Fifth Avenue Girl

Ginger Rogers (July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995) was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the twentieth century. During her long career, she made a total of 73 films and is noted for her role as Fred Astaire's partner in a series of ten musical films. She achieved great success in a variety of film roles and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Kitty Foyle. After winning a 1925 Charleston dance contest that launched a successful vaudeville career, she gained recognition as a Broadway actress for her stage debut in Girl Crazy. This led to a contract with Paramount Pictures, which ended after five films. Rogers had her first successful film role as a supporting actress in 42nd Street. In the 1930s, Rogers' nine films with Fred Astaire gave RKO Pictures some of its biggest successes, most notably Top Hat and Swing Time. But after two commercial failures with Astaire, she branched out into dramatic and comedy films. Her acting was well received by critics and audiences, and she became one of the biggest box-office draws and highest paid actresses of the 1940s. Her performance in Kitty Foyle won her the Oscar for Best Actress. Rogers' popularity peaked by the end of the decade. She reunited with Astaire in 1949 in the commercially successful The Barkleys of Broadway. After an unsuccessful period in the 1950s, she returned to Broadway in 1965, playing the lead role in Hello, Dolly!. More Broadway roles followed, along with her stage directorial debut in 1985 of an off-Broadway production of Babes in Arms. She also made television acting appearances until 1987. In 1992, Rogers was recognized at the Kennedy Center Honors. She died of a heart attack in 1995, at age 83. Rogers is associated with the phrase "backwards and in high heels", which is attributed to Bob Thaves' Frank and Ernest 1982 cartoon with the caption "Sure he [Astaire] was great, but don't forget that Ginger Rogers did everything he did...backwards and in high heels". This phrase is sometimes incorrectly attributed to Ann Richards, who used it in her keynote address to the 1988 Democratic National Convention. A Republican and a devout Christian Scientist, Rogers married five times with all of them ending in divorce, and having no children. During her long career, Rogers made 73 films, and her musical films with Astaire are credited with revolutionizing the genre. Rogers was a major movie star during the "Golden Age" of Hollywood and is often considered an American icon. She ranks number 14 on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars list of female stars of classic American cinema. Her autobiography Ginger: My Story was published in 1991.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Tim Holt (February 5, 1918 – February 15, 1973) was an American film actor, perhaps best-known for co-starring in the 1948 film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Description above from the Wikipedia article Tim Holt, licensed under CC-BY-SA,full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Franklin Pangborn (January 23, 1889 – July 20, 1958) was an American comedic character actor famous for playing small but memorable roles with comic flair. He appeared in scores of feature films playing essentially the same character: prissy, polite, elegant, highly energetic, often officious, fastidious, somewhat nervous, prone to becoming flustered but essentially upbeat, and with immediately recognizable high-speed, patter-type speech. He typically played an officious desk clerk in a hotel, a self-important musician, a fastidious headwaiter, an enthusiastic birdwatcher, and the like, and was usually put in a situation of frustration or flustered by the antics of others. Pangborn was an effective foil for many major comedians.

Carl Henry Vogt (February 19, 1895 – May 12, 1956), known professionally as Louis Calhern, was an American stage and screen actor. For portraying Oliver Wendell Holmes in the film The Magnificent Yankee (1950), he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Calhern began working in silent films for director Lois Weber in the early 1920s; the most notable being The Blot in 1921. A 1921 newspaper article commented, "The new arrival in stardom is Louis Calhern, who, until Miss Weber engaged him to enact the leading male role in What's Worth While?, had been playing leads in the Morosco Stock company of Los Angeles." In 1923 Calhern left the movies, but would return to the screen eight years later after the advent of sound pictures. He was primarily cast as a character actor in films while he continued to play leading roles on the stage. He reached his peak in the 1950s as a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player. Among his many memorable screen roles were Ambassador Trentino in the Marx Brothers classic Duck Soup (1933) and three that he appeared in at MGM in 1950: a singing role as Buffalo Bill in the film version of the musical Annie Get Your Gun, the double-crossing lawyer and sugar-daddy to Marilyn Monroe in John Huston's film noir The Asphalt Jungle, and his Oscar-nominated performance as Oliver Wendell Holmes in The Magnificent Yankee (re-creating his role from the Broadway stage). He was also praised for his portrayal of the title role in the John Houseman production of Julius Caesar (adapted from the Shakespeare play) in 1953, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Calhern also played the role of the devious George Caswell, the manipulative board member of Tredway Corporation in the 1954 production of Executive Suite. Calhern's other film roles included the grandfather in The Red Pony (1949), adapted from the novel by John Steinbeck and starring Robert Mitchum, and the spy boss of Cary Grant in the Alfred Hitchcock suspense classic Notorious (1946). A performance as Uncle Willie in High Society (1956), a musical remake of The Philadelphia Story, turned out to be his final film. Description above from the Wikipedia article Louis Calhern, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Alexander D'Arcy, ( 10 August 1908 – 20 April 1996) was an Egyptian actor with an international film repertoire. Born Alexander Sarruf in Cairo, Egypt, D'Arcy, variously credited as Alexandre D'Arcy, Alex D'Arcy, Alexandre Darcy and Alex d'Arcy appeared in some 45 films, mostly as a suave gentleman or smooth rogue. His first film appearance was in 1927 in The Garden of Allah, before appearing in Alfred Hitchcock's Champagne (1928). He then went to Hollywood where he started by playing supporting roles in several films in the late 1930s including The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) Stolen Holiday (1937), The Awful Truth (1937). In 1953, he was one of Marilyn Monroe's suitors in How to Marry a Millionaire and featured in Abdulla the Great and Soldier of Fortune in 1955. His roles diminished in importance and by the 1960s he was acting mostly on television before resurfacing in horror films, notably It's Hot in Paradise (1962) and as Dracula in Blood of Dracula's Castle (1969). Evidently a favorite of such cult directors as Roger Corman, Russ Meyer and Sam Fuller, D'Arcy was seen in Corman's St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967), Meyer's The Seven Minutes (1971) and Fuller's Dead Pigeon on Beethoven Street (1972). His last appearance was in a German television detective series in 1973. He died in West Hollywood, California. Description above from the Wikipedia article Alexander D'Arcy, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia John Elmer "Jack" Carson (October 27, 1910 – January 2, 1963) was a Canadian-born, American film actor, with a film career spanning the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Though he was primarily used in supporting roles for comic relief, his work in films such as Mildred Pierce (1945) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) displayed his mastery of "straight" dramatic actor roles as well. He worked for RKO and MGM (cast opposite Myrna Loy and William Powell in Love Crazy), but most of his memorable work was for Warner Bros. His trademark character was the wisecracking know-it-all, typically and inevitably undone by his own smug cockiness. Carson initially landed bit roles at RKO Radio Pictures in films such as Bringing Up Baby (1938), starring Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn. An early standout role for Carson was as a mock-drunk undercover G-Man opposite Richard Cromwell in Universal Pictures's anti-Nazi action drama entitled Enemy Agent. This led to contract-player status with Warner Brothers shortly thereafter. While there, he was teamed with Dennis Morgan in a number of films, supposedly to compete with Paramount's popular Bing Crosby - Bob Hope Road to … pictures. Most of his work at Warner Brothers was limited to light comedy work with Morgan, and later Doris Day (who in her autobiography would credit Carson as one of her early Hollywood mentors). Critics generally agree that Carson's best work was in Mildred Pierce (1945), where he played the perpetually scheming Wally Fay opposite Joan Crawford in the title role. Also in 1945, he played the role of Harold Pierson, the second husband of Louise Randall, played by Rosalind Russell, in Roughly Speaking. Another role which won accolades for him was as publicist Matt Libby in A Star is Born (1954). One of his last film roles was as the older brother "Gooper" in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958). His TV appearances, extending into the early 1960s, included The Martha Raye Show, The Guy Mitchell Show, and The Polly Bergen Show in 1957; Alcoa Theatre and Bonanza (Season 1, Ep.9: "Mr. Henry Comstock") in 1959; Thriller ("The Big Blackout") in 1960; and The Twilight Zone (Season 2, Ep. 14: "The Whole Truth") in 1961. On February 8, 1960, Carson received two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the television and radio industry. The television star is located at 1560 Vine Street, the radio star is at 6361 Hollywood Boulevard. In 1983, after his death, Jack Carson was inducted into the Wisconsin Performing Artists Hall of Fame along with his film pal, Dennis Morgan, who was also from Wisconsin.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Herbert Corthell (born Joseph Bertram Corthell, January 20, 1878 – January 23, 1947) was an American stage and film actor. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and died in Hollywood, California.

