Classic Movie Trivia

Who, based on ticket sales, is the third most popular actor of the twentieth century, preceded only by Clark Gable and John Wayne?

Van Johnson, 1916-2008

Oh Vanny. Not you. Not the tousle-haired sailor, the baby-faced boy in battle, the relish-ably rogue redhead intent on weakening the prudish underpinnings of June Allyson with a wry smile and a soft-spoken sweet nothing. You were the redoubtable romance of so many black-and-white blockbusters, the genial gentleman in MGM's most dazzling musicals. You were boyish onscreen - boyish yet broad-shouldered, disarmingly darling yet deftly deceitful, a wooer of women with a shy sincerity submerged in a charming casanova front (do you remember getting June drunk in that grotto? I can never forget it). And now you're gone.

____

Charles Van Johnson, 92, passed away Friday, December 12, 2008. The Rhode Island-born only child made his Broadway debut at just 18, understudied Gene Kelly in the latter's hit stage hit Pal Joey, and coasted into cinema in 1940's Too Many Girls, having been brought to Hollywood as a member of the film's Broadway cast. He played bit parts in MGM B-movies after the studio picked up his three-year contract from RKO, but when serious injuries from a near-fatal 1942 car crash left him ineligible for military service, Van was one of the few young actors stranded stateside during WWII, and so gained a valuable foray into leading roles by virtue of his youth, appeal, and circumstance. His affability and humility after the gruesome accident earned him the acceptance and affection of millions of moviegoers, and, paired with some of the most beautiful and bankable actresses of his day - June Allyson, Judy Garland, and Esther Williams - Van proved to be a hugely popular star and top box-office draw for MGM.
After a string of successful dramas and romantic comedies in the postwar 1940's and 1950's, Van scaled back his film career, appearing onscreen only infrequently, focusing more on stage and television work, often collaborating with former fellow film stars like June Allyson and Angela Lansbury in the latter medium. He maintained a low profile in his final years, though he reportedly loved to reminisce about his golden days at MGM.
Van is survived by his estranged daughter, Schuyler, by his late former wife, Eve Wynn.

_____


There is a scene from Two Girls and A Sailor that has been with me today. June Allyson's character has been dreaming, and in her sleep-heavy state she is led through her dream to a wispy, glorious, cloud-covered place that could only be Heaven in a Pasternak production, vivid and bright even in black-and-white. The film's hero meets her here - Van Johnson, of course - and he is everything a film hero should be: winningly adorable yet non-threatening, endearingly tender, a touch shy, brave, lovable...the essence of Van Johnson, really. The dialogue doesn't matter, but the image of Van and June in heaven...I would like to savor that today.



"Van Johnson is one of the nicest boys who ever lived, and Hollywood hasn't spoiled him. Nothing ever will. He's just as honest and sunny-dispositioned as he looks." - Lucille Ball

Macy's Makes Me Cry

It doesn't take a whole lot to make me cry. Lauren Bacall's autobiography, Judy Garland's singing voice, that scene in The Women where Norma Shearer informs tiny little Virginia Weidler of Norma's marital meltdown - all are time-tested tearjerkers. It was not lightly, then, that I received the first airing of the 2008 Macy's holiday season commercial, which strings together such famed and fabled film faves as Charlie Chaplin, Natalie Wood, Alice Faye, Bob Hope, Orson Welles, Shirley MacLaine and Lucille Ball.

Is it cinema nostalgia or simply heartfelt holiday warmth that makes me cry? In all honesty - I think it's Susan Walker.

Picture Pane Puzzle - Solved!

In this age of at-your-fingertips knowledge, posting trivia questions has become a bit of a challenge for me - so, I give you a new type of trivia: The Picture Pane Puzzle. It's up to you to determine the mystery film by recognizing the images from it, posted below.

Think you know it?! Use the Comments option below to post your guess!

11/25: Poster Maryann has solved this week's Picture Pane Puzzle. She recognized Gene Kelly's cranium to identify this film as 1964's What A Way to Go! What a way indeed - bravo, Maryann!

Filially Fabulous: Stephen Humphrey Bogart

  When screen legend Humphrey Bogart succumbed to cancer in the early days of 1957, the last-century boy - he was born December 25, 1899 - left an indelible impression on the world of film, and a viable absence in the lives of his family. His actress wife Lauren Bacall chronicled the heartbreaking loss in her 1978 autobiography, where she stressed the impact of his untimely death on the couple's two young children, son Stephen and daughter Leslie, just 8 and 4, respectively, at the time of their father's passing. The bereaved trio ultimately coped, but Stephen, burdened by public fascination with his iconic father and vying to live outside of the shadow cast by such association, struggled with identity issues and substance abuse problems throughout his young life.

  Fortunately, such unrest is impossible to place on the 59-year-old today. The younger Bogart is now a successful author and entrepeneur who utilizes his tony, unique childhood experience as celebrity offspring to lend an air of authenticity to his classic film-related endeavors; chief among them is MODA Entertainment, which he co-founded and developed from 1997 through 2008. His promotion of such retrospective-themed print, radio, and film work takes him to small, accessible venues throughout the country, where he interacts with reporters and fans and fields questions with genuine candor and enthusiasm, as he did when visiting Chicago's famed Hollywood Boulevard Cinema this past weekend.

