#The Marge and Gower Champion Show

[dorawinifredread]

[arbitrarygreay]

Fred and Gene each had a lot of different screen partners, but this has that sublime sync you can find from the best ice dancers with dedicated partners. Being married for 8 years by this point probably helps.

(Marge and Gower Champion's "Someone to Watch Over Me" scene from the 1955 movie "Three For The Show", choreographed by Jack Cole)

[lascenizas]

The Last Movie I Watched...

Show Boat (1951, Dir.: George Sidney)

[ulrichgebert]

Sinnvolle Maßnahme mit einmal mehr coronaverklebtem Hirn: Einfach den alten Fluss dahinfließen lassen. Und dahinfließen. Macht er sowieso. Und die Handlung ist eh nicht so wichtig. Diesmal wieder in Technicolor.

[elvisvideos]

Elvis meets with clowns Marge and Gower Champion at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas. Elvis attended their clown show. October 23, 1957

[project1939]

200 Films of 1952

Film number 195: Everything I Have is Yours

Release date: Oct 29th, 1952 

Studio: MGM 

Genre: musical 

Director: Robert Z. Leonard 

Producer: George Wells 

Actors: Gower Champion, Marge Champion, Dennis O’Keefe 

Plot Summary: Chuck and Pam Hubbard are just about to open in their debut Broadway show. The first night is a huge success, but when Pam faints after the performance, they discover she is pregnant. Chuck is adamant that Pam give up the stage permanently to be a full-time wife and mother, but Pam isn’t so sure that’s what she wants.  

My Rating (out of five stars): ***¼  

When I watched Lovely to Look At (film number 100), I was completely captivated by the Champions, and I remember writing that I wished they were the stars of that movie, not Grayson and Keel. Well, I recently found out they were the stars of a 1952 musical, and I was thrilled! I can’t be super objective about this film, because Marge and Gower are so freaking adorable I want to eat them up like a brightly colored two scoop ice cream cone! If I take my love goggles off, though, I’d say this is a somewhat middle of the road MGM musical. It's definitely not bad, but it isn't a classic either. Marge and Gower Champion are what make it worth watching, although there are a few other interesting elements too. (minor spoilers)

The Good: 

Marge and Gower Champion. Being an actual married couple, their chemistry seeps right through the screen and wraps itself around you. They dance together beautifully, both in softer ballet numbers and high energy athletic tap and swing routines. Their acting is well above par too. They are also just insanely cute, individually and together. I love them! 

The dancing! I loved all their dance numbers, especially the lively vigorous ones.  

I appreciated the way the film broached the subject of being a wife and mother while having a career. Pam was presented as totally justified for wanting to return to the stage. She wasn’t demeaned or judged because of it, and unlike Somebody Loves Me (film number 136) giving up her career wasn’t the noble thing she absolutely had to do. 

I loved the character of Alec Tacksbury, the producer. What he ended up doing, and where the plot took him, was refreshingly unexpected. By the end of the film, I was a little bit in love with him. 

The portrayals of the daughter (unfortunately named Pam Jr.!) were really good. When she was an infant, there were many scenes where a real live baby was used- it was clearly not a prop doll. Then, when she grew to be about three or four, the little actress who played her (Mimi Gibson) was incredible. She spoke so well for her age, and her acting was also surprisingly good. 

The musical numbers were filmed quite well, with some nice sweeping shots, good movement, and effective framing. The film as a whole was also visually pleasing. 

The Technicolor! Of course, of course, I loved it, and it looked MGM perfect as always. 

Some of the musical numbers that were supposed to be on a theater stage actually looked somewhat possible for once! 

I really cared about the characters. 

The added meaning of Everything I Have is Yours, and the way it became a big plot point, was a charming surprise. 

The Bad: 

I wished there were more musical numbers in the middle section of the movie. Most came at the beginning or toward the end. 

There was one very impossible “theater stage” musical number. In no planet would it have either worked on stage or have fit on one! 

I enjoyed most of the songs, but they weren’t especially memorable. (Except for the one about counting 17,000 poles!) 

There were some disturbingly racist dolls in a scene where Chuck was giving his young daughter a mountain of toys for Christmas. One of them was a Mammy-type rag doll, and another one was a fuzzy white monkey with a black face, feet and hands. The face looked more monkey than human, but it was still an “ick” moment for me. Especially juxtaposed with a sweet family Christmas scene. Of a rich white family. Of course.

