American postcard by American Postcard Co. Inc., 1981, no. 249. Photo: Dennis Stock / Magnum Photos. Caption: James Dean, Times Square, 1955.

American actor James Dean (1931-1955) was the quintessential 1950s teenager, brooding and romantic. An air of androgyny attributed to his iconic appeal to both men and women. The three roles that defined his stardom are as troubled teenager Jim Stark in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), loner Cal Trask in East of Eden (1955) and surly Ranch hand Jett Rink in Giant (1956). After his death in a car crash, the only 24-year-old Dean became the first actor to receive a posthumous Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

James Byron Dean was born in 1931, in Marion, Indiana, the only child of Winton Dean and Mildred Marie Wilson. Six years after his father had left farming to become a dental technician, Dean and his family moved to Santa Monica, California. In 1938, his mother was suddenly struck with acute stomach pain and quickly began to lose weight. She died of uterine cancer when Dean was nine years old. Unable to care for his son, Dean's father sent him to live with his aunt and uncle, Ortense and Marcus Winslow, on their farm in Fairmount, Indiana, where he was raised in their Quaker household. Dean's overall performance in school was exceptional and he was a popular student. He played on the baseball and varsity basketball teams, studied drama, and competed in public speaking through the Indiana High School Forensic Association. After graduating from Fairmount High School in May 1949, he moved back to California with his dog, Max, to live with his father and stepmother. He enrolled in Santa Monica College (SMC) and majored in pre-law. He transferred to UCLA for one semester and changed his major to drama, which resulted in estrangement from his father. While at UCLA, Dean was picked from a group of 350 actors to portray Malcolm in Macbeth. At that time, he also began acting in James Whitmore's workshop. In January 1951, he dropped out of UCLA to pursue a full-time career as an actor. Dean's first television appearance was in a Pepsi Cola commercial His first speaking part was as John the Beloved Disciple, in Hill Number One (1951), an Easter television special dramatizing the Resurrection of Jesus. Dean subsequently obtained three walk-on roles in films: as a soldier in Samuel Fuller’s moody study of a platoon in the Korean War, Fixed Bayonets! (Samuel Fuller, 1951), a boxing cornerman in the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis comedy Sailor Beware (Hal Walker, 1952), and a youth in the comedy Has Anybody Seen My Gal? (Douglas Sirk, 1952) with Rock Hudson. While struggling to get jobs in Hollywood, Dean also worked as a parking lot attendant at CBS Studios, during which time he met Rogers Brackett, a radio director for an advertising agency, who offered him professional help and guidance in his chosen career, as well as a place to stay. In July 1951, Dean appeared on Alias Jane Doe, which was produced by Brackett. In October 1951, Dean moved to New York City. There, he worked as a stunt tester for the game show Beat the Clock, but was subsequently fired for allegedly performing the tasks too quickly. He also appeared in episodes of several CBS television series The Web, Studio One, and Lux Video Theatre, before gaining admission to the Actors Studio to study method acting under Lee Strasberg. There, he was classmates and close friends with Carroll Baker, alongside whom he would eventually star in Giant (George Stevens, 1956). Dean's career picked up and he performed in further episodes of several early 1950s television. One early role, for the CBS series Omnibus in the episode Glory in the Flower (1953), saw Dean portraying the type of disaffected youth he would later portray in Rebel Without a Cause. Positive reviews for Dean's 1954 theatrical role as Bachir, the blackmailing Arab house boy, in an adaptation of André Gide's book The Immoralist, led to calls from Hollywood.

In 1954, James Dean was cast in the emotionally complex role of 'Cal Trask' in East of Eden (Elia Kazan, 1955), an adaptation of John Steinbeck's 1952 novel East of Eden. The lengthy novel deals with the story of the Trask and Hamilton families over the course of three generations, focusing especially on the lives of the latter two generations in Salinas Valley, California, from the mid-19th century through the 1910s. In contrast to the book, the film script focused on the last portion of the story, predominantly with the character of Cal. Though he initially seems more aloof and emotionally troubled than his twin brother Aron (Richard Davalos), Cal is soon seen to be more worldly, business savvy, and even sagacious than their pious and constantly disapproving father (Raymond Massey) who seeks to invent a vegetable refrigeration process. Cal is bothered by the mystery of their supposedly dead mother, and discovers she is still alive and a brothel-keeping 'madam'; the part was played by actress Jo Van Fleet. Much of Dean's performance in the film was unscripted, including his dance in the bean field and his fetal-like posturing while riding on top of a train boxcar (after searching out his mother in nearby Monterey). The most famous improvisation of the film occurs when Cal's father rejects his gift of $5,000, money Cal earned by speculating in beans before the US became involved in World War I. Instead of running away from his father as the script called for, Dean instinctively turned to Massey and in a gesture of extreme emotion, lunged forward and grabbed him in a full embrace, crying. Kazan kept this and Massey's shocked reaction in the film. Wikipedia: “Dean's performance in the film foreshadowed his role as Jim Stark in Rebel Without A Cause. Both characters are angst-ridden protagonists and misunderstood outcasts, desperately craving approval from their fathers.” In recognition of his performance in East of Eden, Dean was nominated posthumously for the 1956 Academy Awards as Best Actor in a Leading Role of 1955, the first official posthumous acting nomination in Academy Awards history. East of Eden was the only film starring Dean that he would see released in his lifetime.

