Tall, handsome and debonair on the outside looking in, Gig Young was a talented and successful actor, who found much success on film, tv and stage, throughout the 40s,50s, and 60s.

He worked for all the key studios, including Warner Brothers, MGM, and Columbia, and appeared in many classic movies, including The Three Musketeers with Gene Kelly, Lust for Gold with Ida Lapino and Glen Ford, and Teachers Pet with Doris Day and Clark Gable.

The quality and variety of his work was such that he acquired many nominations and awards. But from the inside looking out, Gig was a troubled and deeply insecure man. While many would have enjoyed the kind of success Gig experienced in Hollywood, Gig the product of a troubled childhood, suffered from regular bouts of despondency, depression, alcoholism and fear, due mainly to his constant concern that he was always cast as the second lead, the guy who always lost the girl, and not the guy who won the girl and thereby was the star.

His anxiety driven attitude scuppered his mental health, his marriages and his career and ultimatley led to the end of his life in the most horrendous of circumstances.

In this episode of CHMTC , Mrs Classic Film Fan will tell the story of the life and career of of Gig Young a classic Hollywood tragedy.

In the second of this 2 part series on Hollywood Red Heads, this episode tells the story of Maureen O Hara, one of the  most beautiful, athletic, and talented film actresses that ever graced Hollywood film.

Born to a well to do family in southern Ireland, and a fierce Irish and American patriot, Maureen speedily rose up the film ladder, appearing in melodramas, westerns, musicals and adventure movies, many of which are viewed as some of the greatest Hollywood films ever made. 

Dubbed the Queen of Technicolor, she was and remains the quintessential female counter to John Wayne, their film partnership forever viewed as the symbol of what perfect chemistry between a male and lead female actor could be in the movies. 

As well as appearing opposite John Wayne, she fronted movies with many of the great male leads of the studio era, including Tyrone Power and Errol Flynn and was directed by many of the great directors, including the mercurial John Ford, who would have a major impact on her personal and professional life.

But like so  many of the great stars of yester year she would suffer greatly for her art, enduring 2 awful husbands, much sexism, unwarranted gossip, and commercial skulldugery, which sometimes hampered her career.

This episode of CHMTC tells the story of the trials and tribulations of Maureen O Hara, one of Hollywoods hardworking and greatest actresses, who despite all that was thrown at her on a professional and personal level, forged a great career and found personal happiness. 

ENJOY!!!

Greer Garson was one of the most successful British actresses of the classic Hollywood studio era. 

She was attractive, intelligent, hard working and talented. She appeared  in some of the best and most memorable Hollywood films ever made, including movies which inspired and strengthened the British and American War effort  during World War II.

But Ms Garson's road to success was not an easy one.  Throughout her life and career, she battled mutiple health scares, anorexia, and troubled marriages, as well as studio bosses and the occaisional leading man, who resented her need to produce quality performances, or were simply keen to confine her to conveying a prim and proper image. 

This episode, which marks the return after 3 long years of CHMTC and Mrs Classic Film Fan, tells the story of the life and career of a grand theatre and film actress, who beat all the competition around her and managed to leave Hollywood a star and in one piece-unlike so many others.

Another mini episode by Mrs Classic Film Fan, who has been busy preparing her upcoming main episode on the late great Greer Garson. However, despite the efforts of the coronavirus to work her and her civil service colleagues to death, Mrs Classic Film Fan has discovered 2 great film books, that convey all sorts of interesting information, about the movie stars covered. Scott Eyman's comprehensive and fab  'Cary Grant: A Brilliant Disguise' more on which can be found via the following link https://bit.ly/CaryGrantBio and Mark Iveson's interesting 'Cursed Horror Stars' which can be accessed via the following link: https://telos.co.uk/shop/film/cursed-horror-stars/   

Check out Mrs Classic Film Fans review of these books and give yourself a break from thoughts of C-19 by giving them both a read. 

Another mini episode from Mrs Classic Film Fan, on some of the source material used to inform her last podcast, on the late great Jerry Lewis,

Mrs CFF also mentions some very interesting podcasts that you might want to give a try, one of which includes a Mrs Classic Film Fan review of an old British film Classic which will be shown on the Talking Pictures satellite channel this month.

If you want to know more have a listen to this mini-episode. 

Stay safe and as ever thanks for  taking the time to listen to CHMTC.  

