Epics

My January order is mostly cleaning up some of the themes I was working on last year. Epics and War movies were two areas I was working on with DVDs and once again I was amazed at some of the things we didn't have. The Ten Commandments, Exodus, and Cleopatra were three I didn't have. I also went through and filled in some of the war movies we were missing. Sergeant York, Red Badge of Courage, Four Feathers, and Hunt for the Red October. I also got some Christmas movies after I noticed we were lacking and I filled in a few other classic holes. One thing I did was buy several collections of two reeler comedies. The Three Stooges are of course Kings of the Two Reeler comedies. But as I was watching the Laurel & Hardy short at our inaugural Saturday Morning Matinee and I saw and heard the kids laughing I began to wonder what other forgotten gems were out there. I bought the Edgar Kennedy Two-Reeler Comedy Collection, the Leon Errol Two-Reeler Comedy Collection, and the Cavalcade of Comedy. I vaguely remember seeing both Leon Errol and Edgar Kennedy shorts at various times in the past. I'm curious to see whether they hold up today but I was surprised by the laughs Laurel & Hardy got. For me some of the most interesting films I'm finding for our Matinees are the cartoons and the shorts.

Notes

Anyone that has been in recently may have noticed that I have been reorganizing the music section. It kind of needed to be done. The Dewey Decimal system doesn't deal well with sound recordings and it can get kind of confusing. I hope I've been making it easier for people to find the CDs they want by grouping things into several broad categories for browsing. One thing I'm worried about is lack of space. We just bought some new CD shelving and I'm afraid that I've been buying so much that I've already maxed it out.

This year I'm going to be working on more recent best sellers starting with Country and Western. Then I'm going to buy Billboard "top 40" hits. Just recently I input my January order that included:

COUNTRY

Sara Evans Real Fine Place.
Alan Jackson Drive.
Gretchen Wilson Here for the Party.
Rascal Flatts Feels Like Today.
Martina McBride Martina McBride.
Brooks & Dunn Steers & Stripes.
Brad Paisley Mud on the Tires.
Kenny Chesney No Shirt No Shoes No Problem.
Carrie Underwood Some Hearts.
LeAnn Rimes This Woman.
Montgomery Gentry Some People Change.
Pat Green Cannonball.
Gary Allan Smoke Rings in the Dark.
Joe Nichols Man with a Memory.
Jason Aldean Jason Aldean.
Keith Urban Be Here.

COMEDY

Weird Al Yankovic Straight Outta Lynwood.
PDQ Bach Wurst of PDQ Bach

Play it again Sam

Broadway has always been a rich source of inspiration for Hollywood so I've been researching the Tony Awards, Pulitzer Prizes and New York Drama Critics Circle Awards looking for material that needs to be added to the DVD collection. Harvey, Arsnic and Old Lace, Mr. Roberts, and a Streetcar Named Desire are just a few of the fabulous movies that were adaptated from plays. Of course not every play translates well onto film. There is an energy between the actors on a stage and the audience that cannot be captured in a movie, but I am amazed at the number of award winning plays and musicals that became classic movies. I guess I shouldn't be, but I have a hard time picturing Mr. Roberts on stage. I mean it starred Henry Fonda, Jack Lemon, William Powell, Ward Bond, Jimmy Cagney, and was directed by John Ford. But Henry Fonda did create the role on Broadway just like Jimmy Stewart originated the charactor of Elwood P. Dowd in Harvey, and Marlon Brando got the role of Stanley Kowalski after his Broadway success. So I guess there is kind of an obvious connection there. As an aside, when they were casting the movie the Petrified Forest, the star, Leslie Howard, talked the studio into casting the actor who played the part of Duke Mantee on Broadway in the same part in the movie. That man was Humphrey Bogart and it gave him his big break in motion pictures.

The Play's the Thing

I will be working on our collection of plays on DVD for the February DVD order. Shakespeare is always a favorite because school kids would often rather watch MacBeth rather than read it. I don't blame them really, Shakespeare is in early modern English and is difficult to understand at times so watching a really good production helps. Kenneth Branagh did some excellent productions that were very accessible. I love his Henry the fifth but it is currently out of print (ARGH!). I also remember an excellent MacBeth directed by Orson Welles that's also out of print (although I did find him in a production of King Lear!).

What prompted this was the ballet DVDs I bought. They flew off the shelves after I let some of the local Ballet schools know they were here. So I thought I'd try the same thing with Plays. I ran across a DVD of the Iceman Commeth. It was Jason Robards break out role on Broadway and he later recreated the role for a Television version. So I thought I'd find the best DVD versions of play by the actors that made them famous. Then I'll see if English and dama teachers find them useful.

Just a thought.

Cartoons

Over the years I've been a huge fan of animation. When I was in high school whenever Walt Disney's Fantasia was showing we would all pile into my car and drive to the theater to see it. I especially love the older pre-television cartoons when production values were higher. One of the things I've done since I've been here is work with the Children's Department to make sure we have a represenative sample of animated films. Last night I watched the three Popeye technicolor two-reelers. The background and sets were fantastic. They are a bit dated but I think these three may be some the best cartoons ever made. I will show all three at different times for our Saturday Matinees this year along with Mickey Mouse and Betty Boop. I need to check up and see if we have a good selection the old Merry Melodies (The precursers to Bugs Bunny). Of course we also have been building up a good collection of classic kids television. Rocky and Bullwinkle had some of the funniest stuff on television.