A New Sybil's "WHO'Z DAT?"… WALTER HUSTON (April 5, 1883 – April 7, 1950)

Darlings! Mummy has made a decision! After reading dozens of posts and having hundreds of conversations with well-meaning folks who just don't know about the great CHARACTER actors who gave films the depth and genius that surrounded and supported the so-called "stars", I am going to post a regular, special entry called "SYBIL'S WHO'Z DAT?"....there'll be photos and a mini-bio, and the next time you see one of those familiar, fabulous faces that you just "can't quite place".......well, maybe these posts will help. Some of these actors worked more, had longer and broader careers, and ended up happier, more loved, and even wealthier than the "stars" that the public worships. (I think there may be a metaphor in that! What do you think???). And speaking of “character” actors, Mummy is going to introduce everyone to the concept of a “character LEAD”!! These actors may not have been lyrically handsome or beautiful, but they often played the leading roles in the most interesting and classic films out of Hollywood. Technically, Bette Davis was one!... almost from the very start of her career. And by her OWN choice! Spencer Tracy was another. Well, my next guest here is not only a classic example, but his range of both comedy and drama, heroes and villains, insure him a seat at the Olympus of character leads! And he started one of the great Hollywood dynasties as well! Walter Huston! (April 5, 1883 – April 7, 1950)

You’ve seen him everywhere, but he’s so chameleon that many folks don’t realize it’s actually HIM in some of the great classic pictures. Born in Toronto, Canada into a farming family and originally trained as an engineer, Huston turned to his other passion acting in 1902, appearing in Vaudeville and stage plays. In 1904, he married Rhea Gore (1882-1938) and gave up acting to work as a manager of electric power stations in Nevada and Missouri. By 1909, his marriage floundering, he began appearing in vaudeville with an older actress called Bayonne Whipple (1865 - 1937) (born Mina Rose). They were billed as "Whipple and Huston" and in 1915 they married. Vaudeville was their livelihood into the 1920s. In 1924 he starred in the premiere production of Eugene O’Neill’s DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS at the Provincetown Playhouse Theatre in Greenwich Village, which then moved to Broadway. To the end of his life, O'Neill (the only American playwright to win the Nobel Prize for Literature) maintained that Huston’s performance was the greatest by any actor in any of his works. For the next few years, Huston appeared on Broadway and then moved to Hollywood as the “talkies” first began to appear. He immediately began starring opposite some of the great film actors of the early 30’s; Gary Cooper in THE VIRGINIAN (1929), Jean Harlow in BEAST OF THE CITY (1932), and Joan Crawford in RAIN (1932). His range ran from heroic icons like the title role in ABRAHAM LINCOLN (1930) to corrupt judges in NIGHT COURT (1932).

Huston received the first of his four Academy Award nominations for the eponymous DODSWORTH (1936), the role he had originated on Broadway in 1934. Huston continued to return to the stage over the years, alternating work between New York and Hollywood. He scored on of his greatest stage successes in KNICKERBOCKER HOLIDAY (1944) as Peter Stuyvesant singing the immortal Kurt Weill/Maxwell Anderson classic “September Song”. Huston once said, “I was certainly a better actor after my years in Hollywood. I had learned to be natural - never to exaggerate. I found I could act on the stage in just the same way as I had acted in a studio: using my ordinary voice, eliminating gestures, keeping everything extremely simple.”. Huston received his second Best Actor nomination playing Mr. Scratch in the film adaptation of Stephen Vincent Benet’s THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER (1941) and his third Oscar nod (for Best Supporting Actor) playing the father of George M. Cohan’s (James Cagney) in YANKEE DOODLE DANDY (1942) the following year. Just before playing Lucifer, he had made a brief cameo appearance as the dying sea captain (uncredited) who delivers THE MALTESE FALCON (1941) to the office of Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart). That film represented the directorial debut of his son John Huston, who had established himself in Hollywood as a screenwriter in the 1930s. John Huston, as a practical joke, had his father enter the scene and die over 10 different takes.

