It all went to hell forty-seven years ago today

dead in the morning
dead in the evening
Jack Carson and Dick Powell both died on this date in 1963. Jack Carson was one of the most popular character actors during the golden age of Hollywood, with a film career which spanned the 30's, 40s and 50s. Primarily employed for comic relief, his work in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof proved he could also master dramatic material. During his career, he worked at RKO, MGM (cast opposite Myrna Loy and William Powell in Love Crazy), but most of his memorable work was at Warner Brothers. Carson's trade mark was the wisecracking know it all who eventually and typically was undone by his own over self-confidence.
Carson's success on radio led to a more lucrative contract with Warner Brothers. He was teamed with Dennis Morgan in a number of films, supposedly to compete with the popular Crosby and Hope road pictures. Like Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, Morgan and Carson enjoyed a genuine off-screen friendship. Their first film together was a dark drama called The Hard Way, which was nothing like their subsequent pairings.
However, despite this auspicious beginning, most of his work at Warner Brothers was limited to light comedies with Morgan and later with Doris Day (who later in her autobiography would credit Carson as one of her early Hollywood mentors). Critics generally agree that Carson's best work was in Mildred Pierce, where he played the perpetually scheming Wally Fay opposite Joan Crawford in the title role. Another later role which would win accolades for Carson was that of Matt Libby in A Star is Born.
.Carson married four times: Elizabeth Lindy (married 1938, divorced 1939), Kay St. Germain (m. 1941, div. 1950), Lola Albright (m. 1952, div. 1958), Sandra Jolley (1961-1963). He also had an affair between his second and third marriages with Doris Day from 1950-51, but she left him for Marty Melcher, who would become her third husband.In 1962, while rehearsing the Broadway play "Critics Choice", he collapsed and was subsequently diagnosed with stomach cancer. Carson died in Encino in 1963, aged 52. The death of the burly Carson, whose screen image was one of energy and vitality, made front page news, along with the death of fellow actor Dick Powell.

Richard Ewing "Dick" Powell (November 14, 1904 – January 2, 1963) was an American singer, actor, producer, and director. He made his film debut as a singing bandleader in Blessed Event. He went on to star as a boyish crooner in movie musicals such as 42nd Street, Footlight Parade, Gold Diggers of 1933, Dames, Flirtation Walk, and On the Avenue, often appearing opposite Ruby Keeler and Joan Blondell.
Powell desperately wanted to expand his range but Warner Bros. wouldn’t let him. Finally, reaching his forties and knowing that his young romantic leading man days were behind him, he lobbied to play the lead in Double Indemnity. He lost out to Fred MacMurray, another Hollywood nice guy. MacMurray’s success, however, fueled Powell’s resolve to pursue projects with greater range and in 1944, he was cast in the first of a series of films noir, as private detective Philip Marlowe in Murder, My Sweet, directed by Edward Dmytryk. The film was a big hit and Dick Powell had successfully reinvented himself as a dramatic actor.
The following year, Dmytryk and Powell re-teamed to make Cornered, a gripping, post-WWII thriller that helped define the film noir style. He became a popular "tough guy" lead, appearing in movies such as Johnny O'Clock and Cry Danger. Even when he appeared in lighter fare such as The Reformer and the Redhead and Susan Slept Here, he never sang in his later roles.
From 1949 until 1953, Powell played the lead role in the NBC radio theater production Richard Diamond, Private Detective. His character in the 30 minute weekly was a likeable private detective with a quick wit.
In the 1950s, Powell produced and directed several B-movies and was one of the founders of Four Star Television, appearing in and supervising several shows for that company. His film The Enemy Below (1957) based on the novel by Denys Rayner won an Academy Award for special effects.
Powell died on January 2, 1963 from lymphoma at the age of 58. He was one of many cast and crew members of The Conqueror (1956) who died from the same disease. The Conqueror was filmed in Utah near an atomic test site. It has long been rumored, but never proven, that the film's shooting location may have been the cause of the cancers that afflicted the crew. Dick Powell was cremated and his remains were interred in the Columbarium of Honor at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.