Happy New Year’s Eve🥳! Wishing all #classicmovie fans a better night than Fred ( #DanaAndrews) and Peggy's ( #TeresaWright) --and a fantastic 2026! #TheBestYearsofOurLives #TCMParty

"It took me three years in the Army to really know my characters in #TheBestYearsofOurLives... I often think how much better my other films would have been if I had as much time."--#WilliamWyler on the state of Hollywood films ca. 1947. #TCMParty #Veterans

#BehindTheScenes on the set of #TheWomen, on #TCM later tonight! While assistants tend to their wardrobe and make-up, #RosalindRussell jokes around with on-screen nemesis #PauletteGoddard on a break from shooting the Reno fight scene. #TCMParty #nextbook

Late December 1946: THE GUARDIAN noted that producer Samuel Goldwyn was in London to arrange 1947 showings (below) of #TheBestYearsofOurLives, a film the newspaper described at the time as "a three-hour comedy of post-war troubles."🤔 #TCMParty

#OTD in '46, #TheBestYearsofOurLives had its West Coast premiere at the Fox Beverly, followed by a post-premiere party at the Brown Derby. Despite a torrential downpour, stars like #GregoryPeck, #OrsonWelles & #RitaHayworth turned out for the #Christmas night event. #TCMParty

In '46 Samuel Goldwyn wanted to develop #TheBishopsWife (on #TCM tonight) for top star #DavidNiven & to hop on the postwar trend of "angel" pics (like #ItsaWonderfulLife). He also wanted #WilliamWyler to direct it, but Wyler made #TheBestYearsofOurLives instead. #TCMParty

Filming #TheBestYearsofOurLives' "morning after" scene with director #WilliamWyler and stars #MyrnaLoy and #FredricMarch. As Loy said of Al and Milly's homecoming, "They just can't wait to get into the sack." #TCMParty #WWII #BehindTheScenes

#TheBestYearsOfOurLives at the Times Square Astor #OTD in 1946. Look at the top left of the photo for the disembodied heads of Mayo and co. #TCMParty Thank you for this photo @davidpom2000!

At one point in the writing of #TheWomen, 12 year-old #VirginiaWeidler (here w/ #JoanCrawford) had the last line & shot in the film, watching her parents reunite offscreen: "Her face relaxes into a very broad grin...she turns a beautiful cartwheel of sheer joy..." #TCMParty #nextbook

n December 1946 #ItsAWonderfulLife premiered three weeks after #TheBestYearsofOurLives. In response to a screening of WONDERFUL LIFE at San Quentin State Prison several months later, a few of the inmates weighed in.... #TCMParty

Before #RobReiner's death, he and #JaneFonda discussed bringing back the Committee for the First Amendment, co-founded by #WilliamWyler in 1947. Here, #LaurenBacall and other members of the CFA traveled to D.C. to attend the HUAC hearings in 1947. #TCMParty

Interviewed by the DAILY NEWS in Dec. '46 to promote #TheBestYearsofOurLives, #MyrnaLoy said, "People are ducking the great issues we face today...In the film, the characters had to attack their difficulties and bring them to a conclusion. This is the way it should be." #TCMParty

EL PASO TIMES, December 1946: "A tavern is the symbol of peacetime living in #TheBestYearsofOurLives." #TCMParty #HaroldRussell #DanaAndrews #MyrnaLoy #FredricMarch #HoagyCarmichael

On-set photo of #GeorgeCukor, #KatharineHepburn, Lew Ayres, Henry Kolker, Doris Nolan, and #CaryGrant in HOLIDAY, which THE GUARDIAN once described as "the most romantic thing you can watch" at #Christmas. #TCMParty

If #TheBestYearsofOurLives had had a sequel, this could have been the Stephensons' #Christmas card after Peggy and Fred's wedding (and Rob still hadn’t come home from school).🙄 #TCMParty

Although Marie ( #VirginiaMayo) tells Fred ( #DanaAndrews) she's given him "the best years of my life," the title #TheBestYearsofOurLives actually came about before that line was scripted and seems to have been a suggestion from a studio-sponsored contest ca. March 1946. #TCMParty

