Our digital archivist, Lynn Zook, is on the scene at the TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood this week, and filed this report.
It was a grand opening night in Hollywood for the second annual TCM Classic Film Festival!
More than 2,500 film buffs from around the world arrived to spend the next few days immersed in what can only be described as classic film heaven. The Festival features screenings of beloved, and in some cases, very rare films, and will also include panel discussions and special presentations. It promises to be four days filled with everything a film buff could hope for.
The Walt Disney Family Museum had the honor of kicking off the Festival last evening with a screening of Walt’s earliest surviving animated shorts, the Laugh-O-grams, presented in partnership with the Museum of Modern Art.
Shannon Clute, of TCM’s Brand Marketing department, introduced noted Disney historian, J.B. Kaufman, to a near capacity audience. J.B. set up the back story of the Laugh-O-grams.
"The Walt Disney Family Museum illustrates the life and career of Walt Disney, and one of my favorite parts of that story is the very beginning of his career, when he was basically a kid—I should say, a young man—living in Kansas City, and discovering animated cartoons for the first time, and getting intrigued with them. I discovered this part of his story when I was about nine years old, and I’m a Midwestern boy myself, so this chapter of Walt’s story has always had a kind of primal appeal for me. I just think there’s a tremendous romance in the idea of this bunch of young guys, all getting interested in animation—probably with a strong boost from Walt, whose enthusiasm for an idea could be highly contagious—and deciding to give it a whirl. And then going on to revolutionize an art form, and an entertainment form, all within the next two decades! And the best part is that most of the films still survive, so we can watch them taking those first steps. I think, as you watch the films—knowing, in hindsight, what was going to happen afterward—you can feel something of the excitement they were feeling as they started on their journey.“
J.B. described the details of how two of shorts, Goldie Locks and the Three Bears, and Jack the Giant Killer, long considered lost films, were found by David Gerstein and Cole Johnson.
The shorts were well received with the film-loving audience enjoying all the historic silent film gags, and especially, the homage to Rudolph Valentino in Puss in Boots.
Pianist Ben Model provided the music for the screening.
The Laugh-O-grams will have a special encore screening (again with J.B. and Ben Model) on Sunday evening, May 1st at 5:45 pm.
We hope to see you there!
[Image above: J.B. Kaufman in the green room at the Chinese Theater prior to the screening.]