It's an interesting diversion! I think I have one of her recordings. I'll have to look at my LP collection when I get home.
Did you see my partial answer?
Strange things happening again. I had trouble posting. Look at the thread above.
I figured the clue had to be in that sentence because the sentence was extraneous otherwise, so I should have seen it.
Since I only got four of the five movies in the last round, I think I only owe you 1-4/5 questions. However, that's neither here nor there, as I'm about to be there (home) rather than here (office). Maybe inspiration for a new question will come to me on the subway ride home.
I'll gladly accept four fifths.
And can't you just see Groucho (OK, I'm a little behind in the thread!) flipping those eyebrows and saying, "I'll gladly take 4 Fifths (...of Johnny Walker?)."
If I put my brain in reverse (easier than i'd care to mention), I seem to recall a wonderful skit done by the Beyond the Fringe troupe (Peter Cook , Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett, and Jonathan Miller), that exquisite British bunch of crazies, that was about recalling the war. This would be WW2 of course. It was just wonderful-the skit was written in the early 60's, so those folks who remembered that time, the actor's parents for instance, were still very much around. I think they mention Dame Myra Hess and the concerts, commenting about playing German music...it was a pretty amazing bit!
Anyone else remember or have this lp?
I never saw that one. Very interesting, Loislane. The article I read about Myra Hess said "Ironically, the music most often featured at the concerts was that of German composers, which sent a strong message to the enemies of democracy that Britain could admire the culture of the German people while abhoring the political realities of the Nazi Reich. "
That would be rather had to take.
Oh, I never heard Groucho say that either. I just thought four fifths would be nice.
I have to start watching those Marx Bros. movies when they come on TCM.
New question:
This actress appeared in 13 movies whose titles include the word "little".
WOW. That question is worth one and 4/5. I had no idea a subway ride could be so inspirational.
I was hoping I'd get credit for more than one question!
I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere on A2K, so I don't know if you're aware of it: Teresa Wright died on Sunday. I hadn't known, until I read her obituary in today's New York Times, that she was the only actor to have been nominated for an Oscar for her first three movies. (That would have made a good question for this game.)
I was especially struck by this sentence in the obituary: "She was inspired to become an actress by seeing Helen Hayes in "Victoria Regina" on Broadway while still a student", because my mother (who was born eight years before Teresa Wright) was similarly inspired by seeing Helen Hayes in "Victoria Regina". (In my mother's case, however, the inspiration didn't lead to three Academy Award nominations -- although she was very active in a community theater before she had children.)
Here's the entire Times obituary of Teresa Wright:
Teresa Wright, Stage and Film Star, Dies at 86
By DOUGLAS MARTIN
Teresa Wright, the high-minded ingénue who marshaled intelligence and spunk to avoid being typecast as another 1940's "sweater girl" and became the only actor to be nominated for Academy Awards for her first three films, died on Sunday at Yale-New Haven Hospital. She was 86.
The cause was a heart attack, her daughter, Mary-Kelly Busch, said.
Miss Wright had many parts on Broadway and once performed at a White House dinner for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, but her meteoric landing in Hollywood in 1941 is the stuff of legend.
After seeing her on Broadway, Samuel Goldwyn, the legendary producer, asked her to play the role of Bette Davis's daughter in "The Little Foxes" in 1941. Her performance in the film moved its director, William Wyler, to tell The New York Times that she was the most promising young actress he had ever directed.
She proved his point by being nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actress for the picture. The next year, she was nominated for best actress for her next role, opposite Gary Cooper as Lou Gehrig's wife in "The Pride of the Yankees," and won the Oscar for best supporting actress as the love interest of Greer Garson's war-bound son in "Mrs. Miniver."
Her work included a starring role in Wyler's "Best Years of Our Lives," winner of the best-picture Oscar in 1946; playing opposite Marlon Brando in his first movie, "The Men," in 1950; and creating the character of Charlie, the innocent but suspicious niece of a serial killer, in Alfred Hitchcock's harrowing "Shadow of a Doubt" in 1943.
After the 1950's, she drifted away from movies and worked on the stage in roles like Linda Loman opposite George C. Scott's Willy in a 1975 Broadway production of "Death of a Salesman." She was nominated for three Emmy Awards for her dramatic roles on television and in 1997 appeared in a cinematic adaptation of John Grisham's "Rainmaker."
For all her allure as the fetching "girl next door," Miss Wright fiercely fought not to be a glamour girl. She loathed pictures in bathing suits and interviews with fan magazines, and told Goldwyn as much. He assured her he was not of "the bathing suit school of Hollywood producers," according to The Times in 1942, and promised to promote her more ethereal talents.
"There would be no leg art, no whispered romances for the columnists, no orchid and ermine setting for her background," her contract stipulated, according to The Times.
But Miss Wright's disregard for Hollywood's demands eventually caused Goldwyn to terminate her contract, in 1948. In their highly publicized exchange, he said she was lax in publicizing her pictures. She said movies had become too brazenly commercial.
