View allAll Photos Tagged Panic-Button
*Pose available at Caress Poses store on MP*
Caress Poses Marketplace Store
Everything's gonna be alright
Everything's gonna be alright
And nobody's gotta worry 'bout nothing
Don't go hittin' that panic button
It ain't worth spilling your drink
Everything's gonna be alright
Alright, alright
There ain't no doubt it's gonna work out
Come on, sing it with me
These are small vintage threads, a very old panic button (origin unknown), all on a light box, with crumpled foil in the distant background. Studio lights, tripod, the works. About 2 inches across/5 centimetres.
Panic used to be my middle name.
*title courtesy of Douglas Adams
NB. Last January 2022 I asked for help and a Flickr support hero removed my account from the Explore algorithm. I feel more peaceful.
Don't Panic is a phrase on the cover of *The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy*, by Douglas Noel Adams.* The phrase and book originated in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before becoming much, much more.
An old sewing machine needle supports the old button with two vintage buttons behind it. The Panic button measures less than .75cm /0.3 inches. Fun lens! The streaming or expanding light is deliberate ;-)
*Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English author, screenwriter, essayist, humorist, satirist and dramatist who died far too young!
A macro view of a fidget spinner in motion. The frame represents a span of 2¼ - inches across.
Techical info:
The scene was illuminated by an LED cube @ 8-o'clock, an overhead LED at 2-o'clock, and a red LED flashlight handheld camera left.
Lens: Helios 44M-4 58mm f/2.0 with 20mm extension tube attached
Everything's gonna be alright
Everything's gonna be alright
And nobody's gotta worry 'bout nothing
Don't go hittn' that panic button
It ain't worth spilling your drink
Everything's gonna be alright
Alright
Alright
In the early days of the CP's return to Maine, we hit the panic button and made a few trips up. Although we really wanted barns, there weren't any bad lashups on the 250s then, and many chases east of Jackman with great friends were had, mostly with power that I wish was still painted SOO....
Entice -Panic Button Outfit available @ Frou Frou Event
Ghee - Love Heart Button Boots available @ The Darkness Event
"She rattled the ice in my plastic cup
I said "yes m'am", fill her up
Tell me something good that I don't know
'Cause this world's been kicking my behind
Life ain't been a friend of mine
Lately I've been feeling kinda low
And she looked back over her shoulder
Pointed at the sign hanging up on the wall
It said
Everything's gonna be alright
Everything's gonna be alright
And nobody's gotta worry 'bout nothing
Don't go hittin' that panic button
It ain't worth spilling your drink
Everything's gonna be alright
Alright, alright..."
Putting Air Conditioner back together after cleaning inside as best I could.
So, a bit about the scene:
The handtruck is because I don't carry 90 pound ACs anymore.
Behind it you can see in a sunporch window a whole house fan. A useful thing to have.
Puce Chair? No one bought it at the church rummage sale so I adopted the poor lonely thing.
Shop Vac. What's to say? It's a vacuum cleaner.
Cardboard box. Back in the day (last week) it had the last of the five liters of wine that used to live there.
(Life is good)
Window stickers are because we send the U.S. Olympic people money.
You can see the window box, one of three.
White thing above it is sensor for remote thermometer.
Currently 82F - 28C. Down a bunch from before.
Not shown in picture. Glass of wine because box reminded me we have another.
Normally this last would be a tag but they are going to be sparse today.
Different retinologist tomorrow. I am soliciting hopes, prayers, good wishes, that retina be still not ripped,torn or detached. Cornea (shingles) guy I saw
again yesterday, and he said when he saw my eye last week he was sure it was torn. Glad he did not tell me at the time. After 8 months of s screwed up eye, my panic button is so easily depressed it is unreal.
Like me.
Biting against our humbly awoken senses-
sleep in our eyes disbelieves the storm's offences
like a raging pitch battle of unseasonal bite
a rash of storming our space without invite
protective barriers torn down with fatal swoops,
full blown is the rage of these hail-storming troops
apparently friendless squalls maraude the land
seeking the prey of settlements firm stand
for the findings reveal no assurances or indemnity
to take cover with incurious policies of solemnity
a deed in truth under the overpowering oath of nature
the force we never reckon with in our arrogant usurpature
are we living a daring existence of stage fright
for environmental shows leave us gaping contrite
we the onlookers of our own sordid miscreantèle
hail! turns to snow begging how, why and what the hell
taking one gust to supplant the garden of dreams
freezing with it the buds of Spring extremes
now self-sown snow settles, strewn across the territory
it's unfamiliarity breeds fear through our stubborn meritory
the panic button pressed firmly against our conscience-
a plight at the hands of acquiescent irredeemable silence
one storm no answer to the whole host of questions posed
without hospitality to welcome-in the issues presently exposed
oh dear!
our coffee spilt, spells a far deeper decaffeinated fear
the edginess of weathering the March day storm
is humbling, mind numbing, death defying to perform
something like this...upon the Airwave "when things go wrong"
music is the climate of renovation with which we must play along.
by anglia24
12h45: 22/03/2008
©2008anglia24
We have hail and snow, yes, snow showers in Norwich today!!
The button to activate the ACR 406MHz Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) I carry when flying, ocean sailing or hiking out of range of cell service.
Although they all use the same basic technology, beacons designed to be carried by people are called Personal Locator Beacons (PLBs) and are typically lightweight and small. Beacons designed for aircraft are called Emergency Locator Beacons (ELTs) and are designed to survive and automatically activate in a crash. Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons (EPIRBs) are carried on boats and typically float with the antenna on top and can be tethered to a life raft.
They all send a signal that is received by the international COSPAS-SARSAT satellite system. SARSAT is an acronym for Search And Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking while COSPAS is a Russian acronym that translates to Space System for Search of Distress Vessels.
© 2008 | Rodel Joselito Manabat | All Rights Reserved
This direct strike almost stopped my heart from beating. Good thing my hand was on the remote shutter release was able to press the panic button. LOL!
Another shot on last Wendesday's storm taken from my apartment's balcony.
a panic button posted inside the bahr building, of the now vacant central state hospital, this is where they once housed the criminally insane.
19.366.2012
Camera Canon EOS 7D
Exposure 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture f/3.2
Focal Length 50 mm
ISO Speed 500
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash On, Fired triggering 580exii through umbrella left :)
catherine-macbride.artistwebsites.com/featured/the-panic-...
Macro-Mondays-Button.
366-The 2016 Edition
When in doubt press the Panic Button! This is on my key fob that came with my Jeep.
My friend Wilbur and I in front of an Ancient Lakes Waterfall. Wilbur wanted me to make sure you are aware the object around his neck is his camera remote and not an old person panic button!
We often say if we knew then what we know now we wouldn't have done something but no I never want to go back to being Christopher. It is great to have broken the mould and freed myself from the conventions of being normal for I can dress as I like and have sex with who I like. But it is more than that everything feels better and I am so much happier as a woman. Of course should I ever change my mind there is still a panic button for I could probably go back to being Christopher and nobody would know I was a trans. Having that choice makes me less likely to think about it, it's a bit like having some alcohol in the house it stops one wanting to drink; anyway it works for me lol.
241018 As well as being exquisitely bowled,I lost connection with the drone,had to land it by the panic button,got it in the air again but by mistake had it on video mode. All in all a total balls up.
This is a frame grab from the video.
Notice the ripples just behind the head!
A bit of a story to go along with these photos! I had passed through this stretch of water where most of the alligators hang out in Horsepen Bayou and not sign of this guy! This is actually the second of three bends that the bayou makes just before it opens up and joins Armand Bayou and flows into Mud Lake! This is the bend that has the most trees on both sides and this is where most of the activity is at! As I paddled up on this guy he appeared all nice and sweet and calm but soon became agitated by my presence and let me know in no uncertain terms that he wasn’t happy with me being there! He arched his back and began bellowing very loudly and you can see the water rippling above his back from the vibrations! It’s quite am impressive display and quite unsettling as well! Don’t hit the panic button because at no time did he advance toward me or make a move in my direction! He managed to get his point across without ever coming toward me! Hope everyone enjoys the photos!
DSC_9864uls
ENTICE - FLOURISH SALES STUDIO June 10th - July 4th
ENTICE - Panic Button Outfit
- Maitreya Lara, Slink Hourglass, Belleza Freya-
- set includes Corset, Panties, Bento Gloves and Pasties
- 99L (Reg 300L)
For More : SuhnneDays
From the series, "Grandchildren"
Angelic? Well yesterday whilst doing what she does best, getting into everything, she pushed the panic button at her Great Grandmother’s necessitating an embarrassing explanation from my daughter. She is adorable though.
Blog: canonac.tumblr.com/
York, England - This pulpit comes equipped which looks to be a Panic Button. Here we are inside the York Minster. This massive building of worship was founded nearly 1400 years ago.
ALL the ladies were looking, even the old bubba types. I was just looking for skin cancer... I did tell him he should get Joe Boxer® Men's 'Panic Button' 2-Piece Sleep Set and I'd be willing to take pictures.
BTW - I LOVE the lost dog Budweiser commercial with the puppy :)
Young Heroes Vol 2 - Issue #4 "Finish What You Start"
*After Vega visited Hope in the hospital she was horrified by his condition if Vanessa never got him to an A.N.G.E.L. Hospital in time via teleporting he would've died from his injuries. She stood at his bedside beside his girlfriend, Vanessa, who was fast asleep beside him. It was her own fault this happened, she should have tried an alternate way to stop Alpha. But ending his life to save millions of innocents was more ethical, she should have made sure he was dead. Now her team is paying the price and she can't even tell them why. At the time because she felt ashamed, she's meant to be a mentor to the team and teach them to become better heroes, not murderers. But now it's because they might hate her for the injuries Hope received because of her actions. She couldn't let him get to all of her team, she wasn't going to let him. Instead of going public he's purposely gunning for her team. She had to finish him off, she had to end him once and for all.*
Vega: "I'm going to finish this."
*Within an hour she was there at Atlas Hospital, she blurred past as few civilians who didn't notice her at top speed, she was just a gust of wind. She easily infiltrated the hospital and zoomed through the corridors searching for the biggest room ever and then she found it. It's monstrous size suited the monster laying there on the bed resting peacefully, almost as if he wasn't a psycho who tried to kill her friend and take over the planet with drugged kids. Her stern face cracks a smile under her mask and she leans forward about to zip towards him until his head darts to the side locking eyes with her intensely. He flashes a fanged smirk and raises his paw to stop her.*
Alpha: "Kill me and you kill your team."
*Vega stops in her tracks frowning and clenches her fists turning to check the corridor for any nurses walking by if she got spotted she'd have to try to bribe them for their silence. Alpha's smug smile widens revealing his razor teeth and he sits up slightly on his enormous bed gesturing for her to come in with his large paw. She walks into his room closing the door securely behind her and takes a defensive stance for a quick getaway if he tries anything.*
Alpha: "I've found out who you’re team are, not you though. You're a ghost. But them, they have lives, loved ones that would miss them deeply. A source of mine has all the information ready to upload to The News, Social Media and the Dark Web. It will go public if I die... again. You couldn't protect Callum from me so how could you and your sources protect them all from every villain wanting a slice of dead-hero pie?"
Vega: "You're M-Pill has been destroyed, Alpha. It's over for you. There's still some out there but we will find it. We will burn it."
Alpha: "Oh that's not entirely accurate now, is it? I know D.E.M.O.N. has been using it to drug their most powerful prisoners to make their powers and free will inactive. But by now my insider should have said the trigger word and gave them the orders."
Vega: "Wha-"
Alpha: "Turn on the TV and go to the AC News."
*Vega walks over to the table where the remote is and uses it to turn on the TV, she flicks to the news station and watches horrified. A reporter outside is yelling over helicopters and sirens as an oversized headline reads; “TWO DANGEROUS META's ESCAPE: Just moments ago 2 deadly Metahumans escaped from their prison convoy during transportation. The Metahumans have been identified as: “Hybrid” & “Despair” and have fled to the city where A.N.G.E.L. Forces are now searching.” Vega turns to face Alpha, her blood gushing with rage. His lips peel back smirking at her as he raises his hand revealing a panic button for the staff to rush in, she can't be seen.*
Vega: "Whatever you’re using these villains for it won’t matter. I'll finish you."
Alpha: "I'm sure you'll try. Now you better run, little rabbit."
Belgian postcard, no. 950. Photo: Warner Bros.
American actress Eleanor Parker (1922-2013) appeared in some 80 films and television series. She was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for Caged (1950), Detective Story (1951) and Interrupted Melody (1955). Her role in Caged also won her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival. One of her most memorable roles was that of the Baroness in The Sound of Music (1965). Her biographer Doug McClelland called her ‘Woman of a Thousand Faces’, because of her versatility.
Eleanor Jean Parker was born in 1922, in Cedarville, Ohio. She was the daughter of Lola (Isett) and Lester Day Parker. Her family moved to East Cleveland, Ohio, where she attended public schools and graduated from Shaw High School. She appeared in a number of school plays. When she was 15 she started to attend the Rice Summer Theatre on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. After graduation, she moved to California and began appearing at the Pasadena Playhouse. There she was spotted by a Warners Bros talent scout, Irving Kumin. The studio signed her to a long-term contract in June 1941. She was cast that year in They Died with Their Boots On (Raoul Walsh, 1941), but her scenes were cut. Her actual film debut was as Nurse Ryan in the short Soldiers in White (B. Reeves Eason, 1942). She was given some decent roles in B films, Busses Roar (D. Ross Lederman, 1942) and The Mysterious Doctor (Benjamin Stoloff, 1943) opposites John Loder. She also had a small role in one of Warner Brothers' biggest productions for the 1943 season, the pro-Soviet Mission to Moscow (Michael Curtiz, 1943) as Emlen Davies, daughter of the U.S. ambassador to the U.S.S.R (Walter Huston). On the set, she met her first husband, Navy Lieutenant. Fred L. Losse, but the marriage turned out to be a brief wartime affair. Parker had impressed Warners enough to offer her a strong role in a prestige production, Between Two Worlds (Edward A. Blatt, 1944), playing the suicidal wife of Paul Henreid's character. She played support roles for Crime by Night (William Clemens, 1944) and The Last Ride (D. Ross Lederman, 1944). Then she got the starring role opposite Dennis Morgan in The Very Thought of You (Delmer Daves, 1944). She was considered enough of a ‘name’ to be given a cameo in Hollywood Canteen (Delmer Daves, 1944). Warners gave her the choice role of Mildred Rogers in a new version of Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage (Edmund Goulding, 1946), but previews were not favourable and the film sat on the shelf for two years before being released. She had her big break when she was cast opposite John Garfield in Pride of the Marines (Delmer Daves, 1945). However, two films with Errol Flynn that followed, the romantic comedy Never Say Goodbye (James V. Kern, 1946) and the drama Escape Me Never (Peter Godfrey, 1947), were box office disappointments. Parker was suspended twice by Warners for refusing parts in films – in Stallion Road (James V. Kern, 1947), where she was replaced by Alexis Smith and Love and Learn (Frederick De Cordova, 1947). She made the comedy Voice of the Turtle (Irving Rapper, 1947) with Ronald Reagan, and the mystery The Woman in White (Peter Godfrey, 1948). She refused to appear in Somewhere in the City (Vincent Sherman, 1950) so Warners suspended her again; Virginia Mayo played the role. Parker then had two years off, during which time she married and had a baby. She turned down a role in The Hasty Heart (Vincent Sherman, 1949) which she wanted to do, but it would have meant going to England and she did not want to leave her baby alone during its first year.
Eleanor Parker returned in Chain Lightning (Stuart Heisler, 1950) with Humphrey Bogart. Parker heard about a women-in-prison film Warners were making, Caged (John Cromwell, 1950), and actively lobbied for the role. She got it, won the 1950 Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award. She also had a good role in the melodrama Three Secrets (Robert Wise, 1950). In February 1950, Parker left Warner Bros. after having been under contract there for eight years. Parker had understood that she would star in a film called Safe Harbor, but Warner Bros. apparently had no intention of making it. Because of this misunderstanding, her agents negotiated her release. Parker's career outside of Warners started badly with Valentino (Lewis Allen, 1951) playing a fictionalised wife of Rudolph Valentino for producer Edward Small. She tried a comedy at 20th Century Fox with Fred MacMurray, A Millionaire for Christy (George Marshall, 1951). In 1951, Parker signed a contract with Paramount for one film a year, with an option for outside films. This arrangement began brilliantly with Detective Story (William Wyler, 1951) playing Mary McLeod, the woman who doesn't understand the position of her unstable detective husband (Kirk Douglas). Parker was nominated for the Oscar in 1951 for her performance. Parker followed Detective Story with her portrayal of an actress in love with a swashbuckling nobleman (Stewart Granger) in Scaramouche (George Sidney, 1952), a role originally intended for Ava Gardner. Wikipedia: “Parker later claimed that Granger was the only person she didn't get along with during her entire career. However, they had good chemistry and the film was a massive hit. “MGM cast her into Above and Beyond (Melvin Frank, Norman Panama, 1952), a biopic of Lt. Col. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. (Robert Taylor), the pilot of the aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. It was a solid hit. While Parker was making a third film for MGM, Escape from Fort Bravo (John Sturges, 1953), she signed a five-year contract with the studio. She was named as star of a Sidney Sheldon script, My Most Intimate Friend and of One More Time, from a script by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin directed by George Cukor, but neither film was made. Back at Paramount, Parker starred with Charlton Heston as a 1900s mail-order bride in The Naked Jungle (Byron Haskin, 1954), produced by George Pal. Parker returned to MGM where she was reunited with Robert Taylor in an Egyptian adventure film, Valley of the Kings (Robert Pirosh, 1954), and a Western, Many Rivers to Cross (Roy Rowland, 1955). MGM gave her one of her best roles as opera singer Marjorie Lawrence struck down by polio in Interrupted Melody (Curtis Bernhardt, 1955). This was a big hit and earned Parker a third Oscar nomination; she later said it was her favourite film. Also in 1955, Parker appeared in the film adaptation of the National Book Award-winner The Man with the Golden Arm (Otto Preminger, 1955), released through United Artists. She played Zosh, the supposedly wheelchair-bound wife of heroin-addicted, would-be jazz drummer Frankie Machine (Frank Sinatra). It was a major commercial and critical success. In 1956, she co-starred with Clark Gable in the Western comedy The King and Four Queens (Raoul Walsh, 1956), also for United Artists. It was then back at MGM for two dramas: Lizzie (Hugo Haas, 1957), in the title role, as a woman with a split personality; and The Seventh Sin (Ronald Neame, 1957), a remake of The Painted Veil in the role originated by Greta Garbo and, once again, intended for Ava Gardner. Both films flopped at the box office and, as a result, Parker's plans to produce her own film, L'Eternelle, about French resistance fighters, did not materialise.
Eleanor Parker supported Frank Sinatra in a popular comedy, A Hole in the Head (Frank Capra, 1959). She returned to MGM for Home from the Hill (Vincente Minnelli, 1960), co-starring with Robert Mitchum, then took over Lana Turner's role of Constance Rossi in Return to Peyton Place (José Ferrer, 1961), the sequel to the hit 1957 film. That was made by 20th Century Fox who also produced Madison Avenue (H. Bruce Humberstone, 1961) with Parker. In 1960, she made her TV debut, and in the following years, she worked increasingly in television, with the occasional film role such as Panic Button (George Sherman, Giuliano Carnimeo, 1964) with Maurice Chevalier and Jayne Mansfield. Parker's best-known screen role is Baroness Elsa Schraeder in the Oscar-winning musical The Sound of Music (Robert Wise, 1965). The Baroness was famously and poignantly unsuccessful in keeping the affections of Captain Georg von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) after he falls in love with Maria (Julie Andrews). In 1966, Parker played an alcoholic widow in the crime drama Warning Shot (Buzz Kulik, 1967), a talent scout who discovers a Hollywood star in The Oscar (Russell Rouse, 1966), and a rich alcoholic in An American Dream (Robert Gist, 1966). However, her film career seemed to go downhill. A Playboy Magazine reviewer derided the cast of The Oscar as "has-beens and never-will-be". From the late 1960s, she focused on television. In 1963, Parker appeared in the medical TV drama about psychiatry The Eleventh Hour in the episode Why Am I Grown So Cold?, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award. She also appeared in episodes of Breaking Point (1964). And The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1968). In 1969–1970, Parker starred in the television series Bracken's World, for which she was nominated for a 1970 Golden Globe Award. Parker also appeared on stage in the role of Margo Channing in Applause, the Broadway musical version of the film All About Eve. In 1976, she played Maxine in a revival of The Night of the Iguana. Her last film role was in a Farrah Fawcett bomb, Sunburn (Richard C. Sarafian, 1979). Subsequently, she appeared very infrequently on TV, most recently in Dead on the Money (Mark Cullingham, 1991). Eleanor Parker was married four times. Her first husband was Fred Losee (1943-1944). Her second marriage to Bert E. Friedlob (1946-1953) produced three children Susan Eleanor Friedlob (1948), Sharon Anne Friedlob (1950), and Richard Parker Friedlob (1952). Her third marriage was to American portrait painter Paul Clemens, (1954-1965) and the couple had one child, actor Paul Clemens (1958). Her fourth marriage with Raymond N. Hirsch (1966-2001) ended when Hirsch died of oesophagal cancer. She was the grandmother of actor/director Chasen Parker. Eleanor Parker died in 2013 at a medical facility in Palm Springs, California of complications of pneumonia. She was 91. Parker was raised a Protestant and later converted to Judaism, telling the New York Daily News columnist Kay Gardella in August 1969, "I think we're all Jews at heart ... I wanted to convert for a long time."
