Bill_McCrary

Jean Muir to Pat O'Brien in Oil for the Lamps of China? If that's it, somebody else go ahead with another one......

Well, let's see if I'm learning to use the database - 'cause certainly nothing worthwhile was coming to mind! Mountain Moonlight ( 1941)? And if that's it, someone else feel free to start the next one. I haven't come up with one yet that might conceivably go for 21! But if this one works, I think I can see how I might write one up....

I've mentioned it on one or two other threads, but without specific address, etc. If you're interested in meeting stars, getting merchandise, etc. this coming month (again, east coast, North Carolina mountains) check out the link to the Western Film Festival at Enka/Candler, NC (outskirts of Asheville). It's easy to reach, just a couple of blocks off I-40 at the 1-26 interchange: The homepage for the Western North Carolina Film Festival (formerly The Asheville Film Festival) is: <> It is, indeed, mostly Westerns, but other materials (loads of movie stills, "big little books," records, 16mm films, tapes, laserdiscs, unique memorabilia) do appear every time. See the site for stars this year. Sometimes the best panel discussions with the stars (and in-person one-on-one visits) turn out to be the very ones from which one knows not what to expect.... If you can't make this one, Williamsburg (VA) is in March, and Charlotte (NC) in July. Message was edited by: Bill_McCrary

I've mentioned it on one or two other threads, but without specific address, etc. If you're interested in meeting stars, getting merchandise, etc. this coming month (again, east coast, North Carolina mountains) check out the link to the Western Film Festival at Canton, NC (near Asheville). It's easy to reach, just a couple of blocks off I-40 at the 1-26 interchange: The homepage for the Western North Carolina Film Festival (formerly The Asheville Film Festival) is: <> It is, indeed, mostly Westerns, but other materials (loads of movie stills, "big little books," records, 16mm films, tapes, laserdiscs, unique memorabilia) do appear every time. See the site for stars this year. Sometimes the best panel discussions with the stars (and in-person one-on-one visits) turn out to be the very ones from which one knows not what to expect....

I think I've seen you mention meeting Dale Robertson not long ago. Has he made a recent appearance? I'm glad you (or was it another poster) had such a wonderful meeting with him; I had no real contact, but others have seen him on less-than-sterling behavior in several locales, by their own reports, sorry to say. I met (and was entertained by) John Calvert at two shows last year. The last movie I'm aware of with him was around 1950-51. These days he is (at 94 - 95?) still pursuing the magic act he has been doing for over 40 years. When he appeared at Charlotte in July 2005 he had driven his motor home there from Texas, I think it was. He was going the next day or so to England (couldn't drive there!) to receive an award as the World's Most Famous Magician from their magicians' society. He put on around a half-hour show that really had us "going," with (real) audience volunteers and his assistant/(?)companion of some 40 years' standing. He didn't look past 70 or so, and his lady-friend from audience distance still looked 30-something. She's obviously looked after him very well! People had to keep asking him to slow down when he walked from place to place in the hotel. They were both just delightful to meet and talk with. I didn't mean to make this a double answer, but I've seen both of them in Charlotte in the past couple of years. Has John Calvert made a recent movie appearance?

Ordet by Carl Theodore Dreyer (1955). It was shown Friday Sept 22 (and maybe another time). Check it out on the database (I haven't). "A fundamentalist preacher clases with a family whose faith surpasses his own." Swedish, I think, not Dutch.

Zasu Pitts (pronounced Zayzoo, since that's what we hear in the shorts, though not what most people said for a long time!) Thelma Todd (who also made a string of comedies with Patsy Kelly)

