Joseph Santley
Encyclopedia
Joseph Santley was an American
actor, singer, dancer, writer, director, and producer of music
al theatrical plays
and motion pictures.
Born Joseph Mansfield in Salt Lake City, Utah
, he adopted the stage name
of his stepfather, actor Eugene Santley. As a boy, he and older brother Fred began performing in live theatre appearing in summer stock
and touring with their parents. In 1906, at age seventeen, Joseph Santley co-wrote and starred on Broadway
in the play, Billy the Kid
. In 1907, he acted in film for the first time for Sidney Olcott
at the Kalem Company
in a silent
Western film short called Pony Express.
Santley continued to work almost exclusively in musical comedy plays, returning to Broadway five more times as well as touring nationally. A gifted dancer, Santley created the Santley Tango and the Hawaiian Butterfly. After he married actress/singer and cabaret
dancer Ivy Sawyer
, beginning in 1916 the two danced as a team, performing together in a number of Broadway musicals and at other major venues across the United States such as the National Theatre
in Washington, D.C.
. Their final collective Broadway presentation was in 1927's Just Fancy which Santley co-wrote, produced and directed. He and Ivy Sawyer had a son Joseph born in 1916 and a daughter Betty born in 1928.
In 1928, Joseph Santley directed his first motion picture, making a short talkie for Paramount Pictures
that featured singer Ruth Etting. The next year, Paramount had Santley direct three more films that were short singing productions, one with Etting, another with crooner
Rudy Vallee
, plus a third titled High Hat with Broadway singing star Alice Boulden. Also, he directed A Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic, a musical film featuring Eddie Cantor
along with Eddie Elkins and his orchestra. In 1929, Joseph Santley co-directed, with Robert Florey
, the first Marx Brothers
feature film The Cocoanuts
, a musical comedy for which he is most famous. Based on the George S. Kaufman
play, and with music by Irving Berlin
, the film was billed as "Paramount's All Talking-Singing Musical Comedy Hit." His other notable directorial efforts include 1935's Harmony Lane, a biographical musical on the life of composer Stephen Foster
. In 1940, he directed Melody Ranch
starring "singing cowboy" Gene Autry
. The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress
and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry
.
During World War II
, Joseph Santley worked for the war effort and in 1942 made the film Remember Pearl Harbor. In 1950, he made his last feature film but came back at age sixty-five to produce the 1954-55 television comedy The Mickey Rooney Show. In 1956, he put together two segments of Jazz Ball, a made-for-TV musical revue created from various filmed performances by jazz
greats from the 1930s to the 1950s.
Joseph Santley died in 1971 in Los Angeles.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actor, singer, dancer, writer, director, and producer of music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
al theatrical plays
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
and motion pictures.
Born Joseph Mansfield in Salt Lake City, Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
, he adopted the stage name
Stage name
A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...
of his stepfather, actor Eugene Santley. As a boy, he and older brother Fred began performing in live theatre appearing in summer stock
Summer Stock
For the article about the theatre genre, see Summer stock theatre.Summer Stock is a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical made in 1950. The film was directed by Charles Walters and stars Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Eddie Bracken, Gloria DeHaven, Marjorie Main, and Phil Silvers...
and touring with their parents. In 1906, at age seventeen, Joseph Santley co-wrote and starred on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
in the play, Billy the Kid
Billy the Kid
William H. Bonney William H. Bonney William H. Bonney (born William Henry McCarty, Jr. est. November 23, 1859 – c. July 14, 1881, better known as Billy the Kid but also known as Henry Antrim, was a 19th-century American gunman who participated in the Lincoln County War and became a frontier...
. In 1907, he acted in film for the first time for Sidney Olcott
Sidney Olcott
Sidney Olcott was a Canadian-born film producer, director, actor and screenwriter.-Biography:Born John Sidney Alcott in Toronto, he became one of the first great directors of the motion picture business...
at the Kalem Company
Kalem Company
The Kalem Company was an American film studio founded in New York City in 1907 by George Kleine, Samuel Long , and Frank J. Marion.The company immediately joined other studios in the Motion Picture Patents Company that held a monopoly on production and distribution...
in a silent
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
Western film short called Pony Express.
Santley continued to work almost exclusively in musical comedy plays, returning to Broadway five more times as well as touring nationally. A gifted dancer, Santley created the Santley Tango and the Hawaiian Butterfly. After he married actress/singer and cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
dancer Ivy Sawyer
Ivy Sawyer
Ivy Sawyer was an American cabaret and ballroom dancer, singer, and stage actress.Ivy Sawyer danced professionally with John Jarrot until she met and married fellow dancer/actor Joseph Santley. The two would dance and perform on stage together primarily in musical comedies for nearly two decades...
, beginning in 1916 the two danced as a team, performing together in a number of Broadway musicals and at other major venues across the United States such as the National Theatre
National Theatre (Washington, D.C.)
The National Theatre is located in Washington, D.C., and is a venue for a variety of live stage productions with seating for 1,676.Despite its name, it is not a governmentally funded national theatre, but operated by a private, non-profit organization....
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
. Their final collective Broadway presentation was in 1927's Just Fancy which Santley co-wrote, produced and directed. He and Ivy Sawyer had a son Joseph born in 1916 and a daughter Betty born in 1928.
In 1928, Joseph Santley directed his first motion picture, making a short talkie for Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
that featured singer Ruth Etting. The next year, Paramount had Santley direct three more films that were short singing productions, one with Etting, another with crooner
Crooner
Crooner is an American epithet given to male singers of pop standards, mostly from the Great American Songbook, either backed by a full orchestra, a big band or by a piano. Originally it was an ironic term denoting an emphatically sentimental, often emotional singing style made possible by the use...
Rudy Vallee
Rudy Vallée
Rudy Vallée was an American singer, actor, bandleader, and entertainer.-Early life:Born Hubert Prior Vallée in Island Pond, Vermont, the son of Charles Alphonse and Catherine Lynch Vallée...
, plus a third titled High Hat with Broadway singing star Alice Boulden. Also, he directed A Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic, a musical film featuring Eddie Cantor
Eddie Cantor
Eddie Cantor was an American "illustrated song" performer, comedian, dancer, singer, actor and songwriter...
along with Eddie Elkins and his orchestra. In 1929, Joseph Santley co-directed, with Robert Florey
Robert Florey
Robert Florey was a French screenwriter, director of short films, and actor who moved to Hollywood in 1921. In 1950, Florey was made a knight in the French Légion d'honneur....
, the first Marx Brothers
Marx Brothers
The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act, originally from New York City, that enjoyed success in Vaudeville, Broadway, and motion pictures from the early 1900s to around 1950...
feature film The Cocoanuts
The Cocoanuts
The Cocoanuts is the first feature-length Marx Brothers film, produced by Paramount Pictures. The musical comedy stars the four Marx Brothers, Oscar Shaw, Mary Eaton, and Margaret Dumont. Produced by Walter Wanger and the first sound movie to credit more than one director , and was adapted to the...
, a musical comedy for which he is most famous. Based on the George S. Kaufman
George S. Kaufman
George Simon Kaufman was an American playwright, theatre director and producer, humorist, and drama critic. In addition to comedies and political satire, he wrote several musicals, notably for the Marx Brothers...
play, and with music by Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history.His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became world famous...
, the film was billed as "Paramount's All Talking-Singing Musical Comedy Hit." His other notable directorial efforts include 1935's Harmony Lane, a biographical musical on the life of composer Stephen Foster
Stephen Foster
Stephen Collins Foster , known as the "father of American music", was the pre-eminent songwriter in the United States of the 19th century...
. In 1940, he directed Melody Ranch
Melody Ranch
Melody Ranch is a 1940 Western film which tells the story of a singing cowboy who returns to his hometown to restore order when his former childhood enemies take over the frontier town.-Movie:...
starring "singing cowboy" Gene Autry
Gene Autry
Orvon Grover Autry , better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as The Singing Cowboy on the radio, in movies and on television for more than three decades beginning in the 1930s...
. The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Joseph Santley worked for the war effort and in 1942 made the film Remember Pearl Harbor. In 1950, he made his last feature film but came back at age sixty-five to produce the 1954-55 television comedy The Mickey Rooney Show. In 1956, he put together two segments of Jazz Ball, a made-for-TV musical revue created from various filmed performances by jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
greats from the 1930s to the 1950s.
Joseph Santley died in 1971 in Los Angeles.
Selected filmography - director
- The CocoanutsThe CocoanutsThe Cocoanuts is the first feature-length Marx Brothers film, produced by Paramount Pictures. The musical comedy stars the four Marx Brothers, Oscar Shaw, Mary Eaton, and Margaret Dumont. Produced by Walter Wanger and the first sound movie to credit more than one director , and was adapted to the...
(1929) - Young and BeautifulYoung and Beautiful (film)Young and Beautiful is a romantic comedy film about a press agent who goes to great lengths to make his actress girlfriend a star, only to risk losing her in the process...
(1934) - Waterfront LadyWaterfront Lady- Cast :*Ann Rutherford as Joan O'Brien*Frank Albertson as Ronny Hillyer aka Bill*J. Farrell MacDonald as Capt. O'Brien*Barbara Pepper as Gloria Vance*Charles C. Wilson as Jim McFee aka Mac*Grant Withers as Tod*Purnell Pratt as Dist. Atty. Shaw...
(1935) - Walking on Air (1936)
- Always in Trouble (1938)
- Behind the NewsBehind the News (film)Behind the News is a 1940 drama film directed by Joseph Santley. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Sound Recording .-Cast:* Lloyd Nolan as Stuart Woodrow* Doris Davenport as Barbara Shaw* Frank Albertson as Jeff Flavin...
(1940) - Music in My Heart (1940)
- Melody RanchMelody RanchMelody Ranch is a 1940 Western film which tells the story of a singing cowboy who returns to his hometown to restore order when his former childhood enemies take over the frontier town.-Movie:...
(1940) - Down Mexico Way (1941)
- Remember Pearl Harbor (1942)
- Sleepy Lagoon (1943)
- Jamboree (1944)
- Rosie the RiveterRosie the Riveter (film)Rosie the Riveter is a 1944 American film starring Jane Frazee.-Cast:* Jane Frazee as Rosalind "Rosie" Warren* Frank Albertson as Charlie Doran* Barbara Jo Allen as Vera Watson* Frank Fenton as Kelly Kennedy* Lloyd Corrigan as Clem Prouty...
(1944) - Make Believe Ballroom (1949)
- When You're SmilingWhen You're Smiling"When You're Smiling" is a song by Larry Shay, Mark Fisher, and Joe Goodwin , and made famous by Louis Armstrong, who recorded it at least three times, in 1929, 1932, and 1956...
(1950)