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Model: Brandi Ann www.facebook.com/brandiann1014
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Cosplay of Ann Takamaki aka Panther from Persona 5 at AnimeNEXT 2017.
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Ann Hoang. RocknNeedle fashion shoot. Make-up by Michaela Frankova. Commissioned studio shoot in Fulham, London
Cosplay of Ann Takamaki aka Panther from the video game Persona 5 at AnimeNEXT 2018.
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Vintage postcard. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Ann Miller (1923-2004) was an American dancer, singer and actress. She was famed for her speed in tap dancing and her style of glamour: massive black bouffant hair, heavy makeup with a splash of crimson lipstick, and fashions that emphasized her lithe figure and long dancer's legs. Miller is best remembered for her work in the classic Hollywood musicals Easter Parade (1948), On the Town (1949) and Kiss Me Kate (1953).
Ann Miller was born Johnnie Lucille Ann Collier in 1923 on her grandparents ranch in Chireno, Texas. Her father wanted a boy, so Ann was named Johnnie, and she later went by Lucille. Her father was a well-known criminal lawyer who had defended famous gangsters Bonnie and Clyde and Baby Face Nelson. Mrs. Collier enrolled her three-year-old little girl in dancing lessons to help strengthen her legs, which had become weakened from a case of rickets. When Miller was ten she met Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson at a local theatre and he gave her a quick tap-dancing lesson. She liked that style of dance very much, and decided to concentrate on it with further lessons. After her parents divorced, she went with her mother to Hollywood, determined to get into show business. The eleven-year-old brunette, pretending to be of legal age, was soon hired to dance for $25 a week at the Sunset Club, a small lounge where gambling went on upstairs. Using the stage name of Ann Miller, she practiced her machine-gun tapping for the thrilled patrons. She also danced at the seedy Black Cat Club, where she scooped up the coins customers threw into her skirt to help pay the bills. Before long, Ann was netting unbilled extra roles in the films Anne of Green Gables (1934) and The Good Fairy (1935), and she got to dance in Devil On Horseback (1936). The next year the thirteen-year-old was dancing for a four-month run in a show at the popular Bal Tabarin nightclub in San Francisco. There, she was discovered by comedian Benny Rubin and future comedian, actress Lucille Ball. Ball introduced Miller to executives at RKO Studios. Pretending she was eighteen with the help of a fake birth certificate supplied by her father, Ann landed a seven-year contract and a role in the film New Faces of 1937 (1937).
Ann Miller's first great part was in Stage Door (1937), in which she danced with Ginger Rogers and acted with Lucille Ball, Katharine Hepburn, and Eve Arden. Other films in which Ann appeared include Radio City Revels (1937), the Oscar winner You Can't Take It With You (1938) with Jean Arthur and James Stewart, and Room Service (1938) with the Marx Brothers. Miller introduced Lucille Ball to Desi Arnaz, and, some years later, the famous couple bought RKO and re-named it DesiLu. Ann's last film at the studio was Too Many Girls (1940), in which she co-starred with friends Lucy and Desi. She then appeared on Broadway in George White's Scandals in 1939 and 1940, for which she won rave reviews. In 1940 Miller moved to Republic Pictures, where she enlivened Melody Ranch (1940) with Gene Autrey in his first musical film, and Hit Parade of 1941 (1941). Other films followed, many aimed at promoting the war effort, which include True To The Army (1942), Priorities On Parade (1942), Reveille With Beverly (1943), What's Buzzin' Cousin? (1943), Hey Rookie (1944), and Jam Session (1944). In 1945, Ann briefly dated powerful MGM boss Louis B. Mayer. When the much older mogul asked Ann to marry him, she turned him down. Moaning and groaning to her on the phone, the dramatic Mayer swallowed sleeping pills, and immediately sent his chauffeur to summon Ann to his death bed. An ambulance arrived first and he recovered. Later, Ann married Reese Milner, a rich steel heir, and they lived on the biggest ranch in California where they raised prized Hereford cattle. The marriage ended quickly after Reese threw Ann down the stairs of their home. Pregnant Miller filed for divorce from her hospital bed, with her broken back in a steel harness. Her baby, Mary, died a few hours after birth. Later, painfully returning to Mayer for a job, he told her, "If you'd married me, none of this would have happened."
