Guy Madison (1922-1996)

On this day actor Guy Madison died. Handsome American leading man who stumbled into a film career and became a television star and hero to the Baby Boom generation. As a young man, he worked as a telephone lineman, but entered the Coast Guard at the beginning of the Second World War. While on liberty one weekend in Hollywood, he attended a Lux Radio Theatre broadcast and was spotted in the audience by an assistant to Henry Willson, an executive for David O. Selznick . Selznick wanted an unknown sailor to play a small but prominent part in Since You Went Away (1944), and promptly signed Robert Moseley to a contract. Selznick and Willson concocted the screen name Guy Madison (the "guy" girls would like to meet, and Madison from a passing Dolly Madison cake wagon). Madison filmed his one scene on a weekend pass and returned to duty. The film's release brought thousands of fan letters for the film's lonely, strikingly handsome young sailor, and at war's end, Madison returned to find himself a star-in-the-making. Despite an initial amateurishness to his acting, Madison grew as a performer, studying and working in theatre. He played leads in a series of programmers before being cast as legendary lawman Wild Bill Hickok in the TV series of the same name. He played Hickok on TV and radio for much of the 1950s, and many of the TV episodes were strung together and released as feature films. Madison managed to squeeze in some more adult-oriented roles during his off-time from the series, but much of this work was also in Westerns. After the Hickok series ended, Madison found work scarce in the U.S. and traveled to Europe where he became a popular star of Italian Westerns and German adventure films. In the 1970s, he returned to the U.S., but appeared mainly in cameo roles. Physical ailments limited his work in latter years, and he died from emphysema in 1996. His first wife was actress Gail Russell.

(From IMDB)

On this Day in 1943...

The Outlaw was released, the movie that made Jane Russell a star. Wikipedia has this to say about the movie: Although the movie was completed in 1941, it was released to only a limited showing two years later. It did not see a general release until 1946. The delay was a result of Hughes defying the Hays Code, which set the standard of morally acceptable content in motion pictures. By showcasing Russell's breasts in both the movie and the poster artwork, The Outlaw became very controversial. In 1941, while filming The Outlaw, Hughes felt that the camera did not do justice to Jane Russell's large bust. He employed his engineering skills to design a new cantilevered underwire bra to emphasize her assets. Hughes added rods of curved structural steel that were sewn into the brassiere below each breast. The rods were connected to the bra's shoulder straps. The arrangement allowed the breasts to be pulled upward and made it possible to move the shoulder straps away from the neck. The design allowed for any amount of bosom to be freely exposed. The emphasis on her breasts proved too much for the Hollywood Production Code Administration, which ordered cuts to the film. To obtain the Boards' required Seal of Approval, Hughes reluctantly removed about 40 feet, or a half-minute, of footage that featured Russell's bosom. He still had problems getting the film distributed, so he schemed to create a public outcry for his film to be banned. The resulting controversy generated enough interest to get The Outlaw into the theaters for one week in 1943, before being withdrawn due to objections by the Code censors. When the film was finally released in 1946, it was a box office hit.

On this Day in 1941...

Western Union was released, directed by Fritz Lang. In a period replete with B-Westerns, the movie is an epic in the style of The Plainsman (1936) and Union Pacific (1939). Starring Robert Young and Randolph Scott, the story concerns the laying of the telegrapfh line. Young gets top billing, but it's good to see Scott here in one of his early Western roles. In the late 1950's, he and director Budd Boetticher would bring the B-Western to new heights with classics like Seven Men From Now (1956), Ride Lonesome (1959), and Comanche Station (1960).

On this Day in 1940...

The Westerner was released, directed by William Wyler and starring Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan. Brennan won his third supporting actor Oscar for his portrayal of Judge Roy Bean. Here's a clip from the movie:

On this Day in 1949...

The Fighting Kentuckian was released, starring John Wayne. Here's the trailer:

On this Day in 1940...

Santa Fe Trail was released, directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan. They play West Point graduates Jeb Stuart and George Custer (respectively) who have to deal with abolitionist firebrand John Brown (played by the great Raymon Massey). One of Flynn's weaker entries during this period, the film is riddled with historical inaccuracies galore, not the least of which is the fact that Custer and Stuart never even met. The movie is available for viewing on Youtube: