James V. Kern

Birth : 1909-09-22, New York City, New York, USA

Death : 1966-11-09

History

James V. Kern (September 22, 1909, New York City, New York – November 9, 1966, Encino, California) was an American singer, songwriter, screenwriter, actor, and director. Educated at the Fordham Law School, Kern worked for a while as an attorney. He sang with the George Olsen Trio, and appeared with the Olsen orchestra in the musical Good News. From 1927 to 1939, he sang with and wrote for the Yacht Club Boys quartet, with whom he appeared in several motion pictures. He became a screenwriter and later a director. In film, he directed mainly "B" pictures, but after he moved to television, he directed hundreds of series episodes. He was one of the house directors on I Love Lucy in the 1950s. He directed My Three Sons for most of two seasons in the 1960s. When he died suddenly of a heart attack at age 57, several episodes of the show remained only partially completed for the 1966/67 season, so director James Sheldon was brought in by series producers to round out the season. He joined ASCAP in 1955. His popular-song compositions include "Easy Street," "Lover, Lover," "Little Red Fox," and "Shut the Door." From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Movies

Lum and Abner Abroad
Director
The "boys" from Pine Ridge visit Europe and try to help a Yugoslavian ballerina find her American lover, become involved with French jewel thieves, and take on posh society in Monte Carlo.
Lum and Abner Abroad
Producer
The "boys" from Pine Ridge visit Europe and try to help a Yugoslavian ballerina find her American lover, become involved with French jewel thieves, and take on posh society in Monte Carlo.
Two Tickets to Broadway
Director
A young woman (Janet Leigh) leaves her small hometown in Vermont and travels to New York City with hopes of becoming a Broadway star.
The Second Woman
Director
In flashback from a 'Rebecca'-style beginning: Ellen Foster, visiting her aunt on the California coast, meets neighbor Jeff Cohalan and his ultramodern clifftop house. Ellen is strongly attracted to Jeff, who's being plagued by unexplainable accidents, major and minor. Bad luck, persecution...or paranoia? Warned that Jeff could be dangerous, Ellen fears that he's in danger, as the menacing atmosphere darkens.
April Showers
Director
A married couple who have a song-and-dance act in vaudeville are in trouble. Their struggling act is going nowhere, they're almost broke and they have to do something to get them back on top or they'll really be in trouble. They decide to put their young son in the act in hopes of attracting some new attention. The boy turns out to be a major talent, audiences love him and the act is on its way to the top. That's when an organization whose purpose is to stop children from performing on stage shows up, and they're dead set on breaking up the act.
Stallion Road
Director
A veterinarian and a novelist compete for the heart of a lady rancher.
Never Say Goodbye
Screenplay
Phil and Ellen Gayley have been divorced for a year, and their 7-year old daughter, Flip, is very unhappy that her parents are not together. Flip starts a correspondence with a Marine, sending a picture of her beautiful mother as the author of Flip's flirtatious letters. When the Marine shows up to meet his pen pal, Ellen takes the opportunity to make her ex-husband jealous.
Never Say Goodbye
Director
Phil and Ellen Gayley have been divorced for a year, and their 7-year old daughter, Flip, is very unhappy that her parents are not together. Flip starts a correspondence with a Marine, sending a picture of her beautiful mother as the author of Flip's flirtatious letters. When the Marine shows up to meet his pen pal, Ellen takes the opportunity to make her ex-husband jealous.
Her Kind of Man
Original Story
A singer can't choose between a charismatic gangster and an honest newspaperman.
Movieland Magic
Director
Released as part of a series of WB shorts under the collective title of "Technicolor Specials" (WB production number 2003) this short most likely holds the WB house record for a 20-minute film containing footage from the most different titles in their inventory. It's theme of a singing guided tour of the lot (and some of the footage) is from 1944's "Musical Movieland", the former title holder, and it contains clips from 1939's "Quiet, Please" and "Royal Rodeo"; "Sunday Roundup" from 1936 and 1940's "The Singing Dude." Pieces from "Out Where the Stars Begin" and "Swingtime in the Movies" may also be used, but it's hard to tell since they all tend to run together and show up in a lot of places during the 1940's Warner shorts. Its title of "Movieland Magic" is most apt considering the sleight-of-hand performed by the WB Shorts and Sales departments in once again selling the same film clips for the 3rd, 4th or more times.
The Horn Blows at Midnight
Screenplay
A trumpet player in a radio orchestra falls asleep during a commercial and dreams he's Athanael, an angel deputized to blow the Last Trumpet at exactly midnight on Earth, thus marking the end of the world.
The Doughgirls
Screenplay
