British collector card in the Partners series by Victoria Gallery, London, no. 1 in a series of 20. Illustration: Stephen Bennett.
Caption: HOPE, CROSBY & LAMOUR. Bob Hope - Born Leslie Town Hope, 1904. Bing Crosby - Born Harry Lillis Crosby, 1904-1977. Dorothy Lamour - Born Mary Leta Dorothy Kaumeyer. In 1940, Bob, Bing and Dorothy Lamour became an inseparable team, and their first film together was The Road to Singapore. Other successes were The Road to Zanzibar, The Road to Morocco, The Road to Utopia and others, which are known to be The Road pictures. All in all, there were seven films in The Road series. The last being in 1962, The Road to Hong Kong. By 1962, the nature of film comedy had changed, and the American audience wanted a different brand of humour.
British collector card in the Partners series by Victoria Gallery, London, no. 2 in a series of 20. Illustration: Stephen Bennett.
Caption: ABBOTT & COSTELLO. Born: William Abbott (1895-1974), Francis Cristello (1906-1959). Bud Abbott and Lou Costello first met in New York in 1936. Apparently, they saw each other's acts and decided they would be better off together. Their success took them to Hollywood, and in 1941, One Night in the Tropics was the first of 36 films they made together. These included Hold That Ghost, Ride 'em Cowboy and Abbott and Costello Go to Mars. The last film was Dance Dance With Me, Henry in 1956. After their last film, they officially split up.
British collector card in the Partners series by Victoria Gallery, London, no. 3 in a series of 20. Illustration: Stephen Bennett.
Caption: MARTIN & LEWIS. Martin - Born: Dino Paul Crocetti, 1917, Lewis - Born: Joseph Leuitch, 1926. In 1946, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis became friends and began working in Nightclubs in New Jersey. Their first picture in Hollywood was My Friend Irma. As far as the team of Martin and Lerwis was concerned, Dean was the straight man and Jerry a Solko comedian. They went on to make 16 films together, including That's My Boy, The Stooge and Money From Home. Their last film together in 1956 was Hollywood or Bust, about a pair of partners who were going to make it in the movies.
British collector card in the Partners series by Victoria Gallery, London, no. 6. Illustration: Stephen Bennett.
Caption: THE RITZ BROTHERS. Born: Al Joachim. Jimmy Joachim. Harry Joachim. All three of the Ritz Brothers were born in New Jersey during the opening decade of the 20th Century. Their first feature film was Sing Baby Sing in 1936, and others included One in a Million, On the Avenue, Kentucky Moonshine, The Gorilla and many others. In 1939, The Three Musketeers was made and is considered to be one of their all-time funniest films and a Ritz Brothers classic. The brothers ended their career working on the stage in New Orleans when Al Joachim died of a heart attack.
British collector card in the Partners series by Victoria Gallery, London, no. 7. Illustration: Stephen Bennett.
Caption: LEMMON & MATTHAU. Jack Lemmon - Born John Uhler Lemmon III (1925-2001). Walter Matthau (1920-2000). Matthau and Lemmon were stars in their own right before they even met in 1966, with their first film together, The Fortune Cookie. They went on to make five more; one of the most popular ones, The Odd Couple, became an instant hit in America. Kotch, The Front Page and Buddy, Buddy, the last one in 1981. They were quoted to have said, "We were too different to be brothers, but we have the best chemistry this side of Tracy and Hepburn."
British collector card in the Partners series by Victoria Gallery, London, no. 8. Illustration: Stephen Bennett.
Caption: MA & PA KETTLE. Pa Kettle - Born: Percy Kilbride. Ma Kettle - Born: Marjorie Main. The Egg and I set the course for the series of Kettle films in 1947. There were nine black and white films made between 1949 and 1956. These included Ma & Pa Kettle Go To Town, Ma & Pa Kettle at the Fair and Ma & Pa Kettle On Vacation, each making the top ten earning film list of each year. Percy Kilbride bowed out after 1955 and was replaced in the last of the Kettle films by Parker Fennelly.
