Jimmy who?

I was listening to an interview with the actor Treat Williams -- as opposed to the proctologist Treat Williams, yeah, yeah -- and he said that one day, while he was working on a movie with Richard Dreyfuss, the two of them were chatting about great Hollywood stars. They mentioned Jimmy Stewart, of course. And a set designer nearby asked, "Who's Jimmy Stewart?"

Wow.

Bad enough that kids today -- "kids" being anyone under 40, I guess -- don't know anything about a movie that wasn't shot in color. But Jimmy Stewart? Haven't we all seen It's a Wonderful Life at least once at Christmas?

Maybe not.

I blame VHS.

My family were very late to get cable. My dad was not someone who was interested in spending money when there was perfectly adequate television available off the airwaves. So we were the last family I knew of to get cable. Hell, I didn't even have a microwave oven until I was in my first apartment. We were just as late to get a VHS player. And not having cable or especially VHS meant that you got exposed to old movies back then.

When I was a child I had little interest in the movies my parents liked from their youth. BOR-RING. I didn't like movies anyway; they were too confusing, too adult, too long. I'd watch the same episode of The Flintstones 800 times but couldn't sit through The Maltese Falcon once. But they were on a lot, especially on local channels that had a lot of hours to fill and not a lot of money. So we'd watch them. And as I grew up I learned to enjoy stories that were maybe old-fashioned, but still had a lot to say, stories with interesting characters and interesting plots. Some were fantastic.

I don't say that it made me a movie buff, because my attention span has always been a little short of two hours, but it made me appreciate old well-made movies a lot. That was the gift for their being nothing else on.

The VHS changed all that, as did cable. Kids growing up in the new age never had to see a thing that was older than they were. It helped sever all ties to the past. It's another example of technology acting against the expected results -- instead of offering a window to yesteryear through the magic of film, it relegated everything old of whatever quality to the dustbin of time.

And that is really a shame. My interest in history in part emerged because of old movies -- not period classics like Gone with the Wind or Gunga Din or Captain Blood, although they helped, but because I could see the world my parents lived in before I was born and it made sense to me. Once you get that feeling, that the people who came before deserve interest and respect, you start looking further. Otherwise you can't get past "If you're so smart, how come you're dead?"

Anyway, kiddies, if you are still wondering, this right here is Jimmy Stewart, a man who could do any kind of movie exceptionally well:

If Hollywood has ever turned out a better actor, I have not seen him. We're lucky to still have so many of his performances available to us. Even his lousy movies -- and he made a zillion films, so there are some bad ones -- are worth the time. He was that good.

So now you know.