Ann Miller was still in a back brace when she danced to Shakin' The Blues Away in Easter Parade (1948), co-starring Fred Astaire and Judy Garland. She received fantastic reviews, and MGM gave Ann a seven-year contract. Ann then proceeded to make her most spectacular Technicolor musicals that include On The Town (1949), Small Town Girl (1952), Kiss Me Kate (1953) which was extravagantly filmed in 3-D, and Hit The Deck (1955). Her last musical was a remake of the 1939 film The Women, named The Opposite Sex (1956). The glamorous, outgoing and articulate Ann was also hired as MGM's Good Will Ambassador. She travelled the world in gorgeous designer ensembles while representing her studio with personal appearances and speaking engagements. When she flew to Morocco in July of 1957 to appear with Bob Hope on the Timex TV Hour, she entertained five thousand troops in 120 degree weather as she sang 'Too Darn Hot', and soon set a record for the world's fastest tap-dancing at 500 taps a minute. In 1958, Miller married her second millionaire, Texas oil man Bill Moss who, she quipped, "...looked exactly like my first husband. Three months later, he broke my arm." A third marriage to another oilman, Arthur Cameron, was annulled within a year, though they remained friends. From 1966-1970, Ann became a hit on Broadway in 'Mame'. In 1970 she turned to television and starred in a commercial for Heinz's Great American Soups, in which Miller tap-danced on an eight foot can of soup surrounded by dozens of high-kicking chorus girls, 20-foot fountains, and a 24- piece orchestra. Then, tapping her way back into her kitchen, her husband cried, "Why must you make such a big production out of everything?" The song she sang was written by humorist Stan Freberg and choreographed by Danny Daniels. In 1972, in St. Louis, on opening night of the musical show 'Anything Goes', Ann was knocked in the head by the steel beam of a fire curtain. Although as a consequence she was unable to walk for two years and suffered permanant vertigo, her life actually had been saved by her well-known, stiff, enormous, lacquered black wig. In 1979, she made a comeback and a fortune in 'Sugar Babies' with former teenage Hollywood acting schoolmate Mickey Rooney. The popular show ran for two years on Broadway and seven more years on the road. In 1998 she appeared in a successful revival of Stephen Sondheim's 'Follies' at the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey. In 1972, Miller published her autobiography, 'Miller's High Life', and more memoirs in 1981 with 'Tops In Taps'. Her last screen appearance was playing Coco in director David Lynch's critically acclaimed Mulholland Drive (2001). Ann Miller died of lung cancer in Los Angeles, California in 2004. She was buried next to her miscarried daughter, which reads "Beloved Baby Daughter Mary Milner November 12, 1946". The Smithsonian Institution displays her favourite pair of tap shoes, which she playfully nicknamed "Moe and Joe".
Sources: Steve Starr (The Entertainment Magazine), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 1213a. Photo: Walter Wanger.
American actress and singer Ann Sheridan (1915-1967) worked from 1934 in film and later on television. She could both play the girl next door and the tough-as-nails dame. Known as the 'Oomph Girl', she became one of the most glamorous women in Hollywood. Her notable films include Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) with James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart, They Drive by Night (1940) with George Raft and Bogart, Nora Prentiss (1947), and I Was a Male War Bride (1949) with Cary Grant.
Clara Lou Sheridan was born in Denton, Texas, in 1915, as the youngest of five children of G.W. Sheridan and Lula Stewart Warren Sheridan, an automobile mechanic and his homemaker wife. She was a self-described tomboy and was very athletic, and played on the girl's basketball team for North Texas State Teacher's College, where she was planning to enter the teaching field. She was active in dramatics and also sang with the college's stage band. In 1932, her sister Pauline sent a photograph of Clara Lou in a bathing suit to Paramount Pictures. She subsequently entered and won the 'Search for Beauty' contest, with part of her prize being a screen test and a bit part in a film by that name. She left college to pursue a career in Hollywood and, aged 19, made her film debut in Search for Beauty (Erle C. Kenton, 1934), starring Buster Crabbe and Ida Lupino. For the next two years, she played uncredited bit parts in Paramount films, starting at $75 a week (equivalent to $1,400 in 2020). Sheridan can be glimpsed in 13 films in 1934, including Come On Marines! (Henry Hathaway, 1934) still billed as 'Clara Lou Sheridan', Murder at the Vanities (Mitchell Leisen, 1934), College Rhythm (Norman Taurog, 1934), and One Hour Late (Ralph Murphy, 1934). Sheridan worked with Paramount's drama coach Nina Mouise and performed plays on the lot with fellow contractees, including 'The Milky Way' and 'The Pursuit of Happiness'. 'When she did The Milky Way', she played a character called Ann and the Paramount front office decided to change her name to 'Ann'. Sheridan had a part in Behold My Wife! (1934), which she got at the behest of director Mitchell Leisen, who was a friend. She had two good scenes, one in which her character had to commit suicide. Sheridan attributed Paramount's keeping her for two years to this role. Twelve more bit parts followed in 1935 in such films as Enter Madame (Elliott Nugent, 1935) starring Elissa Landi and Cary Grant, the drama Home on the Range (Arthur Jacobson, 1935) starring Jackie Coogan, and Rumba (Marion Gering, 1935,) an unsuccessful follow-up to George Raft and Carole Lombard's smash hit Bolero (Wesley Ruggles, 1934). Sheridan's first lead came in Car 99 (Charles Barton, 1935) with Fred MacMurray. She had the female lead in Rocky Mountain Mystery (Charles Barton, 1935), a Randolph Scott Western. She then appeared in Mississippi (A. Edward Sutherland, 1935) with Bing Crosby and W.C. Fields, The Glass Key (Frank Tuttle, 1935) with George Raft, and (having one line) the historical adventure The Crusades (Cecil B. DeMille, 1935) with Loretta Young. Paramount lent her out to Talisman, a small production company, to make the Western The Red Blood of Courage (John English, 1935) with Kermit Maynard. After this, Paramount declined to take up her option. Sheridan did one film at Universal, Fighting Youth (Hamilton MacFadden, 1935) with Charles Farrell, and then signed a contract with Warner Bros. in 1936.
