The Golden Age of Television Drama continues at the 92nd Street Y Tribeca. It has been a successful and popular course. So far, we have discussed and viewed such live television classics as Paddy Cheyevsky’s Marty, Rod Serling’s Patterns, Requiem For A Heavyweight, and his adaptation of The Comedian, and this afternoon, the 1958 Playhouse 90 production of Days of Wine And Roses, with Cliff Robertson and Piper Laurie. The best part of the series is the post broadcast discussion, which leads to various aspects of the program viewed. In the case of Marty and Days of Wine And Roses, we have compared scenes from the remake feature versions of these broadcasts, with their original entities. There is more television drama to come, with such broadcasts as What Makes Sammy Run, Bang The Drum Slowly, and closing with the 1959 The Jazz Singer, with Jerry Lewis (recently restored). To catch the remaining classes, feel free to visit 92Y.org/InSession.

Silent FIlm Composer and Historian Ben Model, and I, will be making two Long Island appearances in March, 2013. On Sunday, March 3rd, in the Gold Hall of Hewlett-Woodmere Public Library, we will discuss, and Ben will accompany Harold Lloyd’s beautiful epic comedy, The Kid Brother, produced in 1928. This would be the last film to feature Harold’s co-star, Jobyna Ralston. That screening begins at 2PM, and admission is free. Then, on March 15th, Ben and I return to the Port Washington Public Library (we were there last this past April, presenting Harold Lloyd in Safety Last), where we will present, on Friday, at 7:30PM, one of Mary Pickford’s later silent films, My Best Girl, which features Pickford’s third husband, Charles “Buddy” Rogers. As always, Ben will not only accompany the film, but he will discuss how music played a role during the silent film era. As with our Kid Brother engagement, admission to this screening is also free. See you there!,

In March, I will be making my debut at Hunter College, by presenting The Jewish Composer And The Hollywood Musical, as part of their Continuing Education Department offerings.. Beginning Thursday, March 7th, from 5:30 to 8:30PM, with an evening of clips and discussion from Irving Berlin musicals, then continuing on March 14th with Jerome Kern, and finally closing on March 21st with the Gershwins. What’s nice is that I have three hours each evening, so I will also include additional clips, or even a surprise film. To register, please visit the Hunter College Continuing Education website.

As of this writing, I am one day away from presenting my last lecture in the RKO 1935 series, at the 92nd Street Y Tribeca, in lower Manhattan. In the past four weeks, we covered such films as Top Hat, The Informer, Last Days of Pompeii, and SHE. Now, on December 18th, we will discuss and screen one of George Stevens’ earliest films at RKO, his film version of Booth Tarkington’s Alice Adams, starring Katharine Hepburn and Fred MacMurray. This was the mid-point of Hepburn’s RKO period. She had made her first film at the studio, with A Bill of Divorcement, in 1932, in which she was directed by George Cukor (the first of ten films Hepburn and Cukor would collaborate on). It’s interesting to note that Hepburn and RKO Executive producer Pandro S. Berman, flipped a coin to see who would direct the actress in the film. Either William Wyler or George Stevens. Stevens won the toss (after a second try). This film marks the end of the RKO 1935 series. But, come 2013, I will be presenting two series, during the Winter/Spring semester: The Golden Age of Television Drama, which is an expanded version of the course I taught at Queens College in the Fall. This course will feature such class television plays as Marty, Patterns, What Makes Sammy Run, Jerry Lewis in The Jazz Singer, plus the T.V. versions of Days of Wine And Roses, and Bang The Drum Slowly, both of which would become feature films years later. As Charlton Heston once said, live television drama gave work and helped develop the careers to may young actors, writers, and directors. This course will run for eight weeks, and will begin January 29th. Beginning April 9th, I will present a four week series, devoted to Bette Davis at Warner Brothers. Featured in this series devoted to her golden period at Warners, will be Jezebel (1938), Dark Victory (1939), The Letter (1940), and Now Voyager (1942). This series will ask the question, “Why ask for the Moon, we have the stars?”. More courses are now in development for Summer, 2013, at the 92nd Streett Y Tribeca. Stay tuned.

I will be returning to the Tribeca annex of the 92nd Street Y on November 15th, where I will be presenting a five week series, devoted to noteworthy films produced at RKO studios, in 1935. RKO was always a studio suffering from financial difficulties. I always ask this question in my lectures and classes devoted to Astaire and Rogers: what two couples saved RKO from bankruptcy in 1933. Ofcourse, those two couples were Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and Fay Wray and King Kong. 1935 saw many wonderful films produced at the studio that year. I will be discussing Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, in TOP HAT, John Ford’s The Informer,starring Victor McLagelen, with Max Steiner’s Academy Award winning score (his first of three), The Last Days of Pompeii, SHE, which was last for many years, and restored in the late 1980s, and George Stevens’ ALICE ADAMS, starring Katharine Hepburn. We will see in this series, how RKO was growing as a studio, with wonderful output that year. Dates for the films are Top Hat (November 13th), The Informer (November 20th), The Last Days of Pompeii (November 27th), She (Devember 4th), and Alice Adams (December 18th).