James Dean quickly followed up his role in Eden with a starring role as the brooding red-jacketed teenager Jim Stark in Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955) with Sal Mineo and Natalie Wood. The film depicts the dilemma of a typical teenager of the time, who feels that no one, not even his peers, can understand him. The film scrupulously follows the classic theatrical disciplines, telling all within a 24-hour period. Jim Stark was Dean’s true starring role and Rebel Without a Cause proved to be hugely popular among teenagers. The landmark juvenile-delinquent drama fixed James Dean’s image forever in American culture. In his next film, Giant (George Stevens, 1956), Dean played a supporting role to Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson. This was due to his desire to avoid being typecast as a rebellious teenager like Cal Trask or Jim Stark. In the film, he plays Jett Rink, a Texan ranch hand who strikes oil and becomes wealthy. His role was notable in that, in order to portray an older version of his character in the film's later scenes, Dean dyed his hair grey and shaved some of it off to give himself a receding hairline. Giant would prove to be Dean's last film. At the end of the film, Dean was supposed to make a drunken speech at a banquet; this is nicknamed the 'Last Supper' because it was the last scene before his sudden death. Due to his desire to make the scene more realistic by actually being inebriated for the take, Dean mumbled so much that director George Stevens decided the scene had to be overdubbed by Nick Adams, who had a small role in the film because Dean had died before the film was edited. Dean received his second posthumous Best Actor Academy Award nomination for his role in Giant at the 29th Academy Awards in 1957 for films released in 1956.

Today, James Dean is often considered an icon because of his perceived experimental take on life, which included his ambivalent sexuality. Most of his so-called affairs with various starlets were made up by the Warner Brothers' public relations. Dean's best-remembered relationship was with young Italian actress Pier Angeli, whom he met while Angeli was shooting The Silver Chalice (1955) on an adjoining Warner lot, and with whom he exchanged items of jewellery as love tokens. Angeli's mother disapproved of Dean. After finishing his role for East of Eden, he took a brief trip to New York in October 1954. While he was away, Angeli unexpectedly announced her engagement to Italian-American singer Vic Damone. The press was shocked and Dean expressed his irritation. Angeli married Damone the following month. Dean also dated Swiss actress Ursula Andress. She was seen with Dean in his sports cars and was with him on the day he bought the car that he died in. The Gay Times Readers' Awards cited him as the greatest male gay icon of all time. Dean’s ambiguous relationship with Sal Mineo in the angst-ridden Rebel Without A Cause has led many to speculate and view this golden-age film as years ahead of its time. When questioned about his sexual orientation, Dean is reported to have said, "No, I am not a homosexual. But I'm also not going to go through life with one hand tied behind my back." Dean, with time on his side during down times of filming, often frequented gay bars in mornings, afternoons and evenings in both Hollywood, Studio City and North Hollywood. He and screenwriter and theatre student from UCLA, William Bast lived together as roommates for a number of years. Bast later became Dean's first biographer and told he and Dean ‘experimented’ sexually. Journalist Joe Hyams suggests that any gay activity Dean might have been involved in appears to have been strictly "for trade", as a means of advancing his career. However, the ‘trade only’ notion is contradicted by Bast and other Dean biographers. Biographer Val Holley: “There's been quite an evolution in the thinking since Dean's death in 1955, moving from ‘James Dean was straight’ to ‘Dean had sex with men but only to advance his career’ to ‘Dean had sex with women but only to advance his career.’ In 2016, a new gossipy biography was published, James Dean: Tomorrow Never Comes, by Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince. The authors claim Dean was in love with Marlon Brando and the two would have a long affair with S&M overtones. We may never know for certain if Dean identified as gay, straight, or bisexual, but, regardless, what he’s come to represent still resonates with many LGBT audiences.

