Pretty much what I was going to say. With hundreds of cable channels and the internet, and digital storage that doesn’t fade over time, any movies now existing that are any good at all will probably still be watched 100 years from now. And Newman made a lot of good movies.
BTW, “Hombre” was on some cable channel last week. Whoever said he was just a pretty boy rather than a bad boy should give it a look.
It occurs to me that content and demand means something.
The fifties was a time when television as a medium was exploding, and content was in big demand. The Three Stooges were perfect for this, because their shorts could be strung together to fill airtime in different ways. It’s likely the reason we all KNOW the Stooges is exactly because of this; their stuff was in the process of being forgotten until after WWII and the TV boom.
The seventies began the process again, with the explosion of cable networks. I remember seeing some truly inane things being thrown out there because there was all this airtime and nothing with which to fill it. This is the time frame in which certain films because “iconic classics” due to their repeated exposure and apparent cheapness to show… “The Wizard Of Oz,” “Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory,” and “It’s A Wonderful Life” being three potent examples.
Today, though… television as a medium is still potent (or can be), but with the number of channels and the lack of routine on our part, is this still a feasible launcher for classic film?