Charles Laughton & Elsa Lanchester Couple in Marriage and on Film

Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester

Elsa Lanchester met the actor Charles Laughton in 1927, and they were married two years later. Laughton's success in American films resulted in the couple moving to Hollywood, where Lanchester played small film roles. They appeared together in several films, including Rembrandt (1936), Tales of Manhattan (1942) and The Big Clock(1948). She wittily portrayed Anne of Cleves, Henry VIII's fourth wife, as a dumb-as-a-fox gamine opposite Laughton in The Private Life of Henry VIII. They both received Academy Award nominations for their performances in Witness for the Prosecution (1957)—Laughton for Best Actor, and Lanchester for Best Supporting Actress—but neither won.

In 1950, the couple became American citizens.

The Private Life of Henry VIII

Rembrandt

Witness for the Prosecution

Lucille Ball Queen of the Bs

Lucille Ball attended the John Murray Anderson School for the Dramatic Arts in New York City with fellow actress Bette Davis. Ball went home a few weeks later when drama coaches told her that she "had no future at all as a performer." Ball was determined to prove her teachers wrong, and returned to New York City in 1929, where she landed work as a model and later began her performing career on Broadway using the stage name Dianne Belmont. She had some success as the Chesterfield cigarette girl. After an uncredited stint as one of the Goldwyn Girls in Roman Scandals (1933) she permanently moved to Hollywood to appear in films. 




She appeared in many small movie roles in the 1930s as a contract player for RKO Radio Pictures. She was known in many Hollywood circles as "Queen of the B's"—a title previously held by Fay Wray—starring in a number of B-movies, such as 1939's Five Came Back. Ball was signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the 1940s, but she never achieved major stardom from her appearance in those films.

She appeared as Daisie Simms in a two-reel comedy short with the Three Stooges (Three Little Pigskins, 1934) and a movie with the Marx Brothers (Room Service, 1938). According to IMDb she appears as an uncredited "girl" at least twenty times in early 1930 films.

She can also be seen as one of the featured models in the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers film Roberta (1935) and briefly as the flower girl in Top Hat (1935), as well as a brief supporting role at the beginning of Follow the Fleet (1936), another Astaire-Rogers film.

 Ginger Rogers was a distant maternal cousin of Ball's. She and Rogers played aspiring actresses in the hit film Stage Door (1937) co-starring Katharine Hepburn.

Goldwyn Girls

Early Goldwyn Girls

The Goldwyn Girls were a musical stock company of female dancers employed by Samuel Goldwyn. 

Famous actresses whose career included a stint in the Goldwyn Girls include Lucille Ball, Paulette Goddard, Betty Grable, Ann Sothern, Jane Wyman, Virginia Bruce,Virginia Grey, Mary Meade, and Virginia Mayo.

