Showing posts with label Alan Ladd. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alan Ladd. Show all posts
September 5, 2025
Howard da Silva articles/mentions
mentions:
Alan Ladd & Veronica Lake ~ The Blue Dahlia
Martha Schlamme ~ The World Of Kurt Weill In Song
Alan Ladd & Veronica Lake ~ The Blue Dahlia
Martha Schlamme ~ The World Of Kurt Weill In Song
September 3, 2025
Alan Ladd & Veronica Lake ~ The Blue Dahlia
~
Today is the birthday of movie actor Alan Ladd,
who was an American actor and film producer. Ladd found success in film
in the 1940s and early 1950s and was often paired with Veronica Lake in films noir, such as This Gun for Hire (1942), The Glass Key (1942), and The Blue Dahlia (1946).
Ladd was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas,
on September 3, 1913. On July 3, 1918, the five year-old Alan
accidentally burned down the family home while playing with matches. In
the early 1920s, Ladd's family moved to
California. They lived in a migrant camp in Pasadena, California, at first and then moved to the San Fernando Valley. He enrolled in North Hollywood High School
on February 18, 1930, became a high-school swimming and diving
champion and participated in high-school dramatics in his senior year,
including the role of Ko-Ko in The Mikado which was seen by a talent scout.
He got regular professional acting work only when he turned to radio. Ladd
had worked to develop a rich, deep voice ideal for that medium, and in
1936, he was signed by station KFWB as its sole radio actor. One night he was playing the roles of a father and son on radio when he was heard by an agent, Sue Carol.
She was impressed and called the station to talk to the actors, and was
told they were only one person. She arranged to meet him, and
impressed by his looks, she signed him and promoted her new client in
films and on
radio. Ladd's first notable part under Carol's management was the 1939
film Rulers of the Sea at $250 per week. He also received attention for a small part in Hitler – Beast of Berlin (1939). He had a small, uncredited part in Citizen Kane, playing a newspaper reporter toward the end of the film.
Paramount knew it had a potential star and announced Ladd's next film, an adaptation of the Dashiell Hammett story, The Glass Key (1942) with Brian Donlevy and Veronica Lake.
Ladd's cool, unsmiling, understated persona proved popular with wartime audiences, and he was voted by the Motion Picture Herald as one of the 10 "stars of tomorrow" for 1942. Paramount was delighted. The majority of stars were earmarked from wherever
they came; if it seemed unlikely that public acceptance would come with
one film, they were trained and built up: The incubation period was
usually between two and five years. As far as Ladd was concerned, he was
a small-part actor given a fat part faute de mieux, and after
his second film for them, he had not merely hit the leading-men
category, but had gone beyond it to films which were constructed around
his personality. His salary was raised to $750 per week.
He starred in China (1943) with Loretta Young for director John Farrow,
with whom Ladd made a number of movies. Young did not like working with
Ladd: "I found him petulant... I don't remember hearing him laugh, or
ever
seeing him laugh. Everything that concerned him was very serious... He
had a certain screen personality... but as an actor... I never made any
contact with him. He wouldn't look at me. He'd say "I love you...", and
he'd be looking out there some place. Finally, I said "Alan, I'm
he-ere!!"... I think he was very conscious of his looks. Alan would not
look beyond a certain point in the camera because he didn't think he
looked good."
He enlisted for military service on January 19, 1943. While
he was in the armed services, a number of films that had been announced
for him were postponed and/or made with different actors but he was
reportedly receiving 20,000 fan letters per week. The New York Times
reported that "Ladd in the brief period of a year and with only four
starring pictures to his credit... had built up a following unmatched in
film history since Rudolph Valentino skyrocketed to fame." In December 1943, he was listed as the 15th-most popular star in the U.S.
When Ladd returned from the army, Paramount announced a series of vehicles for him, including And Now Tomorrow and Two Years Before the Mast.
In 1945 Paramount commissioned Raymond Chandler to write an original screenplay for him titled The Blue Dahlia, made relatively quickly in case the studio lost Ladd to the military once again.
