I won't go into a detailed history of #TCMParty here, because I have done so elsewhere (here is my post on #TCMParty's 5th anniversary). I will say that #TCMParty was started by Kathleen Callaway, then using the Twitter handle hockmangirl. At the time live tweeting to movies on TCM had been going on for some time, but there was not much way of keeping track of the tweets. Kathleen Callaway conceived of the hashtag #TCMParty as a means of doing so. She was the first #TCMParty host. As was the custom then, she would choose a specific movie from the schedule and then letting everyone know that there would be a #TCMParty for that particular film. It was in October 2011 that Paula Guthat began hosting #TCMParty. She also set up the website for it and the official #TCMParty Twitter account (TCM_Party) that same month. Paula has since became the name most associated with #TCMParty. Of course, while there are still scheduled, #TCMParty live tweets, live tweets using #TCMParty now take place 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
I am proud to say that I am counted among the original members of #TCMParty, having joined in the first three months of its existence. I used to believe that my first #TCMParty was a live tweet for a Thin Man marathon that aired on Turner Classic Movies on December 22 2011; however, a search today on Twitter revealed that my first #TCMParty actually took place a few days earlier. It was on December 16 2011 and it was a live tweet to The Bishop's Wife (1947). My first #TCMParty tweet was, "I'm watching The Bishop's Wife right now. I suspect most women would gladly have an angel like Cary Grant around. LOL. #TCMParty" I made that tweet at 7:10 PM Central Standard Time. Since then I have guest hosted many times, and I am pretty much the default host any time Turner Classic Movies shows A Hard Day's Night (1964).
I have to say that I owe a good deal to #TCMParty, as do most of its members. What is more, it is not a simple case of #TCMParty increasing my name recognition on Twitter, which is always a good thing for a writer and blogger. 2011 was a very rough year for me. I was laid off from my job of 8 years that April. Both my best friend Brian and my cat Max died that year. #TCMParty made life a lot more bearable and a lot happier. And while I knew many of the #TCMParty members prior to its creation, I found many new friends through #TCMParty Indeed, many of the friends I made through #TCMParty now number among my closest friends. I won't mention her here, as I sometimes worry that people get tired of hearing me talk about her, but suffice it to say that it was through #TCMParty that I first got to know the most important person in my life. When she died, it was my #TCMParty friends who helped me through (and are still helping me through) the darkest days of my life.
I know many other #TCMParty members can tell stories similar to my own. All of us have met some of our best friends through #TCMParty, and those friends have helped many of us through our roughest times. From a simple live tweet of movies on Turner Classic Movies, #TCMParty has grown into a large and close knit community of TCM fans who are very much a part of each other's lives. One hears so many negative things about Twitter, but #TCMParty is proof that something positive can come out of that social media platform.
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