TCM Presents An Evening with Jane Powell (Part 1)

So many changes on blogger! I guess that's the punishment I get for not updating in such a long time :).  I'm still working on the Film Festival recap, but in the meantime I have a very fun update from a very fun night thanks to the Film Society at Lincoln Center and TCM.

I usually scour the schedules of a few places in the city looking for classic film screenings to attend, my theaters of choice are The Film Society at Lincoln Center, Film Forum, the Museum of Modern Art and Symphony Space (in the summer).  During my search last week I saw that the Film Society at Lincoln Center was having a 'An Evening with Jane Powell', presented by TCM.  It was going to contain a discussion with Ms. Powell, a classic movie poster exhibit and a screening of, Two Weeks with Love, which was selected by Jane Powell herself!  I immediately purchased a ticket and began to look forward to the event.  I had been lucky enough to attend an event somewhat similar to this last year at Lincoln Center, when I saw a number of Stanley Donen's films while he was in attendance and complete with a discussion/interview and Q&A (you can read about it here, here, and here), so I knew that the Film Society knew how to do it up right.

Being interviewed

When I arrived at the theater I was surprised to hear that they were holding a reception for everyone before the screening.  Very fancy shmancy and unexpected.  When I walked into the reception I saw that there were beautiful classic movie posters on display.  I then spotted Dickie Moore, Jane Powell, and Robert Osborne (it was so fun to see him after missing him on TCM for so long) in the crowd of people.  I was so surprised I didn't realize they'd be walking around like the rest of us mortals.  Jane Powell was being interviewed (as you can see on the left) and was then followed by photographers.  There were also some fans going over and talking to her.  She looked amazing and as cute as, if not cuter than, a button.  She was also so sweet and kind, she looked really excited to be there and took the time to talk to everyone who came over to her.  After awhile they invited everyone to move towards one side of the gallery.  I did as I was told and ended up standing right next to Robert Osborne for the entire introduction and presentation!!  It was funny to stand next to him, I saw as fans looked over and recognized him and waved.  I also got to see him graciously smile, say hi and pose for pictures when people recognized him.  So awesome!

Here are some other pictures from the reception:

So adorable

One of the beautiful posters

I couldn't get a great picture of Mr. Osborne, it was just so great to see him out and about, I've missed him on TCM!

The presentation started with a little introduction about the event and about the gentleman who's poster collection was on display, Mike Kaplan.  Mike then came up and spoke about his love for Jane Powell and unveiled 3 stunning posters that he had recently acquired.  Two of them were from Jane Powell movies and the 3rd was a movie starring Dickie Moore. Mike talked about the three posters and how posters for movies today don't have the same artistic flare, instead they're governed by legalities.  He also talked about the use of color, especially in regards to the poster for Two Weeks with Love.  Here are the posters he unveiled:

Swedish Poster for Two Weeks with Love

Italian Poster for Luxury Liner

Lovely poster for Star Witness starring Dickie Moore

Mike then invited Jane up and she talked about picking a movie to screen and saying that it was hard not to pick Luxury Liner, but how could she not pick a movie co-starring Ricardo Montalban.  She then shared the cutest story about her and George Brent.  They had worked together on Luxury Liner and she was very fond of him, but didn't stay that close.  Then later in life while she was touring they reconnected and would spend time together, she said it wasn't romantic, at least not for her, just meals and spending time together.  Eventually, George asked her to marry him!  She said she was surprised and asked him why nothing had happened during Luxury Liner and why he didn't ask her then, and he responded, "your Mother was always around."  That got the crowd laughing.  She then posed for my photos, with Mike Kaplan, Dickie Moore and Robert Osborne.

Unfortunately that woman's head got in the way :-/

It kinda looks like Dickie Moore is looking right at me!

Right after this pic, Dickie gave Jane a little peck on the cheek, it was adorable.  Too many photographers!

At this point it seemed like a time when people were going over to Jane to speak with her and to ask for autographs.  I had decided to bring my DVD copy of 'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers' hoping there'd be an opportunity to ask her to sign it.  I haven't always had the best luck with that, Stanely Donen was not big on autographs.  Jane was more than happy to oblige and even asked my name so she could make it out to me!  I was so flustered, she was really so sweet.  I told her that I had seen her at the TCM Film Festival this past year and it was wonderful that she was a part of it.  I then asked her if she was going to be at the upcoming Film Festival, she said she didn't know, so maybe TCM hasn't asked celebrities yet or maybe that was her kind way of saying no.  I hope she does make it next year, she's such a lovely woman.  It's amazing that she participated in an evening like this.

