- Cary Grant, Bringing Up Baby, 1937. Grant was favorably compared to silent comic Harold Lloyd (glasses and all) in the screwball comedy. And with reason. Director Howard Hawks showed Grant many Lloyd films. In fact, Hawks had first wanted Lloyd to play David Huxley. RKO refused to have Katharine Hepburn co-starring with a milquetoast – preferring the effete, not to say gay Grant.
- Kay Kyser, My Favourite Spy, 1941. The name is Kyser, Kay Kyser. Yet how a popular US bandleader got mixed up in espionage is… really not worth relating. KK is to comedy what Rasputin was to rock ’n ’roll. Yet KK was chosen to take over from a genius like Lloyd. Un-be-lieve-able! Bob Hope re-made it in 1950. No genius but now ya talkin’! Who better to deliver a line like: “When I look into a girl’s eyes, I can tell just what she thinks of me. It’s pretty discouraging, too.” Well, yes, you’re right – that was Woody Allen, proving Hope was his idol.
- James Stewart, Harvey, 1950. Playwright Mary Chase’s deal was $100,000 per year for ten years against one-third of the film’s profits. Plus approval of the movie’s Elwood P Dowd, an alcoholic who relates to an invisible giant rabbit called Harvey. Joe E Brown and Stewart were the only contenders who had played the role on-stage (Jim never stopped reviving the play in the UK and US). Other potential Elwoods were: Jack Benny, James Cagney, Gary Cooper, Bing Crosby, Cary Grant, Jack Haley (The Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz), even the silent era comic Harold Lloyd and crooner Rudy Vallee. In 2000, another Harvey – the later disgraced New York producer Harvey Weinstein planned a re-tread. With Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler or John Travolta. Spielberg as well. With Tom Hanks. Or Robert Downey Jr.
- Lloyd Corrigan, It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World, 1962. Producer-director Stanley Kramer’s movie was stuffed full with stars – mainly comics. Not all agreed to join the party, being terrified at the prospect of working with the great Spencer Tracy. Lloyd, for example, passed on being the Mayor of Santa Rosi
Birth year: 1893Death year: 1971Other name: Casting Calls: 4