25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Radio 1 Comment Permalink

Mae Marsh

October 25, 2019 1 Comment

Mae Marsh was an American film actress with a career spanning over 50 years.

The most frequently told of many stories of Marsh’s childhood is that her father, a railroad auditor, died when she was four. Her family moved to San Francisco where her stepfather was killed in the great earthquake of 1906. Her great-aunt then took Mae and Marguerite, her older sister, to Los Angeles, hoping her show business background would open doors for jobs at various movie studios needing extras. However, her father, S. Charles Marsh, was a bartender, not a railroad auditor, and he was alive at least as late as June 1900, when Mae Marsh was nearly six. Her stepfather, oil-field inspector William Hall, could not have been killed in the 1906 earthquake, as he was alive, listed in the 1910 census, living with her mother, May nee Warne, and sisters.

Marsh worked as a salesgirl and loitered around the sets and locations while her older sister worked on a film, observing the progress of her sister?s performance. She first started as an extra in various movies, and played her first starring role in the film Ramona at the age of 15.

?I tagged my way into motion pictures,? Marsh recalled in The Silent Picture. ?I used to follow my sister Marguerite to the old Biograph studio and then, one great day, Mr. Griffith noticed me, put me in a picture and I had my chance. I love my work and though new and very wonderful interests have entered my life, I still love it and couldn?t think of giving it up.?

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures Permalink

Mae Murray

October 25, 2019

Mae Murray was an American actress, dancer, film producer, and screenwriter. Murray rose to fame during the silent film era and was known as “The Girl with the Bee-Stung Lips” and “The Gardenia of the Screen”.

Born Marie Adrienne Koenig in Portsmouth, Virginia, she first began acting on the Broadway stage in 1906 with dancer Vernon Castle. In 1908, she joined the chorus line of the Ziegfeld Follies, moving up to headliner by 1915. Murray became a star of the club circuit in both the United States and Europe, performing with Clifton Webb, Rudolph Valentino, and John Gilbert as some of her many dance partners.

In 1908, she was briefly married to stockbroker William M. Schwenker, Jr. In 1916, she married Olympic bobsled champion Jay O’Brien and made her motion picture debut in To Have and to Hold that same year. She became a major star for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, starring with Rudolph Valentino in The Delicious Little Devil and Big Little Person in 1919. At the height of her popularity, Murray formed her own production company with her director, John M. Stahl. Critics were sometimes less than thrilled with her over-the-top costumes and exaggerated emoting, but her films were financially successful.

After divorcing Jay O’Brien in 1917, Murray married the movie director Robert Z. Leonard the following year and, beginning in 1925, Murray, Leonard, and Stahl produced films at Tiffany Pictures, with Souls for Sables, starring Claire Windsor and Eugene O’Brien, as the first film made by Tiffany. For a brief period of time, Murray wrote a weekly column for newspaper scion William Randolph Hearst.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Radio Permalink

Mae West

October 25, 2019

Mae West was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol.

Known for her bawdy double entendres, West made a name for herself in Vaudeville and on the stage in New York before moving to Hollywood to become a comedienne, actress and writer in the motion picture industry. One of the more controversial movie stars of her day, West encountered many problems including censorship.

When her cinematic career ended, she continued to perform on stage, in Las Vegas, in the United Kingdom, on radio and television, and recorded rock and roll albums.

West was born Mary Jane West in Bushwick, Brooklyn, Kings County, New York, daughter of John Patrick West and Matilda “Tillie” Doelger .

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Radio Permalink

Earvin Magic Johnson

October 25, 2019

Earvin “Magic” Johnson Jr. is a retired American professional basketball player who played point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association. After winning championships in high school and college, Johnson was selected first overall in the 1979 NBA Draft by the Lakers. He won a championship and an NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award in his rookie season, and won four more championships with the Lakers during the 1980s. Johnson retired abruptly in 1991 after announcing that he had HIV, but returned to play in the 1992 All-Star Game, winning the All-Star MVP Award. After protests from his fellow players, he retired again for four years, but returned in 1996 to play 32

25 Oct 2019
Radio, Recording Permalink

Mahalia Jackson

October 25, 2019

Mahalia Jackson was an African-American gospel singer. With her powerful contralto voice, Mahalia Jackson became one of the most influential gospel singers in the world and is the first Queen of Gospel Music. She recorded about 30 albums during her career, and her 45 rpm records included a dozen “golds”?million-sellers.