I also had the opportunity to talk to some other classic film fans, one man was there who collects clothing from classic films and had a photograph for Jane to sign where she was wearing one of the dresses he has in his collection.  I lent another fan my Sharpie so she could get a photograph signed.  And! it turned out that Marge Champion was also in attendance, which is always cool.  I didn't expect any of this and can't believe so much happened BEFORE the movie even started.

This has turned into a very long and picture heavy post.  I think I'll end it here for now and put up another post a little later with info about the interview before the film and my thoughts on the film 'Two Weeks with Love.'  Thanks to the Film Society at Lincoln Center for providing amazing events like this and as always a very special thanks to TCM for everything that it does!

TCM Classic Film Festival- (Part 4 of probably many)

My sincerest apologies for the delay in posting about Day 4, but I was finishing up some online seminars for school that I needed to finish before midnight tonight.  I successfully completed 3 of the 4 that I needed to complete and the 4th one will have to be completed at a later date and time.  I'm a little peeved but I've altered Meatloaf's song 2 out of 3 ain't bad to fit my situation and that somehow makes me feel better about it so... 3 outta 4 ain't bad. :)

Anyway, that's probably not why you stopped by my blog you want the scoop on Day 4 of the TCM film festival, right?  Well here we go....Day 4, April 25th, 2010 began with a 9:30 screening of Damn Yankees at the Grauman's Chinese 6.  I was very excited to see this fun musical, directed by Stanley Donen, starring Tab Hunter and Gwen Vernon and! featuring a dance with none other than Bob Fosse!  I was definitely looking forward to this.

It was introduced by Leonard Maltin who gave some history regarding the transition of Broadway musicals into films and how more often than not much of the cast from the Broadway show didn't make it into the film and that many songs were cut because Broadway shows are innately longer than the usual running time of a movie.  He told us that Damn Yankees was a bit different, in this situation almost the entire case of the Broadway show, which included Maureen Stapleton and Gwen Verdon, was in the movie and the only Hollywood addition was Tab Hunter.  In fact, Jack Warner purchased this play FOR Tab Hunter.  So that was an interesting bit of trivia. 

The movie was amazing to see in a theater (much like all the other movies I saw during the film festival) and afterwards Tab Hunter was interviewed by Ben Mankiewicz.  He talked about what it was like to be part of the studio system and when Ben asked him about being a heartthrob he said that he tried to separate himself from that and focus more on his family, friends and his horses (he seemed to have a great affinity for horses).  He, like all the other speakers, was very gracious and candid about his experiences.  He said that he had an interesting time assimilating into the Broadway cast while filming and that eventually they all got along very well and that the most important thing to remember is that you can't go into things with preconceived notions; that doesn't help anything.

After the interview Ben was approached by some people for autographs so I decided to join the group and he was nice enough to take the time to meet me and give an autograph.  I then left the theater and was surprised to see that Tab Hunter was in the lobby surrounded by a bunch of movie-goers and they were posing with him for pictures and he was giving autographs.  I, again, decided to jump on that band wagon and got his autograph and lent my green pen to another film fan so he could get an autograph too.

    

         
Here's the autograph ---------------------------->

And here's my green pen in action :)








After all that excitement I decided to take a little break and I was planning on grabbing lunch with a friend, but it ended up not working out so I did some more tourist-y site seeing and decided to grab lunch by myself and then head over to the Roosevelt Hotel.  I originally had planned on just sitting in the lobby and relaxing until I went to see Saboteur around 3:30ish.

But I then remembered that Tony Curtis was going to be signing his books at Club TCM, so I decided to wait in line for that.  It seemed like a good opportunity to meet Tony Curtis and seemed like a better use of my time.  I ended up in line behind a woman who was also named Diane, she had come all the way from Detroit with her husband to the festival.  The line took quite awhile, but everyone was very nice, one of the people on the staff went and got water for everyone in line!  I thought that was very nice.  After about an hour and a half I made it up to the front of the line.  While waiting I kept going back and forth about whether or not to buy a book or just have him sign my little spiral notebook.  The book was quite costly, I was already running out of space in my suitcase.  But, by the time I made it to the front I just decided to go for it, when was I going to get another opportunity to have Tony Curtis sign a book for me.  I guess I got swept up in the excitement.  I decided to get his book called: The Making Some Like it Hot.  The whole thing was set-up very nicely; they had a lot of Tony's artwork and pictures of him from his various films. 