Ann Sheridan's career prospects began to improve. Her early films for Warner Bros. included the musical Sing Me a Love Song (Ray Enright, 1936), and the crime drama Black Legion (Archie Mayo, 1937) with Humphrey Bogart. Her first real break came in the crime film The Great O'Malley (William Dieterle, 1937) with Pat O'Brien and Bogart. She sang for the first time in San Quentin (Lloyd Bacon, 1937), with O'Brien and Bogart. Sheridan then moved into B picture leads such as The Footloose Heiress (William Clemens, 1937), Alcatraz Island (William C. McGann, 1937) with John Litel, and She Loved a Fireman (John Farrow, 1937) with Dick Foran for director John Farrow. She was a lead in The Patient in Room 18 (Bobby Connolly, Crane Wilbur, 1937) and its sequel Mystery House (Noel M. Smith, 1938). Sheridan was in Little Miss Thoroughbred (John Farrow, 1938) and supported Dick Powell in Cowboy from Brooklyn (Lloyd Bacon, 1938). Universal borrowed her for a support role in Letter of Introduction (1938) at the behest of director John M. Stahl. For John Farrow, she was in Broadway Musketeers (1938), a remake of Three on a Match (Mervyn LeRoy, 1932). Sheridan's notices in Letter of Introduction impressed Warner Bros. executives. She began to get roles in A pictures, starting with the gangster film Angels with Dirty Faces (Michael Curtiz, 1938), wherein she played James Cagney's love interest; Bogart, O'Brien and the Dead End Kids had supporting roles. The film was a big hit and critically acclaimed. Sheridan was reunited with the Dead End Kids in They Made Me a Criminal (Busby Berkeley, 1938) starring John Garfield. She was third-billed in the Western Dodge City (Michael Curtiz, 1939), playing a saloon owner opposite Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. The film was another notable success. In March 1939, Warner Bros. announced Sheridan had been voted by a committee of 25 men as the actress with the most "oomph" in America. Oomph" was described as "a certain indefinable something that commands male interest." She received as many as 250 marriage proposals from fans in a single week. Now tagged 'The Oomph Girl'—a sobriquet which she reportedly loathed —Sheridan was a popular pin-up girl in the early 1940s. She was top-billed in Indianapolis Speedway (Lloyd Bacon, 1939) with Pat O'Brien and Angels Wash Their Faces (Ray Enright, 1939) with O'Brien, the Dead End Kids and Ronald Reagan. Castle on the Hudson (Anatole Litvak, 1940) put her opposite John Garfield and Pat O'Brien.
Ann Sheridan's first real starring vehicle was It All Came True (Lewis Seiler, 1940), a musical comedy co-starring Humphrey Bogart and Jeffrey Lynn. She introduced the song 'Angel in Disguise'. Sheridan and James Cagney were reunited in Torrid Zone (William Keighley, 1940) with Pat O'Brien in support. She was with George Raft, Bogart and Ida Lupino in the Film Noir They Drive by Night (Raoul Walsh, 1940), a trucking melodrama. She was in a lot of comedies and a number of forgettable films, but the public liked her, and her career flourished. Sheridan was back with Cagney for City for Conquest (Anatole Litvak, 1941) and then made Honeymoon for Three (Lloyd Bacon, 1941), a comedy with George Brent. Sheridan did two lighter films: Navy Blues (Lloyd Bacon, 1941), a musical comedy, and The Man Who Came to Dinner (William Keighley, 1941), wherein she played a character modeled on Gertrude Lawrence. She then made Kings Row (Sam Wood, 1942), in which she received top billing playing opposite Ronald Reagan. It was a huge success and one of Sheridan's most memorable films. Sheridan and Reagan were reunited for Juke Girl (Curtis Bernhardt, 1942). She was in the war film Wings for the Eagle (Lloyd Bacon, 1942) and made a comedy with Jack Benny, George Washington Slept Here (William Keighley, 1943). She played a Norwegian resistance fighter in Edge of Darkness (Lewis Milestone, 1943) with Errol Flynn and was one of the many Warners stars who had cameos in Thank Your Lucky Stars (David Butler, 1943). She was the heroine of a novel, 'Ann Sheridan and the Sign of the Sphinx', written by Kathryn Heisenfelt and published by Whitman Publishing Company in 1943. While the heroine of the story was identified as a famous actress, the stories were entirely fictitious. The story was probably written for a young teenaged audience and is reminiscent of the adventures of Nancy Drew. It is part of a series known as 'Whitman Authorized Editions', 16 books published between 1941 and 1947 that always featured a film actress as heroine. Sheridan was given the lead in the musical Shine On, Harvest Moon (David Butler, 1944), playing Nora Bayes, opposite Dennis Morgan. She was in a comedy The Doughgirls (James V. Kern, 1944). Sheridan was absent from screens for over a year, touring with the USO to perform in front of the troops as far afield as China. She returned in One More Tomorrow (Peter Godfrey, 1946) with Morgan. She had an excellent role in the Film Noir Nora Prentiss (Vincent Sherman, 1947), which was a hit. It was followed by The Unfaithful (Vincent Sherman, 1948), a popular remake of the crime drama The Letter (William Wyler, 1940) starring Bette Davis, and Silver River (Raoul Walsh, 1948), a Western melodrama with Errol Flynn. Leo McCarey borrowed her to support Gary Cooper in Good Sam (Leo McCarey, 1948). She then left Warner Bros., saying: "I wasn't at all satisfied with the scripts they offered me." Her role in the screwball comedy I Was a Male War Bride (Howard Hawks, 1949), co-starring Cary Grant, was another success at Fox. In 1950, she appeared on the musical television series Stop the Music, and in Stella (Claude Binyon, 1950), a comedy with Victor Mature.
