Remember when you could win Tony Curtis for a day in TCM’s 1999 sweepstakes? That stunt seems like an urban myth now but it really happened. The lucky winner was a woman in Tucson, Arizona and they spent the day together participating in a National Rodeo parade, a shopping spree and a huge dinner party with the woman’s family. Yet this was just one of the many memorable events, programming coups and unexpected surprises in the 15-year-history of TCM, some of which you may remember and others you might have missed. Step inside for a personal trip down memory lane.   

The gestation of TCM really began when Ted Turner purchased the MGM/UA Entertainment Company in 1986. Of course, his Atlanta based TV station WTCG-Channel 17, which he purchased in 1970, had already been running a regular slate of Hollywood films (and series reruns), which received wider distribution in 1976 when it became a bona fide coast-to-coast network operation thanks to satellite syndication. And once Turner launched TNT in 1988 with Gone With the Wind, the channel began to serve up countless goodies from the MGM and Warner Bros. libraries.

Those who remember the channel in its early days will recall great interstitials  like the Bette vs. Joan promo (promoting a festival of their films) in which clips from Bette Davis and Joan Crawford movies (lots of slapping scenes) were edited  together with boxing match sound effects in which both actresses almost seemed  to be duking it out. A lot of  these promos and later programming such as “Our Favorite Movies” (hosted by celebrities  like TCM’s current “guest programmer” series) and Monstervision (hosted by Joe Bob Briggs) were really just rough prototype ideas for a commercial free classic movie channel that would become TCM.

I was lucky enough to be present at the actual launch of the channel in Atlanta on April 14, 1994, where I was working as a freelance writer/producer. I wrote and produced promos (Edward Dmytryk, Cyd Charisse, Lawrence Tierney, etc.) and on-air menus and co-produced the first 31 Days of Oscar on-air promos which have a cameo appearance by the “real” Morlocks. It’s not as snazzy, elegant or arty as some of the campaigns that followed but you gotta start somewhere and admittedly, I felt my needle drop music score (a Philip Glass-Koyaanisqatsi like imitation) was better than the expensive original score that replaced it. Not my decision. I was just a gun for hire. Let it go,buddy, just let it go. Anyway, here it is:

http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/index/?o_cid=mediaroomlink&cid=238759

Of course, none of it would have been possible without Ted Turner. And a great deal of the creativity on display was due to the movie mad imaginations of Lisa Mateas and Phil Oppenheim who were the programming VPs of TNT at the time and also programmed for TCM in its early days. Robert Osborne, of course, was there right from the beginning and helped establish the network’s authoritative voice about film in a way no other movie channel has been able to emulate.

So here are just a few of the highlights, personal discoveries and wonderful experiences that I owe to TCM over the years, starting with 1997 because I wasn’t able to get TCM on cable in Atlanta then (some neighborhoods had to wait longer unless they subscribed to Direct TV).

1997

THE UNKNOWN (1927) – I had always heard about this Tod Browning-Lon Chaney film but to see it with a newly composed score by the Alloy Orchestra was a revelation. It showed me how you could revitalize silent cinema for an audience that would never gravitate toward it of their own volition. The Alloy score gave the film an extra jolt of emotional intensity as if it needed any more. Fascinating in its perversity, this tale of a carnival knife thrower in love with his assistant Estrellita (Joan Crawford) is not just a great introduction to Lon Chaney for the novice but also Crawford’s most atypical silent film. There’s something ironic about her playing a character who doesn’t want to be touched by men and only feels close to Chaney’s Alonzo, who poses as an armless knife thrower – he uses his feet – but is actually a wanted criminal. I won’t spoil the rest for those who haven’t seen it but if you ever have a chance to see the Alloy Orchestra perform the music live for any of the films they’ve scored (Man With a Movie Camera, Last Command, Underworld, The Eagle, Nosferatu, The General, etc.), then make it a priority. It will open your eyes and ears to the possibilities of silent films and soundtrack scoring.

1998

This was the year of the Robert Mitchum-Jane Russell Private Screenings, one of Osborne’s more challenging interviews due to Mitchum’s ornery, recalcitrant behavior whenever the cameras were rolling. He was friendly and chatty off-camera the night before the interview and practically mum on set. Luckily Jane Russell was there to draw him out of his rut occasionally but the tension is still apparent, making this a one-of-a-kind Private Screenings. Osborne later commented on it in Lee Server’s Robert Mitchum: Baby I Don’t Care, saying “Either because of illness or cantankerousness, he was about as pleasant to interview that day as Attila the Hun. Ask him anything, and he’d retort with one- and two-word answers. ‘Yes.’ ‘No.’ ‘Don’t remember.’ Only when I’d ask about people such as Marilyn Monroe and Howard Hughes…would he open up.” Other memorable programming: LOUISE BROOKS: LOOKING FOR LULU (1998), one of many excellent documentaries funded and executive produced by none other than Playboy‘s Hugh Hefner, and AU RENDEZ-VOUS DE LA MORT JOYEUSE (1973). The latter, which aired on TCM’s late night TCM Imports franchise, is a terrifically weird and disturbing French film directed and co-written by Juan Luis Bunuel, son of the famous Spanish filmmaker.

