Deanna Durbin Motion Picture

by Leonard Maltin.

Deanna Durbin, a star whose songs and smile made her one of the biggest box-office draws of Hollywood’s Golden Age with fans that included Winston Churchill, has died. She was 91.

The only people who don’t like Deanna Durbin, it seems to me, are people who’ve never seen her movies. Possessed of a glorious, bell-like soprano voice, she was presented to moviegoers of the 1930s in a series of irresistible comedies that showcased a fresh, sunny screen personality. Delightful films like Three Smart Girls, One Hundred Men and a Girl, and Mad About Music were said to have saved Universal Pictures from bankruptcy; I don’t know if that’s actually true, but they were enormously successful, and her fans have remained devoted to her for decades.

Deanna Durbin

In 1946 she was the second-highest paid woman in America, but a few years later she walked away from the spotlight, moved to France, and refused most requests for interviews for the rest of her life. She did respond to some fan letters, however, and one notable admirer, film historian William K. Everson, touched a responsive chord when he asked her about working with director Jean Renoir on The Amazing Mrs. Holliday (1943). He later published an article in Films in Review magazine based on her fond recollections of the master filmmaker, whom she considered a great artist, and her regret that he and Universal didn’t see eye-to-eye about the picture. Producer Bruce Manning stepped in, and received sole credit for the finished film.

Durbin’s few public statements in later years revealed a bitterness about her youthful film career, and a disbelief that anyone her age could have related to the unfailingly cheerful persona that producer Joe Pasternak, director Henry Koster, and a team of writers (including one of her future husbands, Felix Jackson) devised for her.

Deanna Durbin

What a shame that she never appreciated how much happiness she provided to moviegoers of all ages.

As to who might have related to the optimistic character she played so often, my friend Eric Schwartz (a prominent entertainment lawyer) recalls, as a teenager, asking his parents, “Who is that girl in the pictures on the wall in Anne’s room?” while on a tour of the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam. It was, of course, Deanna Durbin.

Jonathan Winters

Jonathan Winters, the cherub-faced comedian whose breakneck improvisations and misfit characters inspired the likes of Robin Williams and Jim Carrey, has died. He was 87. The Ohio native died Thursday evening at his Montecito, Calif., home of natural causes, said Joe Petro III, a longtime family friend. Petro said Winters died surrounded by family and friends.

Winters was a pioneer of improvisational standup comedy, with an exceptional gift for mimicry, a grab bag of eccentric personalities and a bottomless reservoir of creative energy. Facial contortions, sound effects, tall tales — all could be used in a matter of seconds to get a laugh. On Jack Paar’s television show in 1964, Winters was handed a foot-long stick and he swiftly became a fisherman, violinist, lion tamer, canoeist, U.N. diplomat, bullfighter, flutist, delusional psychiatric patient, British headmaster and Bing Crosby’s golf club.

“As a kid, I always wanted to be lots of things,” Winters told U.S. News & World Report in 1988. “I was a Walter Mitty type. I wanted to be in the French Foreign Legion, a detective, a doctor, a test pilot with a scarf, a fisherman who hauled in a tremendous marlin after a 12-hour fight.”

The humor most often was based in reality — his characters Maude Frickert and Elwood P. Suggins, for example, were based on people Winters knew growing up in Ohio. A devotee of Groucho Marx and Laurel and Hardy, Winters and his free-for-all brand of humor inspired Johnny Carson, Billy Crystal, Tracey Ullman and Lily Tomlin, among others. But Williams and Carrey are his best-known followers.

It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World

Winters, who battled alcoholism and depression for years, was introduced to millions of new fans in 1981 as the son of Williams’ goofball alien and his earthling wife in the final season of ABC’s “Mork and Mindy.” The two often strayed from the script. Said Williams: “The best stuff was before the cameras were on, when he was open and free to create. … Jonathan would just blow the doors off.”

Winters’ only Emmy was for best-supporting actor for playing Randy Quaid’s father in the sitcom Davis Rules (1991). He was nominated again in 2003 as outstanding guest actor in a comedy series for an appearance on Life With Bonnie.

He also won two Grammys: One for his work on The Little Prince album in 1975 another for his Crank Calls comedy album in 1996. He also won the Kennedy Center’s second Mark Twain Prize for Humor in 1999, a year after Richard Pryor.

Winters was sought out in later years for his changeling voice and he contributed to numerous cartoons and animated films. Fittingly, he played three characters in the The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle movie in 2000. “These voices are always screaming to get out,” he told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that year. “They follow me around pretty much all day and night.”

The Shadow (1994)

Winters had made television history in 1956, when RCA broadcast the first public demonstration of color videotape on “The Jonathan Winters Show.” Winters quickly realized the possibilities, author David Hajdu wrote in The New York Times in 2006. He soon used video technology “to appear as two characters, bantering back and forth, seemingly in the studio at the same time. You could say he invented the video stunt.”

Winters was born Nov. 11, 1925, in Dayton, Ohio. Growing up during the Depression as an only child whose parents divorced when he was 7, Winters spent a lot of time entertaining himself. Winters described his father as an alcoholic. But he found a comedic mentor in his mother, radio personality Alice Bahman. “She was very fast. Whatever humor I’ve inherited I’d have to give credit to her,” Winters told the Cincinnati Enquirer in 2000. Winters joined the Marines at 17 and served two years in the South Pacific. He returned to study at the Dayton Art Institute, helping him develop keen observational skills. At one point, he won a talent contest (and the first prize of a watch) by doing impressions of movie stars.

