Having Fun

I haven't been blogging much of late. Inspiration and fun has come to me from another source, the Etobicoke Centennial Choir's presentation of a concert performance of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance on May 28th and 29th.

This concert concluded my second season with the choir and I was quite chuffed to be in G&S land. While the choir repertoire is new and wonderfully challenging, my background is in theatre and musical comedy and now, I felt, was something in my wheelhouse. Straight away I auditioned for "Ruth", a role I always wanted to get a crack at. However, it appears my bottom notes are not all I thought them to be. No matter. Straight away I auditioned for "Kate" or "Edith" or anyone else who might fall under the category of "one of the others". "Kate" it was, and I was very pleased for she gets a few pithy lines and I'm a gal who likes to get her laughs.

My approach to the part was totally from an acting perspective because although I'm in a choir, I don't yet comfortably think of myself as a singer. I have learned a lot, but have a lot more to learn. I wanted to act the role and hoped the singing would be pleasant. It has been ten years since my last play (Aunt Abby in Arsenic and Old Lace) followed by a prolonged battle against cancer and a resultant unreliable body. I was excited about once more releasing my inner ham.

I don't have a picture in my "Kate" get-up, but here I am in full-on chorister mode.

Folks always have a good time with G&S and ECC's concert was no exception. Our group featured some wonderful professional lead performers and the choir really cut loose and filled the hall with beautiful singing.

I was the best one.
According to my family.
Well, of the supporting players.
Who are female.
Who they are related to.

I was the recipient of some lovely compliments and - oh, how I wish we were doing something like this again soon.

Esther Howard as "Mrs. Kraft", Born to Kill

One of my character actress idols, Esther Howard, was also a singer. She played naughty Clothilde in the 1928 - 29 Broadway production of Sigmund Romberg's The New Moon. What's needed now is for someone to write a musical version of Born to Kill or maybe Murder, My Sweet. After all, Sunset Boulevard worked. Can't you just hear Jesse Florian's big aria in Murder, My Sweet?

I told ya...I told ya, copper
I don't know anybody...I told ya'...anybody
By....the....name....of....Moose!!!

White Christmas

Greetings one and all! Today is a sort of milestone in that I have been blogging for three years. I know it has been three years because this is my third annual IT'S BING CROSBY'S BIRTHDAY blog.

Today we're going to take a personal look at one of the most popular recordings of all-time. A song that consoled hearts in wartime and cheers over-heated, grumpy shoppers to this very day.

Few of us haven't enjoyed Bing's initial version of White Christmas in the 1942 release Holiday Inn. One mistake I made with that movie was showing it to my daughter Janet when she was young as her first Fred Astaire flick. It took her years to get over a certain animosity toward Mr. A for trying to steal Bing's girl! I should have started with Follow the Fleet. A song and idea that popular just had to be repeated and the 1954 film White Christmas became another holiday perennial for those of us who take a large dose of Christmastime through entertainment.

Irving Berlin called White Christmas one of his "round" songs. A tune which seemed to compose itself, it came to him so effortlessly. His enthusiasm for the song never wavered. It seems that way as well with the public who has placed it at the number one of the Billboard charts 3 times since it was first heard. I understand there may be people out there whose favourite singer is not Bing Crosby (???), but even those souls probably consider Bing the master of White Christmas.

Here's a fellow I know tolerably well. This is my son Gavin who has an amazing talent for mimicry which is not uncommon among those diagnosed as autistic. His independent language skills are not top-notch, but he knows every line from every classic Disney feature and short and can imitate everyone from Jerry Colonna to Kathryn Beaumont.

The Christmas before last I was baking and listening to the radio in the kitchen. AM740 was obliging me with Christmas songs and they gave out with Frank Sinatra singing White Christmas. Suddenly Gavin was beside me. He shut off the radio and turned and stared at me with wide eyes. The wide eyes generally mean Gavin is ready to say something important like the time he couldn't figure out Easter and wished everybody a Happy Thanksgiving. This time he didn't "say", he "sang". He sang White Christmas. He sang White Christmas in a perfect imitation of Bing Crosby and the record he's heard since birth. When he finished Gavin returned to his endless video loop of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. My husband looked at me and said, "Frank's been told!"

My Gavin moments are special, and this one came to me courtesy of the spirit of Bing Crosby which lives in music and movies. I raise a toast to that spirit.

