Wallace Ford

Wallace Ford (12 February 1898 – 11 June 1966) was an English born American stage, cinema and television actor. Usually playing wise-cracking characters, he combined a tough but friendly demeanor with a small but powerful build.

Early life

Born Samuel Jones Grundy in Bolton, Lancashire, England into a working-class family of limited means. At 3 years of age he was placed by his uncle and aunt, in whose care he had been, into a Dr. Barnardo's orphanage home as they were unable to maintain his upkeep along with their own several children. At the age of 7 he was shipped with a number of other children from a similar background out to Canada to be found new homes with farming foster families as a part of the British Empire's on-going programme to populate the Canadian territory, Samuel being adopted by a family in Manitoba. He was ill treated however and became a serial runaway, being resettled several times with different families by the Canadian authorities. According to his own account at the age of 11 he ran away for the last time and joined a vaudeville traveling troupe touring Canada called 'The Winnipeg Kiddies', where he acquired his initial training as a performer.

Leila Hyams

Leila Hyams (May 1, 1905 – December 4, 1977) was an American model, vaudeville and film actress. Her relatively short film career began in the 20's silent films, and ended in 1936 and although only lasted around 10 years, she appeared in more than 50 film roles.

Early life

Born in New York City to vaudeville comedy performers John Hyams, (1869-1940) and Leila (née McIntyre) Hyams (1882-1953). Both parents appeared in films and mother Leila Senior was also a noted stage performer, her parents can later be seen together in several Hollywood films such as in 1939's The Housekeeper's Daughter. Hyams appeared on-stage with her parents while still a child. As a teenager she worked as a model and became well known across the United States after appearing in a successful series of newspaper advertisements. This success led her to Hollywood.

Career

She made her first film in 1924, and with her blonde hair, green eyes, delicate features, and good natured demeanour, was cast in a string of supporting roles, where she was required to do very little but smile and look pretty. She proved herself capable of handling the small roles she was assigned, and over a period of time she came to be taken seriously as an actress. By 1928 she was playing starring roles, achieving success in MGM's first talkie release, Alias Jimmy Valentine (1928) opposite William Haines, Lionel Barrymore and Karl Dane. The following year she appeared in the popular murder mystery The Thirteenth Chair, a role that offered her the chance to display her dramatic abilities as a murder suspect. At Fox that same year she appeared in director Allan Dwan's now lost romantic adventure The Far Call opposite Charles Morton. The quality of her parts continued to improve as the decade turned, including a role as Robert Montgomery's sister in the prison drama The Big House (1930) with Chester Morris and Wallace Beery, for which Hyams once again received positive reviews. She then appeared in Surrender (1931).

Olga Baclanova

Olga Vladimirovna Baklanova (Russian: О́льга Влади́мировна Бакла́нова;pronounced Bahk LAH no Vah) 19 August 1893 – 6 September 1974) was a sultry Russian-born naturalized American actress of stage and screen, radio host and performer, operatic singer, and ballerina. She achieved prominence during the silent film era, after taking several years off her age and changing the spelling of her Russian surname from Baklanova. She was often billed under her last name only, as Baclanova, similarly to the surname-only nomenclature of her fellow countrywoman Nazimova.

An exotic blonde temptress, she was billed as the "Russian Tigress" and remains most noted by modern audiences for portraying the fictional Duchess Josiana in the Universal silent The Man Who Laughs and trapeze artist Cleopatra in Tod Browning's horror movie Freaks (1932), which features a cast of actual carnival sideshow freaks.

Early life and Moscow Arts Theatre

She was born on 19 August 1893. (other sources state, 1896, 1898 or 1900) in Moscow, Russia. Baclanova was the daughter of Vladimir Baklanoff and his wife Alexandra, herself an actress in early Russian films. Baclanova studied drama at the Cherniavsky Institute before being accepted into the prestigious Moscow Art Theatre with such contemporaries as Maria Ouspenskaya in 1912. Over the next decade she appeared in Russian films, and also performed extensively on stage, touring and performing in many countries of the world, in the 1930"s had a program called Olga Baclanova's Continental Review and she often appeared as a guest on radio programs singing songs in her native Russian, she had trained in operatic voice at the Moscow Arts Theatre. In 1925 she was given the award "Worthy Artist of the Republic" the highest soviet artist honour. Baklonava appeared in around 17 films in her native Russia, including th efirst Soviet agitprop. dil Bread, before heading t0 the United States

Roscoe Ates

Roscoe Ates (January 20, 1895 – February 12, 1962) was an American vaudeville performer, actor of stage and screen, comedian and musician who primarily featured in western films and television. He was best known as western character Soapy Jones.

Early years

Ates was born in the rural hamlet of Grange, northwest of Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Grange is no longer included on road maps. Ates spent much of his childhood overcoming a severe speech impediment. He entered the entertainment medium as a concert violinist but found economic opportunities greater as a vaudeville comedian. He revived his long-gone stutter for humorous effect. Besides his early films, Ates starred in his own short subject series with RKO and Vitaphone.

His first film role was at the age of thirty-four in 1929 as a ship's cook in South Sea Rose. The next year he was cast as "Old Stuff" in the film Billy the Kid with Johnny Mack Brown (1904–1974) as Billy the Kid and Wallace Beery (1885–1949) as Deputy Sheriff Pat Garrett. Ates served in WWII, training of the Air Force fighter squad program in Houston, Texas at Ellington Field Texas

Freaks

Freaks is a 1932 American Pre-Code horror film in which the eponymous characters were played by people who worked as carnival sideshow performers and had real deformities. The original version was considered too shocking to be released and no longer exists. Directed and produced by Tod Browning, whose career never recovered from it, Freaks has been described as standing alone in a subgenre of one.

At 16, Browning had left his well-to-do family to join a traveling circus: he drew on his personal experiences for Freaks. Because of his success as the director of Dracula, he was given a considerable leeway for a major studio's first horror film: this and the fact he was working in Pre-Code Hollywood enabled a unique production. In the film, the physically deformed "freaks" are inherently trusting and honorable people, while the real monsters are two of the "normal" members of the circus who conspire to murder one of the performers to obtain his large inheritance.

Plot

Freaks (Marillion song)

"Freaks" is a song by British neo-progressive rock band Marillion. First released in 1985 on the B-side to the number five UK hit single "Lavender", in November 1988 it was released in a live version on a double A-side single together with the band's 1985 number two hit, "Kayleigh". The single was intended to promote the forthcoming double-live album The Thieving Magpie, which documents the band's history with singer Fish, who had left the band in October 1988; as such, this was Marillion's last ever single to feature Fish on vocals and cover art by Mark Wilkinson, who would go on to collaborate with Fish.

The single peaked at no. 24 in the UK Singles Chart, becoming their eleventh consecutive UK Top 40 hit.

The track "Freaks" (recorded at an open-air concert at the May Market fairground in Mannheim, Germany, in 1986) was only included on the CD and cassette versions of The Thieving Magpie, "Kayleigh" (recorded at London Hammersmith Odeon on 9 or 10 January 1986) was also available on the vinyl edition, which only featured the first half of the Misplaced Childhood album. The 12" version contained an additional two tracks from the second half of Misplaced Childhood, which are also not found on the vinyl version of The Thieving Magpie.

Freaks (band)

Freaks, earlier known as Robotic Movement, Future Movement and the Unknown are an electronic band from London, England. The band members are Justin Harris and Luke Solomon. They also run the record label "Music for Freaks". They both DJ under their own names and collectively as Freaks.

Discography

Albums

Singles

Selected Remixes