[kwebtv]

The Marge & Gower Champion Show  -  CBS  - March 31, 1957 - June 9, 1957

Sitcom / Music (11 episodes)

Running Time:  30 minutes

Stars:

Marge Champion as herself

Gower Champion as himself

Alex Gerry

Buddy Rich as Cozy

Jack Whiting as Marge’s Father

Peg La Centra as Amanda

Barbara Perry as Miss Weatherly

[lifes-commotion]

RIP Marjorie Celeste Belcher Champion (2 September 1919 – 21 October 2020).  Marge was an actress and dancer known for her roles in Jupiter’s Darling, Show Boat, Lovely to Look At, and Give a Girl a Break.  She was hired by The Walt Disney Studio as a dance model for their animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and she performed on the stage.  Marjorie didn’t dance solo, as she was married to her partner, Gower Champion, from 1947 to 1973 and they had 2 sons.   

[byneddiedingo]

Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire in Roberta (William A. Seiter, 1935) Cast: Irene Dunne, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Randolph Scott, Helen Westley, Claire Dodd, Victor Varconi, Luis Alberni, Ferdinand Munier, Torben Meyer, Adrian Rosley, Bodil Rosing. Screenplay: Jane Murfin, Sam Mintz, Allan Scott, Glenn Tryon, based on a play by Otto A. Harbach and a novel by Alice Duer Miller. Cinematography: Edward Cronjager. Art direction: Van Nest Polglase, Carroll Clark. Film editing: William Hamilton. Music: Jerome Kern, Max Steiner. If Roberta is less well-known than most of the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers movies, it's partly because it was out of circulation for a long time after 1945, when MGM bought up the rights to the film and the Broadway musical on which it was based, planning to remake it in Technicolor as a vehicle for Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra. That plan fell through, and the actual remake, Lovely to Look At (Mervyn LeRoy, 1952) with Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel, Red Skelton, and Marge and Gower Champion, is nothing special. But MGM's hold on the property meant that, unlike the other Astaire-Rogers films, it didn't show up on television until the 1970s. But it was also a kind of throwback to the first of their movies, Flying Down to Rio (Thornton Freeland, 1933), in that they weren't the top-billed stars of Roberta, and their plot is secondary to that of the star, Irene Dunne, and her leading man, Randolph Scott. It doesn't matter much: What we remember from the film are the great Astaire-Rogers dance numbers, "I'll Be Hard to Handle," "I Won't Dance," and the reprises of "Lovely to Look At" and "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes." Scott's inability to sing resulted in the big number for his character in the Broadway version, "You're Devastating," being cut from the song score of the movie. "I Won't Dance" was brought in from another Jerome Kern musical, and Kern and Jimmy McHugh composed that fashion-show/beauty-pageant classic "Lovely to Look At," with lyrics by Dorothy Fields, for the film, earning Roberta its only Oscar nomination. Except when Astaire and Rogers are doing their magic, the film is a little draggy, and Dunne and Scott strike no sparks. Look for a blond Lucille Ball, draped in a feathery wrap, as one of the models in the fashion show.

[archive-archives]

SIX BY SONDHEIM (2013) Run Time             86:00 Subtitles               English SDH Audio Specs        DTS HD-Master Audio 5.1 - English Aspect Ratio       1.78:1; 16 X 9 Widescreen Product Color    COLOR Disc Configuration           BD 25

From award-winning director and frequent Sondheim collaborator James Lapine, Six by Sondheim is an intimate and candid look at the life and art of legendary composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim, who redefined musical theater through such works as Company, Sweeney Todd and Sunday in the Park with George. Told primarily in Sondheim’s own words from dozens of interviews spanning decades, the film is a highly personal profile of a great American artist as revealed through the creation and performance of six of his songs. It features rarely seen archival performance footage and original staged productions – created exclusively for this film – with stars including Audra McDonald, Darren Criss, America Ferrera and more.

HARLEY QUINN: THE COMPLETE FIRST AND SECOND SEASONS (2019,2020) Run Time             594:00 Subtitles               English SDH Audio Specs        DTS HD-Master Audio 5.1 - English Aspect Ratio       1.78:1, 16 X 9 Widescreen Disc Configuration           2 BD 50

Harley Quinn (Kaley Cuoco) has finally broken things off once and for all with the Joker (Alan Tudyk) and attempts to make it on her own as the criminal Queenpin of Gotham City in this half-hour adult animated action-comedy series. With the help of Poison Ivy (Lake Bell) and a ragtag crew of DC castoffs, Harley tries to earn a seat at the biggest table in villainy: the Legion of Doom. Don’t worry – she’s got this. Or does she? In Season 2, Harley has defeated the Joker, and Gotham City is hers for the taking…what’s left of it, that is. Her celebration in the newly created chaos is cut short when Penguin, Bane, Mr. Freeze, The Riddler and Two-Face join forces to restore order in the criminal underworld. Calling themselves the Injustice League, they’re intent on keeping Harley and her crew from taking control as the top villains in Gotham.

NEW 2021 1080p HD master! PUMP UP THE VOLUME (1990) Run Time             102:00 Subtitles               English SDH Audio Specs        DTS HD-Master Audio 5.1 - English Aspect Ratio       1.85:1, 16 X 9 Letterbox Product Color    COLOR Disc Configuration           BD 50 Includes Original Theatrical Trailer (HD)

By day, Mark Hunter (Christian Slater) is a painfully shy new kid in a small Arizona town. But by night, he’s Hard Harry, the cynical, uncensored DJ of a pirate radio station. Idolized by his high school classmates (who are unaware of his real identity), Harry becomes a hero with his fiercely funny monologues on sex, love, and rock and roll. But when he exposes the corrupt school principal, she calls in the FCC to shut Harry down. An outrageous rebel with a cause, Slater gives a brilliant performance as the reluctant hero who inspires his classmates to find their own voices of rebellion and individuality. A movie with a message, Pump Up the Volume is a raw and witty celebration of free speech that will make you laugh, make you cheer and make you think.

NEW 2020 1080p HD master! A TALE OF TWO CITIES (1935) Run Time             126:00 Subtitles               English SDH Audio Specs        DTS HD-Master Audio 2.0 - English, MONO - English Aspect Ratio       1.37:1 Disc Configuration           BD 50

Special Features: Audioscopiks (MGM short); 2 Classic Cartoons 'Hey, Hey Fever' and 'Honeyland'; Radio adaptation with Ronald Colman; Trailer

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” Charles Dickens’ tale of love and tumult during the French Revolution comes to the screen in a sumptuous film version by the producer famed for nurturing sprawling literary works: David O. Selznick (David Copperfield, Anna Karenina, Gone with the Wind). Ronald Colman (The Prisoner of Zenda) stars as Sydney Carton – sardonic, dissolute, a wastrel…and destined to redeem himself in an act of courageous sacrifice. “It's a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done,” Carton muses at that defining moment. This is far, far better filmmaking too: a Golden Era marvel of uncanny performances top to bottom, eye-filling crowd scenes (the storming of the Bastille, thronged courtrooms, an eerie festival of public execution) and lasting emotional power. Revolution is in the air!

NEW 2021 1080p HD master! BABY DOLL (1956) Run Time             114:00 Subtitles               English SDH Audio Specs        DTS HD-Master Audio 2.0 - English, MONO - English Aspect Ratio       1.85:1, 16 X 9 Letterbox Product Color    BLACK & WHITE Disc Configuration           BD 50

Special Features: "Baby Doll: See No Evil" vintage featurette; Original Theatrical Trailer (HD)

Times are tough for cotton miller Archie (Karl Malden), but at least he has his child bride (Carroll Baker), who’ll soon be his wife in title and truth. The one-year agreement keeping them under the same roof – yet never in the same bed – is about to end. But a game with a sly business rival (Eli Wallach) is about to begin. In Baby Doll, as in A Streetcar Named Desire, director Elia Kazan and writer Tennessee Williams broke new ground in depicting sexual situations – earning condemnation from the then-powerful Legion of Decency. They earned laurels too: four Academy Award® nominations, Golden Globe® Awards for Baker and Kazan, and a British Academy Award for Wallach. Watch this funny, steamy classic that, as Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide proclaims, “still sizzles.”

