann too young to play Mildred Pierce? Mildred is the mother of a teenager but Ann was only 29.

Love has to climb,

It’s can’t suddenly ring that chime;

Time, sister, time

Is short.

You’ll find there’s no partition in a davenport.

Love doesn’t act

Till the cards are discreetly stacked;

Here is a fact

To face:

A man won’t take a taxi just to get no place.

How "Love Isn't Born, It's Made" got past censors I don't know....

When you listen to Ann Sheridan's advice and read between words it certainly isn't the message commonly given to young women on romance.

You could pretty much count on one hand the actors/actresses who weren't heavy drinkers/smokers back then. And how many older gays here can remember adults blowing cigarette smoke in their kids face or friends coming over for drinks? I was quite the little bartender as a kid! As for WB, the male actors got frustrated with Jack casting them in the same type of roles and fighting for proper pay. Davis herself said women had it best in movies during the war years, and she may have been right...

What WB show was she on? Buffy?

1956: smoking while guesting on a game show, and endorsing the product.

1966: dead.

Olivia made most of those great films after she left Warner Bros., r174.

At Warner's she was never more than a pretty face, supporting Flynn and Davis. That's why she sued and left.

[quote]You’re exhausting, [R157].

Better than being an uneducated asshole.

R178

Never the less, age notwithstanding apparently AS did turn down "Mildred Pierce". So did Rosalind Russell and Barbara Stanwyck

Bette Davis also turned down Mildred Pierce. I think for most actresses, playing the mother, especially of a unsympathetic witch, was not appealing...

You can have Errol Flynn, it's his son Sean I'd be after.

[quote]wasn't Ann too young to play Mildred Pierce? Mildred is the mother of a teenager

I, of course, was much too young to be playing the mother of a teenager, but I considered it an acting challenge, and even won an Oscar for it.

I was underwhelmed by Joan Crawford as MP. Ann Blyth walked off with that picture. Joan was much better in her later WB films - HUMORESQUE, DAISY KENYON, POSSESSED…

But wasn't MILDRED PIERCE a sensational best-selling novel? I would have thought every actress over 35 would have wanted to play her.

Ann Sheridan would have turned 30 during the time Mildred Pierce was filmed, understandable why she turned it down.

Am I the only one who never thought Ann Sheridan was a good actress?

In this thread, r192? Yes. Get out...

Bloopers

Speaking of Warner Brothers performers, it seems appropriate to link this from Amanda McBroom - a song about her father, David Bruce - one of the supporting actors at WB.

The song is called "Errol Flynn".

Barbara Cook does a very nice version of "Errol Flynn."

R193, Her own publicist admitted she wasn't a very good actress, cunt breath.

Barbara Stanwyck had wanted to play Mildred Pierce, but she had just wrapped production on "My Reputation" (shot in 1944, but released in 1946), and decided against playing another mother with teenaged children.

R198, She weren't no mother to me.

Well, Ann was certainly no Jane Greer, that's for sure.

Ann was attached to Casablanca at the time Ronald Reagan was being considered for it. George Raft had already turned it down.

Thank god Bogart and Bergman came along.

Jane Greer was no Claire Trevor.

R201 Many books on the making and history of Casablanca have debunked that story

Ann is the only big female Warners star to not appear in "Hollywood Canteen". She turned down the part of the Hollywood star soldier Dane Clark wants to meet and was replaced by Joan Leslie. Ann went on suspension for a spell.

Joan Crawford has a cameo in this - her first Warners appearance.

Ann Sheridan declined role in "Hollywood Canteen" because she felt story was preposterous (putting it mildly), and she wasn't alone either.

"The movie's plot is utterly preposterous, but that makes no difference. The chemistry between stars Joan Leslie and Robert Hutton is wonderful. Joan's role was originally to have been played by Ann Sheridan, but she turned it down because she, too, thought the idea of a soldier on leave falling in love with a movie star at the Canteen and actually getting a chance to spend some with her was ridiculous."

