Here are 10 things you should know about Donna Reed, born 102 years ago today. She was, in our view, one of the loveliest actresses ever to grace the silver screen—and talented, too.
Tag: Jimmy Stewart
Happy Birthday, James Stewart
The great James Stewart was born 112 years ago today in Indiana, Pennsylvania. He remains one of the most popular actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age (and a favorite here at Cladrite Radio).
Happy 109th Birthday, James Stewart!
The great James Stewart was born 109 years ago today in Indiana, Pennsylvania. He remains one of the most popular actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age (and a favorite here at Cladrite Radio). Here are ten JS Did-You-Knows:
- James Stewart was the first prominent actor to enlist in the military during World War II. He joined the Army eight months before Pearl Harbor and served overseas for 21 months, where, as a pilot with the 445th Bomb Group, 703rd squadron, he flew 20 combat missions and rose to the rank of colonel.
- Stewart held the highest active military rank of any actor in history. After World War II, he continued serving in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, ultimately attaining the rank of brigadier general.
- James Stewart attended Princeton University, where he graduated in 1932 with a degree in architecture.
- Stewart was a member of Princeton’s Triangle Club, a musical-comedy theater group. A 1931 recording exists of Stewart performing the song Day After Day with the Princeton Triangle Club Dance Orchestra (regular listeners to Cladrite Radio have heard this recording).
- Stewart played the accordion and hoped to do demonstrate his facility with the instrument in the 1957 picture Night Passage, but his playing was dubbed by a professional musician.
- James Stewart wore the same hat in all of his westerns.
- Stewart was very conservative, politically, supporting such presidential candidates as Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.
- James Stewart was originally in line to play Roger Thornhill in North by Northwest, but because Vertigo had not done well at the box office, director Alfred Hitchcock went with Cary Grant instead.
- Stewart was a bachelor until age 41, but his marriage to former model Gloria Hatrick McLean was a happy one.
- James Stewart’s Best Actor Oscar statuette (The Philadelphia Story, 1940) was on display in the window of his father’s hardware store for 25 years.
- The word “Philadelphia” on that statuette was misspelled.
Happy birthday, Mr. Stewart, wherever you may be.
This story was first published in slightly different form in 2016.
Happy 108th Birthday, James Stewart!
The great James Stewart was born 108 years ago today in Indiana, Pennsylvania. He remains one of the most popular actors of Hollywood’s Golden Age (and a favorite here at Cladrite Radio). Here are ten trivia tidbits about James Stewart:
- James Stewart was the first prominent actor to enlist in the military during World War II. He joined the Army eight months before Pearl Harbor and served overseas for 21 months, where, as a pilot with the 445th Bomb Group, 703rd squadron, he flew 20 combat missions and rose to the rank of colonel.
- Stewart held the highest active military rank of any actor in history. After World War II, he continued serving in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, ultimately attaining the rank of brigadier general.
- James Stewart attended Princeton University, where he graduated in 1932 with a degree in architecture.
- Stewart was a member of Princeton’s Triangle Club, a musical-comedy theater group. A 1931 recording exists of Stewart performing the song “Day After Day” with the Princeton Triangle Club Dance Orchestra (regular listeners to Cladrite Radio have heard this recording).
- Stewart played the accordion and hoped to do demonstrate his facility with the instrument in the 1957 picture Night Passage, but his playing was dubbed by a professional musician.
- James Stewart wore the same hat in all of his westerns.
- Stewart was very conservative, politically, supporting such presidential candidates as Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.
- James Stewart was originally in line to play Roger Thornhill in North by Northwest, but because Vertigo had not done well at the box office, director Alfred Hitchcock went with Cary Grant instead.
- Stewart was a bachelor until age 41, but his marriage to former model Gloria Hatrick McLean was a happy one.
- James Stewart’s Best Actor Oscar statuette (The Philadelphia Story, 1940) was on display in the window of his father’s hardware store for 25 years.
- The word “Philadelphia” on that statuette was misspelled.
Happy birthday, Mr. Stewart, wherever you may be.
Remembering Ms. Reed
The lovely Donna Reed is Turner Classic Movies’ Star of the Month in May, and it strikes us as an apt honor. They’ll be showing her movies every Wednesday this month, beginning at 8 p.m. and extending well into Thursday morning.
Reed is remembered today primarily for her early 1960s sitcom, The Donna Reed Show, and her work as Eleanor Ewing on TV’s Dallas. Some will recall her, too, in the odd movie role, such as Mary Hatch Bailey, Jimmy Stewart’s wife in It’s a Wonderful Life or as prostitute Alma “Lorene” Burke in From Here to Eternity. But Reed’s career was long and varied one, and few women ever looked more beautiful on the silver screen than did the Iowa native, who was born Donna Belle Mullenger.
We intend to use these weekly airings to reacquaint ourselves with some of our favories among Reed’s movie roles and to experience some of her lesser-known performances, large and small, for the first time.
Here is tonight’s line-up:
8:00p.m. — Shadow of the Thin Man (1941)
High society sleuths Nick and Nora Charles run into a variety of shady characters while investigating a race-track murder.
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Barry Nelson, Donna Reed Dir: Major W. S. Van Dyke II BW-97 mins
9:45p.m. — The Courtship Of Andy Hardy (1942)
A teenager dates a girl whose parents’ divorce is being decided by his father.
Cast: Lewis Stone, Mickey Rooney, Cecilia Parker, Fay Holden Dir: George B. Seitz BW-95 mins
11:30p.m. — Calling Dr. Gillespie (1942)
A wheelchair-bound doctor fights off a homicidal maniac.
Cast: Lionel Barrymore, Philip Dorn, Donna Reed, Phil Brown Dir: Harold S. Bucquet BW-84 mins
1:00a.m. — Dr. Gillespie’s Criminal Case (1943)
A wheelchair-bound doctor tries to prove a convicted killer’s innocence.
Cast: Lionel Barrymore, Van Johnson, Keye Luke, Alma Kruger Dir: Willis Goldbeck BW-89 mins
2:45a.m. — Babes on Broadway (1941)
Show-biz hopefuls stage a benefit for an orphanage.
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Fay Bainter, Virginia Weidler, Donna Reed Dir: Busby Berkeley BW-118 mins
5:00a.m. — The Human Comedy (1943)
A small-town telegraph boy deals with the strains of growing up during World War II.
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Frank Morgan, James Craig, Marsha Hunt Dir: Clarence Brown BW-117 mins
7:00a.m. — The Bugle Sounds (1942)
An old-time cavalry sergeant’s resistance to change could cost him his post.
Cast: Wallace Beery, Marjorie Main, Lewis Stone, George Bancroft Dir: S. Sylvan Simon BW-102 mins
8:45a.m. — Apache Trail (1942)
An outlaw and his brother are on opposite sides of a stagecoach robbery.
Cast: Lloyd Nolan, Donna Reed, William Lundigan, Ann Ayars Dir: Richard Rosson BW-66 mins
10:00a.m. — Gentle Annie (1944)
A frontierswoman turns her family into a band of bank robbers.
Cast: James Craig, Donna Reed, Marjorie Main, Henry Morgan Dir: Andrew Marton BW-80 mins