Outrunning the Storms

Started this morning with the second disc of the Schoolhouse Rock set while I had breakfast. In addition to two featurettes, the most notable items on disc two were a series of cartoons written in the mid-80s to help introduce kids to those fancy new desktop computers, Scooter Computer and Mr. Chips. Alas, unlike the direct-to-DVD "I'm Gonna Send Your Vote to College" on the first disc, these three shorts aren't much fun to watch, nor have they dated well. (And one's missing. Apparently, the short that introduced the series is genuinely lost.)

Headed to the Haddon Township Library after Schoolhouse Rock ended. I needed to return the DVDs from last week and do this week's volunteering. There weren't that many DVDs when I got in. I organized the kids' DVDs...and when I came back, there was a big stack of discs waiting for me! They kept adding more all day. I also shelved picture books. I took out two more cartoon DVDs, some Little Einsteins and a new Max and Ruby, Bunny Tales.

It was sunny when I headed to the library this morning, but dark clouds loomed in the horizon. When I left around quarter of 1, they were overhead, heavy and black and humid. I raced through Newton River Park, dodging the few remaining joggers who weren't turned off by the weather. It started to spit a little as I made my way into Oaklyn. I just made it home. I'd been inside for less than 20 minutes when it started to pour and I heard thunder.

Needless to say, I spent the rest of the afternoon at home. I baked Fresh Peach Muffins. I watched the monsoon. I dubbed The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle to DVD. This was Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers' last vehicle at RKO. It's also the only time they played a real-life couple and one of two times they played a married couple. Vernon and Irene Castle were wildly popular dancers on Broadway and elsewhere in the mid and late 1910s. Vernon Castle died in a tragic accident during World War I, but Irene lived, and it was her memories and memoirs that the story is based on. She may have given Ginger a hard time about playing her, but her input into the movie makes it more honest than most musical bios.

(And I've seen pictures of the real Castles in books on the musicals of the 1910s. Ginger didn't really look like Irene...but Fred very much resembled Vernon, other than the latter was a blond.)

The storm finally subsided around 2:30, more than an hour before I headed to work. There was another storm during my shift, but while we were busy before that and during rush hour, it was once again gone by the time I went home. It also cleared out the store. I spent the last hour shelving candy.

Dubbed Look for the Silver Lining when I got in. Another musical biography, this one covers Marilyn Miller, whom I've mentioned here before when discussing 20s musicals. Miller was the sweetheart of Broadway in the late teens and 20s...but unlike the Castles' and Ruth Etting's stories, Miller got the whitewashed treatment. In real life a hoyden with the mouth of a sailor, here she's played by sweet, dainty June Haver. Ray Bolger and Gordon MacRae turn up again as Miller's mentor and doomed first husband respectively.

(On the other hand, one of the things I like about this one is how realistic the numbers are. No Busby Berkley kaleidoscopes here; the routines look like they could be performed on real stages. I especially love the bit of Sally they cribbed, with SK Sakall as Leon Errol and Haver doing a simple, lovely version of the title song.)