VP19
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Posts posted by VP19
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Another thing that helped ABC was getting stations in more and more markets, many of which only got ABC programming when affiliates with CBS or NBC decided to substitute them for their home networks. I grew up in Syracuse, which didn't get an ABC affiliate until September 1962; it previously had only two stations, channel 3 for NBC and channel 8 for CBS. (Since the new ABC affiliate channel was assigned 9, the CBS affiliate switched from 8 to 5.)
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If we're going to consider classic Hollywood sex sirens, Carole Lombard has to rank fairly highly.
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Wasn't there a song "Halfway to Paradise"? Gene Pitney?
Tony Orlando, from the early '60s.
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Hollywood made plenty of films in the 1930s satirizing radio, a medium that was nearly as much a threat to the film industry then as TV was two decades later.
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Like mrroberts, I never got into coffee (though the rest of my family does), but I've enjoyed hot tea since my childhood. I've come to develop a fondness for many teas, from the traditional U.S. orange pekoe and black, British black tea, Irish amber tea, Chinese favorites such as smoky Lapsang Souchong, and South African rooibos (a reddish hot beverage that's called "tea," even though it isn't derived from tea leaves).
I currently reside in the mid-South (central Virginia), sort of the midpoint between northern and southern tea country. You can get "sweet tea" here, though it isn't quite as prevalent as in the deep South.
At work, I have a tea machine; it's somewhat similar to a coffeemaker. It allows you to pour up to 28-30 ounces of water, then steep it into tea with up to four bags or with loose tea. The machine also allows you five levels of steepness, from mild to strong, and it takes about 10 minutes from turning it on to have all the water transformed into hot tea. A wonderful device.
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Carole Lombard really wasn't a silent screen star. She appeared in her share of silents, and even had the female lead in one (the now-lost "Marriage In Transit," made in early 1925 when she was all of 16) and after her recovery from a minor 1926 automobile accident that left a scar on her face and led Fox to drop her contract, she joined Mack Sennett's troupe, where her figure was more important than her face. She was seen to good advantage in those films, and thanks to Sennett's ties to Pathe got some supporting roles in some of their late silents, but it wasn't until Lombard's trio of Pathe talkies in 1929 that she regained female lead status, and even then they were primarily male vehicles (one for William Boyd, two for Robert Armstrong). The first film where Carole was the lead character, regardless of gender, was "No One Man" in early 1932.
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The prerequisites for hosting *The Essentials *changes with the host. Rose McGowan wasn't well versed in film history but she was invited to be a co-host because she likes classic films and because she loves the channel.
Carrie Fisher was invited because she's Debbie Reynolds daughter and loves classic film. Did she provide deep historical background on the films from her season of *The Essentials*? Not really.
During his first season as co-host Alec Baldwin didn't either but the following two seasons he seems to have immersed himself in the films chosen and talked much deeper in depth about them.
I was a little surprised that Drew didn't know who directed *Grand Hotel *but I didn't realize off the top of my head that Edmund Goulding had directed both that film and *The Razor's Edge*.
One thing we tend forget as film buffs that sitting across from Robert O and talking about classic films is not always easy and not everyone has the ability to speak eloquently about a film even if they are used to being on camera.
I give Barrymore props, she's willing to learn about films. Prior to this she hadn't seen *The Razor's Edge *and from her conversation last night, it is one that made a impression on her.
Working in movies doesn't automatically translate to knowledge of film history, just as playing baseball doesn't inherently mean you're a baseball historian. (How many current major-leaguers have ever heard of Walter Johnson or Honus Wagner, for example?) Drew probably has some sense of her family's acting heritage; beyond that, I don't know.
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I too endorse Glenda Farrell, and while we're at it, how about a second go-round for Loretta Young (SUTS, 2007)? I'm not sure what kind of schedule TCM ran that day, but given the loads of pre-Codes she made, plus the 20th Century-Fox films that presumably are now available to the channel, it could probably run 24 hours of Young without repeating any of the '07 fare (aside from some of the more obvious ones for primetime).
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The problem of including primarily foreign language & silent films is that the average TCM viewer (not the hardcore fans who post here) do not like "reading" films. For example, when TCM had Kurosawa's 100th Birthday Anniversary month, many posted here on the day that they showed 24 hours of his films of too many foreign language films. Now, Gish made lots of sound movies so not a problem, but with Pickford she only made a couple of sound pictures so most of her day would be her silent films.
John Gilbert was featured on SUTS a few years back, and most of his films were silent. I don't recall many complaints. Pickford is among the most important stars in film history, and also arguably among the most misunderstood today (http://carole-and-co.livejournal.com/488815.html), so this would be a chance to set the record straight.
