{{Short description|American film director (1905–1963)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2025}} {{Infobox person | name = | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1905|01|07}} | birth_place = Yakima, Washington | death_date = {{Death date and age|1963|11|25|1905|01|07}} | death_place = Los Angeles | other_names = | occupation = Film director | years_active = 1947-1967 | known_for = | notable_works = ''Untamed Women'' }} '''William Merle Connell''' was born on January 7, 1905, in Yakima, Washington. In 1926, Connell married Jennie Ramsey.<ref name="wa.gov/Ramsey-Connell">{{cite web |title=Lewis County Auditor, Marriage Records, 1847-2024 - W - Ramsey - Connell - Et Al. |url=https://digitalarchives.wa.gov/Record/View/6EA2B8D25DB18F3E409E6856F8C4DFD6 |website=Digital Archives |publisher=Washington State Archives |access-date=23 March 2025}}</ref> Connell died on November 25, 1963, in Los Angeles. Connell directed a number of American burlesque films,<ref>pp.267-268 Shteir, Rachel ''Striptease: The Untold History of the Girlie Show'' Oxford University Press, USA 1 Nov 2004-</ref> and exploitation films, including ''Untamed Women''.
==Career== Connell's "Quality Pictures"<ref>{{cite web |title=Plan9_PGM_WEB |url=https://alexfilmsociety.org/newsletters/Plan9_PGM_WEB.pdf |website=alex film society |access-date=23 March 2025}}</ref> distributed a one-reel burlesque compilations, including: ''Juke-Box Follies'' (1945),<ref name="FF/jbf">{{cite web |title=Juke-Box Follies |url=https://filmflow.tv/movie/1298253-jukebox-follies |website=FilmFlow.tv |access-date=23 March 2025 |language=en |quote=A series of burlesque peep-show acts for servicemen.}}</ref><ref name="vVv/JBF-1945">{{cite news |title=Juke Box Follies |url=https://archive.org/details/variety160-1945-11 |access-date=23 March 2025 |work=Variety |publisher=Variety Publishing Company |date=November 1945 |location=New York, NY |quote="Juke Box Follies" (also Dc- I months attributed' in part to the at- zel) is the two-reelcr spurned by the tention altraefed to the company by board ...}}</ref><ref name="historicfilms/r597">{{cite web |title=F-7715 - JUKEBOX FOLLIES |url=https://historicfilms.com/r597 |website=Historic Films |access-date=23 March 2025 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="eastman/n-Shorts"/> and ''Variety Girls'' (c. 1955).<ref name="weirdwildrealm/VG">{{cite web |author1=Paghat the Ratgirl |title=Reviews: Variety Girls |url=https://www.weirdwildrealm.com/f-burlesque1.html |website=www.weirdwildrealm.com |access-date=23 March 2025}}</ref>
<blockquote>"Quality Pictures, a small studio on Santa Monica Boulevard run by producer-director W. Merle Connell,<ref name="CTheory/14652/5519">{{cite journal |last1=Hollings |first1=Ken |title=Criswell Predicts: Lost Voices from a Forgotten Future, 1956-59 |journal=CTheory |date=10 January 1996 |pages=1/10/1996 |url=https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/ctheory/article/view/14652/5519 |access-date=23 March 2025 |language=en |issn=1190-9153}}</ref> was one of the preeminent companies putting out burlesque films for the peepshow and theatrical markets. Connell filmed Los Angeles burlesque dancers in short, two-to-three-minute performances and packaged the segments as single-reel compilations, producing twenty-five of these by 1947. Keeping a hand in the peepshow market, Quality also bought and sold Panorams and converted them for a fee. By the 1950s, Quality had begun focusing on narrative films as well; the Quality Pictures studio was even used for several Ed Wood movies, including Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)."<ref name="eastman/n-Shorts">{{cite web |title=Nitrate Shorts - Nitrate Picture Show |url=https://www.eastman.org/event/film-screenings/nitrate-shorts-nitrate-picture-show |website=www.eastman.org {{!}} George Eastman Museum |access-date=23 March 2025 |language=en |date=31 May 2024}}</ref></blockquote> <!-- ???::: In 1947, film producer W. Merle Connell reinvented the filmed burlesque show by restaging it, specifically for a movie, in a studio. -->
==Film director== *''A Night at the Follies'' (1947)<ref name="afi-C/WMC">{{cite web |title=W. Merle Connell |url=https://catalog.afi.com/Person/152746-W-Merle-Connell |website=AFI Catalog |access-date=23 March 2025}}</ref><ref name="tcmdb/WMC">[https://web.archive.org/web/20201130135231/https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/825912%7C152746/W.-M.