Captains Courageous (1937) at The Somerville Theater

One of these things is not like the others. One of these things just doesn't belong.

 

Does your local theater have this kind of variety? I doubt it!

 

Please, sir. Could you show me the way to the main theater?

 

The Somerville Theater recently kicked off their Classic Film Series with two screenings of Captains Courageous (1937). I was a bit surprised that this movie was even in the line-up. Surprised, yet very, very happy. Captains Courageous is a film I've been meaning to watch for quite a while and getting a chance to see it for the first time and on the big screen to boot was an opportunity I couldn't pass up. And I went by myself! I've been to a lot of social gatherings lately so it was really nice to be able to watch this on my own. And although I always encourage people to share classic films with others, sometimes it's nice to have a movie all to yourself. It's a very intimate and personal experience and I recommend it if you ever need a break from being social butterfly.

Directed by Victor Fleming, Captains Courageous stars Freddie Bartholomew as Harvey Cheyne, a spoiled little motherless brat whose father, Frank Burton Cheyne (Melvyn Douglas), sends him off to boarding school each year. Off Harvey goes with pockets full of cash and false sense of entitlement. The father is neglectful of his son and without any guidance Harvey is a poor excuse for a boy. With the power of his dad's money, Harvey tries to bribe and trick his way into things. The other kids start to dislike Harvey and he wants out of school so he tells his dad that the school masters are abusing him and accepting bribes. Once the father finds out Harvey's real problem, he pulls him out of school and takes him on a cruise to Europe for some dad-son bonding time. But oops! Harvey falls off the boat. No worries! He gets rescued by a Portuguese fisherman named Manuel Fidello (Spencer Tracy). Manuel brings Harvey back to the fishing Schooner. Lionel Barrymore  plays the captain, Mickey Rooney  plays the captain's son, John Carradine  plays Long Jack and there is a motley crew of other seafaring men on board. Harvey is stuck on the schooner for the 3 months the fisherman will be out at sea before they head back to Gloucester, MA with their catch. Reluctantly on both their parts, Manuel and Harvey start a friendship. Manuel becomes the father figure Harvey never had. The situation is too good to be true. You just know something bad is going to happen.

Manuel Fidello (Spencer Tracy) is curly-haired, Portuguese and lives in Massachusetts. Who does that remind me of?

Oh yeah. ME! But I have a better accent than Spencer Tracy did. The man could not speak Portuguese!

Having seen as many classic films as I have I can usually place a film in a certain time period by observing a few things. If I can, I try to guess the exact year. If I'm off, it's only ever by a little bit. So having forgotten that this film is from 1937, I looked at a few things to guess that the film was from the late 1930s. For one thing, Lionel Barrymore is up and walking. After his accident and with his problems of arthritis, Lionel Barrymore was wheel chair bound from the 1940s until his death in the mid 1950s. A youngish Mickey Rooney looked young but not too young. Spencer Tracy, who didn't age very well and always looked older than he was, did not serve as a point of reference to me at all! Neither did Freddie Bartholomew because frankly this is the first of his films I've ever seen and I wouldn't have been able to guess from his age. In the beginning of the film I spotted a lot of Art Deco fixtures and furniture. That definitely places is it in the 1930s. The content of the film places it post pre-Code (so after 1934). Ultimately, I guessed 1937 or 1938.

I had a wonderful experience at the Somerville Theater! I sincerely wish I brought a few tissues as I really needed them and my shirt sleeve wasn't cutting it. I want to say thank you to them for taking a chance and showing this wonderful theater on the big screen!

Silent Film Stars Historic Records Available on Ancestry.com

Below is a press release from Ancestry.com. I think this will be very interesting for folks who are researching information about silent era film stars and coming across major obstacles. I have a few film stars I'd like to research. I hope this will be a good source for biographers which may mean more classic film biographies in our future! You do need a membership to use the service though. It may be well worth it for the truly dedicated film historians.

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Silent Cinema Stars Private Information Revealed In Historic Studio Archives- Now Available Online at Ancestry.com

Thousands of stars of the early silver screen detailed in Motion Picture Studio Directories

§ Records include Charlie Chaplin, “Fatty” Arbuckle and Oliver Hardy (images available)

§ Directories reveal ‘vital statistics’ stars probably didn’t want you to know…


Provo, Utah – June 13, 2011 – Ancestry.com, the world’s largest online family resource, has launched online records of the original Hollywood film studios, which profile the superstars of silent cinema at the beginning of the 20th century. Digitized in partnership with the California State Library (where the original ledgers are held), the records are now fully searchable online for the first time by name, birthplace and date of birth.

Much like today’s online film and actors database IMDb, the directories were compiled by executives of the ‘big five’ studios – Warner Bros., FPL Corp (Paramount), RKO, MGM and 20thCentury Fox. ‘Up & Coming’ studios also contributed to the records, among them Universal, Columbia and United Artists.

The Motion Picture Studio Directories (1919 and 1921)feature thousands of leading actors, actresses, cinematographers, writers, editors, directors, producers and screenwriters of the day – at a time when cinemas were selling more than 100 million tickets a week. The silent film era was so incredibly prominent during its heyday that the highest grossing film of the time, The Birth of a Nation, earned $10 million in 1915, equivalent to more than $216 million in modern era earnings and a runaway blockbuster by today’s standards.

The records contain information about iconic actors and actresses such as Charlie Chaplin, who reached the height of his fame during the silent film era by using mime and slapstick to great effect. His records describe him as 5’4” with brown hair and blue eyes and list his address as the Charlie Chaplain Film Co on La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles.

Actors’ entries include details of past film roles, age, birthplace, height, weight, address and even a home phone number in some cases. The biggest stars often paid to include photos in order to attract greater interest from film executives (images available).