Anyway...I finally made it to the front of the line, I told my first name to Tony's wife, who was very nice.  I felt kind of silly saying another Diane, but she wrote it down on a post-it, gave it to Tony and explained it was another Diane.  He then signed the book and we posed for a picture and he shook my hand and kissed it.  It was pretty exciting to get to meet someone like Tony Curtis and I think it was really nice that he took the time and energy to be part of the film festival.  It also kind of solidified my decision to see Some Like It Hot later that evening.  Here's a picture of him with a fan (not me) and his autograph:

I'm really glad I decided to wait in that line to get to meet Tony Curtis.  I hadn't planned on making that a part of my festival experience, but it worked out nicely.  It was nice to see that so many people turned out to meet him and that he took the time to take a picture with pretty much every person there and sign anything that they brought.  It also made me realize I hadn't really seen that many movies with Tony Curtis, I'd seen The Sweet Smell of Success, Some Like it Hot, Spartacus, and The Defiant Ones.  And I think that's it, since being back from the film festival I've tried to catch some more of his movies.  So far I've seen Who's that Lady?  Sex and the Single Girl and The Great Race (the last 2 were on Netflix Watch Instantly) and I've gotta say they were pretty fun movies.  I enjoyed them and I enjoyed him.  Anyway, back to the festival.

Next up was Saboteur at Grauman's Chinese 6.  I was looking forward to seeing another Hitchcock film on the big screen and this one did not disappoint.  I had seen this movie and for some reason I thought Dana Andrews was in it, I don't know why, but I was very surprised when he was not in it.  I still don't know why I thought he was in it.  But anyway the movie was great, very suspenseful.  It was a lot of fun to hear everyone gasp at all the right moments.

After the movie Norman Lloyd came out and was interviewed by Leonard Maltin.  He mostly talked about how movie making has changed over the course of his career.  It was very interesting to hear him speak.  I didn't think I knew him from anything other than Saboteur, but then he mentioned that he had been in In Her Shoes and that jogged my memory of him.  It's always interesting to hear people talking about working with people who are no longer around, in this case he talked about Hitch (Alfred Hitchcock) and how he had storyboarded almost every frame of the film before they began shooting.  I find that stuff interesting and he also talked about his stunt work and how they had made a true to size replica of the top of the Statue of Liberty (I'm trying not to give away any spoilers, hence the vague-ness).  But yeah he's a great speaker and seemed happy to be there.

I then made my way over to the Egyptian Theater for Some Like it Hot.  I had been conflicted all weekend over whether to see Metropolis with the new footage since it was the official final evening event or to enjoy Some Like it Hot where I knew I would laugh my butt off and have an amazing experience seeing it on the big screen with a crowd.  I've seen Metropolis and really liked it, but I just decided to go with Some Like it Hot.  I felt like I was lucky enough to be able to go to the opening night event (A Star is Born) and didn't want to push my luck.  It was a tough decision.

Before the movie Tony Curtis was introduced and interviewed by someone who worked at TCM (I don't remember his name) and who had known Tony Curtis for a number of years.  Tony gave a very, shall we say, colorful interview.  He shared some very funny stories and some of his experiences shooting Some Like it Hot.  He told a story about working with Marilyn Monroe.  Her line for the scene was "what is it?"  She had to point to a fish and ask, "what is it?"  She'd point, and stare, but wouldn't say the line, she then whispered to Tony, "what is it?" (meaning the line, what's the line?)  And he'd respond, "what is it?" (thinking he was giving her the line, but instead just confusing things further)  And this would repeat for a number of takes.

He also talked about how he and Jack Lemmon walked around the studio lot and went into women's bathrooms trying out their womanly ways and trying to blend in.  But it sounded like they were easy to identify.  He also told a story about a dress fitting with designer Orry Kelly for himself, Jack Lemmon and Marilyn.  At one point Orry pointed out that Tony had the nicest tush of the bunch and Marilyn retorted by opening her blouse and saying, "but I'll bet he doesn't have the nicest...well you can guess what :).

