Classic movie site with rare images, original ads, and behind-the-scenes photos, with informative and insightful commentary. We like to have fun with movies!
Archive and Links
grbrpix@aol.com
Search Index Here




Sunday, July 09, 2006



Monday Glamour Starter --- Ann Sheridan --- Part One

Ann Sheridan may have had too much "oomph" for her own good. Like so many pretty faces, she suffered the indifference of studio bosses who assumed she couldn’t act, or felt her profit potential could best be served with grass skirts and evening gowns. She had to ride out a lot of bad pictures at Warners, or as she more accurately put it, I had to give them two bad ones for every good one they gave me. Sheridan had a wry appreciation for the absurdity of stardom, which was borne out of a stable upbringing and sensible values. Nobody ever got to beat her up or steal her money. She only made it to 51, but she'd come by more wisdom in that short time than most of her contemporaries ever would. Annie might have been another Bette Davis had it not been for Bette Davis. How do you get decent parts when the Queen Of The Lot cherry picks them all? According to Sheridan, any script that came to her bore Bette’s paw prints, and everyone from Jack Warner and Hal Wallis on down knew that meaty roles were wasted on oomph girls anyway (Ida Lupino was another Warner actress obliged to make do on Davis’ leavings). King’s Row may have been actor’s Heaven for Annie and the entire ensemble cast, but that was a real anomaly --- most of the screen work she did benefited her leading men far more than Sheridan.





Having come up by way of beauty pageants, Sheridan understood too well hopes that can be dashed against those studio walls. Her own Paramount contract, at $50 per week, was the result of winning a "Search For Beauty" contest cynically conducted by the studio as a means of garnering cheap local publicity. Young people from all around the country were drawn into the hope-for-stardom net, and it captured Sheridan in Texas, where she’d been raised. Thirty-three boys and girls were awarded the time-honored Free Trip To Hollywood, but only six would remain. Sheridan described their routine in a mid-sixties interview in which she reminisced about life at Paramount in the mid-thirties. Most days were spent filling extra spots --- bits if you were lucky --- standing in for someone’s hands or feet perhaps (or a Randy Scott western, as seen here in 1935’s Rocky Mountain Mystery). There was a "stock company" for the youngsters --- they’d put on plays for lot producers and front-office types who’d size them up for more substantive work. The group picture shown here includes Ann Sheridan on the right, Ida Lupino fifth from the right, and the one cast member with screen experience, Larry "Buster" Crabbe, fourth from the left. The play was The Double Door, and most of these youngsters would be sent packing within a few months. Out of the six contract winners in the "Search For Beauty" contest, Ann Sheridan would be the only one to achieve stardom. As to the rest, we can only speculate. Julian Madison, Colin Tapley, Gwenllian Gill, Alfred Delcambre, Eldred Tidbury --- what became of them? Did they go back to their (no doubt) small towns and sell insurance? Teach school, drama classes perhaps? People only remember the winners --- here I am writing about one of them --- but wouldn’t it be great to hear Colin’s story, or Eldred’s? I’d sure like to know what Gwenllian’s homecoming was like. All that build-up and expectation. I’ll bet a lot of them never went back home at all. It would have been just too painful.




Perhaps on the theory that oomph girls needed less to eat, Warners paid Sheridan just $700 a week, even after she’d hit the big time following several years servitude in "B’s." Paramount had let her go, and a resourceful agent got her on at WB. From this point, she’d at least have billing for everything she did, however low. The glamour quotient was low too --- mostly she was a wife or girlfriend --- put upon and pointing the way toward the villain’s whereabouts (as in Black Legion, shown here). Her lot was no worse than anyone else’s, and maybe it was conditions on the Warner lot that made her sad girl performances so convincing. Angels With Dirty Faces found her beaten down by the streets as usual, but this time it was opposite Cagney (shown here), and they had something together --- or maybe he just made all the leading ladies opposite him look good. Any doubts about their teamwork would be removed with Torrid Zone --- she’s the only Howard Hawks woman to appear in a movie not directed by Howard Hawks --- she and Cagney played more seriously to City For Conquest, and yes, it’s overwrought at times, but when the power’s on in this one, it delivers a shock (Googie’s death scene as enacted by Elia Kazan --- priceless!). Her bawdy dialogue with George Raft in They Drive By Night traded on the massive publicity garnered by the "oomph" label, all well and good for a Raoul Walsh action show, but Warners was selling King’s Row the same way, emphasizing Sheridan’s newly minted sex image with atrociously lurid ads. Bad pictures and poor wages led to rebellion, suspension, the usual Warner Bros. saga --- then independence, television, summer stock, and soap operas to follow --- all subjects for tomorrow’s Part 2.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is absolutely the best Blog on the web. Thanks for the post!