"I was going to be Joan of Arc," she said in an interview with The New York Post in 1969, "and all I proved was that I was an actress who would work for less money."
For her next picture, "The Men," instead of the $125,000 she had once commanded, she received $20,000, but her co-star was Marlon Brando.
Muriel Teresa Wright was born on Oct. 27, 1918, in Manhattan. She dropped her first named in her early 20's when she found another Muriel Wright was already registered with Actors' Equity.
Her parents separated soon after she was born, and her father, an insurance salesman, farmed her out to various relatives in New York and New Jersey. She did not start school until she was 8, and did not graduate from high school in Maplewood, N.J., until she was almost 20.
She was inspired to become an actress by seeing Helen Hayes in "Victoria Regina" on Broadway while still a student. She played leading parts in high school plays, but a teacher told her to stick with typing.
Another teacher helped her get a scholarship to the Wharf Theater in Provincetown, Mass., the summer of her junior year. That led to summer stock work, an understudy role on Broadway in "Our Town" and, in 1939, the part of Mary in "Life With Father," based on the memoirs of Clarence Day. After seeing it, Goldwyn went backstage to hire her.
Miss Wright was married for 10 years to Niven Busch, a screenwriter and novelist. She married the playwright Robert Anderson in 1959, and they divorced in the early 1970's. Ms. Busch, Miss Wright's daughter, said the two remained close.
In addition to her daughter, who lives in Clinton, Conn., Miss Wright is survived by her son, Niven Perence Busch of Indianapolis, and two grandchildren.
In 1998, Miss Wright was asked to throw the first pitch at a Yankees game in honor of the anniversary of Lou Gehrig's famous farewell speech to fans in 1939, the climax of "Pride of the Yankees." She said it was her first game. But after years of ignoring baseball, she then became a fervent fan herself, raptly following the Yankees on television and at their stadium.
"The whole thing is pure theater to me," she explained.
Wow, great obituary. Well, that sounds awful, but you know what I mean.
Yes, I do know what you mean -- and I'm sure she wouldn't mind!
Oh! I think I saw almost all of Teresa Wright's movies and enjoyed her in everyone.
She was nominated for a supporting actress in The Little Foxes in 1941 (her first movie) and interestingly was nominated for both Best Actress (The Pride of the Yankees) and Supporting actress ( Mrs. Miniver) the same year (l942). She won for Mrs. Miniver.
Ephraim Katz in his Film Encylopedia says that she married Robert Anderson in 1959. They divorced and then remarried. I wonder if he made an error.
Oh, I saw Helen Hayes in "Mrs. McThing" at the Nixon Theater here. Amazing. (You guys have probably seen her, too.)
Be back with Mary Pickford's "little" films.
To answer Bree's excellent question:
Mary Pickford
The Little Darling
Little Red Riding Hood
A Good Little Devil
Such a Little Queen
Little Pal
The Poor Little Rich Girl
The Little American
The Little Princess
Little Lord Fauntleroy
Little Annie Rooney
Little Angels of Luck (Unconfirmed)
The Little Teacher
Little Nell's Tobacco
Yes to Mary Pickford. But, curiously, we each missed one movie, so the total should be 14: I had Poor Little Peppina, which isn't on your list, and you had A Good Little Devil, which wasn't on mine!
I think I only saw Helen Hayes onstage once, in a 1967-68 revival of The Show-Off, by George Kelly (Grace Kelly's uncle). I probably still have that Playbill somewhere.
Oh, that's funny. I checked her list of movies four times.
I'm not having any luck in the "something in common title" . I could never top your 13 or 14. (But, I'll keep working at it.)
How about movie clues for an actress:
1. She was a chocolate manufacturer's mate
who frequently took a
2. trip down memory lane
and liked to vacation at
3. a tavern near Goldeneye
when she wasn't scaling
4. Tracy's Peak
or ..........(to be continued per request)
Actually, I think you already hold the record with your question about John Wayne and the 15 "state" movies he made.
Don't continue with your story yet -- I think you've given me enough to work on!
This week's weather has been downright schizophrenic: yesterday the temperature got up to 63 degrees, and today it's snowing. What next: a hail of toads?
I saw Helen Hayes in the fifties.
I didn't know Grace Kelly's uncle was a playwright.
Oh, I spoke too soon. (lol)
Yesterday afternoon it was in the sixties; last night it stormed, sleet and then snow, with the power going out for 15 minutes. I thought the roof was going to blow off.
I just looked out the window and the snow has almost completely melted.
I don't care if it hails toads, just so the power doesn't go out again.
George Kelly's best-known play (for which he won a Pulitzer Prize) is probably Craig's Wife, which was turned into a movie with Rosalind Russell and then later re-made (as Harriet Craig) with Joan Crawford. (The title role in Craig's Wife was also played by my mother in one of those community theater productions I mentioned earlier. I hasten to add that in no other respect did my mother have anything in common with Joan Crawford.)
Grace Kelly made her professional debut in a production of one of her uncle's plays, The Torch Bearers, at the Bucks County Playhouse. Nice to have an uncle in the business to help you get your start.
