Turner Classic Movies Archives - THE FALLS CITY JOURNAL

“Hello, I’m Ben Mankiewicz. Welcome to TCM”

Nikki McKim — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 15:11:52 +0000

Story and photos by Nikki McKim

Last month, the Journal had the incredible opportunity to visit the Atlanta-based headquarters of Turner Classic Movies in Atlanta, Georgia.

Turner Classic Movies launched in 1994, the baby of CNN and TBS founder Ted Turner. The network boasts commercial-free classic films, a promise they’ve kept for nearly 30 years. They bring on a variety of filmmakers, actors and other industry professionals to discuss movies, actors and studios that made old Hollywood fascinating.

TCM/Warner Media Digital Marketing Manager Diana would be my tour guide for the day, giving me the history and the behind-the-scenes look at what goes on while on set.

As you entered the studio, you could sense the same undeniable energy you feel in the Falls City Journal office on a Monday while trying to put the paper to bed. It’s the energy you have when you’re on a mission with a small staff full of passion, a mound of work and a looming deadline. Every person there poured their heart and soul into their work, ensuring that what viewers see on TCM is nothing short of perfection.

Many people worldwide, both young and old, share a love for classic cinema and a passionate dedication to TCM, the network’s knowledge, and the film library presented 24 hours a day with careful curation.

A quick Google search turns up hundreds of personal testimonies of those affected by the recent staff changes and cuts at the network. The network has legions of fans who turn to the channel and even the staff for comfort when they struggle in their own lives. During the pandemic, the hosts and films were a great source of comfort for many who stayed home for months, many alone with no family, but who spent days online talking to other film fans about what the channel was showing.

When David Zaslav, head of Warner Bros. Discovery, started laying off senior management this summer, people got nervous. Whenever a CEO starts tinkering with a beloved brand it’s time to worry. But when people worry about a brand or institution, it’s easy to forget there are real people and families affected by the layoffs and others working around the clock to produce and protect that institution many hold so near and dear.

When you get to go “behind the scenes,” a certain amount of fear comes with it. There’s a saying, “Don’t meet your heroes,” and so many have put these people on a pedestal for so long.

The Director, Make-Up, Wardrobe, and PA were all welcoming and warm as they prepared for a day of shooting with few breaks.

Ben Mankiewicz, the long-time host of TCM, was in town for the week to shoot his introductions and outros for several films.

Writer-producer Mankiewicz was only the second person to serve as TCM host when he joined the channel in 2003. He’s now the primary primetime host, although he shares duties with Alicia Malone, Dave Karger and Jaqueline Stewart.

Mankiewicz is the grandson of Herman Mankiewicz, co-writer of “Citizen Kane,” “Dinner at Eight,” “Pride of the Yankees” and “The Wizard of Oz,” to name a few films. His great-uncle, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, directed “All About Eve,” and “Guys and Dolls”, and his brother Josh Mankiewicz has been reporting for “Dateline” since the mid-90s. Entertainment and film are in his blood. When he started his hosting duties with TCM, he admitted that for much of his life, “[he] didn’t even love classic movies.”

“I grew to tolerate them in high school and college when I got so tired of complaining about contemporary movies where everything blows up and the scripts were horrible. I kept asking, ‘Why doesn’t anybody care?’ Mankiewicz told James Sanford of Newhouse News Service in a 2003 interview. “Well, then I realized there’s a million movies out there where the script isn’t terrible.”

He credited Alfred Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest” for his awakening.

“That was the first movie that got me interested in classic movies, he stated. “My mom made me watch it when I was 16 or 17, and I remember thinking, ‘That Cary Grant guy is cool.’”

Nearly twenty years to the day Mankiewicz started with TCM, I had the privilege of watching his film introductions for that “Cary Grant guy’s films.

