Olga Baclanova apprenticed at the Moscow Art Theatre but was soon appearing in films in the Russian cinema. In 1925, as part of a touring company from the Moscow Art Theatre, Olga came to New York City. She defected during the tour and caught the sight of film producers during a performance in Los Angeles. …
Alice White worked as a script girl and secretary for noted Academy Award-nominated director Josef von Sternberg. She also served as a switchboard operator at the Hollywood Writers’ Club. After a disagreement with von Sternberg, she went to work for Charles Chaplin. Alice was often compared to actress Clara Bow. Her bubbly personality caught the …
Born in Peru in 1925, Carlos Tobalina emigrated to California in 1956. He found work as a used car salesman and, in a second career, doing voice-overs on a Spanish language radio station. Taken in by the appeal of the Southern California film industry, Carlos founded his own production company in 1964. The company — …
While attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Brooklyn, 19 year-old Helen Jurgens married fellow student Clark Twelvetrees and adopted his unusual and unique surname as her own. Clark was a troubled man, who once attempted suicide at a dinner party. He jumped from a high-story window, but survived. Helen divorced Clark in 1931. …
Twenty-year-old Evelyn McHale boarded a train at 7 in the morning in on May 1, 1947. She was headed back home to Tuckahoe, New York after visiting her fiance in Easton, Pennsylvania to celebrate his 24th birthday. When she arrived at Penn Station, she walked to the Empire State Building and purchased a ticket to …
After some modeling work, 22-year old Nora Lane was cast in the silent Western Jesse James in 1927. She went on to co-star in over 80 films throughout her career, including a recurring role in the Hopalong Cassidy serials. Her popularity led to a spokesperson gig for Lux Soap in the early 1930s. In the …
The child of vaudeville performers, Bill Thompson’s destiny was show business. At 21, he started singing and doing voices on The Breakfast Club, a popular national morning radio show originating in Chicago. He developed a slow-speaking, mush-mouth character he dubbed “Mr. Wimple.” Bill would nurture this voice for the rest of his career. In 1936, …
A chance audition for the role of “Joe Hardy” on a serialized version of The Hardy Boys was Tommy Kirk’s ticket to stardom. The show, broadcast as part of the popular Mickey Mouse Club, was the first installment in Tommy’s long, productive and lucrative association with the Walt Disney Company. 1957 saw Tommy star in …
Minnie and Clara Bagelman began their singing career on a New York radio show called “Uncle Norman,” which was geared towards children. This led to the sisters making some recordings for RCA Records in the early 1930s. Their records, which were recorded in Yiddish, had limited appeal and sold mostly to the fans of New …
I loved listening to the radio when I was a kid. As far as I was concerned, there were only two radio stations to listen to in the Philadelphia area — WFIL and WIBG, the AM home of Top 40. Yeah, I knew there were others, but they didn’t play “the hits.” My mom listened …
