Gloria Dickson was born Thais Lelia Dickerson on August 13, 1917,
in Pocatello, Idaho, to Fred and Emma Dickerson. Gloria also had an older
sister named Doris. Her father worked as an insurance agent until his passing in
1926, upon which she, her mother, and sister moved to California.
While in California, Dickson attended and graduated from Long
Beach Polytechnic High School. It was there that she began acting in her
school’s theatrical productions.
In 1936, she was performing as part of the Federal Theatre
Project—a theater program that was carried out during the Great Depression
years as part of the New Deal to fund entertainment programs in the United
States. She was noticed by a Warner Bros. talent scout, who ultimately signed
her to a film contract. Dickson made her film debut in They Won’t Forget (1937).
Dickson enjoyed an active life early in her career, particularly
enjoying fishing near Catalina Island. She reportedly caught a 632-pound shark
on one of her fishing trips.
Dickson’s career flourished with appearances in Gold Diggers in Paris (1938), On Your Toes (1939), I Want a Divorce (1940), and more.
Gloria Dickson
In 1938, Dickson married notable makeup artist Percival “Perc”
Harry Westmore in Santa Barbara, California. Westmore wanted a more glamorous
image for Dickson, and persuaded her to undergo rhinoplasty. They ultimately
divorced in 1941. In the same year, she married film director Ralph Murphy. The
marriage also ended in divorce by 1944.
In the 1940s, Dickson’s film career waned and she mostly appeared
in B-Movies such as The Affairs of Jimmy
Valentine (1942) and Lady ofBurlesque (1943). She struggled with her
weight and alcoholism, which further complicated her professional and personal
life.
In 1944, Dickson married former boxer William Fitzgerald, to whom
she remained married until her untimely passing. Fitzgerald also once happened
to be a bodyguard for actress Jean Harlow.
Dickson tragically died in a fire on April 10, 1945. She was
residing in a Los Angeles, California, home that she was renting from actor
Sidney Toler. The fire was caused by an unextinguished cigarette that she left
behind. It ignited a chair on the ground floor while she was napping upstairs.
Sadly, she and her pet boxer were found in the bathroom, as it was assumed that
she tried to escape via the bathroom window. She ultimately passed from
asphyxiation and had suffered first- and second-degree burns. She was 27 years
old.
Dickson was buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles,
California.
Today, some
points of interest relating to Dickson remain. In 1920, Dickson lived at 1014
N. Arthur Ave., Pocatello, Idaho. In 1930, they lived at 1080 Elm Ave., Long
Beach, California. Both of these homes no longer stand.
In 1932, she
lived at 424A E. 16th St., Long Beach, California. The home remains.
424A E. 16th St., Long Beach, CA
In 1940, she
lived in an apartment at 6626 Franklin Ave., Los Angeles, California, which
also stands.
6626 Franklin Ave., Los Angeles, CA
Dickson
passed in a fire at 1630 Haslam Ter., Los Angeles, California. The home has
been significantly remodeled but remains today.
Annette Bochenek, Ph.D., is a film historian, professor, and avid scholar of Hollywood’s Golden Age. She manages the “Hometowns to Hollywood” blog, in which she profiles her trips to the hometowns of classic Hollywood stars. She has also been featured on the popular classic film-oriented television network, Turner Classic Movies. A regular columnist for Classic Movie Hub, her articles have appeared in TCM Backlot, Silent Film Quarterly, Nostalgia Digest, The Dark Pages Film Noir Newsletter, and Chicago Art Deco Society Magazine.
I previewed the 2025 festival in my column here a few weeks ago. Suffice it to say the festival, which takes place in Lone Pine, California, was as enjoyable as expected. It was packed with special guests, visits to movie locations in the Alabama Hills and elsewhere, and of course movies.
I managed to see nine films at this year’s festival,
including silent Westerns, “B” Westerns, and more.
Most of the movies shown at the festival are filmed in the
Lone Pine area, but occasionally a “non Lone Pine” film is shown in
conjunction with the appearance of a festival guest.
Such was the case with the screening of Bullets
Don’t Argue (1964), a “spaghetti Western” which starred Rod
Cameron. Rod’s son Tony was one of the festival guests. Tony is seen in the
photo below on the left, interviewed by film historian C. Courtney Joyner prior
to the screening.
Tony Cameron and Courtney Joyner
Tony is an articulate speaker with many memories of his
father and his career. Joel McCrea’s grandson Wyatt and his wife Lisa were
among those listening intently to Tony’s interview.
Rob Word, a regular moderator at the Lone Pine Festival, videotaped an interview with Tony a couple of years ago. It can be seen on YouTube, and I highly recommend watching it to get a sense of the kind of men both Rod and Tony were and are. It’s extremely enjoyable.
I wasn’t sure if Bullets Don’t Argue would
be “my kind of movie” but was pulled into trying it due to my liking
of both the Camerons. I’m pleased to say that that the movie turned out to be
perhaps my favorite of the nine films seen at the festival!
There’s some fascinating background to Bullets
Don’t Argue, which was produced by Jolly Films contemporaneously with Clint
Eastwood’s A Fistful of Dollars (1964).
While A Fistful of Dollars was directed by
Sergio Leone, Bullets Don’t Argue was directed by Mario
Caiano, billed as Mike Perkins.
Both films were scored by Ennio Morricone and were
co-photographed by Massimo Dallamano; Dallamano was uncredited on Bullets
Don’t Argue, which was also photographed by Julio Ortas. Both the
cinematography and scoring add a great deal to the movie.
Bullets Don’t Argue was expected to be
the more successful of this pair of Jolly films, as Rod Cameron was the bigger
“name” in the early ’60s, and his movie thus had a somewhat bigger
budget. We all know what happened there…
I saw A Fistful of Dollars for the first
time about a year ago and liked it, though it’s the rare film I didn’t get
around to reviewing. I can thus compare the two and say that while Eastwood was
moving into new Western territory in his film, as the “cool,” taciturn
gunfighter, Bullets Don’t Argue is very much in traditional
Western territory, albeit filmed in Spain with a mostly European cast.
Bullets Don’t Argue is what Western
enthusiasts such as myself like to term a “darn good Western.”
It’s a fairly old-fashioned film, in the sense that you can
see some of the well-worn story beats coming a while away, but its 89 minutes
move along in a brisk, engaging, and likeable fashion. The movie balances some
unexpected creativity and a nice sense of humor with action and moments of
poignance.
The film begins as respected Sheriff Pat Garrett (Cameron)
is marrying pretty (and clearly younger) Martha (Giulia Rubini).
Rod Cameron and Giulia Rubini
While the wedding is taking place, elsewhere in town the
bank is being robbed by the Clanton brothers: smarter, meaner older brother
Billy (Horst Frank) and his goofier, less reliable younger brother George
(Angel Aranda).
Billy orders George to kill the two men who are in the
bank, but when George can’t do it, Billy guns them down in cold blood.
Horst Frank is seen below as Billy; he reminded me a little
of Frank Gorshin.
Horst Frank
Garrett, ever a man of duty, must leave behind his lovely
bride right after the wedding and sets off in search of the Clantons. His
deputies refuse to follow him into Mexico, so from the point he crosses out of
the United States he’s a man on a lonely mission.
Garrett catches up with the Clantons fairly quickly; the
main thrust of the story is his challenges bringing them to justice. Banditos
after the stolen money Garrett’s recovered don’t make things any easier.
Isolated rancher Agnes (Vivi Bach) and her younger brother Mike (Luis Duran) prove to be needed allies to Garrett on multiple occasions.
Ángel Aranda and Vivi Bach
As with many Westerns with familiar plots, the joy of this
film is in how well the story is told. I was frankly bowled over with most
aspects of the film, including the music and cinematography.
I was rather stunned by how much the film reminded me of
some of the Randolph Scott/Budd Boetticher Westerns filmed in Lone Pine.