Born as Mahala Jackson and nicknamed “Halie”, Jackson grew up in the Black Pearl section of the Carrollton neighborhood of Uptown New Orleans, Louisiana. The three-room dwelling on Pitt Street housed thirteen people and a dog. This included Little Mahala, her brother Roosevelt Hunter, whom they called Peter, and her mother Charity Clark, who worked as both a maid and a laundress. Several aunts and cousins lived in the house as well. Aunt Mahala was given the nickname “Duke” after proving herself the undisputed ?boss? of the family. The extended family consisted of her mother’s siblings – Isabell, Mahala, Boston, Porterfield, Hannah, Alice, Rhoda, Bessie, their children, grandchildren and patriarch Rev. Paul Clark, a former slave. Mahalia’s father, John A. Jackson, Sr. was a stevedore and a barber who later became a Baptist minister. He fathered four other children besides Mahalia – Wilmon and then Yvonne, Pearl and Johnny, Jr. Her father’s sister, Jeanette Jackson-Burnett, and husband, Josie, were vaudeville entertainers.

When she was born Halie suffered from genu varum, or “bowed legs.” The doctors wanted to perform surgery by breaking Halie’s legs, but one of the resident aunts opposed it. So Halie’s mother would rub her legs down with greasy dishwater. The condition never stopped young Halie from performing her dance steps for the white woman her mother and Aunt Bell cleaned house for.

Mahalia was five when her mother, Charity, died, leaving her family to decide who would raise Halie and her brother. Aunt Duke assumed this responsibility, and the children were forced to work from sunup to sundown. Aunt Duke would always inspect the house using the “white glove” method. If the house was not cleaned properly, Halie was beaten. If one of the other relatives was unable to do their chores, or clean at their job, Halie or one of her cousins was expected to perform that particular task. School was hardly an option. Halie loved to sing and church is where she loved to sing the most. Halie?s Aunt Bell told her that one day she would sing in front of royalty, a prediction that would eventually come true. Mahalia Jackson began her singing career at the local Mount Mariah Baptist Church. She was baptized in Mississippi by Mt. Moriah’s pastor, the Rev. E. D. Lawrence, then went back to the church to “receive the right hand of fellowship.”

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Radio Permalink

Mako

October 25, 2019

A Japanese-American actor, many of his acting roles credited him simply as Mako, omitting his surname. Mako is known for Aku from Samurai Jack, Master Splinter from the movie TMNT, Iroh from, and Akiro from Conan the Barbarian. Mako was born in Kobe, Japan, the son of noted children's book author and illustrator Taro Yashima. His parents moved to the United States when he was a small child. He joined them there after World War II, in 1949, joining the military in the 1950s. He became a naturalized American citizen in 1956. When Mako first joined his parents in the USA, he studied architecture. During his military service, he discovered his theatrical talent, and trained at the Pasadena Community Playhouse.

Mako was married to actress Shizuko Hoshi with whom he had two daughters and three grandchildren.

Mako's first cinema role was in the 1959 film Never So Few. In 1965, frustrated by the limited roles available to himself and other Asian American actors, Mako and six others formed the East West Players theatre company, first performing out of a church basement. The company is one of the earliest Asian American theatre organizations, and not only provided a venue for Asian American actors to train and perform, but nurtured many Asian American playwrights. Mako remained artistic director of the company until 1989.

25 Oct 2019
Recording, Television Permalink

Mala Powers

October 25, 2019

Mary Ellen “Mala” Powers was an American film actress.

She was born in San Francisco, California. In 1940 her family moved to Los Angeles. Her father was an executive with United Press. In the summer of her relocation, Powers attended the Max Reinhardt Junior Workshop where she enjoyed her first role in a play before a live audience. She continued with her drama lessons, and a year later she auditioned and won a part in the 1942 Dead End Kids film Tough as They Come.

At the age of 16 she began working in radio drama, before becoming a film actress in 1950. Her first roles were in Outrage and Edge of Doom in 1950. That same year, Stanley Kramer signed Powers to star opposite Jose Ferrer in what may be her most remembered role as Roxane in Cyrano de Bergerac. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her part in this movie.

