Decade for Decision, and other thoughts

A couple of weeks ago, I briefly made mention of the short Decade for Decision, about how America's research universities are an important tool in churning out all those scientists and engineers we're going to need to keep up in the race against the Soviet Union (remember them?). Of course the material is all dated, but it's an interesting time capsule. But I mention it again because it's on the TCM schedule, at about 3:40 PM today, or just after Jailhouse Rock, which starts at 2:00 PM, and is listed with a 97-minute runtime (plus Ben Mankiewicz's intro and outro).

Later in the evening, following Send Me No Flowers (10:00 PM, 100 minutes) is an MGM promotional short called Every Girl's Dream. In this one, MGM brought the "Maid of Cotton" (I presume this is the woman crowned at the Cotton Bowl and its accompanying parade) out to Los Angeles to show her the studio, which includes a brief view of the set of The Glass Bottom Boat; she shows them the latest cotton fashions for women. This short really should have been in color; as it is, it's more interesting to see for a "why did they make this" moment.

Finally, at 5:15 AM tomorrow, is the 1949 Some of the Best. Lionel Barrymore presents 25 films from the first 25 years of MGM's production, followed by the big luncheon MGM held to mark the anniversary. That's the real reason to watch this one, to try to figure out who all the people are; there's no voiceover or graphics in this section. Some of them are in costume, presumably having come straight from whatever movie they were making, which adds to the historical worthiness of the short.