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Sophia Loren

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Sofia Villani Scicolone ,  Sophia Loren , est une actrice italienne née le 20 septembre 1934 à Rome.

Actrice parmi les plus importantes du cinéma italien, mondialement reconnue, elle a tourné dans de nombreux films depuis le début des années 1950.

Elle obtient ses plus grands rôles dans les années 1960 avec notamment le personnage dramatique de La ciociara ; son jeu est couronné par le prix d’interprétation féminine au Festival de Cannes, un Ours d’or d’honneur à la Berlinale, un BAFTA, un Oscar de la meilleure actrice, onze David di Donatello et quatre Rubans d’argent.

Dans Hier, aujourd’hui et demain, son striptease devant Marcello Mastroianni est une des plus célèbres scènes du genre dans l’histoire du cinéma.

  • Sophia Loren
  • Sophia Loren

Sofia Scicolone est la fille illégitime de l’ingénieur en bâtiment et homme d’affaires, Riccardo Scicolone et de Romilda Villani, professeur de piano et sosie de l’actrice Greta Garbo. Elle passe une enfance et une jeunesse difficiles à Pouzzoles, à une quinzaine de kilomètres de Naples, avec sa mère, sa grand-mère Luisa et sa sœur Anna Maria, née quatre ans après elle.

Scicolone refuse en effet d’épouser la mère de Sofia et d’Anna Maria et n’apporte aucun soutien financier à sa famille illégitime. Sofia n’a ensuite rencontré son père que trois fois dans sa vie : à l’âge de 5 ans, de 17 ans et de 42 ans alors qu’il était mourant.

Elle déclare qu’elle lui a pardonné mais n’a jamais oublié l’abandon de sa mère, restée seule avec ses deux filles. Sofia a par son père deux demi-frères, Giuliano et Giuseppe, plus jeunes qu’elle également.

Pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, le port de Pouzzoles et son usine de munitions sont souvent bombardés par les Alliés. Pendant un raid, alors qu’elle court vers un abri, la petite Sofia est blessée au menton par un éclat de bombe.

Après cela, la famille décide de déménager à Naples et est hébergée par des parents. La guerre finie, elle retourne à Pouzzoles. Luisa, la grand-mère, ouvre alors un bar dans leur salle de séjour où elle sert de la liqueur faite maison : Romilda, la mère, joue du piano, la sœur Anna Maria chante et Sofia s’occupe des tables et fait la vaisselle. L’endroit devient fréquenté par les G.I. dont le casernement est proche

Enfant, Sofia n’est pas attirée par le monde du spectacle, et se destine au métier de professeur d’anglais. Néanmoins fortement encouragée par sa mère, à l’âge de 16 ans, elle est l’une des quatre représentantes de la région du Latium au concours de beauté Miss Italie, à l’époque appelé Mille lire per un sorriso (Mille lires pour un sourire) ; elle s’y classe deuxième, mais le jury, impressionné par la beauté, la grâce et la sensualité que dégage l’adolescente, crée pour elle le prix de Miss Élégance, prix que, depuis, toutes les aspirantes au titre de Miss Italie convoitent également.

Elle gagne une certaine réputation en figurant dans des romans-photos (genre populaire à l’époque) sous le pseudonyme de Sofia Lazzaro et obtient de petits rôles dans des films, où elle apparaît parfois seins nus comme dans Quelles drôles de nuits en 1951 ou dans Deux nuits avec Cléopâtre en 1953, alors qu’elle n’a que 16 ans pour le premier et 18 pour le second.

Ces apparitions sont remarquées en France mais pas en Italie où la censure, toujours vigilante, les a supprimées.

Ces films sont depuis extrêmement recherchés par les fans de la star, en raison de leur rareté. Une photo de Sophia Loren seins nus, tirée de Quelles drôles de nuits, est reproduite en 1957 dans le magazine américain Playboy alors que l’actrice est déjà connue. Elle ne s’est jamais remontrée partiellement nue ensuite, arguant du fait qu’elle ne se sentait pas à l’aise dans ces conditions et que « Sophia Loren nue, ça représente beaucoup de nudité

En 1952, sur le tournage de Sous les mers d’Afrique de Giovanni Roccardi, Sofia Scicolone, alias Sofia Lazzaro, est rebaptisée « Sophia Loren » par le producteur Goffredo Lombardo. Le producteur Carlo Ponti, qu’elle va épouser plus tard bien qu’il soit son aîné de vingt-deux ans, lui fait alors signer un contrat d’une durée de sept ans.

Sophia Loren entame sa carrière avec des rôles de femmes « populaires » dans Le Carrousel fantastique (Carosello napoletano) d’Ettore Giannini (1953), L’Or de Naples (L’Oro di Napoli) de Vittorio De Sica et Dommage que tu sois une canaille (Peccato che sia una canaglia) d’Alessandro Blasetti (1954), et Par-dessus les moulins (La Bella mugnaia) de Mario Camerini (1955).

Rapidement, sa provocante et explosive beauté, sa grâce et ses qualités de comédienne donnent à Sophia Loren une renommée internationale. En 1955, elle fait la couverture de Life alors que Carlo Ponti envisage pour elle une carrière internationale.

À Hollywood de 1957 à 1961, elle tourne sous la direction de Jean Negulesco, Stanley Kramer, Henry Hathaway, Delbert Mann, Carol Reed, George Cukor, Melville Shavelson, Sidney Lumet, Michael Curtiz, Charlie Chaplin. Elle a pour partenaires Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, John Wayne, Anthony Perkins, William Holden, Trevor Howard, Marlon Brando, Anthony Quinn, George Sanders, Peter Sellers, Clark Gable, John Gavin, Charlton Heston et Raf Vallone.

Martin Ritt lui apporte sa première consécration avec L’Orchidée noire (The Black Orchid) : son rôle de Rose Bianco lui vaut la coupe Volpi de la meilleure actrice à la Mostra de Venise en 1958.

En 1960, sort La ciociara de Vittorio De Sica où elle tient le rôle de Cesira aux côtés de Jean-Paul Belmondo. C’est une succession de récompenses pour Sophia Loren : le prix d’interprétation féminine au Festival de Cannes, le David di Donatello de la meilleure actrice, le ruban d’argent de la meilleure actrice principale, le NYFCC Award de la meilleure actrice et l’oscar de la meilleure actrice.

Le succès de La ciociara la ramène devant les caméras italiennes et plus précisément celles de Vittorio De Sica. Elle tourne sous sa direction Boccace 70 (Boccaccio ’70) et Les Séquestrés d’Altona (I Sequestrati di Altona) en 1962, Hier, aujourd’hui et demain (Ieri, oggi, domani) en 1963 où son porte-jarretelles noir fait tourner les têtes, Mariage à l’italienne (Matrimonio all’italiana) en 1964. Un peu plus tard, ce sont Les Fleurs du soleil (I Girasoli) en 1970 et Le Voyage (Il Viaggio) en 1974. Il la dirige dans huit films en tout, dont six où il apparaît en tant qu’acteur à ses côtés.