Seeing Mankiewicz’s meticulous attention to detail and dedication to each segment was interesting. When the time came for breaks in filming, he would walk off-set and settle behind the camera to rehearse his dialogue. When the time came to go back on camera, he often got his introductions in one take. What makes his introductions personal is the input Mankiewicz has on his scripts that are put together by a team of writers and researchers. It’s a collaborative effort. Much like a newspaper, the entire team strives for accuracy when telling the stories of the films and the people who bring them to life.

It can be a surreal experience to see something you watch on your TV countless times come to life right before your eyes.

“Hello, I’m Ben Mankiewicz. Welcome to TCM,” a phrase many have found so comforting, were the first lines on the prompter and echoed through the TCM set as Mankiewicz delivered his introduction with the ease of a professional.

Ben and company did introductions and outros for 15 films before they broke for lunch, including classics like “Soylent Green,” “Cheaper by the Dozen,” “I Was a Male War Bride,” “Money Business” and “The Philadelphia Story.”

It’s difficult not to be captivated by his words, just as many were by original patriarch Robert Osborne’s. The men bring passion and knowledge only so few can. Mankiewicz delivered insightful and entertaining commentary for over an hour, bringing the films to life for worldwide viewers.

What an extraordinary opportunity to see this gifted and small group of talent do the work many classic film fans only dream of being a part of. All while maintaining a genuine sense of camaraderie and teamwork among the staff. Despite their challenges as a smaller team, their love for classic films and commitment to delivering exceptional content shone through in every interaction.

It was the teamwork of getting the set decorations right when they had to break to decorate for the holidays. It was how they worked together to ensure Ben hit every mark and had every hair in place and how they laughed together when Mankiewicz adlibbed some good-faith ribbing at his fellow TCM Noir Alley host, Eddie Mueller. They are a well-oiled machine that works together seamlessly in a way only years of experience can provide.

The set TCM fans know and love was much smaller in person than many could imagine. When you’re at home watching Mankiewicz or Alicia Malone talk about these films, you forget they’re in a studio which is a talent so few hosts can perfect.

This day was notable in the TCM offices. Everyone celebrated Ben Mankiewicz’s 20th anniversary at the network during the lunch break with a special lunch. The staff gathered to honor his dedication and contributions to the world of classic film. Ben was met in the commissary with balloons, dessert, a photo of himself from his first day that had been signed with congratulatory messages and a specially catered meal.

After lunch, the TCM staff was so kind and welcoming as the stations Social Media Manager, Caroline, sat and discussed past festivals and some of her work. She’s overseen getting some of the red-carpet talent for past festivals, no small feat.

Then came a face many film fans would recognize immediately. Genevieve McGillicuddy, whom many have come to admire so much for all the work she’s done at the network and with the festival for the past 15 years. McGillicuddy is the Executive Director of the TCM Film Festival and she graciously took time to sit down and talk before a meeting she had that afternoon. She shared stories of working with the late Robert Osborne, Hollywood, and the Film Festival, where she’s worked with some incredible talent while organizing the event including Peter O’Toole and Tony Curtis.

Leaving the Turner Classic Movies headquarters, it was easy to feel a renewed admiration and appreciation for this small team’s incredible work. It was a reminder that sometimes, it’s not about the team size but rather the amount of heart and passion they bring to their craft. Witnessing the passion of such a small staff at Turner Classic Movies was incredibly moving. Despite their size, their love for classic films radiated throughout the experience. You could feel their dedication and genuine enthusiasm for preserving the magic of cinema. Seeing a team come together and create something unique with their shared passion is truly inspiring.

The small-town newspaper and the big-city cable network are similar. We don’t do it for the praise or the money; we do what we do because we’re passionate about what we’re doing and sometimes that’s better than anything else.

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Walk, Don’t Run – Thanks, Ted.

