If they were still alive....

....today would be the birthday of:

William Holden would be 93.  It seems Holden is a bit taken for granted and rather underrated as an actor, despite his many awards and truly memorable performances (Stalag 17, Bridge on the River Kwai, Network...and probably most of all, his "Joe Gillis" opposite Gloria Swanson's "Norma Desmond" in that greatest of all of Hollywood's "Hollywood films," Sunset Boulevard.  His battle with the bottle shortened his life.  He was only 63 when he was found in a pool of blood next to his bed in his Santa Monica apartment.  Apparently, he had fallen while intoxicated and hit his head on a bedside table.





Writer/director George Seaton would be 100 today.  He wrote and/or directed several major Hollywood hits, including Airport, Song of Bernadette, The Country Girl and his "mini masterpiece," Miracle on 34th Street, which he indeed wrote and directed.  He won two Oscars during his starry career (Best Screenplay for Miracle on 34th Street and The Country Girl) as well as the 1962 Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Academy Award.  Seems he's one of those who aren't remembered today, by name....but certainly his body of work is most memorable, indeed.










Anne Shirley would be 93.  She started in silent films at the age of four (as "Dawn O'Day"...her real name was Dawn Paris).  After appearing in the title role of Anne of Green Gables, she changed her name once again to the character's name, Anne Shirley, under which she is known today.  She played several mature juvenile parts, none larger or more challenging than the daughter of poor, self-sacrificing white trash, Stella Dallas.  She married hunky John Payne (seen above with Santa Claus in Miracle on 34th Street).  Their marriage didn't last, and she retired from acting about the time their marriage ended, in 1943.  One might suspect that she must have just grown tired of the Hollywood hustle, having been before the cameras while barely out of diapers.  She died in 1993.





Lon McCallister would be 88.  He actually had a lot in common with Anne Shirley.  Both successfully made the leap from child actor to juvenile to adult in Hollywood, a feat that not many could claim.  He was small, boyish and very likable.  Like Shirley, he had a role in Stella Dallas.  And also like her, he retired from acting very young, at the age of 30, having had more than his fill of Hollywood.


Arthur Lake would be 106.  His singular career distinction was introducing the character of "Dagwood Bumstead" to film viewers in the 1930's and 40's in the long-running series of Blondie movies.  He had been a fairly successful "bright young man" actor in early talkies, but was pretty much type-cast from Dagwood on.  An interesting sidebar to his story is his marriage.  He had a long (45 years), by all accounts very happy marriage to Patricia Van Cleve, who was known about Hollywood as the niece of Marion Davies--who lived with and had been raised by Davies.  They were married in 1942 at William Randolph Hearst's enormous California estate, San Simeon (Hearst Castle).  He died in 1987 and she survived him by 6 years.  On her deathbed, she "admitted" to her children what had long been whispered about Los Angeles society circles:  That she was, in fact, the illegitimate daughter of Hearst and Marion Davies.  She and Arthur Lake are both entombed in Marion Davies' large crypt at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery along with Davies, her mother and sisters, and her actual husband (whom she married after Hearst's death).  One other weird sidebar:  Arthur Lake was at one time investigated as a possible suspect in the Black Dahlia murder in 1947 (he was never charged or proven to have anything to do with it).

Patricia Van Cleve Lake--daughter of Hearst/Davies

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And a VERY happy birthday, to someone who is still very much with us....

Marta Eggerth turns 99 today.  She is one of the great treasures of the New York musical world, as she still continues to perform, a year from her centenary year.  And make no mistake:  There is nothing "bless her heart" about her performing.  Her voice, her charm, her loveliness---have been preternaturally preserved, as if stilled in amber.  The Hungarian-born soprano was a great star of operetta and film, having made her professional debut in 1923!  Miss Eggerth was married to the great, famed Polish opera tenor, Jan Kiepura until his death in 1966. She can still command top-price seats at her performances, mostly at the lovely Cafe Sabarsky at the Neue Galerie museum in New York City.  I witnessed one of her performances, about 5 years ago--and even had a chance to chat with her afterward. The cafe is on the street level on busy Fifth Avenue.  I recall that during one of her quiet songs, an ambulance came noisily screaming by.  She paused and with a fabulous deadpan, said, "Don't come for me!  I'm not going anywhere yet!"  Which the audience, of course, just loved.  I asked her if she looked back on her Hollywood career with happiness.  She had been briefly under contract to MGM in the early 1940's, playing opposite Judy Garland in two films:  Presenting Lily Mars and For Me and My Gal.  She paused, thoughtfully, and said, "I look back on working with Judy Garland with great fondness, as she was just lovely.  But I can not say that my years in Hollywood were very happy ones".  I think I can speak for the entire New York artistic community in wishing her many more years of health and our thanks for blessing us with her charm, beauty and many talents.  Here's a fairly contemporary clip of her performing one of her signature tunes: