Shirley Temple movies are missing or hard to find online

I took an interest in child actress Shirley Temple recently after receiving an antique doll in her likeness. Despite being a movie fan, I had never seen any of her movies.
Fortunately, before Netflix’s DVD service ended last month, I rented two of her movies “Wee Willie Winkie” (1937) and “The Little Princess” (1939). The DVD service had listed 10 of her movies in its inventory.
Temple appeared in 44 feature-length motion pictures from 1932 through 1949, according to Wikipedia. Of those, 13 are not available in any form online, either from streaming services or for digital rental or purchase, according to JustWatch and Reelgood.
Also, 19 of the Shirley Temple movies are only available for digital rental or purchase.
The remaining 12 movies are available for streaming from mostly smaller subscription video services such as Indieflix and Flixfling.
She also made numerous short films, including a series of Baby Burlesks. I don’t know the status of their availability.

Photo: Movie poster for “The Little Princess” (1939).

Shirley Temple doll is an unusual family heirloom

The prologue to the hit summer movie “Barbie” notes that girls’ dolls before Barbie debuted in 1959 were all baby dolls. They were designed to teach maternal skills to young girls and reinforce gender roles. But that’s not entirely true.
When my mom was 7 years old in 1940, she received a 27-inch-tall Shirley Temple doll as a Christmas gift from her aunt Josephine. The doll captures the likeness of the precocious Hollywood child actress. Girls treated their Shirley Temple dolls as companions and playmates.
“She was very popular at the time,” my mom told me. In fact, Temple was Hollywood’s number-one box-office draw as a child actress from 1934 to 1938.
Shirley Temple dolls also were popular in that period. “The one I had was not the most expensive one,” Mom said.
When my mom moved into senior housing she gave away many of her possessions to her children. Because I’m something of a pop culture historian, the doll went to me.
The 83-year-old Shirley Temple doll was restored a few years back.
“It got moved around a lot from Jim Falls to Chippewa (Wisconsin) and then my mother kept it when they moved out to the country there,” Mom said. She retrieved the doll after her mother died.
Now that I’ve got the doll, I’m having to put up with a lot of Annabelle jokes. But Shirley isn’t creepy at all. I swear.

Photo: 1940 Shirley Temple doll. (Patrick Seitz)

Netflix DVD service, you will be missed

On Friday, Sept. 29, Netflix will mail out its final DVDs to subscribers. It will mark the end of company’s legacy DVD-by-mail service, which started some 25 years ago. And I will be sad to see it go.
I have subscribed to the DVD service continually since March 2001. In that time, I’ve watched about 1,660 discs, including movies, TV series and documentaries. That’s a lot of discs.
The end has been coming for a while. Consumers clearly prefer the immediacy of streaming video, whether that’s subscription video on demand or transactional video on demand.
The beauty of the Netflix DVD service was that it carried virtually every theatrical Hollywood release in one place. Now, you have to use a service like Reelgood or JustWatch to find out where to access a particular movie online, if it’s even available.
Netflix’s DVD.com also offered many movies, particularly older titles, that weren’t available for streaming anywhere.
My movie watching now is split across Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Kanopy, Max and Netflix. In the future, I’ll likely switch off with other services such as Hulu, Paramount+ and Peacock. There also are niche services I’d like to try such as horror movie specialist Shudder.
I have a watch list on Reelgood to keep track of all the movies I’d like to see. Reelgood lists where those movies are available to stream, if they’re available.
I’ll miss the little thrill of finding Netflix DVDs in my mailbox every week.
However, I may try another DVD rental service. But those offerings seem limited. Video game rental service GameFly has a movie rental service offering DVD and Blu-ray Disc titles. There’s also 3D Blu-ray Rental, 4K Blu-Ray 4U and Scarecrow Video.
Plus, there’s Redbox and its video rental kiosks. But those machines are getting harder to find in my area.

Related articles:

Netflix Prepares to Send Its Final Red Envelope (The New York Times; Sept. 23, 2023)

Netflix is shutting down its DVD service this week. (Trung Phan; Sept. 25, 2023)

The high tech behind Netflix’s old-school DVD service (The Verge; Sept. 25, 2023)

Redbox to Increase Catalog, Niche Titles in Kiosks as Netflix Exits Disc Biz (Media Play News; Sept. 26, 2023)

Photos: My last few Netflix DVDs (Patrick Seitz)

FakeIndians, History vs. Hollywood and other interesting websites

With so much creative talent focused on social media platforms these days, it can be difficult to find websites created for interesting niche topics and fun pursuits.
What follows are a few such websites that I’d like to spotlight.

FakeIndians

The blog FakeIndians exposes people who falsely claim to have Native American heritage. The website has revealed dozens of “pretendians.” The fraudsters claim to hail from indigenous peoples to advance their careers in academia, politics, literature and art.
(See article by the New York Post.)

History vs. Hollywood

The website History vs. Hollywood answers the No. 1 question people have about movies based on true stories. That is, how much of the story is real and how much is made up?
Recent articles have examined “Dumb Money,” “Oppenheimer” and “The Beanie Bubble.”

Bloody Disgusting

I love horror movies and like to keep up on the latest new releases and under-the-radar gems. Bloody Disgusting keeps me informed about which horror movies I should have on my watch list.

Fangoria

Speaking of horror movies, the granddaddy of genre coverage is Fangoria. I used to collect Fangoria magazine back in high school and college. Now it’s available online as well as in print. It does an excellent job covering horror movies past, present and future.

Make My Drive Fun

When I’m planning a trip, especially a road trip, I check out TripAdvisor for interesting destinations along my route or where I’m staying. Here’s another website that provides information on quirky destinations along the way: Make My Drive Fun.

AllTrails

AllTrails is a website and mobile app for hikers to share trail maps and reviews of them. The service has curated over 400,000 trails and has a community of 55 million outdoor enthusiasts.

Viral Post Generator

Viral Post Generator is a humorous play on the generative AI trend. It pokes fun at professional networking site LinkedIn by generating cringy, aspirational posts celebrating even the most mundane tasks. (See article by Insider.)

Statista

I’m a fan of well-designed informational graphics. Statista has built a huge database of interesting charts on an extensive array of topics. It posts new charts daily and sends them out in a free newsletter.

Chartr

Speaking of pretty graphics, Chartr is another great resource. Chartr also has a free visual newsletter with charts that provide insights into business, tech, entertainment and society.

Connections

I was never a big fan of Wordle, but I’m hooked on another online game produced by the New York Times: Connections. With Connections, players have to group words that share a common thread. It’s a winner.

Theatre of Authenticity

Theatre of Authenticity is a collection of images by Belgian photographer Natacha de Mahieu. Her work mainly questions the relationship between humans and their environment.
Theatre of Authenticity shows famous tourist destinations being overwhelmed with visitors. De Mahieu created each image by using tens or hundreds of photos within a defined time frame and making a seamless collage.
Her images are meant to contrast the idealized pictures of those locations seen on Instagram. (See article by The Guardian.)

The Atlas of Beauty

The Atlas of Beauty is a project by Romanian photographer Mihaela Noroc. She traveled the world photographing women and listening to their stories. Her goal was to show that beauty is much more than what we see in the media. (See article by Bored Panda.)

America’s Cultural Decline Into Idiocy

The Facebook group America’s Cultural Decline Into Idiocy collects images and videos of the stupid things some Americans do. It would be sad if the content weren’t so funny. (See article by Bored Panda.)

Song of Summer 2023: ‘Last Night’ by Morgan Wallen

With the end of Labor Day weekend, summer is over, unofficially that is. So, it’s time to crown this year’s Song of Summer, the most popular tune for the vacation season.
Based on the Billboard Hot 100, the Song of Summer 2023 is “Last Night” by Morgan Wallen. It owned the No. 1 spot on the U.S. music chart for 16 weeks, Billboard said.
It seems fitting that “Last Night” should be Song of Summer 2023 because it was a crossover hit and country music is having a moment now.
Other country songs dominating the pop chart this summer were “Fast Car” by Luke Combs and viral hits “Try That In A Small Town” by Jason Aldean and “Rich Men North Of Richmond” by Oliver Anthony. In fact, it was Anthony who ended Wallen’s time at the top of the chart, Billboard said.
Music streaming leader Spotify said “Last Night” was its most-streamed song in the U.S. this summer.
But “Last Night” isn’t a unanimous pick for Song of Summer 2023.
Social media app TikTok named its first-ever U.S. songs of summer, led by Jain’s “Makeba.” That certainly was a ubiquitous tune this season online.
Personally my favorite song of summer was “Calm Down” by Rema and Selena Gomez.
Among other hit songs this summer vying for the Song of Summer crown were “Karma” and “Cruel Summer” by Taylor Swift, “Vampire” by Olivia Rodrigo and “Snooze” by SZA.
Plus, the soundtrack to blockbuster movie “Barbie” spawned several hits, led by “Dance The Night” by Dua Lipa.
I also like to choose the Music Artist of Summer. This year’s winner is easily Taylor Swift. She had several hit songs from her album “Midnights” and packed stadiums for her Eras Tour.

