GLORIA JEAN SIGNED CHRISTMAS SKETCH ON THIN BOARD MEASURING OVERALL 7 1/2 X 10 1/2. Gloria Jean was an American actress and singer who starred or co-starred in 26 feature films from 1939 to 1959, and made numerous radio, television, stage, and nightclub appearances. She is probably best remembered today for her appearance with W. Fields in the film Never Give a Sucker an Even Break. Gloria Jean (born Gloria Jean Schoonover, April 14, 1926 – August 31, 2018)[1] was an American actress and singer who starred or co-starred in 26 feature films from 1939 to 1959, and made numerous radio, television, stage, and nightclub appearances. Fields in the film Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941). Revived interest in her life and films. Gloria Jean was born Gloria Jean Schoonover in Buffalo, New York, the daughter of Ferman and Eleanor Schoonover;[2] her ancestry was Pennsylvania Dutch. [3] She had three sisters, Sally, Lois, and Bonnie. The family was involved in her career, with Lois serving as stand-in for the actress and their father managing her career. [4] Gloria Jean was three years old when she first sang on radio, under the name Baby Skylark. The family moved to Scranton, Pennsylvania, where Gloria Jean sang with Paul Whiteman’s orchestra on radio broadcasts. When she was 12, she was engaged by a smallish New York opera company and became the youngest member of an opera troupe in the United States. Gloria Jean was being trained as a coloratura soprano when her voice teacher, Leah Russel, took her to an audition held by Universal Pictures movie producer Joe Pasternak in 1938. Pasternak had guided Deanna Durbin to stardom, and with Durbin now advancing to ingénue roles, Pasternak wanted a younger singer to make the same kind of musicals. He held auditions for a film called The Under-Pup. “There were hundreds of beautiful little girls there, ” Jean recalled. I had been grabbed out of the sandbox, and I didn’t look so nice. I had pigtails and my teeth were a little crooked. But that’s what Joe liked. She told Pasternak she could not sing as the piano was out of tune. My mother almost shot me. Joe said, `I like this kid. Let’s get the piano tuned and bring her back tomorrow. I got all kinds of lectures on the way home about being a little more subdued. When I sang the next day, I knew it went very well. [5] Up against hundreds of others, Gloria Jean won the audition. Under contract to Universal, she was given the leading role in the feature The Under-Pup (1939), which starred Robert Cummings and Nan Grey who had been in Three Smart Girls Grow Up with Durbin. [4] The film did well and Gloria Jean became instantly popular with moviegoers. [7] Universal’s publicity department initially claimed the singer was 11 years old instead of 13; her actual age was not well known for many decades. She co-starred with Bing Crosby in If I Had My Way (1940) which was written, produced and directed by David Butler. She then starred in the well-received A Little Bit of Heaven (1940), which reunited her with many from the Under-Pup cast, including Nan Grey; the male lead was Robert Stack who appeared opposite Durbin several times. Her fourth picture became her best known: Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941), in which she co-starred with W. “He had a reputation, I know, for not liking children, but he was very kind and considerate to me, ” said Gloria later. I used to wonder, though, why he didn’t eat on the set. When we broke for a meal he’d say,’Get that kid off to school. Of course, I know now, it was because he wanted to drink. In December 1940 she was sued by William Lustig, a Pennsylvania bandleader who had appeared with her during her local radio years; Lustig claimed to be her former agent. Universal recognized the need for musical entertainment during wartime, and Gloria Jean became one of the studio’s most prolific performers; during the war years she made 14 feature films. Most were “hepcat” musicals, which were geared to the teenage market of the day, and Universal often used them to introduce new young talent, including Donald O’Connor, Peggy Ryan, Mel Tormé, and Marshall Thompson. [10] She supported The Andrews Sisters in What’s Cookin’ (1942) then appeared with Donald O’Connor, Jane Frazee, Robert Paige and Peggy Ryan in Get Hep to Love (1942). It was directed by Charles Lamont as was When Johnny Comes Marching Home (1942) with O’Connor, Ryan, Frazee, and Allan Jones. She and O’Connor were top-billed in It Comes Up Love (1943) and Mister Big (1943). She was in Moonlight in Vermont (1943) with Ray Malone. She was cast, in her first dramatic performance, as a blind girl in one of four vignettes for Julien Duvivier’s Flesh and Fantasy (1943). The studio started admitting her real age. [11] Her performance won raves at the film’s advance preview, and her segment was the best-received of the four. However, Universal removed the half-hour sequence and shelved it, at the insistence of a major stockholder who exerted a great deal of control at the studio. [6] Gloria said this decision was a heartbreak… Because the part I played in that really meant a lot to me. It was the first I’d ever done with real drama. Universal tried to give Gloria Jean a smooth transition from adolescent