-Connell W. Merle Connell] - tcmdb Turner Classic Movies</ref> with Evelyn West :: filmed at a burlesque stage show at the Follies Theater in Los Angeles *''Test Tube Babies'' (1948)<ref name="afi-C/WMC"/><ref name="tcmdb/WMC"/><ref name="PopMatters/2647795722">{{cite web |last1=Barrett |first1=Michael |title=Exploitation Shenanigans 'Test Tube Babies' and 'Guilty Parents' Contend with the Aftermath |url=https://www.popmatters.com/exploitation-films-2647795722.html |website=www.popmatters.com » PopMatters |access-date=23 March 2025 |date=28 September 2020}}</ref> *''The Devil's Sleep'' (1949)<ref name="afi-C/WMC"/><ref name="tcmdb/WMC"/> *''Trouble at Melody Mesa'' (1949)<ref name="afi-C/WMC"/><ref name="tcmdb/WMC"/> *''Midnight Frolics'' (1949)<ref name="afi-C/WMC"/><ref name="tcmdb/WMC"/><ref name="tcmdb-563939">{{Cite web|url=http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/563939/Midnight-Frolics/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150713150558/http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/563939/Midnight-Frolics/|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 13, 2015|title=Midnight Frolics (1949)|website=Turner Classic Movies}}</ref> with Annette Warren *''International Burlesque'' (1950)<ref name="afi-C/WMC"/><ref name="tcmdb/564022">{{cite web |title=International Burlesque |url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/564022/international-burlesque |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210411002116/https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/564022/international-burlesque |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 11, 2021 |website=tcmdb |publisher=tcm.com |access-date=23 March 2025 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="tcmdb/WMC"/> *''Ding Dong'' (1951)<ref name="afi-C/WMC"/><ref name="tcmdb/WMC"/><ref name="tcm/576413">{{cite web |title=Ding Dong |url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/576413/ding-dong |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241101201434/https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/576413/ding-dong |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 1, 2024 |website=tcmdb |access-date=23 March 2025 |language=en}}</ref> :: filmed at Moulin Rouge Theatre, 485 8th Street, Oakland, California<ref name="cinematreasures/5095">{{cite web |title=Moulin Rouge Theatre in Oakland, CA |url=https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/5095 |website=cinematreasures.org - Cinema Treasures}}</ref><ref name="calisphere/mrT-oak">{{cite web |title=Moulin Rouge Theatre at 485 8th Street in Oakland, California |url=https://calisphere.org/item/a7b398130c01d1db9a594be629e96bc6/ |website=calisphere |access-date=23 March 2025 |language=English |date=1976}}</ref> :: also known as ''A Night at the Moulin Rouge'' *''Home Town Girl'' (1951)<ref name="afi-C/WMC"/><ref name="tcmdb/WMC"/> *''Untamed Women'' (1952)<ref name="afi-C/WMC"/><ref name="tcmdb/WMC"/> *''The Flesh Merchant'' (1956)<ref name="nytimes/flesh">{{cite news |title='The Flesh Merchant' Registers No Sale |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1956/05/19/archives/the-flesh-merchant-registers-no-sale.html |access-date=23 March 2025 |work=The New York Times |date=19 May 1956 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="allmovie/151892">{{cite web |last1=Connell |first1=W. Merle |title=The Flesh Merchant (1956) |url=https://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-flesh-merchant-am151892 |website=AllMovie |access-date=23 March 2025 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="RT/fm">{{cite web |title=Flesh Merchant |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/flesh_merchant |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=23 March 2025 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="ghDB/TFM">{{cite web |title=The Flesh Merchant |url=https://www.grindhousedatabase.com/index.php/The_Flesh_Merchant |website=The Grindhouse Cinema Database |access-date=23 March 2025}}</ref> *''The Wild and Wicked'' (1956)<ref name="afi-C/WMC"/><ref name="tcmdb/WMC"/> *''Not Tonight Henry'' (1961)<ref name="afi-C/WMC"/><ref name="tcmdb/WMC"/> *''The Pill'' (1967)<ref name="afi-C/WMC"/><ref name="tcmdb/WMC"/>
==Cinematographer== *Dance Hall Racket *The Cape Canaveral Monsters *The Jailbreakers
==See also== *TCM Underground
== References ==
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==External links== *{{cite web |title=W. Merle Connell |url=https://catalog.afi.com/Person/152746-W-Merle-Connell |website=AFI Catalog}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20201130135231/https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/825912%7C152746/W.-M.-Connell W. Merle Connell] - tcmdb Turner Classic Movies *[https://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/w-merle-connell/3000439518/ W. Merle Connell] - tvguide.com *[https://www.allmovie.com/artist/w-merle-connell-an382677 W. Merle Connell] - allmovie *{{cite web |title=W. Merle Connell (1905-1963) |url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/88111074/w-merle-connell |website=Find a Grave <!-- |access-date=20 March 2025 --> |language=en}} *[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0175039/ W. Merle Connell] – IMDb
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Connell, W. Merle}} Category:1905 births Category:1963 deaths Category:Film directors from Washington (state) Category:People from Yakima, Washington {{Improve categories|date=June 2025}}