The great Henry Fonda was born 108 years ago today. If we were to try to post even a sampling of the great work he did, we would be here all day, so instead, we decided to share with you his appearance on perhaps our favorite television show ever.

Charles Ray was a popular juvenile star in the 1910s and ’20s, but by the ’30s, his career was on the rocks, and he turned to writing. Here’s another in a series of offerings from his book Hollywood Shorts, a collection of short stories set in Tinseltown.

We’re surely not the first old-movie buffs to notice that there are many more scenes set on cruise ships in pictures from the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s than in contemporary movies. And traveling by boat in those days included no karaoke bars, miniature golf, or rock-climbing walls.

No, activities on an oceanic cruise in those days were limited to drinking cocktails, strolling the decks, reading, playing cards, and if you were lucky, falling in love with an urbane and sophisticated escaped convict or a beautiful woman with a terminal illness.

We love scenes—heck, even entire movies—set on cruise ships, and we’ve often found ourself wondering what the wording was on the thing the captain (or one of his underlings) uses to signal (we think) the crew in the engine room that it’s time to power up (or power down) the ship. (We have no earthly idea what the darned thing’s called—it resembles a white sign that has various words and phrases on it and a lever that one moves from one end to the other, with stops along the way—if you’ve seen an old movie with extensive cruise ship footage in it, you’ve probably gotten a glimpse of one.)

We finally came across a movie—History Is Made at Night (1937), directed by Frank Borzage and starring Jean Arthur, Charles Boyer and Colin Clive—that features not one but two close-up shots of this mysterious device. Finally, we can make out what words and phrases appear on it. And so can you. (FYI: “Princess Irene” is the name of the ship.)

We’ll never view another scene set on a cruise ship’s bridge the same way again.

Charles Ray was a popular juvenile star in the 1910s and ’20s, but by the ’30s, his career was on the rocks, and he turned to writing. Here’s another in a series of offerings from his book, Hollywood Shorts, a collection of short stories set in Tinseltown.

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Actress and coloratura soprano Deanna Durbin, who died recently at the age of 91, became a movie star at the age of 15 in a picture, Three Smart Girls (1936), in which she was meant to be billed ninth (she sparkled so in the rushes that she was made the picture’s star). Durbin remained immensely popular until she turned her back on Hollywood in 1949, moving to a small village in France with her third husband, movie director Charles David.

As Aljean Harmetz wrote in the New York Times, “In 1946, Ms. Durbin’s salary of $323,477 from Universal made her the second-highest-paid woman in America, just $5,000 behind Bette Davis.”

Durbin’s first appearance came opposite the then-13-year-old Judy Garland. It was swing vs. opera, and who came out ahead depends entirely upon the listener’s inclinations.

We always find it a bit sad when performers who achieved such heights reveal later, as did Durbin, that they found no joy in their Hollywood success, but we admire Ms. Durbin for doing what made her happy. She managed to enjoy more than six decades out of the spotlight she disdained, and we figure that in itself merits a tip o’ the hat.

Rest in peace, Ms. Durbin.