Cameron, like Scott, is an older, righteous man who dispenses justice wisely,
sometimes with a wry sense of humor.
Like Scott, we’re never really concerned for Cameron’s
character even though he’s older than the men he comes up against; he has
wisdom and savvy based on years of experience. Cameron is completely likeable
in the role, and I found it a real pleasure to discover this part of his long
career for the first time.
Cameron, incidentally, would later play Pat Garrett again
in The Last Movie (1971) directed by Dennis Hopper.
Frank and Aranda are quite good as the Clantons. Billy, the
more bloodthirsty of the two, inexplicably carries and reads from a Bible,
which leads to a beautifully photographed moment late in the film.
Rod Cameron and Angel Aranda
Aranda gradually transforms into someone more likeable who
grows to “see the light” thanks to both Garrett and Agnes. His
evolution is believable, given that he has been under his powerful older
brother’s sway and that his initial instincts were to refuse his brother’s
orders to kill. Garrett’s eventual decision on George’s fate was well received
by this viewer.
Rubini only appears in the film’s opening scenes and is
more of a placeholder character who helps fill in the opening of the story,
while Bach has a much more substantial role as Agnes.
Bach is likeable as brave Agnes, though the character
doesn’t run especially deep. I’ll add that while Rubin has a fairly
“normal” hairstyle, Bach unfortunately has the “bubble
hair” which immediately labels a Western as being from the ’60s.
For other examples of anachronistic ’60s “big
hair” in Westerns see Ruta Lee in The Gun Hawk (1963),
Martha Hyer in The Night of the Grizzly (1966), or Lola
Albright in The Way West (1967). These hairstyles always
scream “made in the ’60s!”
Bullets Don’t Argue has been released on
DVD and at the time of this writing may be streamed on Amazon Prime.
As a postscript to tie this review’s mention of Clint Eastwood back to Lone Pine and the film festival, I refer readers to my 2024 review of Joe Kidd (1972), which was filmed in Lone Pine.
I very much recommend Bullets Don’t Argue – and the Lone Pine Film Festival! I hope to see some of my readers there in 2026.
…
– Laura Grieve for Classic Movie Hub
Laura can be found at her blog, Laura’s Miscellaneous Musings, where she’s been writing about movies since 2005, and on Twitter at @LaurasMiscMovie. A lifelong film fan, Laura loves the classics including Disney, Film Noir, Musicals, and Westerns. She regularly covers Southern California classic film festivals. Laura will scribe on all things western at the ‘Western RoundUp’ for CMH.
One of the Great American Novels of the 20th century, The Great Gatsby continues to have a massive influence on how we imagine the “Jazz Age.” We refer to 1920s-themed parties as “Gatsby parties,” often call 1920s-inspired costumes and aesthetics “Gatsby style”–it’s basically become shorthand for that whole game-changing era.
Since 2025 is the 100th anniversary of F.
Scott Fitzgerald’s seminal work, let’s take a look at its history: at “Scott’s”
background, at how he got his inspiration, and at the cultural impact his novel
has had ever since.
“Scott” holding a copy of Gatsby.
Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, to
an Irish Catholic middle-class family. His parents named him after a distant
relative who was none other than Francis Scott Key, writer of “The
Star-Spangled Banner.” Fitzgerald loved literature and writing from a young
age, getting his first piece published in a school newspaper when he was 13. He
attended Princeton University and worked on his dream of becoming a
distinguished author, getting heavily involved with the university’s literary
societies and frequently writing stories and poems for student newspapers.
The first inklings of The Great Gatsby began on a visit home to St. Paul during the
winter of 1915. The 18-year-old Fitzgerald went to a sleighing party on Summit
Avenue where he met 16-year-old Ginevra King, who was from one of the
wealthiest families in Chicago. The two fell head over heels for each other,
but ultimately, Ginevra’s uppercrust family didn’t approve of the lower-class
Fitzgerald. The romantic young man’s disappointment was so great that in 1917
he dropped out of Princeton to join the army.
A portrait of Ginevra King.
While awaiting deployment in Alabama, Fitzgerald met the intelligent and fun-loving Zelda Sayre, who came from a prominent Southern family. They started a relationship and in time Fitzgerald proposed. The next couple years had major ups and downs: Fitzgerald headed to New York to “make good” as a writer; he spent months struggling financially which caused Zelda to break off their engagement; he slunk back home to St. Paul in despair and decided to pin his entire future on his first novel This Side of Paradise; he worked night and day to finish it and managed to get it published; the novel became a hit, bringing him the fame and fortune he desired; and finally, he and Zelda were able to get married.
F. Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald published a second novel, The Beautiful and Damned, and then started working on his third, telling his publisher: “I want to write something new–something extraordinary and beautiful and simple & intricately patterned.” He certainly believed in “writing what you know.” His previous short story “Winter Dreams” had planted the first seeds of Gatsby, being the story of a young Midwestern man who attempts to romance a girl from a rich family–a fictionalized version of his ill-fated romance with Ginevra. His new novel was originally set in the Midwest in 1885 and he talked about wanting to give it a more Catholic gloss. Most of this early draft was discarded, although a prologue about Jay Gatsby’s childhood was preserved as the short story “Absolution.”
Much of The
Great Gatsby would be based on Scott and Zelda’s time living on Long
Island, where they were invited to glittering uppercrust parties at fabulous
mansions–the neighborhoods that would be reimagined as “East Egg” and “West
Egg” in the novel. The castle-like Beacon Towers once owned by Randolph Hearst
and the enormous Oheka Castle were probable inspirations for Jay Gatsby’s
mansion, described as a “factual imitation of some Hôtel de Ville in Normandy.”
The character of Gatsby himself was likely based on a party-loving neighbor
named Herbert Bayard Slope, and on Max Gerlach, a German-born bootlegger known
for calling people “old sport.”
The now-demolished Beacon Towers mansion.
Work on the novel was completed as the
Fitzgerald family hopped around Paris, the French Riviera and Rome with their
little daughter Frances (nicknamed “Scottie”). One of Fitzgerald’s biggest
challenges was deciding on a title. On
the Road to West Egg, Among Ash Heaps
and Millionaires, The High-Bouncing Lover, The Gold-Hatted Gatsby, and Gatsby
were all considered. He finally hit upon Trimalchio in West Egg, referencing the 1st century Roman fiction
Satyricon. His publisher Scribner’s talked him out of it and ultimately The Great Gatsby was chosen–in spite of
Fitzgerald’s last-minute suggestion of Under
the Red, White, and Blue. The cover would feature the iconic commissioned
painting “Celestial Eyes” by obscure artist Francis Cugat, inspired by the
novel’s description of the Corona ash dump. Interestingly, this was the only
book cover Cugat ever did–he was paid $100.
Cugat’s initial cover ideas.
Fitzgerald was so focused on The Great Gatsby becoming a hit that he
turned down a $10,000 offer for the book to be published serially (as some
novels were at the time), wanting it to be released sooner as a whole. The day
after it was published in 1925 he was already requesting updates from his publisher
on sales. However, his high hopes were somewhat dashed: the book sold only
20,000 copies, a letdown compared to the success of his previous novels.
But there were bright spots. The rights for a
stage version of The Great Gatsby was
bought by Broadway producer William A. Brady, who had Pulitzer-winning
playwright Owen Davis tweak the story for theaters. In 1926 Famous
Players-Lasky bought the film rights, and the first movie version of Gatsby was released with Warner Baxter
and Lois Wilson playing the leads. It would only grow brighter in the coming
years, although Fitzgerald wouldn’t live to see it. His career would dwindle in
the 1930s, exacerbated by his alcoholism, and his debts mounted after Zelda had
to be confined to a mental hospital. He passed away from a heart attack in
1941. Just a few years later The Great
Gatsby was re-printed as one of the paperbacks distributed to soldiers
during World War II. This sparked a revival of interest in the novel and it was
finally on its way to being considered a full-fledged classic.
A lobby card for the 1926 silent film version.
