For Better or Werts : TV Worth Watching

FLICK PICKS: Big band movies on TCM

Well, beat me daddy, eight to the bar -- Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Jimmie Lunceford, Artie Shaw, Kay Kyser and Cab Calloway [pictured at left] are just a few of the varied big band leaders being showcased on Wednesday nights throughout July by Turner Classic Movies.

They're appearing in dramatized musicals like 1937's Hollywood Hotel with Benny Goodman (Sing Sing Sing) and 1941's Las Vegas Nights with Tommy Dorsey and his skinny young vocalist named Frank something (Wednesday double feature at 8 and 10 p.m. ET).

They're backing Hollywood stars like Lucille Ball in 1943's Best Foot Forward, with Harry James (Wednesday/Thursday at 3 a.m. ET), and Danny Kaye in 1948's A Song Is Born (July 9 at 8 p.m. ET), a feast featuring Goodman, Dorsey, Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton and Charlie Barnet.

But they're also out front in late-late-night short subjects that serve as even better historical (if not sociological) documents. TCM's lineup late Wednesday/early Thursday this week: Jimmie Lunceford (4:55 a.m.), Jammin' the Blues led by Lester Young (5:10 a.m.), Freddie Rich (5:25 a.m.) and Larry Clinton (5:40 a.m.). Next week's collection has Cab Calloway singing Hi De Ho (July 10 at 5:40 a.m.)

Best of all, future TV icons take their turn with the baton, or congas, as the case may be. Cuban bandleader Desi Arnaz appears with his 1946 orchestra on July 17 at 5:30 a.m., followed by Ozzie Nelson circa 1939 on July 23/24 at 4:45 a.m. and circa 1943 on July 31 at 5:50 a.m. (All times ET.)

Get the whole playlist at TCM's Big Bands in the Movies site.

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Diane Werts has been glued to the tube since she can remember, growing up in a household where the TV came on first thing in the morning and stayed on till bedtime and beyond. She worked for the USA Film Festival, then for The Dallas Morning News writing about everything from Shakespeare to macrame art to rock music (and has the hearing loss to prove it). She moved to New York's Newsday to edit their glossy TV magazine, then returned to writing about television, specializing in its stranger permutations. She's a past president of the Television Critics Association.

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