Saturday, May 16, 2009

TCM 2





I always hoped they would bring this to the states. TCM 2 is a British channel. It is a UK-only spin-off channel from the UK version of Turner Classic Movies and shows the popular films from the Turner Library. Four major MGM or Warner Bros. films are shown from 7:00 P.M. to 3:00 A.M. (interspersed with various original short films about the films) from Monday-Sunday, and the following week includes a new line-up. This allows the viewer to "catch-up on the big films," thus allowing the chance to see the preferred film on any day of the week.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

What is the Gower Gulch?


The Gower Gulch is a nickname for the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street in Hollywood, California.
Many year ago during the early days of film the area was surrounded by movie studios. At one corner of the intersection is the Sunset Gower + Sunset Bronson Studios formerly the old Columbia Pictures studio. Many years ago when Western films were popular, and cowboys would come to Hollywood hoping to find work they would congregate at that particular street corner, which is how it got the nickname. In addition, legend has it a drug store close by lent the phrase "drug store cowboys". Sunset at Gower is also the corner that housed the studio where Charlie Chaplin made some of his first moving pictures. In 2009, the retail strip center at that corner bears that name (One of my favorite sammy shops, Togos is in that strip center)

The name also appears in a Warner Bros. Cartoon, "Drip-A-Long Daffy", Porky Pig sings a Michael Maltese song entitled "The Flower of Gower Gulch". In yet another Warner Bros. Cartoon, "Nelly's Folly", Nelly the Singing Giraffe (voiced by Gloria Wood) sings a different version of that song.