Today, of course, The Great Gatsby has become required reading in many schools and has been translated into dozens of languages. There have been movies, plays, operas, musicals, artworks, ballets, and even Gatsby video games. It’s even entered Internet meme culture, thanks to a popular image of Leonardo DiCaprio raising a glass from Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 film. Thanks to its memorable characters, vivid capturing of the 1920s spirit, and thoughtful musing on the American Dream, the novel has endured, arguably achieving a legacy beyond Scott’s wildest dreams.
Lea Stans is a born-and-raised Minnesotan with a degree in English and an obsessive interest in the silent film era (which she largely blames on Buster Keaton). In addition to blogging about her passion at her site Silent-ology, she is a columnist for the Silent Film Quarterly and has also written for The Keaton Chronicle.
It’s October and that means Monsters and Matinees is standing on her annual soapbox with this important message: horror movies aren’t just for Halloween.
Yes, I’m happy every October to see the large selection of horror films offered on small and big screens for the month. My family and friends always get enthusiastic about watching horror at Halloween and it’s fantastic. It’s just that they watch more horror films in October than they do for the entire rest of the year.
In my head I know it makes sense for people to want to watch horror films during the spooky season, especially with the origins of Halloween in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, a celebration of the end of harvest (sounds innocent enough) that also blurs the boundary between the living and dead.
And let’s face it, people watch more horror movies in October because it’s just so easy to do – they are everywhere! It seems like all the networks, streaming services and theaters host Halloween horror festivals.
Still, I wish the horror genre got more love all year. Maybe I can help. After all, if I’m going to continue to whine about it, I should offer suggestions on how to do it.
While I own a small collection of classic horror on home video, it surprises me just how much I watch in other ways. Best of all: they’re free.
Here are my favorite ways to watch classic horror films all year.
Turner Classic Movies
Let’s start with the most obvious place to go. If you already have a cable service, TCM is the place to watch classic movies. It’s heavy on horror in October but does mix in the genre throughout the year especially in birthday celebrations of horror icons like Peter Cushing, Vincent Price and Boris Karloff. You can look at the schedule by month on the TCM website at tcm.com and plan accordingly.
A fraction of the classic Dracula films you can watch for free on Tubi.
Tubi
This is my go-to place by far to watch classic films. I can’t recommend Tubi enough. It has an immense horror library that includes lots of well-known films with plenty of Vincent Price, great classics like the 1951 version of The Thing, and multiple Hammer films including Count Dracula. It’s also where I’ve discovered many others – some good and some not-so-good but still fun. (The Giant Claw and its goofy, googly-eyed flying killer is a new favorite.)
Search for the word “curse” and it pulls up more than 150 titles from the classics to today. A search for horror icon Christopher Lee had well over 50 offerings including a nice mix of movies, documentaries and TV shows.
Tubi is available as a free app or go to www.tubi.com. You can watch without setting up an account, but if you share your email it allows you to create your own library and it will resume a movie where you left off.
I’m always game to watch a giant creature film and this classic can be watched for free on YouTube.
YouTube
YouTube the website at www.youtube.com – not the paid live TV service – is a treasure trove of all genres of classic movies. Just know going in that many are in the public domain, so you won’t always see the best version of the movie. So if you don’t like the quality of a film, try again. I’ve often found a better version. Sometimes the only way to watch a film may be with substandard visuals, especially if it’s a movie a century old, but it’s still worth watching.
Also, a tip when searching by movie title, actor or filmmaker: read the description carefully. Not everything is the full movie; it will usually say if it is the full movie, a preview, snippet or a video of people watching movies and giving their opinions. Also, the number of views will give you an idea of how good the selection is (it should be in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions).
When I can’t find a movie through other services, I can usually find it on YouTube. Recent case in point: Barbara Stanwyck in The House That Wouldn’t Die and the terrifying ABC Movie of the Week Trilogy of Terror.
I found this treasure, the 1910 Thomas Edison short of Frankenstein, at Internet Archive.
This non-profit library is a great online resource with free movies along with music, websites and more. There are instructions on how to navigate the site, but it’s easy to find what you want without reading directions. My first page of “horror films” had a 12-minute version of Thomas Edison’s 1910 Frankenstein. It’s in rough shape, but it’s 125 years and is worth watching.
This is another video sharing and hosting website where I have watched many classic movies, including horror. It’s like YouTube in the sense that people upload movies, clips, etc. and you watch for free. And just like YouTube, sometimes the first one you pull up isn’t the best version DailyMotion has, so don’t hesitate to look again.
Your library and Hoopla
You might be surprised at the free video offerings at your neighborhood library. Visit or do an online search and it should pull from all of your local branches. If it’s somewhere in the system, I can often pick up the movie (or book) in a few days.
The library also offers a free streaming service call Hoopla that allows you to “borrow” a movie and stream it on your computer or another device (phone, tablet, TV etc.) for 72 hours. It does the same for ebooks, comics and more. You do need a library card, but that’s free! Go to Hoopladigital.com to get started.
* * * * *
In addition to what I’ve listed, there are other free apps that pull movies from the public domain. You can find them under “apps” on your device.
I hope these free suggestions are helpful to you in finding classic movies of all genres, but please watch horror, too. I can give you great choices for Christmas and Valentine’s Day.
Toni Ruberto, born and raised in Buffalo, N.Y., is an editor and writer at
The Buffalo News. She shares her love for classic movies in her blog, Watching Forever and is a member
and board chair of the Classic
Movie Blog Association. Toni was the president of the former Buffalo
chapter of TCM Backlot and led the offshoot group, Buffalo Classic Movie Buffs.
She is proud to have put Buffalo and its glorious old movie palaces in the
spotlight as the inaugural winner of the TCM in Your Hometown contest. You can
find Toni on Twitter at @toniruberto or on Bluesky at @watchingforever.bsky.social
I can’t deny that my focus in film noir features is heavily
skewed toward the femmes – there are just so many varied dames to discuss! But
every now and again, I like to shine the spotlight on the fellas on noir, so
this month’s Noir Nook is devoted to three shadowy gents who I simply love (or
love to hate, as the case may be).
…..
Bart Tare in Gun Crazy (1949)
Peggy Cummins and John Dall, Gun Grazy
This noirish version of Bonnie and Clyde features
Peggy Cummins as Annie Laurie Starr and John Dall as Bart Tare; Bart has had a
fascination with guns since he was a child and was sent to reform school for
breaking into a hardware store to – you guessed it – steal a gun. And Annie’s
no slouch when it comes handling a rod; when she first meets Bart, she’s
working as a sharpshooter in a carnival.
Annie and Bart fall for each other and get married before
you can say “Bob’s your uncle” (or “Jack Robinson,” if you prefer), but Annie’s
not satisfied with the beans-and-franks-in-a-fleabag-hotel life that Bart is
able to provide – and in a move that would put Phyllis Dietrichson to shame,
Annie convinces her hubby that a life of crime is the only way to live. (Three
guesses as to how this one turns out in the end. And the first two don’t
count.)
Of all the hapless suckers in the shadowy realm of noir,
Bart garners the most sympathy from me. There seemed to be a lot that was simply
beyond his control: he couldn’t help loving guns, he was unable to resist his
attraction to (and, later, his love for) Annie, he was compelled to go against
his own principles in order to keep her in his life. As such, he wasn’t a bad
guy – he was just a good guy doing bad things. And even with that, the
worst “bad thing” he did was flash his gun and commit robberies; unlike his
lady love, he abhorred violence, and never shot a living thing. He was just
such a lovestruck sap that I can’t help holding a fond feeling for him – and experiencing
more than a mere pang at his passing. (Belated spoiler alert!)
…..
