John Travolta’s charismatic moves in Saturday Night Fever didn’t just light up the dance floor — they ignited a cultural craze. Let’s revisit the phenomenon!
Explore the Cocktail movie’s blend of ambition and flair as Tom Cruise takes on the role of a charismatic bartender in 1980s New York City.
Remember why Walt Disney’s 1950s movie ‘Old Yeller’ was one of those classic ‘boy and his dog’ movies – family entertainment made with kids in mind, but that could bring a tear to anyone’s eye.
The Outsiders starred several young actors on their way to fame: Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, C Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Patrick Swayze and Tom Cruise.
Find out all about the classic movie, The Wizard of Oz, in this collection of vintage articles – including interviews with the cast, peeks behind the scenes, costume info, photos, videos and more!
In “Young Frankenstein” Mel Brooks did for the horror movie what he did earlier for the Western in ‘Blazing Saddles.’ The result is a very, very funny movie.
Screen legends Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire sang and danced their way into America’s hearts in one of the most timeless holiday classics of all time, the Holiday Inn movie, which introduced the classic hit song, White Christmas.
Here, take a look back at the Xanadu movie – an ’80s musical that has become best known as a campy cult classic.
The movie ‘Stand By Me’ evokes childhood memories, condensing them into a remarkably realistic weekend excursion by four boys on the verge of their teens.
Explore the magic of Disney’s Cinderella with vintage videos and promos that bring the timeless 1950 classic to life.
Disney’s ‘The Little Mermaid,’ based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale, is a movie with the richest colors, the brightest melodies, and the most vivid illustrations.
The hit Matthew Broderick WarGames movie showed such a realistic WW3 scenario that it led to the creation of a 1986 anti-hacking law.
Released in 1985, The Goonies didn’t just entertain Generation Xers – the movie left an indelible imprint on pop culture, turning into a touchstone for many growing up in the era.
Find out the fascinating story behind the 1953 MGM film ‘The Long, Long Trailer,’ starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz – and see inside the real-life motorhome trailer they bought at the time!
Sunset portrays an imaginary meeting between legendary western hero Wyatt Earp (played by James Garner) and legendary western movie star Tom Mix (Bruce Willis), who team up to solve a murder in 1929 Hollywood.
Adrian Lyne’s ‘Flashdance’ widens the eyes. Equal pans of shamelessness, brainlessness, and perverse energy have been scrambled into a movie that’s laughable, preposterous and truly awful.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a fanciful children’s movie from the ’60s, starred Dick Van Dyke as a crackpot inventor who builds a magical flying car. This classic musical has stayed in the hearts and minds of millions.
Of his famous movie “The Birds,” director Alfred Hitchcock said, ‘It could be the most terrifying motion picture I have ever made!’ And for many thousands of people, it was. Find out more about the 60s film here.
The original Star Wars trilogy was like a comic strip come to life, with eye-popping special effects of flashing light swords, ray guns, strange creatures, spaceships and eerie planets.
When the now-classic Disney film Sleeping Beauty came out at the end of the 1950s, moviegoers around the world were enthralled by the technicolor wonder, created by hundreds of artists over the course of six years. Find out more here!
Back in the late ’80s, who would have thought that young Robert Downey, Jr – the kid who acted in a few random films – would, a couple of decades later, be one of America’s biggest movie stars?
The Nutty Professor is considered one of the best Jerry Lewis movies – a classic comedy in which he played a Jekyll and Hyde role, meaning he could play up his screwball style to great effect.
There’s a lot of magic and humor practiced in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Written and directed by John Hughes, this energetic and offbeat comedy captures the best feelings about being young.
In the 1956 movie musical Carousel, Oklahoma stars Shirley Jones and Gordon MacRae were again teamed up for a Rodgers and Hammerstein classic. Also see an interview with Miss Jones from the same year.
Miracle In The Rain, a classic love story, stars Jane Wyman and Van Johnson as two lonesome people who meet in a small building-doorway during a dismal New York downpour.