Recent songs of summer

2008   “I Kissed A Girl” by Katy Perry
2009   “I Gotta Feeling” by The Black Eyed Peas
2010   “California Gurls” by Katy Perry feat. Snoop Dogg
2011   “Party Rock Anthem” by LMFAO feat. Lauren Bennett & GoonRock
2012   “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen
2013   “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke feat. T.I. + Pharrell
2014   “Fancy” by Iggy Azalea feat. Charli XCX
2015   “Cheerleader” by OMI
2016   “One Dance” by Drake feat. WizKid & Kyla
2017   “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee (feat. Justin Bieber)
2018   “In My Feelings” by Drake
2019   “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus
2020   “Rockstar” by DaBaby featuring Roddy Ricch
2021   “Good 4 U” by Olivia Rodrigo
2022   “As It Was” by Harry Styles
2023   “Last Night” by Morgan Wallen

Music artist of summer

2018   Cardi B
2019   Billie Eilish
2020   Doja Cat
2021   Olivia Rodrigo
2022   Harry Styles
2023   Taylor Swift

Photo: Spotify Song of Summer 2023 (Spotify) and Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour poster.

Interested in seeing Greta Gerwig’s influences for ‘Barbie’? It won’t be easy

Director Greta Gerwig’s movie “Barbie” is a smash hit this summer. And it’s easy to watch because it’s on thousands of movie screens in theaters nationwide. But if you wanted to check out all of the movies that inspired Gerwig’s film, be prepared to get frustrated.
In an interview with Letterboxd, she identified 33 movies that inspired her comedy-fantasy movie.
Of those, 21 are available from various subscription streaming video services such as Amazon Prime Video, Max and Paramount+, according to Reelgood. Also, nine of the titles are available from Kanopy, a free service for library card holders.
Nine of the movies are only available for digital rental, which usually costs $3.99 a title.
However, three titles are not available for streaming or digital rental at present. They are “All That Jazz” (1979), “And the Ship Sails On” (1983), and “A Matter of Life and Death” (1946) aka “Stairway to Heaven.”
Here’s the full list of Greta Gerwig’s movie influences for “Barbie”:

The Wizard of Oz (1939)
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)
The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967)
Model Shop (1969)
An American in Paris (1951)
Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
The Red Shoes (1948)
A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
All That Jazz (1979)
Heaven Can Wait (1978)
Oklahoma! (1955)
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
His Girl Friday (1940)
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935)
Twentieth Century (1934)
The Ladies Man (1961)
Rear Window (1954)
And the Ship Sails On (1983)
Wings of Desire (1987)
The Earrings of Madame de… (1953)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Modern Times (1936)
Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985)
Grease (1978)
The Truman Show (1998)
Mon Oncle (1958)
PlayTime (1967)
Splash (1984)
Saturday Night Fever (1977)
The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart (2020)
The Godfather (1972)

Photo: Margot Robbie as Barbie in “Barbie” promotional photo.

Why aren’t 4DX movies a bigger deal?

I recently watched “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” at a 4DX movie theater and was impressed by the experience. I had a great time.
The 4DX experience turns a movie into a theme park ride. The seats rock and roll with the action. They tilt, sway, rumble, thump and move with the on-screen action. Big fans blow wind at you when appropriate.
The seats also spray and mist you during water and fog scenes. Plus, they puff air around your head. The system also is capable of spraying scents, but I didn’t smell Indy’s musty leather jacket or anything identifiable.
4DX technology was developed by CJ 4DPlex to deliver an immersive multi-sensory cinematic experience. The company boasts have 21 different kinds of “signature effects” for movies.
The tickets are a little more expensive, but for the right movie, it’s totally worth it.
I plan to see “Meg 2: The Trench” in 4DX next. That looks like the perfect movie for it.
I’m just surprised that I haven’t heard more about 4DX movies.

Photos: Movie posters from “Meg 2: The Trench” and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” (CJ 4DPlex)