Pawsome Pet Pictures: Lauren Bacall.

Personal Quote: (upon receiving her Honorary Oscar) A man at last!

Young Man with a Horn (1950).

Young Man with a Horn (1950). Drama. Based on a biographical novel of the same name about the life of Bix Beiderbecke. Cast: Doris Day, Kirk Douglas, and Lauren Bacall.

The story begins, Musician Smoke Willoughby thinks back to when he first meet his friend legendary trumpet player Rick Martin. After his mother dies, Rick moves in with his sister in California. Rick sees a trumpet in a pawn shop window and gets a job in a bowling alley to pay for it. Next to the bowling alley is a Jazz club, where Rick hears jazz for the first time.

He quickly makes friends with the trumpet player Art Hazzard, who teaches his young friend how to play the trumpet. As Rick gets older, he finds odd jobs playing for carnivals and dance marathons. Rick decides to follow Art to New York and gets a job playing trumpet for big band leader Jack Chandler where he meets Smoke and singer Jo.

Chandler insists that Rick play the music exactly as written. Chandler fires Rick after he plays a jazzy number. Despite Jo's efforts, Rick refuses to go back when Chandler offers to rehire him. Rick learns that his friend Art has been sick and he returns to New York. Jo gets him a job with another orchestra.

Some evenings Rick goes over to help out Art at Louis Galba's nightclub. Jo brings her friend Amy to hear Rick play. Amy, who is studying to be a psychiatrist, blames her father for her mother's death and believes that she is not capable of love. They fall in love and are married, soon after Rick and Amy start to have problems because of his dedication to music. Will Rick be torn away from playing the trumpet to save his marriage?

For anyone who loves jazz, this is a wonderful movie. The soundtrack to this movie is awesome.(trumpet played by Harry James). Kirk Douglas is perfect for Rick's character. Lauren Bacall performance as a manipulative heiress was perfect.

Fun Facts:

Kirk Douglas's trumpet licks were performed by Harry James.

 The Columbia 10-inch studio LP featuring Doris Day and Harry James hit the top spot on "Billboard"'s popular albums chart.

Doris Day wrote that she was unhappy making this film, which brought back stressful memories of her early career as a band singer, and also because Kirk Douglas and Lauren Bacall (having dated at one time in real life) seemed to intentionally shut her out, making her feel unwelcome.

At least three times, you will see trumpeters in the movie using mutes different from those on the sound track. For example, in the Christmas Eve scene, Rick is shown using a Harmon mute and Harry James' dub of the tune is with a cup mute.

Features one of the earliest references to homosexuality. The character of Amy played by Lauren Bacall is suppose to be a lesbian, which is why Rick, played by Kirk Douglas, walks out on her telling her that she is "a very sick girl".

Mary Beth Hughes (November 13, 1919 – August 27, 1995)  While acting in a school play in the early 1930s, her performance caught the attention of Clifford Brown, a repertory theater company owner, who offered her a part in a touring production of Alice in Wonderland.

 While touring with another production in Brown's company, she was offered a contract from a talent scout with Gaumont-British Studios but declined the offer to finish high school. After graduating from high school in 1937, she returned to Brown's theater company, where she continued to appear in various stage productions until the summer of 1938, when she relocated to Los Angeles with her mother to pursue a film career.

 After six months of failing to land movie roles, Hughes and her mother made plans to return to Washington, D.C., until Hughes met an agent, Wally Ross. Ross introduced Hughes to powerful William Morris agent Johnny Hyde. Hyde landed Hughes a contract with MGM, and she soon landed a small, uncredited role in the 1939 film Broadway Serenade.

 After Broadway Serenade, Hughes appeared in other bit parts in films including The Women with Norma Shearer, Dancing Co-Ed with Lana Turner, and the Busby Berkeley film Fast and Furious. In 1940 Hughes was offered a contract with 20th Century-Fox.

Later that year she landed a role opposite John Barrymore in The Great Profile, a part she later noted as one of her favorites. Fox did not renew her contract when it expired in 1943, and the following year she began appearing in a nightclub act and soon signed a three-picture deal with Universal Pictures.

Throughout the mid-40s and early '50s, Hughes appeared in film and television roles, including the cult classic I Accuse My Parents (which was later parodied on Mystery Science Theater 3000), Waterfront at Midnight, Wanted: Dead or Alive (episode "Secret Ballot"),The Devil's Henchman, The Abbott and Costello Show, Dragnet and Studio One.

