Welcome to Tuesday Matinee!

Hi there! I’m Megan Christman, classic movie fanatic. Welcome to my blog, Tuesday Matinee. Here’s a little background/personal info about me. I’m 34 years old, and a graduate from the University of Louisville. I have a B.A. in English Lit and I’ve been slowly working towards a B.A. in Film Studies. In my past lives I’ve tutored, been a babysitter, Reading Coach and a Librarian. Currently, I’m a stay-at-home-mom. I have a 5 year old daughter, Harper Lee, whom I trek back and forth to pre-k daily. I also have a son, Jack, who is 1 and always down to do anything if it involves his sister. I’ve been with my husband for 15 years (married for 10), his name is Dustin. He’s a hot, tattooed HVAC guy (I got paid to say that). None of them understand my love for classic movies, or The Golden Girls, but that’s neither here nor there. Sometimes my son will watch parts of movies with me if they involved songs or babies. I finally got my daughter to watch The Wizard of Oz, which she liked thankfully.

We live in Southern Indiana. I can’t wait to blog about our towns history with the Golden Age of Hollywood! I always wanted to live here, and I truly believe I fell in love with the town when my mom took me to the historic theater in our downtown area. Love at first sight I suppose. My daughter had her first field trip there and I’m proud to report it was love at first sight for her as well. For years, the jobs I had allowed me time to do things like run to Monday and Tuesday matinees at this same theater. That’s where I came up with the name for blog. Nothing compared to those spur of the moment trips for the most delicious buttered popcorn, a coke, and often a classic. It was nothing for them to show classics on Mondays or weekends. I saw movies like Vertigo, Some Came Running, My Favorite Wife, Miracle on 34th Street, and so many more. What I wouldn’t give for Tuesday matinee these days.

It’s important to note that my favorite movie is Rear Window. It’s been my favorite since I first watched it in 2008. My aunt bought me the movie and I watched it over the course of a few mornings before work. It just had me engrossed from the get go. The acting, story, direction, it’s all perfect. All the stars aligned when Hitch made it.

My favorite actress is such a hard one. There’s so many extraordinary ones. This could easily be a tie between Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck and Elizabeth Taylor. But, today, it’s Bette Davis. Maybe because I just watched Dark Victory. Maybe because my mom and aunt would disown me if I said anyone else. I will say, Now, Voyager and Jezebel are in my top 10 favorites list, so it’s definitely her.

My favorite actor is Jimmy Stewart. No competition. He’s just the whole package to me. I mean, have you seen him in The Philadelphia Story or The Shop Around the Corner?!? Brains, humor, looks. He’s got it all! I love how it feels like he’s always himself in every character he plays too.

When I was trying to decide what to share in my introduction post, I had a tough time deciding what was really important, what you guys would want to know. I knew I wanted to share the basics, but do y’all really want to know that 10:30 p.m. is my favorite time of day to eat? Or that Siriusly Sinatra is my favorite XM channel? Probably not. I do want to share though, about how I came to love classic movies and some of the important films from my childhood.

At home, the only true classic I can remember watching was The Wizard of Oz. I watched that VHS tape so many times it’s a wonder my mom didn’t have to buy me more copies.With it’s rich color, fantastic songs, overall childlike quality, this is the perfect first film for any little.

At my grandparents house I caught some Sean Connery Bond films my grandpa would watch. I also remember him watching Elvis movies, or at least Blue Hawaii. I remember so vividly in their living room, pawpaw drinking his coffee, in his chair, watching Elvis romp on the beach with a beauty and sing. Today, when I watch Blue Hawaii, it’s like being wrapped up in fuzzy, warm, happiness, because I always associate it with my grandpa.

The place I had the most exposure to the classics was my maternal grandma’s house. She had a little VHS collection of the classics; Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, The Rare Breed, It’s a Wonderful Life, Shadowlands. But one movie she would tell you I burned her out on was White Christmas. I watched it year round, multiple times a month. There was nothing more fun than watching Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye singing “Sisters”! I still feel this way today. I also watched the 1949 version of Little Women. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s the version with June Allyson and Elizabeth Taylor. It’s one of the least known, and least liked versions (at least from what I can tell). But it’s always going to be my favorite. I can almost quote the entire movie. This is another movie I can pop in the DVD player and I instantly feel comforted.