Waldo Lydecker in Laura (1944)
Clifton Webb, Laura
Played by Gene Tierney, the title character of this feature
is dead when the film begins – or so we’re told by her friend, newspaper
columnist Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb). We learn that she’s been murdered –
shot in the face with a shotgun, no less – and a crackerjack police detective,
Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) is tasked with finding her killer. The suspects
he’s honed in on are Laura’s would-be fiancé and ne’er-do-well employee Shelby
Carpenter (Vincent Price); Laura’s aunt, Ann Treadwell (Judith Anderson), who
barely masks the fact that she has eyes for Shelby; and Waldo. As it turns out,
though, Laura isn’t dead, after all – but someone is, and McPherson still has
to find out whodunit. And who. And why.
Waldo isn’t necessarily a likable character – he’s
sharp-tongued, snobbish, and arrogant, with a persona that continuously walks the
fine line between wit and cruelty; I love so many of his lines, but especially
the one where he tells Laura, “Young woman, either you have been raised in some
incredibly rustic community where good manners are unknown, or you suffer from
the common feminine delusion that the mere fact of being a woman exempts you
from the rules of civilized conduct. Or possibly both.” Still, when Waldo’s rancor
isn’t aimed in your direction, he’s just the sort of person you want
sitting next to you at a party — and I have to admit that I am wholly
entertained whenever he’s around. And, sure, maybe he turns out to be a
sociopath and a murderer, but really, until we get there, he gives us a fun
ride, amirite?
…..
Mr. Brown in The Big Combo (1955)
Richard Conte, Brian Donlevy, and Cornel Wilde, The Big Combo
One of my all-time favorite noirs (and one I would have seen
on the big screen at this year’s TCM film festival had special guest Rosie
Perez not dropped out at the last minute), The Big Combo presents a twisted
triangle between tormented socialite Susan Lowell (Jean Wallace), her mob boss
lover, Mr. Brown (Richard Conte), and police Lt. Leonard Diamond (Cornel Wilde
and Wallace’s then-husband), who is obsessed with her. Speaking of obsessions,
Diamond is also fixated on bringing the seemingly untouchable Mr. Brown to
justice – no matter what it takes.
Like Waldo Lydecker, Mr. Brown is not a nice man. When we
first meet him, he’s berating a young boxer he has under contract, who has just
lost a bout. Mr. Brown gives the young man his version of a pep talk, during
which he points out the differences between himself and his second-in-command Joe
McClure (Brian Donlevy), who used to be Mr. Brown’s boss. “First is first and
second is nobody,” he offers (shortly before tearing up the hapless boxer’s
contract). We get another glimpse into Mr. Brown’s persona when he encounters
Lt. Diamond in the local hospital, where Susan has been taken after a suicide
attempt. Their exchange in the corridor contains some unforgettable jabs on Mr.
Brown’s part, including this zinger which, incidentally, he delivers to Diamond
via Joe McClure; he doesn’t even bother looking in the detective’s direction: “Joe,
tell the man I’m going to break him so fast he won’t have time to change his
pants. Tell him the next time I see him he’ll be down in the hotel lobby crying
like a baby and asking for a 10 dollar loan. Tell him that. And tell him I
don’t break my word.” When I said earlier that Mr. Brown was not a nice man,
that was putting it mildly – he was a stone-cold killer, a thorough-going
narcissist whose misdeeds ranged from torturing Lt. Diamond, to imprisoning his
wife in an insane asylum, to arranging an especially horrifying murder of his
two loyal henchmen. And that’s not even the whole story! So why is he one of my
favorite noir fellas? I suppose it comes down to this: when he’s in the room, he
might as well be alone – he’s the only character I see. It’s just that simple.
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to unforgettable noir gents – stay tuned for a future post where I’ll take a look at more, Meanwhile, who are some of your favorite fellas of film noir? I hope you’ll leave a comment and let us know!
…
– Karen Burroughs Hannsberry for Classic Movie Hub
Karen Burroughs Hannsberry is the author of the Shadows and Satin blog, which focuses on movies and performers from the film noir and pre-Code eras, and the editor-in-chief of The Dark Pages, a bimonthly newsletter devoted to all things film noir. Karen is also the author of two books on film noir – Femme Noir: The Bad Girls of Film and Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir. You can follow Karen on Twitter at @TheDarkPages. If you’re interested in learning more about Karen’s books, you can read more about them on amazon here:
I’m very happy to share this exclusive guest post by Christopher McKittrick, author of Very Miles: The Hitchcock Blonde Who Got Away. A Big Thank You to Christopher for this article! –Annmarie at Classic Movie Hub
Tracking Vera Miles: Clarifying a Golden Age Hollywood Star’s True Birth Year
Was THE SEARCHERS and PSYCHO star Vera Miles born in 1929 or 1930?
I’ve been fortunate enough to do many interviews and film screenings followed by Q&As about my book, Vera Miles: The Hitchcock Blonde Who Got Away, since its publication in March 2025 by University Press of Kentucky. The question that has come up most frequently is “Why write a book about Vera Miles?” While the obvious answer is that no one had ever written a book about the one Hollywood actress that can claim to have worked on multiple films with Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, and Walt Disney (just to name a few of the prestigious filmmakers that she worked with), an equally important answer was to dispel some of the rumors about her career, particularly about her time working with Hitchcock. Miles herself disputed those rumors in interviews before she retired from public life, but as the decades passed, that allowed others to disseminate incorrect information about her career.
In the months since the book was released, I’ve received such wonderful feedback from film scholars, Hitchcock aficionados, John Ford fans, and even the son of a child actor who had appeared with Miles on the 1954 film Pride of the Blue Grass. Best of all, I was pleased to learn that the Circle Cinema, a historic cinema in Miles’s native Oklahoma, honored her in its Walk of Fame this past year and gave away a copy of my book as part of the celebration. It is a well-deserved honor for an actress who never received the awards recognition that she deserved in her career.
One aspect of Miles’s story that
I did not expect to receive so much feedback about was regarding her
birth year, though understandably so, because sources all over the internet
inconsistently cite her birth year as 1929 or 1930. I thought I had provided a
sufficient explanation in the first chapter of my book as to why Miles was born
on August 23, 1930.
On the occasion of Miles’s birthday this year, I noticed an ongoing discrepancy on social media (and my email inbox) over Miles’s actual birth year. Several people cited my book as an authoritative source, while others cited various other sources for 1929.
As one of the last living stars who came to prominence during the Golden Age of Hollywood, Miles’s birthday is well worth celebrating. But shouldn’t we be celebrating the correct year?
Frankly, in most cases when a star has two or more disputed birth years, it is normally the earliest year that is likely accurate. This is because the whole purpose of cutting a year or more off a star’s age was to make him or her appear younger. For instance, Joan Crawford, who Miles starred opposite in 1956’s Autumn Leaves, may have shaved as much as four years off her birth year when she claimed 1908 as the year she was born.
Since 1929 is the earlier year commonly cited as Miles’s birth year, many have defaulted to that as her “true” birth year. For quite some time, this was the birth year that appeared on Miles’s IMDb and Wikipedia pages, despite sources like the Associated Press and United Press International consistently using 1930 as her birth year in their annual birthday listings on August 23. Notably, in September 2025 the Oklahoma Historical Society updated its bio of Miles to use the 1930 birth year after having listed the incorrect 1929 birth year since it was posted in 2010.
(Note: All documents/sources included in this article are publicly accessible)
Exhibit #1: The 1930 U.S. Census
An authoritative piece of documentation that casts doubt on the 1929 birth year is the 1930 U.S. Census. Vera Miles’s family was documented in Pratt, Kansas, on June 27, 1930, for the decennial U.S. Census. The list includes her parents, Thomas and Bernice Ralston, and older siblings Thelma (age 7), Tom Jr. (age 5), and Elmer (age 4). Neither Vera nor her older sister Wanda (who sadly died in August 1929 at just one year old after ingesting some of her father’s prescription medication) is listed in the census. Had Vera been born in August 1929, she surely would have been listed among her family. Her absence from the census indicates she was not yet born.
