“Forgotten Hollywood”- Youngson to Air on TCM…
Manny P. here…
“`While at this year’s TCM Classic Film Festival, I had the opportunity to meet Charles Tabesh, Senior Vice President of Programming and Content Strategy. He allowed me to plead my case for TCM to showcase a night of Robert Youngson, featuring his silent comedy documentaries and his award-winning Warner Brothers short films.
“`I reminded Tabesh that Youngson was a 1950s preservationist, who introduced silent movies to the baby-boomer generation, while saving nitrate celluloid films from disappearing forever. In essence, he was the Martin Scorsese / Kevin Brownlow of his time. I also mentioned that TCM was the perfect platform to have films such as The Golden Age of Comedy and When Comedy was King highlighted for suggested inclusion to Library of Congress National Film Registry. Forgotten Hollywood is campaigning on behalf of Youngson in conjunction with the International Laurel and Hardy Appreciation Society.
“`After the festival, Tabesh sent me a follow-up e-mail, again expressing interest in the idea. He wanted to make it happen, but could not promise it would come to fruition. Tabesh knew things were brewing at TCM, which might upset all programming for the cable channel. Of course, I was not privy to any of the policy decisions going on at the station.
“`What happened next is right out of a screenplay penned by Donald Ogden Stewart. Tabesh (along with seventy other employees) lost his job at TCM. Fans nationwide mounted a social media campaign to restore TCM. Plus, Scorsese and Steven Spielberg pleaded their case on behalf of Tabesh with David Zaslav, President and Chief Executive Officer at Warner Bros., parent company of TCM. Days later, Tabish was reinstated to the delight of TCM nation.
“`Just yesterday, I received an email from Tabesh confirming that TCM would air an evening with Robert Youngson in November. With the instability Tabesh recently endured, his willingness to share a programming decision of interest with me is truly thoughtful and sincere.
“`I will provide the exact date his films air on TCM as soon as it becomes available. In the meantime, you can vote for FREE on Library of Congress National Film Registry for Robert Youngson’s The Golden Age of Comedy and When Comedy was King by clicking on the link below:
https://www.research.net/r/national-fim-registry-nomination-form
“`A huge heartfelt thanks, Charlie!
Until next time> “never forget”
This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 11th, 2023 at 10:00 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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