Recon­nect­ing with Hollywood’s past at the 10^th TCM Clas­sic Film Festival

Once upon a time in Los Ange­les, a vast cat­a­logue of motion pic­ture enter­tain­ment came up for sale. ​“They weren’t cheap,” says Ted Turn­er, the Ohio-born, Geor­gia-raised son of a bill­board mag­nate who rose to become an old-school media tycoon. In Turner’s opin­ion, the price didn’t reflect the gold­mine: ​“They were under­val­ued,” he told Turn­er Clas­sic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz dur­ing an inter­view record­ed for the network’s 25^th anniversary.

In 1986, Turn­er pur­chased the strug­gling MGM/UA and all of its assets for $1.5 bil­lion. He quick­ly sold the stu­dio on but retained MGM’s entire library, which includ­ed all the titles of Warn­er Bros, MGM, Unit­ed Artists, RKO and more. On 14 April, 2019 at the TCL Chi­nese The­atre in Hol­ly­wood, an audi­ence from across the US and beyond cel­e­brat­ed 25 years of TCM, the round-the-clock, com­mer­cial free TV sta­tion devot­ed entire­ly to the love of vin­tage cin­e­ma and those who made it.

Now in its 10^th year, the Turn­er Clas­sic Movies Film Fes­ti­val is an excit­ing and wel­com­ing event, where atten­dees get a taste of Tin­sel­town lore while sam­pling an array of talks and tours. It’s the sort of occa­sion where you find your­self wax­ing lyri­cal with a vet­er­an Ange­leno over Frank Sina­tra fight­ing for Ava Gard­ner, or embark­ing on a per­son­al pil­grim­age to an idol’s tomb at the For­ev­er Hol­ly­wood Cemetery.

Among the man­i­fes­ta­tions of the Old World present in the warm and laid-back crowd is Jayne Mans­field and Mar­i­lyn Mon­roe imper­son­ator Jane Mad­dox-Coady and her hus­band Joe, both TCMFF first-timers. ​“I am the Back­lot Pres­i­dent for Austin, Texas,” she says, refer­ring to the offi­cial TCM fan­club. ​“I have watched TCM since the begin­ning, clas­sic film is inspir­ing and tru­ly a won­der­ful expe­ri­ence to behold. When you see a clas­sic film that touch­es you and stays with you, you won­der how you could just be see­ing it now for the first time. As Lau­ren Bacall once said, ​‘It’s not an old film if you haven’t seen it.’”

This year’s fes­ti­val was capped off with a screen­ing of Gone with the Wind, the first film to air on TCM back in 1994. And on the Sun­day morn­ing the fes­ti­val pro­grammed The Robe, the first Cin­e­mas­cope pic­ture intro­duced by new Acad­e­my pres­i­dent John Bai­ley at Grauman’s Egypt­ian, where it pre­miered in 1953. Dur­ing the screen­ing the audi­ence sat like dis­ci­ples on a mount, imag­in­ing the impact of such spec­ta­cle on the room as it was in that time. Tra­di­tion­al applause rip­pled through the audi­to­ri­um when the greats made their first on-screen appear­ance. After­wards peo­ple stop by the Walk of Fame stars of their favourites, col­lect­ing pho­tos to share with their new friends.

Despite the dis­par­i­ties pre­sent­ed by the price of attend­ing (pass­es range from $300 to $2000), the fes­ti­val doesn’t engen­der an us-and-them cul­ture. Queues are relaxed and order­ly and those who just come to town to hang out, spot some famous peo­ple and get into what­ev­er they can are treat­ed no less hos­pitably. The vol­un­teers at the Chi­nese and Egypt­ian the­atres com­ment on how atten­dees are a unique­ly friend­ly fes­ti­val community.

Those enjoy­ing the pri­or­i­ty entry afford­ed by the Spot­light pass still need to be on point if they want to see Bil­ly Crys­tal and Meg Ryan at the exclu­sive open­ing red car­pet gala, a 30^th anniver­sary reunion screen­ing of When Har­ry Met Sal­ly with direc­tor Rob Rein­er. On the sec­ond day, Crys­tal received the high­est hon­our in town: his hands and feet imprint­ed in the cement of the Chi­nese The­atre fore­court. The view for passers-by on Hol­ly­wood Boule­vard was blocked by the heavy duty press corps stand. ​“I had two friends from my home town who did this,” Crys­tal quips to a sur­pris­ing­ly inti­mate assem­bly, ​“just not as willingly”.

Los Ange­les is espe­cial­ly hot this April with the San­ta Ana winds com­ing ear­ly. By Sat­ur­day, when peo­ple are rush­ing between screen­ings to catch a glimpse of Jeff Gold­blum or Kurt Rus­sell, the air is heavy and humid and the wis­dom of those who cre­at­ed the Walk of Fame is a moot point as a thou­sand non-fes­ti­val tourists swarm the side­walk. At the curb the reli­gious sec­tor advised us that Jesus didn’t want us to watch Work­ing Girl.

With queue tick­ets only hand­ed out an hour before each show­ing, the oppor­tu­ni­ty for a pri­vate audi­ence with the Chi­nese The­atre fore­court is a high­light. Util­is­ing the Chi­nese and its adja­cent mul­ti­plex, the Egypt­ian, the Cin­era­ma Dome and crowd-wow­ing new addi­tion, the his­toric Legion build­ing on High­land Avenue, as much won­der comes from the opu­lent archi­tec­ture and dec­o­ra­tion as any film in the programme.

Unof­fi­cial social events begin the day before the fes­ti­val. Base camp is the Hol­ly­wood Roo­sevelt, sto­ried haunt of the likes of Mar­i­lyn Mon­roe, Mont­gomery Clift and Shirley Tem­ple since 1927. The offi­cial Club TCM took over the hotel and on Wednes­day after­noon the unof­fi­cial Going To TCMFF Face­book group was allowed pool­side for book sign­ings, dis­cus­sions and screen­ings. Pin trad­ing is a pop­u­lar activ­i­ty and all come with a devot­ed ran­dom or per­son­al con­nec­tion. You might meet Mered­ith, daugh­ter of the make­up artist to the stars, or Corky, vet­er­an road­ie and New Bev­er­ly bounc­er who’ll advise you on queue tech­nique around town. Jere­my makes sure the 2,000 mem­bers have a sched­ule of all the film events LA has to offer.

Kel­ly J Kitchens Wick­er­sham and her hus­band Mark found­ed the group after attend­ing the fes­ti­val in 2010. ​“Over the years it has grown to become a refuge for peo­ple all over the world who feel alone in their dai­ly lives with their love for clas­sic films,” explains Kel­ly. ​“It has giv­en a friend­ship base for many peo­ple who come to the fes­ti­val on their own.” This was fur­ther endorsed by Pasade­na res­i­dent Vir­ginia Hougasian. ​“It was a won­der­ful expe­ri­ence because I con­nect­ed in one way or anoth­er with spe­cial ones that made this a top-of-the-heap time.”

At the offi­cial clos­ing gala the names of TCM made them­selves avail­able with grace and wit. Ben Mankiewicz posed for pho­tos, Ali­cia Mal­one chat­ted to audi­ence mem­bers and fes­ti­val reg­u­lar Leonard Maltin dis­pensed hand­shakes and good cheer. As the Chi­nese The­atre turned off the lights we raised a toast to the next 25 years and, maybe one day, TCMFF’s own star on the Walk of Fame.