Ralston Family’s 1930 U.S. Census Listing (Source: FamilySearch.org)
Inexplicably, neither Vera nor her mother, Bernice (Wyrick) Ralston, can be located in the 1940 Census (Bernice and Thomas Ralston divorced in the 1930s, and he was no longer living with the family), so there is no birth data to be gathered from that.
Exhibit #2: Boise City News
One undisputed fact about Vera Miles’s birth is the location. Though she is most identified with Kansas, the state where she grew up and later represented in the 1948 Miss America pageant, Miles was born in Boise City, Oklahoma, which, despite its urban name, had a population of just 1,256 in 1930.
This detail is consistent across all reputable sources. The first reference in print that I found mentioning Miles’s Boise City origins comes from Boston Globe film critic Marjory Adams in her November 2, 1953, “Movie Question Box” column. Starting in July 1956, when her birthplace became more widely known, the city’s newspaper, Boise City News, would regularly list Miles as “Boise City’s Vera Miles” in advertisements for movies featuring her at the local cinema.
Aside from some understandable errors throughout the decades claiming her to be a Kansas native, Miles has always been cited in authoritative sources as an Oklahoma native like her father, Thomas Ralston, though the Ralston family normally resided in Pratt, Kansas, a community over 200 miles northeast of Boise City.
Thomas Ralston was a preacher, and the arrival of the Ralston family in Boise City was reported in the July 25, 1930, edition of the Boise City News. “Rev. and Mrs. Tom Ralston and family of Pratt, Kansas, arrived in Boise City Friday of last week and will make Boise City their permanent home,” reads the blurb. “Reverend Ralston will preach at the Church of Christ beginning Sunday.”
(Source: Newspapers.com)
Notably, this is just under a month after the Ralston family was documented in the 1930 U.S. Census living in Pratt, Kansas. The family of the soon-to-be born Vera Ralston did not live in Boise City in August 1929 (when Vera Ralston was purportedly born), and were not living there (albeit temporarily) until July 1930, nearly a year later. Thomas Ralston was mentioned again as the preacher of the Church of Christ in the August 8, 1930, edition of the Boise City News.
Unfortunately for the sake of posterity, the Boise City News did not feature a birth announcement for Vera Ralston, though a retrospective of the newspaper’s history and editor published in the August 16, 1970, edition of the Amarillo Sunday News Globe recalls Miles’s birth with the correct birth year. The article states, “Boise City became known as the birthplace of Vera Miles, a movie and television actress. She was born on Aug. 23, 1930, in a half-dugout in the southeast edge of town. Mrs. Ova McMann of Boise City attended her birth.”
(Source: Newspapers.com)
In a 1960 interview with the Daily Oklahoman, Miles said she only lived “the first nine days of my life” in Boise City before her family returned to Pratt, though that could be an understatement because Vera’s older sister, Thelma Ralston, is mentioned in the December 4, 1930, edition of the Boise City News. Regardless, Miles’s early life in Boise City was very brief before returning to Pratt, Kansas.
That should make things easy — if we find Vera Ralston’s Oklahoma birth certificate, we will know what year Vera Miles was born.
Unfortunately, it isn’t that easy.
While Oklahoma is one of the most user-friendly states for searching for birth records through its OK2Explore website, Vera June Ralston — either with a 1929 or 1930 birth year — is not found in its database. The OK2Explore website offers a helpful explanation as to why pre-1950 birth records are incomplete:
“The earliest birth record on file [is] 1865. Most birth records were not filed timely until 1950 after [the] Social Security Act was implemented and WWII was underway [sic].”
In fact, other notable celebrities born in Oklahoma during the same era are not included in the database. For example, James Garner (whose birth name was James Bumgarner) was born in 1928, but his birth record does not appear in a search on the website.
Still, the Boise City News gives us an indication of when the Ralston family was temporarily based in Boise City, which was not until July 1930.
Exhibit #3: The 1948 Miss America Pageant Program
While attending Wichita North High School in the late 1940s, Vera Ralston began working as a model and was eventually selected to represent Kansas in the 1948 Miss America competition. Since the mid-1930s, the pageant required contestants to be at least 18 years of age. Luckily for Vera, the pageant was held in early September, meaning it was just days after her eighteenth birthday. In newspaper coverage of the pageant, including her hometown Wichita Eagle, Vera Ralston is consistently depicted as 18 years old, corresponding to a 1930 birth year. The Miss America 1948 program also lists Miles as 18 years old, though it inaccurately says her birthday is on August 1 (however, I suspect she may have purposely listed her birthday as three weeks earlier to avoid any eligibility concerns).
(Source: Atlantic City Public Library)
Though this would not be considered a legal document by any means, it represents the first nationwide professional representation of Miles’s age.
Exhibit #4: The 1950 U.S. Census
Shortly after being crowned third runner-up in the Miss America pageant, Vera Ralston signed a contract with RKO Studios, then owned by millionaire Howard Hughes, and moved to Los Angeles. Within a matter of weeks, she married Hughes employee Robert Jennings “Bob” Miles, Jr., in November 1948, and adopted “Vera Miles” as her professional name forever afterward. Unfortunately, this is another instance where vital records fall through the cracks. Their marriage predates the comprehensive California Marriage Index, 1949–1959, and their 1956 divorce predates the California Divorce Index, 1966–1984, both easily searchable online, so there are no easily accessible records.
Nevertheless, Vera and Bob Miles were married at the time of the 1950 U.S. Census. The couple was documented on May 24, 1950, and “Miles, Vera J.” (born in Oklahoma) is listed as 19 years old, corresponding to a 1930 birth year, as Miles would turn 20 on August 23, 1950.
Miles Family’s 1950 U.S. Census Listing (Source: FamilySearch.org)
Exhibit #5: Affidavit for Marriage License
In Yuma, Arizona, on April 14, 1956, Miles married her second husband, Gordon Scott, with whom she starred in the 1955 film Tarzan’s Hidden Jungle. On that date, Miles and Gordon Scott (under his birth name, Gordon Werschkul) filled out an Affidavit for Marriage License in the Superior Court of Yuma. In addition to confirming her birthplace of Oklahoma (written as “Okla.”), Miles stated her age as “25” years, corresponding to a 1930 birth year, as Miles would not turn 26 years old until August 23, 1956. That means that she stated in a sworn affidavit that she was born in 1930.
(Source: Yuma County Superior Court)
Miles and Scott’s 1960 “quickie” divorce was executed in Juárez, Mexico, and good luck finding a paper record for that.
Exhibit #6: 1958 Arrival-Departure Record
As a Hollywood star who shot a few films abroad, Miles did a fair amount of international travel, which provides yet another document that establishes her birth year. While not an authoritative source as a census or a marriage license, Miles (along with Scott and her two daughters) filled out an arrival record on December 20, 1958, upon arriving in New York from London. She wrote her “Birthplace” as “8/23/30” and “Birthdate” as “Oklahoma” with two lines indicating that she inadvertently switched the boxes on the form.
(Source: Ancestry.com)
Note that Miles’s name is “Vera M(iles) Scott” on the form. In July 1957, she legally changed her last name to match her then-husband’s last name.
Exhibit #7: Divorce Record
There are also available records for Miles’s 1960 marriage to actor Erik Larsen, her third husband, whom she married several years after they co-starred together in The Rose BowlStory (1952) and Wichita (1955). Their 1960 marriage documentation in Las Vegas does not list birth years, but their November 1969 divorce filing record in Los Angeles lists Miles’s birth year as [19]30 (I’ve edited the screenshot below so their listing appears directly below the header row).
(Source: FamilySearch.org)
Note that Miles’s name is “Vera M(iles) Larson” [sic] on the record, and Larsen’s name is his birth name, “Keith L(arsen) Burt.”