Walter would go on to win an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1948 for his role as the old miner in his writer-director son John' s THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948), co-starring with Bogart. Accepting his Academy Award, the elder Huston said, "Many years ago.... Many, MANY years ago, I brought up a boy, and I said to him, 'Son, if you ever become a writer, try to write a good part for your old man sometime.' Well, by cracky, that's what he did!". Walter Huston died the following year in Beverly Hills from an aortic aneurysm, two days after his 67th birthday. The legacy he leaves is not only his own beautifully crafted work, but also the Huston dynasty; his brilliant actor/director son John, and grandchildren Angelica, Danny, and Tony.

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Sybil Bruncheon’s “Hollywood’s OTHER Side”… alternative plots for classic films!

Yes, this movie still does look like it’s from the gentle drama OUR VINES HAVE TENDER GRAPES (1945) starring Edward G. Robinson, Agnes Moorehead, Margaret O’Brien, and a host of lovable character actors and actresses from the MGM studio stable… It’s a bucolic, charming, and heartwarming tale told from a little girl’s point of view about a Wisconsin farm and Norwegian immigrants… sort of like I REMEMBER MAMA but with cows instead of San Francisco fog…

But did you know that the original story, still set in the 1940s and Wisconsin, was very, very different from what MGM finally settled on? The title was originally OUR VINES HAVE POISON TENDRILS, and it concerned the dangerous secret world of 3rd grade, Nazi sympathizers, barnyard sabotage, and the use of farm animals as German spies and saboteurs infiltrating the heartland, specifically in the dairy industry. Consequently, little Nell Gustafson (Margaret O’Brien in a chilling and very convincing performance) heads a herd of formerly gentle cows and sheep and turns them into brainwashed fascist-terrorists and assassins. Dressed as Little Bo Peep for a school play titled “Our Fairy-Tale Friends”, she turns Flossie, her favorite lamb, into a flame-throwing storm-trooper who incinerates a brownie and cookie stand at the 4H Jamboree. Pies, cakes, and strudels are horribly destroyed while children dressed as a corn cob, an asparagus, a ham, and other objects of American farm abundance run shrieking in terror! O’Brien’s little Nell points and laughs from the gun-turret of her panzer-tank constructed from Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs, and an old Soap Box Derby chassis.

Later, her parents, played by Robinson and Moorhead, are devastated as Nell pledges allegiance to the New World Order during a spelling bee where the competition words include “schnitzel”, “sauerkraut”,  “dachshund”, and “gesundheit”. Needless to say, only her recruited Nazi-pals can spell the words correctly. Her former “best girlfriend” little Becky-Marie Granger is unable in the third round to correctly spell “doppelgänger”, and is dragged to the swing set and summarily shot… without a blindfold…

The film ends with Nell in charge of the local Girl Scouts chapter and being addressed as Fräulein Hiawatha during the annual Our Indian Heritage Festival… needless to say, there are no Native Americans in sight. “The End” projected on the final screen is followed by a giant question mark.

The test audiences were horrified by the implications; sales of American cheese plummeted, and several Good Humor ice cream trucks were attacked and set on fire in suburban neighborhoods. The MGM board immediately reshot and re-edited the entire film… another case of  “Hollywood’s OTHER Side”…

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A New Sybil's "WHO'Z DAT?"... HARRY DAVENPORT (January 19, 1866 – August 9, 1949)

Darlings! Mummy has made a decision! After reading dozens of posts and having hundreds of conversations with well-meaning folks who just don't know about the great CHARACTER actors who gave films the depth and genius that surrounded and supported the so-called "stars", I am going to post a regular, special entry called SYBIL'S "WHO'Z DAT??"....there'll be photos and a mini-bio, and the next time you see one of those familiar, fabulous faces that you just "can't quite place"... well, maybe these posts will help. Some of these actors worked more, had longer and broader careers, and ended up happier, more loved, and even wealthier than the "stars" that the public "worships"... I think there may be a metaphor in that! What do you think???... well, if ever, ever there was an actor who was loved, truly loved more than this one, I’ve never heard of him… it’s Harry Davenport (January 19, 1866 – August 9, 1949), everybody’s favorite “grandpa”.

