Turner Classic Movies Celebrates the 50th Anniversary Of One of Advertising’s Highest Honors: The CLIO Awards

For 50 years, the CLIO Awards have stood tall as one of the most coveted honors in the world of advertising. Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will celebrate the prestigious honor’s golden anniversary with a special four-film salute Monday, May 11. TCM host Robert Osborne will be joined for the evening by New York Times advertising writer Stuart Elliott, who will provide his insight into the CLIO Awards’ long history, as well as his thoughts on the power of advertising to affect change, create trends and, of course, sell products. Films featured in the evening’s celebration will be the searing drama The Hucksters (1947), the pop-culture spoof Callaway Went Thataway (1951), the musical It’s Always Fair Weather (1955) and the cautionary tale A Face in the Crowd (1957).

The CLIO Awards are one of the world’s most recognized awards competition for advertising, design and interactive. For 50 years, the CLIO Awards have maintained a commitment to celebrate and reward creative excellence, honoring a powerful form of communication and its impact on modern culture. At the same time, the CLIO Awards remain focused on evolving with the industry in order to acknowledge the most current, breakthrough work. To this day, the iconic CLIO statue is among the most widely recognized and coveted symbols of the industry’s creative accomplishments.

The following is the complete schedule for TCM’s celebration of the 50th Anniversary CLIO Awards:

8 p.m. The Hucksters (1947) – Clark Gable stars as an ad exec who returns from World War II only to find himself in a new war against a tyrannical soap mogul. Deborah Kerr, in her first American film, co-stars along with Sydney Greenstreet, Adolphe Menjou, Ava Gardner, Keenan Wynn and Edward Arnold.

10:15 p.m. Callaway Went Thataway (1951) – Fred MacMurray and Dorothy McGuire star in this riff on the Hopalong Cassidy craze that took America by storm. Howard Keel co-stars as a look-alike who impersonates a legendary cowboy star for promotional purposes.

Midnight It’s Always Fair Weather (1955) – Gene Kelly plays a fight promoter and Dan Dailey an advertising artist in this satirical Comden-Green musical about hopes and dreams coming face-to-face with reality. Cyd Charisse and Michael Kidd co-star.

2 a.m. A Face in the Crowd (1957) – Andy Griffith and Lee Remick made their film debuts in Elia Kazan’s hard-biting film about a country bumpkin turned into a big television star. Patricia Neal co-stars, along with Anthony Fanciosa and Walter Matthau.

Turner Classic Movies is a Peabody Award-winning network celebrating 15 years of presenting great films, uncut and commercial-free, from the largest film libraries in the world. Currently seen in more than 80 million homes, TCM features the insights of veteran primetime host Robert Osborne and weekend daytime host Ben Mankiewicz, plus interviews with a wide range of special guests. As the foremost authority in classic films, TCM offers critically acclaimed original documentaries and specials, along with regular programming events that include The Essentials, 31 Days of Oscar and Summer Under the Stars. TCM also produces a wide range of media about classic film, including books and DVDs, along with hosting a wealth of materials at its Web site, www.tcm.com. TCM is part of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner company.

Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner company, creates and programs branded news, entertainment, animation and young adult media environments on television and other platforms for consumers around the world.