Virginia Mayo Tribute on TCM today for her birthday

I gotta hand it to TCM..when it comes to honoring classic film stars on their birthdays, they don't hold back. The other day it was Gloria Grahame. Today it is Virginia Mayo. The actress will be honored with several films including Smart Girls Don't Talk (1948), White Heat (1949), The Girl From Jones Beach (1949), and Always Leaving Them Laughing (1949). The fun begins at 6am EST. Wish I could catch some of them but I will be at work when they are showing. For those who can though, check out her films as Virginia was an amazing actress.

At The Beach: VIRGINIA MAYO

Virginia standing tall

THE MONTIES: A slight delay, but they are coming back soon....

Hi everyone. I know it's been about a month since I did my last Monties. And it's going to be another week or two before I have completed watching films from the year of 1945. One of the main things going on that year was the unbelievable amount of great work by women. Right now I have nine performances in the Best Actress category that are all excellent work. This will be the toughest year yet for me to decide on. That's why I'm re-watching several films to look at those amazing performances again. So if you guys can just bear with me a little while longer, I should have a new edition of the Monties before the month is out. But I will at least list the nine nominees for Best Actress so you guys will have an idea what's going on.

DONNA REED (THEY WERE EXPENDABLE)

MARGARET LOCKWOOD (THE WICKED LADY)

                                    

 

BARBARA STANWYCK (CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT)

                          


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
JOAN BENNETT (SCARLET STREET)

                                               

 

GENE TIERNEY (LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN)

                                       
                                        

 

JOAN CRAWFORD (MILDRED PIERCE)

                                            



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
JANE WYMAN (THE LOST WEEKEND)

                                               

   ANN SAVAGE (DETOUR)                                      

VIRGINIA MAYO (WONDER MAN)

What an impressive list of nominees. It will make for a most difficult decision when it comes time to decides who will get a Montie for Best Actress of 1945. I will have the answer to that and to all the other categories in a few short weeks.

1949: The Year Of Virginia Mayo

Tomorrow is actress Virginia Mayo's birthday. And TCM is honoring her with several of her movies. What makes this day stand out is the number of films they are showing. Eight films. Five of which come from 1949. She actually made six films that year which is truly amazing. Things begin at 6 am EST with Red Light, co-starring George Raft and Raymond Burr. Followed by the Jimmy Cagney classic White Heat at 7:30. Next up is the suspense film Flaxy Martin at 9:30. Followed by the light comedy The Girl From Jones Beach with Ronald Reagan. Always Leave Them Laughing bows at 12:30 co-starring Milton Berle, which wraps up the 1949 portion of Ms. Mayo films. The remaining three films from different years are all musicals including the musical Painting The Clouds With Sunshine from 1951; She's Back On Broadway from 1953 and She's Working Her Working Through College with Ronald Reagan again. So Virginia will be well represented for her birthday tomorrow thanks to TCM.

Classic Movie Goddess Of The Week - Virginia Mayo Part 3

Hi, everyone...here are my picks for what I think are the essential films of Virgina Mayo to see. The films that showcase Virgina at her very best. Here we go:

THE PRINCESS AND THE PIRATE (1944) Co-starring with Bob Hope, Virgina makes a terrific foil. It's a shame they didn't make more films together. Mayo is a delight as Princess Margaret.

THE KID FROM BROOKLYN (1945) Virgina made 3 films with Danny Kaye and this is one of them. She plays Polly Pringle (great name) and with the movie being filmed in Technicolor, she never looked better.

THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946) Virgina is part of a super ensemble cast which includes Fredric March, Myrna Loy, Teresa Wright and Dana Andrews. She more than hold her own as Marie, the loose wife of Andrews, a returning soldier. One of Mayo's best roles ever.


THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY (1947) Another classic team up with Danny Kaye produces another fun movie and another good performance by Mayo.

WHITE HEAT (1949) Of course everyone remembers this film for the standout performance by James Cagney (I made it ma...top of the world!) But Mayo is really good too as his wayward wife Verna.