After stints as a radio disc jockey and TV host in Ohio from 1950-53, he left for New York, where he found early work doing impressions of John Wayne, Cary Grant, Marx and James Cagney, among others. One night after a show, an older man sweeping up told him he wasn’t breaking any new ground by mimicking the rich or famous. “He said, ‘What’s the matter with those characters in Ohio? I’ll bet there are some far-out dudes that you grew up with back in Ohio,’” Winters told the Orange County Register in 1997. Two days later, he cooked up one of his most famous characters: the hard-drinking, dirty old woman Maude Frickert, modeled in part on his own mother and an aunt. The character was the forerunner of Johnny Carson’s Aunt Blabby.

Jonathan Winters voices The Smurfs

Appearances on Paar’s show and others followed and Winters soon had a following. And before long, he was struggling with depression and his drinking. “I became a robot,” Winters told TV critics in 2000. “I almost lost my sense of humor … I had a breakdown and I turned myself in (to a mental hospital). It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.”

Winters was hospitalized for eight months in the early 1960s. It’s a topic he rarely addressed and never dwelled on. When he got out, there was a role as a slow-witted character waiting in the 1963 ensemble film It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

“I finally opened up and realized I was in charge,” Winters told PBS interviewers for 2000′s Jonathan Winters: On the Loose. ”Improvisation is about taking chances, and I was ready to take chances.” Roles in other movies followed, as did TV shows, including his own. But while show business kept Winters busy, he stayed with his painting.

“I find painting a much slower process than comedy, where you can go a mile a minute verbally and hope to God that some of the people out there understand you,” he told U.S. News and World Report in 1988. “I don’t paint every day. I’m not that motivated. I don’t do anything the same every day. Discipline is tough for a guy who is a rebel.”

Among his books is a collection of short stories called Winters’ Tales (1987). He also was a painter.

“I’ve done for the most part pretty much what I intended — I ended up doing comedy, writing and painting,” he told U.S. News. “I’ve had a ball. And as I get older, I just become an older kid.”

Julie Newmar as Catwoman

“Tell me I’m beautiful, it’s nothing. Tell me I’m intellectual – I know it. Tell me I’m funny and it’s the greatest compliment in the world anyone could give me.”

– Julie Newmar

Julie Newmar is widely remembered for her role as Cat Woman on the iconic television series, Batman. Film buffs know her as Dorcas, one of the seven beautiful brides in the 1954 classic, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. A brief stint as a gold-painted exotic dancer in Serpent of the Nile (1954) is usually overlooked by Newmar’s biographers, who prefer to list Seven Brides for Seven Brothers as her screen debut. In actuality, Newmar appeared in a total of nine motion-pictures prior to the musical… her first as a chorus girl named “Julie” in She’s Working Her Way Through College (1952).

Julie Newmar

A lifelong student of ballet, Newmar was accepted as a dancer by the Los Angeles Opera Company at age 15, and soon became prima ballerina. Always ambitious, she studied philosophy and French at UCLA, before leaving to try her luck in films. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers tells the story of Adam, the eldest of seven brothers, who goes to town to get a wife. He convinces Milly to marry him that same day. They return to his backwoods home. Only then does she discover he has six brothers — all living in his cabin. Milly sets out to reform the uncouth siblings, who are anxious to get wives of their own. Then, after reading about the Roman capture of the Sabine women, Adam develops an inspired solution to his brothers’ loneliness. The movie took 48 days to film, both in CinemaScope and the standard screen ratio of the day. (Both versions are available on the 2004 DVD release.) Many of the actors’ singing voices were dubbed in this movie: Matt Mattox’s singing was dubbed by Bill Lee, Nancy Kilgas’s singing was dubbed by Marie Greene, and Julie Newmar’s singing was dubbed by Betty Allen.

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

Newmar had first appeared on Broadway in 1955 in Silk Stockings which starred Hildegarde Neff and Don Ameche. She also appeared in the 1961 play, The Marriage-Go-Round, which starred Charles Boyer and Claudette Colbert. Newmar developed the role of the Swedish vixen and won a Tony Award for Best Supporting Actress. She later appeared on stage with Joel Grey in the national tour of Stop the World – I Want to Get Off and as “Lola” in Damn Yankees! and “Irma” in Irma La Douce.

The Twilight Zone

Julie Newmar made the transition to television and began appearing on The Phil Silvers Show, Adventures in Paradise, and played the Devil in an episode of The Twilight Zone. In 1962, Newmar appeared twice as motorcycle-riding, free-spirited heiress Vicki Russell on Route 66, filmed in Tucson, Arizona (“How Much a Pound is Albatross”) and in Tennessee (“Give the Old Cat a Tender Mouse”). In 1964, Newmar signed for the role of Rhoda Miller, an extremely sexy young woman living with womanizing Air Force shrink Bob McDonald (played by Bob Cummings). What Bob knows and the rest of the world does not is that Rhoda’s real name is AAF709, and she is actually a sophisticated (yet naive) robot. Bob’s job is to teach Rhoda how to be a “perfect” woman, and keep her identity secret from the world — especially from lecherous neighbor Peter. When actor Bob Cummings left the series in early 1965, his character was written out of the series, and Peter was given the duty of taking care of Rhoda.

My Living Doll DVDs

Robert Cummings walked off the show several episodes prior to the end of production of the first and only season. Although a rumor exists that he and Julie Newmar did not get along, Newmar and the show’s producer dispute this on the 2012 DVD release. For years, most episodes of the series were thought to be lost, except for six episodes that survived in collector hands. Many reports have it that Jack Chertok threw away the elements; not so as CBS was entrusted with the 35mm masters. In fact, all of the episodes existed until their 35mm masters were destroyed in the Northridge Earthquake of 1994. The 2012 DVD release features 12 episodes that have been obtained from various sources and the remaining 14 episodes are now being highly sought after.

