Hollywood Prom Night will be here Sunday, March 12th. That's when the Oscars get handed out. Jimmy Kimmel will host again. Again, folks will complain the following day about the awards show's length. The Academy should have Oprah host the telecast one year. Hollywood knows her. She was an Oscar nominee herself (for THE COLOR PURPLE) and, as one who was a celebrated daytime TV host, she knows how to move a show along. She could shorten the Academy Awards telecast just by proclaiming "YOU get an Oscar! YOU get an Oscar! YOU get an Oscar! Everybody gets an Oscar!"
For the entire month of March, cable's TCM (Turner Classic Movies) airs movies that won or, at least, got nominated for Oscars. I pitched the channel devote a few nights to performers who were never ever nominated. In my previous posts, I mentioned the never-nominated Edward G. Robinson, Myrna Loy, Joel McCrea, Dana Andrews, Anton Walbrook, Mia Farrow and Donald Sutherland -- among others. Here's a final installment -- NEVER EVER NOMINATED 3.
Jack Carson was one of Old Hollywood's most dependable and versatile actors. He could be a tough in a western such as DESTRY RIDES AGAIN, a wise Washington DC political reporter in MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, a real heel as in MILDRED PIERCE or the lovable leading man to Doris Day in the musicals ROMANCE ON THE HIGH SEAS and MY DREAM IS YOURS.
Carson did some very strong work in the 1950s. I would've given him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for playing the cynical Hollywood studio publicist in George Cukor's 1954 remake of A STAR IS BORN. He was also strong as "Gooper," the married corporate lawyer jealous of his constantly drinking, emotionally distant brother in CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF.
Jeff Daniels. His film credits in RAGTIME, TERMS OF ENDEARMENT, SOMETHING WILD, PLEASANTVILLE, THE SQUID AND THE WHALE, GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK, THE HOURS, INFAMOUS and, yes...DUMB AND DUMBER. Daniels was excellent in all those films and in Woody Allen's comedy/drama fantasy THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO. In that, he plays the 1930s movie hero who steps off the big screen and into the life of a lonely, heartbroken moviegoer played by Mia Farrow. She's also in the Never Ever Nominated club.
Lloyd Nolan. Millions of us baby boomers knew him as the kindly doctor who hired a Black single working mother registered nurse on the 1968-1971 TV series, JULIA, starring Diahann Carroll. From the 1930s though the 1950s, he was another of Old Hollywood's most dependable, talented actors. His final performance was as the dad to Mia Farrow's character in Woody Allen's HANNAH AND HER SISTERS (1986). I loved him as the Irish-American cop in Elia Kazan's A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN (1945) and as the father of a young married man who becomes a drug addict in 1957's A HATFUL OF RAIN. Also in 1957, his courtroom speech in PEYTON PLACE is one of the highlights of that Oscar-nominated film. Nolan played the compassionate local doctor who knows all the dirty little secrets of that prim New England town.
LINDA DARNELL. Starting at 20th Century Fox in the 1930s, this brunette lovely could play the sweet good girl in films such as DAYTIME WIFE (1939), THE MARK OF ZORRO (1940) and BLOOD AND SAND (1941). Or she could be the bad vamp in FALLEN ANGEL (1945) and FOREVER AMBER (1947). She was at her best as Lora Mae, the girl from the wrong side of the tracks who plans to move up in social class. She'll do that by trapping a bear. The bear is the burly town millionaire who owns the department store where she works. He marries her. When she and her two best friends get word that the town glamour girl has stolen of their husbands, Lora Mae realizes she's more in love with her husband than she thought. The sophisticated comedy is Joseph L.Mankiewicz's A LETTER TO THREE WIVES (1949). Linda Darnell should've been in the Best Supporting Actress Oscar race for this one.
Technically, he was an Oscar nominee. He was up for Best Supporting Actor thanks to his work in the 1957 remake of A FAREWELL TO ARMS. But Vittorio De Sica was never ever nominated for Best Director. De Sica directed the film classics UMBERTO D., TWO WOMEN starring Sophia Loren, MARRIAGE ITALIAN STYLE, SHOESHINE, THE ROOF, THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS and the wonderful BICYCLE THIEVES.
So...when people say, "It's an honor just to be nominated," I believe them.
Back in the late 70s, when I was living and working in Milwaukee, I read some humor essays by a struggling actor in San Francisco who wrote that just about every person in New York City who's in the show biz profession has a personal story about how wonderful Chita Rivera is. Well, years later, I discovered the truth of that -- because I am one of those people.
