The Vanishing Virginian | |
---|---|
Directed by | Frank Borzage |
Written by | Jan Fortune |
Based on | The Vanishing Virginian 1940 novel by Rebecca Yancey Williams |
Produced by | Edwin H. Knopf (as Edwin Knopf) Frank Borzage |
Starring | Frank Morgan Kathryn Grayson |
Cinematography | Charles Lawton Jr. |
Edited by | James E. Newcom |
Music by | David Snell (score) Earl Brent (adaptation) Lennie Hayton (director) Daniele Amfitheatrof (uncredited) |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Loew's Inc. |
Release date |
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Running time | 97 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $499,000 [1] |
Box office | $905,000 [1] |
The Vanishing Virginian is a 1942 American drama film directed by Frank Borzage and starring Frank Morgan and Kathryn Grayson. It is based on the memoirs of Rebecca Yancey Williams and set in Lynchburg, Virginia, from 1913 to 1929.
Based on the true story of turn-of-the-century Robert Yancey, lawyer and ever-popular politician in Virginia. The film starts with the statement, "This is the story of a vanishing era when simple men so loved their country, their families and their friends that America became a better place in which to live. Such a man was Cap'n Bob Yancey." [2]
The film is based on a 1940 memoir of the same name by Rebecca Yancey Williams. The book's central figure was her father, Robert Davis Yancey, and detailed the story of Cap'n Bob Yancey, his charming and absent‐minded wife and all the Yancey children. [3] The film explores societal roles in plantations of the "Old Dominion" around Lynchburg and their socio-economic implications, as well as the movement for women’s suffrage, among other things. It is also the town's story, and various eminent Virginians cross the pages, including Carter Glass, General Jubal Early, Lady Astor's father, "Chilly" Langhorne, and others. [4] Katharine Alexander portrays an outspoken woman who moved north and got a divorce; the character is held to be loosely based on Nancy Langhorne Astor. [5]
According to MGM records, the film earned $589,000 in the U.S. and Canada, and $316,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $63,000. [1]
A promotional poster for the film makes the claim that "Millions Read the Book", and also refers to the film as an "American Masterpiece" having "Heart-Throbs, Laughs, [and] Thrills". [6] In addition, a 1942 issue of Photoplay referred to the book as "delightful". [7]
The Vanishing Virginian, the book the film is based on, was published a second time in London in 1941, this time under the title Father Was a Handful. [8] This version was published by Michael Joseph, a British writer and publisher who was part of the publishing company that would later become Penguin Random House. [9]
The story told in The Vanishing Virginian is continued in Rebecca Yancey Williams' second and final novel Carry Me Back, [10] which further chronicles the life of the family, focusing on Rebecca Yancey Williams' experiences during the country summers of 1913-14 in Lynchburg. In addition, some of the content in this novel was adapted from Williams' own diary she kept when she was 15 years of age. [11]
Nancy Witcher Astor, Viscountess Astor was an American-born British politician who was the first woman seated as a Member of Parliament (MP), serving from 1919 to 1945. Astor was born in Danville, Virginia and raised in Greenwood, Virginia. Her first marriage, to socialite Robert Gould Shaw II, was unhappy and ended in divorce. She then moved to England and married American-born Englishman Waldorf Astor in 1906.
Dodge City is a 1939 American Western film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, and Ann Sheridan. Based on a story by Robert Buckner, the film is about a Texas cattle agent who witnesses the brutal lawlessness of Dodge City, Kansas and takes the job of sheriff to clean the town up. Filmed in Technicolor, Dodge City was one of the highest-grossing films of the year. This was the 5th of 8 movies that de Havilland and Flynn appeared in together.
Lynchburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. First settled in 1757 by ferry owner John Lynch, the city's population was 79,009 at the 2020 census, making Lynchburg the 11th most populous city in Virginia. Located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains along the banks of the James River, Lynchburg is known as the "City of Seven Hills" or the "Hill City". In the 1860s, Lynchburg was the only city in Virginia that was not recaptured by the Union before the end of the American Civil War.
Kathryn Grayson was an American actress and coloratura soprano.
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The Astor family achieved prominence in business, society, and politics in the United States and the United Kingdom during the 19th and 20th centuries. With German roots, some of their ancestry goes back to the Italian and Swiss Alps, the Astors settled in Germany, first appearing in North America in the 18th century with John Jacob Astor, one of the wealthiest people in history.
Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor, DL was an American-born English politician and newspaper proprietor. He was a member of the Astor family. He was active in minor political roles. He was devoted to charitable projects, and with his more famous wife Nancy became a prominent fixture in upper class English society.
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Show Boat is a 1951 American musical romantic drama film, based on the 1927 stage musical of the same name by Jerome Kern (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II, and the 1926 novel by Edna Ferber. It was made by MGM, adapted for the screen by John Lee Mahin, produced by Arthur Freed and directed by George Sidney.
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