musicalnovelty
-
Posts
5,422 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by musicalnovelty
-
-
> {quote:title=MovieProfessor wrote:
> }{quote}In an ironic twist, I had a few friends over to my house last week and we watched "The Five Pennies." The movie starring Danny Kaye is an almost forgotten musical memoir of the great jazz cornetist, Loring "Red" Nichols. She was just wonderful in the role of Danny Kaye's daughter. She gave a really strong emotional performance, almost stealing every scene she had with Danny.....
>
>
>
> Musicalnovelty wrote:
> Something similar happened with me, too - as you said, an ironic twist.
> Visiting some friends last Saturday night I brought over some of my Susan Gordon TV shows and other various items to watch together, and not having any idea that she'd be leaving us just hours later on Sunday morning we enjoyed the shows (including her "Gunsmoke" episode and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents"). We didn't realize we were unknowingly having a memorial screening.
>
>
>
It was three weeks ago today that my friend Susan Gordon passed away (on Dec. 11).
I visited my friends (mentioned in my post above) again last night and between the annual New Year's Eve Three Stooges Marathon on a local channel and TCM we watched two more Susan Gordon TV episodes I had recently acquired. (I also checked, but it did not appear that the "Twilight Zone" marathon included her episode this time).
The friends I visited are fans of Susan's work, too, so I thought we'd have a sort of memorial screening of these two shows that none of us had seen before.
What made the viewing particularly meaningful was that these are two shows that Susan herself still hadn't found copies of for her own collection and was especially interested in finding. She tried to locate copies of all her movies and TV shows to share with her family and friends. I had found some shows for her over the years and had been on the trail a long time unsuccessfully searching for copies of these two shows (and several others) - film, video, DVD, anything. Then ironically both shows were released on DVD within days of her passing, just a few weeks ago, but sadly, due to her illness she was not able to learn of their releases.
The shows are:
"The Donna Reed Show" - episode "Aloha Kimi" (1-25-62).
And
"Going My Way" - episode "Custody of the Child" (4-3-63).
The "Going My Way" show was one she had mentioned often to me as one of her most wanted "missing shows" but until this recent DVD release had been very difficult to locate in any format. It is a rarely revived TV series remake of the 1944 Bing Crosby movie of the same title (well, based on the same characters anyway). Gene Kelly starred, with Leo G. Carroll taking on the Barry Fitzgerald role and Dick York in the Frank McHugh part. There were 30 episodes produced for ABC in the 1962-1963 season.
It is great that finally the complete series has been released in a DVD box set, but too bad that Susan Gordon wasn't able to live to see it. The set was released 5 days before she left us.
"The Donna Reed Show - Season 4" DVD set (containing her episode) was released just 9 days after her passing.
But I often assured her (and I know that other friends of hers did too) that these and her other "missing shows" are not lost, that they're out there, we just haven't found them yet. But I'd keep on searching and her work will live on when her shows and movies are shown for years to come.
-
> {quote:title=ThelmaTodd wrote:}{quote}
> *The Stooges worked for MGM before going to real fame at Columbia, and appeared in some films and shorts that bore no resemblance to their more famed Columbia shorts. One of them,* *Plane Nuts (1933),* *featured elaborate Busby Berkeley type chorus girl sequences and was done with an obviously bigger budget than their later Columbia two reelers. *
Regarding a bigger budget for the MGM Three Stooges short PLANE NUTS (1931), actually it was probably the cheapest budgeted of all the Stooges' MGM shorts. It's all shot on a stage. And if the two big elaborate musical numbers look like Busby Berkeley productions, there's a good reason: they really are. They were clipped out of an earlier MGM feature for which Berkeley created the numbers: FLYING HIGH (1931). In fact, players Kathryn Crawford and Gus Arnheim & his band from that feature can be seen in the clips.
But it is interesting that in one scene in the Stooges short a couple of chorus girls are on stage with Ted Healy, and they're wearing what appear to be costumes from the musical numbers from two years earlier. MGM must have saved some of the costumes.
And, may I say:
Happy New Year, and Happy birthday!
-
Big fan of William Powell, too and certainly agree he deserved to be Star of the Month.
