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Christine Photo

Backstage/Everyday

page last updated:  1/31/2004




[The following paragraph was updated 1/31/2004] Below is the newspaper obituary of Christine's mother, Edna (Barnaby) McIntyre (who had passed away the previous day, 1/6/1948) from the Ironwood Daily Globe, Ironwood, Michigan (Edna's home town). Please note that Christine's sister Marian is listed as Mrs. Herman Walecki, and sister Jean (a former "Chesterfield Cigarette" ad girl) is listed as Mrs. Ricardo Martin. Many thanks to genealogist extraordinaire Todd Zimmerman for unearthing this rare clipping:
(Courtesy of Todd Zimmerman)





Aubrey Menezes, a regular contributor to this site, is an artist who befriended former Columbia director Edward Bernds in Ed's final years. As a birthday present, Aubrey created the sketch held by Ed in the photo below. The drawing, based on the many conversations Aubrey had with Ed, represented some of the director's favorite people and things from his Hollywood days. Clockwise, from the upper left corner, can be seen: a blimp (Aubrey says: "The blimp or dirigible was from one of Ed's favorite films he ever worked on... the name of the movie was DIRIGIBLE, starring Jack Holt and Fay Wray, directed by the great Frank Capra"); a jet ("The significance of the jet... it was something Ed talked about a lot, it was in the movie SPACE MASTER X-7, which Ed directed -- Moe Howard had a small part in this film -- it wasn't a bad movie"); "The Fly" (since Bernds had directed 1959's RETURN OF THE FLY and was quite proud of it); Ed Bernds himself; Shemp Howard (complete with boxing gloves...representing the sport Shemp loved); Emil Sitka; and, in the center, Christine McIntyre. After Ed's passing a couple years ago, Aubrey was unable to find out whatever became of the drawing. If anyone from Edward Bernds' family is out there, and you know the fate of this artifact, Aubrey entreats you to contact him through this site:
(Courtesy of Aubrey Menezes)





Here is a newspaper review of PARTNERS OF THE TRAIL (1944) where Christine gets a nice, and rare, nod in the press. Les Adams is fairly certain it came from one of the New York trade papers of the time, probably Variety but not Film Daily:
(Courtesy of Les Adams)





The movie studios began putting out pressbooks as a way to supply the local theatres with ready-made publicity for their hometown newspapers -- the better to sell more tickets. These pressbooks were often printed in a 4-page newspaper-style format and they contained clip ads plus various articles about different aspects of the given movie's plot and/or its production details. I recently came into possession of the pressbook for VALLEY OF FEAR (1947) the Monogram B Western feature Christine did with Johnny Mack Brown. Among many pieces that just referred to Christine as "the feminine lead," there were three interesting little articles that focused on Chris specifically. One gives a humorous glimpse into the behind-the-scenes birth of Johnny Mack's daughter (conjuring the terrific image of all these rugged cowboy actors standing around puffing on big cigars while petite Christine spoons an ice cream sundae in their midst). Another makes mention (the first one I've come across) of Christine having done a musical in New York on Broadway. It could be just publicity department hype, or it could be yet another underappreciated aspect of Chris' career...I'll look into it. Perhaps she made a stopover in New York sometime between 1933 and 1936 -- between when she graduated school in Chicago and when she moved to Los Angeles:





Here is the site of the McIntyre Family's residence when they lived in Chicago from sometime in the mid-1920's through the mid-1930's. It may be a renovation or a completely different structure, but I am told it is quite possibly the very brick apartment building Christine called home during her high school and college years. About a dozen blocks from Lake Michigan on the east, and about 4 miles from the Indiana border, this southside location was within walking distance of Aquinas High School where Chris graduated in 1928. Many thanks to Todd Zimmerman, a friend of this site, who scared up the address:





What follows is an exciting memento...Christine's Senior Recital Program from Chicago Musical College. She attended that institution (which was absorbed in the 1950's by Roosevelt University) from 1928 till 1933 -- and she graduated with a major in Voice and minors in Piano and Dramatic Arts. Please note that the piece "Memory" may have been composed by the college's director:
(Courtesy of Bryan D. Shilander and Roosevelt University)





