Forgotten Hollywood

Manny P. here…

   In 1951, John Ford’s personal favorite movie, The Quiet Man, starring John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara, Ward Bond, Victor McLaglen, and Barry Fitzgerald, was made. It was set in Ireland with filming centered in the village of Cong on the Mayo-Galway border.

   The Quiet Man Cottage Museum is a novel concept, which will give the visitor a total Quiet Man experience as if you were actually on-set. Located by the river at Circular Road, Cong, between the actual locations used for the filming, the ground floor of the cottage has been designed as an exact replica of White-o-Mornin’ Cottage.

   Painstaking effort has ensured all the furnishings, artifacts, costumes, etc., are all verified authentic reproductions. The four poster bed and the tables and chairs which Mary Kate cherished, the thatched roof, emerald green half door, and white washed front combine to charm all those who visit.

   The Quiet Man Cottage Museum is a must for any Quiet Man enthusiasts, or even those wishing to visit a typical Irish cottage of the 1920s. Experience this unique journey into the past, including:

• Audio Visual Presentation
• Souvenirs
• Guide to Locations / Historical Sites

   The Wayne family visited the Quiet Man Cottage Museum, part of Museums of Mayo… So can you!

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here… 

   Madeleine Lebeau was the last living co-star of the 1942 Oscar winning classic Casablanca. Lebeau had a special interest in the motion picture, as she and her husband, actor Marcel Dalio, who also appears in the movie, had fled Paris as the Nazis marched in. Portraying a woman jilted by Humphrey Bogart’s character Rick Blaine, her tearful image singing the French national anthem, in closeup, is one of the movie’s many emotionally stirring moments. Madeleine Lebeau (right) would later state that her tears were real.

   The French-born Lebeau made her Hollywood movie debut supporting Olivia de Havilland in Hold Back the Dawn. She later appeared in the Errol Flynn movie Gentleman Jim. It was then that she was signed to appear in Casablanca.

   Dalio and Lebeau divorced in 1942 and Warner Brothers cancelled her contract. Lebeau appeared in a few more American movies, then returned to France after World War II, where she resumed her film career. She later married Tulio Panelli, one of the writers of Federico Fellini’s 8 ½, in which Lebeau appears. They remained married until Panelli’s death in 2009 at age 100.

   Despite make over 20 movies, Lebeau remained best known for Casablanca. With the passing of Joy Page in 2008, she became that film’s only living credited actor. The death of Frank Mazzola last year, who had an uncredited role as a Moroccan boy, left her as the cast member left alive from the movie. Now, they are all gone.

   Madeleine Lebeau was 92. Here’s looking at you, kid…

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   The County of Los Angeles Public Library system, where I’ll begin my impending Literacy Tour in June, has just added Son of Forgotten Hollywood Forgotten History to two of their Southern California branches. Pico Rivera and Leland R. Weaver (South Gate) are the 48th and 49th repositories to house my paperback. The number of libraries that carry my entire Forgotten Hollywood Book Series has reached 110 locations, all over the globe.

   For a complete list of County of Los Angeles Public Library tour stops, please scroll down below. You are definitely invited to stop by!

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

   Julius La Rosa was a pop singing crooner known for hits, including Eh Cumpari, whose firing live on the air by Arthur Godfrey in 1953 overshadowed his successes that followed. La Rosa, a native of Brooklyn, was in the Navy when Godfrey heard him sing and invited him to appear on his CBS television show. Godfrey also urged him to come back after his discharge. La Rosa became a star of Godfrey’s show from 1951 to 1953.