Ann Sheridan made Woman on the Run (Norman Foster, 1950), a Film Noir, which she also produced. Woman on the Run was distributed by Universal, and Sheridan signed a contract with that studio. While there, she made Steel Town (George Sherman, 1952), Just Across the Street (Joseph Pevney, 1952), and Take Me to Town (1953), a comedy directed by Douglas Sirk. Sheridan supported Glenn Ford in Appointment in Honduras (Jacques Tourneur, 1953). She appeared opposite Steve Cochran in Come Next Spring (R. G. Springsteen, 1956) and was one of several stars in MGM's The Opposite Sex (David Miller, 1956). Her last film, The Woman and the Hunter (George P. Breakston, 1957), was shot in Africa. Sheridan later said she wished the movie "had been lost somewhere in Kenya". She went to New York to appear in a Broadway show, but it did not make it to Broadway. She did stage tours of 'Kind Sir' (1958) and 'Odd Man In' (1959), and 'The Time of Your Life at the Brussels World Fair' in 1958. In all three shows, she acted with Scott McKay, whom she later married. In 1962, she played the lead in The Mavis Grant Story on the Western series Wagon Train. In the mid-1960s, Sheridan appeared on the NBC soap opera Another World (1965-1966). Her final work was a TV series of her own, a comedy Western entitled Pistols 'n' Petticoats (1966-1967). Her career was taking off again, but the success was short-lived. The 19th episode of the series, Beware the Hangman, aired, as scheduled, on the same day that she died. Sheridan had married actor Edward Norris in 1936, in Ensenada, Mexico. They separated a year later and divorced in 1939. In 1942, she married fellow Warner Bros. star George Brent, who co-starred with her in Honeymoon for Three (Lloyd Bacon, 1941). They divorced exactly one year later. Following her divorce from Brent, she had a long-term relationship with publicist Steve Hannagan, that lasted until his death in 1953. Hannagan’s estate bequeathed Miss Sheridan $218,399 ($2.1 million in current dollars). On 5 June 1966, she married actor Scott McKay, who was with her when she passed away, six months later. She died of gastroesophageal cancer with massive liver metastases at age 51 in 1967, in Los Angeles. She was cremated and her ashes were stored at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles until they were interred in a niche in the Chapel Columbarium at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in 2005. For her contributions to the film industry, Ann Sheridan has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7024 Hollywood Boulevard.
Sources: Tony Fontana (IMDb), Denny Jackson (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
portfolio shoot with model Ann in Lund, Sweden
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Ann Hoang. RocknNeedle fashion shoot. Make-up by Michaela Frankova. Commissioned studio shoot in Fulham, London
Tropic Of Cancer - Be Brave
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Stop Suffering
Belgian postcard, no. 11. Photo: Universal-International.
American actress and singer Ann Blyth (1928) was often cast in Hollywood musicals, but she was also successful in dramatic roles. Her performance as Veda Pierce in Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz, 1945) was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She is one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Ann Blyth was born in 1928, in Mount Kisco, New York, to Harry and Nan Lynch Blyth. After her parents separated, she, her mother and her sister moved to a walk-up apartment on East 31st Street in New York City, where her mother took in ironing. Blyth attended St. Patrick's School in Manhattan. Blyth performed on children's radio shows in New York for six years, making her first appearance when she was five. When she was nine she joined the New York Children's Opera Company. Her first acting role was on Broadway in Lillian Hellman's 'Watch on the Rhine' (1941-1942). She played the part of Paul Lukas's daughter, Babette. The play ran for 378 performances and won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award. After the New York run, the play went on tour, and while performing at the Biltmore Theatre in Los Angeles, Blyth was offered a contract with Universal Studios. Blyth began her acting career initially as "Anne Blyth", but changed the spelling of her first name back to "Ann" at the beginning of her film career. She made her film debut in 1944, teamed with Donald O'Connor and Peggy Ryan in the teenage musical Chip Off the Old Block (1944). She followed it with two similar films: The Merry Monahans (1944) with O'Connor and Ryan again, and Babes on Swing Street (1944) with Ryan. She had a support role in the bigger budgeted Bowery to Broadway (1944), a showcase of Universal musical talent. On loan to Warner Brothers, Blyth was cast 'against type' as Veda Pierce, the scheming, ungrateful daughter of Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz, 1945). Her dramatic portrayal won her outstanding reviews, and she received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Blyth was only 16 when she made the film, for which Crawford won the Best Actress award. After Mildred Pierce, Blyth sustained a broken back while tobogganing in Snow Valley, and was not able to fully capitalise on the film's success. She recovered and made two films for Mark Hellinger's unit at Universal: Swell Guy (1946), with Sonny Tufts, and Brute Force (1947) with Burt Lancaster. During this time her father died. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer borrowed her to play the female lead in Killer McCoy (1947), a boxing film with Mickey Rooney that was a box office hit. Back at Universal, she did a Film Noir with Charles Boyer, A Woman's Vengeance (1948). She was then cast in the part of Regina Hubbard in Lillian Hellman's Another Part of the Forest (1948), an adaptation of the 1946 play where Regina had been played by Patricia Neal. The play was a prequel to The Little Foxes. Blyth followed it with Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid (1948) with William Powell. She was top-billed in Red Canyon (1949), a Western with Howard Duff. Paramount borrowed Blyth to play the female lead in Top o' the Morning (1949), a daughter of Barry Fitzgerald who is romanced by Bing Crosby. It was the first time she sang on screen. Back at Universal, she was teamed with Robert Montgomery in Once More, My Darling (1949), meaning she had to drop out of Desert Legion. She did a comedy with Robert Cummings, Free for All (1949). In April 1949, Universal suspended her for refusing a lead role in Abandoned (1949). Gale Storm played it.