Jerry Lewis was one of the most successful entertainers that ever lived. The only child of a showbiz family, his performing career, which kicked off barely beyond his toddler years on the burlesque circuit, quietly ended on the big screen, nearly 80 years later. 

By his teenage years he was a married man, soon to be part of one of the most successful double acts that graced stage, screen, tv and radio. Thereafter, he became  a complete film performer, director and producer, whose success around the World, especially in Europe, led to substantial recognition of his inventive skills and style as a film maker.

But though capable of great acts of kindness  and displays of  talent, Jerry could be a very difficult man, whose lonely childhood and troubled personal and professional relationships, sometimes reflected an angst ridden, confused and troubled persona, which sometimes had a negative impact on friends, professional colleagues, family members and most of all himself.

Listen to the long awaited and latest CHMTC episode on the prolific life and career of the late great Jerry Lewis!!!!!

This mini CHMTC episode gives a quick update on the upcoming episode of CHMTC and the launch of my new history focused podcast, Is It Cos Im from Croydon2? Give it a try when you can. It can be accessed via Apple and Stitcher and the links below.  

http://isitcosimfromcroydon2.libsyn.com

https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/simone-higgins/is-it-cos-im-from-croydon

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/isitcosimfromcroydon2s-podcast/id1463444277 

Also, thanks for all the wonderful reviews received from all round the world for CHMTC, it's very much appreciated. 

Best  to all, from Mrs Classic Film Fan, also known as Mrs Check Out Your History.

Tab Hunter was an unassuming, gentle and simple young man, whose stunning good looks and hard earned acting skills, bagged him Hollywood film stardom and a remarkable recording career, which enabled him to make some the best remembered films and music of the 1950's. 

Part of a generation of young movies stars, whose film careers, signalled the end of the Hollywood Studio system, in order to sustain his success and live as peaceful a life as fame allowed, Tab, along with several other young movie stars of his day, was forced to live a double life, in an era where movie stars were often expected to meet impossible expectations by their fans and society at large.

Have a listen to the latest CHMTC episode about the life and career of the recently departed, teenage heartthrob and movie star, Tab Hunter, who despite the risks he incurred, as a result of his personal life, managed to achieve something that most movie actors can only dream of, a long life of solvency and happiness. 

As promised this is  brief episode about some of the sources I used to put the last 2 CHMTC episodes together. Also included in these notes are some of the links I mention via which you can access the sources metioned about these great stars.

I have also found a great new podcast which can be accessed via Itunes and other avenues. You might want to give that a listen while you are waiting for the next CHMTC episode, which will be on the late, great and recently deceased Tab Hunter, who represented the next generation of Hollywood beefcake. 

Below the links mentioned in this episode:

Official John Wayne Website

https://jwayne.com/ 

The link to the infamous 1971 Playboy interview:

https://pages.shanti.virginia.edu/Wild_Wild_Cold_War/files/2011/11/John_Wayne_Playboy_Int2.pdf

Many film stars tell us that they are just ordinary people, who don't care about money, fame or possessions, but yet they go on living in their many luxury homes, riding in their fancy cars and accumulating tonnes of money, in their search for more and more acclaim and the rewards that go with it. 

Sterling Hayden, was a Hollywood movie star, who spoke his mind. He  really liked being ordinary and really disliked being a Hollywood movie star. At first, troubled by his Hollywood fame, it eventually became a means to an end, the end being to service his real loves, sailing ships, his family and belatedly writing about real-life. 

Listen and enjoy the latest CHMTC episode about a talented,unconventional and very complicated movie star, who often confounded his studio bosses, his family and himself, in his ever constant search for an uninterrupted life at sea  

This is the first of a two part CHMTC episode, on the lives and careers of two of the most successful beefcake actors ever produced by Hollywood. The western icon, John Wayne and the blonde seafaring  giant, Sterling Hayden.

John Wayne was a promising college student, who through the fates became one of the most successful movie stars that ever graced a Hollywood movie. Tall, handsome and virile, Wayne's love for his country influenced his films, his career and his love-life. Most of all it led to a search for redemption, to make up for his failure to serve in World War II. Along the way he  became a staunch opponent of anything he considered to be Un-American, including it seems,  certain types of civil rights, which in his view did not fit with the American dream. It also led to the creation of Wayne's great passion, his epic 1960 movie the Alamo.  

Listen and enjoy the telling by Mrs Classic Film Fan of the eventful life and career of the late, great and decidedly imperfect, John Wayne, together with the trials and tribulations he suffered in making his great passion The Alamo.