Advanced search
- TITLES
- NAMES
- COLLABORATIONS
Search filters
Enter full date
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
Only includes names with the selected topics
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
1-50 of 447
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Max Schreck was born in Berlin. He worked in an apprenticeship until his father's death before enrolling into a school for acting. He toured the country with his peers and was a member of several theaters until he became a part of Max Reinhardt's group of innovative German actors. He played mostly out of the norm characters, the elderly and the grotesque, because of his talent and passion for make-up and costume fabrication. Although film was a challenge in which he excitedly and hopefully participated, he had small roles in films that are scarcely available, and his real career was in German theatre. He played hundreds of roles in his lifetime. He was married to Fanny Normann, a fellow performer whom he met a short time after his actor's education and shared many times with on stage. They had no children. He died on the morning of February 20th, 1936 from a heart attack.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
John Gilbert was born into a show-business family - his father was a comic with the Pringle Stock Company. By 1915 John was an extra with Thomas H. Ince's company and a lead player by 1917. In those days he was assistant director, actor or screenwriter. He also tried his hand at directing. By 1919 he was being noticed in films and getting better roles. In 1921 he signed a three-year contract with Fox Films. His popularity continued to soar and he was turning from villain to leading man. In 1924 he signed with MGM which put him into His Hour (1924). In 1925 he appeared in the very successful The Big Parade (1925) and was, by now, as popular as Rudolph Valentino. Lillian Gish, who had a new contract with MGM, picked Gilbert to co-star with her in La Bohème (1926). With the death of Valentino, his only competition, John was on top of the world. Then came Greta Garbo, who starred with him in Love (1927), Flesh and the Devil (1926) and A Woman of Affairs (1928). The screen chemistry between these two was incredible and led to a torrid off-screen affair. The studio publicity department worked overtime to publicize the romance between the two, but when it came time to marry, John was left at the altar. His performances after that were devoid of the sparkle that he once had and he began to drink heavily. Added to that, the whole industry was moving towards sound, and while his voice was not as bad as some had thought, it did not match the image that he portrayed on the screen. Even his characters had changed, in such films as Redemption (1930) and Way for a Sailor (1930). He was no longer the person that bad things happened to, but he now was the cause of bad things which happen. MGM did little to help John adjust to the new sound medium, as studio chief Louis B. Mayer and Gilbert had a fierce and nasty confrontation over Garbo. John was still under contract to MGM for a very large salary, but the money meant little to him. His contract ran out in 1933 after he appeared in Fast Workers (1933) as a riveter.
Garbo tried to restore some of his image when she insisted that he play opposite her in Queen Christina (1933), but by then it was too late. He appeared in only one more film and died of a heart attack in January 1936.- Irene Fenwick was born Irene Frizzel in Chicago, Illinois on September 5, 1887. She was predominately a stage actress and a fine one at that. Her first film was THE WOMAN NEXT DOOR in 1915. She was to make three more that year, but one in 1916 called A CONEY ISLAND PRINCESS. Her services were, unfortunately, not in high demand. After A GIRL LIKE THAT and THE SIN WOMAN in 1917, Irene retired from the screen. She had made only seven films. She was much more comfortable on the stage in which she returned. That work really meant something to her in a way films couldn't. At one time she was married to the great actor, Lionel Barrymore. Irene died in Beverly Hills, California on Christmas Eve in 1936. She was 49 years old.
- Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Henry B. Walthall was a respected stage actor who became a favorite of pioneering film director D.W. Griffith. Born in 1878 in Alabama, Walthall embarked on a law career but quit law school in 1898 to enlist in the US Army in order to fight in the Spanish-American War. Returning from the war he decided to take up an acting career instead of the law, and traveled to New York City to make his mark on Broadway. He debuted on the Great White Way in 1901. His friend and fellow actor James Kirkwood introduced him to Griffith, who already knew of Walthall's reputation as a stage actor. He hired Walthall to appear in his A Convict's Sacrifice (1909), the first of many films they would make together. Griffith, like Walthall a Southerner, cast him as "the little colonel" in his epic The Birth of a Nation (1915).
Shortly afterward Walthall left Biograph and Griffith for Balboa Pictures in Long Beach, CA. In 1917 he and his wife formed their own production company, but after a few films he went back to work for Griffith at Biograph. However, his career went on a downward spiral, and by the 1920s he was appearing in mostly low-budget "B" fare, with only a few side journeys into more quality "A" pictures--Tod Browning's London After Midnight (1927) among them.
The sound period rejuvenated Walthall's career somewhat. He had a distinguished bearing and his voice, unlike those of many bigger silent-screen stars, was perfectly acceptable for talkies. He appeared in such productions as John Ford's Judge Priest (1934) and Browning's The Devil-Doll (1936). He was hired by director Frank Capra to play the High Lama in Capra's production of Lost Horizon (1937), but before the film began production he died of influenza, on June 7, 1936.- Producer
- Writer
Irving Grant Thalberg was born in New York City, to Henrietta (Haymann) and William Thalberg, who were of German Jewish descent. He had a bad heart, having contracted rheumatic fever as a teenager and was plagued with other ailments all of his life. He was quite intelligent with a thirst for knowledge but, convinced that he would never see thirty, he skipped college and became, at 21, a high-level executive at Carl Laemmle's Universal Studios, then the largest motion picture studio in the world.
After hitting a career impasse at Universal (partly as a result of a failed romance with Laemmle's daughter), Thalberg jumped ship and enlisted with the relatively obscure Louis B. Mayer Productions overseeing its typically turgid yet profitable melodramas. While the two men shared a common vision for their company, they approached their responsibilities from radically different angles. Mayer was a macro-manager; like a chess master, he would typically engineer business moves far in advance. Given the opportunity, Mayer could've succeeded as CEO of any multi-national corporation. Thalberg was at heart, all about movies, literally pouring his life into his work, largely leaving the managerial duties of the studio to Mayer. Modest, he disavowed screen credit during his lifetime, decrying any credit that one gives themselves as worthless. This working partnership would keep Louis B. Mayer Productions consistently profitable and would extend into their heydays as masters of MGM but would lead to an acrimonious later relationship.
By 1923 theater mogul Marcus Loew had a big problem. In an effort to secure an adequate number of quality films for his theatrical empire, he had merged Metro Pictures with his latest acquisition, Goldwyn Pictures only to discover his new super-studio had inherited a handful of projects (the Italian-based Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925) and Greed (1924)) that had spun wildly out of control. He soon discovered that his problems were magnified by inheriting an incompetent management team. He instructed his attorney to conduct a headhunting expedition with instructions to investigate Louis B. Mayer Productions --- which Loew had previously visited on one of his trips west. Mayer's east Los Angeles studio actually had few tangible assets --- most of his equipment was rented. Loew ended up paying a pittance for Mayer's company but offered both men (after initially rejecting Thalberg!) huge salaries and even more generous profit participation allowances. Answering to New York-based Loew's Inc., Mayer and Thalberg moved into the then-state-of-the-art Goldwyn lot in Culver City and, with Loew's deep pockets, set about creating the most enviable film studio in Hollywood, quickly eclipsing Thalberg's former employer, Universal. Greed was largely scrapped (Thalberg recognizing director Erich von Stroheim's vision of a 7-hour film was unmarketable, had it extensively edited) and written off after a truncated release, with Ben Hur being called home and re-shot with a new director. Saddled with an unfavorable contract and millions in the red, the film would ultimately benefit the new company from prestige more than net profit, despite drawing huge crowds.
Mayer and Thalberg quickly moved past these inherited nightmares and created their dream studio. From 1925 through the mid-1940s there was MGM and then everyone else. It's roster of stars, directors and technicians were unmatched by any other studio. Indeed, to work for MGM meant that you had reached the top of your profession, whether it was front of or behind the cameras. Under Mayer and Thalberg, the studio refined the mechanics of assembly-line film production --- even their B-pictures would outclass the other major's principal productions (arguably MGM's only weakness was comedy). Their formula for quality made MGM the only major studio to remain profitable throughout the Great Depression (although a lesser studio, Columbia also did so, it achieved "major" studio status after 1934, ironically assisted by loaned out stars from MGM).
Thalberg himself was a workaholic and his health, which was never good, suffered. In his position as production supervisor, Thalberg had no qualms about expensive retakes or even extensively re-working a picture after it had completed principal photography --- one such case was with King Vidor's The Big Parade (1925), where he recognized the modest $200,000 WWI drama was lacking the war itself and could be turned into a true spectacle with a few epic battle scenes added. These few additional shots cost $45,000 and turned the film into MGM's first major home-grown hit (and its biggest hit of the silent era), grossing nearly $5 million. If he micro-managed productions there was no one in Hollywood who did it more effectively. Thalberg fell into a deep depression after the mysterious death of his friend and assistant Paul Bern (the two had worked extensively together on the hit Grand Hotel (1932)) and he demanded a one-year sabbatical. Loew's Inc. head Nicholas Schenck (Marcus Loew had died in late 1926) responded by throwing more money at him --- more than Mayer himself was scheduled to earn for the year, alienating Mayer. This, to his ostensible boss was an insufferable insult, one that would drastically alter their relationship. Thalberg remained on the job but suffered a heart attack following a 1932 Christmas party. Mayer quickly engineered a coup of sorts, recruiting a new inner circle of producers (including David O. Selznick and Walter Wanger) to replace him. Thalberg recuperated in Europe with his wife Norma Shearer and returned to MGM in August, 1933 resuming his somewhat reduced duties as a unit production head. He continued to score hits, supervising The Merry Widow (1934), The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934), the rousing, definitive version of Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) and the lavish Marie Antoinette (1938) (released after his death).
Thalberg also sought to rectify the studio's poor record in comedy films, signing the Marx Brothers, who had just been released from their contract at Paramount after string of flops. He felt the brilliant comedy team had been seriously mismanaged and ordered their MGM films to be shot in sequence and after their routines had been well tested on stage. The Thalberg-produced A Night at the Opera (1935) was a big hit but he wasn't infallible, stumbling with the critically well-received production of Romeo and Juliet (1936), which went on the books as a $1 million loss. Over Mayer's objections, he delved into the film adaptation of Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth (1937) but died of pneumonia on September 14, 1936 at age 37. The Good Earth (1937) was released soon afterward, MGM honoring him by providing him his only screen credit (Thalberg had always eschewed a producer's credit on his films).
He was survived by his widow Norma and their two children; Irving, Jr. and Katherine. After his death the Motion Picture Academy created the Irving Thalberg Award, given for excellence in production.- Norman 'Chubby' Chaney was born on 18 October 1914 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. He was an actor, known for Love Business (1931), Shivering Shakespeare (1930) and Pups Is Pups (1930). He died on 29 May 1936 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
- Robert E. Howard created Conan the Barbarian in a series of short stories and novels in the 1930's. Born in Peaster, Texas, he was raised in Cross Plains. His fiction was carried in pulp magazines of the time such as Weird Tales, and H.P. Lovecraft was a friend and admirer of his. He committed suicide after holding vigil by his mother's deathbed in 1936.
- Sometimes the early tragic death of a Hollywood actor can lead to immortality, as in the cases of icons James Dean and Marilyn Monroe--and, to a somewhat lesser extent, little Bobby Driscoll, who died a Skid Row bum in the streets, a victim of drug addiction. Not so for actor James Murray, whose death occurred in a similar fashion to Driscoll. Long forgotten, the young and highly insecure Murray was plucked from obscurity and given the chance of a lifetime, only to crumble ever so quickly.
He was born on February 9, 1901, in the Bronx, NY. After appearing in The Pilgrims (1924), a three-reeler made at Yale University in 1923 in which he played John Alden, he trekked 3000 miles to Hollywood to pursue that elusive Hollywood dream. On the road west, he lived a simple, rather nomadic existence as a dishwasher, coal-shoveler and boxcar rider. John started off as most do in L.A.--taking bit parts and extra work, waiting for that big break. Director King Vidor was looking to cast the somber hero of his next silent picture, The Crowd (1928). He spotted Murray, who was working as an extra at MGM, near the studio casting office and arranged a meeting with him. Murray didn't show up, either not taking the director seriously or not believing that Vidor was, in fact, King Vidor. Murray was hunted down, given a screen test and the novice actor was hired on the spot, considered by both Vidor and MGM executive Irving Thalberg to be one of the best natural actors they had ever had the good fortune to encounter. As John Sims, a common everyday kind of family man just trying to survive the game of life, Murray was frighteningly real and heart-wrenching, carrying the hugely demanding role without a hitch. He so invested himself in the part that many feel he never shook off the depressing character. The film was judged too heavy and raw for audiences to escape in, but the critics were enamored of the film and, especially Murray, and today it is considered a major masterpiece.
Murray managed to turn in solid work in the next few years, never matching his excellence in "The Crowd" but certainly turning in credible performances. Such films as The Big City (1928) with Lon Chaney, Thunder (1929)--also with Chaney--The Shakedown (1929), Bachelor Mother (1932) and Heroes for Sale (1933) served him well.
Too much too soon, perhaps, for he was ill-prepared to handle the daily pressures of stardom and his inner demons quickly took over. He turned to the bottle for solace and release. By the early 1930s he was a chronic alcoholic who could barely hold down an acting job. He turned into a derelict, living on the streets and begging for change.