Fans of F Troop recall Julei Newmar in the title role of the classic “Yellow Bird” episode. A white woman raised by Indians, Yellow Bird, starts to take after the Captain. On a first season episode of The Monkees, “Monkees Get Out More Dirt,” all four of the Monkees fall in love with the same girl, April Conquest (played by Newmar), of the local laundromat. Each one of them tries to woo her by feigning interest in things she likes: Davy paints pop-art, Mickey performs ballet, Peter plays chamber music while Mike rides a bike. In the fourth season episode of Get Smart, “The Laser Blaster,” Newmar played the role of Ingrid. When Maxwell Smart is sent to Hong Kong to pick up a secret weapon and all they give him is a blazer. This blazer is special since it contains a laser and Max doesn’t know it.

Julie Newmar in Star Trek

Star Trek fans remember Newmar in the role of Eleen in the episode “Friday’s Child.” The Federation is in competition with the Klingons for an alliance with the inhabitants of Capella IV. The Capellans are a warrior tribe and there is dissension among them as to who to sign the mining rights treaty with. McCoy is familiar with their customs having once spent several months there. When a Capellan, who clearly favors the Klingons, stages a coup, Kirk, Spock and McCoy flee with the now dead leader’s wife (Newmar), who is about to give birth.

In 1966, Julie Newmar was offered the role of Cat Woman on Batman and almost overnight she became a pop icon. Newmar had not ever heard of “Cat Woman” before she auditioned for the role. The Cat Woman is one Batman’s earliest comic book adversaries, initially appearing in Batman #1 (Spring 1940), and became the best-known and most frequently seen Batman villain. Suzanne Pleshette was one of the original choices to play Cat Woman before Julie Newmar landed the role.

Julie Newmar as Catwoman

“I had lived in New York at the time on Beekman Place,” Newmar later recalled. “I remember it was a weekend, Friday or Saturday, and my brother had come down from Harvard with five or six of his friends, and we were all sitting around the sofa, just chatting away, when the phone rang. I got up and answered it, and it was this agent or someone in Hollywood, who said, ‘Miss Newmar, would you like to play Cat Woman on the Batman series? They are casting it out here.’ I was insulted because he said, ‘It starts Monday.’ I said, ‘What is this?’ That’s how television is done: they never know what they are doing until yesterday. Well, my brother leaped off the sofa. I mean he physically levitated and said, ‘Batman! That’s the favorite show at Harvard. We all quit our classes and quit our studies and run into the TV room and watch this show.’ I said, ‘They want me to play Cat Woman.’ He said, ‘Do it!’ So, I said, ‘OK, I’ll do it.’

MacKenna’s Gold

Due to her role in Mackenna’s Gold she was unable to play Cat Woman in the third series so Eartha Kitt took over. Some of ABC’s southern affiliates objected to the casting of Kitt, but Charles B. Fitzsimons’ said he and the show’s other producers didn’t care about the issue.

Newmar appeared in several low-budget films during the next two decades and guest-starred on television, appearing on The Love Boat, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Hart to Hart, CHiPs, Fantasy Island, Columbo and The Bionic Woman. She was seen in George Michael’s video clip Too Funky in 1992, and appeared as herself in a 1996 episode of Melrose Place.

MOVIE APPEARANCES

• Just for You (1952)
• Serpent of the Nile (1953)
• The Band Wagon (1953)
• Slaves of Babylon (1953)
• Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954)
• Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)
• Li’l Abner (1959)
• The Rookie (1959)
• The Marriage-Go-Round (1961)
• For Love or Money (1963)
• Mackenna’s Gold (1969)
• The Maltese Bippy (1969)
• Mother (1970)
• Hysterical (1983)
• Love Scenes (1984)
• Streetwalkin’ (1985)
• Evils of the Night (1985)
• Deep Space (1987)
• Nudity Required (1988)
• Body Beat (1988)
• Cyber-C.H.I.C. (1989)
• Ghosts Can’t Do It (1990)
• Oblivion (1994)
• To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995, cameo)
• Oblivion 2: Backlash (1996)
• If… Dog… Rabbit… (1999)

TELEVISION APPEARANCES

• The Phil Silvers Show (1957)
• Route 66 (1962)
• The Twilight Zone (1963)
• My Living Doll (1964–1965)
• Batman (1966)
• The Monkees (1966)
• Star Trek (1966)
• Get Smart (1968)
• It Takes a Thief (1968)
• McCloud (1970)
• Bewitched (1971)
• The Feminist and the Fuzz (1971)
• A Very Missing Person (1972)
• Columbo: Double Shock (1973)
• Sin, American Style (1974)
• Terraces (1977)
• Jason of Star Command (1978)
• Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979)
• Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt (2003)
• According to Jim (2006)
• Batman: The Brave and the Bold (2010)

Julie Newmar as Catwoman

My Living Doll

Julie Newmar

Julie Newmar

William Shatner and Julie Newmar

Julie Newmar

Julie Newmar in Li’l Abner

Bob Cummings and Julie Newmar

Julie Newmar as Catwoman

Route 66

Julie Newmar in Li’l Abner

Annette Funicello

Paul Anka wrote the song “Puppy Love” about his romance with her. When she was cast in her first beach movie, Walt Disney asked her to not wear a bikini and instead wear a one-piece swimsuit because she had an image to uphold… she agreed. “The Disney studio wasn’t like other studios. It was just like home – it always had a small-town, family atmosphere.” Annette Funicello, one of the best-known members of the original 1950s “Mickey Mouse Club” and a star of numerous 1960s “beach party” films, died Monday at a California hospital.

