“There’s no place like home”, “Frankly, Scarlett, I don’t give a damn”, “She gave me water”, “You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din.”…….

As a Film Historian,1939 is a very important year in the annals of film history. In 2014, we celebrate the 75th anniversary of such films as The Wizard of Oz, Gone With The Wind, Goodbye Mr. Chips, Gunga Din, Wuthering Heights, and others.

We are now eight months into 2014, and I have commemorated this very important year with a number of courses and film lectures. 

I recently returned to Hofstra University, to tape an Alumni edition of SOUNDTRACK, the film and theatre music program I used to host and write, as a B.A. English major at Hofstra University. Recently, I was invited back as an Alumni of WRHU to produced a SOUNDTRACK program. My hour was devoted to Film scores from Films of 1939.   As I brought out in the program, the question is: Why were so many wonderful films produced in 1939? Obviously, Directors and Producers did not get together and say, “Hey, this is 1939, and we are going to produce the greatest films ever”. No, not just that. But Hollywood was looking back at itself. The Museum of Modern Art, in New York, had been developing a Film Library, and a March of Time Newsreel presented an overview of how Hollywood was looking back on itself. What had Hollywood accomplished during the silent era, and its transition into sound films. Where was Hollywood going? What about the technology? That was constantly getting better: cinematography, sound, and the use of Technicolor.  There was also the fact that war was brewing in Europe. Poland would be invaded in the Fall of 1939.

There was a also a major influence in British themed films.  One of the courses that I taught twice this year, The British Influence: From Novel To Screen, 1939, at both LIU: C.W. Post, and as a series at the Syosset Public Library, I discussed and screened such films as Gunga Din, Wuthering Heights, The Hound Of The Baskervilles, and Goodbye Mr. Chips. The Bristish market was the only market not affected in 1939. MGM had set up studios in England, filming The Citadel and Goodbye Mr. Chips there (both starring Robert Donat).  The first two Sherlock Holmes films to star Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce (The Hound Of the Baskervilles, and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes) were both released in 1939, which then lead to a series, both in film, and radio, for Rathbone and Bruce.  Over at RKO, George Stevens filmed Gunga Din, starring Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. with Sam Jaffee as Gunga Din; At Goldwyn, William Wyler had his hands full with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon, filming Wuthering Heights.  At Universal, Rathbone was busy with The Son of Frankenstein and Tower of London. So, heavy influences of British culture in films of 1939. 

Many directors were very busy in 1939: Michael Curtiz directed five films, including The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, Dodge City, Four Wives, and an Academy Award winning Technicolor short, Sons of Liberty. John Ford directed Stagecoach (with John Wayne as the RIngo Kid,  a breakout role), Drums Along The Mohawk, and Young Mr. Lincoln (the last two starring Henry Fonda). Director Victor Flemnig directed two very important films: Gone With The Wind  (Replacing George Cukor, who was terminated over creative differences with David O’ Selznick  -Cukor would get another job a week after leaving GWTW, by directing the all female cast of The Women). Fleming would also direct the beloved classic The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland.

Musicals were big in 1939: Babes In Arms, starring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, in their last film at RKO, Broadway Serenade, with Jeanette MacDonald, and the aforementioned The Wizard of Oz. The King of Hollywood, Clark Gable, even had a chance to sing with a chorus of girls, performing “Puttin On The Ritz” in Idiot’s Delight.

James Cagney was very busy at Warner Brothers, shooting Humphrey Bogart twice, in The Roaring Twenties and The Oklahoma Kid, and in , Cagney was a reporter framed, and sent to prison with George Raft.

 To Be Continued……….

Yes, you must think I’m insane. In this age of downloading and I-Tunes, and CDs (even these are considered historical items of technology-how the times change).

I have always loved music. I have always loved to collect music: LPs, cassettes, 78s, and now, CDS. But, I have always had a passion for the past. The Music, the literature, the lifestyle, the wardrobe, the films, the theatre. When I moved from Long Beach, four years ago, I donated 99 percent of my LP and 78 rpm collection, due to the fact that I had no space to store these collections of music. O fcourse, I have over a thousand CDS. However, the albums and 78s I saved were stored away in my apartment. I frequent garage sales, antique markets and record shows, and I always browse through the many boxes  of LPS. I have always thought, it would be nice to have a turntable, so that I could just hark back to the days when I listened to vinyl and shellack. Record collectors always comment about the warm sound of listening to a vinyl recording.

Bed Bath and Beyond has been selling different types of turntables, sort of like retro-type items.   A Crossley combo player, which plays CDs, 78s, LPs, 45s, and cassettes, sells for $299. Well, that’s too much for me. At least right now. And I have learned that one part of a combo player goes on the blink, the rest soon follow.

No, I had been looking at a portable turntable which sold for $69.95. I would pick it up, touch the needle, brush my hand across the wood finish of the portable turntable. And then, I would shrug it off and move on. But then, the uge to listen to vinyl and shallack took control. I just had this need, this urge to listen to records. And I had a $5 coupon to Bed Bath and Beyond in my pocket for the longest time.   

Finally, this past Sunday evening, I made the decision to buy the portable turntable from Bed Bath And Beyond. Used my coupon. Was told that if I get my hands on a %20 coupon, I can bring it in to get a further discount.

I removed the turntable from the box. Set it up. And then, I played the first album: The Early Victor Herbert, a three record set released by the Smithsonian, in collaboration with RCA. Songs from The Fortune Teller (Recorded in 1898), Sweethearts, Naughty Marietta, The Red Mill, and others. Wonderful. Then, an LP of Victor recordings from 1928. Beautiful and bouncy!

Recently, a friend who had a garage sale, gave me two crates of albums. I donated most of the LPs to the Goodwill Store, but saved a few albums. One in particular had sentimental value: The Golden Library of Music: Music Of The Great Composers. This was part of a set of LPs which my mother had ordered many years before. My mother thought that she could introduce her sons to the great composers. The only one who found an interest in this set was yours truly. At the age of eight, I listened to this LP, which features short works by Schumann, Dvorak, Beethoven, Mozart, etc.

With this new turntable, I was able to listen to this LP, which I had not heard since those thrilling days of yesteryear when I was eight years old, hearing this music for the first time, and thinking , I want to hear more. Those were the days of visiting my local library, and borrowing those classical LPS encased in their plastic folders.

While listening to The Golden Library: Music of The Great Composers, I felt a sense of calm. I am sure my mother was watching over me, and smiling. If there is one thing I inherited from my mother Irene, is a love for good classical music. Thank you, Mom!