By coincidence, he tried to panhandle Vidor in 1934, who offered him an acting job in his next film, Our Daily Bread (1934), but the actor vehemently refused to accept any charity. In 1936 Murray's body was fished out of the Hudson River, having drowned after either jumping from, falling from--or being thrown off of--a pier. He was only 35. Vidor was so haunted by Murray's tragic death that it provided the basis for a script he wrote which the director hoped would turn into a film called "The Actor" in 1979. Unfortunately, the project never got off the ground. - Writer
- Music Department
- Production Designer
Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay, Maharashtra, India, the son of John Lockwood Kipling, a museum director and author and illustrator. This was at the height of the "British Raj", so he was brought up by Indian nurses ("ayahs"), who taught him something of the beliefs and tongues of India. He was sent "home" to England at the age of six to live with a foster mother, who treated him very cruelly. He then spent five formative years at a minor public school, the United Services College at Westward Ho! which inspired "Stalky & Co.". He returned to India as a journalist in 1882. By 1890 he had published, in India, a major volume of verse, "Departmental Ditties", and over 70 Indian tales in English, including "Plain Tales from the Hills" and the six volumes of the "Indian Railway Library". When he arrived in London in October 1889, at the age of 23, he was already a literary celebrity. In 1892 he married Caroline Balestier, the daughter of an American lawyer, and set up house with her in Brattleboro, Vermont, where they lived for four years. While in Vermont he wrote the two "Jungle Books" and "Captains Courageous". In 1901 he wrote "Kim" and in 1902 "The Just So Stories" that explained things like "How the Camel Got Its Hump". From 1902 they made their home in Sussex, England. He subsequently published many collections of stories, including "A Diversity of Creatures", "Debits and Credits" (1926) and "Limits and Renewals" (1932). These are now thought by many to contain some of his finest writing, although his introspection may well have been influenced by the death of their only son in the First World War. Although vilified by some as "the poet of British imperialism" in the past, nowadays he may be regarded as a great story-teller with an extraordinary gift for writing of peoples of many cultures and classes and backgrounds from the inside.- Albert Fish was born on 19 May 1870 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. He died on 16 January 1936 in Ossining, New York, USA.
- Began working in films from 1916, becoming a a star within five years of his debut. His frequent co-star was was Marguerite de la Motte, whom he later married. The advent of sound effectively ended his career. Shortly after attending a party, the distraught 50-year-old Bowers committed suicide by rowing into the Pacific Ocean and drowning himself. It is commonly believed that his demise was the inspiration for the similar death of fictional film star Norman Maine in both the 1937 and 1954 versions of "A Star is Born."
- Writer
- Actor
Prolific English poet, novelist, essayist G (ilbert) K(eith) Chesterton was born in London on 29 May 1874. He was traditional, extolling the virtues of the 'little man', and the romantic, pre-modern past. He rejected the experimental in art as well as life, and distrusted the state and the modern world. His _Father Brown series of detective novels center around a humble but clever Anglican Catholic priest; Chesterton converted to Catholicism at the age of 48. He was considered somewhat eccentric, idiosyncratic, and was fiercely opinionated. George Bernard Shaw disliked his work, calling him "a freak of French nature", and various men and women of letters disdained the comparative gaudiness of his thought and his work, and his unfashionable political conservatism. Nonetheless he was popular, and beloved by many. He died on 14 June 1936, the same year his autobiography was published.- Writer
Born in 1862, Montague Rhodes James developed a reading habit at an early age, preferring to stay in the library than with friends. He took this with him when he went to study at Eton and then at the King's College, Cambridge, where he became assistant in classical archaeology at the Fitzwilliam museum. After writing a dissertation: "The Apocalypse of St. Peter", he became a Fellow of King's, and then Dean. Although he was renowned in some circles for his biographies, studies into antiques, reviews and palaeography, it was his ghost stories that he would be remembered for. He was keenly engaged in examining the supernatural, and his stories were always written in a way so the reader uses their imagination. The real horror is often kept to the reader's mind. Celebrated cult horror novelist and story writer H.P. Lovecraft was a fan, and wrote a review on his work: "...gifted with an almost diabolic power of calling horror by gentle steps from the midst of prosaic daily life." he says, also adding: "Dr. James has, it is clear, an intelligent and scientific knowledge of human nerves and feelings; and knows just how to apportion statement, imagery, and subtle suggestions in order to secure the best results with his readers." Although largely ignored by filmmakers - Curse of the Demon (1957) - is one exception), his work has a dedicated fan base, and the BBC filmed several of his stories in the 1970s, wisely titling them under the series "A Ghost Story for Christmas". In 2000, horror legend Christopher Lee jumped at the chance to read four of James' stories in another Christmas special screened on BBC2. James' most famous works include "Ghost Stories of an Antiquary", "The Five Jars", "A Warning to the Curious and other Ghost Stories" and "The Collected Ghost Stories of M. R. James".- Actress
- Soundtrack
"Look for the Silver Lining" became the appropriate signature song for one of Broadways's most popular musical stage stars of the 1920s, Marilyn Miller, for she embodied a vibrant, child-like optimism in her very best "happily ever after" showcases. Such happiness, however, did not extend into her personal life.
She was born Mary Ellen Reynolds in Evansville, Indiana, in 1898. Her father was a telephone lineman and her mother a theater aspirant. Her parents divorced when Marilyn was a child and she was raised by her mother and stepfather (last name Miller), who was an acrobat and song-and-dance man in vaudeville. She joined her family (which included two sisters) in a family act billed as "The Five Columbians" which proved popular on the Midwest circuit. They also toured outside of the country when bookings were slim. When she went out on her own she abbreviated her first name to Marilyn and adopted her stepfather's last name of Miller.
While performing in a London club in 1914, she caught the eye of Broadway producer Lee Shubert, who brought her to New York for his "Passing Show" revues of 1914, 1915 and 1917. Marilyn became an instant hit with her vivid, yet delicate, beauty. However, it was her association with Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. in 1918 that put her over the top. Seeing her great potential, he took her under his wing, expanded her repertoire, focused on her tap and ballet talents and provided her with singing and acting lessons. She became a top headliner in his Follies shows of 1918 and 1919. Her first full-out performance was in Ziegfeld's "Sally" in 1920, where she introduced the song "Look for the Silver Lining." The show was a monster hit. Their professional and personal relationship became badly intertwined, however, and she soon severed the union. Producer Charles B. Dillingham, Ziegfeld's rival, signed her on and handed her the title role in "Peter Pan," which received lukewarm reviews. Her second show with Dillingham was entitled "Sunny," which introduced the soon-to-be standards "Who?" and "D'Ye Love Me?" Marilyn became the toast of Broadway once again and her salary soared to $3,000 per week, making her the highest-paid musical comedy performer in New York at the time.
She reconciled with Ziegfeld in 1928 and performed in the Gershwin musical "Rosalie" to enthusiastic audiences. Hollywood took an interest but Marilyn's venture into films would be very brief. She recreated two of her stage hits to film at the advent of sound. Sally (1929) and Sunny (1930) were warmly received, as was the musical Her Majesty, Love (1931), but that would be her third and final film. Most of Marilyn's showcases were based on Cinderella-like, poor-girl-meets-rich-boy romances. Unlike her sweet-natured stage characters, however, Marilyn had an extremely volatile diva-like demeanor and proved highly difficult to work with. Her three marriages were also immensely unhappy ones. Her first husband, stage actor Frank Carter, was killed in a car crash after only a year of marriage; second husband Jack Pickford, the brother of silent screen legend Mary Pickford, was a drug and alcohol abuser (they divorced); and third husband, stage manager Chester "Chet" O'Brien was a ne'er-do-well and opportunist. She died before they were divorced.