NEW 2021 1080p HD master from nitrate preservation elements! SAN FRANCISCO (1936) Run Time             115:00 Subtitles               English SDH Audio Specs        DTS HD-Master Audio 2.0 - English, MONO - English Aspect Ratio       1.37:1 Product Color    BLACK & WHITE Disc Configuration           BD 50

Special Features: Alternate Ending Sequence; "Clark Gable: Tall, Dark and Handsome" featurette with Liam Neeson; two vintage FitzPatrick Traveltalks: 'Cavalcade of San Francisoco' & 'Night Descends on Treasure Island'; Classic Cartoon 'Bottles"; Theatrical re-issue trailer (HD)

Romantic drama combines with humor, starpower combines with lavish spectacle and the walls come tumbling down! This Academy Award-winning extravaganza’s street-splitting, brick-cascading, fire-raging recreation of the cataclysmic earthquake remains "one of the greatest action sequences in the history of the cinema, rivalling the chariot race in both Ben-Hurs" (Adrian Turner, Time Out Film Guide).

Clark Gable plays rakish Barbary Coast kingpin Blackie Norton. Jeanette MacDonald portrays a singer torn by her love for Blackie and her need to succeed among the operagoing elite. Earning the first of nine career Best Actor Oscar® nominations,* Spencer Tracy is a priest who supplements spiritual advice with a mean right hook. He urges Blackie to change. But if love and religion can't reform Blackie, Mother Nature will.

NEW 2021 1080p HD master from 4K Scan of original Technicolor negatives! SHOW BOAT (1951) Run Time             108:00 Subtitles               English SDH Audio Specs        DTS HD-Master Audio 2.0 STEREO - English, DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Original Mono Theatrical track- - English Aspect Ratio       1.37:1 Product Color    COLOR Disc Configuration           BD 50

Special Features: Commentary by Director George Sidney; Till the Clouds Roll By - Show Boat (1946) Sequence; "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" and "Bill" Ava Gardner Audio-only Outtakes; Lux Radio Theater Broadcast (2/11/1952); Original Theatrical Trailer (HD)

From novel (by Edna Ferber) to Broadway smash (by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II) to three film versions (1929, 1936, 1951) to stage revivals. Like Ol’ Man River, Show Boat just keeps rollin’ along. Produced by Arthur Freed and directed by George Sidney, this 1951 version of the saga of riverboat lives and loves has glorious stars (Kathryn Grayson, Ava Gardner, Howard Keel, Marge and Gower Champion) in Technicolor® radiance, a made-from-scratch 170-foot paddle wheeler, timeless songs and an equally timeless outcry against racial bigotry. “This was music that would outlast Kern’s day and mine,” Ferber said in recalling her first reaction to hearing “Ol’ Man River.” She was right as rain.

NEW 2020 1080p HD master! MY DREAM IS YOURS (1949) Run Time             101:00 Subtitles               English SDH Audio Specs        MONO - English, DTS HD-Master Audio 2.0 - English Aspect Ratio       1.37:1 Disc Configuration           BD 50

Special Features: Vintage Joe McDoakes Comedy Short "So You Want to be An Actor"; The Grass is Always Greener short subject; Classic Cartoon 'A Ham in a Role' ; Original Theatrical Trailer (HD)

Talent agent Doug Blake (Jack Carson) is giving 100% to earn his 10%. He walks away from his arrogant singing star (Lee Bowman) and scrambles to discover another who will shine even brighter. He finds effervescent songstress Martha Gibson. Doris Day plays Martha. Think she has a chance? During the shooting of Day’s first film (Romance on the High Seas), director Michael Curtiz was sure the sparkling newcomer had much more than a chance and set the wheels in motion for My Dream Is Yours. Curtiz dots his film with authentic Hollywood locales (including the fabled Schwab’s Pharmacy). And Bugs Bunny himself hops into a dream sequence. Welcome to the Dream Factory. Make it yours.

NEW 2020 1080p HD master from 4K scan of Original Technicolor Negatives! ON MOONLIGHT BAY (1951) Run Time             95:00 Subtitles               English SDH Audio Specs        MONO - English, DTS HD-Master Audio 2.0 - English Aspect Ratio       1.37:1 Disc Configuration           BD 50

Special Features: 'Let's Sing a Song About the Moonlight' vintage short; Classic Cartoon 'A Hound for Trouble'; Original Theatrical Trailer (HD)

Not since Judy met the boy next door in St. Louis has there been a heaping of tuneful, romantic Midwestern American life like this! Doris Day and Gordon MacRae team for spoonin’, croonin’ and swoonin’ On Moonlight Bay, based on Booth Tarkington’s Penrod stories. “Try not to walk like a first baseman,” Mama (Rosemary DeCamp) tells tomboy Marjorie (Day) as she prepares to date college man Bill (MacRae). The advice takes. The lovebirds hear wedding bells ahead, just as soon as Bill gets his sheepskin. But World War I rages “over there.” And Papa (Leon Ames) rages at home after a flap with his prospective son-in-law. Will harmony return to this Hoosier home? Surely Day and MacRae will make musical harmony. And On Moonlight Bay will have you sailing along.