British collector card in the Partners series by Victoria Gallery, London, no. 10. Illustration: Stephen Bennett.
Caption: LUCILLE BALL & DESI ARNAZ. Lucille Ball, Born: 1910-1989. Desi Arnaz. Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz started their show business career with the film Too Many Girls. They then married and formed a business partnership. I Love Lucy made them TV stars for many years, with the films The Long, Long Trailer and Forever Darling in between, until Arnaz retired from TV. They bought the old RKO studio and founded their own corporation. But in 1960, Lucy and Arnaz divorced and went their separate ways.
British collector card in the Partners series by Victoria Gallery, London, no. 11. Illustration: Stephen Bennett.
Caption: THREE STOOGES. Larry Fine (1911-1975), Moe Howard (1895-1975), Jerry (Curly) Howard (1906-1952). The Stooges were a trio of American knockabout comics specialising in a peculiarly violent form of slapstick. They originally went from Vaudeville to Hollywood with Ted Healy (as Ted Healy and His Stooges). But broke away to become world famous in hundreds of two-reelers throughout the thirties, forties and fifties. Towards the end of their popularity, The Stooges appeared in a few features, Stop Look and Laugh, and The Three Stooges Meet Hercules.
British collector card in the Partners series by Victoria Gallery, London, no. 14. Illustration: Stephen Bennett.
Caption: GEORGE BURNS & GRACIE ALLEN. George Burns - Born 1896(-1996). Gracie Allen - Born 1902/6-1964. George and Gracie made a successful team. They married quite early after their success. Films together included We're Not Dressing, College Humor, Love in Bloom, and many more. Between 1950 and 1957, they had a TV series called The Burns and Allen Show, which was extremely successful. At the age of eighty, George Burns became a big star again and a national institution.
British collector card in the Partners series by Victoria Gallery, London, no. 15. Illustration: Stephen Bennett.
Caption: WHEELER & WOOLSEY. Bert Wheeler - Born: 1895-1968. Robert Woolsey - Born: 1889-1935. Wheeler and Woolsey were a great pair of American comedians in the thirties, and decided to team as a double act. They made their first film together in 1929 called Rio Rita. Then they went on to Half Shot at Sunrise, Cracker Nuts, and many more. Their last film as a double act was in 1937, On Again, Off Again. They then went on to make a popular TV series called Brave Eagle 55.
British collector card in the Partners series by Victoria Gallery, London, no. 16. Illustration: Stephen Bennett.
Caption: BLONDIE FILM. Penny Singleton - Born: Mariana Dorothy McNutty, Arthur Lake - Born: Arthur Silver Lake, Larry Simms. The first of the Blondie films was in 1938. Altogether, there were twenty-eight films in the series. Blondie's Lucky Day, Blondie's Hero, Blondie's Secret and many more. Between 1938 and 1950, the first Blondie and the last Beware of Blondie, the films were very popular. But by 1950, the series held no surprises, and age had crept upon Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake, removing the freshness of young middle age from their performances.
British collector card in the Partners series by Victoria Gallery, London, no. 18. Illustration: Stephen Bennett.
Caption: ROONEY & GARLAND. Mickey Rooney - Born: Joe Yule Junior, 1920(-2014). Judy Garland - Born: Francis Ethel Gumm, 1922-1969. Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland made a number of films together, including The Andy Hardy films. One of the first of these was in 1940 Andy Hardy Meets Debutante, and went on to Life Begins For Andy Hardy. The films served as an excellent training ground for studio starlet Judy Garland.
British collector card in the Partners series by Victoria Gallery, London, no. 19. Illustration: Stephen Bennett.
Caption: TOM & JERRY. Short cartoons featuring the mean-minded, accident-prone cat and likeable little mouse, Tom and Jerry. The original cartoons were drawn by William Hanna and Joe Barbara in 1937. There were an awful lot of these cartoons made, and some were always winning Academy awards - titles such as The Milky Way, Yankee Doodle Mouse, Mouse Trouble, Cat Concerto and The Little Orphan, as well as quite a few more.
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