Elmer Ballard (July 8, 1886 – August 12, 1953) was an American actor.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Bess Flowers (November 23, 1898 – July 28, 1984) was an American actress. By some counts considered the most prolific actress in the history of Hollywood, she was known as "The Queen of the Hollywood Extras," appearing in over 700 movies in her 41 year career. Born in Sherman, Texas, Flowers's film debut came in 1923, when she appeared in Hollywood. She made three films that year, and then began working extensively. Many of her appearances are uncredited, as she generally played non-speaking roles. By the 1930s, Flowers was in constant demand. Her appearances ranged from Alfred Hitchcock and John Ford thrillers to comedic roles alongside of Charley Chase, the Three Stooges, Leon Errol, Edgar Kennedy, and Laurel and Hardy. She appeared in the following five films which won the Academy Award for Best Picture: It Happened One Night, You Can't Take it with You, All About Eve, The Greatest Show on Earth, and Around the World in Eighty Days. In each of these movies, Flowers was uncredited. Including these five movies, she had appeared in twenty-three Best Picture nominees in total, making her the record holder for most appearances in films nominated for the award. Her last movie was Good Neighbor Sam in 1964. Flowers's acting career was not confined to feature films. She was also seen in many episodic American TV series, such as I Love Lucy, notably in episodes, "Lucy Is Enceinte" (1952), "Ethel's Birthday" (1955), and "Lucy's Night in Town" (1957), where she is usually seen as a theatre patron. Outside her acting career, in 1945, Bess Flowers helped to found the Screen Extras Guild (active: 1946-1992, then merged with SAG), where she served as one of its first vice-presidents and recording secretaries.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia George Delbert "Dell" Henderson (July 5, 1877 – December 2, 1956) was a Canadian-American actor, director, and writer. He began his long and prolific film career in the early days of silent film. Born in the Southwestern Ontario city of St. Thomas, Dell Henderson started his acting career on the stage, but appeared in his first movie Monday Morning in a Coney Island Police Court already in 1908. Henderson was a frequent associate of film pioneer D.W. Griffith since 1909 and appeared in numerous of his early shorts in Hollywood. He also acted on a less prolific basis in the movies of producer Mack Sennett and his Keystone Studios. In addition to acting, Henderson also directed nearly 200 silent films between 1911 and 1928. Most of those films are forgotten or lost, but he also directed movies with silent stars like Harry Carey and Roscoe Arbuckle. Henderson also worked as a writer on numerous screenplays. After retiring from directing in 1927, Henderson turned to acting full-time and played important supporting roles in King Vidor's The Crowd (1928) and as General Marmaduke Pepper in Show People (1928). The advent of sound film damaged his acting career, and he often had to play smaller roles. In the 1930s, the comedic character actor appeared on several occasions as a comic foil for such comedians as The Three Stooges, W. C. Fields and Laurel and Hardy. He often played somewhat pompous figures like judges, businessmen, detectives or mayors. Modern audiences will remember Henderson as annoyed hospital president Dr. Graves in The Three Stooges film Men in Black and the put-upon chaperone in the Little Rascals film Choo-Choo!. He also appeared as a Night Court Judge in Laurel and Hardy's Our Relations (1936) and as a friendly Car salesman in Leo McCarey's drama Make Way for Tomorrow (1937). Henderson ended his film career after numerous small roles in 1950. Henderson died of a heart attack in Hollywood at the age of 79. He was married with actress Florence Lee until his death, they made several silent films together.

From Wikipedia Florence Lake (born Florence Silverlake, November 27, 1904 – April 11, 1980) was an American actress best known as the leading lady in most of the Edgar Kennedy comedy shorts. Florence was petite, with a high-pitched speaking voice. She perfected a comical singsong delivery that established her in "dumb" roles. She personified flightiness in the Kennedy shorts, as the scatterbrained Mrs. Kennedy. After the series ended upon Kennedy's death in 1948, she continued to play character roles in films and television. Her best-known TV role was Jenny, the Claverton telephone operator in Lassie. Lake played the role for the entire ten year "farm seasons" of the show (1954–1964), thus becoming the Lassie player with the longest tour of duty on the series. She played the role of Mama Angel in a 1957 episode of the The Lone Ranger TV series entitled "The Angel and the Outlaw". She also appeared in the first color episode of the TV series Superman in 1957 as a cave woman. In her later years, Lake appeared as Elvira Norton on an episode of Dragnet entitled "Frauds". She also played a blind date for the character Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show episode, "Lou's First Date". Her last roles were in the TV series Emergency! and Baretta in 1976.

