Lately I’ve been wondering about Pete Barbutti(sp?).
Stan Kann just celebrated his 80th birthday in St. Louis – several of the local media covered it. In addition to his vacuum collection (which he still has) he’s an organist and still appears for concerts at the Fox Theater, accompanying silent films and the like.
He still swears he never deliberately screwed up a demonstration.
No, but I definitely remember the television series Lancelot Link, the Secret Chimp, which was actually pretty darned funny in its day.
How about The Times Square Two?
I finally remembered the other act which I intended to list in my above post:
The Nairobi Trio!
I suspect that “forgotten” is a less operative word than “died off” for these folks, since their major work was in the 30’s-50’s (with some of them lasting into the TV era of the 60’s and later) but the old B Western stars who never did much other than those Republic and RKO Radio (and the like) B&W horse operas that I used to watch every Saturday afternoon are worthy for a little recognition. To recall a few of them for the sake of scratching somebody else’s memories, how about:
Johnny Mack Brown
Allan “Rocky” Lane
Whip Wilson
Lash LaRue
Charles Starrett
Al “Fuzzy” St. John
“Wild Bill” Elliott
Smiley Burnett
Sunset Carson
Jimmy Wakely
Not to mention some of the supporting cast types like:
Lane Bradford
Roy Barcroft
I. Sanford Jolly
Even with reruns on channels that still manage to show some of those oldies, it’s hard to imagine many youngsters have any idea about these old guys.
That, of course, was one of the many creations of comic genius Ernie Kovacs, someone else who’s been forgotten.
Petite, effervescent Thirties blonde Miriam Hopkins. Aficionados may remember her as Fredric March & Gary Cooper’s love interest in 1933’s Design for Living.
Big-eyed, wholesomely sexy Seventies heroine Marilyn Hassett. Best known for playing paraplegic skier Jill Kinmont, she drew on 5 months she had spent paralyzed after being stepped on by an elephant!
I still don’t know whatever became of Bermuda Schwartz and Twinkle Watts, but I found a little more info.
Bermuda Schwartz starred in a movie from 1968 called Head Lady.
Twinkle Watts worked for Republic Studios starring in the 1944 movie Lake Placid Serenade, and she also starred in a film called California Joe, where she was billed as “Twinkle, a Girl of the Old West”.
I also wonder whatever became of:
Joy Bang
Beverly Hills
Cash Flagg
Fuzzy St. John
I believe that’s a pseudonym of Ray Dennis Steckler’s. He made a raft of B-movies and last I heard was in Vegas, still turning out slasher material when he can and being creepy as a sideline.
Not by me! He still shows up on BRAVO occasionally. I was lucky enough to discover Ernie through reruns on the local UHF independant channel back in the 70’s. Excellent. Just Excellent.
Whatever happened to Brother Theodore?
I remember Joy Bang from Woody Allen’s Play it Again Sam. According to the IMDB, she had a 5-year career:
I remember seeing something about her in one of those odd Hollywood books (maybe one of Michael Medved’s), but I can’t recall anything beyiond their suspicion that she got the part in PIAS because of her name (she plays one of Allen’s character’s abortive dates). Not even the IMDB seems to know what became of her.
Spoke too soon – the Bio on the IMDB noted that she was working as a nurse in Minnesota in 2001.
I suppose it’s reasonable for people to not know about character actors in old movies, but there are plenty of major stars whose names are only known to film buffs. Eve could list hundreds, but I’ll mention these:
Irene Dunne
Audie Murphy
Eleanor Powell
George Arliss
Richard Barthelmess
Bessie Love
Bebe Daniels
Hugh Herbert (often parodied in Looney Tunes)
Melvyn Douglas
Dennis Wolfberg: Gone but most definitely not forgotten. Back when Mr. S and I were both working the night shift, a local radio station had a “comedy hour” on Sunday nights that featured stand-up comedians doing their act, and sometimes interviews with them as well. Mr. S listened at work, and I listened in the car on my way in. Anyway, they played a show on Dennis Wolfberg three weeks in a row, and we were overjoyed. Fantastic stuff. I was ecstatic to come across a taped Wolfberg show on one of my VHS tapes that I thought I’d lost. His bits on teaching school and getting a colonoscopy were hi-larious. What delivery! He could give new life to old, old jokes by his, er, diction alone:
“Ben Dover, and his sister, Ei-LEEEEEEEN Dover! The DOVER twins, ladies and gentlemen!!”
What a loss.
I loved Wolfberg’s routine about a briss: " . . . and then they have a party! This is why Jewish men aren’t known for being party animals."
Care to explain?
More forgotten entertainers:
King of the movie serial villians:
George Zucor
Lionel Atwill
Charles Middleton
Is Les Brown still around? If he is he may be the last big band era band leader still alive.
He’s the guy parodied, for instance, in the cartoon of “The Courtship of Miles Standish”. It’s obvious that he’s supposed to be somebody, but, like most Baby Boomers, I’ve never seen Herbert himself in anything, so I only know him from the cartoons. He’s in some other Warner Bothers cartoons, too.
Priscilla in that cartoon is a caricature of Edna Mae Olliver, who I’ve also never seen in any movies (although I’ve seen stills of her)
Hugh Herbert:
He worked for Warneer Brothers – no wonder he ended up parodied in their cartoons.
Edna May Olliver:
“The Hardship of Miles Standish”: