Thursday, July 3, 2008

Adrian Booth (formerly Lorna Gray)

Adrian Booth was an actress who was born Virginia Pound, and used the stage name of Lorna Gray during the early part of her movie career. She later changed her stage name to Adrian Booth when she settled at Republic Pictures in the mid 1940s, and has been known by that name ever since.

Ms. Booth is very adept at playing dramatic roles as well as comedic parts. She is also very good at playing female villains, as she did in the 1942 serial "Perils of Nyoka", in which she was 'Vultura, Queen of the Desert'.

I remember Ms. Booth primarily for her role as 'Mattie Herring' in The Three Stooges 1940 short, "You Nazty Spy!". This short has the distinction of being the first Hollywood movie to spoof Hitler. But she appeared in a few other Stooges comedies, as well as two-reel comedies with some of the other comic actors at Columbia Pictures.

Ms. Booth was married for many years to actor David Brian, best remembered for his role as "Mr. District Attorney" in the 1954 tv series.

I wrote to Mr. and Mrs. Brian in 1982, sending each a photo, to their residence in Sherman Oaks, California. Both inscribed and signed the photos to me, and returned them within two weeks. Hers can be seen here and his can be seen here.

In 1995, Ms. Booth was a special guest at The Three Stooges Fan Club Convention in Trevose, Pennsylvania. I attended and had several enjoyable conversations with her. She presented me with this vintage scene photo from the Stooges movie "Three Sappy People" (1939), signed with both of her names.

Below is shown the front and back of one of the handouts from the 1995 Convention.
Below are a couple of photos from the 1995 Convention (the people seen with Adrian are other members of the Fan Club - I don't have any photos of myself with her).

On July 26, Adrian will be 91, and still attends conventions and reunions.

2 comments:

nonsportenut said...

The two photos from the 1995 Convention also feature Dr. Don Morlan, who has written extensively about the Stooge's participation in satire against the "Axis Powers" during WWII, and specifically about "You Nazty Spy". Also, pictured at right is John Hagy, who was monitoring the "lecture".
The last photo also has Shemp impersonator Kevin Marhanka "behind the 8-Ball" with Lorna/Adrian.

Lorna/Adrian was also the featured guest at the Three Stooges Fan Club Meeting in Fort Washington and Spring House,PA. in 2005. She signed one of those "Magic 8-Balls", which now has a place of honor in the Stoogeum.

Lorna/Adrian mentioned that her two get-togethers with the Stooges fans were ten years apart, so "Consider me as a guest in 2015!".

Lorna/Adrian has also appeared at the Three Stooges Ladies Reunion, which was held at the Hollywood Collector Show in Burbank, CA. in February, 2007, and is scheduled there July 12, 2008, with, hopefully, 16 other performers who worked with the Stooges.

Frank Reighter

Mothers daughter said...

How do we go about getting listings of her movies and everyone that was in them including extras? My mother was in several films with her.