The Verdict
While some of Miles’s vital documentation is unfortunately not traceable at this time, her birth year remains consistent across all available legal documents, including the 1950 U.S. Census, her 1956 Affidavit for Marriage License with Gordon Scott, and her 1969 divorce filing record with Keith Larsen. She also does not appear on her family’s 1930 U.S. Census listing, and contemporary newspaper reporting demonstrates that her family did not yet live in her birthplace, Boise City, Oklahoma, until July 1930. I have yet to find any legal document that supports the erroneously cited 1929 birth year.
Additionally, there are also dozens of other non-legal secondary sources that use the correct 1930 birth year for Miles, including the widely-distributed January 1957 Parade news story introducing Miles as “Hitchcock’s Newest Acting Find,” her profile and interview in the May 1973 edition of Films in Review, The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, the International Motion Picture Almanac, and various editions of Who’s Who in America and other associated Who’s Who books, and many others use the correct 1930 year.
So, where did the 1929 birth year come from?
The earliest reference I can find in print using a 1929 birth year for Vera Miles is the 1970 reference book Forty Years of Screen Credits, 1929–1969, compiled by John T. Weaver. While I cannot say that this book is “patient zero” for the erroneous birth year because there may be earlier instances that I haven’t come across, 1929 was also used in Leonard Maltin’s Movie Encyclopedia, which was an extremely popular reference book in the years before IMDb and Wikipedia served as one-stop shops for quick information look-ups. All other references I have found to Miles’s birth year in print before that — during the most notable years of her career — use the correct 1930 year.
While the 1929 birth year still appears in print and online sources, it does not make it accurate. Vera (Ralston) Miles was born on August 23, 1930, as established by legal documentation.
One might ask why this is so important. I think it’s a crucial lesson in how inaccurate information is spread. As of this writing, Miles was born just under a hundred years ago, and yet her birth year is frequently incorrectly cited by sources that the public considers authoritative. If those sources are inaccurate about this fact, what else could they be wrong about? The Internet is perhaps the greatest resource in human history for sharing information, but its widespread use means that it won’t always be accurate. And this inaccuracy started long before the Internet was in widespread use.
The history of the Golden Age of Hollywood consists of a mixture of truth, myth, embellishments, and educated guesses. It is one of the reasons why so many of us venerate that era and continue to study it. The sheer idea that someone can be born in a small town in Oklahoma, become a contestant in a nationwide beauty pageant, and then become a world-famous actress is the stuff of legend. And as said in one of Miles’s most famous movies, when legend becomes fact, print the legend.
But can we at least get Vera Miles’s birth year correct when we print it?
For more information on my
book about Vera Miles and my other work, please visit my website,chrismckit.com
I’m firmly
in the “every day is Halloween” camp when it comes to classic horror movies,
and I especially love the lesser-known, off-the-wall, really weird
examples of the genre, from Murders in the Zoo (1933) to Attack of
the Giant Leeches (1959). It’s hard to get much weirder or flat out bonkers
than the 1935 MGM Peter Lorre chiller, Mad Love, a Hollywood adaptation
of the French novel and 1924 film version both titled The Hands of Orlac.
Although director Karl Freund’s update keeps the original premise of
transplanted hands that might be murderous independent of their new owner, it
adds Grand Guignol theater, romantic obsession, an insane genius, and a
strikingly lifelike wax figure to the mix. If that’s not enough, we’re also
treated to an over-the-top performance from Lorre as a brilliant but deranged
surgeon, with Colin Clive as his traumatized patient and Frances Drake as the
heroine whose love for her husband drives her to seek help from her dangerously
devoted fan.
Yvonne Orlac (Frances Drake) knows that Dr. Gogol (Peter Lorre) is obsessed with her even after he learns of her marriage.
Lorre gets
top billing as the famous but eccentric Dr. Gogol, whose groundbreaking work
has made him a hero to Paris in spite of his odd appearance and behavior. Among
his quirks is his dedication to actress Yvonne Orlac (Frances Drake), the star
of a horror stage show whose performances are promoted by a detailed waxwork
model of her character in the theater lobby. Gogol is devastated to learn that
Yvonne has gotten married to pianist Stephen (Colin Clive) and is quitting the
stage, so he acquires the wax figure, which he names Galatea, to shower with
his affection instead. When Stephen’s hands are mangled beyond repair in a
train crash, Yvonne begs Gogol for help, but neither she nor her husband know
that Stephen’s rebuilt hands are actually transplanted from the executed
knife-throwing murderer, Rollo (Edward Brophy).
Stephen (Colin Clive) and Yvonne exhaust their finances paying for his recovery, but Stephen’s hands can no longer play as they once did.
Even a
brief plot summary proves that there’s a lot going on in this movie, with each
new element wilder and stranger than the last. I don’t want to spoil its roller
coaster turns by explaining too much of the action, but it’s about as gruesome
and disturbing as a 1935 American film could manage to be, with a pre-show
warning about the content and a note on the promotional posters that declares
the movie “suitable only for adults.” Horror fans who came of age after the rise
of David Cronenberg won’t bat an injury to the eye motif at the various
mutilations of Mad Love, but the scene in which Rollo appears to have
been resurrected from the dead is a corker, nonetheless. I’m not a fan of gore,
myself, and there’s no blood in Mad Love, but I can’t recommend it to a
particularly squeamish viewer, given its depictions of mutilated hands,
surgery, guillotine execution, and attempted strangulation. If, however, you
can handle all of the Universal horror classics from this era (especially the
body horror elements of the Frankenstein films), you should be able to
enjoy the absurd terrors on offer here. The use of the actual Frances Drake to
represent her wax figure every time the shot switches to a close up of the
effigy is jarring, although it does add to the surreal, nightmarish feel of the
picture, and it telegraphs the inevitable predicament the heroine faces in the
third act.
When Stephen gets a mysterious message about his hands, he seeks out the sender, who claims to be the hands’ previous owner, Rollo the knife thrower.
The
performances of the stars, especially Lorre, make Mad Love compelling
even at its most bizarre. Colin Clive, best remembered today as Dr. Henry
Frankenstein in the two Universal films, comes unglued with perhaps too much
authenticity given the actor’s well-known personal demons. Frances Drake has
both the soulful beauty and force of character needed for her role as Yvonne, who
gains fame as a theatrical scream queen and isn’t deterred from her mission to
save Stephen’s hands by using Gogol’s obsession with her. Even the small parts
are memorably played, from Keye Luke as Gogol’s assistant and May Beatty as the
doctor’s housekeeper to Edward Brophy as Rollo. None of them, however, can
steal a scene from Peter Lorre, who cuts loose in glorious fashion as the bald
and increasingly maniacal Gogol. Lorre had become a film star thanks to his disturbing
performance as the serial killer in M (1931), and over the course of his
long career he became indelibly associated with a certain creepiness, often
employed in noir films as well as horror. Mad Love, however, lets Lorre
take center stage and really lean into the eerie menace of his character, right
down to his deeply disturbing recitation of the Robert Browning poem, “Porphyria’s
Lover,” in the third act. As his literary knowledge and surgical skill show,
Gogol is a brilliant, sensitive, erudite villain, a sublime example of the mad
scientist type, pitiable in his loneliness but too untethered from ethics or
reality to check his own darker nature. Lorre captures all of those aspects in
his performance, and he’s absolutely fascinating to watch, whether he’s quietly
brooding over his Galatea or striving to drive Stephen mad.
Yvonne is startled to find her wax effigy in Gogol’s house, where it has become a favorite perch for the housekeeper’s pet bird.
You can take a deep dive into Peter Lorre’s creepiest roles by pairing Mad Love with The Beast with Five Fingers (1946), which also involves a pianist and a murderous hand, or by seeing his late-career work in horror comedies like Tales of Terror (1962), The Raven (1963), and The Comedy of Terrors (1964), which also feature horror icons Boris Karloff, Basil Rathbone, and Vincent Price. Karl Freund is best remembered for directing the 1932 Universal classic, The Mummy, in which the title monster, like Gogol, suffers from unrequited obsession with the heroine. Although Mad Love was his final turn as a director, Freund was primarily a cinematographer, with an Oscar win for his work on The Good Earth (1937); he also provided cinematography for celebrated pictures like Metropolis (1927), Pride and Prejudice (1940), and Key Largo (1948). See more of Frances Drake, who retired after her marriage to an English earl in 1939, in Les Miserables (1935) and The Invisible Ray (1936). Colin Clive also appears in Christopher Strong (1933), Jane Eyre 1934), and History is Made at Night (1937).
