FORGOTTEN ONES: LARRY PARKS

Larry Parks is one of the truly tragic actors in Hollywood history. Portraying entertainer Al Jolson, Parks' talent was never truly realized. Then in the 1950s, he was blacklisted in the Communist witch hunt, and his career never fully recovered. Larry Parks deserves to be remembered more than just playing Al Jolson.

He was born Samuel Klausman Lawrence Parks on December 13, 1914. Parks grew up in Joliet, Illinois, graduating from Joliet Township High School in 1932. He attended the University of Illinois as a pre-med student, and played in stock companies for a few years before signing a movie contract with Columbia Pictures in 1941. As did most Columbia contract players, he played supporting roles in higher-budgeted films, and larger roles in B pictures.

When Columbia was preparing a screen biography of Al Jolson, many big-name stars were considered for the title role, including James Cagney and Danny Thomas (both of whom turned it down), but resident contractee Larry Parks was reportedly the first actor to be interviewed. Parks impressed the producers and won the role. At the age of 31, his performance in The Jolson Story (1946) earned him a "Best Actor" Academy Award nomination. Reportedly, Jolson and Parks did not get along, because Jolson was jealous of this good looking actor playing him. Jolson felt that no one could play Jolson but Jolson.
Now that Parks was a full-fledged star, Columbia kept him busy in elaborate productions (including a couple of costume epics) until he appeared in the sequel, Jolson Sings Again (1949), which was another huge boxoffice hit. His co-star in the film, Barbara Hale, teamed with him again in the comedy feature Emergency Wedding.

In 1951 Larry Parks was summoned to appear before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, under threat of being blacklisted in the movie industry, but he begged not to be forced to testify. He eventually did so in tears, only to be blacklisted anyway. Larry Parks eventually gave up the names of his former colleagues and submitted to the HUAC. Parks also told the committee, “I would like to point out that in my opinion there is a great difference between – and not a subtle difference – between being a Communist, a member of the Communist Party, say in 1941, 10 years ago, and being a Communist in 1951. ... Being a member of the Communist Party fulfilled certain needs of a young man that was liberal in thought, idealistic, who was for the underprivileged, the underdog. ... I think that being a Communist in 1951 in this particular situation is an entirely different kettle of fish when this is a great power that is trying to take over the world.”

But the trauma of testifying under such circumstances is evident in Parks’ remarks, as he came to realize that the committee was not responding to his straightforward reply to the summons. Despite having made notes to himself the night before on how to remain calm before the panel, his resolve broke under the stress of steely questioning. “I would prefer, if you would allow me, not to mention other people’s names,” he said in tears. “Don’t present me with the choice of either being in contempt of this committee and going to jail or forcing me to really crawl through the mud to be an informer. ... This is not the American way.”

Following his admission before the committee, Columbia Pictures dropped him, and a romantic comedy he made for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was shelved for three years. Parks made only a few more films, but continued to eke out a living acting on the stage and doing occasional television programs. He last appeared, in a major role, in the John Huston film Freud the Secret Passion (1962).

Parks died of a heart attack at the age of 60 on April 13, 1975. Parks remained upbeat during his blacklisting, but the stress took its toll on him. He was married to actress Betty Garrett in 1944. (Betty Garrett is perhaps best known today as Archie Bunker's neighbor Irene Lorenzo on TV's All in the Family and as landlady Edna Babish on Laverne and Shirley). Her career also faced turmoil as a result of her marriage to Parks, and the two spent much of the 1950s doing theatre and musical variety shows. Together they had two sons, actor Andrew Parks and composer Garrett Parks. He was also the godfather to actor Jeff Bridges.

MOVIE SHOWCASE: THE MUSIC MAN

I remember in junior high school, we had a music teacher who spent the whole semester reviewing and analyzing THE MUSIC MAN. I have to admit, it was one of my greatest classes of all-time, and years later I still remember it. So I have always had a soft spot for Meredith Wilson's THE MUSIC MAN. It is one of my personal favorite movie musicals, and definitely my favorite one from the 1960s.