While on a USO entertainment tour in Korea in 1951, she acquired a blood disease and almost died. She was treated with chloromycetin, but a severe allergic reaction resulted in the loss of much of her bone marrow. Powers barely survived, and her recovery took nearly nine months.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Recording Permalink

Mamie Van Doren

October 25, 2019

Mamie Van Doren is an American actress and sex symbol.

Van Doren was born Joan Lucille Olander in Rowena, South Dakota, the daughter of Warner Carl Olander and Lucille Harriet Bennett. She is of three-quarters Swedish ancestry; the remainder is mixed English and German. Her mother named her after Joan Crawford. In 1939, the family moved to Sioux City, Iowa. In May 1942, they moved to Los Angeles.

In early 1946, Joan began working as an usher at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood. The following year, she had a bit part on an early television show. She also sang with Ted Fio Rito’s band and entered beauty contests. Van Doren was married for a brief time at seventeen. She and first husband, Jack Newman, eloped to Santa Barbara. The marriage dissolved quickly, upon her discovery of his abusive nature. In the summer of 1949, at age 18, she won the titles “Miss Eight Ball” and “Miss Palm Springs”.

Joan was discovered by famed producer Howard Hughes on the night she was crowned Miss Palm Springs. The pair dated for several years. Hughes launched her career by placing her in several RKO films.

25 Oct 2019
Recording Permalink

Mantovani

October 25, 2019

Annunzio Paolo Mantovani, known by the mononym Mantovani, was an Anglo-Italian conductor and light orchestra-style entertainer with a cascading strings musical signature. He is more associated with the light orchestra genre than any other entertainer.

Mantovani was born in Venice, Italy and his father was the concertmaster of La Scala orchestra under Arturo Toscanini. His family moved to England in 1912, where he studied at Trinity College of Music in London. After graduation, he formed his own orchestra, which played in and around Birmingham. By the time World War II broke out, his orchestra was one of the most popular in England, both on the BBC and in live performances.

He was also musical director for a large number of musicals and other plays, including ones by Noel Coward. After the war, he concentrated on recording, and eventually gave up live performance altogether. He worked with arranger and composer Ronnie Binge, who developed the “cascading strings” sound. His records were regulars in stores selling hi-fi stereo equipment, as they were produced and arranged for stereo reproduction. In 1952 Binge ceased to arrange for Mantovani, but his distinctive sound remained.

He recorded for Decca until the mid-1950s, and then London Records. He recorded over 50 albums on that label, many of which were top-40 hits. These included Song from Moulin Rouge and Cara Mia, which reached No. 1 in Britain in 1953 and 1954, respectively. The latter was also Mantovani’s first U.S. Top Ten hit.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Recording Permalink

Madge Bellamy

October 25, 2019

Madge Bellamy was an American film actress who was a popular leading lady in the 1920s and early 1930s. Her career declined in the sound era, and ended following a romantic scandal in the 1940s.

Madge Bellamy was born in Hillsboro, Texas in 1899 as Margaret Derden Philpott to William Bledsoe Philpott, a professor of English and Annie Margaret Derden. The family was of English and Irish heritage. Her father was an 1884 graduate of Texas A&M University. Besides teaching English, he taught history and languages, and he also edited many scholarly works. Her parents were married on June 22, 1898 in Hillsboro, Hill County, Texas. Bellamy was raised in San Antonio, Texas until she was 6 years old, and the family later moved to Brownwood, Texas, where her father taught at the local college. When she was 10 years old, the Philpotts moved to Denver, Colorado. Bellamy caught the acting bug as a young girl, and she soon appeared in several plays as a youth.

She ran away to New York City at age 17, and she was soon working as an actor and dancer on Broadway. In 1918, she played the lead role in “Pollyanna” on Broadway and in the touring show. She also appeared in “Dear Brutus”, “Dream Girl”, and in “Peg O’ My Heart on Broadway”. In November 1920, she signed an exclusive contract with Thomas H. Ince’s newly formed Triangle film company to appear in the film called “Passing Thru” which was released in the fall of 1921.

Bellamy made her film debut in 1920. After 4 years with Famous Players her contract was picked up by Fox Film Corporation. Her best known films include Love Never Dies, Lorna Doone, and The Iron Horse .