TCM Schedule for Friday, June 28, 2019 -- What's On Tonight: Stonewall

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM is featuring Judy Garland. According to IMDB, "She was considered an icon in the gay community in the 1950s and 1960s. Her death and the loss of that emotional icon in 1969 has been thought to be a contributing factor to the feeling of the passing of an era that helped spark the Stonewall Riots that began the modern gay rights advocacy movement."

Then in primetime, TCM is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Stonewall Riots. Take it away, Roger!

On June 28, 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn, one of the few local bars in New York City that openly welcomed members of the LGBTQ community. The Greenwich Village bar was often raided by police to arrest citizens, but this night proved different as patrons fought back, which sparked a series of violent protests and demonstrations that became known as the Stonewall Riots. A number of activists organized, thus beginning the gay liberation movement in the U.S. TCM celebrates this moment in history with a night of films set in and around gay establishments in Greenwich Village.

Some of My Best Friends Are... (1971) is set on Christmas Eve 1971 in a gay bar called "The Blue Jay," where the clientele and staff interact and reflect upon their lives and relationships. Mervyn Nelson wrote and directed, and the cast includes such future TV stars as Rue McClanahan, Gary Sandy, Fannie Flagg and Gil Gerard. Also featured are Carleton Carpenter, Andy Warhol Superstar Candy Darling and singer Sylvia Syms. Vincent Canby wrote in The New York Times that, "At one point or another, Mr. Nelson manages to discover and exploit every stereotype of homosexual literature."

The Ritz (1976), a film version of the successful Broadway comedy of a year earlier, features members of the Broadway cast such as Jack Weston, Jerry Stiller, F. Murray Abraham and Tony winner Rita Moreno in a farce about the frenetic carryings-on in a gay bathhouse in Manhattan. Treat Williams and Kaye Ballard also are in the cast. The movie earned Golden Globe nominations for Best Musical or Comedy, Best Actor (Weston) and Best Actress (Moreno).

Torch Song Trilogy (1988) stars Harvey Fierstein in a movie reincarnation of his Tony-winning Broadway tour de force. Fierstein plays Arnold, a female impersonator searching for love and respect in New York City during the 1970s and early '80s. His key relationships are with a closeted school teacher (Brian Kerwin), a young male model (Matthew Broderick) and a demanding yet loving mother (Anne Bancroft). Paul Bogart directed from Fierstein's adaptation of his play.

by Roger Fristoe

Enjoy!


7:30 AM -- FOR ME AND MY GAL (1942)
An unscrupulous song-and-dance man uses his partner and his best friend to get ahead.
Dir: Busby Berkeley
Cast: Judy Garland, George Murphy, Gene Kelly
BW-104 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Roger Edens and George Stoll

This was the first film in which Judy Garland had her name billed before the title, which showed her growing importance and stature at MGM.


9:15 AM -- MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (1944)
Young love and childish fears highlight a year in the life of a turn-of-the-century family.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Judy Garland, Margaret O'Brien, Mary Astor
C-113 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar Juvenile Award for Margaret O'Brien for outstanding child actress of 1944

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay -- Irving Brecher and Fred F. Finklehoffe, Best Cinematography, Color -- George J. Folsey, Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- George Stoll, and Best Music, Original Song -- Ralph Blane and Hugh Martin for the song "The Trolley Song"

This film was a box-office smash, grossing more money than any prior MGM release in 20 years - with the exception of David O. Selznick's Gone with the Wind (1939).


11:15 AM -- TILL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY (1946)
True story of composer Jerome Kern's rise to the top on Broadway and in Hollywood.
Dir: Richard Whorf
Cast: June Allyson, Lucille Bremer, Judy Garland
C-135 mins, CC,

Judy Garland, who played real-life singer-dancer Marilyn Miller, was pregnant with her first daughter, Liza Minnelli. She was placed behind stacks of dishes while singing "Look For the Silver Lining", but it was not to "hide her belly" as some have thought, because moments before her number, she is shown walking over to the set and even during her song as she is standing behind the dishes, her abdomen is not disguised.


1:30 PM -- THE HARVEY GIRLS (1946)
Straitlaced waitresses battle saloon girls to win the West for domesticity.
Dir: George Sidney
Cast: Judy Garland, John Hodiak, Ray Bolger
C-101 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Harry Warren (music) and Johnny Mercer (lyrics) for the song "On the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe"

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Lennie Hayton

In the big production number "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe", from Judy Garland's entrance until the tempo change is one take. Rumor has it they only shot it twice and she was dead-on both times.