Ann Blyth was borrowed by Sam Goldwyn to star opposite Farley Granger in Our Very Own (1950). Universal gave her top billing in a romantic comedy, Katie Did It (1951). Blyth was borrowed by MGM for The Great Caruso (1951) opposite Mario Lanza which was a massive box office hit. She made Thunder on the Hill (1951) with Claudette Colbert and had the female lead in The Golden Horde (1951) with David Farrar. Then, 20th Century Fox borrowed her to star opposite Tyrone Power in I'll Never Forget You (1952), a last-minute replacement for Constance Smith. She appeared on TV in Family Theater in an episode called 'The World's Greatest Mother' alongside Ethel Barrymore. Universal teamed Blyth with Gregory Peck in The World in His Arms (1952). She was top-billed in the comedy Sally and Saint Anne (1952) and was borrowed by RKO for One Minute to Zero (1952), a Korean War drama with Robert Mitchum where she replaced Claudette Colbert who came down with pneumonia. MGM had been interested in Blyth since The Great Caruso. In December 1953, Blyth left Universal and she signed a long term contract with MGM. She was the leading lady in All the Brothers Were Valiant (1953) with Stewart Granger and Robert Taylor, stepping in for Elizabeth Taylor who had to drop out due to pregnancy. On television, she was in a version of A Place in the Sun for Lux Video Theatre alongside John Derek. Back at MGM, Blyth had the lead in the remake of Rose Marie (1954) with Howard Keel, which earned over $5 million but lost money due to high costs. She was meant to be reteamed with Lanza in The Student Prince (1954) but he was fired from the studio and was replaced in the picture by Edmund Purdom. The film did well at the box office. Blyth and Purdom were reunited on a swashbuckler, The King's Thief (1955). She was teamed again with Keel on the musical Kismet (1955). Despite strong reviews, the film was a financial flop. She was named for the female lead in The Adventures of Quentin Durward (1955) but was eventually not cast in the film. MGM put Blyth in Slander (1957) with Van Johnson. Sidney Sheldon cast Blyth in The Buster Keaton Story (1957) with Donald O'Connor at Paramount. Warner Bros then cast her in the title role of The Helen Morgan Story (Michael Curtiz, 1957) with Paul Newman. Blyth reportedly beat 40 other actors for the part. Even though her voice was more like the original Helen Morgan, her vocals were dubbed by Gogi Grant. That soundtrack was much more successful than the film itself. Blyth made no further films. In 1957, she sued Benedict Bogeaus for $75,000 for not making the film Conquest. From the late 1950s into the 1970s, Blyth worked in musical theatre and summer stock, starring in the shows 'The King and I', 'The Sound of Music', and 'Show Boat'. and also on television, including co-starring opposite James Donald in The Citadel (1960), an adaptation of A.J. Cronin's novel. She guest-starred on episodes of such series as The DuPont Show with June Allyson, The Dick Powell Theatre, Saints and Sinners, The Christophers, Wagon Train, The Twilight Zone, and Burke's Law. Several of these appearances were for Four Star Television with whom Blyth signed a multi-appearance contract. Blyth also became the spokesperson for Hostess Cupcakes. Her last television appearances were in episodes of Switch (1983), Quincy, M.E. (1983) and Murder, She Wrote (1985). In 1985, she officially retired. For her contributions to the film industry, Blyth has a motion pictures star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6733 Hollywood Boulevard. In 1953, Blyth married obstetrician James McNulty, brother of singer Dennis Day, who had introduced them. After her marriage, Blyth took somewhat of a reprieve from her career to focus on raising their five children, Timothy Patrick (1954); Maureen Ann (1955); Kathleen Mary (1957); Terence Grady (1960); and Eileen Alana (1963).
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
University of Maryland Cheerleaders
Michigan verses Maryland on September 24, 2022
Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 675. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. 1952.