Funicello, who was 70, “died peacefully from complications due to multiple sclerosis, a disease she battled for over 25 years,” according to an official statement from the Walt Disney Company.

“We are so sorry to lose Mother,” her three children said in a statement. “She is no longer suffering anymore and is now dancing in heaven. We love and will miss her terribly.” Hardy Boys television

Annette Funicello

Walt Disney saw her dancing the lead in “Swan Lake” at the Starlight Bowl in Burbank when she was 13. He asked her to audition for a new children’s TV series he was developing called The Mickey Mouse Club. She was hired on the spot to become a Mouseketeer. With a background in dance and a natural talent for projecting herself on television, she quickly became one of the most popular Mouseketeers. She remained with Disney after leaving the The Mickey Mouse Club, appearing in TV shows including Zorro (1957), The Nine Lives of Elfego Baca (1958) and starring in the Disney feature films The Shaggy Dog (1959), Babes in Toyland (1961), The Misadventures of Merlin Jones (1964) and The Monkey’s Uncle (1965). In love with Guy Williams and a fan of the Zorro television series, when asked by Walt Disney what she would like for her birthday, Funicello said she would like to make a guest appearance on the series. Disney granted her wish.

The most enduring images of Funicello, though, may be of her in a bikini, her primary wardrobe when she co-starred with teen idol Frankie Avalon in beach party movies in the early 1960s. These included Beach Party (1963), Muscle Beach Party (1964), Bikini Beach (1964), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965). A combination of bikini-clad women and rock and roll music soon inspired many imitations… almost all of them unforgettable because they did not have Annette Funicello. Monster Mania Batman Maryland

Annette Funicello’s “Hawaiiannette”

The beach party movies helped sell her music. She had a number of Top-40 hits including “Tall Paul,” “First Name Initial,” “How Will I Know My Love,” and “Pineapple Princess.”  Along with the singles, she recorded several successful albums, including “Hawaiiannette” (1960), “Italiannette” (1960) and “Dance Annette” (1961).

She married twice and had three children. In 1987, she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Five years later, she was struggling with walking and went public with the disease. “My life has always been filled with happiness,” she told a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. What she knew from the fan mail was she made millions happy with her charming personality and silver screen talent.

CNN headline news

Beach Party Movies

TRIVIA

When she began working for the Disney studio, she suggested to her employer that she change her Italian family name of Funicello to something more “American,” as was often done in those days. Walt Disney vehemently argued against this idea, saying that her own name was actually an asset because it was so unique that no one who heard it would ever be able to forget it and convinced the young actress to retain it.

The Mickey Mouse Club

Turner Classic Movies

The Memphis Film Festival

Shore Leave Convention

Shore Leave 35 Hunt Valley

Annette Funicello

Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar

9:00 am, YOURS TRULY, JOHNNY DOLLAR

A Deeper Look at the Radio Program

John C. Abbott, author of The Who is Johnny Dollar Matter, will present a closer look at the radio program that continues entertaining old-time radio buffs today. Johnny Dollar (1949-1962) was a freelance insurance investigator who proved to have more lives than a cat. His “expense account” was always itemized in every episode and all murders were exposed to the authorities courtesy of the detective fare of Johnny Dollar. It was great radio and John C. Abbott will offer us a great presentation.

Poster Art

10:00 am, GRACIE ALLEN: Her Bid For Presidency in 1940

Sally Stephens will present a program that will focus on Gracie Allen’s bid for the presidency in 1940. She will be putting her farcical election bid in real-life 1940 context, and track her campaign through the Burns and Allen program, Gracie’s appearances on other radio programs, and the culmination of it all at the Surprise Party convention in Omaha. A superb slide show done at the Metro Washington Old-Time Radio Club a few months back and received rave reviews. Come watch a lighthearted look at politics on radio!

Thor: The Dark World (2013)

Dick Tracy book

11:00 am, DICK TRACY IN THE COMICS

Garyn Roberts, author of Dick Tracy and American Culture (2003), will provide us a fascinating slide show about the famous comic strip that debuted in October 1931. Since then America’s most famous crime fighter has tangled with a variety of protagonists from locations as diverse as the inner city and outer space, all the time maintaining the oral high ground while reflecting American popular culture. From Pruneface, Mumbles, Big Boy, Itchy and Flattop, Dick Tracy went up against many deadly foes and through extensive research and interviews with Chester Gould (the creator of “Dick Tracy”), his assistants, Dick Locher (the current artist), Max Allan Collins (who scripted the stories for more than 15 years), and many others associated with the strip, Dick Tracy as a cultural icon will emerge on the big screen. Garyn Roberts will be our 2013 Guest of Honor. Limited quantity of his book will be available at the convention.

1:00 p.m., INTERVIEWS WITH THE CELEBRITIES

Details to be announced.

The Gotham Radio Players

4:00 p.m., THE GOTHAM RADIO PLAYERS — OLD-TIME RADIO RECREATION

An old-time radio recreation complete with scripts, sound effects and music will be dramatized on stage!

Name of drama to be announced.

5:00 p.m., INTERVIEW WITH CELEBRITIES

Details to be announced.

