eMoviePoster.com

What are the objects in the corners of some images? Learn More

Cary Grant was born Archibald Alexander Leach in Bristol, England in 1904. After a bizarre childhood (he came home one day when he was nine and was told his chronically depressed mother had died, when actually his father had put her in a mental institution!), young Archie was kicked out of school and ran away and joined a group of stage acrobats. When he was 16 the group went on a two year tour of the U.S., and when the tour ended, he stayed and acted on the stage. In 1931 he had much success in regional theater in St. Louis, and he moved to Hollywood. At this point he changed his name to Cary Grant. After a few minor roles he starred in Blonde Venus opposite Marlene Dietrich, and in She Done Him Wrong, opposite Mae West (it is Grant she invites to come up and see her sometime). He was under contract to Paramount, and was the first choice for every romantic comedy and melodrama, and when his contract was up he refused to re-sign, and he remained independent for the rest of his career, and he made excellent choices in what movies he made. He remained a major star throughout the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, and he was equally successful in comedy as he was in dramas and thrillers. His best movies span his entire career. Just a few of them are Penny Serenade (nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for this film), None But The Lonely Heart (nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for this film), Bringing Up Baby, Only Angels Have Wings, Mr. Lucky, Arsenic and Old Lace, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, An Affair to Remember, and of course the movies he made with Alfred Hitchcock. His personal life was very different from his onscreen persona (supposedly, when he was told "everybody would like to be Cary Grant" he said "So would I!"). He was married five times, but he spent most of the years in-between those marriages living with Randolph Scott, and many have suggested he was bisexual. Chevy Chase once publicly joked that Grant was gay, and Grant sued him over it. In the early 1960s he took LSD over 100 times, and in 1965 he married the much younger Dyan Cannon, and they had a daughter together, the only child either ever had. He retired in 1966, and passed away in 1986 at the age of 82. I don't know that there was ever a more appealing romantic leading man than Cary Grant and he had great romantic chemistry with every one of his leading ladies. He was the inspiration for the line, "Women want to be with him, men want to BE him" AND Lili Damita was born Liliane Marie Madeleine Carre in 1904, and at 16 she was a model and dancer, and the next year she won a beauty pageant and got a movie contract and appeared in over a dozen silent movies. When she turned 21 she married 38 year old European director Michael Kertesz. Their marriage only lasted less than a year, and after divorcing, Kertesz, who had been born Mano Kaminer in Hungary, moved to Hollywood. There he became Michael Curtiz, the greatest Warner Bros director of all time, directing Casablanca, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Angels with Dirty Faces, White Christmas, and The Adventures of Robin Hood (one of 11 movies Curtiz made with Errol Flynn, who was made a star by Curtiz in his first starring role in Captain Blood in 1935). Back to Lili Damita! She stayed in Europe until 1928, when Sam Goldwyn hired her to appear in The Rescue, released the following year. American audiences loved her look, and when she made talking movies, they loved her thick French accent too. She had a string of successes, but by 1935 her career was winding down, and she married unknown actor Errol Flynn (perhaps introduced by her ex-husband, Curtiz) and when Flynn quickly became a major star, she basically retired. They had a son, Sean, in 1941, but Flynn was a legendary womanizer, and they divorced the following year. In 1962, Damita married a dairy farmer, but in 1970, son Sean, who had appeared in a few movies, went missing in Cambodia, and Damita spent a fortune trying to find him, finally declaring him legally dead 14 years later. Damita developed Alzheimer's, and passed away in 1994 at the age of 89. Her tombstone was inscribed with "She touched so many lives, brightened so many days" and she is more remembered today for her off screen life than for the movies she made AND Toby Wing (born Martha Virginia Wing) was an actress from the 1920s to the 1930s. Some of her movies include: A Woman Who Sinned, 42nd Street, The Little Giant, Torch Singer, and The Marines Come Thru. She then retired from Hollywood to marry Dick Merrill, and they stayed married until Merrill's passing in 1982. Toby passed away in 2001 at the age of 85.

Our address for UPS or FedEx only is:
Bruce Hershenson,
306 Washington Avenue, West Plains, MO 65775