Harold George Bryant Davenport, he was an American film and stage actor who worked in show business from the age of six until his death. Born just one year after the end of the Civil War in Canton, Pennsylvania, where his family lived during the holidays. He also grew up in Philadelphia. Harry came from a long line of stage actors; his father was thespian Edward Loomis Davenport, and his mother, Fanny Vining Davenport, was an English actress and a descendant of the renowned 18th-century Irish stage actor Jack Johnson. His sister was actress Fanny Davenport. In fact all nine of the Davenport children shared their parents’ love for the arts, and several, including Harry, dedicated their lives to performing. Harry himself made his stage debut at the age of five at the Chestnut Theater in Philadelphia in a play written by Richard Edwards, DAMON AND PYTHIAS. Written in a tribute dedicated to Davenport in the “Canton Sunday Telegraph” in 1949 is a notation about the fact that Harry never spent his earnings from that debut.  The story doesn’t refer to his being frugal, but rather endearing and sentimental –  “His pay was $1.95 in coins of every denomination then current and all dated 1871.  A five-dollar gold piece was added as a ‘bonus.'” Davenport kept the old coins in a safe deposit box and often said that a million dollars couldn’t make him get rid of them. And it remained so even during the leanest of times.  

By his teen years Harry Davenport was a veteran stage actor playing Shakespearian stock companies. Working regionally for years, Davenport made his Broadway debut in THE VOYAGE OF SUZETTE (1894) at the age of 28 and appeared there in numerous plays for decades. While still working exclusively on the stage, Davenport also co-founded the Actor’s Equity Association (then called “The White Rats”) with stage legend, Eddie Foy. The union was formed to address theater owners’ exploitation of actors.  Within the first year “The White Rats” had an enthusiastic membership who would cause a close-out of theaters in protest.  It was that difficult situation (for the most part) that prompted Harry to join Vitagraph Studios in NYC at the age of 47, debuting in the 1913 silent short film KENTON'S HEIR, followed the next year by Sidney Drew’s, TOO MANY HUSBANDS, and FOGG'S MILLIONS, and a series of film shorts co-starring another veteran of the stage, Rose Tapley. These included eighteen comedy shorts that made up what is referred to as the “Jarr Family” series.  In it, Davenport played Mr. Jarr, the patriarch of a middle-class family whose misadventures the series revolved around. Aside from playing the head of the Jarr family, Harry was also given directing duties in the stories, which were based on newspaper dailies written by humorist, Roy McCardell starting in 1907. All eighteen of the Jarr family productions at Vitagraph were produced and released in 1915.

In addition, he also directed some silent features and many shorts between 1915 and 1917. Davenport continued to work in film steadily throughout the 1910s, but returned to the stage full-time for the rest of the 1920s after a small, uncredited part in Fred Newmeyer’s, AMONG THOSE PRESENT in 1921. Full-time that is if stage work was available.  Just like many other Americans at the time, Harry and his second wife Phyllis Rankin (a successful actor in her own right) were living through tough financial times.  When not on the stage the couple would make ends meet by teaching acting and theater arts on the side and/or by picking wild strawberries which Phyllis made into preserves. They sold the preserves in New York and were successful enough at it to be able to “hire” local boys to help pick the strawberries. The boys’ pay was the promise of a bicycle to the best picker – a promise that was always kept. 

Harry Davenport made a few films in the early 1930s, but it wasn’t until Phyllis’ untimely death in 1934 that his film career took off after he decided to travel to California to give Hollywood an earnest effort.  Driving cross-country in his jalopy, Harry took his time, stopping in different cities along the way to act in a play or two to earn extra money. Could he ever have imagined that a brand-new career awaited him playing grandfathers, judges, doctors, and ministers. He came to Hollywood at 69 years of age during the height of the Great Depression and became one of the most beloved, admired and prolific actors in film history and one of the best-known and busiest "old men" in Hollywood films during the 1930s and 1940s. 