American actress and singer Ann Blyth (1928) was often cast in Hollywood musicals, but she was also successful in dramatic roles. Her performance as Veda Pierce in Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz, 1945) was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She is one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Ann Blyth was born in 1928, in Mount Kisco, New York, to Harry and Nan Lynch Blyth. After her parents separated, she, her mother and her sister moved to a walk-up apartment on East 31st Street in New York City, where her mother took in ironing. Blyth attended St. Patrick's School in Manhattan. Blyth performed on children's radio shows in New York for six years, making her first appearance when she was five. When she was nine she joined the New York Children's Opera Company. Her first acting role was on Broadway in Lillian Hellman's 'Watch on the Rhine' (1941-1942). She played the part of Paul Lukas's daughter, Babette. The play ran for 378 performances and won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award. After the New York run, the play went on tour, and while performing at the Biltmore Theatre in Los Angeles, Blyth was offered a contract with Universal Studios. Blyth began her acting career initially as "Anne Blyth", but changed the spelling of her first name back to "Ann" at the beginning of her film career. She made her film debut in 1944, teamed with Donald O'Connor and Peggy Ryan in the teenage musical Chip Off the Old Block (1944). She followed it with two similar films: The Merry Monahans (1944) with O'Connor and Ryan again, and Babes on Swing Street (1944) with Ryan. She had a support role in the bigger budgeted Bowery to Broadway (1944), a showcase of Universal musical talent. On loan to Warner Brothers, Blyth was cast 'against type' as Veda Pierce, the scheming, ungrateful daughter of Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz, 1945). Her dramatic portrayal won her outstanding reviews, and she received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Blyth was only 16 when she made the film, for which Crawford won the Best Actress award. After Mildred Pierce, Blyth sustained a broken back while tobogganing in Snow Valley, and was not able to fully capitalise on the film's success. She recovered and made two films for Mark Hellinger's unit at Universal: Swell Guy (1946), with Sonny Tufts, and Brute Force (1947) with Burt Lancaster. During this time her father died. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer borrowed her to play the female lead in Killer McCoy (1947), a boxing film with Mickey Rooney that was a box office hit. Back at Universal, she did a Film Noir with Charles Boyer, A Woman's Vengeance (1948). She was then cast in the part of Regina Hubbard in Lillian Hellman's Another Part of the Forest (1948), an adaptation of the 1946 play where Regina had been played by Patricia Neal. The play was a prequel to The Little Foxes. Blyth followed it with Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid (1948) with William Powell. She was top-billed in Red Canyon (1949), a Western with Howard Duff. Paramount borrowed Blyth to play the female lead in Top o' the Morning (1949), a daughter of Barry Fitzgerald who is romanced by Bing Crosby. It was the first time she sang on screen. Back at Universal, she was teamed with Robert Montgomery in Once More, My Darling (1949), meaning she had to drop out of Desert Legion. She did a comedy with Robert Cummings, Free for All (1949). In April 1949, Universal suspended her for refusing a lead role in Abandoned (1949). Gale Storm played it.
Ann Blyth was borrowed by Sam Goldwyn to star opposite Farley Granger in Our Very Own (1950). Universal gave her top billing in a romantic comedy, Katie Did It (1951). Blyth was borrowed by MGM for The Great Caruso (1951) opposite Mario Lanza which was a massive box office hit. She made Thunder on the Hill (1951) with Claudette Colbert and had the female lead in The Golden Horde (1951) with David Farrar. Then, 20th Century Fox borrowed her to star opposite Tyrone Power in I'll Never Forget You (1952), a last-minute replacement for Constance Smith. She appeared on TV in Family Theater in an episode called 'The World's Greatest Mother' alongside Ethel Barrymore. Universal teamed Blyth with Gregory Peck in The World in His Arms (1952). She was top-billed in the comedy Sally and Saint Anne (1952) and was borrowed by RKO for One Minute to Zero (1952), a Korean War drama with Robert Mitchum where she replaced Claudette Colbert who came down with pneumonia. MGM had been interested in Blyth since The Great Caruso. In December 1953, Blyth left Universal and she signed a long term contract with MGM. She was the leading lady in All the Brothers Were Valiant (1953) with Stewart Granger and Robert Taylor, stepping in for Elizabeth Taylor who had to drop out due to pregnancy. On television, she was in a version of A Place in the Sun for Lux Video Theatre alongside John Derek. Back at MGM, Blyth had the lead in the remake of Rose Marie (1954) with Howard Keel, which earned over $5 million but lost money due to high costs. She was meant to be reteamed with Lanza in The Student Prince (1954) but he was fired from the studio and was replaced in the picture by Edmund Purdom. The film did well at the box office. Blyth and Purdom were reunited on a swashbuckler, The King's Thief (1955). She was teamed again with Keel on the musical Kismet (1955). Despite strong reviews, the film was a financial flop. She was named for the female lead in The Adventures of Quentin Durward (1955) but was eventually not cast in the film. MGM put Blyth in Slander (1957) with Van Johnson. Sidney Sheldon cast Blyth in The Buster Keaton Story (1957) with Donald O'Connor at Paramount. Warner Bros then cast her in the title role of The Helen Morgan Story (Michael Curtiz, 1957) with Paul Newman. Blyth reportedly beat 40 other actors for the part. Even though her voice was more like the original Helen Morgan, her vocals were dubbed by Gogi Grant. That soundtrack was much more successful than the film itself. Blyth made no further films. In 1957, she sued Benedict Bogeaus for $75,000 for not making the film Conquest. From the late 1950s into the 1970s, Blyth worked in musical theatre and summer stock, starring in the shows 'The King and I', 'The Sound of Music', and 'Show Boat'. and also on television, including co-starring opposite James Donald in The Citadel (1960), an adaptation of A.J. Cronin's novel. She guest-starred on episodes of such series as The DuPont Show with June Allyson, The Dick Powell Theatre, Saints and Sinners, The Christophers, Wagon Train, The Twilight Zone, and Burke's Law. Several of these appearances were for Four Star Television with whom Blyth signed a multi-appearance contract. Blyth also became the spokesperson for Hostess Cupcakes. Her last television appearances were in episodes of Switch (1983), Quincy, M.E. (1983) and Murder, She Wrote (1985). In 1985, she officially retired. For her contributions to the film industry, Blyth has a motion pictures star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6733 Hollywood Boulevard. In 1953, Blyth married obstetrician James McNulty, brother of singer Dennis Day, who had introduced them. After her marriage, Blyth took somewhat of a reprieve from her career to focus on raising their five children, Timothy Patrick (1954); Maureen Ann (1955); Kathleen Mary (1957); Terence Grady (1960); and Eileen Alana (1963).
