Hungarian-born Michael Curtiz was one of the most prolific directors that ever worked in Hollywood. He directed over one hundred films beginning with The Third Degree in 1926, just after his arrival in America. (He directed nearly a hundred films in his native Hungary).

As the 20s became the 30s, Michael was cranking out five and six pictures a year for Warner Brothers, helping the studio to become one of Hollywood’s most successful. Michael was a perfectionist and expected the same level of output from his actors. He was prone to berate and insult his cast and crew, noting that “acting is fifty percent a bag of tricks”.  Because of this, a great many actors refused to work with him. He had a tumultuous working relationship with Errol Flynn. The pair teamed up for twelve films, including The Adventures of Robin Hood and Captain Blood,  until Flynn was finally fed up with Michael’s temperament and another director was chosen for 1948’s Adventures of Don Juan.

Michael had a better relationship with Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney, directing the former eight times including the classic Casablanca. He evoked great results from Bogart and Cagney in the quintessential gangster film Angels with Dirty Faces and Cagney’s Oscar-winning tour de force Yankee Doodle Dandy. Actress Fay Wray, however, once remarked that Michael was just like a piece of machinery; an extension of the camera crane. His relationship with the great Bette Davis was so volatile that he once called her a “no good sexless son of a bitch” in the middle of a movie set. Michael’s films crossed genres and he was just as comfortable directing a drama as he was a musical or horror movie. No matter what the subject, Michael was a workaholic. He never broke for meals and referred to those who did as “lunch bums”.

Although it was never a hindrance, foreign-born Michael’s poor grasp of English was notorious. A prop man on the set of Casablanca  was baffled by Michael’s request for “poodles”. Over and over, he demanded “poodles” be scattered about the set. He soon realized Michael actually wanted “puddles” during a rain scene. During the filming of 1936’s Charge of The Light Brigade, a scene called for a stampede of riderless horses. When he was ready, Michael announced to “bring on the empty horses”.

In the early 1950s, Michael’s association with Warner Brothers waned and he began freelancing for rival studios. He directed King Creole (his only teaming with Elvis Presley) and the holiday favorite White Christmas for Paramount. His last film, 1961’s The Comancheros  with John Wayne, was released six months before Michael lost his battle with cancer at age 75.

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Nine-year old June Preisser, along with her sister Cherry, performed as child acrobats from their hometown of New Orleans to New York City, to the famous music halls of Paris, Berlin and London. They even were given an audience with King George of England. Their act caught the interest of show-biz impresario Florenz Ziegfeld and they went to work in the famous Ziegfeld Follies in the late 1930s.

Cherry married and retired from the act leaving June to continue as a solo. June was soon signed to a contract with MGM and was cast as Judy Garland‘s rival for Mickey Rooney’s affections in the musicals Babes in Arms in 1939 and Strike Up the Band in 1940. She appeared as essentially the same character in several of Rooney’s popular Andy Hardy pictures. After her marriage at 22 and the birth of her son, MGM expressed little interest in further promotion of her career. June signed on with Monogram Pictures, a studio known for their low-budget pictures. She made eight films in the “Teen Ager” musical series playing peppy high-schooler Dodie Rogers, despite being in her middle 20s.

June called it a career in 1948 following her appearance in a stage production of Annie Get Your Gun. After a bitter divorce, she opened a chain of dance schools in Los Angeles.  Her dance school endeavor tanked and she moved to Florida with her grown son.

June’s name surfaced in the news in 1984, when it was reported that she and her son had died in a car accident during a severe Florida rainstorm. June was 63.

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Beginning with his first film, 1935’s I ragazzi della via Paal, Mario Monicelli wrote and directed over one hundred films and earned praise as one of the most beloved masters of the Commedia all’Italiana (Italian-style comedy) in a career that spanned eight decades.

He worked quite often with stars Vittorio Gassman and Marcello Mastroianni, as well as internationally-known Italian actors such as Sophia Loren and Giancarlo Giannini. He was recognized several times with Academy Award nominations in the Best Foreign Film category. He even dabbled in small acting roles, including a small part as a flower salesman in 2003’s Under the Tuscan Sun. In 1991, his illustrious career was honored by the Venice Film Festival and he received the Golden Lion award. In 2006, the ever-prolific Monicelli directed The Roses of the Desert  at the age of 91.

In the final week of November 2010, Mario Monicelli was admitted to San Giovanni hospital in Rome for treatment of prostate cancer. Several days after admission, Mario leaped to his death from his fifth-floor hospital room window. He was 95.

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In the early 1920s, young Lee Nash developed a comedy vaudeville act and was soon joined by his childhood friend Morris Horowitz. Lee, now known by the stage name “Ted Healy”, told jokes onstage and was heckled by Morris, who was planted in the audience. Morris would then come up to the stage and engage Ted in funny banter, until the act culminated in the payoff of Ted losing his trousers — a punchline given approval by the audience’s hysterics. Morris’ brother Samuel joined the act as another heckler, followed by friend, violinist Louis Feinberg. The act, Ted Healy and His Southern Gentlemen, was very popular on the vaudeville circuit for years.

The troupe made a film, Soup to Nuts, in 1930 and the Horowitz brothers, along with Feinberg, split from Ted over a movie contract dispute. Morris shortened his name to Moe. Brother Samuel used his nickname “Shemp” as a stage name. They also changed their surname to Howard. Louis Feinberg adopted the professional name “Larry Fine” and left the violin behind in favor of pratfalls, eye pokes and hair-pulling. The three believed they were “the draw” of the act and they embarked on a career as a trio — The Three Stooges.

After officially, but amiably, parting ways with the Stooges in 1934, Ted entered a new phase of his career, choosing adventure and mystery films over comedies. He appeared in over thirty movies for 20th Century Fox, Warner Brothers and MGM. He was so popular that his was the first caricature to be placed on the wall at famed Manhattan restaurant Sardi’s.

On December 19, 1937, Ted visited Moe and Helen Howard to tell them that his wife Betty was expecting a baby and was going to deliver shortly. Ted had always loved children. He doted over Moe’s kids and gave generously to underprivledged youngsters at holiday time. He was ecstatic at the thought of becoming a father himself.

On December 21, 1937, Ted was drinking in a bar on Sunset Strip in Hollywood when he got into an argument with a young college student half his age and twice his size. Two of the student’s friends joined in when the name-calling escalated to shoving and spilled out into the parking lot. The three young men beat the crap out of Ted. A friend picked Ted off the sidewalk and took him to his apartment where he later died as a result of his injuries.

However, there is another account of Ted’s death that differs greatly from that story. Allegedly, MGM boss Louis B. Mayer sent hefty actor Wallace Beery and Albert Broccoli (later producer of the James Bond film series) to beat up Ted. The “college boys” story was fabricated and given to the press as Beery laid low in Europe for several months. This scenario is unsubstantiated and dismissed as  a total lie by members of Mr. Mayer’s family. Despite the mystery surrounding the conflicting stories, the fact was that Ted Healy died at age 41.

Never one to save money, Ted died penniless and his funeral was paid for by fellow vaudevillians the Foy Family. One week after Ted’s funeral, his son was baptized.

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