Cliff Aliperti's Blog: Immortal Ephemera, page 7

Jack Holt

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

Jack Holt (1888-1951)

Thirty-seven year film veteran Holt got his start in bits and stunts in 1914, after coming down to San Francisco from Oregon via Alaska, where he had taken on a range of jobs including prospector and trapper. He debuted in Salomy Jane (1914) and kept busy in short films for a few years in San Francisco before signing with Universal. Cecil B. DeMille cast him with Mary Pickford in The Little American (...

Rosalind Russell

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

Rosalind Russell (1907-1976)

Born in Waterbury, CT, Russell received four Academy Award nominations for Best Actress for her work in My Sister Eileen (1943), Sister Kenny (1946), Mourning Becomes Electra (1947), and, her most beloved feature, Auntie Mame (1958), before being awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1973. She started acting during her sophomore year at Marymount College, and progressed from there to...

Paulette Goddard

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

Paulette Goddard (1910-1990)

Born Marion Goddard Levy in Whitestone Landing, NY, Goddard was a department store model before being introduced to Florenz Ziegfeld, who used her as a dancer in No Foolin on Broadway in 1926. Her film debut came as an uncredited extra in the Laurel and Hardy short Berth Marks (1929). Goddard continued in Hollywood bits over the next five years, most notably as a Goldwyn Girl in four different...

Frank Morgan

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

Frank Morgan (1890-1949)

Born Francis Phillip Wuppermann in New York, Frank Morgan is yet another performer who wore many hats throughout his career. We're most concerned with the 75 feature films he appeared in from 1932-1950, over fifty of those for MGM, but there's plenty more Frank Morgan before—and during—those years. The youngest of eleven children, Frank followed older brother Ralph Morgan into show business, taking...

Don Ameche

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

Don Ameche (1908-1993)

Born in Kenosha, WI, Ameche's greatest fame probably comes in being synonymous with the telephone—as in, "Get him on the Ameche"—thanks to his starring role in The Story of Alexander Graham Bell (1939). He was popular in movies during two decades very distant to one another: the 1930s and the 1980s, the latter bringing him an Oscar for his supporting role in Cocoon (1985). It was a long and active ca...

Norma Talmadge

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

Norma Talmadge (1894-1957)

Jersey City, NJ born actress who first came to the screen in 1910, and retired twenty years later after talkies took their grip. The eldest of three screen sisters, Norma was the glamorous dramatic star while younger sister Constance Talmadge typically played comic roles. A third sister, Natalie, also appeared in a handful of films, but is better recalled for her marriage to Buster Keaton. The bu...

Bob Hope

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

Correction: I goofed on Martha Vickers' birthday yesterday: the date should have been May 28, which was why I chose to cover her yesterday, May 28.

Bob Hope (1903-2003)

Born Leslie Townes Hope in London, England, his family relocated to America when he was four, and the entertainer who'd later take the name of Bob Hope called Cleveland, OH home. Vaudeville, Broadway, movies, radio, television, Hope was everywhere there was...

Martha Vickers

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

Martha Vickers (1925-1971)

Born Martha MacVicar in Ann Arbor, MI, she began her Hollywood career under that name in titles like Captive Wild Woman (1943), Marine Raiders (1944), and The Falcon in Mexico (1944). She was discovered as a photographer's model at age fifteen, and her first film role was a bit in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), which along with her credited role in Captive Wild Woman, and another bit in...

Dustin Farnum

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

Sure, a bit of an obscure choice—man's been dead for ninety years, and there's a good chance you never saw any of his movies—but I have a lot of fun with selections like this one. When I've seen someone's face on countless old collectibles, I always get an extra kick out of learning a little something about them. It's fun to find out just why Dustin Farnum was on so many movie cards and collectibles in the 1910s. Well, her...

Herbert Marshall

Written by Cliff Aliperti and originally published on Immortal Ephemera

Note: There will be no mailing tomorrow or on any Sunday going forward. I could use the day off, and I'm not so cocky as to think you'll miss me one day a week. No, truth be told, the stats tell me you could use a break from me on Sundays, so I'll listen to the numbers and gladly accept the breather. But as for today ...

Herbert Marshall (1890-1966)

London born leading man and, later on, character actor, Marshall took to t...