Mr.X Blind Item #7 -Old Hollywood
What A++ list actress who is best known for starring in a comedy franchise didn't get her A++ list status overnight. She worked long and hard for a leading lady part, spending several years in the doldrums of B-movies. She also said she avoided the casting coach entirely, although the boss of the first studio she was under contract to bragged otherwise. The actress refuted his claims with "he made a game of chasing me around his office until I threw one of my high heel shoes at him to make him stop. He was so full of s**t."
28 comments:
Lucile Ball
dorothy lamour
I think ts Dorothy Lamour because I think Lucy was a BI answer cearlier today.
and The Hope/Crosby "Road" films
I have never heard of Dorthy Lamour----certainly not A+++ status
RE: Lucille Ball
" Before starring in I Love Lucy, Ball had starred in many B movies before co-founding Desilu Productions, and based on that experience, she had a good idea of what television audiences wanted." Wikipedia
Lucille Ball was an escort upon getting her career started, far from too chaste to utilize the casting couch.In addition, she had nominal film success, only TV(which is what the other BI states).
Totally Myrna Loy. (The Thin Man series.)
she definitey was not part of a comedic film franchise like Lamour/Hope and Crosby
Myrna Loy
um Hello ---I love Lucy had several recreations for 40 years! and it doesnt say tv or film.
Clearly people here do not grasp the "A+++" rating. This is an actress that will have calneders-posters and t-shirts etc with her image still selling today.
Too bad you've never heard of Dorothy Lamour. She was amazing. Do yourself a favor and watch "The Road to Singapore" or any of the Crosby/Hope "Road" movies.
Also, she doesn't really fit because she was a singer first. She didn't really spend years in B movies.
Nope. A+++ means she's legendary on film. Myrna Loy was the female Cary Grant.
No disrespect---I am not that versed and you seem to be but that is just my take on it. It should be someone that grand kids etc have heard of. and Myrna didnt even win an Academy Award (well they gave her an honorable one before she died)
That's OK. I have similar issues with people calling Channing Tatum A+. I barely know who he is, let alone my mother.
I thought the rating meant in their time..as a tcm junkie, I know there were many actors who you may not know, but we're big celebs ..they were household names and made huge money for their studios even in franchises we might consider B today.
I'm also thinking Myrna Loy and the Thin Man films for the franchise.
Exactly! Case in point: Robert Taylor. Ask anyone over 70 who he was and they rank him right up there with Cary Grant and Clark Gable. I think the only reason he isn't remembered much these days is even though he was a HUGE star and dreamy leading man, he never starred in any films that have hit legendary status yet. (Although I'm still holding out hope that young folks will discover "Ivanhoe" one of these days. I love that movie.)
I read it like that too. They are stars of the Golden Age who were huge in their day but no one has heard of them.
Love old Hollywood gossip.
My first thought was Myrna Loy, too.
It scares me to think that we live in a world where people like Tatum, JLo, and Kardashian are considered A list at anything other then annoyance factor and talentlessness, yet anything prior to 1980 registers just a look of complete befuddlement. HELP!
And yes, I do believe this might be Loy. I'm really hard pressed to think of another comedy series that was female led ( co-starring at least ) and was the A list juggernaut this one was during the 30's and 40's.
Myrna Loy was somewhat typecast playing exotic and even Asian women in dozens of movies before the Thin Man series started. Just before WWII she was named by theater owners of the top money-making stars. If anyone can't recall seeing a Thin Man film, try one; there's a reason they made 14 of them. Beyond that Myrna Loy was in The Best Years of Our Lives, Cheaper By The Dozen, Test Pilot, The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, The April Fools, even Airport '75.
Myrna Loy was the first one to pop into my head also although I couldn't remember her name. Mr. Blandings is one of my favorites. Libeled Lady is also fantastic.
She had a very small part in Love Me Tonight with Jeanette McDonald and Maurice Chevalier, great movie, wonderful songs.
Nominal film success? Hardly.
Lucille Ball was known as the "Queen of the B's" , and the move into television was primarily to try and keep a closer tab on Desi's wandering eye.
Myrna Loy was my first thought too the only other comedy actresses I can think of from the 30s/40s are Roslind Russell and Ginger Rogers, no franchises for Roslind maybe the Fred and Ginger movies could be classed as comedy (musical comedy) or Anne Sothern and the Maisie movies but she was never A++
I agree on Myrna Loy. Early on she toiled in walk-on roles (she was even in "The Jazz Singer") and was relegated to exotic Eastern vamps during her days at Warner Brothers. When she moved to MGM, her image changed into a sophisticated yet wholesome lady, epitomized by her role as Nora Charles in the "Thin Man" franchise. She was also quite outspoken offscreen, politically active as a Democrat. Not the type to put up with a horny studio boss. I think that describes Jack Warner. L.B. Mayer had a decidedly more paternal view in regards to most of his "A" stars, and Myrna was definitely one of the biggest.
I finally watched an episode of "Sherlock", so now I can say I know what Benedict Cumberbatch looks like! (Still ridiculous to call it a big hit after nine freaking episodes, IMO.)
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