 In 1961, Hughes decided to retire from acting and began working as a receptionist in a plastic surgeon's office, although she continued her appearances in nightclubs. The following year she directed and starred in a Los Angeles production of Pajama Top.

For the rest of the '60s she would go on to appear in television shows like Rawhide and Dennis the Menace. In 1970 she landed a regular role on The Red Skelton Show, appearing in 11 episodes before the show ended later that year.

 In 1976 she again retired from show business, explaining that she was "tired of auditioning for sexy grandma roles."Hughes' last onscreen appearance was in the 1976 film Tanya. In the late 1970s Hughes opened a beauty parlor in Canoga Park, California. She closed the shop in the late 1980s and began working as a telemarketer until 1991, when she was laid off.

 As a starlet under contract with MGM, Hughes went on studio-appointed dates with several actors, including Lew Ayres, Franchot Tone, Mickey Rooney, and James Stewart. While under contract to Fox, she also went on prearranged dates with Milton Berle and George Montgomery.

 In 1940, against Fox's wishes, Hughes began a relationship with actor Robert Stack. The romance lasted a year. After her romance with Stack ended, Hughes married actor Ted North in 1943. The couple had one son, Donald, before divorcing in 1947. In 1948, she married singer/actor David Street. The marriage ended in 1956. In 1973 Hughes married her manager, Nicky Stewart, but that marriage also ended in divorce four years later.

Pawsome Pet Pictures: Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart.

Personal Quote: "I put my career in second place throughout both my marriages and it suffered. I don't regret it. You make choices. If you want a good marriage, you must pay attention to that. If you want to be independent, go ahead. You can't have it all".

How to Marry a Millionaire (1953).

How to Marry a Millionaire (1953). Romantic/comedy. Director: Jean Negulesco. Produced and written by Nunnally Johnson. Music by Alfred Newman. Cinematography: Joseph MacDonald. Costumes: Travilla. Cast: Lauren Bacall, Marilyn Monroe, Betty Grable, William Powell, David Wayne, Rory Calhoun, Cameron Mitchell, Alexander D'Arcy, and Fred Clark.

The story begins when, high fashion model Schatze Page, leases a luxury New York City apartment owned by Freddie Denmark, a businessman "on the lam" from the Internal Revenue Service. She quickly calls her friend calls, Pola Debevoise, to tell her that they rented the apartment.

Pola, arrives and convinces Schatze to also invite her friend Loco Dempsey, to come live with them. Loco Instructed to bring lunch, arrives with several bags of groceries and Tom Brookman, who paid for her food. Schatze, immediately kicks him out (not knowing that he is rich), tells the girls" that a man met at the cold cuts counter is not the kind of man they want to get hooked up with." Over hot dogs and champagne, Schatze tells Loco that she and Pola have taken the apartment in order to find rich husbands and that after divorcing a "gas pump jockey," she now wants to live in luxury. Thinking Schatze's scheme is the smartest thing they ever heard, Loco and Pola agree.

After three months, none of the girls have become engaged and Schatze has to sell the furniture to pay the rent.

One afternoon, Loco comes home with another gentleman helping her with her boxes. J. D. invites the women to a reception that night, where the girls meet promising looking men. Afterward, the women accompany their dates to a fancy restaurant. Pola is escorted by J. Stewart Merrill, "Arab" who brags about his money, while Loco is accompanied by Waldo Brewster, a rich businessman who complains about his wife. Now all the girls have to do is use all their talents to trap and marry 3 millionaires.

 

Marilyn, Betty Grable and Lauren Bacall all make wonderful gold-diggers, that you cant help but love. In this movie with all it's cute twists and turns, which make it worth watching, on a Sunday afternoon.

FUN FACTS: This film was the final box-office success in Betty Grable's 26 year movie career. Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroe, then on her way to major stardom, became friends during filming with Betty Grable, who said to her "Honey, I've have mine. Go get yours."

When Lauren Bacall's character, Schatze, says, "I've always liked older men... Look at that old fellow what's-his-name in The African Queen. Absolutely crazy about him." She is referring to Bacall's real-life husband, Humphrey Bogart.

When Betty Grable listens to her then-husband Harry James on the radio in Maine, the song playing is "You'll Never Know," which then becomes the love theme for Miss Grable and Rory Calhoun. The Oscar-winning song of 1943 (music by Harry Warren, lyrics by Mack Gordon) had been sung by Alice Faye in two musicals, Hello Frisco, Hello and Four Jills in a Jeep, and then sung by Betty Grable in Diamond Horseshoe, and also sung by Ginger Rogers in Dreamboat.

