World War II was still raging in May 1944. The allied invasion of Normandy — aka D-Day — was just around the corner on June 6th. Americans kept the home fires burning and escaped from the global conflict by going to the movies. Two of the biggest films of the year, Leo McCarey’s “Going My Way” and George Cukor’s “Gaslight,” recently celebrated their 80th anniversaries.
Actually, “Going My Way” had a special “Fighting Front” premiere on April 27th: 65 prints were shipped to battle fronts and shown “from Alaska to Italy, and from England to the jungles of Burma.” The sentimental comedy-drama-musical arrived in New York on May 3rd.
And it was just the uplifting film audiences needed. Bing Crosby starred as Father O’Malley, a laid-back young priest who arrives at a debt-ridden New York City church that is run by the older, set-in-his ways Father Fitzgibbon (Barry Fitzgerald). The elder...
Actually, “Going My Way” had a special “Fighting Front” premiere on April 27th: 65 prints were shipped to battle fronts and shown “from Alaska to Italy, and from England to the jungles of Burma.” The sentimental comedy-drama-musical arrived in New York on May 3rd.
And it was just the uplifting film audiences needed. Bing Crosby starred as Father O’Malley, a laid-back young priest who arrives at a debt-ridden New York City church that is run by the older, set-in-his ways Father Fitzgibbon (Barry Fitzgerald). The elder...
- 5/9/2024
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Rise Stevens, a woman best known for performing in New York's Metropolitan Opera, has died. She was 99.
Of all her roles, Stevens was beloved for being the lead in "Carmen" in the 1940s and 1950s. The mezzo-soprano performed at the Met for 23 years during her career. She became a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1990.
The singer retired in 1961, and then spent three years directing the Met's travling company. She appeared in movies like 1941's "The Chocolate Soldier" and 1944's "Going My Way." Stevens' son Nicolas Surovy confirmed her death to The New York Times.
Of all her roles, Stevens was beloved for being the lead in "Carmen" in the 1940s and 1950s. The mezzo-soprano performed at the Met for 23 years during her career. She became a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1990.
The singer retired in 1961, and then spent three years directing the Met's travling company. She appeared in movies like 1941's "The Chocolate Soldier" and 1944's "Going My Way." Stevens' son Nicolas Surovy confirmed her death to The New York Times.
- 3/22/2013
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Pop2it
Dead at 99: Opera star and Crosby's ex-girlfriend in 1944 Best Picture Oscar winner Risë Stevens, the Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano that moviegoers remember as Nelson Eddy's romantic partner in Roy Del Ruth's 1941 musical The Chocolate Soldier and as Bing Crosby's ex-girlfriend in Leo McCarey's 1944 Oscar-winning blockbuster Going My Way, died on Wednesday, March 20, at her Manhattan home. The former singer was 99 years old. (Pictured above: Stevens in her most famous operatic role, that of Bizet's anti-heroine Carmen.) Born in The Bronx, New York City, Stevens sang at the Metropolitan from 1938 to 1961; among her most popular roles were Dalila in Camille Saint-Saëns' Samson et Dalila, Mignon in Ambroise Thomas' opera of the same name, and most notable of all, the lead in Bizet's Carmen. After leaving the stage, she became an arts administrator with the Met and president of the Mannes College of Music.
- 3/22/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Going My Way (1944) Direction: Leo McCarey Cast: Bing Crosby, Barry Fitzgerald, Risë Stevens, Frank McHugh, Gene Lockhart, James Brown, Jean Heather, Porter Hall, Fortunio Bonanova Screenplay: Frank Butler and Frank Cavett; from a story by Leo McCarey Oscar Movies Barry Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby, Going My Way Director Leo McCarey and screenwriters Frank Butler and Frank Cavett poured a whole bottle of syrup into their sentimental comedy-drama Going My Way. The fact that this "inspirational" tale with religious overtones became the year's biggest blockbuster and the winner of seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, proves that McCarey, Butler, Cavett, and Paramount Pictures knew exactly what audiences wanted in 1944: the same sort of gooey star vehicle that continues to lure millions of moviegoers, e.g., Tom Hanks' Forrest Gump, Will Smith's The Pursuit of Happyness, Sandra Bullock's The Blind Side. In Going My Way, the goo is provided...
- 1/28/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The Kennedy Center Honors have been handed out since 1978. Recipients hail from various branches of the American performance art world — including film, stage, music, and dance — even though performers more closely associated with British show business have managed to sneak in every now and then, e.g., Paul McCartney, Roger Daltrey, Elton John, Pete Townshend. Since recipients are supposed to attend the Washington, D.C., ceremony in order to take home their Kennedy awards, Doris Day has remained unhonored by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Katharine Hepburn kept putting it off until she finally relented in 1990. (Irene Dunne, see above photo, was one who managed to be honored though absent due to ill health.) Ginger Rogers, for her part, was present at the ceremony, but her films with Fred Astaire weren't — because Astaire's widow, Robyn Astaire, demanded payment for the televised clips. At the time, Kennedy Center Honors...
- 9/7/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Two-time Academy Award-winning actress Meryl Streep (right), singer Barbara Cook, singer and songwriter Neil Diamond, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and saxophonist and composer Sonny Rollins will receive the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts' 2011 Kennedy Center Honors. The Kennedy Center Honors ceremony will be held on Sunday, December 4, on the Kennedy Center Opera House stage. The Kennedy Center Honors medallions will be presented on Saturday, December 3, at a State Department dinner hosted by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. An edited version of the ceremony will be broadcast on CBS for the 34th consecutive year as a two-hour primetime special on Tuesday, December 27, at 9:00 p.m. (Et/Pt). The event will be produced by George Stevens Jr. and Michael Stevens. From the Kennedy Center Honors' press release: "The Honors recipients recognized for their lifetime contributions to American culture through the performing arts—whether in dance, music, theater, opera, motion pictures,...
- 9/7/2011
- by Anna Robinson
- Alt Film Guide
The recipients of the National Endowment for the Arts' 2011 Opera Honors were announced today. The four honorees—stage designer John Conklin, executive Speight Jenkins, mezzo-soprano Risë Stevens, and composer and academic Robert Ward—will each receive a $25,000 prize for their lifetime contributions to opera in the United States. They will also be celebrated with a ceremony and concert in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 27. Now in its fourth year, the award is the country's highest honor given for opera. "These four individuals have contributed significantly to opera in the United States, lending their talents and commitment to enhancing what we see, hear, feel, and think about opera," said Nea director of music and opera Wayne Brown in a written statement.Conklin is recognized as a primary figure in American stage design, having designed sets and costumes for theater, opera, and ballet companies around the world. Jenkins was appointed general director of.
- 6/24/2011
- by help@backstage.com (Lisa Eadicicco)
- backstage.com
Going My Way (1944) Direction: Leo McCarey Screenplay: Frank Butler and Frank Cavett; from a story by Leo McCarey Cast: Bing Crosby, Barry Fitzgerald, Risë Stevens, Frank McHugh, Gene Lockhart, James Brown, Jean Heather, Porter Hall, Fortunio Bonanova Barry Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby in Going My Way Synopsis: The new priest in parish, the jovial Father O’Malley (Bing Crosby), tries to befriend the local old-school priest, Father Fitzgibbon (Barry Fitzgerald), and to reach out to a new generation of churchgoers. Will he succeed? (Just a rhetorical question.) The Pros: Barry Fitzgerald is fun as the feisty dark-robed curmudgeon with a heart of solid platinum. ("His performance is one of the half-dozen finer things seen in motion pictures as they complete their first fifty years," said [...]...
- 11/29/2009
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
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