AT HOME WITH ELEANOR POWELL

Eleanor Powell - 175 Pennsylvania Avenue, Crestwood, NY 10707  
Known as "The Girl from Pennsylvania Avenue", Eleanor Torrey Powell was originally born November 21, 1912, in Springfield, Mass. Her mother, wanting Eleanor to learn to overcome her shyness, placed her in dancing school when she was but 13. She studied Ballet and "Acrobatic Dancing" and was discovered by Gus Edwards dancing in Atlantic City while still a child. Edwards put her in one of his celebrated Children's Reviews. Powell caught "the bug" and set her sites on Broadway. She took 10 lessons in Tap (for $35) and made her Broadway debut in 1928. One year later her "machine-gun footwork" earned her the title "World's Greatest Feminine Tap Dancer".

In 1935 Eleanor Powell "went Hollywood" starring in George White's Scandals. Word has it she so longed for the comfort and serenity of her Crestwood lifestyle, that when MGM approached her about doing another Hollywood film, she demanded a significant increase in wages and star billing. To her surprise, she got both (!).

Eleanor Powell stayed in Hollywood through the late 1930s, making some of the greatest musicals of the era. She became known as the Queen of Tap, and starred opposite Fred Astaire and George Murphy (both in the Broadway Melody series), among other celebrated tappers, although her forte was as a soloist. She made a total of 13 films between 1935 and 1950, giving up life on the "silvery screen" with her marriage to Glenn Ford.

Her fifth film, Broadway Melody of 1938 ( in which she starred opposite Robert Taylor,) found her in the company of another noted Crestwoodian, Robert Benchley.

Powell also had a public television show called "Faith of our Children," in the 1950's based on her Sunday School Classes. Even more than her film career she loved being with children and once said "There's nothing in the word like having a child love you." After her divorce from Ford, Powell started an short but successful night-club career. Eleanor Powell died February 11th, 1982, of cancer.

Eleanor Powell called Crestwood home in the early 1930s. Some old-timers recall with fondness this down-to-earth star of stage and screen. When she was rehearsing at home, the sound of her "tapping" on her home's hardwood floors would resonate throughout the neighborhood. An amateur ornithologist, Ms. Powell could often be found birdwatching along the Bronx River at dawn...

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WINGY MANONE: THE ONE ARMED GENIUS

I first noticed Wingy Manone in a Bing Crosby musical, and I was amazed at his ability. I did not really know much about him or his music, but the more I heard the more I enjoyed. There is not much written on Wingy Manone, and that is a shame because he was one of the truly great jazz masters. Wingy Manone was born Joseph Matthews Mannone in New Orleans, Louisiana on February 13, 1900. He lost an arm in a streetcar accident in 1910, which resulted in his nickname of "Wingy". He used a prosthesis, so naturally and unnoticeably that his disability was not apparent to the public.

After playing trumpet and cornet professionally with various bands in his home town, he began to travel across America in the 1920s, working in Chicago, New York City, Texas, Mobile, Alabama, California, St. Louis, Missouri and other locations; he continued to travel widely throughout the United States and Canada for decades.

Wingy Manone's style was similar to that of fellow New Orleans trumpeter Louis Prima: hot jazz with trumpet leads, punctuated by good-natured spoken patter in a pleasantly gravelly voice. Manone was an esteemed musician who was frequently recruited for recording sessions. He played on some early Benny Goodman records, for example, and fronted various pickup groups under pseudonyms like "The Cellar Boys" and "Barbecue Joe and His Hot Dogs." His hit records included "Tar Paper Stomp" (an original riff composition of 1929, later used as the basis for Glenn Miller's "In the Mood"), and a hot 1934 version of a sweet ballad of the time "The Isle of Capri", which was said to have annoyed the songwriters despite the royalties it earned them.\

Manone's group, like other bands, often recorded alternate versions of songs during the same sessions; Manone's vocals would be used for the American, Canadian, and British releases, and strictly instrumental versions would be intended for the international, non-English-speaking markets. Thus there is more than one version of many Wingy Manone hits. Among his better records are "There'll Come a Time (Wait and See)" (1934, also known as "San Antonio Stomp"), "Send Me" (1936), and the novelty hit "The Broken Record" (1936). He and his band did regular recording and radio work through the 1930s, and appeared with Bing Crosby in the movie Rhythm on the River in 1940.

