FredCDobbs

Thanks for the information. I lived there in the '60s. Here is a map of the 1849 flood: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/new_orleans_1849.jpg

?Perhaps it was a glorified 'line of credit' they all used. ???? Hmm.... it could be. They might have worked it the way modern banks work... with paper notes, rather than with a direct exchange of gold. Over a period of years, decades, centuries, word could have gone around that their paper notes were ?as good as gold?, and in some cases they could have actually delivered gold (or diamonds). But maybe they actually evolved the first paper banking system so that large heavy gold shipments did not have to be made, but the people receiving the benefit of the loans might have known that delivery of the real gold (or diamonds) could be had if it was required. (I?m only guessing.) I?ve been trying to figure out how someone who offered a large loan could deal with a bunch of crooked nations, filled with thieves and robbers and kings who hated each other, without being ripped off by those very kings, thieves, and robbers.

Scarlett likes Ashley and not Rhett because Ashley is wimpy, and that?s what Scarlet wants because she is a domineering woman. Ashley knows he?s wimpy and that?s why he won?t marry Scarlett. Rhett loves Scarlett because she is not wimpy, but that the very nature of her that gives him the most trouble.

"The Bitter Tea of General Yen" 1933

Hey Metry, did ya survive the levee break?

Interesting. Thanks. I?ve wondered for years about this. I?ve read in a lot of history books about whenever one European country invaded another, the invaders would loot the country and many of the rich people. The same with revolutions like the French revolution and the Russian revolution, with the poor revolutionaries looting the homes of the rich. The same with gold and treasure ships. The English raided the Spanish ships and the Spanish raided the English ships. Other countries sponsored pirates who would raid both the English and Spanish ships. I was wondering.... since there were so many wars and revolutions in Europe, how did Mr. Rothschild escape all of this, how did he escape being captured by invading armies, and where/how did he hide all his wealth? And how did he collect on his loans, assuming some country?s leader decided not to pay off? We know how the Sicilians collected on loans. If someone didn?t pay, they?d break his leg or kidnap his daughter. There is another film (?Disraeli? 1929) that shows Disraeli arranging for a large loan from his friends to give England enough gold to buy the Suez Canal. So I was wondering how he made arrangements for payment (how did they ship the gold to England without it being stolen by bandits and pirates) and how did he guarantee re-payment of the loan?

Ahh, the Film of Films!

Maybe someone can tell me something I?ve been wondering about for years. I think this is an historical mystery. Where did they hide their vast supplies of gold? If they had accumulated enough gold (or maybe diamonds) so that they could make big loans to whole countries, where did they hide it back in the old days? How did they keep from being robbed? How did they make deliveries of the money/gold/diamonds? How were they assured of repayment? Without their own army, how did they collect on big loans?

?Technically, you're right, but as it's presented, wouldn't you agree that the dying words of Kane represents the idea that he used the company name as the more "humanizing" name for his sled?? LOL. It wouldn?t have been as interesting if his last words had been, ?The Rochester Sled Manufacturing Company, Model 237??

Yeah, well, it won the 1971 Academy Award for Longest Sideburns, and it was nominated for Most Inane Plot.

Yep. LOL.

?Fred,that's quite true-I just found out a couple of years ago that my paternal great great grandparents were Jewish-they lived in Arkansas before the family moved to Mississippi.I have one picture of them,their names on the back are Israel and Rachel. I don't know much more than that-back then,my ancestors were too poor to worry about keeping family records. My maternal great-grandmother was full blooded Choctaw indian-I remember her at my grandmother's house,sitting in a rocking chair and smoking a corncob pipe,LOL.? Yes, this is a little-known fact of American history. We are all ?mixed?. Jews have not always been ?rich? in America. Very many of them came over in the 18th and 19th and early 20th Centuries being very poor, just like the Scotch, Irish, English, Italians, Polish, etc. While living in New York they could more easily keep their old European type Jewish culture, but New York didn?t have enough jobs for ALL the European immigrants, so many of the various Immigrants moved to the Midwest, the West and the South. This put them and their children into ?mixed? cultures, and a lot of the various children in the South started marrying each other and losing their old European ethnicity. They became ?Americans.? Also, there were generally more male immigrants than female in the 18th and 19th Centuries, and thus a shortage of women to marry. In the East, West, and South, many immigrant men married Native American women. In fact, this is what eventually led to the disappearance of many small tribes. We didn?t? kill them all. We married them. My great great grandmother was Cherokee. There might have been others on both sides of the family, but she is the only one I know about. --------- I think ?Fiddler on the Roof? would be ok for an early December Jewish family movie for the Hanukkah. It?s not offensive to Gentiles. In fact, Gentiles like to go around humming the songs. I think TCM should plan this with some short 10-second (or longer) spots, promos, of two different kind. One that simply says ?Happy Hanukkah? and the other that says ?Merry Christmas?, with maybe a scene from an old classic movie that could be showing in the background. They could start airing in early December.