Nikki McKim — Sat, 25 Feb 2017 17:57:47 +0000

I need to thank Ted Turner for shaping who I am. Yes, that Ted Turner, and no, I’m not related to the man in any way, never met him, never will.
A couple of days ago, I was thinking about who I am. I’m normal, yet strange. I feel like I am a fair mix of both of my parents, with a dash of all four of my grandparents and a hit of a few quirks of my own.
If I sat down and described myself to you, I would do so with a list of my favorite things. Here is a short list of my all-time favorite things (not including my family and friends and all the dogs in the world), classic movies, baseball, the Three Stooges, chocolate chip cookies and Saved by the Bell. There is so much more to me, but this is the list I would give to start. This list of random things says a lot about who I am. As a classic ﬁlm lover, I would say that I’m an ‘old soul.’ I think baseball says I’m romantic and low-maintenance. My love of all things Larry, Curly and Moe says I have a sense of humor- maybe not sophisticated, but I love to laugh. Finally, my love of Saved by the Bell tells you I am corny and open-minded. I’m sure there are a thousand different ways of looking at how each of these random insigniﬁcant things shape me as a person, but they did.
When I think of who I am now and compare it to how I grew up, there is one significant connection: a 78-year-old man from Ohio.
Ted Turner, ‘Terrible Ted,’ ‘The Mouth of the South,’ or that guy who started CNN has influenced my life more than I could have imagined. Until recently, I knew very little about the man. I remember him being married to Jane Fonda, and I knew he was the all-mighty Turner in Turner Classic Movies, but other than that, I knew very little. During a CNN series about the 1980’s, I learned more about Turner and everything he dabbles in.
In 1976, Turner Broadcasting Systems (TBS) became the nation’s ﬁrst ‘superstation’ using satellite technology to go nationwide. In the early 90s, TBS, or channel ﬁve to us in Dawson, Nebraska during the ’90s, played babysitter to two little girls.
At 3:30 p.m. every weekday, TBS played two hours of Saved by the Bell. The corny yet lovable show of my youth could almost always be found. Zach Morris (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) was my ﬁrst colossal crush. Until the day I got married, I was sure I would someday marry Zack Morris. I learned several life lessons from the thousands of hours of watching this show. I learned not to drink and drive, not to try to hire an actor to trick my school principal, and, most importantly, I learned not to give up on someone I love. All such cheesy life lessons that I laugh about today, but it was intense back then. Saved by the Bell was my religion, and for years, nothing else mattered except when that evil Ted Turner would interrupt my religion with baseball.
The Atlanta Braves are the first baseball team I can remember watching. My intense hate slowly turned to love, as I couldn’t look away from Braves outﬁelder David Justice. Let’s face it: the man isn’t Bo Jackson or Derek Jeter, but he was good enough to hold my attention. I understood baseball and what he was doing. I loved Dan Marino and Troy Aikman, but I didn’t and still don’t understand their sport. My wild love affair with baseball began and stuck thanks to that evil Ted Turner interrupting my show.
My favorite thing about TBS was the 24-hour marathons they would often have. Saved by the Bell and The Three Stooges were usually the subject of those marathons. My sister and I would try to stay up all night to watch our shows as the VCR tapped our shows to watch again day after day. We didn’t have the Three Stooges collection, just our treasured TBS marathon tapes. My grandpa Alexander usually hosted these events and would join us for as many Three Stooges as possible. My love for Larry, Curly and Moe runs as deep as my love for classic movies. It reminds me of my sister, Grandpa, and I curled up on the couch, laughing until we cried.
In 1980, Turner launched CNN, the ﬁrst 24-hour news network. It isn’t listed in my favorite things, but I love the news, especially during an election year. CNN and I go back to the 2000 election when my beloved Al Gore ran against President George Bush. I spent hours, days and weeks attached to CNN. That was during a rough period of my adolescence, so it was a good distraction for me. Again, Turner pulls through for this girl.
In 1985, Ted Turner acquired MGM-UA Entertainment, including its library of thousands of classic ﬁlms. Nearly ten years later, Turner Classic Movies was launched. What can I say about my most immense love? The people I’ve met because of the ﬁlms shown on this network have improved my life. When I ﬁrst started getting deeper into black and white ﬁlms, I would search the internet about my favorite ﬁlms or stars. That led me to groups devoted to classic ﬁlms, which led me to the people. I have had so much fun with these people. They have encouraged me to come out of my shell a bit. I have been invited to write for magazines, blogs and other publications and do radio interviews about specific topics and panel discussions. I have also met several people in our area who share my love and visit me to discuss it. I would say that people who devote so much of their time to old movies are a bit guarded and quiet. I know I am, but we bloom when we get around each other. I’m again preparing for another trip to Hollywood for the TCM Film Festival. It’s something that I look forward to. It’s not the just ﬁlms, but the people, my people. I wouldn’t trade the time I’ve spent watching and learning about old movies for anything. It’s a love, a passion that runs deep-it’s a big part of who I am.
The chocolate chip cookies? I just live for food, nothing to do with Ted; I just really like them.
Who would have thought that so much of what I love has been made so easily accessible thanks to a billionaire philanthropist? Thanks for everything: my biggest loves, favorite pastime, and closest friends.