[timeless-hollywood-classics]

Joseph Evans Brown (July 28, 1891 – July 6, 1973) was an American actor and comedian, remembered for his amiable screen persona, comic timing, and enormous elastic-mouth smile. He was one of the most popular American comedians in the 1930s and 1940s, with films like A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), Earthworm Tractors (1936), and Alibi Ike (1935). In his later career Brown starred in Some Like It Hot (1959), as Osgood Fielding III, in which he utters the film's famous punchline "Well, nobody's perfect."

Brown was born on July 28, 1891, in Holgate, Ohio, near Toledo, into a large family of Welsh descent. He spent most of his childhood in Toledo. In 1902, at the age of ten, he joined a troupe of circus tumblers known as the Five Marvelous Ashtons, who toured the country on both the circus and vaudeville circuits. Later he became a professional baseball player. Despite his skill, he declined an opportunity to sign with the New York Yankees to pursue his career as an entertainer. After three seasons he returned to the circus, then went into vaudeville and finally starred on Broadway. He gradually added comedy to his act, and transformed himself into a comedian. He moved to Broadway in the 1920s, first appearing in the musical comedy Jim Jam Jems.

In late 1928, Brown began making films, starting the next year with Warner Brothers. He quickly became a favorite with child audiences, and shot to stardom after appearing in the first all-color all-talking musical comedy On with the Show (1929). He starred in a number of lavish Technicolor musical comedies, including Sally (1929), Hold Everything (1930), Song of the West (1930), and Going Wild (1930). By 1931, Brown had become such a star that his name was billed above the title in the films in which he appeared.

He appeared in Fireman, Save My Child (1932), a comedy in which he played a member of the St. Louis Cardinals, and in Elmer, the Great (1933) with Patricia Ellis and Claire Dodd and Alibi Ike (1935) with Olivia de Havilland, in both of which he portrayed ballplayers with the Chicago Cubs.

In 1933 he starred in Son of a Sailor with Jean Muir and Thelma Todd. In 1934, Brown starred in A Very Honorable Guy with Alice White and Robert Barrat, in The Circus Clown again with Patricia Ellis and with Dorothy Burgess, and with Maxine Doyle in Six-Day Bike Rider.

Brown was one of the few vaudeville comedians to appear in a Shakespeare film; he played Francis Flute in the Max Reinhardt/William Dieterle film version of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) and was highly praised for his performance. He starred in Polo Joe (1936) with Carol Hughes and Richard "Skeets" Gallagher, and in Sons o' Guns. In 1933 and 1936, he became one of the top 10 earners in films.

He left Warner Brothers to work for producer David L. Loew, starring in When's Your Birthday? (1937). In 1938, he starred in The Gladiator, a loose adaptation of Philip Gordon Wylie's 1930 novel Gladiator that influenced the creation of Superman. He gradually switched to making "B" pictures.

In 1939, Brown testified before the House Immigration Committee in support of a bill that would allow 20,000 German-Jewish refugee children into the U.S. He later adopted two refugee children.

At age 50 when the U.S. entered World War II, Brown was too old to enlist. Both of his biological sons served in the military during the war. In 1942, Captain Don E. Brown, was killed when his Douglas A-20 Havoc crashed near Palm Springs, California.

Even before the USO was organized, Brown spent a great deal of time traveling, at his own expense, to entertain troops in the South Pacific, including Guadalcanal, New Zealand and Australia, as well as the Caribbean and Alaska. He was the first to tour in this way and before Bob Hope made similar journeys. Brown also spent many nights working and meeting servicemen at the Hollywood Canteen. He wrote of his experiences entertaining the troops in his book Your Kids and Mine. On his return to the U.S., Brown brought sacks of letters, making sure they were delivered by the Post Office. He gave shows in all weather conditions, many in hospitals, sometimes doing his entire show for a single dying soldier. He signed autographs for everyone. For his services to morale, Brown became one of only two civilians to be awarded the Bronze Star during World War II.

