Mae West: Hollywood Surprises

Did MAE WEST "save" Paramount Pictures? Maybe — — and maybe not. A new eight-part program on TCM "Moguls and Movie Stars" will tell you she did, and that little Shirley Temple rescued Fox.
• • TV writer Hal Boedeker calls TCM’s epic “Moguls & Movie Stars” a "beautifully arranged scrapbook of Hollywood history that salutes hard-driven businessmen. In covering so much time — — 1889 to 1969 — — and so many people, this documentary isn’t especially deep."
• • Boedeker continues: But the seven-part series, which debuts at 8 tonight [i.e., 1 November 2010], is a fun, fast-moving overview of one of America’s greatest industries. Christopher Plummer reads the narration with obvious delight. The speakers include Sidney Lumet, Peter Bogdanovich, Samuel Goldwyn Jr., Richard Zanuck, Gore Vidal and TCM host Robert Osborne.
• • Revelations about the screen stars will surely surprise many viewers. Did you know, for instance, that tough guy actor James Cagney briefly worked as a female impersonator and spoke Yiddish?
• • In his TV column, Boedeker has fun emphasizing some eye-raising quotes he spotted along the way. Example: Film historian Ian David Thomson says of Cary Grant, “You could not believe how insecure he was.” Thomson also calls attention to Clark Gable’s false teeth. And Film critic Molly Haskell says of Marilyn Monroe, “She’s America pretending to want sex and not wanting it at all.” . . .
• • “Moguls & Movie Stars” sounds entertaining and TV buffs will have a few weeks worth of episodes to digest.
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: "Moguls & Movie Stars’ studies Hollywood dreams and nightmares"
• • Written by: Hal Boedeker, TV blogger
• • Published on: Monday, 1 November 2010
• • Published by: The Orlando Sentinel — — orlandosentinel.com
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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