What would it take to put you behind the wheel of this sporty little June blogathon?

Rick at The Classic Film and TV Café announced via e-mail a couple of weeks ago that he’d be gearing up for another Summer of MeTV Classic TV Blogathon this year as part of the august body of vintage boob tube bloggers known as The Classic TV Blog Association.  Last year’s event, held from July 15-19 and in conjunction with the premier TV oldies channel, was a huge success and so it was decided to do a sequel (sadly, my suggestion that we tag it with “Texas Blood Money” was voted down along purely partisan lines).  The great thing about this is that the entries for the ‘thon—which you can examine here—will be promoted at MeTV’s blog on June 2-5; MeTV, by the way, has dropped the hyphen (it used to be known as “Me-TV”).  The not-so-great thing is that with the switch to U-Verse in January the ‘rents and I no longer receive MeTV…but the show I’ve chosen for the blogathon, Mr. Lucky, is available on DVD so I will be able to participate proudly.

In other blogathon news, Kellee at Outspoken & Freckled and Aurora at Once Upon a Screen have conspired to throw a blogathon bash in honor of legendary writer-director Billy Wilder’s 108th natal anniversary this June 22.  It’s no state secret that we hold Mr. W in the highest esteem here at Thrilling Days of Yesteryear…but the arduous task was finding one of his movies that has gone previously undiscussed in the past, both here and at Edward Copeland’s space in the blogosphere.  (Seriously—I did three write-ups on Wilder films alone at Copeland.)  My first choice had already been snapped up (shoot) so I was forced to call an audible and go with his 1943 wartime drama Five Graves to Cairo.  It promises to be a wonderful event.

I’ll observe the time-honored “rule of three” by also mentioning that the Sisters Metzinger at Silver Scenes have also got a ‘thon tucked in the folds of their dresses; to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the founding of what Diana and Connie insist is “the greatest film studio of all time” (hey…I voted for Republic ‘cause I like the sound of the word), June 26-28 will be set aside for The MGM Blogathon.  I was still trying to decide at press time if I’m going to be able to participate in this one; the fact that they’ll be awarding a lucky winner the prize of “an original Mickey Rooney photo from the Silverbanks Pictures Archives” is not the incentive that I would have chosen.  (Second prize is two Mickey Rooney photos from the Silverbanks Pictures Archives.  No, I’m only kidding about that—I just want to see how fast Cliff Aliperti tells me to knock it off on Twitter.)  I may have to swoop in with a last minute entry.

Be that as it may…if you’re a Wilder fan or a Leo fan, you’re encouraged to sign up for either (or both) blogathon.  This has been a public service on behalf of TDOY.