Below is the photo I posted (originally on the Index Page) in celebration of Christine's 90th birthday, back on 4/16/2001. It commemorates another birthday, the 41st of Columbia director Ed Bernds, July 12, 1946 [Please note that I had originally notated this as Bernds' 42nd birthday on 7/12/1947...but I have received this interesting email from Doug Sarnecky, a friend of this site: Doug says in part, "...it's 7/12/46. OUT WEST was released in 4/47, and, therefore, couldn't be in production 7/47. This photo also reveals some Stooge history... Curly Howard had his stroke on 5/6/46, a little more than 2 months before the production of OUT WEST. Until you uploaded that picture, no published accounts have known any shooting dates of OUT WEST. Being the second Shemp short and the fact that the first one, (FRIGHT NIGHT), has no known production dates, this picture gives us the closest account of the time period between the shooting dates of the last Curly short and first Shemp short. FRIGHT NIGHT was probably shot before 7/12/46, so probably less than two months..."], while the two-reeler OUT WEST (1947) was in production. The complete version of this photo is previously unpublished (to my knowledge), and was graciously donated by the late Mr. Bernds' close friend, Aubrey Menezes [in fact, though he wasn't really present at this event, he edited in an old picture of himself...that's Aubrey Menezes in the upper left in back with the dark glasses]. Many of the people in this shot are Columbia behind-the-scenes people, and, therefore, unknown faces to many film buffs. I'm hoping that by posting it some folks may come forward to identify long lost family members who once worked for Columbia. Here are the few people that I've been able to identify with the help of Les Adams (other friends of this site have been called into the case, and their findings, hopefully, will be posted as they appear): Loosely from L to R, That's Vernon Dent (Shemp's doctor in the first scene of the movie) straight from the make-up chair with the long towel around his neck; Shemp Howard (as if you didn't know) is the guy with a gun drawn on the left -- that's Columbia comedy shorts producer Hugh McCollum in the background between Shemp and Chris -- then there's Chris, of course; kneeling in front of her is a fellow that looks like someone named Bill Dyer, an actor of the mid-40's, who may have been on the crew; then birthday boy Ed Bernds (the favorite director of Howard, Fine, & Howard) cutting the cake; Jack Norman (who was more commonly billed as Norman Willis -- he played "Doc Barker" in this film); then Larry Fine; though we wondered briefly if the fellow with the pocket protector could be Jules White, I found a picture of Sam White (Jules' brother) and it appears that's who this man is [Jules, however, may be the man to the right wearing a similar hat and with his face obscured by Moe]; then Moe Howard pointing the other gun (and though I thought I spotted Moe's son Paul Howard hanging onto his dad's leg, I heard on 5/14/2001, by way of Brent Seguine [a friend of this site], that Paul has seen this picture -- and while he's not saying it isn't him, he's pretty sure it isn't and doesn't remember being at this event -- so then who is that grabbing Moe's leg?...come on, Mystery Boy, speak up!); and way on the far right we see a couple of studio baddies...the first one facing the camera (and way in the back behind the woman with dark hair -- quite possibly Claretta White, Sam's wife) is Blackie Whiteford (an unnamed henchman in this film, whom Les says never smiled on camera, and therefore was hard to recognize with this half-smile); and furthest right is George Chesebro (who played "Quirt"). And look carefully between Blackie & George...you can make out a nose and a plaid shirt and a third cowboy hat -- I checked out my tape of OUT WEST, and that is probably prolific B-Western henchman Frank Ellis who also plays a bit role, and who wore a hat and shirt like that. [UPDATE 1/18/2003] Other names from the official production credits for this film are Clyde Bruckman (script), George F. Kelley (cinematography), Paul Borofsky (film editing), and Charles Clague (art direction) -- and some or all of these familiar names may belong to some of the unfamliar faces as well. Can anyone name anybody else [if you want a closer look at the faces, click on the photo for a full-sized version]:

(Courtesy of Aubrey Menezes)




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