Settling comfortably in a life in Hollywood, Harry Davenport took on as many movie roles as he could handle. He had a gift for both comedy and drama and specialized in playing earnest, authoritative, wise, and sometimes wise-cracking characters, most often men who others turned to for guidance. He appeared in only one scene for a few minutes as a wise and wryly observant judge in Frank Capra’s YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU (1938), but his performance is unforgettable right to the final shot of him smiling and shaking his head at the pandemonium in his courtroom!

Harry Davenport played Dr. Meade in GONE WITH THE WIND (1939), a role that was both comical and poignant and extremely important to the central story as it unfolded. He completely commands the screen opposite Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, and Olivia de Havilland, During his “twilight” years, when most others would be settling down into retirement, Harry Davenport worked continuously. To put it in perspective, he made thirteen films in what is considered by many to be the greatest year in film, 1939. Thirteen!! Aside from GONE WITH THE WIND, these included John Cromwell’s, MADE FOR EACH OTHER (as Dr. Healy), Irving Cummings’, THE STORY OF ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL (as Judge Rider), William Dieterle’s, JUAREZ starring Paul Muni and Bette Davis, and Gus Meins’, MONEY TO BURN (as Grandpa). And from a productive standpoint that year was only so-so for Harry. He’d appeared in nineteen films in 1937!! 

Some of his other film roles are as the aged King Louis XI of France in THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1939) with film greats Charles Laughton, Thomas Mitchell, Edmond O’Brien, George Zucco, Maureen O'Hara, and Cedric Hardwicke. He played the lone resident in a ghost town in THE BRIDE CAME C.O.D. (1942), filmed on location in Death Valley, He also had supporting roles in Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (1940), William A. Wellman’s western THE OX-BOW INCIDENT (1943) and in KINGS ROW (1943) with Ronald Reagan. Davenport also played the iconic grandfather of Judy Garland in Vincente Minnelli's classic MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (1944) and the great-uncle of Myrna Loy and Shirley Temple in THE BACHELOR AND THE BOBBY-SOXER (1947).

A lesser film Harry Davenport appeared in, but one we have to mention is the fifth entry in The Thin Man series, Richard Thorpe’s, THE THIN MAN GOES HOME (1945). Harry Davenport plays Dr. Charles, the father of one of the most popular detectives in filmdom, Nick Charles of Nick and Nora fame. A perfect choice!  This particular story shows Nick and Nora returning to Nick’s parents’ house for vacation.  Nick’s father, Dr. Charles, always dreamed of his son becoming a doctor as well and collaborating with him on a project for a new hospital.  Not familiar with his son’s natural talents for investigation, the Doctor views Nick as little more than a beat cop. Meanwhile, Nick longs for his father’s approval so Nora sets out to involve Nick in a murder mystery in his hometown so the old Doctor can be duly impressed. In the end the Doctor is quite impressed with the son’s skills and when he tells the younger Charles, Nick’s vest buttons bust with pride (literally). The super-talented William Powell and Myrna Loy are joined not only by Harry Davenport, but also by the great, Lucille Watson.

Harry Davenport continued to appear in films up until his sudden death of a heart attack on August 9, 1949 at age eighty-three… one hour after he asked his agent Walter Herzbrun about a new film role! His last film was Frank Capra’s musical-comedy, RIDING HIGH (1950), which was released the year after his death. Bette Davis once called Davenport "without a doubt, the greatest character actor of all time.” Bette Davis!... can you imagine?!

Through his marriage to Phyllis, he was the brother-in-law of Lionel Barrymore who was married at the time to Phyllis' sister Doris. His entire family, including in-laws and eventually, all five of Harry Davenport’s own children would become actors or involved in production as well, as would a couple of his grandchildren. He was buried in Kensico Cemetery, Westchester County, New York. In the obituary, a newspaper called him the "white-haired character actor" with "the longest acting career in American history". Harry Davenport appeared in over 160 films. Asked why he made so many films at his age, he replied: “I hate to see men of my age sit down as if their lives were ended and accept a dole. An old man must show that he knows his job and is no loafer. If he can do that, they can take their pension money and buy daisies with it.”

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Sybil Bruncheon's "Who'z Dat?"... Happy, Happy Birthday to PINOCCHIO (February 23,1940)...

On February 23rd, 1940, Walt Disney's PINOCCHIO was released to theaters by RKO Radio Pictures. It wasn't just the children who sat thunderstruck at the visuals, imagination, and deeply moving story of a little toy that wanted to "be real".... When Monstro the Whale swept onto the giant movie screens of America with surging waves and tiny seagulls skittering out of the way to emphasize the appalling scale, when the ironically named Pleasure Island towering over the boys began to whirl into a terrifying nightmare of glittering lights and donkey-ears, and when the final resolution of death and transfiguration took place with the Blue Fairy and Jiminy Cricket standing by, gasps, screams, and tears flowed freely...

Whatever Disney's personal issues and prejudices were, his ability to mobilize the great talents that made one iconic piece of art after another at his studios remains fixed. 82 years later, even the stills from this and so many of his other films are spellbinding... "Cartoon"??? "Cartoon"... The word is laughable...

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Sybil's Cinema... THE MALTESE FALCON (1941)...

Directed by first-time film director John Huston, starring Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre, and, making his film debut, the dazzling Sydney Greenstreet. And in the shadows, there's Ward Bond, Barton MacLane, Elisha Cook Jr., Gladys George, and even Huston's super-star father, Walter, in a walk-on cameo. Every frame, every note of the film score, is brilliant and strangely unsettling... truly a great and possibly the most definitive "film noir".

Even Bogart's Sam Spade is off-kilter, certainly NOT a hero, or even a protagonist. Perhaps it's only Effie Perrine, Spade's secretary, played by the wonderful and truly lovely Lee Patrick (one of Hollywood's most versatile and enduring actresses!) who gives the film its "moral center". She is the least compromised, conflicted, or corrupt character. Effie is loyal to Sam, possibly in love with him (but too honorable to show it), and discerning enough to warn him at the start of the story that his back-alley machinations may eventually turn on him... and they do.

The entire story winds its way through 101 minutes of mystery peppered with rye merriment ending in a rueful surprise about both the statue of the falcon and what all the characters are willing or able to tolerate... and do. And that last line answered by Bogart to Ward Bond’s query about what the falcon is made of... has a line from Shakespeare ever been used with more existential finality... or resigned heartbreak?

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CHRISTMAS MUSIC: Guilty Pleasures & Dirty Confessions... The Andrews Sisters...

I know it's very tacky, but I start listening to the Music Choice "Sounds of the Seasons" channel on cable during Thanksgiving week.... As silly as it is to many people, I sometimes just enjoy the simple pleasure of Christmas carols to ease my mind and lower my stress.

Having said that, I can now admit both a dirty secret AND a guilty pleasure at the same time! As if it isn’t enough that they sang “Mele Kalikimaka” with Bing Crosby, the Andrews Sisters also released “How’d Ya Like To Spend Christmas On Christmas Island?”. Talk about schmaltzy! And Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians are along for the ride. Between this song and “Mele Kalikimaka” it’s as if the music industry wanted to try to rehabilitate the image of the South Pacific after the catastrophes of Pearl Harbor and World War II!... either that or Decca Records was trying to teach American farmhands geography!

Anyway, whenever the Music Choice Channel plays “Mele Kalikimaka”, I always grab my coconut brassiere and grass skirt, run to my full-length mirror, and hope for a medley into “How’d Ya Like To Spend Christmas On Christmas Island?”! I can see all those handsome GIs waving and hooting for me again at the Munda Airstrip in the Solomon Islands! Bob Hope and the Sisters are there, and I give it my USO-best!!!  

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From Sybil's "MY MERRY MEMOIRS - Hollywood's Hysterical Histories"...

