Greeting Cary Grant: A Virtual Tour of Cary Grant’s New York

Tuesday 28 July 2020, 11-10am

THIS EVENT HAS ALREADY HAPPENED

A virtual tour of Pier 59 in Manhattan’s Chelsea Piers, to welcome Cary Grant’s ship the RMS Olympic, which arrived in the early morning of 28 July 1920, followed by a whistle-stop tour of Cary Grant’s New York

At the tender age of 16, Archie Leach emigrated to New York on the RMS Olympic (the Titanic’s sister ship), which arrived at Pier 59 in the early hours of 28 July 1920. He was on tour with the Pender Troupe of Acrobats, running away from a difficult childhood and seeking his fortune in a new land. In his autobiography, Cary Grant remembers his first glimpse of New York:

“Manhattan Island. That skyline in the early-morning July sunshine. New York City. There it was; but was I there? Was I actually there at the ship’s rail, neatly scrubbed and polished, standing with a small, solitary band of Pender-troupe boys–none of whom had slept all night for fear of missing the first glimpse of America? The excitement. Those skyscrapers I had seen so many times before. Oh my, yes. In England. In Bristol. In the films.”

Join Dr Charlotte Crofts on this virtual online tour of Pier 59 where we will celebrate the centenary of Cary Grant’s first transatlantic voyage and welcome Archie on the first leg of his journey to becoming Cary Grant. Find out more about Archie’s time in New York and how it contributed to the development of his star persona.

Dr Charlotte Crofts is director of the Cary Comes Home For the Weekend Festival and Associate Professor of Filmmaking at the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol). She co-convenes the UWE Moving Image Research Group, with Dr Mark Bould (Reader in Film and Literature). Her research concerns screen heritage and cinema history. She has developed the Curzon Memories App; The Lost Cinemas of Castle Park App and is on the steering committee of Bristol City of Film, a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network since October 2017. She is currently developing the Looking for Archie App.

This event is hosted by The Cary Comes Home Festival, in partnership with the UWE Moving Image Research Group.

Cary Comes Home is a biennial festival which aims to celebrate Cary Grant’s Bristol roots, develop new audiences for his work and recreate the golden age of cinema-going. This year’s festival proper is due to take place from 20-22 November 2020. We’ve decided not to go ahead with physical events this year, but we are programming more exciting online events. So save the dates and sign up to our Mailing List to keep up to date with our evolving plans.


What is “Pay what you feel”?

We want to make our events accessible whatever your budget, but for those that can afford it, we’d really appreciate it if you can give generously to keep the festival afloat in these difficult times.

We rely on ticket sales as our main source of income, but Covid-19 has made this impossible this year, creating a huge shortfall in our finances. We’re a biennial festival so we’re hoping by 2022 we’ll be able to return to live events, but in the meantime we’re determined to celebrate Cary Grant as best we can virtually. If you’ve enjoyed watching this event, please consider donating.


You might also be interested in….

SAILING WITH CARY GRANT
LEARN ABOUT ARCHIE’S FIRST TRANSATLANTIC VOYAGE WITH FESTIVAL DIRECTOR CHARLOTTE CROFTS

SOME VERSIONS OF CARY GRANT
AN ILLUSTRATED TALK ANALYSING THE VARIETY OF CARY GRANT’S PERFORMANCE STYLES WITH JAMES NAREMORE

SAVE THE DATE: CARY COMES HOME
THIS YEAR’S FESTIVAL WILL BE ONLINE 20-22 NOVEMBER ON THE THEME OF JOURNEYS

Celebrating Bristol’s recent designation as a UNESCO City of Film, in recognition of the city’s vibrant screen heritage, of which Cary Grant is one of our brightest stars.

This event is supported by the Moving Image Research Group

University of the West of England