  Amiable and approachable, Bogart greeted fans and fielded questions as he hosted the presentation of the theater's latest addition, the Casablanca-themed "Moroccan Room," where his father's fabled film was the new theater's incendiary screening. He signed autographs, chatted with curious fans, even happily personalized my favorite photograph of his parents while talking film shop in the Boulevard lobby (he kindly indulged us in some incredible backstories about his mother and father).

  With so many links to the golden age of cinema but tenuous and undignified ones, Stephen Bogart is delightfully refreshing representative and facilitator of film's preservation, celebration, and translation today. Here's looking at you, kid.



For more information on upcoming Hollywood Blvd events, please visit their website.
Find out more about the array of creative projects MODA Entertainment has spawned here.

Judy, Judy, Beauty

  Strolling through the campus rose garden after Latin class this week, I came upon a particular placard that denoted a gorgeous crop of classic film flowers. These beautiful yellow-and-orange hybrid roses are named in honor of Miss Judy Garland, the sparkliest star of the MGM constellation in the 1930's and 40's.

  The idea for the Garland flower was developed and implemented by longtime Judy fan Pat Losiewicz in 1970, the year after Garland's death, but it took nearly a decade for the horticultural homage to become a reality. Frustrated with a lack of response from American rosegrowers, Losiewicz transferred the project to the President of the Great Britain Judy Garland Fan Club, Gwen Potter, who selected the rose from a collection of unnamed hybrids in 1978; the flower was finally available for sale in the United States in 1991.

  The flowers are planted near Judy's gravesite in Ferncliff Cemetery, New York, as well as at the Judy Garland Museum in her hometown of Grand, Rapids, MN, the result of another effort spearheaded by superfan Losiewicz.





The Judy Garland Rose is available for purchase via Heirloom Roses. Please note that clicking this link will take you to an external site.

Did You Know?

Infamous print gossipmonger Hedda Hopper, whose dirt-dishing endeavors earned her a ruthless reputation (as well as gifts like a kick in the behind from an enraged Spencer Tracy and a skunk from a disgusted Joan Fontaine), was actually born Elda Furry in 1885. Though she was at various times known as Elda Furry, Elda Curry, Ella Furry, and Elda Millar, her eventual name was comprised of her married surname from husband DeWolf Hopper, whom she wed in 1913, and the name Hedda, which she selected on the advice of a numerologist.

I Heart Valley Art

In the wake of Paul Newman's September 26th death at the age of 83, my sentiment at his passing has been piqued by the rush of remembrances that poured from a myriad of sources: contemporaries and cohorts, filmmakers and fans, beneficiaries and bloggers alike have sung the praises of the humble Ohian-cum-silver screen star whose ingenuity in his later years became the prosperity he diffused to innumerable worthy causes.

But amongst all the positive press Paul's life received, little has been mentioned of his screen legacy - and understandably so, in light of his charitable work and how he valued it, far above his film contributions. As an ardent classic cinema fan, though, I feel his Luke and his Ben Quick, his Hud and his Hombre (okay, maybe not Hombre) are worth more than a fond farewell acknowledgment in his many obituaries. This was evidently a sentiment shared by my local Harkins Valley Art Cinema, as they recently hosted a week-long, multiple-film retrospective in Paul's honor, which I was fortunate enough to attend.

Valley Art, the oldest theatre in the state, provided a sumptuously antique feel for late-night big screen viewings of some of Paul's most popular films, including Cool Hand Luke (1967), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), and 1961's gritty The Hustler. As someone who had never reveled in the grandiose spectacle of silver screen stars in such sizable glory, to witness Newman the actor - thoughtful, passionate, impossibly Adonis-like - was to see his film presence finally in proportion to his personal and social legacy: larger than life.

Harkins Valley Art donated all proceeds from the festival, more than $3,000, to Newman's Painted Turtle Camp, a multi-disease camp and family care center based in California.

Photographic Faves

American actress Grace Kelly in her most famous role, that of Princess to Monaco's Prince Rainier. The royal couple are shown here with their elder daughter, Caroline, and son Albert. Circa 1960.

I Am Unfit to Live!

I can't believe that, in all my complete adoration for her, I missed June Allyson's birthday this month. I mean, I knew it was in October, but between mid-terms, homework, and working a job that has an odd policy about watching movies during my shift (they won't let me), I somehow overlooked October 7, the date which would have been Ms. Allyson's 91st birthday (she died in 2006).

So, in honor of Junie the Great - and in an effort to never allow this type of neglect on my part again - HCC has appointed October 7 as The Feast of Our Lady of the Perpetual Pageboy*, aka June Allyson Day.