Marilyn's last stage triumph was "As Thousands Cheer" in 1933. Her health began to deteriorate rapidly after that, aggravated by an increasing dependency on alcohol. Suffering from recurring sinus infections, she was in a severely weakened state by the time she died of complications following nasal surgery at the age of 37. A sad end to such a bright symbol of hope and youthful exuberance. A superficial, highly sanitized version of Marilyn's life was made in the form of the biopic Look for the Silver Lining (1949) with June Haver starring as Marilyn.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Frank Rice was born on 13 May 1892 in Muskegon, Michigan, USA. He was an actor, known for The Ridin' Kid from Powder River (1924), The Squaw Man (1931) and The Last Round-Up (1934). He was married to Louise Kaufman. He died on 9 January 1936 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Lottie Pickford was born on 9 June 1895 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She was an actress, known for Fanchon, the Cricket (1915), White Roses (1910) and A Strange Meeting (1909). She was married to John William Lock, Russel O. Gillard, Allan Forrest and Alfred Rupp. She died on 9 December 1936 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Stephen Roberts was born on 23 November 1895 in Summersville, West Virginia, USA. He was a director and writer, known for Romance in Manhattan (1934), Pink Elephants (1926) and Hanging Fire (1926). He was married to Vee Eva Wolf. He died on 17 July 1936 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
O.P. Heggie was born on 17 September 1877 in Angaston, South Australia, Australia. He was an actor, known for Bride of Frankenstein (1935), The Count of Monte Cristo (1934) and Smilin' Through (1932). He was married to Lilian Clara Rogers. He died on 7 February 1936 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Jobyna Howland was born on March 31, 1880 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Her father was a civil war veteran. Jobyna's family moved to Denver, Colorado where she studied acting. When she was a teenager she went to New York City and started modeling. The six foot tall redhead posed for Charles Dana Gibson's famous "Gibson Girl" sketches. In 1899 she was cast in the stage play Rupet Of Hentzau. Then she starred in the shows The Messenger Boy and Winsome Winnie. Jobyna wanted to play dramatic roles but her height and booming voice made her better suited for comedy. On October 2, 1900 she married novelist Arthur Stringer. The couple had a volatile relationship and separated several times before divorcing in 1914. Soon after she fell in love with playwright Zoe Akins and the two women moved in together in Los Angeles. At the age of thirty-eight she made her film debut in the 1918 drama Her Only Way.
She also appeared in The Way Of The Woman with Norma Talmadge and in the comedy Second Youth. Her brother, Olin Howard, became a successful actor too. Jobyna starred in the 1922 Broadway show The Texas Nightingale which was written by her girlfriend Zoe. Then she appeared in the hit musical Kid Boots with Eddie Cantor. During the 1930s she made several comedies with Bert Wheeler & Robert Woolsey including The Cuckoos, Dixiana, and Hook Line And Sinker. She and Zoe became known for hosting lavish dinner parties and for their frequent arguments. They remained close even after Zoe got married in 1932. Her final film was the 1934 comedy Ye Old Saw Mill. Jobyna returned to Broadway in January of 1936 to star in O Evening Star. The show flopped and closed after only five performances. Sadly on June 7, 1936 she died from heart disease at the age of fifty-six. She was buried at Forest Memorial Park in Glendale, California.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Charles "Chic" Sale was primarily a stage comedian who, although he infrequently appeared on Broadway from 1902-30 and appeared in a handful of silent films, spent the majority of his career treading the boards of vaudeville as a comedian, usually in the persona of "Lem Putt," a carpenter from Urbana, Illinois who specialized in the building of outhouses. By age 49 his stage act had become so popular that he felt compelled to write, with the help of two newspaper writers, a 3000-word collection of his monologues (at the urging of his lawyer who expressed dismay over lesser comedians stealing his act) which was published as, "The Specialist." The book was a huge hit, published in 9 languages and remains in print to this day (he actually took 6 months off touring to personally answer fan mail resulting from the book and a sequel was published as "I'll Tell You Why"). During the 1930s and 40s there were outhouses sporting "Chic Sale" signs all over the world, his name becoming synonymous for toilet (which didn't please him in the least) and the butt of fellow comedian Groucho Marx' jokes. After appearing in a flop Broadway show in 1930 Sale headed for Hollywood for good and became, thanks to effective makeup and complete mastery of his lanky body, a character actor. Still in his mid to late 40s Sale convincingly played octogenarians. He did this so well that it was quite a shock to see him out of make-up; he was unrecognizable from his old man screen persona. He died of pneumonia in 1936 at just 51 years of age, survived by his wife Marie.- George V was the King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions from 1910 until his death in 1936. He was the second son of Edward VII of the United Kingdom and Alexandra of Denmark. George outlived his older brother Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale (1864-1892), who died during a flu pandemic in the early 1890s. George served as the heir to the throne from 1901 to 1910, and eventually succeeded his father. George's reign covered the entire World War I (1914-1918) and much of the interwar period (1918-1939). In 1917, George changed the name of the British royal house from House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to House of Windsor. in reaction to anti-German public sentiment in the UK. George appointed the first Labour ministry in 1924, and in 1931 he was the founding monarch of the Commonwealth of Nations. George suffered from smoking-related health problems, and he was incapacitated and terminally ill by January 1936. His physician euthanized him. Two of George's sons subsequently reigned as Edward VIII (reigned 1936) and George VI (reigned 1936-1952).
In 1865, George was born in London. At the time, his father was the heir apparent of the reigning monarch, Queen Victoria (reigned 1837-1901). George's maternal grandfather was Christian IX of Denmark (reigned 1863-1906), who was nicknamed as "the father-in-law of Europe" for marrying most of his children into the leading royal families of Europe. As the second son of his father, George was not considered a likely hired to the throne.
George's father wanted his son to have a military education. In 1877, George enlisted in the Royal Navy at the age of 12. He joined a ship reserved for the training of cadets. During the late 1870s, George traveled the world aboard a British ship. In 1881, George visited Japan. He hired a local artist to tattoo his arm, choosing to display the image of a dragon on his arm. He continued his active naval service until 1892, and was for a while the commanding officer of the HMS Thrush and the HMS Melampus. Despite being a world-traveler, George failed to acquire fluency in any language other than English. His grandmother Victoria was disappointed that her grandson could not converse in either French or German.
