A Moment with a Legend

First thing this morning I received a call from one of the SIFF publicists asking if I could be at there office within the hour, she had a brief window for an interview she knew I might be interested in. It was with Robert Osborne, the well-respected primetime host of Turner Classic Movies (TCM), and to say I was showered, changed and out the door faster than the Road Runner is a total understatement.

No one who loves and cherishes the art of film could refuse the opportunity, no matter how brief, to sit and chat with Osborne. Considered the official biographer of Oscar, this University of Washington alum and former Colfax, WA native (roughly 60 miles from Spokane, my hometown) is a titan as far as I’m concerned, sitting with him a ten minute cinema class no college or university could ever hope to equal.

If I sound a bit like a gushing schoolgirl I guess I am. TCM has supplied me more hours of enjoyment and edification than I can even begin to relate, Osborne himself leading me to films I’d probably never have watched had he not spoken so highly of them. Every time I hear his voice I can’t help but feel safe and comforted, secure in the knowledge that, for right now at least, someone out there has a passion and a love for the medium that maybe even surpasses my own.

But enough of this. While our window was brief, Osborne had plenty of interest to say, and instead of dolling it out piecemeal I’m just going to let his words speak for themselves.

On the strengths of Turner Classic Movies: “We just got a Peabody Award calling [TCM] the ‘American Cinematheque,’ and I love that. One thing I love about the channel and the people doing the programming and the people behind it are all people who really do know film and the really know aspects of [it]. It’s not just Clint Eastwood films that we’re showing, not just Jack Lemmon films, it’s everything. We have our Silent Mondays so you get some of the [Greta] Garbo films, and we run some of the more obscure foreign films and we’ll find some of the lesser known films and show those as well.”

“We’ll show things like 1933’s When Ladies Meet with Myrna Loy. Not a lot of people are going to want to see it or like to see it, but if they’re people like you, people who want to learn about the history film, see these old pictures the way they were meant to be seen, you’ll get a chance to see it, and I think that’s great. I’m very proud of that fact.”

On trying to watch films with commercial interruptions: “I love that we show out films without interruptions. Films aren’t supposed to be cut, not for any reasons.”

“You know what’s always confused me, when television first began TV needed film more than film needed television. I don’t know why that they just didn’t then have a law or write into the contracts saying, we’ll sell the films, but they have to be shown uncut. That would have made it start right at the very beginning that when films were shown there would be commercials at the beginning and at the end, but not in the middle. If they had done that they would probably still being [broadcasting] them in that fashion even until today. They should have forced it to happen, and I don’t know why they weren’t adamant about that because [commercials] really destroy their films. You take a Hitchcock movie like Rear Window or Rebecca or Psycho and you put commercials in there, that whole movie is lost.”

On growing up in small town Washington State and imagining he’d ever have a career like this one: “Of course, not, no, but there are certain things that I got to do because of my passion for film like going to Los Angeles and getting the chance to associate with these people like Lucille Ball right off the bat. I remember one time being at Lucy’s house and she was showing Funny Face, it was not a new film then, but Kate Thompson was there and – it was the strangest group, actually – Joseph Cotton, Janet Gaynor, Roger Edens, Chuck Walters, Kate Thompson and couple of other people, were all their to watch the move. You went into the living room and she pushes a button and the painting goes up, she pushes another butting and the screen comes down, picks up the phone and tells the projector he could start the film, the film rolls and we’re suddenly watching Funny Face.”

“So, the movie is going on and that number between Kate Thompson and Audrey Hepurn on, ‘how to be lovely,’ comes on, and Kate stands up and actually starts doing the number. I’m sitting there thinking, this is where I’m supposed to be. This is what I’m supposed to be doing.”

“I have to say that, by desire I programmed myself so much that I would be doing this that it doesn’t come as that big of a surprise. Now, I know that is totally stupid. This is like fantasy come true. But I was so strong about that fantasy that it hasn’t come as a surprise. What I can never stop thinking is how lucky I am that I’m the one who got to do it.”