His concern for the troops continued into the Korean War, as evidenced by a newsreel featuring his appeal for blood donations to aid the U.S. and UN troops there that was featured in the season 4 episode of M*A*S*H titled "Deluge".[5]

In 1948, he was awarded a Special Tony Award for his work in the touring company of Harvey.[1][6]

He had a cameo appearance in Around the World in 80 Days (1956), as the Fort Kearney stationmaster talking to Fogg (David Niven) and his entourage in a small town in Nebraska. In the similarly epic film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), he had a cameo as a union official giving a speech at a construction site in the climactic scene. On television, he was the mystery guest on What's My Line? during the episode on January 11, 1953.

His best known postwar role was that of aging millionaire Osgood Fielding III in Billy Wilder's 1959 comedy Some Like It Hot. Fielding falls for Daphne (Jerry), played by Jack Lemmon in drag; at the end of the film, Lemmon takes off his wig and reveals to Brown that he is a man, to which Brown responds "Well, nobody's perfect", one of the more celebrated punchlines in film.

Another of his notable postwar roles was that of Cap'n Andy Hawks in MGM's 1951 remake of Show Boat, a role that he reprised onstage in the 1961 New York City Center revival of the musical and on tour. Brown performed several dance routines in the film, and famed choreographer Gower Champion appeared along with first wife Marge. Brown's final film appearance was in The Comedy of Terrors (1964).

Brown was a sports enthusiast, both in film and personally. Some of his best films were the "baseball trilogy" which consisted of Fireman, Save My Child (1932), Elmer, the Great (1933) and Alibi Ike (1935). He was a television and radio broadcaster for the New York Yankees in 1953. His son Joe L. Brown became the general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates for more than 20 years. Brown spent Ty Cobb's last days with him, discussing his life.

Brown's sports enthusiasm also led to him becoming the first president of PONY Baseball and Softball (at the time named Pony League) when the organization was incorporated in 1953. He continued in the post until late 1964, when he retired. Later he traveled additional thousands of miles telling the story of PONY League, hoping to interest adults in organizing baseball programs for young people. He was a fan of thoroughbred horse racing, a regular at the racetracks in Del Mar and Santa Anita.

Brown was caricatured in the Disney cartoons Mickey's Gala Premiere (1933), Mother Goose Goes Hollywood (1938), and The Autograph Hound (1939); all contain a scene in which he is seen laughing so loud that his mouth opens extremely wide. According to the official biography Daws Butler: Characters Actor, Daws Butler used Joe E. Brown as inspiration for the voices of two Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters: Lippy the Lion (1962) and Peter Potamus (1963–1966).

He also starred in his own comic strip in the British comic Film Fun between 1933 and 1953

Brown married Kathryn Francis McGraw in 1915. The marriage lasted until his death in 1973. The couple had four children: two sons, Don Evan Brown (December 25, 1916 – October 8, 1942; Captain in the United States Army Air Force, who was killed in the crash of an A-20B Havoc bomber while serving as a ferry pilot)[8] and Joe LeRoy "Joe L." Brown (September 1, 1918 – August 15, 2010), and two daughters, Mary Katherine Ann (b. 1930) and Kathryn Francis (b. 1934). Both daughters were adopted as infants.

Joe L. Brown shared his father's love of baseball, serving as general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1955 to 1976, and briefly in 1985, also building the 1960 and 1971 World Series champions. Brown's '71 Pirates featured baseball's first all-black starting nine.

Brown began having heart problems in 1968 after suffering a severe heart attack, and underwent cardiac surgery. He died from arteriosclerosis on July 6, 1973 at his home in Brentwood, California, three weeks before his 82nd birthday. He is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

For his contributions to the film industry, Brown was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 with a motion pictures star located at 1680 Vine Street.

In 1961, Bowling Green State University renamed the theatre in which Brown appeared in Harvey in the 1950s as the Joe E. Brown Theatre. It was closed in 2011.

Holgate, Ohio, his birthplace, has a street named Joe E. Brown Avenue. Toledo, Ohio has a city park named Joe E. Brown Park at 150 West Oakland Street.

Rose Naftalin's popular 1975 cookbook includes a cookie named the Joe E. Brown.[14][15] Brown was a frequent customer of Naftalin's Toledo restaurant.

Flatrock Brewing Company in Napoleon, Ohio offers several brown ales such as Joe E. Coffee And Vanilla Bean Brown Ale, Joe E. Brown Hazelnut, Chocolate Peanut Butter Joe E. Brown, Joe E Brown Chocolate Pumpkin, and Joe E. (Brown Ale).

[dorawinifredread]

[twittercomfrnklin2001-blog]

EVERYTHING I HAVE IS YOURS

Not every MGM musical can be MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (1944) or SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN (1952). Poor Marge and Gower Champion got their first shot at starring in EVERYTYIING I HAVE IS YOURS (1952), a film that almost consistently misses the point of what made them work as a dance team. Maybe it’s because it was originally written for Red Skelton and Vera-Ellen. Anyway, they star as a married song-and-dance act whose big Broadway hit is complicated by Marge’s pregnancy. After not wanting her to jeopardize their partnership, Gower suddenly decides she’s only going to a be a wife and mother. This change of heart seems to coincide with his producer’s (Dennis O’Keefe) casting an understudy (Marcia Lewis) who keeps the show open and reunites with him for several others. When Marge finally finds a show of her own, the marriage is on the rocks. So a couple whose chief charm is their teamwork is broken up early in the script. The only memorable song is the title tune, which was written in 1933 and doesn’t even get sung by one of the stars. At least Marge gets one good solo dance routine, an impromptu number in which she changes dance styles to match hats she pulls off a coat rack. Most of their pas de deux are serviceable at best (and there’s a dream ballet that’s pretty ghastly). The only number that captures the sexual tension that makes their teamwork is their big opening-night number. It’s set in the Casbah, where the designer’s orientalism provides an excuse for a dance in which small-time crook Gower seduces prim tourist Marge, who soon becomes as sexually aggressive as he. It’s so visually distinctive, I wonder if it was the work of the film’s credited director, Robert Z. Leonard, whose chief talent seems to be in keeping the actors from bumping into the furniture and each other, or George Sidney, a musical specialist who filled in for five days.

[papermoonloveslucy]

RIP MARGE CHAMPION

1919-2020

Marjorie Celeste Champion (née Belcher) was a dancer and actress. She performed as an actress and dancer in film musicals, and in 1957 had a television show based on song and dance. She made her New York stage debut in 1943. In 2001, she appeared as Emily Whitman in the Broadway revival of Follies.  

In 1937 she was paid $10 a day to be the live action model for Snow White in the animated film. Her first husband was Disney animator Art Babbit. The marriage lasted just three years. 

In 1947 she married dancer Gower Champion. Together, they had two sons. They were even on the cover of LIFE together in 1949. They divorced in January 1973.  

She married a third time to TV and film director Boris Segal, who died after four years of marriage. 

At the 24th Annual Academy Awards in March 1952, Marge and Gower Champion were presenters...

...along with red heads Danny Kaye and Lucille Ball. George Stevens brought home the Oscar for Best Achievement in Direction for A Place in the Sun , Humphrey Bogart won Best Performance by an Actor in The African Queen, Vivien Leigh won Best Performance by an Actress for her role in A Streetcar Named Desire, and An American in Paris won Best Motion Picture.

Marge was mentioned on “I Love Lucy” in the 1956 episode “Lucy and Bob Hope” (ILL S6;E1). The song "Nobody Likes the Ump” includes a soft shoe dance break.

HOPE (aside): “If Marge sees this, Gower’s finished!” 

Champion won an Emmy in 1975 for “Queen of the Starlight Ballroom”.

In March 1985, Marge Champion, Lucille Ball, Lucie Arnaz and 98 other celebrities participated in “Night of 100 Stars II” at Radio City Music Hall. 

[geekcavepodcast]

Marge Champion Has Passed Away

Marge Champion, a dancer, stage and screen actor, and choreographer, whose film credits include Honor of the West, Mr. Music, Show Boat, Give a Girl a Break, Jupiter’s Darling, Three for the Show, The Party, The Swimmer, and Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County, has passed away. Champion was also a live model for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, and Fantasia.

Our condolences to Champion’s family, friends, and fans.

