filmlover
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Hi, Lynn,
Sorry for the late post but been busy. Of course, you can count me in like Flynn.
filmlover
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Another excellent schedule. Some of the things I am looking forward to seeing after a number of years: Moulin Rouge, Enter Laughing, Men Are Such Fools, Tight Spot, and Intermezzo. Some interesting obscure films, among them I Love a Bandleader with Phil Harris and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone with two of my favorites, Marjorie Main and James Whitmore. I don't think I have seen the Leslie Caron Private Screenings, so that will be fun. And a new special on Gene Wilder. Add to that, the Abel Gance special and films!
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Looks like Kenneth's post is breaking up with pixels, too. : )
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I'm hesitant with oldies.com now. On the 31st, I placed an order for about a dozen titles just before midnight to take advantage of their 10% holiday special. The following morning, January 1, I thought about it and decided to hold off on the order so I cancelled it online and got a confirmation notice that day.
About a week ago, I got a package from them containng the whole order and it was charged to my credit card. I looked at the invoice and it was dated January 3rd, so even with the holiday being the day I cancelled it, they still had 2 days to make sure the order didn't go out. But it did.
I called them and they said I could send it back, but I decided to keep the items. Still, it bothers me that I had an email confirmation of the cancellation but they still sent it and said they didn't have anything on their records showing the cancellation request that I was looking at onscreen while talking to them.
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Hi, dsclassic,
It should be noted that the Sleuth being issued is not the Laurence Olivier/Michael Caine version. It is the newer Jude Law/Michael Caine version.
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Somewhere in Time and Field of Dreams (I love the baseball in America speech but what really chokes me up is the moment when Ray asks for a game of catch at the end (you would have to see it to understand why it is so poignant. I don't want to give it away)).
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I liked her when she was on. And I think she has the most important thing we should be looking for in a new Essentials host: she's cute.
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Johnny Grant has been known as the unofficial mayor of Hollywood.
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From the L.A. Times:
Johnny Grant, who visited Hollywood in 1943 as a star-struck serviceman and returned to carve out a niche first as a radio and television personality and then as its honorary mayor and foremost booster, died Wednesday at the age of 84.
Grant appeared to have died of natural causes, authorities said. Shortly before 7 p.m., an associate found him unconscious in the penthouse of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, where Grant made his home. City paramedics declared him dead at the scene, police said.
Hollywood Chamber of Commerce President and Chief Executive Leron Gubler said Grant was getting over a back fracture, but otherwise was active and in good spirits.
"It's a shock to all of us," Gubler said. "His health had been up and down the past year or two, but nobody expected this."
In a seven-decade career, Grant hosted an early television game show, covered Hollywood on radio and TV, worked as a disc jockey, and acted in movies and on the small screen. But it was as Tinseltown cheerleader that he became a celebrity himself.
Grant hosted hundreds of Walk of Fame inductions, being photographed alongside a succession of stars as their names were immortalized on the sidewalks of Hollywood. He had produced the now-defunct Hollywood Christmas Parade since 1987 and, like his friend Bob Hope, took Hollywood to the troops, emceeing shows in Guantanamo Bay, South Korea, Vietnam, Lebanon and Bosnia. In November, he made his 60th trip overseas to entertain troops.
"He had a great time," Gubler said. "Helping people, that's what he thrived on."
He seemed always to remember that millions of people were in awe of the name Hollywood, just as he was as a boy growing up in Goldsboro, N.C.
"It's a magic word all over the world," he told Times columnist Jack Smith in 1987, the town's centennial year.
Grant sought to preserve that magical image long after most of the stars and studios had moved elsewhere and the streets became the haunt of prostitutes, addicts and the homeless. His prescription was always the same: put on a show.
In 1980, when he took over as Walk of Fame chairman, "you couldn't get anyone to come to Hollywood Boulevard," he told a reporter in 1997. "So I said, 'Why don't we really put on a big show when we have a Walk of Fame ceremony.' We had planes fly over, bands, etc."
His Hollywood's Welcome Home Desert Storm Parade in 1991 for troops who fought in the Persian Gulf War was a rolling, marching, flying extravaganza of military personnel and equipment that starred a Patriot missile. Grant reported attendance at 1 million, the same figure that he gave year after year for the Hollywood Christmas Parade. When a Times reporter applied a formula used by the U.S. Park Service to estimate crowds and informed Grant that no more than 500,000 people could fit along the Desert Storm parade route, he admitted his exaggeration.
"You know Hollywood," he said. "It's hype."