In 1943 he recorded several tunes as "Wingy Manone and His Cats"; that same year he performed in Soundies movie musicals. One of his Soundies reprised his recent hit "Rhythm on the River."

From the 1950s he was based mostly in California and Las Vegas, Nevada, although he also toured through the United States, Canada, and parts of Europe to appear at jazz festivals. In 1957, he attempted to break into the teenage rock-and-roll market with his version of Party Doll, the Buddy Knox hit. His version on Decca 30211 made No. 56 on Billboard's Pop chart and it received a UK release on Brunswick 05655.

A lifelong friend of Bing Crosby, he appears in many of Crosby's radio shows in the 1940s and 1950s. Wingy Manone lived in Las Vegas from 1954 up until his death and he stayed active until near the end, although he only recorded one full album (for Storyville in 1966) after 1960. Wingy died on July 9th 1982 in Las Vegas. Manone was largely forgotten by that time despite performing until the end. However, his talent and his ability should not be underestimated. Wingy did more musically with one arm what most people can not do with two working arms....

MOVIE REVIEW: THE CLOCK

I am not the biggest Judy Garland fan out there. I respect her supreme talent, and I enjoy her singing to a degree, but once drugs completely took over her life and her voice lost something I lost interest in her. However, in 1945 Judy was still at the top of her game - she was a big recording star at Decca Records, and she was one of the most popular stars MGM had on their lot. Garland could almost make any movie she wanted, and she did with her first dramatic effort The Clock (1945).

Garland had asked to star in a straight dramatic role after growing tired of the strenuous schedules of musical films. Although the studio was hesitant, the producer, Arthur Freed, eventually approached Garland with the script for The Clock after buying the rights to the short unpublished story by Pauline and Paul Gallico. Initially, Fred Zinnemann was brought in to direct the picture. After about a month he was removed at the request of Garland. There was a lack of chemistry between the two and early footage was disappointing.

When Freed asked who Garland wanted to direct the film, she answered, "Vincente Minnelli". Minnelli had just directed Garland the previous year in Meet Me in St. Louis, which was a tremendous success. Moreover, she and Minnelli had become romantically involved during the principal photography of Meet Me In St. Louis. During production of The Clock, they rekindled their romance, and were engaged by the end of shooting. Minnelli discarded footage shot by Zinnemann and reshaped the film. He revised some scenes, tightened up the script and incorporated New York City into the film's setting as a third character. As with Meet Me in St. Louis, he supervised adjustments to Garland's costumes, make-up and hair.

Both producer Arthur Freed and Roger Edens have a cameo in this film. Near the beginning, Freed lights Walker's cigarette and then gives him the lighter. Edens, a music arranger and close friend to Garland, plays piano in a restaurant. Screenwriter Robert Nathan appears uncredited smoking a pipe. Though the film was shot entirely on the MGM lot in Culver City, Minnelli managed to make New York City believable, even duplicating Penn Station at a reported cost of $66,000.

Both stars of The Clock were plagued by personal problems that continued throughout their lives. During filming, Garland became increasingly addicted to prescription drugs given by the studio to control her weight and pep her up. Just prior to filming the The Clock, Walker learned his wife, Jennifer Jones, was having an affair with film producer David O. Selznick and wanted a divorce. Walker began to spiral downward. During filming, Garland would often find him drunk in a Los Angeles bar and then sober him up throughout the night so he could appear before cameras the next day.

Many audiences who were surprised and disappointed to find that Garland did not sing in the film, were nevertheless impressed by her performance. It would be 16 years, however, before she would make another dramatic film, 1961's Judgment at Nuremberg, which was ashame because Garland had the acting ability to tackle drama.

