1941 Musical Comedy That Night In

'Never Has Such a Great American So Carelessly and Easily Been Forgotten'

He was given 26 consecutive weeks to write, direct and produce for “The Columbia Workshop” in 1941. Under the title “Twenty-Six by Corwin,” he wrote a new show every week for six months. He varied his topics and styles as it suited him; one week might be a comedy or satire, another week perhaps a musical or soliloquy, another week a poetic drama, and so on. His output was tremendous and his quality was amazingly high. In his landmark hour-long show “On a Note of Triumph,” broadcast on V-E Day and repeated again eight days later, Corwin asked the big questions, not the least of which was “What do we do now?” Norman Corwin knew that peace was a fragile commodity and warned Americans that they would have to be vigilant and be willing to pass up the sports page to read the front-page headlines instead. “Peace is never granted outright,” he wrote. “It is lent and leased.” I have interviewed him for a documentary film called “Radio Changed America,” examining the cultural and historic impact of the medium. In doing research on this project I have become a fan and ardent lover of this man and his words. At 100 years of age Norman Corwin is still passionate about freedom and democracy. Read his books, listen to his radio plays and see if you don’t find him contagious! For instance, his letters often include a return address. I go to Google Maps and insert the location. Lo and behold, so that’s where Mr. Corwin was living in early 1941, just a little west of Central Park. And what’s this? Properties available at that address: one bedroom, one bath, a mere $949,000. Too much? There’s a rental for only $3,300 a month. I know this doesn’t take away New Yorkers’ breaths, but it sure does for those of us in Texas. And it might even have the same effect on Mr. Corwin now; for in a 1947 letter he complains of Hollywood rents of $250 to $650, pushing him and his wife to buy a house “overlooking Burbank” that is “exactly 11 minutes from KNX” (when it was on Sunset near Vine). I have noticed — as has another engineer who is chief at several LPTVs for lease around the country — that DTV stations are going off the air constantly. He attributed this to their use of tube finals. He said the tubes can’t handle the “balls to the wall” modulation and break down frequently. I’ve noticed that the big boys, KPHO, the Pax affiliate, all of them, are constantly going off the air. The educational station Ch. 8 is the worst.

Home Cinema @ The Digital Fix - James Cagney Signature Collection ...

Warner Home Video have announced the Region 1 DVD release of James Cagney: The Signature Collection for 24th April 2007. The Oscar winning screen icon comes to life in this collection that includes five new-to-DVD films – The Bride Came C.O.D. , Captain of the Clouds , The Fighting 69th , Torrid Zone and The West Point Story . Cagney’s versatile talent is on display opposite a star-studded array of screen favorites including Bette Davis, Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, Virginia Mayo, Ann Sheridan and Pat O’Brien. Special features on each title in the Collection include the entertaining “Warner Night at the Movies” short subject galleries with vintage newsreels, vault treasures and classic cartoons. James Cagney: The Signature Collection will be available as a giftset with superslim packaging for $49.92 SRP and the individual titles will sell for $19.97 SRP. Comedy comes from a mother lode of sources in this screwball farce headlined by the ebullient pairing of James Cagney and Bette Davis, scripted by Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein (Casablanca, Arsenic and Old Lace). Whether up in the clouds, or underground in a mine, the stars (in their second and final film together) spar with harebrained zest as a pilot hired to kidnap an about-to-elope heiress, and the happy result from start to end is C.O.D. – Comedy on Demand. One of the first war-themed films to hit theatres after America entered World War II tells the expansive tale of rugged bush pilots who bring their flying savvy to the Royal Canadian Air Force. James Cagney plays pilot Brian MacLean with grit and swagger. Michael Curtiz, who would next helm Cagney’s Yankee Doodle Dandy, directs this two-time Academy Award nominee cheered for vivid Technicolor lensing of North Country lakes and forests. In the seventh of their nine movies together, off-screen pals James Cagney and Pat O’Brien play soldiers of the famed, largely Irish-American World War I regiment, the Fighting 69th. O’Brien is Father Duffy, the brave chaplain whose statue stands today in Manhattan’s Times Square. Cagney is Jerry Plunkett, a street-tough braggart turned yellow by the horror of No Man’s Land, but inspired to redemptive heroism by Duffy’s courage under fire.

The American Film Institute catalog of motion pictures produced in the United States

Viennese musical comedy stars Karl Lang and Maria Lanyi are successful in .... Var 15 Oct 1941. p. 8. CHOPIN see A SONG TO REMEMBER CHRIST IN CONCRETE see ...

The Oxford companion to American theatre

It so happens it is a special night at the bath catering only to ladies, ... LADY IN THE DARK (1941), a musical comedy by Moss *Hart (book), ...

Boom and bust, American cinema in the 1940s

These included Fox's THAT NIGHT IN Rio (1941), DOWN ARGENTINE WAY (194o), and BLOOD AND ... a Ritz Brothers-Andrews Sisters musical comedy from Universal, ...

Billboard

There were Georges Gersene's "The Time, the Place and the Girl," which gave up after 13 performances; Dave Kramer's "You'll See Stars," a musical comedy ...

Current biography yearbook

In 1977, following its second season, the Saturday Night Live writing staff won an Emmy for best writing in a comedy-variety or music series ...