It’s Book Fair Season!

Last year's finds!

Book fair season is upon us. Why am I bringing up book fairs here? Well, it’s where I find almost every old hollywood related book I own! As you can see in the above photo one day of browsing book fairs can be quite successful in great finds. Not sure where to find book fairs in your area? Google ‘book fairs in (insert your city here)’ and results should pop up!

Every year I visit the Greater St. Louis Book Fair and various fairs held by my local libraries. Libraries always have amazing prices and you can sometimes find killer steals. Larger books fairs not held by libraries can be more expensive but still affordable. Not only will you find great biographies and picture books on your favorite old hollywood stars but they also most of the time have movies and cds! Most of the videos you see pictured were only 50 cents! Every year I find so many great finds that I end up having an armful of books! Bring tote bags or boxes to help you hold your books. I learned that the hard way lol.

So head out to your local book fairs this year and you might find something you have always wanted! Have fun browsing! And don’t forget to show up early to get first selection!

Book Fair Checklist:

• Find local book fairs in your area by searching online or looking in your newspaper.
• Make sure to bring  a tote bag or a box to fill up with your finds! There is no way you can carry everything, believe I know!
• Bring smaller bill amounts such as $1s, $5s,  & $10s. Most items are very cheap so small bills are easier. But bring a $20 just in case you end up spending $70 like I always do lol.
• Bring a friend! Two are better than one. I bring my sister to help me find books faster or even ones I have overlooked.
• Get up early and arrive 20 minutes before the book fairs opens, sometimes even earlier for larger book fairs.
• Hit up the biographies/entertainment/misc. sections first. This is where I find everything.
• Next check out the media section where the videos and cds are located. You will find great films ranging from 50 cents-$4.00! Mostly I find videos, but hey if it’s a film you’ve always wanted to see why not? And plus there are some films that are not on dvd yet!
• Most importantly have fun! Book fairs can be very busy and there are people everywhere. So don’t get pushy, be polite, and you may even strike up a conversation with someone with the same interests as you!
• Lastly, I hope everyone find something great they’ve always wanted.

TCM Star of the Month: Ginger Rogers

TCM Star of the Month

Virginia Katherine McMath aka Ginger Rogers is TCM’s Star of the Month for March. Most people only know her through her films with Fred Astaire so this is a great chance for everyone to see her do so much more on her own. When I first became a classic film fan I wasn’t really drawn to Ginger in her films with Fred. But I saw the fantastic film Stage Door and instantly liked her in that. I became a fan of hers and started to watch more of her films such as Bachelor Mother and Kitty Foyle and only then I started watching her films with Fred and finally enjoyed them. Let’s explore he career with and without Fred.

Ginger’s career really started after she won the Texas State Charleston Championship. No surprise she won. After winning part of the prize was to get to perform at various theaters in Texas. She chose the two runner ups to come along with her and they became an act. When her two co stars moved on to another act Ginger married at 17 to an actor she had a crush on since her youth which didn’t last long. After her short marriage Ginger was cast in a Broadway show called Top Speed. She was noticed by critics for doing very well and being very charming. Paramount took notice as well and signed her to a seven year contract to make films at their studio in Long Island.

During this time Ginger starred in the Broadway hit Girl Crazy. This is where the classic Gershwin songs ‘Embraceable You’ & ‘But Not For Me’ were introduced and are some of my all time favorites. This musical was later made into a film by Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney with the same title.

Gold Diggers of 1933

When Girl Crazy came to a close Ginger moved to Hollywood. Her earliest films weren’t anything spectacular until she got a part in the film Gold Diggers of 1933. She sang ‘We’re in the Money’ in pig latin, at her suggestion, and it became a hit during the depression ironically.

Dancing 'The Carioca'

The year 1933 was the turning part for Ginger she made ten films including her first film with Fred Astaire. Fred and Ginger met earlier before though. He helped stage some dances in one of her broadway shows and they actually went on a date and had a little make out in the back of a limo but nothing happened after. The film that started it all was Flying Down to Rio. Their dance The Carioca became an instant hit. The film’s success helped the RKO studio which was not doing very well at the time, so they instantly were trying to find another vehicle for these two stars that had helped them out of their rut. Gay Divorcee was their next film and eight other films followed starring the dancing duo. The last two films they did before going separate ways, for a time, were The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle and Carefree which weren’t really successful and ended their pairing. Carefree is actually my all time favorite Fred and Ginger film and is the only film of theirs where Ginger is seen on screen more and she gets her first solo The Yam which Fred deemed silly.

Winning the Oscar with fellow friend and winner Jimmy Stewart

Fred and Ginger wanted to do films on their own naturally. Ginger wanted to be seen as more than a song and dance girl but she also wanted to expand and try new things.  This is where films like Stage Door and Bachelor Mother come in. In 1940 Ginger made the film Kitty Foyle, a great drama and change for Ginger, which landed her an Oscar win. The movie was made from a at the time racy book and Ginger first opposed making it but her Mother Lela convinced her, good thing.

The Barkley's of Broadway final film for Fred & Ginger

During the 40′s Ginger continued to make perfectly charming films such as The Major and the Minor directed by Billy Wilder, it was his first film. In 1949 Fred and Ginger were reunited one last time by chance in The Barkley’s of Broadway. Ginger was a replacement for Judy Garland who was unable to film it. This would be the last teaming of Fred and Ginger and their first film shot in Technicolor. A Technicolor scene was planned for the dream sequence in Carefree but didn’t follow through due to expense.

Ginger with Cary Grant

During the 50s Ginger continued her film career with films such as We’re Not Married and Monkey Business with Cary Grant. In the mid 60s Ginger quit making films since roles for older women were few and far between and she thought the scripts she was getting were too risque. She turned to the stage. She made appearances and starring roles in productions such as Mame and Hello Dolly! Her last stage appearence was in 1984 in Charley’s Aunt. Ginger passed away April 25, 1995.

Tune in to TCM starting March 10 to see rare and fantastic films by Ginger Rogers, including the ten with Astaire, every Wednesday this month!

Ginger My Story

If you are interested in learning more about this wonderful lady I suggest you read Ginger My Story by Ginger Rogers. The book has been recently put back on the shelves as well as Step in Time by Fred Astaire. Both great reads. Ginger’s book is one of my all time favorite autobiographies.

Thanks to tcm.com and Ginger’s autobiography for being my sources.

The African Queen News

Katharine Hepburn & Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen

As I am sure all of your classic film fans know, the great film The African Queen has oddly never been on dvd officially before. We all had to catch it on tv to watch it or tape it from tv. Well, they are finally releasing  The African Queen on dvd and…Blu Ray!

According to Amazon the film will also be released on dvd, in what I will guess might be a bare bones edition with little to know special features which has become tradition now in dvd/blu ray releases. The studios want you to buy those blu rays. But do not quote me on this, hopefully there will be a two disc dvd set like they did for North by Northwest so dvd users are not left out.

Here is all of the details on the Blu Ray release. There will be a single disc edition as well as a collector’s set!

Thanks to Blu-Ray.com for the following information:

Paranount Home Entertainment has announced that it will release ‘The African Queen‘ on Blu-ray on March 23. Meticulously restored using state-of-the-art 4K digital technology, ‘The African Queen’ will now be available for a new generation to appreciate and for long-time fans to see again, as if for the first time. Legendary director John Huston’s treasured romantic adventure stars the incomparable Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart in a role that won him his only Academy Award. A six-year journey filled with challenges nearly as difficult as those faced by Rose and Charlie, the restoration process began at the source: Romulus Films —one of the film’s original production companies— provided access to the original three-strip negative at a London facility where the film was carefully scanned and digitized. The separate elements were then transferred to Los Angeles and painstakingly recombined and inspected frame by frame to ensure that every detail aligned and that any dirt and scratches were removed. To ensure that the restored picture matched the filmmakers’ original vision, Paramount arranged a screening of an MPAA archive print for the film’s original cinematographer, Academy Award winner Jack Cardiff, whose comments were recorded live during the screening. That same archival print was later screened alongside the newly restored version so that the restoration team could ensure that all of Cardiff’s notes had been addressed. The result is a vibrant, warm picture that reverentially recreates the film as it was originally meant to be seen. ‘The African Queen’ will be available as a single disc Blu-ray and also in a Commemorative Limited Edition Blu-ray box set. Special features are as follows: Embracing Chaos: Making The African Queen–This comprehensive documentary takes a look back at the production with commentary about the cast, the challenges of the filming locations and how the spectacular cinematography impacted the industry overall. Includes on-camera interviews with notable Hollywood icons, critics and crew members from the film including Martin Scorsese, Tony Huston, Richard Schickel and more, plus never-before-seen archival images and home movie footage provided by the estate of cinematographer Jack Cardiff. The Commemorative, Limited-Edition Blu-ray box set includes the above along with: An audio disc with a recording of the Lux Radio Theater presents The African Queen radio broadcast A Senitype® film frame collectible reproduction Collectible postcards featuring reproductions of images related to the film A reproduction of Katharine Hepburn’s out-of-print memoir The Making of The African Queen or How I Went to Africa with Bogart, Bacall and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind

Queen Kelly(1929)

Queen Kelly 1985 Video Release Poster

There’s alot of interest surrounding this film so I thought I would talk about it. When I first saw Sunset Boulevard I noticed the silent film clip that was shown by Norma Desmond. I went online and searched for the film and found that it was a notorious film among silent film fans. So I rented it and it started my interest in Gloria Swanson and silent film for that matter.

Queen Kelly Promotional Still

Queen Kelly was the biggest failure of Gloria Swanson’s film career. At this point she was producing her own films since she moved to United Artists after turning down Paramount with their $25,000 a week offer. She wanted to be able to choose her directors and material and so forth and seemed like a wise decision. Her first film out on her own The Loves of Sunya wasn’t a hit but she made up for it with the film Sadie Thompson, my personal favorite, even earning her an Oscar nomination.

Queen Kelly was next. Around this time Gloria was having an affair with Joesph Kennedy. They both started working together in the film industry and wanted a vehicle to collaborate on. They were both intrigued by a brillant director, Erich Von Stroheim. His most famous films include Greed and The Wedding March. So, they met with him and he thought it would be a great idea. He had a story already in mind called The Swamp. Gloria and Joe were both intrigued by the story and went right ahead with it.

Scene was shown in Sunset Boulevard.

Filming began in November of 1928. The title The Swamp was changed to Queen Kelly since The Swamp wasn’t a very appealing name. Von Stroheim was a perfectionist. He would shoot and reshoot and shoot and reshoot scene until they were to his liking, often going over budget and over time. For scenes he would use real furs, real pearls, real caviar. It all had to be real. Gloria was concerned about the money he was spending but Joseph Kennedy didn’t seem to say anything about it so she just shrugged it off and thought he was trying to be like the great Cecil B DeMille. Filming continued through December and January. Filming was going very slow due to how meticulous Von Stroheim was. Gloria became concerned it wouldn’t finish in time. When Gloria reported to set one day she noticed that the script said that the current scene was to be taken at a dance hall. Well, when she arrived she noticed it was more like a brothel. Since Von Stroheim is notorious for doing his own thing, they actually hired two people just to watch him and keep him on track, obviously they weren’t there that day. This particular morning Von Stroheim was instructing fellow co star Tully Marshall on how to dribble tobacco juice onto Gloria’s hand while he was kissing it. Gloria was disgusted and stormed off the set to her bungalow and called Joesph Kennedy right away telling him this film would not be finished and would end up on the cutting room floor.

Queen Kelly ended up not being finished. Although Gloria did reshoot scenes and make a whole new ending but it never got complete and was not released in the US, but in foreign countries in 1930. It was finally released in 1985 by Kino with film stills in the parts that were missing. Gloria made up for the loss with her next film The Trespasser which was a huge hit. Like I mentioned before a clip of the film was shown in Sunset Boulevard  which ironically also co starred Erich Von Stroheim as Max who runs the film for Norma. At the time of Sunset Boulevard they placed their difference aside. All in all I think it is an interesting film and is considered to be one of the best silent films of all time. It had alot to do with my start in silent film and love for Gloria Swanson. Queen Kelly is now available on DVD through Kino.

1939 ; hollywood’s greatest year

What a year for film!

What a year for movies. All time favorites such as The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind were both released in this great year of film. The year 1939 is said to be by most film historians as the greatest year in film of all time. With just Oz and GWTW the year is already great but let’s take a look at the other marvelous films from amazing year. Movie audiences were quite spoiled this year!

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

MGM, the king in the studio systems, was the leader in film every other year so it is no surprised they turned out great movies in this year. So, you will notice MGM is quite represented here. But the other studios seemed to also go all out for this year. Everyone did nice work. I hope you enjoy the spam!

Greer Garson & Robert Donat in Goodbye Mr. Chips

The Women(all about men without a single one in the film)

The Women had a stunning, talented cast as well as a great director, George Cukor. Since he was removed from directing Gone With the Wind he was available to direct this. And who else really could have? Cukor was great with female driven films such as The Little Women. The film stars the queen of the MGM lot and recently widowed Norma Shearer  and her rival Joan Crawford, as well as the great Rosalind Russell, Paulette Goddard, Joan Fontaine, just to name a few! It is the ultimate catty, bitchy, gossipy film and it is great for it. And what other studio could have made this? No one but MGM.

