Short Themes

Back in the Golden Age of the studio system, the studios produced all sorts of short subjects that were one or two reels long. In the early days, a lot of them were more or less test subjects to try out new directors and actors, but there were also quite a few popular series. I've already mentioned the Traveltalks and Dogville shorts. Tonight on TCM brings an opportunity to see another series: at 7:30 PM ET, TCM's Festival of Shorts is scheduled to air two of the short in the Ripley's Believe it or Not series.

Robert Ripley, the man who created the series, died back in 1949, but the franchise lives on, with museums all over the world, and several TV shows having been made. However, the movie shorts were made in the early 1930s, at the dawn of the sound era, and feature Ripley himself.