Cary Grant has very hairy knuckles and other things I learned at the TCM Classic Film Festival

I’m suffering from withdrawals after four days of the TCM Classic Film Festival.

It was a magical event and I hope it will become an annual thing. The location was perfect: Hollywood.

To see The Graduate, The Producers, North By Northwest, Saturday Night Fever and other films inside Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and Casablanca down the street at the historic Egyptian Theatre was something I never thought would happen.

Here are some of the things I learned during the festival:

Lorna Luft’s children had never before seen grandma Judy Garland’s movie A Star is Born on the big screen until last week … Director John Badham told us that the walls of the dance hall in Saturday Night Fever were achieved with aluminum foil hung on the walls then covered with Christmas lights … Two weeks before filming began 0n Fever, only John Travolta had been cast … Tab Hunter told us the studio was considering replacing Gwen Verdon with a movie star name in Damn Yankees … Ray Walston’s performance in Yankees is even funnier when you watch it with an audience … Seeing North By Northwest on the giant movie screen at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre revealed just how hairy leading man Cary Grant’s knuckles were … Mel Brooks told us that The Producers was originally going to be called Springtime for Hitler but the studio demanded a title change … Brooks was set to cast Dustin Hoffman in a supporting role until he got cast opposite Brooks’ wife Anne Bancroft in The Graduate … Two beloved characters from the sitcom Bewitched - Esmeralda (Alice Ghostley) and Aunt Clara (Marion Lorne) share a funny scene with Hoffman in a hotel ballroom … Another Bewitched alum, Agnes Moorehead, was sensational in Orson Wells-directed The Magnificent Ambersons … Joseph Cotten has never more sexy then he was in Ambersons. … I also learned that four movies in one day is pretty much my limit and I can really can’t stop from eating all my popcorn before the movie starts!