Pop Quiz: Celebrity Name Chain

I know that most of you run from these Pop Quizzes as if they were a gym bag filled with pipe bombs left in the aisle of a coliseum, but perhaps a few of you will enjoy this one! The object is to identify the people in the photos, then link their names together in a chain. (Sort of like the "Before and After" category on Wheel of Fortune if you're a "Wheel Watcher.") For example, the one here is a shot of Bob Hope and Hope Lange, thus the answer would be "Bob Hope Lange." I made sure the spellings are the same, too, for the crossover word. Some of these are easier than others, though if you can pick out one of the people, you're already half-way to the answer! If you're feeling generous, you might even congratulate me on making some of the photos in question complimentary to one another in some way although the people may not be related or have worked together at all (or even in the same general era.) Have fun, and if you're good boys and girls there may be a few extra pics within the answers!

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

Bonus (a three-fer!)

Answers below......

1.

"Susan Howard Keel"

Howard Keel and Susan Howard did work together on the hot prime-time soap Dallas.

2.

"Ava Gardner McKay"

I think Ava Gardner would love to have sunk her teeth into some Gardner McKay, as would most of the free world...

3.

"Anne Shirley MacLaine"

4.

"Joan Leslie Nielsen"

Leslie Nielsen holds a special place in our hearts as Captain of the S.S. Poseidon in The Poseidon Adventure (1972.)

5.

"Leslie Howard Duff"

6.

"Dane Clark Gable"

Clark Gable was "The King" of Hollywood. These shirtless pics are from his hit films Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), Mogambo (1953) and It Happened One Night (1934, for which he won an Oscar.) To me, he was never more handsome than in Red Dust (1932), though.

7.

"Cary Grant Withers" 
(If you don't know, 1930s & '40s actor Grant Withers was the first husband of 17 year-old, hot-to-trot Loretta Young, but it was annulled rather soon after.)

8.

"Mala Powers Boothe" 
(I tried to pretend that the connection with these pics is that his is from The Emerald Forest, 1985, and she's wearing emeralds! Ha! But I don't think they are...)

9.

"Susan St. James Spader"

10.

"Jill St. John Bromfield"

It's simply not possible to ever get too much John Bromfield while he was in his prime. That he was on this day, boating with our dear, late Tab Hunter.

11.

"Barbara Shelley Winters"

Shelley Winters crafted one of the most enduring (and immersive!) characterizations to ever affect a seven year-old boy, "Belle Rosen" in The Poseidon Adventure. We still aren't completely over it!

12.

"Christopher Lee Grant"

Christopher Lee and Lee Grant played sparring marrieds in one of my favorite movies, Airport '77 (1977.) Had this occurred in real life, she'd have been either Lee Lee or Lee Grant-Lee!

Bonus.

"David Brian Keith Andes!"

Hey, in his day Keith Andes was no slouch either, even in his alien makeup (and scanty costume) as a guest on Star Trek.

Pairing Up

Today we have a little post featuring movie stills and publicity photos of male stars in which, with a little imagination (and that's about how much we possess! Ha ha!), a different scenario might be envisioned than the one intended... In other words, they might be unintentionally suggestive. Or, perhaps, they are completely benign and we just have a dirty mind. Or maybe the men in them are just plain handsome so we feel like sharing!

Today's poster boys, Randolph Scott and Cary Grant were featured in a notorious series of photo spreads taken during their bachelorhood in which they were seen swimming together, working out in abbreviated shorts, dining elegantly together, lounging near one another and even cooking in the kitchen (with Cary in an apron and Randy wielding a phallic bunch of celery!)

You thought I was making that one up, didn't you...?  Nope.

All just speculation? Hiding in plain sight? Best/worst kept secret in Hollywood?

We may never know the truth about them, but it's been written that when Cary was pressured into marrying and leaving his and Randy's bachelor pad, he soon became despondent, attempted suicide and was soon divorced and back there again. And later in life, in the wake of their marriages and children, these two were reportedly seen holding hands under the table at lunch, which is either the saddest or the most touching thing about their long association with one another.

Here, we find Randolph Scott in an intense stare-down with John Wayne in Pittsburgh. They were meant to be squabbling over Marlene Dietrich, but she's nowhere to be seen in this shot. They could be having a romantic dinner...!

This one, with Scott and Lex Barker from Thunder Over the Plains, is even more suggestive. It could be a dance hold! (The link for Lex this time is to a page with several color Tarzan comic book covers at the end.)

The two brooding pusses in this shot are Richard Arlen and Buddy Rogers in Wings.

Check out the dreamy intensity of this portrait from the same pairing.

As this is a WWI war drama, there's an emotional ending for the young men...

...VERY emotional!

Arlen, by the way, was a very handsome young man. Sort of a Paul Newman for the 1930s (I always wish they'd have played father and son in a movie.) He's seen here with David Newell and Kay Francis in the four-cornered circus romance Dangerous Curves. (Clara Bow rounding out the quartet.)

But with some thoughtful cropping of Ms. Francis, and the gents' matching robes, this could be another sort of lover's quarrel!

My favorite silent-era actor is delectable George O'Brien, seen here looking as timeless as ever and elbow-to-elbow with another young actor. You may recognize him as one of the most heralded in all of cinema?  Spencer Tracy.

On the right in this twosome is Henry Wilcoxon, who while having a sort of sneering quality in his face, is an actor I nonetheless found strikingly handsome in his prime. He later became an assistant and frequent supporting actor in Cecil B. DeMille movies.

Hmmm... I wonder what costars and close personal friends Cesar Romero and Tyrone Power have spied and are discussing here.

Yes, I know they're fighting and not getting comfy, but it's sort of neat to see former Tarzans Johnny Weissmuller and Buster Crabbe working together (in Captive Girl.)

Even better is this one of the two, from another movie of theirs, Swamp Fire. Even out of their loincloths they seemed to find reasons to be shirtless on celluloid!

No, this isn't a pair. Or is it? With Mickey Rooney and Eddie Bracken fighting over who gets the biggest piece of delicious figure model Ed Fury! This was part of a publicity shoot for A Slight Case of Larceny (in which I don't believe Fury even appears!)

Another awesome photo shoot - some of which has appeared on this blog before - involves Tab Hunter and John Bromfield. Here Bromfield is demonstrating his rod for Hunter.

And here Bromfield is demonstrating his other rod for the readers! What a gorgeous man he was.

Now entering the Robert Wagner wing of today's post. He's seen here making his presence known to costar Jeffrey Hunter in A Kiss Before Dying.

And here he is making his presence known to Hunter again, during a photo shoot!

In this shot (from one of his 1950s war films, perhaps The Hunters?) Wagner and a buddy are enjoying an Asian spa together.

Poolside, he's getting his exercise in with a muscular partner...

...followed by some laps not in but around the pool!

Mechanic fantasy anyone? I don't know the handsome, bearded fella under the hood, but that's Rock Hudson giving the body a hearty buff.

Hollywood's first gay adoption? No... just Broken Arrow star John Lupton showing off his new baby daughter to costar Michael Ansara.

Skipping ahead to longtime friends Robert Redford and Paul Newman, costars of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting. For a while, there were murmurings about them costarring a third time in a film based upon "The Front Runner," all about a track coach who has a sexual relationship with his star runner! Newman, who'd bought the option, let it lapse when he ran into script (and casting plausibility) issues.

My Two Dads. In retrospect, they sorta look like the type of two dads we see more often these days!

Who knows what hairy stuff was going on in the woods with Joe Namath and his (unidentified) friend...? Gotta love the '70s and '80s when men could go shirtless (not to mention hairy) and few batted an eye.

The End!