Tag: Rita Hayworth

Happy Birthday, Una Merkel!

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In Herman Raucher‘s coming-of-age novel Summer of ’42, his protagonist (coincidentally named … Hermie) has a big crush not on Lana Turner, Betty Grable, or Rita Hayworth, but on Penny Singleton, best known for portraying Blondie, wife to Arthur Lake‘s Dagwood in a long series of comedy B-pictures.

Hermie was a little bit embarrassed by his preference in movie stars, but he figured there was not as much competition that way.

We have a similar little thing for Una Merkel, whose 110th birthday it is today. Una came to specialize in playing wise and loyal second bananas to the leading ladies in romantic comedies, but she was certainly not without her own charms, not the least of which was her Southern drawl (she was born and raised in Kentucky).

Ironically enough, it was Una who was first slated to play Blondie before the role was finally awarded to Singleton.

Una enjoyed a lengthy career that began on Broadway before she started working in pictures in the late silent era. Her final role was in 1968, opposite Bill Cosby and Robert Culp on the popular television program I Spy.

But our crush stems from her work in the 1930s, when she was the glamour girl’s best pal in movies such as Red-Headed Woman, 42nd Street, and Bombshell.

Here’s a scene from the latter picture, featuring our Una opposite Jean Harlow and Louise Beavers.

A tip o’ the top hat to Fred Astaire

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“As a dancer he stands alone, and no singer knows his way around a song like Fred Astaire.”—Irving Berlin

Today marks Fred Astaire‘s 113th birthday. He’s been gone nearly 25 years (he died on June 22, 1987), and if you wanted to make a list of the things that are wrong with the world today, the fact that Mr. Astaire no longer walks—nay, glides—among us would be on that list.

Astaire had a down-to-earth elegance that is all too rare, and, in addition to his legendary talents as a hoofer, he was an icon of classic style, a darned good singer, and, from all accounts, a fine gentleman, to boot.

This world’s just a little poorer for the 25 years we’ve been muddling through without Fred Astaire, but his film work reminds us of what we once had.

The clip below finds our Fred paired with the lovely (to put it mildly) Rita Hayworth in 1942’s You Were Never Lovelier, performing a Jerome Kern–Johnny Mercer song that could well serve as the Cladrite Radio theme song, “I’m Old-Fashioned.”

Happy birthday, Fred, wherever you are. And say hello to Ginger for us.

For more on Astaire, we recommend Trav S. D.’s overview of his life and career.

Marie Osborne: Goodbye to Another Glorious Gal

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It’s a sign of the fleeting nature of fame that her name probably doesn’t ring a bell with many people today, but “Baby” Marie Osborne, the first child star in the history of American movies, died on November 11 at the age of 99.

“Baby” Marie was very popular indeed during the First World War—her movies were so successful that her adoptive parents started their own production company to produce her pictures, and she had a merchandising deal with a toy company in New York that produced Baby Marie dolls—but her stardom, which began when she was just three years old, was at end before she reached the age of ten.

Not that she stopped working in Hollywood. Though she retired for a while, in the 1930s, she returned to work as a stand-in for such stars as Ginger Rogers and Betty Hutton.

She later moved into costume work, first for the Western Costume Company and later at Twentieth Century Fox, where she worked her way up to the position of costume supervisor, a job she held until 1976. Osborne’s costume work found her working with an impressive range of performers, from Marlon Brando to John Wayne, Rita Hayworth and Robert Redford.

This was a woman who experienced Hollywood history firsthand.

Osborne, who once described herself as “the first of Hollywood’s washed-up child stars” not only experienced the highs of Hollywood stardom, she knew the lows: She never saw any of the money she’d earned as a huge star in her childhood. “I was earning $300 a week when the average American was making less than $1,000 per year,” Osborne once said, but her parents saw to it that she never saw the money.

“There was a trust fund, but I never seemed to have received anything from it,” Osborne recalled. “My foster parents lived a gilded life.”

But Osborne’s second marriage was a long happy one, she had a daughter she loved dearly, and she was content with her lot in life.

As Osborne’s friend, author Jean-Jacques Jura, wrote in a remembrance he wrote after her passing, “Baby Marie always savored the moment, exhibiting a kind and responsible tenderness toward those around her: family, friends, and all living things, including her special appreciation of the animal world. In order of importance, Marie was most grateful for her Roman Catholicism, for her excellent health throughout her full and interesting life, for her cherished daughter, Joan, and for the beauty of nature.”

Rest in peace, Baby Marie.