Criminal Diss by TCM of Bela Lugosi!

[BonnieC]

Once again, TCM has chosen to totally ignore late great horror icon Bela Lugosi, whose birthday is today (10/20).  They seem to manage to showcase other horror icons (Karloff in particular), but somehow Bela always gets short shrift.  And here he even had the courtesy to be born during the Halloween month of October, no less.  Sometimes I really have to wonder who is minding the TCM programming store.

 

WAKE UP TCM!!!!!!

[jamesjazzguitar]

Once again, TCM has chosen to totally ignore late great horror icon Bela Lugosi, whose birthday is today (10/20).  They seem to manage to showcase other horror icons (Karloff in particular), but somehow Bela always gets short shrift.  And here he even had the courtesy to be born during the Halloween month of October, no less.  Sometimes I really have to wonder who is minding the TCM programming store.

 

WAKE UP TCM!!!!!!

 

It is well know that TCM has problems getting access to Universal films.   E.g.  TCM just showed the Frankenstein films last week.  It took over 20 years to get those films.    

 

So maybe someone else needs to wake up and gain an understanding of what is really going on here.

[Danny Boy]

Once again, TCM has chosen to totally ignore late great horror icon Bela Lugosi, whose birthday is today (10/20).  They seem to manage to showcase other horror icons (Karloff in particular), but somehow Bela always gets short shrift.  And here he even had the courtesy to be born during the Halloween month of October, no less.  Sometimes I really have to wonder who is minding the TCM programming store.

 

WAKE UP TCM!!!!!!

 

It would've been nice for TCM to have shown some Bela Lugosi movies yesterday on his birthday, but being a Paul Muni fan I really can't complain since they showed his movies throughout the day, two of which I'd never seen before.

[Danny Boy]

It is well know that TCM has problems getting access to Universal films.   E.g.  TCM just showed the Frankenstein films last week.  It took over 20 years to get those films.    

 

So maybe someone else needs to wake up and gain an understanding of what is really going on here.

 

I've heard of that issue, which is a shame. Bela Lugosi's film career didn't begin & end at Universal though, he made plenty of films for other studios even if many of his most famous/legendary films were made by Universal. I assume the powers that be at TCM could've made the decision to show films Lugosi made outside of Universal if they had wanted to do a birthday tribute for him and Universal was causing a hang up with their films. Though I'm not saying TCM should've done so or knocking anyone at the channel for them not showing any Lugosi films on his birthday. At any rate, there's plenty of Bela Lugosi films on the TCM schedule this month, even if he didn't get his own day.

[jamesjazzguitar]

I've heard of that issue, which is a shame. Bela Lugosi's film career didn't begin & end at Universal though, he made plenty of films for other studios even if many of his most famous/legendary films were made by Universal. I assume the powers that be at TCM could've made the decision to show films Lugosi made outside of Universal if they had wanted to do a birthday tribute for him and Universal was causing a hang up with their films. Though I'm not saying TCM should've done so or knocking anyone at the channel for them not showing any Lugosi films on his birthday. At any rate, there's plenty of Bela Lugosi films on the TCM schedule this month, even if he didn't get his own day.

 

There has been the opened end question since TCM began on why Lugosi hasn't been Star of the Month in October:  The reason is access to his Universal classics.     So instead Christopher Lee is SOTM.    

 

Yes, TCM could have shown films with Lugosi that are part of the so called Ted Turner Library (e.g. MGM's Ninotchka) but my guess is that hardcore Lugosi fans would have been asking 'where are his classic Universal films' anyway.    

 

Anyhow,  since TCM did get those Frankenstein films,  here is hoping they can work a deal with Universal to get those Lugosi classics.   Long overdue IMO.

[TopBilled]

I've been following this thread since it originated. I think there are a few angles that haven't been covered yet.

 

First, we all know his career highlights were at Universal but it's only a fraction of his total output. There are some decently made low-budget horror films he did in the 40s for PRC and Monogram. Many of them have been restored and I've found nice looking prints on Amazon Prime. Since TCM/Turner controls all the Monogram catalogue, they easily could show a few of them on his birthday.

 

So in that regard, I think the OP is correct that it is kind of a 'diss.' But is it criminal? Hardly. Just because they have opted to not honor him this year, that doesn't mean they will ignore him next year. So keep the thread alive and hopefully the programmers will see this is what fans would like.

 

But it's also a bit impolite to come to TCM's message boards and blast the channel without trying to understand what goes into various programming decisions. There are literally hundreds of well-known movie stars from the golden age of Hollywood-- and on some days, we have a half dozen birthdays of famous actors. They cannot all be featured at once, so those stars (and their fans) have to wait patiently.