25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Recording Permalink

Eugene Ormandy

October 25, 2019

Eugene Ormandy was a Hungarian-born conductor and violinist.

Born Jen? Blau in Budapest, Hungary, Ormandy began studying violin at the National Hungarian Royal Academy of Music at the age of five. He gave his first concerts as a violinist at age seven and graduated at 14 with a master’s degree. In 1920, he obtained a university degree in philosophy. In 1921, he moved to the United States of America. Around this time Blau changed his name to “Eugene Ormandy,” “Eugene” being the equivalent of the Hungarian “Jenö.” Accounts differ on the origin of “Ormandy”; it may have either been Blau’s own middle name at birth, or his mother’s. He worked first as a violinist in the Major Bowes Capitol Theater Orchestra in New York City. He became the concertmaster within five days of joining and became the conductor of this group which accompanied silent movies. Ormandy also made 16 recordings as a violinist between 1923 and 1929, half of them using the acoustic process.

Arthur Judson, the most powerful manager of American classical music during the 1930s, greatly assisted Ormandy’s career. When Arturo Toscanini was too ill to conduct the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1931, Judson asked Ormandy to stand in. This led to Ormandy’s first major appointment as a conductor, in Minneapolis.

Ormandy served until 1936 as conductor of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, now the Minnesota Orchestra. During the depths of the Great Depression, RCA Victor contracted Ormandy and the Minneapolis Symphony for many recordings. A clause in the musicians’ contract required them to earn their salaries by performing a certain number of hours each week. Since Victor did not need to pay the musicians, it could afford to send its best technicians and equipment to record in Minneapolis. Recordings were made between January 16, 1934, and January 16, 1935. There were several premiere recordings made in Minneapolis: John Alden Carpenter’s Adventures in a Perambulator; Zoltán Kodály’s Háry János Suite; Arnold Schoenberg?s Verklärte Nacht and a specially commissioned recording of Roy Harris’ American Overture based on “When Johnny Comes Marching Home”. Ormandy’s recordings also included readings of Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 which became extremely well known. The high technical and interpretive quality of these records contributed to Ormandy’s musical reputation.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Radio Permalink

Eugene Pallette

October 25, 2019

Eugene William Pallette was an American actor. He appeared in over 240 silent era and sound era motion pictures between 1913 and 1946.

An overweight man with large stomach and deep, gravelly voice, Pallette is probably best-remembered for comic character roles such as Alexander Bullock, Carole Lombard’s father, in My Man Godfrey, his role as Friar Tuck in The Adventures of Robin Hood starring Errol Flynn and his similar role as Fray Felipe in The Mark of Zorro starring Tyrone Power.

He was born in Winfield, Kansas, the son of William Baird Pallette and Elnora “Ella” Jackson. His sister was Beulah L. Pallette. Pallette attended Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana. He then began his acting career on the stage in stock company roles, appearing for a period of six years.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Eva Gabor

October 25, 2019

Eva Gabor was a Hungarian-born socialite and actress. She was best known for her role on Green Acres as Lisa Douglas, the wife of Eddie Albert's character, Oliver Wendell Douglas, and as a voice actor in three Walt Disney Pictures animated feature films The Aristocats, The Rescuers, and its sequel The Rescuers Down Under. Gabor had success as an actress in film, Broadway and television. Her elder sisters, Zsa Zsa Gabor and the late Magda Gabor, were also actresses and socialites.

Born as Éva Gábor in Budapest, the last daughter of Vilmos Gábor, a soldier, and Jolie Gábor. She was a Roman Catholic. Eva was the first Gabor sister to emigrate to the United States. She moved with her first husband, Swedish physician, Dr. Eric Drimmer. Her first movie role was a bit part in Forced Landing at Paramount Pictures. She acted in movies and on the stage throughout the 1950s. In 1965, she commenced her best known role in the TV sitcom Green Acres, a Paul Henning production in which she portrayed Lisa Douglas, the New York wife of Oliver Wendell Douglas played by Eddie Albert who left New York City to live on a farm. This was a hit show for six seasons, ending in 1971.

In later years, she did notable voice-over work for Disney movies, providing the European-accented voices of Duchess in The Aristocats, Miss Bianca in The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under, and the Queen of Time in the Sanrio film, Nutcracker Fantasy.

She was also a successful businesswoman marketing the "Eva Gabor Wigs" and "The Eva Gabor Look".