Sources: Jon C. Hopwood (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
West German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 258. Photo: Paramount.
American actress Eleanor Parker (1922-2013) appeared in some 80 films and television series. She was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for Caged (1950), Detective Story (1951) and Interrupted Melody (1955). Her role in Caged also won her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival. One of her most memorable roles was that of the Baroness in The Sound of Music (1965). Her biographer Doug McClelland called her ‘Woman of a Thousand Faces’, because of her versatility.
Eleanor Jean Parker was born in 1922, in Cedarville, Ohio. She was the daughter of Lola (Isett) and Lester Day Parker. Her family moved to East Cleveland, Ohio, where she attended public schools and graduated from Shaw High School. She appeared in a number of school plays. When she was 15 she started to attend the Rice Summer Theatre on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. After graduation, she moved to California and began appearing at the Pasadena Playhouse. There she was spotted by a Warners Bros talent scout, Irving Kumin. The studio signed her to a long-term contract in June 1941. She was cast that year in They Died with Their Boots On (Raoul Walsh, 1941), but her scenes were cut. Her actual film debut was as Nurse Ryan in the short Soldiers in White (B. Reeves Eason, 1942). She was given some decent roles in B films, Busses Roar (D. Ross Lederman, 1942) and The Mysterious Doctor (Benjamin Stoloff, 1943) opposites John Loder. She also had a small role in one of Warner Brothers' biggest productions for the 1943 season, the pro-Soviet Mission to Moscow (Michael Curtiz, 1943) as Emlen Davies, daughter of the U.S. ambassador to the U.S.S.R (Walter Huston). On the set, she met her first husband, Navy Lieutenant. Fred L. Losse, but the marriage turned out to be a brief wartime affair. Parker had impressed Warners enough to offer her a strong role in a prestige production, Between Two Worlds (Edward A. Blatt, 1944), playing the suicidal wife of Paul Henreid's character. She played support roles for Crime by Night (William Clemens, 1944) and The Last Ride (D. Ross Lederman, 1944). Then she got the starring role opposite Dennis Morgan in The Very Thought of You (Delmer Daves, 1944). She was considered enough of a ‘name’ to be given a cameo in Hollywood Canteen (Delmer Daves, 1944). Warners gave her the choice role of Mildred Rogers in a new version of Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage (Edmund Goulding, 1946), but previews were not favourable and the film sat on the shelf for two years before being released. She had her big break when she was cast opposite John Garfield in Pride of the Marines (Delmer Daves, 1945). However, two films with Errol Flynn that followed, the romantic comedy Never Say Goodbye (James V. Kern, 1946) and the drama Escape Me Never (Peter Godfrey, 1947), were box office disappointments. Parker was suspended twice by Warners for refusing parts in films – in Stallion Road (James V. Kern, 1947), where she was replaced by Alexis Smith and Love and Learn (Frederick De Cordova, 1947). She made the comedy Voice of the Turtle (Irving Rapper, 1947) with Ronald Reagan, and the mystery The Woman in White (Peter Godfrey, 1948). She refused to appear in Somewhere in the City (Vincent Sherman, 1950) so Warners suspended her again; Virginia Mayo played the role. Parker then had two years off, during which time she married and had a baby. She turned down a role in The Hasty Heart (Vincent Sherman, 1949) which she wanted to do, but it would have meant going to England and she did not want to leave her baby alone during its first year.
Eleanor Parker returned in Chain Lightning (Stuart Heisler, 1950) with Humphrey Bogart. Parker heard about a women-in-prison film Warners were making, Caged (John Cromwell, 1950), and actively lobbied for the role. She got it, won the 1950 Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award. She also had a good role in the melodrama Three Secrets (Robert Wise, 1950). In February 1950, Parker left Warner Bros. after having been under contract there for eight years. Parker had understood that she would star in a film called Safe Harbor, but Warner Bros. apparently had no intention of making it. Because of this misunderstanding, her agents negotiated her release. Parker's career outside of Warners started badly with Valentino (Lewis Allen, 1951) playing a fictionalised wife of Rudolph Valentino for producer Edward Small. She tried a comedy at 20th Century Fox with Fred MacMurray, A Millionaire for Christy (George Marshall, 1951). In 1951, Parker signed a contract with Paramount for one film a year, with an option for outside films. This arrangement began brilliantly with Detective Story (William Wyler, 1951) playing Mary McLeod, the woman who doesn't understand the position of her unstable detective husband (Kirk Douglas). Parker was nominated for the Oscar in 1951 for her performance. Parker followed Detective Story with her portrayal of an actress in love with a swashbuckling nobleman (Stewart Granger) in Scaramouche (George Sidney, 1952), a role originally intended for Ava Gardner. Wikipedia: “Parker later claimed that Granger was the only person she didn't get along with during her entire career. However, they had good chemistry and the film was a massive hit. “MGM cast her into Above and Beyond (Melvin Frank, Norman Panama, 1952), a biopic of Lt. Col. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. (Robert Taylor), the pilot of the aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. It was a solid hit. While Parker was making a third film for MGM, Escape from Fort Bravo (John Sturges, 1953), she signed a five-year contract with the studio. She was named as star of a Sidney Sheldon script, My Most Intimate Friend and of One More Time, from a script by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin directed by George Cukor, but neither film was made. Back at Paramount, Parker starred with Charlton Heston as a 1900s mail-order bride in The Naked Jungle (Byron Haskin, 1954), produced by George Pal. Parker returned to MGM where she was reunited with Robert Taylor in an Egyptian adventure film, Valley of the Kings (Robert Pirosh, 1954), and a Western, Many Rivers to Cross (Roy Rowland, 1955). MGM gave her one of her best roles as opera singer Marjorie Lawrence struck down by polio in Interrupted Melody (Curtis Bernhardt, 1955). This was a big hit and earned Parker a third Oscar nomination; she later said it was her favourite film. Also in 1955, Parker appeared in the film adaptation of the National Book Award-winner The Man with the Golden Arm (Otto Preminger, 1955), released through United Artists. She played Zosh, the supposedly wheelchair-bound wife of heroin-addicted, would-be jazz drummer Frankie Machine (Frank Sinatra). It was a major commercial and critical success. In 1956, she co-starred with Clark Gable in the Western comedy The King and Four Queens (Raoul Walsh, 1956), also for United Artists. It was then back at MGM for two dramas: Lizzie (Hugo Haas, 1957), in the title role, as a woman with a split personality; and The Seventh Sin (Ronald Neame, 1957), a remake of The Painted Veil in the role originated by Greta Garbo and, once again, intended for Ava Gardner. Both films flopped at the box office and, as a result, Parker's plans to produce her own film, L'Eternelle, about French resistance fighters, did not materialise.
Eleanor Parker supported Frank Sinatra in a popular comedy, A Hole in the Head (Frank Capra, 1959). She returned to MGM for Home from the Hill (Vincente Minnelli, 1960), co-starring with Robert Mitchum, then took over Lana Turner's role of Constance Rossi in Return to Peyton Place (José Ferrer, 1961), the sequel to the hit 1957 film. That was made by 20th Century Fox who also produced Madison Avenue (H. Bruce Humberstone, 1961) with Parker. In 1960, she made her TV debut, and in the following years, she worked increasingly in television, with the occasional film role such as Panic Button (George Sherman, Giuliano Carnimeo, 1964) with Maurice Chevalier and Jayne Mansfield. Parker's best-known screen role is Baroness Elsa Schraeder in the Oscar-winning musical The Sound of Music (Robert Wise, 1965). The Baroness was famously and poignantly unsuccessful in keeping the affections of Captain Georg von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) after he falls in love with Maria (Julie Andrews). In 1966, Parker played an alcoholic widow in the crime drama Warning Shot (Buzz Kulik, 1967), a talent scout who discovers a Hollywood star in The Oscar (Russell Rouse, 1966), and a rich alcoholic in An American Dream (Robert Gist, 1966). However, her film career seemed to go downhill. A Playboy Magazine reviewer derided the cast of The Oscar as "has-beens and never-will-be". From the late 1960s, she focused on television. In 1963, Parker appeared in the medical TV drama about psychiatry The Eleventh Hour in the episode Why Am I Grown So Cold?, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award. She also appeared in episodes of Breaking Point (1964). And The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1968). In 1969–1970, Parker starred in the television series Bracken's World, for which she was nominated for a 1970 Golden Globe Award. Parker also appeared on stage in the role of Margo Channing in Applause, the Broadway musical version of the film All About Eve. In 1976, she played Maxine in a revival of The Night of the Iguana. Her last film role was in a Farrah Fawcett bomb, Sunburn (Richard C. Sarafian, 1979). Subsequently, she appeared very infrequently on TV, most recently in Dead on the Money (Mark Cullingham, 1991). Eleanor Parker was married four times. Her first husband was Fred Losee (1943-1944). Her second marriage to Bert E. Friedlob (1946-1953) produced three children Susan Eleanor Friedlob (1948), Sharon Anne Friedlob (1950), and Richard Parker Friedlob (1952). Her third marriage was to American portrait painter Paul Clemens, (1954-1965) and the couple had one child, actor Paul Clemens (1958). Her fourth marriage with Raymond N. Hirsch (1966-2001) ended when Hirsch died of oesophagal cancer. She was the grandmother of actor/director Chasen Parker. Eleanor Parker died in 2013 at a medical facility in Palm Springs, California of complications of pneumonia. She was 91. Parker was raised a Protestant and later converted to Judaism, telling the New York Daily News columnist Kay Gardella in August 1969, "I think we're all Jews at heart ... I wanted to convert for a long time."
Sources: Jon C. Hopwood (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 256. Photo: Warner Bros.
American actress Eleanor Parker (1922-2013) appeared in some 80 films and television series. She was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for Caged (1950), Detective Story (1951) and Interrupted Melody (1955). Her role in Caged also won her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival. One of her most memorable roles was that of the Baroness in The Sound of Music (1965). Her biographer Doug McClelland called her ‘Woman of a Thousand Faces’, because of her versatility.