My first encounter with the extraordinary Broadway dancer/actress was when she was in Milwaukee. It was during a summer and she was touring with a revue show. It played at Milwaukee's gorgeous Performing Arts Center and I bought tickets. I was working on radio at the time. One of my previous part-time jobs had been working as an usher at the Performing Arts Center. I loved that job and the staff. I kept in touch with the staff when I had transitioned over to full-time employment in broadcasting which was my career goal after I'd graduated from Marquette University.
I'd flown Mom in from Los Angeles to visit me in Milwaukee for a few days. I bought us a pair of tickets to see Chita. I was backstage telling Chita Rivera how much I loved her show and how much my mother loved it, adding that I'd brought Mom with me. Chita said, "Where's your mother?" I said, "She's right outside in the lobby." Chita replied, "I always meet the mamas" and asked me to introduce her to my mother. We headed to the lobby. Chita Rivera chatted with my mother for a couple of minutes like they were old college buddies. Mom was thrilled. And so was I.
Fast forward to the 1990s. I was a regular entertainment contributor on live local New York City morning TV news programs. A deluxe broadcast awards event was being held one night and a TV columnist asked me to be her date. We got gussied up and went. There were plenty of A-list celebrities at tables. As we headed to our table, my date spotted Chita Rivera and said, "Come on. I want to ask her something for my column." We politely approached her As my date was about to introduce me to the Broadway great, Ms. Rivera warmly said, "Oh, I know who Bobby is." She then named a few of the shows she'd seen me on in New York City.
Chita Rivera knew more about my TV career than the man who was soon to become my ex-broadcast agent did. I was gobsmacked.
Chita Rivera has not danced in many movies. However, we can see her sensational dancing in Bob Fosse's 1969 film adaptation of the Broadway hit, SWEET CHARITY. She danced and sang with its star, Shirley MacLaine, and Paula Kelly.
If you're in or around the NYC area and if you're a fellow Chita Rivera fan, keep this in mind: The Film Forum movie theater will feature a 4K restoration of the complete roadshow version of SWEET CHARITY the week of March 24th to March 30th.
This musical marks the film director debut of famed choreographer Bob Fosse. Here's one of the numbers you'll see in SWEET CHARITY -- a number featuring Shirley MacLaine, Chita Rivera and Paula Kelly. The Broadway musical was based on Federico Fellini's 1957 masterpiece, NIGHTS OF CABIRIA.
Also in the cast is Sammy Davis, Jr. The movie theater's website is: filmforum.org.
This is a viewing reminder and some Oscar facts for Black History Month. I love me some Mary J. Blige. The singer made her acting debut in the 2017 drama, MUDBOUND, directed by Dee Rees. In MUDBOUND, we follow two rural Mississippi families -- one Black, the other White -- as they face the hardships of Depression era farm life, as friendships form and as two young farm men are drafted to serve in World War 2. Then we see how one, who distinguished himself overseas fighting in the war, faces racism in post-WW2 America.
When I saw Mary J. Blige's performance as the wife and mother in one family, my jaw just about dropped down to the top of the sneakers. She was remarkable. She delivered an unforgettable dramatic performance in MUDBOUND. Mary J. Blige made Oscar history as the first Black woman to get multiple Oscar nominations in the same year. She was a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee and the song she co-wrote for MUDBOUND put her in the Best Song Oscar race.
MUDBOUND, co-starring Carey Mulligan, is still on Netflix.
For MUDBOUND, director/co-writer Dee Rees also made Oscar history. She was the first Black woman to be an Oscar nominee for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Dee Rees directed and wrote the LGBTQ-friendly 2011 family drama, PARIAH. A smart young woman from a nice Brooklyn family with two parents who both work tries to establish her individuality. It conflicts with the plans that her mother had for her life. PARIAH was so good that it got raves from Meryl Streep on live TV the night she won her Best Actress Oscar for THE IRON LADY. Streep said that Kim Wayans, who many of us knew from the IN LIVING COLOR sketch comedy TV series, should have been a nominee in the Best Actress Oscar category too.
Oscar winner/talk show host Jennifer Hudson starred as the late great Aretha Franklin in the 2021 biopic, RESPECT. One of the highlights in that movie is Mary J. Blige in a supporting role as the temperamental, talented singer Dinah Washington.
With two Oscar nominations to her credit and strong performances in two films, is Mary J. Blige getting good script opportunities from Hollywood? I'd like to know. She should be.
