Background
Marjorie Main was born Mary Tomlinson near Acton, Indiana, and was the daughter of Mary McGaughey and Samuel Joseph Tomlinson, a minister in the Church of Christ.
(An outlaw insists on making a grave robber his personal p...)
An outlaw insists on making a grave robber his personal physician in this black comedy set in the American backwoods of 1802, starring Wallace Beery, Richard Conte and Marjorie Main. Caught digging up bodies for medical knowledge, Dr. Alexander Meade (Conte) is about to be hanged when he's rescued by Big Back Horner (Beery), a brigand whose leg needs tending. Eager to have his debt pain, Jack insists Meade stay at his side, but the doctor soon escapes to Montaville, where he continues his research at night. With the townsfolk ready to string him up and Jack determined to stop them, Meade attempts to use what he's learned on the mayor's daughter, an operation that could save both their lives. Released two weeks her his death, Big Jack marked Wallace Beery's final screen appearance, his 36-career spanning nearly 250 films, including The Lost World, Grand Hotel, Treasure Island and The Champ, for which he won the 1931/32 Oscar for Actor. 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.
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(The Long Long Trailer reproduction Approx. Size: 11 x 17 ...)
The Long Long Trailer reproduction Approx. Size: 11 x 17 Inches - 28cm x 44cm Style C mini poster print Pop Culture Graphics, Inc is Amazon's largest source for movie and TV show memorabilia, posters and more: Offering tens of thousands of items to choose from. We also offer a full selection of framed posters.. Customer satisfaction is always guaranteed when you buy from Pop Culture Graphics,Inc
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(Authentic Original Movie Poster: U.S. Half Sheet 22 in x ...)
Authentic Original Movie Poster: U.S. Half Sheet 22 in x 28 in - Condition: Condition Good Previously folded some fold wear edge wear scuffing throughout tears and some creasing on all borders with some missing paper and some tape reinforcement on back singlesided stored flat - Movie Starring: George Bancroft, Lewis Stone, Marjorie Main, Wallace Beery - Directed by: Richard Thorpe, S. Sylvan Simon - Genre: Drama, War - IMDB:tt0033438 SKU:FFF-56123
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Marjorie Main was born Mary Tomlinson near Acton, Indiana, and was the daughter of Mary McGaughey and Samuel Joseph Tomlinson, a minister in the Church of Christ.
Marjorie attended public school in Elkhart, Indiana, and studied at Franklin College before enrolling in the Hamilton School of Dramatic Expression in Lexington, Kentucky.
Although her father disapproved of the theater, he allowed Main to study at Hamilton because the school was endowed by the Church of Christ. She graduated from its three-year course in 1909.
Some sources state that she studied acting in New York and Chicago briefly after attending Hamilton. Others suggest that she taught dramatics at Bourbon College in Paris, Kentucky, before practicing the craft herself.
Despite her parents' condemnation of the stage, they allowed Main to perform Shakespearean recitations on the Chautauqua circuit. Her first success came as Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew. Main branched out into vaudeville touring but continued stage roles when possible, working for a while with a stock company in Fargo, N. Dak.
Her first Broadway role was in Cheating Cheaters in 1916, supporting John Barrymore. Main spent some years assisting her husband with his traveling lecture work. After his death in 1934, she threw herself back into acting, receiving her big break on Broadway playing Mrs. Martin (the killer's mother) in Dead End (1935). She left that role to play the overburdened, wisecracking Lucy, the Reno hotel maid, in Claire Boothe Luce's The Women (1936).
She had played minor roles in a few films in the early 1930's. Main's real Hollywood initiation came, however, when Samuel Goldwyn brought her to Hollywood to reprise her Dead End role in 1937. He also employed her to portray Barbara Stanwyck's mother in Stella Dallas. These film parts led to a number of others, including that of Lucy in the film version of The Women (1939). Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), looking for a character actress to pair with Wallace Beery, signed her to the first of two seven-year contracts in 1940.
She played opposite Beery (and received star billing) for the first time in Wyoming (1940), as a female blacksmith. For the next fourteen years, Main was a staple of MGM comedies and dramas, usually portraying an eccentric woman of authority a judge, a landlady, a frontier woman or someone's mother. Her twangy voice and loping stride endeared her to audiences, who associated her with country practicality.
In 1947, that studio filmed The Egg and I, based on the autobiographical book by Betty MacDonald. It starred Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray as a city couple who move to the country. The pair's neighbors, Ma, and Pa Kettle were portrayed by Main and Percy Kilbride. Despite their supporting status, the Kettles made a hit with preview audiences. The picture garnered Main an Academy Award nomination and made so much money for Universal that the studio decided to follow it up with a series of low-budget "Ma and Pa Kettle" films.
The Kettles, a poverty-stricken, slapstick farm couple with fifteen children, were particularly popular in the Midwest. Between appearances as Ma Kettle, Main continued to play character parts. She played Judy Garland's loving but assertive housekeeping in Summer Stock (1950), Fred Astaire's rich aunt in The Belle of New York (1952), an energetic hotelkeeper in Rose Marie (1954), and, memorably, a picturesque farmer in Friendly Persuasion (1956).
Percy Kilbride tired of "Ma and Pa Kettle" and left the series after Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki (1955). Universal attempted two more Kettle pictures after his retirement, but audiences failed to respond to them without Kilbride. The last, The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm (1957), barely broke even. It was Main's last film. She did television work but spent much of her remaining time at her desert home in Palm Springs, California.
Main died on April 10, 1975, in Los Angeles.
(An outlaw insists on making a grave robber his personal p...)
(The Long Long Trailer reproduction Approx. Size: 11 x 17 ...)
(Authentic Original Movie Poster: U.S. Half Sheet 22 in x ...)
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Mary Tomlinson changed her name to Marjorie Main in order to avoid embarrassment for her parents, who had not relaxed their disapproval of the theater. Different versions of her biography attribute the name to a desire to appear ordinary or to a love of Sinclair Lewis and his novel Main Street. According to press reports, Main composed much of her own dialogue as Ma Kettle, supervised her makeup and chose her own costumes.
Offscreen, Main cultivated the same sort of simplicity and eccentricity she often portrayed on screen. For years she claimed she rode the bus to work from her Hollywood home, although she eventually gave in and bought an automobile. She enjoyed gardening and made a point of eating healthily.
She was known for her fastidiousness. She often wore gloves while dining in restaurants, and she showed up for filming with sprays and even gauze facial masks to ward off germs. A strong opposer of liquor, she seldom allowed the characters she portrayed to imbibe.
Quotes from others about the person
A reporter for Collier's noted, "Her forthrightness in protecting her own interests has given her the reputation around Hollywood of being somewhat difficult. "
While on the circuit, Marjorie met Stanley LeFevre Krebs, a psychologist who delivered Chautauqua lectures. He and Main were married November 2, 1921; they had no children.