(An ineffectual attorney must convince the eccentric Pembe...)
An ineffectual attorney must convince the eccentric Pemberton family to close an important land deal and ends up marrying the only sane member of the bunch. Starring Jack Haley, Ann Sothern, Mary Boland and Edward Everett Horton. Shown in 4:3 full frame presentation.
(A sly Southern governor creates a winning state college f...)
A sly Southern governor creates a winning state college football team in order to sway constituents to vote him into a higher office. John Barrymore, George Murphy, Marjorie Weaver, and Joan Davis star in Hold That Co-ed. Shown in 4:3 full frame presentation.
When sold by Amazon.com, this product will be manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.
(Bumbling reporter Larry Elliot (Jack Haley) is trapped in...)
Bumbling reporter Larry Elliot (Jack Haley) is trapped in a conspiracy of theft and murder, and held at the mercy of the most wanted criminal in the state. Elliot's routine article about a county fair is forgotten when he stumbles onto a battle for a priceless chess set. When a man is killed in pursuit of the treasure, the suspects are locked in their hotel rooms until the sheriff arrives. The inn's guests include a pestering child prodigy, an underhanded femme fatale, and the beautiful antique dealer that Elliot falls in love with. Everyone seems to have a motive to steal the jeweled chess pieces, but when the notorious killer Deacon Markham claims to be the rightful owner, the sheriff is certain he's found the murderer. Elliot doubts the sheriff's suspicions and a wild chase through the lodge's wine cellars and secret passageways unveils the real killer's identity.
(A hobo brings a New Deal to ancient Baghdad when he’s tra...)
A hobo brings a New Deal to ancient Baghdad when he’s transported back in time and mistaken for Ali Baba. Shown in 4:3 full frame presentation.
When sold by Amazon.com, this product will be manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.
(It's Dorothy Lamour again, sarong and all, in the South S...)
It's Dorothy Lamour again, sarong and all, in the South Seas wish-dream
Beyond the Blue Horizon. Lamour plays Tama, a daughter of the jungle
who heads to the US to claim an inheritance. For publicity purposes,
press agent Squidge (Jack Haley) tries to team Tama with his client, circus
lion tamer Jakra (Richard Denning). As it turns out, Jakra is compelled to
return to the South Seas with Tama to obtain positive proof that she is
indeed sole heir to her family's fortune. The climax finds Jakra putting his
animal-taming skills to practical use when a rogue elephant goes on a
rampage. One suspects that audiences in 1942 didn't believe this one either.
Sing Your Way Home NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Spain
(Spain released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on sta...)
Spain released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: English ( Mono ), Spanish ( Mono ), Spanish ( Subtitles ), SPECIAL FEATURES: Filmographies, Interactive Menu, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: Conceited war correspondent Steve Kimball, desperate to get back to the USA from occupied Paris, reluctantly agrees to chaperone a troupe of stranded, teenaged hepcat entertainers. Plus redheaded Bridget, not a real member of the group...just stranded (and the 16th person on 15 tickets). But Steve has a use for her: to sneak his stories past censorship in 'love code.' Their shipboard dormitory is also shared by adult glamour girl Kay. Can the kids enlist Kay to keep Steve out of their hair? Can all sorts of complications be far behind?; SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Oscar Academy Awards, ...Sing Your Way Home
(A big-city salesman, Albert Tuttle, arrives at the spooky...)
A big-city salesman, Albert Tuttle, arrives at the spooky mansion of tyrannical millionaire Cyrus Wentworth hoping to sell him an expensive life insurance policy. Tuttle is surprised to find that the prospective customer is lying in his coffin surrounded by greedy heirs awaiting the reading of his will. A mysterious killer is at large, picking off the conniving relatives one-by-one. Trapped by a raging storm, the salesman becomes involved in the family's double-crossings and death threats. In a spectacular climax atop a mountain observatory, Tuttle comes face-to-face with the murderer. Bela Lugosi manages to steal the show as the creepy butler. While his presence is a dark shadow against the often laughable antics of the ravenous treasure seekers, Lugosi ends up with the film's funniest lines.
