Today's film flashback is a very brief one. You had one choice on July 17, 1939 and that was Broadway Serenade which starred Jeanette MacDonald. It was showing at the Princess Theatre. 22,000,000 million people can't be wrong!
I only know one way to sing
Over and over again
That was it for movies playing, but there was this awesome advertisement for Warner Bros. and Chesterfield cigarettes featuring the 4 stars of Daughters Courageous; Gale Page, Lola Lane, Rosemary Lane, and Priscilla Lane. In case you were wondering, yes, the Lane's were sisters.
Moby Dick is an imaginary character invented by an author
Are you a natural blonde?
That's it for this regular weekly film flashback, but I'm back tomorrow for another bonus installment as I go back to 1976 so I can wax rhapsodic about Walter Matthau and Tatum O'Neal.
It was a mixed bag of movies back in Murfreesboro, Tennessee on February 21, 1970. We'll head out to the Marbro Drive-In for a double feature. The Family Way is probably better known now for having its score written by Paul McCartney and arranged by George Martin, but it's quite the charming film. Hayley Mills would marry co-director Roy Boulting becoming a young newlywed in real life in addition to playing the role of one. I wish I had a trailer to share, but none can be found so a piece of music from it must suffice. Up The Down Staircase features Sandy Dennis as a young English teacher in an inner city high school. "I want to talk about my potential."
Martin Theatre has Walt Disney's One Hundred and One Dalmatians during its first re-release run having originally come out in 1961. There's not much to say about this one other than it's a fantastic classic.
Last on this week's list is an X rated film. Persons under 17 not admitted even if they happened to be with a guardian. The Princess Theatre was nearing the end of its days and it tended to show more outrageous fare. More is a hippy dippy love story that turns to hard drug addiction. The movie is far more famous for it's soundtrack composed by Pink Floyd. There is nudity in the official movie trailer so don't say I didn't warn you. I'm sure the showing at the Princess was a hit with the discerning M.T.S.U. students back then.
That's all for this week. Next week we're headed to another year and I promise it will be out of this world.
We're beginning the year off with a look back at the movies that were playing or about to be playing in Murfreesboro, Tennessee 62 years ago. There's no Martin or Cinema, and no Marbro Drive-In (though there is a drive in theatre at the Marbro's location). Movies ran for fewer days in those days, often playing only for a couple of nights. There was the Princess Theatre on College Street, Starlite Drive-In out on Highway 231 Shelbyville Road, and the 4-Lane Drive-In which was located in the same spot on Highway 41 the Marbro would occupy beginning in 1966.
Let's head out south of town first to see what is playing at the Starlite on Friday January 3, 1958. On this night there's a couple of films: There's The Last Frontier with Victor Mature and there's also the sultry Jane Russell in Hot Blood directed by Nicholas Ray who had directed James Dean in Rebel Without A Cause. Another James Dean classic, Giant, was coming to the Starlite soon.
If The Last Frontier or Hot Blood wasn't something you wished to see on January 3, 1958, but you still wanted to enjoy the drive-in you could visit the north side of town and see what was playing at the 4-Lane Drive-In.
Bing Crosby was a Man On Fire which is a drama about divorce and child custody. Streets of Laredo is the second part of the double feature. Gunsight Ridge would begin on January 5, 1958.
If you didn't want to spend the evening in your car you could go into town and see what the Princess Theatre was offering. The last showing was today if you wanted to see Cary Grant and Jayne Mansfield in Kiss Them For Me. I'm a huge Cary Grant fan and how can you not like Jayne so if I had been alive back then I would have definitely gone to see this Stanley Donen directed movie. Saturday night you can catch a double feature with The Brass Legend and be able to answer the question "are mental patients turned loose too soon" after seeing The Night Runner. Kim Novak stars in Jeanne Eagels which is coming on Sunday and playing through Thursday. It's a bio pic on the Jeanne Eagels who was a Broadway and film star of the 20's.
Jeanne Eagels
That's all for this week's Film Flashback. I will continue to do these every Friday for most of this year. I doubt I will go this far back next time, but who knows what year I will end up in next.