Meet Me in St. Louis

8:00 p.m., SPECIAL SCREENING OF MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (1944)

In the year before the 1904 St Louis World’s Fair, the four Smith daughters learn lessons of life and love, even as they prepare for a reluctant move to New York.

Weekend guest Margaret O’Brien will introduce the classic motion picture and answer questions from the audience. Even if you saw the movie a hundred times, watching it from another perspective after Margaret O’Brien shares her recollections, memories and behind-the-scenes stories is worth a night at the movies!

FRIDAY

The Rocketman Book

9:00 am, “STAND BY, SPACE RANGERS”: 1950s Rocketmen TV Series and their Fans

Remember Rocky Jones, Buzz Corey, Tom Corbett and Captain Z-Ro? These space heroes, along with their sidekicks and crews brought fantastic adventures and real world lessons about what it was meant to be an American during the Cold War. Every week the interplanetary adventures were brought into their living room. Author Cynthia Miller will take you back to the days of the TV rocket men, in a talk about these series, their impact on fans, the promotional culture of the day and the real world space program.

Audrey Totter

10:00 am, FILM NOIR AND AUDREY TOTTER

Gene Blottner, author of Columbia Pictures Film Noir, 1940 – 1962 (McFarland Publishing), will provide a view of one of filmdom’s greatest film noir actresses, Audrey Totter. All her film noir features will be covered from Bewitched (voice only, MGM, 1945) to her western noir, Man or Gun (Republic, 1958). Audrey played various film noir roles such as magazine editor Adrienne Fromsett in Lady in the Lake (MGM, 1947), psychiatrist Dr. Ann Lorrison in High Wall (MGM, 1947), floozy Donna Allen in Alias Nick Beal (Paramount, 1949) and femme fatale Claire Quimby in Tension (MGM, 1949). Trivia: Lady in the Lake was Audrey Totter’s first film noir lead. The film would be presented through star Robert Montgomery’s eyes. Audrey won out because of her radio experience, she knew how to play to a microphone.

11:00 am,  ENTERTAINING SPIRITS: The Many TV Adaptations of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol

Christmas on TV

Author of Tis the Season TV: the Encyclopedia of Christmas-Themed Episodes, Specials, and Made-for-TV Movies, Joanna Wilson presents a fascinating and entertaining survey of television’s many adaptations, aberrations, and re-imaginings of A Christmas Carol. TV has added its own special stamp to Charles Dickens’ beloved Christmas tale, and Wilson will take TV fans on a guided tour of some of the best and most interesting Christmas Carol iterations through TV history–from Rod Serling’s rarely seen 1964 version, Carol for Another Christmas, to the first animated TV Christmas special, Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol, to outrageous sitcom adaptations such as Bewitched, Sanford and Son, Family Ties, and much more. Joanna Wilson is the author of three books, The Christmas TV Companion (2009, 1701 Press), Tis the Season TV (2010, 1701 Press), and Merry Musical Christmas, Volume One (2013, 1701 Press). She has appeared in the TV Guide Network special, “25 Most Hilarious Holiday TV Moments” and in The History Channel special, “The Real Story of Christmas,” both of which aired in 2010. She writes a popular blog about her adventures in Christmas TV Land at http://ChristmasTVHistory.com.

Ray Bradbury

12 noon, RAY BRADBURY TRIBUTE

Ray Bradbury was an American science fiction writer whose works were translated in more than 40 languages and sold millions of copies around the world. Although he created a world of new technical and intellectual ideas, hover craft and various space transport, he never obtained a driver’s license and had never driven a car. Surprised? Well, you’ll learn a lot more about Ray Bradbury from our weekend Guest of Honor, Garyn Roberts, who will offer us a fascinating presentation about the man who changed the way we look at the world.

Blondie Goes to Hollywood

1:00 p.m., “BLONDIE” IN THE COMICS AND ON CINEMA

It was the longest running film series on Chic Young’s famous comic strip that ran from 1938 to 1950 through Columbia Pictures. The 28 movies starred Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, Larry Simms, Daisy, Danny Mummert and Jonathan Hale. Marjorie Ann Mutchie, Daisy’s pups and Jerome Cowan were added to the cast later. What made the film series so successful? Carol Lynn Scherling, the author of Blondie Goes to Hollywood, will answer this question. (We’ll also be screening one of the Blondie movies this weekend so be sure to catch that as well!)

2:00 p.m., OLD-TIME RADIO TRYOUTS

Come try out for a role on stage in an old-time radio recreation. Under the superb direction of Don Ramlow, script readings and rehearsals begin at 2 p.m. and you might have the opportunity to perform on stage! Come show up and test your vocal chords!

3:30 p.m., OLD-TIME RADIO RECREATION

Details to be announced.

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

4:00 p.m., CHARITY AUCTION FOR THE ST. JUDE CHILDREN’S RESEARCH HOSPITAL

Let’s try to break a record and raise a lot of money for children with treatable cancer! Numerous items donated by celebrities and attendees will be on display all day Friday and at 4:30, we’ll make the items available for sale to the winning bidder. One hundred percent of the money raised will go to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. If you plan to donate items for the auction, simply bring them to the show and put them on the tables any time Friday. And for those of you who helped donate money or items last year, thank you very much for making last year’s auction a big success!

5:00 p.m., INTERVIEWS WITH THE CELEBRITIES

Details to be announced.

6:00 p.m., A GOOD OLD FASHIONED SOCK HOP

Details to be announced.

