Note: During Tracy’s absence over the summer of 1930, the part of Mears was played first by Thomas Mitchell, later by Allen Jenkins.
THE RUGGED PATH
By Robert Emmet Sherwood. (Plymouth Theatre, November 10, 1945.) Management: The Playwrights’ Company. Cast: Spencer Tracy (Morey Vinion), Martha Sleeper, Rex Williams, Clinton Sundberg, Lawrence Fletcher, Vito Christi, Kay Loring, Ernest Woodward, Emory Richardson, Gordon Nelson, Jan Sterling, Henry Lascoe, Ralph Cullinan, Nick Dennis, Theodore Leavitt, Paul Alberts, Sandy Campbell, Sam Sweet, Lynn Shubert, Howard Ferguson, William Sands, David Stone, Clay Clement, Edward Raquelo. Staged by Captain Garson Kanin. Eighty-one performances.
APPENDIX II
Film Chronology
TAXI TALKS (VITAPHONE VARIETIES)
Vitaphone Release #995–996. Producer: Murray Roth. Director: Arthur Hurley. Story: Frederick and Fannie Hatton. Photography: E. B. DuPar. Production and distribution: Vitaphone. Release date: June 1930. Running time: 14 minutes. Cast: Evelyn Knapp, Roger Pryor, Mayo Methot, Vernon Wallace, Katherine Alexander, Spencer Tracy (Joe).
THE HARD GUY (VITAPHONE VARIETIES)
Vitaphone Release #1036. Producer: Sam Sax. Director: Arthur Hurley. Story: Betty Ross. Adaptation: Burnet Hershey. Photography: E. B. DuPar. Production and distribution: Vitaphone. Release date: September 1930. Running time: 12 minutes. Cast: Spencer Tracy (Guy), Katherine Alexander, Valli Roberts, Arch Hendricks, Pat Kearney.
Note: Some sources suggest that Tracy appeared in a third Vitaphone subject. The Strong Arm was filmed in the latter half of March 1930, but there is no documentation in either the Warner Bros. Archive at USC or in Tracy’s personal papers to suggest that he was in it. He never claimed to have appeared in a third Vitaphone subject at any point in his career.
UP THE RIVER
Director: John Ford. Staged by William Collier, Sr. Story: Maurine Watkins. Music and lyrics: Joseph McCarthy, James F. Hanley. Photography: Joseph August. Editor: Frank Hull. Production and distribution: Fox. Release date: October 12, 1930. Running time: 92 minutes. Cast: Spencer Tracy (St. Louis), Claire Luce, Warren Hymer, Humphrey Bogart, William Collier, Sr., Joan Lawes, George MacFarlane, Gaylord Pendleton, Sharon Lynn, Noel Francis, Goodie Montgomery, Robert E. O’Connor, Robert Burns, John Swor, Joe Brown, Morgan Wallace.
Note: Existing prints of the film run eighty-four minutes.
QUICK MILLIONS
Director: Rowland Brown. Screenplay: Rowland Brown, Courtenay Terrett. Additional dialogue: John Wray. Photography: Joseph August. Editor: Harold Schuster. Production and distribution: Fox. Release date: May 3, 1931. Running time: 69 minutes. Cast: Spencer Tracy (Daniel J. “Bugs” Raymond), Marguerite Churchill, John Wray, Warner Richmond, Sally Eilers, George Raft, Robert Burns, John Swor, Edgar Kennedy, Harry Myers, Dixie Lee.
SIX CYLINDER LOVE
Associate producer: John W. Considine, Jr. Director: Thornton Freeland. Based upon the play by William Anthony McGuire. Adaptation: William M. Conselman, Norman Houston. Photography: Ernest Palmer. Editor: J. Edwin Robbins. Production and distribution: Fox. Release date: May 10, 1931. Running time: 71 minutes. Cast: Spencer Tracy (William Donroy), Sidney Fox, Edward Everett Horton, Una Merkel, El Brendel, William Collier, Sr., Lorin Raker, Bert Roach, William Holden, Ruth Warren.