The 1962 film is based on the 1957 Broadway musical of the same name by Meredith Willson. The film was one of the biggest hits of the year and highly acclaimed critically.

Set in July 1912, a traveling salesman, "Professor" Harold Hill (Robert Preston), arrives in River City, Iowa, intrigued by the challenge of swindling the famously stubborn natives of Iowa ("Iowa Stubborn"). Masquerading as a traveling band instructor, Professor Hill plans to con the citizens of River City into paying him to create a boys' marching band, including instruments, uniforms, and music instruction. Once he has collected the money and the instruments and uniforms have arrived, he will hop the next train out of town leaving them without their money or a band.

With help from his associate Marcellus (Buddy Hackett), Professor Hill incites mass concern among the parents of River City that their young boys are being seduced into a world of sin and vice by the new pool table in town ("Ya Got Trouble"). He convinces them that a boys' marching band is the only way to keep the boys of the town pure and out of trouble, and begins collecting their money ("76 Trombones"). Hill anticipates that Marian (Shirley Jones), the town's librarian and piano instructor, will attempt to discredit him, so he sets out to seduce her into silence. Also in opposition to Hill is the town's Mayor Shinn, who orders the school board to obtain Hill's credentials. When they attempt to do so, Hill avoids their questions by teaching them to sing as a barbershop quartet via "sustained talking." They are thereafter easily tricked by Hill into breaking into song whenever they ask for his credentials.

Meanwhile, Hill attempts to win the heart of Marian the librarian, who has an extreme distrust of men. His charms have little effect upon Marian ("Marian the Librarian") until he wins the admiration of both her mother and her withdrawn and unhappy younger brother Winthrop (Ron Howard) ("Gary, Indiana"). Marian falls in love with Hill, and subsequently hides evidence she has proving he is a fraud ("Till There Was You"). The band's instruments arrive ("Wells Fargo Wagon") and Hill tells the boys to learn to play via the "Think System," in which they simply have to think of a tune over and over and will know how to play it without ever touching their instruments.

Hill's con is nearly complete and he is about to leave town when a disgruntled competing salesman comes to town and exposes Hill and his plans. Chased by an angry mob and pressed to leave town by Marcellus and Marian, Hill realizes that he is actually in love with Marian too and can't leave River City. He is captured by the mob and brought before a town meeting to be tarred and feathered. Hill is saved by the boys' band who miraculously have learned to play their own instruments (albeit incredibly badly). Hill remains in River City with Marian to conduct the boys' band full time, which eventually becomes properly trained and equipped with better quality instruments and uniforms. ("76 Trombones 2nd Reprise").
The film made Robert Preston into an "A" list star in motion pictures, after years of appearing in supporting roles in famous films and in starring roles in "B" movies. Although Preston scored a great success in the original stage version of the show, he was not first choice for the film version, partly because he was not a box office star. Jack L. Warner, who was notorious for wanting to film stage musicals with stars other than the ones who played the roles onstage, wanted Frank Sinatra or Bing Crosby for the role of Professor Harold Hill, but Meredith Willson insisted upon Preston. Cary Grant was also "begged" by Warner to play Hill but he declined, saying "nobody could do that role as well as Bob Preston". Cary Grant was right...

SPOTLIGHT ON ANN SHERIDAN

Ann Sherdian was personally one of my favorite actresses that Warner Brothers had under contract in the 1940s. She was not the greatest actress, but she made any film better by her appearances in it. Born Clara Lou Sheridan in Denton, Texas on February 21, 1915, Ann was a college student when her sister sent a photograph of her to Paramount Pictures. She subsequently entered and won a beauty contest, with part of her prize being a bit part in a Paramount film. She abandoned college to pursue a career in Hollywood.

She made her film debut in 1934, aged 19, in the film Search for Beauty, and played uncredited bit parts in Paramount films for the next two years. Paramount made little effort to develop Sheridan's talent, so she left, signing a contract with Warner Bros. in 1936, and changing her name to "Ann Sheridan."

Sheridan's career prospects began to improve. The red-haired beauty would soon become Warner's top sex symbol. She received as many as 250 marriage proposals from fans in a single week. Tagged "The Oomph Girl," Sheridan was a popular pin-up girl in the early 1940s.