Real life "1,000,000th" solider was Capt. Carl Bell

One has to give Bette Davis and others involved with Hollywood Canteen, including Warner Bros (both actual place and film) credit where it was certainly due.

It was a totally different time in entertainment industry and this country for that matter. You'd be hard pressed to get anything like Hollywood Canteen (again both real life place and film) done today.

Bette Davis and John Garfield.

Sheridan and Reagan were considered for the Berman and Henried roles, then Bergman became available and the budget went up and out went Ronnie (who would have been laughable) and Ann. The political climate also changed between the initial greenlight for the film and the actual production which changed the tone.

I remember seeing WWII newsreel footage of Ann Sheridan, dressed in fatigues and little or no makeup dancing with GIs in what looked to be the combat zone - very brave and patriotic, so she certainly believed in doing her part for the war effort.

R210, I did my part for the war effort and look where it got me.

Jack Warner treated men just as horribly. He fought Cagney and Cagney also brought a lawsuit against the studio. Then Jack betrayed his brother Harry big time. Harry never spoke to Jack again and I'm sure Jack couldn't give a shit. Harry died a broken man after a heart attack and a stroke. His wife claimed Jack killed him. And when they were young Harry had brought Jack into the company! Jack went on to produce My Fair Lady, Virginia Woolf and Bonnie and Clyde. Then I believe his last film was 1776. On the request of Nixon Warner removed Cool Cool Considerate Men from the finished film. Warner told the editor not only to cut it out but destroy it. She cut it out but hid it. I believe it has been included in all or most of the video releases of the film.

Years ago, Eddie Albert was having an affair with Ann Warner, Jack's wife.

Jack came home one day and walked in on Eddie fucking Ann in their bed.

Jack later said that what infuriated him the most was that they kept going at it and paid no attention to him.

Lana Turner and Carole Landis were briefly at Warners roughly the same time in the late '30s. Lana was signed to a personal contract with Warner Bros. director Mervyn LeRoy and when LeRoy moved to MGM in 1938 he took Lana with him. Landis had bit parts and her messy affair with Busby Berkeley while still married to her first husband caused her to be dropped by the studio.

Had she stayed at Warners Lana might have been a formidable rival to Ann.

MGM needed a new Harlow, r214.

Joan Leslie was wasted at WB. But her turn in BORN TO BE BAD with Zachary Scott & Joan Fontaine at RKO was a revelation.....who knew she could act?

Ann Sheridan, even at her youngest in Hollywood, never quite seemed like a young girl. I love her but there was always something matronly about her. Ami wrong?

I thought Joan Leslie did pretty well in The Hard Way with Ida Lupino, considering she was just a teen. This is a great movie, by the way, with similarities to Mildred Pierce...

I wonder if there is any classic star that DL hasn't already had a thread on. I got out my movie star encyclopedia, went to work on Google and couldn't find any that didn't already have one. The only exception was Warner Baxter, but what would we have to say about him?

Joan & Fred

Well, Warner Baxter plays a screaming queen in 42ND STREET (33).

Ann was a good lay. What a broad!

Well we totally ignored one of MGM's last great stars who crossed over from silents to talkies and starred in the first sound film to win the best picture Oscar the great Anita Page who I got to meet.

I've been on DL since about 2004 and the only lady I can think of who hasn't gotten much love here is Kathryn Grayson. And I don't think this post will encourage any.

Another one is Dorothy Lamour who is all but forgotten today except maybe as a footnote to those Hope & Crosby "Road" pictures (even though those are pretty much forgotten) though she was big box office for Paramount throughout the 1940s and popularized the sarong and tropical patterned fabrics.

R224, Dorothy Lamour hit the wall at a fairly young age. Once her looks faded, so did her career.