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
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German postcard by Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (Ufa), Berlin Tempelhof. Photo: Eberhardt Schmidt / Casino Film. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Anneli Sauli (1932-2022) was a Finnish actress with a very long stage and film career. As Ann Savo, she appeared in several German films of the 1950s and 1960s.
Anneli Sauli or Ann Savo was born Anneli Helena Savolainen in 1932 in Pyhäjoki, Finland. She was the daughter of Tapio and Salli Savolainen, but her biological father was Valdemar Swarz, a Romani. T.J. Särkkä came up with the name Sauli for her first film, the successful musical comedy Me tulemme taas/We Come During Spring (Armand Lohikoski, 1953), which he was producing. During the same year, Särkkä also directed and produced the romantic drama Hilja - maitotyttö/The Milkmaid (T.J. Särkkä, 1953) which was her breakthrough to stardom. Särkkä had been looking for years for the perfect girl to play the lead in this film based on the novel 'Hilja the Milkmaid' by Johannes Linnankoski. When it premiered in Finland, the film caused a stir and controversy due to its eroticism and the rape scene included in the story; however, the erotic content guaranteed the sale of the film to a dozen other countries. She starred in the films 1918 (Toivo Särkkä, 1957) with Åke Lindman and Miriam (William Markus, 1957), which were both entered into the 8th Berlin International Film Festival.
From the late 1950s to the early 1960s Anneli Sauli lived and worked in West-Germany using the name Ann Savo. She starred in such German films as the war drama Unruhige Nacht/The Restless Night (Falk Harnack, 1958) starring Hansjörg Felmy, the Edgar Wallace krimi Die toten Augen von London/The Dead Eyes of London (Alfred Vohrer, 1961) starring Joachim Fuchsberger, and Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (Werner Klingler, 1962) starring Gert Fröbe and Senta Berger. However, she also continued to act in Finland in such films as the comedy-thriller Ei ruumiita makuuhuoneeseen/No corpses in the bedroom (Aarne Tarkas, 1959). Anneli Sauli was a theatre actress for over 25 years, and retired in 1996. She continued to appear in his films and one of her best known Finnish films is the comedy-drama Mies vailla menneisyyttä/The Man Without a Past (Aki Kaurismäki, 2002) which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2002 (the only Finnish film so far) and won the Grand Prix at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. In 2010, she received her first Jussi Award nomination (Finnish Oscar) for Kohtaamisia/Heartbeats (Saara Cantell, 2009). In 2013, she was finally awarded with a Jussi Award for lifetime achievement in film, after a film career lasting longer than 60 years. Her final screen appearance was in the TV series Syke (2020). Sauli died in Helsinki on 15 March 2022, at the age of 89. She was married and divorced twice. Both her husbands were actor/directors, Åke Lindman (1956-1962) and Jaakko Pakkasvirta (1965-1968). Anneli Sauli died in 2022 in Helsinki, Finland. She was the mother of Johanna Lahtela.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
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Vintage postcard, no. A.X. 292. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Ann Miller (1923-2004) was an American dancer, singer and actress. She was famed for her speed in tap dancing and her style of glamour: massive black bouffant hair, heavy makeup with a splash of crimson lipstick, and fashions that emphasized her lithe figure and long dancer's legs. Miller is best remembered for her work in the classic Hollywood musicals Easter Parade (1948), On the Town (1949) and Kiss Me Kate (1953).
Ann Miller was born Johnnie Lucille Ann Collier in 1923 on her grandparent's ranch in Chireno, Texas. Her father wanted a boy, so Ann was named Johnnie, and she later went by Lucille. Her father was a well-known criminal lawyer who had defended famous gangsters Bonnie and Clyde and Baby Face Nelson. Mrs. Collier enrolled her three-year-old little girl in dancing lessons to help strengthen her legs, which had become weakened from a case of rickets. When Miller was ten she met Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson at a local theatre and he gave her a quick tap-dancing lesson. She liked that style of dance very much and decided to concentrate on it with further lessons. After her parents divorced, she went with her mother to Hollywood, determined to get into show business. The eleven-year-old brunette, pretending to be of legal age, was soon hired to dance for $25 a week at the Sunset Club, a small lounge where gambling went on upstairs. Using the stage name of Ann Miller, she practiced her machine-gun tapping for the thrilled patrons. She also danced at the seedy Black Cat Club, where she scooped up the coins customers threw into her skirt to help pay the bills. Before long, Ann was netting unbilled extra roles in the films Anne of Green Gables (1934) and The Good Fairy (1935), and she got to dance in Devil On Horseback (1936). The next year the thirteen-year-old was dancing for a four-month run in a show at the popular Bal Tabarin nightclub in San Francisco. There, she was discovered by comedian Benny Rubin and future comedian, actress Lucille Ball. Ball introduced Miller to executives at RKO Studios. Pretending she was eighteen with the help of a fake birth certificate supplied by her father, Ann landed a seven-year contract and a role in the film New Faces of 1937 (1937).
