Ray Hoppman pops up mostly at lesser syndicates in the 1920s and 30s, but in 1927-28 he may have gone out on his own, figuring he couldn't do much worse at selling his wares than Readers Syndicate, CV Syndicate, Columbia Newspaper Service and the like. Apparently his first successful feature (and by successful I merely mean that it found a few takers) was the weekly panel cartoon, Twinkling Stars.
Twinkling Stars may not be just another one of those ho-hum movie star bio features -- it may well be the first of the breed. Seein' Stars, Closeup and Comedy, Star Dust, Screen Odditiies ... they all postdate it. Am I forgetting an earlier one?
Twinkling Stars was a weekly feature, and it's longest run so far found was in the Columbus Dispatch, where it appeared from January 30 to September 11 1927.
PS -- I'd never heard of Renee Adoree, and assumed she was just another foreign silent star who couldn't make the transition to talkies. The truth was much sadder.
Hello Allan-
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised you never heard of Miss Adoree, She was after all co-star in one of, if not THE highest grossing, most popular films of the 1920s, The Big Parade (1925). Not that I especially favor her, but I have (via Cole's collection) an autographed photo of her.
I guess She will be elusive to become familiar with, because like so many of the silent era stars, their works have literally vanished. Though she died so young, she did make two talkies, her last being "Call Of The Flesh" (1930), which was oddly cast like a silent, without regard for how the performers sounded. Lead Ramon Novarro is an Opera singer with a Mexican accent, his stage partner and former lover is Renée (thick French accent) his mentor is Ernest Torrence(thick Scots accent), his current squeeze is Dorothy Sebastian (thick Dixie accent), Yet they were all supposed to be Spaniards.
Do you remember the late Jud Hurd? At one time he did a strip called "Just Heard in Hollywood" in the same genre as today's entry. I knew him, and he'd tell me about when he worked for gossip columnist Jimmy Fidler. Jimmy tended to mispronounce names, and one he recalled in particular was Miss Adoree. Fidler also had a long running radio series where he would deliver studio press confections about star trivia. Now, though her name is pronounced "Ree-nay Adoor-ray", Fidler would always go with "Rainy Add-oray". Jud said that he'd correct him, hopefully in time for broadcast. Funny thing is, I was able to find some transcriptions of Fidler's programme, from the 1930s where he mentions Renée, and obviously he discounted Jud's advice!
Hi Mark --
ReplyDeleteI quite enjoy silent films, but 99% of the time I share a couch with people who have no interest. In service of domestic harmony I keep them out of the viewing queue. I have to twist arms even to get a b&w film in the player!
"Call of the Flesh" sounds like a hoot!
--Allan
I wonder why Ray Hoppman had such an unsuccessful career. Maybe he couldn't write. But his art seems really quite good. Hm!
ReplyDelete— Katherine Collins
I wouldn't say he was unsuccessful. He had 2 other strips that, combined, ran for about 20 years. He was a newspaperman whose poetry and columns were widely syndicated in the teens. His real style, however, was nothing like the above. I'd describe his other strips, HANK AND PETE and DON'T BE LIKE THAT, as lesser Al Smith
ReplyDelete