Well, Dorothy Lamour's first big hit, John Ford's THE HURRICANE was way back in 1937 bookended by1952's Oscar-winning best film Cecil B DeMille's THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH in 1952, the same year she made the last ROAD film THE ROAD TO BALI, with lots of Paramount hits in between. That's a long career for a pin-up girl, not to mention all the TV and theatre work she did throughout the 60s-80s.

I remember reading she sold more WWII bonds than any other Hollywood star so let's be nice to Dottie. I think she was a very beloved star among her colleagues.

Of these '40s females, the ones that were associated as war time heroines or sweethearts saw their careers nosedive post war: Joan Leslie, Teresa Wright, and Greer Garson. The next wave was the early '50s, when studios started cutting loose contract stars. Those whose careers were based primarily for their looks went first. Or were aging out. Or considered "difficult."

Uh, which '40s females WEREN'T considered "war time heroines or sweethearts", r227?

Oh, yeah....Marjore Main and Ethel Barrymore and.....?

Nearly all the stars did their bit on film at some point during the war era, but not all female stars oozed nobility or were the sweet girl next door.

Miss Cornell's only screen appearance...

One of Dorothy Lamours friends was Dona Drake. She was responsible for Dona getting a Paramount contract.

I've always thought that Louisiana-born Dorothy was also "passing". She explained her "exotic coloring" on her Spanish, French, Irish and "WHITE Creole" background.

Rita Rio was no Ina Ray Hutton, that's for sure.

Jack Warner got bit of his own back at Eddie Albert for fucking his wife.

"Eddie Albert’s Warner Bros contract was severely interrupted in 1941 because of his affair with studio mogul Jack Warner’s wife Ann. Jack caught his wife and Eddie en flagrante and made sure no director would employ Albert for a couple of years. Faced with a dearth of opportunities, Eddie joined the Navy and was sent to the Pacific. He won the Bronze Star for bravery under fire, especially during the Battle of Tarawa where he piloted an assault craft and was directly responsible for rescuing 142 wounded marines. Eddie later married the actress with the solitary name of Margo in 1945, and remained with her until her death in 1985. Television fans loved him in Green Acres alongside Eva Gabor. He lived on until the ripe old age of 99 before dying from pneumonia and Alzheimer’s disease in 2005."

Vincent Sherman said that Ann was one of the most skillful comediennes in Hollywood. she knew how to toss away a line, underplay it with a wry quality, and get the full measure of the laugh therein. She could also play a dramatic role with the best of them. But because she came up from the ranks of being labelled the 'oomp girl" and began in B pictures, she was underrated. But she was a joy to work with - genuine, no affectations and no bullshit, she loved to laugh and have fun and could, when provoked, curse like a sailor on a stormy night.

She wore a scandalous dress in Nora Prentiss to sing this song.

R195 I’ve long thought David Bruce was gorgeous, in a slightly nerdy way. He was making his way up at Universal when the war ended and he was shit out of luck. I love him as Deanna’s love interest in Lady on A Train, one of her best films. He’s also in the genre-busting camp spectacular, Salome Where She Danced.

Didn't Ann Warner also like the ladies?

Come Next Spring is a lovely film. A passion project for the hunky Steve Cock-ran, and one of his few really sympathetic roles.

I would come next spring, summer, winter, and fall for Steve Cochran.

Steve Cochran was known to be outstanding in bed.

Crawford enjoyed him immensely and Mamie Van Doren raved about him in her autobiography.

R240, Joan enjoyed all the fellas immensely.

Only *after* they showered, r241. She wasn't angry at them, she was angry at their BO.

Joan got the hottest dick in Hollywood for YEARS.

R243

Even before leaving high school "Joan Crawford" was known as an easy lay. Wouldn't surprise one to learn that like (far too many) other actresses of the time JC didn't have children of her own because one or more backroom abortions left her barren.

That was Jane Russel's problem. First time she saw a real doctor after arriving in California and beginning her career the man wondered out lout "how can people do this to women". That's how bad she was messed up inside.