Charles Lane (born Charles Gerstle Levison; January 26, 1905 – July 9, 2007) was an American character actor and centenarian whose career spanned 77 years. Lane gave his last performance at the age of 101 as a narrator in 2006. Lane appeared in many Frank Capra films, including You Can't Take It With You (1938), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and Riding High (1950). He was a favored supporting actor of Lucille Ball, who often used him as a no-nonsense authority figure and comedic foe of her scatterbrained TV character on her TV series I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour and The Lucy Show. His first film of more than 250 was as a hotel clerk in Smart Money (1931) starring Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Lionel Pape was born on April 17, 1877 in Sussex, England, as Edward Lionel Pape. He was an actor, known for The Philadelphia Story (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941) and The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939). He died on October 21, 1944 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Peggy Stewart (born Margaret O'Rourke; June 5, 1923 - May 29, 2019) was an American film actress who starred mostly in B-movies during the 1930s and 1940s. Her sister, Patricia O'Rourke, was an Olympic swimmer, and was married to World War II hero and well known B-movie actor Wayne Morris. Stewart's career began when she was cast in the 1937 film Wells Fargo, alongside Joel McCrea. By the early 1940s she was on contract with Republic Pictures, starring regularly with Allan Lane, Sunset Carson, and Wild Bill Elliott. During that time she played in several episodes of Adventures of Red Ryder. She usually played the part of the tough heroine, rather than a passive girl needing to be saved. Along that time she married western actor Don Barry. From 1944 to 1951 she starred in thirty-five films, most of which were serials and westerns. She also starred with Gene Autry several times during that period as well as appearing on several episodes of The Cisco Kid including "Oil Land" which first aired on 10-10-1950. In 1949, she played alongside Jim Bannon in Ride, Ryder, Ride. She again played the part of heroine to Bannon in 1950, starring in The Fighting Redhead. In 1952 she starred with Bill Elliott in Kansas Territory. Her career slowed in the 1960s, and by the 1970s she was residing in Studio City, California. Stewart won the Golden Boot Awards in 1984. Semi-retired, Stewart still continued to act on occasion, and played a bit role on one episode of Seinfeld in 1990 titled "The Implant". In that episode she played the part of the aunt to George Costanza's temporary girlfriend. More recently she has played Pam Beesly's "old-fashioned" grandmother Mee-Maw on The Office episode "Niagara, and once more in the episode when they baptise Jims and Pams daughter CC. Description above from the Wikipedia article Peggy Stewart(actress), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Max Wagner (November 28, 1901 – November 16, 1975) was a Mexican-born American film actor who specialized in playing small parts such as thugs, gangsters, sailors, henchmen, bodyguards, cab drivers and moving men, appearing more than 400 films in his career, most without receiving screen credit. Newspaper gossip columnists noted his rise from playing "Gangster #4", with no lines, and not carrying a gun, to "Gangster #2", with both lines and a gun. Wagner was one of five children, all boys, of William Wallace Wagner, a railroad conductor, and Edith Wagner, a writer who provided dispatches for the Christian Science Monitor during the Mexican Revolution. When he was 10 years old, his father was killed by rebels and the family moved to Salinas, California, where he met John Steinbeck, who became a lifelong friend. Steinback based the character of the boy in his novel The Red Pony on Wagner. Under the name "Max Baron", Wagner acted in many Spanish-language versions of English-language films, which studios made as a matter of course in the early days of sound films, He also served as a Spanish language coach for other actors, and appeared in many of the "Mexican Spitfire" films starring Lupe Vélez, where he also served to monitor Velez's Spanish ad-libs for profanity. Other series that Wagner appeared in include the Charlie Chan films, and Tom Mix serials, as well as others made by Mascot Pictures Corporation. In the 1940s, Wagner was part of Preston Sturges' unofficial "stock company" of character actors, appearing in six films written and directed by Sturges, beginning with The Palm Beach Story In 1940 during the filming of "The Mad Doctor", Wagner was credited for driving 50,000 miles as an on-screen taxi driver on the studio back lots of Hollywood. Since his appearance as a cab driver in Charlie Chan in Shanghai (1935), producers often cast him as a wise-cracking or henchman taxi driver. "I was cast as a taxi driver about five years ago", Wagner told a reporter. "And I was typed." In 1952, Wagner began to appear on television, in episodes of such shows as The Cisco Kid, Zane Grey Theater and Perry Mason, playing much the same kind of parts he played in the movies. He was a regular cast member on the western television series Gunsmoke, making nearly 80 appearances between 1959 and 1973. He also appeared in many episodes of The Rifleman, Bonanza, Cimarron Strip, The Wild Wild West and Maverick, including a guest-starring role in the 1959 Rifleman episode "Blood Brother." He also had roles in the original Star Trek and The Twilight Zone series. He appeared in more than 200 television episodes between 1952 and 1974. Notable film roles for Wagner include a supporting role in the cult science fiction classic Invaders from Mars (1953), an actor playing a gangster in the film-within-a-film segment of Bullets or Ballots (1936), and the bull farm attendant in the Laurel and Hardy comedy The Bullfighters (1945). Late in his career, he appeared in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). He also occasionally composed music, such as the Mexican folk ballad "Pedro, Rudarte y Simon" in the Western film The Last Trail (1933). Wagner died of a heart attack in Hollywood in 1975.