Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American lyricist, librettist, theatrical producer, and director in musical theater for nearly 40 years. He won eight Tony Awards and two Academy Awards for Best Original Song. Many of his songs are standard repertoire for vocalists and jazz musicians. He co-wrote 850 songs.
Bad Girl is a 1931 American pre-Code drama film directed by Frank Borzage and starring Sally Eilers, James Dunn, and Minna Gombell. The screenplay was adapted by Edwin J. Burke from the 1928 novel by Viña Delmar and the 1930 play by Delmar and Brian Marlowe. The plot follows the courtship and marriage of two young, working-class people and the misunderstandings that result from their not having learned to trust and communicate with one another. The film propelled then-unknown actors Eilers and Dunn to stardom. It was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and won for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Fredric March was an American actor, regarded as one of Hollywood's most celebrated stars of the 1930s and 1940s. As a performer he was known for his versatility. He received numerous accolades including two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and two Tony Awards as well as nominations for three BAFTA Awards and three Emmy Awards.
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before sound motion pictures became commercially practical. Reliable synchronization was difficult to achieve with the early sound-on-disc systems, and amplification and recording quality were also inadequate. Innovations in sound-on-film led to the first commercial screening of short motion pictures using the technology, which took place in 1923. Before sound-on-film technology became viable, soundtracks for films were commonly played live with organs or pianos.
Silly Symphony is an American animated series of 75 musical short films produced by Walt Disney Productions from 1929 to 1939. As the series name implies, the Silly Symphonies were originally intended as whimsical accompaniments to pieces of music. As such, the films usually did not feature continuing characters, unlike the Mickey Mouse shorts produced by Disney at the same time. The series is notable for its innovation with Technicolor and the multiplane motion picture camera, as well as its introduction of the character Donald Duck, who made his first appearance in the Silly Symphony cartoon The Wise Little Hen in 1934. Seven shorts won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., commonly known as Columbia Pictures, is an American film production and distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Entertainment's Sony Pictures, which is one of the "Big Five" film studios and a subsidiary of the multinational conglomerate Sony Group Corporation.
Felix the Cat is a cartoon character created in 1919 by Pat Sullivan and Otto Messmer during the silent film era. An anthropomorphic young black cat with white eyes, a black body, and a giant grin, he is often considered one of the most recognized cartoon characters in history. Felix was the first fully realized recurring animal character in the history of American film animation.
Arthur Lake was an American actor known best for bringing Dagwood Bumstead, the bumbling husband of Blondie, to life in film, radio, and television.
Charles Bear Mintz was an American film producer and distributor who assumed control over Margaret J. Winkler's Winkler Pictures after marrying her in 1924. The couple had two children, Katherine and William. Between 1925 and 1939, Mintz produced over 370 cartoon shorts.
Screen Gems is an American film production company owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of Japanese multinational conglomerate, Sony Group Corporation. The Screen Gems brand has served several different purposes for its parent companies over the decades since its incorporation, initially as a cartoon studio, then a television studio, and later on as a film studio. The label currently serves as a film production that specializes in genre films, mainly horror.
Ian Keith was an American actor.
Jacqueline Medura Logan was an American actress and silent film star. Logan was a WAMPAS Baby Star of 1922.
Dorothy Revier was an American actress.
The Great Divide is a 1929 American pre-Code Western film directed by Reginald Barker and starring Dorothy Mackaill. Released in both silent and sound versions, it was produced and distributed by First National Pictures. The film is a remake of The Great Divide, made at MGM in 1925 and also directed by Barker. There was another remake in 1931 as the full sound film Woman Hungry. All three films are based on the 1906 Broadway play The Great Divide by William Vaughn Moody.
The Notorious Lone Wolf is a 1946 American mystery film directed by D. Ross Lederman and starring Gerald Mohr, Janis Carter and Eric Blore. It is the twelfth Lone Wolf film produced by Columbia Pictures. The picture features Mohr in his inaugural performance as the protagonist detective Lone Wolf alongside Janis Carter and Ian Wolfe as Adam Wainwright, the film's antagonist. The screenplay was written by Martin Berkeley, Edward Dein, and William J. Bowers.
The Shield of Honor is a 1927 American silent crime drama film directed by Emory Johnson based on the original story by Emilie Johnson. It starred Neil Hamilton, Dorothy Gulliver, and Ralph Lewis. This film explores a new branch of law enforcement - the Sky Cops. We follow the story of Jack MacDowell, the department's first pilot. During his new duties, Jack acquires a love interest and enlists the help of his retired father. They all work together, attempting to solve a series of diamond heists. Jack and his father deal with burning buildings, exchanging gunfire with jewel thieves, and a spectacular aerial battle. They finally arrest the perpetrators. Following its New York City premiere on December 10, 1927, the film was released on February 18, 1928, by Universal Pictures.
The Fall of Eve is a 1929 American comedy film directed by Frank R. Strayer, which stars Patsy Ruth Miller, Ford Sterling, and Gertrude Astor. The screenplay was written by Gladys Lehman, from a story by Anita Loos and John Emerson, and the film was released by Columbia Pictures on June 25, 1929.
Mothers of Men is a 1917 silent film directed by Willis Robards, promoting woman's suffrage. The seven-reel drama is considered lost. A five-reel re-edited version also directed by Robards was released in 1921—following ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment—under the title Every Woman's Problem. This version survives through a single 35mm print preserved by the British Film Institute. The 1921 re-release was restored in 2016, in a collaboration between the BFI and the San Francisco Silent Film Festival.
John Donald Wilson was a radio and film writer, producer, and voice actor, born in Kansas City, Missouri.
Father and Son is a 1929 American sound part-talkie pre-Code drama film directed by Erle C. Kenton from a story by Elmer Harris. In addition to sequences with audible dialogue or talking sequences, the film features a synchronized musical score and sound effects along with English intertitles. The sound was recorded via the Western Electric sound-on-film process. The film was produced by Harry Cohn for Columbia Pictures.