Ann got around, that's for sure.

Many, many women became infertile because of botched illegal abortions back then. I wouldn't be surprised at all if that's what happened to Joan.

R246, and for some it was a bad case of gonorrhea.

Was it Tallulah who said after her hysterectomy, "They took out the crib, but they left the playpen!"?

[quote]Even before leaving high school "Joan Crawford" was known as an easy lay.

Bette Davis was reported to have once said of Joan: "I've had affairs. Not as many as her, but outside of a cathouse, who has?"

Meow!

Didn't Joan's formal education end long before high school?

R251

No, it didn't...

"Around 1916, Crawford's family moved to Kansas City, Missouri. Cassin was first listed in the City Directory in 1917, living at 403 East Ninth Street. While still in elementary school, Crawford was placed in St. Agnes Academy, a Catholic school in Kansas City. Later, after her mother and stepfather broke up, she stayed on at St. Agnes as a work student. She then went to Rockingham Academy, also as a work student. She later claimed the headmaster's wife there beat her and forged her grades to hide the fact that young Lucille spent far more time working, primarily cooking and cleaning, rather than being able to study academically. While attending Rockingham she began dating and had her first serious relationship, with a trumpet player named Ray Sterling. It was Sterling who reportedly inspired her to begin challenging herself academically. In 1922, she registered at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, giving her year of birth as 1906. Crawford attended Stephens for only four months before withdrawing after she realized she was not prepared for college."

More in detail....

Love Joan in pre code talkies before her looks began to harden and that seems due a lot to the make up and hair styles of the period which didn't flatter her. That was Rogers' problem as well. Joan's excellent in Grand Hotel holding her own with the Barrymores and in Rain with Huston. The scene where she's reproaching Huston for his religious hypocrisy and he starts saying the Our Father to drown her out is as powerful today as it was then. That shows she had the chops. She rose to their level when challenged. And if Wikipedia is to be believed she was still in her 20s and they were very seasoned actors at that point.

And in later days in Harriet Craig she's still terrific though you could say she was playing herself.

Stephens was notoriously a pretty flimsy "finish school" in those days (actually that reputation was still around many decades later). Being a "Stephens girl" wasn't exactly going to help her reputation. It also suggests she really was academically unprepared for much of anything.

R255

Wash out your filthy mouth!

Yes bitch, what she said!

Jennifer Tilly, Annie Potts, Dawn Wells, Paula Zahn, Martha Mitchell, Jeane Kirkpatrick

I taught there, you fuckers!

Poor Ann Sheridan. We can’t stay focused on her in this thread.

R259, That may explain why she's forgotten by most of the population under the age of 50.

Despite avidly devouring this thread, I still can’t think of a single Ann Sheridan movie, except maybe The Man who Came to Dinner and that really wasn’t an Ann Sheridan picture.

The only 3 I can think of without looking are Nora Prentiss, George Washington Slept Here, and TMWCTD. She was fun, sexy and likeable, so maybe the problem is she wasn't given good-enough pictures that stood the test of time and are still being shown today?

Ann Sheridan was never 'one of WB's brightest'.

She was a 'name' for maybe 2-3 years, if that.

Stay out of my thread, Joan!

"I Was a Male War Bride" would've been a lot more screwball funny had the Hair & Makeup dept given Cary Grant the full "Josephine & Daphne" treatment. Instead they slapped on a bad wig, and made us believe he got on board that ship passing as a woman.

Who's the handsome man behind Ann in that Crawford pic?

Maude all you could teach the girls was how to hang by a wire.

R266, a reporter.

In front of a reporter! A REPORTER!