roles to leading-lady status; she was outgrowing juvenile roles but was not yet mature enough for adult leads. In December 1942 she was tested for the female lead in Phantom of the Opera, [14] but was considered too young. She was then considered as the singing ingenue in a concurrent Abbott and Costello comedy, It Ain’t Hay (released 1943) but was considered too old. In January 1944 Universal announced they wanted to launch Gloria Jean as a more adult star and were developing “three or four stories”. [12] Resuming her string of musicals, Gloria Jean co-starred with Olsen and Johnson in the big-budget Ghost Catchers (1944), which featured singer-actor Kirby Grant. The two vocalists worked so well together that Universal teamed them for two more features. [6] She starred in Pardon My Rhythm (1944) opposite Mel Torme, Reckless Age (1944) and I’ll Remember April (1945) with Kirby Grant. [15] In May 1944 she turned eighteen. When Gloria Jean’s Universal contract expired at the end of 1944, her agent Eddie Sherman (who was also Abbott and Costello’s manager) persuaded her against renewing it, [6] citing the need for a transition period to make the change from child to adult roles. [17] This left Universal in a bind; the studio had already promised exhibitors three Gloria Jean pictures for the 1945 season. Universal solved the problem by rushing Gloria Jean through three final productions that had already been partially completed. The half-hour sequence from Flesh and Fantasy was expanded into a feature-length melodrama, Destiny (1944); and scripts had already been prepared for Fairy Tale Murder (1945) (released in the United States as River Gang) and Easy to Look At (1945) (co-starring Kirby Grant). After leaving Universal, Gloria Jean made personal appearances across America; the successful tour prompted a new tour of Europe. In England, her rendition of “The Lord’s Prayer” (and the lyric “forgive us our debts”) was taken by some critics as a pointed comment about America’s lend-lease policy. [6] “It was all over the newspapers the next day, the story that I had come to London to insult Britons, ” said Gloria. To make matters worse, no directors wanted the former child star. “It was a mistake for me to stay away from Hollywood that long, ” she admitted in 1960. You can easily be forgotten. She resumed her movie career as a freelance performer appearing in United Artists, Columbia Pictures, and Allied Artists productions, the best-known being Copacabana (1947) with Groucho Marx. Four of her later films were directed by Arthur Dreifuss: I Surrender Dear (1948) and Manhattan Angel (1949) for Sam Katzman. [19] then the Dreifuss-produced An Old-Fashioned Girl (1949) for Eagle Lion and There’s a Girl in My Heart (1949) for Allied Artists. Gloria Jean began appearing on TV shows like Hollywood Theatre Time, Rebound, Death Valley Days, Hallmark Hall of Fame, The Colgate Comedy Hour, Your Favorite Story, Annie Oakley, and Lux Video Theatre. Her best-known performances of the early 1950s are six Snader Telescriptions (three-minute musicals syndicated for television), later compiled into the TV series Showtime. She also continued to appear in feature films, albeit low-budget ones. Wonder Valley (1953), produced on location in Arkansas, was Gloria Jean’s first color movie and is now a lost film. [6] Her next feature was Air Strike (1955), a minor military drama. After Air Strike Gloria Jean was hired by the owner of the Tahitian restaurant in Studio City, California as a hostess, [21] greeting and seating dinner guests. She enjoyed the experience and occasionally ran the restaurant in her employer’s absence. Show-business patrons were surprised that a film star was now involved in restaurant work, resulting in sympathetic feature stories in the national press. Veteran Hollywood producer Edward Finney, himself a Gloria Jean fan, saw one of these reports and hired her to star in the lightweight comedy Laffing Time (filmed in 1959, re-released as The Madcaps in 1964). [6] Jerry Lewis also read that Gloria Jean was working in a restaurant, and signed her for a singing role in his latest production, The Ladies Man (1961). [22] Lewis removed almost all of her footage from the finished film; she appears only as an extra and has no dialogue. It was her last theatrical motion picture. Her final appearances were in The Dick Powell Theatre, Lockup, and Saints and Sinners. Newspaper columnist Bob Thomas reported that Gloria was engaged to a pilot, but he was killed in the Korean War. [21] Gloria herself denied this, dismissing it as mistaken identity. In 1962 she married Franco Cellini, an actor, but he was often away. By 1966 they were divorced. “I seem to attract the drips and the drunks, ” she said. The union produced a son, Angelo. She had problems with the IRS. So the Internal Revenue Service came along and seized all my assets. I decided, unlike so many other child stars, that instead of just sitting around waiting for work in the acting business, I’d pick myself up and go out and get a job. In 1965 she signed on with an employment agency, which sent her to Redken Cosmetics, where she worked as a receptionist until 1993. “I’m very happy, ” she said in 1986. I feel I had a wonderful past and I have a contented, happy