Irene Manning
1912 - 2004Irene Manning (born Inez Harvuot, July 17, 1912 – May 28, 2004) was an American actress and singer.
Manning was born on July 17, 1912 in Cincinnati, Ohio, in a family of five siblings. Both of her parents were singers. Her family loved to go on outdoor picnics where the featured activity was group singing. This family environment helped Irene to develop a keen interest in singing at a very early age. Her sisters later complained that little Irene would sing in her sleep, keeping them awake. Manning trained as an opera singer at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester.
While performing with an all-girl USO show in England, Irene was asked to perform with band leader Glenn Miller in 1944. Miller was involved in making swing records to be broadcast into Nazi Germany as part of the American Broadcasting System in Europe. Because she had been a light opera star prior to World War II and was fluent in singing in German, she was asked to sing some American pop tunes which had been translated into German vocals.
She was briefly credited as Hope Manning in her first films, as she broke in with the Republic Studios system in 1936. Her first film placed her as the lead actress in a western, The Old Corral, opposite Gene Autry. Irene once said in jest that "she had left light opera for a horse opera."
By the early 1940s, Irene was employed in the Warner Bros. studio system as a contract actress and singer. She is probably best remembered as diva "Fay Templeton" in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), opposite James Cagney. In this film, she had a scene in which she had to simultaneously act, sing the song "Mary", and play the piano. She starred with Humphrey Bogart in The Big Shot (1942) and with Dennis Morgan in both The Desert Song (1943) and Shine On, Harvest Moon (1944).
Her contract was picked up by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) to place her singing skills as a threat to Jeanette MacDonald, who was giving MGM fits with her difficult demands. In private, Manning claimed that she was a better singer. The problem between MacDonald and MGM subsided, and Manning's contract was dropped without any appearances in an MGM film. In all, Irene Manning made a dozen films.
The musical stage took priority in the second half of the 1940s with The Day Before Spring on Broadway and both DuBarry Was a Lady and Serenade in London. She remained in England and appeared on her own BBC TV show, An American in England until 1951, when she returned to the United States for television and nightclub work. Eventually she retired to teach acting and voice.
Manning died on May 28, 2004, from congestive heart failure at her home in San Carlos, California, at the age of 91.
Michael O'Halloran
Karl Brown
Wynne Gibson, Warren Hull
A wealthy woman's wild lifestyle finally drives her husband to take their two children, move out of the house and file for divorce. Positive she'll lose her children unless she shows the judge that she's changed her wild ways, she takes in two poor street kids, a brother and sister.
Michael O'Halloran
Two Wise Maids
Phil Rosen
Alison Skipworth, Polly Moran
The two leading ladies are cast as Prudence and Agatha, a pair of old-fashioned schoolteachers in an old-fashioned small town. Disdaining the wimpy theories of "progressive" education, Prudence and Agatha stick to the reliable "Three R's," often teaching to the tune of a hickory stick. Though ridiculed for their so-called outmoded methods, the heroines manage to turn out quite a few prize students, earning the undying gratitude of the local citizenry.
Two Wise Maids
Hollywood Canteen
Delmer Daves
Laverne Andrews, Maxene Andrews
Two soldiers on leave spend three nights at a club offering free of charge food, dancing, and entertainment for servicemen on their way overseas. Club founders Bette Davis and John Garfield give talks on the history of the place.
Hollywood Canteen
The Big Shot
Lewis Seiler
Humphrey Bogart, Irene Manning
Duke Berne, former big shot but now a three-time loser, fears returning to crime because a fourth conviction will mean a life sentence. Finally, haunted by his past and goaded by his cohorts, he joins in planning an armoured car robbery.
The Big Shot
Spy Ship
B. Reeves Eason
Craig Stevens, Irene Manning
A radio reporter begins to suspect that a commentator at his station may be using her position to broadcast shipping information to enemy spies. With the help of the girl's sister, he sets out to expose the spy and her Nazi gang.
Spy Ship
The Shining Future
LeRoy Prinz
Charles Ruggles, Olive Blakeney
Documentary short film intended to drum up support for the Fifth War Loan Campaign. It shows a happy family in the future of 1960 enjoying the prosperity and advantages made possible by the successful prosecution of the war, and how the sacrifices of 1944 have made the world a better place.
The Shining Future
The Doughgirls
James V. Kern
Ann Sheridan, Alexis Smith
Arthur and Vivian are just married, but when the get to their honeymoon suite in Washington D.C., they find it occupied. Arthur goes to meet Slade, his new boss, and when he comes back, he finds three girls in his suite. He orders Vivian to get rid of them, but they are friends of Vivian's and as time goes by, it looks more like Grand Central Station than the quiet honeymoon suite Arthur expected. As long as there is anyone else in the suite, Arthur will not stay there and there will be no honeymoon.
The Doughgirls
I Live in Grosvenor Square
Herbert Wilcox
Anna Neagle, Rex Harrison
The WW II romance set in Grosvenor square aka Eisenhower's home where the GIs stayed in London. Neagle loves Harrison. There arrives patriot GI Dean Jagger to rouse things up in the square. Snotty British Neagle and Jagger clash and fall for each other. What will Harrison have to say or do about these? What will the consequences be? Will the three finally become two and which two in this extremely patriotic love and war story.
I Live in Grosvenor Square
The Road to Victory
LeRoy Prinz
Bing Crosby, Cary Grant
Documentary short film intended to drum up support for the Fifth War Loan Campaign. It shows a happy family in the future of 1960 enjoying the prosperity and advantages made possible by the successful prosecution of the war, and how the sacrifices of 1944 have made the world a better place. Edited down from The Shining Future (1944).
The Road to Victory
Make Your Own Bed
Peter Godfrey
Jack Carson, Jane Wyman
Walter and Vivian live in the country and have a difficult time keeping servants. Walter then hires a private detective who has been fired for arresting the District Attorney. They only way that Walter can get Jerry to work for him is to tell Jerry that his life is in danger; the neighbor is trying to take his wife; and that Nazi spies are everywhere. Jerry needs a cook for his 'cover' so he gets his fiancée Susan to work with him. To keep Jerry working, Walter sends the threatening letters to himself and hires actors to play the spies but when a real group of spies disguised as a troupe of radio actors appears on the scene, events quickly spiral out of control.
Make Your Own Bed