Paulette Goddard

Lucille Ball

Jane Wyman

IMDb lists of actresses who were at one point in their careers Goldwyn Girls: Betty Alexander,Jean Allen, Gale Amber, Gloria Anderson, Loretta Andrews, Mary Ashcraft, Consuelo Baker, Lucille Ball, Shirley Ballard, Bonnie Bannon, Joan Barclay, Betty Bassett, Amelia Batchelor, Virginia Belmont, Irene Bentley, Lynne Berkeley, Deannie Best, Dudone Blumier, Karin Booth, Barbara Brent, Mary Brewer, Lynn Browning, Virginia Bruce, Jan Bryant, Ruth Caldwell, Edna Callahan, Maxine Cantway, Mary Jane Carey, Betty Cargyle,Alma Carroll, Joyzelle Cartier, Lynne Carver, Sue Casey, Joan Chaffee, Shirley Chambers,Linda Christian, Mary Coyle, Hazel Craven, Jean Cronin, Virginia Cruzon, Helen Darling,Jann Darlyn, Madelyn Darrow, Doris Davenport, Loretta Daye, Lorraine DeRome, Marjorie Deanne, Myrna Dell, Gloria Delson, Mary Lou Dix, Claire Dodd, Nadine Dore, Betty Douglas, Dorothy Dugan, Ruth Eddings, Jinx Falkenburg, Patsy Farnum, Helen Ferguson,Muriel Finley, Phyllis Forbes, Judith Ford, Karen X. Gaylord, Inna Gest, Mary Ellen Gleason, Paulette Goddard, Renee Godfrey, Gail Goodson, Betty Grable, Anne Graham,Jeanne Gray, Virginia Grey, Mary Gwynne, Ruth Hale, Ellen Hall, Donna Hamilton, Jane Hamilton, Carol Haney, Patricia Harper, June Harris, Eloise Hart, Althea Henley, Betty-Joy Howard, Jean Howard, Kay Hughes, Eleanor Huntley, Mary Ann Hyde, Amo Ingraham,Janice Jarratt, Elaine Johnson, Jackie Jordan, Vivian Keefer, Jane Keithley, Helen Kimball, June Kirby, Dorothy Knapp, Margaret La Marr, Adele Lacy, June Lang, Georgia Lange, Mary Lange, Rosalyn Lee, Jean Lenivich, Georgia Lerch, Vonne Lester, Caryl Lincoln, Shirley Lloyd, Bernice Lorimer, Betty Lorraine, Florence Lundeen, Neva Lynn, Nancy Lyon, Joyce Mackenzie, Mae Madison, Mickey Malloy, Christine Maple, Vivian Mathison, Michael Mauree, Virginia Mayo, Mary Meade, Dorothy Merritt, Lorraine Miller, Lillian Molieri, Martha Montgomery, Ruth Moody, Mary Moore, Jean Morgan, Kay Morley, Diana Mumby, Nancy Nash, Lee Nugent, Dorothy Patrick, Patricia Patrick, Shelby Payne, Barbara Pepper,Wanda Perry, Faye Pierre, Nita Pike, Edith Roarke, Donna Mae Roberts, Charlotte Russell, Marion Sayers, Gail Sheridan, Mary Simpson,Betty Slocum, Hyca Slocum, Ann Sothern, Kismi Stefan, Margie Stewart, Betty Stockton, Marcia Sweet, Helen Talbot, Anya Taranda, Evelyn Terry, Larri Thomas, Virginia Thorpe, Betty Thurston, Ruth Valmy, Ricki Van Dusen, Vicki Vann, Tyra Vaughn, Irene Vernon, Blanca Vischer,Lynn Walker, Alice Wallace, Sandra Warner, Sonia Warner, Dorothy Coonan Wellman, Renee Whitney, Virginia Wicks, Chili Williams, Toby Wing, Diana Winslow, Hazel Witter, Helen Wood, Mary Jane Woods, Jane Wyman, Audrey Young, Gloria Youngblood.

The Formula starring Marlin Brando and George C. Scott inspired by factual Nazi and US secrets

The Formula is a mystery film directed by John G. Avildsen released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1980. It features a preeminent cast of Marlon Brando, John Gielgud,George C. Scott and Marthe Keller. Craig T. Nelson also makes a brief appearance as a geologist. Despite recieving 1st Golden Rasberry Award, the film is noteworthy as being one of the first films to deal with the issue of peak oil and the global collapse of economies based on fossil fuels. In this, it is similar to Rollover which dealt with the possibility of a collapse of global financial markets.

*******WARNING SPOILERS*****

The fictional Genesis formula is based on both fact and mythology of Nazi's use of coal hydrogenation. The factual Bergius Process is a method of production of liquid hydrocarbons for use as synthetic fuel by hydrogenation of high-volatile bituminous coal at high temperature and pressure. It was first developed by Friedrich Bergius in 1913, in 1931 Bergius was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his development of high pressure chemistry. Before World War II several plants where built with an annual capacity of 4 million tons of synthetic fuel. These plants were extensively used during World War II to supply Germany with fuel and lubricants.

The Bergius process was extensively used by Nazi Germany and targeted for bombing during the Oil Campaign of World War II. At present there are no plants operating the Bergius Process or its derivatives commercially. The largest demonstration plant was the 200 ton per day plant at Bottrop, Germany, operated by Ruhrkohle, which ceased operation in 1993. There are reports of the Chinese company constructing a plant with a capacity of 4 000 ton per day. It was expected to become operational in 2007, but there has been no confirmation that this was achieved.

