During the month of September I did a series on Twitter called 30 in 30 Favorite Stars. Each day I shared a photo of one of my favorite stars and used the hashtag #30in30FavoriteStars so folks could follow along. I encouraged other classic film fans to participate and it got a great response! I had so much fun with it that I'm contemplating doing more with different themes. Are you on Twitter? Follow me on my movie/personal account @QuelleLove and my general account for film bloggers @ClassicFilmRead. Below is a snapshot of the Twitter series as well as the full list with photos of the 30 stars I chose for my own list. Enjoy!
The summer reading challenge is officially over! I'd like to personally thank every one of the participants who all did an amazing job at their challenge. They are read a wide array of interesting and eclectic books. The challenge encourage folks to read up to 6 books this summer and post reviews online by September 1st. Participants who read, reviewed and submitted six entries were eligible for the special giveaway.
Below is the second round-up of reviews. You can find the first round-up here.
There were six finalists! These folks read, reviewed and submitted six entries by the deadline.(Note that the reviews are split between the first and second round-ups. Look at both round-ups to see all the reviews.)
Bernardo of The Movie Rat
Karen from Shadows and Satin
Kristina of Speakeasy
Grezilda of Doesn't She Ramble
Liz from Now Voyaging
Vanessa from Stardust
And the winner is...
Vanessa from Stardust!
She'll receive a TCM pen (from TCMFF 2015 in Hollywood), a Robert Osborne #yourfanclub pin, a Ben Mankiewicz #yourfanclub pin and a copy of Turner Classic Movies Presents Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide: From the Silent Era Through 1965: Third Edition .
And because I'm feeling extra generous I am awarding an extra copy of the Classic Movie Guide to a surprise runner-up...
Karen from Shadows and Satin!
I drew the winner and runner-up with the help of Random.organd names written on pieces of paper.
Congrats to everyone who participated and stay tuned for next year's summer reading challenge.
While perusing the gift shop at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston recently I came across a copy of Hollywood in Kodachrome: 1940-1949. The beautiful image of Lauren Bacall on the front cover caught my eye and when I opened the book I was stunned. This coffee table book was filled with the most vibrant and stunning images of classic film stars. I knew this book had to be mine.
Hollywood in Kodachrome is a simple book celebrating a technology of a bygone era that produced amazing visuals in photography and cinema. In a time when visual artists were still trying to find the best method for producing color images, Kodachrome produced clear and crisp images that were vibrant and could convey the glamour photographers wanted to capture. Rich in reds and yellows the photos in this collection are in such good condition, thanks to the longevity of Kodachrome, that you’d think they were taken yesterday. This book is a veritable feast for the eyes especially for those of us who love the glamour of the 1940s.
Guy Madison and Alan Ladd
The book starts with a foreword by actress Rhonda Fleming who shares her memories of Kodachrome and whose photos are featured in the book. There is a short introduction by author David Wills explaning the history of Kodachrome from it’s inception to it’s discontinuation in 2009. Then the book is broken up into six chapters each with a different theme. Each chapter starts with a quote from someone in the business about working with Kodachrome and with the stars. Themes include glamour, charisma and stars and stripes. There is a short chapter dedicated to Lucille Ball whose pale complexion and bright red hair was perfect for Kodachrome. Her nickname in the 1940s was “Technicolor Tessie”. I especially loved the chapters on posed candids (reality stylized) and selling the dream (stars in advertisement).
Ann Miller
Fans of 1940s fashion can look to this book as a vibrant collection of outfit ideas. I marveled at the care and attention placed on just the right dress or suit, lighting, hair, makeup and the perfect placement of accessories. Some of the outfits are accessible and could be recreated with modern day materials. Others are simply aspirational; the fodder for dreams of a more glamorous life.
Stars included in the collection of photographs include:
Dana Andrews
Lauren Bacall
Lucille Ball
Joan Crawford
Bette Davis
Kirk Douglas
Rhonda Fleming
Errol Flynn
Rita Hayworth
William Holden
Alan Ladd
Veronica Lake
Ann Miller
Robert Mitchum
Maureen O’Hara
Tyrone Power
Frank Sinatra
Gene Tierney
Spencer Tracy
and more
This book does have some flaws. The text size for the introduction is excessively large. It made me feel like I was reading a large print edition of a book. I also wish there was more information about Kodachrome. I would not recommend this as a reference text. It’s purely eye candy with a little information thrown in. The book doesn’t open very well and double-paged spreads require breaking the spine a bit in order to take in the full image in all it’s glory. I also didn't think the birth and death dates were necessary for the image captions. It dates the book. These are minor flaws though and the book’s strengths overcome its weaknesses.
