25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Recording, Television Permalink

Melvyn Douglas

October 25, 2019

Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg, better known as Melvyn Douglas, was an American actor.

Douglas was born in Macon, Georgia, the son of Lena Priscilla, a Protestant Tennessee-born Mayflower descendant, and Edouard Gregory Hesselberg, a Jewish concert pianist and composer from Riga, Latvia. Though his father taught music at a succession of colleges in the U.S. and Canada, Douglas never graduated from high school.

Douglas developed his acting skills in Shakespearean repertory while in his teens and with stock companies in Sioux City, Iowa; Evansville, Indiana; Madison, Wisconsin, and Detroit, Michigan. He established an outdoor theatre in Chicago. He had a long theatre, film and television career as a lead player, stretching from his 1930 Broadway role in Tonight or Never until just before his death. Douglas shared top billing with Boris Karloff and Charles Laughton in James Whale’s sardonic horror classic The Old Dark House in 1932. He was the hero in the 1932 horror film The Vampire Bat and the sophisticated leading man in 1935’s She Married Her Boss. He played opposite Joan Crawford in several films, most notably A Woman’s Face, and with Greta Garbo in three films: As You Desire Me, Ninotchka and Garbo’s final film Two-Faced Woman. During World War II, Douglas served first as a director of the Arts Council in the Office of Civilian Defense, and then in the United States Army. He returned to play more mature roles in The Sea of Grass and Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House. In 1959 he made his musical debut playing Captain Boyle in the ill-fated Marc Blitzstein musical Juno, based on Sean O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Mercedes McCambridge

October 25, 2019

Carlotta Mercedes McCambridge was an American actress. Orson Welles called her “the world’s greatest living radio actress.”

McCambridge was born in Joliet, Illinois, the daughter of Irish American Catholic parents Marie and John Patrick McCambridge. She graduated from Mundelein College in Chicago before embarking on a career.

She began her career as a radio actor during the 1940s while also performing on Broadway. Her radio work in this period included her portrayal of Rosemary Levy on Abie’s Irish Rose and various characters on the radio series I Love A Mystery in both its West Coast and East Coast incarnations. She frequently did feature roles on the CBS Radio Mystery Theater, and was an original cast member on The Guiding Light, before the Bauers took over as the central characters. She also starred in her own show, The Defense Attorney as Martha Ellis Bryant.

Her Hollywood break came when she was cast opposite Broderick Crawford in the 1949 film All the King’s Men. McCambridge won the 1949 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the film, which won Best Picture for that year. McCambridge also won the Golden Globe Awards for Best Supporting Actress and New Star of the Year – Actress for her performance.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Radio Permalink

Meredith Willson

October 25, 2019

Robert Meredith Willson was an American composer, songwriter, conductor and playwright best known for writing the book, music and lyrics for the hit Broadway musical The Music Man, which won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1958. The cast recording of The Music Man won the first Grammy Award given for best cast album, and its 1962 film adaptation was a success.

Starting in the 1920s as a member of John Philip Sousa’s band and then the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Willson became a radio music director in the 1930s. He then worked on films and was nominated for two Academy Awards; in 1940 and in 1941. After more radio work during World War II, he worked on the Burns and Allen and Jack Benny radio programs, among others. Willson’s second Broadway musical, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, was a success in 1960. He also composed symphonies and a number of popular songs.

Born Robert Meredith Willson in Mason City, Iowa, Willson attended Frank Damrosch’s Institute of Musical Art in New York City. In August 1920 he married his high school sweetheart, Elizabeth “Peggy” Wilson. A flute and piccolo player, Willson was a member of John Philip Sousa’s band and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Arturo Toscanini. Willson then moved to San Francisco, California as the concert director for KFRC, and then as a musical director for the NBC radio network in Hollywood.

His work for films included writing the music for Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator and William Wyler’s The Little Foxes, both of which garnered him Academy Award nominations. During World War II, he worked for the United States’ Armed Forces Radio Service. His work with the AFRS teamed him with George Burns, Gracie Allen and Bill Goodwin. He would work with all three as the bandleader, and a regular character, on the Burns and Allen radio program. He played a shy man, always trying to get advice on women. His character was dizzy as well, basically a male version of Gracie Allen’s character.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Merian C. Cooper

October 25, 2019

Merian Caldwell Cooper was an American aviator, United States Air Force and Polish Air Force officer, adventurer, screenwriter, and film director and producer. His most famous film was the 1933 movie King Kong.

Cooper was the father of Polish translator and writer Maciej S?omczy?ski, and later married film actress Dorothy Jordan.

Born to John C. Cooper, of distant English descent, and the former Mary Caldwell in Jacksonville, Florida, Cooper was educated at The Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, New Jersey and entered the U.S. Naval Academy in 1912 but was forced to resign in 1915. In 1916 he joined the Georgia National Guard to help chase Pancho Villa in Mexico.

Cooper was a founding member of the Board of Directors of Pan American Airways, serving on the board for decades. He was a pioneer in the use of aircraft, military and civilian. During his tenure at Pan Am, the company established the first regularly scheduled transatlantic service.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures Permalink

Merle Oberon

October 25, 2019

Merle Oberon was an Indian-born British actress.

She began her film career in British films, and a prominent role, as Anne Boleyn in The Private Life of Henry VIII, brought her attention. Leading roles in such films as The Scarlet Pimpernel advanced her career, and she travelled to the United States to make films for Samuel Goldwyn. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Dark Angel. A traffic collision in 1937 caused facial injuries that could have ended her career, but she soon followed this with her most renowned role, as “Cathy” in Wuthering Heights. Her career continued until the end of the 1940s when it declined and her acting performances over the following years were relatively few.

According to her birth certificate, Oberon was born in Bombay, British India on 18 February 1911 as Estelle Merle Thompson, although other sources note 19

25 Oct 2019
Television Permalink

Merv Griffin

October 25, 2019

Mervyn Edward "Merv" Griffin, Jr. was an American television host, singer, and media mogul. He began his career as a radio and big band singer who went on to appear in movies and on Broadway. During the 1960s, Griffin hosted his own talk show, The Merv Griffin Show, and created the game shows Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune, Click, and Merv Griffin's Crosswords. He is considered an entertainment business magnate.

Griffin was born into an Irish-American family on July 6, 1925, in San Mateo, California, to Mervyn Griffin Sr., a stock broker and Rita Griffin, a homemaker. Raised as a Roman Catholic, Griffin started singing in his church choir as a boy, and by his teens was earning extra money as a church organist. This is one of the reasons he got into show business early; he was considered a piano prodigy. He attended San Mateo High School, class of 1942, and continued to aid in financing the school.

During World War II, Merv was declared 4F after failing several military physical exams due to having a slight heart murmur. Drafted for service during the Korean War, he was then deemed fit for service, but was considered too old as the draft limit was 26 and he had just turned 27.

Griffin started as a singer on radio at age 19, appearing on San Francisco Sketchbook, a nationally syndicated program based at KFRC. Griffin was overweight as a teenager, which disappointed his radio fans. Embarrassed by their reaction, Griffin resolved to lose weight and change his image, losing 80 pounds in four months. Freddy Martin heard him on the radio show and asked Griffin to tour with his orchestra, which he did for four years.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures Permalink

Mervyn LeRoy

October 25, 2019

Mervyn LeRoy was an American film director, producer and sometime actor.

Born to Jewish parents in San Francisco, California, his family was financially ruined by the 1906 earthquake. To make money, young Mervyn sold newspapers and entered talent shows as a singer. Through this he worked his way into vaudeville. When his act broke up, he and his cousin, Jesse Lasky, went to Hollywood.

LeRoy worked in costumes, processing labs and as a camera assistant until he became a gag writer and actor in silent films. His first directing job was in 1927’s No Place to Go. When his movies made lots of money without costing too much, he became well-received in the movie business.

In 1931 he directed the gangster epic Little Caesar, launching Edward G. Robinson into stardom. In 1938 he was chosen as head of production at MGM, where he was responsible for the decision to make The Wizard of Oz. He was responsible for discovering Clark Gable, Loretta Young, Robert Mitchum and Lana Turner.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Meiklejohn

October 25, 2019

William Meiklejohn ,was a famous Hollywood talent agent and scout in the 1920s through the 1940s. He had his own talent agency called the William Meiklejohn Agency that he sold to MCA in May of 1939. At the time of the sale, his agency had over 100 actors and writers like Hattie McDaniel and Dorothy Parker. He was famous for his self-avowed ?seventh sense? to discover and promote stars such as Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Lucille Ball, and in 1937, a young sportscaster in Des Moines, Iowa named Ronald Reagan.

