THE SECRET'S OUT & IT'S ON LATENIGHT TV

When Mark Twain died in 1910, Louis B Mayer was just 25 starting his career as one of Hollywood's biggest movie moguls. The two men -- vastly different in every way -- shared a common destiny. They were each destined to be the voices of their century.

Twain's celebrated plethora of books captured much of the America of the 19th C, while Mayer's audience-pleasing movies captured much of the America of the 20th C. To access Twain, visit your library or grab your Kindle. To access Mayer, turn on late-night television where his movies play with happy regularity.

In 1943 -- during the trauma of WWII -- the Oscars honored Mayer's hugely popular series of "Andy Hardy" films. They called the series "the best reflection of our American values." And indeed they were, for they not only touched the hearts of parents and teens at home, but also the bloodied GIs on battlefields abroad.

In case you're too old to remember or too young to care, here's the values the star-studded Oscars celebrated that evening. Pretty simple, although to some pretty simplistic: Home...family...community ...country ... honor...thrift and fair play. Now 67 years later, the Oscars are likely to honor sharply different values. As reflected in the hot-selling films today, these values include: The streets more than the home...friends more than family.... connections more than community...hustle more than honor....and spend-it-if-you-got it!

This America of the 21st C is neither worse nor better than Mayer's or Twain's. Just different. The differences, though, reflect a nation that has grown up, grown rich, grown strong, grown skeptical, and grown pretty sure that there never really was an Andy Hardy kind of family. After all, wasn't that simply the back-lot concoction of an East European wannabe who liked to play mind games with us by casting the sweet likes of Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland and all his other gushy "studio kids?"

Maybe.

However, for those who think so, they may be permitting their skepticism to get in the way of their seeking. Seeking to find and to embrace what is still best about America. Not so much its still great power, but its still small possibilities. Sorta like the way Mayer scripted his 17 Andy Hard films over 10 years -- the most popular entertainment series in the history of American entertainment.