3:15 PM -- THE CLOCK (1945)
A G.I. en route to Europe falls in love during a whirlwind two-day leave in New York City.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Judy Garland, Robert Walker, James Gleason
BW-90 mins, CC,

The escalator in the Penn Station scene where Alice loses her shoe heel had unusually high sides to disguise that fact that it wasn't a real escalator at all. Wartime material shortages and restrictions prohibited MGM from building a real escalator, so the studio compromised with a conveyor belt. At no time in the scenes do you actually see escalator steps.


5:00 PM -- A STAR IS BORN (1954)
A falling star marries the newcomer he's helping reach the top.
Dir: George Cukor Cast: Judy Garland, James Mason, Jack Carson
C-176 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- James Mason, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Judy Garland (Judy Garland couldn't attend the ceremony because she was giving birth to her third child and only son, Joey Luft. Even though she did not win the Academy Award she always stated that Joey was the best "Academy Award" she ever received that night.), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Malcolm C. Bert, Gene Allen, Irene Sharaff and George James Hopkins, Best Costume Design, Color -- Jean Louis, Mary Ann Nyberg and Irene Sharaff, Best Music, Original Song -- Harold Arlen (music) and Ira Gershwin (lyrics) for the song "The Man that Got Away", and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Ray Heindorf

George Cukor was an expert on pushing actresses to an emotional brink and then capturing it on film. For Judy Garland's breakdown scene in Esther's dressing room, he drove her so hard that she threw up before the first take. Then he made her do the scene over and over until he had it just right. But he was also an expert in easing tension on the set through humor. After the final take, Garland was sobbing uncontrollably. He came up to her quietly, put his hand on her shoulder and said, "Judy, Marjorie Main couldn't have done that any better!"



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: STONEWALL



8:00 PM -- SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS ARE... (1971)
A group of men gather in a New York bar to discuss their lives and relationships.
Dir: Mervyn Nelson
Cast: Tom Bade, David Baker, Paul Blake
BW-110 mins, CC, Letterbox Format


10:00 PM -- THE RITZ (1976)
A heterosexual business is hiding from his murderous mobster brother-in-law in a gay bathhouse in Manhattan.
Dir: Richard Lester
Cast: Richard Holmes, Jack Weston, Christopher J Brown
BW-91 mins, CC,

Abe Lefkowitz, the doorman at The Ritz, asks Gaetano Proclo, "You ever been in a place like this?" Proclo replies, "Oh, sure. We have a Jack LaLanne's in Cleveland." Jack LaLanne (1914-2011) was a bodybuilder who founded the American physical fitness movement. He opened America's first health & fitness club in Oakland, CA, in 1936, and had fitness clubs throughout the USA. (The joke is that Proclo thinks he's checking in to a health club, when in fact it's a gay bathhouse.)


11:45 PM -- TORCH SONG TRILOGY (1988)
A drag queen's affair with a bisexual throws his life into turmoil.
Dir: Paul Bogart
Cast: Anne Bancroft, Matthew Broderick, Harvey Fierstein
C-119 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Matthew Broderick was asked to do the role of Alan, but he felt it was too soon after his auto accident in Ireland. He didn't reply to the producers, so Tate Donovan was cast instead. The second day of rehearsals, Broderick called Harvey Fierstein on set and agreed to do the role.


2:00 AM -- MYRA BRECKINRIDGE (1970)
After undergoing gender reassignment surgery, an aspiring actress travels to Hollywood.
Dir: Michael Sarne
Cast: Mae West, John Huston, Raquel Welch
BW-94 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

It was not so much the box-office failure as the complete and utter critical savaging of the movie--a reception that could only be termed as "disastrous"--that wrecked the careers of director Michael Sarne and actor Roger Herren. The critical and financial flop also seriously hurt Raquel Welch, who never achieved the true star status that had been predicted for her.


3:45 AM -- FUNERAL PARADE OF ROSES (1970)
The story follows Eddie and a group of transvestites in Japan.
Dir: Toshio Matsumoto
Cast: Peter, Osamu Ogasawara, Toyosaburo Uchiyama
BW-105 mins,

The Funeral Parade of Roses gave Stanley Kubrick several visual and aural inspirations for his adaptation of A Clockwork Orange.


5:32 AM -- THE YOUR NAME HERE STORY (1964)
This comedic short film spoofs generic company promotional advertisements.
C-9 mins,


5:45 AM -- WONDERFUL WORLD OF TUPPERWARE (1965)
This short industrial film focuses on the making of Tupperware.
Dir: George J. Yarbrough
C-29 mins,