Marcello Mastroianni est aussi le partenaire fidèle de l’actrice dans une douzaine de films.

En 1977, Une journée particulière (Una Giornata particolare) d’Ettore Scola, est le dernier grand rôle de sa carrière. Elle revient en 1984 dans Aurora (Qualcosa di biondo) de Maurizio Ponzi, avec son jeune fils Edoardo Ponti.

À partir de 1984, les récompenses qu’elle reçoit sont des prix en hommage à sa carrière : oscar d’honneur, David di Donatello spécial, et autres Golden Globes de remerciement. En 1991, la République française la fait chevalier de la Légion d’honneur.

En 2007, un documentaire sur sa vie intitulé Sophia : hier, aujourd’hui et demain (Sofía : Ieri, oggi, domani) est réalisé par Massimo Ferrari. Le documentaire contient des interviews exclusives de l’actrice ainsi que celles de figures célèbres du cinéma international comme Woody Allen, Ettore Scola, Claude Chabrol, Lina Wertmüller et Maria Grazia Cucinotta.

En juillet 2006, elle pose pour la 33e édition du calendrier Pirelli et devient, à 71 ans, le modèle le plus âgé qui figure dans ce célèbre calendrier.

En 2010, elle interprète le rôle de sa propre mère, Romilda Villani, dans La mia casa è piena di specchi, une mini-série de la chaîne italienne Rai Uno, inspirée du livre écrit par sa sœur Anna Maria Scicolone.

L’histoire retrace la propre vie de Sophia Loren, de ses débuts difficiles dans le cinéma jusqu’à la gloire. La série enregistre des records d’audience.

En 2020, à 86 ans, elle tient le rôle de Mme Rosa dans La Vie devant soi, film inspiré du roman de Romain Gary, réalisé par son fils Edoardo Ponti durant la pandémie de Covid-19, dans la région des Pouilles au sud de l’Italie.

Sophia Loren est l’égérie de la compagnie MSC Croisières et baptise tous leurs nouveaux paquebots, dont le dernier en date le MSC Meraviglia en juin 2017 au Havre, alors qu’elle est âgée de près de 83 ans.

Sophia Loren est catholique. Elle habite principalement à Genève en Suisse depuis fin 2006. Elle possède aussi une maison à Naples et à Rome.

Sophia Loren et Cary Grant partagent la vedette du film La Péniche du bonheur. L’épouse d’alors de Grant, Betsy Drake, en a écrit le scénario original et Grant souhaitait initialement que son épouse partage l’affiche avec lui. Mais, au cours du tournage du film précédent en 1957, Orgueil et Passion, une liaison était née entre Loren et Grant, et ce dernier s’était alors arrangé pour que Loren prenne la place de Drake dans le film suivant (La Péniche du bonheur), avec un scénario réécrit ne faisant plus référence à celui de Betsy Drake, son épouse. Néanmoins, la liaison entre Grant et Loren s’est terminée avant la fin du tournage d’Orgueil et Passion, créant des problèmes sur le plateau du film suivant. Grant espèrait pouvoir reprendre sa liaison avec Loren mais celle-ci a préfèré accepter la demande en mariage de Carlo Ponti.

Sofia Villani Scicolone rencontre pour la première fois le producteur de cinéma italien Carlo Ponti (1912-2007) en 1950, alors qu’elle n’a que 16 ans et lui 37 : il est occasionnellement dans des jurys de concours de beauté ; il n’a ensuite cessé de guider le début de carrière de l’adolescente, puis de jeune femme, qui devient actrice.

Elle apparaît dans près d’une vingtaine de films au début des années 1950. L’ami de Ponti, Goffredo Lombardo, qui dirige la société de production Titanus, engage en 1952 la jeune Sofia dans Sous les mers d’Afrique et lui trouve le pseudonyme de « Sophia Loren ».

Carlo Ponti, qui est marié à Giuliana, et Sophia Loren finissent par se fréquenter dans le plus grand secret.

Elle devient une vedette internationale. Sept ans après sa première rencontre avec Loren, Ponti obtient un divorce au Mexique , séparé ainsi de sa première épouse, il se marie avec Loren par procuration, toujours au Mexique le 17 septembre 1957 : deux avocats les représentent.

Mais ce mariage est annulé en Italie en raison du non-enregistrement du divorce de Carlo Ponti d’avec Giuliana. Ponti et Loren continuent à vivre ensemble, mais ils sont dans l’illégalité dans leur propre pays, l’Italie, où les lois sont encore largement dictées par la tradition catholique : ils demandent la nationalité française, ce qui leur est accordé par le Premier ministre français de l’époque, Georges Pompidou. En 1965, Ponti régularise son divorce en France et peut cette fois épouser Loren dans les formes, le 9 avril 1966, soit près de neuf ans après le premier mariage annulé.

Le couple aura deux fils : Carlo Jr.  né en 1968, et Edoardo né en 1973.

Sophia Loren restera mariée à Carlo Ponti jusqu’à sa mort, 10 janvier 2007, d’une infection pulmonaire

  • Sophia Loren
  • Marietto and Sophia Loren
  • ClarK Gable Sophia Loren in “It started in Naples”

Sources : Wikipedia / Pinterest / YouTube / Divers

Brigitte Bardot

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Brigitte Bardot (également connue sous les initiales de « BB »), née le 28 septembre 1934 à Paris, est une actrice française de cinéma, mannequin, chanteuse et militante des droits des animaux.

Figure féminine des années 1950-1970, elle est une star mondiale, l’égérie et la muse de grands artistes de l’époque. Emblème de l’émancipation des femmes et de la liberté sexuelle, elle incarne des rôles de femme libérée, anticonformiste et parfois fatale.

Elle tourne avec plusieurs grands cinéastes, interprétant des personnages à l’élégante légèreté et à la sensualité photogénique. Elle devient rapidement un sex-symbol et acquiert une renommée internationale. Avec à son actif 45 films et plus de 70 chansons en près de vingt et un ans de carrière, Brigitte Bardot est l’une des artistes françaises les plus célèbres au monde.

En 1973, elle met un terme à sa carrière d’actrice pour se consacrer à la défense des droits des animaux, notamment avec la création de la Fondation Brigitte-Bardot.

Brigitte Bardot naît le 28 septembre 1934 au domicile de ses parents, 5, place Violet, dans le 15e arrondissement de Paris. Son père, Louis Bardot (1896-1975), est un industriel originaire de Ligny-en-Barrois, en Lorraine : issu « de la haute bourgeoisie catholique solidement implantée aux commandes de la Troisième République », il est le propriétaire des usines Bardot (appartenant aujourd’hui à Air liquide), dont le siège se trouve rue Vineuse, à Paris. Il descend aussi de la famille Oudinot dont est issu le maréchal d’Empire Nicolas-Charles Oudinot, duc de Reggio (1767-1847). Sa mère, Anne-Marie Mucel (1912-1978) est la fille du directeur d’une compagnie d’assurances, Isidore Léon Mucel (1881-1958). Artiste contrariée qui souhaitait être ballerine, sa mère, à qui elle dit « vous », reporte son ambition sur sa fille et la contraint à une discipline rigoureuse, n’hésitant pas à la gifler « si son corps s’affaisse », afin que sa disciple y gagne ce « port de tête altier », qui caractérisera l’actrice et sera perçu par certains comme de l’arrogance.