The Blob (1958)

Sunset, DRIVE-IN MOVIE THEATER….  THE BLOB (1958)

Outside in the hotel parking lot we’ll have a drive-in movie theater. This year’s offering is the 1958 classic, The Blob. A mysterious creature from another planet, resembling a giant blob of jelly, lands on earth. The people of a nearby small town refuse to listen to some teenagers who have witnessed the blob’s destructive power. In the meantime, the blob just keeps on getting bigger. With Steve McQueen in the cast, and a special cartoon before the movie (Abbott and Costello Meet the Blob), how can you not miss an opportunity to enjoy a drive-in classic? Sunset is officially 7:04 p.m., by the way.

SATURDAY

Orson Welles

9:00 a.m., ORSON WELLES ON TELEVISION

Orson Welles is known primarily for film masterpieces such as Citizen Kane and Touch of Evil, ad secondarily for his radio work (War of the Worlds, etc.). Often overlooked and least explored is Welles’ prolific career in television. Most of us of a certain age remember his appearances with Merv Griffin, Dean Martin and the popular Paul Masson wine commercials. But prior to hitting the talk show circuit, Welles had a prolific career in European and U.S. television as host, actor and director. Rob Farr will show clips from these rare programs and offer commentary and trivia on those that bear Welles’ unmistakable stamp as a director.

Jack French

10:00 a.m.,  THE FBI ON THE AIR WAVES

Presentation by Jack French. Starting in 1932, network radio featured programs portraying the FBI in its war against crime and subversion. Retired FBI Agent Jack French will discuss all of these radio series….some of which were sanctioned by the Bureau, most of which were not. The factual strengths and weaknesses of these “G-Man” programs will be examined, including how they fared with the listening audiences over the years. The historical background of shows like “The FBI in Peace and War”, “Junior G-Men”, “I Was a Communist for the FBI” and others will all be covered during this informative presentation.

11:00 a.m., METRO WASHINGTON OLD-TIME RADIO CLUB MEET

Details to be announced.

Hank Williams

12 noon, HANK WILLIAMS ON RADIO & TV

Presentation by Michael J. Hayde. On January 1, 1953, singer Hank Williams died in the back seat of a Cadillac while traveling to a performance.  Already considered one of country music’s greatest stars during his lifetime, his legacy and legend has only grown in stature in the 60 years since his death.  While his many recordings for MGM Records have been reissued constantly, “Ol’ Hank” had a prolific career in radio and even appeared on network television.  This presentation showcases recordings of Williams on “The Grand Ole Opry,” “The Louisiana Hayride,” “The Health and Happiness Show” and “The Mother’s Best Program.”  You’ll also hear a rare public service broadcast, “Stars in Her Eyes,” which was – believe it or not – a melodrama about syphillis that Hank narrated, both spoken and in song.  Some kinescope footage of Williams will be included, as well as radio coverage of his untimely death (he was 29 years old) and funeral service.

1:00 p.m., TO BE ANNOUNCED

Captain Chesapeake

2:00 p.m., “AHOY CREWMEMBERS!”

A retrospective of George Lewis, Baltimore’s own CAPTAIN CHESAPEAKE (and the Ghost Host)

Hosted by Gene Crowell. The late George Lewis had been a staple in the Baltimore region since 1971  as the long running “Captain Chesapeake.” For close to 20 years, “Captain C”, with his cast of accompanying characters, entertained kiddies by hosting morning and afternoon cartoon and live action children shows. And who can forget his commercial spots for several regional products? For the older kids, Lewis hosted Saturday evening horror movies as the Ghost Host. Join us for this fascinating talk on the legacy on one of our beloved Baltimore icons of the 70s and 80s. You’ll feel like a crew member again!

The History of Vitaphone

3:00 p.m., THE HISTORY OF VITAPHONE

Vitaphone was a sound film system used for feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects made by Warner Brothers and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1931. Vitaphone was the last major analog sound-on-disc system and the only one which was widely used and commercially successful. The soundtrack was not printed on the film itself, but issued separately on phonograph records. The discs, recorded at 33 1/3 rpm (a speed first used for this system) and typically 16 inches in diameter, would be played on a turntable physically coupled to the projector motor while the film was being projected. Many early talkies, such as The Jazz Singer (1927), used the Vitaphone system. The name “Vitaphone” derived from the Latin and Greek words, respectively, for “living” and “sound.” Ron Hutchinson of The Vitaphone Project, will give film buffs a rare treat — the history of Vitaphone!

All presentations, panels and slide show seminars are subject to change. The schedule will be finalized by April 30.

Yes, we will have the annual cartoon showing!

Roger Ebert, film critic

With his fellow reviewer and sometime sparring partner Gene Siskel, Roger Ebert could make or break the financial success of a motion-picture with their trademark “two thumbs up,” a catch phrase that was spoofed on In Living Color, Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons… and became a catch phrase on movie posters and television commercials promoting the movie.

In September 2001, Citizen Kane was released on DVD and among the audio commentary was Robert Ebert who provided a fascinating review of the motion picture and more importantly, the visual craftsmanship that most fans of the movie probably overlooked even after repeat viewings. Rent the DVD and watch the movie. Then watch the movie a second time and listen to Ebert’s commentary. Your admiration for the man will grow with each passing moment.

In 1975 Ebert became the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize, for his movie reviews in the Sun-Times. In the same calendar year, Ebert was asked to appear on WTTW, the public broadcasting station in Chicago, as co-host of a new movie-review program. He was intrigued, but then taken aback when told that Gene Siskel, the film critic of The Chicago Tribune, would be his partner. “The answer was at the tip of my tongue: no,” Ebert told Time magazine in 1987.