The Blue Dahlia was released to great acclaim (Chandler was nominated for an Oscar for the screenplay), quickly followed by Two Years Before the Mast. The two films were solid hits, each earning over $2 million in rentals in the U.S. and Canada; Two Years Before the Mast was a blockbuster, earning over $4 million and ranking among the top-10 most popular films of the year. Ladd's roles in This Gun for Hire, The Glass Key, and The Blue Dahlia, firmly established him as a no-nonsense tough guy in a popular genre of crime films later to become known as film noir.
In
1950, the Hollywood Women's Press Club voted Ladd the easiest male star
to deal with in Hollywood. The following year, a poll from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association listed Ladd as the second-most popular male film star in the world, after Gregory Peck.
The Blue Dahlia plot
When a former bomber pilot (Alan Ladd) comes home from the war, he finds his wife kissing her substitute boyfriend (Howard Da Silva),
the owner of the Blue Dahlia nightclub. When she also confesses that
her drunkenness caused their son's death, he walks out on her, but later
she is found dead and he becomes the prime suspect.
Viewfinder links:
Howard da Silva.
Dashiell Hammett articles/mentions
Brian Donlevy articles/mentions
Rudolph Valentino articles/mentions
mentions:
Alan Ladd & Veronica Lake ~ The Blue Dahlia
Rudolph Valentino - 1926
photographer unknown
Loretta Young articles/mentions
Raymond Chandler articles/mentions
August 8, 2022
Alan Ladd articles/mentions
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Alan Ladd ~ The Blue Dahlia
mentions:
Rory Calhoun ~ W/Song In My Heart & 10"
Julie London ~ Cry Me a River
publicity photo
September 26, 2018
45 RPMs 26: Julie London ~ Cry Me a River
~
Today, September 26, is the birthday of Julie London; she was born Julie Peck in Santa Rosa, California on September 26, 1926.
Julie London ~ Cry Me a River
45 rpm single w/record sleeve
photo by Styrous®
London sang as a teenager in a band on the West Coast, prior to her first film appearance. She attended Hollywood Professional High School and graduated in 1944. She was discovered by talent agent Sue Carol (the wife of actor Alan Ladd) while an elevator operator.
Today, September 26, is the birthday of Julie London; she was born Julie Peck in Santa Rosa, California on September 26, 1926.
Julie London ~ Cry Me a River
45 rpm single w/record sleeve
photo by Styrous®
London sang as a teenager in a band on the West Coast, prior to her first film appearance. She attended Hollywood Professional High School and graduated in 1944. She was discovered by talent agent Sue Carol (the wife of actor Alan Ladd) while an elevator operator.
In 1944, she appeared in her
first film, Nabonga, which starred Buster Crabbe of Tarzan, Flash Gordon, and Buck Rogers fame.
Nabonga - 1944
Her first public professional singing performance was at the 881 Club. Her first recording was this 45 single, Cry Me a River, written by former high school classmate Arthur Hamilton. It was first published in 1953 and made famous in 1955 by London.
I remember hearing the song for the first time; it was soft, sensual, incredibly hypnotizing and her velvet, almost breathless voice was mesmerizing. I fell acoustically in love with her, sight unseen. Later I saw a photograph of her and it finished me off; I was eternally hooked.
date & photographer unknown
Arthur Hamilton later said of the song: "I had never heard the phrase. I just liked the combination of words... Instead of 'Eat your heart out' or 'I'll get even with you,' it sounded like a good, smart retort to somebody who had hurt your feelings or broken your heart."
A jazzy blues ballad, Cry Me a River was originally written for Ella Fitzgerald to sing in the 1920s-set film, Pete Kelly's Blues (released 1955), but the song was dropped.
photo by Styrous®
Another
former classmate was disc-jockey Jack Wagner of KHJ in Hollywood. Jack
was impressed with London's sultry looks as a high school student
and equally impressed with her singing talent. He helped to promote her
albums. He wrote the liner notes for her 1957 album, About the Blues (Liberty 3043). London was married to Jack Webb, star of the Dragnet TV series who also was the producer of Pete Kelly's Blues
in which London appeared in 1955. She later married Bobby Troup who
helped to sign her to the then new Liberty label. London made over 30
albums (link below).
"Julie London emerged as the consummate cocktail siren. Movie star, club performer, recording artist, and occasional television personality.