Ann Miller's first great part was in Stage Door (1937), in which she danced with Ginger Rogers and acted with Lucille Ball, Katharine Hepburn, and Eve Arden. Other films in which Ann appeared include Radio City Revels (1937), the Oscar winner You Can't Take It With You (1938) with Jean Arthur and James Stewart, and Room Service (1938) with the Marx Brothers. Miller introduced Lucille Ball to Desi Arnaz, and, some years later, the famous couple bought RKO and re-named it DesiLu. Ann's last film at the studio was Too Many Girls (1940), in which she co-starred with friends Lucy and Desi. She then appeared on Broadway in George White's Scandals in 1939 and 1940, for which she won rave reviews. In 1940 Miller moved to Republic Pictures, where she enlivened Melody Ranch (1940) with Gene Autrey in his first musical film, and Hit Parade of 1941 (1941). Other films followed, many aimed at promoting the war effort, which includes True To The Army (1942), Priorities On Parade (1942), Reveille With Beverly (1943), What's Buzzin' Cousin? (1943), Hey Rookie (1944), and Jam Session (1944). In 1945, Ann briefly dated powerful MGM boss Louis B. Mayer. When the much older mogul asked Ann to marry him, she turned him down. Moaning and groaning to her on the phone, the dramatic Mayer swallowed sleeping pills and immediately sent his chauffeur to summon Ann to his death bed. An ambulance arrived first and he recovered. Later, Ann married Reese Milner, a rich steel heir, and they lived on the biggest ranch in California where they raised prized Hereford cattle. The marriage ended quickly after Reese threw Ann down the stairs of their home. Pregnant Miller filed for divorce from her hospital bed, with her broken back in a steel harness. Her baby, Mary, died a few hours after birth. Later, painfully returning to Mayer for a job, he told her, "If you'd married me, none of this would have happened."
Ann Miller was still in a back brace when she danced to Shakin' The Blues Away in Easter Parade (1948), co-starring Fred Astaire and Judy Garland. She received fantastic reviews, and MGM gave Ann a seven-year contract. Ann then proceeded to make her most spectacular Technicolor musicals including On The Town (1949), Small Town Girl (1952), Kiss Me Kate (1953) which was extravagantly filmed in 3-D, and Hit The Deck (1955). Her last musical was a remake of the 1939 film The Women, named The Opposite Sex (1956). The glamorous, outgoing, and articulate Ann was also hired as MGM's Good Will Ambassador. She travelled the world in gorgeous designer ensembles while representing her studio with personal appearances and speaking engagements. When she flew to Morocco in July of 1957 to appear with Bob Hope on the Timex TV Hour, she entertained five thousand troops in 120-degree weather as she sang 'Too Darn Hot', and soon set a record for the world's fastest tap-dancing at 500 taps a minute. In 1958, Miller married her second millionaire, Texas oilman Bill Moss who, she quipped, "...looked exactly like my first husband. Three months later, he broke my arm." A third marriage to another oilman, Arthur Cameron, was annulled within a year, though they remained friends. From 1966-1970, Ann became a hit on Broadway in 'Mame'. In 1970 she turned to television and starred in a commercial for Heinz's Great American Soups, in which Miller tap-danced on an eight-foot can of soup surrounded by dozens of high-kicking chorus girls, 20-foot fountains, and a 24- piece orchestra. Then, tapping her way back into her kitchen, her husband cried, "Why must you make such a big production out of everything?" The song she sang was written by humorist Stan Freberg and choreographed by Danny Daniels. In 1972, in St. Louis, on the opening night of the musical show 'Anything Goes', Ann was knocked in the head by the steel beam of a fire curtain. Although as a consequence she was unable to walk for two years and suffered permanant vertigo, her life actually had been saved by her well-known, stiff, enormous, lacquered black wig. In 1979, she made a comeback and a fortune in 'Sugar Babies' with former teenage Hollywood acting schoolmate Mickey Rooney. The popular show ran for two years on Broadway and seven more years on the road. In 1998 she appeared in a successful revival of Stephen Sondheim's 'Follies' at the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey. In 1972, Miller published her autobiography, 'Miller's High Life', and more memoirs in 1981 with 'Tops In Taps'. Her last screen appearance was playing Coco in director David Lynch's critically acclaimed Mulholland Drive (2001). Ann Miller died of lung cancer in Los Angeles, California in 2004. She was buried next to her miscarried daughter, which reads "Beloved Baby Daughter Mary Milner November 12, 1946". The Smithsonian Institution displays her favourite pair of tap shoes, which she playfully nicknamed "Moe and Joe".
Sources: Steve Starr (The Entertainment Magazine), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
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