As for Mr. Siskel, he said he initially had no desire to team up with “the most hated guy in my life.” Thor: The Dark World (2013)

“The Great Movies” by Roger Ebert

But the pairing worked. The show, originally titled Opening Soon at a Theater Near You, was a public television hit. It evolved into Sneak Previews, which went national when the Public Broadcasting Service began syndicating it in 1978. It eventually attracted more viewers than any other entertainment series in the history of public television. Seeing its commercial potential, Tribune Entertainment acquired the show in 1982 and syndicated it under the title At the Movies. In 1986, Ebert and Siskel signed a contract with Buena Vista Television to syndicate the program under the titles Siskel & Ebert at the Movies. For all their combativeness, however, they actually agreed on a movie’s worth much more often than they differed.

Siskel died of a brain tumor in 1999 at 53. Afterward, the show was renamed Roger Ebert & the Movies and began rotating co-hosts as a way of auditioning them. In September 2000, Richard Roeper, a fellow Sun-Times columnist, became the permanent co-host and the show was renamed Ebert & Roeper. Ebert left the show in 2006 because of his illness.

Roger Ebert grew up at a time most people of his generation fondly remember the luxurious movie palaces. The first movie he saw was the 1937 Marx Brothers comedy, A Day at the Races, at the Princess Theater in Urbana, Illinois. “It was part of a double feature shown with five cartoons, and you got four and a half hours of solid entertainment for exactly nine cents,” he once recalled.

Roger Ebert

Besides reviewing movies, Ebert has a screen writing career. He wrote the screenplay for the 1970 movie Beyond the Valley of the Dolls for Russ Meyer, a director known for his campy B-flicks featuring busty women. Panned by fellow critics (“gratuitously violent,” Siskel reviewed), the film seemed a point of pride for Ebert, who was paid $15,000 and never tired of talking about it. He wrote a half-dozen more screenplays for Mr. Meyer, one of which was produced: Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens (1979).

Roger Ebert wasn’t the only person to speak out against the Motion Picture Association of America’s rating system, saying it lurched between being too restrictive and too lenient. He publicly criticized Hollywood for not supporting documentaries and relying too much on digital effects and what he called gimmicks, like 3-D. A man who stood up to his principals, Ebert was honest with his movie reviews and lived the life most film buffs wished they could live. His home has a mini-movie theatre and he also has a life-sized statue of Oliver Hardy. He had an extensive collection of cartoon character toys, dolls and action figures.

Roger Ebert in his office

His favorite actor was Robert Mitchum. “He has what many of the great 1930s and 1940s actors who are today’s cult heroes had,” Ebert remarked, “a capacity to retain and even expand their dignity, their image, their self-possession, even in the midst of the worst possible material. You see Mitchum in bad movies, but you can never spot him being bad.”  Tom Cruise

His top ten films of all time were: The General (1926), Citizen Kane (1941), Tokyo Story (1953), Alfred Hitchcok’s Vertigo (1958), La Dolce Vita (1960), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972), Apocalypse Now (1979), Raging Bull (1980) and The Tree of Life (2011). He claimed in his original review of Rocky (1976) that Sylvester Stallone was the “next Marlon Brando”.

Of recent years, he drew criticism when he stated that he considered The Passion of the Christ (2004) to be “the most violent film I’ve ever seen.” Many misinterpreted that to mean that he felt that the violence in the film was negative and exploitive (even though he gave the film a glowing review). He stated in his Q and A column that “The effect of movie violence depends on subjective factors, including the purpose the filmmakers had in using it.”

Robert Ebert book

He wrote an introduction for the book Mad at the Movies, a compilation of past movie satires from the pages of Mad magazine. He credited Mad’s movie satires as one of his earliest inspirations for becoming a film critic.

Robert Ebert — who said he saw 500 films a year and reviewed half of them — was once a guest on The David Letterman Show and when asked if he were trapped on a deserted island with only one film to watch, what film would that be? Ebert’s reply was Citizen Kane (1941). Roger Ebert, who had been fighting cancer, died on April 4 at the age of 70.

TRIVIA

In 2005 he became the first critic to be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

cnn.com

QUOTES

“No good movie is too long and no bad movie is short enough.”

Of Schindler’s List (1993): “Of the thousands of movies that I’ve seen, none has touched me more deeply, spiritually, emotionally with just an outpouring of emotion.

“It’s saying something about a director’s work when the most well-rounded and socialized hero in any of [Tim Burton's] films is Pee-wee Herman.”

“The point is not to avoid all Stupid Movies, but to avoid being a Stupid Moviegoer.”

“We Americans like to see evil in terms of guns and crime and terrorists and drug smuggling – big, broad immoral activities. We rarely make movies about how one person can be personally cruel to another, through their deep understanding of what might hurt the other person the most.”

“People ask me sometimes if I ever change my mind about a review and I no longer agree with what I said in my review of The Graduate (1967), that the Simon & Garfunkel songs are instantly forgettable. I don’t think that was right.”

“Here was a time when the feature was invariably preceded by a cartoon, and audiences smiled when they heard the theme music for Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies from Warner Bros. Cartoons have long since been replaced by 20 minutes of paid commercials in many theaters, an emblem of the greed of exhibitors and their contempt for their audiences. In those golden days, the cartoon (and even a newsreel and a short subject) was a gift from the management.”

The Associated Press News

Actress Margaret O’Brien

At the age of six, Margaret O’Brien turned to the director and asked, “When I cry, do you want the tears to run all the way or shall I stop halfway down?”

