The Great American Songbook

As with Lana Turner the other day, now that we're in a new month we get a new Spotlight on TCM. This time, it's the "Great American Songbook", a bunch of songs mostly from musicals of an era. Michael Feinstein is presenting the spotlight. He's probably a great choice for this: the couple of times I've seen him on TCM he's clearly had a passion for the movies, and with his career in that sort of music, he probably knows the material well. I distinctly recall when he was a Guest Programmer he actually played the piano that was a prop in Robert Osborne's set. (I always wondered whether they had to bring in a working piano. I figured having to move a working piano every time they put up or struck the set would be too much work.)

Anyhow, as an example of the sort of music we're talking about, there's Hollywood Hotel overnight tonight at 2:15 AM. This is the movie that introduced "Hooray for Hollywood". The following feature, Dames at 4:30 AM, gave us "I Only Have Eyes for You". In between, at 4:15 AM, there's a short featuring Harry Warren, a songwriter performing a couple of his songs, including "42nd Street". The movie 42nd Street will be in the spotlight on the 21st, as well as part of the daytime lineup on December 16.

One movie that doesn't seem to be part of the spotlight is Roberta, which if I'm not mistaken is the one that gave us "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes". That, however, will be on this Saturday at 10:00 AM. Roberta was remade as Lovely to Look At, which will be on TCM on Saturday, December 16.