Some criticized Grant for his P.T. Barnum tendency. Times columnist Patt Morrison called him "orotund" and compared him to "a type that once peopled the L.A. landscape from the real estate land rush into the 1960s." But others admired the frankness that accompanied his glad-handing style.
"That's what's refreshing about him," Larry Kaplan, former executive director of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, once said. "He doesn't portray himself more seriously than he is."
Grant's own star is in the walk's choicest location -- outside Mann's Chinese Theatre. The master of self-promotion organized the ceremony and said its extravagance landed him the job as Walk of Fame chairman.
His handprints and footprints were added to the theater's famed courtyard in a 1997 ceremony that included a flyover by World War II-era planes. Grant arrived in a rickshaw accompanied by a police motorcycle escort, a marching band and two hook-and-ladder firetrucks, their ladders raised to form an archway.
Grant was short in stature, with a deep voice that helped him land his first show business job -- working as a radio announcer in his hometown after high school graduation. He was fond of saying that he never worried about his height after seeing Mickey Rooney in "Boys Town" and resolving, "if that little squirt can make it, so can I." Rooney, incidentally, was on hand for Grant's Walk of Fame induction.
After World War II service in the Army Air Forces -- he hosted a radio show for the troops and did advance work for bandleader Glenn Miller's troupe -- Grant worked as a radio reporter in New York. It was there, in 1946, that he hosted a TV game show called "Stop the Clock."
But he soon returned to Hollywood, making good on his vow that "I was going to be a part of it somehow."
Most of Grant's on-air work was for Gene Autry, who owned KTLA-TV and KMPC-AM. The two had met during the war. Grant hosted a celebrity interview show and reported Hollywood news on KTLA, and was the disc jockey on KMPC's long-running "Freeway Club" program. He served as KTLA's director of public affairs from 1971 to 1992. The two men's association lasted 42 years, and it is no coincidence that Autry has five stars on the Walk of Fame, more than anyone else.
The mayor of Hollywood loved being before an audience. When a restaurant co-owned by Jack Klugman created a pizza in Grant's honor, the main ingredient was ham. Grant estimated that he had been master of ceremonies at more than 5,000 events, ranging from Walk of Fame inductions to charity soirees to adopt-a-pet promotions to 20 Stop Arthritis telethons. In 1976, Grant produced and emceed Operation Understanding, where he and 51 other well-known people disclosed their alcoholism.
Grant and co-hosts Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra put on what is believed to have been the first telethon, which raised funds in 1952 for the U.S. Olympic team.
Over the years he befriended many political leaders, most of them Republicans. Grant hosted events for every GOP president from Dwight D. Eisenhower to George H.W. Bush.
During his career Grant received two Emmys and the Academy of Television Arts and Science's Governors Award. His acting roles, usually as a reporter, disc jockey or TV host, included the films "White Christmas," "The Babe Ruth Story" and "The Oscar." He appeared on TV's "The Lucy Show," among others.
Grant never married and had no children.
It was the Hollywood chamber that, in 1980, named him "mayor for life." Grant enjoyed saying that it was "the best job in town," and that he wanted his ashes strewn under the Hollywood Sign.
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First off, I don't see what Warner Bros. did as an outrage. What most people don't know here, probably, is that there is a format war with regards to high definition video players and discs. It comes down to two systems, Blu-ray and HD-DVD (remember the days of the VHS vs. Betamax war?). The battle has been going on for over a year and consumers who have not bought into one format are afraid they will pick the one that will be obsolete. And that means that high def players are not being adopted as well as they should be.
The format wars also consisted of studios squaring off against each other. On the Blu-ray side, there was Disney, Sony, Fox, Lionsgate, MGM, and maybe one or two others I can't recall at the moment. On the HD DVD side, there was Universal. For awhile, Paramount offered products to both sides. Warner Bros. did likewise.
Paramount and DreamWorks sold out for $150 million to go HD DVD exclusively. (Verified by Viacom executives (Viacom owns Paramount) in a NY Times article.)
Warners was the last holdout and continued to be neutral.
Meanewhile, the wars continued, not just between the formats but also between the fans of each system (reading the forums, if the fans had guns, it would be a bloody battlefield).
Towards the last quarter of 2007, realizing that the format war was stopping new consumers from getting into the high def market, which the industry definitely needs them to do, Warner Bros. made public announcements that it was likely to choose one format over another, and were looking at a number of things including sales. Sales figures for all of 2007 favored Blu-ray with twice as many discs sold.
