Swithin

Miss W., But you haven't created a really bad monster, so we won't call you Dr. Frankenstein just yet! I was in the middle of a post once, and when I pressed "post," I found that the thread I was posting to had been locked. So, just to finish my rather tame thought, I created the "Off topic, etc." thread. But that grew into something I really regretted -- alot of nasty stuff turned up in that thread. So in that case I was Dr. Frankenstein creating an evil monster. But your thread (i.e. this one) is kind of fun!

I didn't see Damn Yankees when it was released, but some years later, my local theater showed a great double-bill: Damn Yankees and The Pajama Game, two films/shows by the same creative teams. Btw, Shannon Bolin, the actress/singer who plays the wife of old Joe in Damn Yankees, turned 96 a few weeks ago. I think she lives around NYC, I met someone who knows her.

Thanks! This helps alot! I will read through it all and figure out if I have what it takes to participate!

If you didn't like it on tv, you should have seen her on the huge screen at Radio City Music Hall, where the movie opened. I found it jarring because I loved the original Broadway cast album of the show, and that song wasn't on it -- it was written for the film. And they cut some good songs from the show. But I grew to like the title song, and the film was amazing on that big screen!

Hi -- This sounds interesting and fun. I'm afraid I never paid much attention to it or read much about it in past years. Do you have an example of a reasonably good week that someone came up with in the past? That would give my dense self a better idea of how (and whether) to proceed than the list of SOTMs would. Thanks!

Well a belated congratulations and thanks to fredbaetz! I had many pleasant moments (well, hours, when I should have been working) listening to those albums! (Btw, I actually served as James Cagney's bodyguard, sort of, one cold night 31 years ago).

I think I made a mistake. I used to have (in the mid-1980s, I think) the LPs for Warner Brothers' 50 Years of Film Music in my office (it was longer ago than I thought). The 75th, with which I wasn't familiar (just looked it up) looks like an expanded version of that!

And of course it would probably turn into a marketing thing for new and recent films! I don't mind a bit of marketing, but it could sort of take the thing over.

One of my favorite African-American actors, who appeared in small roles in many movies, is *Madame Sul-Te-Wan.* She is said to have been the first black actor to sign a contract with a major studio. Yes, she played (among other roles) slaves and maids and mammies and, most memorably, a Voodoo high priestess, but she is part of the history of the cinema. Attention must be paid!

I agree, wait for 100 and hope we are all here to enjoy it! I saw a film about WB films many years ago, at the Edinburgh Festival. I don't remember what it was called; just that it consisted of clips from WB movies. There is that great series of WB 75th anniversary recordings of instrumental music and songs from WB movies. That's where I First heard "The Girlfriend of the Whirling Dervish." I still haven't seen the film it's from -- Garden of the Moon (1938), directed by Busby Berkeley.

We seem to live in an age when institutions in the public eye are criticized if they don't pay attention to holidays. How many people have posted over the last year about the nature of programming related to Christmas, Veterans Day, Memorial Day, etc. Does every network have to devote its programming to every holiday, for fear of being criticized if it doesn't? But if such commemorations can be done with imagination, it's a good idea to try to honor what the day stands for. I like Sidney Poitier well enough, though I must say I was devastated as a kid when Poitier won the Oscar over Albert Finney for Tom Jones ! (OK, Tom Jones is a film that is very appealing to teenage boys; movies about nuns less so). MLK Day could be celebrated more broadly, meaning with movies about all sorts of civil rights struggles, throughout history. I think the point of the holiday is that Dr. King is a national hero for all of us.

Danny Kaye appeared in the original Broadway cast of the Weill/I. Gershwin musical Lady in the Dark (1941) in which his rendition of the song "Tschaikowsky" may have contibuted to his budding fame. Here's a recording of the song:

Also Miss W., these sorts of threads seem to be fascinating to people (obviously myself included), so an innocent or jokey little post becomes a thread that lasts, and lasts, and lasts. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. It can be fun. It's just that the OP shouldn't be surprised when it happens, and also when people who suffer from what the Brits call SOHF get all serious about it, etc. It's cold here in NYC today and looks to be a frigid week! I'm glad I have a quilt, but certainly wouldn't want to sew one either!

