Saturday, July 2, 2011

Saturday Matinee to Matinee Classics!


On March 5 I wrote about a new website that had just gone online -- Saturday Matinee.   I mentioned it was in a test phase, had a lot more content to upload and planned to issue a press release in April.  Four months later it still has more movies and radio shows to put online -- an unending process that will be good news to frequent visitors.  I urge you to check it out!  You will find many rare radio shows, movie posters, 1950s TV shows, shorts, serials, newsreels and feature films going back into the silent era, all tied together with over a million words and counting.  No, I didn't count them yet.

The name change from Saturday Matinee to Matinee Classics was because a (fast-fading) video store chain (or is it a video releasing company?) had trademarked the name "Saturday Matinee."  I have heard of the company but can't find anything about it online.  I don't think it is "Eddie Brandt's Saturday Matinee," which is a famous Hollywood store that has been around forever.  It doesn't matter; someone had a TM on the name so it had to change.  The more generic "Matinee Classics" is actually working better with the search engines.

Here is the press release that went out on June 14, 2011:


Matinee Classics LLC today announces the debut of its new online entertainment presence. When completed there will be over 10,000 distinct videos (7,000 currently) with over 4,000 hours of viewing entertainment and many more thousands of hours of listening entertainment—more than an average person could possibly enjoy in a lifetime.
This unique online library lets you:
  • Watch streaming videos of more than 5,000 classic movies and trailers from as far back as the late 1800’s, including some of the best silent classics, numerous educational and historical documentaries and newsreels, and more than 4,000 classic television shows, cartoons and TV commercials from the earliest days of television
  • Listen to more than 40,000 Old Time Radio Show classics (6,000 currently)
  • View tens of thousands of movie posters, lobby cards and publicity photos
  • Read over a million words of entertainment content – historical information, biographies of actors and directors, as well as synopses of movies, television programs and radio shows.
MatineeClassics.com offers content that makes it tantamount to having a classic movie channel or cable television channel available 24-hours a day, with the programs you want when you want them. And the content is available for use on portable devices and smartphones such as an iPhone, Xbox, iPad, eReaders, MP3 players, and internet-connected televisions.
You’re invited to join our Community area to share your views, and write reviews and comments on the classic movies, television programs and radio shows you enjoy.
Matinee Classics is a user- and family-friendly site with something for everyone from the ages of 1 to 99 to enjoy.

Matinee Classics is a library, a huge database, indeed a museum where rare and wonderful classic works can be treasured and shared. This encyclopedia of entertainment is an evolving, ongoing project, with new content being added all the time.
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This comment is posted after the press release online.

I have been on this site and it brings back so many childhood memories. Shows that I watched as a child, cartoons,commercials and movie stars from a diffrent a time of long ago. I will be on this site all the time. Today I watched Dick VanDyke classic. I read biographies on my favorite stars, things I never knew so it is thrilling to learn about all these amazing movie stars. great great site.  Thanks.

Be sure to visit Matinee Classics!
Visit my website www.fesfilms.com.

Here are some short genre Introductory films you will soon find at Matinee Classics: