LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Charlotte Greenwood
built 634 days ago
Tall, long-legged comic actress Charlotte Greenwood received her first speaking part in a 1907 musical comedy starring the Rogers Brothers, a dialect team. She formed a vaudeville act called "Two Girls and a Piano," then performed solo specialty spots in such revues as The Passing Show, bringing houses down with her wisecracks and high kicks. Her stardom was secured in 1915 with a stage musical uniquely suited for her talents, So Long, Letty--the first of several productions in which Greenwood was cast as the energetic, man-chasing Letty. Also in 1915, she made her film debut in Jane. A Broadway headliner throughout the 1920s, Greenwood made her talkie bow in the 1930 film version of So Long Letty; she went on to co-star with Eddie Cantor in Palmy Days (1931), Bert Lahr in Flying High (1931) and Buster Keaton in Parlor, Bedroom and Bath (1931). By 1940, Greenwood had settled into character roles, usually playing the all-knowing aunt or guardian of the heroine.
Source:
Charlotte Greenwood makes a triumphal return to the musical comedy stage as a frustrated Juno, forever pursuing her errant husband. When she is on, she outshines everyone else; she and she alone exploits Porter's songs to their fullest. Her singing, dancing, and her mugging and remnants of a style of musical-comedy performance that prevailed in the expansive '30's, and which might well be revived now. David Burns is ... a pleasure to watch as Niki Skolianos, formerly of South Chicago, who operates the inn and a poppy plantation on the side. Other praiseworthy performers are William Redfield as Mercury and Barbara Ashley as a Chloe, a Grecian lass. William Eythe and Priscilla Gilette, as the American newlyweds are pleasant but not especially brilliant.
Source:
The daughter of fitness-conscious parents (William Demarest and Charlotte Greenwood), Katie Higgins (Esther Williams) sets out to become the first woman to swim across the English Channel. While training, she falls for her hunky instructor (Fernando Lamas) and clashes with the event's loudmouthed promoter (Jack Carson). This musical comedy classic from director Charles Walters features Williams swimming with an animated Tom and Jerry.
Source:
The chemistry between Eddie Cantor and Charlotte Greenwood is priceless. It's a pity they didn't do another movie together. In recent years, PALMY DAYS enjoyed some frequent cable television revivals briefly on Turner Network Television (TNT) in the early 1990s, the Nostalgia Channel, and on American Movie Classics during the season of 1992-93. It was distributed on video cassette, and one of the six package set of Cantor/Goldwyn musicals, but has since been discontinued, with the exception of ROMAN SCANDALS (1933) and KID MILLIONS (1934) which continued in video sale distribution for several years thereafter.
Source:
Charlotte Greenwood enjoyed a long career in the theatre from revue to musical comedy (Cole Porter) to Theatre Guild. Her work has been captured on film (best in the Buster Keaton film,
Source:
As Letty, Greenwood exploits many of these same qualities. In one scene, Letty, juggling a huge pile of packages that block her vision, steps effortlessly over a white picket fence, a movement underscored by exaggerated creaking sounds and by her bungling husband's inability to cross this same fence without tripping. Letty slides down the hallway of the Ardmore hotel, using her outstretched leg to spin her around when she comes to the corner. She paces about her house, crossing the room in only a few strides, and when she dances at the party, her arms and legs seem to fly off in all directions. She stands, bowlegged, her knees bent slightly and her arms dangling limp or flung broadly to focus attention on their length. Her gestures and movements are too large-scale to be comfortably contained within the domestic spaces where the men wish her to remain, suggesting a high-spiritedness and spontanaety that will resist all restraint (self-imposed or otherwise).
Source: