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Post by galacticgirrrl on Jan 20, 2023 2:26:00 GMT
What ignited your love of classic film?
Did someone take you to the movies regularly?
Did you live near a great cinema?
Was it a certain movie or actor? Was it TCM?
I was lucky enough to have Magic Shadows (1974-198?) & Saturday Night at the Movies (1974-1999).
Both public television shows were groundbreaking when it came to film appreciation.
The opening theme of Magic Shadows alone was enough to seduce anyone.
The show took old black-and-white films and broke them up into 30-minute episodes M-Th. Friday had classic film serials such as The Adventures of Captain Marvel, Mysterious Doctor Satan, Daredevils of the Red Circle and Captain America.
Saturday Night at the Movies presented at least two commercial-free films, including arthouse hits like Ingmar Bergman’s Through a Glass Darkly and enduring successes like Citizen Kane. Host Elwy Yost presented in-depth, on-location interviews with some of Hollywood’s leading talent, from Oscar winners Henry Fonda and John Huston to special effects visionary Linwood Dunn and title-sequence master Saul Bass.
TVO Magic Shadows intro with Elwy Yost (1986)
TVO Saturday Night At The Movies intro (1980)
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Post by sepiatone on Jan 20, 2023 17:58:29 GMT
When I was a kid, the ONLY movies on TV were "classic" movies. Which at the time were usually only 25 years old or less. I'd watch Tarzan movies(w/Johnny Weissmuller) and they were mostly that age and newer. Also there was a program on channel 9(out of Windsor, Ont. across the river) called "Million Dollar Movie" that showed mostly movies from the '30's and '40's. Sometimes a few as new as from the early '50's! Then by 1961 NBC premiered it's "Saturday Night At The Movies" program. Saw a lot of "classics" on that feature. It was the first time I saw THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, MONKEY BUISINESS, IT HAPPENS EVERY SPRING, ANGELS IN THE OUTFIELD and others. I got the bug fairly early. There was also "Bill Kennedy Presents" from Canada(Bill was an actor who did have some Hollywood experience and also did some early TV appearances, and did the introduction voice over for the old "Superman" TV show w/ George Reeves) And was in "hog heaven" back in the mid '70's when I discovered Elwy Yost's "Saturday Night at The Movies" coming from across the river. Loved him!  Sepiatone Sepiatone |
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Post by sagebrush on Jan 20, 2023 22:52:16 GMT
Until I opened this thread, I had never heard of Elwy Yost or "Saturday Night At The Movies" or "Magic Shadows." Sounds like fun viewing. In the bay area of CA, there was a weekday noontime show called "Dialing For Dollars" with host Pat McCormick on KTVU which showed a classic film every day. My sisters were both in school already and my mother used the show as my babysitter. I remember being very frightened by WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE when it was shown. My father scolded my mother for letting me watch it. Then, on the weekends, my parents would leave us 3 young girls at home alone on Saturday nights and we would watch "Creature Features" with host Bob Wilkins.Nothing on that show was as scary as Bette Davis as Baby Jane.  I think that was the first time I saw Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, Boris Karloff or Christopher Lee.
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Post by jamesjazzguitar on Jan 21, 2023 0:24:08 GMT
When I would visit my mom and her boyfriend\roomate, they would always have the T.V. on and one day they were watching The Big Sleep. I liked this film and the Bogart persona, and after talking to the boyfriend, who was really a Bogie fan, decided to explore other Bogart films. Around the same time I decided I wanted to learn to play jazz guitar and thus was learning to play many jazz standards. Of course most jazz standards were featured in those "old" movies. Thus if I saw a movie that had a song I liked, I would learn to play the song. If my teacher gave me a song to learn, I would find the film the song was featured in and try to view that film. Decades of doing this, and I have seen a lot of those "old" movies and learned a lot of jazz standards.
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Post by midwestan on Jan 21, 2023 0:41:27 GMT
I was about 11 when I spent the night at a friend's house on a Friday night. There was an old movie on an independent station around 11 p.m. starring Bela Lugosi called, "Night of Terror". We liked the title, so we decided to try and stay up to watch it all. After that, I was sort of hooked on older movies like this. There was a station that showed classic films on weeknights in the early morning hours from midnight till 4 or 5 in the morning, and during the summer months, I'd try to stay up and watch as much as I could. A couple of these early-morning flicks I remember were, "The Bishop Misbehaves" with Maureen O'Sullivan and Edmund Gwenn and "One Desire", which starred Rock Hudson and Anne Baxter.
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Post by sepiatone on Jan 22, 2023 17:49:08 GMT
I was about 11 when I spent the night at a friend's house on a Friday night. There was an old movie on an independent station around 11 p.m. starring Bela Lugosi called, "Night of Terror". We liked the title, so we decided to try and stay up to watch it all. After that, I was sort of hooked on older movies like this. There was a station that showed classic films on weeknights in the early morning hours from midnight till 4 or 5 in the morning, and during the summer months, I'd try to stay up and watch as much as I could. A couple of these early-morning flicks I remember were, "The Bishop Misbehaves" with Maureen O'Sullivan and Edmund Gwenn and "One Desire", which starred Rock Hudson and Anne Baxter. Well, I don't know how long ago it was when you were 11, but my guess it may have been in the "pre-cable" days when late-late show presentations were when most "classic" films would be shown. Through the '70's, when there was no cable TV services in my area was when we'd see old and "classic" movies late night on weekends. Or earlier on weekends from our local PBS station. The first time I ever saw CITIZEN KANE was on a Friday night on PBS in 1978. Sepiatone |
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Post by Swithin on Jan 23, 2023 1:59:28 GMT
My mother went through a period of agoraphobia when I was very young, like five or six. So we watched a lot of movies. Million Dollar Movie on Channel 9 was a thing in NYC in those days, so I was introduced to the classics, and to "Tara's Theme," which was MMM's theme song. The MMM films I remember best are Follow the Fleet, King Kong, Song of Kong, Mighty Joe Young, Navy Blues, and Station West.
A couple of years later, a slightly older boy told me the plot of The Wolf Man and that every night a horror movie was on Shock Theater, which was Channel 7. That introduced me to Zacherle and the Universal horror classics, starting with Dracula's Daughter. Another show around that time was Shock-o-Rama on Channel 13, before it became PBS. I particularly remember two films from Shock-o-Rama: The Creeper and The Fall of the House of Usher (1950), still the scariest version.
Onslow Stevens' hand turning into a cat's claw in The Creeper gave me nightmares! That's Janis Wilson he's ready to claw. She probably better known as Tina in Now, Voyager, made six years earlier.
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Post by Swithin on Jan 23, 2023 2:34:24 GMT
Deleted duplicate post
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Post by Andrea Doria on Jan 23, 2023 12:09:29 GMT
For most of my life, the only classic films I saw were the old horror movies my brother made me stay up and watch with him on Saturday nights. Then I grew up and went to live in England for three years (husband was USAF.) None of our electrical stuff worked there so we had no TV, radio or coffee machine for the first year. In the winter it's dark from about 3:30 in the afternoon until 8 the next morning. Husband was never home. The people in the village didn't like Yanks. I know that because they would say to me, "I don't like Yanks," or "I hate hillbillies," if they were clever about American accents.
One day I mentioned to my husband that I thought I was going crazy, so he broke down and bought me a little ten inch British TV. Of the three stations, ITV was best overall. It started playing old black and white movies every day at noon and kept it up until the wee hours when they played old archived educational things, which were riveting in a time warp way.
Most of the films were from the Rank corporation, which varies from the very worst, stupidest comedies you've ever seen, to some really fine dramas. They saved my life.
Returned to America, got cable with TCM. Heaven.
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Post by Lucky Dan on Jan 23, 2023 14:04:16 GMT
Then I grew up and went to live in England for three years (husband was USAF.) ... Husband was never home. The people in the village didn't like Yanks. I know that because they would say to me, "I don't like Yanks," or "I hate hillbillies," if they were clever about American accents.
Most of the films were from the Rank corporation, which varies from the very worst, stupidest comedies you've ever seen, to some really fine dramas. They saved my life.
My introduction to old movies was similar, local TV stations, especially the legendary independent KTVT out of Ft. Worth. They ran old movies mid day and late night, as did the local affiliates. Old movies were just standard TV fare then. |
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Post by Andrea Doria on Jan 23, 2023 18:50:21 GMT
I felt terrible for you, reading that. You're not the first American who lived in England to tell me such a thing.
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Post by Swithin on Jan 24, 2023 1:22:19 GMT
I think people in small towns have a tendency to be like that, in any country, including ours.
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Post by jamesjazzguitar on Jan 24, 2023 16:40:40 GMT
I think people in small towns have a tendency to be like that, in any country, including ours.
My experience says the same thing; E.g. my in-laws are from a small town in the heel of Italy and they much more negative towards outsiders than other Italian relatives of my wife that are from Milan or Rome. Also, I believe a lot has to do with how the visitor is; My half-brother wants to go to France but made the comment too-many-Americans make: "but I don't know since the French treat Americans so poorly". He knows we go to France every few years so he asks if that was true. I told him "well if you're the type of American that the French tend to distain, it is likely you will be treated poorly, but my wife and I have always been treated respectfully and well". E.g. the ugly American that has unrealistic expectations and is a complainer. |
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Post by kims on Jan 24, 2023 18:52:12 GMT
I was in West Patterson NJ in 1962 and remember Channel 9 in NYC. Elementary schools were so overcrowded, we only went half a day, which meant scads of homework. I was in the morning only group and most of the other kids in my neighborhood went to ST. Bonadventure all day. After homework I still had plenty of time before the other kids came home. Channel 9 had lots of old movies. At 9 I adored Cagney and Davis. Many moons later when we had color tv, was surprised some movies were in color. I remember the Hallmark specials-before their channels. Hallmark presented THE HEIRESS. That really hooked me- why was the father so mean, how could Cliff dump Olivia, how could Olivia be so cruel? Olivia gave an outstanding performance. When she finally "finds her tongue"--what a great transition. And it was that movie that made me look to see if a movie was based on a book. I went to the library and read WASHINGTON SQUARE.
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Post by cineclassics on Jan 24, 2023 23:40:38 GMT
As a 35 year old, I thought I was a movie aficionado growing up because I watched films from the 1970s, such as Taxi Driver, and The Godfather. It wasn't until just a few years ago that I decided it was time to remedy the situation and really delve into classic cinema, or "the studio-era." My own curiosity propelled me to begin my journey, but TCM certainly helped.
Now, it is by far my favorite era of films, and I think much of that has to do with exceptional writing. Classic cinema's scripts are far superior to most modern films, and the narrative economy of pictures from the studio era, able to tell a story, in many instances, in 90 minutes or less, really provides a stark contrast to contemporary filmmaking.
I've been telling myself that I'm going to ease back into consuming modern films--but honestly, I haven't brought myself to do so. There are still many classic films I've yet to see and so many favorites I've discovered that I look forward to rewatching.
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I think that was the first time I saw Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, Boris Karloff or Christopher Lee.