Meiklejohn began his career in 1921 in his native Los Angeles as a booking agent for 80 different vaudeville acts. In 1939 he sold his agency to the Music Corporation of America as it opened in Hollywood and joined them as vice-president in charge of setting up their motion picture division. In 1940, he was loaned to Paramount for two weeks and ended up staying for 20 years as head of talent and casting, and it was at Paramount that he developed his reputation for finding talent. In 1960, he left the studio and once again became an independent agent for the likes of Nat King Cole, Pat O’Brien, and his close friend Ronald Reagan.

Meiklejohn died, aged 78, on April 26, 1981 in Burbank, California from undisclosed causes.

Hollywood Walk of Fame

25 Oct 2019
Radio, Recording Permalink

Mel Blanc

October 25, 2019

Mel Blanc was an American voice actor and comedian. Although he began his nearly six-decade-long career performing in radio commercials, Blanc is best remembered for his work with Warner Bros. during the “Golden Age of American animation” as the voice of such well-known characters as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Sylvester the Cat, Tweety Bird, Foghorn Leghorn, Yosemite Sam, Wile E. Coyote, Woody Woodpecker, Barney Rubble, Mr. Spacely, Speed Buggy, Captain Caveman, Heathcliff, and hundreds of others. Having earned the nickname ?The Man of a Thousand Voices,? Blanc is regarded as one of the most influential people in the voice-acting industry.

Blanc was born Melvin Jerome Blank in San Francisco, California, to Jewish-American parents, Frederick and Eva Blank. He grew up in Portland, Oregon, attending Lincoln High School. He claimed that when he was 16, he changed the spelling from ?Blank? to ?Blanc? because a teacher told him that he would amount to nothing and be, like his name, a ?blank.? Blanc joined The Order of DeMolay as a young man, and was eventually inducted into its Hall of Fame.

Blanc began his radio career in 1927 as a voice actor on the KGW program The Hoot Owls, where his ability to provide voices for multiple characters first attracted attention. He moved to KEX in 1933 to produce and host his Cobweb And Nuts show, which debuted on June 15. The program played Monday through Saturday from 11:00 pm to midnight, and by the time the show ended two years later, it appeared from 10:30 pm to 11:00 pm.

Blanc moved to Warner Bros.-owned KFWB in Hollywood, California, in 1935. He joined The Johnny Murray Show, but the following year switched to CBS Radio and The Joe Penner Show. Blanc was a regular on the NBC Red Network show The Jack Benny Program in various roles, including voicing Benny?s Maxwell automobile, violin teacher Professor LeBlanc, Polly the Parrot, Benny?s pet polar bear Carmichael, the tormented department store clerk, and the train announcer .

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures Permalink

Mel Brooks

October 25, 2019

Mel Brooks was honored with the 2,406th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Leron Gubler, President and CEO of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, presided over the ceremony. Guests included Robert Osborne, Max Brooks, and Carl Reiner.

6712 Hollywood Boulevard on April 23, 2010.

BIOGRAPHY

Mel Brooks began his distinguished career during television's Golden Age as a writer for Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows, the first of many comedy series for which he would write.

In the '60s, Brooks teamed up with Carl Reiner to write and perform The 2000 Year Old Man albums, which became immediate bestsellers and Grammy winners.

Brooks wrote and narrated The Critic, a short satire that received an Academy Award„¥ for Best Animated Short Subject in 1964. In 1965, he teamed up with Buck Henry to create the long-running television series Get Smart. In 1968, he wrote and directed his first feature film, The Producers, which earned him an Oscar® for Best Original Screenplay. It later became the basis for the hit Broadway musical and subsequent film version.

Brooks has created a remarkable string of hit comedies: The Twelve Chairs, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Silent Movie, High Anxiety, History of the World Part I, To Be or Not To Be, Spaceballs, Life Stinks, Robin Hood: Men in Tights and Dracula: Dead and Loving It. Like The Producers, Young Frankenstein also made a successful transition to the Broadway musical stage.

Brooks' visionary film company, Brooksfilms Limited, has produced some of America's most distinguished films, among them David Lynch's The Elephant Man and David Cronenberg's The Fly.

For three successive seasons, Brooks won Emmys for his role as Uncle Phil the series Mad About You. Last year, commemorating his lifelong contributions to American culture, Brooks was named among the recipients of the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors.