Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell was an American actress and model. She was one of Hollywood's leading sex symbols in the 1940s and 1950s. She starred in more than 20 films.
Calamity Jane is a 1953 American Technicolor Western musical film starring Doris Day and Howard Keel, and directed by David Butler. The musical numbers were staged and directed by Jack Donohue, who a year later would direct the Day musical Lucky Me (1954). The film is loosely based on the life of Wild West heroine Calamity Jane and explores an alleged romance between her and Wild Bill Hickok.
The Outlaw is a 1943 American Western film directed by Howard Hughes and starring Jack Buetel, Jane Russell, Thomas Mitchell and Walter Huston. Hughes also produced the film, and Howard Hawks served as an uncredited co-director. The film is notable as Russell's breakthrough role to becoming a sex symbol and Hollywood icon. Later advertising billed Russell as the sole star. The Outlaw is an early example of a psychological Western.
"Buttons and Bows" is a popular song with music written by Jay Livingston and lyrics by Ray Evans. The song was published on February 25, 1948 by Famous Music Corp., New York. The song was written for and appeared in the Bob Hope and Jane Russell film The Paleface and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. It was originally written with an Indian theme, but was changed when the director said that would not work in the movie. It was a vocal selection on many radio programs in late 1948. It was reprised in the sequel, Son of Paleface, by Roy Rogers, Jane Russell and Bob Hope. In 2004 it finished #87 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of the top tunes in American cinema.
Son of Paleface is a 1952 American comedy Western film directed by Frank Tashlin and starring Bob Hope, Jane Russell, and Roy Rogers. The film is a sequel to The Paleface (1948). Written by Tashlin, Joseph Quillan, and Robert L. Welch, the film is about a man who returns home to claim his father's gold, which is nowhere to be found. Son of Paleface was released in the United States by Paramount Pictures on July 14, 1952.
Alias Jesse James is a 1959 American Western comedy film directed by Norman Z. McLeod and starring Bob Hope and Rhonda Fleming. Based on a story by Robert St. Aubrey and Bert Lawrence, the film is about an outlaw who tries to kill an insurance agent who has been mistaken for him in order to collect on a big policy. Costumes by Edith Head.
The Shakiest Gun in the West is a 1968 American comedy Western film starring Don Knotts. It was directed by Alan Rafkin and written by Jim Fritzell and Everett Greenbaum. The film is a remake of The Paleface, a 1948 film starring Bob Hope and Jane Russell.
Double Dynamite is a 1951 American musical comedy film directed by Irving Cummings and starring Jane Russell, Groucho Marx, and Frank Sinatra. The film was written by Leo Rosten (story), Melville Shavelson (screenplay), Mannie Manheim, and Harry Crane.
The Plainsman is a 1936 American Western film directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur. The film presents a highly fictionalized account of the adventures and relationships between Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Buffalo Bill Cody, and General George Custer, with a gun-runner named Lattimer as the main villain. The film is notorious for mixing timelines and even has an opening scene with Abraham Lincoln setting the stage for Hickok's adventures. Anthony Quinn has an early acting role as an Indian. A remake using the same title was released in 1966.
This is a selection of films and television appearances by British-American comedian and actor Bob Hope (1903-2003). Hope, a former boxer, began his acting career in 1925 in various vaudeville acts and stage performances
Martha Jane Canary, better known as Calamity Jane, was an American frontierswoman, sharpshooter, and storyteller. In addition to many exploits, she was known for being an acquaintance of Wild Bill Hickok. Late in her life, she appeared in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show and at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition. She is said to have exhibited compassion to others, especially to the sick and needy. This facet of her character contrasted with her daredevil ways and helped to make her a noted frontier figure. She was also known for her habit of wearing men's attire.
Canadian Pacific is a 1949 American historical Western film, directed by Edwin L. Marin and starring Randolph Scott and Jane Wyatt. Filmed in Cinecolor on location in the Canadian Rockies in Banff National Park, Morley Indian Reserve in Alberta, and Yoho National Park in British Columbia, it is a story about the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Young Widow is a 1946 drama film directed by Edwin L. Marin and starring Jane Russell and Louis Hayward. It focuses on Joan Kenwood, a young journalist who cannot get over her husband's death in World War II. Kenwood is reminded in large ways and small of her late husband during every one of her assignments. With The Outlaw still being withheld from general release, Young Widow was Jane Russell's debut.
South of St Louis is a 1949 American Technicolor Western film directed by Ray Enright and starring Joel McCrea, Alexis Smith, Zachary Scott and Dorothy Malone. It chronicles the friendship between three ranchers after their ranch is destroyed by raiders led by the infamous Luke Cottrell. The film was originally titled Distant Drums, but was later changed to its current title, which refers to Civil War army deserters.
Calcutta is a 1947 American film noir crime film directed by John Farrow, and written and produced by Seton I. Miller. The drama features Alan Ladd, Gail Russell and William Bendix.
Passage West is a 1951 American Western film directed by Lewis R. Foster and starring John Payne, Dennis O'Keefe and Arleen Whelan.
Kentucky Rifle is a 1955 American Western movie starring a buckskin-clad Chill Wills and featuring Cathy Downs, Sterling Holloway and Henry Hull, involving smuggling a wagon filled with rifles past American Indian tribes already aware of the subterfuge. The picture was directed by Carl K. Hittleman.
Calamity Jane and Sam Bass is a 1949 American Western film directed by George Sherman and starring Yvonne De Carlo, Howard Duff and Dorothy Hart.
Ted Mapes was an American character actor, who was also a prolific stuntman and body double. Born on November 25, 1901, in St. Edward, Nebraska, he moved to Los Angeles in his mid-20s, and entered the film industry in 1929, first as a grip, and then as a stuntman and actor. He doubled for many famous actors, including Jimmy Stewart and Gary Cooper. His film and television career spanned forty years, during which time he appeared in hundreds of films and television shows, either as an actor, stuntman or body double. After his career in front of the camera ended in 1969, Mapes became an advocate for animal safety in films, working as an observer on sets for the American Humane Association.
