Sign in

Alison Macor

@agmacor.bsky.social
204 followers 132 following 582 posts

Author of HAIR DOWN, CLAWS OUT: GEORGE CUKOR AND THE MAKING OF THE WOMEN (coming 2027!), MAKING BEST YEARS (now in paperback!), CHAINSAWS, SLACKERS, AND SPY KIDS and REWRITE MAN. PhD. Ghostwriter. Film fan.

PostsRepliesMedia
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
#NormaShearer had casting approval for the part of late husband #IrvingThalberg in MAN OF A THOUSAND FACES, on #TCM tonight. She discovered women's wear exec #RobertEvans vacationing at the Beverly Hills Hotel, brought him to Universal, and launched his career. #TCMParty
150
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The advert that inspired the title for my Spring 2027 book about the making of #TheWomen from play to film through the eyes of #GeorgeCukor, #NormaShearer, and #JoanCrawford. "Out of the boudoir...on to the screen....See them with their hair down and their claws out!" #TCMParty
030
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
In the setup to the dramatic soda fountain scene in #TheBestYearsofOurLives, Fred ( #DanaAndrews) makes sundaes for a teen couple. The boy's bubblegum habit was an issue in later shots, with the script clerk writing one take was ruined because he was "chewing gum madly." #TCMParty
061
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE--the film that earned #FredricMarch an #Oscar & inspired the gripping transformation scene he performed without F/X while entertaining troops during #WWII. (And that sealskin top hat now lives in his niece's closet 🎩) On #TCM today! #TCMParty
030
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
A throng of girls swarms #DanaAndrews as he gets some training behind the soda fountain at the Owl Drug store (Hollywood and Vine) in preparation for his role as "drugstore cowboy" Fred Derry in #TheBestYearsofOurLives. 📸 Bettmann #TCMParty
061
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
From the Clare Boothe Luce archive: A 1955 cast photo for the NBC broadcast of the play that inspired the #MGM film #TheWomen. NBC ensemble included #ShelleyWinters as Crystal Allen, #PauletteGoddard switching it up as Sylvia Fowler, and #NancyOlson as Peggy. #TCMParty #nextbook
020
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The Wardrobe Plot Book for #TheBestYearsofOurLives was a thick stack of 3-hole scrapbook pages with b/w photos and lots of detail, like which actors wore their own jewelry (Wright) and who wore fingernail polish ( #MyrnaLoy). Here, #TeresaWright wearing one of my fave dresses. #TCMParty
060
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
In Basinger/Wasson's HOLLYWOOD, Adela Rogers St. Johns said L.B. Mayer acted out MRS. MINIVER to convince #GreerGarson to play the role of the mother of a grown son: "And when he finished...she was crying...[Garson] says, 'I'll play it.'" On #TCM today! #TCMParty #TeresaWright
030
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The November '46 premiere for #TheBestYearsofOurLives was a starry event. Even the #DukeandDuchessofWindsor were there (#10) as guests of #SamuelGoldwyn. I just finished Melanie Benjamin's THE WINDSOR AFFAIR & highly recommend to #RoyalUK fans. Juicy historical fiction! #TCMParty
020
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Writing to #FredricMarch before filming on #TheBestYearsOfOurLives, #WilliamWyler reminded him that Al needed to look like he’d been on combat duty in the Pacific. “...very important that your figure suggests a K-ration diet, rather than the '21 Club'." #TCMParty
6333
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Because it's Friday....#MyrnaLoy ca. 1946 in the garden of her Colonial house in the Pacific Palisades, where she grew lavender to scent her lingerie drawers. Sadly, the house burned in the 2025 PP fires. 😞 #TCMParty
050
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
In June 1947, Anna Mitchell of Staten Island purchased the millionth ticket for #TheBestYearsofOurLives at the Astor Theatre in NYC. James Mulvey, president of #SamuelGoldwyn's company, presented the stunned 72-year-old widow with a silver vanity case. #TCMParty
080
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
In his memoir "Victory in My Hands," #HaroldRussell writes about taking piano lessons from co-star #HoagyCarmichael for #TheBestYearsofOurLives. Director #WilliamWyler put the kibosh on Carmichael's acting tips, though, wanting to preserve Russell's naturalness. #TCMParty
020
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Happy pub day to JUNGLE RED 💅 Not surprised #TheWomen's getting such well-deserved love! Stay tuned for HAIR DOWN, CLAWS OUT: GEORGE CUKOR & THE MAKING OF THE WOMEN in Spring '27--from play to screen via #GeorgeCukor, #NormaShearer & #JoanCrawford in H'wood's Greatest Year. #TCMParty
141
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
#AlfredEisenstaedt's LIFE cover photo of #TeresaWright promoting #TheBestYearsofOurLives in Dec. '46. Although the film was reviewed inside, there was no article about Wright. Instead, the magazine profiled #HaroldRussell in "Handless Veteran." #TCMParty
160