Dans son enfance marquée par une éducation très rigoureuse, Brigitte Bardot souffre d’une amblyopie, qui l’empêche de bien voir de son œil gauche. Elle étudie à l’Institut de la Tour, un établissement catholique situé au 86 de la rue de la Tour (16e arrondissement de Paris). Dissipée, elle souffre de la préférence de ses parents pour sa sœur cadette, Marie-Jeanne (dite « Mijanou », née le 5 mai 1938)13.

Elle se passionne pour la danse classique et fait ses premiers pas, à 7 ans, au cours de Marcelle Bourgat. En 1949, elle entre au Conservatoire de Paris et y obtient un premier accessit. Son père, dont un recueil de poèmes est primé par l’Académie française, est un passionné de cinéma et adore filmer : il existe ainsi de nombreux films de Brigitte enfant, ce qui est rare à cette époque. Hélène Lazareff, amie de sa mère et directrice de Elle et du Jardin des Modes, engage Brigitte Bardot en 1949 pour présenter la mode « junior ». À 15 ans, l’adolescente devient la « mascotte » du magazine Elle, dont elle fait la couverture dès 1949, sa silhouette élancée, la moue boudeuse et le regard sauvage enflammant la pellicule. Le réalisateur Marc Allégret, voyant une de ses photos sur le numéro du 8 mai 1950, demande à la rencontrer. Ses parents s’opposent à ce qu’elle devienne actrice, mais un de ses grands-pères la soutient dans son projet.

À l’audition, elle rencontre l’assistant d’Allégret, Roger Vadim, qui lui donne la réplique pour une scène du film Les Lauriers sont coupés. Le film ne se fait pas, mais ils tombent amoureux. Ses parents s’opposent à cette relation, désespérée la jeune femme fait une tentative de suicide. Son père consent alors à ce qu’elle l’épouse mais pas avant ses 18 ans ; ce qu’elle fait le 21 décembre 1952 deux mois après son dix-huitième anniversaire.

La vie privée de Brigitte Bardot fait l’objet d’une très forte médiatisation, notamment pendant sa carrière professionnelle. Disant avoir connu 17 hommes durant sa vie, elle se marie à quatre reprises.

Pour ses 18 ans, comme il le lui avait promis pendant son adolescence, son père l’autorise à se marier avec Roger Vadim. Le mariage est célébré à l’église Notre-Dame-de-Grâce de Passy (16e arrondissement de Paris) le 21 décembre 1952. Mais lors du tournage de Et Dieu… créa la femme, en 1956, elle tombe amoureuse de son partenaire, Jean-Louis Trintignant. Elle éprouve dès lors davantage d’amitié que d’amour pour Roger Vadim, qui réalise avec difficulté les scènes d’amour entre elle et Trintignant. Ce dernier quitte sa femme, Stéphane Audran, pour vivre avec Brigitte Bardot, qui fait de même avec Vadim. Elle écrit plus tard : « J’ai vécu avec lui la période la plus belle, la plus intense, la plus heureuse de toute cette époque de ma vie ». En 1957, alors qu’il effectue son service militaire, Jean-Louis Trintignant met un terme à leur relation, découvrant que Brigitte Bardot a une liaison avec Gilbert Bécaud ; brève liaison, précédant celle tout aussi éphémère avec Sacha Distel.

Brigitte Bardot et Sami Frey à Saint-Tropez en 1963.

Le 18 juin 1959, elle se marie avec Jacques Charrier, qu’elle a rencontré sur le tournage de Babette s’en va-t-en guerre. Apprenant peu après qu’elle est enceinte, ne désirant pas d’enfant et effrayée à l’idée d’être mère, elle envisage un avortement (précédemment par deux fois enceinte de Vadim, elle eut recours à l’IVG), mais aucun médecin n’accepte d’interrompre sa grossesse. Le 11 janvier 1960, elle donne naissance à l’unique enfant de sa vie, Nicolas Charrier. Les conditions de son accouchement dans son appartement du 71 avenue Paul-Doumer dans le 16e arrondissement de Paris sont particulièrement difficiles, le logement étant notamment barricadé pour échapper à l’objectif des journalistes. Elle déclare par la suite : « Ma grossesse était neuf mois de cauchemar. C’était un peu comme une tumeur qui s’était nourrie de moi, que j’avais portée dans ma chair tuméfiée, n’attendant que le moment béni où l’on m’en débarrasserait enfin ». Elle ajoute (peu après dans un entretien) : « J’aurais préféré accoucher d’un petit chien ».

Le couple divorce le 30 janvier 1963, Brigitte Bardot entretenant une relation avec Sami Frey depuis le tournage de La Vérité (1960). Elle affirme : « Sami, un être rare, sensible, angoissé et érudit qui resta longtemps l’homme de ma vie ». Frey ayant mis un terme à leur histoire à l’été 1963, Brigitte Bardot a une aventure avec le musicien brésilien Bob Zagury.

En mai 1966, elle rencontre Gunter Sachs, qu’elle épouse le 14 juillet à Las Vegas. Rentré en France après un voyage de noce à Tahiti, l’actrice refuse de vivre dans l’appartement de son époux. Bardot tourne À cœur joie, Gunter veut produire un film et le présenter au Festival de Cannes ; les organisateurs acceptent à la condition que l’actrice soit présente, ce qu’elle refuse dans un premier temps. Afin d’éviter un divorce, elle consent à participer à l’évènement, où elle remet une récompense à Michel Simon. La star ne reviendra jamais à Cannes. L’entente du couple ne cesse alors de se détériorer. En parallèle, elle interprète la chanson Harley-Davidson (1967), composée par Serge Gainsbourg, dont elle devient la muse et avec qui elle entame une relation extra-conjugale qu’elle qualifie d’« immense passion ». Mais pour essayer de sauver son mariage avec Gunter Sachs, elle demande à Gainsbourg de ne pas sortir Je t’aime… moi non plus et chante pour lui Bonnie and Clyde ou encore Comic Strip. Brigitte Bardot tourne en Espagne, Gunter l’accompagne. Leur réconciliation ne dure qu’un temps et l’un et l’autre enchaînent les aventures extra-conjugales. Ils divorcent trois ans après leur mariage, le 1er octobre 1969.

Par la suite, elle noue une relation avec Patrick Gilles, puis avec Christian Kalt, Laurent Vergez, Mirko Brozek et Allain Bougrain-Dubourg. En 1992, lors d’un dîner organisé par son avocat, Jean-Louis Bouguereau, à Saint-Tropez, elle fait la connaissance de Bernard d’Ormale, industriel et conseiller de l’homme politique Jean-Marie Le Pen, « un coup de foudre mutuel » écrit-elle plus tard ; ils se marient le 16 août 1992.