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Several stars are overdue for another appearance -- Jean Harlow, Ginger Rogers, Sophia Loren, James Cagney, Laurence Olivier. And I don't think either William Powell or Myrna Loy has been featured in a few years.
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Here's how often the top 25 actors and actresses in the American Film Institute's rankings have appeared:
*Actors*
1. Humphrey Bogart, 4 (03, 04, 05, 11)
2. Cary Grant, 6 (03, 04, 05, 06, 09, 11)
3. James Stewart, 6 (03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 11)
4. Marlon Brando, 3 (05, 08, 11)
5. Fred Astaire, 3 (03, 05, 08)
6. Henry Fonda, 4 (04, 08, 09, 10)
7. Clark Gable, 2 (03, 09)
8. James Cagney, 2 (03, 05)
9. Spencer Tracy, 4 (03, 05, 07, 08)
10. Charlie Chaplin, 2 (04, 08)
11. Gary Cooper, 3 (03, 04, 07)
12. Gregory Peck, 3 (03, 06, 08)
13. John Wayne, 5 (03, 04, 05, 06, 09)
14. Laurence Olivier, 1 (04)
15. Gene Kelly, 2 (03, 08)
16. Orson Welles, 1 (11)
17. Kirk Douglas, 4 (03, 04, 05, 07)
18. James Dean, 0
19. Burt Lancaster, 3 (04, 06, 11)
20. The Marx Brothers, 1 (04 for Groucho)
21. Buster Keaton, 1 (07)
22. Sidney Poitier, 3 (04, 06, 09)
23. Robert Mitchum, 2 (03, 07)
24. Edward G. Robinson, 2 (04, 08)
25. William Holden, 2 (03, 07)
*Actresses*
1. Katharine Hepburn, 6 (03, 04, 05, 06, 08, 10)
2. Bette Davis, 4 (03, 04, 09, 11)
3. Audrey Hepburn, 2 (06, 09)
4. Ingrid Bergman, 3 (06, 08, 10)
5. Greta Garbo, 2 (03, 08)
6. Marilyn Monroe, 0
7. Elizabeth Taylor, 4 (03, 04, 07, 10)
8. Judy Garland, 3 (03, 05, 09)
9. Marlene Dietrich, 2 (03, 11)
10. Joan Crawford, 4 (03, 05, 07, 11)
11. Barbara Stanwyck, 3 (04, 06, 08)
12. Claudette Colbert, 2 (04, 11)
13. Grace Kelly, 0
14. Ginger Rogers, 1 (04)
15. Mae West, 0
16. Vivien Leigh, 0
17. Lillian Gish, 0
18. Shirley Temple, 0
19. Rita Hayworth, 2 (06, 08)
20. Lauren Bacall, 2 (05, 10)
21. Sophia Loren, 1 (05)
22. Jean Harlow, 1 (04)
23. Carole Lombard, 2 (06, 11)
24. Mary Pickford, 0
25. Ava Gardner, 2 (04, 08)
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Here's the list:
*August 2003*
James Stewart, Clint Eastwood, Peter O'Toole, Joan Crawford, Fred Astaire, Robert Mitchum, James Cagney, Elizabeth Taylor, Cary Grant, Jack Lemmon, Frank Sinatra, Greta Garbo, Gary Cooper, Charlton Heston, Katherine Hepburn, Steve McQueen, Gene Kelly, Marlene Dietrich, Gregory Peck, Humphrey Bogart, Judy Garland, Clark Gable, John Wayne, Myrna Loy, Kirk Douglas, Lana Turner, Bette Davis, Spencer Tracy, Paul Newman, Doris Day, William Holden
*August 2004*
John Wayne, Barbara Stanwyck, Bob Hope, Debbie Reynolds, Sidney Poitier, Lucille Ball, Katherine Hepburn, Clint Eastwood, Ava Gardner, Henry Fonda, Jean Harlow, Laurence Olivier, Doris Day, Humphrey Bogart, Burt Lancaster, Elvis Presley, Elizabeth Taylor, Edward G. Robinson, Bette Davis, Peter Sellers, James Stewart, Olivia de Havilland, Ginger Rogers, Charles Chaplin, Shirley MacLaine, Claudette Colbert, Cary Grant, Gary Cooper, Gregory Peck, Esther Williams, Kirk Douglas
*August 2005*
Lauren Bacall, James Cagney, Joel McCrea, Alec Guinness, Katharine Hepburn, John Wayne, Judy Garland, Shelley Winters, Ray Milland, Lena Horne, Kirk Douglas, Jane Wyman, Cary Grant, Glenn Ford, Fred Astaire, Donna Reed, James Garner, Irene Dunne, Marlon Brando, James Stewart, Maureen O'Hara, Joan Crawford, Basil Rathbone, Sophia Loren, Norma Shearer, Randolph Scott, Spencer Tracy, William Holden, Constance Bennett, Deborah Kerr, Humphrey Bogart
