Marjorie Beebe, Part 1

Today I will cover the films of a silent movie star, Marjorie Beebe (1909 - 1983).  Your reaction may be similar to mine when I heard the name.  I said, "Who?"  Here is how this came about.

A few months ago I posted about Andy Clyde (1892 - 1967).  His is a well known name in film and TV.  I received an e-mail from a chap in London who told me about Beebe.  He was actually writing a short bio of her for a magazine at the time, which has since been published in the Journal of Popular Culture.  His name is Ian Craine. 

Marjorie Beebe appears in 79 titles from 1926 to 1939, and was a staple in over 40 films with Mack Sennett, who gave her a real chance starting in 1929.  She made 17 films with Andy Clyde, and played his daughter in many of the 'Pop Martin' movies. 

Her first talkie was a Fox film called Four A.M. made in 1927.  It starred Tyler Brooke (1886 - 1943) who was in several Hal Roach movies, including some with Laurel and Hardy. 

Beebe moved to Sennett in 1929 and her first film there, also with Andy Clyde, was called A Hollywood Star.  About ten of these early films also starred Harry Gribbon (1885 - 1961) who had a long movie career of over 150 films.

Beebe only made one feature while at Sennett.  Hypnotized in 1932 starred the comedy team of George Moran and Charles Mack, a vaudeville act who worked in black face as the Two Black Crows.  Marjorie played a maid, so it must have been a Bit Part for her.  The movie does not get very good reviews.

Photo courtesy of Ian Craine

Her last films with Sennett were released in 1933, and she made a few pictures with other studios until her last appearance on film in Hollywood Cavalcade (1939) starring Alice Faye and Don Ameche.  She played a silent film telephone operator.

So there are the 'nuts and bolts' of Marjorie Beebe to give you some background.  On Thursday I will post a bio of her that was written by Ian Craine specifically for me (and you).  I am sure you will find it interesting and informative.

Actors like Beebe should be remembered for their contribution to the film industry.  Who knows how many people she may have influenced?

A Perfect Day to be Blotto

After Blogging my heart out on Hitchcock, a return to my roots is in order.  Turner Classic Movies is running Hal Roach movies and TV shows all this month.  Here are two Laurel and Hardy shorts that were on last week.

Perfect Day (1929) - Only Laurel and Hardy can turn a Sunday picnic into a disaster movie.  Uncle Edgar, played by Edgar Kennedy (1890 - 1948), is suffering from the gout in his foot, so it is well wrapped.  L&H start a ruckus in the house and Kennedy's foot keeps getting bumped.  Even the dog grabs it and won't let go.  After destroying all the sandwiches while packing the food, the boys and their wives, plus Uncle Edgar and the dog, all pile into the car.

Trouble with the car, including two flat tires with Stan trying to use a car jack, keeps them stuck.  Then there is an altercation with a neighbor and bricks start flying.  Back in the car, and it won't start.  Ollie is cranking and Stan flips the spark advance lever to cause a huge explosion.  Ollie tells Stan to throw out the clutch, so he rips out the pedal.  You get the picture.  When they finally get moving, there is a big puddle to drive through.  You can guess what happens.

Blotto (1930) - I hesitate to say this is one of my favorites because where will it end?  I have too many favorites as it is.  Stan and his wife, played by Anita Garvin (1906 - 1994) (whom I have had the pleasure to know personally), are at home.  Anita is playing solitaire and Stan wants to go out with his friend, Ollie.  She forbids it so the boys work up a scheme to go to the Rainbow Club.

Anita has a hidden bottle of liquor and the boys plot to take it with them.  She finds out and replaces the contents with cold tea and Tabasco.  At the club, the boys order their two cents plain and pour in the booze.  Amidst some wonderful entertainment at the club, they get blasted and have a great time.  Then they see Anita at another table, with her new double barrel shotgun.

Blotto includes Tiny Sanford (1894 - 1961) as one of the waiters, in a non-speaking role.  Tiny made over 130 films, and over 50 Hal Roach films, and can be seen in many of Charlie Chaplin's classics.  The singer at the club is played by Frank Holliday (1912 - 1948) who was also in It Happened One Night (1934) and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936).

The best part of Blotto is watching the emotional reaction of the boys to the booze, the singing, and finally the realization that they got blotto on cold tea.  Stan goes through crying fits and then laughing fits, and I dare you to keep a straight face whilst watching.

Copyright 1979 Allen Hefner

One other item to mention as you watch the Hal Roach movies this month.  Listen to the music.  Roach used the same music in many Our Gang, Laurel and Hardy, Charley Chase and other movies of the time.  Most of it was written by T. Marvin Hatley (1905 - 1986) and Leroy Shield (1893 - 1962).  My guess is that the same tunes made it less expensive to make so many movies, but there is also a continuity created.  You know you are watching a Hal Roach comedy.

There is still time to catch some of today's movies on TCM.  You can see some of the Thelma Todd (1906 - 1935) shorts this afternoon.  Todd had a tragically short life, but she did shine in her films.  Starting on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 at 8:00 p.m., make sure to catch the Hal Roach features, beginning with the best of the best, Sons of the Desert (1933) starring L&H.