Eleanor Jean Parker was born in 1922, in Cedarville, Ohio. She was the daughter of Lola (Isett) and Lester Day Parker. Her family moved to East Cleveland, Ohio, where she attended public schools and graduated from Shaw High School. She appeared in a number of school plays. When she was 15 she started to attend the Rice Summer Theatre on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. After graduation, she moved to California and began appearing at the Pasadena Playhouse. There she was spotted by a Warners Bros talent scout, Irving Kumin. The studio signed her to a long-term contract in June 1941. She was cast that year in They Died with Their Boots On (Raoul Walsh, 1941), but her scenes were cut. Her actual film debut was as Nurse Ryan in the short Soldiers in White (B. Reeves Eason, 1942). She was given some decent roles in B films, Busses Roar (D. Ross Lederman, 1942) and The Mysterious Doctor (Benjamin Stoloff, 1943) opposites John Loder. She also had a small role in one of Warner Brothers' biggest productions for the 1943 season, the pro-Soviet Mission to Moscow (Michael Curtiz, 1943) as Emlen Davies, daughter of the U.S. ambassador to the U.S.S.R (Walter Huston). On the set, she met her first husband, Navy Lieutenant. Fred L. Losse, but the marriage turned out to be a brief wartime affair. Parker had impressed Warners enough to offer her a strong role in a prestige production, Between Two Worlds (Edward A. Blatt, 1944), playing the suicidal wife of Paul Henreid's character. She played support roles for Crime by Night (William Clemens, 1944) and The Last Ride (D. Ross Lederman, 1944). Then she got the starring role opposite Dennis Morgan in The Very Thought of You (Delmer Daves, 1944). She was considered enough of a ‘name’ to be given a cameo in Hollywood Canteen (Delmer Daves, 1944). Warners gave her the choice role of Mildred Rogers in a new version of Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage (Edmund Goulding, 1946), but previews were not favourable and the film sat on the shelf for two years before being released. She had her big break when she was cast opposite John Garfield in Pride of the Marines (Delmer Daves, 1945). However, two films with Errol Flynn that followed, the romantic comedy Never Say Goodbye (James V. Kern, 1946) and the drama Escape Me Never (Peter Godfrey, 1947), were box office disappointments. Parker was suspended twice by Warners for refusing parts in films – in Stallion Road (James V. Kern, 1947), where she was replaced by Alexis Smith and Love and Learn (Frederick De Cordova, 1947). She made the comedy Voice of the Turtle (Irving Rapper, 1947) with Ronald Reagan, and the mystery The Woman in White (Peter Godfrey, 1948). She refused to appear in Somewhere in the City (Vincent Sherman, 1950) so Warners suspended her again; Virginia Mayo played the role. Parker then had two years off, during which time she married and had a baby. She turned down a role in The Hasty Heart (Vincent Sherman, 1949) which she wanted to do, but it would have meant going to England and she did not want to leave her baby alone during its first year.
Eleanor Parker returned in Chain Lightning (Stuart Heisler, 1950) with Humphrey Bogart. Parker heard about a women-in-prison film Warners were making, Caged (John Cromwell, 1950), and actively lobbied for the role. She got it, won the 1950 Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award. She also had a good role in the melodrama Three Secrets (Robert Wise, 1950). In February 1950, Parker left Warner Bros. after having been under contract there for eight years. Parker had understood that she would star in a film called Safe Harbor, but Warner Bros. apparently had no intention of making it. Because of this misunderstanding, her agents negotiated her release. Parker's career outside of Warners started badly with Valentino (Lewis Allen, 1951) playing a fictionalised wife of Rudolph Valentino for producer Edward Small. She tried a comedy at 20th Century Fox with Fred MacMurray, A Millionaire for Christy (George Marshall, 1951). In 1951, Parker signed a contract with Paramount for one film a year, with an option for outside films. This arrangement began brilliantly with Detective Story (William Wyler, 1951) playing Mary McLeod, the woman who doesn't understand the position of her unstable detective husband (Kirk Douglas). Parker was nominated for the Oscar in 1951 for her performance. Parker followed Detective Story with her portrayal of an actress in love with a swashbuckling nobleman (Stewart Granger) in Scaramouche (George Sidney, 1952), a role originally intended for Ava Gardner. Wikipedia: “Parker later claimed that Granger was the only person she didn't get along with during her entire career. However, they had good chemistry and the film was a massive hit. “MGM cast her into Above and Beyond (Melvin Frank, Norman Panama, 1952), a biopic of Lt. Col. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. (Robert Taylor), the pilot of the aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. It was a solid hit. While Parker was making a third film for MGM, Escape from Fort Bravo (John Sturges, 1953), she signed a five-year contract with the studio. She was named as star of a Sidney Sheldon script, My Most Intimate Friend and of One More Time, from a script by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin directed by George Cukor, but neither film was made. Back at Paramount, Parker starred with Charlton Heston as a 1900s mail-order bride in The Naked Jungle (Byron Haskin, 1954), produced by George Pal. Parker returned to MGM where she was reunited with Robert Taylor in an Egyptian adventure film, Valley of the Kings (Robert Pirosh, 1954), and a Western, Many Rivers to Cross (Roy Rowland, 1955). MGM gave her one of her best roles as opera singer Marjorie Lawrence struck down by polio in Interrupted Melody (Curtis Bernhardt, 1955). This was a big hit and earned Parker a third Oscar nomination; she later said it was her favourite film. Also in 1955, Parker appeared in the film adaptation of the National Book Award-winner The Man with the Golden Arm (Otto Preminger, 1955), released through United Artists. She played Zosh, the supposedly wheelchair-bound wife of heroin-addicted, would-be jazz drummer Frankie Machine (Frank Sinatra). It was a major commercial and critical success. In 1956, she co-starred with Clark Gable in the Western comedy The King and Four Queens (Raoul Walsh, 1956), also for United Artists. It was then back at MGM for two dramas: Lizzie (Hugo Haas, 1957), in the title role, as a woman with a split personality; and The Seventh Sin (Ronald Neame, 1957), a remake of The Painted Veil in the role originated by Greta Garbo and, once again, intended for Ava Gardner. Both films flopped at the box office and, as a result, Parker's plans to produce her own film, L'Eternelle, about French resistance fighters, did not materialise.
Eleanor Parker supported Frank Sinatra in a popular comedy, A Hole in the Head (Frank Capra, 1959). She returned to MGM for Home from the Hill (Vincente Minnelli, 1960), co-starring with Robert Mitchum, then took over Lana Turner's role of Constance Rossi in Return to Peyton Place (José Ferrer, 1961), the sequel to the hit 1957 film. That was made by 20th Century Fox who also produced Madison Avenue (H. Bruce Humberstone, 1961) with Parker. In 1960, she made her TV debut, and in the following years, she worked increasingly in television, with the occasional film role such as Panic Button (George Sherman, Giuliano Carnimeo, 1964) with Maurice Chevalier and Jayne Mansfield. Parker's best-known screen role is Baroness Elsa Schraeder in the Oscar-winning musical The Sound of Music (Robert Wise, 1965). The Baroness was famously and poignantly unsuccessful in keeping the affections of Captain Georg von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) after he falls in love with Maria (Julie Andrews). In 1966, Parker played an alcoholic widow in the crime drama Warning Shot (Buzz Kulik, 1967), a talent scout who discovers a Hollywood star in The Oscar (Russell Rouse, 1966), and a rich alcoholic in An American Dream (Robert Gist, 1966). However, her film career seemed to go downhill. A Playboy Magazine reviewer derided the cast of The Oscar as "has-beens and never-will-be". From the late 1960s, she focused on television. In 1963, Parker appeared in the medical TV drama about psychiatry The Eleventh Hour in the episode Why Am I Grown So Cold?, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award. She also appeared in episodes of Breaking Point (1964). And The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1968). In 1969–1970, Parker starred in the television series Bracken's World, for which she was nominated for a 1970 Golden Globe Award. Parker also appeared on stage in the role of Margo Channing in Applause, the Broadway musical version of the film All About Eve. In 1976, she played Maxine in a revival of The Night of the Iguana. Her last film role was in a Farrah Fawcett bomb, Sunburn (Richard C. Sarafian, 1979). Subsequently, she appeared very infrequently on TV, most recently in Dead on the Money (Mark Cullingham, 1991). Eleanor Parker was married four times. Her first husband was Fred Losee (1943-1944). Her second marriage to Bert E. Friedlob (1946-1953) produced three children Susan Eleanor Friedlob (1948), Sharon Anne Friedlob (1950), and Richard Parker Friedlob (1952). Her third marriage was to American portrait painter Paul Clemens, (1954-1965) and the couple had one child, actor Paul Clemens (1958). Her fourth marriage with Raymond N. Hirsch (1966-2001) ended when Hirsch died of oesophagal cancer. She was the grandmother of actor/director Chasen Parker. Eleanor Parker died in 2013 at a medical facility in Palm Springs, California of complications of pneumonia. She was 91. Parker was raised a Protestant and later converted to Judaism, telling the New York Daily News columnist Kay Gardella in August 1969, "I think we're all Jews at heart ... I wanted to convert for a long time."
Sources: Jon C. Hopwood (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Don't hit the panic button and don't let the crunch let you down - always try to make the most of the situation ;)
She was tapping her foot to the beat of the saxophone playing in the lounge. The dim lights and thin veil of smoke spread across the room clandestinely. Sitting alone at the bar waiting, she didn’t have to wait long. You could always count on a man to buy a lady a drink. She felt the eyes stare, but only one set made its way to her.
It was the most interesting part of the job…to see which one will take the bait. Sometimes they were good looking, sometimes not. It didn’t matter. They were there to spend money and she had to make them do so.
He called the barkeeper and bought her a drink.
Sonya found pinstripes charming on a man. However, those weren’t the only charming thing about this one. She knew business and pleasure don’t mix well together. She knew the contents of her contract. But this man was so handsome, so charming, so funny…and so… so hot. Maybe she would have a couple of drinks… or more.
Conversation flowed easily just as every new drink he bought. It was good for the business…
If she allowed herself to flirt more, he would surely spend more. It was all for the business…
She always thought about the business…and her contract…
It was getting hot at the bar. Barkeeper glanced at her cautiously. He knew how she was supposed to roll. Man’s suit jacket hanged off the chair; his unbuttoned shirt was giving a sneak peek of what seemed to be perfectly chiseled chest. He rolled up his sleeves. She couldn’t miss the opportunity to touch that alluring tanned skin.
He invited her to his room. She knew what her contract said… she couldn’t accept the offer but
nobody said she couldn’t walk him to his room. They both had too much to drink, but he had more. She couldn’t let something happen to a precious customer. He could fall and break his leg. That would not be good for business…
They took the elevator to the fifth floor. The stairs were out of the question. He pulled her close sliding his hand over the smoothness of satin covered curves. The elevator buttons
were pressed… tenth floor, twelfth, seventh… a kiss was okay, just for a tiny second…then they will stop…she could control the situation…
The door on the fifth floor opened. They staggered through the walkway, giggling. She knew it went too far. She also knew camera-free spots… she will just say goodbye and leave.
Things didn’t go as planned. She panicked. She couldn’t lose her job. Or disappoint Rowan. But he wouldn’t let go… she found her mini panic button that hung off her bracelet and sent a signal to Claude.
In a couple of seconds, she saw a tall suited up figure marching towards them. He didn’t notice what was going on. Claude pushed him and with one light, but precise blow he fell to the ground unconscious. She could not hurt a customer.
Her eyes were burning with rage. One vehement slap landed on Sonya’s beautiful lipstick smudged face. She lost her balance and found herself on the floor. Tears filled her eyes.