Allen Curtis Jenkins was born on April 9, 1900, on Staten
Island, New York, to Robert and Leona Jenkins. His parents were musical comedy
performers, but Jenkins did not begin performing until he was in his 20s.
Jenkins worked in the Brooklyn Navy Yard before
transitioning to work as a stage mechanic following World War I. He studied at
the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, graduating in 1922, and worked steadily
on Broadway plays. Among his early stage roles was The Front Page (1928), in which Jenkins portrayed the character
Endicott.
He eventually signed a contract with Warner Bros. in 1932,
quickly building a reputation as a character actor. He appeared in the film
short Straight and Narrow (1931) and
made his feature film debut in The Girl
Habit (1931).
In films, Jenkins could be spotted across multiple genres as
a regular Warner Bros. contract player. Jenkins could dance, so he appeared in
musicals, not to mention also being used in comedies and dramas, entertaining
audiences with exceptional wisecracking delivery. The New York Times labeled him the “greatest scene-stealer of the
1930s.” He could be seen in many hit films, including Grand Hotel (1932), Three on
a Match (1932), 42nd
Street (1933), and several others for Warner Bros.
Three on a Match, Allen Jenkins
In 1931, Jenkins married Mary Landee, with whom he had three
children: Anthony, Dorothy, and Nancy. They divorced in 1962.
Off-screen, Jenkins was close friends with Spencer Tracy,
James Cagney, Pat O’Brien, and Frank McHugh—a group of Irish-American actors
dubbed the “Irish Mafia” of classic Hollywood.
Once Jenkins’ seven-year contract with Warner Bros. ended,
he turned to freelancing for the remainder of his career. This included working
at smaller-scale studios, such as Monogram Pictures and Republic Pictures. He
also began appearing on television, which was steadily growing in popularity.
During World War II, Jenkins entertained soldiers overseas
with the United Service Organizations (USO).
Despite largely focusing on television, Jenkins returned to
films with Pillow Talk (1959) in
addition to carrying out guest star roles on television shows such as I Love Lucy, The Tab Hunter Show, The Ernie
Kovacs Show, and more. Among his best remembered roles is providing the
voice for Officer Dibble in the Top Cat (1961)
cartoon series.
He also made a cameo appearance in It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963). Just 11 days before his
passing, Jenkins made his final film appearance in The Front Page (1974), which was released posthumously. The film
was a remake of a 1931 film by the same name. Incidentally, Jenkins was a
member of the original Broadway cast for the 1928 play of the same name.
Jenkins passed away from lung cancer on July 20, 1974, at 74
years old. His ashes were scattered at sea.
Today, some locations of relevance to Jenkins remain. In
1900, he lived at 69 Harrison Ave., Staten Island, New York. By 1910, the
family relocated to 3368 N. Richmond Ter., Staten Island, New York. In 1918,
the family lived at 8 Lincoln Ave., East Hampton, New York. None of these
buildings remain.
In 1925, Jenkins was listed as living at 617 W. 143rd
St., New York, New York. This location remains.
617 W. 143rd St., NYC
In 1930, his address is listed as 610 W. 143rd
St., New York, New York, which also remains.
610 W. 143rd St., NYC
In 1940, Jenkins and his family lived at 456 Arbramar Ave.,
Pacific Palisades, California. This home also stands.
Annette Bochenek, Ph.D., is a film historian, professor, and avid scholar of Hollywood’s Golden Age. She manages the “Hometowns to Hollywood” blog, in which she profiles her trips to the hometowns of classic Hollywood stars. She has also been featured on the popular classic film-oriented television network, Turner Classic Movies. A regular columnist for Classic Movie Hub, her articles have appeared in TCM Backlot, Silent Film Quarterly, Nostalgia Digest, The Dark Pages Film Noir Newsletter, and Chicago Art Deco Society Magazine.
The festival takes place in Lone Pine, California, on Columbus Day Weekend, October 9-12, 2025.
This
year’s theme is “Reel Adventure in Lone Pine: Color – Action – Romance in
the Alabama Hills.”
As always, plenty of Westerns will be shown, and this year the festival will
also show a number of other types of films and TV shows shot in Lone Pine’s
Alabama Hills, including desert action films and science fiction.
Museum of Western Film History
I’ve
been attending and writing about the festival every year for over a decade, and
this year will be no exception.
Additionally, for the last few years my husband Doug has volunteered as the festival’s guide for horseback location tours. Anyone who’s dreamed of following the trails ridden by the likes of Randolph Scott, Roy Rogers, Audie Murphy, or William “Hopalong Cassidy” Boyd, to name just a few, can sign up for one of his three tours. Horses are provided by McGee Creek Pack Station.
This year the festival’s special guests will include Patrick Wayne, Robert Carradine, Charlotte Barker of the Paramount Archives, Wyatt McCrea, Diamond Farnsworth, Petrine Day Mitchum, Tony Cameron, and many more.
Opening
night will feature a 40th anniversary screening of Rustler’s Rhapsody (1985)
with star Patrick Wayne in attendance. He’ll be hosted by moderator Rob Word;
also participating will be Heath Holland, who recently did a Blu-ray commentary
track for the film.
*The
Hopalong Cassidy film Silent Conflict (1948), which like the
majority of the films shown at the festival was filmed in Lone Pine.
*Hand
Across the Border (1944) starring Roy Rogers, introduced by Charlotte
Barker, Paramount’s Director of Film Preservation and Restoration, and Julie
Rogers Pomilia, granddaughter of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.
*The Star
Trek: Voyager episode “Basics Part 2” (1996), introduced by
the show’s first assistant director Louis Race, who will also guide a location
tour and discuss filming the episode.
*The Fiddlin’
Buckaroo (1933) starring Ken Maynard.
*The
Loves of Carmen (1948) with Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford.
*Flame
of Araby (1951) starring Maureen O’Hara and Jeff Chandler. This will
be a fun “Friday Night at the Movies” theme, presenting the film as
it would have been seen in theaters, with short subjects, a cartoon, and a
newsreel. Film historian C. Courtney Joyner will host.
*Bullets
Don’t Argue (1964), a “spaghetti Western” starring Rod
Cameron, introduced by Joyner and Rod Cameron’s son, Tony. I’ve heard Tony
Cameron speak at a past festival and found him very interesting and
knowledgeable regarding his late father’s career.
*Posse
From Hell (1961), starring Audie Murphy and filmed in Lone Pine.
Stuntman Diamond Farnsworth, who knew Audie Murphy, will participate in a panel
discussion on the film along with Steve Latshaw, Ross Schnioffsky, and C.
Courtney Joyner.
*The
John Wayne film Tycoon (1947), which was filmed in Lone Pine
and will be introduced by Robert Carradine.
*Bad
Day at Black Rock (1954), which filmed just outside Lone Pine,
introduced by actor Darby Hinton of TV’s Daniel Boone series.
*The
silent film Riders of the Purple Sage (1925), introduced by
Rob Word and followed by a talk by Festival Tour Coordinator Greg Parker.
Parker will narrate a “then and now” slideshow on the film’s Lone
Pine locations. Pianist J.C. Munns will provide live music accompaniment for
the movie.
There
will be a handful of other screenings during the weekend as well.
The Lone Pine Film Festival is unique in that guests can watch a movie and then tour the movie’s locations the same weekend. Location tours will be given for several of the above-listed films.
Other tour themes will include Owens River Locations, Mobius Ravine Locations, a Bar 20 Ranch tour, Audie Murphy movie locations, and a Lone Ranger Canyon Locations tour.
