Around the Blogosphere This Week

Miscellaneous bits of news and fun stuff from around the Internet...

...Coming in February 2013, in celebration of Loretta Young's centennial: the LORETTA YOUNG SHOW 100TH BIRTHDAY EDITION: THE BEST OF THE COMPLETE SERIES. The set from Shout! Factory is a whopping 17 discs. It includes home movies, as well as interviews with Loretta's family and some who worked on the show.

...Last Wednesday, November 21st, was the centennial of the birth of dancer-actress Eleanor Powell. Here's a post from last year by Kay at Move Star Makeover. She references Jeanine Basinger's THE STAR MACHINE which goes into detail about the makeover MGM gave Powell as they groomed her for stardom.

...New book: HOLLYWOOD SKETCHBOOK: A CENTURY OF COSTUME ILLUSTRATION by Deborah Nadoolman Landis.

...Also new: David Thomson's THE BIG SCREEN: THE STORY OF THE MOVIES. I've enjoyed some of Thomson's other books and expect it to be a worthwhile read.

...Here's a sobering article from the Atlantic, shared via Twitter by Toby of 50 Westerns From the 50s: "With 35mm Film Dead, Will Classic Movies Ever Look the Same Again?"

...From the Los Angeles Times: "Cast Iron Enjoys a Comeback Among Cooks." Well, some of us have never left it in the first place...

...Turner Classic Movies has announced it will run Johnny Carson interviews with actors beginning in the summer of 2013. A promo video is on the TCM website.

...Dana Andrews biographer Carl Rollyson will visit the Silver Screen Oasis for an interview the weekend of December 8th.

...I enjoyed Paul's review of WATCH ON THE RHINE (1943) at Lasso the Movies. Looking forward to catching up with that one at some point.

...Joel shares a list of his favorite Christmas movies at Joel's Classic Film Passion. I approve...

...Lou Lumenick recently interviewed George Feltenstein of the Warner Archive. The Archive has just debuted its first two Blu-ray releases. (And if you head straight to the Archive site, you might still be in time for their Thanksgiving weekend 5 for $50 or 10 for $95 sale, which includes free shipping...if it follows the pattern of the Archive's other weekend sales, the sale prices should be good through Monday evening.)

...Attention Southern Californians: After taking Thanksgiving weekend off, the Mitchell Leisen series resumes at UCLA next weekend, with screenings of HOLD BACK THE DAWN (1941), SWING HIGH, SWING LOW (1937), NO MAN OF HER OWN (1950), and THE MATING SEASON (1951). The first three titles will be shown in 35mm and THE MATING SEASON screens in 16mm. Be there if you can!

...LES MISERABLES (2012) had its first screenings in New York, Los Angeles, and Sydney over this long weekend. It sounds as though it was a big success.

...My daughter made this Gingerbread Man recipe for Thanksgiving. The cookies turned out great!

...Notable Passings: Actress Deborah Raffin has passed on on at the age of 59. Raffin, whose TV credits included HAYWIRE (1980) and NOBLE HOUSE (1988), was also a cofounder of Dove audiobooks. She was the daughter of '40s Fox actress Trudy Marshall...Connie Wald, the widow of producer Jerry Wald and a longtime fixture on the Hollywood social scene, has died at 96...Singer David Allyn, whose album of Jerome Kern standards is one of my all-time favorite records, has passed away at 93. Have a listen to his version of "The Folks Who Live on the Hill." You won't be sorry.

Have a great week!