present. In December 1991, Gloria Jean was honored by the Young Artist Foundation with its Former Child Star “Lifetime Achievement” Award, recognizing her achievements within the film industry as a juvenile performer. [23] Gloria Jean also participated in various nostalgia and autograph shows, meeting fans and displaying memorabilia. She had always retained her fan following, and corresponded steadily with friends and admirers for the rest of her life. Gloria Jean’s films are beginning to receive new exposure: If I Had My Way has been restored to its original length and issued on DVD, followed by the DVD release of Never Give a Sucker an Even Break. Latter-day documentaries about W. Fields include recent clips of Gloria Jean, reminiscing about working with him. Universal Pictures has struck new 35-mm prints of Mister Big and Get Hep to Love for theatrical use. Her 1947 film Copacabana is available on home video. After her retirement from Redken, Gloria Jean lived in California with her sister, Bonnie. Angelo died in 2017. Very late in life she suffered health problems, including two serious falls that slowed her mobility, and a heart condition. [24] She is survived by her daughter-in-law and four grandchildren. Her authorized biography, Gloria Jean: A Little Bit of Heaven, was published in 2005. A tribute website, GloriaJeanSings. Com, followed, also with Gloria Jean’s cooperation. Her Internet presence includes a series of videos showing the actress as she appeared in recent years. If I Had My Way. A Little Bit of Heaven. Never Give a Sucker an Even Break. Fields’s niece, Gloria Jean. Short (reissued as Winter Serenade). Get Hep to Love. (released outside the United States as She’s My Lovely). When Johnny Comes Marching Home. It Comes Up Love. (released outside the United States as A Date with an Angel). Includes sequence deleted from Flesh and Fantasy. I’ll Remember April. Easy to Look At. Filmed earlier by Universal; released outside the United States as Fairy Tale Murder. Patty Nelson, aka Patty Hart. An Old Fashioned Girl. There’s a Girl in My Heart. Independent; no known usable prints exist. Laffing Time (reissued as The Madcaps). Girl in boarding house. The cause was heart failure, according to her daughter-in-law Jennifer Cellini in a family statement prepared by Scott MacGillivray. As a pre-teen, Gloria Jean Schoonover got her start singing on the radio and in an opera troupe. The trained coloratura soprano was signed to Universal Pictures in 1938, making her film debut in “The Under-Pup” and becoming a sensation. During her heyday, she starred with such greats as Bing Crosby, the Andrews Sisters, and W. Fields, the latter of whom she appeared with in 1941’s Never Give a Sucker an Even Break. ” Post-WWII, she embarked on an international singing tour and starred in “Copacabana (1947) with Groucho Marx. Fields in 1941 and appearing at an autograph show in 2014. When her movie career cooled, she worked as a hostess in a restaurant, a change of fortune that fed media coverage similar to that given to former “The Cosby Show” star Geoffrey Owens, who was spotted working as a grocery bagger last week. The press led to some final film roles for the performer, including her last, in Jerry Lewis’ “The Ladies Man” (1961). Upon her retirement from acting, Gloria Jean worked for Redken Laboratories for 30 years. She was preceded in death last year by her son, Angelo Cellini. Gloria Jean’s career as a singer and actress spanned more than 30 years. She began singing as a toddler. At the age of five, she headlined her own radio show in Scranton, Pennsylvania. By the age of 12, she was training for a professional career as a coloratura soprano with a leading New York City operatic coach. In 1939, at the age of 13, she was Universal Pictures’ brightest new star, threatening to eclipse her predecessor, Deanna Durbin. She performed in films with such greats as Bing Crosby, W. Fields, Groucho Marx, Donald O’Connor, Mel Tormé, and the Andrews Sisters. As the 1940s progressed, she proved herself as a gifted actress as well as a singer. In the 1950s, she occasionally appeared on stage and on television in both acting and singing roles. In the 1960s, Elvis Presley wanted to make a film with her. She passed away August 31, 2018, at the age of 92. The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting on stage or in motion pictures or television, but also to an adult who began their acting career as a child. To avoid confusion, the latter is also called a former child actor. Closely associated is teenage actor or teen actor, an actor who reached popularity as a teenager. Many child actors find themselves struggling to adapt as they become adults, mainly due to typecasting. Macaulay Culkin and Lindsay Lohan are two particular famous child actors who eventually experienced much difficulty with the fame they acquired at a young age. Many child actors also become successful adult actors as well, a prime example of this being Jodie Foster, who was 12 years old in the film Taxi Driver in 1976 and went on to become an adult star with variety of films including The Silence of the Lambs (1991). In the United States, the activities of child actors are regulated by the governing labor union, if any, and state laws. Some