She was the heroine of a novel, Ann Sheridan and the Sign of the Sphinx, written by Kathryn Heisenfelt, published by Whitman Publishing Company in 1943. While the heroine of the story was identified as a famous actress, the stories were entirely fictitious. The story was probably written for a young teenage audience and is reminiscent of the adventures of Nancy Drew. It is part of a series known as "Whitman Authorized Editions", 16 books published between 1941-1947 that always featured a film actress as heroine.

She received substantial roles and positive reaction from critics and moviegoers in such films as Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), opposite James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart, Dodge City (1939) with Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, Torrid Zone with Cagney and They Drive by Night with George Raft and Bogart (both 1940), The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942) with Bette Davis, and Kings Row (1942), where she received top billing playing opposite Ronald Reagan, Robert Cummings, and Betty Field. Known for having a fine singing voice, Ann also appeared in such musicals as Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943) and It All Came True (1940). She was also memorable in two of her biggest hits, Nora Prentiss and The Unfaithful, both in 1947.

Despite these successes, her career began to decline. Her role in I Was a Male War Bride (1949), directed by Howard Hawks and costarring Cary Grant, gave her another success, but by the 1950s, she was struggling to find work and her film roles were sporadic. She appeared in the television soap opera Another World during the mid-1960s.

In 1966, Sheridan began starring in a new TV series, a Western-themed comedy called Pistols 'n' Petticoats. But she became ill during the filming, and died of esophageal and liver cancer in Los Angeles, California. She had been a chain cigarette smoker for years, and Cagney remarked in his autobiography that when the cancer struck, "she didn't have a chance." She was cremated and her ashes were stored at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles until they were permanently interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in 2005. Pistols 'n' Petticoats was officially canceled before her death, though some episodes aired afterward. Her lines were dubbed in at least one of these (presumably because the cancer had affected her voice), and she did not appear in a few of the final episodes.

Sheridan married three times, including a marriage lasting one year to fellow Warner Brothers actor George Brent and co-star in Honeymoon for Three...

BORN ON THIS DAY: RONALD REAGAN

All politics aside, most people would agree that Ronald Reagan was a better politician than an actor, but during his years in Hollywood he made some fairly good movies. Ronald Reagan was born today, February 6. He would be 100 years old.

Reagan was born in Tampico in Whiteside County, Illinois, reared in Dixon in Lee County, Illinois, and educated at Eureka College in Eureka, Illinois, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and sociology. Upon his graduation, Reagan first moved to Iowa to work as a radio broadcaster and then in 1937 to Los Angeles, California. He began a career as an actor, first in films and later television, appearing in over 50 movie productions and earning enough success to become a famous, publicly recognized figure. Some of his most notable roles are in Knute Rockne, All American and Kings Row.

Reagan served as president of the Screen Actors Guild, and later spokesman for General Electric (GE); his start in politics occurred during his work for GE. Originally a member of the Democratic Party, he switched to the Republican Party in 1962. After delivering a rousing speech in support of Barry Goldwater's presidential candidacy in 1964, he was persuaded to seek the California governorship, winning two years later and again in 1970. He was defeated in his run for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968 as well as 1976, but won both the nomination and election in 1980.

Looking back at his Hollywood career, after graduating from Eureka in 1932, Reagan drove himself to Iowa, where he auditioned for a job at many small-town radio stations. The University of Iowa hired him to broadcast home football games for the Hawkeyes. He was paid $10 per game. Soon after, a staff announcer's job opened at radio station WOC in Davenport, and Reagan was hired, now earning $100 per month. Aided by his persuasive voice, he moved to WHO radio in Des Moines as an announcer for Chicago Cubs baseball games. His specialty was creating play-by-play accounts of games that the station received by wire.

While traveling with the Cubs in California, Reagan took a screen test in 1937 that led to a seven-year contract with Warner Brothers studios. He spent the first few years of his Hollywood career in the "B film" unit, where, Reagan joked, the producers "didn't want them good, they wanted them Thursday". While sometimes overshadowed by other actors, Reagan's screen performances did receive many good reviews.

