Follow the Boys
Encyclopedia
Follow the Boys also known as Three Cheers for the Boys, is a musical film
made by Universal Pictures
as an all-star cast morale booster to entertain the troops abroad and the civilians at home. The film was directed by A. Edward "Eddie" Sutherland
and produced by Charles K. Feldman
. The movie stars George Raft
and features Vera Zorina
, Grace McDonald
, Charles Grapewin
, Regis Toomey
and George Macready
.
Making appearances are virtually the entire roster of contracted players at Universal, including Walter Abel
, Carmen Amaya
, The Andrews Sisters
, Evelyn Ankers
, Louise Beavers
, Noah Beery, Jr.
, Turhan Bey
, Steve Brodie
, Nigel Bruce
, Lon Chaney, Jr.
, the Delta Rhythm Boys, Andy Devine
, Marlene Dietrich
, W. C. Fields
, Susanna Foster
, Thomas Gomez
, Louis Jordan and His Orchestra
, Ted Lewis and His Band
, Jeanette MacDonald
, Maria Montez
, Clarence Muse
, Donald O'Connor
, Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom
, Artur Rubinstein, Peggy Ryan
, Randolph Scott
, Dinah Shore
, Freddie Slack and His Orchestra
, Gale Sondergaard
, Sophie Tucker
, Orson Welles
, among many others.
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
made by Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
as an all-star cast morale booster to entertain the troops abroad and the civilians at home. The film was directed by A. Edward "Eddie" Sutherland
A. Edward Sutherland
A. Edward Sutherland aka Eddie Sutherland was a film director and actor. Born Albert Edward Sutherland in London, he was from a theatrical family. His father, Al Sutherland, was a theatre manager and producer and his mother, Julie Ring, was a vaudeville performer...
and produced by Charles K. Feldman
Charles K. Feldman
Charles K. Feldman was a film producer and talent agent born in New York City. In 1934 he married actress Jean Howard, whom he divorced in 1948...
. The movie stars George Raft
George Raft
George Raft was an American film actor and dancer identified with portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s...
and features Vera Zorina
Vera Zorina
Vera Zorina was a Norwegian ballerina, musical theatre actress and choreographer.-Background:Vera Zorina was born Eva Brigitta Hartwig in Berlin, Germany. Her father Fritz was a German and her mother Billie Hartwig was Norwegian. Both were professional singers...
, Grace McDonald
Grace McDonald
Grace McDonald Green was an American actress who appeared in a number of films in the early 1940s, although most were B movies. She and her brother Ray had their Broadway debut in 1937 in Babes in Arms as part of the dance team, and singing I Wish I Were in Love Again. She made her screen debut...
, Charles Grapewin
Charles Grapewin
Charley Ellsworth Grapewin was an American vaudeville performer and a stage and film actor, who portrayed Uncle Henry in MGM's The Wizard of Oz and Grandpa Joad in the film The Grapes of Wrath ....
, Regis Toomey
Regis Toomey
John Regis Toomey was an American film and television actor.-Early life:Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he was one of four children of Francis X. and Mary Ellen Toomey and attended Peabody High School...
and George Macready
George Macready
George Peabody Macready, Jr. , was an American stage, film, and television actor often cast in roles as polished villains.-Background:...
.
Making appearances are virtually the entire roster of contracted players at Universal, including Walter Abel
Walter Abel
Walter Abel was an American stage and film character actor. His eyes were brown and his height was five foot ten inches....
, Carmen Amaya
Carmen Amaya
Carmen Amaya was a flamenco dancer and singer, of gypsy origin, born in the Somorrostro slum of Barcelona, Spain, nowadays....
, The Andrews Sisters
The Andrews Sisters
The Andrews Sisters were a highly successful close harmony singing group of the swing and boogie-woogie eras. The group consisted of three sisters: contralto LaVerne Sophia Andrews , soprano Maxene Angelyn Andrews , and mezzo-soprano Patricia Marie "Patty" Andrews...
, Evelyn Ankers
Evelyn Ankers
Evelyn Ankers was a British actress born in Chile. She often played variations on the role of the cultured young leading lady in many American horror films during the 1940s, most notably The Wolf Man at age 23 opposite Lon Chaney, Jr., a frequent screen partner...
