On May 31, 2009 I had the pleasure of accompanying my sister to an exclusive event at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) in Los Angeles. The Guild was hosting a special afternoon talk with TCM Host, Robert Osborne and since my sister is an actress and an active member of SAG she had a ticket and a plus one. She knows how much I love classic films and the Turner Classic Movies station so she didn't hesitate to make me her plus one. Finally! The whole splitting of an ovum/identical twin thing has paid off.
First off, I have to say that the whole atmosphere was very different than I had expected. Usually, one imagines a lecture hall or theater set up for this kind of thing. But the Screen Actors Guild likes to do things in their own way. And in this case, it meant a cozy room furnished with couches and tall cafe tables giving the space a cafe feel. It was kind of like we were in a really eccentric coffee shop that only the cool kids know about waiting to hear a local artist talk about their work. And in a way that's exactly what this event was designed to be - an opportunity for on artist to talk to his fellow artists about what he does and how he got there.
My significant other is always talking about the specialness of exclusivity. How the more exclusive an event is, the greater the meaning it holds for those who experience it. This was certainly one of those occasions. There was far less than fifty or so people in the room, so I was among the anointed, the chosen, the select few given the rare gift of listening to Robert Osborne in this intimate setting talk about his life as an actor, how he turned his attentions to the world of classic cinema and how he became "The" Robert Osborne on Turner Classic Movies.
I suppose for some this seems like a silly thing to go on about. But for those of us who know, I mean really know what it is that this man means to classic films and the fans who watch them we get it. We get that Robert Osborne is special. Mostly because he gets us, the lovers of old films who have finally found a community, a home where we belong. And the home is TCM, and our gracious host is Robert Osborne.