Tag Archives: 1930s

Classic Hollywood #180 – Fay Wray 1933

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Fay Wray, Star Of King Kong – 1933

This 1933 promotional still of Fay Wray (b. 1907) from King Kong was taken by RKO Pictures studio photographer Ernest Bachrach.

The Alberta, Canada native began her career in the movies during summer vacations while attending Hollywood High School. Fay Wray was already appearing in bit parts in films at the age of 16. Talent was abundant in Wray’s family. Her grandfather, Daniel Jones was a prominent author. Older sisters Willow and Vaida were both professional singers, but neither would pursue film careers. Fay Wray was signed to the stock company of Hal Roach Comedies in 1924.

Wray’s big break came Continue reading →

Classic Hollywood #178 – Mystery Celebrity – When She Was Young

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Can You Name This Character Actress?

Here are four photographs of a Hollywood contract player, several years before she became a well known MGM feature player in many films during the 1930s, 40s and 50s.

She was born on February 24, 1890 as Mary Tomlinson in Acton, Indiana.

Dressed to the nines – circa 1918

Photo via the New York Public Library.  c. 1920s

Photo: Apeda studio possibly from the 1918 play “Yes Or No”

The next photo should give it away.

With actor Billy Bevan in The Wrong Road (1937)

Do you have it yet?

Yes, it’s the star of a dozen Ma and Pa Kettle movies, Marjorie Main.

Usually thought of as plain and matronly, Marjorie was attractive enough Continue reading →

Old New York In Photos #181 – First Avenue & 67th Street 1935

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Clearing Land For The New Memorial Cancer Hospital

This 1935 photograph is from city street photographer Percy Loomis Sperr.

We are looking east from First Avenue and 67th Street and shows the land that would soon be the site for Memorial Hospital for the Treatment of Cancer and Allied Diseases.

This plot of land stretching from York Avenue to  First Avenue between 67th and 68th Street was donated to Memorial Hospital by John D. Rockefeller. This neighborhood today houses numerous medical institutions.

Over the ensuing decades, every visible building along 68th Street; the tenements, a blacksmith shop, auto repair shop and ambulance company would be demolished for expansion of hospital buildings.

The large building complex with the tower Continue reading →

Classic Hollywood #177 – Rita Hayworth And Penguin – 1937

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Rita Hayworth And A Smoking Penguin

Sometimes we run across photographs with no logical explanation. When there is no news slug we are left to speculate – what is going on here? This is one of those cases.

Besides being identified on the rear as Rita Hayworth and a United Press International photo, there was nothing else written identifying the action or location.

Fortunately entering “Rita Hayworth” and Penguin in a search engine can solve a mystery. Continue reading →

A New Baseball Introduced At Spring Training 1931

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Manager Connie Mack Shows Pitchers The New Baseball To Be Used For The 1931 Season

Connie Shows His Men How The New Ball Works
Fort Myers, Fla: Connie Mack, veteran chief of the Philadelphia Athletics explains the new ball to Walberg, Grove, Rommel and Shores as spring training gets under way here. 3/5/1931 photo International Newsreel

With a new lively baseball introduced after 1920, it was no surprise that balls started to travel further. But as the 1920s progressed and hitters kept hitting more and more home runs, baseball writers, fans and those within the game felt that the hitters had achieved too much of an advantage. So after a decade of increasing run production, the National and American Leagues made the decision to try and curb the scoring by changing to a new baseball.

Big Numbers

Continue reading →

Lou Gehrig & Wife Eleanor After Retiring From Baseball

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Lou Gehrig Has Help From Eleanor Gehrig With His New Job

LOU GEHRIG’S WIFE MAY BECOME HIS SECRETARY
Larchmont, N.Y. – Wife and secretary is the double role Mrs. Lou Gehrig (above) might assume Jan. 1, 1940, assumes his position on the New York City Municipal Parole Board. Mrs. Gehrig is shown in their Larchmont N.Y., home, Oct. 11, after Mayor F.H. LaGuardia announced appointment of the New York Yankees former first baseman to the board for a ten-year term. Mrs. Gehrig handles all of Lou’s fan mail and other correspondence. Credit: Acme Oct. 11, 1939

After Lou Gehrig stepped down from playing baseball on May 2, 1939 he stayed with the team for the remainder of the year, never playing a major league game again. But once the season was over Gehrig pondered the future.

The parole board job La Guardia offered paid an annual salary of $5,750, quite a cut from Continue reading →

Classic Hollywood #169 – Charlie Chaplin & Paulette Goddard

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Charlie Chaplin & Paulette Goddard Attend The Premiere Of Gone With The Wind 1939

Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard At “Gone With The Wind” Premiere
Hollywood, Calif. – The long-awaited Hollywood premiere of “Gone With The Wind” brought out many film celebrities and socialites, among those present were Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard (above). This is one of the very few times in months that Chaplin has been photographed at a premiere. photo: International News 12/28/1939

The news slug here implies that Charlie Chaplin had not been attending movie premieres in 1939. But maybe he just wasn’t photographed at them. Continue reading →

Classic Hollywood #168 – Carole Lombard In A Candid Photo On Set

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Carole Lombard Laughing Between Scenes Of Fools For Scandal – 1938

Carole Lombard and Fernand Gravet (Gravey) starring in director Mervyn Leroy’s Fools For Scandal (1938) are apparently amused by something during a break in filming. The candid photograph taken by Otto Dyar perfectly displays Lombard’s exuberant personality.

During a war bond drive. Lombard, along with her mother, died tragically in a plane crash on January 16, 1942. She was 33.

Kyle Crichton’s biting memoir of literary. political and celebrity attachments,Total Recoil (1960) Doubleday & Company, gives a brief portrait of Lombard. Continue reading →

Two Of The Dionne Quintuplets Turn 90-Years-Old Today

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Annette and Cécile Dionne Turn 90 On May 28, 2024

Turning 90 is still considered a feat of longevity and cause for celebration.

But for two Canadian women, Annette Dionne Allard and Cécile Dionne Langlois, turning 90 on  May 28 will still be a bittersweet day. Their siblings are dead and much of their early lives were lived under constant scrutiny.

Annette and Cécile, are each one fifth of what were the world’s most famous sisters.

When it was announced that five baby girls were born to Oliva-Édouard and his wife Elzire Dionne on May 28 1934 in rural Callendar, Ontario Canada, the world went into Dionne Quintuplet-mania.

The Dionne’s were the first known set of quintuplets to survive infancy. Continue reading →