*August 2006*
Angela Lansbury, Groucho Marx, Susan Hayward, Gregory Peck, Humphrey Bogart, Doris Day, Burt Lancaster, Claire Trevor, Jane Powell, John Garfield, Katherine Hepburn, Rock Hudson, Walter Matthau, Lana Turner, Richard Dix, Joseph Cotten, Carole Lombard, Bela Lugosi, Audrey Hepburn, Lee Marvin, David Niven, Rita Hayworth, Van Johnson, Ann Sothern, James Stewart, Cary Grant, John Wayne, Hedy Lamarr, Ingrid Bergman, Sidney Poitier, Barbara Stanwyck
*August 2007*
Elizabeth Taylor, Peter O’Toole, Joan Crawford, William Holden, James Stewart, Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell, Dana Andrews, Myrna Loy, Vincent Price, Doris Day, Alan Ladd, June Allyson, Ernest Borgnine, Joan Bennett, Elvis Presley, Maureen O’Hara, Spencer Tracy, Errol Flynn, Rosalind Russell, Gary Cooper, Ann Miller, Jane Fonda, Ronald Reagan, Broderick Crawford, Kirk Douglas, Loretta Young, Roy Rogers, Mary Astor, Buster Keaton, Sean Connery
*August 2008*
Michael Caine, Charlie Chaplin, Gregory Peck, Marie Dressler, Claude Rains, Anne Bancroft, Greta Garbo, James Garner, Fred MacMurray, Doris Day, Richard Widmark, Kim Novak, Peter Lorre, Greer Garson, Rita Hayworth, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Jack Palance, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Ava Gardner, Trevor Howard, Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy, Henry Fonda, Ingrid Bergman, Janet Leigh, Tony Curtis, Charlton Heston, Marlon Brando, Katherine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy
*August 2009*
Henry Fonda, James Mason, Marion Davies, James Coburn, Harold Lloyd, Judy Garland, Glenn Ford, Bette Davis, Cary Grant, Dirk Bogarde, Audrey Hepburn, Clark Gable, Gloria Grahame, Sidney Poitier, Deborah Kerr, Elvis Presley, Jennifer Jones, John Wayne, Red Skelton, Miriam Hopkins, Gene Hackman, Sterling Hayden, Angela Lansbury, Fredric March, Merle Oberon, Yul Brynner, Ida Lupino, Frank Sinatra, Peter Sellers, Jean Arthur, Claire Bloom
*August 2010*
Basil Rathbone, Julie Christie, Steve McQueen, Ethel Barrymore,. Woody Strode, Ingrid Bergman, Errol Flynn, Bob Hope, Warren Beatty, Kathryn Grayson, Walter Matthau, Norma Shearer, Robert Ryan, Gene Tierney, Margaret O'Brien, Robert Stack, Maureen O'Hara, Ann Sheridan, Walter Pidgeon, Katharine Hepburn, Paul Newman, John Mills, Elizabeth Taylor, John Gilbert, Lauren Bacall, Lee Remick, Olivia de Havilland, Peter O'Toole, Henry Fonda, Thelma Todd, Clint Eastwood
*August 2011*
Marlon Brando, Paulette Goddard, Bette Davis, Ronald Colman, John Garfield, Lucille Ball, Charles Laughton, Orson Welles, Ann Dvorak, Shirley MacLaine, Ben Johnson, Claudette Colbert, James Stewart, Ralph Bellamy, Lon Chaney, Joanne Woodward, Humphrey Bogart, Jean Gabin, Debbie Reynolds, Montgomery Clift, Cary Grant, Joan Crawford, Conrad Veidt, Joan Blondell, Burt Lancaster, Peter Lawford, Linda Darnell, Carole Lombard, Anne Francis, Howard Keel, Marlene Dietrich
Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn and James Stewart tie for most SUTS appearances with six; John Wayne has received the honor five times.
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But could [Claudette Colbert] sing? (LOL)
Your answers...
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Versatility, thy name is Barbara Stanwyck. From pre-Codes to film noirs to Westerns to screwballs, she could do it all.