C’est en 1962 que Brigitte Bardot engage son premier combat pour la cause animale, en militant pour le pistolet d’abattage indolore dans les abattoirs. En effet, après avoir vu des photos montrant les conditions dans lesquelles les animaux étaient abattus, elle décide de devenir pescétarienne. À sa demande, Pierre Desgraupes accepte de lui accorder — malgré ses réserves, trouvant que le statut de sex-symbol de la star correspond mal à un sujet aussi dur et si peu médiatique — un entretien dans son émission Cinq colonnes à la une, où elle inaugure la rubrique Avocat d’un soir. L’actrice apparaît en direct dans cette émission et affiche une réelle maitrise du sujet le 9 janvier1962. Conséquence du « plaidoyer » de l’actrice, Roger Frey, alors ministre de l’Intérieur, lui accorde une entrevue, où elle se rend avec trois exemplaires de pistolets d’abattage destinés à assommer le gros bétail, afin que la mort lente et consciente par saignement soit abolie dans la plupart des cas, grâce à la projection d’une flèche dans le cerveau qui paralyserait les centres nerveux, qu’elle abandonne sur le bureau du ministre avant de se retirer. La presse donne une large couverture à ce qu’elle nomme alors le « pistolet de Brigitte Bardot », présenté comme procurant à l’animal une mort instantanée et sans qu’il ait le temps de ressentir de la douleur. Le pistolet d’abattage sera généralisé dans tous les abattoirs conventionnés de France en 1972

  • Brigitte Bardot Actrice francaise et militante des droits des animaux Decembre 2004 Soiree de la SPA. Collection Christophel © LECOEUVRE PHOTOTHEQUE (Photo by LECOEUVRE PHOTOTHEQUE / Collection ChristopheL via AFP)
  • French actress Brigitte Bardot sitting on the beach during the Cannes Film Festival, 1953. (Photo by Patrick Morin/RDA/Getty Images)

Source WIKIPEDIA

Photos : Google / Paris Match / Voici / Femme Actuelle / Al Chabaka

Remember Aunt Clara ?? Bewitched?

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Marion Lorne (August 12, 1883 – May 9, 1968) was an American actress of stage, film, and television. After a career in theatre in New York and London, Lorne made her first film in 1951, and for the remainder of her life, played small roles in films and television.

Her recurring role, between 1964 and her death in 1968, as Aunt Clara in the comedy series, Bewitched (1964–1972) brought her widespread recognition, and for which she was posthumously awarded an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.  

She was born Marion Lorne MacDougall in West Pittston, Pennsylvania, a small mining town halfway between Wilkes-Barre and Scranton, of Scottish and English immigrant parents.  While her year of birth is listed as 1885 on her tombstone, it was usually listed as 1888 when she was alive and the Social Security Death Index lists it as 1883. She studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City.

Career Lorne debuted on Broadway in 1905; she also acted in London theaters, enjoying a flourishing stage career on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

In London she had her own theater, the Whitehall, where she had top billing in plays written by Walter Hackett, her husband. None of her productions at the Whitehall had runs shorter than 125 nights.

After appearing in a couple of Vitaphone shorts, including Success (1931) starring Jack Haley, she made her feature film debut in her late 60s in Strangers on a Train (1951), directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

The role was typical of the befuddled, nervous, and somewhat aristocratic matrons that she usually portrayed.

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From 1952-55, Lorne was seen as perpetually confused junior high school English teacher Mrs. Gurney on Mr. Peepers. From 1957–58, she co-starred with Joan Caulfield in the NBC sitcom Sally in the role of an elderly widow who happens to be the co-owner of a department store. Although afraid of live television, declaring “I’m a coward when it comes to a live [television] show”,  she was persuaded to appear a few times to promote the film The Girl Rush with Rosalind Russell in the mid-1950s.

Between 1958–64, she made regular appearances on The Garry Moore Show (1958–64). Her last role, as Aunt Clara in Bewitched, brought Lorne her widest fame as a lovable, forgetful witch who is losing her powers due to old age and whose spells usually end in disaster. Aunt Clara is obsessed with doorknobs, often bringing her collection with her on visits.

Lorne had an extensive collection of doorknobs in real life, some of which she used as props in the series.[8] Death She appeared in twenty-seven episodes of Bewitched, and was not replaced after she died of a heart attack in her Manhattan apartment, just prior to the start of production of the show’s fifth season, at the age of 84 on May 9, 1968. Lorne is buried at Ferncliff Cemetery in Greenburgh, New York.

Posthumous The producers of Bewitched recognized that Lorne’s performance as Aunt Clara could not be replicated by another actress.  Comedic actress Alice Ghostley was recruited to fill the gap as “Esmeralda”, a different type of befuddled witch with wobbly magic whose spells often went astray.

Coincidentally, Lorne and Ghostley had appeared side-by-side as partygoers in the iconic comedy-drama film The Graduate , made the year before Lorne’s death.  She received a posthumous Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her work on Bewitched. The statue was accepted by Bewitched star Elizabeth Montgomery. Personal life She was married to playwright Walter Hackett, who died in 1944. WIKIPEDIA  SOURCES  Personal life She was married to playwright Walter Hackett, who died in 1944.

JERRY LEWIS

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Jerry Lewis  (born Joseph Levitch; March 16, 1926) is an American actor, comedian, singer, film producer, film director, screenwriter and humanitarian. He is known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio.

Picture taken during the 60s of US comedian, direc

JERRY LEWIS

He and Dean Martin were partners as the hit popular comedy duo of Martin and Lewis. Following that success, he was a solo star in film, nightclubs, television, concerts and musicals. Lewis served as national chairman of the Muscular Dystrophy Association and hosted the live Labor Day broadcast of the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon for 44 years.

Lewis has received several awards for lifetime achievements from the American Comedy Awards, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Venice Film Festival, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and been honored with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Early life

Lewis was born on March 16, 1926 in Newark, New Jersey to Russian Jewish parents His father, Daniel Levitch (1902–80), was a master of ceremonies and vaudeville entertainerwho used the professional name Danny Lewis.

His mother, Rachel (“Rae”) Levitch (née Brodsky),was a piano player for a radio station. Lewis started performing at age five and would often perform alongside his parents in the Catskill Mountains in New York State.

By 15, he had developed his “Record Act” in which he exaggeratedly mimed the lyrics to songs on a phonograph.

He used the professional name Joey Lewis but soon changed it to Jerry Lewis to avoid confusion with comedian Joe E. Lewis and heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis. Lewis then dropped out of Irvington High School in the tenth grade. He was a “character” even in his teenage years pulling pranks in his neighborhood including sneaking into kitchens to steal fried chicken and pies. During World War II, he was rejected for military service because of a heart murmur.

Lewis initially gained attention as part of a double act with singer Dean Martin, who served as straight man to Lewis’ zany antics in the Martin and Lewis comedy team. The performers were different from most other comedy acts of the time because they relied on their interaction instead of planned skits. They quickly rose to national prominence, first with their popular nightclub act, next as stars of their own radio program.