Although this film, released on May 25, 1945, made a respectable profit, it was not as successful as Meet Me in St. Louis, released the previous year. Because World War II was ending, The Clock's story was not a popular choice among film-goers who wanted to put the war behind them. Nevertheless, it was well received by critics who favorably noted Garland's transformation into a mature actress. Judy Garland and Robert Walker worked well together as two people who meet while the soldier (Walker) is on leave. In a few hours Walker and Garland are in love - does that happen in real life?

 Judy Garland and Robert Walker were the stars of the movie with New York City as a great co-star. Also look for great character actors like James Gleason, Keenan Wynn (he has a great appearance in a restaurant scene), and Ruth Brady among others. The Clock is a hidden gem among Garland's mammoth musical filmography. Take some time (no pun intended) and check out the movie if you like a great war story that will tug at your heart strings...

MY RATING: 9 OUT OF 10

RIP: ESTHER WILLIAMS

Her talent was more than just her swimming ability. Her beauty and her screen prescene made her a favorite of a generation of film goers. One of MGM's greatest stars - Esther Williams has died. She was 91.

Williams's died early Thursday in her sleep, according to her longtime publicist Harlan Boll.

Following in the footsteps of Sonja Henie, who went from skating champion to movie star, Williams became one of Hollywood's biggest moneymakers, appearing in spectacular swimsuit numbers that capitalized on her wholesome beauty and perfect figure. Such films as "Easy to Wed," "Neptune's Daughter" and "Dangerous When Wet" followed the same formula: romance, music, a bit of comedy and a flimsy plot that provided excuses to get Esther into the water. The extravaganzas dazzled a second generation via television and the compilation films "That's Entertainment." Williams' co-stars included the pick of the MGM contract list, including Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Red Skelton, Ricardo Montalban and Howard Keel.

When hard times signaled the end of big studios and costly musicals in the mid-'50s, Williams tried non-swimming roles with little success. After her 1962 marriage to Fernando Lamas, her co-star in "Dangerous When Wet," she retired from public life.

She explained in a 1984 interview: "A really terrific guy comes along and says, 'I wish you'd stay home and be my wife,' and that's the most logical thing in the world for a Latin. And I loved being a Latin wife - you get treated very well. There's a lot of attention in return for that sacrifice."

She came to films after winning 100-meter freestyle and other races at the 1939 national championships and appearing at the San Francisco World's Fair's swimming exhibition.

After leaving MGM, she starred in two Universal dramatic films, "The Unguarded Moment" (excellent movie) and "Raw Wind in Eden." Neither was successful. In 1961 Lamas directed her last film, "The Magic Fountain," in Spain. It was never released in America.

Esther Jane Williams grew up destined for a career in athletics. She was born Aug. 8, 1921, in Inglewood, a suburb southwest of Los Angeles, one of five children. A public pool was not far from the modest home where Williams was raised, and it was there that an older sister taught her to swim. They saved the 10-cent admission price by counting 100 towels. When she was in her teens, the Los Angeles Athletic Club offered to train her four hours a day, aiming for the 1940 Olympic Games at Helsinki. In 1939, she won the Women's Outdoor Nationals title in the 100-meter freestyle, set a record in the 100-meter breaststroke and was a part of several winning relay teams. But the outbreak of war in Europe that year canceled the 1940 Olympics, and Esther dropped out of competition to earn a living.

Lamas was Williams' third husband. Before her fame she was married briefly to a medical student. In 1945 she wed Ben Gage, a radio announcer, and they had three children, Benjamin, Kimball and Susan. They divorced in 1958. After Lamas' death in 1982, Williams regained the spotlight. Having popularized synchronized swimming with her movies, she was co-host of the event on television at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. She issued a video teaching children how to swim and sponsored her own line of swimsuits.

"I've been a lucky lady," she said in a 1984 interview with The Associated Press. "I've had three exciting careers. Before films I had the experience of competitive swimming, with the incredible fun of winning. ... I had a movie career with all the glamor that goes with it. That was ego-fulfilling, but it was like the meringue on the pie. My marriage with Fernando - that was the filling, that was the apple in the pie."

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MAUREEN O' HARA LEAVING THE SPOTLIGHT

One of the most beauty actresses to ever be captured on film was the Irish born Maureen O'Hara. What a beauty she was! Despite failing health, She kept her promise to her fans. Screen star Maureen O’Hara traveled from Boise, Idaho, to Winterset, Iowa last weekend to honor fellow Hollywood legend John Wayne in his birthplace.