Hollywood in Kodachrome is worth your investment. If you are a visual person and love classic film, especially the 1940s, this book is a must for your home library.
Vanessa of Stardust reviewed this book in June. Check out her post!
This is my fourth and final review for my summer reading challenge! I purchased this book at my local bookstore.
How should we approach talking about Stepin Fetchit? Carefully. Very carefully.
Actor Lincoln Perry, also known by his show business name Stepin Fetchit, has one of the most complicated legacies in the history of movies. Perry’s early history is a common one. He escapes a poor upbringing to find wealth and success in Hollywood. However Perry’s circumstances were much more complicated. He was African American and his film roles were of stereotypical black caricatures. These performances were problematic yet accepted in the ‘20s, ‘30s and ‘40s. Today they are completely unacceptable and difficult to watch. In early Hollywood, black actors and actresses were often relegated to roles of maids and servants. The comedic roles actors like Perry performed involved black characters who were sleepy, dumb, shiftless and easily spooked. While actresses like Hatti McDaniel and Louise Beavers were able to fight for better representation in film they still had to work within the confines of the system. The author makes the case that they played maids but they played sassier maids. Perry’s sleepy eyed Stepin Fetchit couldn’t transcend its caricature.
Actor Lincoln Perry, aka Stepin Fetchit
Perry excelled in comedy and his talents skyrocketed him to fame and fortune. He made a big splash on stage and screen, was highly sought after by the industry, was written about frequently in newspapers and industry magazines and even had his own column in the Chicago Defender simply called Lincoln Perry’s Letter. He would have been a much more prolific actor in film however he became notoriously difficult to work with and scandals plagued him. By the 1950s he was much less in demand and by the Civil Rights movement and into the late 1970s he was looked upon as a pariah. Perry fought back claiming that his career opened doors for actors like Sidney Poitier. However by the time he died in 1985 he was no longer a major figure in the African American show business community and today he is largely forgotten.
Lincoln Perry with his friend Muhammad Ali
I’m not qualified to discuss the portrayal of African Americans in early film. However, author and critic Mel Watkins is and he does a fine job in this book. The reader learns a lot about Perry’s career in film and stage, his family and his romantic relationships. The subtitle suits the book perfectly: “The Life and Times of Lincoln Perry”. Not only do we learn about Perry’s life but he also learn a lot about the time in which his career both flourished and failed. Watkins discusses many other African American entertainers at length most notably Clarence Muse, Hattie McDaniel, Louise Beavers, Willie Best, Flip Wilson and Bill Robinson.
This book isn’t perfect. Sometimes the writing gets pretty dull. Although I was very interested in the book, I slogged through it and it took me much longer to read than it should have. Personally I’ve been going through a difficult time so my attention span wasn’t at full capacity and you need it for this book. There are lots of details and Perry was up to a lot of shenanigans, all of which are meticulously recounted in the book. If an author was going to write a book about the problems of early African American film roles, Lincoln Perry’s Stepin Fetchit would be the perfect figure to anchor the story.
I recommend this book to classic film buffs who are looking to expand their knowledge about lesser known stars and also want to learn more about race in early film history.
This is my third review for my summer reading challenge. I purchased this book directly through Random House.
My father passed away on Saturday after a long illness. I was with him for several days up until the day he died and was able to tell him many times how much I loved him. I'll be forever grateful for those opportunities.
I inherited many of my dad's traits: his curiosity, his love of travel and geography, his unbreakable desire for independence and stability. Indirectly through him I acquired a love of history, a fascination for the 20th century in particular, a penchant for quality and an eye for beauty. My dad could be difficult but he was much calmer in his later years. And even though he didn't say it much I knew from his actions that he loved me. He even had a special smile just for me and I got to see the last one just a few days before he died.
My love of classic film is partly due to my dad. Every time I watch an old movie I think of my dad. How old was he when the film was made? What was he like as a kid/teenager/adult? Did he watch this movie in the theater when it was released? What did he think of it?
I miss my pai ("dad" in Portuguese). I'll miss him forever but I know he's not suffering anymore.
Some years ago I wrote two pieces on this blog about my father. I encourage you to read them.