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Eva Marie Saint

October 25, 2019

Eva Marie Saint is an American actress who has starred in films, on Broadway, and on television in a career spanning seven decades. Saint won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in On the Waterfront, and later starred in Alfred Hitchcock's classic thriller North by Northwest. She received Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for A Hatful of Rain and won an Emmy Award for the miniseries People Like Us. Her film career also includes roles in Raintree County, Because of Winn-Dixie, and Superman Returns. Saint was born in Newark, New Jersey, the daughter of Eva Marie and John Merle Saint. She attended Bethlehem Central High School in Delmar, New York, graduating in 1942. Eva Marie was inducted into the high school's hall of fame in 2006. She studied acting at Bowling Green State University, while a member of Delta Gamma Sorority. There is a theater on Bowling Green's campus named for her. She was an active member in the theater honorary fraternity, Theta Alpha Phi.

Saint's introduction to television began as an NBC page. In the late 1940s, she began doing extensive work in radio and television before winning the Drama Critics Award for her Broadway stage role in the Horton Foote play The Trip to Bountiful, in which she co-starred with such formidable actors as Lillian Gish and Jo Van Fleet. In 1955, she was nominated for her first Emmy for "Best Actress In A Single Performance" on The Philco Television Playhouse for playing the young mistress of middle-aged E. G. Marshall in Middle of the Night by Paddy Chayefsky. She won another Emmy nomination for the 1955 television musical version of the Thornton Wilder classic play Our Town with co-stars Paul Newman and Frank Sinatra. Her success and acclaim were of such a high level that the young Saint earned the nickname "the Helen Hayes of television."

Saint's first feature motion picture role was in On the Waterfront, directed by Elia Kazan and starring Marlon Brando – a performance for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her role as Edie Doyle, which she won over such leading contenders as Claire Trevor, Nina Foch, Katy Jurado, and Jan Sterling also earned her a British Academy of Film and Television Award nomination for "Most Promising Newcomer." In his New York Times review, film critic Bosley Crowther wrote:

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Radio, Television Permalink

Eve Arden

October 25, 2019

Eve Arden was an American actress. Her almost 60-year career crossed most media frontiers with supporting and leading roles, but she is perhaps best remembered for playing the sardonic but engaging high school teacher in the classic Our Miss Brooks, and as the Rydell High School principal in the films Grease and Grease 2.

Arden was born Eunice M. Quedens in Mill Valley, California, to Lucille and Charles Peter Quedens. Her parents divorced when she was a child. She was raised Catholic. Arden said she was an insecure child, declaring later in life that she needed therapy because her mother was so much more beautiful than she.

At 16, Arden left Tamalpais High School and joined a stock theater company. She made her film debut, under her real name, in the backstage musical Song of Love. She played a wisecracking showgirl who becomes a rival to the film’s star, singer Belle Baker. The film was one of Columbia Pictures’ earliest successes.

Eve Arden’s Broadway debut came in 1934, when she was cast in that year’s Ziegfeld Follies revue.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures Permalink

Evelyn Brent

October 25, 2019

Evelyn Brent was an American film and stage actress.

Born Mary Elizabeth Riggs in Tampa, Florida and known as Betty, she was a child of ten when her mother died, leaving her father to raise her alone. After moving to New York City as a teenager, her good looks brought modeling jobs that led to an opportunity to become involved in the still relatively new business of making motion pictures. She originally studied to be a teacher. While attending a normal school in New York she visited the World Film Studio in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Two days later she was working there as an extra making $3 a day.

She began her film career working under her own name at a New Jersey film studio then made her major debut in the 1915 silent film production of the Robert W. Service poem, The Shooting of Dan McGrew.

As Evelyn Brent, she continued to work in film, developing into a young woman whose sultry looks were much sought after, often as a sex addict who did drugs every day. After World War I, she went to London for a vacation. She met American playwright Oliver Cromwell who urged her to accept an important role in The Ruined Lady. The production was presented on the London stage. The actress remained four years in England, performing in films produced by British companies. She also worked on stage there before going to Hollywood in 1922.

25 Oct 2019
Radio, Recording Permalink

Erroll Garner

October 25, 2019

Erroll Louis Garner was an American jazz pianist and composer known for his swing playing and ballads. His best-known composition, the ballad “Misty”, has become a jazz standard. Allmusic.com calls him “one of the most distinctive of all pianists” and a “brilliant virtuoso”.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to an African American family in 1921, Erroll began playing piano at the age of 3. He attended George Westinghouse High School, as did fellow pianists Billy Strayhorn and Ahmad Jamal. Garner was self-taught and remained an “ear player” all his life ? he never learned to read music. At the age of 7, Garner began appearing on radio station KDKA in Pittsburgh with a group called the Candy Kids. By the age of 11, he was playing on the Allegheny riverboats. At age 14 in 1937 he joined local saxophonist Leroy Brown.