About six years after Otto Preminger made LAURA (1944) with Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, Judith Anderson, and Vincent Price, he approached me with a sequel! I was so excited. And I was being offered the lead! But I asked him, "What about Tierney?"... he said that she would have to pass. She was busy with WHIRLPOOL... and Dana Andrews was doing MY FOOLISH HEART... and the others weren't "available" either. But I was still excited. It was a job, a real job, and right when the Hollywood blacklisting was picking up speed.

There were two great things about the project! One was the song, "Laura" by Raskin and Mercer. They were rewriting the lyrics to make it fit with the sequel. And the other great thing was that Vincent Price had agreed to be in it. And then I got the script over the weekend... it was set on the planet Neptune, Price was playing a mad-scientist who experimented in his garden, and I was to play his newest creation... LARVA!… and the new lyrics? JEEESH! (by the way, Vincent insisted that it could NOT be set on Uranus!!)

Larva is the face in the misty light, she flits here and there in the hall. You see her alone on a summer night as she crawls along the wall. Eight eyes and oh, how they twinkle so, eight arms to give you a hug. She gave your very first kiss to you, that was Larva, but she's only a bug.

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A New Sybil's "WHO'Z DAT?"... S.Z. "Cuddles" SAKALL (February 2, 1887 – February 12, 1955)...

Darlings! Mummy has made a decision! After reading dozens of posts and having hundreds of conversations with well-meaning folks who just don't know about the great CHARACTER actors who gave films the depth and genius that surrounded and supported the so-called "stars", I am going to post a regular, special entry called SYBIL'S "WHO'Z DAT??"....there'll be photos and a mini-bio, and the next time you see one of those familiar, fabulous faces that you just "can't quite place".......well, maybe these posts will help. Some of these actors worked more, had longer and broader careers, and ended up happier, more loved, and even wealthier than the "stars" that the public "worships"......I think there may be a metaphor in that! What do you think???

Originally named Szőke Szakáll , S.Z. Sakall (February 2, 1883 - February 12, 1955) was born Gerő Jenő in Budapest, Hungary, to a Jewish family. During his schooldays, he wrote sketches for Budapest vaudeville shows under the pen-name Szőke Szakáll meaning "blond beard" in reference to his own beard, grown to make him look older, which he affected when at the age of 18 he turned to acting and sketch writing. The actor became a star of the Hungarian stage and screen in the 1910s and 1920s when he moved to Vienna, where he appeared as a regular at Herman Leopoldi’s famous Kabarett Leopoldi-Wiesenthal. In the 1930s, he was, next to Hans Moser, the most significant representative of the Wiener Film, the Viennese light romantic comedy genre. He also appeared in Berlin. He appeared in FAMILIENTAG IM HAUSE PRELLSTEIN (1927), IHRE MAJESTÄT DIE LIEBE (1929), which was remade in Hollywood as HER MAJESTY LOVE with W.C. Fields in Sakall's role, and TWO HEARTS IN WALTZ TIME (1930). For a brief period during this time, he ran his own production company. When the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, Sakall was forced to return to Hungary. He was involved in over 40 movies in his native land. When Hungary joined the Axis in 1940, he headed for Hollywood with his wife. Many of Sakall's close relatives later died in Nazi concentration camps, including all three of his sisters and his niece, as well as his wife's brother and sister.

Sakall began a career that included an endless succession of excitable theatrical impresarios, lovable European uncles and befuddled shopkeepers. His first Hollywood role was in the comedy IT'S A DATE (1940) with Deanna Durbin. The first big hit of his American career was BALL OF FIRE (1941) with Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. Later, he signed a contract with Warner Brothers, where he had a number of other small roles, including YANKEE DOODLE DANDY (1942) with Oscar winner James Cagney.

