First held in the Sheridan Opera House, on August 30, 1974, this was the first annual Telluride Film Festival.
From the book: Telluride in the Film Festival Galaxy, by Jeffrey Ruoff:
"Opening Night.
9pm. The stage is set, projectors ready. The organist who traveled to Telluride, Colorado, for this evening--Friday, 30 August 1974--sits waiting at his instrument. The vintage Sheridan Opera House, with 232 fixed seats, overflows with 260 audience members. They have been lured by the promise of being with one of America's greatest and most legendary movie stars. Led to the stage by a teenage volunteer, Gloria Swanson, now 75, wearing a red chiffon dress and a sequinned cap, makes an impressive entrance to thunderous applause. The lights dim, silent 35mm pictures flicker on the screen, live organ music starts, and from her stage box, Swanson begins narrating her career in silent films. She starts with Hollywood clips from 1916, when she appeared in slapstick comedies for Mack Sennett, continuing through her work with director Cecil B. DeMille, and her roles as the romantic lead in movies that made her a world-famous actress and fashion icon in the 1920s. The audience soaks up the diva's stories, jokes, and anecdotes. Afterwards, as the lights come up, James Card of the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography, presents Swanson with a Silver Medallion honouring her career. The first Telluride Film Festival has begun."-- page 1 (Ruoff, 2016).