   However, his growing popularity annoyed Godfrey. On October 19th, 1953, La Rosa was ready to begin the television portion of Arthur’s program, but was kept waiting backstage until the final minutes of the radio-only part of the show. After singing Manhattan, La Rosa and the audience heard Godfrey precede his sign-off by saying, That was Julie’s swan song with us. Godfrey said he fired him because he lacked humility, and because he had hired an agent. The public response was swift and deliberate. The LaRosa incident remained a controversial decision that swirled around Godfrey, and it gradually destroyed his folksy image.                                                           JULIUS LA ROSA

   The public firing actually boosted La Rosa’s career for a while. He served as the summer replacement on Perry Como’s television show in 1955. He also appeared on numerous other variety shows in the 1950s and 1960s, including Ed Sullivan’s Toast of the Town and The Merv Griffin Show. He starred in the 1958 film Let’s Rock. La Rosa appeared on a range of television shows, such as The Honeymooners, What’s My Line, The Polly Bergen Show  (two episodes, including the 1957 premiere), and Laverne & Shirley. Julius received a Daytime Emmy nod in 1980 for Best Supporting Actor for his role on Another World.

   He has also been a frequent contributor to comedian Jerry Lewis’s annual marathon Labor Day telethon for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, often hosting the New York outpost of the program. He was also a disc jockey on WNEW-AM in New York.

   Despite his rift with Arthur Godfrey that remained over the course of his life, La Rosa tired of revisiting the affair, declared  publicly Godfrey was in fact the one individual who made his career.

   Julius La Rosa was 86.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

   The Museum of Modern Art in Midtown Manhattan is known for extraordinary exhibitions and collection of modern and classic items. Founded in 1929 as an educational institution, it’s dedicated as the foremost modern art museum in the world. Through Wednesday, June 15th, MoMA is presenting Universal Pictures: Restorations and Retrospectives 1928-1937.

   Founded in 1912 by German immigrant Carl Laemmle, Universal Pictures remains among the powerhouses of the American entertainment industry. This series focuses on one segment of the studio’s rich history — the period from 1928 to 1936, when the studio’s head of production was the founder’s son, Carl Laemmle Jr. The younger Laemmle was an ambitious, risk-taking producer, who gambled the studio’s finances on a series of challenging projects — and eventually lost. When cost overruns on the 1936 Show Boat forced the studio into the hands of its creditors, the Laemmle Era came to an end.

   Brief as it was, that era yielded an extraordinary number of important films, including such celebrated classics as Dracula, Frankenstein, and All Quiet on the Western Front. This program concentrates on lesser-known work, much of it with a distinctively European flavor, provided by Universal’s many émigré directors, including James Whale (with 1933’s sublime The Kiss Before the Mirror); Paul Fejos (a major new restoration of the 1929 Broadway); and William Wyler (a Laemmle relative himself, represented by the Ibsenesque drama A House Divided, and the comedy The Good Fairy). At a time when other studios seemed bent on standardizing their product for sound, Universal gave free rein to such distinctive stylists as John Stahl (represented by Only Yesterday); the irrepressible Tay Garnett (Okay America); and the ferociously creative Edward L. Cahn (here with three films, including the recently rediscovered 1933 masterwork Laughter in Hell). John Ford is also on hand (Air Mail)

   The series opens with the revival premiere of the musical King of Jazz, shown in its full-length version for the first time since the 1930s, with its two-color Technicolor returned to its full glory by Universal’s new digital restoration unit.

   For ordering tickets to upcoming screenings at MoMA, click (or cut-and-paste) on the link below:

http://www.moma.org/calendar/film/1642?locale=en

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   Beth Howland (right) was the actress best known for her role as a ditzy waitress on the 1970s and 1980s CBS sitcom Alice. The sitcom was based on the 1974 Martin Scorsese film, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Howland earned four Golden Globe nominations during the comedy’s 1976-1985 run for her performance

   She made her stage debut in the Carol Burnett vehicle, Once Upon a Mattress. At 16, she landed a role on Broadway alongside Dick Van Dyke in Bye Bye Birdie. CBS noticed Howland on stage in the 1970 production of Company and brought her to Hollywood for a bit part on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Small roles on The Love Boat, Love American Style, Fantasy Island, Cannon, and Little House on the Prairie followed. After Alice, she largely disappeared from television, aside from parts in Eight is Enough, Murder She Wrote and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. At one time, Beth was married to actor Michael J. Pollard.

   Beth Howland was 74.

Until next time>                              “never forget”

Manny P. here…

   CBS News veteran Morley Safer, a 60 Minutes correspondent for all but two of the news magazine’s 48-year history, is retiring from television. The network will mark the occasion with an hour-long special on his career on Sunday after a regular 7p edition of the program. This will be must-see television.

