:: The New England Vintage Film Society, Inc. - A Non-Profit Organization ::

Brenda Loew, President of the New England Vintage Film Society, currently offers the following 1-hour presentations, summarized below. Contact Brenda for dates, fees, travel arrangements and availability.

WOMAN OF THE YEAR: Katharine Hepburn & Spencer Tracy’s First Film Together

Sixty-four years ago, at the height of WWII and before television, the movie “Woman of the Year” was released. As was typical in the era of radio, people in the film connect with each other through a lot of dialogue and detailed communication. And communication is how the battle of the sexes begins! Spencer Tracy (Sam) and Katherine Hepburn (Tess) are columnists for the same newspaper: he’s a sports columnist and she’s an international affairs columnist. Classic components of American life are depicted, and romance blooms in the workplace. We’ll discuss the meaning of family, romance, sexual politics, and traditional versus modern male and female roles, as inspired by this film. We’ll view a few scenes for the purposes of discussion and example, but encourage you to enjoy the whole film in advance.

Oil is essential to our economy and fuels the civilized world. In the 1860's, before the rise of major oil companies, oil was used as a disinfectant, a vermin killer and a cure for kidney stones. Wildcat oilmen drilled for oil in unproven, unexplored locations. Until 1970, The United States produced sufficient oil to supply the nation's own demand. By 1973, the major oil companies had lost control to Middle East countries. In 1977, the United States imported almost one-half of the oil it consumed, making our economy and the supply and price of oil dependent on an international cartel. The high price of oil together with the desire to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil, has sparked renewed interest in drilling for oil in the continental United States by wildcat oilmen. We’ll discuss the meaning of wildcatting, as inspired by the 1940 film Boom Town starring Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy. We’ll view a few scenes for the purposes of discussion and example, but encourage you to enjoy the whole film in advance.

In Boston today, political tensions no longer exist between Irish Roman Catholics and Brahmin Protestants. Instead, differences of opinion flare up amongst Democrats and Republicans, liberals, conservatives, the politically-correct crowd and special interest groups. Adapted from Edwin O'Connor's novel loosely based on the life of notorious Boston Mayor James Michael Curley, director John Ford's 1958 classic movie, The Last Hurrah, offers a gripping view of political machinery that pitted ethnic hatred and old-time money against poor immigrant urban slum dwellers. The Last Hurrah is set against the political twilight of four-term Mayor Frank Skeffington -- played by legendary, two-time Academy Award winner, Spencer Tracy -- and the emerging post World War II youth culture of the 1950s when TV started to play a role in influencing election outcomes. We'll view some scenes to examine the good and evil inherent in politics, political campaigns and the components that go into winning and/or losing an election. When The Last Hurrah had its World Premiere in Boston, James Michael Curley considered the film an invasion of privacy and attempted, unsuccessfully, to get the movie banned in Boston. The Last Hurrah was named one of the best films of 1958 by the National Board of Review Awards. We encourage you to enjoy The Last Hurrah in advance of the workshop and come prepared to talk the game of politics.

THE ACTRESS: Women and Film

Many role models, events and circumstances shape a young girl's transition from adolescence into adulthood, including parents and friends, economic, educational and career opportunities and mentors. Set in Boston and Quincy (Wollaston), the 1953 award-winning film, The Actress, depicts the transformation of a conflicted teenager to maturity when seventeen-year old Ruth Gordon Jones becomes obsessed with acting on the stage after seeing a performance in 1913 by Hazel Dawn at the Colonial Theatre in Boston. We'll discuss and view scenes from The Actress which stars Jean Simmons in the autobiographical role of Ruth Gordon, the Academy-award winning actress and writer best known for her roles in Inside Daisy Clover (1966), Rosemary's Baby (1968), Harold and Maude (1972) and collaborations on the screenplays for the Katharine Hepburn-Spencer Tracy films, Adam’s Rib (1949) and Pat and Mike (1952).

On the surface, this obscure 1937 MGM melodrama tells the simple story of a young, struggling married couple in love during New York’s taxi wars of the 1930‘s. But on a deeper level, unfair city officials -- looking for a scapegoat to pin an alleged gangland bombing on -- plan to deport Anna, the pregnant foreign wife of independent American cabbie Joe Benton, back to Russia. Joe and his loyal taxi friends tenaciously fight back against racketeering corporate taxicab monopolists, intimidating NYC police detectives, the unfair Attorney General and corruptible Mayor. With the unexpected help of world heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey and his crowd, Joe rescues Anna from being shipped back -- via steerage class -- to her native Russian homeland. Directed by Frank Borzage, Big City stars two back-to-back academy award winners, Spencer Tracy (Captains Courageous, 1938; Boys Town, 1939) as Joe Benton and Luise Rainer (The Great Ziegfeld, 1936; The Good Earth, 1937) as Anna. We’ll view appropriate scenes and discuss immigration, deportation, naturalization, law enforcement and constitutional rights through the Big City lens and how these issues influence politics today.

