Shorts I probably should have mentioned this morning

I see that following this afternoon's airing of Cabin in the Sky (or around 6:10 PM), TCM is running the Pete Smith short Studio Visit. Now, I've stated quite a few times that I'm not the biggest fan of the Pete Smith style. This short, however, has some things worth recommending it. The biggest, and the reason it's airing today, is that it contains footage of Lena Horne that was deleted from Cabin in the Sky. The footage has her in a bubble bath singing a musical number, which I suppose is a bit racy for the time. I wonder if somebody either at MGM or in Joe Breen's office found it inappropriate for a feature, but OK for a short. Studio Visit was included as an extra on this pre-Warner Archive DVD of Cabin in the Sky. I'm not certain if it's on the more recent Warner Archive release.

TCM isn't running Redd Foxx's Norman, Is That You? for Martin Luther King Day. I wonder why. However, they are re-running the promotional featurette Redd Foxx Becomes a Star at around 9:35 PM, following the first of the night's three documentaries. The featurette does a reasonably good job of illustrating why Foxx had a good deal of popularity, although as I understand it his nightclub act was much more adult in nature, something they couldn't really put on the screen, especially not in a featurette.

TCM already ran A Patch of Blue today. Overnight, around 1:05 AM, they're showing the featurette A Cinderella Named Elizabeth, about the film's star, Elizabeth Hartmann. As with something like All Eyes on Sharon Tate, it's kind of tragic watching this short knowing what would happen to Hartmann.