   The Toronto-born Safer was the first Saigon bureau chief for CBS News, and his 1965 report on US Marines burning the Vietnamese village of Cam Ne was a turning point in attitudes toward the war. The 12-time Emmy-winner broadcast a report from inside China when it was still largely a closed society in 1967, and, as a Canadian Broadcast Corp. reporter, he witnessed the building of the Berlin Wall in Germany in 1961. He was a London bureau chief for CBS News in the late 1960s before joining 60 Minutes.

   Safer’s first report on the news magazine in 1970 was about the training of sky marshals. His 919th, and last, a profile of Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, was broadcast in March. Morley Safer remains a living link to the show’s combustible glory years with founding executive Don Hewitt, correspondent Mike Wallace and humorist Andy Rooney, when 60 Minutes was often the most-watched show on television.

   His departure leaves Steve Kroft and Lesley Stahl as the senior correspondents on the news magazine, still a fixture on CBS’ schedule Sundays at 7p. At 84, and dealing with health issues, Safer had cut back on work in recent years, and was seen in a wheelchair at fellow correspondent Bob Simon’s funeral last year.               MORLEY SAFER ——>

   tk…tk…tk…

Until next time>                             “never forgot”

Manny P. here…

   William Schallert was very familiar on the big screen and on television. He’s best known for playing Patty Duke’s dad on The Patty Duke Show. He also served as the president of the Screen Actor’s Guild from 1979 – 1981. As with other character actors with long careers, Bill Schallert’s face was more recognizable than his name.

    PATTY DUKE           WILLIAM SCHALLERT

   He began acting at USC; and in 1946, co-founded the Circle Theatre with Charlie Chaplin’s son. The comedian directed Schallert in a stage production of Rain in 1948. Bill also took on all sorts of film assignments, including Mighty Joe Young, The Red Badge of Courage, Them!, The Gallant Hours, The Incredible Shrinking Man, The Story of Mankind, Pillow Talk, Hour of the Gun, In the Heat of the Night, Will Penny, Charlie Varrick, Lonely are the Brave, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, and Twilight Zone: The Movie.

   Schallert really shined on the small screen, guest-starring in Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Zorro, Hazel, Father Knows Best, Have Gun Will Travel, The Donna Reed Show, Rawhide, Leave it to Beaver, Maverick, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Peter Gunn, The Twilight Zone, Perry Mason, The Rifleman, Combat!, The Andy Griffith Show, Bonanza, The Virginian, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Rat Patrol, Bewitched, Gunsmoke, Hawaii 5-0, The Wild Wild West, Star Trek, Room 222, The Lucy Show, Get Smart, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Partridge Family, Mission: Impossible, Love American Style, The Walton’s, Little House on the Prairie, The Mod Squad, Archie Bunker’s Place, Quincy M.E., Lou Grant, Quantum Leap, and a whole lot more.

   During Schallert’s tenure as SAG President, he founded the Committee for Performers with Disabilities, and in 1993, he was awarded the Ralph Morgan Award for service to the Guild. He also as a Trustee of the SAG Pension and Health Plans since 1983, and of the Motion Picture and Television Fund since 1977. In 2010, Schallert made a series of Public Service videos with Patty Duke for the Social Security Administration.   WILLIAM SCHALLERT –>

   The durable William Schallert was 93

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

   The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is commemorating the 25th anniversary of Disney’s animated classic Beauty and the Beast with a cast-and-crew reunion at its Beverly Hills headquarters that will include lead voice actors Paige O’Hara, Robby Benson, and Angela Lansbury. But, there’ll be one notable absence at the Monday night celebration — the film’s Oscar-winning composer, Alan Menken. He’s got a beauty of an excuse, though: He’s in New York working on the new live-action version of this timeless tale.

     That film, expected in theaters next year, casts Emma Watsonand Dan Stevens in a musical version of the timeless tale, with Bill Condon directing. Menken is incorporating the 1991 film’s songs, which he co-wrote with the late Howard Ashman, as well as composing new material with his Aladdin lyricist, Tim Rice. The release is well anticipated because of the recent success of the updated version of The Jungle Book.

