The Greats

For John, BLUF:  Those people out in Hollywood are messing with what we can watch, impacting what we think of ourselves.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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For the Love of Jimmy Stewart, Save Turner Classic Movies!

From Carla Seaquist at Medium, by Ms Carla Seaquist, 11 July 2023.

Here is the lede plus six:

Jimmy Stewart filibustering for cleaner politics.

Bette Davis operating in her reality-based mode.

James Cagney conjuring up, as it were, “sumpin’ out of nuttin.’”

These iconic American actors, symbolizing iconic American traits, are mainstays of a venue fashioned just for them: Turner Classic Movies.  Seven days a week, 24 hours a day, “uncut and commercial-free,” you could tune in to TCM and partake of stories and performances that thrill, elevate, comfort — in sum, entertain in the richest possible way.

That is, once upon a time it did.

The disturbing news that Turner Classic Movies has undergone a corporate “reorg” — it has been taken over by Warner Bros. Discovery, resulting in 70 of its 90-member staff laid off, including the programmers who curate TCM’s fare with peerless taste — has hit film lovers hard and has us asking, yet again:

Must everything fine in American life be commercialized, cheesed-up, ruined?

Carla, who I have met, and her Husband, a retired Navy Captain and Washington State Legislator, are Democrats, but they understand our History and our need to honor it and build on it.  Jimmy Stewart is a good example.  Not only was he a great actor.  He was a legitimate World War II hero, learning to fly as a civilian and then joining the Army Air Forces as a bomber pilot.

Fighting the good fight, navigating as adult, going from “nuttin’ to sumpin’”: All these traits — enabling America to navigate a darkening future — are continuously on view at TCM.

Regards  —  Cliff