He played locally in the shadow of his older pianist brother Linton Garner and moved to New York in 1944. He briefly worked with the bassist Slam Stewart, and though not a bebop musician per se, in 1947 played with Charlie Parker on the famous “Cool Blues” session. Although his admission to the Pittsburgh music union was initially refused because of his inability to read music, they eventually relented in 1956 and made him an honorary member. Garner is credited with having a superb memory of music. After attending a concert by the Russian classical pianist Emil Gilels, Garner returned to his apartment and was able to play a large portion of the performed music by recall.

Short in stature, Garner performed sitting on multiple telephone directories, except when playing in New York City, where a Manhattan phone book was sufficient. He was also known for his occasional vocalizations while playing, which can be heard on many of his recordings. He helped to bridge the gap for jazz musicians between nightclubs and the concert hall. Until his death on January 2, 1977, he made many tours both at home and abroad, and produced a large volume of recorded work. Garner is buried in Pittsburgh’s Homewood Cemetery. He was, reportedly, The Tonight Show host Johnny Carson’s favorite jazz musician; Garner appeared on Carson’s show many times over the years.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Recording Permalink

Estelle Taylor

October 25, 2019

Estelle Taylor was an American Hollywood actress whose career was most prominent during the silent film era of the 1920s.

Born Estelle Boylan in Wilmington, Delaware to a Jewish family, Taylor married a banker while still a teenager. After relocating to Hollywood, she began taking bit parts in films.

Taylor is possibly best recalled for her roles in the 1922 drama Monte Cristo opposite John Gilbert, the enormously successful 1923 Cecil B. DeMille directed The Ten Commandments as Miriam, the sister of Moses; as Lucrezia Borgia in the 1926 Warner Bros.’ first feature-length film with synchronized Vitaphone sound effects and musical soundtrack Don Juan opposite John Barrymore, Mary Astor and Warner Oland, 1927’s New York, opposite Ricardo Cortez and Lois Wilson, 1931’s Street Scene with Sylvia Sidney and both the Academy Award winning Cimarron and the Clara Bow talkie, Call Her Savage in 1932.

Taylor married heavyweight boxing champion, Jack Dempsey, in 1925. She was supposed to have co-starred in a movie with actor Rudolph Valentino which would have brought her more widespread fame but he died just before production was to begin.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Esther Ralston

October 25, 2019

Esther Ralston was an American movie actress whose greatest popularity came during the silent era.

Ralston started as a child actress in a family vaudeville act which was billed as “The Ralston Family with Baby Esther, America’s Youngest Juliet.” From this, she appeared in a few small silent film roles before gaining attention as Mrs. Darling in the 1924 version of Peter Pan.

In the late 1920s she appeared in many films for Paramount, at one point earning as much as $8000 a week, and garnering much popularity, especially in Britain. She appeared mainly in comedies, often portraying spirited society girls, but she also received good reviews for her forays into dramatic roles. In 1962, she had a leading role in the short-lived daytime drama, Our Five Daughters.

Despite making a successful transition to sound, she was reduced to appearing in B-movies by the mid-1930s, leading to her retirement. By the time she settled down in 1941, she had made over 100 movies. During the mid 1950’s as Mrs. Esther Lloyd, a grandmother, she worked in the Seventh Church of Christ Scientist in New York. Happy with her life, Ralston expressed no desire to make a comeback.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures Permalink

Esther Williams

October 25, 2019

Esther Jane Williams is a retired American competitive swimmer and MGM movie star. Williams set multiple national and regional swimming records in her late teens as part of the Los Angeles Athletic Club swim team. Unable to compete in the 1940 Summer Olympics because of the outbreak of World War II, Williams joined Billy Rose’s Aquacade, where she took on the role vacated by Eleanor Holm after the show’s move from New York City to San Francisco. There, she spent five months swimming alongside Olympic swimmer and Tarzan star, Johnny Weissmuller.

It was at the Aquacade that Williams caught the attention of MGM scouts. After appearing in several small roles, alongside Mickey Rooney in an Andy Hardy film, and future five time co-star Van Johnson in A Guy Named Joe, Williams made a series of films in the 1940s and early 1950s known as “aquamusicals”, which featured elaborate performances with synchronized swimming and diving.

From 1945 to 1949, Williams had at least one film listed among the 20 highest grossing films of the year. In 1952, Williams appeared in her only biographical role, as Australian swimming star Annette Kellerman in Million Dollar Mermaid, which would go on to become her nickname while at MGM. Williams left MGM in 1956 and appeared in a handful of unsuccessful feature films, followed by several extremely popular water-themed television specials, including one from Cypress Gardens, Florida.

Since her retirement from film in the 1960s, Williams has become a businesswoman, lending her name to a line of swimming pools and retro swimwear, instructional swimming videos for children, and serving as a commentator for synchronized swimming at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. As of 2010 Williams lives with her fourth husband, Edward Bell, in Beverly Hills.