Please respect the photographs I have taken.  If you want to use them, please ask first.  It's probably OK, I just want to know and maybe receive credit under the pic!

Don Brodie - Making Movies Without the Fame

I don't think Don Brodie (1904 - 2001) is a name that brings a lot of movies to mind for most folks.  His name didn't mean anything to me, but his movies do.  He has 305 movies and TV shows in his filmography.

From 1931 through 1939 he made over 170 movies, and he worked with most of the big stars of the era.  He made three films at Hal Roach Studios, including one with Charley Chase and one with Laurel and Hardy.  Come to think of it, Charley Chase was also in that film with L&H, Sons of the Desert (1933).

These were bit parts and he played reporters, waiters, photographers, and he was the man waiting in line.  He also did some voice work for Walt Disney, including a part in Pinocchio in 1940. 

He was in The Great Dictator (1940) with Charlie Chaplin, The Pride of the Yankees (1942) with Gary Cooper, Mr. Lucky in 1943, Mr. Blandings Builds his Dream House (1948) with Cary Grant, On the Town (1949), Harvey (1950), April in Paris (1952), and he was still working for another 37 years.

He worked with everyone from John Wayne to Elvis Presley.  In 1970 he was a passenger on a stage with Dustin Hoffman in Little Big Man.  His last movie was Goodnight, Sweet Marilyn (1989) with Paula Lane and Misty Rowe (b. 1952), which was apparently a stinker.

His TV work included many series' from the very early days.  He started on TV in "Dick Tracy" and then "Boston Blackie."  He was a guest or just a bit player on TV, and appeared mostly in single or two or three episodes.  He was in "Mister Ed" three times according to IMDb.  His last appearances on TV were in "Murder, She Wrote" and "Hotel" in the late 1980s.

You can see Brodie's picture on his Wikipedia entry here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Brodie.

People with careers like Don Brodie should not be forgotten.  They worked hard and gave a lot to make these productions better.  And I am sure they had a lot of fun at the same time.

James Finlayson (1887 - 1953)

Where would Homer Simpson be if there were no Jimmy Finlayson before him?  It was Fin who would look into the camera and exclaim, "D'OH!" usually with great emphasis and one eye closed.  Homer was inspired by Fin.

Finlayson was born in Scotland and came to America in 1912.  He appeared in the theater until he landed in Hollywood in 1916 and took a stab at movies.  His first film was released in 1918 and by the next year, he was with Mack Sennett, where he worked until 1922.

Hal Roach was next, and it is here that Fin found a home and some great friends.  About half of his 240 or so movies were made there.  Fin made some silent films with San Laurel and some with Oliver Hardy before they were a team.  He then went on to make over 30 films with them as a team.

In the Sons of the Desert, we toast the memory of Fin at every banquet.  He was the perfect foil for L&H.  His role in Way Out West as the saloon owner trying to put one over on L&H and Rosina Lawrence is a comedy classic. 

Finlayson did make some dramas as well.  He appeared in The Dawn Patrol with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and For the Defense with William Powell both in 1930, and I am sure in others.

Later he was in The Great Victor Herbert in 1939 with Mary Martin, and To Be or Not to Be with Carole Lombard and Jack Benny in 1942.  In 1951 his health was starting to decline, but he made Royal Wedding with Fred Astaire and Here Comes the Groom with Bing Crosby. 

The moustache he wore while at Hal Roach was fake, so you have to look for him in the other films.  It will always be the Laurel and Hardy films that he is remembered for.  Watch him in Big Business, a 1929 silent film with Stan and Ollie as Christmas tree salesmen trying to sell Fin a tree.  It is easily one of the best silent comedy shorts ever made, and Fin is easily one of the best Bit Actors to ever live.

Pete or Pal?

After writing about Our Gang yesterday, and also including a dog tale in the post, I did some research on the dog named Pete in the Our Gang comedies.  Pete is one of the most recognizable animals to ever appear in film, mostly because of the ring around his eye.  That aspect of him opens up some urban legends.

According to IMDb, before making the Our Gang comedies, the same dog, named Pete the Dog, was used in the silent film series Buster Brown, and he played Tige from 1925 to 1929.  IMDb lists his birth name as Pal and death date as 1930.  Here is where IMDb shows itself as a less than accurate source for really obscure information.  There is another entry for Pal the Dog, that does not list Buster Brown or Our Gang and did not work at Hal Roach Studios.  Perhaps there were two Pals, I do not know, but follow me on this.

Pal the Dog has a listing of 15 films from 1920 to 1927.  His death date is shown as November 18, 1929.  Pete the Dog (our hero) made 61 films from 1925 to 1931.  His last film, The Slippery Pearls, was a promotional film to raise funds for a tuberculosis sanatorium, and must have been released after his death, probably using existing footage.

