Classic Movie Daily for Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Born on this date: Robert G. Vignola in 1882; Reginald Owen in 1887; Emanuel Cohen in 1892; John Huston in 1906; Robert Taylor in 1911; Anita Colby in 1914; David Brian in 1914; Mickey Shaughnessy in 1920; and Joan Weldon in 1933.

All links lead to each actor's IMDb page, set to open in a new tab.

Classic Movie Daily subscribers will find some Robert Taylor inside today's issue, plus a few shots of TCM's featured star of the day, Fred Astaire.

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.

—TCM Summer Under the Stars, Fred Astaire (TCM.com link) - Tuesday's Fred Astaire TCM schedule:

• 6:00 am - Flying Down to Rio (1933), really about Gene Raymond and Raul Roulien's pursuit of Dolores Del Rio, but turns out to be the first Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers pairing. Nine more followed, the first eight follow on today's TCM schedule.
• 7:30 am - The Gay Divorcee (1934), Astaire & Rogers with Edward Everett Horton and Alice Brady among others.
• 9:30 am - Roberta (1935, Irene Dunne, Fred & Ginger, plus Randolph Scott and Claire Dodd.
• 11:15 am - Top Hat (1935), Fred & Ginger with Edward Everett Horton, Helen Broderick, and Erik Rhodes.
• 1:00 pm - Follow the Fleet (1936), Fred & Ginger, with Randolph Scott, Harriet Hilliard, and Astrid Allwyn.
• 3:00 pm - Swing Time (1936), Fred & Ginger, plus Victor Moore, Helen Broderick, etc.
• 4:45 pm - Carefree (1936), Fred & Ginger plus Ralph Bellamy.
• 6:15 pm - The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939), Fred & Ginger.
• 8:00 pm - Shall We Dance (1937), Fred & Ginger plus regulars Edward Everett Horton and Eric Blore.
• 10:15 pm - You Were Never Lovelier (1942) Fred & ... Rita Hayworth! Plus Monday's star Adolphe Menjou as Rita's dad.
• 12:00 am - The Band Wagon (1953), Fred & Cyd Charisse.
• 2:00 am - Silk Stockings (1957), Fred & Cyd.
• 4:15 am - Royal Wedding (1951), Fred & Jane Powell.

What, no Barkleys of Broadway (1949)? I tucked an image from that title into today's Daily to make up for TCM's oversight. And here's another that I sent out a couple of months ago.

Thursday will be Michael Caine day (TCM.com link), which leaves this space empty tomorrow.

Cliff's Notes

—Coleen Gray has died at age 92. Rather than point you to an obituary from one of the major news outlets I will instead link to THIS REMEMBRANCE from Laura of Laura's Miscellaneous Musings, who had has the pleasure of conducting an interview with the Nightmare Alley and Kiss of Death star just a couple of years ago. Laura links around to to past Gray tributes and portions of her interview on a page that also includes a beautiful gallery of Coleen Gray photographs.

—What better day than Robert Taylor's birthday to mention that my friend Linda Alexander's biography of Taylor, Reluctant Witness will soon be reissued by BearManor Media. I saw Linda's announcement on her Facebook page. I hesitate to link to the previous edition of Reluctant Witness because used and out-of-print copies are priced as collector's editions (in other words, high!), but if you can't wait I'm sure you can find a link in my 2010 interview with Linda about Robert Taylor.

—I'm an early bird. This is my second consecutive morning rising at 4:00 am rather than my usual time of "when the sun hits my eyes." This was pure chance yesterday, but I planned for it today and even got a little jump on today's issue late Tuesday afternoon. I really dislike missing out on the night (I've fallen asleep before the third inning two nights running now!), but I must admit, I've gotten a lot done the past two mornings. Think I'll see how it goes for a couple of more days before getting too comfortable though.

—I considered skipping tomorrow's issue because of TCM's more modern 24 hours of Summer Under the Stars (Michael Caine day). Instead I think I'll do an issue, minus the TV coverage, and include a feature I didn't get to this morning because of the early bird note just above. Look for a collection of clippings showing ads for each of the ten Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire movies in tomorrow's issue. I just hope I can find something decent for each of the ten titles now that I've committed to that!

—I finished my essay about Red-Headed Woman for Danny Reid's coming project, Pre-Code Companion, Volume 1, so I'll get back to work this morning editing my Helen Twelvetrees book. I am also going to expand what I wrote for Danny into a draft for my own next pre-Code eBook, and while I'm at that I'm also going to put together a shorter review for the site. I gave it the "Coming Soon" treatment late last week, but chances are you'll get another Lightning Review (or two) before I post Red-Headed Woman here.

Back with those Astaire-Rogers clippings tomorrow.

Thanks for reading,
Cliff

Above: Reginald Owen in The Good Fairy (1935).

Above: Joan Weldon in Them! (1954), with Edmund Gwenn.

Above: Coleen Gray, 1922-2015