Eve Arden

I remember "Our Miss Brooks" on television. I was only 2 years old when it came on, and 6 when the show ended, but I remember. My guess is that Eve Arden (1908 - 1990) had such an unforgettable voice that I didn't forget her. Even though her voice was quite low, she had a lilting quality in it that was wonderful to hear. It also would have helped in her acting career, both on the stage and screen.

TCM just ran Stage Door (1937) which was Eve's fourth movie.  It would be a good start. Stage Door starred Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers, and included Ann Miller who was only 14 years old, and Lucille Ball in the main cast. Grady Sutton, Franklin Pangborn and Jack Carson also show up in small parts. It was nominated for four Oscars including Best Picture. One biographer on IMDb said that Eve's wise-cracking character would be forged in Stage Door and she would use it throughout her career. The only thing I didn't like about the movie is that whenever Miller and Rogers were dancing, they didn't show their feet!

Eve would make two more films with Ginger. Having Wonderful Time (1938), and We're Not Married! (1952) which also included Marilyn Monroe.

There were a lot of films made in the 1930s. Eve made her share, but most were not noteworthy. The stars were, though. She got to work with Fred MacMurray, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Clark Gable.  In 1939 she worked with the Marx Brothers in At the Circus. She worked with Gable again in Comrade X (1940).

In Ziegfeld Girl (1941) she worked with James Stewart, Judy Garland and Hedy Lamarr. She worked again with Stewart in Anatomy of a Murder (1959), and Lamarr was in Comrade X.

One of the better movies of the 1940s was Joan Crawford's Mildred Pierce (1945) with Eve in a substantial role. This one got Eve her only Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actress, and Crawford won for Best Actress.

By the end of that decade, television was beginning to take hold. "Our Miss Brooks" came along in 1952 and stayed for four years. Do you remember Gale Gordon as the principal, Mr. Conklin, or the squeeky voiced Walter Denton played by Richard Crenna?

At the end of the final season there was a movie made by the same name. The next year Eve tried another series called "The Eve Arden Show" but it didn't last.

Now we will see Eve and other stars in the same boat making movies together, all while working on TV. Gale Gordon and Eve are featured in a Frankie Avalon film called Sergeant Dead Head (1965). And Eve is with Joe Flynn and Phil Silvers in The Strongest Man in the World (1975).

Also look for Eve playing a charm school teacher in a recurring part on "The Red Skelton Hour." She then gets another series, this time co-starring with Kaye Ballard, called "The Mothers in Law."

Amid the TV movies and other guest spots, Eve gets a great role, fitting the character she used and worked all of her life, as the principal in Grease (1978). She would reprise this role in Grease II (1982) her final movie. Grease was set in the 1950s, and Eve Arden was the perfect choice as Principal McGee. All of the Baby Boomers remembered her as a teacher!

Some of the character names she used over the years show her comedic style.

• Peerless Pauline
• Olive Lashbrooke
• Miss 'Woodie' Woods
• Clara Appleby (with Red Skelton)
• Harriet Crumply
• Clarissa 'Wedgie' Wedge

Her last role, of 97 titles on IMDb, was on "Falcon Crest" in 1987. But I will always remember her as Connie Brooks.

The Bank Dick

One of everyone's favorite W. C. Fields movies is The Bank Dick from 1940.  This was the second to last Fields movie and by this time his popularity allowed him do whatever he wanted.  The story seems a little disjointed by today's standards, but each part is so much fun that it doesn't matter.  Don't be a moon-calf, don't be a jabbernow, you just have to enjoy it as it unfolds.

Fields came from vaudeville, so he could put on an act all alone on stage.  In his movies he surrounded himself with character actors like Grady Sutton, (Og Oggilby) Una Merkel (Myrtle Souse), Shemp Howard (the bartender, Joe Guelpe) and Franklin Pangborn (J. Pinkerton Snoopington, bank examiner).  These people have wonderful comedic timing, and Fields used them to great effect.


Russell Hicks played J. Frothingham Waterbury.  Hicks started his film career in the silent classic The Birth of a Nation in 1915.  He had 316 roles in movies and TV over 42 years.  His deep voice and ability to project it, and his perfect diction was great in the talkies.  Look for him in You Can't Take it with You (Directed by Frank Capra), Buck Privates Come Home (Abbott and Costello), The Big Store (Marx Brothers), Great Guns (among other films with Laurel and Hardy), Dark Alibi (A Sidney Toler - Charlie Chan film)...it's another endless list by a great bit actor!  For most of his career on the screen he averaged 13 films a year.

One of my favorites in this film had a small part.  David Oliver was the bank teller with the straw hat.  Billy Mitchell comes in and wants to withdraw his money because the teller with the hat makes him nervous.  He made ME nervous with his nervous little voice and that sneeze!  Billy Mitchell was a tenor sax player with Dizzie Gillespie and Count Basie.  David Oliver also appeared in Fields' You Can't Cheat an Honest Man a year earlier, and I also noticed him in Pot O' Gold (1941) with Jimmy Stewart and Paulette Goddard.

I guess its time to watch some more W. C. Fields movies.  I had the pleasure of meeting his grandson, Bill Fields, at one of our Sons of the Desert meetings quite a few years ago.  I believe he still lives in the Philadelphia area.

Sons of the Desert

This is the first time I have tried creating a blog.  I guess the movie Julie and Julia started me thinking about it.  It is amazing how movies can influence your life...without you even realizing it.  I am finding this experience to be uplifting...and rather creative.  I use Google Chrome normally, but now I am on Internet Explorer because Chrome is causing some problems on my home computer.  The blue screen is a definite creative mood changer!

Right around the time I was thinking about getting married (the first time) I met some friends of my (now) ex-wife.  (BTW, my new wife is absolutely wonderful, and she is learning about these old movies, having a great time!  If you want to get married, start with your second wife.)  These friends were involved with The Sons of the Desert, an organization dedicated to Laurel and Hardy.  I started going to meetings and made more friends in the group.  Again, an experience like that really adds to your knowledge of movies.  Not just the movies and actors, but the entire process-sets, music, effects, editing-it is all fascinating.

The SOD would meet every month and we would watch movies (usually 16mm) and have drinks and pretzels.  Every year was the banquet and we would invite guests who were in some way involved with movies, preferably Laurel and Hardy movies.  I met many stars and spouses of stars over the years.  As I continue the blog, I will mention them and look over some pics I have, perhaps to post.  If this blog catches on, it may be going for a while, so I won't make the posts too long!

One experience I will never forget was early in the Keswick Theatre's re-birth as a performing arts center.  The local chapter of the SOD was invited to show some L&H movies at the theatre.  A feature was secured in 35mm, and they used their newly renovated projectors for that, but we also wanted to show some two-reelers, which we only had on 16mm.  I was able to rent two Graflex 16mm xenon arc-lamp projectors with the appropriate lenses to fill the screen in that huge 1300 person auditorium.  That was wonderful, being in the booth in the theater where I basically grew up.

Our bit actor today is...Grady Sutton!  Another long and distinguished career, spanning 1925 to 1979 with 228 credits on IMDB.  From silent films to rock and roll!  Grady was born in 1906 and lived until 1995.  I spoke with him once, but only on the phone.  My friend in the SOD received a call from him at his house, and Grady was at his home in California.  He was a very gracious man as I told him about the joy his movies had brought me.  Who can forget him in WC Field's The Bank Dick?  His wonderful Tennessee voice will ring in my memory forever.  Thank you, Grady, wherever you are.