(Jack Haley (the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz) stars in thi...)
Jack Haley (the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz) stars in this smorgasbord of entertainment, highlighted by hilarious vignettes from those masters of slapstick, Laurel & Hardy. Bumbling Joe Jenkins (Haley) sells his garage and moves to Hollywood, attempting to land an audition for Cecilia (Rosina Lawrence), the girl he loves. Meanwhile, Cecilia serendipitously meets womanizing movie star Rinaldo Lopez (Mischa Auer), and, along with her wisecracking sister Nellie (Patsy Kelly), they luck into a free trip to Tinseltown. Led to the studio by Lopez, Cecilia is smitten with the showbiz bug as she experiences a behind-the-scenes look at the filming of a big musical number, a classic barroom brawl sequence and Laurel & Hardy in their finest comedic form. A delightful gem, Pick a Star has it all: singing, dancing, comedy and romance.
(As Walter Winchell feuds with bandleader Ben Bernie, a yo...)
As Walter Winchell feuds with bandleader Ben Bernie, a young singer in Ben's band falls in love. Shown in 4:3 full frame presentation.
When sold by Amazon.com, this product will be manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.
Jack Haley, born John Joseph "Jack" Haley, II, was an American vaudevillian, stage, radio, and film actor, light comedian, singer and dancer.
Background
Jack Haley was born John Haley on August 10, 1897, in South Boston, Massachusetts, to John Joseph Haley, I, a navigator, and Ellen F. Curley, a homemaker. Ellen Haley raised her two sons alone on a limited income after John Haley's death when the boys were young.
Education
Haley was educated at Dwight Grammar School, where he gave the class address, and at Boston English High School. Rejecting his mother's wish that he become an electrician, he left home and a $15-per-week job as an apprentice electrician to pursue his dream of becoming an actor.
Career
Haley quickly moved on to Philadelphia, which offered more opportunities for an inexperienced actor than New York. There he found employment as a song plugger for the McCarthy Fisher Music Publishing Company. After Haley had worked for the company several months, the leader of an all-woman vaudeville act called at McCarthy Fisher in search of a light comic to front the act. Haley volunteered, and his show business career was on its way.
Haley quickly rose through the vaudeville hierarchy, moving from his first job with "The Lightner Girls and Alexander" to a song-and-dance comedy routine with a partner, Charley Crafts. In 1920, "Haley and Crafts" reached the pinnacle of vaudeville success, with a showcase performance at the famed Palace Theater in New York City, which ran for a record six months. After three years, Haley felt he was ready to move up to Broadway, and through his contacts on the vaudeville circuit was given a role in Around the Town, a revue put together by S. J. Perelman and Herman Mankiewicz.
For the next ten years, Haley rarely had to go looking for work. After Gay Paree, the Haleys worked with various traveling vaudeville troupes for several years. On their first trip to southern California, they fell in love with Los Angeles, and Jack Haley accepted a job as master of ceremonies at a theater in that city. He also appeared in a number of short films. In 1928, Haley gave up his steady work in Los Angeles for the lead in the traveling revue, Good News, in the hope that it would lead to bigger things. Haley was soon offered the lead in the Broadway musical revue Follow Thru (1929), which provided him with his first big break. The show, which featured Haley mugging through a song-and-dance romp, "Button Up Your Overcoat, " received ecstatic critical and popular acclaim. The New York Times asked why the heretofore unnoticed Haley, with "his capacities being what they evidently are, had not been fought for by Broadway musical comedy producers. " Broadway, however, still wasn't ready to sign on to the Haley admiration society. He had to stitch together a number of appearances in vaudeville, theater, and movie shorts before his next big success, the Broadway review Take a Chance (1932).
Hollywood took some time to notice as well, even though he stole the film version of Follow Thru (1930) from matinee idol Charles Rogers. The New York Times noted, "Without (Haley) it would be just so many scenes of (Nancy) Carroll looking lovingly into the romantic eyes of Charles Rogers. " After Take a Chance, however, Hollywood finally came calling, and Twentieth Century-Fox offered Haley a contract.
