10 Years of Being Spellbound: Winning that TCM Backlot Tour

As part of celebrating Spellbound by Movie’s anniversary, I’ll be sharing a series of retrospective posts, highlighting the momentous events and my favorite pieces from the last decade of blogging.

It seems fitting to start with TCM Backlot. Back in 2016, I had no idea the impact Turner Classic Movies fan club would have on me.

I was awarded a press pass to cover the 2016 TCM Classic Film Festival. An unspecified number of classic movie bloggers and social media influencers are chosen for the honor of being credentialed each year. I felt extremely lucky to be selected to officially cover the festival for the first time! Besides attending the festival for free and receiving invitations to special media events, another fun press perk is the goodie bag.

I found a box inside mine labelled TCM Backlot. The network was launching a paid fan club, and I was receiving a one-year, free membership. In the lobby of the Hollywood Roosevelt, I met Yacov Freedman, TCM’s manager of the fan club. He explained what the club was and what they hoped it would grow into. Paid members would have influence over programming, maybe even get to be guest programmers; a members-only-access, video archive was being built; there would be exclusive contests; and more.

I registered my membership before the festival was over, and afterward I periodically went to the fan site seeing what was new, watching videos, voting on programming choices, and entering contests. One day I entered a contest to win the first ever fan tour of TCM’s Atlanta studios.

Two months after the festival, in June, my beloved cat Dugal died. I felt heartbroken. We had him for six too short years when he suddenly developed an inoperable tumor in his liver. He may have been eight or ten. Berkeley Humane wasn’t clear on his exact age when we adopted him. I didn’t expect to lose him so young. I was his favorite person, and we showered each other with affection, and he entertained me with his Manx antics.

Then I received this email:

Suddenly I had something to look forward to! TCM had been there for me on my good days and on my bad days, and now its fan club was cheering me up. Since the tour was a mere twenty days away, I immediately emailed my boss and got permission to take the time off. I was thankful I worked as a sales rep and looked at my rewards accounts to cut down on the costs of arranging a last minute trip. I used points to buy one of my Southwest flights, and I had enough Hotels.Com dollars to buy most of a night at the Artmore Hotel (All but $29!). Fittingly the boutique hotel had an pop culture theme, complete with movie star portraits.

I even found a travel buddy! I posted in the Facebook group Going to TCM Classic Film Festival! to see if any other members had won. Eventually a woman named Linda got in touch with me. We made plans to stay at the same hotel, which was conveniently situated across the street from the train we would take in from the airport. When we finally met in Atlanta, we had dinner at a southern restaurant within walking distance of our lodgings. The next day we took Lyft to TCM’s campus.

After passing through a gate, we went into the building housing TCM’s studios. We checked in at the front desk, where our photos were taken for temporary badges. We waited for the other contest winners to join us. Rachelle Savoia, Turner’s Vice President of Communications, stopped to say hello to us. I met fellow winners Annette, Bernard, and Frances for the first time. When Sina appeared with her mother, we had a mini-reunion. We had met at the recent film fest. She had won one of my Bésame Cosmetics #TCMFFGlamour prizes!

Once we were all gathered Yacov took us to TCM’s studios. He let us know we would be photographed, recorded, and interviewed as part of the tour. I decided I would just be myself and not let any of that make me feel awkward. I would show how happy I was to be there. Periodically a photo would be snapped or a video would be recorded. Once we got to Ben Mankiewicz’s studio all of that would increase.

In the studio hallway, I saw a wardrobe for Robert Osborne. By this point, he hadn’t recorded in Atlanta in a while. He had been recording his intros and outros in New York before he left for an extended sick leave. We didn’t see his former studio, but further down the hall I saw a wardrobe containing recent hire Tiffany Vasquez’s hosting attire. I found out that TCM doesn’t only store hosts’ clothes, the network buys them.

Then we were whisked into Ben’s studio. He was recording segments, and we got to watch him. Every so often, he’d flub a word and have to start over. He did great considering a group of strangers had invaded the studio and were watching him! Later he’d say the pronunciation of some names gave him the most trouble. Sometimes I watched Ben, and sometimes I watched the crew, and how they maneuvered the camera rig to change angles and heights while keeping the light on Ben. His teleprompter was on the apparatus, so he’d always be looking at the camera as he read. All the while, my new friends and I were recorded and photographed.

After Ben was done, we were free to explore his set, take photos, and chat with him and a growing number of TCM employees, including executives. General Manager Jennifer Dorian let me know my tweet about hunting for the perfect dress to wear for the tour had prompted her to pick out her own dress with care. I met Genevieve McGillicuddy, Vice President of Brand Activations and Partnerships, and Lauren Kehrli, Director of Enterprises and Strategic Partnerships. I started to realize how many women in important positions helped run TCM.

I asked Jennifer why TCM was charging fans $87 to join the fan club. She said that there wasn’t a special reason why that exact number was chosen, but it was within the range they thought appropriate based on the club’s offerings. I then suggested they could’ve charged $94. It was only $7 more, and it was symbolic of the year the network started. I could tell she liked my thinking by her reaction!

Observing Ben as he interacted with all of us, I decided that he was an introvert, but that didn’t mean he shied away from sharing his opinions or receiving attention. He was good natured about being teased! When we were asked what we were surprised about during our set visit, more than one tourmate mentioned how short Ben was. While I took a photo with him, he was a good salesman for TCM. He asked me if I had ever been on their annual cruise, and when I answered I had not, that I’d only been to the festival, he praised the cruise as being a lot of fun.

There’s a lot that’s real on Ben’s set. Items like the signed baseball and the dog’s bed aren’t just set dressing. They’re chosen and present to reflect his interests. The books in the book case are real. Maybe bought by the yard? The magazines on his coffee table are, too. I spoke with a crew member who told me he was allowed to put the magazines in their spot. The magazines feature his photography, so they were a hidden Easter egg for him.

TCM’s marketing team went to work! In addition to our own photos we snapped on set, they made sure we took multiple pictures as a group, with Ben, and with Yacov. Each winner was interviewed by the team. They would start us out with a statement that we were to repeat and then finish. It took me a few tries to remember not to launch into my answer, but to include the starter sentence.

After we were done on the set, we were treated to lunch in the staff room. It was catered, and it was tasty. I chatted more with the other tour winners and TCM staff. My friend Marya Gates, newly hired as TCM’s Social Media Specialist popped by! I had first met her at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. Ben offered to let us see more segment recordings after lunch, he obviously was enjoying having visitors, but there was concern our continued presence could be a distraction to him and slow down taping time.

Our time in the studios was drawing to a close, so we said good-bye to him and everyone we met. Before we left, we were given gift bags containing branded merchandise, like a baseball cap and DVD set. Yacov made sure we could keep our visitors’ badges. Then back in a Lyft and to the train I went to go to the airport and catch my flight home.

I’m still in touch with most of my tourmates to varying degrees. I thought that special experience was enough to bond us as a group. I had no idea how much that one visit would end up changing my life and theirs. Next time I’ll share with you what it’s like to become an unofficial ambassador of TCM!