projects film in remote locations specifically to evade regulations intended to protect the child. Longer work hours or risky stunts prohibited by California, for example, might be permitted to a project filming in British Columbia. US federal law specifically exempted minors working in the Entertainment Business from all provisions of the Child Labor Laws. Any regulation of child actors is governed by disparate state laws. Due to the large presence of the entertainment industry in Hollywood, the state of California has some of the most explicit laws protecting child actors. Being a minor, a child actor must secure an entertainment work permit before accepting any paid performing work. Compulsory education laws mandate that the education of the child actor not be disrupted while the child is working, whether the child actor is enrolled in public school, private school or even home school. The child does their schoolwork under the supervision of a studio teacher while on the set. In the United Kingdom, a child actor is defined as someone under school leaving age. [1][2] A child requires three hours minimum of tutoring daily and a lesson must be a minimum of 30 minutes to count towards the total and with regards to 16 and 17-year-olds in further education, considerations are made in regards to their studies. There are regulations and guidance to safeguard all actors under the age of 18; OFCOM guidance states a child’s health and safety, wellbeing and welfare is paramount in television production and factors such as their age, maturity and life experiences can affect their performance. [4] OFCOM also advises that broadcasters undertake risk assessments, consider seeking expert advice and follow best practise. Jackie Coogan earned millions of dollars from working as a child actor only to see most of it squandered by his parents. In 1939, California weighed in on this controversy and enacted the Coogan Bill which requires a portion of the earnings of a child to be preserved in a special savings account called a blocked trust. Also criticize the parents of child actors for allowing their children to work, believing that more “normal” activities should be the staple during the childhood years. Observe that competition is present in all areas of a child’s life-from sports to student newspaper to orchestra and band-and believe that the work ethic instilled or the talent developed accrues to the child’s benefit. The child actor may experience unique and negative pressures when working under tight production schedules. Large projects which depend for their success on the ability of the child to deliver an effective performance add to the pressure. Ethel Merman, who several times worked in long-running stage productions with child actors, disliked what she eventually saw as their overprofessionalization – “acting more like midgets than children” – and disapproved of parents pushing adulthood on them. This section possibly contains synthesis of material which does not verifiably mention or relate to the main topic. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. (May 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this template message). Jodie Foster in 1974. There are many instances of troubled adult lives due to the stressful environment to which child actors are subjected. It is common to see a child actor grow up in front of the camera, whether in films, television shows or both. However, it is not uncommon to see child actors continue their careers throughout as actors or in a different professional field. Jodie Foster started acting at age three, becoming the quintessential child actor during the 1970s with roles in films such as Tom Sawyer (1973), Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), Taxi Driver (1976), Bugsy Malone (1976), The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976), and Freaky Friday (1976). A child prodigy, Foster received her first Academy Award nomination at age 13 and later took a sabbatical from films to attend Yale University. She made a successful transition to adult roles, winning two Academy Awards for Best Actress before the age of 30, and starring in several successful and acclaimed films such as The Accused (1988), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Nell (1994), Maverick (1994), Contact (1997), and The Brave One (2007), thus establishing herself as one of the most accomplished and sought-after actresses of her generation. Now adults, Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, the three leads of the acclaimed Harry Potter film series (2001-11), starred in all the installments in the series, and have since continued to act in film, television, and theater in their early thirties. Her performance earned her a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination at age eight in 2002, making her the youngest nominee in SAG history. She later appeared in major Hollywood productions, in such acclaimed blockbuster films as Man on Fire (2004), War of the Worlds (2005), Charlotte’s Web (2006), Hounddog (2007), The Secret Life of Bees (2008), Coraline (2009), The Twilight Saga film series (2009-12), The Runaways (2010), and The Motel Life (2012). Fanning’s younger sister, Elle Fanning also rose to prominence as a