by John Greco I first became aware of movies as a young kid watching “B” westerns on TV with my father on Saturday afternoons; Johnny Mack Brown westerns always come to mind when I think of this. There were plenty of other cowboy films in the 1950s; showing westerns was popular back then with TV…
by Melinda Massie I was honored when Brandie asked me to share my first movie-going experience. She knows my love for classic films. However, as I thought about it, I became a touch nervous as well, because I realized I wasn’t actually sure what my first memory was! Growing up, my family and I didn’t…
(with apologies to Judy Garland and co.) ♫♫ Dear Mr. Osborne, ♫♫ I am writing this to you and I hope that you will read it so you know My heart beats like a hammer and I stutter and I stammer whenever you’re on TCM to introduce another show-ing … I guess I’m just another fan of…
by Mary Libby Payne Growing up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, I reveled in any air conditioning, and the only AC in our town was in the Paramount Theatre. I have a vague recollection of the first movie my sister talked about from those years in the 1930s when I was a preschooler. I was…
For the past year and a half, in my non-blogging life, I’ve been working as a ghostwriter, helping people compose and edit their memoirs. Listening to the stories of decades long past, learning about life in different cultures, hearing about those universal struggles that ultimately define us all … it adds up to an infinitely…
We’re wrapping up our April of Barbara Stanwyck flicks with a look at one of my favorite pre-Codes, the 1931 drama Night Nurse, co-starring Joan Blondell and a villainous, non-mustachioed Clark Gable. Stanwyck stars as Lora Hart, an aspiring nurse who finagles a probationary training position at a hospital after meeting the chief of staff, Dr.…
In 1918, Max Fleischer, the innovative mind behind early Walt Disney Studios rival Fleischer Studios, began producing a series of silent cartoon shorts called Out of the Inkwell. Much like earlier efforts by animation pioneers such as Winsor McCay, many entries in this series combined live-action with animation, showing Fleischer drawing the figures that would then…
Joan Gordon (Barbara Stanwyck), a nightclub singer in New York City, intends to marry Don (Hardie Albright), the scion of a wealthy family. But Don’s father discovers that Joan had been the mistress of a bootlegging gangster, Eddie Fields (Lyle Talbot), and forbids the union. Resentful of the fact that her association with Eddie ruined…