11:01 AM  
Blogger Mister Blue Sky said...

Wow. I"m loving this blog.

1:09 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ann Sheridan was loved by Daffy Duck and the same things goes for Antonio Villas Boas fell in love with the Oomph Girl of alien!

5:03 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

grbrpix@aol.com
  • December 2005
  • January 2006
  • February 2006
  • March 2006
  • April 2006
  • May 2006
  • June 2006
  • July 2006
  • August 2006
  • September 2006
  • October 2006
  • November 2006
  • December 2006
  • January 2007
  • February 2007
  • March 2007
  • April 2007
  • May 2007
  • June 2007
  • July 2007
  • August 2007
  • September 2007
  • October 2007
  • November 2007
  • December 2007
  • January 2008
  • February 2008
  • March 2008
  • April 2008
  • May 2008
  • June 2008
  • July 2008
  • August 2008
  • September 2008
  • October 2008
  • November 2008
  • December 2008
  • January 2009
  • February 2009
  • March 2009
  • April 2009
  • May 2009
  • June 2009
  • July 2009
  • August 2009
  • September 2009
  • October 2009
  • November 2009
  • December 2009
  • January 2010
  • February 2010
  • March 2010
  • April 2010
  • May 2010
  • June 2010
  • July 2010
  • August 2010
  • September 2010
  • October 2010
  • November 2010
  • December 2010
  • January 2011
  • February 2011
  • March 2011
  • April 2011
  • May 2011
  • June 2011
  • July 2011
  • August 2011
  • September 2011
  • October 2011
  • November 2011
  • December 2011
  • January 2012
  • February 2012
  • March 2012
  • April 2012
  • May 2012
  • June 2012
  • July 2012
  • August 2012
  • September 2012
  • October 2012
  • November 2012
  • December 2012
  • January 2013
  • February 2013
  • March 2013
  • April 2013
  • May 2013
  • June 2013
  • July 2013
  • August 2013
  • September 2013
  • October 2013
  • November 2013
  • December 2013
  • January 2014
  • February 2014
  • March 2014
  • April 2014
  • May 2014
  • June 2014
  • July 2014
  • August 2014
  • September 2014
  • October 2014
  • November 2014
  • December 2014
  • January 2015
  • February 2015
  • March 2015
  • April 2015
  • May 2015
  • June 2015
  • July 2015
  • August 2015
  • September 2015
  • October 2015
  • November 2015
  • December 2015
  • January 2016
  • February 2016
  • March 2016
  • April 2016
  • May 2016
  • June 2016
  • July 2016
  • August 2016
  • September 2016
  • October 2016
  • November 2016
  • December 2016
  • January 2017
  • February 2017
  • March 2017
  • April 2017
  • May 2017
  • June 2017
  • July 2017
  • August 2017
  • September 2017
  • October 2017
  • November 2017
  • December 2017
  • January 2018
  • February 2018
  • March 2018
  • April 2018
  • May 2018
  • June 2018
  • July 2018
  • August 2018
  • September 2018
  • October 2018
  • November 2018
  • December 2018
  • January 2019
  • February 2019
  • March 2019
  • April 2019
  • May 2019
  • June 2019
  • July 2019
  • August 2019
  • September 2019
  • October 2019
  • November 2019
  • December 2019
  • January 2020
  • February 2020
  • March 2020
  • April 2020
  • May 2020
  • June 2020
  • July 2020
  • August 2020
  • September 2020
  • October 2020
  • November 2020
  • December 2020
  • January 2021
  • February 2021
  • March 2021
  • April 2021
  • May 2021
  • June 2021
  • July 2021
  • August 2021
  • September 2021
  • October 2021
  • November 2021
  • December 2021
  • January 2022
  • February 2022
  • March 2022
  • April 2022
  • May 2022
  • June 2022
  • July 2022
  • August 2022
  • September 2022
  • October 2022
  • November 2022
  • December 2022
  • January 2023
  • February 2023
  • March 2023
  • April 2023
  • May 2023
  • June 2023
  • July 2023
  • August 2023
  • September 2023
  • October 2023
  • November 2023
  • December 2023
  • January 2024
  • February 2024
  • March 2024