Born on this date: Vera Michelena in 1884; William B. Davidson in 1888; Stan Laurel in 1890; Lupino Lane in 1892; William K. Howard in 1893; Norman Kerry in 1894; Elaine Hammerstein in 1897; Einar Hanson in 1899; Ona Munson in 1903; Barry Norton in 1905; Sidney Salkow in 1909; Ilona Massey in 1910; Frances Rafferty in 1922; and Faith Domergue in 1924.
All links lead to each actor’s IMDb page, set to open in a new tab.
Classic Movie Daily subscribers can look for images of Vera Michelena, Norman Kerry, and Ona Munson in today’s email.
TCM TV Alerts through tomorrow at 7 am:
These titles play on TCM’s US schedule and all quoted times are for my own local Eastern time zone.
—8:00 am-4:45 pm – A run of 5 Lassie films tucked into a daytime dog-themed schedule. Lassie always runs into an entertaining collection of familiar character actors.
—8:00 pm – Souls at Sea (1937), with Gary Cooper and George Raft. I’m not sure TCM has aired this since it they released it as part of its Universal Rarities DVD in 2012. Decent sea adventure directed by Henry Hathaway. I don’t recall being overwhelmed by it and I generally like these types of movies. You don’t get 1930s Paramount in TCM Prime Time every night though, so I’m not complaining!
—11:30 pm – Desperate Journey (1942), Pilots Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan are down in Nazi Germany where they have to answer to Raymond Massey. Flynn the serious type here and Reagan the lighter of the pair in a bit of casting that always feels a little off to me. Directed by Raoul Walsh.
Cliff’s Notes
Okay, I have to admit I goofed and confused Vera Michelena for her sister Beatriz, who had a more substantial movie career, when putting together today’s calendar. But I’ll be sure to include Beatriz when we hit February!
I was working on a Stan Laurel clippings post, but ran out of time. We don’t need a birthday to celebrate Laurel though, so I’ll include it in an issue of the Daily later this week.
The reason I ran out of time: the book. Expect some lighter overall issues of the Daily this week as I get myself into a groove with that. I do most of my writing and general work on the website overnight: usually between about 10 pm and 5 am, though I’ll keep going right up to that 7 am deadline for Classic Movie Daily emails if I’m in the middle of a more important post.
The mistake I’ve been making the past couple of weeks is sitting down to do the Daily first, then saving whatever time I have left for work on the book. But sometimes there isn’t any time left. Tonight I reversed that routine and wound up doing more writing than I had since I bought myself a day with that double-issue last week. So that’s the new routine.
It might mean 2-3 less images per day, but I’ll squeeze in as much as I can. If you ever feel a bit shortchanged on the images, do have a look at my Facebook page, as I typically schedule another 10-12 pics to post there each day.
I already know the subject of my next review, so I’ll tease that later this week (okay, it’s The Good Fairy), but it will probably be a good 7-10 days before I post it. Of course, that doesn’t preclude me from posting a “Flash Review” if I watch something this week that motivates me to do so. I’m enjoying those, hope you are too.
By the way, if you’re wondering what I do during the day, that time is usually reserved for work on the collectibles end of the business. I’ve been squeezing in extra work on the site during those hours lately, but I still have to take time to set-up relists and put together packages to fulfill orders from the day before.
Oh boy, packages. That’s what’s up next for me, whether I do them now, or save them until after I wake up. I’m leaning towards the latter, so I’ll say good night—and good morning!
Cliff
Issue count: Since going Daily on April 6, I’ve mailed posts to subscribers 69 out of 71 days.
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