The Classic Movie Blog Association is hosting a Fabulous Films of the '50s blogathon from May 22 - 26. This is my entry for the event - click here for links to all participating member blogs.
~
Doris Day began to make her way as a big band singer in 1939. She scored several million-selling records during her singing career, beginning
with "Sentimental Journey," her hit with Les Brown’s band in 1945. Her next million-seller
came in 1948 with “It’s Magic,” but her biggest hits were songs from two of her
popular mid-‘50s films, “Secret Love” from Calamity
Jane (1953) and “Que Sera, Sera” from The
Man Who Knew Too Much (1955). Day’s last hit single, Everybody Loves a Lover was released in 1959. Coincidentally, Pillow Talk, a frothy sex comedy, and a new direction in type for her, was also released in 1959 and it would change
the course of her career. For the next four years she would reign as queen
of the box office starring in bubbly romcoms, most often opposite Rock Hudson.
While she was still churning out hit records in the '50s, Day starred in
a movie that was all but forgotten once her screen persona shifted and she
became the super-feminine, stylishly gowned and bouffantly
coiffed icon of the early ‘60s. The
Pajama Game (1957) is an overlooked and underappreciated pièce de résistance of a musical that
contains one of Day’s most captivating performances – along with 11 songs, quite a few of
them show-stoppers…and more.
Once upon a time there
was a feudal kingdom known as 20th Century Fox and in it lived a handsome
prince and a beautiful princess…
A too-fanciful opening? Maybe not, given that the
prince and princess in this particular tale are Tyrone Power and Loretta Young.
Talented, in the blossom of youth and blessed with storybook good looks, the
two were becoming the American equivalent of royalty – Hollywood movie stars - when
they first began working together in the 1930s. Under contract to Fox, the pair first shared the screen (along
with Janet Gaynor, Constance Bennett, Don Ameche and Paul Lukas), if just barely,
in Ladies in Love (1936), a
Budapest-set precursor to 1953’s Bacall/Monroe/Grable vehicle How to Marry a Millionaire. The movie
was a success, the studio deemed Power and Young a matched set, and in 1937 starred
them opposite each other in three lighthearted screwball comedies in rapid
succession.
He rose
to movie stardom
at the ripe young age of 22 and remained an international star for
another 22 years, until his sudden death in 1958. During those two-plus
decades, Tyrone Power was top-billed in hit films of many genres, from
romantic comedy to disaster epic, musical, costume drama, western,
adventure, wartime drama, swashbuckler, prestige literary adaptation,
biopic, courtroom drama and even film noir. He also made time to serve as a
pilot in the Marine Corps during World War II and to carve out a stage
career for himself after the war. His wedding in Rome to his second wife, Linda
Christian, caused a near-riot. When he collapsed and died, at
age 44, while filming a King Vidor-directed biblical epic in Spain, it was headline news
around the world. His private funeral in Hollywood was attended by
filmdom's great luminaries and his burial was a mob scene of frenzied
fans.
Today, May 5th, 2014, marks the 100th anniversary Tyrone Power’s birth, and my co-host, Patti of
They Don’t Make ‘Em Like They Used To, and I are celebrating with this blogathon honoring his life and career.
Click
on the links below for contributions from participating bloggers. And
thanks to everyone who is taking part for joining in to pay tribute to
one of the true legends of Hollywood's Golden Age.
In addition, today Movies, Silently takes a look at one of the silent films of Tyrone Power, Sr., Sweet Alyssum (1915), released when Ty, Jr. was just a year old...
This month brings the 100th anniversary of the birth of legendary actor Tyrone Power, “The King of 20th Century
Fox." As part of a nationwide centennial
celebration, The Northbrook Public Library in Northbrook, IL, welcomes actress Taryn Power-Greendeer
on May 2nd at 2:00 p.m. in the Multi-Media Department. The daughter of Tyrone Power and actress
Linda Christian, Taryn was only 5 when her father died at the age of 44 in
1958. She will talk about growing up as
the daughter of a film idol and the process of learning how to separate the man
from the myth. A feature of her talk
will be the fascinating search she and her older sister, Romina, undertook in an attempt to discover the real Tyrone Power. A
Limited First Edition of Searching for My
Father, Tyrone Power by Romina Power, available only at centennial events,
will be on sale at the event.