She was also the perfect physical type for conveying "aerodynamic glamour in the new age of mass-produced Frididaires and televisions." She was a blend of Dionysian flesh and Detroit steel, streamlined car and cocktail shaker combined. Her cool, sleek supple contours, cobalt blue eyes, and high tech vocals satisfied America's fascination for what Marshall McLuhan called "the assembly line goddess."
Cry Me a River has been used in many films, V For Vendetta (2006), Repo Men (2010), as well as the Michael Bublé adaption of the song used in the BBC advertising for, and theme music for coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics.
It has been covered by Joan Baez, Shirley Bassey, Dinah Washington, Barbra Streisand, Lesley Gore, Joe Cocker, Crystal Gayle, Aerosmith, Mari Wilson, Diana Krall, Etta James and many others.
photo by Styrous®
The "B" side of the record is S Wonderful, which is the complete opposite from Cry Me a River. It starts fast and jazzy then midway mellows out a bit but stays jazzy. It was composed by George Gershwin, with lyrics written by Ira Gershwin. It was introduced in the Broadway musical Funny Face (1927) by Adele Astaire and Allen Kearns. The song is considered a standard and has been recorded by many artists including Bing Crosby, Brian Wilson, Anita O'Day, Gene Kelly, Ella Fitzgerald Michael Feinstein, Judy Garland, Joe Williams, John Pizzarelli, Sarah Vaughan, Karrin Allyson, Diana Krall, João Gilberto, Shirley Bassey and Engelbert Humperdinck.
photo by Styrous®
The song was included in the 1951 movie An American in Paris, where it is sung by Gene Kelly and Georges Guétary, as well as in the 1957 American musical film Funny Face, in which it was performed by Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire. Doris Day also sang it in Starlift (1951) and Dean Martin sang it during the opening credits of the 1964 film Kiss Me, Stupid.
photo by Styrous®
Julie London
was a chain smoker from the age of 16 onward, at some periods smoking
in excess of three packs of cigarettes per day. She suffered a stroke in 1995 and was in poor health for the following five years. She died of cardiac arrest in the early morning hours of October 18, 2000, at the Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center in Encino, she was 74 years old.
She was buried next to her husband Bobby Troup, who had died the previous year, in the Courts of Remembrance Columbarium of Providence, at Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles. Her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (for recording) is at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard, also in Los Angeles.
She was buried next to her husband Bobby Troup, who had died the previous year, in the Courts of Remembrance Columbarium of Providence, at Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles. Her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (for recording) is at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard, also in Los Angeles.
Tracklist:
Side 1:
A - Cry Me A River, written by Arthur Hamilton - 2:36
Side 2:
B - S’Wonderful, written by George & Ira Gershwin* - 1:33
Credits:
Bass – Ray Leatherwood
Guitar – Barney Kessell*
Barcode and Other Identifiers
Matrix / Runout (Side A): EB-1287
Matrix / Runout (Side B): EB-1288
Matrix / Runout (Runout Side A): 45-EB-1287-D8
Matrix / Runout (Runout Side B): 45-EB-1288-D5
Rights Society: ASCAP
Julie London – Cry Me A River
Label: Liberty – 55006
Format: Vinyl, 7", Single
Country: US
Released: 1955
Genre: Jazz
Style: Easy Listening
Viewfinder links:
Aerosmith
Joe Cocker
Bing Crosby
Ella Fitzgerald
George Gershwin
Ira Gershwin
Lesley Gore
Gene Kelly
Marshall McLuhan
Anita O'Day
Barbra Streisand
Dinah Washington
Jack Webb
Brian Wilson
Net links:
ABC News ~ obit
Discover Music ~ Julie London
Emergency Fans ~ An inside joke?
The Times ~ obit
LA News ~ obit
NY Times ~ obit
Sac Jazz ~ Famous Julie London Songs
YouTube links:
Cry Me a River
'S Wonderful
Styrous® ~ Wednesday, September 26, 2018
Anita O'Day
Barbra Streisand
Dinah Washington
Jack Webb
Brian Wilson
Net links:
ABC News ~ obit
Discover Music ~ Julie London
Emergency Fans ~ An inside joke?
The Times ~ obit
LA News ~ obit
NY Times ~ obit
Sac Jazz ~ Famous Julie London Songs
YouTube links:
Cry Me a River
'S Wonderful
", , , the assembly line goddess."
Styrous® ~ Wednesday, September 26, 2018
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