Stooges Sunday: Micro-Phonies

While their seemingly low-brow physical comedy may not appeal to cinema snobs, The Three Stooges still rank high as a Daveland favorite, especially thanks to the brilliant Curly Howard. Today, I pay homage to one of my favorite Stooge shorts, “Micro-Phonies,” released November 15, 1945. Shot in only four days, it was filmed not long after Curly had suffered a stroke.



BEWARE PLOT SPOILERS! The film begins with The Stooges horsing around on the job at a recording studio. Moe hits his head on the radiator, and when he comes to, hears “the voice of an angel.” 



The angel is none other than Stooge frequent costar, Christine McIntyre as Alice Andrews. Yes, that is her gorgeous voice trilling away to “Voices of Spring” by Johann Strauss.



She is recording it as a surprise to snag a job without her father knowing. Convoluted, but go with it. Meanwhile, The Stooges get into an altercation with an Italian violin playing grump, Signor Spumoni (played by Gino Carrado). They escape back into the recording studio and start clowning around at the mic. Larry puts on Alice’s record, and Curly begins to lip-sync to it.



Moe and Shemp take the cloth and fruit basket off the piano and adorn Curly while he continues to mime to Alice’s record.



Rich society matron Mrs. Bixby (Symona Boniface, another frequent Stooges costar) “hears” Curly singing and assumes that he/she is the new voice she came to audition. She is impressed and whips out the contract for “Senorita Cucaracha” to sign. Mrs. Bixby also invites them to perform at a party she is giving that evening.



Larry and Moe dress up in tuxes, taking on the identities of Signor Mucho and Signor Gusto. In all Stooges comedies, the names of the characters, products, etc. are part of the gag.



Alice and her father (Sam Flint) just happen to be at the same party, and she recognizes The Stooges from earlier in the day.



The guests look forward to hearing Senorita Cucaracha. Seated on the couch at left is Bess Flowers, known as the “Queen of the Extras,” who bears the distinction of appearing in the most films nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.



Planning to lip sync again, The Stooges settle on “Sextet from Lucy” (actually Lucia di Lammermoor, by Gaetano Donizetti).



See the guy at the piano?



Silent screen comic Chester Conklin, seen below in Charlie Chaplin’s final silent film, “Modern Times” (1936).



Signor Spumoni is also at the party and decides to spoil the fun for The Stooges. He pulls the plug on Mrs. Bixby’s record player.



“What is it,” asks a concerned Mrs. Bixby, “laryngitis?” “No,” replies Moe, “fallen arches.”



Alice confronts the trio and asks them to perform again, but to her record this time, as she wants to impress her father and Mrs. Bixby without them knowing who it is.



Alice sings “Voices of Spring” from behind the curtain…



and Senorita Cucaracha lips syncs to the impressed society guests, especially Mrs. Bixby and Alice’s father who says, “If only Alice could sing like that!”



Signor Spumoni figures out what is going on when Alice accidentally through the curtain. He reveals the trickery once again.



Alice ends up getting the job she wanted, but The Stooges end up getting a stack of records tossed at them as they make a hasty retreat. THE END!



Regular readers of my blog will recall the post about Shirley Temple lip syncing to “The Sextet from Lucia di Lammermoor” in “Captain January” nine years before The Stooges did (ably assisted by Guy Kibbee and Slim Summerville. The difference is that Shirley and crew were just having fun; they weren’t attempting to fool anyone.



The ultimate lip-synch gag came in 1952 with “Singin’ in the Rain,” when Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds) does the honors for the shrill Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen).



See “Micro-Phonies” for yourself!



See more photos at my main website.

Vintage Pool Days

While the rest of the country is thinking of Fall, Southern Californians are sweating their #$%es off in record temperature heat. How about a dip in the pool to counter that? These first two images show starlets Mari Blanchard and Lori Wilson at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel pool, circa 1953.



The shot below shows the El Mirador Hotel pool. From the vintage caption (sorry, part of it is missing, so there are a few missing words):

PLAY TIME…For Betty Furness and Isabell Jewell, both Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer featured players…on the diving board at the swimming pool at the El Mirador Hotel in Palm Springs. Miss Furness having completed her movie, “The Kid From College” is enjoying a …December 13, 1934



The two actresses starred together in “Shadow of a Doubt,” released February 15, 1935, and yes, it was an MGM production. I could find nothing on “The Kid From College.”

Just make sure you don’t stay in the pool too long, or you could end up like William Holden in “Sunset Boulevard” (1950).



See more photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: All Dolled Up

For her 1934 starring vehicle, “Bright Eyes,” Shirley Temple’s character got to dress up in over-sized adult clothes and parade around as if she was an elegant society lady. Here is candid shot of Shirley with director David Butler, in between takes at the Pasadena location for this scene. The accompanying publicity blurb:

WHAT, NO LOLLIPOP? —Shirley Temple is positive Director David Butler will buy her that chocolate lollipop now she’s donned a feathered hat and long dress. The dimpled starlet plays at being grown-up for a scene in Fox film’s “Bright Eyes,” in which she is featured with James Dunn.

Little Shirley patiently awaits her next scene:



SMALL GIRL. IN A BIG CHAIR — Shirley Temple takes a few moments off for rest in Director David Butler’s set chair. Butler is directing Shirley in his own story, “Bright Eyes,” which will be her last picture for 1934.



In the scene, Shirley pushes a baby carriage around the property with her doll. Below is a screenshot of the house that was used for exterior locations:



How that house looks today:



Jane Withers and Shirley pushed their baby carriages up that very same driveway ninety years ago!



