Classic Couple

The Raleigh/Cary TCM Backlot Chapter enjoyed its outing to see the 30th Anniversary TCM Big Screen Classics presentation of Steel Magnolias today. We met up for snacks and movie talk before the film, where we discovered all but one of us had seen the movie before. Nice to have a new classic discovery for a […]

Most fans of Steel Magnolias (1989) likely cannot imagine anyone else in the iconic principal roles in the film: in order of billing Sally Field, Dolly Parton, Shirley MacLaine, Darryl Hannah, Olympia Dukakis and Julia Roberts. Among these six women, four are Oscar winners: Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine, Olympia Dukakis and Julia Roberts and one […]

Nancy Drew, the fictional heroine of The Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, first appeared in 1930. For 73 years, until the series ended in 2003, Nancy solved mysteries as a teenage high school graduate living in the town of River Heights with her father, attorney Carson Drew and their housekeeper. Over 70 million copies of The […]

In the history of entertainment there are some who are the one and only. Today we lost America’s Sweetheart Doris Day. Labeled the girl next door well into her forties, she appeared in nearly 40 films and recorded over 600 songs. At the height of her legendary career she topped both the billboard and the […]

On Sunday, May 5 the Raleigh/Cary TCM Backlot Chapter gathered to see the 50th Anniversary TCM Big Screen Classics presentation of True Grit. We had a good time watching John Wayne in his Oscar-winning performance as Rooster Cogburn. After the film, chapter members caught up in reunion of sorts after the 2019 TCM Film Festival. […]

Posting this in honor of Harper Lee’s birthday today (April 28, 1926–February 19, 2016). “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.” Gregory Peck speaks these lines as Atticus Finch to Mary Badham as his daughter Scout […]

Carnival Story (1954) starring Anne Baxter and Steve Cochran tells the story of Grayson’s, an American traveling circus performing in Munich, Germany. Baxter plays Willi, a local girl down on her luck who arrives on the midway hungry and with only the clothes on her back. Desperate, she picks the pocket of carnival barker Joe, […]

Special Guest Blog By Caroline Lappetito, Raleigh/Cary TCM Backlot Chapter Member Ben-Hur! From the opening credits you are smacked right between the eyes and you know you are going to see something very, very special. The booming, soaring musical score, the iconic Sistine Chapel painting of Michelangelo’s God creating Man upon which the credits roll, […]

The Raleigh/Cary TCM Backlot Chapter recently went bicoastal. On Sunday, April 14, while some of us attended the 2019 TCM Film Festival, several chapter members attended the 60th Anniversary TCM Big Screen Classics presentation of Ben-Hur. The two groups texted one another during breaks. Chapter President Chris and “First Lady” Kami sent the group a […]

130 years ago today on April 16, 1889 Charlie Chaplin was born in Walworth, London. In a 75-year career he showed us what it means to be a comic genius and a true storyteller. My favorite quote attributed to him is, “A day without laughter is a day wasted.” I could not agree more.