child actress, having appeared in many films since before she turned three. Miranda Cosgrove, known mainly for her role on Drake & Josh as a child, gained more attention for her role as a teenager in the show iCarly. Since the end of the show she has been featured in other roles, including as the voice of Margo in the Despicable Me franchise. Once she was of age, she decided to pursue a college degree in film at the University of Southern California. Shirley Temple became a public figure and diplomat, beginning in the 1960s. Ambassador in countries such as Ghana and Czechoslovakia. Mary-Kate Olsen was treated for an eating disorder, deemed anorexia, but her twin sister remained less troubled. In an article with the magazine Marie Claire, Mary-Kate expressed the bittersweet nature of the twins’ childhood. “I look at old photos of me, and I don’t feel connected to them at all, ” she said. I would never wish my upbringing on anyone… But I wouldn’t take it back for the world. Since the beginning of her career at age 15 in 1999, Mandy Moore is one of the child stars to have success as an adult. Drew Barrymore started acting at age three. During her childhood she battled with drugs, but today she continues to act in films. Natalie Portman took a small break in acting to get a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Harvard University before continuing her career as an actress. Rider Strong, known as “Shawn Hunter” in Boy Meets World, was educated at Columbia University and now runs a successful blog and published a graphic novel. [11] Neil Patrick Harris got his acting start in Doogie Howser, M. He continues to act in television, films and theater. Jonathan Lipnicki, known mostly for the Stuart Little films, now successfully competes in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. [11] Sara Gilbert is known for her role on Roseanne and is now successful as a talk show host on The Talk. Also from Rosanne, Michael Fishman continued to work in film, but behind the scenes and has since been nominated for an Emmy for the work he did in Sports Science. [11] Kirsten Dunst and Lacey Chabert both made the transition from a child actress to an adult actress with a rough patch including depression. After a stay in a rehabilitation center, Dunst was able to recover and continue her career. She proves that the pressures of growing up under the spotlight may not come without repercussions. Roddy McDowall, who had a long and distinguished career including as the regular star of the Planet of the Apes series; Micky Dolenz, who started his career as a child star in the 1950s, grew up to be a musician of the successful 1960s pop group The Monkees, which had its own successful television show; Ron Howard, who, in addition to being the star of both of the long running The Andy Griffith Show and Happy Days television series, became an Academy Award-winning director in adulthood; Elijah Wood, who continued his career successfully into adulthood starring as Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings film series and starring as Ryan Newman in the television series Wilfred. Other child actors who have continued their careers into adulthood include Mandy Moore, Rose Marie, Hayley Mills, Ann Jillian, Johnny Whitaker, Kathy Garver, Tim Matheson, Bonnie Franklin, Melissa Gilbert, Danielle Brisebois, Erika Eleniak, Max Pomeranc, Christina Ricci, Shelley Fabares, Candace Cameron Bure, Karron Graves, Gaby Hoffmann, Hilary Duff, Molly Ringwald, Stacy Ferguson, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Lisa Whelchel, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Soleil Moon Frye, Melissa Joan Hart, Dean Stockwell, Kurt Russell, Fred Savage, Neil Patrick Harris, Michelle Chia, Shawn Lee, Joshua Ang, Aloysius Pang, Raven-Symoné and other Academy Award winners and nominees include; Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Scarlett Johansson, Jake Gyllenhaal, Joaquin Phoenix, Helen Hunt, Irene Cara, Reese Witherspoon, Hilary Swank, Christian Bale, Saoirse Ronan, Brie Larson, Regina King, Jennifer Lawrence, Emma Stone, Elizabeth Taylor, and Leonardo DiCaprio. Many actors’ careers are short-lived and this is also true of child actors. Many actors out of personal choice that start their careers as child actors decide not to pursue the same careers as adults, Shirley Temple became a public figure and diplomat. Peter Ostrum, appearing in his only role, the title character of Charlie Bucket in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory became a large-scale veterinarian surgeon. Whilst Jenny Lewis, formerly of film Troop Beverly Hills in 1989, is a well-known singer-songwriter indie rock musician. In Poland, former child actors and identical twin brothers Lech and Jaroslaw Kaczynski became successful politicians, at one time Lech being President and Jaroslaw the Prime Minister. This item is in the category “Collectibles\Autographs\Celebrities”. The seller is “memorabilia111″ and is located in this country: US. 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• Modified Item: Yes
• Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
• Original/Reproduction: Original
• Celebrity: GLORIA JEAN
• Modification Description: SIGNED SKETCH
• Signed: Yes
• Industry: Celebrities