Henry Wilcoxon Film Festival

Let's see. Henry Wilcoxon played Marc Antony to Claudette Colbert's Cleopatra.
He was in Tarzan Finds a Son with Johnny Weismiller.
He was in the Last of the Mohicans with Randolf Scott.
Mrs. Miniver with Greer Garson.
He was Sir Lancelot in a Connectiut Yankee in King Arthur's Court with Bing Crosby.
He was in Dragnet, Sampson and Deliah, the Greatest Show on Earth, the Ten Commandments, the Warlord, F.I.S.T and Caddyshack.

He did guest spots on the Big Valley, I Spy, the FBI, the Wild Wild West, Marcus Whelby MD, and Cagney and Lacy. I was thinking of doing a Henry Wilcocon Film Festival just because most people I know would say "Henry Who?" "He did Tarzan and Caddyshack?" The guy did an amazing number of movies most of them are long forgotten but a few of them are classics. Cecil B. DeMille's Cleopatra is one I'm definately goint to buy next year some time. The next time you watch Caddyshack and you see that old minister playing golf in the rain say "Say isn't that Henry Wilcoxon?" and impress your friends.

Saturday Matinee

Once more into the breach. I'm going to try to do a year of Saturday Matinees. That is start off with a serial, then a cartoon, then a short feature (or a B feature) the A feature. I'm going to use all material from the 30's to get a feel for the golden age of American Cinema. For my serial I'm using Flash Gordon. For the shorts I'm going with Laurel & Hardy and the Three Stooges. Maybe some Our Gang. Last year we built a pretty good collection of Cartoons so we have some vintage Popeye, Betty Boop, Mickey Mouse, Looney Toons (Merry Melodies), and some Ub Iwerk (Yep. Ub Iwerk. That really was his name!). For the A features I'm going with:

Adventures of Robin Hood Jan. 13
Tarzan the Ape Man Feb. 10
Horse Feathers March 10
Angels with Dirty Faces April 14
King Kong May 12
Thin Man June 9
Charlie Chan in London July 14
Bringing Up Baby August 11
Destry Rides Again September 8
Frankenstein October 13
Topper November 10
Captain Blood December 8

I don't know whether having a family oriented film program will work. It's something I've toyed with before with indifferent results but once more into the breach! I don't really have legitimate B feature material. So maybe I'll do some double features. Horse Feathers, Charlie Chan, and Frankenstein are all fairly short so maybe I'll do doubles on those days.

Country Revisited.

I have just begun to blog regularly again. I sort of went into remission for a while because I wasn't sure anyone was out there reading this and if I'm going to blog on the taxpayer's dime I want it to be useful. Libraries always have trouble with feedback. That's why we count everything, the number of people that come into the building, the number times a book checks out, and so forth. It's the only we have of knowing whether what we do works. I was hoping that by blogging, Rogers Library customers would learn a little about WHY I collect the materials that I do. We have mission statements, policies, and guidelines, all of which are published and posted but every Library Mission Statement I ever read sounded dry and vanilla, and ours sounds just like every other public Library mission statement. But I really do collect with a purpose and I am trying to build a specific type of collection.

Last year I started with evaluating and building "core" collections. I went back to roots of a specific collection, identified the classics, and worked my way forward. This year with many collections I will begin to concentrate on the present. Country & Western music is one of those collections. Last year I went back and found Jimmie Rogers, the Carter Family, and Hank Williams. This year I'll looking at the hot tracks and working back. There is a concern. How many of these guys will fade? Was LeAnn Rimes a one hit wonder? Will Sara Evans and Keith Urban have staying power? I don't know but it will interesting to find out.