Bette Davis & Humphrey Bogart in Dark Victory

Let’s take a break from MGM and get into some of Warner Bros. films. MGM was glamour and sparkle, WB was tough and gritty. The reining queen of the WB lot was Bette Davis. Among all of the gangster and crime films Bette made women’s pictures. She turned out four great films in 1939 that honestly any actress would be lucky to have in their whole career. The films were, Dark Victory, The Old Maid, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, and Juarez. Dark Victory is in my opinoun Bette’s best film. They didn’t think people would want to see a film where the star dies, they saw it as too depressing but they were proved wrong with Bette’s amazing performance. The death scene was not depressing but touching and peaceful. This years really marked the range Bette had and how amazing she was.

Merle Oberon & Laurence Olivier in Wuthering Heights

Barbara Stanwyck & her Golden Boy William Holden

William Holden always talked great about Barbara Stanwyck after the filming of Golden Boy. He was new to films and wasn’t really doing well with this one so Stanwyck would privately help him out with his acting by giving him tips and he improved muchly. She even threatened to walk off the film if they got rid of Holden. So, because of that he always praised her. When she passed away, Holden would place flowers on her grave every year after she died for a while. Golden Boy is a nice little movie with the great Barbara Stanywck and a young curly haired William Holden.

The Wizard of Oz

What can be said about Oz that hasn’t already been said. This is a great classics that continues to be immensely popular even 70 years after it has been filmed.

Gone With the Wind

Gone With the Wind, yet another amazing classic and epic film. I watched this as a kid and recently rediscovered it a few years ago and it got me started on my interest in classic film.

This years marks the 70th anniversary of all of these amazing films. Even though they are 70 years old they still live up today as great films in cinema history.

Turner Classic Movies did a documentary on this year which you can buy on the Blu Ray set of The Wizard of Oz or catch it on TCM .

North By Northwest 50th Anniversary

North By Northwest Blu Ray Cover

This year marks the anniversary of many films including The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind. It is also the 50th anniversary of North By Northwest, an Alfred Hitchcock film starring Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint. I’m a big Cary Grant fan and a big fan of this film so I was really excited about this release. This film has been on DVD before but  on Nov. 3 it has been released again for the 50th anniversary on a two disc collector’s DVD and on Blu Ray for the first time ever. And the first Hitchcock film to make it to Blu Ray in the states.(39 Steps was released in the UK)  The DVD and Blu Ray both feature two new documentaries as well as the other features that came with the earlier DVD. With the Blu Ray you get a 44 page booklet. A biography on Cary Grant called Cary Grant: A Class Apart is featured on both versions for the Cary fans.

Blu Ray Screencapture

Note the boy plugging his ears in the background since he knows a gun shot is coming up. Hehe. Overall it is a great purchase for Blu Ray owners especially but for those who still use DVDs like I do as well.

Alfred Hitchcock and Cary Grant

Why Be Good?

Jean Harlow graces pre code documentary cover

Trace the fascinating history of sex and sin in early cinema through rare archival footage and revealing interviews with Mary Pickford, Gloria Swanson, Louise Brooks and many others. Narrated by Diane Lane.

Colleen Moore in Why Be Good?

Pre code cinema has always fascinated me. So I found this documentary on Netflix and decided to rent it. This doc was produced by Hugh Hefner so I wasn’t expecting much. During the beginning and in between this biography Hefner’s ex Holly Madison is dressed as a flapper and trying to dance in 1920s style. I could have done without that! But I think it was an overall ok documentary. It didn’t really tell me anything I didn’t know already but I think it’s great for beginners that may not know much about this fascinating era in film, this is a great place to start. Video interviews of Louise Brooks are featured and there is audio of Gloria Swanson and Mary Pickford sharing their experiences during this time in film. I was disapointed they weren’t all video. But if you love this era in film as much as I do rent it!

Hello and Welcome to The Studio Era!

Carole Lombard & Clark Gable

I’ve been wanting to do a blog about old hollywood for a while now and I finally got around to doing it! I now just hope there is someone out there that will want to read my ramblings! lol This blog will feature movie reviews, news pertaining to classic film, and all the wonderful stars from the golden age. Thank you for stopping by and make sure to bookmark us!