I can't help thinking of the song from 'South Pacific', You've got to be taught'. It is so true. Predjudice is taught. If the parents don't talk using the "N" word, or degrade black people, children see no difference at all. Hopefully, we are finally at a generation which doesn't need tolerance because there will be no need for tolerance. In possibly two more generations there will be no white or black, but only tan and brown. I taught my kids racial equality and they in turn, are teaching theirs, before too long, my parents generation will be gone, and all the old predjudices will be forgotten. What a wonderful thought, and it IS happening a lot. But I taught school 31 years till 4 years ago, and I keep my eyes and ears open in the "real world, too." For every group of kids (and their parents) like you describe above, there are others who could be right out of the '50s in their attitudes. The situation is at its worst any place where there is economic pressure, unemployment, etc. A county next to mine has the highest unemployment in SC, and the county in which I taught (not my own) lost several industries in the '70s and '80s. In small, rural(-ish) communities where there are not many half-decent jobs to be held, people are desperate to keep what little they have. If the group on the lowest rung is perceived to have a chance (by education, new laws, anything) to move up, then those who are on the second and third rungs will often retaliate in order to preserve themselves. That can take any form from name-calling to bullying to worse. The Southern poor white was able for many years to believe that at least he was better off than the black man; as blacks made gains, no group ever felt so threatened as the poor white, that he might be about to change places. Before I retired from teaching, my immediate area had not very many Hispanic people compared to these days. From what I see and hear, I fear that in many ways they have taken the place formerly held by blacks in the class system. The movies discussed here - and I have recently seen SOTS for the first time in years and grew up with GWTW - touch base with reality in many ways, while remaining Hollywood movies in many others. Anybody who has a severe problem with the dialogue - why, you ain't been keepin' yo' eahs open to de talkin' 'round ya', honey chile! There is a reason - dare it be said? - why some things became stereotypes: They actually happened, and not just one time somewhere, but as an everyday occurrence. If you grew (or even today are growing) up in certain parts of the South, in contact with certain groups (and I mean Southern "society" types as well as "poor whites" (I softened what I started to write there) as well as blacks of various levels, then you heard certain ways of speaking and certain meanings behind what was said. To paraphrase what Higgins says in Pygmalion/My Fair Lady, "A Southerner's way of speaking absolutely classifies him," and one has been honored pretty greatly when a higher (or lower!) group accepts one despite the differences. I have seen many, many changes (almost all for the better) since growing up (in the same town) in the '50s, till now. But every time there is an economic upheaval, it is amazing how quickly a large number of people revert. And it is almost unimaginable how many (older) people in upper levels have remained so na?ve for so long about what goes on in the schools. A letter to the editor just two weeks ago (from a retired HS teacher - LOL) showed once again just how out-of-touch some people remain. There was a time teachers could discipline with a free hand, didn't have to worry about guns and drugs in the school or parents suing because a child didn't get to bat during every ball game (or name your poison). If you live in a place and within a group where equality is preached and practiced, feel blessed. There was also a time when (some) people lived and talked the way we see in these movies. My grandmother's neighbor had a maid who brought her young son with her to work and we played happily. When we reached school age, I never saw him again. That's the way it was. Today, children can see the movies with the eyes of children and not have to know about any of the down side. Take the good, and leave them with the good memories is one way to deal. Now, I am NOT talking about those many movie scenes with Willie Best/Snowflake/Stepinfetchit that make me just want to slide under the sofa or such, mostly in "modern" stories, in extremely subservient dialogue. And slavery cannot be defended. But it DID exist, and some powerful stories came out of it. So did/does the ghetto and its imagery. And war and the Holocaust. Any parent should control what the child sees/hears. One viewpoint would be to let the children enjoy stories where characters show kindness to others (sometimes in the face of adversity) now, and as they mature to introduce "the rest of the story."

...there was a case called the "Betamax case" that went before the Supreme Court in 1984 in which they ruled that home recording for personal use is legal. Yes, there was, and it's still valid. BUT --- that refers to our taping (DVD-ing) for our OWN use, to watch later, etc. It is NOT legal to make a copy for someone else, whether free or sold. There was (later) a Senate committee hearing in which "Ol' Strom" - if you have to ask, you're just TOO young! - and Jack Valente (ditto), regarding lending your copy to someone, neighbor or such, to watch. Valente basically was left sputtering..... So, play it safe here, please. Any "negotiations" should be through PM's, not on these screens. And you might visit any film shows - even if their titles seem not your particular genre of filmdom - as there is ALL sorts of memorabilia to be found at these. One such in the near future is the Western North Carolina Film Fair near Asheville (right on I-40) the second week in November. Check them out online.

On the "main" thread today: ...there was a case called the "Betamax case" that went before the Supreme Court in 1984 in which they ruled that home recording for personal use is legal. Yes, there was, and it's still valid. BUT --- that refers to our taping (DVD-ing) for our OWN use, to watch later, etc. It is NOT legal to make a copy for someone else, whether free or sold. There was (later) a Senate committee hearing in which "Ol' Strom" - if you have to ask, you're just TOO young! - and Jack Valente (ditto), regarding lending your copy to someone, neighbor or such, to watch. Valente basically was left sputtering..... So, play it safe here, please. Any "negotiations" should be through PM's, not on these screens. And you might visit any film shows - even if their titles seem not your particular genre of filmdom - as there is ALL sorts of memorabilia to be found at these. One such in the near future is the Western North Carolina Film Fair near Asheville (right on I-40) the second week in November. Check them out online.

