A "wet," he spent the night of April 6, 1933 - the day when Prohibition was set to expire at midnight - at the Los Angeles Brewing Co. with fellow movie star Jean Harlow. A maker of "near-beer" and de-natured alcohol (the alcohol was subtracted from the full-strength beer the company continued to brew during Prohibition, but could not legally market), the company was ready to immediately get back into the market for strong waters. Skipping the denaturing process, Los Angeles Brewing whipped up a huge consignment of the genuine stuff (to be marketed as Eastside beer and ale in bottles and kegs), which was loaded onto trucks parked at the brewery, ready to roll the day when suds could be shipped legally. Two treasury agents and many guards were there that night in the company parking lot, to ensure things went smoothly, safely and legally. At 12:01 AM at the dawning of the new day of April 7, 1933, when the sale and consumption of intoxicating beverages was once again legal (if not a constitutional right) in the United States, Huston gave a short speech and Harlow broke a bottle of beer over the first truck lined up and ready to deliver its legal load of liquid refreshment, thus christening the reborn brewery. The trucks rolled out, many staffed with armed guards riding shotgun lest the thirsty multitude get too frisky along
By his own admission not much of a singer, Huston introduced the American pop music standard "September Song" in the 1938 Broadway show "Knickerbocker Holiday." His recording of the Kurt Weill-Maxwell Anderson song was a best-seller that year on the Brunswick label. Regrettably, when the film Knickerbocker Holiday (1944) was made three years later, Huston's role went to Charles Coburn, who, nevertheless, sang the song in the film, one of the few songs retained from the show. The film, long unseen, occasionally turns up now on American Movie Classics.
Died only nine days before the birth of his grandson, Tony Huston.
Father of John Huston
Father-in-law of Evelyn Keyes
Lived at 596 N. Camden Drive, Beverly Hills, California.
Rose to stardom in the original Provincetown Players' production of Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms (1958), which debuted at the Greenwich Village Theater (7th Ave. near Christopher St., New York, NY) on November 11, 1924, before transferring to Broadway. To the end of his life, O'Neill - the only American playwright to win the Nobel Prize for Literature - maintained that Huston's performance as Ephraim Cabot in that play was the greatest performance by any actor in any of his works.
The Canadian-born Huston played Uncle Sam, the personification of the United States, was born in Canada, in John Ford and Gregg Toland's Oscar-winning documentary short December 7th (1943).
There are three generations of Oscar winners in the Huston family: Walter, his son John Huston and his granddaughter Anjelica Huston. They are the first family to do so, the second family were the Coppolas - Francis Ford Coppola, Sofia Coppola, Nicolas Cage and Carmine Coppola.