Book Review: Seen from the Wings: Luise Rainer. My Mother, The Journey

There’s an apocryphal story about the first time director Alfred Hitchcock was nominated for an Oscar (for 1940’s Rebecca).  He hadn’t planned on attending the ceremony—in fact, he and wife Alma Reville spent most of that afternoon on the tennis court.  Yet the Hitchcocks thought it might be a lark to show up for the…

“The game’s afoot!”

I was just getting ready to call it a day last night around 11:30pm...and when my head hit the pillow, the thinking portion of my brain called out: “Hey...weren’t you supposed to put together another giveaway for the blog?”  So I apologize for not having this post up earlier.  I did hint last week about another contest,…

“Winning doesn’t always mean being first. Winning means you’re doing better than you’ve ever done before.” — Bonnie Blair

I received a plethora (I learned this word from Cliff Weimer—it means “a lot”) of entries in the latest Thrilling Days of Yesteryear giveaway...oddly enough, I think we had more people participate in the previous “Full Details” contest.  But that’s just nitpicking on my part, and though I would dearly love to be able to…

“Just when I thought I was out… they pull me back in…”

I mentioned on the blog back in February that circumstances were shaping up for another eBay DVD liquidation sale here at Rancho Yesteryear—what I have facetiously decided to call “The Great DVD Purge of 2019.”  I had one or two members of the TDOY faithful ask me about it further on Facebook, and while I…

Bet your bottom Dollar

I don’t have any official sales figures handy...but judging solely from conversations that I’ve had with Radio Spirits CEO Mark Tepper in the past (he actually takes my calls!), I’d say it’s safe to state that the many Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar CD collections released by the company over the years are among the popular and best-selling items…

Adventures in Blu-ray: The Big Clock (1948)

How did it come to this?  Within 36 hours, George Stroud (Ray Milland), editor of the popular Crimeways magazine, finds himself trapped in the tower of an enormous clock located in a prominent part of the Janoth Publications building.  In flashback, Stroud explains how a disagreement with his autocratic boss, Earl Janoth (Charles Laughton), was the catalyst for the series of events…

Call me anything you want…just don’t call me late for winner!

Profuse apologies to everyone out there in TDOY Land for getting this announcement up so late...but I’ve been hard at work finishing some liner notes for an upcoming Radio Spirits release featuring tales well-calculated to keep you in...Suspense! (If that’s not enough of a giant hint, I don’t know what else would be.)  So I was a little late…