Thanks for featuring *Ronald Sinclair*, who appears in perhaps my favorite movie opening scene ever. It's the opening of The Light that Failed (1939) and features two kids and a goat running along a beach in England in 1865. The girl is played by Sarita Wooton. Sinclair's character grows up to be Ronald Colman. It's one of my favorite films, but I particularly love the opening.

Thanks to your post, I checked the Shock Theater entry in Wikipedia. Very interesting! That's when I, as a child, became addicted to horror films. The first one I saw was Dracula's Daughter. There are other titles on that list that I've hardly seen since, like The Spider Woman Strikes Back and The Mystery of Marie Roget. I don't think Zacherley had yet arrived on the NY scene when I began watching, though I remember when he arrived. Another poster here -- I think it was Clore -- has said that that Shock Theater in NYC (WABC -- Channel 7) had another name before it was named Shock Theater. I do remember that whatever it was called, it came on after the Ben Hecht show. I remember the ads/photos in the TV Guide promoting the films, which were categorized as "melodrama" rather than "horror."

*Dracula's Daughter* was the first horror film I've ever seen. It was on the old Shock Theater on television in NY when I was a kid. It terrified me then; now I can appreciate that it a much more sophisticated film than I was able to see as a five-year old! It's one of my favorites. Btw, Orin O'Brien, the daughter of Marguerite Churchill who played Janet in the film (and George O'Brien), has been a double bass player with the New York Philharmonic since 1966. She was the first woman to join the orchestra.

*THE L-SHAPED ROOM AT THE TOP HAT*

Well you're lucky you can join the quilt competition, I assume it's cold up there!

Aspirin/Codeine and Tylenol/Codeine preparations are sold over the counter in the UK. The doses of codeine are lower than prescription doses. And they've cut back on the quantity in packages, more because of the aspirin and Tylenol (paracetamol in the UK) than the codeine!

Arturo, I really like This Above All, haven't seen it for years. Interestingly (to me at any rate) is that in World War I, huge numbers of upper class soldiers died, out of proportion to the "working" men. That's part of the reason (if you watch Downton Abbey ), that Lady Edith wants to marry a much older man because "all the young men we knew are dead." But World War II was different. After the war, the returning working class soldiers asserted themselves. One of their great leaders -- Aneurin Bevan -- became the father of the National Health Service and many housing projects for the returning soldiers. Churchill may have got the UK through the war, but he and the Tories lost the post-war election to Attlee and Labour, who transformed Britain.

I'd love to see the Kaye television shows again. Btw, thanks to a gift from Danny's wife, Sylvia Fine Kaye, the Playhouse at Hunter College (part of the New York City university system), was renovated in the 90s and is now the Kaye Playhouse. Sylvia Fine Kaye was also an artist in her own right, writing songs for many of Danny's movies and working in film and theater in many capacities.

I remember the first time I was taken to Radio City Music Hall, as a child. The film was Merry Andrew, followed by the stage show -- either Christmas or Easter -- with the amazing Rockettes! I'll never forget it. And the Danny Kaye television show was very popular in NYC. Regarding The Court Jester, I knew Millie Natwick slightly. A friend of mine was a close friend of her's and had a dinner party for four (1980s). I was decades younger than the others. My friend asked me to bring a video to watch after dinner. I brought Love Me Tonight. It was a really nice evening, I gave Millie and the other guest a lift home in a cab. Millie lived on Sutton Place in NYC and usually stayed at the Hyde Park Hotel when she was in London. She was a lovely lady, great actress, loved theater and film.

It sounds like a Canadian government thing, rather than a TCM issue, so why not write to your representatives? Maybe it will become a campaign issue!

But she musn't mix the high-percentage alcohol with the sedatives, or she will really need the health care system!

And the Tylenol or Aspirin/Codeine combo is a painkiller. Although it may sedate, I don't think it's actually prescribed as a sedative. I had dental surgery a few days ago, got some lovely little pills prescribed for pain, but fortunately haven't needed to take them.