Charlie Chaplin. Son Sydney won "Tony" for "Bells Are Ringing," with Judy Holliday. And did he come over with Stan Laurel in the Karno troupe?

I've been out of town all day (away from my computer, natch) thinking - you f**l, why do you always get that song confused?! Right title, wrong movie, as was quickly pointed out! I remembered "Sally" on the way up the road to Charlotte this morning. "Long Ago and Far Away" is the one from "Cover Girl," of course. Thanks to all of you for not blasting me! Bill

I don't know what all the hoopla is about, I've always liked him. Glad someone else is stating pretty much my sentiment. I don't know if I recorded it, but I'm pretty sure at the beginning I remember Robert having him sort of like his other guests, telling us about who he was and what he was going to be doing (mostly weekend afternoons), etc., so I'm not just now coming to this. I've never disliked him. Bob is like Ann Miller described him, so full of knowledge, friendly, "comfortable," and has just enough trouble with a few names to remind us he's really good but not the Almighty. Ben can appear cynical, with a trace of sarcasm, and can usually find something to make me laugh along the way. Both are my kind of people (and I'm mid-50s, if it matters). I would miss Bob more (just as I missed the other Bob on the "Always More Commercials" channel) if something changed, but I get a kick (usually) out of Ben. And I get the feeling he really is "into" cartoons, like me. Bob with the star's picture in the gold/silver frame, Ben stick-pinning it to the wall - me, both ways!

"Look for the Silver Lining," by Jerome Kern. It was in the movie "Cover Girl" around 1943. The version in the morning movie-opener has been shortened by about half, to fit the proper time. There has been a lot of discussion on another thread about who sings it - Mel Torm?? Chet Baker? I had been thinking maybe John (that's the son, right?) Pizzarelli.... I don't have the same song on CD (and can't find my LP), but listening to his "It Could Happen to You" CD from 1958 (1987 reissue), it's got to be Chet.

My New England family traced its line back to John Quincy Adams. I wanted to be an opera singer, but my voice did not. I went on the stage, and even as a teen I was cast in character parts. My stage experience was extensive. I appeared in the original production of the seminal American musical, and it wasn't in Oklahoma. Edna Mae Oliver. Played "Parthy" in Show Boat; "Cimarron" reference (Oklahoma); died at 60, I think, still younger than parts she had been playing, etc., etc. Much info in the "What a Character" promo run lately on TCM. I'll leave forming the next quiz to someone else. I'm better at answering, I think, so far....

All ends happily (of course!). Just as she has decided her world has crashed around her, the guests (at Duke's "persuading" - calling in all their debts to him, etc.) begin arriving, all playing the roles to the hilt, including police commissioners, governor, etc. The daughter sails off (literally, from the docks) to her new life, with Annie and "The Count" waving them bon voyage. If you've seen "Pocketful of Miracles," it's practically identical (at least by that point). I had planned to set things on timer this morning and be out of town. Luckily, I was still here and got "Cartoon Alley, which went past noon. LFAD is listed as 88 minutes, but I should have remembered from last time that it is, indeed, 96 minutes as listed in Maltin. "The Crowd" is another movie that bedeviled a friend and me in the past, being longer than its listed timings (at least back then; maybe it's been corrected).

Is it possible that I am the ONLY one who - until I started reading the two threads (that I've seen) about "Rob Zombie" - thought perhaps our own beloved Rob(ert) was going to don a cape, etc., and host the horror Fridays? I mean, truly, I had never heard their was a film person called Rob Zombie - and one of my best friends is really into horror - especially Hammer-type vampire ones. I really had begun getting used to the idea of seeing Robert dressed up and going along with the "show." From what I've read on these two threads, I am not expecting the best; now if Robert and Vampyra could do a "Robert and Mollie" on "Essential Horror," THAT could draw me in. I mean, I'll probably put the movies I don't already know on the hard drive (and enjoy or skip Mr Z, once I've seen him the first time); but I was REALLY looking forward to RO doing a Vincent Price and inviting me to be horrified.... (And if someone already wrote something similar, forgive me. I just haven't had it in me to go back through both threads from the beginning. The past few days have about done me in.)