The two men made many appearances on early live television, their first on the June 20, 1948, debut broadcast of Toast of the Town on CBS (later as The Ed Sullivan Show). This was followed on October 3, 1948, by an appearance on the NBC series Welcome Aboard, then a stint as the first of a series of hosts of The Colgate Comedy Hour in 1950.

The duo began their Paramount film careers as ensemble players in My Friend Irma (1949), based on the popular radio series of the same name. This was followed by a sequel My Friend Irma Goes West (1950).

Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon

Dean Martin / Franck Sinatra / Jerry Lewis

Starting with At War with the Army (1950), Martin and Lewis were the stars of their own vehicles in fourteen additional titles, That’s My Boy (1951), Sailor Beware (1952), Jumping Jacks (1952), (plus appearing in the Crosby and Hope film, Road to Bali (1952) as cameos) The Stooge (1952), Scared Stiff (1953), The Caddy (1953), Money from Home (1953), Living It Up (1954), 3 Ring Circus (1954), You’re Never Too Young (1955), Artists and Models (1955) and Pardners (1956) at Paramount, ending with Hollywood or Bust (1956).

All sixteen movies were produced by Hal B. Wallis. Attesting the comedy team’s popularity, DC Comics published the best-selling The Adventures of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis comics from 1952 to 1957. As Martin’s roles in their films became less important over time the partnership came under strain. Martin’s participation became an embarrassment in 1954 when Look magazine used a publicity photo of the team for the magazine cover but cropped Martin out of the photo.The partnership ended on July 24, 1956.

While both Martin and Lewis went on to successful solo careers, neither would comment on the split nor consider a reunion. They did however make occasional public appearances together up until 1961, but were not seen together again until a surprise television appearance by Martin on a Muscular Dystrophy Telethon in 1976, arranged by Frank Sinatra.

The pair eventually reconciled in the late 1980s after the death of Martin’s son, Dean Paul Martin, in 1987.

The two men were seen together on stage for the last time when Martin was making what would be his final live performance at Bally’s Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Lewis pushed out a birthday cake for Martin’s 72nd birthday in 1989 and sang “Happy Birthday” to him, and joking, “why we broke up, I’ll never know.”

Solo

After the split from Martin, Lewis remained at Paramount and became a comedy star in his own right with his first film as a solo comic, The Delicate Delinquent (1957). Meanwhile, DC Comics published a new comic book series The Adventures of Jerry Lewis from 1957 to 1971. Teaming with director Frank Tashlin, whose background as a Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon director suited Lewis’s brand of humor, he starred in five more films, The Sad Sack (1957), Rock-A-Bye Baby (1958), The Geisha Boy (1958), Don’t Give Up The Ship (1959) and even appeared uncredited as Itchy McRabbitt in Li’l Abner (1959).

Lewis tried his hand at releasing music during the 1950s, having a chart hit with the song “Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody” (a song largely associated with Al Jolson and later re-popularized by Judy Garland) as well as the song, “It All Depends on You” in 1958. He eventually released his own album titled, Jerry Lewis Just Sings.

By the end of his contract with producer Hal B. Wallis, Lewis had several productions of his own under his belt. In 1959, a contract between Paramount Pictures and Jerry Lewis Productions was signed specifying a payment of $10 million plus 60% of the profits for 14 films over a seven-year period.

 

In 1960, Lewis finished his contract with Wallis with Visit to a Small Planet (1960), and wrapped up work on his own production, Cinderfella, which was postponed for a Christmas 1960 release, and Paramount, needing a quickie feature film for its summer 1960 schedule, held Lewis to his contract to produce one. Lewis came up with The Bellboy (1960). Using the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami as his setting—and on a small budget, with a very tight shooting schedule, and no script—Lewis shot the film by day and performed at the hotel in the evenings. Bill Richmond collaborated with him on the many sight gags. Lewis later revealed that Paramount was not happy financing a ‘silent movie’ and withdrew backing. Lewis used his own funds to cover the $950,000 budget.

During production Lewis developed the technique of using video cameras and multiple closed circuit monitors, which allowed him to review his performance instantly.

His techniques and methods, documented in his book and his USC class, enabled him to complete most of his films on time and under budget.

Lewis followed The Bellboy by directing several more films that he co-wrote with Richmond while some were directed by Tashlin, including The Ladies Man (1961), The Errand Boy (1961), It’s Only Money (1962) and The Nutty Professor (1963). Lewis did a cameo in It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963).

Further Lewis films were Who’s Minding the Store? (1963), The Patsy (1964) and The Disorderly Orderly (1964).

Lewis directed and co-wrote The Family Jewels (1965) about a young heiress who must choose among six uncles, one of whom is up to no good and out to harm the girl’s beloved bodyguard who practically raised her. Lewis played all six uncles and the bodyguard. On television, Lewis hosted two different programs called The Jerry Lewis Show. The first was a two-hour Saturday night variety show on ABC in the fall of 1963. The lavish, big-budget production failed to find an audience and was canceled after 13 weeks. His second program was a one-hour variety show on NBC from 1967 to 1969.

By 1966, Lewis, then 40, was no longer an angular juvenile, his routines seemed more labored and his box office appeal waned to the point where Paramount Pictures new executives felt no further need for the Lewis comedies and did not wish to renew his 1959 profit sharing contract. Undaunted, Lewis packed up and went to Columbia Pictures, where he made Three On A Couch (1966), then appeared in Way…Way Out (1966) for 20th Century Fox followed by The Big Mouth (1967), Don’t Raise the Bridge, Lower the River (1968) and Hook, Line & Sinker (1969).

Lewis taught a film directing class at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles for a number of years; his students included Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.]

In 1968, he screened Spielberg’s early film, Amblin’ and told his students, “That’s what filmmaking is all about.”

Lewis directed and made his first offscreen voice performance as a bandleader in One More Time (1970), which starred Sammy Davis Jr. (a friend of Lewis). He then produced, directed and starred in Which Way to the Front? (1970).

He would then make and star in the unreleased The Day the Clown Cried (1972), a drama set in a Nazi concentration camp.

Lewis rarely discusses the film, but once suggested that litigation over post-production finances prevented the film’s completion and release. However, he admitted during his book tour for Dean and Me that a major factor for the film’s burial is that he is not proud of the effort. In 1976, Lewis appeared in a revival of Hellzapoppin’ with Lynn Redgrave, but it closed on the road before reaching Broadway.

After an absence of 11 years, Lewis returned to film in Hardly Working (1981), a movie in which he both directed and starred.

Despite being panned by critics, the movie eventually earned $50 million. Lewis next appeared in Martin Scorsese‘s film The King of Comedy (1983), in which he portrayed a late-night television host plagued by two obsessive fans, played by Robert De Niro and Sandra Bernhard. Lewis also appeared in Cracking Up (1983) and Slapstick (Of Another Kind) (1984).

In France, Lewis starred in both To Catch a Cop a.k.a. “The Defective Detective” (1984) and How Did You Get In?, We Didn’t See You Leave (1984). Lewis has stated that as long as he has control over distribution of those movies, they will never have an American release. Meanwhile, a syndicated talk show Lewis hosted for Metromedia in 1984 was not continued beyond the scheduled five shows. Lewis starred in the ABC televised drama movie Fight For Life (1987) with Patty Duke, then appeared in Cookie (1989).

