MOVIE TRIVIA – PT108.

February 24, 2019 Alan Royle 0

Lulu sings ‘To Sir with Love’ in the movie (The Mindbenders in the background) Sidney Poitier as ‘Sir’ Columbia held To Sir with Love (1967) from release for over a year before finally deciding to open it in Westwood, California in the summer of 1967. It did so unexpectedly well […]

MOVIE TRIVIA – PT92.

December 24, 2018 Alan Royle 4

The lovely May Wynn in The Caine Mutiny (1954) May at home with husband Jack Kelly Donna Lee Hickey was born in New York City in 1928. When she won the role of May Wynn in the 1954 classic The Caine Mutiny, she decided to change her acting name to that of […]

MOVIE TRIVIA – PT89.

December 16, 2018 Alan Royle 4

  Marion Davies Marion Davies acquired a reputation for showing kindness to actors down on their luck. She was always writing cheques to help out struggling careers and to rejuvenate many. ‘You’re rich’, she said many times, ‘not because of money, but only through what you give.’ She also built […]

MOVIE TRIVIA – PT82

November 26, 2018 Alan Royle 2

  Franciska Gaal The name Franciska Gaal is long lost to modern movie-goers. Her Hollywood screen career was very short indeed, only three pictures released just prior to the outbreak of World War Two. Born in Budapest, Hungary, the Jewish Franciska had enjoyed success in German cinema until Hitler came […]

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MOVIE TRIVIA – PT65.

October 9, 2018 Alan Royle 0

Gary Cooper was 55 years of age when he played Jess Birdwell in Friendly Persuasion (1956). He was far too old for the part, yet found time to complain about the casting of Dorothy McGuire. She was a poor actress, he declared, and not nearly attractive enough to play his […]

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MOVIE TRIVIA – PT60.

September 23, 2018 Alan Royle 0

Deanna Durbin Canadian-born Deanna Durbin was just 14 when Walt Disney tested her to be the voice of Snow White in his 1937 feature-length animated classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. He chose not to use her because her voice sounded ‘too mature’. By 1943, at the age of […]

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MOVIE TRIVIA – PT49.

August 30, 2018 Alan Royle 0

  Many of the characters in Singin’ in the Rain (1952) are based on real people in Hollywood history. R.F. Simpson, the studio head, is a parody of L. B. Mayer; director Roscoe Dexter is a thinly disguised Erich von Stroheim; Dora Bailey is obviously a caricature of Louella Parsons; […]

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STARS WHO WENT TO WAR 1939-45 – PT 1.

July 21, 2018 Alan Royle 6

  A great many members of the movie community were quick to enlist and to serve their country in World War Two. Below is a shortened list of actors who served. Not all were movie stars at the time, but David Niven, Tyrone Power, James Stewart, Clark Gable, Lew Ayres, […]

Forties Movie Trivia – PT2

February 19, 2018 Alan Royle 4

If you have ever watched the Spencer Tracy/Robert Young film Northwest Passage (1940), you have more than likely wondered why the picture was given that title when at no time in the entire movie do they get anywhere even remotely near a ‘northwest passage’. In fact, it is never even […]

Hollywood & Abortions

April 1, 2017 Alan Royle 2

  Over the past century or more that Hollywood has existed there has been no shortage of abortions performed on many of its aspiring young actresses. Unwanted offspring are not unique to the movie business, but they do tend to interfere with ambitions, not to mention reputations, more often in […]