“Forgotten Hollywood”- Mr. AMC…
“`Bob Dorian was an actor, magician, and movie buff, who presented over ten thousand classic films, B-movie serials, and pre-Code Hollywood gems as the first prime-time host of American Movie Classics. He performed on the stage, radio, television, and occasionally, on film.
“`AMC launched in 1984 as a premium-cable showcase for old films, presenting movies without cuts or commercials a decade before the creation of Turner Classic Movies, the channel’s main competitor. Although he was later joined by daytime hosts, Gene Klavan and Nick Clooney, Dorian was the heart and soul of AMC. TCM’s Robert Osborne was an urbane film historian, Dorian insisted that he was simply a fan of cinema.
“`Prior to his dream job, Dorian was an usher at a movie theater; appeared in early television anthologies Suspense and Studio One; dabbled in stand-up comedy and trapeze-catching at the circus; played the bass in a Manhattan jazz group; and performed mind-reading tricks and other illusions as the Amazing Dorian. He appeared in a 1976 television special with magicians David Copperfield and Carl Ballantine.
“`During his tenure at AMC, Dorian introduced flicks with two-minute segments filmed in a living-room set, where he roamed between bookshelves, a black Maltese Falcon statue, and portraits of stars Jean Harlow and Hedy Lamarr. Dorian likened his work at AMC as that of a historian or archivist, keeping old films alive for younger generations.
“`Bob Dorian was eighty-five.
Until next time> “never forget”
This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 25th, 2019 at 4:21 pm and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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