A John Wayne museum and learning center and museum is planned for the Iowa town, and the project now has the best possible blessing from O’Hara, who made five movies with the late actor, including the iconic “The Quiet Man.” Wayne was born in Winterset on May 26, 1907.

It was O’Hara’s first ever visit to Winterset, and it was also billed as her last large scale public appearance. O’Hara was greeted by fans during the weekend as the town featured O’Hara and Wayne films in its movie theater.

“I hope they don’t forget,” O’Hara said of the well wishers.

“If they forget me, I might get mad at them, because I am still here,” the 92-year-old actress said.

O’Hara lived in West Cork for a number of years, but is now settled in Idaho close to family members. She has been embroiled in a bitter fight with her old assistant. She has accused her ex-assistant of elder abuse. Ms O'Hara has filed papers in New York seeking the return of files on her assets and finances from lawyer Howard Gibbs. The 'Daily News' in New York reported that court documents in relation to the issue have already been filed in Manhattan.

Her family insisted she was happier since her move to the US and was considering writing a book to outline her reasons for quitting Ireland.

"Maureen is being bombarded with offers and gets requests to attend events every day," said her nephew Charlie Fitzsimons.  "If it was up to her, she would be attending most things. . . But we have to be more selective about what she attends now because she is 92 and these things are exhausting.

"She is in good health and is living in what is called a senior family home where she has two or three girls looking after her and giving her 24/7 care. She is also receiving occupational and physical therapy -- in fact, the only thing slowing her down is her diabetes. She is incredible". According to her family, it is important for her to leave the spotlight on her own terms and not when she is being carried off. After years of film making, the red haired beauty deserves that much...

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FRED KELLY: DANCING IN THE SHADOWS

I have always been honored that I come from the same town as Gene Kelly. Kelly was and is what perfect dancing is. If I could only walk as good as Gene did - let alone dance, I would be a better person! A lot of people do not realize that Gene came from a big Irish family. Also, Gene was not the only talented one in the family. His younger brother Fred was an accomplished dancer, who spent his whole life in Gene's shadows. "Everybody knew who Gene was, but everybody knew Fred," Michael Kelly, Fred's son, once said.

Fredric N. Kelly was born in Pittsburgh on June 29, 1916, the youngest of five children: Joan, the oldest, James, Eugene, Louise and Fred. His father, James Patrick Kelly, was a sales executive with the Columbia Phonograph Company. According to Fred's reminiscences, his father, as the personal representative of Thomas Edison, sent hundreds of rail cars to the Midwest with the first phonographs and records to reach that part of the country. His mother, Harriet, performed as a hobby with a local stock company and insisted that all her children take music and dance lessons. Fred began performing at the age of 4.

The children began performing around 1921 as the Five Dancing Kellys, and they filled in in Pittsburgh for the Seven Little Foys, the popular dancing children of the vaudevillian Eddie Foy, when the Foys were trapped in Ohio by a snowstorm. Not only was Fred perceived as the family "cutie pie," but he was also the family's natural tap dancer. By the time he was 8 he was earning as much as $50 a month as a performer, good money even for an adult in 1924. It was Fred who taught Gene tap so Gene could earn extra money for college.

When a dance school where the Kelly children were enrolled failed, their mother scraped together money to pay its bills and took it over. Soon Gene and Fred were the main teachers, pushing hundreds of students through 20-minute assembly-line lessons. Shirley Temple's popularity fueled the business. In addition to performing in Pittsburgh, Fred performed every summer from the 8th through 12th grades on a showboat that played Mississippi and Ohio River ports from Pittsburgh to New Orleans. Corny comedy was a specialty.

Fred graduated from the University of Pittsburgh, where he became the first member of the family to appear in films, as the panther mascot to Pitt's football team. He then joined Gene in New York. When Gene had to give up his part in the Theater Guild's production of "The Time of Your Life" to take the title role in the Broadway stage production of "Pal Joey," he recommended that Fred replace him. With the permission of the play's author, William Saroyan, Fred increased his character's dance scenes to 11 from 6. His performance earned three Donaldson Awards, precursors of the Tony. One was presented by Helen Hayes, one by Charlie Chaplin and one by Antoinette Perry, for whom the Tony was named.