Pete the Dog appeared in his first three films in 1925 at Hal Roach Studios.  Two were with Babe Hardy (Somewhere in Wrong and Yes, Yes, Nanette, before Ollie began using Oliver as his screen name), and one (Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde) with Stan Laurel.  Then he moved into the Buster Brown series, and eventually worked with Our Gang from 1929 to 1930 where he made seven shorts.

Confusion alert!  There is also an entry for Pete the Pup on IMDb.  Pete the Pup made only three Our Gang shorts; The Kid from Borneo (1933), Teacher's Beau (1935), and Roamin' Holiday (1937).  All three dogs (Pal the Dog, Pete the Dog and Pete the Pup) were American Staffordshire terriers, or pit bulls.

I looked at the Allmovie web site and they list Pete the Pup appearing in 76 films, 75 of them are Our Gang films, from 1925 to 1928.  Perhaps they are listing the character name rather than the actor.  They do not list him as appearing in the Buster Brown series, so I searched for Pal the Dog.  That listing shows Pal the Dog as appearing in only 13 films from 1921 to 1943!  This cannot be accurate, because his last film listed was Lassie Come Home.  Pal was the name of the collie who played the first Lassie in movies, but that Pal was born on June 4, 1940.

Wikipedia has some, possibly accurate, information that at least makes sense.  Pal played Tige in Buster Brown and was the first Pete in the Our Gang films.  He was owned and trained by Lt. Harry Lucenay.  Pal sired a puppy who was born on September 6, 1929, and was named Lucenay's Peter.  This dog went on to play some of Our Gang as Pete (I think), so he may be Pete the Pup on IMDb, even though Pete the Pup is not his real name.

The difficulty with Wikipedia is that it contradicts the IMDb listings for Pete the Pup when it says that Harry Lucenay left Hal Roach in 1932 and moved to Atlantic City, NJ.  So which dog made those three movies from 1933 to 1937 that included Pete the Pup?  Wikipedia lists Pal as dying in 1930, and Lucenay's Peter in 1946.

For more confusion, just Google "Pete the Pup."  Pitbullsontheweb.com has a complete biography of Pete the Pup with many more contradictions.  Various stories on the web have Pete being either poisoned or shot to death.  One site even posts a newspaper clipping, but it does not cite which paper or give a date.

Other dogs obviously played Pete in several Our Gang films, and I doubt anyone will ever get the entire list together.  Even the ring around his eye would change sides from film to film.  Apparently Pal the Dog had most of a ring and the rest was filled in with dye, so that started the identifying mark.  When Pal retired, Lucenay's Peter had the ring added to his face.  There is one account that said Max Factor was the makeup man who did the ring.  Who knows!  But, whatever you call him, Pete was a great Bit Actor.

Hal Roach's Rascals...Well, one of them!

My wife and I live in a condo and in our development we are allowed to have pets.  (No farm animals!)  One of our neighbors has a small dog named Wheezer, so that got me thinking about Our Gang and Hal Roach.  My mind travels in funny circles, often revolving around my youth and the movies I've seen.

Back in the early 1920's, Hal Roach was auditioning children for a film.  They were all over prepared and over dressed by their mothers, and he was suffering through it.  He noticed some children playing in a lumber yard with pieces of wood, and that was the inspiration for the Our Gang series of shorts. 

Hal wanted to make short films with children being themselves, and it worked.  From 1922 to 1944, 220 short comedies and one feature were made, using about 44 children and a variety of animals over the years.  I was very privileged to know Dorothy DeBorba for a few years while I was a member of the Sons of the Desert.  Dorothy played Little Echo from 1930 to 1933, starting when she was only five years old.

Back to Wheezer.  Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchens was born on March 29, 1925 and started his acting career in 1927, only 2 years old.  That silent film was called Baby Brother and the cast included Oliver Hardy and another acquaintance of mine, Anita Garvin.  I don't remember seeing this one, but I intend to look for it.  It is included in the collection at left.

Wheezer continued making movies into the talkie era, until 1933, appearing 65 times.  Only a small handful of his films were without the rest of the Our Gang kids.  The truly sad thing about these talented children was that none of them made anything from these films except their salary at the time, which ranged from $40 to $200 a week.  It took later efforts, in part by Penny Singleton (Blondie), to force the studios to compensate talent for profits made after the release of their films and on promotional products.

The Our Gang series was syndicated for television under the name "The Little Rascals," and I remember watching them all as a child.  TV didn't show many of the silent films, though, so those are worth looking for.

In 1938, Hal Roach sold the Our Gang series, including the contracts of the cast, to MGM for $25,000.  MGM continued making some films until 1944, but the spontaneity was lost and popularity declined.  Mostly because MGM wanted the films to be scripted and the children just weren't up to the task of delivering lines written by others.

Bobby Hutchins' acting career didn't continue after he started getting older, and it ended when he was just 8 years old.  In fact, none of the Our Gang members had much of a continuing career in film. The only real exception was Jackie Cooper who went on to stardom. 

On May 17, 1945, when Hutchins was just twenty years old, he was finishing his basic training with the Army Air Corps and was killed in a plane crash. 

I must ask if that dog in our development was named after Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins.