TCM Classic Film Festival Day #2 Recap

Thursday was the first full day of the TCM Classic Film Festival. For those of you at home, if you saw the intros last night on TCM for Bite the Bullett (1975) or The Great Race (1965), you may have spotted me in the background of the actor interviews conducted by Ben Mankiewicz. This is the intro with Marvin Kaplan and this is the one for Theodore Bikel. You might see me in the background of an interview in the intro for The Angry Hills (1959) on April 30th on TCM too!

The first event I attended on Thursday was the Meet TCM Panel. It was moderated by Scott McGee and included a panel of 6 TCM staffers who related a lot of very interesting information about what goes on behind-the-scenes at TCM. The first half of the event included questions from Scott McGee and then the audience was given the opportunity to ask questions. I think that second part was a mistake. A few people asked good questions. Others wanted to relate their life stories once they got the microphone.

I was a little late to the trivia game So You Think You Know the Movies? at Club TCM. The Club was packed and I had to sit in the way back. Which was okay for ONE REASON. Norman Lloyd walked right by us. OMG. I couldn't snap a picture fast enough unfortunately. If you look in the above picture, Norman Lloyd is the shorter gray haired gentleman in the dark suit. Aurora of Once Upon a Screen... is standing to his left. She got to shake his hand! The trivia game was pretty cool. They had a few surprised guests who were tied into trivia questions including Michael Badalucco, James Karen and Norman Lloyd. I think it was amazing to have the actors there. 

After the trivia game, some members of the media and bloggers attended a press conference hosted by Robert Osborne at Club TCM. He made the following announcement:

Bonhams to Present Auction of Rare Movie Memorabilia Curated by Turner Classic Movies

Bonhams is a fine arts auction and appraisal house. They plan to have the first auctions with TCM in Hollywood and New York in November of this year. Future locations include Hong Kong and London. Some of the proceeds of the sales will go to The Film Foundation. 

There were two pieces on display at Club TCM that will be part of the future Bonhams-TCM auctions. One of them was Humphrey Bogart's suit from The Big Sleep (1946) and the other was Michael Keaton's batsuit from Batman (1989).  Osborne had three people from Bonhams up on stage to discuss a little about the partnership and about movie memorabilia auctions. One of the dealers said that the suit came from a private Humphrey Bogart collector who wanted to focus more on other types of ephemera. It's a really cool suit! The dealer also said that there will be some smaller yet quality pieces with important movie connections up for auction in the $200-$500 range in addition to the other big pieces that go for the big bucks.

After the press conference, the Club TCM Opening Night Party started. Some of us headed to the pool and hung out for a bit. A lot of people were dressed to the nines! A couple hours later, the poolside special event for South Pacific (1958) started.

There were Polynesian dancers and lots of fire!

Ben Mankiewicz hosted the interview with actresses France Nuyen and Mitzi Gaynor. France Nuyen had a one-on-one interview with Mankiewicz before Gaynor came out which was very smart of them to do because Gaynor pretty much took over from there. More details to come in a future post but let's just say that Mitzi Gaynor referred to Ricardo Montalban as a bitch, she had so much energy she couldn't sit still in her chair and she got up and grabbed her crotch TWICE to demonstrate something that she had witnessed her co-star Rossano Brazzi do. I already thought Mitzi Gaynor was adorable but now I just want to hang out with her and have a couple drinks. She was so much fun and such a delight!

A full moon was out and we watched South Pacific (1958) under the stars. It got cold so...

we went inside and were really happy to see they were also screening the film inside Club TCM.

Overall a great night. Mitzi Gaynor was the highlight for sure. I really wish I had gotten a picture of her grabbing her crotch because that was the funniest thing I had ever seen.

Stay tuned for more details and future recaps.