Coming off the most recent edition of the high holy holidays, in which I participated: sang with my temple choir, read a passage to the congregation (which is referred to as an Alleyah, a blessing bestowed upon me by the congregation), and observed with my family. With each year, singing the same songs and reading the same prayers, to me, it becomes the Greatest Hits of Rosh Hashashanah and Yom Kippur. On Yom Kippur, especially, it seemed like we sang a select number of the same songs, both on Kol Nidre (Cantor sang solo) and then with the choir; and finally, some of the same songs popped up during the healing service, later in the afternoon. We all have our favorite songs durng the holidays. And because, now, that I am singing these songs with choir, I find myself singing the songs to myself, and even whislting some while driving. There is the same familarity with these songs, as with a production of Oklahoma, or Les Miserables. They are like old friends, wisened through the years. As Bing Crosby sings in Blue Skies, these songs keep coming back, like an old melody. Like perfume in May, which returns to my room, in December (although these songs are usually sung in September, or at the latest, October. Next year, the high holy holidays will arrive even earlier: a couple of days after LAbor Day. And the same songs will be sung again.

On Tuesday, October 2nd, I will be making my debut at the MacArthur High School, in Levittown, NY, presenting my three part lecture series, The Jewish Composer And The Hollywood Musical, as part of the Levittown, NY school district’s Adult Education program. Each week, I will focus on a composer’s influence on the genre of the Hollywood Musical. Beginning on October 2nd, I will present film clips from the musicals, featuring the songs of Irving Berlin, featuring clips from The Jazz Singer, Top Hat, Easter Parade, On The Avenue, Holiday Inn, and others.; on October 9th, the focus will be on Jerome Kern, featuring clips from Cover Girl, Show Boat, You Were Never Lovlier, Swing Time, and others; and then, on October 16th, I will focus on the Gershwins, featuring clips from Shall We Dance, An American In Paris, Rhapsody In Blue, and others.

On Sunday, August 12th, Nine Queens College Lifelong Learning Institute students joined me at the Paley Center For Media, in Manhattan, for the first Queens College Lifelong Learning Institute Field Trip. Our goal was to see the 1953 Goodyear Playhouse television broadcast of Horton Foote’s A Trip To Bountiful, starring Lillian Gish and Eva Marie Saint (one year before she made her feature film debut in On The Waterfront). We received a nice welcome from both the museum’s Manager of Group Services and the Executive Curator. This presentation of the “Bountiful” is part of a series of Foote broadcasts which will be shown in the museum’s Concourse, spacious theatre, and is a companion piece to an Off-Broadway Horton Foote revival about to open soon. Since we were a group, it was nice to get the special group discount: $5.00 admission, instead of the usual $10. Also, since I will be teaching a course on the Golden Age of Television at both Queens College in the Fall, and a more expansive course at 92nd Street Y Tribeca in the Winter, I have been invited to bring students for additional group screenings of broadcasts. Since most of the museum’s collection has been digitized, we choose a broadcast, and it will be booted up to the Museum’s theatre on the sixth floor, which seats 40. Later in the day, we all got together for a nice lunch at Burger Heaven. Afterwards, some of us parted company, but a few of us returned to the museum, to partake in the over 200,000 broadcasts in the Paley museum’s collection. Three of our group opted for Seinfeld. I opted for the 1954 General Foods Tribute to Rodgers and Hammerstein. Overall, a nice start to the future of Queens College Lifelong Learning Field Trips.

This has been a very eventful Summer. With less than the month of August to go, it has been extremely enriching: As you may know, I brought my series, The Jewish Composer And THe Hollywood Musical, up to the Berkshires, back in June. Each week, I would present lectures on Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, and the Gershwins, at the Knesset Congregation Temple, in Pittsfield, MA, and then stay over at the beautiful Inn At Stockbridge. This series was a major success, and I have been invited to lecture in Pittsfield, next Summer. Over at Queens College, while preparing for the upcoming Fall semester (which begins October 1st), I presented this Summer’s Lifelong Learning 2012 Film Festival, Partners In Romance, in which I discussed and screened such films as Top Hat, Adventures of Robin Hood, Girl Crazy, The Big Sleep, Adam’s Rib, and closing with Annie Hall. I have received requests for next Summer’s series, which will be devoted to the collaboration of Director Alfred Hitchcock, and Composer Bernard Herrmann. Over at Long Island University: C.W. Post, the Hutton House Lectures have been very successful, with such series as Judy Garland at MGM and Bon Voyage: Ocean Liners. At the 92nd Street Y Tribeca, I presented Make Em’ Laugh: The Golden Age of FIlm Comedy, with sessions on Silent Film Comedy, Comedy Teams, and Screwball Comedy. My current series at the Y, Broadway To Hollywood: Film Adaptations of Broadway Musicals, has had a healthy enrollment. My first session, focusing on Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, and The Gershwins, had a very heallthy enrollment, and will be followed on August 16th with a focus on Rodgers, Hart, and Hammerstein, and closing on August 23rd with The 1960’s and Beyond. On a personal level, I just attended my 30th High School Reunion, reuniting with my West Hempstead High School classmates. That was an experiience. I would have liked to have SEEN many of my classmates, but with the low lighting (I think that’s called ambiance), I could not make out half of my former classmates. Also, some classmates were not wearing nametags, so I did not know who the Hell they were. However, I put up a good front: “Hey! How are you? So good to see you! (A lie, since I could not recognize certain people with the low lighting and lack of name tags).  Ofcourse, the highlight of August, will be the upcoming 16th Annual Long Island Al Jolson Festival, hosted by International Al Jolson Society President, Jan Hernstat, and featuing the wonderful Tony Babino. Eddie Cantor’s grandson, Brian Gari, and Joe Franklin will also be in attendance. Oh, and also broke up with my girlfriend of three months. However, one minor flaw like that should not upset a very eventful Summer.