   Beauty and the Beast was the first animated feature to be nominated for a best-picture Oscar, and the first to gross more than $100 million in North America.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

   The ashes of Alan Freed, a seminal figure in the history of modern music, have found a home in Cleveland, where the disc jockey coined the term rock ‘n’ roll, and organized what’s considered the genre’s first concert more than 60 years ago. A monument was unveiled Saturday at the Lake View Cemetery during a ceremony to celebrate Freed’s colorful and tumultuous life. During the tribute, music artists spoke about Freed’s legacy.

   The Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, built there in part because of Freed, asked to bury the ashes outside the museum as part of a cornerstone. Those plans were thwarted by a city law saying human remains can be buried only in a cemetery. An urn containing the ashes spent time beneath an escalator inside the museum before being put on display around 2002. Freed’s family was asked to take the urn back in 2014 after a new chief executive decided the display was inappropriate. After nearly two years in a vault at Lake View, the urn was buried at a grave site on Friday.

   Alan Freed was born near Johnstown, Pennsylvania. His family moved to Salem, Ohio when he was 12. He found his calling in radio while a student at Ohio State, and worked at various stations before landing a job in Cleveland, where he promoted popular rhythm and blues artists on his Moondog Show. Cleveland also is where he applied the phrase rock ‘n’ roll (slang for sex in the black community) to music. Freed, while a disc jockey in Cleveland, took his initial steps to synthesize a new musical form that blended jazz, blues, pop, rhythm and blues, and country music into what’s known today as rock ‘n’ roll. Freed organized what’s considered the first rock ‘n’ roll concert, the Moondog Coronation Ball, at Cleveland Arena in 1952. A dance show featuring R&B artists, it was shut down when 20,000 people without tickets showed up and tried to crash the party. Freed apologized for the mayhem, but the show caught the attention of the entertainment world and propelled him to New York City, where he hosted a late-night radio show called Rock ‘n’ Roll Party.

   He appeared in movies with top acts of the day, including Clyde McPhatter, Ritchie Valens, The Platters, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Bill Haley, Johnny Burnette, Eddie Cochran, The Flamingos, The Moonglows, Brook Benton, LaVern Baker, Lionel Hampton, Ferlin Husky, and Jackie Wilson. These films were often welcomed with tremendous enthusiasm by teenagers because they brought visual depictions of their favorite American acts to the big screen, years before music videos.

   One of Freed’s most enduring legacies was his effort to promote music across color lines. He began taking black and white artists on the road for popular shows. It drew the ire of the white establishment, which accused him of promoting race mixing and lascivious behavior. Civil Rights pioneer Rosa Parks later called Freed a person who broke down racial barriers.

   Alan Freed’s career was destroyed by the payola scandal that hit the broadcasting industry in the early 1960s. He died a broken man in Palm Springs in 1965 at age 43 of liver failure. This weekend, the broadcasting legend returned home for the last time.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

   Bob Hope Airport, the transportation hub located in the heart of the San Fernando Valley, will now be known as Hollywood Burbank Airport. The Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority on Monday voted to re-brand the airport’s unofficial name in a marketing effort to let travelers know the airfield is a gateway to destinations beyond just Burbank. It has flights coming in from Jet Blue, United, Delta, Southwest, and American.

   Built in 1930, it was named Hollywood Burbank Airport in 1967, re-named Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport in 1978, and then Bob Hope Airport in 2003, the year he died in nearby Toluca Lake. A PR firm was awarded $50,000, and the re-branding became their chief strategy. The airport authority also plans a major renovation.

   Bob Hope is an American legend who devoted much of his life to bringing joy to military servicemen through his USO tours. But, that wasn’t enough to keep his name on the Southern California airport. One argument for the change was that Hope’s name wasn’t helping to brand the airport to travel agencies and tourists. Hope died 13 years ago, but his career wasn’t resonating with younger travelers.