It tells the story of a French family who take up residence during their summer vacation in a rambling old mansion nestled in the bucolic countryside. From an idyllic, pastoral beginning, AU RENDEZ-VOUS DE LA MORT JOYEUSE slowly moves into nightmare territory as poltergeist activity begins to manifest itself, possibly unleased by the presence of the teenage daughter Sophie (Yasmine Dahm). Soon a team of parapsychologists (including a young Gerard Depardieu) arrive to investigate, followed by the unexpected arrival of a group of vacationing schoolgirls and their headmaster. Then all hell breaks loose though not in the gimmick-ridden, pyrotechnic style of Steven Spielberg’s Poltergeist.

1999

The Summer of Darkness – 3 months of film noir, suspense and mystery thrillers. Heaven for some of us. I was able to indulge my love for Lawrence Tierney films and introduce friends to his frightening, homicidal presence in such unheralded gems as BORN TO KILL, THE DEVIL THUMBS A RIDE and DILLINGER.

Lawrence Tierney (left) in BORN TO KILL

Other highlights: the documentary CLARA BOW: DISCOVERING THE “IT” GIRL, the “win Tony Curtis for a Day” sweepstakes, a Jazz in film festival and Rick Schmidlin’s restored 242 minute version of GREED.

2000

The documentary A PERSONAL JOURNAL WITH MARTIN SCORSESE THROUGH AMERICAN MOVIES (and the accompanying book) introduced me to some films I had only read about and others which were new to me such as Allan Dwan’s SILVER LODE (1954), a vivid, low-budget Western starring John Payne that was even more overt in its anti-McCarthy critique of moral cowardice and vigilante tactics than High Noon. TCM also programmed a wonderful French New Wave festival including Claude Chabrol’s Le beau Serge (1958), Francois Truffaut’s Jules and Jim (1962), Jean-Luc Godard’s Le petit soldat (1963) and Les carabiniers, among others.

And, just in case you thought TCM’s director of the month was always reserved for legends like John Huston, William Wyler and Alfred Hitchcock, Edward L. Cahn, a prolific B-movie maker, won that distinction one month. So viewers got treated to HONG KONG CONFIDENTIAL (1958), famous for Gene Barry’s excruciatingly funny (not intentional) nightclub musical number, INSIDE THE MAFIA (1959), CURSE OF THE FACELESS MAN (1958), a Pompeii mummy movie – what could be better?, and my favorite, INVISIBLE INVADERS (1959), starring John Carradine and one that was clearly a major influence on George Romero’s NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.  Even though he didn’t rate the front of a TCM Now Playing guide, the selection of Cahn as director of the month and others who were less known to the general viewer such as Roy Rowland and Edward Buzzell sparked an internal debate that led to the Director of the Month slot being rebranded the Spotlight of the Month to allow for other industry leader recognition in cinematography, special effects, choreography, screenwriting, etc.

2001

This might be the most eclectic programming year of all with Andrei Tarkovsky (SOLARIS, MY NAME IS IVAN aka Ivan’s Childhood, THE SACRIFICE) as Director of the Month, the premiere of Robert Altman’s stark, poetic documentary THE JAMES DEAN STORY (1957), the entire DVD box set presentation on air of TREASURES FROM AMERICAN FILM ARCHIVES, and a spaghetti Western festival with the expected Sergio Leone titles but also some personal favorites such as the first SABATA movie from 1969 which has a very playful “Wild Wild West”TV series feel to it and NAVAJO JOE (1966), starring Burt Reynolds and featuring one of Ennio Morricone’s more eccentric Western scores.

Plus I got to see two guilty pleasures, uncut and commercial free, in close to pristine prints – THE GIRL IN BLACK STOCKINGS (1957), an incredibly lurid suspense thriller starring Mamie Van Doren, Marie Windsor, Anne Bancroft and Lex Barker, and MY SON, THE HERO (1962), an Italian sword-and-scandal fantasy/adventure badly dubbed into English (though it was NOT the famous English dubbed version with all the actors soundling like famous Jewish comedians such as Jackie Mason and Joan Rivers).

2002

Once again Martin Scorsese co-partnered with TCM to bring us his stunning and engrossing survey of Italian cinema – IL MIO VIAGGIO IN ITALIA. This documentary makes you want to rush out and rent everything – again – by Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, Federico Fellini and other masters from the golden age of Italian cinema.