During the 1930's, Haley generally took the lead or second role in a series of lighthearted frolics that usually served as excuses for numerous song-and-dance routines. In Sitting Pretty (1933), The Girl Friend (1935), and Pigskin Parade (1936), Judy Garland's first feature film, Haley excelled at mixing hilarious slapstick, quick pattern, and limber-limbed dance moves to drive the generally ridiculous plots. Even in truly inept films such as Coronado (1935), Haley received positive notices. His standout performance during this period was in Wake Up and Live (1937), a Darryl Zanuck-produced extravaganza co-starring Patsy Kelly and Alice Faye, who often shared the screen with Haley.
These assignments would have made Haley a minor, if much beloved, Hollywood song-and-dance man if not for a peculiar twist of fate. Just as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was about to begin filming its mammoth movie version of Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz (1939), Buddy Ebsen, picked to play the Tin Man, suffered an allergic reaction to the silver makeup the character required. Haley was given the part instead, and thus backed into a role that turned him into an American icon. At first, however, Haley was not sure it was worth it. "The costume was agony, " he later recalled of the tin armor he was asked to clank around in. "When I wasn't working, I was on a reclining board. The only chance I had all day to get out of that costume was when Judy (Garland) was at school. " The addition of Haley was a happy one, for the three principals who played opposite Garland's Dorothy - Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow, Bert Lahr as the Cowardly Lion, and Haley - were all seasoned vaudevillians. Each contributed a bit of vaudeville to their performance, seemingly trying to outdo one another in each scene. Perhaps Haley's most memorable bit was his frantic waving back and forth as his cohorts loosened his rusted joints with the Tin Man's indispensable oil can. Although the film has been justifiably praised for its brilliant sound and visual effects and for its wonderful songs, it is Dorothy's relationship with her three escorts that bonds the audience with the story. The movie was a huge success at the box office, enjoying numerous releases. In 1976, CBS began showing the film on television, a yearly event that brought together many families in a ritualistic viewing experience.
Once the film was released, Haley was no longer simply a song-and-dance man, he was the Tin Man. Despite the acclaim, Haley did not receive a great upsurge in offers. After some respectable showings in Moon Over Miami (1941) with Don Ameche and Betty Grable, and People Are Funny (1945), among others, Haley realized that the era in which his talents could be appreciated on film had passed. He retired from acting in 1949, without regrets. "It's like being a washed-up fighter, " he later explained. "He can go on kidding himself, taking one more fight getting hurt. Or he can move on. "
Rather than take on minor roles in inferior films, Haley focused his energy on real estate, in which he had been investing since the mid-1930's. Haley made a lot of money on these ventures, remarking, "A man had to be an idiot not to succeed in buying, selling and developing land in Southern California over the years. " Jack Benny was more impressed, commenting, "Every time you drive down Wilshire Boulevard, you're trespassing on Jack Haley's property. " In addition to his real estate interests, Haley dedicated his time to charitable causes, most notably the American Guild of Variety Artists, of which he served as president. His biggest project with the guild was to set up a fund for old vaudevillians who "never had the breaks I've had. " In 1969 he made a cameo appearance in Norwood, directed by his son Jack Haley, III, who became head of Twentieth Century-Fox.
Just before his death on June 6, 1979, of a heart attack in Beverly Hills, Haley reunited with Ray Bolger to present an Oscar at the 1979 Academy Awards ceremony, produced by his son.
John Haley, II was raised Roman Catholic. He was a member of the Good Shepherd Parish and the Catholic Motion Picture Guild in Beverly Hills, California.
Views
Quotations:
"I ran away to New York to escape the jeers that everyone directed at my plans for a stage career. "
Connections
His marriage to Florence McFadden, a former Lightner dancer, took place on Febuary 25, 1921, between the matinee and the night show of Gay Paree, in which they both appeared. "No honeymoon, " Haley later recalled. "After all, the show must go on and on and on. " The couple had two children in a marriage that lasted until Haley's death.