https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIDUHFso6Uk
The annual “TCM Remembers” tributes have become as much a part of the end of each year as Auld Lang Syne. The 2014 tribute, above, is one of the longest at 5:13, and needed to be given the many prominent film and TV performers and others connected to the entertainment industry who passed away in the past 12 months.
There are some obvious names here–Mickey Rooney, Ruby Dee, Robin Williams, Lauren Bacall, James Garner, Joan Rivers–but there are also many, many others. Sid Caesar, Harold Ramis, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Elaine Stritch could not be left out. Nice to see TCM pay tribute to the Professor (Russell Johnson) and Bob Hoskins. Some fans may gripe that their star didn’t get more than a few seconds but that’s the way these tributes work.
The song, “All I Want” by Dublin rockers Kodaline, is perfectly moving and mournful. The setting is the historic Swan House, a 1928 estate now maintained by the Atlanta History Center; TCM is based in Atalanta, Ga.
Already commentators are pointing out omissions (Elizabeth Pena, who died Oct. 14, among them). The “deadline” was Dec. 15, and folks who pass away after that get put in the following year.
Stick around for the touching and even a bit chilling little coda at the end. TCM will keep doing these tributes, but Old Hollywood is pretty much gone with the wind.
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2 Comments
Thank you so much for all the memories, priceless.
I love TCM. The other night I came home from work so upset and cuddling up to an old movie called Bachelor Mother starring Ginger Rogers (one of my fave movies of all time) put me in a better mood. The movie comes on TCM every holiday season and I have it saved on my DVR from Christmas morning. There’s a point in the movie where the characters played by Ginger Rogers and David Nivens are trying to find each other after being separated by the crowd in New York City while everyone is singing Auld Lang Syne and they finally find each other to share that new year’s kiss and I always have a big grin on my face with tears streaming down my cheeks because though the story is so happy, it took place almost 80 years ago and those actors are long gone…