Do you know me? I loved to sing, and had extensive theater and radio experience. I attended Juilliard School of Music, and worked as a choral director for the WPA Arts Project. I won a Tony for one of my stage to screen roles. It was a first for me, and first for the Tonys as well. Juanita Hall? Directed the Hall Johnson singers during the Great Depression, Bloody Mary in "South Pacific," Broadway and movie (but singing dubbed in movie).

I watched and kept it yesterday, just now double-checked - definitely captioned, hardly missed a word. There ARE mistakes in the listings, occasionally: b/w listed as color, 4:3 movies as letterboxed, CC issues, length, etc. Apparently the database has those errors, meaning they get into the schedule that way until corrected. "Thirteen Women" was about 59 minutes instead of 73! If TCM is now licensing everything they show instead of actually owning the library, it's possible that sometimes the copy they're sent to show just doesn't match "specs." But "Thousands Cheer" was CC - I'm not impaired but leave my CC on almost all the time since I watch so many things on BBC/America and it helps with the accents - also, great fun to see what the (obviously American) captioners THOUGHT the Brits said....

I've lent my updated list (with the directors' names written in), so I'm sorry for the ones I can't supply here). I also took out the descriptions to save A LOT of room, but here are the titles, with many of the directors or stars: Sept 15 Friday 6:00 AM Added Attractions (2002) 7:30 AM (Chaplin) Rounders, The (1914) - Shoulder Arms (1918) - Dog's Life, A (1918) - Day's Pleasure, A (1919) - Idle Class, The (1921) 9:45 AM (Keaton) Scarecrow, The (1920) - Paleface, The (1922) - STREAMLINED SWING (1938) - HOLLYWOOD HANDICAP (1938) - Cast: Original Sing Band Dir: Buster Keaton 10:30 AM (The Boy Friends) LADIES LAST (1930) - BLOOD AND THUNDER (1931) - HIGH GEAR (1931) - AIR TIGHT (1931) - CALL A COP (1931) 12:30 PM (Pitts and Todd) STRICTLY UNRELIABLE (1932) - OLD BULL, THE (1932) - ALUM AND EVE (1932) - SOILERS, THE (1932) 2:00 PM (George Sidney) BILLY ROSE'S CASA MANANA REVUE (1938) - LOVE ON TAP (1939) - HOLLYWOOD HOBBIES (1939) - WILLIE AND THE MOUSE (1941) 3:00 PM (Jean Negulesco) FLAG OF HUMANITY, THE (1940) - Alice in Movieland (1940) - GAY PARISIAN, THE (1941) - THOSE GOOD OLD DAYS (1941) - ROARING GUNS (1944) 4:45 PM (Jacques Tourneau) JONKER DIAMOND, THE (1936) - HARNESSED RHYTHM (1936) - KILLER-DOG (1936) - RAINBOW PASS, THE (1937) - BOSS DIDN'T SAY GOOD MORNING (1937) 5:45 PM (Fred Zimmerman) THAT MOTHERS MIGHT LIVE (1938) - STORY OF DR. CARVER, THE (1938) - WAY IN THE WILDERNESS, A (1940) - FORBIDDEN PASSAGE (1941) - YOUR LAST ACT (1941) 7:00 PM (Don Siegel) STAR IN THE NIGHT (1945) BW-22 mins, 7:30 PM (Chris Marker) Jetee, La (1962) C-27 mins, 8:00 PM These were the Hermes shorts, and I can't find my updated list 9:00 PM GRANDMOTHER, THE (1970) - ALPHABET, THE (1967) 9:45 PM What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing In a Place Like This? (1963) - It's Not Just You, Murray! (1964) - Big Shave, The (1967) 10:30 PM (Stanley Kubrick) DAY OF THE FIGHT, THE (1951) - FLYING PADRE, THE (1951) 11:00 PM repeat of Hermes shorts 12:00 AM (Ridley Scott) BOY AND BICYCLE (1965) 12:30 AM (Tony Scott) ONE OF THE MISSING (1971) 1:00 AM PEEL (1982) - PASSIONLESS MOMENTS (1983) - GIRL'S OWN STORY, A (1984) 2:00 AM LES MISTONS (1958) - ANTOINE AND COLETTE (1962) 3:00 AM Break Up the Dance (1957) - TWO MEN AND A WARDROBE (1958) - WHEN ANGELS FALL (1959) - FAT AND THE LEAN, THE (1961) 4:00 AM repeat of Hermes shorts 5:00 AM (Hitchcock, in French) Aventure Malgache (1944) - Bon Voyage (1944)

"Challenge the Wilderness" - a ORW (remember them - "One Reel Wonders"?) made in 1951, shown most recently Sept 17. On location with "Westward the Women." Lots of star shots, the stunt people, rigors of location shooting, etc. No interview, as such, but lots of voice-over. 10-1/2 minutes, black-and-white.