Here and there in high school we saw some classics that kept the love alive. To Kill a Mockingbird, Julius Caesar and The Birds were some of the best I remember. And seeing the Hitchcock classic certainly was one of those moments that changed me. It shifted my perspective, fanned the movie flame. And the love I had for Hitchcock grew and grew over the years. He’s my favorite auteur/director. Always will be.

It wasn’t until a few years later watching the AFI 100 years of movies did I start the real journey into all things classics. Seeing previews of classics like Vertigo, The Philadelphia Story, Casablanca, it just threw me into classic movie mode overnight. I went online and printed out every list of movies they had and scoured ebay for copies. At the same time we finally got TCM on our cable line-up. I was able to catch movies whenever I was home and saw so many for the first time with sweet Robert Osborne’s intros. The first two movies I saw on the network were Boom Town, and The Thing. Both spectacular movies to first see on Turner Classic Movies. This same year my aunt bought me some Jimmy Stewart DVD’s for Christmas (I still watch The Philadelphia Story every Christmas after everyone else in the house is asleep), followed by a Bette Davis box set for my birthday. I was off to the races. No coming back now. I took every class in college I could that pertained to films and went towards my degree. Classics were shown like Stagecoach, The Gold Rush, Citizen Kane, and Dr. Strangelove. I had a class where we kept a blog each week on the movies we watched for class. When I wrote one about Eve Kendall from North by Northwest that really ruffled some feathers. But I stand by what I said then: Eve Kendall is a bad ass spy, not a whore for the American government. I’ll elaborate on that another day though.

Cut to 2022 and I had been racking my brain for 2 years trying to figure out how to use my love of classic movies. I was tired of just watching them, but never really getting to do anything with the thoughts in my head, and the love in my soul. Initially, I decided to write a book about Irene Dunne. She grew up here where I live, and I adore her and her films. But when I really got into the research, and thick of it, I realized that I wanted to watching and reading about more than just one star and her movies. I had little confidence in myself too, to do something as grand as write a book. It was devastating to admit my lack of confidence, I had such high hopes for a book. But, I went back to square one and began brainstorming again. I finally decided on making my own blog. Here I am, 4 months later, finally putting out my blog. The lack of confidence is maddening. I never feel worthy enough. What do I have to offer that you cant’ find some place else that is better? I haven’t figured it all out yet, but I know I love classic films. I love watching them, talking about them, writing about them. And what better way to do all these things than a blog?

I don’t have set themes or certain things lined up to write about. I’m going to go with whatever I’m feeling at the time, with the exception of doing monthly Robert Osborne picks (I went through all the old Now Playing magazines and wrote down all his picks), a book of the month, 3 movies of the month, and at some point I hope to do interviews with writers of my favorite books on film. I hope my authentic voice comes through my writing. I’m planning to stay pretty informal (or my definition of it anyway).

If you have any suggestions for blog posts, movies, actors, etc. you’d like to hear about, or chat about, send me an email at [email protected] or drop some comments below. In the coming months I would like to look at making monthly or quarterly subscription boxes. Think movie/book club for classic movie lovers, filled with movies, books about movies, snacks, and other items that would go along with movies and watching movies.

At the top of the top of the blog you’ll see a Book of the month tab. That will take you to amazon to see the book, and buy it if you want. I’ll post a blog each month about it, and hope you’ll chime in with comments. Under the picture of the Ohio Theater you’ll see the 3 monthly movie picks that I’ll post a blog about so we can chat about them. I’ll typically pick 2 I’ve already seen, and 1 I haven’t. A link to my Instagram page is at the top, and at the bottom is contact information with my email. A monthly newsletter is in the works, and I’ll post more on that in the future.

Steven Speilburg said at this year’s Golden Globes while accepting his Best Director award “Nobody really knows who we are until we’re courageous enough to tell everyone who we are”. I’m ready to do that. I’m putting my fears and anxieties aside to share who I am, through what I love. I hope you’ll join me.

Slow down and enjoy a Tuesday Matinee.

Megan