Happy Birthday, Barbara Hale

Quick: Name the bombshell of an actress who played a nightclub singer in a film noir and treated the audience to Put the Blame on Mame. No. We're not talking about Rita Hayworth in Gilda. The answer is today's birthday girl Barbara Hale pictured above in 1955s The Houston Story co-starring Gene Barry and Edward Arnold.

Barbara was born April 18, 1922 in DeKalb, Illinois. The art student turned to modeling as a money-making career and was signed by RKO Studios. Barbara was featured and starred in several pictures including two entertaining Falcon with Tom Conway, The Falcon Out West and The Falcon in Hollywood, Higher and Higher with Frank Sinatra, Jolson Sings Again with Larry Parks, The Jackpot with Jimmy Stewart, The Window with Bobby Driscoll and Arthur Kennedy, The Far Horizon with Fred MacMurray and Charlton Heston, Unchained and Lorna Doone.

In 1946 Barbara married fellow RKO contractee Bill Williams. TV's Kit Carson can be seen in movies such as Son of Paleface, The Stratton Story, The Cariboo Trail, and The Body Snatcher. Yes, The Body Snatcher. Look for him next time. It's not all about Karloff (see blogs in November). The marriage would last until Bill's death from cancer in 1992. Was there ever a more attractive couple? Who else can claim to have given the world The Greatest American Hero. Acting son William Katt would also work with his mother on television in the 80s in the Perry Mason TV movies.

In my child's mind, this is how I thought grown-up ladies should look. I didn't quite realize that the real world is not exactly like the movies. Roddy McDowall doesn't grow up to be Tyrone Power. However, I did own certain office attire that when my weight was managed I would head to work thinking that today I looked like Della Street.

In the 1950s Barbara devoted most of her time to her young family. On interview extras included with the Perry Mason anniversary DVD release, she mentions speaking to Gail Patrick Jackson about an idea she had for customizing costumes for dolls to be sold in specialty boutiques. Gail had other plans. As a co-executive producer for a proposed Perry Mason television series, she wanted Barbara for Della Street. Previous movie secretaries to Erle Stanley Gardner's crime-busting attorney included Claire Dodd to Warren William, June Travis to Ricardo Cortez and Ann Dvorak to Donald Woods. The pilot might not even sell. It shouldn't cut into her time too much.

The justifiably popular and famous series ran from 1957 - 1966. Barbara Hale won an Emmy as Della Street and the show gave her a best friend in her talented, prankster of a co-star Raymond Burr. She guested on an episode of Ironside and for the longest time fans contented themselves with reruns of Mason to see the dynamic duo.

In 1985 television hit a rating bonanza with Perry Mason Returns in which Della is accused of the crime of murder. Does she know a good attorney? 30 TV movies would follow in the next ten years. Do you remember The Case of the Lost Love when Jean Simmons came between Perry and Della? Well, she tried to.

I sincerely wish continued health and happiness to a lovely and inspiring woman.


Thanks to Big Dave's Barbara Hale Annex for use of the photos.

Harold Huber

as "that rat, Nunheim" in 1934s The Thin Man

Harold Joseph Huberman (later legally Huber) was born December 5, 1909, in the Bronx. That he was an observant lad is evident by the many characters he played on screen. He was also a very bright fellow enrolling as a teenager in an advanced experimental school that was a branch of New York University that included advanced classes in all subjects and graduation in 3 years. Harold followed that up by studying Law at Columbia University.

At some point, the appeal of the law as a career was overtaken by the lure of the footlights and in 1930 the obviously determined young man appeared in his first of five Broadway productions, A Farewell to Arms. Harold appeared in a couple of New York shot films for Warner Brothers before moving to Hollywood.

Entertainment reporters of the 1930s and 1940s describe Harold Huber as the antithesis of the mugs he usually played on screen. A devoted family man to his wife Ethel and daughter Margaret, and described by co-stars as a delightful person. An amateur fencing champion (hence the scar so handy for playing villains). A scholar (Brian Donlevy called him "the professor") with a great interest and knowledge of antiques who also spoke five languages.

A busy character from his first movie in Hollywood Central Park, 1932 starring Joan Blondell, Harold Huber appeared in classics such as The Match King, The Bowery, The Thin Man, Naughty Marietta, G-Men, and Beau Geste. He is a welcome sight in enjoyable crime programmers and most important to this child of the late show, he is a superstar in the Charlie Chan universe.

