Fun in Acapulco

Richard Thorpe was an American film director. Born Rollo Smolt Thorpe in Hutchinson, Kansas, he began his entertainment career performing in vaudeville and onstage. In 1921 he began in motion pictures as an actor and directed his first silent film in 1923. He went on to direct more than one... hundred and eighty films. The first full length motion picture he directed for MGM was Last of the Pagans starring Ray Mala. After directing The Last Challenge in 1967, he retired from the film industry. He died in Palm Springs, California in 1991. Thorpe is also known as the original director of The Wizard of Oz. He was fired after two weeks of shooting, because it was felt that his scenes did not have the right air of fantasy about them. Thorpe notoriously gave Judy Garland a blonde wig and cutesy "baby-doll" makeup that made her look like a girl in her late teens rather than an innocent Kansas farm girl of about thirteen. Both makeup and wig were discarded at the suggestion of George Cukor, who was brought in temporarily. Stills from Thorpe's work on the film survive today.
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Michael D. Moore is a Canadian-born American film actor and director. Born Michael Sheffield in Victoria, British Columbia, both he and his brother Patrick were Hollywood child actors. At the age of five he appeared in his first film under the stage name "Mickey Moore". He appeared in two dozen... films until 1927 when he was 13. In the early 1950s, Moore began working as an Assistant Film Director and would fill that role or as a Second unit director on more than sixty films. He played a key part in a number of major motion pictures including The Ten Commandments , Gunfight at the O.K. Corral , Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid , Patton , and The Man Who Would Be King in 1975. He also worked as an assistant director on several Elvis Presley musical films and directed Presley in the 1966 film, Paradise, Hawaiian Style for Paramount Pictures. Because of that, plus his experience directing a western film, MGM hired him to direct rock singer Roy Orbison in 1967's The Fastest Guitar Alive. He was the associate producer in charge of action & animal scenes for Quest for Fire .
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