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Reporters on the '39 set of THE WOMEN were captivated by #RosalindRussell's "bizarre" Surrealistic "seeing eye" dress by Adrian. "Against a fuchsia background it was trimmed with huge glass eyes...fringed with metallic lashes," the pupils hand-tinted in violet. #TCMParty #nextbook
071
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
#SamuelGoldwyn hosted invitation-only previews at the studio for #TheBestYearsofOurLives in 1946. Afterward, guests were handed ecru reply cards not unlike the one below. It had 2 questions: "How did you like TBYOOL?" and "Which individual players did you enjoy most?" #TCMParty
050
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
The Guardian reviews #TheBestYearsofOurLives upon its London release, praising its "absolute command of the seeing eye" and comparing its realism to a Russian film. But #DanaAndrews fans, you may not want to see the last 'graph. And poor "Walter" Wyler. 🙄 #TCMParty #London
080
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
#VirginiaMayo liked to joke that she won William Wyler his Best Director Oscar for #TheBestYearsofOurLives because at the time, no one believed she could do a dramatic role. Shown here with husband Michael O'Shea, whom she married not long after making BEST YEARS. #TCMParty
060
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Overlooked by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences for her work in #TheBestYearsofOurLives, #MyrnaLoy nonetheless received the award for top female performance at the inaugural World Festival of Films in Brussels in the summer of 1947. #TCMParty
180
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Prior to casting #InsideMoves, director Richard Donner watched #TheBestYearsofOurLives and reached out to #HaroldRussell (rt) for the part of Wings. Before he began filming, Russell re-watched BEST YEARS and said, "You know, it holds up very well." On #TCM tonight! #TCMParty
060
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
#OTD in 1946, as the PR campaign for #TheBestYearsofOurLives took shape, producer Sam Goldwyn told his top execs "not to star #HoagyCarmichael in any adds as would minimize others importance," a decision that would later enrage Carmichael and his handlers. #TCMParty
160
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
#MyrnaLoy once said that MGM mogul Louis B. Mayer told her, "I'll never let you scrub the floor," which was his way of saying, said Loy, "that I must always play ladies." #TCMParty
410913
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
March 1947 letter from L. Otto of Fresno, CA to #SamuelGoldwyn re: #TheBestYearsofOurLives: "...the film has been so widely advertised. Was it advertised to give the liquor business a boost? Why was there so much drinking in the picture?" #TCMParty #MyrnaLoy #FredricMarch
120
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
#OTD in 1939 THE WOMEN was released. The night before in Los Angeles, MGM hosted an over-the-top premiere at Grauman's Chinese. LB Mayer, #PauletteGoddard, #GeorgeCukor, #JoanCrawford, and producer Hunt Stromberg posed for photographs. #TCMParty
180
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
One of the many "tie-ups" arranged to promote #TheBestYearsofOurLives in the late fall of 1946. #DanaAndrews, Goldwyn's top star at the time, also did promos for toothpaste, Kellogg's cereals, and MacGregor sportswear. #TCMParty #TeresaWright
070
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Currently reviewing the copyedits for HAIR DOWN, CLAWS OUT, my next book about the making of #TheWomen 💅 I love this note from the editor about Featherbrain, one of the monkey models in the #Technicolor fashion show sequence. This is what I got my PhD for, folks 😉 #TCMParty
141
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
In August '46, as principal photography on #TheBestYearsofOurLives wrapped, #WilliamWyler began work as a partner in Liberty Films. The indie venture would be short-lived, tanked partly by the high costs of Liberty's first project, #FrankCapra's IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. #TCMParty
040
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
On the set of #TheBestYearsofOurLives with #FredricMarch and #DanaAndrews. Given the costumes, they may be celebrating the first day of production in April 1946 or #WilliamWyler’s birthday on July 1. #TCMParty #SUTS
040
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
It's #DanaAndrews day on #TCM 🥳Here's a fave scene in #TheBestYearsOfOurLives, w/William Wyler’s young daughter Cathy (now a producer) as an extra in the 1st drugstore scene where Andrews returns for a post-war visit. Can’t tell at all that Cathy was a super-fan 😂 #TCMParty #SUTS
050
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
#MyrnaLoy on her approach to acting ca. 1959: "I like to play drama under comedy." Here doing just that in #TheBestYearsofOurLives. #TCMParty #FredricMarch
171
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Homer shows Wilma how he removes his harness in #TheBestYearsofOurLives, the shot that took 18 takes to film. #HaroldRussell grew so weary during filming that the script supervisor noted after one discarded take, "He looked dead." #TCMParty #BehindTheScenes #DisabilityInclusion
071
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
