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Movies 'Til Dawn BLOG

‘PEANUTS’ NIGHT: A VINCE GUARALDI JOINT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHOmBV4js_Ehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EMfA5_tm8Y My go-to cartoon characters as a kid were Bugs/Daffy/Porgy (Warner Brothers) and Charlie Brown/Lucy/Snoopy/Linus Charles M. Schultz). Everything else was the bunk. I’ve written before–rather recently in fact–about my loathing for all things Disney. Ditto Hanna-Barbara and their cheap, flat animation which did nothing to enhance their cheap, flat

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February 11, 2026 No Comments

CHARLES LINDBERGH DANCE PARTY

Recorded on May 26, 1927,  just five days after Lindbergh’s arrival in Paris, ‘Lucky Lindy’ (posted below) was a major hit record and one that Lindbergh apparently loathed. He was more than a little surprised at the world-wide hoopla that greeted him upon landing and regarded much of it with

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December 20, 2025 No Comments

DAMES WHO SWING (Part 3)

This week we’ve been taking a look at all-girl jazz bands of the 1930s and 1940s. Today we’re going to back to the 1920s where we will meet ‘The Ingenues’, a most adventurous and impressive ‘girl group’ that toured the United States and other countries from 1925 to 1937. They

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August 13, 2025 2 Comments

JUDY GARLAND IN TWO TAKES

It took three days to shoot the scene in which Judy Garland performs Harold Arlen and Ira Gershwin’s haunting and highly unusual (in form) torch song ‘The Man That Got Away’, for the 1954 version of ‘A Star Is Born’. Above is a nifty split screen demonstrating two of the

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July 25, 2025 1 Comment

JAZZ HATES YOU TOO

As a jazz pianist, I’m less sensitive than most others of my ilk to people’s frequently (and freely) expressed negative opinions about the music that I love. This is largely due to my belief that when people say that they don’t like jazz they’re not really referring to jazz–they’re either

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July 22, 2025 1 Comment

DOC, JOHNNY AND…BILLIE JOE?

When I was a kid I had a two-disc LP comprised of the audio of ‘Tonight Show’ segments. The Johnny Carson album was a big flop for some reason–Carson liked to joke about it–and I can’t remember quite why we had it since neither I nor my parents watched Carson.

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July 3, 2025 2 Comments

BIX ON FILM PT.2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmD7jeIEkfg (NOTE: HIT ABOVE ‘PLAY ON YOUTUBE’ BUTTON TO WATCH VIDEO. THE GUY WHO POSTED IT APPARENTLY THINKS HE OWNS IT). When I was a kid in the early 70s getting into jazz and old movies, two great revivals were taking place. One was The Marx Brothers revival, which began

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June 3, 2025 No Comments

JAZZ HIJINKS, 1926 EDITION

With the introduction of Safety Film in 1925, the home movie craze began. Safety was a non-flammable alternative to the highly inflammatory nitrate stock which all movies previously were shot on. Smaller gauge cameras–16mm arrived two years prior in 1923–were easier to use and didn’t require much in the way

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June 2, 2025 1 Comment

CREDIT SEQUENCE THEATER: “ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW”

‘Odds Against Tomorrow'(1959) is a generally overlooked crime caper noir starring Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan and Ed Begley and directed by Robert Wise. The film has much to recommend it, including the above title sequence which is hardly what one might expect for a jazz-infused, urban noir tragedy. Instead of

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May 6, 2025 No Comments

JOAN CRAWFORD DANCES

Let’s close this autumnal week with some madcap 1920s dancing featuring Joan Crawford. Above and below I’ve posted a few minutes from ‘Our Dancing Daughters’, the 1928 silent vehicle that officially launched Crawford’s career and world wide fame. Actually, calling the film ‘silent’ isn’t quite accurate as it was released

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October 11, 2024 No Comments

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