THESE THREE, which #LillianHellman adapted from her play THE CHILDREN'S HOUR, introduced her to director #WilliamWyler. They would become lifelong friends & collaborators. When Hellman was later blacklisted, Wyler & wife Talli helped her financially. On #TCM tonight! #TCMParty

A promo poster for #MGM's #GrandHotel within a 16-page spread about the studio as top earner, in a 1932 issue of #FortuneMagazine. See it tonight on #TCM! #TCMParty #OldHollywood #artdeco

"Pearl Harbor came to my rescue."--#WilliamWyler The 39 y.o. dir. of Jewish descent eagerly signed up for the Signal Corps in Dec. '41. He was sent overseas to make docs like THE MEMPHIS BELLE (below) & lost hearing permanently in his right ear. #TCMParty #PearlHarbor #Veterans

One of #MGM's earliest "Leos" was actually named Slats and is buried just two miles from where I grew up in NJ. Slats was born in Dublin, Ireland and is interred on the property of his trainer, Volney Phifer. #TCMParty #OldHollywood imgur.com/gallery/orig...

Poster for the 1947 French release of #TheBestYearsofOurLives. #TCMParty

In November '44, paratrooper #HaroldRussell was filming scenes like this for the Army training film DIARY OF A SERGEANT, which would lead to his role in #TheBestYearsofOurLives. Here he recreates the initial days of his stay in Ward 32 at Walter Reed hospital. #TCMParty #Veterans

Cheers to Steve (Donald Kerr) and Butch (#HoagyCarmichael) on National Bartender Appreciation Day! 🍻 #TheBestYearsofOurLives #TCMParty

Excited to turn in the manuscript for my next book about the making of #TheWomen: female power and gay Hollywood at the height of the studio system. Still a ways from publication but inching closer 🥳 #TCMParty #amwriting

GONE WITH THE WIND on #TCM this afternoon! #PauletteGoddard was a major contender for the part of Scarlett before #VivienLeigh entered the picture (literally). Hearing #GeorgeCukor direct Goddard in her screen test is fascinating (app. 1:09). #TCMParty www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l2k...

Cult classic #The5000FingersofDrT is on #TCM this morning! Released in '53, the Stanley Kramer film bombed at the b.o. & with critics like Bosley Crowther, who called it a "strange and confused fabrication." But a personal fave of mine. I'm sure #TCMParty has feelings about it.😉

“Sketched on the set” of #TheWomen at #MGM in 1939. Adrian’s presence (far left) underscores the importance of the fashions to the film and of him to MGM. On #TCM this morning to celebrate #GeorgeCukor! #TCMParty #OldHollywood #nextbook

Vintage #TeresaWright on a Tuesday! Love this photo (ca. 1973) and how she seemingly managed to age naturally in a business that doesn't reward that. #TCMParty #ClassicHollywood

"This is my first time to be at a premiere in New York and I'm enjoying it very much: the crowds, the noise, the confusion, all of it."— #DanaAndrews interviewed on the red carpet at the East Coast premiere of #TheBestYearsofOurLIves in November 1946. #TCMParty

Remembering #JohnFKennedy, who was a fan of #HaroldRussell and appreciated his support of a controversial decision to include people with mental illnesses and intellectual disabilities within JFK's Committee on the Employment of People with Disabilities ca. 1961. #TCMParty

#OTD in 1946 #TheBestYearsofOurLives had its star-studded premiere at the Astor in NYC. Even the Duke and Duchess of Windsor were there (10)! #TCMParty #Royals

Several days before the NYC premiere of #TheBestYearsofOurLives in Nov. '46, DP #GreggToland reportedly traveled from L.A. with the negative of the film to have it developed in New York in part because of the ongoing labor strike in Hollywood. #TCMParty #BehindTheScenes

I hear it's National Carbonated Beverage with Caffeine Day 🙄 so I think #DanaAndrews making a chocolate ice cream soda counts! Here he perfects his technique on the set of #TheBestYearsofOurLives for DP #GreggToland and director #WilliamWyler. #TCMParty #BehindTheScenes