In fact, several actors omitted or amended their information to make them more marketable. The entry for one of the most famous of all silent movie actresses, Gloria Swanson, has the date of birth omitted, despite being just 32 at the time, and Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle - one of the highest paid actors of the silent era - has a number of facts excluded, notably his weight.

Some further famous names listed include:

· Oliver Hardy – The ‘big man’ of comedy double act Laurel & Hardy, Hardy appeared in hundreds of films in a career spanning over 30 years. His directory entry includes his industry nickname ‘Babe,’ his unusual height for the era (6’1”) and weight (350 lbs).

· Lillian Gish – One of the leading actresses of the silent era and considered to be one of the greatest of all time, Gish played a lead character in The Birth of a Nation – the largest grossing of all silent movies.

· Buster Keaton – Known for his constantly stoic, deadpan expression during his comedy appearances, Keaton earned the nickname “The Great Stone Face”. He is listed as having taken part in military service, fighting for the US in WWI. It is during his service that Keaton developed an ear infection which left his hearing permanently impaired.

· Mary Pickford – Known as the “American Sweetheart” or “Girl with the Curls,” Pickford was a world-renowned actress. Her records detail her career starting as early as five-years-old and list her address as 4500 Sunset Boulevard, LA.

“These records paint an intriguing picture of how the early film industry operated and include some of the first and biggest names ever to appear on the silver screen,” remarked Quinton Atkinson, Ancestry.com Director of Content. “It’s fascinating to see the details that would have been kept reserved for film executives of the day and perhaps the details within might provide the link needed to prove your relation to a film executive, famous director or even one many movie stars found in the directories.”

Visit www.ancestry.com/motionpicturesto start searching the records now.

About Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com)
Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq: ACOM) is the world's largest online family history resource, with more than 1.6 million paying subscribers. More than 6 billion records have been added to the site in the past 14 years. Ancestry users have created more than 24 million family trees containing over 2.4 billion profiles. Ancestry.com has local Web sites directed at nine countries that help people discover, preserve and share their family history, including its flagship Web site at www.ancestry.com.

Fourth Blogiversary

It's been four wonderful years writing this blog. In those four years, I've made lots of great friends both online and off and had many wonderful experiences. If you've been reading this blog for four years, for one year for 1 minute, I appreciate you reading at all!

In celebration of my Fourth Blogiversary, I'm giving away one copy of Good Stuff by Jennifer Grant. I recently reviewed it for Father's Day.

Contest rules:

One entry per person. You must live in the U.S. or Canada (I'll make an exception for Sweden!). Contest ends Thursday June 30th at Midnight EST. Winner will be chosen at random. There is only one prize. If the winner does not respond within one week of being notified via email, a second winner will be chosen.

All you need to do to enter is fill out the below form (the entry gets sent to me but doesn't appear on the form after you click Submit). Or you can add your entry to the comments section. Do not Tweet or Facebook your entry. I won't count it. It must be entered through the form or added to the comments.

Full Disclosure: I purchased an extra copy of the book Good Stuff through Random House for this giveaway.

GIVEAWAY ENDED

Good Stuff by Jennifer Grant

Good Stuff: A Reminiscence of My Father, Cary Grant
by Jennifer Grant
9780307267108
May 2011
Knopf (Random House)

Happy Father's Day!

Good Stuff is unlike any other book you will ever come across. Reading it is a very intimate experience, one you share with the author. Jennifer Grant has given the public a peek into the love between a father and his only child. The father, Cary Grant, just happens to be one of the most famous, well-known and adored actors ever to have lived. We come to the book with a false sense of familiarity with Cary Grant only to discover that we didn't know about this part of his life at all.

Jennifer Grant reminisces about the first 20 years of her life; the years when her father was alive. Although the book goes back and forth through time freely, the reader never gets lost. Each chapter has a theme which anchors it and the progression of the book feels chronological even when it isn't. The author tried to capture the "essence of Dad's soul" when writing this book. It's not minute-by-minute account of 20 years past rather a way to portray her father the way she knew him. The title, Good Stuff, refers to something Cary Grant would say alot. The author says, "Dad used the expression 'good stuff' to declare happiness or, as one of his friends put it, he said it when please with the nature of things." The Cary Grant in this book is very happy to have finally had a child, one he could dote upon, teach, and most importantly love. You get the sense that he is scared of death because he doesn't want to miss those precious moments of his life. He didn't want to miss the good stuff.

Jennifer Grant is intelligent, observant and thoughtful and shares the most wonderful memories of her dad. At first I thought she came off a bit snooty, however, as I continued to read the book I realized that this is a woman who truly adored, loved and appreciated her father. She doesn't read any biographies about him. Before he passed away, Cary Grant warned his daughter that after his death people would say things about him. And to keep in mind what she knows about him now and what he's told her. He wanted her to remember him as he was, not as others will portray him to be. And that's exactly what she did in this book. While she does address some of the controversial topics of his life, including his sexuality (this surprised me!), she does stay true to her real memory of her dad.

The book is wider than your normal biography or memoir. It was purposefully made to look like a photo album or scrapbook. The pages are rough front which gives the book a sort of homemade feel. There are delightful pictures of father and daughter as well as other images that are so personal and intimate it feels like we are getting a peek into the Grant family's treasure trove. Jennifer Grant also included telegrams, typed notes, hand-written scribbles, drawings and written transcripts of audio recordings. She recounts conversations, events, explains some of the pictures.

What really touched me about this book is how much Cary Grant loved his daughter. He was so happy to have a child, he treasured every moment with her and kept a huge amount of mementos which he stored in a vault. The love, his love, is what will move you to tears when you read this book. And I implore that you do.

Full Disclosure: I purchased a copy of this book through Random House.

Here is an interview (she doesn't do many of these) with Jennifer Grant and ABC.