TCM Star of the Month January 2019: Kathryn Grayson

Kathryn Grayson (r.) with Bud Abbott (l.), Lou Costello (front) and John Carroll in a still from Rio Rita (1942)

We're in the first full week of a new month, which means that it's time for a new Star of the Month on TCM. This time out it's Kathryn Grayson, the oh-so-exciting operatic actress at MGM in the 1940s and 1950s. Her movies will be airing on the rest of the Tuesdays this month, four movies a night so note that they don't go all the way through to 6AM Wednesday, and to be honest those bloated MGM musicals just aren't my thing.

Tonight's lineup isn't quite so bad, since it focuses on her earlier movies from before MGM put her in starring roles in those musicals. The night kicks off at 8:00 PM with Andy Hardy's Private Secretary, which Grasyon as the secretary since you wouldn't expect her to play Andy Hardy now, would you. Then at 10:00 comes Rio Rita, pictured above, which has her opposite Abbott and Costello. There's interesting casting.

The other two movies are Seven Sweethearts at 11:45 PM and The Vanishing Virginian at 1:30 AM.