Last Friday, a few days before the consumer electronics show in Vegas was to begin, Warner Bros. announced their decision. They were going exclusively Blu-ray. In addition to superior numbers in disc sales (every single month had Blu-ray winning by a substantial amount), it was the only logical step for them to bring the format war to a close. If they had gone HD DVD, it would only have split the studios evenly between the two formats and the war would have gone on and on.. Remember, you would have to buy two different machines or a combination player to play both both formats. However, by going Blu-ray, they basically brought the war to an end. Blu-ray now has 70% of high def output on their side. HD DVD is left with Paramount (who have an 18-month contract to support HD DVD), DreamWorks (same deal), and Universal. And, unfortunately, with HD DVD fans who feel betrayed by Warner Bros. but who would have felt no regret for Blu-ray supporters if the decision had gone the other way.
Warner performed no outrage. Supporting two formats was costly, mistakes would happen, and the most important thing, the high defnition format was not being adopted by a mass audience, which could spell the end for both formats if not resolved as soon as possible.
From the official Warner Bros. release about the matter:
""The window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger. We believe that exclusively distributing in Blu-ray will further the potential for mass market success and ultimately benefit retailers, producers, and most importantly, consumers.
....A two-format landscape has led to consumer confusion and indifference toward high definition, which has kept the technology from reaching mass adoption and becoming the important revenue stream that it can be for the industry...Consumers have clearly chosen Blu-ray, and we believe that recognizing this preference is the right step in making this great home entertainment experience accessible to the widest possible audience."
When Paramount Studios decided to go with HD DVD, they completely cut off making any Blu-ray discs they had already taken advance orders from retailers on. They also told retailers to ship back to them new Blu-ray releases that had just gone out.
Warner Bros., on the other hand, says they will produce in both formats until May of 2008 to ease the transition period for HD DVD fans and to fulfill their contracts.
Since the announcement, HBO and New Line have also said they will go Blu-ray, but this is not unexpected because of their connection to Warner Bros.
The BDA group (Blu-ray) is even looking at possible ways whereby they can help HD DVD (Toshiba) purchasers make the transition to Blu-ray a little easier. Some options that they are considering are discounts to Blu-ray players or swapping Blu-ray discs for the same title they have on HD DVD.
In the meantime, Blu-ray fans and even many HD DVD supporters know the battle is useless and the war is over. HD DVD buyers are switching to Blu-ray, but still some hold out. Those that are switching join Blu-ray fans in asking Paramount, DreamWorks, and Universal to end the war and go Blu-ray.
Paramount has stated recently they support HD DVD still, but it has been reported there is an out-clause in their contract with Toshiba that says if Warner were to go exclusively Blu-ray (which it did), they could switch (and return a portion of the money, I guess). Rumors are that both Paramount and DreamWorks are thinking about it. The one definite unknown is Universal, saying only "No comment" to questions of going Blu-ray or supporting HD DVD further. Again, insiders in the industry are stating that Universal is contemplating going Blu-ray. This only makes sense because to stay under HD DVD is a losing proposition. Comparing sales on Amazon for the top 100 Blu-ray discs vs. the top 100 HD DVD discs shows that since Friday HD DVD has plunged from about 800th place straight down to about 2,000th place on their sales chart for overall DVD sales (this includes standard DVDs and high def discs). Blu-ray's top 100 stays in the top 500 of all DVDs sold.
There has been much coverage of this in the media. Reports are that the Blu-ray exhibit at the CES convention in Vegas is packing people in, while the HD DVD exhibit is practically a ghost town. The CES show has also had many DVD player manufacturers coming in with a whole slew of Blu-ray players and no new HD DVD players, except a combo player or two. eBay has had a sudden rush of people selling their HD DVD players. And reports say that people are returning HD DVD players they got or bought for Christmas to stores. Toshiba says that retailers are supportive of HD DVD still, but other reports state differently:
Target: "Until it settles completely I think we're going to continue to see consumers sitting on the sidelines."
Wal-Mart: "It would be our hope that by this Christmas there would be a clearer choice for the customer, instead of battling back and forth."
But with Warner Bros. getting behind Blu-ray, and hopefully ending the format war, the retailers say:
Circuit City: the decision makes it "a lot easier to see the likelihood that we get to one format, and it makes it easier for us as retailers to help push it to that one format."
Wal-Mart: "If we were able to have one united message and say: 'Here's high definition TV, here's a high definition DVD, here's the medium to play on it,' it's a much cleaner story to customers that the industry can push, that every retailer can push and the customer goes, 'OK I get it."'
