29 Acacia Avenue

29 Acacia Avenue is a play by Denis and Mabel Constanduros, and also its 1945 British comedy-drama film adaptation, directed by Henry Cass and released in the U.S. as The Facts of Love.

Plot

Peter Robinson falls in love with the naïve country girl Fay and the worldly, wealthy and already-married Joan, and lives with them both (and Joan's husband) at his parents' house. However, one day Peter's parents unexpectedly return from holiday, and all hell breaks loose.

Cast

Critical reception

Allmovie wrote, "one of the few low-budget British programmers to enjoy a reasonably widespread American release...The film weaves three separate romantic subplots into an entertaining unified whole"; though Sky Movies called the film "one wartime West End success that didn't transfer too well to screen, ending up embarrassingly stagey"; but the Radio Times thought that although the film "fails to fully disguise its theatrical origins...it nevertheless makes for pleasant period entertainment, with particularly likeable performances from British veterans Gordon Harker and Betty Balfour as the parents."

Buddy Montgomery

Charles "Buddy" Montgomery (January 30, 1930, Indianapolis, Indiana – May 14, 2009) was an American jazz vibraphonist and pianist. He was the younger brother of Wes and Monk Montgomery. He and brother Monk formed The Mastersounds in the late 1950s and produced ten recordings. When The Mastersounds disbanded, Monk and Buddy joined their brother Wes on a number of Montgomery Brothers recordings, which were arranged by Buddy. They toured together in 1968, and it was in the middle of that tour that Wes died. Buddy continued to compose, arrange, perform, produce, teach and record, producing nine recordings as a leader.

Biography

Buddy first played professionally in 1948; in 1949 he played with Big Joe Turner and soon afterwards with Slide Hampton. After a period in the Army, where he had his own quartet, he joined The Mastersounds as a vibraphonist with his brother Monk, pianist Richie Crabtree and drummer Benny Barth in 1957. He led the "Montgomery-Johnson Quintet" with saxophonist Alonzo "Pookie" Johnson from 1955 to 1957. His earliest sessions as a leader are from the late 1950s. He played briefly with Miles Davis in 1960. After Wes Montgomery’s death in 1968, Buddy became active as a jazz educator and advocate. He founded organizations in Milwaukee, where he lived from 1969 to 1982; and Oakland, California, where he lived for most of the 1980s, that offered jazz classes and presented free concerts.