Birthdays and non-birthdays

TCM has been spending this morning and afternoon with a bunch of Jane Fonda's movies, since today is her 78th birthday. Birthday programming is an easy thing to do, as I know when I can't think of something to post about and look to see who was born on this particular day.

But spare a thought for the people who were born in either February (31 Days of Oscar) or August (Summer Under the Stars). The ones in February for all intents and purposes never get a birthday salute, which it would be fairly easy to do a salute for the ones who were born in August and have enough status to merit getting a day in Summer Under the Stars will sometimes get the star treatment. I know that Lucille Ball got a full day on her 100th birthday back in August 2011, which was even rarer due to the fact that the day fell on a Saturday. (In case you're wondering, the Lucille Ball movie that was considered a TCM Essential was Stage Door.) Ingrid Bergman's centenary also fell on a Saturday this year, but she was honored the day before. (Bergman, of course, has lots of films that would fit right in with The Essentials.)

Anyhow, I mention all of this because some August birthdays can't get the Summer Under the Stars treatment. I suppose there are some people who didn't make enough movies to receive a full 24 hours. Then there are the people who weren't big enough stars. But probably the biggest category of all would be people who worked behind the camera, and so for far more obvious reasons couldn't be stars. One such person is director Alfred Hitchcock, who was born in August 1899. TCM is running a morning and afternoon of his movies tomorrow, kicking off at 6:00 AM with Mr. and Mrs. Smith. TCM is showing mostly the better-known Hitchcock movies, although The Wrong Man is also airing at 3:30 PM. I could have sworn I did a full-length post on it before, but apparently not. Henry Fonda plays a man who gets arrested because he looks a lot like a guy who really did commit an armed robbery. It turns his life upside-down. It's apparently based on a true story.