Of working with friend #GeorgeCukor, #JoanCrawford once said, "He is a hard taskmaster...assiduously critical in direction and if he feels you're closing up because of this, he'll switch, belting you with a humor that is convulsing." #TCMParty #BehindTheScenes

Who doesn't love a candid shot of #TeresaWright on a Monday?! #TCMParty

Happy Friday, #TCMParty, from the set of #TheBestYearsofOurLives ca. April 1946 and the start of production. #WilliamWyler freestyles while #DanaAndrews sits in the foreground, dressed to shoot the film's opening scene. #Veterans #OldHollywood

Art Director #PerryFerguson, #BOTD in 1901. Nominated for five #Oscars, including one for CITIZEN KANE. Shown here on the set of #TheBestYearsofOurLives with #WilliamWyler and #DanaAndrews. #TCMParty

#WilliamWyler lost hearing in both ears while making the documentary THUNDERBOLT during #WWII. (Hearing eventually came back in his left ear.) I've always wondered if this jokey photo was a reference to that or to his being the "over-age Major" at 39. #TCMParty 📸 Wyler Family

What do director #Stevenspielberg and comedian #JohnMulaney have in common? They’re superfans of #TheBestYearsofOurLives—on #TCM this afternoon. Great pick for #VeteransDay, TCM! My fave, too 😉#TCMParty

The entrance to #GeorgeCukor’s former home. When he purchased the property at 9166 Cordell Dr. in 1934, MGM production head Irving Thalberg told him, “Go ahead, George, spend a lot of money. I love to have directors in debt, it forces them to work harder.” #TCMParty #OldHollywood

PCA letter to MGM: "Dear Mr. Mayer: We have received and read the temporary complete script for..#TheWizardofOz....We call your attention to...page 97B: A horrible or gruesome effect in the death of the witch must be avoided...." On #TCM tonight! #TCMParty #BehindTheScenes

As part of his prep for the role of Fred in #TheBestYearsofOurLives, #DanaAndrews took Rexall Drug's fountain training course. His "grad thesis" involved scooping for a day at the Rexall-owned Owl Drug store near Hollywood High, where he was swarmed by "bobby-soxers." #TCMParty

November '46, in the weeks before the NYC premiere of #TheBestYearsofOurLives, Sam Goldwyn writes to #DanaAndrews: "You'll be pleased to know that you made a big hit at a sneak preview we had Thursday night. Most of the cards say it's the best thing you've ever done." #TCMParty

hear it's #Noirvember .... 🐎⛈️🔫 #TCMParty #Pursued #TeresaWright

Happy Monday,@TCMParty! #TheWomen #nextbook

Before he played a banker in #TheBestYearsofOurLives, #FredricMarch explored his dark(er?) side in DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE, on #TCM this a.m. March won the Best Actor Oscar for both films although he shared the earlier win with Wallace Beery (THE CHAMP). #TCMParty #Halloween2025

nyone else love the atmospheric swimming pool sequence in CAT PEOPLE (1942)? Produced by #ValLewton, directed by Jacques Tourneur, it's the perfect movie to lead into Mischief Night (that's a thing, btw). On #TCM this evening. #TCMParty #BlackCat

"Stars in #Hollywood use Jergens Lotion, 7 to 1": #TeresaWright in one of the many "tie-ups" to promote #TheBestYearsofOurLives in the fall of 1946. #TCMParty

When #NormaShearer's husband Irving Thalberg was reluctant to cast her in MGM's THE DIVORCEE (1931), she hired #GeorgeHurrell to take photos like this to convince Thalberg she could be seductive. It worked. See Shearer in the lead tonight on #TCM! #TCMParty #ClassicHollywood

From Teresa Wright's contract ca. 1946: "I will not pose in shorts, playing with a cute cocker spaniel. I will not be shown happily whipping up a meal for a huge family." #BOTD #TCMParty #TheBestYearsofOurLives #TeresaWright