TIG for Monday, August 26.
Actor Harold Nelson (1864) played a judge in MAID OF SALEM (1937). IMDb says little about him and lists him as being born in Boston, but based on information on the website of Theatre Research in Canada, I suspect he is Canadian actor Harold Nelson Shaw, who made quite a name for himself on the stage in the western provinces in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He had stage success in the eastern provinces and abroad and taught college in the east, but he went west to give others on the frontier more stage opportunities. He apparently found his way to Hollywood quite late in life and played small, uncredited roles like this one in MOS. The likeness of a real witch trial judge, Samuel Sewell, stands in.
Richard Wallace (1894) was the director for Gloria Jean’s debut film, THE UNDER-PUP (1939), for which Virginia was loaned to Universal to play Janet Cooper, her kind and loyal friend. Wallace never won any awards, but was a solid director of films such as THE YOUNG IN HEART, OBLIGING YOUNG LADY, and THE FALLEN SPARROW. For some reason he stopped directing after working on ADVENTURE IN BALTIMORE and A KISS FOR CORLISS in 1949. He’s seen here with Billie Burke on the set of THE YOUNG IN HEART.
Carl Spitz (1894) was a famous Hollywood dog trainer. Now he is known solely for Terry (Toto) who in 1939 appeared with Virginia in BAD LITTLE ANGEL and had a quick cameo in THE WOMEN. I think Terry was in another film that year as well, but I just can’t seem to think of it. At the time, Spitz had several star dogs, including Buck, Here we see Carl training Buck to get his master when the phone rings.
Art Rowlands (1897) played a reporter in MEN WITH WINGS (1938) and a stagehand in SCANDAL STREET (1938) . He appeared in many shorts in the 1920s and 1930s and often worked with Laurel and Hardy. The photo is a screen cap from THE LAUREL AND HARDY MURDER CASE.
Ann E. Todd (1931) was a very talented young actress who really didn’t want to be one, she was pushed into it by the maternal grandparents who had adopted her. They wanted another you-know-who and didn’t get it. Ann always put in strong performances and stayed in the business until the early 1950s, finishing up as Joyce on THE STU ERWIN SHOW. At that point she married, gave up acting and followed in her actual parents’ footsteps by going into her real love, music. She was with Virginia in films three times. The most famous was ALL THIS AND HEAVEN TOO (1940) where she played Berthe. The smallest was when she played the “first stooge” (I need to see that film) in KEEPING COMPANY (1940). The one I chose to recognize was her role as Libbit, the nine year old child whose family takes in the orphan Patsy in BAD LITTLE ANGEL (1939). She’s seen here with Virginia as Patsy and Mickey Kuhn as five year old Bobby.
