
Acting
Al Shean
Born 1868-05-12 · Dornum, Germany
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Abraham Elieser Adolph Schönberg (12 May 1868 – 12 August 1949), known as Al Shean, was a comedian and vaudeville performer. Other sources give his birth name variously as Adolf Schönberg, Albert Schönberg, or Alfred Schönberg.[6] He is most remembered for being half of the vaudeville team Gallagher and Shean, and as the uncle of the Marx Brothers. Shean was born in Dornum, Germany, on 12 May 1868, the son of Fanny and Levi or Louis Schoenberg. His father was a magician. His sister, Minnie, married Sam "Frenchie" Marx; their children would become the Marx Brothers. After making a name for himself in vaudeville, Shean teamed up with Edward Gallagher to create the act Gallagher and Shean in the 1920s. While the act was successful, the men apparently did not like each other much. After their act's final Ziegfeld Follies pairing, Shean went on to perform solo in eight Broadway shows, even playing the title character in Father Malachy's Miracle. Shean had some solo film roles: as the piano player, known as "The Professor" in San Francisco (1936), as a priest in Hitler's Madman (1943), as grandfather in The Blue Bird (1940), and in some three dozen other films. He and Gallagher also made an early sound film at the Theodore Case studio in Auburn, New York, in 1925. He died on 12 August 1949.
Acting credits
5.5In 1942, a young paratrooper in the RAF returns to Czechoslovakia to encourage his fellow countrymen to sabotage the German war effort.
Hitler's Madman
1943
6.6Discovery by Flo Ziegfeld changes a girl's life but not necessarily for the better, as three beautiful women find out when they join the spectacle on Broadway: Susan, the singer who must leave behind her ageing vaudevillian father; vulnerable Sheila, the working girl pursued both by a millionaire and by her loyal boyfriend from Flatbush; and the mysterious European beauty Sandra, whose concert violinist husband cannot endure the thought of their escaping from poverty by promenading her glamor in skimpy costumes.
Ziegfeld Girl
1941
5.8Peasant children Mytyl and Tyltyl are led on a magical quest for the fabulous Blue Bird of Happiness by the fairy Berylune. On their journey, they're accompanied by the anthropomorphized presences of a Dog, a Cat, Light, Fire, and Bread, among other entities.
The Blue Bird
1940
7.0Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire present more golden moments from the MGM film library, this time including comedy and drama as well as classic musical numbers.
That's Entertainment, Part II
1976
6.0While in Shanghai reporting on the Sino-Japanese war, Chris Hunter, a shrewd news reporter, meets pilot Alma Harding. She does not trust him, but he manages to hire her as his assistant. During an adventurous expedition through the jungles of South America, her opinion of him begins to change.
Too Hot to Handle
1938
6.6A beautiful singer and a battling priest try to reform a Barbary Coast saloon owner in the days before the great earthquake and subsequent fires in 1906.
San Francisco
1936
6.6A married singer, pianist/composer team are struggling to hit it big in New York. Finally, they audition before a Broadway producer, but the producer only wants the singer, leaving the husband without a job and feeling a failure.
Broadway Serenade
1939
6.4Robert is found beside the highway with a head injury and amnesia. His amnesia motivates him to become a Physician and the country's leading criminal psychologist.
Crime Doctor
1943
5.6A starving, uncompromising artist and an heiress fall in love at first sight and immediately get married. She loves his outrageous behaviour, his strange roommate, and the best apartment poverty can buy.
Live, Love and Learn
1937
6.7After the First World War a group of German soldiers try to readjust to civilian life. A sequel to 'All Quiet on the Western Front'.
The Road Back
1937
5.9Composer Johann Strauss risks his marriage over his infatuation with a beautiful singer.
The Great Waltz
1938
6.3Con men Calvin Churchill and Clip McGurk know how to fix a horse-race or boxing match. Calvin wants to go straight and win back his estranged wife, but first the men must dodge a dogged IRS agent and bilk a bunch of aviation investors out of the backing boodle for a balloon excursion into the stratosphere.
It's in the Air
1935
An amateur theatrical society rehearses in a deserted house which is believed to be haunted by two travelers who have lost their way in the rain.
Chills and Fever
1930
6.7A country girl goes to the city and gets a job in a posh hotel, and winds up becoming an instant celebrity thanks to an ambitious photographer.
Page Miss Glory
1935
6.3In 1915, Atlantic City is a sleepy seaside resort, but Brad Taylor, son of a small hotel and vaudeville house proprietor, has big plans: he thinks it can be "the playground of the world." Brad's wheeling and dealing proves remarkably successful in attracting big enterprises and big shows, but brings him little success in personal relationships. Full of nostalgic songs and acts, some with the original artists. Reissued in 1950 as "Atlantic City Honeymoon".
Atlantic City
1944
5.6A songwriter's young daughter (June Lang) begins to dream of stardom when she's offered the lead role in a new operetta.
Music in the Air
1934
6.1A toothpaste magnate's mischievous daughter, tired of her father's traditional ways of conducting business, joins forces with her father's rival and a crazy inventor. Together they create "Cocktail Toothpaste". The new concoction tastes like whiskey in the morning, a martini at suppertime, and champagne at night.
Traveling Saleslady
1935
10.0A theatre actor makes the crossover to movies and becomes a star, but his new-found fame puts his family relationships at risk.
Hitch Hike To Heaven
1936
7.0A 12-episode serial in which Tim Tyler goes to Africa in search of his father in gorilla country. He meets up with Laura, who is after Spider Webb who has framed her brother. Webb causes the death of Tim's father, but is eventually tracked down.
Tim Tyler's Luck
1937
6.8A midwest band leader and his lead singer share a love-hate relationship as they try for success in New York.
Sweet Music
1935
8.0The Weaver Brothers hit the road and taste the hobo's life in this, the sixth, entry in the eleven-film "Weaver Brothers and Elviry" comedy-drama series. The singing hayseed family's journey begins when a drought destroys their farm. The young travelers soon hook up with a band of tramps and end up in a small town that has been nearly destroyed by the floods that occasionally roar through it. The Weavers' are moved by the townsfolk's plight and so decide to stay a spell and help out.
Friendly Neighbors
1940
5.0Joe and Ethel Turp are up in arms when their faithful old mailman is fired. Unable to get satisfaction on a municipal level, Joe and Ethel plead their mailman's case to the President himself.
Joe and Ethel Turp Call on the President
1939
3.0A politically charged story about a man who dabbles in crime, with disastrous results, to gain the capital he needs to purchase a school where immigrants are prepared for American citizenship. The school's European teacher dreams of a fascist America. Based on a story by Nathanael West and Samuel Ornitz, who was one of the Hollywood Ten blacklisted during the McCarthy Era.
It Could Happen to You
1937
8.0Patsy's working at Rumplemeyer's Donut Shop in Brooklyn. By accident she catches Mr. Rumplemeyer's trousers in the donut machine as he's leaving to pick his niece who's arriving from the old country, so he gives Patsy cab fare and sends her. She forgets her purse, so when she arrives at the immigration office, she can't pay the cabbie, who tells her he'll wait while the meter runs. Inside, Patsy finally finds the high-spirited Lyda, but by then, Patsy has sneaked into the holding area and may need a passport to get out. She hides in Lyda's trunk, but with the cabbie, a suspicious immigration officer, and a traffic cop buzzing around will uncle and niece ever connect?
At Sea Ashore
1936