Classic Movie Goddess Of The Week - Virgina Mayo Part 2

Here are some facts and notes on Virgina plus some of her personal quotes on her co-stars:

Nickname: Ginny
Height: 5'5"
Spouse: Michael O'Shea (1947 - December 3, 1973 his death) 1 child

Was slightly cross-eyed and had to be carefully photographed.

Early on, using her real name of Virginia Jones, she played a straight woman in vaudeville for four years to a performing horse act. The "horse" was comprised of two men known as the Mayo Brothers; hence her stage name.

1 child - Catherine (born 1953)

Was Paul Newman's first on-screen leading lady, in the Biblical Epic The Silver Chalice (1954).

In Italy, most of her films were dubbed by Dhia Cristiani although at the beginning of her career Rosetta Calavetta, Lidia Simoneschi and Rina Morelli also occasionally lent their voice to her.


Personal Quotes

[on Jack Palance] I must say Jack Palance was a drag. We were together in "The Silver Chalice." The way he did his work was strange. He was a weird actor and I didn't like working with him at all.

[on Doris Day] I loved working with her. We used to call her Miss Sparkle Plenty because she was so vivacious.

[on James Cagney] Jimmy Cagney was the most dynamic man who ever appeared on the screen. He should have won five Oscars, he was so fabulous. He stimulated me to such an extent. I must say that I didn't have to act very much; I just had to react to him because he was so powerful.

[on Alan Ladd] And I worked with Alan Ladd, who along with Gregory Peck was my favorite leading man. He was a beautiful man, charming and gentle, and I think of all my leading men he worked best with me.

Classic Movie Goddess Of The Week - Virgina Mayo

It was good fortune that I decided for the movie goddess of the week to be Virgina Mayo. It also happens to be her birthday today and TCM is airing several of her movies for part of the day.

Born Virgina Clara Jones on November 30, 1920 in St. Louis, MO, the daughter of a newspaper reporter and his wife. The family had a rich heritage in the St. Louis area: her great-great-great-grandfather served in the American Revolution and later founded the city of East Saint Louis, Illinois, located right across the Mississippi River from its namesake. Virginia was interested in show business from an early age. Her aunt operated a dance studio and Virginia began taking lessons at the age of six. After graduating from high school in 1937, she became a member of the St. Louis Municipal Opera before she was signed to a contract by Samuel Goldwyn after being spotted by an MGM talent scout during a Broadway revue.

David O. Selznick gave her a screen test, but decided she wouldn't fit into films. Goldwyn, however, believed that her talent as an actress was there and cast her in a small role in 1943's Jack London (1943). She later had a walk-on part in Follies Girl (1943) that same year. Believing there was more to her than her obvious ravishing beauty, producers thought it was time to give her bigger and better roles. In 1944 she was cast as Princess Margaret in The Princess and the Pirate (1944), with Bob Hope and a year later appeared as Ellen Shavley in Wonder Man (1945). Her popularity increasing with every appearance, Virginia was cast in two more films in 1946, The Kid from Brooklyn (1946), with Danny Kaye, and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), with Dana Andrews, and received good notices as Andrews' avaricious, unfaithful wife. Her roles may have been coming in slow, but with each one her popularity with audiences rose. She finally struck paydirt in 1947 with a plum assignment in the well-received The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) as Rosalind van Hoorn. That same year she married Michael D. O'Shea and would remain with him until his death in 1973 (the union produced a daughter, Mary Catherine, in 1953). She got some of the best reviews of her career in James Cagney's return to the gangster genre, White Heat (1949), as Verna, the scheming, cheating wife of homicidal killer Cody Jarrett (Cagney). The striking beauty had still more plum roles in the 1950s. Parts in Backfire (1950), She's Working Her Way Through College (1952) and South Sea Woman (1953) all showed she was still a force to be reckoned with. As the decade ended, Virginia's career began to slow down. She had four roles in the 1960s and four more in the following decade. Her last role was as Janet Wilson in 1990's Evil Spirits (1990). She died on January 17, 2005.

So enjoy the pics and facts about Virgina all week long as she is the classic movie goddess of the week.