(Image Marge Champion and Gower Champion in Jupiter’s Darling via IMDB)

[jadelotusflower]

Show Boat and Kiss Me Kate, aka Grayson/Keel double feature

@myevilmouse requested Kiss Me Kate, so I thought I’d do a double feature with Show Boat, since I love an acting team.

Show Boat (George Sidney, 1951)

Music and Lyrics by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II

The mother of the modern musical and in 1927 the show was really the first to focus on plot and character in a dramatic way (as adaption from source material) in a world full of operettas, follies, and revues. In the 28 years between the first production and this film, it had already been adapted several times, with this verion’s main selling point it’s technicolor, lavish costumes and production numbers.

Kathryn Grayson (Magnolia) and Howard Keel (Ravenal) have very good chemistry and their voices are perfectly complementary.  Grayson is very much the sweet innocent young lead, and hair and makeup really did their best to make Keel look like Clark Gable - the play in which Magnolia and Ravenal perform is a non-so-sly Gone with the Wind nod.

There is such a dark undercurrent to the story - that dramatic counterbalance to the song and dance - something that became somewhat of a trademark for Hammerstein with his next writing partner Rogers. Most notably of course, the racism experienced by Julie and the threat of arrest under segregation and anti-miscegenation laws.    

Now of course, they still cast a white woman in the role, and as much as I like Ava Gardner it’s a real tragedy when Lena Horne was right there. But we can watch this excerpt from Till The Clouds Roll By (which actually also had Grayson as Magnolia) and think of what might have been: 

I have to say though, that Gardner really commits to the growing degradation Julie faces and there’s a real lack of vanity in her performance. Her singing voice was dubbed by Annette Warren - you can hear her original tracks on the soundtrack, and imo her voice was perfectly acceptable and I’m not sure why they needed to replace it.   

I always well up at bit when she confronts Ravenal, and then at the end when she watches from the shadows as the boat pulls away to the reprise of Old Man River (sung by the incredible William Warfield). The real heart of the film is really the relationship between Magnolia and Julie, and it’s so surprising that Grayson and Gardner are actually the same age.

Marge and Gower Champion make the most of their dance numbers, and all in all this is a colourful, slick, satisfying film.

Favourite Song: Old Man River

Favourite Line: I get weary/And sick of trying/I’m tired of living/And scared of dying/But old man river/He just keeps rolling along

Kiss Me Kate (George Sidney, 1953)

Music and Lyrics by Cole Porter

It’s actually kind of hard to believe that this film, with the same stars and the same director, was released only two years after Show Boat. Despite the source material it’s a far more modern musical (of the time), meta upon meta with tongue firmly in cheek, and trusting it’s audience to be in on the joke - “Cole Porter” as a character, pictures from Show Boat on the piano, etc.  

It’s interesting that for a Shakespeare play with such obvious interpretation issues, The Taming of the Shrew is not really hurting for modern adaptations - other than this there’s 10 Things I Hate About You, and the Shirley Henderson/Rufus Sewell episode of Shakespeare Re-Told (actually the only one to really commit to the “shewness”)

The play within a play is a neat little narrative device, of dual purpose being accurate to the original, and being able to confine most of the heinous treatment to the stage. Although the on-stage version also contains a framing device (We Open in Venice) - so really it’s a triple nested narrative, a play within a play, within a play!

I’m really impressed with Kathryn Grayson, as Lilli Vanessi is diametrically opposed to Magnolia Crawford, the evolution from ingenue to mature actress in a mere two years. Howard Keel as Fred Graham isn’t that far removed from Gay Ravenal, but he’s very handsome and it’s a real achievement to remain as charming as he does given his manipulative character. As in Show Boat, their natural chemistry and the beauty of their voices together is really all you need. They also both acquit themselves well with Shakespeare and the physical comedy - but I do think the ending is rather abrupt, and think the story cries out for a resolution off stage.

It was nice to see Ann Miller and her legs for days as Lois Lane (!) - she has a much more substantial part than in Easter Parade and is really fantastic.

A real treat is baby Bob Fosse as one of the suitors (orange pants/yellow hat) - he was permitted to choreograph his own segment in “From This Moment On” and there’s already finger snaps and curved shoulders.

Favourite Song: Brush Up on Your Shakespeare

Second Favourite Song: Always True to You (In My Fashion)

Favourite lyric: Brush up on your Shakespeare - just the whole song