For those who can't think of any decent Ann Sheridan movies, watch: Angels With Dirty Faces, Torrid Zone, City for Conquest, They Drive By Night, King's Row, George Washington Slept Here, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Edge of Darkness, Shine on Harvest Moon, The Doughgirls, The Unfaithful, Nora Prentisss, I Was a Male War Bride, Good Sam, Woman on the Run, and Come Next Spring. A few classics, a lot of crowd pleasers of the era. Ann Sheridan was a natural comic actor, a straightforward dramatic actress, and could sing. And she had charisma. Her style holds up quite well today.

R266, sorry, I misread "Joan" instead of Ann. The handsome gentleman is George Nader.

R269, well done!

I hope Joan didn't want more than a platonic friendship with him, r271.

R270, whatever. 80% of the films you mentioned aren't remembered because of Sheridan being part of them.

Good ol' Mary Astor...

It sad that her cancer was so fast moving.

Joanie certainly liked her gays.

[quote]"Make your armpit a charmpit."

Sounds like a Henry Morgan line, but he was always getting suspended as well.

R32 Herbert Marshall may have had a wooden leg but Brent was the one with the wooden personality.

The Unfaithful is a reworking of The Letter but has a more fun supporting cast including Eve Arden and her catty friends. Instead of a letter Ann must get back a sculptured bust.

Bette Davis liked working with George Brent. She probably had an affair with him.

R281, Not probably, she admitted in interviews that he proposed to her more than once.

When asked about her separation and eventual divorce from George Brent, Ann would cryptically reply, “Brent bent…”.

Take from that what you will…

OTA Channel Movies!TV is showing "The Unfaithful" tonight at 7pm CST.

Other times (CST) listed at link below.

The Movies! channel shows quite a few noirs I wasn't familiar with.

Brent is very fine in Jezebel and gives one of my favorite line readings. I forget it exactly but it's about teaching a young whippersnapper a lesson.

R282 But Bette had lousy taste in men. She wanted a lap-dog or a battering-ram.

R286, Brent is also good in "Dark Victory".

Jack Warner said Brent was a B-grade star.

He could headline in a B movie but he couldn't carry an A-grade movie.

Brent also worked with Bette in "The Old Maid" and "The Great Lie".

All you fellas who haven't seen I WAS A MALE WAR BRIDE owe yourselves a favor. Ann Sheridan more than holds her own with Cary in drag.

[quote] Brent also worked with Bette in "The Old Maid" and "The Great Lie".

Brent supported Bette in "The Old Maid" and "The Great Lie".

The Great Lie belongs to Mary.

Jezebel was supposedly Bette Davis's "Gone With the Wind" by many accounts. That is she played a high spirted and determined southern belle who wanted (and finally got) taken down a peg or two.

When even the black maids were scandalized by Miss Julie's red dress, you knew there was going to be hell to pay.

Always felt George Brent gave one of the more convincing southern accents of main cast. Henry Fonda OTOH still sounded like a Yankee.

BETTE DAVIS

Gone before the wind

Sorry for wrong clip in R295

R292, Actually, Brent was the male lead in "The Great Lie".

Though Bette and George Brent had a prolonged on and off affair and he proposed marriage several times, she chose not to marry him.

In interviews, she said one of his favorite things to do was to put on fashion shows for her, featuring himself.

He was the male who supported the female lead.

Jack Warner said±

[quote] 'I don't like putting two A-graders in the one movie. I want those A-graders starring in TWO movies so all the schmucks out there can pay TWICE.

R300, Bogart and Bergman were both A-graders when WB made "Casablanca".

I'm gay and have never heard of this woman before. Ann Sheridan? Who?

Fascinating. Thank you sharing that with us, R302.

Warner obviously broke his rule a lot. Just think of those films starring Bette and Errol Flynn, for example.

In hindsight it seems outrageous that Warner produced JEZEBEL in black & white considering the plot hinges on the wearing of a red dress.

It still reads as red, r305...

Warner was an "on the cheap" studio. Not Columbia or Universal cheap but their large number of contract players existed because they were far less lavish in their productions than MGM.