Fred Kelly got a screen test with MGM in 1941 but they were not impressed much. During World War II he performed in Irving Berlin's "This Is the Army," which began on Broadway with a cast of 300 American servicemen and toured the world. When the show played Washington, President Franklin D. Roosevelt invited the whole company to dinner at the White House. Fred ended up staying late into the evening to talk with the president and his wife, Eleanor, according to a biography prepared by Andy McGowan for the Lamb's Club, a theatrical club in which Fred was active. When the show played the Mariana Islands in the Pacific, Fred joined other entertainers standing at attention as the Enola Gay took off to drop an atomic bomb on Japan.

After the war Mr. Kelly was hired by NBC to direct television shows, including "The Steve Allen Show" and "The Colgate Comedy Hour." Fred was hired by NBC to direct the Lanny Ross Show, a pioneering musical variety program. Ross decided to stop doing the show and Fred was assigned to another, the Kay Kyser Kollege of Musical Knowledge. Later, he directed more than a thousand hours of The Steve Allen Show and the first 26 United Cerebral Palsy telethons. He directed commercials with the likes of Tallulah Bankhead, Jimmy Durante, and Olsen and Johnson for use in the shows they starred in.

Meanwhile Fred also choreographed and directed three years of Ice Capades. That show was owned by John H. Harris, owner of the Warner theaters in Pittsburgh and a big piece of Republic Pictures. When the show played Los Angeles, tickets were given to movie studios, who passed them on to their big names. Metro-Golden-Mayer tickets went to such people as Ethel and Lionel Barrymore, Clark Gable and Louis B. Mayer, but not their new actor-dancer, Gene Kelly. Fred arranged for Gene and his wife to sit in the Republic central box, next to MGM's, leading Mayer to ask why someone didn't tell him that Gene had such an influential brother.

He also taught Queen Elizabeth and her sister Margaret how to dance when they were both still young princesses. In the 1950s, his wife, Dottie, persuaded him to open a dance studio in Oradell, New Jersey, where he taught a young John Travolta to dance. He also taught at Pace University for 24 years.

Fred performed only one onscreen dance with Gene, "I Love to Go Swimmin With Wimmen." from Deep in My Heart (1955) Fred and Gene modified a step created by the Irish-born step dancer who standardized tap dancing, Maximillian Ford. The original step is the "Maxi Ford;" the revised one is called the "Kelly Maxi Ford," both terms that are still used today. Fred continued to run his dance school as well until he sold it in 1983, and he and his wife Dottie retired to Tucson. His wife died from lung cancer in 1995, and after the death of his brother soon after, Fred never truly recoved from it.

Fred and Dottie had three children. The first, Barry, was born in 1943. A bout of brain fever at 14 months left him mentally impaired, and one of the reasons Fred worked two and three jobs at a time was to keep him in special schools until he died in 1968. Another son, Michael, was born in 1949; he, his wife Diane, and four children live in California, where Michael is a unit production manager and occasional director of Brooke Shields' Suddenly Susan television series, and stage manager of many televison show. Daughter Colleen, born in 1953, lives in Tucson with her husband Jim Beaman and four children and is a high school drama teacher, and dance instructor as well.

His famous brother Gene suffered a series of strokes in 1994 and 1995. Fred Kelly had said he visited his brother about three weeks before his death in a California hospital, just talking and joking.“The day I saw him, all the life supports had been removed,’ Fred Kelly said. “The last day we saw him, we shared about a half-hour of wonderful chatter.’ Gene Kelly died on February 2, 1996. Fred's older brother died a few years before that. Not much is written or known about him. His sister Harriet died in 2002 at the age of 92. Another sister Louise was the last surviving for the Kelly children. She died in 2008 at he age of 93.

