Reveille with Beverly

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Johnnie Lucille Collier (April 12, 1923 – January 22, 2004), known professionally as Ann Miller, was an American dancer, singer and actress. She is best remembered for her work in the Classical Hollywood musical films of the 1940s and 1950s. At age 13 in 1936, Miller became a showgirl at the Bal Tabarin. She was hired as a dancer in the "Black Cat Club" in San Francisco (she reportedly told them she was 18). It was there that she was discovered by Lucille Ball and talent scout/comic Benny Rubin (although some sources say this occurred at Bal Tabarin). This led Miller to be given a contract with RKO in 1936 at the age of 13 (she had also told them she was 18, and apparently provided a fake birth certificate, procured by her father - with the name "Lucy Ann Collier") and she remained there until 1940. In 1941, she signed with Columbia Pictures, where, starting with Time Out for Rhythm, she starred in 11 B movie musicals from 1941 to 1945. In July 1945, with World War II still raging in the Pacific, she posed in a bathing suit as a Yank magazine pin-up girl. She ended her contract in 1946 with one "A" film, The Thrill of Brazil. The ad in Life magazine featured Miller's leg in a large, red, bow-tied stocking as the "T" in "Thrill". She finally hit her mark in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals such as Easter Parade (1948), On the Town (1949) and Kiss Me Kate (1953). Miller was famed for her speed in tap dance. Studio publicists concocted press releases claiming she could tap 500 times per minute, but in truth, the sound of ultra-fast "500" taps was looped in later. Because the stage floors were waxed and too slick for regular tap shoes, she had to dance in shoes with rubber treads on the sole. Later she would loop the sound of the taps while watching the film and actually dancing on a "tap board" to match her steps in the film. Her film career effectively ended in 1956 as the studio system lost steam to television, but she remained active in the theater and on television. She starred on Broadway in the musical Mame in 1969, in which she wowed the audience in a tap number created just for her. In 1979 she astounded audiences in the Broadway show Sugar Babies with fellow MGM veteran Mickey Rooney, which toured the United States extensively after its Broadway run. In 1983, she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre. She appeared in a special 1982 episode of The Love Boat, joined by fellow showbiz legends Ethel Merman, Carol Channing, Della Reese, Van Johnson and Cab Calloway in a storyline that cast them as older relatives of the show's regular characters. Her last stage performance was a 1998 production of Stephen Sondheim's Follies, in which she played hardboiled Carlotta Campion and received rave reviews for her rendition of the song "I'm Still Here". For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Miller has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6914 Hollywood Blvd. In 1998, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to her. To honor Miller's contribution to dance, the Smithsonian Institution displays her favorite pair of tap shoes, which she playfully nicknamed "Moe and Joe".

 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Adele Mara (April 28, 1923 – May 7, 2010), born Adelaide Delgado, was an American actress, singer and dancer who appeared in films during the 1940s and 1950s. During the 1940s, the blond actress was also a popular pinup girl. One of her early roles was as a receptionist in the Three Stooges film I Can Hardly Wait. Other films include The Vampire's Ghost, Wake of the Red Witch, Angel in Exile, Sands of Iwo Jima, California Passage, and Don Siegel's Count the Hours. In 1961 appeared as a guest star with Cesar Romero on The Red Skelton Show in a sketch titled "Deadeye & The Alamo" - she played Elaine the nurse. Born in Highland Park, Michigan, of Spanish descent, she was married to television writer/producer Roy Huggins and appeared as a dancer in three episodes of his 1957 television series Maverick. Mara died of natural causes on May 7, 2010. Description above from the Wikipedia article Adele Mara, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra (December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became a successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, being the idol of the "bobby soxers". His professional career had stalled by the 1950s, but it was reborn in 1954 after he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (for his performance in From Here to Eternity). He signed with Capitol Records and released several critically lauded albums (such as In the Wee Small Hours, Songs for Swingin' Lovers, Come Fly with Me, Only the Lonely and Nice 'n' Easy). Sinatra left Capitol to found his own record label, Reprise Records (finding success with albums such as Ring-A-Ding-Ding, Sinatra at the Sands and Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim), toured internationally, was a founding member of the Rat Pack and fraternized with celebrities and statesmen, including John F. Kennedy. Sinatra turned 50 in 1965, recorded the retrospective September of My Years, starred in the Emmy-winning television special Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music, and scored hits with "Strangers in the Night" and "My Way". With sales of his music dwindling and after appearing in several poorly received films, Sinatra retired for the first time in 1971. Two years later, however, he came out of retirement and in 1973 recorded several albums, scoring a Top 40 hit with "(Theme From) New York, New York" in 1980. Using his Las Vegas shows as a home base, he toured both within the United States and internationally, until a short time before his death in 1998. Sinatra also forged a successful career as a film actor, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in From Here to Eternity, a nomination for Best Actor for The Man with the Golden Arm, and critical acclaim for his performance in The Manchurian Candidate. He also starred in such musicals as High Society, Pal Joey, Guys and Dolls and On the Town. Sinatra was honored at the Kennedy Center Honors in 1983 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Ronald Reagan in 1985 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1997. Sinatra was also the recipient of eleven Grammy Awards, including the Grammy Trustees Award, Grammy Legend Award and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Description above from the Wikipedia article Frank Sinatra, 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.

Tim Ryan was an American performer who is probably best known today as a film actor. Ryan and his wife, Irene who later played Granny on The Beverly Hillbillies, were a show business team that performed on Broadway, film and radio. They made some short films for Educational Pictures in the mid-1930s based on their vaudeville act. They were married from 1922 to 1942. Even after their divorce in 1942, the couple occasionally worked together. In the 1940s, Ryan found opportunities at Monogram Pictures where he acted in films as well as wrote screenplays. In films of the 1940s and the early 1950s, Ryan appeared on screen playing numerous roles as cops, newspaper editors and detectives.

Barbara Ann Brown (October 18, 1901 – July 7, 1975) was an American actress. Description above from the Wikipedia article Barbara Brown, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Walter Sande (July 9, 1906 - November 22, 1971) was an American actor, notable for film roles including Paul Revere in Walt Disney's Johnny Tremain. Born in Denver, Colorado, he was one of those stern, heavyset character actors in Hollywood no person could recognize by name. He showed an early interest in music as a youth and by his college years managed to start his own band. This led to a job as musical director for 20th Century-Fox's theater chain, which, in turn, led him to acting in films beginning in 1937. Usually providing atmospheric bits with no billing, he made an initial impression in serial cliffhangers as a third-string heavy with the popular The Green Hornet Strikes Again! and Sky Raiders. His first top featured role, however, would come with The Iron Claw as Jack "Flash" Strong, a photographer who, uncharacteristically for Walter, served as a comic sidekick to our serial hero. Best of all would be his role in another serial as Red Pennington, the amusing sidekick to Don Winslow of the Navy. He repeated his role again in Don Winslow of the Coast Guard, the successful sequel. The Pennington role would spark a long and steady career in movies, usually a step or two behind Hollywood's elite, in To Have and Have Not (prominently featured as the fisherman who tries to cheat Bogie), in Along Came Jones, The Blue Dahlia, Dark City and Bad Day at Black Rock, among hundreds of others. A regular authoritative presence in these classic sci-fi films Red Planet Mars, The War of the Worlds and Invaders from Mars. He also had a recurring featured part in the 1940s Boston Blackie film series playing Detective Matthews alongside 'Chester Morris former thief-turned-crime hero. A primary support player during the 'golden age' of TV, Walter worked on nearly every popular western and crime show available throughout the 1950s and 1960s. He had a regular series role on "The Adventures of Tugboat Annie" as Captain Horatio Bullwinkle, Annie's tugboat rival, and a recurring one as Lars "Papa" Holstrum, on "The Farmer's Daughter". He died of a heart attack in 1971 at age sixty-five in Chicago, Illinois. Description above from the Wikipedia article Walter Sande, licensed under CC-BY-SA,full list of contributors on Wikipedia. ​

George Robert Crosby (August 23, 1913 – March 9, 1993) was an American jazz singer and bandleader, best known for his group the Bob-Cats, which formed around 1935. The Bob-Cats were a New Orleans Dixieland-style jazz octet. He was the younger brother of famed singer and actor Bing Crosby. On TV, Bob Crosby guest-starred in The Gisele MacKenzie Show. He was also a regular cast member of The Jack Benny Program, on both radio and television, taking over the role of bandleader after Phil Harris' departure. Crosby hosted his own afternoon TV variety show on CBS, The Bob Crosby Show (1953–1957). Crosby received two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for television and radio. [biography (excerpted) from Wikipedia]

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and leader of a jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based in New York City from the mid-1920s and gained a national profile through his orchestra's appearances at the Cotton Club in Harlem.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Bobby Barber (December 18, 1894 – May 24, 1976) was an American actor who appeared in over 100 films. Barber is notable for his work as a foil for Abbott and Costello on and off screen. Barber was often used by Bud Abbott and Lou Costello as a form of "court jester" on the set of their films. It was his job to keep the energy level up with pranks and practical jokes. Sometimes, he even suddenly appeared on camera during a take to break up the cast and crew. In Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), Costello answers a knock at the door expecting to see large actor Lon Chaney Jr. Instead, the very short Barber walks in wearing a funny hat with a feather. In another outtake from that film, Bela Lugosi, in full Dracula regalia, is solemnly descending a staircase to meet Abbott and Costello when all of a sudden the actors and crew burst out laughing. Lugosi, annoyed, turns around to see Barber following right behind him, mimicking his steps. Barber also appeared in bit parts, such as a delivery boy, waiter, bellhop, or man on the street, often uncredited in movies, and in many of Abbott and Costello's films and about half their television shows. Sometimes his likeness was in a picture on a wall or a "wanted" poster in a post office. His final film appearance was in Lou Costello's last movie, The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock (1959). His film career included bit parts in over 100 (known) feature films.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Eddy Chandler (March 12, 1894 – March 23, 1948) was an American actor who appeared, mostly uncredited, in more than 300 films. Three of these films won the Academy Award for Best Picture: It Happened One Night (1934), You Can't Take It with You (1938), and Gone with the Wind (1939). Chandler was born in the small Iowa city of Wilton Junction and died in Los Angeles, California.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Maude Eburne (born Maud Eburne Riggs, 10 November 1875 – 15 October 1960) was a Canadian character actress of stage and screen, known for playing eccentric roles. Eburne began her career in stock theater in Buffalo, New York. Her early theater work was in Ontario and New York City, debuting on Broadway to great acclaim as "Coddles" in the 1914 farce A Pair of Sixes. "When I first came to New York... I said I didn't want to be beautiful young girls or stately leading women, but wanted parts that had something queer in them, especially if there were dialect." She continued to play mainly humorous domestic roles on stage, appearing in productions such as The Half Moon (1920), Lady Butterfly (1923), Three Cheers (1928) and Many a Slip (1930), before her first significant film role — and first sound film role — in The Bat Whispers (1930), director Roland West's sound remake of his 1926 silent feature The Bat.