GOLDIE
Associate producer: A. L. Rockett. Director: Benjamin Stoloff. Based upon the film A Girl in Every Port (story: Howard Hawks; adaptation: James K. McGuinness; scenario: Seton I. Miller; titles: Malcolm Stuart Boylan). Adaptation and dialogue: Gene Towne, Paul Perez (uncredited: Howard J. Green). Photography: Ernest Palmer. Editor: Alex Troffey. Production and distribution: Fox. Release date: June 28, 1931. Running time: 59 minutes. Cast: Spencer Tracy (Bill), Warren Hymer, Jean Harlow, Jesse De Vorska, Lina Basquette, Eleanor Hunt, Maria Alba.
SHE WANTED A MILLIONAIRE
Associate producer: John W. Considine, Jr. Director: John G. Blystone. Dialogue director: William Collier, Sr. Story: Sonya Levien (uncredited: Winfield R. Sheehan). Continuity: Sonya Levien. Screenplay: William Anthony McGuire. Photography: John F. Seitz. Editor: Louis Loeffler. Production and distribution: Fox. Release date: February 21, 1932. Running time: 74 minutes. Cast: Joan Bennett, Spencer Tracy (William Kelley), Una Merkel, James Kirkwood, Dorothy Peterson, Douglas Cosgrove, Donald Dillaway, Tetsu Komai, Constantine Romanoff.
SKY DEVILS
Producer: Howard Hughes. Director: Edward Sutherland. Story: Joseph Moncure March, Edward Sutherland. Dialogue: Robert Benchley, Joseph Moncure March, James Starr, Carroll and Garrett Graham. Music: Alfred Newman. Photography: Gaetano Gaudio. Editor: Douglas Biggs. Production: The Caddo Company. Distribution: United Artists. Release date: March 12, 1932. Rereleased: 1939 (Astor Pictures Corporation), 1979 (Universal). Running time: 89 minutes. Cast: Spencer Tracy (Wilkie), William Boyd, George Cooper, Ann Dvorak, Billy Bevan, Yola D’Avril, Forrester Harvey, William B. Davidson, Jerry Miley.
DISORDERLY CONDUCT
Director: John W. Considine, Jr. Story and dialogue: William Anthony McGuire. Continuity: Del Andrews. Photography: Ray June. Editor: Frank Hull. Production and distribution: Fox. Release date: March 20, 1932. Running time: 82 minutes. Cast: Spencer Tracy (Dick Fay), Sally Eilers, El Brendel, Dickie Moore, Ralph Bellamy, Ralph Morgan, Allan Dinehart, Frank Conroy, Cornelius Keefe.
YOUNG AMERICA
Director: Frank Borzage. Based upon the play by John Frederick Ballard. (Suggested by Pearl Franklin’s “Mrs. Doray” stories.) Screenplay: William Conselman (uncredited: Maurine Watkins). Photography: George Schneiderman. Editor: Margaret Clancy. Production and distribution: Fox. Release date: April 17, 1932. Running time: 70 minutes. Cast: Spencer Tracy (Jack Doray), Doris Kenyon, Ralph Bellamy, Tommy Conlon, Raymond Borzage, Beryl Mercer, Sarah Padden, Robert Homans, Dawn O’Day.
SOCIETY GIRL
Associate producer: A. L. Rockett. Director: Sidney Lanfield. Based upon the play by John Larkin, Jr., and Charles Beahan. Screenplay: Elmer Harris. Music: George Lipschultz. Photography: George Barnes. Editor: Margaret Clancy. Production and distribution: Fox. Release date: May 22, 1932. Running time: 74 minutes. Cast: James Dunn, Peggy Shannon, Spencer Tracy (Doc Briscoe), Bert Hanlon, Walter Byron, Marjorie Gateson.