   Bob Hope’s signature song was Thanks for the Memory, and he will soon fade from the airport named after him. Officials are in the process of designing a new logo for the facility.       BOB HOPE —->

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

   A megalo-maniacal media type transforms the way pockets of our country views a 24-hour news cycle, modern advertising, television-viewing habits, and even, our political system. I’m not referring to the 2016 presidential race. Sixteen years after the celebrated, Citizen Kane, and two decades before the scathing, Network… There was A Face in the Crowd.

   Based on a collection of short stories compiled in 1953, A Face in the Crowd was smartly written by Budd Schulberg. Elia Kazan took on the controversial director’s assignment. And, the cast included Patricia Neal, Walter Matthau, Anthony Franciosa, and in their screen debuts, Andy Griffith and Lee Remick. To underscore the era of television culture in America, Kazan incorporated cameos by media personalities: Earl Wilson, Sam Levinson, Mike Wallace, John Cameron Swayze, and Walter Winchell. Schulberg and Kazan had previously collaborated on the Oscar-winning, On the Waterfront, which deservedly won eight statuettes.

   Griffith, in a role starkly different from the amiable Sheriff Andy Taylor persona, was quite ferocious in a down-home kind of way. Screenwriter Schulberg (channeling his inner David Mamet) based a significant part of the Lonesome Rhodes character’s facade on Will Rogers, adding a distinctively un-Rogers-like level of amorality and cruelty. Schulberg later explained that he interviewed Will Rogers Jr. during his candidacy for Congress. The younger Rogers reportedly told Schulberg his father socialized with the very establishment types he mocked in his public pronouncements, adding that his father was actually a political reactionary in private life; not the populist he claimed to be.

WILL ROGERS                                    ARTHUR GODFREY

   Aspects of the Lonesome Rhodes character were also likely inspired by 1940s and 1950s CBS radio-television star, Arthur Godfrey. The scene where Rhodes spoofs his sponsor in Memphis echoes Godfrey’s reputation for kidding his own advertisers. Godfrey claimed he would not advertise products he did not believe in, and routinely ridiculed both the sponsors’ stodgy ad copy, and occasionally, the companies’ executives. The more Godfrey did this, the more sales increased. At one point in the film, Rhodes states he is missing a broadcast, and requests that Godfrey fill in for him.

   The year was 1957 when A Face in the Crowd was released, at the heart of the Cold War. Very real narcissists, who manipulated our fears and put a red scare on the radio and in newspaper columns, were the dominant spin-masters of the day. Walter Winchell and Hedda Hopper ruined the careers of actors, directors, and screenwriters with an anti-Communist diatribe that permeated society.

   To understand 2016 media, politics, and today’s influence of television on a frustrated nation, A Face in the Crowd is a must-see motion picture. It’s celluloid that birthed the screenplays of later generations, such as Network, Broadcast News, and last season’s Trumbo. After viewing the latter film, Kirk Douglas would write:

At 98 years old, I have learned one lesson from history: it very often repeats itself. I hope that TRUMBO will remind all of us that THE BLACKLIST was a terrible time in our country. But, we must learn from it. 

   Let me humbly suggest you screen A Face in the Crowd before you vote in this year’s general election.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

   One of the most beloved child stars in film history, Shirley Temple Black went from Hollywood starlet to a distinguished diplomat in a life filled with adventure, fame, and service to her country. As a pint-sized actress, she cheered Americans during the last years of the Depression. A talented performer, she was the #1 box office draw for four years in a row, and was awarded the first-ever juvenile Oscar. As a teenager, she appeared in memorable movies opposite Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, Henry Fonda, Claudette Colbert, and John Wayne. For a time, she was married to actor, John Agar.

   After leaving Hollywood, Black became involved in public service and politics. During the 1960s, she co-founded the International Federation of Multiple Sclerosis Societies. Black was appointed a delegate to the United Nations in 1969, and later served as the American Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia. The diplomat also went public in her fight against breast cancer.