And speaking of Italian directors, we also did a sidebar on the films of Mario Bava with TCM premieres of BLACK SUNDAY, BLACK SABBATH, KILL, BABY, KILL and THE EVIL EYE.

Other highlights were a festival of Bruce Brown surfing features and shorts that included the film that established his cult – THE ENDLESS SUMMER (1966), a month of movie shorts with everything from Pete Smith specialities to the infamous Dogville movie parodies, and EALING FOREVER, a documentary on the British film studio which led me to some new discoveries, including SCOTT OF THE ANTARCTIC (1948) with John Mills (on far right, below) playing real life explorer Robert Falcon Scott.

2003

Bollywood cinema came to TCM in a festival that included such eyepopping color epics as RANGEELA (1970) and JUNGLEE (1961). The channel also delved into Hammer Horror with showings of THE REPTILE (1966), DRACULA, PRINCE OF DARKNESS (1966), THE PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES (1966) and other gothic delights. I was also happy to see the broadcast of LE CORBEAU (1943), Henri-Georges Clouzot’s poisonous portrait of a French provincial town driven to near self-destruction by a series of incriminating letters about its citizens.

Among new surprises were COMPLICATED WOMEN, a documentary focusing on actresses in the Pre-Code era, and STAND-IN (1937), a delightful, often overlooked satire of the film industry with witty performances by Leslie Howard, Joan Blondell and Humphrey Bogart.

2004

A lot of my favorite film personalities were honored this year – Peter Lorre as Star of the Month, Carl Dreyer as Director of the Month, a tribute to director Edgar G. Ulmer, and a spotlight on graphic designer Saul Bass and his influential title sequences for such films as ANATOMY OF A MURDER (1959), A WILD ON THE WILD SIDE (1962) as well as his directorial debut, PHASE IV (1974), a brilliantly designed sci-fi thriller.

New discoveries included two documentaries – ABBA: THE MOVIE (1977), a very droll take on the Swedish supergroup that gave us “Dancing Queen” and other top 40 hits, and GEORGE STEVENS: D-DAY TO BERLIN (1994) which included candid WWII footage, shot by Stevens, of liberated cities, post-war destruction and concentration camp victims that I had never seen before – powerful stuff.

2005

TCM’s annual August event, Summer Under the Stars, was particularly interesting this year because it featured some wonderful actors and actresses who didn’t have the usual high profile status of a Cary Grant or Katharine Hepburn. Among my favorite days were film festivals honoring Joel McCrea, Donna Reed, Basil Rathbone and Constance Bennett.

TCM’s guest programmer series also continued to surprise me not so much in terms of who the selected host was but what they actually programmed and presented. Composer Stephen Sondheim’s picks were wildly varied and reflected a true movie buff - THE MIND READER (1933), a rarely seen Pre-Code film with Warren William perfectly cast as  the great ‘Chandra’, a hustling carny con-man; the moody OUT OF THE FOG (1941) starring Ida Lupino and John Garfield; and TORCHY BLAINE IN CHINATOWN (1939) – can you get anymore politically incorrect than this?

This was the year the network also presented Cine Mexicano, showcasing many Mexican stars and filmmakers whose work continues to remain difficult to see in the U.S. Alberto Gout’s AVENTURERA (1950) was a particular favorite – a delirious, over the top melodrama with enough passion, hysteria and angst for ten movies. This was also the year I had the rare pleasure of being able to interview people such as producer James B. Harris (Stanley Kubrick’s partner on The Killing, Lolita and others), film editor Garth Graven (Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Convoy) and Christa Lang, wife of director Sam Fuller, among others, for the TCM original documentary EDGE OF OUTSIDE.  This look at the roots of independent filmmaking that started in the silent era was a home grown, in-house production. It was planned as the first of many but a company reorganization changed all and the in-house unit was eliminated as a costly and unneeded production expense.

