From Hollywood of old, some familiar faces

Posted by medusamorlock on July 22, 2011

It’s summertime, and the perfect opportunity to pull out some photo albums — no groans, please — and take a look at Hollywood behind-the-scenes from my stash of old news photos. It’s a nutty mixed bag, but that goes along with these lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer, right?

Here’s Jimmy “Schnozzola” Durante and the highly respected actress Ethel Barrymore together, with Jimmy supplying the hilarious ham. They had appeared together in radio and on TV, on Durante’s show, even recorded together, and this photo shows their unlikely but delightful collaboration.

Here’s a rather “Boardwalk Empire”-like photo of the “Toastmaster General of the United States” George Jessel, who I mostly remember as a guest on talk shows during my younger years, but might be nearly unknown to the current generation. Jessel was an actor, a comedian, a vaudevillian, a movie producer, a tireless after-dinner speaker and celebrity roast host, and an unstoppable ladies man. Hubba Hubba!

Another super romantic figure was Errol Flynn, who at the end of 1949 turned up with a new fiancee – and a new beard (for his role in Kim). The fiancee was Rumanian Princess Irinia Ghica, 19 years old to Flynn’s 40, and no, they never actually got married. But she was cute and he was still a big hunk of handsome at that time!

Comedian Bob Hope was a tireless entertainer for American troops wherever they were stationed, and in 1950 among the places he visited was Kimpo Air Base in Korea, where he was photographed leaving a T-33 jet aircraft which was ferrying him on his tour. Mission Accomplished!

This lovely photo of a fresh-faced and natural-looking Judy Garland was identified on the back by this terse note: “Los Angeles. 6/20/50 Judy Garland…Attempted suicide by slashing throat with broken piece of glass”.

The beautiful and talentd actress Jane Russell caused quite a to-do back in 1952 when she and husband Bob Waterfield adopted a young Irish baby boy named Thomas Kavanaugh and brought him to the U.S. to be part of their family. Several issues — she was Prostestant, the child would be taken away from Ireland — almost put the kibosh on the adoption, but the Tommy’s biological mother was in favor of the arrangement and so it went through. Read the whole interesting story here.

This last sequence of photographs shows the de-moustaching of actor Adolphe Menjou, who over his long career had been famous for his suave moustache — possibly more famous for it than for his unpopular testimony before the HUAC hearings…possibly. He shaved it for his role in 1952′s crime drama The Sniper, urged by producer Stanley Kramer, but didn’t like it at all and returned to the moustache soon after. You have to admit he looks somewhat skeptical and almost powerless in the final result.

Sometimes what went on behind the screen is as almost as fascinating as what on it!

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15 Responses From Hollywood of old, some familiar faces

Posted By Martha Clark : July 22, 2011 9:59 pm

Great photos and stories, thanks for sharing!

Wow! Adolphe Menjou without his mustache…poor guy, he looks SO much better with it. One of my favorite actors! :)

Posted By dukeroberts : July 23, 2011 2:15 am

Adolphe Menjou is virtually unrecognizable without his mustache. Weird.

Posted By Tom S : July 23, 2011 2:42 am

Menjou is a really fun actor, it’s hard to reconcile that with how vile he was in the whole HUAC situation- though my favorite performance of his is as a pretty vile person, in Paths of Glory.

Posted By NCeddie : July 23, 2011 3:31 am

Wow! Ethel and the Schnozzola. “What a revoltin’ development this is!”– to borrow one of Durante’s catch-phrases. LOL– Only in Hollywood.

Posted By morlockjeff : July 23, 2011 11:11 am

Regarding the Garland photo, I’ve always found it unsettling when newspapers run photos of murder victims or killers or someone who has barely survived some tragic event and the picture they run is of some happy, smiling person.

Posted By Al Lowe : July 23, 2011 1:53 pm

Hi Medusa,

The title of your post could have been “In Happier Times…” That was the headline newspapers ran with stories about those sad events.

I seem to be the maverick (I often am and it was my favorite TV show when I was a kid) in preferring Menjou without his stash. I always thought it dated him as an actor popular in the 30s (and of course, I know he made great movies in the 40s and 50s).

I always thought Jessel was hard to take in his later years. However, members of that club he belonged to, along with Groucho, Benny and Burns, always said he was the wittiest and funniest one there.

Posted By missrhea : July 23, 2011 6:14 pm

Great post, Medusa! If you want to hear some of those old radio programs there are wonderful sites all over the Internet. You can purchase CDs filled with hours and hours of MP3 files containing some of the greatest (and corniest) old time shows. Some of these are only five dollars per CD. I’m really enjoying them almost as much as old films. (shh!)

Morlockjeff: I agree with what you’re saying but I don’t get the impression that she was exactly happy in the Garland photo.

Posted By Jenni : July 23, 2011 7:06 pm

Fun post, and touching story about Jane Russell and the adoption of her son. I think Menjou looks so strange without his moustache, probably due to his always wearing one throughout most of his career. I have to add, his moustache always looked great, compared to some actors of yore who wore such thin moustaches, they looked like they’d been drawn on with eyebrow pencils!

Posted By medusamorlock : July 23, 2011 7:37 pm

Thanks for all the great comments.

Menjou looks sort of anonymous without the ‘stache, and evidently he knew it, too! :-)

Hi Al! Yes, I never found Jessel very lovable, as compared with the other guys, but he must have been a “comedian’s comedian” because they sure liked him!

MissRhea, I’m a big fan of radio shows and have downloaded a huge stash of Jack Benny programs which I intend to start listening to one of these days! I also love the movie adaptations, and it’s so wonderful that these are still available, thanks to loyal fans of radio who keep the medium alive! I will have to try some Durante, too — I’m partial to comedy!

More of these pics to come — they are mesmerizing, aren’t they?
xoxoxo

Posted By missrhea : July 23, 2011 10:13 pm

I meant to chime in about Menjou looking so strange without his
moustache, too. It made me wonder if any of the morlocks ever has done an article about moustaches in general. I love the photo on Robert Young’s IMDb page where he has a moustache but he doesn’t wear one in very many films (the only one that comes to mind is “Goodbye, My Fancy” – looks distinguished). I can’t recall ever seeing James Stewart wearing one. How about it?

Radio – George Jessel filled in as host on “Good News of 1938″ one week when neither Robert Young nor Robert Taylor were available. It seemed odd hearing him “younger”.

Posted By dukeroberts : July 24, 2011 2:15 am

Jimmy Stewart sported a ‘stache in The Last Gangster.

http://silentsandtalkies.blogspot.com/2009/10/is-that-mustache-really-necessary.html

Posted By missrhea : July 24, 2011 6:13 pm

Thanks for the pointer, dukeroberts, those were worth looking at.

Posted By Suzi : July 24, 2011 7:30 pm

I love this post; it reminds me of old-time show biz.

Posted By Liz : August 15, 2011 6:45 pm

I’m not an Adolphe Menjou fan. I found his acting irritating. As far as his looks are concerned (with/without) stache— I am still puzzled as to why he was ever considered handsome. He was not, but I guess in those days, many actors of both sexes were called good-looking or handsome, when with real honesty—they were not—they were dogs.

Posted By Red : August 23, 2011 9:30 pm

No matter what you think of Menjou’s politics he was absolutely hysterical in Roxie Hart 1942. He also got you to hate him in Paths of Glory.
Red

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From Hollywood of old, some familiar faces

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