Eugene Jackson gained fame as Farina's older brother, Pineapple, in six of Hal Roach's "Our Gang" serials - "The Mysterious Mystery", "The Big Town", "Circus Fever", "Dog Days", "The Love Bug" and "Shootin Injuns". Besides films he sang and danced on the vaudeville circuit - billed as "Hollywood's most famous colored kid star". Most of his film roles were bit parts, most uncredited. He did appear as Diahann Carroll's Uncle Lou on TV's "Julia" and Redd Foxx's friend on "Sanford and Son". In later years he taught dance at studios he started in Compton and Pasadena. He trained several performers in the 1959 film Porgy and Bess. His work was featured in a dance retrospective for the 1993 Los Angeles Festival.

David Newell was originally an actor, who became a makeup artist after being involved in a car crash that left him with some facial disfigurement. David Newell was primarily known as an American character actor, whose acting career spanned from the very beginning of the sound film era through the middle of the 1950s. He made his film debut in a featured role in The Hole in the Wall, a 1929 film starring Edward G. Robinson and Claudette Colbert. Early in his career he had many featured roles, in such films as: RKO's The Runaway Bride in 1929, starring Mary Astor; 1931's Ten Cents a Dance, starring Barbara Stanwyck and directed by Lionel Barrymore; and White Heat in 1934. In the late 1940s he also began working as a make-up artist, which he transitioned full-time to in 1955; this was due to injuries sustained during a car accident, which left him physically disfigured. He retired from the film industry in 1961, although he continued to work in television through the beginning of the 1970s, his last position being the make-up artist on the television show, Lassie. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Herbert Banemann Rawlinson (15 November 1885 – 12 July 1953) was an English-born stage, film, radio, and television actor. A leading man during Hollywood's silent film era, Rawlinson transitioned to character roles after the advent of sound films. Rawlinson was born in New Brighton, Cheshire, England, UK. He sailed to America on the same ship as Charlie Chaplin. He died of lung cancer in 1953.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Cyril Ring (December 5, 1892 – July 17, 1967) was an American film actor. He began his career in silent films in 1921. By the time of his final performance in 1951, he had appeared in over 350 films, almost all in small and/or uncredited parts. He is probably best remembered today for his role as Harvey Yates, a con artist captured and hand-cuffed to fellow con artist Penelope, played by Kay Francis at the very end of the Marx Brothers first film The Cocoanuts (1929).

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Virginia Sale (May 20, 1899 – August 23, 1992) was an American character actress whose career spanned six decades, during most of which she played older women, even when she was in her twenties. Over the 46 years she was active as an actress, she worked in films, stage, radio and television. She was famous for her one-woman stage show, Americana Sketches, which she did for more than 1,000 performances during a 15-year span. Married to actor and studio executive Sam Wren, she co-starred with him in one of the first television family comedies, Wren's Nest, in the late 1940s and early 1950s. She gave birth to fraternal twins, Virginia and Christopher, in 1936. Later in her career she worked on television, and in commercials. She died from heart failure at the age of 93 at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in 1992.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Winstead Sheffield Glenndenning Dixon "Doodles" Weaver (May 11, 1912 – January 17, 1983) was an American character actor, comedian, and musician. His mother gave him the nickname "Doodlebug" as a child because of his freckles and big ears. Weaver began his career in radio. In the late 1930s he performed on Rudy Vallée's radio programs and Kraft Music Hall. He later joined Spike Jones' City Slickers. In 1957, Weaver hosted his own variety show, The Doodles Weaver Show, which aired on NBC. In addition to his radio work, he recorded a number of comedy records, appeared in films, and guest starred on numerous television series from the 1950s through the 1970s. Weaver made his last onscreen appearance in 1981. His niece is actress Sigourney Weaver.

Lee Wilde (1922-2015) was an actress, known for Campus Honeymoon, Look for the Silver Lining and Twice Blessed.