, Louise Beavers
Louise Beavers
Louise Beavers was an African-American film and television actress. Beavers appeared in dozens of films from the 1920s to the 1930s, most often in the role of a maid, servant, or slave. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Beavers was a member of Sigma Gamma Rho sorority, one of the four African-American...
, Noah Beery, Jr.
Noah Beery, Jr.
Noah Lindsey Beery , known professionally as Noah Beery, Jr. or just Noah Beery, was an American actor specializing in warm, friendly character parts similar to the ones played by his uncle Wallace Beery, although Noah Beery, Jr., unlike his uncle, seldom broke away from playing supporting...
, Turhan Bey
Turhan Bey
Turhan Bey is an American actor of Turkish and Czech descent. Bey was active in Hollywood from 1941 to 1953. He was dubbed "The Turkish Delight" by his fans for his exotic handsome looks...
, Steve Brodie
Steve Brodie (actor)
Steve Brodie was an American movie and television actor.Born John Stevenson in El Dorado, Kansas, he took his screen name from the Steve Brodie who claimed that he jumped from the Brooklyn Bridge in 1886 and survived...
, Nigel Bruce
Nigel Bruce
William Nigel Ernle Bruce , best known as Nigel Bruce, was a British character actor on stage and screen. He was best known for his portrayal of Doctor Watson in a series of films and in the radio series The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes...
, Lon Chaney, Jr.
Lon Chaney, Jr.
Lon Chaney, Jr. , born Creighton Tull Chaney, was an American character actor. He was best known for his roles in monster movies and as the son of famous silent film actor, Lon Chaney...
, the Delta Rhythm Boys, Andy Devine
Andy Devine
Andrew Vabre "Andy" Devine was an American character actor and comic cowboy sidekick known for his distinctive raspy voice.-Early life:...
, Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...
, W. C. Fields
W. C. Fields
William Claude Dukenfield , better known as W. C. Fields, was an American comedian, actor, juggler and writer...
, Susanna Foster
Susanna Foster
Suzanne DeLee Flanders Larson was an American film actress best known for her leading role as Christine in the 1943 film version of The Phantom of the Opera....
, Thomas Gomez
Thomas Gomez
Thomas Gomez was an American actor.Born Sabino Tomas Gomez in New York City, Gomez began his acting career in theater during the 1920s and was a student of the actor Walter Hampden...
, Louis Jordan and His Orchestra
Louis Jordan
Louis Thomas Jordan was a pioneering American jazz, blues and rhythm & blues musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "The King of the Jukebox", Jordan was highly popular with both black and white audiences in the...
, Ted Lewis and His Band
Ted Lewis (musician)
Theodore Leopold Friedman, better known as Ted Lewis , was an American entertainer, bandleader, singer, and musician. He led a band presenting a combination of jazz, hokey comedy, and schmaltzy sentimentality that was a hit with the American public. He was known by the moniker "Mr...
, Jeanette MacDonald
Jeanette MacDonald
Jeanette MacDonald was an American singer and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier and Nelson Eddy...
, Maria Montez
María Montez
María Montez was a Dominican-born motion picture actress who gained fame and popularity in the 1940s as an exotic beauty starring in a series of filmed-in-Technicolor costume adventure films. Her screen image was that of a hot-blooded Latin seductress, dressed in fanciful costumes and sparkling...
, Clarence Muse
Clarence Muse
Clarence Muse was an actor, screenwriter, director, composer, and lawyer. He was inducted in the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1973. Muse was the first African American to "star" in a film. He acted for more than sixty years, and appeared in more than 150 movies.-Life and career:Born in...
, Donald O'Connor
Donald O'Connor
Donald David Dixon Ronald O’Connor was an American dancer, singer, and actor who came to fame in a series of movies in which he co-starred alternately with Gloria Jean, Peggy Ryan, and Francis the Talking Mule...
, Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom
Maxie Rosenbloom
Max Everitt Rosenbloom, known as Slapsie Maxie was an American boxer, actor, and television personality.-Life and career:...
, Artur Rubinstein, Peggy Ryan
Peggy Ryan
Margaret O'Rene "Peggy" Ryan was an American dancer, best known for starring in a series of movie musicals at Universal Pictures with Donald O'Connor and Gloria Jean....