Several months ago I watched the documentary Gore Vidal: United States of Amnesia (2013). Then I watched it again. And again. And again. I was mesmerized by this brilliant documentary as well its fascinating subject. It was timely, filmed shortly before Vidal’s death in 2012, powerful and illuminating with almost unfettered access to Vidal himself as well as his friends and colleagues. In that documentary we see some footage of the infamous William F. Buckley Jr. and Gore Vidal debates. I was fascinated and wanted to learn more about their debates as well as their vitriolic hatred for each other. That’s when Best of Enemies (2015) stepped in.
Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley Jr in BEST OF ENEMIES, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Directed by Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville and released by Magnolia Pictures, Best of Enemies tells the story of Buckley and Vidal’s debates during the 1968 Republican and Democratic national conventions and broadcast by ABC News. William F. Buckley Jr. and Gore Vidal were on the opposite ends of the political spectrum. Buckley was a staunch conservative and Vidal an unapologetic liberal. Both men were highly intelligent and well-spoken commentators. They both had failed at getting into public office, Buckley ran for Mayor in 1965 and Vidal for Congress in 1960. They recognized television as a powerful platform to deliver their political ideologies and both accepted ABC News’ invitation to debate with each other on live television. What resulted was explosive and would forever change TV news and the lives of both men.
William F. Buckley Jr. and Gore Vidal in BEST OF ENEMIES, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures
Buckley and Vidal hated each other. A lot. In the opening scene of the documentary we see archival footage from the 1970s of Gore Vidal. He’s giving the cameras a tour of his stunning home, nestled on a cliff in Ravello, Italy. Vidal takes the camera crew into the bathroom where a framed collection of photographs from the infamous debates hangs above his bathtub. Vidal snidely says of Buckley “he’s a well-known right-wing commentator whose name seldom passes my lips.” Buckley didn’t like to talk about Vidal either. ABC News approached him first about doing a debate with a liberal commentator during the conventions. He said he would not want to debate with a communist or Gore Vidal. They gave him Vidal.
When Buckley lost his cool. BEST OF ENEMIES, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures
Best of Enemies stitches together footage from the ten debates, ABC news coverage, some of it unedited, interviews with a wide variety of talking heads as well as archival footage of both Buckley and Vidal. Both sides are represented as equally as possible however things don’t turn out as well for Buckley who lost his cool in one of the last debates. It’s one of the most infamous moments in TV news history. Vidal calls Buckley a Crypto-Nazi and Buckley calls Vidal a queer and threatens to sock him in the face. That moment is pivotal in the documentary as well as the lives of both men.
Gore Vidal and Paul Newman in BEST OF ENEMIES, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Classic film fans, especially ones interested in the culture of the 1960s, will be fascinated with this documentary. It provides a lot of context of what was going at the time politically and culturally. Gore Vidal was no stranger to Hollywood. He was a screenwriter and novelist and his films include The Catered Affair (1956), Ben-Hur (1959), Suddenly, Last Summer (1959), The Best Man (1964), Myra Breckenridge (1970) and Caligula (1979). In 1968, his novel Myra Breckenridge had just been published and was hot topic. Clips from the film adaptation can be seen in the documentary as well as clips from Ben-Hur, Caligula and The Best Man. There is an extended reference to Sunset Blvd. (1950) too. Classic film enthusiasts will spot familiar faces such as Raquel Welch and Henry Fonda and there is also archival footage of Paul Newman and Arthur Miller at the Democratic national convention. Newman was good friends with Vidal and was often in the studio during the debates.
The filmmakers chose some excellent interviewees for the documentary. My favorites include Dick Cavett (talk show host), Richard Wald (former president of NBC News), George Merlis (ABC publicist), Christopher Hitchens (political essayist who passed in 2011), James Wolcott (Vanity Fair), Sam Tanenhaus (biographer of Buckley) and Reid Buckley (Buckley’s brother). I also really loved the commentary from Brooke Gladstone of NPR who put the debates in the context of the history of TV news and John McWhorter of Columbia University who analyzed the language and the importance of the discourse. Fun fact: at one point Buckley exclaims “this is balderdash now!” It was also neat to listen to actors John Lithgow and Kelsey Grammer narrate written pieces from Buckley and Vidal.
Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley Jr in BEST OF ENEMIES, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Here are some of my favorite quotes from the documentary:
“Networks, did they deal in controversy? No. Did they invite controversy? No. They were in the center. They were cementers of idea not disruptors of idea.” – Richard Wald, NBC News
“Bill Buckley was the first modern conservative intellectual to see that ideological debates were cultural debates. And what he did was to put conservativism on the march and that’s the creation of the movement we have today.” Sam Tanenhaus
“ABC was the Budget Car Rental of TV news” – Frank Rich, New York Magazine
“This has always been an anti-intellectual country. These days anybody who spoke like those two men in public would be seen to be heartless.” – John McWhorter, Columbia University
“The network nearly shat.” – Dick Cavett on the Buckley-Vidal incident
“Argument is sugar and the rest of us are flies.” – Richard Wald, NBC News
“More and more we are divided into communities of concern. Each side can ignore the other side and live in its own world. It makes us less of a nation because what binds us together is the pictures in our heads. But if those people are not sharing those ideas they’re not living in the same place.” – Uncredited
The reason I was most drawn to this documentary is my fascination with Gore Vidal. He is arguably one of the most interesting public figures of the 20th century. This documentary satiated my interested and piqued a new one about his rival Buckley.
William F. Buckley Jr. and Gore Vidal in BEST OF ENEMIES, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures
I could go on for a long time about this documentary but I don’t want to spoil it for you. Instead I want to give you a plan of action. First, watch Gore Vidal: United States of Amnesia on Netflix Instant. Second, do a little research on William F. Buckley Jr. to keep things balanced. Third, find out which theater near you is showing Best of Enemies and go see it! This documentary premiered at Sundance to much critical acclaim. It was the opening film for the recent AFI Docs festival. You can watch at select theatres starting tomorrow. Visit the official site for the schedule.
Summary: Best of Enemies (2015) is a powerful documentary depicting a tumultuous time in political history, a turning point in TV news and highly contentious relationship between two intellectual equals William F. Buckley Jr. and Gore Vidal. This film entertains as much as it provides history and context. I highly recommend it.
Thank you to Magnolia Pictures for sending me a screener to review!
I'm being brave and venturing out into the world of YouTube again. I've done a few videos in the past but with much trepidation. I'm not comfortable with public videos, ratings or comments yet but I won't let that stop me from trying out some videos. I was inspired by (i.e. stole the idea from) Vanessa from Stardust who has an excellent YouTube channel and also Aurora of Once Upon a Screen... who encouraged me to be more adventurous with my blog.
In this video I share with you my recent book haul as well as my six summer reading titles. Enjoy!
P.S. The Fritz Lang film I was trying to remember was Harakiri (1919).
P.P.S. I promise to do shorter videos in the future. I just really like talking about Fritz Lang and books apparently.
Titles mentioned: 'Tis Herself by Maureen O'Hara The Man Who Saw a Ghost: The Life and Work of Henry Fonda by Devin McKinney Considering Doris Day by Tom Santopietro Empire of Dreams: The Epic Life of Cecil B. DeMille by Scott Eyman
“You should watch the film for George Sanders.” In one form or another this is a line I’ve repeated often during my years as a classic film fan. George Sanders could charm audiences regardless of the quality of the film he was in. He made fine classics such as All About Eve and Foreign Correspondent as well as questionable clunkers. Every single film he was in was improved simply by his presence.
“...on the screen I am invariably a sonofabitch, in life I am a dear, dear, boy.” – George Sanders
George Sanders charmed fans on the printed page as well with Memoirs of a Professional Cad. Written and published in 1960, this memoir is essentially a collection of essays broken up into 23 chapters and split into Books I and II. Each chapter has a specific theme or multiple themes as Sanders might decide to veer off into a rant or go on a tangent. As I was reading the memoir I started giving chapters different titles. For example chapter 9 I called “On impulsiveness”, chapter 11 “On how to say no and living the good life” and Book II chapter 4, “Musings on Albert, the butler”. With a few exceptions, most of the chapters stand alone as individual essays. Book II chapters 6 and 7 are presented as a pair. Chapter 6 recounts the filming of Solomon and Sheba which leads into chapter 7 which deals with the sudden death of Tyrone Power.
“To the best of my knowledge, my father came in the mail.” – George Sanders
The essays range on a variety of topics. We learn about his family and early days in Russia, his schooling in England and a variety of jobs he held before he became an actor. Sanders shared some hilarious stories of doing work for a cigarette-manufacturing company. He traveled through Argentina and Chile promoting the cigarettes. He came up with a clever marketing plan: dropping cigarette packages from a Bristol Bi-Plane into remote areas of Chile. He was “thrown out” of many jobs before this one but he seemed to make this one stick. However it all ended when he found himself in a duel with a widow’s fiancee and was consequently thrown into jail. His employer came to his rescue but only long enough to bail him out of a jail and bring him back to England. He was unceremoniously fired shortly after and both the fiancee and Sanders survived the ordeal.
