Joseph Santley

Birthday: 1890-01-10
Deathday: 1971-08-08
Birthplace: Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
Gender: Male

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Joseph Mansfield Santley (born Joseph Ishmael Mansfield, January 10, 1890 – August 8, 1971) was an American actor, singer, dancer, writer, director, and producer of musical theatrical plays motion pictures and television shows. He adopted the stage name of his stepfather, actor Eugene Santley.

Joseph Santley was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. As a boy, he and older brother Fred began performing in live theatre appearing in summer stock and touring with their parents. In 1906, at age seventeen, Joseph Santley co-wrote and starred on Broadway in the play, Billy the Kid. In 1907, he acted in film for the first time for Sidney Olcott at the Kalem Company in a silent Western film short called Pony Express.

In 1928, Santley directed his first motion picture, a short talkie for Paramount Pictures that featured singer Ruth Etting. The next year, Paramount had Santley direct three more films that were short singing productions, one with Etting, another with crooner Rudy Vallee, plus a third titled High Hat with Broadway singing star Alice Boulden. Also, he directed A Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic, a musical film featuring Eddie Cantor along with Eddie Elkins and his orchestra. In 1929, Joseph Santley co-directed, with Robert Florey, the first Marx Brothers feature film The Cocoanuts, a musical comedy for which he is most famous. Based on the George S. Kaufman play, and with music by Irving Berlin, the film was billed as "Paramount's All Talking-Singing Musical Comedy Hit." His other notable directorial efforts include 1935's Harmony Lane, a biographical musical on the life of composer Stephen Foster. In 1940, he directed Melody Ranch starring "singing cowboy" Gene Autry. The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

During World War II, Joseph Santley worked for the war effort and in 1942 made the film Remember Pearl Harbor. In 1950, he made his last feature film but came back at age sixty-five to produce the 1954-55 television comedy The Mickey Rooney Show. In 1956, he put together two segments of Jazz Ball, a made-for-TV musical revue created from various filmed performances by jazz greats from the 1930s to the 1950s.

Joseph Santley died in 1971 in Los Angeles.

Credits

Year Title
1950-08-30 When You're Smiling
1949-04-01 Make Believe Ballroom
1946-09-14 Shadow of a Woman
1945-07-16 Hitchhike to Happiness
1945-04-05 Earl Carroll Vanities
1944-11-30 Brazil
1944-07-31 Three Little Sisters
1944-06-17 Goodnight, Sweetheart
1944-05-05 Jamboree
1944-04-08 Rosie the Riveter
1943-11-15 Here Comes Elmer
1943-09-05 Sleepy Lagoon
1943-07-05 Thumbs Up
1943-04-27 Chatterbox
1943-04-20 Shantytown
1942-08-17 Call of the Canyon
1942-07-15 Joan of Ozark
1942-03-13 Yokel Boy
1942-02-02 A Tragedy at Midnight
1942-01-02 Remember Pearl Harbor
1941-10-15 Down Mexico Way
1941-08-19 Ice-Capades
1941-06-25 Puddin' Head
1941-04-16 Rookies on Parade
1941-04-12 Sis Hopkins
1940-12-20 Behind the News
1940-11-01 Dancing on a Dime
1940-10-10 Melody and Moonlight
1940-09-15 Melody Ranch
1940-01-04 Music in My Heart
1939-09-21 Two Bright Boys
1939-03-30 The Family Next Door
1939-03-10 The Spirit of Culver
1938-12-16 Swing, Sister, Swing
1938-10-28 Always in Trouble
1938-06-17 Blond Cheat
1937-12-31 She's Got Everything
1937-10-29 There Goes the Groom
1937-06-04 Meet the Missus
1936-11-27 Smartest Girl in Town
1936-09-11 Walking on Air
1936-06-19 We Went to College
1936-04-18 The Harvester
1936-03-04 Laughing Irish Eyes
1936-01-20 Dancing Feet
1936-01-17 Her Master's Voice
1935-12-12 Beautiful Dreamer
1935-12-03 Frisco Waterfront
1935-10-22 Harmony Lane
1935-10-04 Waterfront Lady
1934-12-29 Million Dollar Baby
1934-09-16 Young and Beautiful
1934-06-01 The Loudspeaker
1931-08-17 Oh! Oh! Cleopatra
1930-05-18 Swing High
1929-08-10 Radio Rhythm
1929-07-19 All Americans
1929-06-22 Two Americans
1929-05-23 The Cocoanuts
1929-05-04 A Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic
1929-03-16 His College Chums
1929-03-15 Ruth Etting in Favorite Melodies