Before becoming a major Hollywood success, Lauren Bacall worked as a model for several years of her teenage life while auditioning for roles on Broadway. The modeling she did is exactly like that of her character Ms. Paige, showing pieces for clients.

In one scene the three women are talking to each other about who they would like to marry. Marilyn Monroe's character says she wouldn't mind marring Mr. Cadillac. Lauren Bacall's character replies "No such person, I checked". There was a Mr. Cadillac. He was the French governor of Canada (founded the city of Detroit and in 1710 was named the governor of Louisiana). The Cadillac was named for him and his surname lives on in the form of his descendants.

Signed to Twentieth Century-Fox since October 35, 1939, Betty Grable informed the studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck during production that she would not commit to the remaining three years of her latest contract. On June 3, 1953, a studio press release announced the official split. Returning only once to Fox, Betty would star in How to Be Very, Very Popular, a vehicle in which Marilyn refused to appear and was replaced by Sheree North. Two unfulfilled proposals to have Miss Grable film again at Fox were the mother role (subsequently played by Ginger Rogers) in Teenage Rebel and then in 1964, another mom part in a project ultimately canceled named "High Heels."

This film's plot is similar to The Greeks Had a Word for Them, in which 15-year-old Betty Grable showed up briefly as a hatcheck girl, and also to Moon Over Miami, one of Miss Grable's most popular Technicolor vehicles.

The on-screen orchestra at the beginning plays music that was composed by Alfred Newman for the 1931 film Street Scene. The music was also used in 20th Century-Fox's I Wake Up Screaming, also with Betty Grable, and in Gentleman's Agreement.

While Betty Grable received top billing as the credits rolled -- a contractual promise made to her by Twentieth Century-Fox -- Marilyn Monroe was promoted to first place in the trailer and poster art.

David Wayne (January 30, 1914 – February 9, 1995) was an American actor with a career spanning nearly 50 years. Wayne's first major Broadway role was Og the leprechaun in Finian's Rainbow, for which he won the Theatre World Award and the first ever Tony for Best Featured Actor in a Musical.

While appearing in the play, he and co-star Albert Sharpe were recruited by producer David O. Selznick to play Irish characters in the film Portrait of Jennie (1948).

 It was in 1948 as well that Wayne became one of those fortunate 50 applicants (out of approximately 700) granted membership in New York's newly formed Actors Studio. He was awarded a second Tony for Best Actor in a Play for The Teahouse of the August Moon and was nominated as Best Actor in a Musical for The Happy Time. He originated the role of Ensign Pulver in the classic stage comedy Mister Roberts and also appeared in Say, Darling, After the Fall, and Incident at Vichy.

Later career In films, Wayne most often was cast as a supporting player, such as the charming cad opposite Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in Adam's Rib (1949). He portrayed the child killer, originally played by Peter Lorre, in the remake of M (1951), a chance to see him in a rare leading role, even rarer as an evil character.

 He costarred in The Tender Trap (1955) with Frank Sinatra, Debbie Reynolds, and Celeste Holm. Wayne also appeared in four films with Marilyn Monroe (more than any other actor): As Young as You Feel (1951), We're Not Married (1952), O. Henry's Full House (1952) (although he was not in the same scene as Monroe), and How to Marry a Millionaire (1953).

Wayne appeared in the late 1950s on ABC's The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom and the Twilight Zone episode Escape Clause. He starred as Darius Woodley in two 1961 episodes of NBC's The Outlaws television series with Barton MacLane. Wayne was also noted for his portrayal of Dr. Charles Dutton in the 1971 film version of Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain.

He also played the Mad Hatter, one of the recurring villains in the 1960s TV series Batman. In 1964, he guest-starred in the series finale, "Pay Now, Die Later", of CBS's drama, Mr. Broadway, starring Craig Stevens as public relations specialist Mike Bell. In the story line, Wayne's character, the wealthy John Zeck, hires Bell to prepare Zeck's obituary before his death.

1951 In the 1960s, Wayne was a radio host on NBC's magazine program Monitor. Wayne appeared as Uncle Timothy Jamison in the NBC sitcom, The Brian Keith Show. He co-starred with Jim Hutton in the 1970s television series Ellery Queen (as Queen's widowed father).

