Skip to main content

Two Years of Back to Golden Days

On February 27, 2015 I made the spontaneous decision to create a classic film blog. At the time, it was just a way for me to share my passion for the wonderful world of Old Hollywood and the people that were part of it. I had no idea that my little corner of the Internet would become such a big part of my life — and all due to you lovely people who read my articles and take the time to comment. So, all I can say is thank you so much and here's to another year! 


Let's revisit all the exciting things that happened on this blog since February 27, 2016.

In March, I participated in the Classic Movie Quotes Blogathon hosted by The Flapper Dame. My entry was about my favourite film quote of all time: «Here's looking at you, kid.» from Casablanca (1942). A few days afterwards, I entered the Marathon Stars Blogathon hosted by In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood and The Wonderful World of Cinema. The idea was to basically explore the body of work of an actor/actress from whom we had not seen many films, but that we were curious to discover. I picked Ronald Reagan because I had fallen slightly in love with him after watching (countless times) this brilliant Warner Bros. blooper reel (he appears towards the end of it). I called my post Seven Days of Ronald Reagan. Also in March, I shared with you the first silent film I ever saw, A Woman of Affairs (1928).
 
 
In April, there were four amazing blogathons. The first was hosted again by In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood and honored Bette Davis. I wrote about Now, Voyager (1942), my favorite film of hers. The second was the Beyond the Cover Blogathon, hosted by Now Voyaging and Speakeasy, and it required us to write about a film adaptation of a book. I chose Wuthering Heights (1939), even though I am not a fan of the film or the book. I explain why in my article. Then, In the Wonderful World of Hollywood hosted the Golden Boy Blogathon to honor William Holden, one of my favorite actors. My article was about Stalag 17 (1953), for which he won the Oscar. Lastly, there was the Star-Studded Couple Blogathon hosted by Phyllis Loves Classic Movies. Guess who I wrote about? Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman, of course.
 
 
May started with a blogathon hosted by Flickin' Out honoring Audrey Hepburn. I wrote about Roman Holiday (1953), one of my all-time favourite pictures. Classic Film & TV Café hosted the 5 Movies on an Island Blogathon and I, of course, had to enter. It was quite difficult to come with only 5 films, but I managed to do it. The third blogathon in May was hosted by Classic Reel Girl and celebrated dance in film. My article focused on the screen partnership and real-life friendship of Gene Kelly and Judy Garland. Then there was the Animals in Film Blogathon hosted by In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood. I entered with an article on Bringing Up Baby (1938), which incidentally was the first black & white film I ever saw. Also in May I put together my top 10 favourite James Stewart of the 1930s.
 
 
In June I took part in three blogathons: the Royalty in Film Blogathon hosted by The Flapper Dame, which I entered with The Swan (1956); the Athletes in Film Blogathon hosted by Once Upon a Screen and Wide Screen World, which I entered with The Stratton Story (1949); and the Classic Courtroom Movie Blogathon hosted by Second Sight Cinema and CineMaven's Essays from the Couch, which I entered with The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946).
 
 
July was a special month, as it marked Olivia de Havilland's 100th birthday. As such, I wrote a series of articles to honor her: a tribute to her wonderful life and career; an overview of her famed lifelong feud with her sister, Joan Fontaine; and I also entered the Olivia de Havilland Centenary Blogathon hosted by Phyllis Loves Classic Movies and In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood, with an article about To Each His Own (1946). In addition, I entered the Films of 1932 Blogathon hosted by CineMaven's Essays from the Couch and Once Upon a Screen with Taxi!; and the Joan Crawford Blogathon hosted by In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood, for which I wrote about Dancing Lady (1933). I July I also had the honor of being nominated for a fourth and fifth Liebster Awards. Thank you so much to the people who nominated me.
 

In August there were not three, not four, but FIVE amazing blogathons that I just had to be part of. For the Classic Movie History Blogathon hosted by Movies Silently, Silver Screenings and Once Upon a Screen, I wrote a piece on the evolution of colour film, closely analysing the restrained mode of colour design in The Trail of Lonesome Pine (1936). For the Alfred Hitchcock Blogathon hosted by Coffee, Classics and Craziness, I entered an article about Suspicion (1941). For the Film Noir Blogathon hosted by The Midnite Drive-In, I chose to write about Double Idemnity (1944). For the 2nd Annual Barrymore Trilogy Blogathon hosted by In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood, I picked Dinner at Eight (1933). Lastly, for the 2nd Wonderful Ingrid Bergman Blogathon hosted by The Wonderful World of Cinema, I entered a piece on Spellbound (1945). In the middle of all this «blogathon-mania,» I managned to find the time to write a tribute article celebrating Van Johnson's 100th birthday.
 

September and October were quiet on the blogathon front. But a very exciting thing happened in October: I got nominated for a Sunshine Blogger Award, which made very happy. That month I also shared with you my top 20 favourite classic movie quotes.

In November I turned 27, so I started the month by telling you about 27 of my favourite «modern» films. Then I let my fascination for History and Genealogy take hold of me and I delved into the royal ancestry of Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine. Did you know that they were direct descendants of King Edward I of England? Well, you know now. Pretty cool, right? Also in November I participated in the 2nd Wonderful Grace Kelly Blogathon hosted by The Wonderful World of Cinema with an article about Grace's relationship with Prince Rainier of Monaco, another fascinating subject. I called it Grace & Rainer: A Royal Romance.
 

December started with the Cary Grant Blogathon hosted by Phyllis Loves Classic Movies, for which I wrote about The Awful Truth (1937). Then there was the Kirk Douglas 100th Birthday Blogathon hosted by Shadows and Satin, which I entered with a piece on The Vikings (1958). For the Vincente Minnelli Blogathon hosted by Love Letters to Old Hollywood, I wrote about Some Came Running (1958), one of my personal favourites. For the Humphrey Bogart Blogathon hosted by Sleepwalking in Hollywood and Musings of a Classic Film Addict, I chose to participate with The Caine Mutiny (1954). Also in December, I did some research about the Hollywood Canteen and investigated the royal ancestry of Humphrey Bogart. To say goodbye to 2016, I shared with you a list of all the films I had seen throughout the year.
 

In January, I took part in the Profane Angel Blogathon hosted by In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood and Phyllis Loves Classic Movies to honor the wonderful Carole Lombard. I chose to write about her work during the war and the tragic plane crash that took her life, which is a subject that has always intrigued me. I called it The Final Hours of Carole Lombard.

In February, I entered the 90th Years of Sidney Poitier Blogathon hosted by The Wonderful World of Cinema with a piece on the highly underrated film A Raisin in the Sun (1960). Because February is «Oscar month,» I also posted a series of Oscar-related articles: my top 10 favourite Best Pictures winners from 1929 to 1969 and from 1970 to 2015; my 15 favourite Best Actor-winning performances; and my 15 favourite Best Actress-winning performances.
 

And there you have it — a compilation of some of the most interesting articles I wrote during my second year of blogging. Once again, thank you so much for being so nice and for sticking with me and here's to many more years of Back to Golden Days.  

Comments

  1. Congratulations on two years of fantastic blogging!!! Not only did we both start our blogs just a few months apart, but there's only a one month difference in our ages! ;)

    This is such a great idea to highlight all the blogathons you've been in over the past year!

    You always write such high quality, book-worthy posts and I never leave without learning something new :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aw, thank you so much, Phyl! That means a lot. :)

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Golden Couples: Gary Cooper & Patricia Neal

It was April 1948 when director King Vidor spotted 22-year-old Patricia Neal on the Warner Bros. studio lot. A drama graduate from Northwestern University, she had just arrived in Hollywood following a Tony Award-winning performance in Lillian Hellman's Another Part of the Forest . Impressed by Patricia's looks, Vidor approached the young actress and asked if she would be interested in doing a screen test for the female lead in his newest film, The Fountainhead (1949). Gary Cooper had already signed as the male protagonist, and the studio was then considering Lauren Bacall and Barbara Stanwyck to play his love interest.          Neal liked the script and about two months later, she met with the director for sound and photographic tests. Vidor was enthusiastic about Patricia, but her first audition was a complete disaster. Cooper was apparently watching her from off the set and he was so unimpressed by her performance that he commented, « What's that!? » He tried to con

Golden Couples: Henry Fonda & Barbara Stanwyck

In the mid- and late 1930s, screwball comedy was in vogue and practically every actress in Hollywood tried her hand at it. Barbara Stanwyck never considered herself a naturally funny person or a comedienne per se , but after delivering a heart-wrenching performance in King Vidor's Stella Dallas (1937), she decided she needed a « vacation » from emotional dramas. In her search for a role, she stumbled upon a « champagne comedy » called The Mad Miss Manton (1938), originally intended as a Katharine Hepburn vehicle. Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda as Melsa and Peter in The Mad Miss Manton .   Directed by Leigh Jason from a script by Philip G. Epstein, The Mad Miss Manton begins when vivacious Park Avenue socialite Melsa Manton finds a corpse while walking her dogs in the early hours of the morning. She calls the police, but they dismiss the incident — not only because Melsa is a notorious prankster, but also because the body disappears in the meantime. Sarcastic newspaper editor

Film Friday: «Who Was That Lady?» (1960)

Theatrical release poster Directed by George Sidney , Who Was That Lady? (19 60 ) begins when che mistry p rofessor David Wilson (Tony Curtis) is caught by his wife Ann (Janet Leigh) kissing one of his female st u de nts. To stop her from divo rcing him , he a sk s for hel p from his good friend, television writer Michael Haney (Dean Mart in), who invents a crazy story that Davi d is working undercover with the FBI and kissed the student — a foreign agent — in the line of du ty. To convince Ann, Mi ke tricks Schult z (William Newel l), a prop man at the T V studio, into fabricating an FBI identification card for David and s up plying him with a g un. Ann is so t hrilled by the idea of being married to a secret agent t hat she forgives David. Meanwhile, Mike sets up a date wi th the Coogle sisters, Gloria (Barbara N ichols) and Florence ( Joi Lan sing), and takes David along , telling Ann that the girls are foreign agents. Just as Ann realizes that her h usband ha s

Golden Couples: Clark Gable & Jean Harlow

  At the 3rd Academy Awards ceremony, MGM's hugely successful prison drama The Big House (1930) earned writer Frances Marion an Oscar for Best Writing. Hoping that she would be inspired to repeat that accomplishment, Irving Thalberg, head of production at Metro, sent Marion to Chicago, Illinois to research story ideas. While flicking through the pages of The Saturday Evening Post , she found an article revealing that, in a city where people distrusted the police, a small group of leading citizens met in secret to arrange their own justice for criminals. Marion took inspiration from that story and wrote The Secret Six (1931), in which Wallace Beery and Lewis Stone, stars of The Big House , play two mobsters prosecuted by a half a dozen vigilantes. Thalberg was pleased with the leading roles Marion wrote for Beery and Stone, but asked if she could also fill out one of the minor leads for Clark Gable , a tall, dark and handsome 30-year-old actor whom Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer had recen

Christmas in Old Hollywood

The beautiful Elizabeth Taylor with an extremely cute little friend. Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall with their son Stephen (early 1950s). Here they are again. What an adorable picture! Paulette Goddard looking rather uncomfortable next to her Christmas tree. Boris Karloff and Ginger Rogers at a Hollywood Christmas party in 1932. The adorable Shirley Temple chatting with Santa. Here she is again with a dolly friend. Look how cute she looks here, modeling a new Christmas dress (1935). The fur-tastic Joan Crawford. Doris Day asking us to "do not disturb until Christmas." Don't worry, Doris, we shall not. Though it's past Christmas now, so I'm sure Doris won't mind if we disturb just a little bit. Priscilla Lane looking sparkling drapped in her garlands. A VERY young Carole Lombard sitting next to her tree (1920s). Jean Harlow looking stunning as always. Janet Leigh looking extra cute unde

Films I Saw in 2020

For the past four years, I have shared with you a list of all the films I saw throughout 2016 , 2017 , 2018 and 2019 , so I thought I would continue the «tradition» and do it again in 2020. This list includes both classic and «modern» films, which make up a total of 161 titles. About three or four of these were re-watches, but I decided to include them anyway. Let me know how many from these you have seen. As always, films marked with a heart ( ❤ ) are my favorites. Sherlock Jr. (1924) | Starring Buster Keaton, Kathryn McGuire and Joe Keaton The Crowd (1928) | Starring James Murray, Eleanor Boardman and Bert Roach Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) | Starring Henry Fonda, Alice Brady and Marjorie Weaver Brief Encounter (1945) | Starring Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard and Stanley Holloway The Bells of St. Mary's (1945) | Starring Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman The Girl He Left Behind (1956) | Starring Tab Hunter and Natalie Wood Gidget (1959) | Starring Sandra Dee, Cliff Robertson an

Wings of Change: The Story of the First Ever Best Picture Winner

Wings was the first ever film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Since then, it has become one of the most influential war dramas, noted for its technical realism and spectacular air-combat sequences. This is the story of how it came to be made.   A man and his story The concept for Wings originated from a writer trying to sell one of his stories. In September 1924, Byron Morgan approached Jesse L. Lasky, vice-president of Famous Players-Lasky, a component of Paramount Pictures, proposing that the studio do an aviation film. Morgan suggested an «incident and plot» focused on the failure of the American aerial effort in World War I and the effect that the country's «aviation unpreparedness» would have in upcoming conflicts. Lasky liked the idea, and approved the project under the working title «The Menace.»   LEFT: Byron Morgan (1889-1963). RIGHT: Jesse L. Lasky (1880-1958).   During his development of the scenario with William Shepherd, a former war correspondent, Morga

80 Reasons Why I Love Classic Films (Part II)

I started this blog six years ago as a way to share my passion for classic films and Old Hollywood. I used to watch dozens of classic films every month, and every time I discovered a new star I liked I would go and watch their entire filmography. But somewhere along the way, that passion dimmed down. For instance, I watched 73 classic films in 2016, and only 10 in 2020. The other day, I found this film with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. that I had never heard of — the film is Mimi (1935), by the way — and for some reason it made me really excited about Old Hollywood again. It made me really miss the magic of that era and all the wonderful actors and actresses. And it also made me think of all the reasons why I fell in love with classic films in the first place. I came up with 80 reasons, which I thought would be fun to share with you. Most of them are just random little scenes or quirky little quotes, but put them together and they spell Old Hollywood to me. Yesterday I posted part one ; her

Top 10 Favourite Christmas Films

Christmas has always been a source of inspiration to many artists and writers. Over the years, filmmakers have adapted various Christmas stories into both movies and TV specials, which have become staples during the holiday season all around the world. Even though Christmas is my favourite holiday, I haven't watched a lot of Christmas films. Still, I thought it would be fun to rank my top 10 favourites, based on the ones that I have indeed seen. Here they are.  10. Holiday Affair (1949) Directed by Don Hartman, Holiday Affair tells the story of a young widow (Janet Leigh) torn between a boring attorney (Wendell Corey) and a romantic drifter (Robert Mitchum). She's engaged to marry the boring attorney, but her son (Gordon Gebert) likes the romantic drifter better. Who will she choose? Well, we all know who she will choose.   Holiday Affair is not by any means the greatest Christmas film of all time, but it's still a very enjoyable Yule-tide comedy to watch over the holi

The Sinatra Centennial Blogathon: Frank Sinatra & Gene Kelly

  In January 1944, MGM chief Louis B. Mayer happened to see a young crooner by the name of Frank Sinatra perform at a benefit concert for The Jewish Home for the Aged in Los Angeles. According to Nancy Sinatra, Frank's eldest daughter, Mayer was so moved by her father's soulful rendition of « Ol' Man River » that he made the decision right then and there to sign Frank to his studio. Sinatra had been on the MGM payroll once before, singing with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra in the Eleanor Powell vehicle Ship Ahoy (1942), although it is very likely that Mayer never bothered to see that film. Now that Frank was «hot,» however, Metro made arrangements to buy half of his contract from RKO, with the final deal being signed in February of that year. Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra in  Anchors Aweigh Being a contract player at the studio that boasted «more stars than there are in the heavens» gave Frank a sudden perspective regarding his own talents as a film performer. The «g