... and the patience of a saint, at least when he interviewed Robert Mitchum back in 1996 who just clammed up every time the camera rolled during Mitchum's private screening.
Turner Classic Movies has been rerunning some of the Private Screenings that Bob did over the years in which he interviewed various stars and directors in memoriam of his passing, and this time, in 2014, the tables were turned and three year Essentials co-host Alec Baldwin interviewed Robert.
Robert may have grown up in the small town of Colfax, Washington, but he seemed to be never of Colfax. He said he always had a passion for film, even breaking both arms changing a marquee there at a theater where he worked as a teen, and wanting to move to a big city as soon as he could.
He really lived a charmed life as far as lucky breaks went. Even his unlucky breaks were lucky. Case in point - He was in ROTC in college because that meant only a two year commitment to the armed forces after graduation, and he was actually looking forward to going overseas during his time in the service. Well everybody he knew DID go overseas except himself, stuck in Seattle. One of the people he met while doing plays in his off time there recognized him 20 years later on the Dinah Shore show when he was a guest talking about Oscar trivia and that led to his job at the Hollywood Reporter. That job, in turn, led him to New York City, the place he'd always wanted to be. While eating dinner with Dorothy Lamour and two other fellows, one who happened to be the head of AMC, the group began discussing movies, and the AMC executive was impressed with Bob's knowledge. The head of AMC eventually left that channel to go to TCM when it first started and asked Bob to be the prime time host of Turner Classic Movies. The rest is history.
Bob started out in the entertainment business as an actor. I know I was amused to see him in commercials buying beer, drinking beer (he went straight from soda to martinis as an adult he said, never cared for the stuff), selling insurance talking about building a retirement cabin in the woods - where he came from not where he was going, and acting in the short running soap opera "The Young Marrieds" which he said he found almost unendurably dull because of the repetitive nature of the material. As a contract player for Desilu it was another lucky break - his friendship with Lucille Ball - which set him on the path to writing about the entertainment industry rather than acting in it.
At the beginning of the interview Alec Baldwin asked Bob if his success was due to luck, charm, or talent. As Bob's story unwinds the truth is Bob really was on the receiving end of some lucky breaks as far as meeting people at the right time and place who could help his career, but the fact is that Robert Osborne would probably never have caught the attention of those people if not for his charm and talent. Mr. Baldwin alludes to that fact at the end of the interview.
The outtakes at the end pretty much confirmed what I always suspected - Alec Baldwin was probably Bob's favorite Essentials co-host. The outtakes revealed a good natured running battle over whether or not 1962's Mutiny on the Bounty was an essential and Bob blowing a kiss to Alec in response to one of his remarks.
An empathetic guy, a scholar, a lover of cheese (in food, not necessarily film), and a man who still missed his dog Schroeder decades after the dog's death. Truly a unique and class act has passed from this earth. Catch this interview if you can. As in all cases, me repeating what Robert Osborne said is not in the same league as hearing him say it himself. Hopefully TCM will put all of the Private Screenings Bob did out on DVD someday.