Bette said there was no red carpet from the trailer to the set at Warners for the stars. Presumably there was at Metro.

It was a workaday studio that turned out a lot of genre films with often obviously recycled scripts . Jezebel was different from that but it still reflected Warner's overall approach to movie making. Warner wasn't the only studio to avoid color.

[quote]Warner wasn't the only studio to avoid color.

Even "Yankee Doodle Dandy," released by Warners in 1942, was in black-and-white, despite all of that red, white and blue.

And yet Warner Bros. produced the glorious THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD in brilliant Technicolor the same year as JEZEBEL. I think it holds up as the best looking color film until GWTW a year later.

In those days, color was reserved for big-budgeted musicals, fantastical adventures, and historial epics -- the crowd-pleaser spectacles. Everything else was shot in b&w, especially at budget-conscious Warner Bros. The studios also employed a lot of European directors and cinematographers, many of whom were influenced by German Expressionism and used chiaroscuro lighting and unusual angles to add to the mood and psychology of the characters and film.

R285

[quote] The Movies! channel shows quite a few noirs I wasn't familiar with.

Thursday is the when they have film noir films all day.

Here is the schedule for next week. (Times are Central Time Zone).

^ Should be "Thursday is the day...".

R305, re "In hindsight it seems outrageous that Warner produced JEZEBEL in black & white considering the plot hinges on the wearing of a red dress", Bette actually did color tests for Jezebel but after viewing the results she said "Technicolor makes me look like death warmed over." I read that in one of her biographies, but I can't remember which one, but her quote is pretty easy to find with a simple google.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter-Jezebel works just fine as it is, and as R306 says of the dress, it still reads red, even though it's brown.

But I wonder if viewing herself in THE PRIVATE LIVES OF ELIZABETH AND ESSEX is what formed Bette's opinion? Considering that she was (appropriately) slathered in white pancake and a tangerine wig, I don't think that was very fair.

Tonight, r313, it was Young Frankenstein to Nosferatu to Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte.

You're right, R317.

Movies!TV also runs film noir on Sundays with their "Sunday Night Noir" programming starting at 7pm (Central Time).

If you haven't seen The File On Thelma Jordon starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck I recommend it. It's a great noir. Stanwyck was always fantastic in that genre.

R319, Costumes by Edith Head . . .

George Brent was something of a royal consort type of leading man. Solid enough performer not to bring down a picture but not flashy or charismatic enough to take attention away from the leading lady. That may explain why he was so often cast opposite Warner Brothers women's pictures queens such as Kay Francis and then Bette Davis.

One of the reason Warners eschewed Technicolor in the late '30s and '40s, was because they were badly burned by it in the late 1920s and early '30s In the first rush of film musicals in from 1928-30, Warner's used early 'two-strip' Technicolor more than any other studio. Encouraged by the hits "On With The Show" and especially "The Gold Diggers of Broadway" (the legendary, now mostly lost blockbuster of 1929) Warners went full-on Technicolor for such largely forgotten and mostly lost musicals as "Paris", "Bright Lights", "Sweet Kitty Bellairs" , "Viennese Nights" , the jaw-dropping "Golden Dawn" , "Hold Everything", "Manhattan Parade", and "The Life of the Party" many of them bombed when musicals fell out of favor from 1930-32. (During this period Warners had hits with two-strip Technicolor horror films: "Dr. X" and "The Mystery of The wax Museum" ). The brothers decided Technicolor was something they didn't need and were very stingy with it for a very long time. Even in the mid-40s when when Fox & MGM were churning out Technicolor films, Ann's big star musical of 1944 "Shine On, Harvest Moon" had only its final reel in Technicolor. The one-sheet movie poster for the musical makes it seem like a noir.

Bette in Swing Shift Cinderella...

Aww. I just watched a Route 66 with a lovely performance from Miriam Hopkins.