Anyway, that is the whole thing in a nutshell.
I support studios going Blu-ray, end the war, and start promoting it to the mass consumer. High def discs are woinderful. You may never be able to go back to the look of standard DVDs entirely
(and don't worry, high def players can play your standard DVDs and upconvert them to look almost high def, too.).
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Wait a minute, you mean if we have an apocalypse, we won't have any TCM? Shoot, somebody better tell Washington about that.
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I've been reading all the hi-def forums about this all afternoon. This is great news. (Well, lol, except for those with HD DVD.) I think that once HD DVD gives up, then high-def discs can really get going since there will only be one format, no consumer confusion or hesitation about the format war, and all the studios will win.
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Tough Guys is the correct title. It is unofficially vol. 2 of the Gangsters set.
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Alpha is pretty poor on the whole, Edgecliff.
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Sorry, CM, you would have to order them through Amazon.
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A new series of discount codes for DVDPlanet..com:
JAN2008 $5 Off $60
NEWYEAR2008 $8 Off $80
PREJAN2008 $12 Off $150
Expires 01/31/08
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I came an excellent series of film books at the Arclight Cinemas a few days ago, and also at Samuel French Bookshop.
They seem to be a series of 17 different softcover books, each about 200 pages, and the individual titles focus on Humphrey Bogart, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Charlie Chaplin, Katherine Hepburn, The Marx Brothers, Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, James Dean, Orson Welles, Marilyn Monroe, Clint Eastwood, Steve McQueen, Ingrid Bergman, Marlon Brando, and Audrey Hepburn.
The series, called Movie Icons, is published by Taschen, all books are copyright 2007, and printed in Italy. Each has the text in English, German, and French. They are mostly photo books, with each having somewhere between 150-200 pictures, I imagine, and all on good quality paper. While there are a number of pictures I have seen over the years in them, there are a lot of pictures in color and b&w I haven't, which was a nice surprise.
They retail for $9.99 but Arclight in Hollywood was having a year-end clearance of 50% off on almost everything so I got ten for $5 each. You can get them on Amazon.
Here are two pictures I haven't seen before from the Bogart book (the quality is much, much better than my scanner has reproduced here):
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I don't know if I could call the following a special sale, but it is something I discovered today and thought I should pass it on. The Virgin Megastore in Hollywood is closing down. They will not be moving to another location, so this is it for them here. Apparently, they lost their lease.
They currently have 30% off everything (DVDs, Blu-rays, CDs, books, etc.) with a few clearance items at 50% off (no classic films). The only problem is that they price everything at street price, so at 30% off, you can usually do better online.
They will be shutting the doors at the end of January and I am wondering if they will be having increased discounts as the weeks progress, like Tower did. I'll try to keep an eye on this and keep you posted.
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Well, this is so difficult that I have to break it down into categories:
Each category is in no particular order.
Box sets (all-new or mostly new contents)
Ford at Fox
The Three Stooges Vol. 1
Looney Tunes Golden Collection vol. 5
Popeye the Sailor vol. 1
The Jazz Singer
The Tyrone Power Collection
The Literary Collection
Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland Collection
Fox Horror Classics
Classic Musicals from the Dream Factory
Honorable mention:
Esther Williams Collection
Errol FLynn Signature Collection vol. 2
James Cagney Signature Collection vol. 1
Les Miserables
Restorations:
A Christmas Carol
2001: A Space Odyssey (especially on Blu-ray)
The Shining (especially on Blu-ray)
Blade Runner (especially the 5 disc set on Blu-ray)
Jailhouse Rock (BR)
Viva Las Vegas (BR)
Battleship Potemkin
Help!
Close Encountesr of the 3rd Kind
Sergio Leone Anthology
Honorable mentions:
Peter Pan
To Catch A Thief
Rio Bravo
TV:
Twin Peaks the Gold Box Edition
Design:
Ford at Fox
Rooney/Garland
United Artists Collection
Harry Potter Gift Set
Blade Runner Gift Set
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Amazon has a few good sales on today:
Fox Box Sets 50% off sale: includes Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto volumes at $24.99 each, the three Ford at Fox smaller collections at $24.99 each, Tyrone Power at $24.99, Billy Wilder Collection at $59.99, etc. Those are good prices, especially on the Ford at Fox volumes:
Fox sports movies for about 50% each:
Misc. Fox films at about 50%, including New York New York anniversary edition at $9.99:
TV Boxed Sets at 2-for-1:
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"I just wish more people had voted this time around. For one of my favorite schedules to not get any votes is a travesty."