A major child star of the 1940s, Margaret O’Brien was best known for her natural, emotional style and her startling facility for tears. As Maxine O’Brien (her birth name), she first appeared in a civil defense film starring James Cagney, then in a bit in Babes on Broadway (both 1941). Sensing her potential, MGM signed her, changed her first name to Margaret and starred her in the tour de force Journey for Margaret (1942), as a terrified London war orphan who “adopts” reporter Robert Young. It was an adult, intelligent and slightly scary performance which made her an overnight star. The studio knew how to cast their actors. (Spencer Tracy protested against the same studio being cast for Captains Courageous (1937) and Boys Town (1938) yet he won back-to-back Best Actor Oscars as a result.) MGM, however, didn’t quite know what to do with her after she wasn’t the adorable Shirley Temple type. She was loaned out to Fox for Jane Eyre (1944) and was featured in such MGM films as Dr. Gillespie’s Criminal Case, Lost Angel and Madame Curie (all 1943), although she had a slightly better part in The Canterville Ghost (1944), opposite Charles Laughton.

Judy Garland and Margaret O’Brien

As with any actress, the choice of a good role and superb production (combined together make a whole lot of luck) came into being when O’Brien’s next big showcase was Meet Me in St. Louis (1944). As Tootie Smith, the feisty but fragile little sister of Judy Garland, she was a bright point in a very good film, especially in her musical numbers with Garland and during a Halloween sequence in which she confronts a grouchy neighbor. For her performance, she was awarded a special juvenile Oscar. Robert Osborne

Her next two features, Music for Millions (1944) and the drama Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945) were also impressive, and are screened on Turner Classic Movies almost every calendar year. Her last MGM films were generally unimpressive: the Western Bad Bascombe and the comedy Three Wise Fools (both 1946) and the melodrama The Big City (1948). Two good roles came her way in 1949, as the tragic Beth in an the remarkable remake of Little Women and as Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden, now considered a children’s classic.

Margaret O’Brien magazine

“How they really got me to cry is kind of interesting. June Allyson also did a lot of dramatic films, we were known as The Town Criers of MGM. We were always in competition: I wanted to cry better than June, and June wanted to cry better than me. The way my mother got me to cry was if I was having trouble with a scene, she’d say, ‘why don’t we have the make-up man come over and give you false tears?’ Then I’d think to myself, ‘they’ll say I’m not as good as June,’ and I’d start to cry.”

–Margaret O’Brien quoted in Classic Images, August 1993.

By the early 1950s Margaret had made a mint for MGM and left the studio with the promise of better options. She played her first love scene (at age 14) in the appropriately-titled low-budget Her First Romance (1951) for Columbia and had ingenue roles in Glory (1955) and in the all-star Western Heller in Pink Tights (1960). Margaret O’Brien – IMDb

Margaret O’Brien

Deluged with offers from television producers, O’Brien acted on such anthology series as Studio One, The Lux Video Theater, Ford Television Theater, Playhouse 90 and… get this… The June Allyson Show. O’Brien reprised her big screen role of Beth in a TV musical version of Little Women (CBS, 1958), alongside Florence Henderson, Jeanie Carson and Joel Grey. In 1960, Margaret O’Brien was the star of her own sitcom, Maggie, created for CBS. The proposed TV series concerned the misadventures that occur when a sophisticated husband-and-wife team of actors and their clever teen-age daughter move from Manhattan to suburban Connecticut and immediately clash with their new neighbors. O’Brien played the title role.
Having worked with Raymond Burr for Perry Mason years prior, it came as no surprise when O’Brien played the role of Louise Prescott for the made-for-TV movie, Ironside: Split Second to an Epitaph, opening the second season of Burr’s weekly television series, Ironside. When Ironside agreed to undergo exploratory surgery that could restore his ability to walk — or kill him — he found himself involved in another mystery. At that hospital, a masked assailant escaped with stolen drugs after murdering a security guard.

Margaret O’Brien magazine

Her recent films have been the Disney-produced period drama Amy (1981) and a cameo in the direct-to-video horror spoof Sunset After Dark (1994).

Upon its 1944 release, Time magazine remarked: “Technicolor has seldom been more affectionately used than in its registrations of the sober mahoganies and tender muslins and benign gaslights of the period. Now & then, too, the film gets well beyond the charm of mere tableau for short flights in the empyrean of genuine domestic poetry. These triumphs are creditable mainly to the intensity and grace of Margaret O’Brien and to the ability of Director Minelli & Co. to get the best out of her.” Margaret O’Brien drew further praise from Time: “Her song and her cakewalk done in a nightgown at a grown-up party, are entrancing acts. Her self-terrified Halloween adventures richly set against firelight, dark streets, and the rusty confabulations of fallen leaves, bring this section of the film very near the first-rate.”

O’Brien with Clint Eastwood

In 1994, Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) was deemed “culturally significant” by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. The American Film Institute has since ranked the film 10th on AFI’s 100 Greatest Movie Musicals.

TRIVIA

Her special Academy Award as Outstanding Juvenile Performer for Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) was stolen and she was unable to regain it for nearly fifty years until two memorabilia collectors came across it at a swap meet and were kind enough to contact the actress and give it back to O’Brien.

Margaret O’Brien will be among our weekend guests at the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention this September. We know this will delight many movie buffs dying to ask her questions. She rarely gets to the East Coast so this is a rare opportunity to meet the actress in person, get your photo taken with her and collect an autograph!

Be sure to brush up on your MGM movies by catching a few of them as they air on Turner Classic Movies or rent them from Netflix!