A Feast For The Eyes: Scarlet Dawn Post #3

Scarlet Dawn 1932 starring Doug Fairbanks Jr., Lilyan Tashman and Nancy Carroll. Directed by William Dieterle, with art direction by Anton Grot, and beautifully photographed by Ernest Haller. See also post #1 and post #2.

Lee Tracy Writes to Walter Winchell

More trouble for Lee? If any one has any info on "21" or the item in Winchell's column please contact me. In the post script, Lee is still grateful to Walter for his help 16 years after the "incident". It would be interesting to know what help Lee recieved from Walter at the time.

4 Oct. 1950

Dear Walter,

I do a radio broadcast
for the Army each Sunday and
your item about me being barred
from "21" has the big Brass all upset.
They tell me to-day very
emphatically that I am not barred
from "21' and I wish to heaven

2.

that you'd say so!
It's as simple as that and
it would be a great thing to
do for
your Pal
Lee Tracy (signature)

P.S. And I'm still grateful
to you for that Mexican
matter
L.T (initials)

Vitaphone 80th Anniversary Program on TCM

On August 6, 1926, a rather ostentatious audience filed into the new flagship Warner Bros. Theatre on Broadway, having paid a steep $10 and more per seat. The exhaustive ballyhoo appeared to cynics as much noise about another abortive gimmick; the more impartial may have detected something different in the tone of the event, since the likes of Mischa Elman and Giovanni Martinelli were not normally associated with cheap stunts. Neither was Will Hays, and his presence indicated as much as anything that the occasion might be exceptional. And so it was, to the extent that Vitaphone's opening night marks the true beginning of the sound era.

Richard Barrios, A Song In The Dark The Birth Of The Musical Film









TCM will celebrate the 80th anniversary of this event on July 2, 2006, with an airing of the Vitaphone shorts that originally premiered on the August 6, 1926 program

12:15 AM Don Juan (1926) In this silent film, the legendary lover fights to survive intrigue in the court of the Borgias. Cast: John Barrymore, Mary Astor, Warner Oland. Dir: Alan Crosland. BW-167 mins, TV-G

WILL HAYS-INTRO TO VITAPHONE (1926) BW-4 mins,

OVERTURE: TANNHAUSER (1926) BW-10 mins,

MISCHA ELMAN: HUMORESQUE (1926) BW-0 mins,

ROY SMECK: HIS PASTIMES (1926) BW-8 mins,

MARION TALLEY: CARO NOME (1926) BW-7 mins,

ZIMBALIST AND BAUER: KREUTZER SONATA (1926) BW-9 mins,

GIOVANNI MARTINELLI: VESTI LA GIUBBA (1926) BW-4 mins,

ANNA CASE: LA FIESTA (1926) BW-10 mins,

3:15 AM Better 'Ole, The (1926) In this silent film, friends face misadventures during World War I Cast: Sydney Chaplin, Doris Hill, Harold Goodwin. Dir: Charles Reisner. BW-95 mins, TV-PG

The Godlesss Girl 1929 and Redskin 1929 Official Release

Cecille B. DeMille's The Godless Girl 1929, and Victor Schertzinger's Redskin 1929 will be officially released in 2007 as part of The National Film Preservations Foundation Treasures from the American Film Archives 3.

They Had Faces #3

Myrna Loy, Greta Garbo, Marion Davies, all by C.S. Bull, Carole Lombard, Norma Shearer, Madge Evans, all by Hurrell.

Cinema Poster Art: Kay Francis in The White Angel

Kay Francis as Florence Nightingale in The White Angel 1936.

Lost Films #5

Fox Movietone Follies of 1929

Todd/Pitts Hal Roach Comedies on TCM

Thelma Todd, Zasu Pitts and director George Marshall













We did license (almost the entire) Hal Roach library for a 40 year deal (it was done last year) and are in the process of receiving many of the films to play on the network (we've already played some of them). We recently did a deal with Paramount and there are others that we're negotiating which I can't really comment on. We just licensed a few never-before-on-television silent films from Film Preservations Associates (a small company that restores silent films), we did a deal with Janus/Criterion films for many foreign-language classics. There will be several Universal titles (which include early Paramount) that will be appearing on our schedule for the first time (this year's Summer Under the Stars has many premieres from them). The day-to-day job of the programming department includes planning our film inventory years into the future, and - as I keep saying - we're still buying the same volume of older classics several years in advance (which is the way most of the licesning agreements work).

Posted 6/19/2006 by tcmprogrammr on the TCM General Discussion Forum/Message Board

Famous Couples #2

Kenneth MacKenna and Kay Francis (by Steichen), Jean Harlow and William Powell, and Doug Fairbanks Jr. and Joan Crawford.

Sisters

Laura and Violet La Plante (Photo by Melbourne Spurr), Anna May (Wong Liu Tsong) and Lulu Wong (Wong Lew Ying) and Karla and Eleanor Gutchrlein, better known as The Sisters G.

Might Have Been....

Came across a photograph of Greta Nissen & after a little research , I discovered that she was the original choice for the role that Jean Harlow ended up with in the 1930 "Hell's Angels". The film started out as a silent but, Howard Hughes decided to redo it as a talkie & Greta's Norwegian accent didn't make the cut.
I Photo-shopped Nickolas Muray's portrait of her into a scene just for fun.
Thanks to MichaelE for the guest post.

























Last two photos by Max Munn Autrey and Nickolas Muray.

Paris, Madrid, New York and Texas

Hot for Paris 1929 with Victor Mclaglen, Fifi Dorsay and El Brendel,
In Gay Madrid 1930 with Ramon Novarro and Dorothy Jordan,
New York Nights 1929 with Norma Talmadge and Gilbert Roland and
Under a Texas Moon 1930 with Frank Fay and Raquel Torres.

Girls About Town At Capitolfest

Girls About Town 1931 starring Kay Francis and Lilyan Tashman is just one of the many excellent films that will be showing at this years Capitolfest.

The Most Perfect Face In 1934 Hollywood Belongs To....

Sylvia Sidney








Many thanks to MichaelE for the images.

Dick(ie) Moore on Kay Fwancis

alt.movies.silent newsgroup post by Brett, about Dick(ie) Moore on Kay Francis

2006 Thelma Todd Celebration

Article from hippopress.com titled Reconstructing Thelma Three-day local festival to honor star’s 100th birthday By Jeff Rapsis includes info about the upcoming event, and news of a Thelma Todd biography in the works.

Sheet Music #3

So This Is College 1929, Untamed 1929 and Remote Control 1930.

Erte Alphabet K-O