Claude’s unbending face frowned in disgust. “There are lines you cannot cross! Remember that!”, she hissed and took the half-conscious man to his room. He won’t remember anything tomorrow.
It's a pleasure to invite you all to another photostream, casual pictures taken with an iPhone4, most of them using the Hipstamatic "camera" and black and white "film". I just fell in love with the old and rusty look and feel.
1. sunny monday, take II, 2. ruined house, 3. free as a bird, II,
4. plaça osca, 5. panic button, 6. bench,
7. the surface, 8. dancing clouds, 9. 119
We put up about thirty of these signs around town, with about twenty different slogans. I was glad to see they fit almost perfectly :)
French postcard by Editions du Globe, no 486. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
American actress Eleanor Parker (1922-2013) appeared in some 80 films and television series. She was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for Caged (1950), Detective Story (1951) and Interrupted Melody (1955). Her role in Caged also won her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival. One of her most memorable roles was that of the Baroness in The Sound of Music (1965). Her biographer Doug McClelland called her ‘Woman of a Thousand Faces’, because of her versatility.
Eleanor Jean Parker was born in 1922, in Cedarville, Ohio. She was the daughter of Lola (Isett) and Lester Day Parker. Her family moved to East Cleveland, Ohio, where she attended public schools and graduated from Shaw High School. She appeared in a number of school plays. When she was 15 she started to attend the Rice Summer Theatre on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. After graduation, she moved to California and began appearing at the Pasadena Playhouse. There she was spotted by a Warners Bros talent scout, Irving Kumin. The studio signed her to a long-term contract in June 1941. She was cast that year in They Died with Their Boots On (Raoul Walsh, 1941), but her scenes were cut. Her actual film debut was as Nurse Ryan in the short Soldiers in White (B. Reeves Eason, 1942). She was given some decent roles in B films, Busses Roar (D. Ross Lederman, 1942) and The Mysterious Doctor (Benjamin Stoloff, 1943) opposites John Loder. She also had a small role in one of Warner Brothers' biggest productions for the 1943 season, the pro-Soviet Mission to Moscow (Michael Curtiz, 1943) as Emlen Davies, daughter of the U.S. ambassador to the U.S.S.R (Walter Huston). On the set, she met her first husband, Navy Lieutenant. Fred L. Losse, but the marriage turned out to be a brief wartime affair. Parker had impressed Warners enough to offer her a strong role in a prestige production, Between Two Worlds (Edward A. Blatt, 1944), playing the suicidal wife of Paul Henreid's character. She played support roles for Crime by Night (William Clemens, 1944) and The Last Ride (D. Ross Lederman, 1944). Then she got the starring role opposite Dennis Morgan in The Very Thought of You (Delmer Daves, 1944). She was considered enough of a ‘name’ to be given a cameo in Hollywood Canteen (Delmer Daves, 1944). Warners gave her the choice role of Mildred Rogers in a new version of Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage (Edmund Goulding, 1946), but previews were not favourable and the film sat on the shelf for two years before being released. She had her big break when she was cast opposite John Garfield in Pride of the Marines (Delmer Daves, 1945). However, two films with Errol Flynn that followed, the romantic comedy Never Say Goodbye (James V. Kern, 1946) and the drama Escape Me Never (Peter Godfrey, 1947), were box office disappointments. Parker was suspended twice by Warners for refusing parts in films – in Stallion Road (James V. Kern, 1947), where she was replaced by Alexis Smith and Love and Learn (Frederick De Cordova, 1947). She made the comedy Voice of the Turtle (Irving Rapper, 1947) with Ronald Reagan, and the mystery The Woman in White (Peter Godfrey, 1948). She refused to appear in Somewhere in the City (Vincent Sherman, 1950) so Warners suspended her again; Virginia Mayo played the role. Parker then had two years off, during which time she married and had a baby. She turned down a role in The Hasty Heart (Vincent Sherman, 1949) which she wanted to do, but it would have meant going to England and she did not want to leave her baby alone during its first year.
Eleanor Parker returned in Chain Lightning (Stuart Heisler, 1950) with Humphrey Bogart. Parker heard about a women-in-prison film Warners were making, Caged (John Cromwell, 1950), and actively lobbied for the role. She got it, won the 1950 Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award. She also had a good role in the melodrama Three Secrets (Robert Wise, 1950). In February 1950, Parker left Warner Bros. after having been under contract there for eight years. Parker had understood that she would star in a film called Safe Harbor, but Warner Bros. apparently had no intention of making it. Because of this misunderstanding, her agents negotiated her release. Parker's career outside of Warners started badly with Valentino (Lewis Allen, 1951) playing a fictionalised wife of Rudolph Valentino for producer Edward Small. She tried a comedy at 20th Century Fox with Fred MacMurray, A Millionaire for Christy (George Marshall, 1951). In 1951, Parker signed a contract with Paramount for one film a year, with an option for outside films. This arrangement began brilliantly with Detective Story (William Wyler, 1951) playing Mary McLeod, the woman who doesn't understand the position of her unstable detective husband (Kirk Douglas). Parker was nominated for the Oscar in 1951 for her performance. Parker followed Detective Story with her portrayal of an actress in love with a swashbuckling nobleman (Stewart Granger) in Scaramouche (George Sidney, 1952), a role originally intended for Ava Gardner. Wikipedia: “Parker later claimed that Granger was the only person she didn't get along with during her entire career. However, they had good chemistry and the film was a massive hit. “MGM cast her into Above and Beyond (Melvin Frank, Norman Panama, 1952), a biopic of Lt. Col. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. (Robert Taylor), the pilot of the aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. It was a solid hit. While Parker was making a third film for MGM, Escape from Fort Bravo (John Sturges, 1953), she signed a five-year contract with the studio. She was named as star of a Sidney Sheldon script, My Most Intimate Friend and of One More Time, from a script by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin directed by George Cukor, but neither film was made. Back at Paramount, Parker starred with Charlton Heston as a 1900s mail-order bride in The Naked Jungle (Byron Haskin, 1954), produced by George Pal. Parker returned to MGM where she was reunited with Robert Taylor in an Egyptian adventure film, Valley of the Kings (Robert Pirosh, 1954), and a Western, Many Rivers to Cross (Roy Rowland, 1955). MGM gave her one of her best roles as opera singer Marjorie Lawrence struck down by polio in Interrupted Melody (Curtis Bernhardt, 1955). This was a big hit and earned Parker a third Oscar nomination; she later said it was her favourite film. Also in 1955, Parker appeared in the film adaptation of the National Book Award-winner The Man with the Golden Arm (Otto Preminger, 1955), released through United Artists. She played Zosh, the supposedly wheelchair-bound wife of heroin-addicted, would-be jazz drummer Frankie Machine (Frank Sinatra). It was a major commercial and critical success. In 1956, she co-starred with Clark Gable in the Western comedy The King and Four Queens (Raoul Walsh, 1956), also for United Artists. It was then back at MGM for two dramas: Lizzie (Hugo Haas, 1957), in the title role, as a woman with a split personality; and The Seventh Sin (Ronald Neame, 1957), a remake of The Painted Veil in the role originated by Greta Garbo and, once again, intended for Ava Gardner. Both films flopped at the box office and, as a result, Parker's plans to produce her own film, L'Eternelle, about French resistance fighters, did not materialise.
Eleanor Parker supported Frank Sinatra in a popular comedy, A Hole in the Head (Frank Capra, 1959). She returned to MGM for Home from the Hill (Vincente Minnelli, 1960), co-starring with Robert Mitchum, then took over Lana Turner's role of Constance Rossi in Return to Peyton Place (José Ferrer, 1961), the sequel to the hit 1957 film. That was made by 20th Century Fox who also produced Madison Avenue (H. Bruce Humberstone, 1961) with Parker. In 1960, she made her TV debut, and in the following years, she worked increasingly in television, with the occasional film role such as Panic Button (George Sherman, Giuliano Carnimeo, 1964) with Maurice Chevalier and Jayne Mansfield. Parker's best-known screen role is Baroness Elsa Schraeder in the Oscar-winning musical The Sound of Music (Robert Wise, 1965). The Baroness was famously and poignantly unsuccessful in keeping the affections of Captain Georg von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) after he falls in love with Maria (Julie Andrews). In 1966, Parker played an alcoholic widow in the crime drama Warning Shot (Buzz Kulik, 1967), a talent scout who discovers a Hollywood star in The Oscar (Russell Rouse, 1966), and a rich alcoholic in An American Dream (Robert Gist, 1966). However, her film career seemed to go downhill. A Playboy Magazine reviewer derided the cast of The Oscar as "has-beens and never-will-be". From the late 1960s, she focused on television. In 1963, Parker appeared in the medical TV drama about psychiatry The Eleventh Hour in the episode Why Am I Grown So Cold?, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award. She also appeared in episodes of Breaking Point (1964). And The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1968). In 1969–1970, Parker starred in the television series Bracken's World, for which she was nominated for a 1970 Golden Globe Award. Parker also appeared on stage in the role of Margo Channing in Applause, the Broadway musical version of the film All About Eve. In 1976, she played Maxine in a revival of The Night of the Iguana. Her last film role was in a Farrah Fawcett bomb, Sunburn (Richard C. Sarafian, 1979). Subsequently, she appeared very infrequently on TV, most recently in Dead on the Money (Mark Cullingham, 1991). Eleanor Parker was married four times. Her first husband was Fred Losee (1943-1944). Her second marriage to Bert E. Friedlob (1946-1953) produced three children Susan Eleanor Friedlob (1948), Sharon Anne Friedlob (1950), and Richard Parker Friedlob (1952). Her third marriage was to American portrait painter Paul Clemens, (1954-1965) and the couple had one child, actor Paul Clemens (1958). Her fourth marriage with Raymond N. Hirsch (1966-2001) ended when Hirsch died of oesophagal cancer. She was the grandmother of actor/director Chasen Parker. Eleanor Parker died in 2013 at a medical facility in Palm Springs, California of complications of pneumonia. She was 91. Parker was raised a Protestant and later converted to Judaism, telling the New York Daily News columnist Kay Gardella in August 1969, "I think we're all Jews at heart ... I wanted to convert for a long time."
Sources: Jon C. Hopwood (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Belgian postcard. Photo: Warner Bros.
American actress Eleanor Parker (1922-2013) appeared in some 80 films and television series. She was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for Caged (1950), Detective Story (1951) and Interrupted Melody (1955). Her role in Caged also won her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival. One of her most memorable roles was that of the Baroness in The Sound of Music (1965). Her biographer Doug McClelland called her ‘Woman of a Thousand Faces’, because of her versatility.