Why the Perpetual Pageboy, you ask? Surely she is memorable for much more than a hairstyle that endured roughly 75 years. And she is - I can't downplay her tenacity, her unpretentious girl-next-door persona, her incredible box office appeal, or the fact that during any one of her movies, she cries approximately every 13.4 minutes, this heartbreaking little petunia. (Watching her, though, so do I.) But as much as June Allyson represents the best years MGM had to offer - the brightest, most colorful musicals, engaging biopics and first-rate stars - the pageboy represents, or is at least as lovingly associated with, Junie. Regardless of the time period her movie is set in, there it is, blonde and demure and expertly coiffured. Don't believe me? Let's take a little look-see at a few of her best and most memorable movies in our convenient Pageboy Table below:



See? It really is perpetual. Which isn't to say that there aren't any movies in which she has long hair (The Bride Goes Wild) or a short, chic coif (The Opposite Sex) or even a very un-Junie-like pile of tresses (Two Sisters from Boston), it's just that no matter what, she reliably returns to that perfectly complementary cut that's as sweet and uncomplicated as she always seemed to be.

Happy belated birthday, Junie!


*Disclaimer: Being Catholic, I understand that this reference may offend someone, but it is certainly not my intent to do so. Sweet as she was, I know Junie was not a saint!

Paul Newman, 1925-2008

Paul Newman died of cancer yesterday, September 26, 2008, in his Westport, Connecticut home. He was 83 years old.

_____

I must admit that for some time now I have been trying to write a coherent obituary for a good man. This early morning has been all phone calls and blurry-eyed seeking of confirmation on major news networks, and I am, in a way, unable to communicate the vague, detached sense of loss I feel at the passing of someone I didn't truly know, save through his artful acting, purposed philanthropy and sometimes-scintillating screen presence.

But I loved that screen presence. I loved the candor and undiluted veracity with which he spoke to the press: the barbs of self-deprecation were genuine, not ploys for applause or mere pretenses of unpretentiousness, and they only seemed to make the cerulean eyes glint with more mischief as he humorously deflected praise and veneration. I loved the unexpected contradictions of his nature - this man, this lean and laconic sex symbol whose celluloid sensuality set an exorbitant precedent for American men to live up to (and for American women to find for themselves), spoke openly of his love for and fidelity to wife Joanne Woodward, to whom he was married for fifty years. I was endlessly delighted at the various veins of interests he pursued, from producing to sailing to founding his lucrative charity organization, not to mention a typical Newman-esque foray into Formula 1 racing as he entered his 70s. And I must admit to crying openly each time I read of his continued efforts to sustain and expand his line of food products, Newman's Own (started in his own Connecticut home), that generated and funneled an astonishing amount of money and resources - currently estimated at over $250 million - to charitable organizations worldwide, including his personally-established Hole in the Wall Gang camps, which provide summer-camp experiences for terminally ill children and their families.

I loved Paul Newman. I didn't know him, it's true - but a good man so devoid of detectable artifice, one whose accessible personability and humanitarian efforts rivaled his fame as an Oscar-winning actor over the span of nearly six decades, one who, as he put it, saw "shameless exploitation in pursuit of the common good" as a most worthy aspiration and business philosophy, he is a rarity, particularly when his fame and wealth afforded him the luxury of security and sedentariness. But that was not his nature. His altruistic approach to life and the inventiveness and tenacity with which he applied it was disarming, is disarming, as it will undoubtedly live on, evident as it is, this redoubtable humanity of his, even in his various onscreen personas.

I love Paul Newman. I loved discovering, at just sixteen, his delicious sixties sex appeal, all appreciative glances, subtle touches, and double entendres thinly veiling an undeniable masculinity; I still love reveling in the smoldering exchanges he and Joanne share in films like The Long, Hot Summer and A New Kind of Love. I loved the bits of his authentic self that made his Cool Hand Luke so compelling, his Butch Cassidy so lovably redeemable, his Ben Quick so scandalously stimulating. But it's undeniable that he would shake his head at such references, so I will refine my remembrance of Paul Newman to be just as he was: simple, joyous, and kind. And surely I can, in the name of this good man, set aside these still-intact affections of mine and afford him that.

Thank you, Paul.

____

"I would like it if people would think that beyond Newman, there's a spirit that takes action, a heart, and a talent that doesn't come from my blue eyes."

For more information on Paul's philanthropic endeavors, please visit the Newman's Own website.

Photo of the Week

Pint-sized preciousness June Allyson, 31, with a puppy pal on the set of "Little Women", 1949.

Back To Cool

Whether they're bare dorm room or needy den walls, if your abode is lacking any film fan paraphernalia, online retailer AllPosters.com is currently offering some great, iconic prints of your favorite stars and films.
Though only a select few classic movie posters are offered at an outrageously low price of just $4.99 (even for prints as large as 24x36 inches), nearly all of the celebrity 8x10 prints are on sale, and an additional 20% discount on your entire purchase. There's no excuse for bare walls anymore!

Visit this link to shop AllPosters.com!

Cary-ing On the Tradition

Actress Jennifer Grant, the only child of super-suave screen legend Cary Grant and his fourth wife, actress Dyan Cannon, gave birth to her first child on August 12, 2008, in Los Angeles, California. Jennifer, 42, named her new son Cary Benjamin Grant.

Jennifer is currently working on a book about her life and famous father; entitled "Good Stuff", it is slated for a 2009 release.

Source

Photo of the Week

Screen team Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland on the set

Photo Source