 From 1978 to 1979, Wayne played Digger Barnes on the CBS hit drama Dallas. He left that show to star in the television series House Calls with Lynn Redgrave and later Sharon Gless in the role of Dr. Weatherby, Keenan Wynn replaced him as Digger Barnes. He played "Big Daddy"—Blanche's father on The Golden Girls—after the death in 1986 of Murray Hamilton, the first actor to play that part.

 In 1975, Wayne starred on Gunsmoke in the episode "I have Promises to Keep" as a controversial reverend who brought a church to Indian territory with ambitions of a school. The episode addresses many emotions of the post Civil War period where the horrors of the Indian wars were fresh. Met with a vengeful townspeople the reverend is confronted by an unsupportive town. While coming back from delivering a prisoner in a nearby town, US Deputy Marshal Festus Hagen (played by Ken Curtis) gets involved and defends the reverend's mission. Wayne is in a lead role in this episode, considered one of his best performances.

To Have and Have Not (1944).

To Have and Have Not (1944). Hot Romance/war/adventure film. Directed by Howard Hawks. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Walter Brennan and Lauren Bacall in her first film at the age of 19. Based on the novel of the same name by Ernest Hemingway.

Howard Hughes sold the book rights to director Howard Hawks, who sold them to Warner Bros. William Faulkner, helped with the script. Hawks' wife "Slim" (whose nickname would be used for Bacall's character, Marie) noticed Bacall on the cover of Harper's Bazaar and showed the photo to her husband, who then signed her for the role.

After filming began, a romance developed between Bacall and Humphrey Bogart, despite the disapproval of Hawks. This romance ended of Bogart's marriage to Mayo Methot, his third wife and to Bacall and Bogart getting married. The onscreen chemistry between the two would continue in the classic films: The Big Sleep, Dark Passage and Key Largo.

Although Hawks had a high regard for Hemingway's writing, said, To Have and Have Not, was a "bunch of junk," so Hawks and Hemingway worked on the story together. The film uses the book's title and the names and characteristics of some of the characters.

The setting was moved from Cuba to Martinique, because of the Roosevelt administration, whose "good neighbor" policy did not to want to show Cuba in a bad light. This change, of the plot made the film similar to the film, Casablanca.

Other changes from the book, was introducing the piano player (Hoagy Carmichael), who had not appeared in the Hemingway book but was in the film, Casablanca.



Several cast members from Casablanca, also appear in the film such as, Dan Seymour, who plays the French/Vichy official Renard - a similar name and position to Casablanca's Capt. Renault. The plotline of Bogart's character helping husband-and-wife resistance fighters was also similar to Casablanca.

Hawks, recognizing the star-making potential of the film for Bacall, emphasized her role, downplaying Dolores Moran's, role the film's other female lead.

 

The story begins, shortly after the war in Martinique, an American named Johnson hires professional fisherman Harry Morgan, to take him deep sea fishing on his charter boat. Johnson, complains about everything including the cost of the expedition and the other passengers Eddie, a drunk and native Horatio.

During the trip Johnson, carelessly loses a rod and reel belonging to Harry. Harry, who has had enough of him, cancels the rest of the trip and wants Johnson pay him for his lost equipment. Johnson, says he will pay what he owes, after the banks open the next morning.

Back in Fort de France, bartender Frenchy asks Harry, to rent him his boat to smuggle in an important underground leader, but.. Harry does not want to become involved in any political activities.

Later, in the hotel bar, Harry witnesses Marie Browning pick Johnson's pocket and follows her to her room to demand that she return Johnson's wallet. In the wallet Harry, finds enough traveler's checks to pay his fees and also that Johnson, was planning to leave before the banks open.

 

After Marie, whom Harry has nick named Slim, returns the wallet to Johnson, Harry wants him to sign off some of the checks, but... instead Johnson is shot and killed. The police detain everyone at the bar for questioning, slowing down their plans.

Later that night, Harry needing money and wanting to help Marie return to America, he agrees to pick up Frenchy's friends and buys Marie a ticket on the first plane leaving that afternoon for the United States.

After picking up Helene and Paul De Bursac, Harry is seen by a patrol boat and Paul, is wounded before they escape. Harry, is surprised to find that Marie, did not leave on the plane. Harry removes the bullet from De Bursac's shoulder and learns that the De Bursacs, are supposed to help a man escape from Devil's Island. De Bursac asks for his help, but... will Harry risk his life to help someone he does not know?

The is a wonderful adventure film, where sparks fly between Bogart and Lauren Bacall, who is amazingly cool and smooth at the age of 19... Lauren Bacall, has become one of our favorite classic movie stars of the 1940s.