Arthur and Vivian are just married, but when the get to their honeymoon suite in Washington D.C., they find it occupied. Arthur goes to meet Slade, his new boss, and when he comes back, he finds three girls in his suite. He orders Vivian to get rid of them, but they are friends of Vivian's and as time goes by, it looks more like Grand Central Station than the quiet honeymoon suite Arthur expected. As long as there is anyone else in the suite, Arthur will not stay there and there will be no honeymoon.
The Doughgirls
Director
Arthur and Vivian are just married, but when the get to their honeymoon suite in Washington D.C., they find it occupied. Arthur goes to meet Slade, his new boss, and when he comes back, he finds three girls in his suite. He orders Vivian to get rid of them, but they are friends of Vivian's and as time goes by, it looks more like Grand Central Station than the quiet honeymoon suite Arthur expected. As long as there is anyone else in the suite, Arthur will not stay there and there will be no honeymoon.
Shine on Harvest Moon
Screenplay
Biographical movie about the early 20th century broadway stars Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth.
Thank Your Lucky Stars
Screenplay
An Eddie Cantor look-alike organizes an all-star show to help the war effort.
Playmates
Screenplay
Lulu Monahan, the press agent for John Barrymore, is attempting to get a sponsor for a radio program. To that end, she and the agent for bandleader Kay Kyser, plant a story that the great Shakespearean actor, over his heartfelt objections, will teach Kyser how to play Shakespeare, which isn't the same as playing Paducah, which soon becomes evident.
Look Who's Laughing
Story
Fibber McGee enlists the help of Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy in enticing an aircraft manufacturer to build a factory in the small town of Wistful Vista. Based on the "Fibber McGee and Molly" radio series
Look Who's Laughing
Screenplay
Fibber McGee enlists the help of Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy in enticing an aircraft manufacturer to build a factory in the small town of Wistful Vista. Based on the "Fibber McGee and Molly" radio series
You'll Find Out
Story
The manager of Kay Kyser’s band books them for a birthday party bash for an heiress at a spooky mansion, where sinister forces try to kill her.
You'll Find Out
Screenplay
The manager of Kay Kyser’s band books them for a birthday party bash for an heiress at a spooky mansion, where sinister forces try to kill her.
If I Had My Way
Story
Construction worker Buzz Blackwell becomes the guardian of 12-year-old Pat Johnson after one of his buddies, her father, is killed. Buzz and Pat, along with their chum Axel Swensen, head to New York to look for the girl's uncle. The trio soon unexpectedly become owners of a tired restaurant.
That's Right - You're Wrong
Screenplay
J. D. Forbes, head of the almost-bankrupt Four Star Studios in Hollywood contacts band leader Kay Kyser, who puts on a radio and-live theatre program called "The Kollege of Musical Knowledge," to appear in films. When manager Chuck Deems gets the studio offer, he and band members Ginny Simms, Sully Mason, Ish Kabiddle, Harry Babbitt and the others are all fired up at the prospect of going to Hollywood and working in the movies, but band-leader Kay is all against it and says his old grandmother has told him to stay in his own back yard, but he relents. Once there, Stacey Delmore, a Four Star associate producer left in charge of the studio while Forbes is out of town, discovers that the screenplay writers have prepared a script that has Kay Kyser playing a glamorous lover in an exotic European setting.
East Side of Heaven
Writer
A man finds himself the father, by proxy, of a ten-month-old baby and becomes involved in the turbulent lives of the child's family.
Thrill of a Lifetime
Jimmie
"Howdy" Nelson believes there is no such think as real love and that romance can be cooked up between any eligible persons (of the opposite sex.) He is so imbued with the idea that he has established a summer camp for that reason,and has written a play on the subject. The Yacht Club Boys visit the camp, misrepresenting themselves as Broadway producers, and the talented guest of the camp put on Nelson's play...which all ends up with a lot of marriage mating; Judy and Skipper, Betty Jane and Stanley and...Gwen and "Howdy,' the guy who was positive there was no such thing as true love.
Artists & Models
Yacht Club Boys Member
An ad man gets his model girlfriend to pose as a debutante for a new campaign.
Pigskin Parade
The Yacht Club Boys
Bessie and Winston "Slug" Winters are married coaches whose mission is to whip their college football team into shape. Just in time, they discover a hillbilly farmhand and his sister. But the hillbilly farmhand's ability to throw melons enables him to become their star passing ace.
The Singing Kid
The Yacht Club Boys Member
Neurotic Broadway star Al Jackson faces professional ruin when he loses his voice. While recuperating in the country, he falls in love with farm girl Ruth Haines, the pretty aunt of precocious little Sybil Haines.