The only problem I had with it was that NONE of the William Powell films TCM showed in December were surprises at all. All been on before. No silents or any of his rarely seen early thirties Paramounts.
-
> {quote:title=metz44 wrote:
}{quote}NO dont think that would have helped.
Only kidding! I didn't think so!
But it's true, we share the same birthday.
By the way, nice picture of you, posted recently.
I can see a slight Rodney D. resemblance. But I hope you get more respect than he did!
It took a bit of searching, but I found the old thread in which my picture was posted (if anyone cares).
It's here, March 31 at 8:40 A.M. by TikiSoo:
http://forums.tcm.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8508363?
Or, try here:
(from TikiSoo) -
Just thought I'd share a photo of myself & MusicalNovelty taken in the Palace Theater. Remember, this was day 3 of 16 hour days of movie watching, so neither of us look our best. Dig that purple Vitaphone t-shirt!
-
> {quote:title=darkblue wrote:}{quote}
> ...Q107 - a Toronto-based FM station that absolutely refused to play any Michael Jackson track....
I'd have liked that station!
-
> {quote:title=yanceycravat wrote:}{quote}
> Were any changes made to this years, TCM REMEMBERS since it started airing?
>
> I know in years past they've added and corrected versions.
>
No, I am pretty sure there have been no changes made to it this year. I have been watching it especially closely each time I see it, as I have been suggesting and hoping that they would add actress Susan Gordon who passed away on Dec. 11.
But it looks like by this time they are not going to do it.
-
> {quote:title=MilesArcher wrote:
> }{quote}It's Herbert Mundin. He was in "Cavalcade", "Mutiny On The Bounty", and "The Adventures Of Robin Hood".
I passed on answering this until at least a little time had gone by.
But I was going to give this clue: he has the same birthday as I have (although he was quite a bit older!). So, would that clue have been any help?
-
> {quote:title=Roberta109 wrote:
> }{quote}Nice to know Janet Gaynor has another fan here, musicalnovelty.
> Thanks for the comment.
My friend Louie is also a MAJOR Janet Gaynor fan.
If you do a little searching through older posts on his blog, you can find some great rare Gaynor stills and info:
-
> {quote:title=markbeckuaf wrote:
> }{quote}I just have to say that I totally dig on THE MAN FROM PLANET X!!! I think it's one of the best sci-fi flix!!
I actually like it, too.
I really didn't mean in my earlier post to give the impression that it don't.
-
> {quote:title=mudskipper wrote:
> }{quote}Judy Collins had a big hit with the song "Both Sides Now" by Tim Buckley from the 1969 movie "Changes".
Pardon me if I'm misunderstanding what you said, but are you saying that the song was written by Tim Buckley? Actually it was written by Joni Mitchell.
-
> {quote:title=ThelmaTodd wrote:}{quote}
>
> Lillian Roth publicity still
> *MADAM SATAN (1930)*
>
Thanks for all the cool images.
I can never get too many Lillian Roth pictures!
-
> {quote:title=Roberta109 wrote:
> }{quote}Any Janet Gaynor fans?
> While not a classic beauty....
She sure always was, in my eyes!
-
A nice Susan Gordon interview / article, originally published in "Classic Images", Jan. 2008:
http://www.classicimages.com/articles/2009/10/02/past_articles/gordonsusan.txt
-
I recall once in the 1970's while checking the local newspaper listings there was a movie listed there called THE MAN FROM PHOENIX (1951). I thought, "there's one I've never heard of..."
But quickly I realized that some careless typist was to blame when the movie THE MAN FROM PLANET X was actually what was supposed to be listed.
The imaginary movie would probably have been better than the real one.
-
> {quote:title=sfpcc1 wrote:
> }{quote}"On The Cartoon Network The most Beautiful Redhead is definitely Jane Jetson...
> The Cartoon Network hasn't aired The Jetsons in quite a while.
>
> I kind of liked Ann Margrock, (The Flintstones version of Ann Margret.)
Among animated redheads, I nominate "Blossom" of The Powerpuff Girls!
-
> {quote:title=georgeinatown wrote:}{quote}
>
> Did I miss Holiday Inn? That was Easter related in a way along with the other holidays...