MAN'S CASTLE: Surviving the Great Depression

Man's Castle, directed by Frank Borzage, stars Spencer Tracy and Loretta Young, in a rare, pre-Code 1933 romantic drama that takes a hard look at the economic hardships of the Great Depression: pre-Code because the long list of moral restrictions required by Hollywood’s 1930 Motion Picture Production Code -- also known as the Hays Code (named for movie censor Will Hays) -- were not enforced. We witness Herbert Hoover’s America following the Stock Market Crash of 1929 but before FDR’s New Deal. Twelve million unemployed men and women are desperately poor, powerless, homeless and hungry, living in jungles of squalor. We observe a hopeless, often abusive, base form of human existence in a world turned topsy-turvy. Very little that is traditional is held sacred anymore. Through the Hollywood lens we observe how the spirituality of love and romance magically transforms the realistic hardships of a Hooverville shack lifestyle into a palace full of warmth and affection -- into Man’s Castle. We'll view scenes from the picture accompanied by commentary relative to that era as well as contemporary American society.

The Society has offered two free classic film screening programs at the local level with a focus on public access adult education and at a senior housing community.

Historical Film Memorabilia Display

Through a partnership with Newton Free Library, New England Vintage Film Society, Inc. has created exhibits incorporating a variety of memorabilia from the Golden Age of Hollywood. At the library, five display cases are in place containing numerous pieces, many of which are focused specifically on Spencer Tracy. Items on display include classic publicity stills, rare glass lantern advertising slides, autographed scripts, and more. The aesthetic and educational nature of the Society’s memorabilia displays will help to shape visitors’ understanding and admiration of America’s classic films, while also facilitating the construction of a narrative of our nation’s history.

New England Vintage Film Society, Inc. recognizes that in today’s technological age developing digital tools to attract, engage, and mobilize increasingly diverse publics is crucial. In an effort to communicate their message to a much more broad demographic the Society will begin to implement thirty minute educational and analytical broadcasts through public access television. Social media productions such as these are serving as the core for innovative spaces and practices that mark a new kind of public media – accessible, participatory, and inclusive. Through their planned broadcasts, combined with growing new media web technologies such as blogs, they will engage their audience to become active participants in the Society.

The Society is proud to have authored and published its initial original work, and will seek to further its mission of public elucidation on the significance of Hollywood’s Golden Age through the promotion of this one-of-a-kind document. The book contains a unique collection of essays and images celebrating legendary two-time Academy Award winning actor Spencer Tracy’s outstanding legacy of early screen performances in Fox’s lively Depression era pre-Code films – rare 1930s Americana from Hollywood’s Golden Age, re-discovered. Filled with thirty-one rare photos that capture Tracy's Depression era characterizations, Spencer Tracy Fox Film Actor: The Pre-Code Legacy of a Hollywood Legend introduces Spencer Tracy’s 1930s Fox Film performances to Tracy admirers and classic movie cinephiles. It is a collection of well-researched, informative essays on the value of Tracy’s films from Fox's pre-Code era. The collection expands and enhances knowledge of Tracy’s little known early cinematic achievements and makes the case for returning his lost, forgotten, under-appreciated films to movie and television screens by encouraging their restoration and availability in digitized commercial formats.

The following Call for Submissions has been located on the Playbill.com website and others:

Writers Wanted -- Stage to Screen

Category

Other

Description

The New England Vintage Film Society, Inc., a 501c3 Massachusetts charitable educational corporation, (www.nevintagefilm.org) is planning another book project, another compilation of essays. Our recent book project, Spencer Tracy, Fox Film Actor: The Pre-Code Legacy of a Hollywood Legend (www.spencertracyfoxfilmactor.com) endorsed by TCM's Robert Osborne officially launched in January. It is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders, Xlibris.com and is available in all brick & mortar bookstores through Ingram. We have researched the subject of 1920's & 1930's stage and vaudeville actors who later became film actors after silent films became talkies -- actors and performers who made the leap from stage to talking pictures. We looking for numerous essays on this subject. The essays can focus on one star, i.e. Ethel, Lionel or John Barrymore, or more than one, a team, several or many. All essays should incorporate several topics: the Golden Age of Theatre, the end of the Silent Era/Rise of Talkies, American cultural, political, economic, social, moral, technological issues, etc. Essays should range from 750 - 7500+ words. Payment is with byline. Deadline for submission is March 2010. We'd like 5 more essays. We already have commitments for twenty essays.

Special Projects

SPENCER TRACY CLASSIC FILM AND LECTURE SERIES PROJECT