If Barbara had done a long term contract with Paramount or Warners, she would have gotten her Oscar. But she didn’t really want to be tied down to a major studio.

Now the Route 66 episode with Joan is on...

I guess Ann was having an affair with Jack Benny during filming of George Washington Slept Here. She thought he was going to leave his wife and marry her.

Mary Livingston showed up on the set one day and set her straight.

Mary: He wouldn't give my little finger for your whole body. Right, Jack? Jack: That's right, honey. Ann: !!!???

Jack Benny developed a crush on Carole Lombard during the filming of "To Be or Not To Be".

Mary Livingstone was a bitch. George Burns didn't like her and thought she was a terrible wife for Jack.

Joan Benny, their adopted daughter, wrote a book after Jack died in which she had high praise for him, but trashed Mary.

[quote]Joan Benny, their adopted daughter, wrote a book after Jack died in which she had high praise for him, but trashed Mary

What did she say about Mary, r328?

Benny was like Jimmy Durante - both were incredibly well-loved in Hollywood.

I always wondered if Jack Benny was gay...

Jack Benny was a huge star in his era, a household name, and he's pretty much forgotten now. Fame can be so fleeting.

But Benny's incredibly huge fame lasted through at least 6 or 7 decades (1920s-1970s) so it was sure fun while it lasted. Do you really think anyone will remember or care about Madonna and Gaga in another 30 years? Even in 20 years??

R329, she said, "MARY!"

Exactly R333. And I would argue that his fame has lasted longer than that. They're still playing reruns of his show on cable, and that wouldn't happen if no one was watching.

Mary had territory to protect. That doesn't mean that Jack was het.

I only know Jack Benny from his cameo in the movie of GYPSY.

Jack Benny had a very "fey" affect as part of his stage persona. It's hard to believe he was actually gay, though.

I agree. Comes off super-gay but never any stories about him. Not even from Scotty "Everyone was gay" Bowers.

Thank you, OP! I adore Ann Sheridan. I watch ‘The Man Who Came to Dinner’ every Christmas.

Hell, even Johnny Carson's fame is fading. He was one of the most famous people in the US for decades and people under 40 are only vaguely aware of who he was.

[Quote] It's hard to believe he was actually gay, though

What an odd comment. Anyone can be gay.

I used to have some old time radio records and there were some that had Jack Benny and Fred Allen's "feud" on them. They just constantly put each other down and it was very funny. Now there's someone who's completely forgotten - Fred Allen.

Jack Benny's early attempts at a film career failed miserably. However he realized the new medium, radio, was place for him and that was making of the man's career. Like so many others Jack Benny essentially built his early career and much of his schtick on Vaudeville. This carried over to his television program and what later film roles came his way.

Influence of Vaudeville was huge on both radio, film and later television. No surprise Jack Benny had huge popular following up until say 1970's. Many of those were same generation who grew up with or otherwise knew Vaudeville, so there you are.

Burns and Allen, Abbot and Costello, Milton Berle, and scores (maybe hundreds) of other actors/performers who went on to moderate or huge careers from early part of last century into say 1970's or so nearly all got their start in Vaudeville.

My favorite Jack Benny joke was in the movie GYPSY:

"My uncle was such a drunk that two years after he died, his liver won a Charleston contest."

Jack Benny also went abroad to entertain servicemen during world War II. Here is is with Carole Landis, who, during a two-month tour of the South Pacific with Jack, contracted malaria and amoebic dysentery. She lost a ton of weight and almost died.

^ Carole flaunting her boobies in front of shirtless, sex-starved men in the Anti-Japanese war machine

R347, And she killed herself because one-eyed Rex Harrison wouldn't leave his wife for her.

I'm sure Carole had other issues in her life apart from Rex (who occasionally wore a monocle).

Benny & Stern

[quote]Carole Landis, who, during a two-month tour of the South Pacific with Jack, contracted malaria and amoebic dysentery. She lost a ton of weight...

