The Celebrity Archaeology Podcast: Recent Episodes
Adam Scull
CelebrityArchaeology.com, preserving the art and cultural heritage of celebrity photography from decades past for the benefit of future generations. Images are for sale to individuals and collectors. Get the book here: https://amzn.to/2HrXUUS
While Myrna Loy was dancing in prologues at the Grauman's Egyptian Theatre, portrait photographer Henry Waxman took several pictures of her that were noticed by Rudolph Valentino when the actor went to Waxman's studio for a sitting. Valentino was looking for a leading lady for Cobra, the first independent project he was producing. She was hired as an extra for Pretty Ladies (1925), in which she and fellow newcomer Joan Crawford were among a bevy of chorus girls dangling from an elaborate chandelier.
In his first professional acting performance, James Cagney danced costumed as a woman in the chorus line of the revue Every Sailor, in 1919. He secured several other roles, receiving good notices, before landing the lead in the 1929 play Penny Arcade. After rave reviews, Warner Bros. signed him for an initial $500-a-week, three-week contract to reprise his role; this was quickly extended to a seven-year contract.
Frankie Valli began his singing career in the early 1950s with A Variety Trio. Valli's desire to sing in public was initially granted when, having heard Valli sing, the group offered him a guest spot when the group performed. In late 1952, the Variety Trio disbanded and Valli, along with Tommy DeVito, became part of the house band at The Strand in New Brunswick, New Jersey. For his part, Valli played bass and sang.
In 1971, Arthur was invited by Norman Lear to guest-star on his sitcom All in the Family, as Maude Findlay, the cousin of Edith Bunker. An outspoken liberal feminist, Maude was the antithesis role to the conservative Republican character Archie Bunker, who described her as a "New Deal fanatic". Nearly 50, Arthur's tart turn on All in the Family impressed viewers as well as executives at CBS who, she would later recall, asked "'Who is that girl? Let's give her her own series.’"
Gloria Vanderbilt was married to author Wyatt Emory Cooper, on 24 December 1963. She was his only wife. The marriage, which lasted 15 years, ended with his death in 1978 while undergoing open-heart surgery. They had two sons: Carter Vanderbilt Cooper who committed suicide at age 23 by jumping from the family's 14th-floor apartment. and Anderson Hays Cooper, the CNN news anchor.
George Michael formed the duo Wham! with Andrew Ridgeley in 1981. The band's first album Fantastic reached No. 1 in the UK in 1983 and produced a series of top 10 singles including "Young Guns", "Wham Rap!" and "Club Tropicana". Their second album, Make It Big, reached No. 1 on the charts in the US. Singles from that album included "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" (No. 1 in the UK and US), "Freedom", "Everything She Wants", and "Careless Whisper".
Her first film was The Last Picture Show, also starring Jeff Bridges and Timothy Bottoms. The film became a critical and box office hit, earning several Academy Awards and nominations. Shepherd was nominated for a Golden Globe. Shepherd was cast opposite Charles Grodin in The Heartbreak Kid (1972). She played Kelly, the beautiful, sun-kissed young woman for whom Grodin's character falls while on his honeymoon in Miami. Directed by Elaine May, it was another critical and box office hit.
During a career spanning more than half a century, Perry Como recorded exclusively for the RCA Victor label after signing with it in 1943. "Mr. C.", as he was nicknamed, sold millions of records for Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and pioneered a weekly musical variety television show, which set the standards for the genre and proved to be one of the most successful in television history. Bing Crosby once described him as, "the man who invented casual”.
Redford began acting on television in the early 1960s. He earned an Emmy nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Voice of Charlie Pont in 1962.
Between 1974 and 1976, exhibitors voted Redford Hollywood's top box-office name. His hits included The Great Gatsby (1974), The Great Waldo Pepper (1975), and Three Days of the Condor (1975).
Don Ameche played so many roles based on real people that on one of his radio broadcasts, Fred Allen joked, "Pretty soon, Don Ameche will be playing Don Ameche." Soon afterwards, in It's in the Bag! (1945), which starred Allen, Ameche indeed played himself in a bit part.
