Robert Wentworth John Holness (12 November 1928 – 6 January 2012) was an English-South African radio and television presenter and occasional actor. He presented the British version of Blockbusters.
Read more...The November 12, 1928 was a Monday under the star sign of ♏. It was the 316 day of the year. President of the United States was Calvin Coolidge.
If you were born on this day, you are 96 years old. Your last birthday was on the Tuesday, November 12, 2024, 335 days ago. Your next birthday is on Wednesday, November 12, 2025, in 29 days. You have lived for 35,399 days, or about 849,595 hours, or about 50,975,734 minutes, or about 3,058,544,040 seconds.
Date: 12 November 1928
On the whole, the stock market since election day has acted in much the same way as on other similar occasions. An outburst of enthusiastic buying orders from they general public has usually been the order of ...
Date: 12 November 1928
Special to The New York Times
Daily News denounces violation of rules
Date: 13 November 1928
With transactional exceeding 5,500,000 shares, the largest turnover in the Stock Exchange's history, stocks continued to move irregularly in yesterday's trading on the Exchange. Several issues which were focal points of the speculative movement
Date: 13 November 1928
This picture is about the greatest of detectives and his amiable pursuit of a gang of counterfeiters. There is a murder two-thirds of the way along, a nightmare near the end, a close-up of justice in triumph for the conclusion. With the exception of about five minutes, the play isn't very good.That five minutes, however, would neutralize half an hour of "The Armored Vault's" mediocrity. It is the suspense scene, when hunter and hunted are in a large vault, expecting a mine to go off and bury them all. The clock on the mine ticks off the moments slowly, while the prisoners rush around frantically trying to find some method to save themselves. But then when the mine does explode, the whole affair turns out to be a dream.The hero of the piece is a detective named Stuart Webbs, who apparently goes the Northwest Mounted one better. He is so good at the profession that a group of counterfeiters try to buy him off. As he is honest and refuses the invitation, they take him prisoner. His escape soon follows, with the rest of the picture showing his endeavors to bring about the well-known ends of justice.Scattered through the length of the film are snatches of comedy which unfortunately deserve some sort of qualifying adjective. They are not very funny, and they serve only to delay the action. One of them deals with the outwitting of the heroic master-detective (not a difficult feat), thus dashing the whole business into counter-point.Mr. Reicher takes the part of the detective. The rôle is not best suited for him, the result being a series of poses and gyrations.As to the rest of the program, the Russian News reel shows scenes in various parts of that country; Mr. Chaplin's efforts to roller-skate are still funny.
Date: 12 November 1928
By Mordaunt Hall
Mordaunt Hall
So clever is the comedy in "Show People," the current film at the Capitol, that it would not be at all surprising to hear that many in the audiences had sat through it twice. It is a hardy satire on Hollywood life, directed by King Vidor, the versatile producer of "The Big Parade." But he is not alone responsible for the gaiety in this picture, for Marion Davies shares honors with him through her unusually clever acting.Mr. Vidor, who more than once has proved himself a wizard in handling players, has accomplished here the seemingly impossible—by eliciting a restrained performance from William Haines. Mr. Haines, who has kicked over the traces in a number of films, in "Show People" actually compels sympathy for the character.While there are one or two instances here where the fun boils over, most of the time it simmers in a delightful fashion. Some of it is keen, well-thoughout wit, and even the more obstreperous moments are effective because there is an excuse for the boisterousness.The story of "Show People" was written specially for the screen by Agnes Christine Johnstone and Laurence Stallings, and their work has evidently been quite inspiring to both Mr. Vidor and Miss Davies. The idea of a Southern girl going with her father by automobile from Georgia to seek fame and perhaps fortune in the centre of make-believe shadows may not be conspicuously original, but the incidents that are strewn in the path of the girl who aspires to be a film actress, are comic indeed. Through her popularity among motion picture players Miss Davies was able to get the support, as quasi extras, of Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, Lew Cody, Aileen Pringle, Karl Dane, George K. Arthur and others, who impersonate themselves.Imagine Peggy Pepper (Miss Davies) condescending to give Chaplin her autograph after she has made a hit in a slapstick comedy, and not knowing he is the comedian until just after he bowls away in his glistening limousine. Another bright bit is where Pegyg, who incidentally, on being asked to work in a pictorial drama, decides to adopt the name of Peggy Pepoire, sits at dinner with her companion in a rowdy comedy, Billy Boone, and hears him. after a day's toil, ask the waiter to bring him a custard pie. It is quite obvious that she is staggered by the idea of a man who has virtually been working among the pie-flinging comedies wanting to eat anything of that sort.Peggy, prior to taking the name of Pepoire, in a double exposure, sees a young woman alighting from a car and she is told that this blonde is Miss Davies, which is the truth. Peggy, however, evidently is not greatly impressed by the comedienne.Miss Davies, as Peggy, has her innings at making grimaces, when she registers moods for the casting director and so amuses him that she gains a hearing and a job."I want tears," says one director to Peggy Pepoire, when she is undergoing the ordeal of making her first dramatic scene. Peggy may not be really happy at the time, but even so she is not in a mood to weep. Through the medium of music and onions, the reluctant tears finally start, and once that happens Peggy can't stop crying.The romance between Billy Boone and Peggy shows signs of weakening when the Georgia belle begins to think of the more serious side of picture making; but toward the end she is sorry for her snobbishness and returns to her beau of less successful times.Miss Davies is beautiful in this film, but occasionally she does not hesitate for the sake of the part to show that with her hair pulled back she can look relatively plain. Sidney Bracy is capital as the dramatic director and Polly Moran earns a chuckle or so as Peggy's maid.George Dewey Washington, the negro singer, is heard and seen in an impressive Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movietone subject.