Eleanor Jean Parker was born in 1922, in Cedarville, Ohio. She was the daughter of Lola (Isett) and Lester Day Parker. Her family moved to East Cleveland, Ohio, where she attended public schools and graduated from Shaw High School. She appeared in a number of school plays. When she was 15 she started to attend the Rice Summer Theatre on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. After graduation, she moved to California and began appearing at the Pasadena Playhouse. There she was spotted by a Warners Bros talent scout, Irving Kumin. The studio signed her to a long-term contract in June 1941. She was cast that year in They Died with Their Boots On (Raoul Walsh, 1941), but her scenes were cut. Her actual film debut was as Nurse Ryan in the short Soldiers in White (B. Reeves Eason, 1942). She was given some decent roles in B films, Busses Roar (D. Ross Lederman, 1942) and The Mysterious Doctor (Benjamin Stoloff, 1943) opposites John Loder. She also had a small role in one of Warner Brothers' biggest productions for the 1943 season, the pro-Soviet Mission to Moscow (Michael Curtiz, 1943) as Emlen Davies, daughter of the U.S. ambassador to the U.S.S.R (Walter Huston). On the set, she met her first husband, Navy Lieutenant. Fred L. Losse, but the marriage turned out to be a brief wartime affair. Parker had impressed Warners enough to offer her a strong role in a prestige production, Between Two Worlds (Edward A. Blatt, 1944), playing the suicidal wife of Paul Henreid's character. She played support roles for Crime by Night (William Clemens, 1944) and The Last Ride (D. Ross Lederman, 1944). Then she got the starring role opposite Dennis Morgan in The Very Thought of You (Delmer Daves, 1944). She was considered enough of a ‘name’ to be given a cameo in Hollywood Canteen (Delmer Daves, 1944). Warners gave her the choice role of Mildred Rogers in a new version of Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage (Edmund Goulding, 1946), but previews were not favourable and the film sat on the shelf for two years before being released. She had her big break when she was cast opposite John Garfield in Pride of the Marines (Delmer Daves, 1945). However, two films with Errol Flynn that followed, the romantic comedy Never Say Goodbye (James V. Kern, 1946) and the drama Escape Me Never (Peter Godfrey, 1947), were box office disappointments. Parker was suspended twice by Warners for refusing parts in films – in Stallion Road (James V. Kern, 1947), where she was replaced by Alexis Smith and Love and Learn (Frederick De Cordova, 1947). She made the comedy Voice of the Turtle (Irving Rapper, 1947) with Ronald Reagan, and the mystery The Woman in White (Peter Godfrey, 1948). She refused to appear in Somewhere in the City (Vincent Sherman, 1950) so Warners suspended her again; Virginia Mayo played the role. Parker then had two years off, during which time she married and had a baby. She turned down a role in The Hasty Heart (Vincent Sherman, 1949) which she wanted to do, but it would have meant going to England and she did not want to leave her baby alone during its first year.
Eleanor Parker returned in Chain Lightning (Stuart Heisler, 1950) with Humphrey Bogart. Parker heard about a women-in-prison film Warners were making, Caged (John Cromwell, 1950), and actively lobbied for the role. She got it, won the 1950 Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award. She also had a good role in the melodrama Three Secrets (Robert Wise, 1950). In February 1950, Parker left Warner Bros. after having been under contract there for eight years. Parker had understood that she would star in a film called Safe Harbor, but Warner Bros. apparently had no intention of making it. Because of this misunderstanding, her agents negotiated her release. Parker's career outside of Warners started badly with Valentino (Lewis Allen, 1951) playing a fictionalised wife of Rudolph Valentino for producer Edward Small. She tried a comedy at 20th Century Fox with Fred MacMurray, A Millionaire for Christy (George Marshall, 1951). In 1951, Parker signed a contract with Paramount for one film a year, with an option for outside films. This arrangement began brilliantly with Detective Story (William Wyler, 1951) playing Mary McLeod, the woman who doesn't understand the position of her unstable detective husband (Kirk Douglas). Parker was nominated for the Oscar in 1951 for her performance. Parker followed Detective Story with her portrayal of an actress in love with a swashbuckling nobleman (Stewart Granger) in Scaramouche (George Sidney, 1952), a role originally intended for Ava Gardner. Wikipedia: “Parker later claimed that Granger was the only person she didn't get along with during her entire career. However, they had good chemistry and the film was a massive hit. “MGM cast her into Above and Beyond (Melvin Frank, Norman Panama, 1952), a biopic of Lt. Col. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. (Robert Taylor), the pilot of the aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. It was a solid hit. While Parker was making a third film for MGM, Escape from Fort Bravo (John Sturges, 1953), she signed a five-year contract with the studio. She was named as star of a Sidney Sheldon script, My Most Intimate Friend and of One More Time, from a script by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin directed by George Cukor, but neither film was made. Back at Paramount, Parker starred with Charlton Heston as a 1900s mail-order bride in The Naked Jungle (Byron Haskin, 1954), produced by George Pal. Parker returned to MGM where she was reunited with Robert Taylor in an Egyptian adventure film, Valley of the Kings (Robert Pirosh, 1954), and a Western, Many Rivers to Cross (Roy Rowland, 1955). MGM gave her one of her best roles as opera singer Marjorie Lawrence struck down by polio in Interrupted Melody (Curtis Bernhardt, 1955). This was a big hit and earned Parker a third Oscar nomination; she later said it was her favourite film. Also in 1955, Parker appeared in the film adaptation of the National Book Award-winner The Man with the Golden Arm (Otto Preminger, 1955), released through United Artists. She played Zosh, the supposedly wheelchair-bound wife of heroin-addicted, would-be jazz drummer Frankie Machine (Frank Sinatra). It was a major commercial and critical success. In 1956, she co-starred with Clark Gable in the Western comedy The King and Four Queens (Raoul Walsh, 1956), also for United Artists. It was then back at MGM for two dramas: Lizzie (Hugo Haas, 1957), in the title role, as a woman with a split personality; and The Seventh Sin (Ronald Neame, 1957), a remake of The Painted Veil in the role originated by Greta Garbo and, once again, intended for Ava Gardner. Both films flopped at the box office and, as a result, Parker's plans to produce her own film, L'Eternelle, about French resistance fighters, did not materialise.
Eleanor Parker supported Frank Sinatra in a popular comedy, A Hole in the Head (Frank Capra, 1959). She returned to MGM for Home from the Hill (Vincente Minnelli, 1960), co-starring with Robert Mitchum, then took over Lana Turner's role of Constance Rossi in Return to Peyton Place (José Ferrer, 1961), the sequel to the hit 1957 film. That was made by 20th Century Fox who also produced Madison Avenue (H. Bruce Humberstone, 1961) with Parker. In 1960, she made her TV debut, and in the following years, she worked increasingly in television, with the occasional film role such as Panic Button (George Sherman, Giuliano Carnimeo, 1964) with Maurice Chevalier and Jayne Mansfield. Parker's best-known screen role is Baroness Elsa Schraeder in the Oscar-winning musical The Sound of Music (Robert Wise, 1965). The Baroness was famously and poignantly unsuccessful in keeping the affections of Captain Georg von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) after he falls in love with Maria (Julie Andrews). In 1966, Parker played an alcoholic widow in the crime drama Warning Shot (Buzz Kulik, 1967), a talent scout who discovers a Hollywood star in The Oscar (Russell Rouse, 1966), and a rich alcoholic in An American Dream (Robert Gist, 1966). However, her film career seemed to go downhill. A Playboy Magazine reviewer derided the cast of The Oscar as "has-beens and never-will-be". From the late 1960s, she focused on television. In 1963, Parker appeared in the medical TV drama about psychiatry The Eleventh Hour in the episode Why Am I Grown So Cold?, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award. She also appeared in episodes of Breaking Point (1964). And The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1968). In 1969–1970, Parker starred in the television series Bracken's World, for which she was nominated for a 1970 Golden Globe Award. Parker also appeared on stage in the role of Margo Channing in Applause, the Broadway musical version of the film All About Eve. In 1976, she played Maxine in a revival of The Night of the Iguana. Her last film role was in a Farrah Fawcett bomb, Sunburn (Richard C. Sarafian, 1979). Subsequently, she appeared very infrequently on TV, most recently in Dead on the Money (Mark Cullingham, 1991). Eleanor Parker was married four times. Her first husband was Fred Losee (1943-1944). Her second marriage to Bert E. Friedlob (1946-1953) produced three children Susan Eleanor Friedlob (1948), Sharon Anne Friedlob (1950), and Richard Parker Friedlob (1952). Her third marriage was to American portrait painter Paul Clemens, (1954-1965) and the couple had one child, actor Paul Clemens (1958). Her fourth marriage with Raymond N. Hirsch (1966-2001) ended when Hirsch died of oesophagal cancer. She was the grandmother of actor/director Chasen Parker. Eleanor Parker died in 2013 at a medical facility in Palm Springs, California of complications of pneumonia. She was 91. Parker was raised a Protestant and later converted to Judaism, telling the New York Daily News columnist Kay Gardella in August 1969, "I think we're all Jews at heart ... I wanted to convert for a long time."
Sources: Jon C. Hopwood (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
German postcard by Krüger, nr. 900/288. Photo: Bernard of Hollywood.
German actress Margaret Rose Keil was a blonde, buxom B-film starlet of the 1960’s and 1970’s. Till the early 1980’s she appeared in dozens of Italian comedies, spaghetti-westerns and sexploitation.
During her film career Margaret Rose Keil was credited also Margaret Keil, Margareth Rose Keil and Margaret Rose. One source claims she is German, but I could not find more information about her birth name nor the date or place of her birth. She was often cast as a German or Austrian character, so she was probably born around 1940 in one of these countries. She started her film career in Italy in such comedies as La ragazza di mille mesi (1961, Steno) starring Ugo Tognazzi, I magnifici tre (1961, Giorgio Simonelli) starring Walter Chiari, and Totò di notte n. 1 (1962, Mario Amendola) with Totò. She also appeared in a small part in the historical melodrama Le prigioniere dell'isola del diavolo/Women of Devil's Island (1962, Domenico Paolella) starring the American actor Guy Madison, who's second European film this was. Madison went on to have a successful and prolific ‘second career’ in Europe throughout the 1960's.
Margaret Rose Keil then went to Great Britain to star in the entertaining B-film That Kind of Girl (1963, Gerry O’Hara). She played a cute live-in babysitter from Austria, who spreads VD in a small British town. Reviewer Matt Moses writes on IMDb: “This one's kind of a stinker, story-wise, but as per usual the acting holds its own and the cinematography is excellent.” Back in Italy, she appeared in the drama Gli imbroglioni (1963, Lucio Fulci) and in ...e la donna creò l'uomo/Full Hearts and Empty Pockets (1964) with Thomas Fritsch. Her next film, the comedy Panic Button/ Let's Go Bust (1964, George Sherman, Giuliano Carnimeo) had an interesting cast. In this precursor of The Producers, Mike Connors played a businessman who plans to solve his tax problems by financing a film version of Romeo and Juliet. He hires has-been matinée idol Maurice Chevalier and Jayne Mansfield to play the title roles, and acting guru par excellence Akim Tamiroff to direct. The finished film is shown at the Venice Film Festival, where it's considered a witty parody and awarded a Golden Lion. In 1964 Margaret Rose Keil also appeared in Playboy magazine, photographed by Peter Basch for an article about the girl of Germany in the November issue. She next appeared as eye candy in Kommissar X - In den Klauen des goldenen Drachen/So Darling, So Deadly (1966), an entry in the Kommissar X series starring Tony Kendall, set in Singapore. Apart from films she also frequently appeared in the popular fotonovelas.
