#Chill wills movie

Trav has been in the vanguard of New York’s vaudeville and burlesque scenes since 1995 when he launched his company Mountebanks, presenting hundreds of acts ranging from Todd Robbins to Dirty Martini to Tammy Faye Starlite to the Flying Karamazov Brothers. He has written for the NY Times, the Village Voice, American Theatre, Time Out NY, Reason, the Villager and numerous other publications. (is best known for his books 'No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous' (2005) and 'Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube' (2013). To learn more about vaudeville, where Chill Wills performed in his youth, please read No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous , Who better to play 19th century men than a 19th century man? Politically, Wills was somewhat paleo, supporting candidates ranging from Barry Goldwater to George Wallace ( Nixon was too liberal for him, apparently). Louis (1944) and The Harvey Girls (1946) and family fare like The Yearling (1946) and The Over-the-Hill-Gang movies. In addition to westerns, Wills was also in musicals like Meet Me in St. Chill Wills: I am delighted to be your cousin, but I voted for Sal Mineo. Groucho Marx sent him a reply that read, “Dear Mr.

On the latter occasion, Wills campaigned to a strenuous degree, sending out mailers to all the members of the Academy, referring to him as his “cousins”. So he worked his way up to “A” pictures like Western Union (1941) and Barbary Coast Gent (1944), all the way to top-of-the-line prestige pictures like John Ford’s Rio Grande (1950), George Stevens’ Giant (1956) and John Wayne’s The Alamo (1960), for which he was nominated for an Oscar. But unlike most cowboy singing stars ( Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, etc), Wills had actual acting chops. For a time he was the sidekick to George O’Brien.

#Chill wills movie

In the late ’30s he broke away from the Avalon Boys and went out on his own in films, usually B movie westerns. And he supplied the voice of Francis in the “Francis the Talking Mule” movies!

That’s him singing the bass part in that dance number in Laurel and Hardy’s Way Out West(1937). His very first film role was as one of the campfire singers in W.C. Wills’ uniques bass voice also cemented his place in classic comedy. The Avalon Boys were booked as an act in B movie westerns from 1935 through 1937. In the 1930s he formed the western singing group The Avalon Boys, which played nightclubs and on radio, and this became his path to success. A many faceted show biz personality if ever there was one.įrom the time he was 12 Wills performed in tent shows, vaudeville and with stock companies (no doubt the reason why he was so much better an actor than many of his B movie contemporaries). Wills gave great performances in some of the best serious westerns of the classic era, but he also made a mark in other genres (including classic comedy, our primary beat) and he started out as a cowboy singer.

I have big respect for the talent of singer and actor Chill Wills (Theodore Childress Wills, 1902-1978).