Karen Black made her Broadway debut in 1965's The Playroom, which received good reviews and for which she was nominated for a Drama Circle Critic Award for Best Actress. Her film debut was in The Prime Time (1960) and her first big role was in You're a Big Boy Now (1966), directed by Francis Ford Coppola.
Tennessee Williams, along with Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, is considered among the three foremost playwrights of 20th-century American drama. After years of obscurity, he suddenly became famous with The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Dennis Weaver was an American actor best known for his work in television and films from the early 1950s to not long before his death in 2006. Weaver's two most notable roles were as Marshal Matt Dillon's trusty partner Chester Goode on the CBS western Gunsmoke and as Deputy Marshal Sam McCloud on the NBC police drama McCloud.
Vanessa Redgrave comes from a British acting dynasty.
She rose to prominence in 1961 and was ranked as the ninth greatest stage actor/actress of all time. Redgrave was proclaimed by Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams as "the greatest living actress of our times", and has won the Oscar, Emmy, Tony, BAFTA, Olivier, Cannes, Golden Globe, and the Screen Actors Guild awards.
In a career spanning over 50 years, McDowell has played varied film roles across different genres as a character actor. He is perhaps best known for the controversial roles of Alex DeLarge in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1971).
From Twin Peaks to Men In Black II, Lara Flynn Boyle has hit it from one end of the acting spectrum to the other. Lara's characters are filled with flavor and memorable moments. Hear about Lara on the Celebrity Archaeology Podcast.
Referred to as the "Songbird Supreme" by the Guinness World Records, she is noted for her five-octave vocal range, vocal power, melismatic style, and signature use of the whistle register.
In 2012, she was ranked second on VH1's list of the 100 greatest female artists in music history.
John Herbert Gleason, better known as Jackie Gleason, was born on February 26, 1916. He was an American comedian, actor, writer, composer and conductor. Developing a style and characters from growing up in Brooklyn, New York, he was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy, exemplified by his bus driver Ralph Kramden character in the television series The Honeymooners.
Bette Midler, born December 1, 1945, is an American singer, songwriter, actress, comedian,
and film producer.
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Midler began her professional career in several Off-Off-Broadway plays, prior to her engagements in Fiddler on the Roof and Salvation on Broadway in the late 1960s. She came to prominence in 1970 when she began singing in the Continental Baths, a local gay bathhouse where she managed to build up a core following.
Tracy Lauren Marrow (born February 16, 1958), better known by his stage name Ice-T, is an American musician, rapper, songwriter, actor, record executive, record producer, and author. He began his career as an underground rapper in the 1980s and was signed to Sire Records in 1987, when he released his debut album Rhyme Pays; the second hip-hop album to carry an explicit content sticker after Slick Rick’s La Di Da Di.
Buddy Hackett was an American comedian and actor. His best remembered roles include Marcellus Washburn in The Music Man(1962), Benjy Benjamin in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World(1963), Tennessee Steinmetzin The Love Bug (1968), and Scuttlein The Little Mermaid (1989).
Ernest Borgnine born Ermes Effron Borgnino was an American actor whose career spanned over six decades. He was noted for his gruff but calm voice, Machiavellian eyebrows, and gap-toothed Cheshire Cat grin.
Sir Reginald Carey Harrison, known as Rex Harrison, was an English actor of stage and screen. Harrison began his career on the stage in 1924. He served in the Royal Air Force during World War II, reaching the rank of flight lieutenant. He won his second Tony for the role of Professor Henry Higgins in the stage production of My Fair Lady in 1957. He reprised the role for the 1964 film version, which earned him both a Golden Globe Award and Academy Award for Best Actor.
Two powerhouses of their time. Cary Grant & Dean Martin.
Cary Grant (born January 18, 1904 as Archibald Alec Leach) was an English-American actor, known as one of classic Hollywood's definitive leading men. He began a career in Hollywood in the early 1930s, and became known for his transatlantic accent, debonair demeanor, light-hearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing. He became an American citizen in 1942.