   Shirley Temple Black continued to be honored for her achievements in film and diplomacy; most recently at the 2006 Screen Actors Guild Awards, where she was presented with their Life Achievement Award. When she died in 2014 at the age of 85, she left behind three children, a grandchild, and three great-granddaughters. Perhaps, the finest way of measuring one’s success is how well your fame lasts after you are no longer in the spotlight. When you consider that Temple retired from cinema 64 years ago, and yet, is still a household name, her fame has stood the test of time.

   Since April 18th, you can purchase a Forever Stamp at any post office in the country, immortalizing the most famous Curly Top in cinematic history. Her photo on a piece of mail will surely keep a smile on any recipient’s face. Shirley Temple Black reminds us why we have survived our nation’s darkest days; and why classic Hollywood remains so relevant.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

   Actress Tippi Hedren recently shared with a crowd that she endured bizarre harassment (sexual and otherwise) at the hands of director Alfred Hitchcock during and after the productions of The Birds and Marnie. Then a 32-year-old model, Hedren had no acting experience when Hitchcock spotted her one morning in 1962 appearing in a diet drink commercial on the Today Show, she told interviewer Ben Mankiewicz during a Citi Card-sponsored conversation at the TCM Classic Film Festival. After an elaborate, $25,000 screen test that he personally directed, Hitchcock signed Tippi to a five-year personal contract that turned out to be a nightmare.

   Though, The Birds is considered to be Hitch’s last unqualified masterpiece, playing the main character caught in an avian holocaust was a harrowing experience for Hedren. She was originally told mechanical birds would be used in a scene where her character is attacked by crows and seagulls in a house. So, when real birds — not all of them declawed — were thrown at her for a week while the cameras rolled. Her doctor told Hitchcock she was so traumatized, she needed a week off. When the director said that wasn’t possible, Tippi quoted the physician: What are you trying to do… kill her?  She ended up spending a week at home in bed, recovering.

   Rod Taylor, playing her romantic interest in The Birds, was given instruction to not touch the girl — meaning Tippi. And, the possessive Hitchcock gave the same order to Sean Connery, her co-star in Hedren’s second and last movie with Hitchcock… Marnie.

   ALFRED HITCHCOCK    TIPPI HEDREN        on the set of  MARNIE

   A studio executive at Paramount Pictures suggested actress Lee Remick to Hitchcock for the title role. Eva Marie Saint, the star of North By Northwest, unsuccessfully pursued the role. Hitch also considered two other actresses who, like Tippi Hedren, were under his personal contract; Vera Miles and Claire Griswold, wife of director and actor Sydney Pollack. Instead, Hitch opted to use Hedren

   It was during the making of Marnie that Hitchcock’s demands for Hedren to have lunch with him in the studio commissary escalated to meals in his office, and finally, to intimate champagne toasts after each day’s shooting was completed. She became uncomfortable with his suggestive behavior. Explaining her discomfort to the director, Hitchcock would never used her in another film, and refused all requests to loan her out for other movies while she was under contract, derailing her then-promising career.

   She finally returned to the big screen in 1967 with a supporting role in Charlie Chaplin’s last movie, A Countess From Hong Kong, starring Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren. The movie was made at the same studio where Hitchcock had his headquarters. By then, he refused to acknowledge her existence.

   And, that was that!

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here… 

   What a California lawmaker intended as an innocent  resolution honoring a movie icon of the past turned into an emotional debate over decades-old defamatory comments. The State Assembly defeated a resolution in honor of The Duke, after a few legislators described statements he made about racial minorities, plus his unwavering support for decisions made by the House Un-American Activities Committee and John Birch Society.  JOHN WAYNE ->

   Assemblyman Luis Alejo of Watsonville cited a 1971 interview with Playboy Magazine in which Wayne talked disparagingly about people of color. According to the interview, he said:

I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don’t believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people.

   Assemblyman Mike Gipson of Carson, an African American, found John Wayne’s interview personally offensive. Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez of San Diego also cited his comments defending European encroachment on American Indians, who Wayne once candidly surmised: Were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.

   The resolution fell on a 35-20 vote. ACR137 was created in response to a Texas resolution commemorating Wayne’s birthday a year ago. One reaction to the defeat of the bill:

Opposing the John Wayne Day resolution is like opposing apple pie, fireworks, baseball, a Free Enterprise system, and the Fourth of July!

