If you don't believe me, ask my sister. I became an ardent classic film fan when I was in Catholic elementary school back home in Los Angeles -- when two of the biggest factories in town were Lockheed and Hollywood. Hollywood -- with the world-famous dream factory Hollywood studios that gave us classic films. My love started when I was a little boy and saw Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in a local TV airing of TOP HAT. From the moment I saw them dance, I was joyfully hooked. I wanted to see and know about classic film movie stars. As the years went on, definitely in my teen years, I was eager to learn about movie people behind the scenes -- and not just directors. People like costume designer Edith Head, cinematographer James Wong Howe, choreographer Hermes Pan and master MGM hair stylist Sydney Guilaroff..
Early in my college years, my love for classic fans had deepened and my knowledge of classic fans had grown. But I really hadn't connected how old movies had things to say about modern times. Then one night, during summer vacation, I saw Jean Arthur make a rare TV show appearance as a guest. If I recall correctly, she was on The Merv Griffin Show.
I write this because I just watched MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, starring James Stewart and Jean Arthur on TCM.
During the interview, Griffin showed one of the famous filibuster scenes from the film. Stewart played the idealistic, honest junior Senator who, with the help of Arthur as the whip-smart Washington insider, holds a filibuster to take down a dark political machine that, besides being known for its greed and graft and power, is out to limit freedom of the press.
Coming out of the clip, Jean Arthur noted how the film is "relevant today." I gasped how this actress, who'd done work in silent film, was one of Hollywood's top actresses from the early 1930s to early 1950s and then starred in a 1966 CBS sitcom, was so right. She said that in the early 1970s during the height of President Nixon's Watergate scandal. Jean Arthur's observation was, to me, a revelation.
Words from Jean Arthur marked the start of my realizing how much good old movies, classic films, could be relevant and socially significant in modern times. That's another reason why I take classic films so seriously.
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