Lewis had a cameo in Mr. Saturday Night (1992) while guest appearing in an episode of Mad About You as an eccentric billionaire. Lewis made his Broadway debut, as a replacement cast member playing the devil in a revival of Damn Yankees, choreographed by future movie director Rob Marshall (Chicago) while also starring in the film Arizona Dream (1994), as a car salesman uncle. Lewis then starred as a father of a young comic in Funny Bones (1995).

Jerry L
Jerry Lewis
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis
Lewis
Jerry Lewis

In March 2006, the French Minister of Culture awarded Lewis the Légion d’honneur, calling him the “French people’s favorite clown” Lewis has remained popular in the country, evidenced by consistent praise by French critics in the influential magazine Cahiers du Cinéma for his absurd comedy, in part because he had gained respect as an auteur who had total control over all aspects of his films, comparable to Howard Hawks and Alfred Hitchcock.

Liking Lewis has long been a common stereotype about the French in the minds of many English-speakers, and is often the object of jokes in English-speaking world pop culture.

“That Americans can’t see Jerry Lewis’s genius is bewildering,” says N. T. Binh, a French film magazine critic. Such bewilderment was the basis of the book Why the French Love Jerry Lewis, by Rae Beth Gordon

In 2012, Lewis directed a musical theatre version of The Nutty Professor (with score by Marvin Hamlisch) at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center in Nashville from July 31 to August 19 over the summer. Lewis appeared in the Brazilian film Till Luck Do Us Part 2 (2013), then next in a small role in the crime drama The Trust (2016). Lewis made a comeback in a lead role in Max Rose (2016).

In an October 6, 2016 interview with Inside Edition, Lewis acknowledged that he may not star in any more films given his advanced age, while admitting, through tears, that he was afraid of dying as it would leave his wife and daughter alone.] In December of that year, he expressed interest in making another film.

Lewis has been married twice:

  • Patti Palmer (née Esther Grace Calonico), a former singer with Ted Fio Ritomarried October 3, 1944, divorced September 1980[
  • SanDee Pitnick; married February 13, 1983; a 32-year-old Las Vegas dancer; married in Key Biscayne, Florida

He has six sons (one adopted) and one daughter (adopted):

With Patti Palmer

  • Gary Lewis(born July 31, 1945); known for his 1960s pop group Gary Lewis & the Playboys
  • Ronald Steven “Ronnie” Lewis (born December 1949 [adopted])
  • Scott Anthony Lewis (born February 22, 1956)
  • Christopher Lewis (born October 1957)
  • Anthony Lewis (born October 1959)
  • Joseph Lewis (born January 1964, died October 24, 2009 [from a narcoticsoverdose])[36]

With SanDee Pitnick

  • Danielle Sara Lewis (adopted March 1992)

Lewis has suffered from a number of illnesses and addictions related both to aging and a back injury sustained in a comedic pratfall from a piano while performing at the Sands Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip on March 20, 1965.

The accident almost left him paralyzed. In its aftermath, Lewis became addicted to the painkiller Percodan for thirteen years

He says he has been off the drug since 1978.] In April 2002, Lewis had a Medtronic “Synergy” neurostimulator implanted in his back which has helped reduce the discomfort. He is now one of the company’s leading spokesmen.

In the 2011 documentary Method to the Madness of Jerry Lewis, Lewis said he suffered his first heart attack while filming Cinderfella in 1960.

In December 1982, Lewis suffered another heart attack. En route to San Diego from New York City on a cross-country commercial airline flight on June 11, 2006, he sustained a minor heart attack .

It was discovered that he had pneumonia as well as a severely damaged heart. He underwent a cardiac catheterization and two stents were inserted into one of his coronary arteries, which was 90% blocked. The surgery resulted in increased blood flow to his heart and has allowed him to continue his rebound from earlier lung problems. Having the cardiac catheterization meant canceling several major events from his schedule, but Lewis fully recuperated in a matter of weeks.

In 1999, Lewis’ Australian tour was cut short when he had to be hospitalized in Darwin with viral meningitis. He was ill for more than five months. It was reported in the Australian press that he had failed to pay his medical bills. However, Lewis maintained that the payment confusion was the fault of his health insurer. The resulting negative publicity caused him to sue his insurer for US$100 million

Lewis has had prostate cancer, diabetes, pulmonary fibrosis and a decades-long history of heart disease. Prednisone  treatment in the late 1990s for pulmonary fibrosis resulted in weight gain and a noticeable change in his appearance.

In September 2001, Lewis was unable to perform at a planned London charity event at the London Palladium.

He was the headlining act, and he was introduced, but did not appear. He had suddenly become unwell, apparently with heart problems. He was subsequently taken to the hospital. Some months thereafter, Lewis began an arduous, months-long therapy that weaned him off prednisone and enabled him to return to work. On June 12, 2012, he was treated and released from a hospital after collapsing from hypoglycemia at a New York Friars’ Club event. This latest health issue forced him to cancel a show in Sydney.

Muscular dystrophy activism

Throughout his entire life and prolific career, Lewis was a world renowned humanitarian who has supported fundraising for research into muscular dystrophy. Until 2011, he served as national chairman of and spokesman for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) (formerly, the Muscular Dystrophy Associations of America).

Lewis began hosting telethons to benefit the company from 1952 to 1959, then every Labor Day weekend from 1966 to 2010, he hosted the live annual Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon. Over nearly half a century, he raised over $2.6 billion in donations for the cause.

On August 3, 2011, it was announced that Lewis would no longer host the MDA telethons and is no longer associated with the Muscular Dystrophy Association

On May 1, 2015, it was announced that in view of “the new realities of television viewing and philanthropic giving”, the telethon was being discontinued.

] In early 2016, Lewis made an online video statement for the organization on its website, in honor of its rebranding, marking his first appearance in support of the Muscular Dystrophy Association since his final Labor Day Telethon in 2010 and the ending of his tenure as national chairman in 2011.

Theater chain

In 1969, Lewis agreed to lend his name to “Jerry Lewis Cinemas”, offered by National Cinema Corporation as a franchise business opportunity for those interested in theatrical movie exhibition. Jerry Lewis Cinemas stated that their theaters could be operated by a staff of as few as two with the aid of automation and support provided by the franchiser in booking films and in other aspects of film exhibition.

A forerunner of the smaller rooms typical of later multi-screen complexes, a Jerry Lewis Cinema was billed in franchising ads as a “mini-theatre” with a seating capacity of between 200 and 350. In addition to Lewis’s name, each Jerry Lewis Cinema bore a sign with a cartoon logo of Lewis in profile.

Initially 158 territories were franchised, with a buy-in fee of $10,000 or $15,000 depending on the territory, for what was called an “individual exhibitor”. For $50,000, the Jerry Lewis Cinemas offered an opportunity known as an “area directorship”, in which investors controlled franchising opportunities in a territory as well as their own cinemas.

