Seen-A-Ma

I was sitting around, pondering, as I do, and the idea came to me to make a list of all the movies we had seen in the theater as a family, or most of the family. Together John and I put together Race For Your Life Charlie Brown, In Search of Ancient Astronauts, The Late Great Planet Earth, The Deep, Magic, Phantom of the Paradise, Pinocchio, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Journey Back to Oz, The Swarm, Orca, A Hundred and One Dalmations, Bambi, Song of the South, Charlotte’s Web, Jaws, True Grit, The Jungle Book, Lady and the Tramp, Robin Hood, The Aristocats, Against a Crooked Sky, The Brothers O’Toole, and Alice in Wonderland (1972). I noted how much easier it would be if we still had an old paperback that listed a bunch of movies along with potted plot summaries, and that set me down another rabbit hole. I think it might have been one of these volumes.

“Steven H. Scheuer’s Movies on TV, first published in 1958 under the title TV Movie Almanac & Rating, was the first guide of its kind. It contained capsule reviews and ratings of movies using a four star rating system. By the release of Leonard Maltin's similarly titled TV Movies in September 1969 (later rebranded Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide), there had been five editions of Scheuer's book under four different names. At that time it contained 7,000 films compared to 8,000 in Maltin's TV Movies. It wasn't until the eighth edition (1978-79) that Scheuer started to include the movie's director and expanded the short synopses. It was renamed Movies on TV and Videocassette in 1989. Scheuer's book differed from Maltin's in that it featured a greater number of made-for-television productions, including aired television pilots that Maltin's book omitted.” – Wikipedia.

I remember a strange anecdote connected with the book: I was able to trace down in it one bizarre little film that Mom remembered seeing in childhood called Bill and Coo (1948), starring mostly trained birds.