Coming Soon In 2021: “Star/Genre Of The Month” Blogathons

Hey everybody! I have two things I want to do: first, I wanted to take this opportunity to debut my new logo for my blog (shown above), and second, I wanted to announce my plans for my blog going into the new year of 2021.  For quite a while, I’ve been wanting to dedicate an entire month to a specific actor/actress (on purpose), but I haven’t been able to manage the circumstances.  As you might have read back when I reviewed the Doris Day movie Romance On The High Seas, that being her first film led me to consider going back and watching through her filmography (at least, those films that I have on disc, anyway). Since I had everything scheduled out for the rest of 2020, I knew the quickest I could do her films would be January 2021, and, instead of reviewing all of her films that I have on disc, I opted instead to devote a month to her. I polled everybody on what movies I should review, and, when that poll was done, offered up a few more to pick the stars for February and March, with Clark Gable (February) and Gene Kelly (March) winning those. Now, as far as it goes, that is about as far as I can likely hope to get in my movie watching before Christmastime (when I generally have a new pile of movies to wade through), so it’s tough to currently determine what the schedule will be like after that (for now). Before I get any further, I should mention that my plan is for these reviews being devoted to the stars to take the place of my weekly Sunday “Thoughts From The Music(al) Man” reviews, while my not-quite-as-frequent Wednesday “What’s Old Is A New Release Again” reviews dedicated to newer releases on disc will go on like usual (not to mention all the other stuff I normally throw in here and there), although if any of the studios/labels release films featuring these stars in time, I will try to include those as well.

Regarding the remainder of the schedule, I do know that, with Easter falling on the first Sunday of April (and the fact that I would prefer to review an Easter-related film for that day), I will either be focusing on the film genre of historical/biblical/Roman epics or just doing regular reviews for the month of April. For November, I usually focus on the film noir genre, but since I’ve exhausted almost all the non-Bogart noirs in my collection, I figured I might just as well focus in on him as the “Star Of The Month.” And, as for December, I like to focus on Christmas movies. Well, not the whole month, just the first twenty-four days. Christmas day itself I refuse to post on, and the last week I just do whatever. Everything else will depend upon what I am given for Christmas and my birthday (although I am hoping to devote one month to my favorite film genre, the movie musical, as well as take at least one month off from any of this).

Now, why am I bringing all this up? Simple! I’m opening this up for everybody to join in! As yet, I have not hosted any blogathons, so I figure this is a good way for me to start working towards it. Obviously, I request rules similar to most blogathons, such as:

1. At this point, I am not putting any restrictions on topics related to the various stars, whether it be any of their films, or biographies, lists of favorites, etc.
2. These celebrations are intended as tributes to these stars (even if they aren’t being done in months with birthdays, although Clark Gable, the winner of the February poll, is at least scheduled for the month of his birthday), so I would ask that any participating posts be respectful of the stars themselves. Obviously, if you don’t care for that specific star, that would probably not be a good month to join in.
3. I’m requesting that all posts would be new material, and not any previously published ones.
4. As previously indicated, these celebrations of the stars and genres will last a whole month each, so you will have that whole month to work with. I myself will be publishing about four or five posts per month (depending on the number of Sundays and whether there are any recent disc releases that would fit the bill), so you can decide how many you want to do (within reason).
5. If you are interested in joining, I would certainly suggest you either comment on this post, email me at astairefan7@gmail.com, or, for the Facebook savvy, contact me at my FB page. And feel free to use the banners I have put together (I’m still unsure of how much space I will have to work with over time on pictures, so for now I am doing one each).

Mind you, as far as what months you can join in on, I’m only asking about the first month or two currently. My current plan is to have a post for the stars every month, and, although the exact contents are to be determined, I will for sure include a schedule of what will be coming for the next couple of months so that you can comment and join in on that. At present, I’m not sure what I will do for any months that revolve around film genres. I may end up just leaving those as regular months for me (although if I do one for musicals, I’m still leaving that one open for everybody, as I’d certainly want everybody singing and dancing then). I hope you all are willing to join me for this next year, and I hope you have some fun with it, too!

Upcoming Schedule For 2021:

January – star: Doris Day

February – star: Clark Gable

March – star: Gene Kelly

April – nothing

May – star: Cary Grant

June – star: Claudette Colbert

July – star: James Cagney

August – star: Barbara Stanwyck

September – genre: Musicals

October – nothing

November – star: Humphrey Bogart

December (1-24) – genre: Christmas films

December (25-31) – nothing

Roster For The First Two Months (Doris Day and Clark Gable)

Thoughts From The Music(al) Man

• Doris Day: Young Man With A Horn (1950), Tea For Two (1950), Calamity Jane (1953), Young At Heart (1954), Love Me Or Leave Me (1954), Billy Rose’s Jumbo (1962)
• Clark Gable: No Man Of Her Own (1932), Dancing Lady (1933), Mogambo (1953), The King And Four Queens (1956) and Run Silent, Run Deep (1958)

18 Cinema Lane

• Doris Day: The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)