The success of the chain was hampered by a policy of only booking second-run, family-friendly films. Eventually the policy was changed, and the Jerry Lewis Cinemas were allowed to show more competitive films, but after a decade the chain failed. Both Lewis and National Cinema Corp. declared bankruptcy in 1980.

Jerry’s House

In 2010, Lewis met with 7-year-old Lochie Graham who shared his idea for “Jerry’s House”, a place for vulnerable and traumatized children. The Australian charity hope2Day is raising funds to build the facility in Melbourne, Australia.

SOURCES : WIKIPEDIA

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Wonderful

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Below this picture,  a video tracing the evolution of dance ( the 20th century)

dance_marathon_1923

 

Sources : shared.com

OLD COMMERCIAL OLD MOVIES

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Westinghouse…Old Spice…Ford…Coca Cola…Old commercials froml the 50s and 60s

 

Publicités anciennes des années 50 et 60

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JERRY LEE LEWIS

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Among teenagers of a musical bent, there was much anticipation 50 years ago this week.

Jerry Lee Lewis, an American rock and roll singer with long blond hair who played a frenetic boogie woogie piano while standing up, and often with one foot on the keyboard, was on his way to Britain for a six-week tour.

This may not seem like a big deal today, as rock musicians criss-cross the Atlantic all the time, but in May 1958 it was thrilling.
To us, that first generation of rock fans, this guy was the real thing.

And that was important, because, having been completely overlooked by Elvis Presley who’d never come to Britain (and who was by then in the U.S. Army, anyway), there was a feeling that we were getting everything second-hand and missing all the fun.

True, we’d had a couple of would-be early rock stars of our own, but they were limp counterfeits like Tommy Steele, who already seemed to have one eye on becoming the dreaded all-round entertainers.

Jerry Lee Lewis, however, or, “The Killer”, as he was known, had enjoyed two classic worldwide hits with Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On and Great Balls Of Fire, and had even appeared in a Hollywood rock film, High School Confidential.

Nor was he middle-aged like Bill Haley. He was young and vital.

Could he possibly live up to his advance billing, those of us who bought the music papers wondered, as we read about him on our way to school.

Would he be the wild man of the Louisiana swamps we’d been led to believe?

No sooner had he landed at Heathrow than we had our answer, in no small part due to the inquiries of a Daily Mail reporter called Paul Tanfield.

Meeting the star at the airport, Tanfield noticed that there was a very young girl in The Killer’s party. Tanfield asked whom she might be.

“I’m Myra,” answered the girl. “Jerry’s wife.”

Tanfield was astonished. “And how old is Myra?” he asked Jerry Lee.

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“Fifteen,” the singer replied, obviously thinking that sounded suitably mature.

It wasn’t. Despite Lewis’s assertions that Myra was “a grown woman”, as far as Britain was concerned, she was below the age of consent.

The headlines the next day were not good for the star’s first day in Britain.

But they were about to get much worse when it was quickly discovered that Lewis, 22 at the time of the wedding, had been lying.

Myra wasn’t 15. She was 13, and, therefore, absolutely not a “grown woman”.

What’s more, she was the singer’s first cousin once removed.

And if that wasn’t enough, it was also revealed that he may have been bigamously married to her, since he hadn’t yet become divorced from his second wife, whom he’d married at 17, having wed his first wife at 14.

If you’re becoming confused, think how we must have felt back in 1958 as the hillbilly courting behaviour of some citizens of America’s Deep South unfolded in our newspapers.

We’d heard about the phenomenon of the child bride in fiction from the Tennessee Williams’ play and the film Baby Doll. But buttoned-up, respectable, repressed Fifties Britain had never come across the real thing before.

With Jerry Lee, the Louisiana swamps had exceeding all expectations in what they had thrown up.

Goodness gracious, as the man himself was wont to sing. This furore soon was great balls of fire!

In this way began one of the most extraordinary episodes in the history of rock music — and, let’s face it, there have been quite a few.

Right from the beginning, rock and roll music had been soaked in scandal, perhaps not too surprisingly when it’s remembered that the actual words “rock and roll” had been, in black American nightclubs, a euphemism for sexual activity long before they became associated with music.

So, when the music swept the world a couple of years earlier, teachers, preachers, parents and pundits alike had been quick to fulminate against  the youthful, on-stage gyrations of Elvis Presley, describing them as obscene, and to read into the lyrics of rock songs a lewd carnality which was probably accurate but being missed by most young fans.

Up to this point, however, most of the outrage against rock had happened in America. Now, as Jerry Lee Lewis and Myra arrived in London, a storm of outrage erupted here, too.

And instantly the fashionable Westbury Hotel in London’s Mayfair, into which The Killer’s retinue was booked, found itself besieged by competing armies of fans, the Press, police and outraged citizens.

To start with, Lewis seemed to find it difficult to understand what all the fuss was about.

In fact, initially he was quite pleased with all the publicity he was getting.

While, for her part, Myra was happy watching children’s television in their suite, chirpily telling anyone who would listen that although her husband had given her a red Cadillac, what she really wanted was a wedding ring.

Were this to happen today, any star would instantly surround himself with a legion of publicists who would do their utmost to put a positive gloss on the situation — not the easiest of tasks, I have to admit.

Come to think of it, just about impossible.

But those were less sophisticated times when it came to media manipulation.

The best thing to do, Jerry Lee decided, was to get on with his tour as if nothing had happened, and, since he maintained he was a God-fearing country boy, to ask the good Lord for help.

Consequently, it is said, he and his whole entourage fell down on their knees and prayed for a full hour before he took the stage at the Gaumont State, Kilburn, North London.

For some reason, God doesn’t seem to have been listening — but then in the Southern states where Lewis came from, many people believed that rock and roll was the Devil’s music.

Whatever the reason, nothing stopped The Killer, dressed in what was described witheringly in one newspaper as a “custard-coloured jacket”, making his British debut to a half-full theatre with a performance that was repeatedly interrupted by whistles and boos and cries of “cradle snatcher” from the audience.

Off stage, things were getting much, much worse.

On learning of Myra’s age, the police had turned up at the Westbury Hotel to interview the star and his bride, after which their notes were passed on to the Director of Public Prosecutions to see if any British laws had been broken.

Meanwhile, in the House of Commons, the Home Office minister, Iain Macleod, was called upon to answer questions from MPs.

Jerry Lee thought he could struggle on and win the fans round. By now, however, the posh Westbury Hotel had had enough.

The star was asked to leave.

Desperately, Lewis and his manager tried to explain that it wasn’t that unusual for girls of 13 to marry in Mississippi, and that the marriage to Myra couldn’t have been bigamous, because at the time of Jerry Lee’s second marriage he’d still been married to his first wife.

Thus the second marriage had been null and void, and as he was now divorced from the first wife, everything was fine and dandy!

Neither the newspaper reporters nor the Rank and Grade organisations, in whose theatres the Jerry Lee concerts were to have taken place, were convinced.

After only three appearances, the tour was cancelled, and Jerry Lee and Myra, his managers and hangers-on, were back on a plane to America.

A little less than nine months later, Myra gave birth to a boy.