In 1954, James Dean had become interested in developing an auto racing career. He purchased various vehicles after filming for East of Eden had concluded, including a Triumph Tiger T110 and a Porsche 356. Just before filming began on Rebel Without a Cause, he competed in his first professional event at the Palm Springs Road Races, which was held in Palm Springs, California on 26-27 March 1955. Dean achieved first place in the novice class and second place at the main event. His racing continued in Bakersfield a month later, where he finished first in his class and third overall. Dean hoped to compete in the Indianapolis 500, but his busy schedule made it impossible. Dean's final race occurred in Santa Barbara on Memorial Day, 30 May 1955. He was unable to finish the competition due to a blown piston. His brief career was put on hold when Warner Brothers barred him from all racing during the production of Giant. Dean had finished shooting his scenes and the movie was in post-production when he decided to race again. Dean was scheduled to compete at a racing event in Salinas, California on 30 September 1955. Accompanying the actor to the occasion was stunt coordinator Bill Hickman, Collier's photographer Sanford Roth, and Rolf Wütherich, the German mechanic from the Porsche factory who maintained Dean's Porsche 550 Spyder "Little Bastard" car. Wütherich, who had encouraged Dean to drive the car from Los Angeles to Salinas to break it in, accompanied Dean in the Porsche. At 3:30 p.m. Dean was ticketed for speeding, as was Hickman who was following behind in another car. As the group travelled to the event via U.S. Route 466, (currently SR 46) at approximately 5:15 p.m. a 1950 Ford Tudor was passing through an intersection while turning, ahead of the Porsche. Dean, unable to stop in time, slammed into the driver's side of the Ford resulting in Dean's car bouncing across the pavement onto the side of the highway. Dean's passenger, Wütherich, was thrown from the Porsche, while Dean was trapped in the car and sustained numerous fatal injuries, including a broken neck. The driver of the Ford, Donald Turnupseed, exited his damaged vehicle with minor injuries. Dean was pronounced dead on arrival shortly after he arrived by ambulance at the Paso Robles War Memorial Hospital at 6:20 p.m. The Failure Analysis Associates later reconstructed and recreated all details of the accident and concluded that James Dean was travelling 55 to 56 mph when the fateful accident occurred, thereby proving he had not been speeding, as rumour had it. Ed Stephan at IMDb: “At age 24, James Dean was killed almost immediately from the impact of a broken neck. His very brief career, violent death and highly publicized funeral transformed him into a cult object of apparently timeless fascination.”

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Ed Stephan (IMDb), Daniel Bates (Daily Mail), Towleroad, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Tags:   James Dean James Dean American Actor Acteur Hollywood Movie Star Film Star Idol Icon Hunk Rebel Without A Cause Giant East of Eden Handsome Film Cine Kino Cinema Picture Screen Movie Movies Filmster Star Vintage Postcard Carte Postale Cartolina Tarjet Postal Postkarte Postkaart Briefkarte Briefkaart Ansichtskarte Ansichtkaart Dennis Stock Dennis Stock American Postcard Co. Inc. The American Postcard Co. Times Square 1955 Magnum Photos

© All Rights Reserved

American postcard by the American Postcard Co. Inc., no. 326, 1981. Photo: Arthur Rothstein. Caption: Eartha Kitt, 1953.

Eartha Kitt (1927-2008) was an American singer, actress, dancer and cabaret star. She was known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 hit recordings of 'C'est Si Bon' and the enduring Christmas hit 'Santa Baby'. She appeared in more than 30 films and played the role of Catwoman in the 1960s Batman television series. In 1984, she returned to the music charts with a disco song, 'Where Is My Man', the first certified gold record of her career. She was nominated three times for a Tony Award, once for Emmy Award and twice for a Grammy Award.

Eartha Mae Kitt was born on a cotton plantation in North in the southern state of South Carolina in 1927. Her father was of European and her mother of African-American and Cherokee descent. Her father soon disappeared. At the age of eight, she was sent to New York to live with her aunt. A big opportunity came when, at the age of 16, she was accepted into the Katherine Dunham Company, the first Afro-American modern ballet company. She made her film debut as a dancer in Casbah (John Berry, 1948), starring Yvonne De Carlo. Orson Welles gave her a leading role as Helen of Troy in his production of Christopher Marlowe's play 'The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus' (1950). Welles called her "the most exciting woman in the world". Kitt had her final breakthrough in the Broadway show 'New Faces of 1952', in which she sang the song 'Monotonous'. As a singer, Kitt had a number of hits in the 1950s and 1960s, including 'Let's Do It', 'C'est Si Bon', 'Just an Old Fashioned Girl', 'Monotonous', 'Love for Sale', 'I'd Rather Be Burned as a Witch', and 'Under the Bridges of Paris'. Her debut LP 'RCA Victor Presents Eartha Kitt' (1953) was in the top five on the US album charts. The 1953 Christmas song 'Santa Baby', about a woman who promises Santa a date in exchange for expensive gifts, was later covered by Madonna, Kylie Minogue and Ariana Grande. In 1954/1955 she starred on Broadway in 'Mrs. Patterson' and in 1957 in 'Shinbone Alley. In Hollywood, she made her debut as Sidney Poitier's co-star in the film The Mark of the Hawk (Michael Audley, 1957), followed by St. Louis Blues (Allen Resiner, 1958) with Nat 'King' Cole and Anna Lucasta (Arnold Laven, 1958) with Sammy Davis Jr. She appeared in more than 30 films.