“...the driving force of my life has always been laziness; to practice this, in reasonable comfort, I have even been prepared, from time to time, to work.” – George Sanders
George Sanders had some wonderful observations on Hollywood, acting, work, school, relationships and his own personal quirks. The book is endlessly quotable and I bookmarked many a passage that I heartily agreed with, that made me laugh or that made me scratch my head. Here are some of my favorite quotes:
Observations:
“I arrived at the conclusion that to enjoy one’s life to its fullest, one must build contrast into it. And the more extreme the contrast the fuller the life.”
“The average audience is also incapable of distinguishing between a good actor and a good part. The actor gets the credit every time when more often than not the credit should go to the writer.”
“The mortality rate among stars is extremely high, whereas a good character actor is almost indestructible.” “It is one of the sad ironies of life that one has to make money in order to spend time but waste time in order to make money.” “Common household services are better paid for in money than in marriage, which is liable to produce the disagreeable results of a grossly distended waistline coupled with conversation confined to comparative prices of ground beef.” “To begin with, it is impossible to be in love with a woman without experiencing on occasions an irresistible desire to strangle her. This can lead to a good deal of ill-feeling. Women are touchy about being strangled.” “To the Englishman it is a continual source of amazement and irritation that the rest of mankind does not consist of other Englishmen.”
Anecdotes:
“My first appearance on the screen was as one of the gods in The Man Who Could Work Miracles. The part called for me to ride half-naked and shiny with grease, at four o’clock in the morning during one of England’s coldest winters, on a horse which was also coated with grease.”
“For a long time I was considered the ideal actor to play sneering, arrogant, bull-necked Nazi brutes.”
On getting his Oscar for his role in All About Eve. “I was grateful and flattered to get mine, but apart from making my already large ego one size larger it did absolutely nothing for me.”
On Marilyn Monroe “I lunched with her once or twice during the making of the film and found her conversation had unexpected depths. She showed an interest in intellectual subjects which was, to say the least, disconcerting. In her presence it was hard to concentrate.”
“Zsa Zsa was like champagne, and I as her husband was hard put to it to keep up with her standard of effervescence”
“There was no air-conditioning in the studio and the heat was so great at times that one had to sit between scenes with ice cubes wrapped in towels pressed against all possible parts of the anatomy in order to survive.”
Sanders talks in detail about his failed marriage to Zsa Zsa Gabor (and her obsession with hair dryers). He was writing his memoirs during a happy time in his life when he was married to Benita Hume. She’s only discussed once in the book at any length where Gabor’s antics take up entire essays. I also noticed that besides a fleeting mention of him in the first chapter, George Sanders does not talk at all about his brother, actor Tom Conway. I imagine at this point in Sander's life they were not on the best of terms.
I’ve been looking forward to reading this book for years. I have been hunting down an elusive copy of the original out-of-print hardcover but much to my dismay I could never find a reasonably priced one. That’s when Dean Street Press came to the rescue! This small British publisher brought George Sanders’ memoir as well as his two mystery novels back into print. They were very generous and sent me an e-book version of Sanders’ memoir which I was very grateful to read. I still want a physical copy but now I’m debating whether I’ll buy the reissue paperback or wait for a good original hardcover copy.
“I had had since the beginning a profound sense of unreality about my newly acquired profession which the atmosphere of Hollywood did nothing to dispel. I never really thought I would make the grade. And let’s face it, I haven’t.” – George Sanders
I really wanted to love this book but in the end I just really liked it. Some of the essays are absolute gems and others were so-so. Every chapter had some pearl of wisdom, bit of insightful musing or humorous anecdote to devour so I felt very satisfied by the end. The publisher suggests that Sanders’ memoir is somewhat fictional. There is an after by Ulla Watson, Sanders’ niece. She also backs up the claim of Sanders as unreliable narrator pointing out that Sanders often downplayed his skills and sometimes his lack of confidence caused him to bail out of projects.
Whether we can believe everything George Sanders says or not it doesn’t really matter. Memoirs of a Professional Cad is an entertaining and enthralling insight into the mind of one of the 20th century’s most charming actors.
This is my second entry for my 2015 Classic Film Book Summer Reading Challenge!
Here is part two of my collection of classic film treasures. If you missed part one, make sure you take a look before you move on!
Books
Books books books. I love books. I especially love my collection of classic film books of which I have many. Every year I run a summer reading challenge to encourage myself and others to tackle their to-be-read pile of classic film books. Many classic film fans collect books whether they be biographies, memoirs, coffee table pictorials, scholarly text or reference guides. In my opinion, these books are the best way for me to learn about my interest. IMDb and Wikipedia is great but there is nothing like diving into a good book and getting absorbed into the world of an actor, actress, time period, movie studio, etc.
Autographed copy of a Jack Klugman book
I never got to meet Jack Klugman in person but I have something he once held in his hands! My signed copy of Tony and Me: A Story of Friendship by Jack Klugman is my most prized book in my collection. Klugman was well-known for his TV work but he was in some wonderful films too including 12 Angry Men and Days of Wine and Roses. In this book he discusses his friendship with Tony Randall as well as their personal lives and acting careers. It’s like two biographies in one!
TCMFF media passes and social media buttons
I proudly display my media credentials and festival buttons on my cubicle wall at work. I look at them every day and they remind me of all the wonderful times I had at the 2013, 2014 and 2015 TCM Classic Film Festivals. I love that my name is clearly branded on each of the passes and the buttons are just fun to look at.
Buttons
How about even more buttons? I got the I Heart Movies button at a special screening of These Amazing Shadows (2011), a documentary about the National Film Registry. I was personally invited to a screening at the Coolidge Corner Theatre by one of the directors of the documentary. (Thank you Kurt Norton!). It was such a wonderful event I accidentally covered the event twice within one post. Oops! I’ll fix that eventually. The other buttons are from Kate Gabrielle’s line of Your Fan Club buttons. As you see I have ones for Joan Blondell, Norma Shearer, Kirk Douglas, Robert Mitchum, Jack Klugman, Robert Osborne and Edward G. Robinson.
Classic Film Calendar made by Kate Gabrielle
Let me gush about Kate Gabrielle a bit. This woman is incredibly talented. She’s clever, thoughtful and has serious skills as an artist. Several months ago I commissioned a classic film themed calendar. I gave her some ideas, a list of my favorite classic film people, my favorite holiday (New Year’s Eve!), a few photographs and she turned all of this into a spectacular calendar. I can’t believe it! If you want to see all the months of the calendar, check out my original post about it.
Robert Mitchum themed birthday card and matching envelope
One year Kate Gabrielle sent me a birthday card with an image of Robert Mitchum from The Night of the Hunter (1955). She replaced the letters on his knuckles to read Happy Bday. I love this card! The envelope even came with an image of Mitchum dancing with hand drawn balloons. I have both the card and envelope up on my cubicle wall at work.
Classic film stamps
I was a budding philatelist when I was a pre-teen but eventually abandoned the hobby. I picked it up again as an adult thanks to the USPS Legends of Hollywood series. In 2014, they honored Charlton Heston with a stamp and I got to attend the stamp ceremony and unveiling. This event was so spectacular and it’s one of my favorite festival memories. I lost an opportunity to buy first issue stamps, and to have them signed by Fraser Heston!. However, as soon as I got home I bought several sheets of stamps. Some of which I used for correspondence and bills and one sheet I kept as a memento.
Cinefest swag
My first Cinefest was also my last. Cinefest 35 was the last Cinefest and I’m very honored that I had an opportunity to be there. Cinefest goers received printed pass and lanyard, a commemorative coaster and an informative festival booklet, all of which I have kept. While there I also purchased a copy of The Dawn of Technicolor and I got it signed by the two authors who had just done a presentation on technicolor earlier that day.
TCMFF Tote Bags
There is a lot of TCMFF swag to treasure and the tote bags are my favorite. This bag from 2014 beats them all. When I first saw it I wasn't too crazy about the shape and design. However, over time I've fallen in love with it. It's my go-to tote bag for books. Inside you'll find the book I'm currently reading, a notebook and a couple of pens. It's lightweight and the shape makes it lie flat against your side. It's the perfect bag!
TCM mug and blanket
Last but not least is my TCM mug and blanket set. It gets a bit cold at my work so I can often be found sipping hot tea from my TCM mug (I also use a 2015 TCMFF mug as well) and wrapped in my TCM blanket. The blanket was a birthday gift from Jonas and the mug was a birthday gift from Sebina ! Thank you Jonas and Sebina! I treasure these presents.
I hope you liked my two part series. If you want to participate, please share your favorite classic film treasures either on your blog or on a Pinterest board! Submit your link in the comments section below, or e-mail me or tag me on Twitter.
Classic film stamps 