The maker of some classic rock hits he might have been, but The Killer’s career never properly recovered. He became a musical pariah.

And after disc jockeys around the world refused to play his records, he never had another big hit.

From $10,000-a-night shows, he was reduced to earning $100 a night.

Myra divorced him in 1970, after 12 years of marriage when she was all of 25, became an estate agent and wrote her autobiography, Great Balls Of Fire, which was filmed with Dennis Quaid as Jerry Lee and Winona Ryder as Myra.

The scandal of 1958 proved, however, to have lasting effects in quite different ways.

It may have been coincidental, but very quickly attempts were made in America to clean up the image of rock and roll.

Payola investigations were begun and several famous disc jockeys were revealed as having taken bribes to play records.

And when the mighty Elvis himself fell in love with a 14-year-old girl, Priscilla Beaulieu, the following year, steps were taken to make sure that not a word of scandal leaked out.

As for us here in Britain, within a few months, we’d come up with our own pop star, someone whose reputation was, and would remain, cleaner than clean.

His name was Cliff Richard.

One thing, however, couldn’t be denied. Although the affair had ruined the career of Jerry Lee Lewis, it had also made him very famous, infamous, actually.

And as the Fifties rolled into the Sixties, rock Svengalis-would soon see that the right kind of scandal, carefully managed and well publicised, could work wonders for the careers of rock stars.

Five years later, Andrew Loog Oldham, the young manager of the Rolling Stones, would give a masterclass in how this could be done.

While the nicely-turned out Beatles began to find fame by sticking carefully, in public, anyway, to the goody-goody script neatly mapped out for them by their manager Brian Epstein, Oldham did everything he could to grab outrageous headlines for the five, gurning, rebellious Rolling Stones.

Stunt followed stunt, from urinating in public, to singing more blatantly than anyone else about sex.

If there was a rule to be broken, the Stones broke it, and in the process built legends for themselves as the bad boys of rock and roll.

Indeed, by the mid-Sixties it had got to the point that just about anything could be believed about them, whether true or not.

There never was a Mars Bar at that party with Marianne Faithfull down at Keith Richards’ house in 1967, but anyone who had followed their careers in the newspapers believed there was, and the band didn’t mind at all.

Confrontational in the extreme, they milked scandal about themselves for all it was worth.

Of course, as with Jerry Lee Lewis and every other rock attraction, there were always a lot of girls involved, though none as young as Myra Lewis — at least, not until, having left the band, 47-year-old bass player Bill Wyman fell for 13-year-old Mandy Smith.

He married her when she was 18.

By the Seventies, outrageous behaviour had become synonymous with rock music, as groups vied with each other for publicity. Some set their amplifiers on fire on stage while others drove cars or pushed grand pianos into swimming pools.

It was all about creating controversy, getting headlines, and nothing to do with music.

Thus the punk group the Sex Pistols swore on television, Ozzy Osbourne was alleged to have bitten the head off a bat and Madonna disgracefully mimed having sex on Top Of The Pops.

And so it goes on, as every new generation of stars struggles to be noticed in the rush.

Sometimes, of course, publicity isn’t sought, as both Michael Jackson and Phil Spector have recently found in lurid and tragic circumstances.

But, believe me, the bigger the headlines about rock music the greater the stepping stones to stardom.

Quite what Jerry Lee Lewis thinks about the behaviour of some of today’s musicians would be worth knowing.

Today, at 73, after suffering from bouts of alcoholism and depression, he still tours.

Appreciated by some stalwart fans as one of the pioneers of rock and roll, he is remembered by most of us, if at all, for that week in London 50 years ago when his bizarre marital life shocked the nation.

 FROM : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

By RAY CONNOLLY FOR MAILONLINE

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1021569/Great-Balls-Scandal-How-Jerry-Lee-Lewis-marriage-13-year-old-wrecked-career.html

 

 

FROM : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

By RAY CONNOLLY FOR MAILONLINE

Remember Aunt Clara ?? Bewitched?

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Marion Lorne (August 12, 1883 – May 9, 1968) was an American actress of stage, film, and television. After a career in theatre in New York and London, Lorne made her first film in 1951, and for the remainder of her life, played small roles in films and television.

Her recurring role, between 1964 and her death in 1968, as Aunt Clara in the comedy series, Bewitched (1964–1972) brought her widespread recognition, and for which she was posthumously awarded an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.  

She was born Marion Lorne MacDougall in West Pittston, Pennsylvania, a small mining town halfway between Wilkes-Barre and Scranton, of Scottish and English immigrant parents.  While her year of birth is listed as 1885 on her tombstone, it was usually listed as 1888 when she was alive and the Social Security Death Index lists it as 1883. She studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City.

Career Lorne debuted on Broadway in 1905; she also acted in London theaters, enjoying a flourishing stage career on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

In London she had her own theater, the Whitehall, where she had top billing in plays written by Walter Hackett, her husband. None of her productions at the Whitehall had runs shorter than 125 nights.

After appearing in a couple of Vitaphone shorts, including Success (1931) starring Jack Haley, she made her feature film debut in her late 60s in Strangers on a Train (1951), directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

The role was typical of the befuddled, nervous, and somewhat aristocratic matrons that she usually portrayed.

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From 1952-55, Lorne was seen as perpetually confused junior high school English teacher Mrs. Gurney on Mr. Peepers. From 1957–58, she co-starred with Joan Caulfield in the NBC sitcom Sally in the role of an elderly widow who happens to be the co-owner of a department store. Although afraid of live television, declaring “I’m a coward when it comes to a live [television] show”,  she was persuaded to appear a few times to promote the film The Girl Rush with Rosalind Russell in the mid-1950s.

Between 1958–64, she made regular appearances on The Garry Moore Show (1958–64). Her last role, as Aunt Clara in Bewitched, brought Lorne her widest fame as a lovable, forgetful witch who is losing her powers due to old age and whose spells usually end in disaster. Aunt Clara is obsessed with doorknobs, often bringing her collection with her on visits.

Lorne had an extensive collection of doorknobs in real life, some of which she used as props in the series.[8] Death She appeared in twenty-seven episodes of Bewitched, and was not replaced after she died of a heart attack in her Manhattan apartment, just prior to the start of production of the show’s fifth season, at the age of 84 on May 9, 1968. Lorne is buried at Ferncliff Cemetery in Greenburgh, New York.

Posthumous The producers of Bewitched recognized that Lorne’s performance as Aunt Clara could not be replicated by another actress.  Comedic actress Alice Ghostley was recruited to fill the gap as “Esmeralda”, a different type of befuddled witch with wobbly magic whose spells often went astray.

Coincidentally, Lorne and Ghostley had appeared side-by-side as partygoers in the iconic comedy-drama film The Graduate , made the year before Lorne’s death.  She received a posthumous Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her work on Bewitched. The statue was accepted by Bewitched star Elizabeth Montgomery. Personal life She was married to playwright Walter Hackett, who died in 1944. WIKIPEDIA  SOURCES  Personal life She was married to playwright Walter Hackett, who died in 1944.