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October 20, 2007

Historical Perspective: Crothers chosen for Indiana Performing Arts Hall of Fame

By Mike McCormick

TERRE HAUTE — Nearly secluded in Thursday’s Tribune-Star was the proud announcement that Terre Haute native Benjamin Sherman “Scatman” Crothers has been chosen one of 19 inaugural inductees of the new Indiana Performing Arts Hall of Fame (IPAHF).

Founded by the Indiana Media Industry Network, a not-for-profit trade association representing the film, television, music and commercial production industry, the Hall of Fame celebrates the immense contributions by Hoosiers to the arts.

The names of 13 deceased members of the initial class were revealed at a press conference in Indianapolis early last week. Six living inductees will be announced next spring. Formal induction will occur during ceremonies in Indianapolis on June 19, 2008.

David Smith, professor emeritus of telecommunications at Ball State University and author of “Hoosiers in Hollywood,” serves as chairman of the IPAHF and helped select the panel of specialists responsible for choosing the first class of immortals.

Beginning his show business career in Terre Haute during Prohibition, the “one and only Scatman” was a successful speakeasy musician long before becoming Louie the Garbage Man on television’s “Chico and the Man” or a motion picture star in “The Shining” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest,” among his many movies.

Unknown to many, he also was a versatile voice-over talent beginning with Disney’s “The Aristocats” and including his interpretation of Meadowlark Lemon in “The Harlem Globetrotters” cartoon series.

In addition to Crothers, the inaugural inductees include director Robert Wise, playwright Booth Tarkington, actors James Dean, Irene Dunne, Carole Lombard, Marjorie Main and Steve McQueen, comedian Red Skelton, lyricist Noble Sissle, composers Hoagy Carmichael and Cole Porter, and jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery.

Born in Winchester and raised in Connersville, Wise made his Hollywood debut in 1941 as film editor of “Citizen Kane,” considered by many as the best film ever made, and was nominated for an Academy Award. He later won double Oscars — best motion picture and best director — for “West Side Story” (1961) and “The Sound of Music” (1965). Wise also was nominated for “I Want to Live,” which won an Oscar for Susan Hayward in 1958, and “The Sand Pebbles,” in 1966, starring Hoosier McQueen.

Director of “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (1951), and “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” (1979), Wise was recipient of the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1967.

Born in Indianapolis, Tarkington maintained strong Terre Haute ties. His maternal grandparents, Hannah and Beebe Booth, were Terre Haute residents and his mother Elizabeth, raised and married at Sixth and Ohio streets, attended St. Mary-of-the-Woods. He is best remembered as a novelist but nearly everything he published was translated to film. Most of Tarkington’s books became full length feature films, some in two or three versions.

More motion pictures have been made about Dean, a native of Grant County, than he made himself. Yet, based on his brilliant performances in “East of Eden” (1955), “Rebel Without a Cause” (1955) and “Giant” (1956), he became a cultural icon following his tragic death in an automobile accident at age 24 on Sept. 30, 1955.

Born in Louisville but raised in Madison, Dunne was nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in five films: “Cimarron” (1931), “Theodora Goes Wild” (1936), “The Awful Truth” (1937), “Love Affair” (1939), and “I Remember Mama” (1948). The American Film Institute presented her with its Lifetime Achievement Award in 1985.

Christened Jane Alice Peters in Fort Wayne in 1908, Lombard was one of Hollywood’s most popular comedy actresses of the 1930s. She earned an Academy Award nomination for “My Man Godfrey” in 1935. Marriages to actors William Powell and Clark Gable enhanced Lombard’s fame and her death in an airplane crash on Jan. 16, 1942 sealed her legendary status. President Roosevelt posthumously awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The daughter of a Shelby County minister, Mary Tomlinson changed her name to Marjorie Main to protect her family’s reputation. Her notable career as a character actress in theater and film encompassed 30 years and included an Academy Award nomination in 1947 for “The Egg and I,” the first of eight films in which she played “Ma Kettle.”

Nicknamed “The King of Cool,” Beech Grove native McQueen became the nation’s highest-paid motion picture actor in the 1960s and 1970s before contracting cancer. Nurturing an “anti-hero” persona, he owned and raced motorcycles and sports cars. He died of a heart attack in Mexico on Nov. 7, 1980 after surgery to remove a tumor.

McQueen probably is best remembered for “The Magnificent Seven” (1960), “The Great Escape” (1963), “Bullitt” (1968) and “Papillon” (1973). However, he received his only Academy Award nomination for “The Sand Pebbles” in 1966.

The son of a Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus clown who died before Red as born in Vincennes, young Skelton pursued his father’s footsteps. Between 1937 and 1971, Red was king of radio and television slapstick comedy, creating characters such as San Fernando Red (who had a pair of cross-eyed sea gulls) and Clem Kadiddlehopper, a country bumpkin with a slow wit but a big heart. He also appeared in many motion pictures.

Born in Indianapolis, Sissle is credited with changing the face of musical theater as a lyricist, jazz composer, bandleader and playwright. “Shuffle Along,” written in 1921 by Sissle and Eubie Blake, was the first Broadway musical written by African-Americans. Noble received a Tony Award for Best Musical Score in 1979 for “Eubie!”

Master 20th-century songwriters, Carmichael and Porter need no introduction. Carmichael’s “Stardust,” written without lyrics in 1927, became the most-recorded song in music history. A native of Bloomington, Hoagy appeared in motion pictures and wrote many other hits, including “Georgia On My Mind,” “The Lazy River,” “Old Buttermilk Sky” and “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening.”

Born in Peru, Porter created the successful Broadway musical comedies “Kiss Me, Kate” and “Anything Goes,” as well as hit songs “You Do Something to Me,” “Let’s Do It!”, “Night and Day,” “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” “Begin the Beguine,” “Just One of Those Things,” and “I Get a Kick Out of You.”

A self-taught musician raised in Indianapolis, Montgomery had an abbreviated career on the national music scene after sensational years working with George Shearing and Nat and Cannonball Adderley. The founder and proponent of a “hard bop” sound, Montgomery died of a heart attack at age 45 in Indianapolis on June 15, 1968.

With its rich heritage in theater, cinema and the arts, the Wabash Valley surely will be recognized often when IPAHF begins installing 10 Hoosier legends annually in 2009.

Paul Dresser, Claude Thornhill, Grover Jones, Rose Melville, Valeska Suratt, Theodore Dreiser, Scat Davis, Bill Thompson, Danny Polo, Will Hays, Phil Harris and Skeets Gallagher are among those deserving early consideration.

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