Fred Kelly always seemed like he lived in Gene's shadows. However, he led a full life. He died on March 15, 2000 at the age of 83. After Fred's death his family started the Fred Kelly Foundation which was established for college students interested in a career in musical theater with a strong emphasis on tap dancing. In honor of Fred, his family has created a foundation for college students interested in a career in musical theatre with a strong emphasis on tap dancing. Fred spent his life dancing in the shadows, but the dancing he did will always be remembered...

RIP: JEAN STAPLETON

 

Growing up my Grandmother always reminded me of Jean Stapleton - although looking back now I don't know what the similarities were. Both women represented a simpler time in my life, and with Jean Stapleton's death today I miss them both. Stapleton was an icon as Edith Bunker on All In The Family, and as for her movies roles, I think my favorite role of hers was as Judy Holiday's friend in 1960's Bells Are Ringing. She dated Eddie Foy Jr in the movie - yes, Eddie Foy of the Seven Little Foys!

Jean Stapleton was 90 years old. Her son John Putch told CNN about her passing and, along with his sister Pamela Putch, wrote an obituary saying that she "passed away peacefully of natural causes" on Friday at her New York City home "surrounded by friends and her immediate family."

 

"No one gave more profound 'how to be a human being' lessons than Jean Stapleton," said Norman Lear, who produced and directed "All in the Family." "Goodbye Edith, darling."

 

The daughter of an opera singer and businessman, Stapleton grew up on Long Island and in New York City. It was there during the early 1940s, while working as a typist for the British War Ministry Office, that she began her career in theater.

 

Stapleton made it to Broadway in the production "In the Summer House" in 1953, the same year of her television debut on the daytime drama "Woman With a Past." Other big stage roles followed, including in "Bells Are Ringing" and "Damn Yankees."

She also did more and more television, including appearances on shows such as "Philco TV Playhouse" and "Dr. Kildare."

 

Her breakout role was as Edith Bunker, the conscience of "All in the Family" as the kindhearted foil to husband Archie, played by the late Carroll O'Connor. "All in the Family" was one of television's most popular shows as it broke ground while tackling a host of social issues such as racism, sexuality, life and death. Edith Bunker, played by Stapleton, for instance revealed that she had breast cancer on the show, a rare occurrence at the time.

 

"I just loved doing it from the very beginning," Stapleton told CNN in 2001, shortly after O'Connor's death.

 

She won three Emmy awards -- in 1971, 1972 and 1978, in addition to five other nominations in which he she fell short -- for her performance in that Lear-helmed show.

 

 

"Jean was a brilliant comedienne with exquisite timing," said Rob Reiner, who played the Bunkers' son-in-law referred to as "Meathead" on the show. "Working with her was one of the greatest experiences of my life."

 

Stapleton kept busy after the show went off in the air in 1979 and kept on racking up more accomplishments. Those include Emmy nominations in 1982 for playing Eleanor Roosevelt in the CBS miniseries "Eleanor, First Lady of the World" and in 1995 as Aunt Vivian in a guest spot on the ABC comedy "Grace Under Fire."

 

In 2002 she was chosen for the Television Academy Hall of Fame, joining the likes of Tim Conway and Bob Mackie in that organization's 15th induction class. Her most recent on-screen credits, according to the IMDB website, are from 2001 when she appeared in the film "Pursuit of Happiness" and the TV movie "Like Mother Like Son: The Strange Story of Sante and Kenny Klimes" along with Mary Tyler Moore.

 

 

 

And after "All in the Family," she continued working in theater, including a nationwide tour as Roosevelt in her one-woman show "Eleanor: Her Secret Journey," the Broadway revival of "Arsenic and Lace" and Obie Award performances in Harold Pinter's "Mountain Language" and "The Birthday Party." Her final stage appearance was in "The Carpetbagger's Children" a few blocks from her home in New York, to which she returned permanently in 2002.

 

Calling her "our collective Mother, with a capital M," John and Pamela Putch -- Stapleton's two children with her husband William Putch, whom she married in 1957 and who died in 1983 -- said "her devotion to her craft and her family taught us all great lessons."

 

"In her own words, she was an 'actress,' not a celebrity," they wrote in her obituary. "The play always came first."

 

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