midnight08

I cannot watch AMC as the long and frequent commercials drive me nuts. Several years ago I tried to watch "Our Little Girl" with Shirley Temple. It aggravated the hell out of me. I swore I'd never watch it again and I haven't. I also hate the supposedly nostalgia TV stations Nick At Nite and TV land. They both began showing older classic TV shows from the 50's and 60's but somewhere along the line they started marathon runs of Friends, Everyone Loves Raymond" and the King of Queens. Over and over they play the same programs. On weekends it's hours and hours and hours of Roseanne. I wonder what morons are in charge of programming at these stations. No variety and yet frequent and over long commercial breaks. I've stopped watching these stations long ago. I keep waiting for some change of programming but it remains the same week after week, month after month. By the way, for those posters who might suggest I get some other nostalgia TV stations I don't have the extra money to go up any more tiers on my cable. I pay more than enough just for the privilege of receiving TCM.

I was wondering if you know who the top 10 actors/actresses were in 1928? it would be interesting to see who had the top box appeal for this year and subsequent years covered in this thread.

Gee, don't be sorry "bansi4". With all the wonderful photos you post each day along with all the birthdays it's a wonder how you keep everything straight. You're a treasure! Your thread is the absolute best and I'm so grateful to you for maintaining it with all your information. The candid photos are especially awesome. Thanks a million for all your time and effort.

Two observations: 1.) I didn't know Simone Signoret was so old when she died (1821-1985). LOL. 2.) James Cagney was about 20 years older than his sister Jeanne. He was born in 1899 and she was born 1919. He was old enough to be her Dad. That's quite an age span between siblings.

I saw this film at the theater when it was released and I waited and waited for something to happen (which didn't). At the end I thought "this is it?" Now, watching it almost 30 years later and being almost 30 years older I can appreciate the dialog, thoughts, emotions, and the beautiful scenery. The only thing irritating was Bette Davis's "SAYYYYYRUHHH. After awhile it became nerve wracking. Too bad Lilian didn't tell Bette "oh shut up ****". LOL.

Thanks for the heads up. This film wasn't on the schedule in the "Now Playing" magazine so I didn't even know TCM was showing it till I saw the post. I should always check the daily schedule as too many times the schedule on the "Now Playing" magazine changes.

Although Desi Arnaz appeared in many TV series (including his own I Love Lucy) he only appeared in 8 or 9 films (three of them with Lucy).

Dorothy Dell-3 movies (all 1934) and Russ Columbo. Both died tragically.

I doubt that Louis Mayer ever thought he'd not be heading MGM. From what I read he was shocked when the top brass at MGM picked Dore Shary over him. He probably planned on heading MGM till he died.

Ruby Keeler-11 films (from 1933-1941) and Harold Russell-1 film (Best Years Of Our Lives). Harold also won the best supporting actor for this his one and only role.

I believe this forum is closed with James Dean most arguably being the "most famous movie star" with the least number of films. Not only is he a famous star but an icon as well. So why not continue this forum but change it to "famous movie stars with a low output of movies"?

Mae West-12 films from Night After Night" in 1932 to Sextette in 1978.

I also remember this interview but I can't remember when I saw it or where it came from. I thought that Mickey would tell his own story of how bad Mayer was to them but he spoke in glowing terms about him. I believe even the interviewer was taken aback by Mickey.

That's great! I'm happy to hear you're going to talk about the studios and the stars. I was wondering if the monthly summary was all we were going to read for 1928. I'm looking forward to all this.

I'm sorry I missed this PBS special as I like Judy and think she had immeasurable talent. My brother watched it and called me afterward to ask a question. He wondered why she was so destitute and had such huge financial woes during the latter part of her life. He mentioned that she had still made some films in the early 1960's, had record album sales, had her hugely successful live concerts and even had a TV show for a short period. So he asked me why she was so financially destitute. I thought part of it was because of Sid Luft who was a big gambler. But I'm not exactly sure why she was so poor. Can anyone enlighten me on this?

I know I'm being "partial" because I liked Ruby but I think she had a certain "something" that fit into the films she was in. Most of her films had her as the nice, shy, naïve, sweet girl, the kind of gal a guy would want to bring home to meet his parents and sit down to Sunday dinner. She proved a contrast to the other film actresses such as Joan Blondell who were saucy, sassy and who had "been around the block" so to speak.

I don't agree that she sabotaged her career or for that matter, whether she even cared about furthering her career. She was probably very unhappy with Jolson and finally had enough and divorced him. She had some temporary happiness when she and Jolson adopted a baby boy. I believe after her divorce she was looking to find a nice man not connected with the film industry and settle down. And that's exactly what she did. From what I read and heard she had a very happy married life. She had her career and she had a happy blissful marriage and family. So I'm sure she was content. Years ago TCM ran a documentary on her and in it her daughter speaks while they show home movies of her with her family. Her daughter mentioned that her mother never mentioned that she was an actress and that none of her brothers or sisters even knew about her film career until many years later. She never talked about it. The only hint they ever had was when the radio would be on and Ruby would start to dance to the music on the radio (a tap dance). Otherwise, her daughter described her as a typical housewife and Mom who dearly loved her family.

There's something about her I liked even though she wasn't a great actress or singer. However she could tap dance. I remember a discussion of her a few years ago and someone explained that her method of tap dancing was a different form from people like Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. It seemed like more of a hard step tap and there was a name for it which I don't remember. I also liked her because I never heard any bad stories about her. After her divorce from Jolson she remarried and had (I think) 5 kids and lived a very happy life. When her husband died she was coaxed to come back by none other than Busby Berkely and had a successful comeback in "No No Nanette". She had never done a stage play before and she was 60 at the time but the audience loved her.

Great start to 1928. One minor correction however; Adrian was born in March 1903 so this would make him 25 in March of 1928.

I agree with "Bogie56" in that TCM spends too much time thinking of themes and which movies would fit those themes. Consequently, you can end up with some films never shown because they don't fit any theme while others are shown over and over because they do fit one or several themes. It's nice to have movies relating to a theme but TCM does it too much. Rather than spending all this time thinking of special themes and looking for films which relate to that idea TCM should have days of "anything goes". Maybe there will be more variety of films being shown.

Belated thanks to "Richard Kimble" for displaying the various intro logos for Fox Studios thru the years. I appreciate it.

I like this idea and I will be interested to see what transpires with this topic. I especially like reading about the year of 1928 since it was such a transitional and chaotic year for the studios. Most studios were still making full length silents (preferring to wait and see what happens with the talkie craze) while some were making part talkies or adding a line or two of dialogue to their films. What I find sad is that most of the part talkies and talkies of 1928 are "lost". I wonder why this is so. I find them very interesting even if they are creaky and static.

Thanks Fred for the clip of "An American Tragedy". It looks like you have a good print there so obviously the film is out there and in good shape so why doesn't TCM obtain it? They could run it back to back with its remake. I just remembered: it's a Paramount film owned by Universal so it's probably next to impossible to obtain it on loan.

Maybe it's because of the blackface racial overtones that TCM rarely shows Al Jolson's movies but I know of three which haven't been shown in ages and ages; Go Into Your Dance, Mammy and Wonder Bar. I can understand why Mammy isn't shown but I don't understand why TCM doesn't show the other two. Go Into Your Dance was his only movie with then-wife Ruby Keeler and Wonder Bar also stars Dick Powell, Kay Francis and Ricardo Cortez so it's not really an Al Jolson movie.

I think you meant that Jerry Lewis is 89, not 79. I didn't think he was that much younger than Dean Martin so I looked it up.