2006

One of the more ambitious projects for TCM this year was the online launch of the TCM database – TCMdb. Despite the day to day challenge of updating and correcting information (a job that will never be complete as long as people in the film industry have the same name or lie about their age and credits), I’ve seen a massive amount of archival material appear here (lobby cards, posters, set stills, etc.), linked to favorite movies and actors. I was also excited to finally witness a late night franchise devoted to cult movies – TCM Underground. Rob Zombie was not my idea of the appropriate host and I’m glad he’s gone (I’m no fan of his devirative/homage horror films either) but I feel the franchise still needs a passionate, articulate acolyte to put the films in context. As for film discoveries in 2006, Budd Boetticher’s SEVEN MEN FROM NOW (1956) is now a favorite Western (with a scene-stealing performance by villain Lee Marvin) and the Hayao Miyazaki retrospective opened my eyes to the brilliance of the Japanese animator. I was impressed with the imagination and twisted sense of humor on display in MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO (1993) and SPIRITED AWAY (2001) but my favorite film in the festival was POM POKO (1994), which was only produced by Miyazaki. This oddball ecological/social comedy, conceived by animator Isao Takahata, is about a species of shape-shifting raccoons who try to protect their habitat from encroaching civilization. Both hilarious and thought-provoking, it might not go over well with American parents as kiddie fare since the raccoons have some…uh, strange powers, like expanding their genital size to use as free fall floatation devices or protective padding. Japanese cinema was also well represented by TCM Imports which aired Seijun Suzuki’s visually dazzling yakuza thriller BRANDED TO KILL (1967) and the borderline avant-garde sci-fi thriller GOKE, BODY SNATCHER FROM HELL (1968) from director Hajime Sato, which mixes up metaphysical horrors with an underlying political agenda which critiques the U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

2007

I was particularly pleased with the selections of both actress/director Ida Lupino and Jean Arthur as stars of the month. Revisiting some of Lupino’s directorial work - OUTRAGE (1950), THE HITCH-HIKER (1953) – as well as her acting in such movies as THE HARD WAY (1943) demonstrated to me once again how overlooked and underappreciated this remarkably talented woman was during her own lifetime. Among the Jean Arthur films featured, I fell in love with an early gem I hadn’t previously seen – IF YOU COULD ONLY COOK (1935) in which Arthur and Herbert Marshall, two unemployed people who meet on a park bench, take jobs as maid and butler, respectivefully, for a mobster (Leo Carillo) with social aspirations.

TCM also honored French director Louis Malle with a tribute that included some of his excellent documentaries (CALCUTTA, 1969), New Wave favorites (THE FIRE WITHIN, 1964) and the bizarre and rarely seen BLACK MOON (1975) which is best described in this article link -

http://www.tcm.com:80/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=68907&category=Articles

This was also the year of the guest programmer month where each day a different celebrity like Tracy Ullman or Donald Trump co-hosted a night of favorite films. My personal favorite was probably novelist/short story writer James Ellroy, due to his excellent picks – MURDER BY CONTRACT (1958) and Don Siegel’s THE LINE-UP (1958) to name a few.

2008

The premiere of the TCM Original production ROLE MODEL: GENE WILDER with Alec Baldwin interviewing the comic actor in a casual yet creatively playful way was an unexpected pleasure and makes me want to see more of these. I was also pleased to see TCM premieres of Charles Burnett’s poetic KILLER OF SHEEP (1977), a young and sensual Sophia Loren opposite up-and-coming Italian superstar Marcello Mastroianni in TOO BAD, SHE’S BAD (1954), the goofy but highly entertaining Japanese sci-fi flick, THE X FROM OUTER SPACE (1967), Ken Loach’s CATHY COME HOME (1966), which was a pick by guest programmer Tim Roth, and the slum life/drug addiction drama LET NO MAN WRITE MY EPITAPH (1960) starring Shelley Winters, James Darren, Jean Seberg, Ricardo Montalban (sensational as a sleazy pimp/drug dealer), Burl Ives and Ella Fitzgerald – what a cast! I also enjoyed the ABEL GANCE: LOST & FOUND program and a Carole Lombard star of the month retrospective which gave me a chance to sample some of her Pre-Code films and comic sleepers like HANDS ACROSS THE TABLE (1935). But probably the most overdue and long awaited star of the month tribute was for Kay Francis, who is practically unknown to younger movie fans today but is well worth rediscovering for her elegance, style and sophisticated wit, all which are in evidence in films such as TROUBLE IN PARADISE (1932) and MANDALAY (1934) – yes, more Pre-Code naughtiness. Bring it on!

2009

I already have a list of movie favorites from this year’s programming and the year is not half over yet – two underrated comedies by Albert Brooks – REAL LIFE (1979) & MODERN ROMANCE (1981), SHACK OUT ON 101 (1955), an outrageously absurd and enjoyable Cold War espionage thriller set in a greasy spoon seaside diner, SONNY BOY (1979) – art film or suitable case for treatment?, and SEVEN DAYS TO NOON (1950), a Robert Osborne pick which is about an unhinged scientist who plots to blow up London with an atomic bomb.

Upcoming tributes include Claude Rains (star of the month) and a spotlight on DICK TRACY, the serials and the Warren Beatty remake. The channel continues to be my own personal film class, allowing me to pick and choose movies that I’ve always wanted to see and still don’t exist on any commercial format outside the broadcast medium. I feel lucky to be a part of it all as a Movie Morlock. And if it all ends abruptly tomorrow, it’s been a great ride. Maybe the greatest ride of my life.