, Randolph Scott
Randolph Scott
Randolph Scott was an American film actor whose career spanned from 1928 to 1962. As a leading man for all but the first three years of his cinematic career, Scott appeared in a variety of genres, including social dramas, crime dramas, comedies, musicals , adventure tales, war films, and even a few...
, Dinah Shore
Dinah Shore
Dinah Shore was an American singer, actress, and television personality...
, Freddie Slack and His Orchestra
Freddie Slack
Frederick Charles Slack was an American swing and boogie-woogie pianist and bandleader.He played with the Jimmy Dorsey Band in the 1930s and was a charter member of the Will Bradley Orchestra when it formed in 1939...
, Gale Sondergaard
Gale Sondergaard
Gale Sondergaard was an American actress.Sondergaard began her acting career in theatre, and progressed to films in 1936. She was the first recipient of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her film debut in Anthony Adverse...
, Sophie Tucker
Sophie Tucker
Sophie Tucker was a Russian/Ukrainian-born American singer and actress. Known for her stentorian delivery of comical and risqué songs, she was one of the most popular entertainers in America during the first half of the 20th century...
, Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
, among many others.
Cast
- George RaftGeorge RaftGeorge Raft was an American film actor and dancer identified with portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s...
as Tony West - Vera ZorinaVera ZorinaVera Zorina was a Norwegian ballerina, musical theatre actress and choreographer.-Background:Vera Zorina was born Eva Brigitta Hartwig in Berlin, Germany. Her father Fritz was a German and her mother Billie Hartwig was Norwegian. Both were professional singers...
as Gloria Vance - Charles GrapewinCharles GrapewinCharley Ellsworth Grapewin was an American vaudeville performer and a stage and film actor, who portrayed Uncle Henry in MGM's The Wizard of Oz and Grandpa Joad in the film The Grapes of Wrath ....
as Nick West - Grace McDonald as Kitty
- Charles ButterworthCharles ButterworthCharles Butterworth, Ph.D. is a noted philosopher of the Straussian school and currently a professor of political philosophy at the University of Maryland, College Park....
as Louie West - George MacreadyGeorge MacreadyGeorge Peabody Macready, Jr. , was an American stage, film, and television actor often cast in roles as polished villains.-Background:...
as Bruce - Elizabeth PattersonElizabeth Patterson (actress)Elizabeth Patterson was an American film and television character actress remembered for her portrayal of elderly neighbor Matilda Trumbull on I Love Lucy.-Career:...
as Annie - Theodore von EltzTheodore von EltzTheodore von Eltz was an American film actor. He appeared in over 200 films between 1915 and 1957.He was born in New Haven, Connecticut, and died in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles.-Selected filmography:...
as Barrett - Regis ToomeyRegis ToomeyJohn Regis Toomey was an American film and television actor.-Early life:Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he was one of four children of Francis X. and Mary Ellen Toomey and attended Peabody High School...
as Doctor Henderson - Ramsay AmesRamsay AmesRamsay Ames was a leading 1940s American B movie actress, model, dancer, comediene, pin-up girl and host of a television show....
as Laura - Spooks as Junior
- And Molly LamontMolly LamontMolly Lamont was a British film actress.Lamont was born in Boksburg, Transvaal, South Africa. She began her career in British films in 1930 and for several years played small, often uncredited roles...
, Doris LloydDoris LloydHessy Doris Lloyd was an English actress.She appeared in over 150 films between 1920 and 1967, including the 1933 low-budget Monogram Pictures version of Oliver Twist, in which she played Nancy...
, Nelson LeighNelson LeighNelson Leigh was a prolific motion picture actor of the 1940s and 1950s.-Career:...
, Lane ChandlerLane ChandlerLane Chandler was an American actor specializing in Westerns.-Early life:He was born as Robert Chandler Oakes on a ranch near Culbertson, Montana, the son of a horse rancher. At an early age, the family relocated to Helena, Montana, where he graduated from high school...
, Cyril RingCyril RingCyril Ring was an American film actor. He began his career in silent films in 1921. By the time of his final performance in 1951, he had appeared in over 350 films, almost all in small and/or uncredited parts...
