Cliff Aliperti's Blog: Immortal Ephemera, page 3

Charles Farrell

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

Charles Farrell (1900-1990)

Born in Walpole, MA, Farrell is best remembered for a dozen big screen pairings with Janet Gaynor, his racquet club and time as mayor in Palm Springs, CA, and cast as Gale Storm's father on TV's My Little Margie. Young Farrell left Boston University for vaudeville and, despite his parents' objections, to pursue his ambition of becoming a film star. He began as a Hollywood extra in 1923, getting...

Ann Harding

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

Ann Harding (1902-1981)

Born Dorothy Walton Gatley in San Antonio, TX, Harding was an army brat who went to high school in East Orange, NJ, and attended Bryn Mawr College for one semester. While working in the welfare division of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company she took side-work as a script reader for Famous Players-Lasky in New York. She successfully auditioned for a role in The Inheritors in 1921, taking the nam...

Anita Page

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

Anita Page (1910-2008)

Born Anita Evelyn Pomares in Queens, New York, by the end of the silent era Anita Page was one of the most popular stars in the world. She made the transition to talkies—sort of: that Queens accent held her back from MGM's more prestigious pictures, and then a greedy agent helped sour the studio on her too. A chance meeting with the Bronson family in Queens earned her a bit in Paramount's A Kiss for...

Myrna Loy

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

Well, we celebrated William Powell's birthday on Monday, so I was pleasantly surprised when my calendar revealed Myrna Loy's birthday just a few days later ...

Myrna Loy (1905-1993)

Born Myrna Adele Williams in Helena, MT, she'd rise from playing vamps and villainesses to become Hollywood's "perfect wife" and the Queen of the Movies. Her family relocated to California after her father's death, and Myrna took work giving da...

Conrad Nagel

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

Conrad Nagel (1897-1970)

Born to a musically-inclined family in Keokuk, IA, the Nagels relocated to Des Moines, where Conrad graduated high school and soon made his professional acting debut with the local Princess Stock Company in 1914. Success came relatively quick for the youthful blue-eyed, blonde-haired actor, who debuted on Broadway in Forever After (1918) and on film the same year as Laurie in Little Women (1918). S...

William Powell

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

William Powell (1892-1984)

Pittsburgh, PA born screen legend by way of Kansas City, MO, Powell was often cast as the silent screen villain before the talkies revealed him as the ultimate charming sophisticate. Entered the American Academy of Dramatic Arts at age eighteen and graduated two years later in 1910. He had some bit roles on the stage and took his turn in vaudeville before landing a spot for two years as the villa...

Marie Dressler

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

Marie Dressler (1868-1934)

Born Leila Marie Koerber in Cobourg, Ontario, Canada, Marie Dressler is one of Hollywood's greatest comeback stories. On stage from the 1880s, a major star at the turn of the century, and truly washed-up by the 1920s, but then, in the early 1930s, the sexagenarian actress became Hollywood's number one box office attraction and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her work in Min and Bill (1...

Florence Vidor

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

Florence Vidor (1895-1977)

Beautiful silent screen actress was born Florence Iona Arto in Houston, Texas. She met King Vidor, an aspiring filmmaker from Galveston, married him in 1914, and the couple headed to California. While her first husband would become a legendary director, it was Florence who found early success after an introduction from her friend Corinne Griffith, another Texas-born actress, landed her a part in...

Phillips Holmes

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

Phillips Holmes (1907-1942)

Son of actors Taylor Holmes and Edna Phillips, Phillips Holmes—his unusual first name was his mother's surname—was born in Grand Rapids, MI. A well-educated young man who made a couple of bit appearances in films featuring his father, and then director Frank Tuttle found Holmes at Princeton and cast him in Varsity (1928), earning the young actor a contract with Paramount. His first couple of yea...

James Cagney

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

James Cagney (1899-1986)

New York City born screen legend, equally great as menacing tough guy as he is singing and dancing. Winner of the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1974, Cagney claimed his Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942). Also received Oscar nominations for his work in Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) and Love Me or Leave Me (1955). Started out in the choru...