   Wayne was a major cinematic star, with iconic roles in Red River, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Rio Bravo, The Alamo, The Green Beret, The Shootist, and True Grit, for which he won an Academy Award, while portraying rugged cowboys and brave soldiers who were his stock in trade. Assemblyman Matthew Harper of Huntington Beach sought to declare May 26th, 2016, as John Wayne Day to mark the day the actor was born. He represents the legislative district that includes John Wayne Airport in Orange County. The airport was renamed after the actor’s passing in 1979. Several lawmakers supported the resolution, recalling Wayne as an American hero, and whose family created a namesake cancer foundation after his death.

   Wayne is the latest deceased white icon to recently come under attack. President Andrew Jackson, a slave owner, Indian fighter, and the politician who led the opposition against the creation of paper money, is being removed from the face of the $20 bill. And, Princeton University recently announced that former President Woodrow Wilson’s name will remain on its public policy school despite calls to remove it because he was an avowed segregationist.

   Sometimes, Hollywood finds itself in the cross-hairs of Americana.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

   Turner Classic Movies announced the launch of its first ever-official fan club, TCM Backlot, which will serve as the ultimate destination for enthusiasts. TCM Backlot will give fans unprecedented access to all things TCM, including exclusive content, never-before-seen talent interviews, archival videos from the TCM vault, an exclusive TCM podcast, as well as opportunities to win visits to the TCM set, attend meet and greets with TCM hosts, and the opportunity to influence programming through online votes.

   TCM Backlot can be accessed at tcmbacklot.com for an $87 annual fee, and is now available for all fans to join in conjunction with the kick-off to the 7th annual TCM Classic Film Festival, which begins today. The fan club was created in partnership with FullCube, an integrating and automating subscription-based business platform.

   TCM Backlot will provide members with robust access to TCM content, talent, programming, and events. Membership highlights include:

• Programming Influence – An advance look at TCM programming, and the opportunity to influence the schedule of movies through contests and voting

• Guest Programmer – Enter to win a chance to co-host a night of movies with a TCM host

• On-set Tours – Win the opportunity to tour the TCM set, and watch a TCM production being shot, as well as interact with TCM hosts and crew

• VIP Event Access & Members-Only Events – Exclusive access to special events during the annual TCM Classic Film Festival and TCM Cruise, as well as exclusive events at historical Hollywood sites, and members-only TCM Bus Tour events

• Giveaways and Discounts – Discounts to TCM related events, tours, and merchandise, as well as contest givaways of TCM merchandise

   For more information on TCM Backlot, please click here or visit tcmbacklot.com.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

   On the heels of this week’s TCM Film Festival, film buffs will soon have a new viewing option for contemporary and classic movies with the start of a streaming service called FilmStruck. Developed by Turner Classic Movies in partnership with Criterion Collection, the subscription-based service will feature thousands of films from independent and major Hollywood studios. They include Seven Samurai, A Hard Day’s Night, A Room With A View, Breaker Morant, and Mad Max.

   FilmStruck also will be the exclusive streaming destination for Criterion Collection, which specializes in licensing classic and contemporary films. Criterion will operate a channel on the service to spotlight more than 1,000 films, and provide other content such as commentary on films and filmmakers. The service will be advertising free. Specific pricing details are still being determined. Since 1984, the Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films, has been dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions that offer the highest technical quality and award-winning, original supplements.

   FilmStruck is a terrific example of the strategy to meet consumer demand for great content across all screens, according to a Turner press release. It’s tailor-made for the die-hard movie enthusiast that crave a deep, intimate experience with independent, foreign, and art house films. And it takes advantage of TCM’s powerful curation capabilities, as well as its proven track record of building a long-term relationship with passionate film fans. FilmStruck is the latest endeavor in Turner’s overall strategy to innovate beyond the traditional television ecosystem by providing rich viewing experiences that drive engagement across all platforms.

   Available in the Fall, check out the sizzle reel promoting FilmStruck:

http://filmstruck.com/

Until next time>                               “never forget”