In the 1960s, Eartha Kitt starred on Broadway in 'The Owl and the Pussycat'. On television, she appeared in the role of Catwoman in the series Batman as Julie Newmar's successor. She also played a drug-addicted singer in Tennis Rackets and Guns (1965) and a guest role in Mission Impossible (1967). In Europe, she appeared in the film Onkel Toms Hütte/Uncle Tom's Cabin (Géza von Radványi, 1965), based on the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. In 1968, at a White House luncheon, Kitt made Lady Bird Johnson, wife of US President Lyndon B. Johnson, cry with critical comments on the war in Vietnam. She bluntly told her, "You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed. They rebel in the street. They don't want to go to school because they're going to be snatched off from their mothers to be shot in Vietnam." However, the public reaction to Kitt's statements was even more extreme both for and against her statements. After this, she was unable to get work in the United States and left for Europe, where she learned to speak French fluently. This boycott ended in 1978 with rehabilitation by Jimmy Carter and she made her American comeback in the Broadway musical 'Timbuktu!' In the 1980s, she also made a comeback as a singer with the disco hits 'Where Is My Man' (1983), 'I Love Men' (1984), 'This Is My Life' (1986) and 'Cha-Cha Heels' (1989), a collaboration with Bronski Beat. In the 1990s, Kitt toured North America as the Wicked Witch in a stage version of 'The Wizard of Oz'. She appeared in the documentary All By Myself: The Eartha Kitt Story (1983), starred in the film Erik the Viking (Terry Jones, 1989) starring Tim Robbins and had a small part in the comedy Boomerang (Reginald Hudlin, 1992) with Eddie Murphy. In the last years of her life, Kitt performed regularly as a comedian and musical star. She starred in the off-Broadway musical 'Mimi Le Duck' (2006) and in the film And Then Came Love (Richard Schenkman, 2007) starring Vanessa Williams. She also had voice roles in the animated films The Emperor's New Groove (Mark Dindal, 2000) and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath, 2008). In 2008, Eartha Kitt died in New York at the age of 81 from colon cancer. From 1960 to 1964, Eartha Kitt was married to real estate agent Bill McDonald. The marriage produced a daughter named Kitt Shapiro.

Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch, German and English).

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Tags:   Eartha Kitt Earha Kitt American Actress Singer Hollywood Movie Star Cinema Cine Kino Picture Screen Movie Movies Filmster Film Star Glamour Allure Vintage Postcard Carte Carte Postale Cartolina Tarjet Postal Tarjet Postkarte Postkaart Briefkarte Briefkaart Ansichtskarte Ansichtkaart The American Postcard Co. Arthur Rothstein Arthur Rothstein 1953

© All Rights Reserved

American postcard by The American Postcard Co. Inc., no. 781, 1983.

American red-haired actress Lucille Ball (1911-1989) was well-known as the crazy, accident-prone, lovable Lucy Ricardo in the television series I Love Lucy (1951-1957). She appeared in numerous films in Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s before becoming one of America's most popular television comedians in 1951. She was also a producer on I Love Lucy and subsequent television series featuring the character of "Lucy" with her company Desilu Productions, making her the first head of a major film studio in the American show business.

Lucille Désirée Ball was born in Jamestown, New York, in 1911. Her father was Henry Durrell Ball and her mother Desiree Eve Hunt. Her father died in 1915 before she was four. Lucille and her younger brother Fred were raised by their grandparents while their mother worked several jobs. Her grandfather was an avid supporter of the theatre and encouraged Lucy to participate in plays at school. Always willing to take responsibility for her brother and young cousins, she was a restless teenager who yearned to "make some noise". She enrolled in the John Murray Anderson School for the Dramatic Arts. There, however, she had a tough competitor who trumped her, Bette Davis. The teachers said she was 'too shy' and had no future and Ball returned home. In 1932, she moved to New York to become an actress and had success there as a mannequin and revue dancer. But her acting career did not take off till she was chosen to be a "Goldwyn Girl" and appeared in the film Roman Scandals (Frank Tuttle, 1933) starring Eddie Cantor. She was put under contract with RKO Radio Pictures and several bit roles, including one in Top Hat (Mark Sandrich, 1935). She became friends with Ginger Rogers. In the 1930s she was under contract to RKO and Columbia Pictures and slowly worked her way up from small roles, unnamed in the credits, to more substantial parts. One of her first supporting roles was in Chatterbox (George Nichols Jr., 1936) in which she plays a temperamental actress. It was one of the first times her name was mentioned in the credits. She also got a good role in the A-picture Stage Door (Gregory La Cava, 1937) with Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers. She played more supporting roles, including in Room Service (William A. Seiter, 1938) with the Marx Brothers, but she rarely got leading roles in major films, however, and usually when all the major film stars at RKO had already turned down the part. In 1940, Lucille Ball met Cuban bandleader-actor, Desi Arnaz, while filming the musical Too Many Girls (George Abbott, 1940). Despite different personalities, lifestyles, religions and ages (he was six years younger), he fell hard, too, and after a passionate romance, they eloped and were married in November 1940. The couple received a lot of media attention. Two years later, Arnaz had to join the army and was unfaithful. A knee injury allowed him to leave the army. In 1944, Ball filed for divorce but later recanted.