Harold Huber, Donald Woods, Keye Luke, Warner Oland

Charlie Chan on Broadway

One of the best of the popular detective series Charlie Chan on Broadway, 1937 directed by Eugene Forde is a snappy, slang-filled mystery with an outstanding cast. Leon Ames is a milk-drinking gangster. Marc Lawrence a thug named Thomas Mitchell. Douglas Fowley as a tough nightclub owner with an eye for the ladies. J. Edward Bromberg as a calculating newspaper editor and Canadian-born Donald Woods as reporter Speed Patton, "the freshest guy on Broadway". Joan Marsh who began in silent films as a child is a Ginger Rogers/Roz Russell gal reporter.

Joan Woodbury (of the soap family) is a nightclub dancer who does a routine similar to the one she did in the 1935 Hopalong Cassidy movie The Eagle's Brood. She was more sympathetic in that earlier picture. Louise Henry plays a gal who puts herself in harm's way. She does the same thing in Charlie Chan in Reno and the Philo Vance mystery The Casino Murder Case. Some girls never learn.

Harold Huber is Inspector Nelson of the NYPD and he's the fastest talking slang slinger of them all. He's also a very good police officer who is not cowed by Chan's reputation and the two work in a fine partnership to solve the murders (there's never just one) as Chan and Son hit the big town. Huber is quirky and fun. I don't think a Nelson of New York spin-off would have been out of order.

Warner Oland, Harold Huber

Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo

Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo, 1937 also directed by Forde is not great Chan, but it's not bad either. It's just that this story of a stock swindle and romance among the upper crust featuring Kay Linaker and Sidney Blackmer has a pall over it as it is the last movie featuring Warner Oland. He would mysteriously walk away from Hollywood dealing with illness and personal problems and while his death would not end the series it would, for a while, end the participation of Keye Luke.

Harold Huber here plays Inspector Joubert an effusive and urbane Frenchman with a comic opera accent who assists in the investigation. Again he works well with Oland and Luke and the result of the partnership is more than satisfactory.

C. Henry Gordon, Sidney Toler, Harold Huber

Charlie Chan in City in Darkness

New Chan Sidney Toler revived the series with Charlie Chan in Honolulu, 1939 with the welcome addition of Sen Yung as number 2 son, Jimmy. Perhaps busy elsewhere, Yung is not featured in the same year's City in Darkness directed by Herbert I. Leeds.

On the eve of war in Europe Chan reunites with old comrades in Paris and comes up against gun runners and spies. A nicely paced entry featuring C. Henry Gordon, Pedro de Cordoba, Douglas Dumbrille, Leo G. Carroll, lovely Lynn Bari, and in a non-speaking bit the same year he broke out in Of Mice and Men is Lon Chaney, Jr.

To Harold Huber fell the job of comic relief. I have acquaintances who do not care for his work in this movie. I am not of their mind. Perhaps it is because I like Huber or that I have a soft spot in my heart for those who toil as comic relief. Huber's character, Police Inspector Marcel Spivak, is a combination of Charlie's boys and his annoying early assistant Kashimo put together in his eagerness and ineptitude. He can't deal with the public, the crooks, or the blackouts as he fumbles, bumbles, and gets pushed around in his effort to keep up with Chan mentally and physically. I can't help but think of him as the emotional Pere de Clouseau, and I get a kick out of the work.

Lobby card, Charlie Chan in Rio

Harold Huber's last Chan picture, Charlie Chan in Rio, 1941 directed by Harry Lachman is a reworking of The Black Camel, 1931 and features the earlier movie's director Hamilton MacFadden as an amiable drunk. Victor Jory is a phony psychic and Mary Beth Hughes and Ted North, who would be briefly married, are featured. This is an early outing for cinematographer Joseph MacDonald (My Darling Clementine, Panic in the Streets) and you can tell the young man will be going places.

Harold's character, Chief Souto is an investigator back on equal footing with the visiting Chan. He's a friendly and efficient sort who helps the case along. Respectful of Charlie, patient with Jimmy, and confident of his own skills.

Movies would continue to be a part of Harold Huber's career, but it would also include radio where he was the leading player in The Adventures of M. Hercule Poirot aka Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, 1945-1946. A pleasant way to spend time when you are in the mood for a little tea and murder. 1950 saw Harold Huber starring in a short-lived television series I Cover Times Square.

On September 29, 1959, Harold Huber passed away during surgery at the Jewish Memorial Hospital. His film roles tell us all we need to know about the actor. His headstone tells us all we need to know about the man.