THE PAINTED WOMAN
Director: John G. Blystone. Based upon the play After the Rain, by Alfred C. Kennedy. Screenplay: Guy Bolton, Leon Gordon. Music: George Lipschultz. Song: “Say You’ll Be Good to Me” (music and lyrics: James F. Hanley). Photography: Ernest Palmer. Editor: Alex Troffey. Production and distribution: Fox. Release date: August 21, 1932. Running time: 73 minutes. Cast: Spencer Tracy (Bill), Peggy Shannon, William Boyd, Irving Pichel, Raul Roulien, Murray Kinnell, Laska Winter, Chris-Pin Martin, Paul Porcasi, Stanley Fields, Wade Boteler, Jack Kennedy.
ME AND MY GAL
Director: Raoul Walsh. Story: Philip Klein, Barry Conner. Screenplay: Arthur Kober (uncredited: Frank J. Dolan, Philip Dunne, Charles Vidor, Al Cohn). Music: George Lipschultz. Song: “Oleo the Gigolo” (music: James F. Hanley; lyrics: Val Burton). Photography: Arthur Miller. Editor: Jack Murray. Production and distribution: Fox. Release date: December 24, 1932. Running time: 79 minutes. Cast: Spencer Tracy (Danny Dolan), Joan Bennett, Marion Burns, George Walsh, J. Farrell MacDonald, Noel Madison, Henry B. Walthall, Bert Hanlon, Adrian Morris, George Chandler, Will Stanton.
FACE IN THE SKY
Associate producer: Miles Connolly. Director: Harry Lachman. Dialogue director: William Collier, Sr. Story: Miles Connolly. Screenplay: Humphrey Pearson. Music: Louis De Francesco. Song: “Parade of the Ads” (music: Val Burton, Will Jason, Arthur Lange; lyrics: Val Burton, Will Jason). Photography: Lee Garmes. Editor: Ralph Dietrich. Production and distribution: Fox. Release date: January 22, 1933. Running time: 77 minutes. Cast: Spencer Tracy (Joe Buck), Marian Nixon, Stuart Erwin, Sam Hardy, Lila Lee, Sarah Padden, Russell Simpson, Frank McGlynn, Jr., Billy Platt, Guy Usher.
20,000 YEARS IN SING SING
Executive producer: Hal B. Wa
llis. Associate producer: Robert Lord. Director: Michael Curtiz. Based upon the book by Lewis E. Lawes. Adaptation: Courtenay Terrett, Robert Lord. Screenplay: Wilson Mizner, Brown Holmes. Music: Bernard Kaun. Photography: Barney McGill. Editor: George Amy. Production: First National. Distribution: Warner Bros. Release date: February 1, 1933. Rereleased: 1956 (Dominant Pictures). Running time: 81 minutes. Cast: Spencer Tracy (Tommy Connors), Bette Davis, Arthur Byron, Lyle Talbot, Warren Hymer, Louis Calhern.
SHANGHAI MADNESS
Associate producer: A. L. Rockett. Director: John G. Blystone. Based upon the story by Frederick Hazlitt Brennan. Adaptation: Austin Parker, Gordon Wong Wellesley. Screenplay: Austin Parker (uncredited: Edward T. Lowe). Music: Louis De Francesco. Photography: Lee Garmes. Editor: Margaret Clancy, Alexander Troffey. Production and distribution: Fox. Release date: August 4, 1933. Running time: 68 minutes. Cast: Spencer Tracy (Lieutenant Patrick Jackson), Fay Wray, Ralph Morgan, Eugene Pallette, Herbert Mundin, Reginald Mason, Arthur Hoyt, Albert Conti, Maude Eburne, William von Brincken.
THE POWER AND THE GLORY
Producer: Jesse L. Lasky. Director: William K. Howard. Screenplay: Preston Sturges. Music: Louis De Francesco. Photography: James Wong Howe. Editor: Paul Weatherwax. Production and distribution: Fox. Release date: October 6, 1933. Running time: 77 minutes. Cast: Spencer Tracy (Tom Garner), Colleen Moore, Ralph Morgan, Helen Vinson, Clifford Jones, Henry Kolker, Sarah Padden, Billy O’Brien, Cullen Johnston, J. Ferrell McDonald, Robert Warwick.