And I was impressed by some of the editing/camerawork - several times while someone was speaking another participant would have a glance, smile, head-nod, so fast, and they'd cut to it. Loved that - almost like being there and seeing the whole thing, while the main camera stayed on the person actually speaking. Jane Withers was at the Asheville (Western NC) film show last year - another one coming up early November - and shared a panel with Jon Walmsley (sp?) from "The Waltons." They were so good as a team - again with the child performers angle bonding them. She shared so much more with us - her doll collection she shared with the children by train during WW II (and her conversation with Pres Roosevelt), James Dean during "Giant," later movies - truly a "class act," and never a temperamental moment (those DO sometimes crop up at these shows!). I had no idea until last night about the arthritis that crippled her in the mid-'50s - amazing she gets around as well as she does now, 50 (!) years later. If you hear she's appearing anywhere - drop everything and GO!!!

...another fiasco like the one we movie fans faced last year, over the "unearthing" of the 1922 "Beyond the Rocks." ...when the DVD came out and we saw it, there was no hint that it had been "restored." The picture was filled with scratches, jump cuts, and deteriorated frames. Each to his own expectations, but I thought - I haven't carefully watched it all the way through at one sitting - they did a fine job. What I saw was "razor-sharp," new score, tinting (though not quite what I expected there); when working from a probable unique piece of film, without several to choose scenes (or even frames) from, what you have is what there is. It could have looked like "The Young Rajah!" Or like lots of films we see from the '30s or even '40s, which should have multiple prints around.

I guess I must have been one of the lucky ones - re: Charlie Chase on tv. One of the Columbia (SC) stations back in the early '60s played Charlie Chase, Harry Langdon (yes!), and Andy Clyde - maybe others. I don't remember now whether they were Saturday mornings or after school, or what - hey, I was 12 or so at the time! - but I DO remember being tickled to death. This was in the day when "Yum Yum Eat-em-up!" was (unapologetically - who knew better?) a favorite expression of all of us kids (from the Borneo short of Little Rascals) and BEFORE the Three Stooges had much tv presence. After all, I still remember seeing Bowery Boys (at night when my parents went with me, I think) and Three Stooges at the local picture palace, on Saturday mornings at least. We lived three blocks from downtown, and I probably saw movies 2-3 times a week. 25 cents to get in, 10 cents for popcorn (or candy bar, milk duds, caramel cremes, etc.), and 15 for a coke. It's mind-boggling today to think what 8-10 year olds could do on their own in a mid-sized Southern town back then. As I PM'd Jack B the other day, we lived (in 1960) almost like Our Gang did in those shorts from the (early) '30s - we played anywhere on the block, with any of the other kids, and showed up at suppertime: Everything was cool, and no parents ever heard of worrying. And we probably got some of our fun ideas from those very Our Gang shorts - certainly in those early sound ones (never saw any silents until recently) they knew what real kids were like! It really had not occurred to me that there was a generation (or two, three?!) who grew up not seeing those. On the other hand, I'd never heard of The Taxi Boys or The Boy Friends until this summer, here on TCM. Try to find a copy of Maltin's The Great Movie Comedians. I hope it's available, or that it will come out again. Mine is paperback from 1982 - ISBN: 0-517-54606X; I had a hardback copy I foolishly sold. He also put out Movie Comedy Teams and The Great Movie Shorts, which I don't have and should hunt for, but Chase, Langdon, Stooges, L&H and a whole bunch more are in the one I have. Happy hunting!

Just checked my checklist - well... - and I had scratched out "Platinum Blonde" (singular) and written in "The Smart Set-Up." August 22nd. One or two others have not been what was scheduled. I think once in a while this may happen when the movie turns out not to be the length it was supposed to be. That's got to be the reason they're not on the monthly schedule - waiting to see what length is needed to fill. But the upcoming shorts thread has certainly become invaluable to us!