The
annual Sunrise Photography Tour will also take place, hosted by “cowboy
poet” Larry Maurice, as well as a pair of tours centered on famed
photographer Ansel Adams: Ansel Adams in the Alabama Hills and Ansel Adams at
Manzanar. The Manzanar National Historic Site is approximately 10 miles north
of Lone Pine on Highway 395. Thomas Kelsey will host both of the Adams tours.
Alabama Hills
Other festival activities include the opening night buffet BBQ in the Museum of Western Film History parking lot; a Western music fundraising concert at Lubken Ranch featuring Kristyn Harris; a nondenominational Sunday “Cowboy Church” service at Spainhower Anchor Ranch; the Sunday afternoon parade down Main Street featuring the festival’s special guests; and the Closing Night Campfire gathering at Spainhower Park.
Lone
Pine is on California’s Highway 395 and is an easy drive north from Southern
California airports. The town can also be reached flying into Las Vegas or
other points north and then driving south.
Highway
395 is one of my favorite places in the world, where I enjoy spending time not
only in Lone Pine but driving to points further north including Bishop, Mammoth
Lakes, and Bridgeport. Last year we left for the festival a couple days early
to enjoy the fall colors outside Bishop, which I highly recommend.
It’s never too late to decide to attend the Lone Pine Film Festival! This is a relaxed, friendly festival where Western fans have ample opportunity to watch movies, visit locations, and chat with fellow guests about movies. I’d love to meet some of my readers in Lone Pine this October!
As noted above, I’ve attended the festival and visited Lone Pine locations a significant number of times over the years. I invite anyone interested in Lone Pine’s history – or visiting the film festival – to check out my past Western RoundUp columns on this subject which are linked below.
Laura can be found at her blog, Laura’s Miscellaneous Musings, where she’s been writing about movies since 2005, and on Twitter at @LaurasMiscMovie. A lifelong film fan, Laura loves the classics including Disney, Film Noir, Musicals, and Westerns. She regularly covers Southern California classic film festivals. Laura will scribe on all things western at the ‘Western RoundUp’ for CMH.
Chaplin’s Motion Picture Debut: The First Five Films
Early Charlie Chaplin
If you went back in time and met a young
Charlie Chaplin struggling to get through a boyhood of poverty and neglect, and
told him he’d have one of the most famous “rags to riches” stories of all time,
he probably wouldn’t believe you. Even the twenty-four-year-old Chaplin, with
years of work in English music halls behind him and a new contract with the
Keystone Film Company under his belt, might still have been skeptical. For even
a once-in-a-generation talent like Chaplin took a little time to find his footing
in the daunting new medium of motion pictures.
But it didn’t take him too much time. Chaplin’s iconic “Little Tramp” character emerged
relatively quickly after he joined Keystone in 1914, the familiar mustache,
bowler hat and twirling cane making an appearance in his second film. It’s
fascinating to analyze these early Chaplin film roles, because as primitive as
some of these early Keystones might seem today, they were Chaplin’s essential
stepping stones to fame and fortune.
…..
Making a Living (1914)
Chaplin’s very first screen appearance
featured a costume that practically appears alien to us today: a top hat, a
monocle, and most strange of all in retrospect, a large drooping mustache. It
shows he was attempting to fit in with the comedians of Keystone, who wore loud
makeup and fake mustaches with happy abandon.
Stories differ about how Chaplin was recruited
to the Keystone studio, but one sound explanation is that New York Motion
Picture executive Harry Aiken saw him performing onstage with the Fred Karno
troupe in Los Angeles. Famously, the N.Y.M.P. sent the Karno manager a telegram
asking: “IS THERE A MAN NAMED CHAFFIN IN YOUR COMPANY OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT.”
By December 1913 Chaplin had taken up residence in L.A. and timidly awaited his
very first screen role at the high-spirited Keystone studio.
Making a
Living was a one-reeler filmed partly in the garden of
a nearby house. Chaplin plays a swindler who ends up vying with a reporter for
the affections of the same woman. Some of his mannerisms (like the little hat
tips) are already recognizably Chaplinesque, while others seem to mimic
Keystone’s current top comedian Ford Sterling. In the end Chaplin ended up
disliking the film and also butted heads with its director, Henry Lehrman.
…..
Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914)
The second Keystone Chaplin appeared in was
actually Mabel’s Strange Predicament (1914),
but Kid Auto Races at Venice was
released first. This seems like a happy stroke of fortune to us today, since
not only did Chaplin wear his familiar “Tramp” outfit, but he wore it in front
of a mass of ordinary onlookers who had no idea they were witnessing the
ascension of a superstar–which makes this little film extra fascinating.
Many Keystone comedies took advantage of local
places and events for film locations: parks, parades, city streets, beaches,
and in this case, a children’s soapbox race. The split-reel Kid Auto Races simply showed a small
film crew attempting to film the races while being repeatedly sabotaged by
Chaplin, who keeps strutting over trying to get on camera. It’s a wonderful bit
of fourth wall-breaking that’s aged very well today. Equally compelling is watching
the reactions of the regular people in the background, who watch politely with
perhaps a hint of bewilderment.
…..
Mabel’s Strange Predicament (1914)
Kid Auto
Races may have been released first, but this was the
film that marked the real debut of
Chaplin’s Tramp costume. He had been feeling lackluster about his Making a Living getup and apparently
created the new look on the fly, later recalling: “I wanted everything to be a
contradiction: the pants baggy, the coat tight, the hat small and the shoes
large…I added a small mustache, which I reasoned, would add age without hiding
my expression.”
Chaplin’s co-star and director was the very
popular comedienne Mabel Normand. While the one-reeler bore her name, Chaplin
had ample screentime to the point where he nearly ran away with the film. It’s
set in a small hotel where the drunken Charlie is annoying his fellow guests in
the lobby. Guest Mabel ends up locking herself out of her room in her pajamas,
leading to an encounter with the obnoxious Charlie. Chaplin’s character is much
more familiar here, with his cheeky mannerisms and waddling walk. Modern
critiques of Chaplin often say he was “too sentimental,” but his early films
show a much edgier character.
…..
A Thief Catcher (1914)
While it was sometimes rumored that Chaplin
may have appeared as a Keystone Cop (most Keystone actors doubled as cops at
one time or another), historians eventually concluded it was unlikely. Enter
the year 2010, when historian Paul A. Gierucki bought an old Keystone reel at
an antique sale in Michigan. It turned out to be a print of A Thief Catcher, which, amazingly,
contained a scene with a cop played by none other than Chaplin.
A Thief
Catcher was actually a vehicle for the delightfully
over-the-top Ford Sterling, playing a police chief who thwarts a gang of
thieves. Chaplin’s little role is complete with his signature mustache. While
his scenes are brief, he does make the most of them and your eye can’t help
wandering to this confident little comedian.
…..
Between Showers (1914)
After imitating Ford Sterling (to a point) and
appearing in a Ford Sterling film, it was only fitting that Keystone’s rising
star would go toe-to-toe with Keystone’s established star. Chaplin and Sterling
play rival “mashers” fighting over the same woman trying to cross a large
puddle. The plot may have been inspired by a recent rainfall in L.A.–the
crystal-clear print shows flooded gutters and muddy streets.
The two comedians are definitely equals,
obviously enjoying playing off each other’s talents. Still, Chaplin’s
(slightly) more subtle comedy has certainly aged better than Sterling’s
enthusiastic mugging. This comes as little surprise to us today, knowing it
would only be a few more months until Chaplin would leave Keystone for Essanay
and then Mutual, working his way up to more elaborate and personal works–and
global fame.
Lea Stans is a born-and-raised Minnesotan with a degree in English and an obsessive interest in the silent film era (which she largely blames on Buster Keaton). In addition to blogging about her passion at her site Silent-ology, she is a columnist for the Silent Film Quarterly and has also written for The Keaton Chronicle.