, Emmett VoganEmmett VoganEmmett Vogan was an American actor with almost 500 film appearances from 1934–1954, making him one of the most prolific actors of all time.-External links:...
, Addison RichardsAddison RichardsAddison Richards was an American film actor. He appeared in over 300 films between 1933 and 1964. He died from a heart attack...
, Stanley AndrewsStanley AndrewsStanley Andrews was an American actor perhaps best known as the voice of Daddy Warbucks on the radio program Little Orphan Annie and later as "The Old Ranger", the host of Death Valley Days.-Early life:...
, Frank JenksFrank JenksFrank Jenks acid-voiced supporting actor, began in vaudeville and went on to a long career in movies and television, mostly in comedy. He was one of the more familiar faces and voices of the Hollywood Studio era. For almost ten years beginning in the early 1920s, Jenks was a song and dance man...
, Ralph DunnRalph DunnRalph Dunn was an American film, television, and stage actor.Career=Dunn was born in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Dunn's father was a veterinarian for the U.S. Army during WWI, and his mother was an actress...
, Billy BenedictWilliam BenedictWilliam Benedict was an American actor. Born in Haskell, Oklahoma, he took part in school theatricals, and on leaving school he made his way to Hollywood. His first film was $10 Raise starring Edward Everett Horton, which launched Benedict on a busy career...
, Howard C. HickmanHoward C. HickmanHoward C. Hickman was an accomplished stage leading man, who entered films through the auspices of producer Thomas H. Ince. He co-starred with his wife, actress Bessie Barriscale, in several productions before returning to the theatre...
, Edwin StanleyEdwin StanleyEdwin Stanley , was an American film actor. He appeared in over 230 films between 1916 and 1946.He was born in Chicago, Illinois, and died in Hollywood, California.-Selected filmography:...
, Wallis ClarkWallis ClarkWallis H. Clark was a stage and film actor, born in Essex, England. He died in North Hollywood, California.Clark was formerly an engineer. He began his stage career in Margate in 1908...
, Richard CraneRichard CraneRichard Crane was a veteran character actor whose career spanned three decades in films and television. His early career included many uncredited performances in feature films made in the 1940's. He is best remembered for his portrayal of the title role in the TV science fiction series Rocky...
, Frank WilcoxFrank WilcoxFrank Reppy Wilcox was an American character actor who made over 150 film appearances and almost 200 TV appearances...
, Clyde CookClyde Cook (actor)Clyde Cook was an Australian born actor whose career spanned the silent film era, talkies and television.He was known as the "Rubber Comedian" because of his ability to bend himself into almost any position...
, Bobby BarberBobby BarberBobby Barber was a prolific American character bit player who appeared in over 100 films. Barber is notable for his work as a foil for Abbott and Costello on and off screen.-External links:...
, Walter TetleyWalter TetleyWalter Tetley , an American voice actor, was a child impersonator in radio's classic era, with regular roles on The Great Gildersleeve and The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show, as well as continuing as a voice-over artist in animated cartoons, commercials, and spoken-word record albums...
, Anthony WardeAnthony WardeAnthony Warde was a noted American actor who appeared in over 150 films between 1937 and 1964.-Career:A native of Pennsylvania, Warde started his Hollywood career in Escape by Night , appearing in a handful of undistinguished feature films before gaining popularity as one of the hardest working...
, William ForrestWilliam ForrestWilliam Forrest was an American film actor. He appeared in over 250 films between 1932 and 1976.He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and died in Santa Monica, California from heart failure....
, Dennis MooreDennis Moore (actor)Dennis Moore was an actor who specialized in western films and film serials....
, Duke YorkDuke YorkDuke York was an American film actor. Born in Danby, New York, York was born Charles Everest Sinsabaugh...
, Carlyle BlackwellCarlyle BlackwellCarlyle Blackwell was an American silent film actor and a minor director and producer.Born in Troy, Pennsylvania, he made his film debut in the 1910 Vitagraph Studios production of Uncle Tom's Cabin directed by J. Stuart Blackton. Between then and 1930, when talkies ended his acting career, he...
, Edwin StanleyEdwin StanleyEdwin Stanley , was an American film actor. He appeared in over 230 films between 1916 and 1946.He was born in Chicago, Illinois, and died in Hollywood, California.-Selected filmography:...
, Charles King