Later the same year, at the age of 59, he portrayed one of his best remembered characters, Carl the head waiter in CASABLANCA (1942). Producer Hal B. Wallis signed Sakall for the role three weeks after filming had begun. When he was first offered the part, Sakall hated it and turned it down. He finally agreed to take the role provided they gave him four weeks of work. The two sides eventually agreed on three weeks. He received $1,750 per week for a total of $5,250. He actually had more screen time than either Peter Lorre or Sydney Greenstreet.

Sakall appeared in 30 more movies after this, including CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT (1945) again with Barbara Stanwyck. Sakall appeared in four films released in 1948: the drama EMBRACEABLE YOU, followed by APRIL SHOWERS, Michael Curtiz’s ROMANCE ON THE HIGH SEAS (Doris Day’s film debut!!), and WHIPLASH.

He was in four top movies in 1949. First Sakall played Felix Hofer in Doris Day's second film, MY DREAM IS YOURS. Later that year, he supported June Haver and Ray Bolger in LOOK FOR THE SILVER LINING. Next, he played Otto Oberkugen (another one of his iconic roles) in IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME with Judy Garland and Van Johnson (a musical remake of Ernst Lubitsch’s THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER. Finally, Sakall was given the principal role of songwriter Fred Fisher in OH, YOU BEAUTIFUL DOLL, though top billing went to June Haver.

Sakall appeared in nine more movies during the 1950s, two of them musicals with Doris Day, playing J. Maxwell Bloomhaus in TEA FOR TWO and Adolph Hubbell in LULLABY OF BROADWAY. His other roles included: Poppa Schultz in the Errol Flynn western MONTANA; Miklos Teretzky in the June Haver musical THE DAUGHTER OF ROSIE O'GRADY; Don Miguel in the Randolph Scott western SUGARFOOT; Uncle Felix in the musical PAINTING THE CLOUDS WITH SUNSHINE with Virginia Mayo; and in one of the episodes in the movie IT'S A BIG COUNTRY featuring Gene Kelly, Van Johnson, Gary Cooper, Janet Leigh, Fredric March, and Ethel Barrymore. His last movie was in 1954 playing Joseph Ruder in THE STUDENT PRINCE. His 1954 memoir had the humorous title of “The Story of Cuddles: My Life Under the Emperor Francis Joseph, Adolf Hitler, and the Warner Brothers.”

Sakall died of a heart attack in Hollywood on February, 12th, 1955, shortly after filming the THE STUDENT PRINCE, and ten days after his 72nd birthday. He had been married twice in his lifetime; Giza Grossner from 1916 to 1918, and Anne Kardos from 1920 till his death. He is buried in the Garden of Memory in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

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A New SYBIL'S "WHO'Z DAT?"... BEULAH BONDI (May 3, 1889 – January 11, 1981)

Darlings! Mummy has made a decision! After reading dozens of posts and having hundreds of conversations with well-meaning folks who just don't know about the great CHARACTER actors who gave films the depth and genius that surrounded and supported the so-called "stars", I am going to post a regular, special entry called "SYBIL'S WHO'Z DAT?"....there'll be photos and a mini-bio, and the next time you see one of those familiar, fabulous faces that you just "can't quite place".......well, maybe these posts will help. Some of these actors worked more, had longer and broader careers, and ended up happier, more loved, and even wealthier than the "stars" that the public "worships". (I think there may be a metaphor in that! What do you think???).                                

Here's our next guest!! Make way for a great lady of Hollywood! Beulah Bondi (May 3, 1889 – January 11, 1981). Bondi was born as Beulah Bondy in Valparaiso, Indiana, the daughter of Eva Suzanna (née Marble), an author, and Abraham O. Bondy, who worked in real estate. Bondi began her acting career on the stage at age seven, playing the title role in the play LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY in a production at the Memorial Opera House. She graduated from the Frances Shimer Academy in 1907 and gained her Bachelors and Masters degrees in oratory at Valparaiso University in 1916 and 1918. She made her Broadway debut in Kenneth S. Webb's ONE OF THE FAMILY at the 49th Street Theatre on December 21, 1925. She next appeared in another hit, Maxwell Anderson's SATURDAY’S CHILDREN in 1926. It was Bondi's performance in Elmer Rice's Pulitzer Prize-winning SREET SCENE, which opened at the Playhouse Theatre on January 10, 1929, that brought her to Hollywood at the advanced age of 43 for her movie debut as "Emma Jones" in (1931), in which Bondi reprised her stage role. This was followed by "Mrs. Davidson" in RAIN (1932), which starred Joan Crawford and Walter Huston.