His first screen credit was the starring role in the 1937 movie Love Is on the Air, and by the end of 1939 he had already appeared in 19 films, including Dark Victory. Before the film Santa Fe Trail in 1940, he played the role of George "The Gipper" Gipp in the film Knute Rockne, All American; from it, he acquired the lifelong nickname "the Gipper". Reagan's favorite acting role was as a double amputee in 1942's Kings Row, in which he recites the line, "Where's the rest of me?", later used as the title of his 1965 autobiography. Many film critics considered Kings Row to be his best movie, though the film was condemned by New York Times critic Bosley Crowther.

Reagan called Kings Row the film that "made me a star". However, he was unable to capitalize on his success because he was ordered to active duty with the U.S. Army at San Francisco two months after its release, and never regained "star" status in motion pictures. In the post-war era, after being separated from almost four years of World War II stateside service with the 1st Motion Picture Unit in December 1945, Reagan co-starred in such films as, The Voice of the Turtle , John Loves Mary, The Hasty Heart, Bedtime for Bonzo, Cattle Queen of Montana, Tennessee's Partner, Hellcats of the Navy and The Killers (his final film) in a 1964 remake.

Ronald Reagan died at his home in Bel Air, California on the afternoon of June 5, 2004 at the age of 93...

REMEMBERING: PIONEERING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ACTORS

In an interview with the L.A. Times 20 years ago, Sidney Poitier, the first African American superstar and the first to win the lead actor Oscar (for 1963's "Lilies of the Field") discussed the extreme prejudice and hardships faced by African American performers in the 1920s, '30s and '40s.

"The guys who were forerunners to me, like Canada Lee, Rex Ingram, Clarence Muse and women like Hattie McDaniel, Louise Beavers and Juanita Moore, they were terribly boxed in," Poitier said then. "They were maids and stable people and butlers, principally. But they, in some way, prepared ground for me."

Here are three pioneering African American actors who strove to break cinematic stereotypes, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. (In an irony, no minorities were nominated for major awards for this year's Oscars, which will be presented on Feb. 27during Black History Month):


Nina Mae McKinney (1912-1967):
The exquisite singer-actress left her South Carolina home at 13 and moved to New York where she got a role in the popular Broadway revue, "Blackbirds of 1928." Director King Vidor saw her in the chorus and cast her in his 1929 film, "Hallelujah," the first all-black sound musical made by a major studio. McKinney stole the film as the seductress Chick, causing a sensation with her "Swanee Shuffle" dance.

MGM signed her to a five-year contract but didn't know what to do with the beautiful young black actress since most African American actresses were relegated to servant or "Mammy" parts. She appeared in only two films, 1931's "Safe in Hell" and 1935's "Reckless," though her scenes were cut and all that is left of her "performance" is supplying Jean Harlow's singing voice.

Like Paul Robeson and Josephine Baker before her, she left for Europe where she was dubbed the "Black Garbo." When World War II broke out, she returned to the U.S., married jazz musician Jimmy Monroe, sang in clubs and made a few more films, most notably 1949's "Pinky. In the 1950s she moved to Athens, Ga., where she performed as the "Queen of the Night." She returned to New York in the late 1960s but didn't perform again. Her death of a heart attack in 1967 mostly went unnoticed.

Louise Beavers (1902-1962):
Just like most black actresses, Beavers found herself relegated to playing maids, servants and even slaves (in real life she had been a maid to actress Leatrice Joy). But she did get a chance to shine in a serious role in 1934's "Imitation of Life" with Claudette Colbert. In the melodrama, Beavers played Delilah Johnson, a housekeeper-cook whose employer (Colbert) transforms her into an Aunt Jemima-esque celebrity. But Delilah has problems with her light-skinned daughter who wants to pass for white. It was the first time in mainstream Hollywood cinema that the problems of an African American character were given as much heft as her white counterparts.