As a youth, George fell in love with his cousin, Princess Marie of Edinburgh. But her mother disapproved of their courtship, and Marie herself rejected George's marriage proposal. Marie would later marry Ferdinand I of Romania (reigned 1914-1927). In 1892, Albert Victor died and George became his father's intended heir. At the time of his death, Albert Victor was engaged to Mary of Teck. Following his brother's death, George bonded with the mourning Mary. He proposed marriage to her in 1893, with the support of his grandmother. The couple were married in July 1893. George reportedly found it difficult to express his feelings in speech, but found it easier to write about them. So he continued writing love letters to Mary during the years of their marriage.
In 1892, George was granted the title of the Duke of York by his grandmother. George and his wife settled at York Cottage in Norfolk, a relatively small residence. Unlike his socialite father Edward, George desired a quiet life for himself. George's lifestyle during the 1890s resembled that of the British middle class, rather than that of the British royalty. His main hobby was stamp collecting, and he was eventually responsible for the expansion of the Royal Philatelic Collection.
In January 1901, Queen Victoria died and her son succeeded her as Edward VII. George inherited the title of the Duke of Cornwall, and started styling himself as the Duke of Cornwall and York. That year, George and Mary toured the British Empire. George personally presented thousands of medals to the soldiers of the still ongoing Second Boer War (1899-1902). George opened the first session of the Australian Parliament during his visit of Australia. His visit in New Zealand was primarily used as an opportunity to advertise New Zealand's attractiveness to potential tourists and immigrants through a press campaign.
In November 1901, George was granted the title of the Prince of Wales by his father. For the first time, his father trusted him with wide access to state documents. George in turn shared his documents with his wife Mary, who served as his primary advisor and speech writer. In his new role as the heir to the throne, George supported reforms in naval training. He wanted the cadets of the Royal Navy to have a shared educational background, regardless of their specific assignments.
In May 1910, Edward VII died and George succeeded him. He genuinely mourned his father, writing in his diary that they had never quarreled with each other, and that his father had been his best friend. George objected to the wording of his intended Accession Declaration, as he found the anti-Catholic phrases to be objectionable. At his insistence, most of the anti-Catholic phrases were removed.
In June 1911, George and Mary were coronated at Westminster Abbey. In December 1911, George was officially declared the new Emperor of India at a ceremony in Delhi. At the ceremony, George was wearing the then-new Imperial Crown of India. He announced the transfer of the capital of India from Calcutta to Delhi. George subsequently visited Nepal, and took time off for big game hunting. He took pride in killing 21 tigers, 8 rhinoceroses and a bear during his hunting in Nepal.
In July 1914, George orchestrated the Buckingham Palace Conference to negotiate the topic of Irish Home Rule. Rival political factions in Ireland had become radicalized, and George hoped to prevent a new Irish Civil War. The conference ended without an agreement. In August 1914, George took part in the council which declared war against the German Empire. Wilhelm II of Germany (reigned 1888-1918) was his first cousin, but their diplomatic relationships had deteriorated.
In July 1917, George officially renamed the British royal house: from the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the House of Windsor. He and all his British relatives relinquished their German titles and started adopting British-sounding surnames. Any member of the wider royal family who sided with Germany lost his/her British peerage titles through the rules of the "Titles Deprivation Act 1917".
Following the end of World War I, George rarely left the UK on official business. He visited Belgium and France in 1922, and Italy in 1923. These were his final diplomatic visits. George was horrified at the violence of the Irish War of Independence (1919 - 1921), and repeatedly called for negotiations between the rival factions of the war. The war led to an Anglo-Irish treaty and the 1922 partition of Ireland.
George was worried about the republican movement in the post-war UK, and tried to increase his support from the major parliamentarian parties of the country. During the 1920s, George cultivated friendly relations with moderate politicians of the Labour Party politicians and with trade union officials. In 1926, George hosted the Imperial Conference in London. By its decisions, the British Dominions became autonomous, and were no longer subordinate to the UK. In 1931, the Statute of Westminster 1931 formalized the Dominions' legislative independence. It marked the transformation of the British Empire into the Commonwealth of Nations, with George as the official head of the Commonwealth.
In the 1930s, George was increasingly hostile to the Nazi government of Germany. In 1934, George expressed his belief that Britain and Germany were heading for a new war. In 1935, George celebrated his Silver Jubilee and was met with adulation by the crowds. His efforts to increase the popularity of the British monarchy had apparently paid off, though he was surprised at the extend of his own personal popularity.
George was a heavy smoker, and had been suffering from chronic bronchitis since the mid-1920s. In 1928, he was diagnosed with septicemia at the base of his right lung. In the final year of his life, George required the administration of oxygen. On 15 January, 1936, George was seriously ill, bedridden, and drifting in and out of consciousness. By January 20, there was no sign of recovery and the incapacitated George required sedatives to deal with the pain. His chief physician Bertrand Dawson, 1st Viscount Dawson of Penn decided to euthanize the king, and surreptitiously injected George with a fatal dose of cocaine and morphine. Since the king was never asked for his consent to the physician's decision, the decision's legality has been questioned.
George was 70-years-old at the time of his death. George was interred at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. The chapel had served as the chosen burial place for the British royal family since the 1810s. Following George's example, his successors have mostly tried to reflect the values and virtues of the British upper middle-class. - This once popular silent screen star and older matinee idol for Paramount Studios is all but forgotten today; however, Thomas "Tommy" Meighan was one of the rulers of the Hollywood roost, between the years 1915 and 1928.
He was born in Pittsburgh, his father a president of a major manufacturing company. Meighan switched interests from medicine to acting during his mid-college years, joining Henrietta Crosman's Pittsburgh stock company as his initiation to professional theater.
During these years he met and married stage actress Frances Ring, who was the sister of actors Blanche Ring and Cyril Ring, enjoying a long and happy wedded life. Having developed a highly respected name for himself on Broadway right after the turn of the century, he decided, at the age of 36, to give up the stage in order to pursue the still-floundering medium of movie-making. It was a wise and prosperous move.
Meighan made his debut opposite Laura Hope Crews in The Fighting Hope (1915) and became a Paramount favorite of producer/director Cecil B. DeMille's with leading man roles in Kindling (1915), The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1916), Male and Female (1919), Why Change Your Wife? (1920), and Manslaughter (1922). Meighan lit up the silver screen time and time again paired up with Hollywood's top echelon of silent female stars including Lila Lee, Blanche Sweet, Lois Wilson, Pauline Frederick, Billie Burke, Norma Talmadge, Charlotte Walker, and Leatrice Joy.
Meighan would make his film masterpiece with The Miracle Man (1919), also starring Lon Chaney, in which he played Tom Burke, a notorious con-man, who tries one last scheme, a faith-healing scam, before going clean. Unfortunately, this 8-reel silent classic is now lost but for a minor portion. Meighan would earn between $5,000 to $10,000 a week during his prime years.
