While TCMParty would become the best known collective live tweet of movies on Turner Classic Movies, it was by no means the first. In June 2011 TCM scheduled classic drive-in movies each Thursday of that month. With a block of giant insect movies airing on June 9 2011, then, a group of TCM fans live tweeted to the films using the hashtag #TCMBugOut. That night fans then live tweeted to Them! (1954), Tarantula (1955), The Cosmic Monsters (1958), The Black Scorpion (1957), and The Wasp Woman (1959). I remember I live tweeted to Them! until my power went out, although I was unaware of the hashtag #TCMBugOut until after the fact.
Of course, the following Thursday Turner Classic Movies aired drive-in movies in other genres, so the hashtag #TCMBugOut was then no longer appropriate. For the following Thursdays, then, the hashtag #TCMDriveIn was used. While #TCMDriveIn ceased being used at the end of June 2011, after which TCM wasn't showing drive-in movies every month, it would give rise to the #DriveInMob, a collective live tweet every Thursday to a classic drive-in movie (not just the ones showed on TCM).
As to TCMParty, it was Kathleen Callaway, who was using the Twitter handle hockmangirl at the time, who came up with the idea. Here it must be noted that Kathleen was unaware of #TCMBugOut and #TCMDriveIn at the time she conceived TCMParty. Anyway, like many TCM fans at the time (including myself), Kathleen would live tweet movies on Turner Classic Movies. She decided live tweeting to movies on TCM would be easier if there was a hashtag with which fans could keep track of all the tweets. It was then Kathleen Callway who was the first TCMParty host, choosing a specific movie from the schedule and then letting everyone know that there would be a TCM Party for that particular film. It was then on September 3 2011 that the first TCMParty was held to the classic Casablanca (1942).
In October 2011 the name most associated with TCMParty joined as a host: Paula Guthat. Paula's impact on TCMParty would be such that she is usually counted as its co-founder. It was after Paula began hosting that it was decided that TCMParty should have its own Twitter account. Since tcmparty was already taken, it was then decided to use the handle TCM_Party. Not long afterwards Tumblr and Facebook pages were created for TCMParty as well.
TCMParty would see changes in its hosts over time. Kathleen Callway left in March 2012 to concentrate on her handicrafts and animal rescue. Paula had convinced silent movie Trevor Jost to guest host the F. W. Murnau movie Sunrise (1927). With Kathleen's departure, Trevor then became TCMParty's newest host. It would be later that Joel Williams, the name most associated with TCMParty besides Paula Guthat, would become a host. Of course, there have been a number of guest hosts over the years. Illeana Douglas guest hosted on Friday nights in May 2013 when she was hosting the TCM programming block Second Looks. Other TCM hosts have also guest hosted movies on TCMParty, including Eddie Muller and Professor Jacqueline Stewart. Beyond TCM hosts, there have also been TCMParties hosted by various film historians and journalists. I have been a guest host several times and I seem to be the default host any time TCM shows A Hard Day's Night (1964) or British New Wave films.
To this day there are still movies chosen from the Turner Classic Movies schedule for "official" TCMParties. These scheduled live tweets are usually hosted by one of the TCMParty hosts (Paula or Joel) or a guest host. Eventually TCMParty would evolve to where informal TCMParties are going on 24 hours a day. Sometimes during these informal TCMParties someone will act as a host, live tweeting trivia, but more often than not there is no host at all.
Fortunately, TCMParty has had very little trouble with trolls over the past ten years. This is fortunate as there is very little TCMPartiers can do to stop trolls from using the hashtag beyond reporting their tweets and blocking them. For a time we did have a problem with spammers using the hashtag. In the summer of 2012 a bunch of porn sites began misusing #TCMParty. A bunch of us spent the best of two days reporting them until it stopped. In 2012 there was a stranger sort of spam whereby fake accounts would steal tweets and tweet them. Many of these tweets were from TCMParty. While none of us could figure out what their end game was, we reported them nonetheless. Fortunately, that stopped after a time as well. Since then Twitter has improved its security so that bots and spammers usually don't last long. Except for the rare porn site misusing the hashtag, we haven't had many problems since.
Over the years we have had celebrities who have taken part in TCMParties. Not only have TCM hosts guest hosted TCMParties, but they have also been participants. I cannot say who the first celebrity was who took part in TCMParty, but I know two of our original members were celebrities. Legendary songbird Monica Lewis live tweeted along with TCMParty nearly from the beginning until her death at the age of 93 in 2015. Vanessa Marquez, best known for playing Ana Delgado in the classic movie Stand and Deliver (1988) and Nurse Wendy Goldman on the hit TV show ER, was another original TCMParty member. She was so beloved by TCMPartiers that Paula Guthat referred to her as "the Sweetheart of TCMParty." Illeana Douglas has taken part even when she wasn't hosting. Stephen Bogart, the son of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, has also taken part in TCMParties.The legendary Mitzi Gaynor has taken part in TCMParty from time to time as well.