In the 1940s Lucille Ball moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where she got better roles in films such as Du Barry Was a Lady (Roy Del Ruth, 1943) with Red Skelton and Gene Kelly, Best Foot Forward (Edward Buzzell, 1943) and the Katharine Hepburn-Spencer Tracy vehicle Without Love (Harold S. Bucquet, 1945). She failed to achieve major film success there either and returned to Columbia. She was known in Hollywood circles as the "B-movie queen" with Macdonald Carey as her "king". In 1948, she got a role in the radio comedy 'My Favorite Husband', in which she played the scatterbrained wife of a Midwestern banker. The show became a success and CBS asked her to turn it into a television series. She only wanted to do this if she could work with her husband, and they had creative control over the series. Ball wanted to work with Arnaz to save her marriage. So 'I Love Lucy' was born, the most popular and universally beloved sitcom of all time. The couple had started their own production company: Desilu Productions. CBS, however, was not impressed with the TV pilot episode, but after Ball and Arnaz toured vaudeville theatre with great success, the series came to television. As a side effect, she practically invented the sitcom and was one of the first stars to film with a live audience. The show was shot directly to film stock, unlike most other television shows of the time, which used the low-quality kinescope process to film images from a television monitor. The better quality of the Lucy show allowed it to be repeated via syndication (on independent television stations not affiliated with one of the major television networks ABC, CBS or NBC). During the production of I Love Lucy, German-born cameraman Karl Freund invented the "3-camera setup", now standard in television. Another unusual technique used on the Lucy show was to paint over unwanted shadows and hide lighting defects with paint that was kept in the studio in various shades from white to medium grey for this purpose. In 1951 her first child was born, Lucie Arnaz, followed a year later by Desi Arnaz Jr. The pregnancy was also supposed to be televised but CBS was not in favour of that, eventually, they were allowed to do it but they were not allowed to use the word "pregnant" but had to say "expecting". In 1953, Ball had to appear before the House Committee on Un-American Activities because, at the insistence of her socialist grandfather, she had registered as a supporter of the Communist Party for the 1936 primaries. In 1956, Desilu bought the RKO lot and moved there. In 1957, the last episode of I Love Lucy was aired and was followed by its sequels The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (1957-1960) and The Lucy Show (1962-1968), which was later renamed Here's Lucy (1968-1974).

In 1960, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz's marriage was divorced after problems Arnaz had with alcohol, drugs and other women. Lucille Ball bought his share in Desilu, making her the sole owner of the studio. In the following years, Desilu developed such popular television series as The Untouchables (1959-1963), Star Trek (1966-1969), Mission: Impossible (1966-1973) and Mannix (1967-1975). In 1967, Desilu was sold to Gulf and Western Industries, which merged Desilu with Paramount Studios, located on the property next door. Arnaz and Ball remained good friends until his death in 1986. In 1961, Ball married stand-up comedy actor Gary Morton who was 12 years younger. He had never seen her on television because he himself performed on primetime when Lucy was on TV. He got a job at Desilu. After The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, Lucille got a series of her own, The Lucy Show (1962-1968) with Gale Gordon and Vivian Vance. It was again a success. Vivian Vance was given the name Viv, which she got because she was tired of being addressed as Ethel on the street. In 1968, after Lucille sold Desilu, she founded Lucille Ball Production. Lucille's third sitcom was Here's Lucy (1968-1974), played with her real children, Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr. Also in this series, Gale Gordon was her co-star. After I Love Lucy, Lucille starred in several more films including Yours, Mine, and Ours (Melville Shavelson, 1968) with Henry Fonda, the musical Mame (Gene Saks, 1974) and the TV movie Stone Pillow (George Schaefer, 1985). In 1986, she made a comeback with the series Life with Lucy, but it flopped with critics and viewers alike. After playing for less than two months, the series was cancelled by ABC. Ball was a guest on several shows. In 1989 at the 61st Academy Awards, she presented the Academy Awards with Bob Hope, she then received a standing ovation. A month later in 1989, Lucille Ball died of aortic dissection at the age of 77. She was buried in Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles but was later moved by her children, Desi Arnaz Jr. and Lucie Arnaz, to Lake View Cemetery in her native Jamestown.

Source: Wikipedia (Dutch, German and English) and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Tags:   Lucille Ball Lucille Ball American Actress Comedian Hollywood Movie Star Television TV Film Star Film Cine Kino Cinema Picture Screen Movie Movies Filmster Star Vintage Postcard Postkarte Carte Postale Cartolina Tarjet Tarjet Postal Carte Postale Postkaart Briefkarte Briefkaart Ansichtskarte Ansichtkaart Heart Frame American Postcard

© All Rights Reserved

American postcard by the American Postcard Company Inc. (AP), no. 723, 1983. Photo: CBS. Lucille Ball in the episode Sales resistance #45 (1953) of the TV series I Love Lucy (1951-1957).

American red-haired actress Lucille Ball (1911-1989) was well-known as the crazy, accident-prone, lovable Lucy Ricardo in the television series I Love Lucy (1951-1957). She appeared in numerous films in Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s before becoming one of America's most popular television comedians in 1951. She was also a producer on I Love Lucy and subsequent television series featuring the character of "Lucy" with her company Desilu Productions, making her the first head of a major film studio in the American show business.

