Cliff Aliperti's Blog: Immortal Ephemera, page 6

Ralph Bellamy

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

Ralph Bellamy (1904-1991)

President of his high school drama club, this Chicago, IL born actor made his pro debut in 1922. Over the next nine years Bellamy appeared in over 375 roles for 15 stock companies, including his own. He made a couple of Broadway appearances in 1929-30, and while the shows fizzled, Bellamy emerged with multiple Hollywood contract offers. He debuted in The Secret 6 (1931), the first of nearly eighty...

Marlene Dietrich

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992)

Legendary actress and performer born in Berlin, rose to fame in Berlin and Vienna, but rejected Nazi Germany and became a US citizen in 1939. Dietrich's support of the troops during World War II, including 2 USO tours throughout Europe, earned her the Medal of Freedom in 1947. A wrist injury ended Dietrich's original quest to be a concert violinist, so she became a chorus girl and vaudeville en...

Dorothy McGuire

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

Dorothy McGuire (1916-2001)

Omaha, NE born actress made her stage debut at a local theater at age thirteen, supposedly opposite twenty-five year old fellow Nebraskan Henry Fonda. McGuire was the president of the drama club in junior college before performing in summer stock in Maine in 1937. The following year she came down to New York, performed on radio, and eventually took over Martha Scott's Broadway role in Our Town a...

Basil Rathbone

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

Basil Rathbone (1892-1967)

South African born British actor made his stage debut for cousin Frank Benson's company in 1911. Made his American debut in 1912; London in 1914, often performing Shakespeare. Rathbone distinguished himself during the Great War and was awarded a Military Cross in 1918. Resuming his stage career, Rathbone also began appearing in the occasional film in 1921. He scored a Broadway success in The Swan...

Lon Chaney Jr.

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

Lon Chaney Jr. (1906-1973)

Born Creighton Tull Chaney in Oklahoma City, he spent his earliest years barnstorming vaudeville with his parents but show biz ambitions were stalled by the time they divorced in 1913. It wasn't until after the death of his famed “Man of a Thousand Faces” father Lon Chaney in August 1930, that Creighton embarked upon his own acting career. In 1932 he landed a contract with RKO where he played bit...

Robert Hutton

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

Robert Hutton (1920-1994)

Born Robert Bruce Winne in Kingston, NY, Hutton got his start in local productions at the Woodstock Playhouse before making his feature film debut in Destination Tokyo (1943) starring Cary Grant at Warner Bros. An interesting Kingston news clipping places him at a Beverly Hills party thrown by Mary Pickford and Charles Rogers in 1941—Hutton accompanied the daughter of guests of honor Lord and Lady...

Paul Lukas

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

Paul Lukas (1891-1971)

Born Pál Lukács in Budapest, Austria-Hungary, circa 1891. Wounded during World War I, Lukas performed for Austo-Hungarian troops before leaving the service to study at the Hungarian Academy of Acting. He made his stage debut in 1916 and began appearing in Hungarian features in 1918, maintaining an active film career there through the early 1920s. Lukas came to Hollywood in 1927 and was quickly challe...

Alexis Smith

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

Alexis Smith (1921-1993)

Canadian born, Smith's family moved to Los Angeles about a year after her birth. She danced ballet at the Hollywood Bowl at age thirteen, and was discovered by a Warner Bros. talent scout while performing at Los Angeles City College in 1940. She signed with Warner and made several bit appearances before receiving her first billing opposite Errol Flynn in Dive Bomber (1941). Thus began the busiest p...

Gertrude Michael

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

Gertrude Michael (1911-1964)

Born Lillian Gertrude Michael in Talladega, AL, her studio bio credits her as a prodigy of sorts, the short version placing Michael in law school at age 15, and owning and operating her own radio station at age 17. She was a skilled piano player and attended the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, which is said to have awarded her a five year scholarship to Italy that she couldn't use because of...

Al Jolson

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

Al Jolson (1886-1950)

Born Asa Yoelson in Russia (now Lithuania), his melodic voice and charismatic personality ushered in the talkies as star of The Jazz Singer (1927). Jolson came to America in 1891, and was soon performing with his brother and other partners, first on the streets, then burlesque and vaudeville. He brought blackface to his act in 1904. Jolson honed his solo act after going to San Francisco in 1906, but r...