THE MAD GAME
Producer: Sol M. Wurtzel. Director: Irving Cummings, John G. Blystone. Story: William Conselman. Screenplay: William Conselman, Henry Johnson. Music: Samuel Kaylin. Photography: Arthur Miller. Production and distribution: Fox. Release date: October 27, 1933. Running time: 78 minutes. Cast: Spencer Tracy (Edward Carson), Claire Trevor, Ralph Morgan, Howard Lally, J. Carroll Naish, John Miljan, Matt McHugh, Kathleen Burke, Mary Mason, Willard Robinson.
MAN’S CASTLE
Director: Frank Borzage. Based upon the play by Lawrence Hazard. Screenplay: Jo Swerling. Music: W. Franke Harling. Photography: Joseph August. Editor: Viola Lawrence. Production and distribution: Columbia. Release date: November 20, 1933. Rereleased: 1938, 1950. Running time: 75 minutes. Cast: Spencer Tracy (Bill), Loretta Young, Marjorie Rambeau, Glenda Farrell, Walter Connolly, Arthur Hohl, Dickie Moore, Helen Jerome Eddy.
THE SHOW-OFF
Producer: Lucien Hubbard. Director: Charles F. Riesner. Based upon the play by George Kelly. Screenplay: Herman J. Mankiewicz. Photography: James Wong Howe. Editor: William S. Gray. Production and distribution: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Release date: March 9, 1934. Running time: 79 minutes. Cast: Spencer Tracy (J. Aubrey Piper), Madge Evans, Henry Wadsworth, Lois Wilson, Grant Mitchell, Clara Blandick, Alan Edwards, Claude Gillingwater.
LOOKING FOR TROUBLE
Producer: Darryl F. Zanuck. Associate producers: William Goetz, Raymond Griffith. Director: William Wellman. Story: J. R. Bren. Screenplay: Leonard Praskins, Elmer Harris. Music: Alfred Newman. Photography: James Van Trees. Editor: Hanson Fritch. Production: 20th Century. Distribution: United Artists. Release date: March 9, 1934. Running time: 77 minutes. Cast: Spencer Tracy (Joe Graham), Jack Oakie, Constance Cummings, Morgan Conway, Arline Judge, Paul Harvey, Judith Wood, Joseph Sauers, Robert Elliot, Paul Porcasi, Charles Lane.
BOTTOMS UP
Producer: B. G. DeSylva. Director: David Butler. Dance director: Harold Hecht. Story and screenplay: B. G. DeSylva, David Butler, Sid Silvers. Music: Constantine Bakaleinikoff. Songs: “Turn on the Moon,” “I’m Throwing My Love Away,” “Little Did I Dream” (music and lyrics: Harold Adamson, Burton Lane). Song: “Waitin’ at the Gate for Katie” (music: Richard A. Whiting; lyrics: Gus Kahn). Song: “Is I in Love I Is” (music and lyrics: J. Russel Robinson). Photography: Arthur Miller. Editor: Irene Mora. Production and distribution: Fox. Release date: March 30, 1934. Rereleased: 1935 (20th Century-Fox). Running time: 84 minutes. Cast: Spencer Tracy (Smoothie King), Pat Paterson, John Boles, Sid Silvers, Herbert Mundin, Harry Green, Thelma Todd, Robert Emmet O’Connor, Del Henderson.