>
No, you didn't miss HOLIDAY INN on TCM beause they didn't run it. Currently AMC has the rights to show it and they did, several times in the last few weeks.
-
Okay, it's been more than 12 hours with no guesses. So it's time to identify Richard Lane.
He is:
Richard Lane!
Merry Holidays, Mr. Metz!
-
> {quote:title=markbeckuaf wrote:
> }{quote}One of the zany things about THE COCOANUTS is the first time I noticed tough guy and one of my main men, Barton MacLane, in a skintight swim suit and singing it up with the gang!
Barton M. was still working in east-coast films at this time, such as Paramount films produced at Astoria, Long Island. He can also be spotted in other Paramount Astoria films such as a couple of early 1930's Burns & Allen and Lillian Roth one-reelers.
-
> {quote:title=slaytonf wrote:
> }{quote}Why is The Cocoanuts missing? In fact, I don't remember it ever being shown on TCM.
Yes, it has been shown on TCM before. Not as often as most of the rest of The Marxes' movies, but it has been shown.
-
> {quote:title=hazeldazel wrote:
> }{quote}i agree, it would be awesome to have a list of the people in the video! At the least then I could look them up on imdb instead of catching a half-second glimpse of them on the video and then going "hang on a second, why did they look so familiar? wait, what was their name again? doh, they're on to the next one!" oh well.
You can watch it here and pause it and take your time, write down all the names, rewind and watch it again, etc.
-
Thanks Mongo, for all the pictures you give us all through the year!
Merry Holidays!
-
> {quote:title=FredCDobbs wrote:
> }{quote}Just for fun, I looked Rock and Roll up on Wiki to see if I could find the first official Rock and Roll song.
>
>
>
> That led me to a 1942 review in Billboard magazine that used the term, "rock and roll spiritual music", to describe a Sister Rosetta Tharpe song titled "Rock Me".
In 1934 in the movie TRANSATLANTIC MERRY-GO-ROUND the Boswell Sisters performed a song called "Rock and Roll".
Here's the clip from the movie:
And here's their 1934 Brunswick Records version:
-
Regarding adding in personalities who had the bad timing to pass away just after TCM's annual tribute montage "TCM Remembers" is finished, I would think that by this time TCM would be prepared for that possibility and produce the montages with brief sections where it would be possible to edit in another person. There are a few short sections in this years montage in which a few seconds of Susan Gordon, for example, could be edited in without needing to worry about adjusting the audio soundtrack.
This year's TCM Remembers will probably be running for another week or so. It's not too late to add Susan in, and give her the tribute she deserves.
-
I was passing on this one to give others a chance...or at least till it was up for more than a couple of hours.
But let's name this charming gentleman:
Rychard Cramer
In what looks like a shot from the 1932 Laurel & Hardy short SCRAM!
VINTAGE EXPOITATION FILMS-DISCUSSION
in General Discussions
Posted
> {quote:title=ThelmaTodd wrote:
> }{quote}Hi musicalnovelty!
>
> Thank you very much and same to you!
>
> I always look forward to your posts, I learn from them!
>
> Here is an MGM Technicolor short featuring *Curly Howard*, where he is billed as "Jerry Howard":
>
> *ROAST BEEF AND MOVIES (1932)*
>
> *MGM w/ Curly, Albertina Rasch Dancers*
>
> This short features some very Busby Berkeley looking dance sequences. I don't know if he worked on this, as I don't see it among his credits. This one is definitely worth watching!
>
Happy Nooo Yeeer Thelma!
Thanks for the nice words!
The choreography in that number from the MGM short ROAST-BEEF AND MOVIES (1934) was by Albertina Rasch and the musical number was another taken from an older MGM feature and stuck into this Technicolor MGM short. The song (although billed as "Chinese Fantasy") is actually entitled "Blue Daughter of Heaven" and it was sung off-screen by James Burroughs. The music was composed by Dimitri Tiomkin (who was married to choreographer Albertina Rasch).
It was taken from the 1930 MGM feature LORD BYRON OF BROADWAY.
And, yes, I'm groovin' to all the great Lillian Roth images - thanks!