She was one of the first five women to be nominated for an Academy Award in the newly-created category of "Best Supporting Actress" for her work in THE GORGEOUS HUSSY (1936), although she did not win. Two years later, she was nominated again for OF HUMAN HEARTS (1938) and lost again, but her reputation as a character actress kept her employed. She would most often be seen in the role of the mother of the star of the film for the rest of her career, with the exception of MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW (1937) as the abandoned Depression-era 'Ma' Cooper. She often played mature roles in her early film career even though she was only in her early 40s. Some of her favorite and most popular performances included THE SNAKE PIT (1948) and ON BORROWED TIME (1939).

For folks doubting the range of a "character" actress, you have only to watch her in Frank Capra's IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946). Bondi plays the ideal and iconic mother to Jimmy Stewart in several scenes and then transforms into a veritable psychopathic crone when she no longer recognizes him in the nightmare sequence. She appeared in many Oscar-nominated films over the years and played James Stewart’s mother four times: IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939), OF HUMAN HEARTS, and VIVACIOUS LADIES (1938).

In addition to consistent film work throughout the 1940s, she made the transition into television. Her television credits included Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Howard Richardson’s Ark of Safety on the Goodyear Television Playhouse. She made her final appearances as Martha Corinne Walton on The Waltons in the episodes "The Conflict" (1974) and "The Pony Cart" (1976). She received an Emmy award for her performance in the latter episode. When her name was called, it first appeared that she was not present, but she was given a standing ovation as she walked slowly to the podium, where she thanked everyone for honoring her while she was still alive.

Despite the fact that she was known for playing mother figures, Bondi never married nor had children in real life. Tragically, she died from pulmonary complications due to broken ribs suffered when she tripped over her cat on January 11, 1981. She was living in Los Angeles at the time and was 92. She was given a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1718 Vine Street in Hollywood, California. Her body was cremated and her ashes were scattered at sea.

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Sybil Bruncheon's "Hollywood Fact or Fiction!"… NOW-UR-HERE/NOW-UR-NOT"!...

TRUE STORY!!... this is the only known photo of the horribly tragic incident of "Joan Crawford & The MGM Transporter"...

L.B. Mayer, in an attempt to save travel expenses for his major stars going on location shoots in the 1930s, invested in advanced scientific research at M.I.T.

Albert Einstein and a handful of radical physicists claimed that they could "transport" props, camera equipment, and even movie stars around the globe in an instant and have them back in Hollywood for dinner after a full day of filming on the other side of the Earth. And no more faking foreign sets on Hollywood backlots!! Joan Crawford, being one of the biggest stars at the time, pushed her way to the front of the line on the day that they were to inaugurate the new "Now-Ur-Here/Now-Ur-Not Time Bender".... it was located just off the MGM Commissary near the dessert counters. After knocking Clark Gable and Franchot Tone to the floor, Crawford threw herself into the glass travel-booth!... there was a blinding flash of silvery blue light, a whirring sound of gears and steam.. ending in the grinding of metal like a soda fountain milkshake-maker gone horribly awry... then a scream and maybe some swear-words, and when the brown smoke cleared, there remained only a dish of beans and franks where the great Joan Crawford had just stood!!...

Fortunately with Einstein's great mind, his team's determination, and L.B.'s vast resources, they were able to bring Crawford back, a little at a time, over the following 3 weeks, although cafeteria-goers kept trying to eat her... and complained of gas.

[Want to read other fun and funny stories here on SybilSez.com? Just enter any topic that pops into your head in the "search" window on the upper right! Who knows what might come up?...and feel free to share them with your friends!]