It is still Black History Month, so I'm giving you some Black history from Hollywood's golden years. We know that the talented, under-utilized Hattie McDaniel was the first Black Oscar nominee and the first Black Oscar recipient. She was her Best Supporting Actress Oscar for playing "Mammy" in 1939's GONE WITH THE WIND. McDaniel was the first person to be an Oscar nominee for playing a Black character.
Yes, this epic Civil War love story is problematic. That aside, there is one thing you cannot deny. The Vivien Leigh performance as headstrong Scarlett O'Hara is riveting. She commands the screens and holds your attention every time she's on screen. The only other actor who can pull focus from Vivien Leigh is the totally charismatic Hattie McDaniel. She definitely had star power. However, In films after GONE WITH THE WIND, films in which McDaniel was the only Oscar winner in the cast, she's billed as if she's a bit player. Proof of this is in Warner Bros. 1942 modern-day comedy/satire, THE MALE ANIMAL. The film stars Henry Fonda, Olivia de Havilland (who was also a GONE WITH THE WIND Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee), Joan Leslie and Jack Carson. Look at the opening credits. Look at the breadcrumbs of a college town maid role Hattie has to play.
The third performer to get an Oscar nomination for playing a Black character was famed jazz recording vocalist and Broadway musical star Ethel Waters. She was a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee for playing a retired maid whose granddaughter passes for white in PINKY. That 1949 race drama, directed by Elia Kazan, starred Jeanne Crain (a white actress) in the title role.
Now, let's look at a year in between 1939's GONE WITH THE WIND and 1949's PINKY.
The second performer to get an Oscar nomination for playing a Black character .... was a white British actress named Flora Robson. She starred as the housekeeper/narrator in William Wyler's WUTHERING HEIGHTS (1939) and she was one of the nuns in BLACK NARCISSUS (1947). She played Queen Elizabeth I in two historical films. One was THE SEA HAWK (1940) starring Errol Flynn.
For some unexplained reason, executives at Warner Bros look at that Caucasian British actress actress and said, 'Wow! She'd be perfect to play the stern, dark-skinned Haitian maid opposite Ingrid Bergman in SARATOGA TRUNK!"
Here's a video with scenes from the 1945 period piece love story. You'll notice Robson as the Haitian maid.
SARATOGA TRUNK got Flora Robson an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. One of my big questions is this: If the Haitian maid role was good enough to get an actress an Oscar nomination, why didn't Warner Bros give the role to a Black actress when maid roles were the only roles many Black actresses in Hollywood were given at that time? Why didn't they give the role to lovely Theresa Harris who played the maid to Bette Davis' Southern belle character in Warner Bros. JEZEBEL (1938)? Here's Theresa Harris with Marlene Dietrich in 1941's THE FLAME OF NEW ORLEANS.
And there you have it. Some Black Roles / Oscar History that rarely gets mentioned. By the way, Flora Robson lost the Best Supporting Actress Oscar to Anne Baxter for THE RAZOR'S EDGE.
The Hollywood Reporter broke the recent news that Tom Holland, whom I thought was a very cool Spider-Man, will play Hollywood great Fred Astaire in an upcoming movie. The publication also reported that the film project will focus on Fred's relationship with his dancer sister, Adele Astaire. She was about three years older than Fred and he adored her. The two were a child vaudeville act. By 1917, The Astaires were a top Broadway act, starring in hit shows through 1931. They also took their shows to London's West End. As a youngster, Adele had shown a propensity for dance in Omaha. Her parents enrolled her in dance classes. Young Fred loved being with his sister so he joined her in classes. He too showed a propensity for dance. The Astaire kids were so good that the parents decided to move to New York City where their two children could get better, more professional training.
Come 1933, Fred appeared as himself for a short appearance in the MGM movie, DANCING LADY. He had dance number with Joan Crawford. He tried to coax Adele into joining him for film work in Hollywood, but she had retired. She married a British lord and retired in her mid-30s. At RKO, Fred had a supporting role in the musical FLYING DOWN TO RIO. That paired him with another supporting player, a buddy from his Broadway years. Her name -- Ginger Rogers. They did 1934's THE GAY DIVORCEE and 1935's ROBERTA. It was 1935's TOP HAT with an original score by Irving Berlin that fully established Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers as major Hollywood stars and gave Astaire his signature attire for the rest of his innovative and groundbreaking movie musical career.