Lucille Désirée Ball was born in Jamestown, New York, in 1911. Her father was Henry Durrell Ball and her mother Desiree Eve Hunt. Her father died in 1915 before she was four. Lucille and her younger brother Fred were raised by their grandparents while their mother worked several jobs. Her grandfather was an avid supporter of the theatre and encouraged Lucy to participate in plays at school. Always willing to take responsibility for her brother and young cousins, she was a restless teenager who yearned to "make some noise". She enrolled in the John Murray Anderson School for the Dramatic Arts. There, however, she had a tough competitor who trumped her, Bette Davis. The teachers said she was 'too shy' and had no future and Ball returned home. In 1932, she moved to New York to become an actress and had success there as a mannequin and revue dancer. But her acting career did not take off till she was chosen to be a "Goldwyn Girl" and appeared in the film Roman Scandals (Frank Tuttle, 1933) starring Eddie Cantor. She was put under contract with RKO Radio Pictures and several bit roles, including one in Top Hat (Mark Sandrich, 1935). She became friends with Ginger Rogers. In the 1930s she was under contract to RKO and Columbia Pictures and slowly worked her way up from small roles, unnamed in the credits, to more substantial parts. One of her first supporting roles was in Chatterbox (George Nichols Jr., 1936) in which she plays a temperamental actress. It was one of the first times her name was mentioned in the credits. She also got a good role in the A-picture Stage Door (Gregory La Cava, 1937) with Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers. She played more supporting roles, including in Room Service (William A. Seiter, 1938) with the Marx Brothers, but she rarely got leading roles in major films, however, and usually when all the major film stars at RKO had already turned down the part.
In 1940, Lucille Ball met Cuban bandleader-actor, Desi Arnaz, while filming the musical Too Many Girls (George Abbott, 1940). Despite different personalities, lifestyles, religions and ages (he was six years younger), he fell hard, too, and after a passionate romance, they eloped and were married in November 1940. The couple received a lot of media attention. Two years later, Arnaz had to join the army and was unfaithful. A knee injury allowed him to leave the army. In 1944, Ball filed for divorce but later recanted.

In the 1940s Lucille Ball moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where she got better roles in films such as Du Barry Was a Lady (Roy Del Ruth, 1943) with Red Skelton and Gene Kelly, Best Foot Forward (Edward Buzzell, 1943) and the Katharine Hepburn-Spencer Tracy vehicle Without Love (Harold S. Bucquet, 1945). She failed to achieve major film success there either and returned to Columbia. She was known in Hollywood circles as the "B-movie queen" with Macdonald Carey as her "king". In 1948, she got a role in the radio comedy 'My Favorite Husband', in which she played the scatterbrained wife of a Midwestern banker. The show became a success and CBS asked her to turn it into a television series. She only wanted to do this if she could work with her husband, and they had creative control over the series. Ball wanted to work with Arnaz to save her marriage. So 'I Love Lucy' was born, the most popular and universally beloved sitcom of all time. The couple had started their own production company: Desilu Productions. CBS, however, was not impressed with the TV pilot episode, but after Ball and Arnaz toured vaudeville theatre with great success, the series came to television. As a side effect, she practically invented the sitcom and was one of the first stars to film with a live audience. The show was shot directly to film stock, unlike most other television shows of the time, which used the low-quality kinescope process to film images from a television monitor. The better quality of the Lucy show allowed it to be repeated via syndication (on independent television stations not affiliated with one of the major television networks ABC, CBS or NBC). During the production of I Love Lucy, German-born cameraman Karl Freund invented the "3-camera setup", now standard in television. Another unusual technique used on the Lucy show was to paint over unwanted shadows and hide lighting defects with paint that was kept in the studio in various shades from white to medium grey for this purpose. In 1951 her first child was born, Lucie Arnaz, followed a year later by Desi Arnaz Jr. The pregnancy was also supposed to be televised but CBS was not in favour of that, eventually, they were allowed to do it but they were not allowed to use the word "pregnant" but had to say "expecting". In 1953, Ball had to appear before the House Committee on Un-American Activities because, at the insistence of her socialist grandfather, she had registered as a supporter of the Communist Party for the 1936 primaries. In 1956, Desilu bought the RKO lot and moved there. In 1957, the last episode of I Love Lucy was aired and was followed by its sequels The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (1957-1960) and The Lucy Show (1962-1968), which was later renamed Here's Lucy (1968-1974).

