Odds and Ends: Umph to Oomph, Ann Sheridan Day – Plus Birthdays

Just checking in with a few notes since I couldn't very well place them in the fantastic guest post that went up earlier this evening (E-mail subscribers will see it following immediately below).

First off, hope I caught you before you headed off to work because it's Ann Sheridan day on Turner Classic Movies and that probably means you wanted to DVR something.

Here's their schedule, all times Eastern:

• 6:00 am - Indianapolis Speedway (1939) with Pat O'Brien and John Payne
• 7:30 am - The Angels Wash Their Faces (1939) with Ronald Reagan and The Dead End Kids
• 9:00 am - Torrid Zone (1940) with James Cagney and O'Brien again
• 10:30 am - Wings for the Eagle (1942) with Dennis Morgan and Jack Carson
• 12:00 pm - Shine On, Harvest Moon (1944) with Morgan and Carson once more
• 2:00 pm - Nora Prentiss (1947) with Kent Smith and Bruce Bennett
• 4:00 pm - The Unfaithful (1947) with Zachary Scott and Lew Ayres
• 6:00 pm - Silver River (1948) with Errol Flynn and Thomas Mitchell

After that TCM goes into their big Kim Novak night. Since they've been promoting that every time I've turned the channel on this week I thought it'd be nice to send the Ann Sheridan reminder.

No big feature on Ann Sheridan today, I covered her a little too recently, but here are some brief bits of trivia I gleaned when opening up a few old newspaper articles tonight:

• The "Oomph Girl" name was originally the "Umph Girl." Thought it was a typo the first couple of times I bumped into it, but here it is spelled out in one old newspaper.
• Ann Sheridan was cast in the part eventually played by Rita Hayworth in The Strawberry Blonde but walked out over her contract--she was making $650 per week at that time and lost seven months pay over the dispute.
• She died with one episode left to film on her television series Pistols 'n' Petticoats. Her producer, Joseph Conley, said he wasn't able to find out just how ill Sheridan was from her doctor and even her sister, Mrs. Leo R. Kent (who'd sent in that Search for Beauty photo so long ago), said family in Texas had no idea that Sheridan was even sick.

You also might like to go back to my article about Kings Row (1942), still one of Ann Sheridan's most popular films even if it's better remembered for Ronald Reagan.

While I'm never going to argue with an Ann Sheridan day on TCM, a Guy Kibbee birthday tribute (born 1882) wouldn't have been too shabby either!

TCM did just that last year.

You can find some Guy Kibbee biography stuck in the middle of this post I wrote about Going Highbrow (1935). The night spent researching that early Kibbee biography sent me looking for Laughing Sinners (1931), an adaptation of Kibbee's breakout role on Broadway that he also appeared in on screen for MGM.

Also born on February 6 was Rochelle Hudson in 1916. I wrote a lengthy biographical post covering Hudson about 2-1/2 years ago but I thought it could use a little polishing when I read it over again tonight. So that's what I did: My Rochelle Hudson biography, revised.

The mention of Rochelle Hudson gives me another opportunity to point to my recently created Wampas Baby Star Resource Page. Hudson was a Wampas Baby Star of 1931.

Skimmed through a copy of George Gallup in Hollywood that I had ordered some time ago but which got lost in the shuffle of my post-Christmas reading. Really some fascinating information compiled by author Susan Ohmer in this one. Here's a bit over at the University of Notre Dame about how Ohmer came to this topic from back when her book was originally published in 2006.

Wishing the “Gallup Looks at the Movies” microfilm was available for viewing online. Or in book form for purchase. Tempted to schedule a field trip to look that over myself!

That's it for now, back again soon--
Cliff

Subscribers keep scrolling for a fascinating look at the world of European film star postcards. If you're on the site just click here to head over to that one.