Summer Under the Stars with TCM Backlot

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A few nights ago my husband and I did the exact opposite of what most people around here are doing on a late Friday afternoon, driving INTO the city! We were headed to Piedmont Park in Atlanta, and for once the traffic gods smiled down in our favor. It was time for a little summer under the stars! Stars in downtown Atlanta? You betcha. Read on! 

Date night!

Piedmont Park is the Atlanta equivalent to NYC’s Central Park. Okay, it doesn’t have a zoo, but it is big – 185 acres big, and has a huge amount of green-space in a city of soaring high-rises of glass, steel and cement. It is the Atlanta home to festivals, concerts, huge events like the finish line for the Peachtree Road Race and more. On this night, we were headed for a little outdoor movie screening, located in the Promenade area of the park, right next to the Atlanta Botanical Garden (making for super easy parking – always a plus downtown!).

Summer under the Stars!

If you have followed me for a while, you know that I love old movies. For those newer readers, I don’t mean old movies as in something just over 10 years old, I mean classics. Old, old movies. Movies that were old when I was a kid. The majority of these are in black and white, with favorite stars like Cary Grant, Gene Tierney and Clark Gable. When people ask me what my favorite movie is, Gone with the Wind is almost always my first response.

Old movies are my jam. 

Due to my love of old movies, I spend a lot of time watching (and recording) Turner Classic Movies (TCM). When I read that the movie showing was  ‘modern classic’ Young Frankenstein, a Mel Brooks movie starring the late Gene Wilder and is wonderful satire on the old horror genre, I knew we had to have a date night and go. Another reason I was excited to attend was due to my new membership in the TCM Backlot fan club.

Join TCM Backlot

The TCM Backlot fan club is a fan club dedicated to the old movie buffs like me. With your membership, you are now privy to special events, behind-the-scenes tours, and actually become part of the TCM network. This was the first event I was able to attend since joining in June, and I was so excited to see what type perks membership got me.

Once we arrived at the location of the screening, we went through a security check where they checked our bags and made sure our chairs were allowed (beach chairs, or low type chairs are allowed, tall camp chairs are not).

 

We scanned our tickets (this was a free event but tickets were still required) and went into the fenced off area to get comfortable. 

Because of my TCM Backlot membership, we were VIPs this night and presented with badges to wear for the hospitality tent they had set up for us. At first when you hear there is some kind of hospitality tent, you think, okay, snacks and drinks. Well this tent blew that thought away! With a full dinner, including deserts, themed around the movie, it was a wonderful surprise and a great treat. We ate our fill, and even grabbed a few more deserts before our movie was over and it was time to leave. Our VIP badges also included drink tickets for an open bar and sodas, but being summer in the South, we had giant Tervis glasses we had filled up with ice tea at home and didn’t use them. I gifted our drink tickets to someone in the crowd.

A TCM Backlot membership is $85 a year and you get a t-shirt for joining (which I totally wore that night, which made it easier to find other Backlot members and become friends!). Our night, if we had paid for it, would have been at least that price but with a free movie, plus free dinner and drinks for two, the only thing we paid for was parking. I think my membership has already paid for itself and it is just the beginning. I can’t wait to see where else Backlot takes me this next year.

We had a great time and I am so happy I joined TCM Backlot. Even better, I introduced hubby to a movie he’s never seen and a new way to have some Friday night fun. For me, I call that a win!!!

Until next time,

Charlotte Dawn