In 1960, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz's marriage was divorced after problems Arnaz had with alcohol, drugs and other women. Lucille Ball bought his share in Desilu, making her the sole owner of the studio. In the following years, Desilu developed such popular television series as The Untouchables (1959-1963), Star Trek (1966-1969), Mission: Impossible (1966-1973) and Mannix (1967-1975). In 1967, Desilu was sold to Gulf and Western Industries, which merged Desilu with Paramount Studios, located on the property next door. Arnaz and Ball remained good friends until his death in 1986. In 1961, Ball married stand-up comedy actor Gary Morton who was 12 years younger. He had never seen her on television because he himself performed on primetime when Lucy was on TV. He got a job at Desilu. After The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, Lucille got a series of her own, The Lucy Show (1962-1968) with Gale Gordon and Vivian Vance. It was again a success. Vivian Vance was given the name Viv, which she got because she was tired of being addressed as Ethel on the street. In 1968, after Lucille sold Desilu, she founded Lucille Ball Production. Lucille's third sitcom was Here's Lucy (1968-1974), played with her real children, Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr. Also in this series, Gale Gordon was her co-star. After I Love Lucy, Lucille starred in several more films including Yours, Mine, and Ours (Melville Shavelson, 1968) with Henry Fonda, the musical Mame (Gene Saks, 1974) and the TV movie Stone Pillow (George Schaefer, 1985). In 1986, she made a comeback with the series Life with Lucy, but it flopped with critics and viewers alike. After playing for less than two months, the series was cancelled by ABC. Ball was a guest on several shows. In 1989 at the 61st Academy Awards, she presented the Academy Awards with Bob Hope, she then received a standing ovation. A month later in 1989, Lucille Ball died of aortic dissection at the age of 77. She was buried in Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles but was later moved by her children, Desi Arnaz Jr. and Lucie Arnaz, to Lake View Cemetery in her native Jamestown.

Source: Wikipedia (Dutch, German and English) and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Tags:   Lucille Ball Lucille Ball American Actress Comedian Hollywood Movie Star Television TV Film Star Film Cine Kino Cinema Picture Screen Movie Movies Filmster Star Vintage Postcard Postkarte Carte Postale Cartolina Tarjet Postal Postkaart Briefkarte Briefkaart Anischtskarte Ansichtkaart I Love Lucy 1953 American Postcard Company AP CBS Sales resistance Hoover

© All Rights Reserved

Canadian postcard by the American Postcard Co., no. 1123. Photo: The Gerald Mastroli Collection. Carmen Miranda in Copacabana (Alfred E. Green, 1947).

Flamboyant Brazilian dancer, singer and actress Carmen Miranda (1909-1955) taught the world how to samba dance. Popular from the 1930s to the 1950s in Brazil and Hollywood, Miranda's most famous songs include 'Tico Tico', 'South American Way', 'Chica Chica Boom Chic', 'Rebola a Bola' and 'I Yi Yi Yi Yi'. She was famous for her exotic outfits featuring a hat decorated with fruit and her tall platform sandals. The peak of her career was during the war years when she starred in eight of her fourteen films. As Miranda became famous around the world her trademark fruit basket went with her, morphing into a range of exuberant and colourful headdresses.

Carmen Miranda was born Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha in Várzea da Ovelha e Aliviada, a village in the northern Portuguese municipality of Marco de Canaveses in 1909. One of six children, Miranda was named after Georges Bizet's opera Carmen, reflecting her father's love of the art. She moved to Brazil when she was less than two years old to join her father who had set up a barber's shop. Her early artistic roots set her on a path to being a world-renowned musician and dancer. She began performing at an early age and at 20 years old she released her first album. Miranda's early work was inspired by 'baianas', the Afro-Brazilian fruit vendors she regularly saw during her childhood in Rio de Janeiro. It was working at a hat store that she first discovered her musical talent, which was strongly influenced by the samba music that played throughout the city's favelas. Channelling these influences, Miranda one day decided to don a headdress in the form of a fruit-filled turban inspired by the traditional headdress seen on black women fruit sellers. Miranda’s big break happened following her performance at the National Institute of Music. She landed an audition at a recording studio where she was immediately signed to put out a single. Miranda’s first album was released in 1929 and was immensely popular among Brazilians. Her performing style helped samba gain respect and a place in the Brazilian (and later, the world) spotlight. Carmen Miranda made her film debut in the Brazilian documentary A Voz do Carnaval/The Voice of Carnival (Adhemar Gonzaga, Humberto Mauro, 1933). The film includes comic sketches and musical numbers with some of the most popular Brazilian stars and Carmen sang 'Good-bye' and 'Moleque Indigesto' at the studio of Rádio Mayrink Veiga. Two years later she appeared in her first feature film, Alô, Alô, Brasil/Hello, Hello Brazil (João de Barro, Wallace Downey, Alberto Ribeiro, 1935). However. it was Estudantes/Students (Wallace Downey, 1935) that seemed to solidify Carmen in the minds of the Brazilian film audiences. Now they realised she could act as well as sing. Although there were three years between Alô Alô Carnaval (Adhemar Gonzaga, 1936) and Banana-da-Terra/Banana (Ruy Costa, 1939), Carmen continued to churn out musical hits in Brazil. The latter film would be the last in her home country. By the time Carmen Miranda moved to the United States in 1939, Miranda was a national star in Brazil. American producer Lee Shubert saw her act in Brazil and offered her a spot on his new Broadway revue 'The Streets of Paris' (1939). Knowing the need for a real Brazilian band to keep the appropriate music true, she insisted that her backup band be included in the deal. With the help of the Brazilian government which saw a good national image opportunity in Carmen, her demand was met.