From just the trailer, it seemed like just another John Hughes movie, but ‘The Breakfast Club’ was something different. For many ’80s teens, it was more real and more relatable. Find out why here!
In Gaby, playing off one of the more haunting love mix-ups of World War II, a French-born dancer in London (Miss Caron) meets an American soldier. Then he is sent overseas, and soon presumed lost.
Campy or vampire spoof, call it what you like – The Lost Boys, a movie starring Kiefer Sutherland – is decidedly offbeat entertainment… with a twist.
After a teen gets a record score on a video game called The Last Starfighter, an intergalactic visitor tells him the game was just a test – and asks him to come help fight a space battle.
In 1975, Steven Spielberg’s movie Jaws single-handedly drove more Americans away from beaches and into theaters than any other force of nature ever could have.
Hot off her big role in The Breakfast Club, Ally Sheedy played spoiled Beverly Hills rich girl Jessie Montgomery in the comedy Maid to Order.
Dustin Hoffman and Steve McQueen headlined the 1973 movie Papillon, a period prison escape drama, got mixed reviews at the time.
Few movie sequels overshadow their predecessors. Yet ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ – the chapter following ‘Star Wars’ – does just that.
Find out about The Sting, a 1973 film set in the ’30s – the story of two conmen out to trick a mob boss – that won 7 Academy Awards.
Walt Disney’s first full-length animated movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, debuted in 1938. A technicolor marvel, it’s considered a classic work of animation.
Technically superior, if overly sentimental, ‘Somewhere in Time’ stars Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour, and takes viewers back in time to 1912.
Bad News Bears, about a drunken ex-pitcher who transforms a bedraggled group of kids into a winning little-league baseball team, won raves for showing kids as real people.
The Back to the Future movies from Steven Spielberg & Robert Zemeckis were incredibly successful, and remain family favorites 30 years later. Find out more about the stories here!
The classic 1982 movie Blade Runner, about the genetic development of androids, imitates the style history’s great detective films, and is set in a bizarre vision of urban America in 2019.
“Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” became an unexpected – and unforgettable – classic. It combines the story of a boy who wins a lifetime supply of chocolate and a colorful musical with intricate sets and wild visual effects.
With a cast headed by Bill Murray, Sigourney Weaver and Dan Aykroyd, the original ‘Ghostbusters’ movie from 1984 had blockbuster written all over it.
Disney’s magical Mary Poppins arrived in 1964. See classic movie clips, hear some of the songs, plus find out more about the film & its stars!
Steven Spielberg and George Lucas have seemingly boundless energy, and that energy is unharnessed in ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ – a startling spectacle, starring Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones.
Young Jason Bateman’s life sounds like an 18-year-old’s dream an apartment in Brentwood, a Jeep Cherokee, and a private dressing room with a color TV.
In a spangled vest and elbow-length gloves, black bikini, black opera hose and steep ankle-strap wedgies, Tim Curry as Dr Frank N Furter, makes his grand entrance in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, an outrageous camp musical based on the stage hit.
Find out about the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s, get some behind-the-scenes from the actual jewelry store, and hear from Audrey Hepburn herself in this collection of articles from the 1960s.
If you haven’t heard of ‘Rocky’ or Sylvester Stallone, welcome back from Mars – about the only place where you could not see or hear about this movie about a boxer, and the rags-to-riches story of the guy who wrote it.
Airplane! uses disaster movie conventions as platforms to interject humor at every turn. Like a streamlined club act, it’s all over before the welcome gets worn. Stars Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, Julie Hagerty, Robert Hayes. Also: See the Airplane movie trailer!
Disney’s ‘Third Man on the Mountain’ represents the first successful effort to capture the mystical quality of James Ramsey Ullman’s stories about man’s struggle to master the heights.
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Note: ClickAmericana.com features authentic historical information, and is not intended to represent current best practices on any topic, particularly with regard to health and safety, but also in terms of outdated cultural depictions and social values. Material on this site is provided for purposes of education, criticism, commentary, cultural reporting, entertainment, historical reference, and news reporting/analysis. Also, as an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Now that you know, have fun looking around!