“NOW I’LL TELL” BY MRS. ARNOLD ROTHSTEIN
Producer: Winfield Sheehan. Director: Edwin Burke. Screenplay: Edwin Burke. Music: Arthur Lange. Song: “Fooling with the Other Woman’s Man” (music and lyrics: Lew Brown, Harry Akst). Photography: Ernest Palmer. Editor: Harold Schuster. Production and distribution: Fox. Release date: May 11, 1934. Rereleased: 1935 (20th Century-Fox). Running time: 87 minutes. Cast: Spencer Tracy (Murray Golden), Helen Twelvetrees, Alice Faye, Robert Gleckler, Henry O’Neill, Hobart Cavanaugh, G. P. Huntley, Jr., Shirley Temple, Ronnie Cosbey, Ray Cooke, Frank Marlowe, Clarence Wilson, Barbara Weeks, Theodore Newton, Vince Barnett, Jim Donlan.
MARIE GALANTE
Producer: Winfield Sheehan (uncredited: Julian Johnson). Director: Henry King. Based upon the novel by Jacques Deval and its English-language translation (titled That Girl) by Lawrence S. Morris. Screenplay: Reginald Berkeley (uncredited: Dudley Nichols, William Drake, Courtenay Terrett, Sonya Levien, Samuel Hoffenstein, Seton I. Miller, Henry King, Robert Low, Jack Yellen, Marcel Silver, Edmund Hartman, Seymour Stern). Music: Arthur Lange. Song: “Song of a Dreamer” (music: Ray Gorney; lyrics: Don Hartman). Song: “Un Peu Beaucoup” (music: Arthur Lange; lyrics: Marcel Silver). Song: “Shim Shammy” (music and lyrics: Stepin Fetchit). Song: “Serves Me Right for Treating Him Wrong” (music and lyrics: Maurice Sigler, Al Goodhart, Al Hoffman). Song: “It’s Home” (music: Jay Gorney; lyrics: Jack Yellen). Photography: John Seitz. Editor: Harold Schuster. Production and distribution: Fox. Release date: October 26, 1934. Rereleased: 1935 (20th Century-Fox). Running time: 88 minutes. Cast: Spencer Tracy (Dr. Crawbett), Ketti Gallian, Ned Sparks, Helen Morgan, Siegfried Rumann, Leslie Fenton, Arthur Byron, Jay C. Flippen, Stepin Fetchit, Robert Loraine, Frank Darien, Tito Coral.
IT’S A SMALL WORLD
Producer: Edward Butcher. Director: Irving Cummings. Based upon the story “Highway Robbery,” by Albert Treynor. Screenplay: Sam Hellman, Gladys Lehman (uncredited: Albert Treynor, F. McGrew Willis). Music: Arthur Lange. Photography: Arthur Miller. Production and distribution: Fox. Release date: April 12, 1935. Running time: 71 minutes. Cast: Spencer Tracy (Bill Shevlin), Wendy Barrie, Raymond Walburn, Virginia Sale, Astrid Allwyn, Irving Bacon, Charles Sellon, Nick Foran, Belle Daube, Frank McGlynn, Sr., Frank McGlynn, Jr., Bill Gillis, Ed Brady, Harold Miner.
THE MURDER MAN
Producer: Harry Rapf. Director: Tim Whelan. Story: Tim Whelan, Guy Bolton. Screenplay: Tim Whelan, John C. Higgans (uncredited: Herman J. Mankiewicz). Music: Dr. William Axt. Photography: Lester White. Editor: James E. Newcom. Production and distribution: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Release date: July 12, 1935. Running time: 70 minutes. Cast: Spencer Tracy (Steve Gray), Virginia Bruce, Lionel Atwill, Harvey Stephens, Robert Barrat, James Stewart, William Collier, Sr., Bobby Watson, William Demarest, John Sheehan, Lucien Littlefield, George Chandler, Fuzzy Knight, Louise Henry, Robert Warwick, Joe Irving, Ralph Bushman.
THE MURDER MAN trailer
Tracy appears in a brief exchange of dialogue with Virgina Bruce and director Tim Whelan.
