Funny recut trailer to "It's a Wonderful Life."

Carl Switzer

Better known as Alfalfa, from the Our Gang/Little Rascals comedies, Carl Switzer is the only actor, outside of Jimmy Stewart, better known for things outside of It's A Wonderful Life.

The colorized clip above is notable in that black child Buckwheat actually shares a bed with three other white boys AND a grown white man.



Here is a tribute to all the gang. I watched these all on tv in the early 70s. Nostalgia on my dad's part played a part, but the shorts were funny, human cartoons.

Stymie was my favorite of the three main black characters: Farina, Stymie, and Buckwheat; as the series ran almost two decades long, but, let's face it, Alfalfa and Spanky were the two core characters in the series at its most popular, in the early to mid 1930s. The heights (or depths) of the Great Depression were the time these kids mattered most to youngsters.

Alfalfa was always the ladies man, albeit wimpily.

The above tribute is quite sad: note the early deaths of many, and a few tragic ones- and a few murders.

The Donna Reed Show

Although now known almost exclusively for her role in It's A Wonderful Life, Donna Reed had a television show in the early 1960s, which was a mild hit.

Some clips:

It's a Wonderful Life.

With the nip in the air, I am already looking forward to watching one of my all time fave films this December. The film runs twice on NBC--On Christmas Eve and the weekend 2 weeks before. Even though we have the DVD I'll probably watch both times.

I was telling a friend who has yet to watch it how great it is, that it's not just some happy, annoying film that shoves its values down your throat, but rather, one that can help get you to appreciate what you have in life, helping you realize that a wonderful life is not necessarily one full of fortune and travel, but one that has impact.

Here is the trailer to this wonderful film, and I hope you'll consider watching it this year. It's the #1 essay on Cosmoetica with over 50 million reads thus far, which says something. Check out the trailer and read the review here.

The Sound Of Music

I've never been a musical fan, but it was either The Sound Of Music or You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown, which was the first movie I ever saw on a big screen. The Ten Commandments may have been #1 ever (on tv, for Easter).

Either way, I saw both at Radio City Music Hall, and the sight of Julie Andrews' face so huge, pretty, and letting out such lovely sound, has always stuck with me. Aside from It's A Wonderful Life, this is the ultimate holiday film.

Herein some lyrics:



Herein the scene of Andrews, at the start of the trailer; now imagine you are about 3 or 4, at the 5th Anniversary re-release, and seeing this 40 feet high, in surround sound:



Good stuff.