This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

'The Birds' Invade Huntington

The Hitchcock Classic Comes To The Cinema Arts Centre.

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) brought its “Road to Hollywood” classic film festival to the Cinema Arts Centre (CAC) Wednesday night with a showing of the 1963 classic Hitchcock thriller “The Birds” after an introduction by the movie's star, Tippi Hedren and TCM movie host Ben Mankiewicz.

“It was a great event, and we're very pleased to be collaborating with TCM, the only TV channel that loves movies as much as us," said CAC's co-director Dylan Skolnick.

The movie, in which Hedren played the main female character Melanie Daniels, was her first. She was discovered by the movie's director, Alfred Hitchcock, after he saw her in a modeling ad. Hedren shared some of her memories about the movie's director, whom she referred to as “Hitch."

Find out what's happening in Huntingtonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“He was so talented and he could read people so clearly,” Hedren said. “I learned so much from him because he was not only my director but my drama coach as well. He was glad I never had any acting lessons before because he said I had nothing to unlearn.”

She also spoke about his dark side.

Find out what's happening in Huntingtonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“He liked to think of himself as a simple person which was absurd," Hedren said.  "He was a very complicated person.”

Due to a scheduling change, TCM's daytime and weekend host, Ben Mankiewicz, came to the event instead of Robert Osborne.

“This is the second year for the festival and we expanded it from five cities to ten this year,” Mankiewicz said. “To take this movie, to bring it to people who may not be able to come out to the festival, gives them exactly what they would get at the festival.”

Mankiewicz, who is also a film critic and a writer for the Huffington Post, is seen by some as Hollywood royalty himself. His grandfather, Herman Mankiewicz, was a screenwriter best known for the Orson Welles classic “Citizen Kane” and his great-uncle, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, wrote and directed the Bette Davis movie “All About Eve."

Hedren's family ties include other Hollywood stars as well. Her daughter is actress Melanie Griffith, her son-in-law is Antonio Banderas, and one of her three grandchildren is model and actress Dakota Johnson, from Griffith's marriage to actor Don Johnson.

“She was in 'The Social Network' (as Amelia Ritter)”, Hedren said. “Why shouldn't she act? We (her mother and I) did.”

Hedren also discussed her other “family”, the animals at her pet sanctuary, Shambala, which she opened in 1971. She started it to give abandoned American-born exotic felines like tigers, lions, cougars and others a permanent home. At present there are 58 animals living there. The Roar Foundation, which supports the animals at the preserve, was started in 1983. Hedren said she learned about the animals plight while she was shooting a movie in Africa in the late 1960s.

She was also instrumental in getting a bill passed and signed into law in 2003. The Captive Wildlife Safety Act, which took effect in September, 2007, prohibits interstate trafficking of live big cats.

“Getting the bill passed in 2003 was a baby step as far as I was concerned,” Hedren said. “I have been trying to get a federal bill passed since 2007 that would ban the breeding of exotic feline for personal possession. But Kenneth Feld, who owns Barnum and Bailey Circus, wants the bill to exclude animals bred for the circus and I won't do that. From the first day he said he was going to fight me on this and he has.”

After Hedren spoke to the audience before the movie, she signed a few autographs, including one on a box of the Birds Barbie Doll, which is based on Hedren's character. Kim Hirschberger of Port Washington brought the doll to the event.

“Getting the autograph was amazing,” Hirschberger said. “I have been a big Hitchcock fan since childhood. I love being scared and scary movies.”

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?