Although his first talking picture, The Argyle Case (1929), was a success, Meighan's career went into a rapid decline come the advent of sound, playing a few fatherly types in support at the very end. His last film was Peck's Bad Boy (1934) starring young Jackie Cooper. At about this time the actor discovered he had cancer and was forced to withdraw from the screen. He died two years later on July 8, 1936. He and wife Frances had no children. - Marcel Rouff was born on 4 May 1877 in Carouge, Switzerland. Marcel was a writer, known for The Taste of Things (2023) and La vie et la passion de Dodin-Bouffant (1972). Marcel was married to Juliette Bloch-Tréfousse. Marcel died on 3 February 1936 in Paris, France.
- Actress
Rose Dione was born October 22, 1875 in Paris, France. Also known as Rosa Dione, Madame Dione and Madamoiselle Dion, there is very little information about her life, but her first appearance in films was in the 1910 French short subject Fleur des Maquis (Flower of the Maquis). She appeared in 68 films from 1910 until 1932, but her most notable role is as Madame Tetrallini, the guardian of the "children" in Tod Browning's Freaks (1932). She died on January 29, 1936 in Los Angeles, CA at the age of 60.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Edmund Breese was born on 18 June 1871 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Duck Soup (1933), Platinum Blonde (1931) and The Hurricane Express (1932). He was married to Genevieve Landry and Harriet A. Beach. He died on 6 April 1936 in New York City, New York, USA.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Director Alan Crosland was born in New York City on August 10, 1894, into an upper-middle class family, which soon moved to East Orange, NJ, where Alan was reared. His family's finances allowed for him to spend part of his elementary education in England, where he acquired a curious Anglo-American accent that he would affect for the rest of his life. With a restless personality that was complemented by a sharp intellect and a smooth tongue, Crosland had an uncanny ability to befriend even the most disagreeable people around him (a talent he would put to good use in Hollywood). He attended Dartmouth College but left before graduation, deciding he wanted to become a journalist, and eventually landed a job with the New York Globe, writing articles and short stories on the side for movie magazines. From 1912 he began to moonlight with the nearby Edison Company as an actor and stage manager. He performed a variety of duties there, eventually directing the studio's last feature, The Unbeliever (1918), shortly before being drafted into the US Army during World War I. He served out the Great War in the Army Photo Service. After the armistice he signed with a smaller independent company, Select, one he had briefly worked with prior to the war, remaining with them on ten more pictures through 1922. During this period he gained an enviable reputation for effectively directing some of the most temperamental stars of the day. He was of the few directors who actually liked Erich von Stroheim and obtained effective performances from the notoriously hammy (yet undeniably talented) Lionel Barrymore.
He signed with Goldwyn-Cosmopolitan in 1923, where the reviews for Under the Red Robe (1923) placed him solidly in the ranks of Hollywood's top directors. He became the first director a studio wanted when shooting a big-budget, prestigious historical drama, especially if it starred a difficult actor that might be inclined to spin costs out of control. With his reputation growing, Crosland lived life to the hilt, thoroughly enjoying the 1920s Hollywood lifestyle; he was frequently seen around town looking always dapper in the latest flashy cars and inside the latest hot spot with a dazzling starlet.
After a brief stint at Paramount, Crosland signed with Warner Brothers and was assigned to projects by Darryl F. Zanuck just when the studio was in the midst of a make-or-break gamble on sound with its Vitaphone sound-on-disk system. At that time Warner Brothers was considered almost a "Poverty Row" studio, well below the ranks of MGM, Universal and Paramount. It had acquired an unenviable reputation in Hollywood as having only two major stars, one of whom was a German Shepherd named Rin-Tin-Tin and the other the temperamental, hard-drinking John Barrymore, who was hauled out for its few prestige pictures. One of the five combative brothers who ran the studio, Sam Warner, saw sound as the way to eliminate the need for theatrical orchestras and establish what he felt was Warner's rightful place within the film industry. Crosland's reputation for handling both spectacle and difficult stars made him the obvious choice to direct the studio's first tentative stab at sound, Don Juan (1926), which was the first film to contain synchronized music and sound effects. It was a moderate success and he was picked for an even more ambitious project, The Jazz Singer (1927), a part-talkie, on which the studio's entire fortunes rested. Crosland was chosen to direct the maudlin story largely on his ability to work with the notoriously difficult Al Jolson, after George Jessel (who had starred in the Broadway production) walked out over a pay dispute. The $500,000 production had only 281 spoken words (mostly incidental to the songs and ad-libbed by Jolson) but it ignited the public's voracious appetite for talkies and grossed $3,000,000, a blockbuster in those days.
Hollywood was soon caught up in a war between competing sound technologies: Warner's Vitaphone and Fox's superior Western Electric sound-on-film process. Meanwhile, studios faced enormous conversion costs and uncertainties over their stars' abilities to transition to sound. By 1928 the silent film had reached the pinnacle of its artistic achievement and the early talkies, by comparison, appeared crude. While some studios--most notably MGM (whose parent Loew's faced monumental costs related to converting its extensive theater network)--adopted a wait-and-see attitude toward both the public acceptance of sound and choosing a system, Warner's saw talkies in the form of its Vitaphone as its salvation. In Crosland's world of 1927-29, it should be remembered that sound cameras were fixed and muffled, large microphones had to be cleverly hidden and actors were often justifiably terrified of how their voices would be received. Unfortunately the Vitaphone process seriously limited the ability to edit a film, resulting in stagy long takes, and with its cumbersome electro-mechanical hardware and fragile records that would often break in transit, it was soon obvious that Fox's sound-on-film system was vastly superior (Warner's would quietly admit technological defeat in 1931 and convert).
Technology issues aside, the Vitaphone propelled Warner Brothers solidly into the ranks of the A-list studios and, infused with cash, it acquired Fox's First National theatrical network by 1930, a crucial business move that greatly expanded the studio's distribution capabilities and enabled it to ride out huge losses it would incur from 1931-34. It was during this all-too-brief transition period that Alan Crosland was the most experienced sound director in town. He directed another part-talkie hit, Glorious Betsy (1928), starring Dolores Costello, a return to his favored costume spectacle.
By mid-1929 it became apparent that a movie could not solely depend on the novelty of sound; hits required production values and a degree of action, an uncomfortable situation given the restrictions of the equipment. At this point Crosland stumbled badly. A primitive attempt at color didn't help On with the Show! (1929), a creaky musical starring a badly miscast Betty Compson and Arthur Lake, a textbook example of claustrophobic filmmaking and Crosland's first real flop. He tripped again with Captain Thunder (1930), one of his worst films. His next two assignments delved into the opera genre with dismal box office returns. His personal life became rocky, with his first marriage to Juanita Fletcher failing in 1930. He hastily wed actress Natalie Moorhead, a union that would last less than five years. Although he would direct more than 20 features--some of them moderately successful--after his career triumph with "The Jazz Singer," Crosland fell from the ranks of A-list directors and settled into directing B-level pictures.
