Kicking off the Summer, 2013 semester of Hutton House Lectures, at LIU:C.W. Post, I will be focusing on three musicals, produced 80 years ago in 1933. Busby Berkeley was instrumental in saving the Hollywood musical genre from obliviaon, partially due to his choreographed dream fantasy sequences in three films produced at Warner Brothers in 1933: 42nd Street (Dir. Lloyd Bacon), Golddiggers of 1933 (Dir. Mervyn Leroy), and Footlight Parade (Dir. Lloyd Bacon). All three films starred Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler, and musical scores by Harry Warren and Al Dubin. All three films advanced the genre of dance on film, and helped filmgoers escape the horrors of the Great Depression. I will be discussing each film, and then present a screening of each film: 42nd Street (June 7th), Golddiggers of 1933 (June 14th), and Footlight Parade (June 21st). This course, as with all Hutton House lectures, are offered at Lorber Hall, on the LIU:C.W. Post campus. For more information, and to register, please call 516-299-2580.

With the closing of the 92nd Street Y Tribeca, I have been invited to teach two film courses at the main branch of the 92nd Street Y, in Fall, 2013. Beginning in October, I will be teaching Alfred Hitchcock: Master of Suspense, in which we will discuss and view four films: Notorious (October 2nd), Strangers On A Train (October 9th), Dial M For Murder (October 16th), and North By Northwest (October 23rd). Then, in November, I will be teaching I Wanna Be A Dancin Man: Fred Astaire In New York, which focuses on five films, starrnig Mr. Astaire, produced at MGM, which demonstrate the maturing of Fred Astaire as an actor and dancer, as well as showing the advance of the Hollywood Musical. The films to be viewed and discussed include: Broadway Melody of 1940 (November 4th), Easter Parade (November 11th), The Barkleys of Broadway (November 18th), The Belle of New York (November 25th), and The Bandwagon (December 2nd). All classes will begin at 6:30PM, and run till 9:00PM, and will be held at the Lexington Avenue main branch of the 92nd Street Y.