Hollywood History

Guess Whose Coming to Hollywood…
(Coronet Magazine, 1959)

The Coronet entertainment writer was quite correct when he identified Sidney Poitier (1927 – 2022) as the first actor of African descent to earn beaucoup bucks and achieve leading-man status in dramatic rolls in Hollywood. Born and raised in the Bahamas, Poitier’s predecessors in the film colony were many, but they were all song and dance men. The attached column clearly outlines what made Poitier such an actor apart.


Before there was Sidney Poitier, there was Farina…

Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey
(Photoplay Magazine, 1939)

The appeal of James Stewart, the shy, inarticulate movie actor, is that he reminds every girl in the audience of the date before the last. He’s not a glamorized Gable, a remote Robert Taylor. He’s ‘Jim’, the lackadaisical, easy-going boy from just around the corner.


The above line was pulled from the attached article which was one of the first widely read profiles of Jimmy Stewart (James Maitland Stewart 1908 – 1997). Written four years after his arrival in the California dream factory and printed during the same year as his first encounter with the director Frank Capra in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, this article reveals that Stewart had a small town upbringing and was essentially the same character he played in It’s A Wonderful Life.

Booth Tarkington might have created Jim Stewart. He’s ‘Little Orvie and Billie Baxter’ grown up ‘Penrod’ with a Princeton diploma.


From Amazon: It’s a Wonderful Life: Favorite Scenes from the Classic Filmstyle=border:none

The Director: Frank Capra
(Rob Wagner’s Script, 1942)

This profile of director Frank Capra was written five years before he directed It’s a Wonderful Life and gives a tidy account as to the course of his career up until 1942, when he was inducted as a major in the U.S. Army Signal Corps.

Henry Travers as ‘Clarence the Guardian Angel’
(Stage Magazine, 1937)

Ten years prior to being cast in the roll as George Baily’s guardian angel, Clarence, the actor Henry Travers (1874 – 1965) appeared in the Broadway play You Can’t Take it With You. Playing the part of Grandpa Sycamore, he was singled out for praise by the editors of Stage Magazine; the review is attached herein.

Donna Reed as Mary Bailey
(Coronet Magazine, 1960)

A profile of the Hollywood actress Donna Reed (born Donna Belle Mullenger: 1921 – 1986), who will foreve be remembered for her portrayal of the character Mary Bailey in the Frank Capra film, It’s a Wonderful Life(RKO, 1947).


This interview was published as one more publicity element that was created to promote her television program, The Donna Reed Showstyle=border:none (ABC, 1958 – 1966), that was launched a year and a half earlier, and serves as a nice summary of her life and career up until 1960. Reed refers to her earliest days growing up on a family farm in Iowa, her salad years as a maid, librarian and community college student in Los Angeles and her deepest frustrations with pin-headed casting agents who placed her in limited rolls for so many years.

The Oscars: Hollywoods Self-Adoration Fest
(Stage Magazine, 1938)

A tongue-in-cheek magazine article from 1938 about The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and their annual gala devoted to over-confidence, The Oscars. Written eleven years after the very first Academy Award ceremony, and published in a magazine that catered to New York theater lovers, the article was penned by an unidentified correspondent who was not very impressed by the whole affair but managed to present a thorough history of the award nonetheless.


Director Frank Capra was awarded his third trophy at the 1938 Oscars…

Oscars for 1938
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1939)

Attached is short report listing some of the highlights of the 11th Academy Awards ceremony that was held on February 23, 1939 in downtown Los Angeles:


• Director Frank Capra received his third Best Director statue for You Can’t Take It with You
.
• Walt Disney was awarded an Oscar for the best animated short film, Ferdinand The Bull – in addition to a special award for his innovative work on
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.


• The Best Screenplay Oscar went to Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw for his efforts on Pygmalion.



An amusing, if blasphemous, article about the 1938 Oscars can be read here…

Lucille Ball Gets Noticed
(Pic Magazine, 1940)

Among all the many lovelies who resided in the Hollywood of 1940, the wide-awake editors of PIC MAGAZINE singled-out Lucille Ball (1911 – 1989) as the one to watch:

Barring accidents, Lucille Ball tomorrow will occupy the spot now disputed by Carol Lombard, Joan Crawford and Ginger Rogers – as First Lady of Hollywood. Lucille deserves to get it and she has what it takes to get there. The red-headed ex-chorus girl has talent, ability looks, personality and willingness to take every punishment on her way up.


You can click here to read about I Love Lucy here

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