Early in the morning of July 10, 1936, he was driving on Sunset Boulevard when his car hit some road debris and he swerved off the road, flipping twice in a construction zone. He was rushed to the hospital with multiple broken bones and a suspected skull fracture. Within four days he contracted pneumonia and his condition was downgraded by his doctor. He died on July 16, 1936, just shy of his 42nd birthday. His last film, The Case of the Black Cat (1936), was completed by William C. McGann. Crosland was survived by his son (with Juanita Fletcher), Alan Crosland Jr., who became a very successful television director in the 1960s-'70s.- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Oscar Asche was born on 26 January 1871 in Geelong, Australia. He was an actor and writer, known for Scrooge (1935), Chu Chin Chow (1934) and Don Quixote (1933). He was married to Lily Brayton. He died on 23 March 1936 in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, England, UK.- Writer
- Music Department
- Composer
Federíco Garcia Lorca was born in the south of Spain (Andalusia) in 1898 and soon became the region's most famous artist. A poet, playwright, artist, musician and lecturer, he wrote groundbreaking plays such as 'Blood Wedding' and 'Yerma'. His support of the Spanish Republic in the 1930s led to his execution in 1936.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Tammany Young was born on 9 September 1886 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Checkers (1919), It's a Gift (1934) and The Foundling (1916). He was married to Gertrude Savage and May. He died on 26 April 1936 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Actor
- Writer
Paul McCullough was born on 27 March 1883 in Springfield, Ohio, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Music Fiends (1929), The Diplomats (1929) and The Medicine Men (1929). He was married to Rae E. Carpenter. He died on 25 March 1936 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.- Writer
Maksim Gorky is a pseudonym of Aleksei Maksimovich Peshkov, who was born into a poor Russian family in Nizhnii Novgorod on Volga river. Gorky lost his father at an early age, he was beaten by his stepfather and became an orphan at age 9, when his mother died. He was brought up by his grandmother, who helped his development as a storyteller.
He was blessed with a brilliant memory, but failed to enter a University of Kazan. At age 19 he survived a suicide attempt, because the bullet missed his heart. After that Gorky traveled on foot for 5 years all over Central Russia, worked as a sailor on a Volga steamboat, then a salesperson, a railway worker, a salt miller, and a lawyer's clerk. At that time he was arrested for his public criticism of the Tsar and social injustices in Russia. He started writing for newspapers and published his first 'Sketches and Stories' in 1890s. Later he wrote an autobiographic book "My Universities" based on impressions from his travels and jobs. Gorky wrote with sympathy about the simple folks, the outcasts, the gypsies, the hobos and dreamers in the context of social decay in the Russian Empire. He became friends with Anton Chekhov and Lev Tolstoy. His play 'The Lower Depths' (1892) was praised by Chekhov and was successfully played in Europe and the United States. His political activism resulted in cancellation of his membership in the Russian Academy. Anton Chekhov and Vladimir Korolenko left the Academy in protest and solidarity with Gorky. He went to live in Europe and America in 1906-13. In America he started his classic novel, 'The Mother', about a Russian Christian woman and her imprisoned son, who both joined revolutionaries under the illusion that revolution follows Christ's messages.
After the Russian revolution in 1917, Gorky criticized Lenin and communists for their "bloody experiments on the Russian people". He wrote, 'Lenin and Trotsky are corrupted with the dirty poison of power. They are disrespectful of human rights, freedom of speech and all other civil liberties". Soon Gorky received a handwritten warning letter from Lenin. Later his friend Nikolai Gumilev, ex-husband of Anna Akhmatova was executed by communists. In 1921 Gorky emigrated to Europe and settled in Capri. He became careful in his critique of communism. In 1932 after a series of brief visits, he returned to Soviet Russia. He was placed in a rich Moscow mansion of the former railroad tycoon Ryabushinsky. His return from the fascist Italy was a victory for Soviet propaganda. He was made the Chairman of the Soviet Writer's Union, and a figurehead of "socialist realism" . After the murder of Kirov in 1934 Gorky was under a house arrest. His son died in 1935. The following year Gorki Gorky died suddenly at the Lenin's dacha in Moscow.- U.S. Army officer who foresaw -- and unwisely trumpeted -- the need for air power to win land wars. (Unwise, because his candor cost him his career.) He advocated a separate air force, thus incurring the wrath of U.S. army and navy brass. When the navy airship "Shenandoah" went down in 1925, Mitchell accused the government of "incompetency, criminal negligence and almost treasonable administration of the national defense." On account of that statement he was court-martialed for insubordination, and he eventually resigned from the army. The story is wonderfully captured, with Gary Cooper in the role of the general, in The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955).
- Alice was a silent screen comedic actress. She worked in a number of Keystone films and also appeared in the early films that Chaplin did. Other actors that Alice worked with who went on to become big stars were Mabel Normand and Marie Dressler . Alice was married and divorced from Broadway actor Harry Davenport. Alice was the mother of Dorothy Davenport who was married to Paramount matinee idol Wallace Reid.
- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
Chester A. Lyons was born on 26 May 1885 in Westfield, New York, USA. He was a cinematographer, known for Mad Love (1935), The Valley of Silent Men (1922) and Women's Wares (1927). He was married to Katherine. He died on 27 November 1936 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Luigi Pirandello was born on 28 June 1867 in Girgenti, Sicily, Italy [now Agrigento, Sicily, Italy]. He was a writer, known for The Late Mathias Pascal (1925), Ma non è una cosa seria (1936) and Der Mann, der nicht nein sagen kann (1938). He was married to Antonietta Portulano. He died on 10 December 1936 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.
- Gilbert Holmes was born on 15 June 1895 in Miles City, Montana, USA. He was an actor, known for Quick Triggers (1928), The Big Town Round-Up (1921) and The Arizona Cyclone (1928). He died on 17 August 1936 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Martin Kinney was born on 28 December 1882 in Kansas, USA. He was an actor, known for The Inner Man (1922), Blue Blood and Red (1916) and The Spook Raisers (1915). He died on 7 July 1936 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- He is one of the greatest Hindi writers. His stories gives the correct picture of village realities. He used his stories to great effect for social reforms. He married a child widow Shivarani Devi when widow marriages were considered as a sin in Indian society. He also wrote varios novels voicing for these social reforms. Early in his career he took up the government job of a school teacher to support his family. But in 1921 he resigned the job to take up Gandhi's call. He contributed to freedom movement through his writings. He changed his pen name to "Premchand" after his book Soje Vathan was banned by the then British government, which burned all the copies. In his writings the characters are always the ordinary people. When asked why he doesn't write anything about himself, he answered: "What greatness do I have that I have to tell anyone about? I live just like millions of people in this country; I am ordinary. My life is also ordinary. I am a poor school teacher suffering family travails. During my whole lifetime, I have been grinding away with the hope that I could become free of my sufferings. But I have not been able to free myself from suffering. What is so special about this life that needs to be told to anybody?". This is the greatness of the man.