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Also, here's some news from Darrell Rooney, curator of the successful "Harlow At 100" exhibit that today celebrated its first anniversary at The Hollywood Museum (and will be there for a while longer):
I've asked the owner if she'd like a Lombard exhibit. She jumped at the opportunity. Since I am not personally a Lombard collector, I am turning to all of you for help. If I can get collectors to lend personal artifacts, clothing and/or movie costumes you will all make this an enormous success. What I'm looking for are Lombard items with accompanying photos, or personal correspondence, letters, items, etc. that illuminate who this wonderful person was, and highlights her brilliant career. Anything that anyone thinks might be a profound addition to a Lombard exhibit is most welcome. I will assist in curating the exhibit along with Steve Nycklemoe, who is the general manager of The Hollywood Museum. I can guarantee the utmost safety and care with each item, so don't let that worry you. It will be done with taste and class. Please let me know if there is anything you would be willing to loan for a period of at least 6 months. Details will be ironed out in the next week or so. Please feel free to contact me at darrellrooney@sbcglobal.net with any questions or scans of items you have that you'd be open to loan for the exhibit.
I should add that I expect to be helping this exhibit, providing a timeline and other information.
You can learn more at http://carole-and-co.livejournal.com/490067.html.
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Agreed. Jean worked hard to become a good actress...but she didn't need to work at all to be a good person. Anyone who views her solely as a sex symbol doesn't do her justice.
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There was a 1930 version of "Holiday" with Ann Harding in the role Hepburn played on stage (and in film eight years later). This version gets overlooked, but is also very good -- only now is Harding being realized as one of the fine actresses of her era.
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I'm not sure you would describe him as "lucky" after learning about his death. From Wikipedia:
Ill with cancer and a bad heart, he directed one last film: [Journey for Margaret|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_for_Margaret|Journey for Margaret], it was a heart-rending movie that made five-year old Margaret O'Brien an overnight star.
A devout [Christian Scientist|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Scientist|Christian Scientist], Van Dyke refused most medical care during his last years. After finishing his last film he said his goodbyes to his wife, children and studio boss [Louis B. Mayer|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_B._Mayer|Louis B. Mayer], and committed [suicide|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide|Suicide] on February 5, 1943.^[suicide|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._S._Van_Dyke#cite_note-obit-0] ^in [brentwood, Los Angeles, California|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brentwood,_Los_Angeles,_California|Brentwood, Los Angeles, California]. At his request, [Jeanette MacDonald|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanette_MacDonald|Jeanette MacDonald] and [Nelson Eddy|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Eddy|Nelson Eddy] both sang and officiated at his funeral.
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"Hands Across The Table" -- Carole Lombard is my all-time favorite actress, and this comedy with Fred MacMurray remains relatively unknown.
"Libeled Lady" -- William Powell, Myrna Loy, Jean Harlow, Spencer Tracy, newspaper intrigue, heiress, fishing scene! Need I say more?
"The Smiling Lieutenant" -- the Lubitsch touch. Jazz up your lingerie!
"A Hard Day's Night" -- Richard Lester captures the quintessence of the Beatles, and indeed the 1960s.
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Good luck with the campaign; I've been trying to get a Carole Lombard stamp issued for years.
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I've read pulp novels from the 1920s where it was used as an equivalent to "said," and I too thought it odd. So I suppose talking out of turn could be construed as "premature...
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(But I did enjoy the makeover scene itself ; and when they parted, it almost looked like Anna and Franzi had not only become friends, but that they were thinking of something more...)
In other words, we could have had a sequel a la "Design For Living," only this time, Hopkins is Chevalier?
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TCM will show this clever Ernst Lubitsch comedy from 1931 at 8 p.m. (ET) Monday (Feb. 20) to kick off a salute to Austria. If you've never seen this Best Picture nominee, by all means do so.
Maurice Chevalier is his usual suave self, but instead of Jeanette MacDonald as his leading lady, he has two -- Claudette Colbert (with darker hair than the better-known Claudette of later in the '30s) as the leader of an all-female orchestra who Maurice loves, and Miriam Hopkins as a rather prim princess who through a mistaken wink thinks he's in love with her, and thus they must marry. Eventually things are resolved, thanks in part to a wonderfully outrageous song called "Jazz Up Your Lingerie," where Claudette explains to Miriam is that the way to a man's heart is through her underthings. (This came a few decades before Cole Porter expressed similar thoughts in writing "Satin And Silk" for "Silk Stockings.") A lot of fun
Another Claudette film, the 1934 "Cleopatra" with Warren William, is on at 9 a.m. (ET) during a salute to Rome.
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Which part of that phrase are you being more facetious about -- "rarely seen" or "classic"?
Carole Lombard
in Your Favorites
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I wonder if Gable liked the idea of her hiring Haines.
At the time Lombard hired Haines (early 1934), Gable was not a factor in her life. Their romance didn't begin until early 1936, which ironically would spell the end of Lombard living in the Haines home on Hollywood Boulevard because it didn't provide sufficient privacy for Clark and Carole. She moved to St. Cloud Road in Beverly Hills, where she resided until they married in 1939 and moved to Encino.