Old friends from days gone by.

Pernell Roberts
May 18, 1928 - January 25, 2010

Pernell Roberts, noted actor, singer and civil rights supporter has passed away. Born in Georgia, Pernell sang in USO shows as a teenager and wasm for a time, a US Marine before casting his lot as a performer. The New York stage gave him the opportunity to play Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew and Hollywood, on the look out for new faces, called him west in 1957. And it was indeed the west as westerns were the most popular entertainments of the day. Director John Rich was most impressed with Roberts' audition for the series Gunsmoke and he got the part (episode: How to Kill a Woman) after quickly learning to ride a horse.

Pernell Roberts was cast as Adam Cartwright in the soon to be phenomally successful Bonanza, but after a few years became discontented with the program, playing the eldest and smartest of the three Cartwright brothers. Although the role gave him a chance to do comedy, romance and action, it wasn't enough for the restless star. Actors like to spread their wings and Pernell became discontented with the storylines. The producers attempted a change to keep their star happy in casting Kathie Browne as a character Adam would marry, but the itchy footed troubadour took off for hopefully greener pastures. While guest roles on other series provided character changes and albums and musical theatre roles gave outlet to his glorious baritone, movie success was not to be a part of Pernell's career.

My favourite of his movie roles is in 1959's Ride Lonesome which is available on dvd as part of the Budd Boetticher box set. His Sam Boone is a thoughtful, likable and garrulous "bad guy". You almost root for him in his battle with star Randolph Scott. No. You do root for Sam Boone. It's a well-done role in a fine film and it's a shame more of the kind didn't come Pernell Robert's way.

It was television that would give Pernell Roberts another starring role and success in the series Trapper John (1979-1986). I recall a TV Guide article at the time where his co-star, the late and lovely Madge Sinclair, remarked that Pernell was a "grumpy Taurus" and she understood him because she was one too. As a certified GT as well I feel a kinship with the stars.

Johnny Seven
February 23, 1926 - January 22, 2010

If Johnny Seven's face isn't a familiar one to you then you didn't watch any television between 1950 and 1990! John Antony Fetto was born in New York City, the only brother among six sisters. A boy soprano in his younger days and a soldier as a young man, he was bit by the acting bug when he appeared in USO shows. He spent his life as an actor, a writer, a director (Navajo Run, 1964) and a husband to Estelle Piselli whom he married in 1949, and a father of two. His son John Jr. would become his manager. I think that speaks of a fine relationship.

Johnny Seven made his movie debut as one of the longshoreman in On the Waterfront and appeared in The Apartment as Karl Matuschka, Fran's brother-in-law. Television gave him a variety of roles as he appeared in hundreds of programs from Peter Gunn to Murder, She Wrote. After a couple of guest appearances on Ironside, he had a recurring role on that series as Lt. Carl Reese.

Television. I used to watch a lot of television. My shows were special to me and the cast members became like family. Bonanza was a Sunday night tradition for generations. I'm sure there are some among us who would rather spend holidays with the Cartwrights then with some relatives. Ironside was one of my shows. Cleveland Amory once wrote that while every episode of Ironside might not be the best episode of Ironside, it doesn't matter. It's the Chief and Ed and Mark and Eve/Fran and Lt. Reese that we want to see. These fellows, Pernell Roberts and Johnny Seven, were welcome in homes for years and will continue to be old friends from days gone by.

Starstruck

Jean Simmons
1929 - 2010

I have never lost the electric thrill that occurs when the ticket to a play passes from the box office into my hands. The first time I attended a legit performance it was an April 1974 birthday present from my folks. Jean Simmons starring in A Little Night Music at the Royal Alexandra Theatre.

Sondhemim's waltz haunts me as does those heartbreakingly silly and sad characters in the play and the faces of the generations of actors in their black and white portraits that fill the stairways of the Royal Alex.  I remember climbing that neverending stairway to the upper balcony for the first of countless times and seeing the faces familiar to me from movies such as Basil Rathbone, Fay Bainter, Harry Carey, Mischa Auer, and those I only knew from reading about their careers, Lunt and Fontanne, Cornelia Otis Skinner.

I remember Jean Simmons - coy, honest, smart, defeated, simply gorgeous and selling that song. Yes. She was Desiree Armfeldt. When I would remember to breathe I would remember that she was also scheming Lily in Footsteps in the Fog, brave Julie Maragon in The Big Country, besotted Sarah Brown in Guys and Dolls and conflicted Sister Sharon in Elmer Gantry.