That sounds a little like Orson Welles in ?Tomorrow is Forever? (1946). ?Elizabeth and John say good-bye as John leaves to go to war. When the war ends, Elizabeth receives a telegram that her husband has been killed in action. She finds comfort in Harry and they marry. John returns 20 years later, disfigured, with a new identity and an adopted daughter, Margaret. John (Mr. Kesler) and Elizabeth accidentally meet and he learns that he has a son, Drew. John must then decide whether or not to tell her his true identity.?

Question: What mode of transportation is featured in the film "Strangers on a Train?" Uhh... strangers headed west in a wagon train?

I?d like to see a Warren William festival that is NOT shown in the middle of the night and all at one time. Give us a chance to actually see the movies that are featured as the month?s special films. We?d like to be able to watch them and tape them. Also a Warner Baxter month.

?I think I hear him, "Mendacity...men-da-ci-tee...Cleo-sister-woman!" Rusty? Yep, that?s it. If the real Cleopatra had sounded like Elizabeth Taylor did in that movie, and if she had nagged those Roman men so much, they would have whooped the daylights out of her.

dum-de dum, dum-de dum... do not for-stake me oooh ma dar-linn... dum-de dum, dum-de dum.... not on this our wedddin? day.... dum-de dum, dum-de dum......

"The Shining"

I would say the 1934 version is a much better movie. The ?63 version had the advantage of good color, good set decorations, and wide screen, but it was 3 hours of boredom.... talk, talk, talk. And Elizabeth Taylor sounded just like her character in ?Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.? I kept waiting for Burl Ives (as ?Big Daddy?) to walk in to her palace and start cussin?. The only good thing I thought was in the ?63 version was the big set and big fancy platform that Taylor used to enter Rome.

DeMille and other directors were noted for exploiting the paganism of ancient times so they could put some sex into their modern films. For example, there are some topless flower girls throwing rose petals in the air at the head of the big parade in the 1927 ?Ben Hurr? film. This sparked a great renewed interest in the subject of ?history? among many male movie fans. A book I have says the code went into effect in June of 1934. Some pre-code films seem to have continued to be distributed without a code review, but others were recalled and edited and re-released. Regarding authentic dialogue... well, they had to speak English since no one understood ancient Latin or Egyptian. I?ve never known for sure if the basic story about Cleopatra was true or not, or if the modern versions of the story are made up or based on the Shakespeare play about her. Who could have been around at that time to write an objective history of her? History books in those days had to be hand-written and they were usually only read by a couple of dozen people. Did you notice the multi-colored ostrich feathers fanned out on the wall behind her when Mark Anthony first met her on her boat? I often wonder if the entire story of Cleopatra was fabricated by Shakespeare or some other early writer.

I liked "Westward the Women" too. I'd like to see it again.

You mean modern color movies as seen in the theater or on TV? The original 3-color Technicolor movies were more vivid than modern movies because of the original Technicolor chemical system of putting colored dyes on the film.

Oopps, the "milk bath" scene is actually is in "Sign of the Cross." Sorry. Here is a more or less true story of Pancho Villa: http://www.hsgng.org/pages/pancho.htm This is the era and location where George S. Patton came to like Western-style pistols.

Alaska!

What I?ve been doing lately is going to the full month TCM schedule and I save it as a ?Web Document?. This makes it a document file in my computer. Then I right-click on the page and I add a ?Shortcut? to my main desktop list of shortcuts. That way I can click on the shortcut as soon as I turn on my computer and I can scan down to any day in the month. Then I can set my recorder. I would like to print out each months? schedule, but some of them take up 60 pages, and I can?t afford all that ink and paper. TCM usually shows these two movies about once a year. The ?Viva Villa? movie is good historically because it shows Pancho Villa as his men saw him, as kind of a loveable guy who went around murdering rich people, who his men (who were poor peasants) didn?t like. The ?Cleopatra? film is good because it shows Cleopatra as a scheming conniving woman who seduces the leaders of Rome with her many charms. Claudette Colbert does a great acting job. Also the film has Warren William and Henry Wilcoxon, who play two tough guys who are taken in by her charms. The film is famous for its ?milk bath? scene, and its ?Cleopatra?s Barge (boat)? scene during which she seduces Wilcoxon, and with a nod of the head to her staff, she takes him down the river.