Blondie (1938)

Let's go back to the beginning.  The first real Blondie movie was made in 1938.  Blondie appears in various forms from Blondie of the Follies in 1932 to Bye Bye Blondie in 2010, neither of which had anything to do with our Blondie. 

She started as a comic strip drawn by Chic Young in 1930.  Her name was Blondie Boopadoop until 1933 when she married Dagwood Bumstead.  This feels really silly to write, but it is all true.

Enter Penny Singleton (1908 - 2003).  She is the quintessential Blondie, and Arthur Lake (1905 - 1987) was perfect as Dagwood.  Penny wasn't really a blond, but she remained that way after she got the role.  She was still blond when I met her in the 1980s.  They made 28 Blondie films from 1938 to 1950.  But we don't cover stars here.  Let's look at the rest.

Husband and wife actors Kathleen and Gene Lockhart are both in Blondie.  They worked together some 21 times.  As I mentioned before, they are the parents of June Lockhart, famous for "Lassie" on TV.  The three of them worked together on one film, A Christmas Carol in 1938. 

Child actor Larry Simms (b. 1934) played Baby Dumpling in the Blondie series.  He was also in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), It's a Wonderful Life (1946), and a few other films.  I can't find much online about him.  28 of his 36 films were in the Blondie series. 

Jonathan Hale (1891 - 1966) played Mr. Dithers, Dagwood's boss.  He has 244 roles listed on IMDb starting in 1934 and into TV, with his last listed role on "Kraft Suspense Theater" in 1965.  He was in Charlie Chan's Secret in 1936 with Rosina Lawrence.  While he was making the Blondie series he also had a recurring role in The Saint series.  He was a hard worker, making over 80 films in the decade of the 1940s.

The fun part about this blog is looking at a name you know nothing about and checking out their filmography.  Mr. Beazley, the mailman was played by Irving Bacon (1893 - 1965).  He is another gold mine to be explored. 

Bacon started making films in 1923 with the Keystone Studio and Mack Sennett.  He made the switch to talkies and eventually to television.  IMDb lists 515 roles to his credit.  Yes, 515!  He was in a dozen or so Blondie films, but look for him also in nine Frank Capra feature films.  I recognize his face, but I doubt I ever heard his name.

Movies of this era are rich with the best in Bit Actors!

The Search for Bit Players

I had some doubts when I started this project that I may run out of subjects after a time.  Well, this is my 65th post and I haven't missed a single day except Independence Day.  That was my choice, not a lack of someone to write about.

I have now realized that my choice of subjects is partly determined by the definition of Bit Player, and since this is my blog and I can do whatever I want with it, that definition will be considered infinitely flexible.

One needs only to look at almost ANY film made in the 1930's through the 1950's to find a wealth of bit actors and actresses.  Many later stars were cutting their teeth in bit parts at that time, so they can be considered bit players.  Case in point, After the Thin Man from 1936.  This is my favorite from the Thin Man series with William Powell and Myrna Loy.

James Stewart had a supporting role in this film, his eleventh movie role.  You may consider it a bit part, since he hadn't had any starring roles yet, and it was two years before You Can't Take it with You, and three years before Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, arguably his first starring role.

How about some lesser known actors and actresses?  Penny Singleton and Paul Fix were in this movie.  George Zucco played Dr. Kammer, but he was in 96 other movies and played Prof. Moriarity in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes from 1939, which introduced the team of Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce.  Also one of my favorites.

The really fun part of this movie, apart from the fact that Nick Charles is plastered through the entire film, is the cast of Nick's friends.  Every two-bit gangster character actor was seen.  Names like Fingers and Willie the Weeper were played by people who seemed destined to play only in 1930's detective movies.

Henry the butler was played by Tom Ricketts (1853 to 1939).  Can you image being alive during the Civil War?  Ricketts made 203 movies from 1908 until the year he died, when he appeared in Son of Frankenstein.  He worked with everybody!  In the 1930's he was in Top Hat, The Invisible Man and two others with Claude Rains, plus Show Boat, Gold Diggers of 1937, A Star is Born, and The Prince and the Pauper.

Sorry I spent so much time on poor Tom Ricketts, but I get carried away.  I am out of time for today, so let's see what tomorrow brings.

20,000 Leagues

I found the 1954 classic Disney film, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea on-demand last weekend, so I started watching it.  I have seen it several times in my youth, but not recently, and even this time I didn't quite finish it.  I remember the display at Walt Disney World where they have one of the Nautilus models used to make the movie.

A quick look at IMDB reveals there were three silent versions of the story.  They were released in 1905, 1907 (by Georges Melies), and 1916.  I haven't seen any of them, but the 1915 release apparently had underwater photography that was groundbreaking.  I will have to look for that one.

Back to 1954.  The ticket agent shown in the beginning of 20K was played by Harry Harvey.  He is credited with 417 roles on the IMDB web site, starting with the Tom Mix Destry Rides Again in 1932.  How do I always keep coming back to Destry?!?

Harvey was in Gold Diggers of 1937 with Dick Powell, the 1939 Blondie Takes a Vacation with my friend Penny Singleton, a whole bunch of B westerns, 1942 The Pride of the Yankees, 1942 A Night to Remember (but a different Night to Remember than the 1958 Night to Remember that we talked about a few days ago), a small part in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty with Danny Kaye in 1947, more B westerns, he was June Alyson's doctor in The Glenn Miller Story, and of course, the list is practically endless. 

The sign of a great bit actor is to remain a viable commodity for small parts.  If you become too famous, you may have a difficult time getting parts because you will be recognized.

Harvey lived from 1901 to 1985 and he was still doing TV parts in the 1970s on "Mannix," "Bonanza," "Gunsmoke," "Ironside," and "Adam-12."  He appeared in the 1970 hit film Airport as a passenger.

I thought I would have trouble finding well exposed bit actors in a Disney film.  Disney keeps stars on contract so they don't have the opportunity to do much work elsewhere.  It seems like Harry Harvey filled the bill!