Sadly, "Imitation of Life," however, didn't improve the quality of her roles. Beavers may not have liked the parts she was given, but she remained one of the busiest black actresses in Hollywood, appearing in such films as 1942's "Holiday Inn" and 1948's "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House." In the 1950 biopic "The Jackie Robinson Story," she gave a lovely performance as the baseball player's mother. She starred on TV in the 1950s sitcom "Beulah." She died of a heart attack in 1962.

Canada Lee (1907-1952):
When his boxing career ended in 1933 after a blow to his eye caused a detached retina, Lee turned to acting in 1934. His first major stage role was Orson Welles' 1936 "Voodoo Macbeth"; they reunited for Welles' 1941 stage production of Richard Wright's "Native Son."

Lee was cast in Alfred Hitchcock's 1944 thriller, "Lifeboat" as Joe, a torpedoed ship's steward. Lee gave a warm, passionate performance — he refused to speak in the "dialect" forced upon African American actors. He was even better in 1947's boxing classic "Body and Soul," as a boxer with a brain injury who is hired by the fighter who ended his career to be his trainer.

A vocal civil rights activist, he was a member of several left-wing groups and was labeled as a Communist during the Hollywood blacklist. Though he wouldn't name names in front of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, he did call a news conference to say he wasn't a party member. Lee went to South Africa with Poitier to make the 1951 film, "Cry, the Beloved Country," but Hollywood still wouldn't hire him. In a letter to Walter White of the NAACP, Lee wrote "I can't take it anymore. I am going to get a shoeshine box and sit outside the Astor Theatre. My picture is playing to capacity audiences, and my God, I can't get a day's work."

The stress became too much for Lee, who suffered from high blood pressure. He died of a heart attack at the age of 45.


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HUMPHREY BOGART AND HIS STAR POWER

The so-called "Greatest Generation," whose lives were shaped by the Depression and World War II, made up the core audience for Humphrey Bogart's movies, but Bogart's star power would span generations. His death in 1957 set the stage for his embrace by baby boomers, foreign audiences and other moviegoers who were captivated by his portrayals of authentic, hard-bitten characters in performances that continue to withstand the test of time.

The aura surrounding his work has yet to fade. A dozen years ago, the American Film Institute ranked Bogart as Hollywood's greatest male star of all time, one of many posthumous honors bestowed upon him.

In "Tough Without a Gun: The Life and Extraordinary Afterlife of Humphrey Bogart," former Time magazine movie critic Stefan Kanfer says Bogart's enduring success is unlikely to be eclipsed.

Kanfer says teens and 20-somethings have become the dominant market, whereas people of all ages went to the movies in Bogart's pre-television heyday. Also, Bogart achieved leading man status at 42 as Sam Spade in 1941's "The Maltese Falcon," followed by other adult roles such as Rick Blaine in "Casablanca," Fred C. Dobbs in "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and his Oscar-winning performance as Charlie Allnut in "The African Queen."

Kanfer contrasts Bogart's masculine appeal to that of Hollywood's crop of youthful and more callow stars like Johnny Depp, Tom Cruise and Tobey Maguire.

"From time to time columnists dub some young actor the new Clark Gable, the new Jimmy Stewart, the new Marlon Brando," Kanfer writes. "No one claims to have discovered the new Humphrey Bogart. With good reason. There was nothing like him before his entrance; there has been nothing like him since his exit."

The only son of a well-to-do doctor and a renowned illustrator in New York, Bogart stumbled into acting after he had failed at other jobs and other prospects seemed dim. His formal education ended with expulsion from Phillips Andover; he enlisted in the Navy during World War I.

In one of his first roles on the New York stage in 1922, he was cast as a worthless "young sprig of the aristocracy" in a play that was widely panned. "It was here," writes Kanfer, "that the distinctive Bogart delivery was born — the sudden rictus, the lips pulled back after a statement, the unique sibilance that sometimes made him sound tentative and boyish, and at other times gave him a vaguely malevolent air."

His big break came in 1934 when he was given the role of escaped convict Duke Mantee in Robert Sherwood's Broadway hit "The Petrified Forest," a role he would reprise two years later on the screen.

Kanfer, who has written biographies of Marlon Brando, Lucille Ball and Groucho Marx, brings his knowledge of Hollywood and its ways to this entertaining book. His portrait of Bogart is replete with anecdotes drawn from scores of biographies and memoirs published after the actor's death.

The reader follows the ascent of Bogart's career as he progresses from playing the heavy in grade-B gangster movies to his memorable performances of the 1940s and '50s. Among them was "Casablanca," which made him a superstar and remains the lodestar for many film buffs.

Kanfer traces Bogart's personal life, including three brief and tempestuous marriages that set the stage for his whirlwind courtship of Lauren Bacall that began during the filming of "To Have and Have Not." Another thread in the story is how his liberal politics made him an occasional target of congressional investigators intent on exposing members of the Communist Party in Hollywood.

But perhaps most unique about Bogart is the career trajectory after he died of cancer. The Brattle Theater near Harvard began running "Casablanca," sparking a Bogart cult that extended to other college campuses. After Jean-Paul Belmondo mimicked Bogart's mannerisms in Jean-Luc Godard's "Breathless," other New Wave directors began to channel the Bogart style. Years later, the Bogart mystique surfaced anew in Woody Allen's "Play It Again, Sam."

Kanfer's book should appeal to older Bogart enthusiasts and younger movie fans discovering him for the first time. It's a readable and entertaining biography that reflects the author's delight in his subject and the world in which Bogart thrived.

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FORGOTTEN FILMS: BEAU JAMES

Probably one of Bob Hope's least remembered films, BEAU JAMES (1957) was probably one of Hope's most dramatic efforts. In the forgotten movie, Bob Hope plays Mayor James J. Walker. New York City is known for choosing colorful characters for its mayors. One its most illustrious was the wise cracking, dancing and singing Mayor James J. Walker who helmed the Big Apple in the 1920s. This biopic chronicles his surprising rise to power and is adapted from a book by Gene Fowler. Walker owed his mayoral post to Tammany, a powerful political organization that used its tremendous clout to get him installed. Walker, who never takes his job seriously, then becomes a figurehead for Tammany, and while he is in power, corruption in the police force and other city offices runs rampant. Meanwhile Walker wrangles with his lover, dancer Betty Compton (played by Vera Miles), and his jealous wife (played by Alexis Smith), from whom he is separated.

Hope does very well as Walker. He does have a serious role where his flippant jokes match the character. He also shows the right degree of serious behavior, panicked when Betty is spirited away by Paul Douglas and Tammany Hall, or when he tells off the citizens of New York at Yankee Stadium for electing him. But the gaps in the script - the unwillingness to show the uglier side of the corruption - prevent one from taking it too seriously. Hope deserves recognition for his performance here, but he didn't merit (nor receive) an Oscar nomination for BEAU JAMES.

This is a celluloid version of Gene Fowler's valentine to his old chum Jimmy. It tries to make a case that Walker did not realize his taking the bribes/gifts was wrong. Walker knew it was wrong, but he never admitted it - he had been brought up in a city run by the Hall, and he was doing business there exactly as every boodling Mayor of New York had done since the 19th Century. Walker (a good Catholic, presumably) also knew that he was committing adultery when he took up with Ms Compton. Later, after he left City Hall, he divorced his wife and married Betty. Interestingly that marriage eventually failed, although Jimmy and Betty did adopt a girl. Compton died in 1941. Jimmy died in 1947.There was also terrific cameo appearances by stars that met and knew the real May James Walker including: Jimmy Durante, Jack Benny, and George Jessel. American prints of this film are narrated by Walter Winchell; in Britain, the film was narrated by Alistair Cooke. One of the most memorable lines is when Walker is asked at a baseball game of a personal conduct scandal was "my comment, and you can quote me is I hope the Yankees win."

While Bob Hope's acting is not really Oscar worthy in this 1957 film, it is his best acting effort. Bob is the star of the fim, but he shares the spolight with the City of New York as well. Jimmie Walker was New York City in the 1920s, and it really comes across here. The movie was not a box office hit, and although Dean Martin recorded the title song, not many people remember this film. It has not been released on video or DVD. Bob Hope, Jimmy Walker, and the City of New York deserve it to be released...