During casting for #GoneWithTheWind in 1938, then-director #GeorgeCukor attended a performance of #TheWomen on Broadway. When the cast heard he was there, all of the actresses assumed Southern accents. GWTW spotlighting #HattieMcDaniel on #TCM tonight! #TCMParty #SUTS
140
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
#TCM is celebrating #RobertRedford all day! Check out #TheWayWeWere @ 5pm CT & watch for #TheBestYearsofOurLives billboard as Hubbell and Katie (#BarbraStreisand) drive onto the studio lot. Fun fact: I was asked to sign my book about BEST YEARS as a gift for Streisand 🤩 #SUTS
030
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
A fave find from #RosalindRussell's archive @ #UCLA. A $0.10 check to Columbia Pictures for a phone call Russell made from the studio in 1942. Not relevant to my #nextbook about #TheWomen but a great example of her irreverent sense of humor.😏 #TCMParty #SummerUndertheStars
030
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Goldwyn gimmick or real report? In January '47 during promo for #TheBestYearsofOurLives, #VirginiaMayo was off the grid for 4 days. Fiancé Michael O'Shea later said they'd quarreled, she was "blue" after the accidental death of dog Dinky, and she'd gone to Palm Desert. #TCMParty
030
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Before the play #TheWomen could be performed in London, in 1938—a year before the #MGM adaptation hit screens—playwright Clare Boothe Luce was asked to make the following changes per the Lord Chamberlain’s office. #TCMParty #nextbook
120
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Not everyone was a superfan of #TheBestYearsofOurLives when it came out in 1946. #LillianHellman, a confidante and collaborator of #WilliamWyler's since the 1930s, said of the film: "It's a slightly over-sentimental picture, but it's a wonderfully made picture...." #TCMParty
050
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
#BarbaraStanwyck and #HowardHawks on the set of #BallofFire and a still from a scene with #DanaAndrews (Joe Lilac)--on #TCM tonight! Andrews would later guest star on Stanwyck's short-lived TV drama series in 1961. #TCMParty #SUTS
010
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
#TeresaWright fun facts shared during #TheBestYearsofOurLives run in '47: "She has a checking account & can't get over the thrill of writing checks...She never uses cold cream...She has never had a facial or manicure. She does her own nails but doesn't use nail polish." #TCMParty
130
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
"We've been having lectures in atomic energy at school, and Mr. McGlaggen--he's our Physics teacher--he says that we've reached the point where the whole human race has either got to find a way to live together, or else...." #TCMParty #Nagasaki #TheBestYearsofOurLives
020
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
#MyrnaLoy on the real power of the Stephensons' reunion in #TheBestYearsofOurLives: "They just can't wait to get into the sack." #TCMParty #Veterans #FredricMarch
050
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Clare Boothe Luce's handwritten edits ca. 1937 for the final scene of her play #TheWomen, which became the #MGM film two years later. CBL would update & tweak scenes throughout the play's 1st run & for revivals until her death in 1987. #TCMParty #nextbook #BehindTheScenes
040
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
#OTD in 1944 #SamuelGoldwyn telegrammed story ed. Kay Brown to "register immediately" the titles "Home Again" and "The Way Home," the original TIME article read by his wife Frances that inspired the novel and ultimately #TheBestYearsOfOurLives. #TCMParty #Veterans
050
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
February 1954: #WilliamWyler is nominated for a Best Director Oscar for ROMAN HOLIDAY and telegrams friend and #TheBestYearsofOurLives co-star #HaroldRussell to invite him to attend the ceremonies. #TCMParty #Oscars
011
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
"She puts down a plate, hard": A page from the final shooting script of #TheBestYearsOfOurLives, a scene inspired by #WilliamWyler's own wartime reunion at NYC's Hampshire House with wife Talli. #TCMParty #MyrnaLoy #FredricMarch
040
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Born #OTD, #MyrnaLoy attends the New York premiere of #TheBestYearsofOurLives at the Astor Theatre on Nov. 21, 1946. Eight years later, she would tell a reporter, "I still think it is my best piece of work." #TCMParty
1140
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
The Hampshire House in New York, the scene of #WilliamWyler’s wartime reunion with wife Talli IRL, which inspired THIS scene between #MyrnaLoy and #FredricMarch in #TheBestYearsOfOurLives. #TCMParty
060
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
#OTD in 1946, composer #BernardHerrmann writes to Samuel Goldwyn to tell him previous commitments with CBS Symphony Orchestra will keep him from scoring #TheBestYearsOfOurLives. #TCMParty
021
Alison Macor @agmacor.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Celebrating #NationalLipstickDay with Max Factor's "lifelike red" lipstick tie-in for #TheWomen featuring #NormaShearer and #JoanCrawford. #TCMParty #nextbook
072