tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post4859187079088243917..comments2024-02-06T16:17:25.826+00:00Comments on THE GRØNMARK BLOG: The first British Invasion - Golden Age Hollywood was also absolutely awash with British actorsScott Gronmarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15118026157459333174noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-88555315846891002272018-03-20T10:35:38.819+00:002018-03-20T10:35:38.819+00:00Just before this chat show appearance Cooke had ad...Just before this chat show appearance Cooke had adopted a "footballer's perm" in an attempt to look like Kevin Keegan and to ingratiate himself with his team of preference [Spurs]. I remember Zsa Zsa said it made him look "silly" and "unmanly" [at least it wasn't a Chris Waddle "mullet"] and the great man was enraged. I always thought it was on the Parkinson show?SDGnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-4050083759068157452018-03-19T19:09:38.574+00:002018-03-19T19:09:38.574+00:00Was this, I wonder, the same programme on which Pe...Was this, I wonder, the same programme on which Peter Cook - after Zsa Zsa had told us what a great animal lover she was - asked her why, if that was the case, she had insisted on dragging her evidently terrified little dog into the studio with her? I can't imagine that they appeared on many chat shows together, so I think we can safely conclude that you aren't suffering from delusions (and I reckon I've just saved you a fortune in psychiatric fees). Scott Gronmarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15118026157459333174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-56967663025131732862018-03-19T18:59:17.301+00:002018-03-19T18:59:17.301+00:00It was probably Basil's way of picking up some...It was probably Basil's way of picking up some pin-money when he was "resting". Or perhaps he was researching a role. Or perhaps the guy down the pub was spending too much time there. <br /><br />I suggest you ask the gorgeous, pouting Miss Chevrolet to arrange some holiday cover when she next jets off to foreign climes. Scott Gronmarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15118026157459333174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-24177565661231941402018-03-19T15:19:29.868+00:002018-03-19T15:19:29.868+00:00Pub genealogists aren't what they used to be. ...Pub genealogists aren't what they used to be. It's the Tories and their cuts. <br /><br />Sanders was indeed married first to Zsa Zsa and then came back for another bout of misery with her sister Eva. I remember watching a chat show hosted by Eamon Andrews in which he asked Peter Cook what he most admired about fellow guest Zsa Zsa. The reply was along the lines of 'absolutely nothing, she is without any discernible talent and is only famous because of the number of marriages she has had'. However, I have never been able to find any reference to this incident or indeed anyone else who saw it, so it is quite possible that I am suffering from recovered false memory syndrome.Ex-KCSnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-2374111313077441892018-03-19T08:55:15.242+00:002018-03-19T08:55:15.242+00:00And there is that very fine actor, Leslie Howard. ...And there is that very fine actor, Leslie Howard. Although born in the United Kingdom, his father was Hungarian and mother half-Prussian.<br /><br />Re Basil Rathbone. I once met a guy down the pub who assured me his father met Basil in the backstreets of Port Said. He was wearing a fez and tried to sell him some postcards and addressed him as "effendi". He said he looked like an Arabic "Snidely Whiplash". Perhaps he was confusing him with another Basil who must have been in Egypt during the war as well.<br /><br />Am I right in saying that George Sanders was married to two of the Gabor sisters which probably led to his premature death or have I got that wrong as well? The problem is that my research assistant [Miss Rita Chevrolet] who checks my facts is currently away on her holidays.SDGnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-42634454413915323782018-03-18T14:07:58.185+00:002018-03-18T14:07:58.185+00:00I'm with you on Rathbone, Ex-KCS. Like SDG, I...I'm with you on Rathbone, Ex-KCS. Like SDG, I was under the impression Rathbone might have been half-Egyptian, but couldn't find any reference to it online. He did play a sheikh in Selznick's "The Garden of Allah" (1936), but I'm not sure that counts.<br /><br />As for George Sanders, the picture is murkier. He was born in St Petersburg. The official version is that his father, Henry Sanders, was an Englishman born in London, but a book published in 1990 suggested that Henry was "illegitimately born to a Russian noblewoman of the Czar’s court on October 20, 1868, that his real father was ‘a prince of the house of Oldenburg’ married to a sister of the Czar" (!), and that Henry was placed in the care of an English family living in St Petersburg. Whatever the truth is, it's undoubtedly the case that the Sanders family fled to England at the start of the Russian Revolution in 2017 and that George and his older brother, Tom, attended Bedales School and Brighton College. So, if George Sanders wasn't strictly English, he was officially British by the time he left for America, after appearing in a number of UK films.<br /><br />Laurence Harvey was born in Lithuania and raised in South Africa - but as he didn't make his first American picture until 1950, he doesn't get on the list in any case. <br /><br />As for Roddie McDowell, he probably makes the list. His family moved to America in 1940, by which time he'd appeared in a number of British films - but whether they emigrated in the hope of establishing Roddie's career in America, I've no idea. He certainly hit the ground running, appearing his first American picture - Fritz Lang's "Man Hunt" - in 1941. <br /> Scott Gronmarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15118026157459333174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-73816841402219545032018-03-18T13:31:08.825+00:002018-03-18T13:31:08.825+00:00You're spot on! The "boy wonder elocution...You're spot on! The "boy wonder elocutionist" of Warminster had made four films in Britain before George Cukor and David O. Selznick spotted him on a trip to London in 1934 and cast him as David Copperfield in their next film - whereupon little Freddie emigrated and became a true star. Scott Gronmarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15118026157459333174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-42456068731078655902018-03-18T09:57:34.115+00:002018-03-18T09:57:34.115+00:00Fake News! Rathbone was a South African born Engli...Fake News! Rathbone was a South African born Englishman, left S.A. at 3, educated at Repton, won an MC in WW1. The Egyptian connection is not immediately obvious,Ex-KCSnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-86655391373287684842018-03-17T22:10:46.259+00:002018-03-17T22:10:46.259+00:00Splendid post. Agree with Helen. Also, Roddy McDow...Splendid post. Agree with Helen. Also, Roddy McDowall. For the record, Rathbone was an Egyptian and Sanders a Russian. Laurance Harvey, who had a good Hollywood career, was a Lithuanian. Errol Flynn was a Tasmanian not an A. Big Diff!SDGnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-22191147117172273742018-03-17T19:49:14.219+00:002018-03-17T19:49:14.219+00:00How about Freddie Bartholomew?How about Freddie Bartholomew?Helennoreply@blogger.com