Mayor Tony Curtis

You

Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis; 1954

Can now refer to Tony Curtis as “your honor”.  He won a hotly contested race for the mayor of Universal City.  But Tony would rather be a proud father.  He and Janet Leigh are still hoping for a baby any time now.

[Source: Movieland; February 1955]

Sheriff Mamie Van Doren, Mayor Tony Curtis, Fire Chief Mara Corday

Janet and Tony, married from 1951 until 1962,  would have two children - Kelly, born June 17, 1956 and Jamie Leigh, born November 22, 1958. 

Police Chief Mamie

Mamie Van Doren

Police Chief Mamie, Mayor Tony Curtis, and Fire Chief Mara Corday

(After being elected chief of police at Universal City)  “Now I’ll be able to pinch producers instead of vice versa”.

[Source: Movieland; February 1955]

Grace McDonald - Survivor

Grace McDonald

• Born in Boston or New York (depending on the source) June 15, 1918
• Born Grace McDonell
• Began straining in ballet and voice at age 8
• At age 11, she became ill and lost much use of her legs.  She was in bed an entire year, but began training again only to suffer a relapse after 1 month.  She spent another year in bed without the use of her legs.  Her brother, Ray, would practice his tap and ballet by her sickbed which encouraged Grace to use her toes and muscles in bed to her brother's steps.  Gradually she was able to dance again and never looked back [Source: New Physical Culture, November 1944]
• Made her debut in vaudeville at age 14
• Reached Broadway as a team with her brother Ray as a star dance in "Babes in Arms"
• Signed with Universal in 1940 and made many B pictures, many vehicles for the Andrews sisters.
• Retired from films in 1945 to become a mother.  She had 3 children with her marine husband, Ralph Green and moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Passed away from double pneumonia on October 30, 1999 in Scottsdale, Arizona

Check out Grace dancing at 2:20

Check out her brother Ray dancing with then wife Peggy Ryan

Six Lessons from Madame La Zonga

I have to admit I don't think I've seen any of "Mexican Spitfire" Lupe Velez's films. She was obviously a stunner and died way too young. Here are some stills from her film Six Lessons From Madame La Zonga, released by Universal in 1941. Lupe is posing with one of her co-stars Guinn "Big Boy" Williams.

Rudy's New Musical

"Tentative title for Rudy Vallee's new musical for Universal, Too Many Blondes, sounds like Rudy's biography, edited by John Barrymore. Since Rudy has become prexy of Vis-o-graph (dime-in-slot movies) he's changed his theme song to "Your Dime is My Dime."" (Film Fun, 1941)

Nice Girl Needs 3 Endings

"THEY AIM TO PLEASE: In Deanna Durbin's Nice Girl, Universal had three different finales recorded - one for the United States, one for Great Britain, and the last for Latin-America. For the U.S., Deanna will sing "Thank You America"; for Britain: "There'll Always Be England"; and for Latin America, "Thank You America" will be sung in Spanish." (Film Fun, 1941)

The Man Who Lost Himself: Charles Ray

In the cast of Universal's The Man Who Lost Himself is Charles Ray, silent-day star, who lost his bankroll producing an old New England picture in young Hollywood.

Charles Ray (March 15, 1891 - November 23, 1942) was a well loved silent film star, known mostly for his rolls as the country bumpkin. Charles started out in films in 1911, and eventually had 168 films under his belt. His breakthrough roll was in 1915's The Coward. Typecast in basically the same roll, Charles rebelled and was then after thought of as "difficult to work with". Since no one would finance him in rolls he wanted to play, he spent all of his money on the grand failure, 1923's The Courtship of Myles Standish. Broke and with no prospects, Thomas Ince, his mentor, put him in films just so he could earn some dough. When Ince died in 1924, Charles Ray was on Poverty Row and basically played extras for the rest of his life. Ray died in 1943 of an infection caused by an impacted tooth at the age of 52.