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My first TCM Classic Film Festival – Walk, Don’t Run

Nikki McKim — Mon, 16 May 2016 16:47:08 +0000

I made it to Hollywood and had just gotten kicked out of my shuttle and was wandering down the street when my roommate Angie yelled at me from up the block. I had never been so happy to see someone in my life. She showed me how to get into our apartment and where I would stay. To get into the apartment, you had to unlock a gate, climb some stairs, use your key fob to use the elevator, and turn right, left, and right again before you hit our door. It was an excursion in itself. I would occupy the left side of the bedroom, Angie, from a suburb of Detroit, would take the right side, Kristen from Pasadena would take the couch, and Jessica from South Carolina had the bad luck of getting the air mattress with the hole in it. We had a refrigerator ﬁlled with canned wine, a television we didn’t turn on once, and a place to sleep. We were set for the next ﬁve days.

After I unloaded my things, Angie showed me where we would spend most of our time. The TLC Chinese Theaters, and down a block and across Hollywood Boulevard was the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. I would spend seventy percent of my time in the Hollywood Roosevelt and Theatre Four of the TCL Theater Complex. We explored for a bit before we hit 25 Degrees for a meal. The 24-hour burger stand in the Hollywood Roosevelt boasted the most amazing hamburgers in the area. I was too excited to think about food, which is unheard of for me. I ate what I could before we ran back to the apartment to change into our fancy clothes for my ﬁrst event of the festival.

I had difficulty deciding what to do with each second of the next four days. At any time during the festival, at least four events happen simultaneously. The ﬁrst night we got to choose between the red carpet, a poolside showing of the Harold Lloyd classic The Freshman, the Bette Davis classic, Dark Victory, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn or One Potato, Two Potato. My big choice was between my favorite silent comedian and the red carpet. When Angie and Jessica said they do the red carpet because it was always fun, I had to go with them. It was something I didn’t get to do every day, and the fact that I was number 38 in line was incredible and possibly won’t happen again. The red carpet event only holds a handful of people, and only a few are lucky enough to get a seat on the bleachers.

The red carpet arrivals are the best bet to see any star you were hoping to see during the festival. I knew that I wouldn’t make it to see Jack Lemmon’s son introduce My Sister Eileen and expected he would walk the carpet, which he did, and he was incredible to watch. His mannerisms and voice were just like his father’s. The entire audience was in awe of him, and to top it off, he was hysterically funny too.

I was able to see Darryl Hickman, Ted Donaldson, Chris Lemmon, Gina Lollobrigida, Salvatore Cascio, Louis Gossett Jr., Norman Lloyd, Roger Corman, James Cromwell, Lee Meriwether, Anna Karina, Ann Robinson, Katharine Houghton, Leonard Maltin, Carl Bernstein and Alec Baldwin.

