There is something wonderfully romantic and tragic about old Hollywood.
Unattainably beautiful women and men said terribly smart, touching and funny things while setting standards even beyond their own grasps. They conquered immortality via black-and-white celluloid.
Turner Classic Movies is celebrating the talented trailblazers who made the industry what it was with "Summer Under the Stars," a monthlong, small-screen festival that heralds a different actor each day in August, starting this weekend.
Now in its seventh year, "Summer Under the Stars" boasts 5,000 commercial-free film titles starring legends including Henry Fonda (Saturday), Bette Davis (Aug. 8) and Sidney Poitier (Aug. 14), as well as lesser-known names including James Mason (Sunday), Sterling Hayden (Aug. 22) and Jean Arthur (Aug. 30).
"Even when stalwarts return who we've saluted in previous years, we'll often be including films in their lineups which we've never shown before," says Robert Osborne, TCM host and film historian, in this month's Now Playing, the network's magazine. "For instance, on our day and night with Henry Fonda, we'll include our first-ever showing of Fonda's great 1940 triumph, The Grapes of Wrath."