At the end of the 1960’s Margaret Rose Keil’s roles became smaller and less frequent, but in the early 1970’s her career seemed to revive. She played Massimo Serato’s sister in the historical drama Il ritorno del gladiatore più forte del mondo/Three Giants of the Roman Empire (1971, Bitto Albertini), and a bit part in the comedy Roma Bene (1971, Carlo Lizzani) starring Senta Berger. She played the female lead in the spaghetti western ...e lo chiamarono Spirito Santo/He Was Called the Holy Ghost (1971, Roberto Mauri). She also featured in another popular Italian genre of this period, the sex comedy, such as in Metti lo diavolo tuo ne lo mio inferno (1972, Bitto Albertini), Il decamerone proibito - le altre novelle del Boccaccio (1972, Carlo Infascelli, Antonio Racioppi) and Novelle licenziose di vergini vogliose/Diary of a Roman Virgin (1973, Joe D’Amato). In the action-comedy Metti... che ti rompo il muso/Suppose... I Break Your Neck (1973, Giuseppe Vari) she appeared opposite Frederick Stafford. finally is found in a confused state of mind by her husband at their Lugano penthouse. She is rumored to have a n affair with her co-star, which causes that Stafford’s wife, actress Marianne Hold, has to be treated at a psychiatric clinic. Margaret Rose Keil continued to appear in Eurotrash like the giallo La polizia brancola nel buio/ The Police Are Blundering in the Dark (1975, Helia Colombo). In Germany she did another sex comedy Ein echter Hausfrauenfreund/Inn of 1,000 Sins (1975, Kurt Nachmann) about a male prostitute servicing the rich and lonely female customers at an exclusive countryside inn. Her last film was Giochi erotici nella 3a galassia/Escape from Galaxy 3 (1981, Bitto Albertini), a Disco sci-fi film with some nudity in the wake of the success of Star Wars. With the death of the Italian B-film in the early 1980’s, the film career of Margaret Rose Keil was also over.
Sources: Matt Moses (IMDb), Used magazines.com, Glamour Girl of the Silver Screen and IMDb.
Panic Button!!
Joystick control and Panic / Stop button for a self-propelled lift.
Shot with Pentax K500 camera and Jupiter 85/2 Preset lens at f/4
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, presented by Les Carbones Korès "Carboplane", no. 587. Photo: Paramount, 1955.
American actress Eleanor Parker (1922-2013) appeared in some 80 films and television series. She was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for Caged (1950), Detective Story (1951) and Interrupted Melody (1955). Her role in Caged also won her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival. One of her most memorable roles was that of the Baroness in The Sound of Music (1965). Her biographer Doug McClelland called her ‘Woman of a Thousand Faces’, because of her versatility.
Eleanor Jean Parker was born in 1922, in Cedarville, Ohio. She was the daughter of Lola (Isett) and Lester Day Parker. Her family moved to East Cleveland, Ohio, where she attended public schools and graduated from Shaw High School. She appeared in a number of school plays. When she was 15 she started to attend the Rice Summer Theatre on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. After graduation, she moved to California and began appearing at the Pasadena Playhouse. There she was spotted by a Warners Bros talent scout, Irving Kumin. The studio signed her to a long-term contract in June 1941. She was cast that year in They Died with Their Boots On (Raoul Walsh, 1941), but her scenes were cut. Her actual film debut was as Nurse Ryan in the short Soldiers in White (B. Reeves Eason, 1942). She was given some decent roles in B films, Busses Roar (D. Ross Lederman, 1942) and The Mysterious Doctor (Benjamin Stoloff, 1943) opposites John Loder. She also had a small role in one of Warner Brothers' biggest productions for the 1943 season, the pro-Soviet Mission to Moscow (Michael Curtiz, 1943) as Emlen Davies, daughter of the U.S. ambassador to the U.S.S.R (Walter Huston). On the set, she met her first husband, Navy Lieutenant. Fred L. Losse, but the marriage turned out to be a brief wartime affair. Parker had impressed Warners enough to offer her a strong role in a prestige production, Between Two Worlds (Edward A. Blatt, 1944), playing the suicidal wife of Paul Henreid's character. She played support roles for Crime by Night (William Clemens, 1944) and The Last Ride (D. Ross Lederman, 1944). Then she got the starring role opposite Dennis Morgan in The Very Thought of You (Delmer Daves, 1944). She was considered enough of a ‘name’ to be given a cameo in Hollywood Canteen (Delmer Daves, 1944). Warners gave her the choice role of Mildred Rogers in a new version of Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage (Edmund Goulding, 1946), but previews were not favourable and the film sat on the shelf for two years before being released. She had her big break when she was cast opposite John Garfield in Pride of the Marines (Delmer Daves, 1945). However, two films with Errol Flynn that followed, the romantic comedy Never Say Goodbye (James V. Kern, 1946) and the drama Escape Me Never (Peter Godfrey, 1947), were box office disappointments. Parker was suspended twice by Warners for refusing parts in films – in Stallion Road (James V. Kern, 1947), where she was replaced by Alexis Smith and Love and Learn (Frederick De Cordova, 1947). She made the comedy Voice of the Turtle (Irving Rapper, 1947) with Ronald Reagan, and the mystery The Woman in White (Peter Godfrey, 1948). She refused to appear in Somewhere in the City (Vincent Sherman, 1950) so Warners suspended her again; Virginia Mayo played the role. Parker then had two years off, during which time she married and had a baby. She turned down a role in The Hasty Heart (Vincent Sherman, 1949) which she wanted to do, but it would have meant going to England and she did not want to leave her baby alone during its first year.
Eleanor Parker returned in Chain Lightning (Stuart Heisler, 1950) with Humphrey Bogart. Parker heard about a women-in-prison film Warners were making, Caged (John Cromwell, 1950), and actively lobbied for the role. She got it, won the 1950 Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award. She also had a good role in the melodrama Three Secrets (Robert Wise, 1950). In February 1950, Parker left Warner Bros. after having been under contract there for eight years. Parker had understood that she would star in a film called Safe Harbor, but Warner Bros. apparently had no intention of making it. Because of this misunderstanding, her agents negotiated her release. Parker's career outside of Warners started badly with Valentino (Lewis Allen, 1951) playing a fictionalised wife of Rudolph Valentino for producer Edward Small. She tried a comedy at 20th Century Fox with Fred MacMurray, A Millionaire for Christy (George Marshall, 1951). In 1951, Parker signed a contract with Paramount for one film a year, with an option for outside films. This arrangement began brilliantly with Detective Story (William Wyler, 1951) playing Mary McLeod, the woman who doesn't understand the position of her unstable detective husband (Kirk Douglas). Parker was nominated for the Oscar in 1951 for her performance. Parker followed Detective Story with her portrayal of an actress in love with a swashbuckling nobleman (Stewart Granger) in Scaramouche (George Sidney, 1952), a role originally intended for Ava Gardner. Wikipedia: “Parker later claimed that Granger was the only person she didn't get along with during her entire career. However, they had good chemistry and the film was a massive hit. “MGM cast her into Above and Beyond (Melvin Frank, Norman Panama, 1952), a biopic of Lt. Col. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. (Robert Taylor), the pilot of the aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. It was a solid hit. While Parker was making a third film for MGM, Escape from Fort Bravo (John Sturges, 1953), she signed a five-year contract with the studio. She was named as star of a Sidney Sheldon script, My Most Intimate Friend and of One More Time, from a script by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin directed by George Cukor, but neither film was made. Back at Paramount, Parker starred with Charlton Heston as a 1900s mail-order bride in The Naked Jungle (Byron Haskin, 1954), produced by George Pal. Parker returned to MGM where she was reunited with Robert Taylor in an Egyptian adventure film, Valley of the Kings (Robert Pirosh, 1954), and a Western, Many Rivers to Cross (Roy Rowland, 1955). MGM gave her one of her best roles as opera singer Marjorie Lawrence struck down by polio in Interrupted Melody (Curtis Bernhardt, 1955). This was a big hit and earned Parker a third Oscar nomination; she later said it was her favourite film. Also in 1955, Parker appeared in the film adaptation of the National Book Award-winner The Man with the Golden Arm (Otto Preminger, 1955), released through United Artists. She played Zosh, the supposedly wheelchair-bound wife of heroin-addicted, would-be jazz drummer Frankie Machine (Frank Sinatra). It was a major commercial and critical success. In 1956, she co-starred with Clark Gable in the Western comedy The King and Four Queens (Raoul Walsh, 1956), also for United Artists. It was then back at MGM for two dramas: Lizzie (Hugo Haas, 1957), in the title role, as a woman with a split personality; and The Seventh Sin (Ronald Neame, 1957), a remake of The Painted Veil in the role originated by Greta Garbo and, once again, intended for Ava Gardner. Both films flopped at the box office and, as a result, Parker's plans to produce her own film, L'Eternelle, about French resistance fighters, did not materialise.
Eleanor Parker supported Frank Sinatra in a popular comedy, A Hole in the Head (Frank Capra, 1959). She returned to MGM for Home from the Hill (Vincente Minnelli, 1960), co-starring with Robert Mitchum, then took over Lana Turner's role of Constance Rossi in Return to Peyton Place (José Ferrer, 1961), the sequel to the hit 1957 film. That was made by 20th Century Fox who also produced Madison Avenue (H. Bruce Humberstone, 1961) with Parker. In 1960, she made her TV debut, and in the following years, she worked increasingly in television, with the occasional film role such as Panic Button (George Sherman, Giuliano Carnimeo, 1964) with Maurice Chevalier and Jayne Mansfield. Parker's best-known screen role is Baroness Elsa Schraeder in the Oscar-winning musical The Sound of Music (Robert Wise, 1965). The Baroness was famously and poignantly unsuccessful in keeping the affections of Captain Georg von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) after he falls in love with Maria (Julie Andrews). In 1966, Parker played an alcoholic widow in the crime drama Warning Shot (Buzz Kulik, 1967), a talent scout who discovers a Hollywood star in The Oscar (Russell Rouse, 1966), and a rich alcoholic in An American Dream (Robert Gist, 1966). However, her film career seemed to go downhill. A Playboy Magazine reviewer derided the cast of The Oscar as "has-beens and never-will-be". From the late 1960s, she focused on television. In 1963, Parker appeared in the medical TV drama about psychiatry The Eleventh Hour in the episode Why Am I Grown So Cold?, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award. She also appeared in episodes of Breaking Point (1964). And The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1968). In 1969–1970, Parker starred in the television series Bracken's World, for which she was nominated for a 1970 Golden Globe Award. Parker also appeared on stage in the role of Margo Channing in Applause, the Broadway musical version of the film All About Eve. In 1976, she played Maxine in a revival of The Night of the Iguana. Her last film role was in a Farrah Fawcett bomb, Sunburn (Richard C. Sarafian, 1979). Subsequently, she appeared very infrequently on TV, most recently in Dead on the Money (Mark Cullingham, 1991). Eleanor Parker was married four times. Her first husband was Fred Losee (1943-1944). Her second marriage to Bert E. Friedlob (1946-1953) produced three children Susan Eleanor Friedlob (1948), Sharon Anne Friedlob (1950), and Richard Parker Friedlob (1952). Her third marriage was to American portrait painter Paul Clemens, (1954-1965) and the couple had one child, actor Paul Clemens (1958). Her fourth marriage with Raymond N. Hirsch (1966-2001) ended when Hirsch died of oesophagal cancer. She was the grandmother of actor/director Chasen Parker. Eleanor Parker died in 2013 at a medical facility in Palm Springs, California of complications of pneumonia. She was 91. Parker was raised a Protestant and later converted to Judaism, telling the New York Daily News columnist Kay Gardella in August 1969, "I think we're all Jews at heart ... I wanted to convert for a long time."