In late 1939 Carmen Miranda arrived, with much fanfare in the press, in New York City. She was now ready to capture Americans' hearts with her talent. She appeared in some musical revues on Broadway and, just as everyone thought, was a huge hit. In 1940 Carmen was signed to appear in the Twentieth Century-Fox production Down Argentine Way (Irving Cummings, 1940), with Betty Grable and Don Ameche. The only complaint that critics had was the fact that Carmen was not on the screen enough. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "She was signed to a long-term 20th Century-Fox contract in 1940, which proved a wise move when World War II dried up the European movie market, leaving South America as practically the only foreign outlet for Hollywood films." In 1941 she was, again, teamed with Ameche in addition to Alice Faye in A Night in Rio (Irving Cummings, 1941). The film was extremely popular with the theatre patrons. Her unique songs went a long way in making her popular. It was after Week-End in Havana (Walter Lang, 1941) that American cartoon artists began to cash in on Carmen's ever-growing popularity. In the 1930s and 1940s cartoons were sometimes shown as a prelude to whatever feature film was showing. Sure enough, the cartoon version of Carmen came wriggling across the screen, complete with her trademark fruit hat and wide, toothy grin. In 1942 Carmen starred in Springtime in the Rockies (Irving Cummings, 1942) with Betty Grable and Cesar Romero, both of whom she had worked with before. It was shortly after this that America began adopting her style of dress as the latest fad. The most outrageous of her musicals was The Gang's All Here (Busby Berkeley, 1943), which Catherine A. Surowiec in the catalogue of Il Cinema Ritrovato 2006 describes as "a visual candybox of Technicolor treats": Camera-boom-riding choreographic genius Busby Berkeley was given full rein to weave his magic in full 3-strip technicolor for the first time and he pulled out all the stops. The film contains two of his most spectacular, surreal production numbers: the fabulous camp-classic 'The Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat' (Carmen Miranda and chorus girls literally go bananas!) which for obvious reasons set censors in a spin, and the film's epic kaleidoscopic finale, a triumph of special photographic effects". Bruce Eder adds at All Movie: "the film keeps us moving, laughing, and humming, and also tapping our feet to the beat of Benny Goodman's orchestra. Berkeley's use of special effects in the service of dance is extraordinary -- gravity seems to disappear at various points, strange, unearthly rings surround performers in mid-air, and nightclubs interiors suddenly lose their walls and ceilings and even their stages, which suddenly become bigger than any building that they could seemingly ever contain them."

1944 saw Carmen Miranda in three films: Something for the Boys (Lewis Seiler, 1944), Four Jills in a Jeep (William A. Seiter, 1944) and Greenwich Village (Walter Lang, 1944). Denny Jackson at IMDb: "The first two did well at the box office, but the last one left a lot to be desired. It was her last busy year in film. Carmen made one film each in 1945, '46, '47 and '48. After that, she didn't make a film for two years, until Nancy Goes to Rio (Robert Z. Leonard, 1950), a production for MGM. Once again didn't make a film for several years, returning with Scared Stiff (George Marshall, 1953)." The studios labelled her the "Brazilian Bombshell", but the films tended to blur her Brazilian identity in favour of a generalised Latin American image. Hollywood's famous Grauman's Chinese Theatre invited her to leave her hand prints in the cement in 1941, the first Latin American to do so. She did stay busy, singing on the nightclub circuit and appearing on the relatively new medium of television. In 1947, Carmen married film producer David Sebastian. Kenneth Chisholm at IMDb: "He proved to be an abusive and opportunistic brute who made Carmen's life hell. Yet Carmen was a good Catholic and never considered divorce. Instead, she kept up a gruelling schedule of shows, taking uppers and downers to remain functional, even when they began to damage her health. Eventually, she collapsed and her doctor ordered her to go back to Brazil. She recovered and returned to America to resume the grind." Off-screen, Miranda was a talented sketch artist and costume designer; she was also very active in charitable work, seeing to it that a generous percentage of her earnings were sent to the destitute in South America. On 4 August 1955, Carmen Miranda suffered a heart attack, although she didn't realize it at the time, during an episode of The Jimmy Durante Show (1954-1956). She went home after attending a party. Early the next morning, on 5 August 1955, Carmen suffered a fatal heart attack. She was just 46 years old. Her body was flown to her adopted country of Brazil, where her death was declared a period of national mourning. The actress' memory is kept alive by the Carmen Miranda Museum in Rio De Janeiro.

Sources: Denny Jackson (IMDb), Catherine A. Surowiec (Cinema Ritrovato 2006), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Bruce Eder (AllMovie), Kenneth Chisholm (IMDb), Telegraph, Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Tags:   Carmen Miranda Carmen Miranda Actress Hollywood Movie Star American Cinema Cine Film Kino Movie Movies Picture Screen Filmstar Filmster Glamour Vintage Postcard Carte Postal Tarjet Postale Cartolina Postkarte Postkaart Briefkarte Briefkaart Ansichtskarte Ansichtkaart Copacabana 1947 American Postcard Co.Gerald Mastroli Collection

© All Rights Reserved