I felt like a total dork and didn’t belong there at that moment. Each celebrity made their way down the carpet and stopped to do an interview. They stopped and posed for pictures and talked to us. It was surreal to have Chris Lemmon tell us about his dad or have TCM host Ben Mankiewicz stop and speak to us and tell us that we are the reason this magniﬁcent event is possible. I am such a huge Mankiewicz fan that having him stop and chat with us until he was dragged away was fantastic. He didn’t have to stop and talk, but he did, and he was down to earth and a fan just like us.

Time ﬂew by, and before we knew it, we were too late to get into other ﬁlms. We decided to grab dinner at the famed Pig ‘N’ Whistle while we waited for the next film block. We were all chilly during dinner as the sun had gone down and the temperature dipped under 55 degrees. I popped into a shop next door to buy an overpriced Hollywood sweatshirt-a great inside joke and memory.

Our next and ﬁnal stop of the night was one of the ﬁlms I was looking forward to seeing. One of my favorite movies is Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? I love Hepburn and Tracy, but Hepburn’s niece, Katharine Houghton, and Sidney Poitier steal the show. Angie and I got in line early enough to get numbers 17 and 18, then headed to the bar outside the theaters for a drink. TCM had classic ﬁlm star-inspired drinks, and I fell for it. I was happy to pay $15 for a thimble of liquid. As the bartender handed me my glass, the ﬁre alarms went off. The employees told us to hang out because it happens often and is usually a false alarm. We sat until a manager came over and said we had to go. We were on the second story of this shopping center/theater, and with everyone from all the theaters outside, we had nowhere to go. I stood as Angie talked to others and watched the people walk down Hollywood Boulevard. It was interesting to see who would come around the corner, a tourist. Batman? Darth Vader? For 20 minutes, I watched people and took in Hollywood’s sights, sounds and smells; most could have been better.

Once we were given the all-clear (somebody set off a ﬁre extinguisher in a theater), we retrieved the drinks we had yet to touch. The bartender made us new drinks and didn’t charge us, but we were due in our seats in a few minutes. I took a couple of sips, then trashed mine when I saw Ken Jenkins by the entrance. We were being herded into our line, but nobody noticed that it was Ken Jenkins! He was there alone, and nobody was asking him for an autograph. I had to run past him to get my spot, but I smiled and waved at the man who was married to Katharine Houghton, who also happened to play Dr. Bob Kelso on Scrubs and who happened to play Courtney Cox’s dad on Cougar Town. Several people asked me who I was so excited to see and kept yelling at. I was tickled that I had him smile and wave at me but disappointed I didn’t get a photo with him.

Once we entered the theater, we sat in primo seats, and tears ﬁlled my eyes. This was the moment I had dreamed of for so long. It was my ﬁrst classic ﬁlm at the festival. Katharine Houghton came out and discussed how difﬁcult it was to work on the movie with her aunt Katharine Hepburn due to the health of Spencer Tracy. Everyone knew Spence was ill, and tensions ran high. Another issue was race; Houghton said she was young and naïve and didn’t understand the fuss. She also did a few impressions of Hepburn that had the crowd roaring. After ten minutes, she presented the ﬁlm, got up and left. The ﬁlm started, and the crowd cheered with each name that flashed on the screen. We were all so excited, and the air was electric.

At this point, I had been up for over 20 hours and only slept for two hours the night before. My head started to drop, and my eyes grew heavy. I didn’t want to fall asleep during my ﬁrst ﬁlm! I was so mad that I would squeeze my thigh to stay awake. Spencer Tracy stood up to give his speech that made me cry like a baby, then the next thing I knew, the lights went up, and the crowd was clapping. I had fallen asleep sitting up, even though it was only for a few minutes.

Our group of four met up and began our walk home. We discussed our favorite part of the night and our plans for the next day. I didn’t have time to think about what a whirlwind day I had just had because I was out cold as soon as I hit the pillow.

(McKim attended the 2016 TCMFF as a fan and not a member of the press., Photo by Nikki McKim, Katharine Houghton walking the red carpet in Hollywood.)

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