Ruins of coal elevator in a synthetic gasoline plant from WWII 

During WWII the United States conducted secret research in converting coal to gasoline at a facility in Louisiana, Missouri. Located along the Mississippi river, this plant was producing gasoline in commercial quantities by 1948. The Louisiana process method produced automobile gasoline comparable in price with petroleum based gasoline but of a higher quality.The facility was shut down in 1953 by the Eisenhower administration after intense lobbying by the oil industry. Declassified documents detailing the experiments and the production process were systematically destroyed. In the 1980s 16mm microfilm of these documents were discovered in a few Federal Depository Libraries. Within three months researcher requests to view this microfilm were told the canisters were missing. In one case a physical search turned up only the rusty pattern of a 16mm film canister on a steel shelf. Apparently The National Petroleum Council continues to suppress this information.

Additional Reading "Friedrich Bergius and the Rise of the German Synthetic Fuel Industry"

On the Waterfront | Watch Videoclip Most Famous "I coulda been a contender" Scene

right click mage to download poster

On the Waterfront is a 1954 American drama film about union violence and corruption among longshoremen. The film was directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg. It stars Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint, Rod Steiger, Karl Malden and Lee J. Cobb. The soundtrack score was composed by Leonard Bernstein. It is claimed it was based on a series of articles written in the New York Sun by Malcolm Johnson. However, in 1950, playwright Arthur Miller approached Kazan with the script THE HOOK. They took it to the major Hollywood studios, where Miller would meet Marilyn Monroe for the first time. The script was checked by the F.B.I. and they concluded the script should be re-written with the crooks as Communists. Miller withdrew, and Columbia boss Harry Cohen called Miller anti-American. Kazan confessed to a past with the communist party, gave names to HUAC, and was assured he could continue with the studio. On the Waterfront is an adaptation of The Hook, except Kazan made Brando out as the guy who snitches but keeps his honour, as he wished himself to be seen as that person.

The film received eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Director. It is Leonard Bernstein's only original film score not adapted from a stage production with songs.

Charlie: Look, kid, I - how much you weigh, son? When you weighed one hundred and sixty-eight pounds you were beautiful. You coulda been another Billy Conn, and that skunk we got you for a manager, he brought you along too fast. 

Terry: It wasn't him, Charley, it was you. Remember that night in the Garden you came down to my dressing room and you said, "Kid, this ain't your night. We're going for the price on Wilson." You remember that? "This ain't your night"! My night! I coulda taken Wilson apart! So what happens? He gets the title shot outdoors on the ballpark and what do I get? A one-way ticket to Palooka-ville! You was my brother, Charley, you shoulda looked out for me a little bit. You shoulda taken care of me just a little bit so I wouldn't have to take them dives for the short-end money. 

Charlie: Oh I had some bets down for you. You saw some money.  

Terry: You don't understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let's face it. It was you, Charley. 

Watch Video of Marlon Brando winning an Oscar® for "On the Waterfront" The best part is absurd outfit Bette Davis wears as a presenter.

A Streetcar Named Desire | "Hey, STELLA" Videoclip

right click image to download poster

A Streetcar Named Desire is a 1951 American film adaptation of the 1947 play of the same name by Tennessee Williams, who also wrote the screenplay with Oscar Saul. The film, a romantic drama, was directed by Elia Kazan, who had also directed the original stage production, and stars Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh, Kim Hunter, and Karl Malden; all but Leigh were chosen from the Broadway cast of the play, while Leigh had starred in the London West End production. It was produced by talent agent and lawyerCharles K. Feldman, and released by Warner Bros. The film had many revisions to remove references to homosexuality, among other things.

A Streetcar Named Desire was the first film to win three out of four acting categories at the Academy Awards, including Best Actress for Leigh, Best Supporting Actor for Malden, and Best Supporting Actress for Hunter. Brando's performance as Stanley Kowalski, while nominated, did not win the Oscar. The film was also the first to win both Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress.

Stanley Kowalski: Hey, STELLA.