DANTE’S INFERNO
Producer: Sol M. Wurtzel. Director: Harry Lachman. Screenplay: Philip Klein, Robert M. Yost (uncredited: Henry Johnson, Lou Breslow, Rose Frankin, Lester Cole). Music: Samuel Kaylin. Photography: Rudolph Maté. Editor: Al DeGaetano. Production: Fox. Distribution: 20th Century-Fox. Release date: August 23, 1935. Running time: 88 minutes. Cast: Spencer Tracy (Jim Carter), Claire Trevor, Henry B. Walthall, Alan Dinehart, Scott Beckett, Robert Gleckler, Rita Cansino, Gary Leon, Willard Robertson, Morgan Wallace.
WHIPSAW
Producer: Harry Rapf. Director: Sam Wood. Based upon the story “The Whipsaw,” by James Edward Grant. Screenplay: Howard Emmett Rogers. Music: Dr. William Axt. Photography: James Wong Howe. Editor: Basil Wrangell. Production and distribution: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Release date: December 18, 1935. Running time: 80 minutes. Cast: Myrna Loy,
Spencer Tracy (Ross McBride), Harvey Stephens, William Harrigan, Clay Clement, Robert Gleckler, Robert Warwick, Georges Renevant, Paul Stanton, Wade Boteler, Don Rowan, John Qualen, Irene Franklin, Lillian Leighton, J. Arthur Hughes, William Ingersoll, Charles Irwin.
RIFFRAFF
Producer: Irving Thalberg. Associate producer: David Lewis. Director: J. Walter Ruben. Story: Frances Marion. Screenplay: Frances Marion, H. W. Hanemann, Anita Loos (uncredited: John Lee Mahin, George S. Kaufman, Theodore Reeves, Carey Wilson). Music: Edward Ward. Photography: Ray June. Editor: Frank Sullivan. Production and distribution: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Release date: January 3, 1936. Running time: 89 minutes. Cast: Jean Harlow, Spencer Tracy (Dutch Muller), Una Merkel, Joseph Calleia, Victor Kilian, Mickey Rooney, J. Farrell MacDonald, Roger Imhof, Juanita Quigley, Paul Hurst, Vince Barnett, Dorothy Appleby, Judith Wood, Arthur Houseman, Wade Boteler, Joe Phillips, William Newell, Al Hill, Helen Funt, Lillian Harmer, Bob Perry, George Givot, Helene Costello, Rafaelo Ottiano.
FURY
Producer: Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Director: Fritz Lang. Story: Norman Krasna. Screenplay: Bartlett Cormack, Fritz Lang. Music: Franz Waxman. Photography: Joseph Ruttenberg. Editor: Frank Sullivan. Production and distribution: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Release date: June 5, 1936. Running time: 90 minutes. Cast: Sylvia Sidney, Spencer Tracy (Joe Wilson), Walter Abel, Bruce Cabot, Edward Ellis, Walter Brennan, Frank Albertson, George Walcott, Arthur Stone, Morgan Wallace, George Chandler, Roger Gray, Edwin Maxwell, Howard Hickman, Jonathan Hale, Leila Bennett, Esther Dale, Helen Flint.
SAN FRANCISCO
Producers: John Emerson, Bernard H. Hyman. Director: W. S. Van Dyke II. Operatic sequences: William von Wymetal. Montage sequences: John Hoffman. Story: Robert Hopkins. Screenplay: Anita Loos (uncredited: Herman J. Mankiewicz). Music: Edward Ward. Song: “San Francisco” (music and lyrics: Gus Kahn, Bronislau Kaper, Walter Jurmann). Song: “Would You” (music and lyrics: Nacio Herb Brown, Arthur Freed). Photography: Oliver T. Marsh. Editor: Tom Held. Production and distribution: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Release date: June 26, 1936. Rereleased: 1938, 1948, 1955 (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer). Running time: 115 minutes. Cast: Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald, Spencer Tracy (Father Tim Mullen), Jack Holt, Jessie Ralph, Ted Healy, Shirley Ross, Margaret Irving, Harold Huber, Edgar Kennedy, Al Shean, William Ricciardi, Kenneth Harlan, Roger Imhof, Charles Judells, Russell Simpson, Bert Roach, Warren Hymer.
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