After the interview he sat in the audience; that was a pretty surreal experience to watch the movie with him in the audience.  The film was more amazing than I had remembered it, the audience applauded and laughed with such enthusiasm that it was intoxicating, it made me feel like I had never even seen the movie before.  Every joke seemed fresh and new.  At the end of the movie Tony received a standing ovation.  It was sincerely one of the most thrilling experiences of my life and ultimately a great way to end the festival.  Although if it were up to me the festival would've never ended.  I was quite sad to have to go back to the real world after all the excitement.

So there's the re-cap of Day 4!  I hope you enjoyed reading about my experience at the TCM Film Festival, I'm seriously counting down the days til next year's!  And really hoping that I can skip work again to go!!  I had the best time, and this was maybe one of the most phenomenal experiences of my entire life.  I met so many nice people, saw some amazing movies and got to be back in LA.  All in all a wonderful way to spend 4 days.

TCM Classic Film Festival- (Part 1 of probably many)

Well....hello party people, I just got finished with my group presentation for one of my classes which means I'm technically done with school work for the semester, I just have to show up to class for the next two weeks!  But that's only half as exciting as having just gotten back from the first ever TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood, CA!!!  I had the best time at this film festival, it was quite possibly the most exciting thing I've ever done in my life.

Here's some back story I lived in Los Angeles from 2000-2008, I went to USC undergrad as a music industry major and then lived and worked in LA after graduating.  I then moved back east and lived in Manhattan for a year and am now out on Long Island going to Grad School....so of course as soon as I leave LA, TCM launches their first ever Film Festival in Los Angeles.  I figured it was a good excuse to make a trip back to LA and! I had accumulated enough airline miles for a free trip, which helped me justify spending the money for the pricey pass for the festival.

So let's dive right in, I arrived at midnight on Thursday, April 22nd, got settled in my hotel room, slept and then went to see how Hollywood Blvd. looked and 'checked' in for the film festival and got a nice tote bag, a t-shirt, a pin, nice collectible book and the film festival program booklet.

I then decided to take advantage of the discount rate for the Hollywood Heritage Museum (pictured to your left) which was within walking distance of my hotel.  I'm glad I went; there was a lovely tour guide who shared some interesting stories about the history of the building and the history of movie making in Hollywood. The museum also had some amazing artifacts, like Cecil B. DeMille's desk, an impressive collection of Rudolph Valentino memorabilia, props from 'The Ten Commandments and Samson and Delilah, and much, much more.  I highly recommend the museum to anyone with an interest in movie/Hollywood history.

I then went back to my hotel to start the process of getting fancy-shmancy for the "Red Carpet Premiere" for A Star is Born at Grauman's Chinese Theater.  I didn't know what to expect so I got there kind of early and soaked it all in.  I seemed to have arrived at the same time as a few of the special guests and celebrities:


Ernest Borgnine:

Ann Rutherford:

And the back of Robert Osborne's head:

Needless to say I was already thrilled beyond belief.  It was so fun to see these actors and to see Robert Osborne, as Eva Marie Saint said, he was a complete rock star during the entire festival.  I then went into the theater and picked a seat and took in the environment around me.  I had seen movies at Grauman's Chinese Theater before, but never under these circumstances and never in such a fancy dress.  After sitting for about 20-30 minutes in my seat, and talking with the nice man seated on my left, I noticed that Martin Landau was seated two rows behind me on the right and I then saw Alec Baldwin sit down two rows behind me on the left, followed by Danny Huston, Peter Bogdanovich and Diane Baker.  I also saw Hugh Hefner make his way down the aisle to his seat.

The movie was introduced by none other than Robert Osborne, which was such a thrill, it was like TCM coming to life.  He then had Alec Baldwin join him and the two of them seemed to be good friends, with a shared interest in classic film.  They did a great job of kicking off the festival.