I read that Tom Holland took hip-hop classes and danced in the West End production of BILLY ELLIOTT: THE MUSICAL, based on that sweet film, BILLY ELLIOTT. Here's a bit of "Spider-Man" talking about and doing some ballet moves.
But can Tom Holland do this?
I've been fascinated with Fred Astaire ever since I was learning how to read in elementary school. The fascination began when I saw FLYING DOWN TO RIO one weekend afternoon on local Channel 9 TV in Los Angeles. I watched all of his old movies I could on TV and coaxed my parents into letting me stay up to see his multi-Emmy winning NBC TV dance specials in the 60s. By my junior high (middle school) years, I'd go to the library and head to the theater and film sections to read about Astaire. I read that his sister had a pert and charismatic stage presence. When I was in high school, one of my favorite teachers was my English Lit. teacher. She also ran the school library and noticed I'd checked out theater books. I told how much I loved Fred Astaire. She told me she'd seen The Astaires on Broadway when she was a girl. She added, "It was known that Adele was the better dancer of the two."
I asked her, "Of all the dance partners Fred Astaire had later...like Ginger Rogers, Rita Hayworth and Cyd Charisse...who had a style that came closest to Adele's?"
Miss McConarty thought for a moment or two and then replied, "Barrie Chase."
Barrie Chase was Astaire's dance partner on his NBC special from 1959 through the 60s. Classic film fans would know her as the stone-faced hip chick in a bikini dancing the Twist with Dick Shawn in IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD. She a dramatic role in the original CAPE FEAR as the first woman brutally molested by Robert Mitchum's crazed character.
In 1964, Fred Astaire and Barrie Chase played rival entertainment representatives competing to sign the same new talents in a breezy made-for-TV movie comedy called THINK PRETTY. At the end, the two competitors join forces -- and they dance to the title tune. Here are Fred Astaire and Barrie Chase.
OK, Tom Holland. Do your best and don't let me down.
Being a baby boomer, I loved February when I was a school kid. In those days, we got two weekdays off from school. One federal holiday was for Abraham Lincoln's birthday. The other was for George Washington's birthday. Now they've been lumped together into one day off. Oh, well. That's modern times for you.
Up for some Presidents' Day flavored music? Of course, I've got showtimes for you. Paramount's 1942 musical comedy, HOLIDAY INN, paired Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby in a movie packed with old and new tunes by Irving Berlin. Berlin wrote "White Christmas" for this movie and it brought him the Oscar for Best Song.
I don't know if today's youngsters hear this tale in school, but we were told that little George Washington chopped down a cherry tree and when asked by an adult if he did it, he answered "I cannot tell a lie." He confessed. Here's Astaire, a nightclub entertainer, doing a number on Washington's Birthday. His dance partner is actress Marjorie Reynolds. Fred and Bing play buddies vying for the same lady's affections.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the president with the constantly traveling humanitarian wife named Eleanore, started serving his third term when YANKEE DOODLE DANDY was released. James Cagney, who shot to fame as the cold-blooded killer gangster in 1931's THE PUBLIC ENEMY, won the Best Actor Oscar for playing famed Broadway song and dance showman, George M. Cohan. The movie came out during the WW2 years. In it, Cagney as Cohan does a Broadway musical spoof of President FDR.
In the 1972 film version of the Broadway musical hit, 1776, Howard Da Silva played Benjamin Franklin, William Daniels was John Adams and tall Ken Howard was Thomas Jefferson. The men were working to draft the Declaration of Independence. William Daniels and Ken Howard played future U.S. presidents. Both actors were future presidents of the Screen Actors Guild.
Ray Bolger was a Washington, DC official in the 1952 musical, APRIL IN PARIS. In his office, he danced with two U.S. presidents.
I was a Black Catholic kid who grew up in South Central L.A. in the 1960s. Our house was on East 124th Street and Central Avenue. I attended a parochial, all-boys high school in Watts. The students were predominantly Black and Mexican-American. There was only one White guy in the entire Verbum Dei High School student body. By the time I was in high school, I was already a passionate fan of films -- old and new -- and I was enchanted by Raquel Welch. I loved her and I had a great respect for her talent. I felt that she was more than a gorgeous, shapely starlet who wore a fur bikini in a pre-historic dinosaur action movie. I did get a giddy guilty pleasure reading The Los Angeles Times entertainment section for updates on the reported feud between Raquel Welch and Mae West while making the 1970 movie MYRA BRECKINGRIDGE. West -- a playwright, screenwriter and actress -- had saved Paramount from bankruptcy in the early 1930s while becoming a truly iconic blonde sex symbol when she was in her 40s. Apparently she'd made changes in the MYRA BRECKINRIDGE script. Although Mae West had not been on the big screen since the early 1940s, she was still keeping a grip on her sex symbol image like a Jack Russell terrier with a favorite chew toy in its mouth. Based on the Gore Vidal novel of the same name, Raquel Welch played a transgender character in MYRA BRECKINGRIDGE. She had way more dialogue than she did in 1966's ONE MILLION YEARS, B.C. and a lot more outfits.
I knew that Welch's last name was really Tejada. Her father was Bolivian. Having grown up with Hispanic neighbors, family friends, classmates and teachers, I connected to her. Hers was a face of my diverse community. I sensed that she had to break through a certain racial barrier to get equal respect in Hollywood. It irked me to read gossip column reports that she was "difficult" on a set. Was she difficult or just standing up for herself in a way that, say, Ann-Margret didn't have to?
Raquel Welch was the first movie star to answer a fan letter from me. I still have the 8x10 autographed glossy photo in an album. This was during my high school years. So was the day that marked my first ever visit onto a movie studio lot. I entered a contest on KMPC Radio and won tickets for me and family members to a special Saturday morning preview screening on the 20th Century Fox lot of a new 1966 sci-fi fantasy film called.... FANTASTIC VOYAGE. I loved it! The fantastic plot had a U.S. medical science team shrunken to molecule size and injected into the system of an injured important international figure to cure his head injury. I know it's a totally unbelievable plot but this movie was extremely significant to a South Central L.A. kid as I was. The Latina was a scientist on an extremely important secret mission, the only female scientist in the crew. THAT was great representation.
Welch moved up to show her acting skills with A-list scripts. There was the 1973 Hollywood insider murder mystery, THE LAST OF SHEILA, and 1974's THE THREE MUSKETEERS directed by Richard Lester. That one has my favorite Raquel Welch performance. She's wonderful as the klutzy and clueless but lovable Constance. Welch took inspiration from Stan Laurel of Laurel & Hardy fame to play Constance.
I read the novel FORREST GUMP by Winston Groom months before the film adaptation starring Tom Hanks was released. I knew the movie had been in production and I wondered if Raquel Welch would be in it or if someone would play her. Have you ever read FORREST GUMP? It's a fabulous book. I checked it out from a library and read the whole book in one weekend. It was that entertaining. The movie is quite different. The main characters are in it, but the screenplay took the vinegar out of the novel and replaced it with sweet tea. Remember how sweet Sally Field was as the devoted mother to Forrest? In the novel, the mother is an annoying, selfish old woman. Forrest is an idiot savant who says "Bein' an idiot is no box of chocolates." He's a football player. The way he's described, he looks more like a John Cena than a Tom Hanks.
In the novel, Forrest has a series of episodic adventures. In one chapter, we follow his misadventures in Hollywood making a modestly budgeted sci-fi movie with a cranky starlet named Raquel Welch.
In 2000, ABC News hired me to be Entertainment Editor and weekly film critic on its Lifetime TV production, LIFETIME LIVE. I came up with the idea of recommending a classic film in which I'd focus on a lead female performance to complement the lead female performance in a new film I'd just reviewed. For instance, although the original script received no screen credit (which I mentioned), Tom Cruise's MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2 was a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's 1946 classic, NOTORIOUS. I showed clips from both films and pointed out how Thandie Newton opposite Tom Cruise was an update of Ingrid Bergman opposite Cary Grant in NOTORIOUS.
I reviewed THE CELL, a 2000 sci-fi thriller starring Jennifer Lopez as a psychologist who has a radical new way of entering a man's mind. It involves experimental technology. I recommended also seeing FANTASTIC VOYAGE starring Raquel Welch as a scientist who enters a man's head to help remove a blood clot.
During my VH1 years in New York City, I had the opportunity to interview Raquel Welch. She'd made a music video. A few publicists warned me that she could be testy.
Raquel Welch arrived at our studio on time and looking glamorous. I greeted her and thanked her for answering my fan letter when I was a kid in South Central L.A. Raquel Welch could not have been lovelier, more gracious or more grateful. She was like a wonderful dream come true. I loved how she went out of her way to thank the floor crew for the good lighting.
Raquel Welch, the Latina who grew up San Diego, had class and talent before Hollywood fully realized it. I loved her.