Sadly, in the past ten years there have been TCMPartiers who have died. I am not absolutely certain, but I believe Monica Lewis was the first. She died on June 12 2015 at the age of 93. She had only been tweeting to #TCMParty three days before she died. Vanessa Marquez's death was well publicized beyond TCMParty and I really do not want to go into it here. Suffice it to say that the Sweetheart of TCMParty was greatly mourned by its members and she is still missed to this day. Also still missed is Andrea Rosen, who died in March 2019. She had attended multiple TCM Classic Film Festivals and was a regular at the TCM Parties for Noir Alley. Greg McCambley was associated not just with the hashtag #TCMParty, but the hashtags #Bond_Age and #BMovieManiacs, and live tweets associated with classic TV shows from Columbo to Kolchak: The Night Stalker. He died of COVID-19 on March 27 2021. Richard C. Rosen, the widower of Andrea Rosen, died on April 12 2021. Like Andrea, he regularly attended the TCM Classic Film Festival and was well loved by his fellow TCM fans. I know that there have to have been other TCMParty members who have died in the past ten years and I must apologize for not mentioning them. TCMParty has grown to the point that it is hard to keep track of everyone who has participated in it. I will raise a glass in memory of all those who have participated in TCMParty and have passed on.
As I said earlier, I have been a participant in TCMParty since its early days. While I had been aware of #TCMParty for quite some time, it was not until around 7:10 PM on December 15 2011 that I would make my first tweet using the hashtag: "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 didn't tweet much during The Bishop's Wife that night, but the TCMParty for The Thin Man movies on December 22 2011 would be a different matter. I had a bit of a baptism in fire that night as I live tweeted to The Thin Man (1934), After the Thin Man (1936), and Another Thin Man (1939) using the hashtag #TCMParty. My first stint as guest host for a TCMParty came on March 11 2012 when I hosted Bedazzled (1967). Since then I have guest hosted several times. I hosted an entire month of British New Wave movies. I have also hosted A Hard Day's Night multiple times. On September 30 2020 I hosted Stand and Deliver (1988), which was perhaps my most emotional guest host stint of them all. It was a bit overwhelming seeing all the love for my dearest friend. Vanessa Marquez, who played Ana Delgado in the film. Ben Mankiewicz interviewed Edward James Olmos before the movie, but as far as TCMParty was concerned, Vanessa was the star.
Of course, as much as I enjoy being a guest host for TCMParty, I think the real fun is in just participating. There are many TCMParties I remember well. Among my favourite TCMParties took place on May 23 2003 when Turner Classic Movies aired The Loved One (1965) as part of their Second Looks block. As I mentioned earlier, Illeana Douglas was guest host that night. She tweeted so much she landed in Twitter jail and had to switch to an alternative account to continue. Some of the rest of us landed in Twitter jail for tweeting too much as well. The Loved One is one of my favourite comedies and one that is so wild that it is perfect for live tweeting. I also remember February 1 2014 when TCM showed Oscar nominees from 1939 in honour of that year's 75th anniversary. I live tweeted nearly all day long to such movies as Wuthering Heights, The Wizard of Oz, and Gone With the Wind. Another memorable TCMParty came when I was part of TCM's Fan Favourite series and got to introduce A Hard Day's Night with Ben Mankiewicz on April 11 2015. I always enjoy hosting A Hard Day's Night, but that day was particularly special as I was actually on TCM. Finally, the aforementioned TCMParty for Stand and Deliver may be my all time favourite, for obvious reasons.
TCMParty has a profound impact on my life. I met many of my closest friends, including co-founder Paula Guthat, through TCMParty. In fact, I have so many close friends from TCMParty that I dare not try to list all of them as I fear I might miss someone. It was through TCMParty and live tweeting to the TV show Mad Men that I met Vanessa Marquez. For me she wasn't just Ana Delgado and Nurse Wendy Goldman or even the Sweetheart of #TCMParty. She was my dearest friend and a woman I absolutely adored. When she was murdered, I don't think I would have survived without my friends at TCMParty. They have been there not just through Vanessa's death, but through many other events in my life. I owe each and every one of my TCMParty friends so much. I have to believe that it is also because of TCMParty that I was chosen as one of the Fan Favourite co-hosts, and I honestly believe hits on my blog have gone up because of TCMParty.
I know I am not alone in the impact TCMParty has had on my life. It is through TCMParty that many people have made friends, made contacts, and even found love. TCMParty ceased being a collective live tweet to movies on Turner Classic Movies long ago. It has become a close knit community of TCM fans who support each other through thick and thin. I think I can speak for all TCMParty members when I say that it has made our lives all the more richer.
No comments:
Post a Comment