After the intro. they showed a newsreel from the original premiere of 'A Star is Born' from 1954.  It was so exciting to see interviews with such fun people, like Dean Martin, Judy Garland, Jack Carson.  It was also amazing to hear the applause when these actors appeared on the screen.  That was something that I really enjoyed throughout the whole festival....applause, and lots of it.  Then the movie started and I just don't have any words to describe what it was like to see this movie and Judy Garland and James Mason on the big screen at Grauman's Chinese theater, it was unreal.  Whenever Judy Garland sang I got goosebumps!!  And all I could think was, 'how did she not win the Oscar that year?!  Who could've done anything better?'  (not to discount Grace Kelly's Oscar win and her performance, but seriously?!)

Then there was an intermission!!  An intermission in a movie theater, I don't think I'd ever experienced that before.  Yes, I'd seen DVDs where there was a pause in the middle of the movie for an intermission, but I don't think I ever experienced one in an actual theater with other people.  I didn't know what to do with myself, so I decided to be a little bit of a nerd and run over to where Diane Baker, Peter Bogdanovich and Robert Osborne were sitting and I asked for some autographs.  I felt like it was one of those opportunities that I just had to take advantage of, even if it was a little nerdy.

So I started with Diane Baker, who was very sweet, but didn't seem to care much that we were both named Diane...which i guess is fine, I just thought it'd be a fun coincidence.  She then got Robert Osborne and Peter Bogdanovich's attention for me, "Bob, Pete" she called.  And they both obliged.  I met and spoke with Robert Osborne first who seemed genuinely interested in how I was enjoying the festival, I raved that so far it was amazing and that it was so great of him to take the time to participate, he was very sweet and gracious and shook my hand!  Then I asked Peter Bogdanovich for an autograph...he immediately asked for my name and we actually spoke for a short while, for some reason the only thing I could think of to say was that I loved his books...why I didn't say anything about his movies I'll never know, but he seemed appreciative and said, "tell your friends."  I told him I always do, because I sincerely love his books, he is so knowledgeable and the books are so well written (so go pick up a copy of any of his books, post haste!).  I should've told him 'Noises Off' is one of my favorite movies, or said, good job with 'The Last Picture Show.'  But alas I get frazzled when I speak to celebrities.

Oh, and I also only had a notebook with lined paper and a green pen, so my autographs are all on lined paper in green pen.  I never expected in a million years that I'd be close enough to any celebrities to get any autographs.

 As the lights dimmed and the movie was about to start up again Alec Baldwin returned to his seat right next to where I was standing and I almost went to try to get his autograph, but I didn't want to be rude and disruptive, so I returned to my seat and reflected on probably one of the best movie intermissions I had been a part of and settled in to watch the second half of 'A Star is Born.'  One thing I walked away from this screening with was a new found respect for James Mason.  In the past he had always seemed to be a bit of a creepster to me, gave me the heebie jeebies even.  But for some reason this screening of this movie endeared me to him and the scene where he was at the "home" with Cuddles had me laughing so hard.

After the movie ended and it received a rousing round of applause I headed over to the Mann's Chinese 6 next door for a screening of Casablanca I went over to the screening with the guy I had been sitting next to for 'A Star is Born.'  I'd been dying to see this movie on the big screen for ages! and was very happy to finally have the chance.  But I was conflicted over making the choice to see Casablanca (which I've seen tons and tons of times) or seeing 'Sunnyside Up' which I don't think has ever been available on video or DVD.  I went with the old favorite.  I felt a little over-dressed for the screening, but decided not to care too much since it didn't much matter what I was wearing and I was there to enjoy the movie.  It was nice to get to chat with some other classic movie fans, my 'star is born' buddy and I talked to the people on my right and it turns out the girl we spoke to has a wonderful blog (Ingrid Bergman Life and Films). After a little while I was quite surprised when all of a sudden Ben Mankiewicz came out to introduce the movie.  I didn't realize that all the screenings would have an introduction and I didn't realize it would be done by another host of TCM.  That was very exciting.

He made a couple of jokes about how they were going to be showing the TV series Casablanca, which was very funny.  He also seemed very happy to be there and just as excited for the film festival as the rest of us.  The screening was great!  Again, it was so fun to see the movie with a packed theater and to be surrounded by people who love the movie as much as you do.  Unfortunately, the time change did catch up with me a little bit and I was feeling a little sleepy before Rick sent Ilsa off with Lazlo, but I stayed awake!

I think that'll do it for part 1, I realize this is a little long, but it was so exciting and I don't know how else to share what an amazing experience it was, so there's Day One- April 22, 2010