LOL, that would have been mine. But, quite honestly, I am really fine with this. I have had the honor and privilige of hosting one of the Challenges already. Kyle mentioned here that this current Challenge was the one to get the second-highest number of schedules entered. I am proud to say that it was the Challenge that I moderated that received the highest number of submitted schedules (thirteen, I think).
I am pleased to see so many newcomers to the Challenge. It is a daunting task, and you never truly know how hard it is until you get in there and do it, but you come away from it with a greater respect and understanding of our TCM programmer and his job. That was the reason the Challenge was originally created by board member path40a. It is difficult indeed to come up with theme ideas, Star of the Month nights, birthday tributes, TCM Underground selections, The Essentials, Silent Sundays, etc. and fit all the other films into tightly-constructed time frames, but the TCM programmer does it week after week, month after month, and year after year. I think everyone who has done a schedule in any of the eight Challenges to date will agree that the TCM programmer is the true Challenge Master.
Thanks to all who had kind words about my schedule and my covers. I am glad to have had a chance to participate this time around again, and, as said, I truly am fine with not getting a vote on it...it makes it SO much easier on my present-buying budget this year. (LOL, just kidding.)
Patful, I decided to have real fun with your cover, including going away from the traditional logo on all other covers in an attempt to get into the mind of Norman Bates (a scary place to be, believe me). I'm glad you enjoyed it.
My conratulations to Lynn for your great schedule and your victory. Am I mistaken, Lynn, but aren't you now the first 3-time winner?!
And, of course, a big congrats to Kyle for overseeing this current Challenge. You faced many challenges within the Challenge, not the least of which was the message board loading problems. And now you have the honor of rejoining the rest of us in creating a new schedule in the next Challenge hosted by Lynn.
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Let me guess...they featured Donny and Marie.
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This is a hard choice. I've looked over all of them and there is some outstanding brilliance in there (but enough about me). It truly is a difficult choice this time around. I could almost go with a 3-way tie for first but I know I have to choose only one.
So, before I can't get in here again, my vote goes to patful. I would enjoy seeing so many things on the list, including the tribute to Eugene Pallette, plus the Silent Sunday feature of Faust. And I still get a kick out of the reworking of Melanie Safka's song title, "Look What They've Done to My Song, Ma" into "Look What They've Done to Your Son, Ma." Very clever.
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Hi, moviebuffer12,
Since my original post got way back there, there were a couple of other things you probably missed about shaping the schedule:
1. As Kyle also mentioned, each day's schedule each day should start at 6AM. You have them starting in the evening at 8PM. So, for example:
March 4th, 2008
6:00 AM first movie title of the day
and then going through until the last film around 4AM or so
then
March 5, 2008
6:00 AM first movie title of this day
etc.
2. The Keaton shorts and films should show a studio.
3. With regards to time again, there are the opposite problems, too. Putting a film in a time slot much too long. For example, you have Dr. Strangelove, a 97-minute movie in a 165-minute time slot. That would be about an hour between movies, something TCM doesn't like to do. In scheduling, you have to keep the viewer tuned in and that means not having much time between films.
Phew, I'm going back to bed and hope my computer plays nice until the Challenge is over.
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Hi, Kyle, I am glad you were able to retrieve it. I am having trouble with my computer. All I was trying to do was reprint the thing without typos and grammatical errors of my own, but -- argh, I don't even want to think about it anymore or I might throw the computer out the window. The important thing is that you were able to get it back in in plenty of time.
I think my computer hates me since it learned I was looking at a sexy laptop in a store during Black Friday.
Among the typos and corrections I wanted to enter were the titles of the other four films, esides The Honey Pot I spotted running time problems with: Gandhi, Edward Scissorhands, Batman, and The Nightmare Before Christmas. It will require you reworking your schedule a bit.
P.S. ADDED SUNDAY MORNING AT 7:35 AM (PST) - I want to say sorry about all the duplicate posts since last night, but I was just having a nightmare with getting my message in. I finally gave up and went to bed. So, imagine my horror just now as I was getting up and seeing the message finally in - not once, but every time I tried. But, hey, at least if you look at all the different clock times in each post, you can see I was trying my all for this Challenge, lol!
Message was edited by: filmlover
[b]The TCM Programming Challenge- Love Potion #9[/b]
in TCM Program Challenges Archive
Posted
I probably won't be able to get to mine until the end of the month or in the first week of March.