WHERE ARE THEY NOW? old imdb1 classic board posters we miss.

One of the joys of lockdown was having the time to think about my life, and one of the conclusions I came to was that I had neglected some good friendships. over the  last few years . I've had good reasons (mothers illness & death, work, redundancy, health problems, supporting my father , debt, yadda yadda) but have made efforts to rekindle some of those friendships recently and it has worked in some cases and it is a good feeling.

The other conclusion I have come to recently  is that after having spent a year and half on this CFB IMDB2 forum , that it is a lovely little place to be and spend quality online time. Everyone here seems like a grown up, and we can all cheerfully trash each others favourite movies with glee and impunity , knowing that few are likely to throw a hissy fit, throw their toys out of their pram or turn into a destructive vindictive little firebreathing troll. Because I think we all recognise that the disagreements are actually where some of best fun is to be had, and come on - wouldn't this board be a dull place if we all agreed about everything. But that we could usefully use more traffic and therefore input from some other grown ups with different perspectives and genre specialisms/expert knowledge etc, ( IMHO We could usefully use more Maria Mntez enthusiasts, for example)

With both those thoughts in mind , why don't we send a callout to some of our former imdb1cfb chums and ask them if they want to play with us again?

I vaguely recall a couple of WHERE ARE THEY NOW type threads in my time here. If anyone who posted them ( or knows where they are)could provide links in a response I'd be grateful.

I thought I'd start with 5 suggestions for our callout (and no offence to any other posters or ones I've forgotten - these were the first 5 names I came up with)

TREVORACLEA -He's a Brit I think living outside London but not too far, I think he was in the Biz - a screenwriter - his personal recollections of being a lowly gopher on the madness that was set of the total disaster that was REVOLUTION (the second worst film ever made) were some of the best reportage on film making I have ever read. I didn't read many of the long film reviews on cfb1- I prefer short & pithy - I'm a Maltin baby - but his I avidly read every word and often went back and read them again for the joy of the poetry, On balance I'd give him the edge over Kael.

LUCIAHARPER - I think she Was Australian. Calm, sharp as a knife and resolute, she took no prisoners but did so in a kindly way. Obviously she was a Joan Bennett Fan - and who isn't? - and we shared a passion for Noir. We parted company on the Cinematic value of Widow Selznick but neither of us got our panties in a bunch over it.

CLORE - I think he was from Chicago and might have had a son he cared for (if not full time) I think he was quite impoverished. He was one of the few to see the funny side of the LOST HORIZON musical and had one of the best all round perspectives straddling most genres the board.  I think he found the demise of imdb1 quite devastating.

STRELNIKOFF - probably fair to say he was one of imdb1's more contentious contributors, but I adored him and referred to him as STRELBABY.His biting response to the post IS BENJAMIN BUTTON CONSIDERED A CLASSIC MOVIE? one of the funniest  I read in my decade plus of being there. On the down side I remember him ruffling feathers on another board, resulting in the complainants popping up on CFB as those Jap planes did over Pearl Harbour and we endured a troll attack lasting 5 days. I think he disappeared under a cloud of conspiracy theories and threats of litigation about something snippy he'd said on the screenwriting board. I did get the odd personal message from him after that updating me on the drama that was unfolding but I simply concluded he'd been watching BURN AFTER READING a few too many times,

And least but certainly not least ADDISON - doyenne of CFB. The Big Chees.THe BSD. The Head Honcho. THE CEO. SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED and MISTRESS OF ALL HE SURVEYED all rolled up in one. Imperious and haughty as Gladys Cooper on a bad day but wise, witty, articulate, helpful, informative, opiniionated, unclutterd coherent  and jam packed with anecdotes from his carrer as a working actor on a good one, What he didn't know about Sharon Stone's on set attitude wasn't worth knowing. I usually read all his weekly WHAT HAVE YOU SEEN THIS WEEK POSTS hungry for the dish. He put me on ignore for a couple of months  - a dispute over Teresa Wright (whom he loathed -  Dietrich & Fonda pere completing his unholy trinity of classic era stars). But he allowed me back into the fold when my challenges to his ALL TIME TOP STARS post  proved too tempting for him to ignore.

So why don't we ask them and any others folk here can suggest to come back and play here.

I think I have an email for trevor so am happy to take him on. And if someone can post a link to addison's blog I'll take him too (if I can work out the PM function properly if there is one)

Anybody in contact with CLORE, LUCIA or STRELBABY

Or anyone else?

Drytoast has left us recently

Another poster who won't be joining us O'SULLIVAN, AKA Mike. After a while swapping posts/PMs on CFB1 on British New Wave stuff, a shared passion, we began meeting up  in about 2010 or so regularly for a pint in Central london or Croydon, where he lived.  We did this regularly every 3-4 months for a chinwag about CFB1 activitiy, what we'd watched recently and swapped/shared movies (it made sense to double up on dvd purchasing as we both wanted the same things and ciould waste our money far more effectively as a team) He gradually developed into a great friend. Sadly he developed cancer and died a couple of days into Jan 18. He lived long enough to get a civil partnership with Domnhall (spelling?) , his partner of maybe 15-20 years, and indeed the last time I saw him was about a month before he passed having tea & cake with his partner & the other witness at his civil partnership in The cafe at the David Lean cinema in Croydon, where he had a few years earlier treated me to a front row seat during the inaugural screening of the restored PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN - one of the most dazzling experiences I have had in front of a big screen. I've been trying to find his website/blog link , which I think is still in cyberspace but in trawling through the old emails I hit the one whre he confirmed he only had three months to live, burst into tears and decided not to pursue it. The only positive thing aboout him passing is that crown the belonging to the global authority on the work of Belinda Lee is now firmly on my head.

The lovely Belinda Lee 1935 -1961 BELINDA LEE ON IMDB

Sorry if all this a bit more heady and emotional than my usual contributions but  but that's the way I'm feeling at the moment.

Strong thoughts?