Sources: Jon C. Hopwood (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Belgian postcard, no. 551. Photo: Warner Bros.
American actress Eleanor Parker (1922-2013) appeared in some 80 films and television series. She was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for Caged (1950), Detective Story (1951) and Interrupted Melody (1955). Her role in Caged also won her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival. One of her most memorable roles was that of the Baroness in The Sound of Music (1965). Her biographer Doug McClelland called her ‘Woman of a Thousand Faces’, because of her versatility.
Eleanor Jean Parker was born in 1922, in Cedarville, Ohio. She was the daughter of Lola (Isett) and Lester Day Parker. Her family moved to East Cleveland, Ohio, where she attended public schools and graduated from Shaw High School. She appeared in a number of school plays. When she was 15 she started to attend the Rice Summer Theatre on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. After graduation, she moved to California and began appearing at the Pasadena Playhouse. There she was spotted by a Warners Bros talent scout, Irving Kumin. The studio signed her to a long-term contract in June 1941. She was cast that year in They Died with Their Boots On (Raoul Walsh, 1941), but her scenes were cut. Her actual film debut was as Nurse Ryan in the short Soldiers in White (B. Reeves Eason, 1942). She was given some decent roles in B films, Busses Roar (D. Ross Lederman, 1942) and The Mysterious Doctor (Benjamin Stoloff, 1943) opposites John Loder. She also had a small role in one of Warner Brothers' biggest productions for the 1943 season, the pro-Soviet Mission to Moscow (Michael Curtiz, 1943) as Emlen Davies, daughter of the U.S. ambassador to the U.S.S.R (Walter Huston). On the set, she met her first husband, Navy Lieutenant. Fred L. Losse, but the marriage turned out to be a brief wartime affair. Parker had impressed Warners enough to offer her a strong role in a prestige production, Between Two Worlds (Edward A. Blatt, 1944), playing the suicidal wife of Paul Henreid's character. She played support roles for Crime by Night (William Clemens, 1944) and The Last Ride (D. Ross Lederman, 1944). Then she got the starring role opposite Dennis Morgan in The Very Thought of You (Delmer Daves, 1944). She was considered enough of a ‘name’ to be given a cameo in Hollywood Canteen (Delmer Daves, 1944). Warners gave her the choice role of Mildred Rogers in a new version of Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage (Edmund Goulding, 1946), but previews were not favourable and the film sat on the shelf for two years before being released. She had her big break when she was cast opposite John Garfield in Pride of the Marines (Delmer Daves, 1945). However, two films with Errol Flynn that followed, the romantic comedy Never Say Goodbye (James V. Kern, 1946) and the drama Escape Me Never (Peter Godfrey, 1947), were box office disappointments. Parker was suspended twice by Warners for refusing parts in films – in Stallion Road (James V. Kern, 1947), where she was replaced by Alexis Smith and Love and Learn (Frederick De Cordova, 1947). She made the comedy Voice of the Turtle (Irving Rapper, 1947) with Ronald Reagan, and the mystery The Woman in White (Peter Godfrey, 1948). She refused to appear in Somewhere in the City (Vincent Sherman, 1950) so Warners suspended her again; Virginia Mayo played the role. Parker then had two years off, during which time she married and had a baby. She turned down a role in The Hasty Heart (Vincent Sherman, 1949) which she wanted to do, but it would have meant going to England and she did not want to leave her baby alone during its first year.
Eleanor Parker returned in Chain Lightning (Stuart Heisler, 1950) with Humphrey Bogart. Parker heard about a women-in-prison film Warners were making, Caged (John Cromwell, 1950), and actively lobbied for the role. She got it, won the 1950 Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award. She also had a good role in the melodrama Three Secrets (Robert Wise, 1950). In February 1950, Parker left Warner Bros. after having been under contract there for eight years. Parker had understood that she would star in a film called Safe Harbor, but Warner Bros. apparently had no intention of making it. Because of this misunderstanding, her agents negotiated her release. Parker's career outside of Warners started badly with Valentino (Lewis Allen, 1951) playing a fictionalised wife of Rudolph Valentino for producer Edward Small. She tried a comedy at 20th Century Fox with Fred MacMurray, A Millionaire for Christy (George Marshall, 1951). In 1951, Parker signed a contract with Paramount for one film a year, with an option for outside films. This arrangement began brilliantly with Detective Story (William Wyler, 1951) playing Mary McLeod, the woman who doesn't understand the position of her unstable detective husband (Kirk Douglas). Parker was nominated for the Oscar in 1951 for her performance. Parker followed Detective Story with her portrayal of an actress in love with a swashbuckling nobleman (Stewart Granger) in Scaramouche (George Sidney, 1952), a role originally intended for Ava Gardner. Wikipedia: “Parker later claimed that Granger was the only person she didn't get along with during her entire career. However, they had good chemistry and the film was a massive hit. “MGM cast her into Above and Beyond (Melvin Frank, Norman Panama, 1952), a biopic of Lt. Col. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. (Robert Taylor), the pilot of the aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. It was a solid hit. While Parker was making a third film for MGM, Escape from Fort Bravo (John Sturges, 1953), she signed a five-year contract with the studio. She was named as star of a Sidney Sheldon script, My Most Intimate Friend and of One More Time, from a script by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin directed by George Cukor, but neither film was made. Back at Paramount, Parker starred with Charlton Heston as a 1900s mail-order bride in The Naked Jungle (Byron Haskin, 1954), produced by George Pal. Parker returned to MGM where she was reunited with Robert Taylor in an Egyptian adventure film, Valley of the Kings (Robert Pirosh, 1954), and a Western, Many Rivers to Cross (Roy Rowland, 1955). MGM gave her one of her best roles as opera singer Marjorie Lawrence struck down by polio in Interrupted Melody (Curtis Bernhardt, 1955). This was a big hit and earned Parker a third Oscar nomination; she later said it was her favourite film. Also in 1955, Parker appeared in the film adaptation of the National Book Award-winner The Man with the Golden Arm (Otto Preminger, 1955), released through United Artists. She played Zosh, the supposedly wheelchair-bound wife of heroin-addicted, would-be jazz drummer Frankie Machine (Frank Sinatra). It was a major commercial and critical success. In 1956, she co-starred with Clark Gable in the Western comedy The King and Four Queens (Raoul Walsh, 1956), also for United Artists. It was then back at MGM for two dramas: Lizzie (Hugo Haas, 1957), in the title role, as a woman with a split personality; and The Seventh Sin (Ronald Neame, 1957), a remake of The Painted Veil in the role originated by Greta Garbo and, once again, intended for Ava Gardner. Both films flopped at the box office and, as a result, Parker's plans to produce her own film, L'Eternelle, about French resistance fighters, did not materialise.
Eleanor Parker supported Frank Sinatra in a popular comedy, A Hole in the Head (Frank Capra, 1959). She returned to MGM for Home from the Hill (Vincente Minnelli, 1960), co-starring with Robert Mitchum, then took over Lana Turner's role of Constance Rossi in Return to Peyton Place (José Ferrer, 1961), the sequel to the hit 1957 film. That was made by 20th Century Fox who also produced Madison Avenue (H. Bruce Humberstone, 1961) with Parker. In 1960, she made her TV debut, and in the following years, she worked increasingly in television, with the occasional film role such as Panic Button (George Sherman, Giuliano Carnimeo, 1964) with Maurice Chevalier and Jayne Mansfield. Parker's best-known screen role is Baroness Elsa Schraeder in the Oscar-winning musical The Sound of Music (Robert Wise, 1965). The Baroness was famously and poignantly unsuccessful in keeping the affections of Captain Georg von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) after he falls in love with Maria (Julie Andrews). In 1966, Parker played an alcoholic widow in the crime drama Warning Shot (Buzz Kulik, 1967), a talent scout who discovers a Hollywood star in The Oscar (Russell Rouse, 1966), and a rich alcoholic in An American Dream (Robert Gist, 1966). However, her film career seemed to go downhill. A Playboy Magazine reviewer derided the cast of The Oscar as "has-beens and never-will-be". From the late 1960s, she focused on television. In 1963, Parker appeared in the medical TV drama about psychiatry The Eleventh Hour in the episode Why Am I Grown So Cold?, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award. She also appeared in episodes of Breaking Point (1964). And The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1968). In 1969–1970, Parker starred in the television series Bracken's World, for which she was nominated for a 1970 Golden Globe Award. Parker also appeared on stage in the role of Margo Channing in Applause, the Broadway musical version of the film All About Eve. In 1976, she played Maxine in a revival of The Night of the Iguana. Her last film role was in a Farrah Fawcett bomb, Sunburn (Richard C. Sarafian, 1979). Subsequently, she appeared very infrequently on TV, most recently in Dead on the Money (Mark Cullingham, 1991). Eleanor Parker was married four times. Her first husband was Fred Losee (1943-1944). Her second marriage to Bert E. Friedlob (1946-1953) produced three children Susan Eleanor Friedlob (1948), Sharon Anne Friedlob (1950), and Richard Parker Friedlob (1952). Her third marriage was to American portrait painter Paul Clemens, (1954-1965) and the couple had one child, actor Paul Clemens (1958). Her fourth marriage with Raymond N. Hirsch (1966-2001) ended when Hirsch died of oesophagal cancer. She was the grandmother of actor/director Chasen Parker. Eleanor Parker died in 2013 at a medical facility in Palm Springs, California of complications of pneumonia. She was 91. Parker was raised a Protestant and later converted to Judaism, telling the New York Daily News columnist Kay Gardella in August 1969, "I think we're all Jews at heart ... I wanted to convert for a long time."
Sources: Jon C. Hopwood (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.