Background
Gaxton was born on December 2, 1893, in San Francisco, California, the son of John Gaxiola, a barber, and Cecelia Hill.
(A conniving producer works a member of a censorship board...)
A conniving producer works a member of a censorship board to try to lure a Broadway superstar into starring in one of his productions. 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. This product is expected to play back in DVD Video "play only" devices, and may not play in other DVD devices, including recorders and PC drives.
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(Double trouble: Winsocki Military Institute cadet Bud Hoo...)
Double trouble: Winsocki Military Institute cadet Bud Hooper has two dates for the prom: his best girl - and publicity-seeking glamour girl Lucille Ball, who unexpectedly says yes to starstruck Bud's invitation. Comedy puts its Best Foot Forward in this snappy frolic based on the Broadway smash. The title could also apply to film-debuting June Allyson and Nancy Walker, memorably recreating their stage roles as sassy prom dates. Harry James and His Music Makers make Two O'Clock Jump jump, everybody socks over Buckle Down, Winsocki, and Lucy is lovely - and loopy, especially in a zany sequence stripped to her scanties and dashing in and out of closets. Okay, school isn't this much fun. But it should be! 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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(Medical student Joe Davis, Jr., tells his father that he ...)
Medical student Joe Davis, Jr., tells his father that he wants to quit school and get into show business. Joe Sr. disapproves, but gives his son a job as a stage manager at his nightclub, the Diamond Horseshoe. Joe Jr. soon becomes smitten with headliner Bonnie Collins, but she has no interest in him. Meanwhile, Claire, who's in love with Joe Sr., promises Bonnie a mink coat if she'll go out with Joe Jr. so that Joe Sr. will pay more attention to Claire than his son. Things get more complicated when Bonnie falls in love with Joe Jr. and they get married, much to his Dad's disapproval.
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(The melodies of You’ve Got That Thing and You Do Somethin...)
The melodies of You’ve Got That Thing and You Do Something to Me lace the soundtrack; but Hollywood did something to the screen version of the Cole Porter musical Fifty Million Frenchmen: It dropped the songs! At the time; moviegoers frowned on song-and-dance vehicles; so the studio-tinkered result was a frantic contraption of nonstop jokes; sassy pre-Code double entendres and the antics of vaudeville/radio stars Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson. The slender plot concerns a $50;000 bet that lovestruck American-in-Paris Jack Forbes (William Gaxton repeating his Broadway role) can woo and wed the alluring LuLu (Claudia Dell) without his wealth. But the sidebars are more fun: Helen Broderick as a randy tourist who wants to be “insulted;” the mischief of Olsen and Johnson (leading the Paris police on a madcap Keystone Kops-like finale chase) and a briefly seen Bela Lugosi as a magician mystic denied his chance to perform. Not to worry for Bela: Fifty Million Frenchmen shared its 1931 opening day with another opus called Dracula; and the rest is history. Vive le Hollywood! 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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Gaxton was born on December 2, 1893, in San Francisco, California, the son of John Gaxiola, a barber, and Cecelia Hill.
Arturo attended Boone Military Academy and Lowell High School in San Francisco, and for approximately two years studied at the University of California at Berkeley.
At the age of eighteen Gaxton assumed his professional name of William Gaxton. His first stage "appearance" was in The Count of Monte Cristo, in which he was one of the young men who crawled under a canvas on stage in order to simulate the movement of waves. This unheralded beginning was made while he was a student at the University of California. His actual debut on the stage was in vaudeville; he and a partner had a song-and-dance act in 1915. The following year he appeared with Anna Laughlin, and in the same year, as a single, he followed Douglas Fairbanks in the lead role in the sketch "A Regular Business Man. " Gaxton served in the navy as an enlisted man during World War I. He was stationed at Pelham Park, New York, with his more famous friend Humphrey Bogart. Following his tour of duty, he made the movie The Old Army Game with W. C. Fields. Gaxton made what is generally considered his first adult appearance on the regular stage in The Music Box Revue on October 23, 1922. During 1925 he toured in Betty Lee, and in 1925 and 1926 he appeared in All for You, followed in 1926 and 1927 by appearances in Miss Happiness. In November 1927 Gaxton opened as Martin in A Connecticut Yankee, a musical adaptation of Mark Twain's novel. This performance made him a star. The day after the opening his name was placed above that of the play. Two years later Gaxton was a smashing success as Peter Forbes in Fifty Million Frenchmen. He returned to the vaudeville stage briefly in 1930, and in 1931 was again in the legitimate theater as John P. Wintergreen in the musical Of Thee I Sing, a hit that ran into 1932. In October 1933 Gaxton once more appeared as Wintergreen, this time in Let 'Em Eat Cake. In 1931 he teamed up with Victor Moore in an association that lasted nearly a decade. In November 1934 Gaxton played Billy Crocker in Anything Goes, a production that brought together Ethel Merman, Victor Moore, and Gaxton. His long list of subsequent stage roles included Leopold in White Horse Inn (1936), Buckley Joyce Thomas in Leave It to Me (1938), Jim Taylor in Louisiana Purchase (1940), Dick Live Eye in Hollywood Pinafore (1945), and Frank Jordan in Nellie Bly (1946). In the early 1930's, when the Palace Theatre (the most famous of all vaudeville houses) was about to close, Gaxton and Lou Holtz, a comedian, were asked to pool their talents to try to save the famous institution. They formed a variety show that increased the theater's income tenfold. When Holtz was called away after eight weeks, Gaxton and Jack Benny carried on for two additional weeks. The Palace was saved. It took considerable pressure from a number of movie moguls to get Gaxton before the cameras. He carved himself a modest niche in films but never abandoned the stage. Among his successful pictures were Stepping Along (1926), It's the Old Army Game (1926), Fifty Million Frenchmen (1931), Silent Partners (1932), and Their Big Moment, sometimes called Afterwards (1934). Gaxton played in two Gregory Ratoff musicals, Something to Shout About (1942) and Tropicana (1944). In 1943 he appeared with Lucille Ball in Best Foot Forward. When Billy Gaxton - as he was known on Broadway during those years - played Joe Davis in the movie Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe (1945), it was said that he fit the lead character so well that he was actually playing himself. In the movie Gaxton was surrounded by a cast of luminaries from musical comedy: Betty Grable, Dick Haymes, Beatrice Kay, and Phil Silvers. Most of his leisure time was spent on his Connecticut farm, where he raised chickens and swans. Gaxton's last stage appearances were in the 1961 and 1962 Guy Lombardo productions of Paradise Island. He died in New York City.
(The melodies of You’ve Got That Thing and You Do Somethin...)
(Double trouble: Winsocki Military Institute cadet Bud Hoo...)
(A conniving producer works a member of a censorship board...)
(Medical student Joe Davis, Jr., tells his father that he ...)
For the years 1936-1939, 1952-1953, and 1957-1961, Gaxton was Shepherd (president) of the Lambs, a New York theatrical club. He was also a trustee of the Actor's Fund and a vice-president of Parfums Charbert, a perfume manufacturing company.
Gaxton was a handsome man, five feet, nine inches tall, with dark hair and dark eyes.
On October 17, 1918, Gaxton married Madeline Cameron, a musical-comedy actress and a member of the Cameron Sisters dance team of the 1910s and 1920s. They had no children.