San Francisco Film Society Oral History Project Interview with ...

CLAUDE JARMAN: Yes. We found a lot of these films and people also went to Cannes. Albert knew a
lot of these films. You just kept your eyes open as much as you could. Anyway, the Festival ended, and I
think it was successful. The Chamber of Commerce was pretty happy with it. They were always nervous
about whether it would lose money or not. Their budget was pretty low and I thought it went off very
well for the first time.
MARGARITA LANDAZURI: Opening night was memorable, wasn’t it, with Shirley Temple as the
host? Could you talk a little about that night?
CLAUDE JARMAN: Well, I don’t remember that much about it. We probably blocked off 1000 seats
and did not use the upstairs and the side seats. So, that was alright. The Opening Night film was OK,
but, to me, the main thrust of the Festival was the tributes and the other films that we had. Opening
Night was always kind of a throwaway. That’s why we turned it into more of a party night, more than
anything.
MARGARITA LANDAZURI: Well, talk about that, because in those early years, the party element was
a big part.
CLAUDE JARMAN: Yes it was, because we wanted to make it more of an exciting, black-tie event—
Let’s turn out and do something different. You have to realize that in the fall, you’re competing with the
opera and the symphony. It was hard to push your way into that venue.
MARGARITA LANDAZURI: But it really became part of that circuit, didn’t it?
CLAUDE JARMAN: Yes, it did. It took a while to do that, but we achieved it.
MARGARITA LANDAZURI: Let’s talk about the organization. You said it was in the Chamber. It was
mostly volunteer run? How many people were actually on staff and paid?
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