Shirley’s character was kind and loving to her little dolly, whereas Jane Withers’ bratty counterpart constantly swatted hers. Hey Jane, careful — that’s a very valuable Lenci doll!



You can see tensions boiling between the two; who is going to get to keep the dolls once the filming is done?



Named “Pinkie,” the 37” tall Lenci doll began the worldwide tidal wave of dolls gifted to Shirley in real life. From her autobiography Child Star:

For props we were each issued a doll, mine modest and frumpy, befitting my role, and hers a giant glorious Lenci from Italy with dangling blond curls and exquisitely costumed in ruffles and a velvet bonnet garlanded with lifelike flowers. Following her stage role, Withers became possessive, denying me even a peek, clutching it and turning away. Ultimately it developed into a quiet offstage competition for something she really did want, but I did not. Toward the end of “Bright Eyes,” Sheehan caught wind of the doll competition and offered Mother the Lenci doll in order to gain her cooperation on some other minor matter. Believing I really coveted it, Mother acepted his bribe, thinking perhaps to employ the doll in some secondary inducement with me. Her hope vanished when Sheehan publicly announced that I was starting a doll collection with the Lenci as my first. This action was tantamount to removing a finger from the dike. From all over the box-office world a thousand dolls of every type and nationality flooded in. In fact, the concept of a collection of anything beyond slingshots had no appeal whatsoever. It was a Pyrrhic victory; winning the Withers war imposed the unwelcome burden of becoming curator for an unwanted collection. 

Below is a photo I shot when the doll came up for auction in 2015.



Pinkie had a place of prominence in Shirley’s Santa Monica bedroom (photo below).



Sorry, Jane - you shouldn’t have messed with Shirley.



Shirley and Jane Withers’ December 1976 reunion at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel was captured by the photographers. Note that Shirley is covering Pinkie in the photo in her left hand. Why stir up old wounds? Always the diplomat!



In a quieter moment, you can just hear Shirley: “Really Jane, if you hadn’t been such a pill, you could have had the darn doll for yourself!”



This darling costume also graced the cover of one of Saalfield’s many 1930s Shirley Temple publications:



In 2003, the Danbury Mint released a limited edition porcelain doll of Shirley recreating the same scene (minus the carriage) in honor of Shirley’s 75th birthday:



Sorry, Jane - you weren’t part of that tribute, either!

See more Shirley Temple in “Bright Eyes” photos at my main website.

Main Street Model Monday, Part 1

In my collection I have this image of the model that Imagineers created when designing Main Street at Disneyland. So many interesting things to unpack here. Recently on ebay, a seller had listed some alternate shots of this model that also included attraction concept art posted on the walls. The below image was one of those images, which shows Walt’s original intention of having a bandstand in the middle of Town Square.



The below shots from 1957 give a visual of how it all turned out. The design of City Hall and the Fire Department pretty much turned out as originally planned.



As you can see here though, the bandstand was replaced by a flag pole.



In the construction shot below, you can see Walt surveying his kingdom, with the unfinished bandstand in the background at right.



By May 1955, it had been located in its original destination, Town Square.



Still there in this aerial shot. So what happened to it? Apparently Walt realized the structure blocked the view of the Castle at the end of Main Street and decided he needed to open up the visual pathway. The bandstand was relocated to the side of Central Plaza.



The most recent shot I have of this area is from December 2015. The trees do a great job of obstructing the buildings, although I don’t think they are the original ones planted in 1955. Any horticulture experts out there?



See more Disneyland Main Street, U.S.A. photos at my main website.

Cosmic Friday!

This July 1970 slide was labeled as being shot from the Cosmic Age Hotel. What?!? Never heard of the place! Before we deal with that, let’s zoom in to the parking lot area that would eventually become Disney California Adventure. Those orange cones were a cosmic hint of the Cozy Cone Motel that would be installed in 2012! Nanook - I expect you to ID all those cars for us.



A quick check on ebay found these post cards for the Cosmic Age Lodge, located at 1717 S. Harbor Boulevard. GROOVY!!



It was part of the Stovall family collection that surrounded the park. From the Best Western website:

The Stovall’s family of hotels have surrounded the magic of the Disneyland Park since 1964. Hotel owner and operator Al Stovall wanted an out of this world experience for hotel guests coming to Disneyland, and he delivered! With flying saucers, spacemen and aliens adorning the hotel lobby, to a rocket van that would pick up guests from the airport, no detail was overlooked.…The sixties were coming to life! America was just entering the space race, skirts were getting shorter and shorter, and in a small town called Anaheim Walt Disney’s masterpiece was coming to life! Each hotel had its own space age feel and name! There was the fabulous “Inn of Tomorrow” (now Stovall’s Inn), the amazing “Space Age Lodge,” (now Pavilions Hotel), the “Cosmic Age Hotel,” “The Galaxy Hotel” and the “Apollo Inn.”

“…with all the convenience of the Space Age…” the back of the post card touts. What exactly does that include?



The lobby - wow! The tourists would flock to this place today.



“Acclaimed by thousands…”; can I see the source of that statistic, please?



A typical room. Are those plastic grapes over the bed? And check out that TV!



I’ll take two space bubble room dividers, please.



The pool; what do you think the chances are that the model lower right actually caught the ball?



Only 8¢ for postage? No wonder little Frances didn’t feel the need to write very much!



Based on Mr. Google, this place looks like it fell victim to the wrecking ball.



See more Disneyland Parking Lot photos at my main website.