- Jack McGurn was one of gangster Al Capone's most feared and ruthless killers. He picked up the nickname "Machine Gun" because of his proficiency with the new Thompson sub-machine gun - aka Tommy Gun - favored by Chicago gangsters. McGurn - born Vincenzo DeMora -didn't seem bound for a life of crime as a youngster. Unlike many of his colleagues, he came from a middle-class background and had no run-ins with the law as a youth. That all changed the day his father was killed by a Chicago gang headed by the Genna family, for the crime of selling bootleg liquor without cutting the gang in on the action. The story is that the teenager dipped his hands in the blood of his father and swore to kill everyone who had anything to do with his murder. Too young and inexperienced to be hired into one of the gangs that ran Chicago at the time, McGurn spent the next few years sharpening his skills with a gun and toughening himself as a professional boxer, under the name "Battling Jack McGurn". When he decided the time was right, he got himself hired by the Capone mob, which was engaged in a deadly war with the Genna outfit. McGurn soon became Capone's top gun, and was credited with killing anywhere from 25 to 30 of Capone's rivals. Among the victims were six members of the Genna family who were involved in his father's murder. After McGurn killed each one, he would leave a nickel in his hand, signifying his contempt for men he considered "nickel and dimers". He soon became Capone's personal bodyguard, and Capone went nowhere without him. McGurn was suspected by Chicago police of having planned and carried out the infamous "St. Valentine's Day Massacre" in which seven members of the George Moran (aka "Bugs" Moran) mob - another of Capone's rivals - were machine-gunned to death in a Chicago garage (Moran himself said, when he found out about the massacre, "Nobody but Capone kills like that"). Although McGurn was brought in for questioning, his girlfriend provided an alibi for the morning of the murders. When it was later proved that she was lying, McGurn was arrested and charged with perjury. However, he got around that charge by marrying his girlfriend, thereby ensuring that she couldn't testify against him.
McGurn also had an interest in several nightclubs, in one of which he had hired up-and-coming comic Joe E. Lewis to perform. When it came time for Lewis to renew his contract, he told McGurn that he had decided to accept an offer from another club. McGurn exploded and told Lewis he would never live to accept the offer. A few days later Lewis was attacked in his room by three men he recognized as McGurn associates. The men pistol-whipped him, beat him severely and one of them pulled out a large knife and proceeded to carve up Lewis' face, cut his throat and slice his tongue. Although severely injured, Lewis recovered, but it took him almost ten years to learn how to talk again.
McGurn's fortunes began to wane in 1929, when Capone was sent to prison for income tax evasion. Many in Capone's gang feared and hated McGurn, and took the opportunity to strip him of his power and take away most of his legit businesses. His wife left him and he was reduced to getting involved in small-time narcotics deals, which at the time was an activity the mob forbade its members to become involved in. On February 14, 1936, McGurn was in a Chicago bowling alley when he was cornered by five hitmen who opened fire on him, killing him instantly. When the police were called and examined the body, they found that someone had left a nickel in his hand. - Alan Brooks was born on 25 January 1888 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Pals in Paradise (1926), The King of Kings (1927) and Young April (1926). He died on 29 September 1936 in Saranac Lake, New York, USA.
- Karl Kraus was born on 28 March 1874 in Gitschin/Jicìn, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary [now Jicín, Czech Republic]. He was a writer, known for Walpurgis (2008), Ihre Durchlaucht (1960) and Die letzten Tage der Menschheit (1965). He died on 12 June 1936 in Vienna, Austria.
- Actor
Walter P. Cole was born on 26 June 1882 in Lenox, Taylor County, Iowa, USA. He was an actor. He died on 26 February 1936 in Omaha, Nebraska, USA.- Beaming, rotund Lennox Pawle is chiefly remembered for his delightful, albeit brief, performance as the 'pixillated' Mr. Dick in MGM's classic David Copperfield (1935). A former newspaperman and owner of a racing publication, Pawle had been on stage in his native England from the 1890s as a comic actor and member of the Maude Adams Playhouse Company. With significant stage experience under his belt, he arrived in the U.S. in 1910. He almost immediately attracted supporting roles on Broadway in long-running hit plays like "Grumpy" and "Monsieur Beaucaire". Only infrequently in films, he portrayed Samuel Pepys in The Glorious Adventure (1922), but otherwise tended to subordinate film acting to his busy stage career. This changed in 1929, when he made three films for Fox. However, during the succeeding decade, he made relatively few and all-too-brief appearances on the silver screen before succumbing to a cerebral hemorrhage on February 22, 1936.
- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Vladimir Barskiy was born on 15 March 1866. He was a director and actor, known for Battleship Potemkin (1925), Shuquras saidumloeba (1925) and Tavadis asuli Meri (1926). He died on 24 January 1936.- William Morris was born on 1 January 1861 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for Monsieur Lecoq (1915), Romeo and Juliet (1916) and Behind Office Doors (1931). He was married to [Henrietta Luna] Etta Hawkins (actress). He died on 11 January 1936 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Richard Loeb was born on 11 June 1905 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He died on 28 January 1936 in Stateville Prison, Joliet, Illinois, USA.
- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Sam A. Perry, born Samuel A. Perlstein in Odessa, Russia in 1884. His education included: University of Odessa,and Royal Academy of Musical and Theatrical Arts, Vienna. He was a concert pianist who toured throughout Europe. Sam spent 12 years as general musical director and recording manager for Conorized Music Co. of New York. He authored over 500 diversified compositions - symphonic poems, classic and popular songs. He created several instructional manuals for harmonica which where used in schools throughout the United States. Sam entered the motion picture industry through David H. Broekman of Universal Pictures in1929. He was chief assistant to Broekman and a staff composer at Universal in 1930-31. He composed complete scores for "The Jade Box" (1930), "Tarzan the Tiger" (1929), and "Lightning Express" (1930). Sam composed incidental music for the 1929 part-talkie reissue of: "The Phantom of the Opera" , "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1930) foreign version, and "Hell's Heroes" (1930) among others. He was married to Louise Perry and they had one child, Robert born 1921, died 1991. Sam died in Hollywood, California on November 1, 1936. He is survived by three granddaughters and six great-grandchildren.- Boothe Howard was born on 2 October 1890 in Hammond, Wisconsin, USA. He was an actor, known for Mutiny Ahead (1935), Hot Pepper (1933) and Mary Burns, Fugitive (1935). He died on 4 October 1936 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Edwards Davis was born on 17 June 1867 in Santa Clara, California, USA. He was an actor, known for The Daughter of MacGregor (1916), The Strength of the Weak (1916) and Wings of Pride (1920). He was married to Adele Blood and Jule Power. He died on 17 May 1936 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Writer
Marcel De Sano was born on 18 May 1897 in Hanzesti, Romania. He was a director and assistant director, known for Beautifully Trimmed (1920), Blarney (1926) and Peacock Alley (1930). He was married to Arlette Marchal and Kathleen Nolan. He died on 17 March 1936 in Paris, France.