Granted I was born in '85 but today in my class our teacher was about to show us a clip from "His Girl Friday" and asked if anyone knew who Cary Grant is. This one girl prob 19 or 20 who sits a couple seats ahead of me asked if "she was a pin up"? I laughed a little and the teacher just said no then went on to say "Cary Grant is like the Will Smith or George Clooney" of the 50s. Then he went on to play the clip in whichI swear every kid went to get food because they did not have the attention span to watch a black and white movie. When the teacher asked for a write up for the movie this guy next to me said he was just going to look it up on wikipedia. However in the back of the class there was side discussion about what looks better "Disturbia" or "The Invisible".

The teacher obviously doesn't either to compare Cary Grant to George Clooney

Shocking, not really.

'87 here and if it's before Scorsese - I'M NOT INTERESTED!

I heard someone in my class refer to Terminator 2 as 'old school'. He probably thinks the original is in black and white.

Was it a film class? Unless it was a film class where knowing something like this might matter I'm not sure I see the big deal. It's not like Cary Grant was an important Historical figure or something like that. Knowing who he is is great, but every new generation is like this and that's ok. Grant was before their time and was in movies they probably have no interest in seeing. Again, that's ok.

It reminds me of Old Rock Jocks who can't say anything good about music that came after 1975.

This reminds me of when I was in high school and a girl in my class, when she saw I was listening to Bob Dylan, exclaimed "Bob Dylan? What kind of band name is that?"

I don't understand why....I learned who many classic film stars were by watching Bugs Bunny cartoons Saturday morning! What were those kids doing on Saturdays???

Reporting the rape they got from their teacher on Friday

Although I already forgot why Ann Sheridan was called the "Uhnf girl"

She sounds like Avril Lavigne pronouncing David Bowie's name as "David BOW-EE" on the Grammys.

I don't have a problem with that comparison...at least a physical one.

I also don't have a problem with the kids not knowing who Cary Grant was either...how many people here knew who Charles Laughton or Lionel Barrymore was when you were in high school?

How many people know who they are now?

Of the stuff kids dont know today, this is probably pretty low in order of importance...

I find it amazing that many big movie stars of yesteryear not not remembered, but everyone knows the Three Stooges.

I get the feeling that, at the time, people didn't think Larry, Curly, and Moe would last as long as they actually have.

This is why we have a lot of these remakes of great movies from the past, because of these "opened minded" young generation that won't watch of what was great from the past.
Many actors that we got in the 70's saw Marlon Brando movies in the 50's and learned how to express their craft. But today's generation watches Keene Reves movies and think "whoa" that's how to act and that's why have the kind of acting from these actors in their 20's today.
Also while I'm ranting is why SOUL music & ROCK music is full of samples and we have no guitar gods.

I weep for the future.

At least my daughter will be well versed in the classics, dammit!

I'm reminded of the MTV coverage of the first Mission:Impossible movie premiere with Kennedy interviewing stars as they showed up. She asked Martin Landau what brought him to the premiere. He told her he was in the original tv series. She said she didn't know there ever was a tv series. He goes off on her for not researching her assignments as a "reporter"(used loosely). Then later he came back and gave her some more shit. They used to show this on "best of MTV" shows and she was still utterly clueless as to how big an idiot she is and that he was the one with a problem.

How true.

I don't think I could take anyone seriously that used Keanau "Ted" Reeves as an inspiration for acting.

I certainly am not up to speed on ALL the actors from before I was born....but I do know who Cary Grant, Gary Cooper, and Errol Flynn are.

I gave my co-worker a copy of REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE on dvd to let her teenage son & daughter and friends to watch. They were bored and everybody walked out of the room she told me. I gave a copy of Bela Lugosi's DRACULA and her 8yr. boy was bored.
I remember I saw it at that age and thought it was the coolest movie.
In fact I have bought that movie on dvd twice.

Wow even though Rebel Without A Cause might seem dated to today's audiences (it's quite tame compared to what is shown nowadays), I can't imagine anyone not being riveted to the screen by James Dean and Natalie Wood. Of course, I knew who a lot of these classic film stars were when I was still in elementary school (yes Charles Laughton and Lionel Barrymore too). Granted, I think today's youth needs to get their math, science, and reading scores up before they worry too much about who Cary Grant is. Let them learn world history before cinema history.

Michael

Cary Grant, Winston Churchill, Napolean Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Julius Ceasar. I'm just gonna throw it out there that kids these days don't know who any of these people are.

Too bad they don't post on the forum.

That's just it. It's not from their generation and the further you get from "those days" the less they'll relate or in some cases even care. That's just the way it is and that's not really a bad thing contrary to what some here think. It makes perfect sense, you're closer to that time so you can more easily relate and know who those actors are. The kids and grandkids of the kids we're talking about won't care or relate to the actors of this time and pattern will continue....

agree 100%

I wouldn't expect your average casual 19 year old film goer of today to know that much about classic film or film stars. But I would expect people who claim to love film or students of film to have at least a basic knowledge of film history. More important, I would also expect them to be thirsty for more knowledge of film history. Anyone who'd walk out of a presentation because it's in black and white or because the stars are from 60 years ago doesn't really like movies, they're a casual film goer who enjoys the current standards for film set by the current time period. Nothing wrong with that of course, but don't claim to "really be into movies" or "love film", because it just isn't the case.