Merry Christmas! Happy Solstice! Happy Hanukkah!
Here are the answers to yesterday’s questions. Answers are in bold. Followed by quotes and page citations from “Hollywood: The Oral History” by Jeanine Basinger & Sam Wasson, as well as links.
1. Lois Weber was a film director/actress/screenwriter/producer. Approximately 20, I’m having trouble finding much online.
2. The Big 5 & The Little 3 were the major studios running at that time. They were: Paramount, MGM, RKO, FOX and Warner Brothers. The little 3 were: Universal, United Artists and Columbia.
3. Editors. According to DeDe Allen page 234.
4. Jack Pierce. Universal make-up artist is credited with inventing the monster make up for the studios top creatures and influencing the craft up to today.
5. Preston Sturges. Henry Hathaway asked him why he wore a red fez on the set. page 299.
6. Hoot Gibson was a delivery boy at Owl Drug Company and his friends started calling him “hoot owl” page 12.
7. Alfred Hitchcock told Shirley MacLaine “murder can be fun”. page 342.
8, Martin Gang was Olivia de Havilland’s lawyer who argued her case before the California Supreme Court. page 497
9. Disney Studios was where Friz Freleng started his animation career, later going to Warner Bros. and creating some of the best of the “looney tunes”. page 181
10. Parnell. According to Walter Reisch, page 196.
11. Actor/Stuntman/Director/Rodeo Rider. Yakima Canutt was the stuntman in John Ford’s “Stagecoach”
12. William Cameron Menzies directed the “wounded soldier” scene, using an oil derrick crane. page 476.
13. King Vidor promised Schenk he wouldn’t take a paycheck for Hallelujah if allowed to make the first musical with an all Black cast. page 511.
14. Heart Of Darkness was supposed to be Orson Welles first feature, according to Robert Wise on page 321. It’s considered a tragically lost film, in spite of it never being made.
15. Jack Lemon did a screen test for The Long Gray Line, but director John Ford accidently saw the test and cast him as Ensign Pulver in Mister Roberts instead.
16. Lawrence Of Arabia has the same incident Liddy recounts in his autobiography, word for word. page 738.
17. William Faulkner asked the studio if they minded if he “worked from home”, according to George Seaton on page 221. it was 6 months before they realized he had gone back to Mississippi.
18. Oscar Micheaux was a homesteader in South Dakota before making films.
19. Mabel Normand an actress with Mack Sennett’s Keystone Studios, was the first actor to receive a pie in the face.
20. Lights Of New York (1928) is the first all talking film.
I hope everyone is having a nice holiday and is safe.
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