I told Richard we should've done a USO tour.

Karen would have returned from that USO tour as a corpse.

I'm a huge What's My Line? fan so I've seen a lot of Fred Allen there, where he was a regular panelist for a couple of years in the mid-1950s until his untimely death in 1956. I know he was a much beloved radio personality before that but I've always been completely bewildered by his charms.

Speaking of wildly popular radio stars, can anyone explain Edgar Bergen to me? How does one attain a following as an acclaimed ventriloquist on the radio when your audiences can't see you and your dummies performing your tricks?

i happened to listen to some Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy radio shows recently and found them very funny.

Starting in the mid1920s, Bergan started on the stage in vaudeville then moved to radio in 1937. So, he was famous before he took to the airwaves.

[quote]I'm a huge What's My Line? fan so I've seen a lot of Fred Allen there, where he was a regular panelist for a couple of years in the mid-1950s until his untimely death in 1956.

Tributes to Fred Allen on the first episode of "What's My Line?" following his death.

R354

Read linked article, you might learn a few things....

While radio did launch many new careers (think Amos and Andy, who by the way weren't black actors), as the new medium took hold good number of vaudeville and other theatre actors moved over.

In early part of prior century entertainment was where you found it. Besides legit theatre, there was opera, ballet, concerts, vaudeville, then two new mediums; silent (then talking) films and radio.

[quote] (think Amos and Andy, who by the way weren't black actors)

But I saw them on TV.

"I had a dream,

a wonderful dream, papa,

all about June in the Orpheum circuit.

Gimme a chance and I know I can work it."

Those lyrics from "Some People" musical Gypsy pretty much sums things up. Acts were booked onto Orpheum or other vaudeville circuit theatres. An act may start out in NYC but also go on to play Peoria, Illinois, or vice versa. Thus there was a very good chance that people knew this or that actor/performer having seen them live long before hearing on radio.

You can see from this listing of vaudeville performers many went on to careers in radio, film , life performances, and eventually film/television.

R357, The media coverage of Fred Allen's death was so respectful.

Hey gays, this is a thread about Ann Sheridan. Focus! All I can say is that she sure knew how to "give" it.

[quote]While radio did launch many new careers (think Amos and Andy, who by the way weren't black actors),

[quote]But I saw them on TV.

Television was sufficiently progressive by the early 1950s to actually hire black actors when "Amos and Andy" moved from radio to TV.

Of course, I knew that Edgar Bergen had begun his career in vaudeville and I'm also aware that he appeared in several Hollywood films. And so, I do understand that America knew what he and his dummies and his act looked like.

But again, I just find it so odd that a ventriloquist, whose art is based on seeing him "speak" for another character could sustain a long career in a non-visual medium. I would have thought he'd see his career end with the advent of radio but I'll admit his great success in radio obviously speaks to his talent.

Hey LA, I'm comin' your way...

R353 - Regarding Fred Allen, when you get a chance, watch the 1952 Twentieth Century Fox comedy "We're Not Married" featuring 5 short vignettes about 5 married couples who learn they are not legally married because of a glitch in the legal paperwork.

Fred Allen and Ginger Rogers start off as a a couple who need to be married since they are about to star in a daily radio morning show. Their hilarious bickering is delightfully funny.

Other couples are David Wayne and Marilyn Monroe, Mitzi Gaynor and Eddie Bracken, Eve Arden and Paul Douglas, and Louis Calhern and Zsa Zsa Gabor.

ON the Orpheum Circuit, not in.

I like Fred Allen a lot. He had a very dry, slightly arch humor that was very "New York". He made a few Hollywood filMs , describing one of them (the fun Fox musical) l "Sally, Irene and Mary:" as "Sally, Irene and Lousy".

Bringing this back to the fabulous Ann Sheridan and one off DL's favorite topics:

Ann would have been a knockout Phyllis in FOLLIES!