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

said, “Let’s go to lunch,” and he was very supportive about what everybody was trying to do. And
Opening Night was one of the great ones. We had Merv Griffin as the Opening Night MC. It turned out
that Tony Bennett was at the Fairmont. Merv talked him into doing something special. Merv came out
on Opening Night, and he had a piano onstage. And he said, “It’s so great to be back in San Francisco.
It’s a lovely place. He said, “I’ve always wanted to sing ‘I Left My Heart in San Francisco.’” And he
started into it. And behind the screen, Tony Bennett starts singing it. It was just a great coup, it really
was. It was so much fun.
MARGARITA LANDAZURI: Oh, that’s great.
CLAUDE JARMAN: And it came off beautifully. And we showed our first Australian entry on Opening
Night—I really was interested in the Australian films at that point. I thought Caddie was a good film.
MARGARITA LANDAZURI: I agree. I saw it. I was there Opening Night.
CLAUDE JARMAN: It was a very good film. And I think they were really coming along, you could see
it was going to be a film community that was beginning to make some noise.
MARGARITA LANDAZURI: You were ahead of the wave on that one, weren’t you?
CLAUDE JARMAN: I think so, I think so.
MARGARITA LANDAZURI: Where did you find that film? Had it played elsewhere?
CLAUDE JARMAN: I think it was just submitted to us. And we took a look at it and said, “Hey, neat
film.”
MARGARITA LANDAZURI: Oh, it was also the 20th anniversary of the Festival. What did you do to
celebrate?
CLAUDE JARMAN: I’m not sure we did anything, frankly.
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