TCM launched on April 14, 1994 with a gala presentation by then-owner Ted Turner in New York's Times Square and the presentation of Gone With the Wind (1939), the film most associated with Turner Broadcasting's library of great MGM, Warner Bros. and RKO pictures. The event almost didn't take place, as executives were scrambling at the last minute to get all the permits in place for the live telecast from Times Square, attended by such Hollywood legends as Jane Powell, Arlene Dahl, Van Johnson and Celeste Holm. But it all came off, with Robert Osborne, the face of TCM, doing his first of many introductions for the network's films.
An essential part in the network's history, Osborne figures prominently in the special. His ability to get rare personal revelations out of his guests on TCM's original series Private Screenings led to three classic moments: Mickey Rooney's sudden burst of anger when discussing his mistreatment at the hands of director Roy Rowland while making Killer McCoy (1947), Betty Hutton's revelation of the heartbreak she suffered after she replaced Judy Garland in Annie Get Your Gun (1950) only to be snubbed by the film's cast and crew and Liza Minnelli's revelations of how godmother Kay Thompson, a major figure in the MGM music department, helped her get through one of her divorces. Osborne has also interviewed guest programmers like Kermit the Frog, Hugh Hefner and Cloris Leachman, and co-hosted The Essentials, a weekly tribute to the most important movies ever made. On the latter, he spent three seasons with his good friend Alec Baldwin, even providing one memorable moment as they debated the merits of the 1962 remake of Mutiny on the Bounty, a film Baldwin admires for Marlon Brando's one-of-a-kind performance as Fletcher Christian.
TCM's programming extended beyond the cable universe with the launch of the TCM Film Festival in 2010, which has given fans the chance to see classic movies as originally intended, on the screens of such Hollywood landmarks as Grauman's Chinese and Egyptian Theatres. The Festival has also featured appearances from some of the screen's greatest stars, including Luise Rainer, who flew from London to Hollywood at the age of 101 to discuss her movies with Osborne, and Kim Novak, who finally opened up to Osborne about her reasons for giving up the movies. The festival's success has also given rise to extensive tours of classic movies, the TCM Classic Movie Cruise and the TCM Classic Movie Bus Tour of New York movie locations.
Mankiewicz also shares two of his own favorite memories. At the 2013 TCM Film Festival, he pranked Eva Marie Saint, with whom he was presenting On the Waterfront (1954), after years of touring classic films together and enduring her gentle teasing about his habit of always wearing blue jeans. And on Father's Day 2013, he and father Frank Mankiewicz hosted an evening of movies celebrating Frank's father, screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz (1941's Citizen Kane), and uncle, Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1950's All About Eve).
Along with presenting classic movies, TCM has participated in their preservation and restoration. One of their most notable feats was their discovery and restoration of six lost RKO films, including the Ann Harding vehicle Double Harness (1933) and the early Ginger Rogers film Rafter Romance (1933), that had been out of circulation for decades because of a complicated copyright deal. The network not only bought the copyrights back, but worked with the Library of Congress and the Brigham Young University Motion Picture Archive to create new prints that began screening in 2007.
For all of these many accomplishments, the network was honored with a Peabody Award in 2008, the one memorable moment the public really got to see. Considered the most prestigious award for radio and television, the award acknowledged TCM as the premier site for the screening of classic films, while also acknowledging its dedication to movie preservation and restoration and original programming that brings to life the classic movie experience.
By Frank Miller
Producer-Writer: M.A. Glenn-Drew
Cinematography: Thomas Branch, Chris Conway
Cast: Ben Mankiewicz (Host), Robert Osborne, Mickey Rooney, Betty Hutton, Alec Baldwin, Kim Novak, Liza Minnelli (Themselves)