In 35 years of theatre-going I have seen many great names and many humbler names. I have been moved and impressed by work, but rarely have I been starstruck. Long after the details of a show have been forgotten I recall where I sat and how I sat. The sounds around me and the weather outside. The light-headed euphoria of having shared a lifetime with the folk on stage and the leaden feet that don't want to leave the theatre. Oh, how I hate to leave the theatre!

There is a special place in my heart for the woman, the actress, the star that was and is Jean Simmons.

A Frank Puglia Double Bill

Frank Puglia
March 9, 1892 - October 25, 1975

Frank Puglia was born in Sicily and began his theatrical career at 15 years of age when he joined an opera company. Emigrating to the United States in 1907 he appeared in Italian language theatrical productions and learned his English from newspapers.

D.W. Griffith brought Puglia to the screen in 1921 recreating a role he had played in the stage production of Orphans of the Storm. Playing small, but memorable roles of all ethnic backgrounds, Puglia was a busy actor from that time on. You have seen him in Maytime, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Mark of Zorro, Casablanca as a most ambitious vendor, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Brute Force, Road to Rio, Joan of Arc, The Caddy, etc.

If like me, you grew up watching television in the 1960s or caught these programs in syndication you can spot Puglia in Rawhide, Hazel, I Dream of Jeannie, Bonanza, The Fugitive, High Chaparral, To Rome With Love, and Ironside.

For many years I would recognize Frank Puglia as the mysterious and loyal "Talo" in 1944s Tall in the Saddle. Speaking of mysterious, he is uncredited in an important role. Perhaps that is why it took me a while to learn his name.

I had a Frank Puglia double bill the other day. First up was TCM's airing of Always in My Heart from 1942.

Not since 1934's Wagon Wheels has the viewing public been hit over the head with a theme song with such fervor. Fortunately, it is a lovely tune by Cuba's Ernesto Lecuona, who gave us "Siboney" and "Malaguena". The English lyrics are from Kim Gannon, writer of I'll Be Home for Christmas, Five O'clock Whistle, and Dreamer's Holiday. It is sung repeatedly by a lovely young soprano named Gloria Warren who disappeared from the movies after a half dozen titles. She plays the daughter of Kay Francis and Walter Huston. She and her brother Frankie Thomas (Tom Corbett, Space Cadet) believe their father to be dead, yet he has recently been pardoned from prison. Is it right to keep his identity from the children? Should Kay marry her rich beau, Sidney Blackmer?

We know Kay should stay away from the monied Blacker. Why? Because he doesn't like Frank Puglia, that's why. Puglia plays Joe Borelli, the youngster's mentor in life and music. One of those happy fellows with a fishing boat, a large family, and a large heart. Maybe he can bring the fractured family together again. This is the sort of movie that made me cry watching it on the late show. Borah Minevitch and his Rascals, the famous harmonica troupe are an added feature that can make the weepy easy to handle on a rainy day. However, be prepared to have that title song ringing in your head for a few hours or maybe even days.

Puglia as Achmed Halide peeks around the corner of this poster.

Next, I enjoyed a DVD from my treasured Charlie Chan collection. Charlie Chan in Panama was directed by Norman Foster in 1940 and it's a dandy. Puglia is an Arab tobacconist with information for sale. Is he a notorious saboteur/murderer? It could be any one of a number of suspects including the Viennese chemist, the British author, the American schoolteacher, the American engineer, the pretty European refugee, or the dashing nightclub owner.

Charlie Chan is undercover in the canal zone to ferret out the spy who has eluded capture. Of course, that cover is neatly blown when number two son, Jimmy, arrives unexpectedly. This Sidney Toler and Sen Yung outing has a great cast with Puglia, Jack LaRue, Kane Richmond, Jean Rogers, Mary Nash, Lionel Atwill, Addison Richards, Don Douglas, and Chris Pin-Martin. Danger, humour, and tension combine perfectly in the timely WW2 era story. Definitely one for the must-see and must-see-again list.

Keep your eyes peeled on your next classic movie viewings. Especially watch for Frank's star turn as a frightened witness testifying against the Mafia in 1950s Black Hand. Maybe you'll have your own Frank Puglia double bill.

Bonus picture:

Frank Puglia in Bulldog Drummond's Revenge. Honest!