For those new to the page, TIG is a celebration of the birthdays of other performers, technicians and anyone else I deem influenced the life and career of Virginia Weidler.
First we have actor Jack Daley (1883). He is yet another of the legions of men in the train station in YOUNG TOM EDISON (1940). He was also a guard in OUTSIDE THESE WALLS (1939). Since that was a prison film I bet there were a lot of those, too. Like many of his character acting brethren, the bulk of his roles are as policemen. He branched out and played Mr. Miller, a guy getting off the train in BAD LITTLE ANGEL (1939) and I could pick him out from that one. His only line was a snarl of “No” when Gene Reynolds as Tommy asked if he needed his bag carried. That worked out well for Tommy because he met Patsy (Virginia).
Drew Demorest (1893) played a still cameraman in TOO HOT TO HANDLE (1938) and since everyone carried a camera of some type in that film I’m not going to try to pick him out. According to IMDb, he specialized in effeminate parts, so maybe I could pick him out if I were to look for him. He played a lot of cameramen it turns out, and quite a few reporters. The photo is from the film THE STRANGE CASE OF DOCTOR RX which featured Patric Knowles, Lionel Atwill, TIGer Samuel S. Hinds, and Shemp Howard.
Gordon Malherbe Hillman (1900) wrote the story for THE GREAT MAN VOTES (1939), the film where John Barrymore threw Virginia from his lap one day, then called her the best actress in Hollywood the next. Hillman was a veteran short story writer for magazines and had two made into films, this one and HERE I AM A STRANGER with Richard Greene and Richard Dix. Standing in for Mr. Hillman are Barrymore, Weidler, and Peter Holden as the Vance family in GMV.
