Independence Day briefs

This being July 4, TCM is showing most of the not too many movies Hollywood made about the Revolutionary War, or at least most of the ones I can think of that were made during the studio era. That includes the shorts that studios churned out back in the day. Warner Bros. did a couple of historical two-reelers in the late 1930s dramatizing events from American history in lovely Technicolor. The Declaration of Independence is running just after The Scarlet Coat; that is, about 10:55 AM, featuring future Warner star John Litel as Thomas Jefferson. A year later, they'd do one on The Monroe Doctrine, although that's not airing today. Unfortunately, it's a bit difficult to get a list of all of them, as some are credited to Vitaphone and some to Warner Bros.

In between Drums Along the Mohawk and 1776, or at about 4:50 PM, is Historic Maryland, which you can probably guess from the title is a Traveltalks short, this one being set mostly in Annapolis, which is the home of the US Naval Academy.

Tonight's prime time lineup on TCM is a bunch of biopics of American composer/musicmakers that I think I've all mentioned in the past. The night kicks off with Yankee Doodle Dandy at 8:00 PM, starring James Cagney as George M. Cohan.
At 10:15 is Clifton Webb as John Philip Sousa in Stars and Stripes Forever, after which we get a short of the Marine Corps Band.
Coming up at midnight is James Stewart as Glenn Miller in the imaginatively-titled The Glenn Miller Story.
Robert Alda plays George Gershwin in Rhapsody in Blue at 2:00 AM.
Finally, at 4:30 AM, is David Carradine as Woody Guthrie in Bound For Glory.