More Fun Facts:

The most famous scene in To Have and Have Not is undoubtedly the "you know how to whistle" dialog sequence. It was not written by Ernest Hemingway, Jules Furthman or William Faulkner, but by Howard Hawks. Hawks wrote the scene as a screen test for Bacall, with no real intention that it would necessarily end up in the film. The test was shot with Warner Bros. contract player John Ridgely acting opposite Bacall. The Warners staff, of course, agreed to star Bacall in the film based on the test, and Hawks thought the scene was so strong he asked Faulkner to work it into one of his later drafts of the shooting script.

At the funeral for her husband, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall put a whistle in his coffin. It was a reference to the famous line she says to him in their first film together To Have and Have Not: "You know how to whistle, don't you? You just put your lips together and blow.".

When Howard Hawks discovered Lauren Bacall, he gave her the choice to work with either Cary Grant or Humphrey Bogart. She was very tempted to work with Grant, but Hawks ended up casting her with Bogart in To Have and Have Not, and one of Hollywood's greatest romances was started.

"To Have or Have Not" was remade as "The Breaking Point" with John Garfield and "The Gun Runners" with Audie Murphy…

Dolores Moran (January 27, 1924 – February 5, 1982), brief career as a film actress began in 1942 with a uncredited role in, Yankee Doodle Dandy.

By 1943 she had become a popular pin-up girl and appeared on the cover of such magazines as Yank. She was given supporting roles in films: Old Acquaintance (1943) with Bette Davis and Warner Bros. attempted to increase interest in her, promoting her along with Lauren Bacall as a new screen personality when they co-starred with Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not (1944). The film made a star of Bacall, but Moran languished and her subsequent films did little to further her career, this probably had something to do with Howard Hawk's decision to marginalise Moran in order to boost the screen presence of Bacall, excising some of Moran's scenes.

The Horn Blows at Midnight, gave her a leading role with Jack Benny and Alexis Smith but her film appearances after this were sporadic, and she suffered ill health that reduced her ability to work.

Her film career ended in 1954 with a featured role in the western film, Silver Lode. She was married to the film producer Benedict E. Bogeaus in Salome, Arizona, in 1946. They divorced in 1962. Moran had an affair with director Howard Hawks while filming, To Have and Have Not, which Hawks undertook mainly as revenge for his rejection by Bacall in favour of Bogart.

Pawsome Pet Pictures: Lauren Bacall.

Personal Quote: (On imagination) Imagination is the highest kite that can fly.

Sex and the Single Girl(1964).

Sex and the Single Girl(1964). Comedy directed by Richard Quine. Cast: Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood, Henry Fonda, Lauren Bacall and Mel Ferrer. The film was inspired by the title of the 1962 non-fiction book Sex and the Single Girl by Helen Gurley Brown.

Bob Weston, editor of a scandal magazine writes an eye opening article about research psychologist, Helen Gurley Brown, who wrote the book, Sex and the Single Girl. Wanting to meet her, Bob impersonates one of his neighbors and goes to Helen for marriage counseling.

Eventually, Bob suggests to Helen that they start dating, to get her attention he threatens to drown himself. When she arrives she accidentally causes them to fall into the water. They go to Helen's apartment to dry off and while Bob mixes martinis, Helen tells him, that she is in love with him and he fesses up that he is not really married.

Helen doesn't believe him and asks to see his wife, Sylvia. The next day, Bob sends both his secretary, Susan, and his former girl friend, Gretchen, to Helen to convince Helen that he really is single.

Helen calls the real Sylvia and the three women all show up for the appointment. How will this romantic entanglement get resolved?

Natalie Wood, was a lot of fun to watch in a comedy about the battle of the sexes. When Tony Curtis talks about Jack Lemmon (Curtis' co-star in Some Like It Hot) will make anyone smile, who has seen the classic film.

Fran Jeffries (born May 18, 1937), had a cameo in the 1963 film, The Pink Panther, in which she sang a song called, It Had Better Be Tonight," while she danced provocatively around a fireplace. She had a minor role in, Sex and the Single Girl. She sang on, The Tom Jones Show in 1969 doing a duet of, You've Got What it Takes. She was featured in Playboy Magazine a couple years later, in 1971 at the age of 35, in a pictorial entitled "Frantastic!". Ten years later she posed a second time for Playboy at the age of 45. This second pictorial was titled "Still Frantastic!". Photos reveal that, at some point in her career, she perform onstage with Bob Hope.